Monday, October 26, 2009

Are you ready?

This Video was brought to my attention by one of my MBA professors, so i thought i would share it. This one makes you stop and think how communication and business will be in the next 10 years. Also, makes you wonder if even with a undergrad or MBA will we be ready?

Monday, October 19, 2009

Do you have a doctor's note???

I know it has been sometime since my last post, but illness took its toll on me. From the sickness however a topic did come to mind.

Should Workers be Required to Have a Doctor’s Excuse When They are Out Sick??

For argument sake I am not talking about full time employees that have sick time. What I am talking about are the part-time people with no benefits. As a college student I hear many of my friends talking about how they were sick and had to go to the doctor not because the illness was so server they felt like they couldn’t overcome it, it was because their employer required a doctor’s note to excuse the absent. As a former manager of a large company requiring doctor excuse was not in our P&P, we acted as described in the solution below, and it worked great.

The problem.

Suppose the employee had a stomach virus or a viral infection, nothing a doctor can do, the employee will be better in a day or two. Let’s take it a step further, suppose the employee does not have insurance and has to go to the doctor. From an organizational stand point we have just made a worker with no insurance go wait for hours at a doctor’s office (when they should be resting), to pay an outrageous bill all over a stomach virus. But the worker had to this to keep their job, all to prove that they are honest and truly sick.

The Solution.

It simple, trust your employees, if you cannot trust them they should not be at your company anyways. If you are trying to protect the best interest of the company require a doctors excuse if the employee is out 3 or more days saying that they are safe to return to work. Give the employees the time they need to recover and spare them the unnecessary cost of unneeded doctor visits.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Social Networking

Instead of boring news I thought I would share some free advice with you today, which still relates to business. We have all been asked to become fans of many companies on Facebook or asked to follow them on Twitter, but do we really care what they have to say? I do not want to see an advertisement for these companies every time I check facebook or my Twitter going crazy to remind me of the companies operating hours.

Do Away With Twitter and Facebook?

NO, is my answer to that question. Use them to your advantage, if you have a company put out post that benefit your friends and followers. I am talking about advice that relates to your business, if you’re a sports store talk about sports, a pet store give advice to train your pet, or a golf course talk about the weather. The key is not to push your costumers away, give them something they can use and your company will then become top of mind without beating your customer over the head with advertising.