Archives for June 2018

As the sun starts to shine, many employees start thinking about a summer break. But for business owners, staff time off during the summer can be fraught with difficulty.

That’s because summer can be a busy and profitable time for many businesses. However, it’s also the time most staff want to take a sizable chunk of their annual leave allowance.

Banning or restricting leave at busy times is legally possible. However, that will do little to nurture a positive culture. More likely it will lead to disgruntled staff. Some good employees might even decide to leave. But letting too many employees take holidays at the same time will almost certainly leave your business flagging.

This could mean delays in meeting customer orders and less efficient customer service. Moreover, disgruntled staff will have to work harder and longer hours to take up the slack.

Therefore, managing staff time off during the summer holiday season needs to be fair. Here are our five top tips for fair and efficient holiday management. Implement these tips to keep your staff happy and your business on track.

 

RELATED ARTICLE: 4 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR EMPLOYEES HAPPIER AND HEALTHIER

 

1. Develop a Clear and Fair Annual Leave Policy

Annual leave during the summer, especially during the school holidays, can be a contentious issue. This can be especially true if you have several staff with school-aged children. In that case, they might all be jockeying for the same few weeks off.

How you manage staff time off will depend on your business. If summer is your busiest time, you will have to factor that in to your annual leave policy.

Conversely, is your business is able to operate with minimum staff during the summer holiday season? If so, use that to your advantage. As a matter of fact, some manufacturing industries shut down for two weeks in summer.

Some Questions to Consider About Staff Time Off

You will need to consider the following questions:

• Do you prioritize leave requests for those with children who need to take their leave during the school holidays?
• Should you adopt a first-come, first-served annual leave policy?
• Do you prioritize leave for special events?
• Will you enforce any restrictions on staff time off at your busiest times?

Prioritizing one group of staff over another group isn’t generally conducive to good employee relations. A first-come, first-served policy is probably the fairest option. However, that option works in favor of those who are more organized.

No Right or Wrong Answer

There isn’t a right or wrong answer to any of these questions. The fact remains, however, that not everyone can have their leave request approved for exactly the same weeks of holiday.

How you handle holiday requests will depend on the size of your business. A small business with just a few staff can’t afford to have more than one or two people off at the same time. Bigger businesses can be more flexible.

Developing a rotation system for key holiday periods, like school holidays, is probably the fairest option. ACAS (the UK Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) offers good guidance on managing staff time off, including rights and responsibilities.

 

2. Plan Ahead with Staff Rotation Software

Understanding your staffing requirements and planning ahead are key. The best way to ensure you have your finger on the pulse when it comes to annual leave and staff cover is to invest in decent staff rotation software.

Good staff rotation software (such as Planday) will enable you to manage rotations and deal with leave requests much more efficiently. You can also set a limit on the number of staff who can be off at the same time. Choose software that has an app so staff can see their schedule at any time, check leave availability, and make leave requests.

 

 

3. Learn from the Past and Forecast

If last summer was your busiest time, then you know to plan ahead. You may have to limit leave requests. You might also need to offer flexible working arrangements to those with childcare issues. Perhaps you’ll even employ temporary staff to get you through the holiday season. Learn from the past and forecast so you don’t make any of the mistakes you made in previous summers.

 

4. Maintain Good Communication

Whatever your approach to staff time off during the summer months, good communication and transparency are paramount. Staff rotation software can help. If all staff have access to a digital holiday calendar, they can plan accordingly. When summer holiday leave booking is problematic, get your team to sit down and discuss the options.

 

 

Involving your staff in the decision-making process will make them feel like they have a say in the solutions. Be prepared to think of alternative solutions. For example, if one member of staff gets priority on leave booking, make it clear that someone else gets priority next time.

 

5. Be Flexible About Cover

Consider hiring in temporary staff during your busiest times. This will ensure you have full cover when some employees are away on holiday. You may also want to consider offering more flexible working arrangements to anyone who has drawn the short straw and has to cover.

 

Conclusion

Plan, be clear on your annual leave policy, communicate, offer transparency, and be flexible. When you do, you will avoid the pitfalls of efficiently and fairly managing staff time off during the summer holiday season.

If you run a small business you need to start treating cyber security as a serious issue. On one hand you have increasingly sophisticated criminal hackers. On the other there are tighter laws and industry standards regarding the need to protect data. Therefore, putting more investment into your defenses is doubly important for you. Here are five tips that almost every small business should practice to improve its cyber security.

