StaffSavvy’s Post

Wayfinders is back by popular demand! Working in Higher Education can feel a bit...discombobulating and even lonely at times. Friends and family can listen but if they don't work in HE they just won't 'get it'. That's why I've created Wayfinders. It's a mentoring community for HE professionals who want a supportive place to go and share worries, find inspiration and figure out a way through the wide and varied challenges that HE presents. Following some really insightful feedback from recent members of Wayfinders, I'm bringing it back with a few teaks for this round. Do you want to join? Here are the main changes: It's now a year long experience - during term time. So it'll run September - July. It now has weekly calls - on Fridays at 10am Workshops will be one per half-term. These are designed to go deeper on the main themes that have come up during the weekly calls. In the past these have covered topics such as Understanding self-doubt, Setting and holding boundaries, Making better working agreements or Giving feedback and holding accountability. Office Hours is changing to Pay as You Go outside of the main membership pricing. Office hours is your chance to access 1:1 time with me, if you want it. I'm simplifying the platform so you'll find all the call recordings and resources in one place that's easier to navigate. The price is dropping. Because I'm taking 1:1 out I'm dropping the price to £250!?!? What? Yes, £250 for the whole year! Bargain, or what? The waiting list is open so if you want to join the 2024/5 cohort then pop over to my website and join the waiting list. I'll let you know as soon as the doors open and anyone who joins from the waiting list will get a juicy bonus from me too. We start on Friday 27th September and I'd love to see you there. #highereducation #wayfinders #professionaldevelopment

🌟 Boost Morale, Ignite Productivity: Transform Your Contact Centre! 🌟 At Go Ginger Learning Solutions, we know that the right blend of fun and learning doesn't just inspire – it's a recipe for increased productivity! Echoing Kim Ellis's insights from a collaborative Call Centre Helper Magazine article, we advocate for themed team days in contact centres as a means to do more than just boost morale. These vibrant events are a fantastic opportunity to embed vital business behaviours and inspire learning in a way that's memorable and delightful. It's not merely about entertainment; it's about harnessing fun to fuel both inspiration and skills development. And here's the added bonus: increased morale translates into increased productivity in your contact centre. Eager to revolutionise your team days? Let's brainstorm some fantastic themes that meld enjoyment with impactful learning, inspiring agents and boosting productivity! 👉 Uncover Kim's insights here https://buff.ly/3UiKIJJ #MoraleBoost #LearningThroughFun #BusinessBehaviour #TeamInspiration #ProductivityBoost #ContactCentre #CallCentre

Enlighten 2024 (June 12-13) is two transformative days of live, virtual skill-building and networking for administrative professionals just like you. 🚀   You’ll have opportunities to form connections, discuss challenges, and brainstorm new ideas with administrative peers. The video networking opportunities allow you to drop in for easy introductions and casual conversation in a no-pressure environment. Whether sharing knowledge or casual convos, you’ll meet lifelong industry connections and new friends. 🤝   Presented by Office Dynamics International, Enlighten 2024 offers two learning tracks for your convenience: a Power Skills track and a Tech Skills track. Stick with one track or pick and choose sessions from each. Either way, you get 30-day access to all session recordings! 🙌   Julie Perrine’s Enlighten session, Power Up Your Procedures: Transform Your SOPs With Innovative Tools, will help you improve your procedures with innovative tools, templates, and best practices that will save you hours of time and effort. 💡 Grab your pass for Enlighten 2024 here: bit.ly/3xba5TU. Save $50 with code JP50 at checkout! #AdminTraining #ProceduresPro

Another beautiful summer's day here in NZ. Absolutely loving how so many clients are starting meetings by saying "had the best weekend out in the sun!" With a great summer's day, it also means the cicadas are singing loud and proud outside my office. While it's one of my favourite sounds of summer, they can quite quickly take over an online training or meeting, drowning out my voice. That's where I'll turn on my Krisp AI App which removes all background noise, and feeds straight into Teams or Zoom. It's such a great app and it's a quick and easy way to cancel noise, even working from a cafe or in a busy work office. (It also removes any sounds such as my kids announcing their arrival home from school or the sounds that come with their current Jedi-training programme, held at random spots throughout the house.) So thankfully, the cicadas can keep doing their job, while I do mine! #onlinepresenting #onlinefacilitation #professionaldevelopment

