If you are a small business looking to make big changes to the health and wellbeing of yourself and your staff, utilising your smartphone and some of the smarter startup tech products out there could be the answer. Keeping staff motivated and productive can often come down to allowing them to embrace healthy lifestyles both in the office and at home. There are many health and wellbeing apps available with that cause in mind, and here we discuss a few of them that can help keep bodies healthy and minds active so you can build your small business into exactly what you want it to be.

Physiotherapy

Corporate physiotherapy is an important part of ensuring employees reach their maximum potential. Many physical ailments and muscle problems could be the result of a poorly maintained office and lack of ergonomics knowledge (fitting the job to the worker). So many things can affect the physicality of workers, from having a chair and desk at the wrong height to the discomfort of uniforms or dress codes.

The iRehab.com app, priced at $9.99 is one of the most popular and has received good reviews from users and professional physiotherapists alike – in fact, we have two to share, one is available here.

With an easy-to-use interface and good for therapeutic intervention, this app is great for use by workers who may suffer from any form of back pain. After a brief questionnaire, the app completes an exercise regime which can be done at home or perhaps on a lunch break. The exercises are demonstrated by a 3D animated model showing users how to do them properly in order to not cause more damage to the back.

Corporate physiotherapists also recommend this app because of its simplicity and ability to be used both at work and at home. Alex Bell from backinactionuk.com tested iRehab and said, “This app is great for people suffering from mild back pain at work. The look of it is simple and easy-to-use, however the exercises are in-depth and allow for progression making it an all-round success for those who want to gain more flexibility and lessen everyday pain in the back.”

Concentration

We all know how difficult in can be to keep concentration up at work. Whether you work in an office or a shop, you are usually no more than a few clicks away from an entire realm of social distraction. There has long been a problem with staff checking their social media sites during work hours which can lead to another site and then another site until an hour has gone past and the most you have to show for it is a not-so-funny picture of a cat in a waistcoat…

With Anti-Social.cc the problem is blocked completely and quite literally. This program is available for computers as a stand alone application and works by blocking all social media sites completely for a set amount of time determined by the worker. For a cost of $15 the user can choose from up to 30 social networking sites to block, including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Reddit, and they can be blocked from between 15 minutes and eight hours! There is absolutely no way to unblock the sites (the program creators say this is “keeping you honest”) unless the computer or smartphone is completely rebooted. This stops workers from having the day to day distractions that can waste so much time and allows them instead, to improve concentration by giving staff no other option than to work!

Motivation

Once staff have worked on their concentration, it is time to make sure they have the motivation at work to their full potential. Small businesses often have less money to spend on employee engagement techniques such as staff parties, salary incentives for improved work or the potential for flexible working to increase intrinsic motivation.

If money is tight therefore, there are apps available for staff to use in order to reach both their work and personal goals. Coach.me is a free app designed to help motivate people in all aspects of life, from being better at work to losing weight. The app works by getting users to input personal goals and offering many levels of motivation including day to day advice, community motivation in the form of cheers and the recording of each milestone you complete. There is also the option to request a personal coach from one of the app’s long list of professional helpers, and Coach.me will helpfully prompt users to keep on trying and not let them forget the important goals they have set themselves.

This app is great for small businesses as staff can set the same work-based goals and pull together to ensure they are achieved, additionally should you work alone, the app can help you push forward with those lower priority goals that are just too easy to palm off.

Human Resources

Another issue that some small businesses face, particularly those with just a few staff members, is the lack of a dedicated human resources department. Although the team may be small, managing staff requests such as holiday or sickness and individual project deadlines can be tough. There are many apps to help with HR needs, but Lemigo HR is one of the most comprehensive and user-friendly apps available…or will be when it’s in the app store! It’s currently in beta and you can get it now by registering on the site.

The app allows for so many aspects of running a team of workers, including holiday, employee and project management, as well as recording shift patterns and rotas and salary tracking. It also charts statistics about various aspects of the business letting bosses know areas that need improving as well as worker trends. With detailed information served to managers in a simple design, it is the perfect app for emerging businesses, giving them the same tools as larger corporations who have HR departments. This means a small business can offer big things for less money, which can then be put in to other areas of the business.