 

RELATED ARTICLE: TOP SECURITY TIPS FOR YOUR WEBSITE: HOW TO PROTECT YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS

 

1. Assess Your Security on a Regular Basis

Regularly assess and test your company’s IT infrastructure. Ensure that it is as free from security vulnerabilities as possible. Perhaps you are worried that you could have some weaknesses. Or maybe you believe that your system is as strong as it can be. Either way, have an outside agency attempt to breach your defenses in a test scenario. This can provide a great deal of highly useful information.

This method of testing is called penetration testing. In simple terms, cyber security professionals attempt to gain access to your computer systems. They use the same techniques that hackers and cyber criminals might use. This is one of the most effective ways to identify vulnerabilities. Moreover, it will test your company’s infrastructure and networks as well as its applications. In short, penetration testers detect weaknesses and vulnerabilities that real-life malicious hackers could exploit.

However, having one penetration test and fixing the flaws in the system does not mean you are then protected indefinitely. Cyber tactics and procedures advance quickly. The emergence of new flaws means that it’s important to perform assessments regularly.

 

 

2. Keep Systems Updated and Patched

One of the key mistakes that many businesses make is that they do not keep computers, laptops and mobile devices up to date. To put it bluntly, update everything as soon as possible to the latest available versions. This includes operating systems, antivirus software, applications, and web browsers. Often manufacturers release updates in order to deal with known security issues.

Make sure that you and your employees know to check for new versions of software. Train your staff to update as soon as new versions become available. Doing so can prevent you from being at risk from common attacks.

 

3. Back up Important Data

It is good practice to get into the habit of keeping an offsite backup. Include all the information stored on your business’s network in this backup.

Imagine a scenario in which you have lost important information. Or that you have suffered a data breach and thieves have stolen private data. With an offsite backup you would be able to restore any compromised data. This would help to quickly overcome the incident and reduce operational disruption.

This is where it can be useful to invest in cloud technology. Cloud technology can ensure that you have a copy of your data both on your own physical servers as well as elsewhere in the cloud.

 

4. Control and Manage Network Access

One common problem that small businesses face is that they don’t plan for keeping their system secure. In short, it is often the case that they are simply too trusting. No employer likes to think that they cannot trust their staff. However, it is unfortunately the case that data theft by employees is a growing problem.

It is important, then, to ensure you are putting the right safety measures in place. Employees need to have their own accounts. Further, each account must have access permissions that are determined by the requirements of employees’ respective roles.

 

 

5. Educate and Train Employees

What’s more, you need to ensure that you are providing your team with cyber security awareness training. Well-trained staff are one of the most important lines of defense against phishing attacks and other types of social engineering. Advise employees about the latest security protocols. Further, train them in some of the simple things, such as choosing a strong password.

 

Better Cyber Security Doesn’t Have to Be Difficult

The measures we have offered here might seem simple. However, they can make a huge difference to your business’s overall resistance to cyber attacks.

Smartphones are getting better and better at taking photographs. However, if you want the pictures you take with your smartphone to really stand out, you owe it to yourself to check out InPixio Photo Clip.

You’ve surely noticed the enormous posters that some smartphone companies use in their ads to show how good their phone’s photos are. What they don’t tell you is that they have edited those photos to make them look great.

So whether you’re taking pictures for business marketing purposes or for personal use, nearly every photograph you take could use a little touch up, too. Your phone’s editing app is probably all right for quick on-screen edits, but if you want your photos to look amazing, you’re going to need something more.

That’s where InPixio Photo Clip comes to the rescue. A simple app that works well on both Mac and PC, this software can make your pictures look a whole lot better. What’s more, it is simple and easy to use.

 

RELATED ARTICLE: HOW TO WRITE A GREAT INTRODUCTION FOR WHATEVER YOU’RE WRITING

 

What InPixio Photo Clip Will Do for You

Give your best shots a professional look by using your computer to edit with InPixio Photo Clip. You’ll find you can add effects, frames, and designs to give your pictures more pizazz. Change not only the size of your photographs, but also the focus. If your pictures are too dark or light, you can fix that, too. What’s more, you can adjust the brightness and even change colors.

 

However, the degree of functionality you’ll get with this app will depend on which version of the software you buy. Therefore, before we look in depth at the features, let’s see which version has what.

Then we will review the app to see if its features measure up to the company’s promises.