I wanted to share a game-changing discovery that has changed how I manage my day and to clear my head. I was struggling to juggle a full-time job while pursuing an online course and personal projects on the side. That's when I stumbled upon the life-altering concept of "Getting Things Done" and discovered productivity apps that would help with the daily distractions of the modern life and increase productivity and it has truly transformed my life. 💡 One app, in particular, stands out: Notion. 🌟 It's like a digital Swiss Army knife for life management, and I've been using it to keep track of virtually everything - from daily to-dos and habit trackers to budgeting and expense tracking (because let's be real, who remembers to buy toilet paper until it's too late?). But Notion is more than just an organizational tool; it's a sanctuary of calm amidst the chaos of life. 🧘♂️ With every habit tracked and every expense accounted for, I've found a newfound sense of control and peace of mind. The best part? Notion is incredibly user-friendly and intuitive. If someone like me can master it, anyone can! 🙌 Give it a try, and who knows, I might even share some of my personal templates with you if you're interested! https://t.ly/rA8xj Let me know if this productivity hack resonates with you or if you have any other life-changing discoveries to share. I'm always eager to learn and improve! #Notion #Organization #LifeHacks

I saw a post recently about how one company have extended compassionate leave to things like breakups, and house moves because, after all, we are all human. It got me thinking about other processes that are outdated in businesses - in particular around creativity. Sitting in the same office, talking to the same team, and consuming the same media, is not the best way to come up with anything new. To bring to life something innovative, yes, all those things are beneficial to lock in. But to actually create - it's hard to block out time in your calendar to 'be creative' 🤷🏻♀️. In the words of Rory Sutherland, creative people are annoying - in the context of a business that may be because the value of their output is really hard to quantify. While it isn't measurable in the same way that other aspects of business are, without it, it's pack-up shop time.  Things I want to try to promote more creativity; 1️⃣ Inspiration Allowance - monthly mini bonus that employees must spend on doing something they wouldn't normally do, exploring their curiosity.  2️⃣ Tech free idea days. Putting down the devices and sourcing inspiration from anywhere but online.  3️⃣ Inviting ideas from across the company, in open ideas sessions.  4️⃣ Create psychological distance - running exercises where we put ourselves in all other positions who will come into contact with the idea - how would they react? How does this change things?  + Follow Aphra Kennedy Fletcher for creativity, media and business content.

We should teach #computing students to set up diary dates (and invites) for meetings, deadlines, and other events in the team. Students have busy lives, and they should use the tech they all have in their pockets to organise calendar entries, and invites for meetings, especially the regular ones. This will avoid team members double-booking themselves for other events, and aid the team's planning, and development of the work they're doing together. Find more at https://buff.ly/45KssKZ #edtech #softwareengineering #teamcollaboration #collaboration #studentprojects

Week Three Reflections – ALX Virtual Assistant Program Week Three came with its fair share of trials, but I’m happy to say I triumphed through it all, after many moments of feeling frustrated. This week, dove deep into Google Workspace and all the tools it offers — tools I once thought I had mastered. Turns out, I only had manageable knowledge! But by the end of the week, I had gained a well-grounded understanding of how these tools can truly maximize productivity and efficiency. In addition to honing my tech skills, I also focused on organizing my calendar and inbox. Let me tell you for free, the feeling of a clutter-free, detoxified workspace and a well-outlined plan is unbeatable. The clarity it brings makes everything so much smoother, and I’m excited to apply this newfound structure to my work moving forward. This week reminded me that no matter how much we think we know, there’s always more to learn. Growth comes from being open to discovery and pushing through challenges, and I’m grateful for the progress made. Here’s to more learning, more growth, and continuing this journey with even more enthusiasm! Week Four🚀 #VirtualAssistant #ALXJourney #WeekThreeWins #GoogleWorkspace #InboxZero #CalendarManagement #LearningAndGrowth #ProductivityBoost #AccountabilityCheck #Goinglobal

