Category Archives: Management

Giving employees the right to make decisions

September 1, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Now there is a risky topic. Most managers are terrified to let their underlings do anything without supervision. But, imagine the management savings if employees could make some of their own decisions. If you run a call center, it takes time to wait for a call center manager. But, what if your call center clerks can make a few last minute decisions to benefit your clients’ callers?

You really need to do a cost analysis. What is the cost if your employee is too generous and lets the customer get too much compensation for a corporate mistake? What is the benefit of the time saved by allowing them to make such decisions. If they are too generous, the customers will not complain — there — another benefit.

One boss liked to go on vacation a lot. He told his people that any decision that was $100 or less they could make themselves. In the worst case scenario he would lose a few hundred per month, but then he wouldn’t need to be bothered. Now, there is a solution! Set a cap on how much they can give out without permission. You just saved management hours per week and saved your callers from being on hold endlessly.

Another approach is to let your call center employees make arbitrary decisions how to handle cases, but document the decisions in a file. Every week or month those decisions could be reviewed with management to “fine tune” the employees decision making skills. Good idea or bad idea? An idea is only as good as your ability to make it work beneficially! Letting employees be their own manager might work for some, but not for all. Or, it might work on a limited basis for a few, but on a more extensive basis with others. You can try it and see what happens. Write a blog about it if it goes well.

Tweets:
(1) Give your employees the right to make decisions. But, what if they make a wrong decision?
(2) If you give your employees the right to make certain types of decisions = easier to manage

You might also like:

Having a foundation in business for long term growth
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/03/27/having-a-foundation-in-business-for-long-term-growth/

Do you overanalyze or do you trust your instincts?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/03/18/do-you-over-analyze-or-trust-your-instincts/

Back logs, slack and availability in your labor force’s schedule

September 1, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Most companies in America have no available labor. How can they possibly accommodate new clients if they refuse to do overtime and have no available labor? The answer is that they sometimes take on new clients, but lose them to offshore outsourcers soon after. And once you ruin your reputation with a particular client, they will never come back to you. It is better to tell them you are booked up and not accepting clients at the moment.

Running a data entry company or software company is not easy. You have a certain quantity of workers. You have jobs coming in at unpredictable times. It makes sense to have a back-log of work that is going to be done in the future. That way you can deal better with the short term fluctuations in demand.

But, you have several choices if you want to have some availability in your schedule to accommodate new clients. You can either have one worker on the bench who is not doing anything other than waiting and being available. Or, you can have back-logged work and postpone the back-logged work to make time for your new client. If you have different pricing models for work that needs to be done immediately verses in the next few weeks, verses in the next few months, you can gain tremendous flexibility for attracting new clients and grow your company. Most companies are not thoughtful enough to come up with strategies for having availability — and this is exactly why they don’t grow.

Another mistake American companies make is that they don’t raise their rates when they have no availability. If a hotel has only a few rooms left, they raise their rates, so that they can have an equilibrium of availability. The goal is usually to maintain an average availability of 20-30%. That way if demand fluctuates upwards you will still probably have a few rooms left, and if demand is unpredictably low, you might still be half full. Hotels have mastered the balancing act of supply and demand, but I have NEVER seen a software company or data entry company show any signs if even having thought about this principal.

Overtime is yet another way to guarantee availability. Yes, it costs more to pay for overtime, but that way you can keep your newly acquired clients. You might lose a few hundred dollars, but you keep the clients which could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Unfortunately, this concept is too long term for Americans to understand which is why their business is quickly going to India!

Remember: no availability = no growth
Find a way to always have potential for availability in your schedule.

Also remember: America’s stupidity is India’s blessing. India will eventually take many of the clients that got burned by negligent American companies!

