Telephone is the most helpful inventions till date. Proper telephone etiquettes are necessary in communication. Answering or making a call leaves your respondent with a favourable impression of you.

• Identify Yourself First: Using phrases such as Hello/thank you

Please/Good Morning/Good Afternoon according to the situation are essential in displaying a professional atmosphere. Never answer by using words such as “yes” or “yeah.”

• Clarity: Do not sound overly anxious, aggressive or pushy on call. Broken phrases are never used on call. Use a clear, crisp and simple language with communicating.

• Keep it short: While speaking on phone, you are not in front of the other party; hence it is very important to ask if the receiver has enough time to speak to you. Respect everyone’s time and make sure that the conversation gets completed within the given timeline.

• Avoid Fillers and keep it Interesting: Filler words such as Hmm,Ummm,Uhh should be avoided deliberately. Time is valuable so respect person’s time and make sure that the conversation end with a complete note. 

• Find some quiet place: Blaring noises, such as the television or road traffic can interfere with both your listening and communication skills, making it difficult for a conversation. 

• Summarise, Paraphrase and close: Summarizing and paraphrasing help us to reaffirm what we have discussed and is understood correctly.  Try to end the call with a pleasantry like -“It was pleasure speaking with you” or “You have a nice day.”

Why Organization should have Employee centric Workplace?

• To reduce the attrition rate
• To increase client satisfaction
• To reduce project failures
• To increase productivity and profit

Current working scenario of the organizations:

About 4 out of 10 employees at any given point are having a less positive experience in how they are led, inspired, rewarded, recognized, developed and enabled.”

The world has changed. We’re living in a virtual economy. Success means connecting your employees across the globe.

Employees aren’t connected to each another. They’re not connected to their management and leadership teams. They’re not engaged in the office – and because of this, they’re not satisfied. How do we know this? Take a look at these stats:

• 49.5% of employees report feeling not engaged, while 16.5% are actively disengaged.
• 26% of employees are unsatisfied with their jobs – and 66% of the people who are satisfied are still open to new employment.
• One in four employees would quit their job if offered a 10% raise elsewhere.

Ways for Employee Centric Workplace

1. Connection

Happy employees feel a connection to each another, and they also feel connected to the mission, vision and values of your organization. Insights, inspiration, Ideas spread from person to person. Empowering employees to know each other and exchange idea across the various domain/division within the organization.

2. Communication

Communicate changes clearly and with as much transparency as possible.  Give employees a way to communicate to the company beyond the old-fashioned suggestion box. Chat is a handy tool for quick conversations, but it can also lead to miscommunication, Encouraging more no of town halls, one on one meeting.

3. Reinforcing Employee Health and Wellness

A person’s performance and productivity as an employee is co related with his health conditions. Well-being of both physical and mental wellness of employees is curtail.

4. Transparency

Leadership team should conduct town hall meeting of employees and keeping them informed about their new projects, policy changes, upgradation, etc. & also posting the information on intranet page/portals so that employees can read later or get more details.

5. Trust

Open a dialogue with your employees. Openly posting product roadmaps, launch plans, team goals and status reports on your Intranet. Find out what’s bothering them. Find out what fears they have. Then figure out what you can do to solve those problems. This is the first step to building trust. But don’t stop there.

6. Engagement

Make sure your new employee has everything he needs to get up and running on his first day. An assigned desk, computer, phone, badge and most importantly, access to information. Encourage your team to give the new employee a warm welcome. Post about the new hire on your team Intranet page. Keep the post open to comments so the new employee can get positive attention on his first day.

7. Supporting Team work and Collaboration

Collaboration requires people to work together and be open to one another’s ideas and knowledge. Granting employee’s access to manage the intranet encourages innovation and increases productivity. But it’s the aspect of taking ownership that improves collaboration in the workplace by providing team building activity, small gathering, team outing, fun activities, celebrating occasions together.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is expeditious and emerging in Recruitment domain as well.According to 2019 data 52% of Recruiters say that half of their time goes in screening and filtering the right candidates. Henceforth finding right talent in 2019 is still dependent on Recruiter’s ability.

So How AI Will Help Recruitment

As recruitment market is buzzing with vast innovation. AI (artificial intelligence) AI will be using virtual assistant who will be resolving the problems of heavy workload and repetitive work.

The benefits of using AI for recruiters

1)Virtual assistant reduces time to-fill, Automated sourcing , screening , rediscover Candidates,Improving quality to match with the standards, increase in performance and revenue, facial expression analysis, digitized interview. 2)Diversity Hiring is the most effective in AI as 56% of people believe that discrimination will be decrease.

AI Application assistants

Chatbot’s have already grabbed the market most of the websites have an option of chat in terms of help Example: MYA , OLIVIA As knowledge, technology and design will dominate most of our work.
“AI will revolutionize Recruitment world very soon in future.”

With the right set of property management software tools, you have access to an entirely new level of efficiency and scale. Paperless processes free up time for your staff and improve efficiency, which leads to more time to focus on growth opportunities.

Less Paper Means Easier Document Recall

Going green is always good, but this is far from the only benefit to you by using modern property management software. Being truly paperless means you have quick and easy access to digital records as well as a reduction in the risk of human error in your processes.

You won’t need to worry about not being able to read your documents from five years ago because the ink has faded. No longer will your process be subject to a misplaced digit or a loss of records due to a physical office move. And putting your files in the digital space improves your data security. The best cloud solutions put the protection of your sensitive business data first.

