Challenges Faced and How We Are Overcoming Them: Experiences and Solutions
The past year has been full of challenges and obstacles for everyone. Here is how our 40 executive members are tackling the difficult problems.
The past year has been full of challenges and obstacles for everyone. Our members, who are experts in over 40 industries, have leaned on one another for support and advice as they navigate anything from employee motivation to business development. Through our open meeting environment, our members and guest have had the opportunity to collaborate on solutions that we have compiled with the hopes that this can help you and your business as well. Each of our business leaders is an expert in their respective field and their knowledge stems from practice within their own business.
Employee Motivation and Engagement
A lot of employees right now are feeling burnt out and are missing the engagement with other employees. Our members have found the following to be excellent ways to engage with their employees to help build an extra level of connection in this virtual world:
- Hosting company-wide “town halls”
- Using apps such as Bonusly, Fantastic and Donut to create a “leaderboard” and foster competition amongst employees
- Host monthly fun virtual events
- Focusing on employee wellness; engaging resources to promote wellness and healthy behavior
- Setting up weekly “one on one” with employees
- Frequent sharing of success stories and recognizing standout employees
- Set up meetings of different coordinate levels (junior employees; midlevel managers; c-suite) so they can bounce ideas off each other and socialize.
Returning to the office has been another hot topic our members are continuing to talk through and learn from one another. As you approach the return of your employees to the office, our members recommend the following to make sure your employees feel comfortable:
- Conduct a return-to-work survey to help employees feel heard
- Make return to the office voluntary
- Speeding people’s return to work is a losing battle so take your time
- Be flexible with work-from-home and be more permissive with work-from-home
- Understand the psychological impact/anxiety of return to work and address it upfront
- Promote discipline with regard to employee safety; enforce policies to make employees feel safe
Business Development
Of course, at the top of everyone’s mind is business development and increasing revenue. How do we motivate potential clients/customers to meet on virtual platforms? How do you close sales with clients/customers you have never personally met? Here are a few techniques our leaders have used to help in this area of their business:
- Check in with existing clients regularly just to see how they are; the personal touch is very effective
- Engage sales retraining
- Utilize new technology modalities to drive sales
- Focus on less, but more impactful deals
- Use the downtime to meet with more people; more people are willing to meet virtually
- Ask clients why they come to your company; leverage their response
We hope you find these suggestions helpful and are able to benefit from the insight of our organization.
