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In any business, there is always room to look forward and consider ways in which the organization can expand and grow. For a global business, this can take many forms, including (but not necessarily limited to):
- Increasing revenue through new sales opportunities or through marketing campaigns designed to reach new customers
- Finding efficiencies in processes that save employees time and that allow the company to do more with the same amount of resources
- Adjusting working models to make employees happier, more productive, and to better support their work/life balance
How these initiatives should be approached will vary substantially from organization to organization, but speaking in more general terms, there are eight tips that will be hugely beneficial for most. This blog investigates each of them and sets out actions that can guide future success.
1: Ask Customers What’s Important To Them.
A business without customers is a business without a future. Understanding customer sentiment, and what they really think about your brand, employees, products and services, is therefore a critical part of delivering the things that they want to buy. Seeking out customer feedback across a variety of touchpoints should be a constant business activity, including:
- Face-to-face surveys: getting real-time information from customers at the point of sale
- Online feedback: holding surveys or asking for feedback on the website or through social media platforms
- Telephone consultations: getting more of customers’ expression by hearing and recording their thoughts on a phone call
2: Rewrite Your Values And Mission.
We live in a world that has not only been changed by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but is also being reshaped by social and environmental issues such as the gender pay gap, racial inequality and climate change. Because of this, a company’s mission statement that omits to cover some of these issues may quickly look outdated, even if the existing statement seems perfectly reasonable at face value.
The best way to approach redrafting a mission statement is to research the kind of messaging other companies are using, and try to echo their thoughts, but in a way that still sounds unique and individual.
3: Start A Newsletter.
A newsletter is one of the simplest and cheapest ways to get information out to a wider audience, whether that audience is internal, external or a mixture of the two. Whether used to advertise new products or just to inform people of business news, it can be used to support whichever route a company is pursuing in its attempt to grow.
For global businesses, it’s important to consider the language barriers involved when distributing the newsletter: while many people within an organization may speak English, others may not know it well enough to understand the written content. Utilizing translation services to create parallel versions of the newsletter is therefore worth considering.
4: Upgrade Your Technology.
Technology is the beating heart of almost every business, and will continue to be so in the months and years ahead. From the perspective of a global business, how well that technology works in different territories and how easily it connects those disparate areas is just as important as the technology itself.
The cloud holds the key to bringing global workforces together, such as a cloud-based global payroll system that can rationalize data and payroll requirements across a variety of countries, departments and currencies. Other technologies that can be beneficial to global businesses include chatbots, unified security systems, and communication and video collaboration tools.
5: Offer Employees More Flexibility.
Millions of people around the world were forced into remote work by the COVID-19 pandemic, and as many employees and employers have come to appreciate the flexibility of it, remote work is here to stay long-term. Businesses that can give employees more control over where and when they work will benefit from happier, more productive workers, and will find it easier to attract talented employees. Making this happen may sound like a complex undertaking, but technology that supports workspace scheduling, along with tools that make collaboration easy from any location, can make working remotely as efficient as working in the office.
6: Hold New Training Sessions For Employees.
No employee, in any business, is ever the complete package. There is always room for improvement: to learn new skills, to get to grips with new technologies, to explore new business or management practices. This applies to an employee with 20 or 30 years of experience just as much as one who has been with an organization for just a few months.
Adopting an attitude of constant improvement through training can therefore deliver huge positives for a company: greater skill levels among the workforce, the opportunity to repurpose staff for other duties, and the ability to empower workers to want to learn more and improve themselves.
7: Accommodate A Contingent Labor Force.
Contingent labor covers those who work under arrangements other than a normal full-time or part-time contract: freelancers, contractors, on-call staff, temps, gig workers and more. It’s estimated that within the average global business, 40% are now contingent workers, and it’s becoming more popular within the global workforce all the time.
Contingent labor has many benefits for a global business: reduced costs by only using labor when it’s needed, access to a wider pool of talent and skills, and the ability to bring people in quickly or even immediately. Any opportunities to embrace contingent labor should always be explored.
8: Renew Your Product Range.
The business world never stands still, and neither should you. The products and services you provide now may not be what customers want in a few years’ time or even in a few months’ time. As a result, product and service ranges should always be in a state of constant flux:
- Reach into new markets: take your existing successful output into new territories and replicate your sales traction there
- Keep current customers interested: regularly refresh the range in order to satisfy regular customers and inspire brand loyalty
- Learn and innovate: keep an eye on competitors to detect gaps in the market where opportunities lie
In Summary
Every day brings an opportunity for global businesses like yours to improve on what they do, whether that be through expansion into a new market, an exciting product launch, or through finding efficiencies in payroll and HR through technology. How your business can do that will be specific to you, but with these tips, and with technology and flexibility front-of-mind, you’ll be well-positioned to move to the next level in both the short and long term.
CloudPay’s global payroll platform is helping thousands of companies worldwide run seamless, efficient payroll in every country in which they operate. Discover how it can enhance your payroll and HR operations here.