 

Versions

InPixio Photo Clip 8

 

This version is primarily for getting rid of background details you don’t want. You can also cut your images and put them in a montage on any of several backgrounds that come with the software.

Plus, you’ll get a “share” button so that you can publish your images to Twitter, Facebook, InstaCards, and Flickr.

 

InPixio Photo Clip 8 Professional

The professional version includes all the features of the earlier version. However, it also comes with an editor to adjust the appearance of photos. You can add text with this version, too. Plus, you get more than 100 filters and special effects. You also will find more than 80 frames to use with your pictures.

 

 

Notable Features

The Photo Eraser

The photo eraser function is designed to rescue photographs from clutter and distractions. The interesting thing about InPixio’s approach is you can get rid of background objects in two ways:

1. You can let the software remove them automatically.
2. You can “paint” part of the background to match another section of the photograph.

 

 

The photo eraser feature is one of the main reasons people want this software. For example, when annoying people photo bomb you, just erase them out of the picture with this app. And if you happen to capture an awkward moment off in the distance, you can get rid of it easily.

 

The Photo Cutter

This is an amazing feature. Instead of fixing the background, you can just cut out the parts of the image you want to keep. This can be handy for putting a picture of yourself on a plain white background. The “PhotoMontage” part of this feature will completely replace a background on your pictures.

 

The Photo Editor (Pro Version)

The features in the Photo Editor give you a lot of control over the look of your photos. You can make big changes, such as converting an image to black and white. Or you can give it a vintage look or a portrait appearance.

 

For finer adjustments, you can change the brightness, saturation, hue, and the balance of the colors. You can also add text and apply a variety of textures to your pictures.

You can play with the focus as well. Do this by selecting a portion of the photo that you want to keep sharp. Then you make the rest of the picture a bit fuzzy. This will help you to highlight any part of the picture.

 

The Interface

This is an impressive array of features, but it all comes down to the user interface. Can a user understand how the interface works without having to study a complicated manual?

The bottom line? Yes.

Whoever designed the interface must have really listened to what people want when using they’re using consumer software. The interface is very easy to understand and use. As a matter of fact, it is quite possible to get started using this software without any instructions at all.

Here is what you see when you open the application.

First, there’s a “Welcome” screen with icons for each of the features we have discussed. If you hover the cursor over each of these icons, you will see an explanation of what each tool does.

 

When you click on a tool, you will see icons on the right. Clicking any of these will get you into the task you want to perform. You will also see your files and get choices to open a new image, view a tutorial, or get help.

At this point, you will have basically seen all there is to see. Of course, using the tools will require practice. However, they are very intuitive.

If you have ever tried to conquer Photoshop or GIMP, you know how confusing and complex photo editing software can be. The interface for InPixio Photo Clip is much simpler, and the operations you can perform are much more intuitive.

 

Opt for This Easy-to-Use App

When you need to touch a photo up a bit, change some background images, or adjust the brightness of a picture, you don’t need complicated, professional software. No longer will you need to study, make a lot of mistakes while you’re learning, or call the company’s help desk every five minutes. InPixio Photo Clip gives you professional-looking results with a simple and easy-to-use app on your computer.

As a matter of fact, even professional photographers could use the professional version. No one would be able to see any difference between a photo edited on InPixio Photo Clip and one modified with much more complicated software. What’s more, professionals will find that they can edit more quickly on this app than they can on the older, clunkier software.

 

Regular Updates

InPixio sends updates for this tool regularly, so you can expect it to grow with you. As new features come on board, you will be able to do more and more with Photo Clip. It is fair to say this software will remain competitive for the foreseeable future.

You should also know that you can upgrade your version to a higher and better version when it comes out. When more advanced versions are available, you can get their features with an upgrade fee instead of having to buy the new version outright.

 

Get a Free Trial of InPixio Photo Clip

You can get a free trial for Photo Clip. In this way, all you will have to invest is a little time spent learning the ins and outs of the software. As a matter of fact, the average person will have a polished, professional-looking photograph within an hour of downloading the software.

 

The Final Score? A Resounding “Yes!”

So did the product live up to InPixio’s promises? This reviewer says, “Yes!” In fact, the publisher seems a bit conservative when describing what this product can do. Once you get used to the features, you will find creative ways to use them that go far beyond the bare bones descriptions you’ll find on the company’s website.

There is just no downside to trying this software out.