Fail to plan, plan to fail:  Solid advice for goals - and for team connection! Here’s the #1 thing to plan now for an aligned & connected team in 2024 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐟-𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐎𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 I know, I know - the year just started and I’m already talking about June! But planning your team onsite now means you can cash in on some pretty compelling perks. For example 🥁 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐇𝐘1 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐬 📋 Remember school? (I know, it’s hazy for me, too) Back in the day, teachers had a catchphrase that captured attention: ‘This is going to be on the test.’ When you know that something will be measured, you pay attention to it. Likewise, if you share that a topic is going to be the focus of your June onsite, you get your team to focus on it for the next 5-6 months. Imagine if everyone in your org was laser focused on one key topic. What kinds of results would that drive in Q1 and Q2? 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲 🤑 Did you wait until December to book your flight home for Christmas? When it comes to travel and hotel bookings, the cost of inaction adds up. Fast. Nailing down a date and the concept of your onsite now gives you a head-start on booking. So you can use that travel budget for more in-person meetings throughout the year (and give yourself an out of the gray Berlin weather!) 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐟𝐮𝐥 🎇 Back to school. Remember doing things last minute? (You’re right - we don’t need to go back to school to remember that 😅) Sure, you got it done. But let’s be honest - the quality was probably a bit meh. If you’re going to gather your distributed team, you want to make it count! You want it to be memorable and impactful! Want to know the secret to memorable, effective June onsites? They’re planned in January. What do you think? #teamonsite #teamoffsite #teamconnection #hybridwork

Can you really work remotely? Jessica Holzbach and her team are deliberately experimenting with that for a month and asked for helpful hints. 👇 As we've been "remote only" at OVERW8 for years, experimented and learned a lot along the way; I've got some insights on that. I would not want to change that per se, but there are some things to watch out for that make it more robust and enjoyable. This is what works for us, for now: 💎 Real focus time must be possible - no underlying expectations of having to answer in any kind of chat within the next 30 minutes. That would mess with brain capacity, trigger multi-tasking, and destroy productivity. => Leverage Factor: 🌟 High. 🏗🏡 ☕ Keep human communication separate from the task/project management system.  We use Asana for the tasks and Slack for random quickies per project, but the latter is mostly for saying hi and sharing that GIF as an enhancing element, simply sharing what the weather is like, random chitchat.  ☕The main channel there is, therefore, in the meanwhile 'the kitchen', which is the same as in an office: the place to hang out, have a coffee, share a joke, wish well for the sick kid, etc. => Leverage Factor: 🌟 High. 🗣 ✍ If people participating in this haven't been trained for that or are not naturally great communicators, they will have to learn how to be much more a) proactive in communication ("Hey, I've run into a problem here, who can help?") as well as much more exact in written form ("This is what I'd like you to do please because X. What you need to know would be...") so task management can work asynchronously. Most tendencies to go back to 'in person' office style work from my POV are caused by the laziness to learn a more reflected communication style and keep it up. It has massive positive side effects, though, because a well-thought-through briefing will cause much fewer loops and produce better results anyway. 🚀 => Leverage Factor: 🌟🌟 Super-High. 💗 Add the extra portion of niceness. We (ok: I ;))got a bad rap for lack of it at one point, and then our dev' introduced a nice but effective tweak, which we have kept up. Even though that might sound a bit juicy, we greet each other first thing in the day with a "dear" - or else, if we feel it, we can use that. As in "Dear Mahmud/Kristin, hi there, hope you had a good start to the day etc.".  I must admit I had completely underestimated that at first 🤯. Even if one does really not mean it, remote-only "rational" "matter-of-fact" leadership/communication can easily come across as too harsh. One CAN make up for it, however. - Plus, if this is possible, Visa-, budget-, and time-wise, I would definitely recommend combining that with quality time in-person come-togethers each 6-12 weeks (whatever feels right). Any of those striking a note? Why? What assumptions did you have that turned out to be right? What is the one main tweak that makes it work for you? Or are you overall not a fan of 'remote' at all? #remotework