You might also like:

Should you have slack in your schedule as a manager?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/07/should-you-have-slack-in-your-schedule-as-a-manager/

Making deadlines at work and enforcing them
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/07/13/making-deadlines-at-work-enforcing-them/

Your most important skill is figuring out what to do less of

August 23, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Leave a comment

Do you work as a manager or in marketing? I bet you have tons of people who want to bother you all the time, endless emails, and endless responsibilities. I read a lot of Harvard Business Review, and many of their blog articles suggest that figuring out which tasks can be done by someone else, or just not done at all is the best skill you can have. Of course in real life it is a lot harder than that. If you hire the wrong person, you can get in trouble, plus what if they quit?

But, there are many processes in your work. If there are ways to segment each process and do certain less critical segments less often, you might save some time. Or, you might find a more efficient way of doing the same tasks you are already doing.

Emails
What if you get far too many emails every day? There are ways to deal with this. The experts warn against being glued to your email. They suggest going in only once a day, or if you are doing a project, perhaps less than once a day. I have taken this advice to heart, and the problem is that I can easily get two weeks behind on emails and get people mad at me.

But, what if you spend a little time prioritizing your inbox? You could manually or automatedly sort your emails into categories. You can create folders for this. Immediate priorities go in the immediate box. Tasks that you do in bunches go in associated folders such as a “renewal” folder for those paying you for renewals. If you get quick questions from very unimportant people, put those in a folder. Basically, do the critical stuff first. Then, at another time, you can look through the other folders and perhaps just disregard less important emails in those folders.

I run a few directories. I used to put all of the outsourcing applicants on my directory. Now, I put them in a folder. I do an assembly line check to see if their web sites load in eight seconds or less. I delete the applicants that don’t which saves me tons of time. Then, I look to see if they made bad capitalization or grammar mistakes in their application text. I remove the ones with serious errors. I’m dealing with foreigners, so I expect a few errors even from the best applicants. I’ll give people a quick call to see if they pick up and speak clearly. I also see if they answer my questions well. If not, I remove them. The result of this screening work is that I only have to add about 40% of the applicants and save myself hours per month. This also helps my directory to be better quality.

Listings
I had a strategy for dealing with listings that were over due to be logged into. I require my customers to login to their listing from time to time. This tells me they are alive and in business. People move all the time, and without logging in, how can I keep track of things? I was paying too much attention to the listings at the bottom of the list which are the worst quality and don’t matter that much. My new strategy saves me tons of time. I keep track of the higher placed listings more. The middle placed listings that are of low quality get removed if they don’t login after 120 days. And the lower ones — I let them collect dust or have someone else less trained call them. The result of my new system is a huge savings in time.

What about you?
I don’t know what your work realities are, but you probably have all types of things you have to do. Try to find new ways of dealing with your tasks where you can save tons of time! Keep trying new things and measuring the results and the total time spent. You will become more valuable on an hourly basis if you learn who not to talk to and what not to do. Remember, being successful means avoiding most people, avoiding most discussions, and saying no most of the time — according to the experts!

Maid in Dubai: A sensible solution to a controversial reputation damaging problem

August 19, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Management, Of Interest | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Dubai is famous worldwide. People love the business climate, the amazing architecture, the sheikh with his passion for life and his Kentucky bred horses. Dubai is a place that just doesn’t quit, and they love trying new and outlandish ideas, especially if those ideas are expensive? So, how do they do it?

Dubai started out as being a desert. Oil money was what got Dubai going. But, they were smart. They didn’t just decide to live off their oil money for the rest of their lives. They decided to invest in all types of other businesses and banking and build an economy like nobody ever dreamed of. Only 6% of their revenue these days is oil based which is good, because their oil is due to dry up in about a decade!

Dubai also is smart about getting labor. While the United States has a wall to keep illegal immigrants out, Dubai welcomes immigrants in, providing they have a job or employment contract. This is a sensible system because it allows Dubai to get lots of inexpensive labor from around the world. In the 1970’s, workers in the Arabian peninsula were mainly Arabs from other countries. After a while, the Arabians began to have a preference for the more docile cultures from the East such as Pakistan and the Philippines in particular. They don’t argue as much with their employers. Additionally, there is no minimum wage that I am aware of in Dubai, so they can get all the labor they need at pennies on the dollar. Why is it that they are so smart, and Americans just don’t get it. I think that America needs to learn from Dubai and have a free economic zone with low taxes, free immigration and no minimum wage! But, I digress!