We all know there is an app or digital solution for pretty much everything these days, but they do not all have to be social. With the aforementioned apps, whole teams of workers can enjoy the daily grind more. They can be comfortable in a physical sense, reducing any pain and discomfort, but also in a mental sense. Using these apps can offer small businesses the chance to maintain excellent standards of work while allowing attention to be given to other areas, inciting growth and development of both the company and those who work for it.

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Cork company Zartis.com have hit the ground running at the start of 2015 with a number of major developments. Hot on the heels of announcing the opening of an office in Moscow, offices in London and Madrid were opened at the turn of the year. Meanwhile their workforce in Cork doubled in 2014, with CEO and Founder, John Dennehy confident that more jobs will follow suit in 2015.

So what do they do?

Zartis offers a unique approach to IT recruiting, with their talent marketplace, which helps Irish companies source IT professionals via a software platform rather than needing to rely on traditional recruitment agencies. For companies in Ireland looking to hire developers traditional sourcing routes can be frustrating and time consuming. Traditional recruiters can simply be too expensive (and often may struggle to source sufficiently high caliber candidates). Zartis sources candidates across Ireland and further a field adding them to the talent platform (after they have been pre-screened) allowing local Irish companies to browse candidates for free. The resultant benefits are considerable; ranging from cost savings, to time savings, to a more transparent process.

At home, they are perhaps best known as the company who created and power Ryanair’s Digital, as well as being behind a number of other recruitment initiatives including MakeItInIreland.com a site designed to attract top developers to Ireland.

Prospects for 2015

Commenting on the recent developments, serial entrepreneur John Dennehy was upbeat about prospects for 2015 adding that “We are showing some really strong traction domestically working with a marquee client list consisting of many of the major US tech players based here, while we are also making some inroads in the UK and further afield”.

The tech recruitment software space they operate in is a hot one, with US entrant Hired.com having recently secured a Series B of an additional $15m to support further growth. Much like the way Air BnB, Uber, Match, and Zoopla are using technology to disrupt inefficient markets, new talent marketplace entrants like Zartis.com and Hired.com are also using technology led solutions to make recruitment ‘more efficient’. And they are doing it with impressive results.

Zartis have recently expanded their proposition to include contract workers also, which represents a significant market opportunity for them also. Their software led approach to recruitment has also won many fans beyond their impressive client base in Ireland, and they were recently shortlisted in the innovation category in the European Business Awards.

Revenue Model

Zartis allows companies to browse their platform for free, charging a flat fee of just 10% (of first year salary) on hires made as part of the Zartis service offering (where Zartis are instructed to source candidates with particular skill-sets).

Not one to rest on his laurels, Dennehy is a passionate advocate of Irish tech and cites the likes of Teamwork as great examples as to what can be achieved by indigenous software companies. “What is interesting about the likes of Teamwork is that we use their software in-house. Why? Not because of any local favouritism but simply because it is best in class”. A select group Dennehy plans to emulate with Zartis.com

Written by Alan Gleeson. For more information visit www.zartis.com.

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The first step to help your business succeed is to brainstorm about the nature of the business you want to start. You should choose a business that you are interested in, so that you can use your knowledge & expertise. You must choose a business in which you are sure that you will get better output at the end.

Build something better and different

Today there is cut throat competition in every business. Everyday companies are launching amazing products and improving their services in order to enhance their sales and to maximize their output. You should try to provide something different because of the world changing; people expect something that is different and unique and better as compared to the existing ones. You should dig deep in order to stand long lasting.

Follow your competitors

You can follow your competitors in order to know about the tools and techniques that they are using to grab the attention of the people. The best way to analyse your competitor strategy is to follow them on twitter, facebook & other social media platforms. This will help you to get regular updates about their newly launched products or services.

Save money for bad times

Always remember that there can be bad times, so you should be prepare in advance to face it with great courage and energy. In order to cross it, you must save your money and energy. If there are bad times in your future, you can easily cross the obstacles with your saved money and energy.

Don’t compromise on the big things

You should stick to your vision and purpose. It is good to listen to your customers but do not adapt the ideas that can be a reason of failure of your business. Many businesses fall down because they follow what their customers tell them.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint

The saying is very simple and it has a deep meaning behind it. It is similar to marathon and sprint. In both, you have to run but the difference lies in period. In marathon, you have to run for a long time whereas sprint require running for a short period. You must be there for long period. You should try to start a business that would be able to survive for a long time.