Portfolio Expansion Opportunities

Many property management businesses want to grow and add units, but they lack the time and resources to scale. Adopting modern, online tools into your processes gives you the ability to spread your wings into new territories. Modern property management software comes equipped with built-in processes that work regardless of your proximity to the property. Everyone on your team can stay connected and complete their daily tasks–from handling maintenance requests to paying owners to signing a lease – all from their mobile devices out in the field.

Heightened Efficiency Levels

Automating your workflows equals more efficiency. The ability to immediately pull up records is only the tip of the iceberg. It saves your team time and keeps processes consistent across offices and regions.

Workflow automation goes beyond helping your current team, but imagine being able to ramp up new employees by allowing software to guide them through recurring processes. Less time spent on training means more time for your senior team members to focus on service and strategy.

Going paperless, expanding your portfolio, and streamlining processes are just a few of the benefits of embracing technology, but it doesn’t stop there. Look for a property management solution that will help you run your day-to-day while being your tech partner as your business grows and evolves over time.

Although the new commercial development sector may be subdued, specialist contractors are seeing a continued demand for construction work on fit outs and office refurbishment. According to Glenigan the construction sector has been buoyed up by a series of major refurbishments of government offices while some large private sector groups are also investing to update and modernise their commercial space. For example, Overbury and Morgan Lovell, one of the leaders in the sector and part of Morgan Sindall Group, recently reported a 13 percent increase in revenues at its fit-out division to £831 million and a record profit of £43.8 million, which was above its target range. However, the competitive nature of the sector was reflected in an unchanged margin of 5.3 percent.

The average value of Morgan Sindall Group’s fit out enquiries received last year was £2 million and around three quarters of its projects involved refurbishing office space which was currently being occupied.

The need to modernise central government offices is emerging as a key source of construction-related work for fit-out specialists

The company has seen a number of large new office construction fit outs. Major new projects started over the past year included 220,000 sq ft of space at Royal Dutch Shell’s new multi-story office in London, a 27-storey fit out at the nearby Shell Centre tower and a 155,000 sq ft fit out at BBC Cymru Wales’ HQ in Cardiff.

The need to reconfigure and modernise central government offices is emerging as a key source of construction-related work for fit-out specialists. Tenders are currently being invited for a £16 million office refurbishment and fit out at the Dept of Transport’s London base at Horseferry Road, where work is set to start in summer 2019 and continue for 18 months.

Significant client

In the UK regions, HM Revenue & Customs is proving a significant client. Tenders have been returned and construction work is set to start this coming August on a £20 million fit out of the HMRC Government Hub in Edinburgh and continue for nine months, with Turner & Townsend acting as project manager. Tenders have also been returned on a £20 million fit out at HMRC’s Cardiff office with work set to start in July and continue for 20 months.

The pipeline in the sector is also benefiting from some significant office fit out projects in the City of London. Meanwhile, bills have been called on a £7 million office refurbishment of two offices for the Hon. Society of the Middle Temple in EC4, which is set to get underway in autumn 2019 and continue for 18 months.

When it comes to conducting interviews, there are a handful of questions you simply shouldn’t ask the candidates in front of you.  Whether it’s because your words could be misconstrued or cause offence, sometimes you need to look for a way around a certain question if you want to get to know your interviewee without putting them on the defensive.

Here are just five questions you really shouldn’t ask in an interview, with a few alternative ways of finding out the information you need…

1. Do you have kids?

It’s a given – you should never ask if someone is expecting or already has children.  It probably wouldn’t even cross your mind to ask the ‘family question’ of a man, so don’t ask it of the woman sitting in front of you either. You could try, instead, to ask whether they see any problem with the working hours if they have other commitments outside the office.  That gives your interviewee a chance to let you know if they have little ones who will need picking up and dropping off at school or other relatives they need to care for.

2. When did you graduate?

Asking when someone left university could be a tricky one, as it’s almost as good as asking their age.  Rather than run the risk of being accused of age discrimination, try to find a slightly more tactful way of asking about their degree and subsequent experience. You might try asking about what and where they studied and hope they raise their graduation year of their own accord.  Failing that, asking about where they see their career going or what they are looking for in a new job can get them to open up and talk about past achievements.

3. Where do you live?

Commuting can really take it out of you, so most recruiters want to know their candidate isn’t going to be making a gruelling hundred-mile round trip to get to and from work each day.  Asking where someone lives could, however, be misconstrued as prying or finding grounds for discrimination. You might try highlighting any commuting benefits your company offers, such as travel discounts or car sharing schemes.  Alternatively, try asking if they are happy with the location of the office and give them a chance to talk about how close or far it is from home.

4. How many sick days did you take in your last job?

Asking about sick days is tantamount to asking about a person’s health, and that’s a definite no-no.  If someone has a condition they feel they need to tell you about, then they will tell you in their own way and at the time of their choosing. Never pressure someone to reveal any medical details.  Instead, you could try asking if they see any barriers which might make it tricky for them to carry out their work, giving them the space to talk about their health if they feel the need to.

5. Why should we give you the job?

It’s still a staple question in many interviews, but most candidates will be put on the defensive if you demand to know why you should hire them.  It can come across as confrontational, and you won’t get the most out of the candidate if they feel you’re putting too much pressure on them. There are much friendlier ways of posing the same question, so you might want to ask them to highlight the key skills and experience they have which make them suited to the position.

Some questions have to be completely off the cards, so never ask anything which could be seen to be prying into ethnicity, religion or a candidate’s health and wellbeing.  Most interviewees will volunteer the information you’re after if you leave your questions fairly open-ended, so phrase things creatively and let your candidates speak freely if you want to get the most out of your interviews.