Last week Workforce Management published this list of 11 likely workplace trends for 2011.  Some of the items on ELI Inc. CEO Stephen Paskoff’s list are at the top level of the Executive and Legislative branches of government – well out of the control area for most if not all small business owners.

But other items are under the purview of small business executives, and this is where a top small company workplace can make the difference between your company being associated with Paskoff’s bad trends next year, or not.

What do I mean?  Specifically, citing our past articles, a great workplace culture of high employee engagement and strong team building can:

• Decrease the chance that any of your current or former employees will bring forth a lawsuit against your business. This extends to customers and suppliers as well.  (See #2-4 on Paskoff’s list)
• Help keep sensitive data safely behind your computer network firewall.  (See #6)
• Keep tensions low among the three to four generations of your workers, which could otherwise rise due to the bad economy and fewer job opportunities.  (See #9)

What do you think of Paskoff’s list of trends to watch in 2011?  Buy Accutane What would you add to his list that you’re seeing in your firm?

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It’s all about building a fan base for your product, people have to learn how to sell eventually and the best way to do that is to have an automated website. The biggest value in an automated website is the ability to have information available for your customers so they can build on their ability to feel good about themselves, everyone wants feedback and the chance to make money for the long-run, it comes down to communication and the ability to build trust with your customers so they keep coming back for more.

The product you choose to sell is vital, I believe it has to be something that has a chance at making some sort of money, if people don’t like to sell and they’re going to take a chance on something different or new it better work! Being able to have video testimonials will always help anyone make a better decision about their future.

The third is cash pay, if a student can afford to pay their way through school this is the best way to achieve that process.

The reality is people are going to attain the education that meets their “wants” not their needs; if you need something it’s situational if you want something you’re willing to work for it. Once you ponder Provigil pharmacy the thought of “pulling yourself up by your own boot straps” you realize that we’re all in this together and it’s going to take a ton of positive energy to continue to work our way out of this situation we’re in within America concerning the job market.

It’s all about building a fan base for your product

In a new post on the Small Business CEO blog, What Works for Business blogger Daniel Kehrer shares 13 mistakes that can jinx your business.  The #8 mistake on Kehrer’s list is taking good employees for granted.  He explains that,

High turnover and the departure of valued employees can accelerate troubles.  Rewards and recognition – even small gestures – go a long way to keeping your best people around.  Treat new hires with care.  Provide a mentor, if possible.

These are wise Buy cheap Cialis Online words that have been borne out in the case of the small businesses Winning Workplaces has honored over the last 8 years for their ability to realize a substantial payoff of employee engagement and team building activities.  Based on what we’ve learned from these high-performing organizations, I wrote the following two posts that should help you when it comes to, respectively, recognizing employees effectively, and cost-effectively; and implementing mentoring initiatives that help both the employee and the company:

Employee Recognition on the Cheap

Two Approaches to Mentoring Employees

If you find the information in these links helpful, I invite you to retweet this post on Twitter using the link at the top of this post, or to share it using the button below.  Thanks!

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In Winning Workplaces’ latest IDEAS newsletter on employee engagement and team building strategies in small firms, we wrote a feature on the "Move Your Money" movement after we sent a survey on it to registered users of our website and others in our network.

We listed selected qualitative feedback of our 172 respondents to the question, What do you think of this movement’s potential to help small businesses grow, and the impact it will have on the U.S. economy?  Based on the feedback, we then assigned an "impact level" rating of Low, Moderate, and High.

In our survey we also asked respondents to list their state.  This enables us to sort responses to the above question by region, maintaining the impact level rating of each piece of feedback.  The visualized data on this was something outside the scope of our original article, due to length, so I present the data here, as shown on the U.S. map below that’s been segmented into regions:

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Note: The majority of responses are from folks based in Illinois, as that’s where we’re located and do most of our on-site organizational work.

Even though for balance we included an equal share of "Low" impact level responses in our original article, compared to "Moderate"- and "High"-level responses, when we review all responses by geographic region, we see that the West just barely registered into the "High" level area.  The rest of the country – again, based on our survey sample – is squarely in the "Moderate" zone.

The takeaway here is that while we noted in our newsletter article that less than a fifth of respondents have moved their business accounts from larger to smaller banks, or know another business leader who has, all of them believe the movement has the potential to make at least a moderate impact on small business, and economic, growth.  Those in the West believe it will have a greater impact.

Related: Two of the small firms we recognized for seeing a payoff of employee engagement are on the Move Your Money list.  See which two here.

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The CEO of one applicant firm from our home state of Illinois, for instance, says the application process

confirmed we have a strong culture and employees that collaborate and enjoy working with each other.  This is a significant reason we were able to grow as quickly as we have.  We may begin involving additional employees throughout our hiring process to gain more diverse feedback on candidates.

The owner of another applicant from California says, "It was a great opportunity to review what we offer and how we can make things even better."  And the CEO of a third applicant from Louisiana says

It really did make me focus on some big picture core value stuff.  I have decided to spend my time thinking on vacation on getting my core values down even better and adding to every job description.

The point is, while there’s an obvious carrot at the end of Provigil online No prescription the stick for participating in this small business competition – the chance to get priceless exposure in "The Handbook of the American Entrepreneur," Inc. Magazine – there is also nourishment in the journey.

Read more feedback from current applicants on the value of applying when it comes to assessing workplace culture practices here.

Image credit: Lynette Cook

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