1. The Management Experts – Now, previous experience should not always be the lead criteria for hiring, just like age. Instead, you should search for qualities, which will prove more useful.

Often enough there are companies, which following no logic when they search for managers ( or any other professional for that matter). They want young managers ( 20-25 years old) with 10 years of experience and a master degree in the necessary field. This is next to impossible. There are no such people.

Bear in mind that university itself is an experience, although it is mainly theory it is still an experience. Instead, search for people with character, stamina, and ideas. You do not need someone with a vast experience and not necessarily young, as much as you need someone who is striving to improve and develop better skills. A manager who is constantly building up the knowledge and is looking forward to grow. In other words, people with goals  and values.

2. The Leaders – Leaders can be of any gender, age, and educational level. Another thing you should not disqualify people for is exactly the gender. Just as the age and experience, gender should never be criteria. When you want to hire not only a manager but a leader to help your team and business thrive, you should focus on several things. You should search for a person who is respectful and respected, for someone who is organized and innovative, for the one who is communicative and responsive.

3. The Control freaks– This is someone you do not need. People who promise to keep everyone in line, are never efficient. It will be like you are ruling an army, not a company. Micromanagement has never been appreciated, and control freaks never respected. You want to keep you staff organized and the workflow steady? This is not the way to do it. But we will explain that later. Control freaks and overly manipulative supervisors are usually the reason why people quit their jobs in the first place. Hiring someone to simply spread fear and discontent by inappropriate behavior and management methods will cost you more than you could imagine.

All that being said, you should focus on the personality more than anything else and put experience second. People with great personalities and open minded are the ones with vision. You should search for people with goals in their future and values in their present.

If you hire someone who is just having the experience, but not the desire, your business and employees will struggle to move forward. If you hire someone who makes no difference between management and control,  you will again struggle.

You need your staff to be organized and have no problems with deadlines and schedules? Try using a time tracking software instead. The time tracking software is not only helpful for those who know how to lead and manage their teams, they are humane. For all the benefits of the time and attendance tracking software check Here.

Management and leadership are what any growing and successful company will bet on. Invest in the personality of your future right hand and your team’s mentor. Invest in innovation, spirit and values.

]]> https://timetracking.screenish.com/2016/06/25/what-you-should-focus-on-when-you-search-for-a-new-manager/feed/ 0 814 https://timetracking.screenish.com/2016/05/16/are-you-afraid-of-deadlines/ https://timetracking.screenish.com/2016/05/16/are-you-afraid-of-deadlines/#respond Mon, 16 May 2016 15:53:53 +0000 http://timetracking.screenish.com/?p=655 Continue reading "Are You Afraid of Deadlines?"]]> Deadlines can sure be intimidating the closer they get unless of course you are positive of your skill levels. What does it take to be ready before the last minute with your projects and tasks? It takes responsibility, professionalism, knowledge, and…. that’s right! Time management!

Never underestimate a task

Whether you work for or with other people, you must first understand that every task needs a specific amount of time in order to be completed. It can not be rushed or slowed down without compromising its quality and timely completion. Furthermore, you may disarrange your schedule and end up having to finalize your project in panic and barely making it before the end date.

Mind everyone involved

When your job involves working with other people, and their work is part of what you must do, always check up on them. Even if the majority of the team is progressing fine, it takes one person to fail the integrity of your work. Monitoring the progress of your tasks and regular communication is all that is needed to avoid undesired outcome and missed turnarounds.

Respect your time

Time is involved in all that we do. Everything takes time, just as much as it needs skills. The good time management always repays, for it is a paramount ability that shows our professionalism and responsiveness. When you work with other people, however, the project’s future depends on teamwork and team time management. A missed deadline can sometimes mean the downfall of your project, great financial losses, and even the worse scenarios.

What is team time management?

Everything related to your team’s work. From the forming of the strategy to achieving the goal. Your project’s successful completion lays in the correct time tracking of your work process. Time and attendance tracking software is extremely valuable for it allows you to monitor the advancement of your projects and the performance levels of your team even from the other end of the world .

Appropriate team time management will aid you in securing the workflow quality and the outcome you are aiming at. The time tracking software also helps you monitor the outsourced members of your team with ease so that you can check on their activities on your projects.

The convenience you get from using team time management apps like the time tracking software is absolute. You can ensure you and your team never miss a deadline and always perform up to your standards. Time tracking helps the collaboration and improves the management, but also increases skills like focus and reliability.

Professionals understand the value of their time management skills, and that it greatly influences their abilities and success. Deadlines can be intimidating only for those, who are not respectful of their time and tend to procrastinate. Even if you are highly skilled at what you do, without management, time tracking and professional attitude you will not be able to elevate your career or business. The efficiency and effectiveness of your actions are directly connected to your time management abilities, just as your business depends on you.

Thus, freelancing is gaining more popularity every day and the services and option are growing, the market is expanding and the job opportunities are infinite. However, hiring in the freelance market is entirely different and managing is tricky. For both freelancers and their clients everything depends on contacting the right person, and since many people make hiring and managing mistakes freelancing have gained a negative popularity.

What freelancers and business owners/managers need to remember?

Freelancing is a job like any other. Service for payment. You want to get the job done – you pay for it, you wanna get paid – you get the job done. Forgetting this principle you risk your work, profit or reputation, or why not all the three.

Freelancers need feedback like all others. Freelancers like all other people may have questions, need a better explanation for their task, feedback and updates on the tasks they have done and other such things in order to provide even better service next time. But clients often do need feedback too, as they do forget to communicate, clarify and similar stuff. Thus, communication when working with a freelancer is vital. If you want to have the task completed perfectly you have to be responsive.

Freelancers need to understand time management. Freelancing is not less responsible job, as a freelancer, you must understand that people do depend on you to do something in a particular amount of time. Thus, when you choose this career you must set actual working hours for yourself and notify your clients about them. Maintaining the discipline and respecting your own working hours will fuel your freelancing career.

Freelancers need to be time managed. As many will oppose to the time tracking software saying its the worst kind of micromanagement, other will not fail to understand they do need it. The time and attendance tracking software represents your work completely – it shows your focus, your abilities, your desire to work, your respect for the project. The clients see all that and they know they can count on you to finish your task when you are supposed to. And what if the time tracking software is with  screenshots? If you are working, there is nothing to hide. As it was said earlier, freelancing is a job like any other. Many freelance websites have their own trackers like UpWork, but since UpWork are raising their fees, your other options are to prove yourself using a time tracking software to record your working hours.

Freelancers and business owners need to understand the value of time. Whether you are working from home or not, time is your only asset that will evaluate your labor. Every job is done for a particular amount of time, cannot be done for less if it is to keep its quality. Time is equal to value and quality. Therefore, timekeeping is essential. If you do not know the value of your time, or as a client the nature and complexity of your task, you doom your project to fail sooner or later.

Appreciate your connections. Both freelancers and clients need to understand that the business connection they create will be helpful in the future. Every successful freelancer has a network of reliable clients and will always be there for them, just as every successful business owner has a network of freelancers he/she will rehire for sure. The risk bearing for not making such network of connections is not small at all. As a business owner, you risk hiring someone who is not skilled enough, unreliable, bad at time management and such, while as a freelancer you risk working for someone again unreliable who will not pay for your services.

Hiring a freelancer or working as one is a process of trust and communication. Working with or as a freelancer is all about perfect skills and perfect time management.  With the changing of the market that is to come after the fee raising of UpWork next month, time management of small contracts and one-time project will change. Freelancers will have even more difficulties trusting a client with their time, and clients will struggle to find freelancer willing to pay 20-25% UpWork fee.