The problem of hostage workers
Almost anyone can go to the United Arab Emirates if they have a job lined up. This is a great system for having a low unemployment rate. If you lose your job, you leave the country, and you become someone else’s problem. Another smart attribute of Dubai. For middle class folks, this might be an inconvenience, or a heartbreak for a few, but not something that will ruin your life. The Emirates doesn’t dish out citizenship to its endless supply of foreigners. They are temporary, and when they are done there — they leave! That way the locals keep complete control of their country which is once again – smart!

Low wage workers who are often construction workers or maids from Pakistan, Ethiopia, India, and the Philippines for the most part come to Dubai with a work contract as a general rule. Their employer holds their passport which makes it impossible for these workers to leave. Unfortunately, these workers are in a sense held hostage. As an employer myself, I realize that people these days are very flippant and have a very questionable work ethic. It is common for people to quit in the middle of a critical project. If you are not holding anything over their head, they can just leave. Dubai understands this which is why they like to once again have the upper hand by holding the worker’s passport for the duration of the contract. It used to be common for employers to defer part of the worker’s payment as well to make sure they didn’t try to leave. I agree that the employer needs to have the upper hand, but this methodology of holding people as virtual hostages is not ethical regardless of what the law says.

Some of the maids in various Arabian countries are abused or sexually harassed by their employers. It is unclear how many of them are maltreated, but it is enough of them to warrant concern. The problem is that they often don’t have the money to return to their country. If they run away from their contract, they will be put in jail. These maids are virtual hostages. They agreed to these conditions before they came to Arabia because they were desperately poor, but still, there needs to be a better way.

The solution
Rather than withholding part of people’s paychecks without a prior agreement, putting people in jail, or holding people’s passports, there should be a cleaner way to enforce employment contracts and prevent people from quitting prematurely. In regard to the workers who are put in jail (there are only a few hundred of these,) because they can’t afford a plane ticket home.

(1) Return Flight Bonds
It would make more sense if they are prohibited from entering the Emirates unless they post a bond with the local government to cover their return flight. The government could guarantee a return flight at the price of the bond even if the market price went up.

(2) Contracts with 10% withholding clauses
Rather than holding people’s passports, it might make sense that work contracts stipulate that workers will have 10% of their monthly pay deferred until the end of the contract. Sure, they could leave two weeks after their contract began, but they would lose the money on their plane ticket which would be punishment in itself. If they lost 10% of their pay by leaving early, they would at least have a way to make it back home to see a dying relative without losing everything. Additionally, the employer would be reasonably compensated for their loss as well. This seem like a system that is fair to all parties involved.

(3) Worker pools
It doesn’t make sense to hire someone for a job so personal like a domestic helper in your home who you have never met. It seems like a dangerous idea for all parties. It would be easier for all involved if the UAE government created a worker pool. Prospective maids could be flown in from various countries, and the government could provide dormitory lodging for them while they wait for a placement. This solves several problems at once. This system allows the government to test these ladies out to see if they are any good at vacuuming, folding clothes and taking care of screaming babies. Additionally, families who might want to hire these maids could meet them in person and see which maids they liked most rather than hiring someone who they met on web chat. Such a system would negate the necessity for multi-year contracts as well. If a maid was not happy with a family, they could return to the dormitory. And if the family was not happy with the maid, they could fire her on the spot. Contracts could be week by week rather than for two or three years. If a maid quit or got fired, they would go back to the dormitory.

(3a) Who qualifies for the dormitory?
If a maid came to Dubai on a government program, the government could pay the initial airfare as part of the worker pool system. In Dubai, everybody wants to get paid back naturally. The government program could extract a percentage from the family who wanted to hire the maid as payment for the airfare and dormitory expenses. The percentage might be 30% the first several weeks, and then 10% for additional weeks or months, or some other system with an up front fee, and a residual percentage. If a maid was fired or quit, they could return to the dormitory. However, if a maid was in the dormitory more than several weeks, or if they quit or got fired too many times, I think that we all agree that they should be sent back to their country of origin courtesy of the government for being “too much trouble!” I think it would be very nice of the government to provide such a system for their citizens. Part of the agreement should be that if a maid quits or gets fired, they can get an all expense ticket back to their country paid by the government at any time. Yes, this would be expensive for the government, but after all of the residual income they would get from the labor of high quality maids, they would make the money back, and every body would be happy.