Help your business succeed through relationships with your customers

The audience and customers are there behind the success of your business. It is very necessary to keep and maintain good relationships with your targeted audience. There are lots of methods to keep in touch with them. Business pages can be created on various social media sites as everybody uses social media sites in today’s world. You can allow your customers and audience to follow you on Facebook, instagram. You can keep in touch by sharing the articles and blogs of your business on various sites. The blogs will not help only to build relationships but will also help you to get traffic to your site so that you can become a successful business.

The post Powerful Strategies to Help Your Business Succeed appeared first on Small Business Can.

So, last time we looked at why a good job spec is helpful and why it’s important to spend some time on it. If you missed that blog, you’ll find it here. Today, I’m looking at what exactly should be included in the job specification.

Just to recap, a job specification is a detailed description of the role, including all responsibilities, objectives and requirements. It can be accompanied by a person specification, which is a profile of your ideal new employee, including skills, experience and personality type.
When drawing up the job spec …

Do

Include the details of how this person fits into the organisational chart, so as well as the job title and the position in the company, include the line manager and any other members of staff reporting to the new employee.

Be specific about the responsibilities of the job. Include details of how success will be measured so there is no ambiguity when it comes to targets or benchmarks being met – this doesn’t mean you need actual targets eg 5% increase in revenue. Simply point out that a target for revenue will be set.

Include salary and benefits and the grade of the post, if applicable.

Give the location of the job and whether this may change from time to time.

Outline any special working conditions such as unsocial or shift working patterns, or the requirement to undergo a criminal record check.

Spell out the general nature, main purpose and objectives of the job. Give a list of the main duties or tasks expected of the employee. Giving examples of typical projects the employee will be involved in will help to illustrate what you’re expecting.

Specify which skills and qualifications are essential and which are desirable, not forgetting any equipment or software requirements, eg knowledge of Sage essential; knowledge of InDesign desirable

Point out the person’s responsibility to look out for his or her own health and safety (though this can be included in a staff manual along with the company’s health and safety policy given to the successful candidate).

Don’t

Box yourself into a corner. If you see the role changing or evolving, say that the role is likely to change in the future, so that when it does, your employee can’t refuse to take on further duties or responsibilities. A good phrase is “and other duties as are within the scope, spirit and purpose of the job as requested by your manager”.

Insist on a qualification if experience is just as useful. You can describe a qualification as desirable rather than necessary.

Discriminate on the grounds of gender, age, ethnicity, sexuality or health. Making sure your job spec isn’t casually discriminatory requires close reading; you can’t insist on a number of years’ experience (as this could be ageist), for example.

Load the job spec with HR jargon or industry-speak. You may well be looking for someone who is au fait with industry jargon, but equally, you may not. In either case, the specification should be crystal clear and easily understandable. Jargon rarely aids clarity.

The person spec should list the knowledge, skills, experience and attributes the ideal person should have. When drawing up the person spec …

Do

List the technical, organisational, communicative and creative skills and abilities you expect from an ideal candidate being careful to differentiate between essential criteria and desirable criteria.

Describe the kind of personality that would fit in. If your organisation has defined its culture in terms of attributes, give them here. Matching the person’s outlook as well as his or her technical skills to the organisation or team will result in a better fit.

Specify the type of experience applicants are required to have; however, stipulating length of experience required may be considered discriminatory (see above in job spec section).
Do specify any special requirements such “availability to attend evening meetings” or “possession of a driving licence” if they can be justified.

Don’t

Draw up the person spec after the job spec, or after the post has been advertised. It should inform the ad and, potentially, where the ad is placed.

Ask for qualities that will be difficult to assess during the selection process (for example, a flexible approach).

Focus on how the objectives need to be met – eg by door-to-door sales – rather that they should be met. Someone who can’t walk around or physically go door to door could reach the targets in other ways.

Together with part one of the job spec series (see here), you now have everything you need to write a useful job spec, one that will help you attract an individual who is both a good fit for your organisation’s culture as well as someone who can achieve your business objectives.

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