Summary
I think that it is very clear that my three simple solutions would greatly improve the one area where Dubai’s reputation is in question as well as greatly enhance the satisfaction on both sides of the table in the labor market. Also, on a karmic note, you never want to have a situation where one group of people is severely oppressed. History has many examples of how the oppressed often become the oppressor, or vice versa after several decades or several hundred years. By allowing any type of repression in a country, that sets the stage for karmic retribution. Blacks were enslaved in the US for a very long time. The karmic reversal of this situation is that in 2014, many whites can’t get jobs or get into college because of affirmative action quotas. Now, whites are the ones being discriminated against. Women were subjugated in the US for years. Now, if you are married and get a divorce, your wife can take most of your money and all of your children. The women have much more power now. I’m not sure what the karmic turnaround for Dubai might be, but it might be so hard to find workers in Dubai in 2025 that the workers demand to hold the employer’s passport, otherwise they would just quit and leave the Emeratis high and dry. I’m just joking about that, but in America it is almost impossible to pin down workers and get them to do what they agreed to do. Dubai could karmically end up in exactly that situation several decades from now. So, now is the time to create balance in the universe to prevent any bad karma from accumulating.

Do you have: “Damn It, Damn It, Damn It” moments in business?

August 1, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , | Leave a comment

I think we have all had plenty of damn it moments in our businesses. The key is to understand how they happen, and how to prevent them. What is the root of a damn it moment?

When you are relying on someone and they quit, don’t follow instructions, or keep you waiting — then you have one of these unpleasant moments. The key here is to avoid giving large responsibilities to people you are not sure about in the first place.

Do you hire people who quit?
Do you see the warning signs? I do. They stop getting back to you. They stop being available to talk to you. They don’t do all of their work tasks anymore and only give you their 70%, or in one guys case 20%. People who start off being dedicated and disciplined slack off too in the several months before they quit. As an employer you need to be watching for this like a vulture. If you have a way for your employees to invest in their work and their performance rather than just getting a fixed wage, you might have less quitting going on. How do you get this investing to happen? You could offer a deferred bonus if your hiree doesn’t quit, and doesn’t slack off on their work. They get the bonus a year later (perhaps.) Or you can pay employees for achieving certain goals. If they fall short of the goal at the time they quit, they lose out on a huge bonus. If the contract with your client is reflected in the contract you have with your worker, they might be more helpful to you achieving your goals.

Do you not have proper backup?
People quit all the time, particularly young people. If you don’t have backup or good back up you are sure to have a head banging session after your star employee leaves. A backup is not a backup if they are not tried and tested. You need to really use lots of people to determine who is the best, who is the most yelpful, loyal, or easy to reach. If you are not sure about the reliability of someone in a particular task, it might be better to have three part time people rather than one full time person. You can fire them if they slack off, and if they quit, you already have redundant back up.

Not following instructions?
You really need to test people for following instructions before you hire them, and watch for this early in their employment. Many people just don’t follow instructions and you really cannot put such people on critical tasks unless you are watching them at every minute.

Ability to learn?
As an additional note — if your company needs people who are good at multitasking, their ability to learn is much more important than their current level of skill. If they stick with your company, the fast learners will be pros after a few months while the experienced people who are slow learners will continue being the way they were whe you hired them

Be a vulture
Keep your eye out as a manager. Become a specialist at seeing the signs and watching for them. If someone loses interest, stops communicating, it is time to get your backups reved up as you might need to fire someone fast. Timing is everything when you work with millenials because they lose interest so fast, their replacement needs to be ready for action at a moment’s notice!