Workplace Trends for 2025: Attracting Employees, Providing Excellent Employee Experiences, and More | AllBusiness.com

January 20, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Last year, we noted a “ workplace revolution” was probably on the way. While 2024 experienced much of that revolution, the culmination will likely be in 2025. AI has already had a significant impact in the workplace, and more change will surely come.

The demand that American workers return to the office continues despite technological advancements that make working from home more secure and easier than ever. America’s employees are not happy. Gallup calls the current “shift” workers are experiencing the “ Great Detachment.” According to Gallup, “For employers, this means that while turnover numbers may have slowed, employee productivity concerns and future talent loss are hidden organizational risks.” And it adds that when employees feel detached from their jobs, they are indifferent or resistant to workplace change.

I spoke to human resources and workplace experts for this article to find out how small businesses can continue to win the workplace revolution.

Workplace and Hiring Predictions for 2025

The 4 Best Ways to Boost Customer Retention | All Business

January 20, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

We’ve all been in situations where we’ve felt like we were “taking two steps forward and one step back.” That’s exactly what’s happening when you work hard to optimize your advertising and marketing programs, but then realize your customer lifetime value isn’t what it should be.

Your hope is that your great product or service will create loyalty and devotion. While this is sometimes the case, the truth is that it’s not always an effective strategy. If you don’t focus on your customers and make them feel valued, they’ll eventually leave—and the cost is high. According to Bain & Company, attracting a new customer costs your business six to seven times more than retaining an existing one. You need to do what you can to continuously earn your customers’ loyalty—never underestimate the value of retention. Here are four keys to achieving the level of customer retention you need to boost your top line:

Phoenix Lender Services Launches to Revolutionize SBA and USDA Lending | Small Business Trends

January 17, 2025January 16, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Phoenix Lender Services, a subsidiary of Community Bankshares, Inc., has launched with a mission to transform Small Business Administration (SBA) and United States Department of Agriculture lending across the United States. Based in LaGrange, Georgia, the new lender service provider aims to simplify the lending process for small businesses and financial institutions through a combination of extensive expertise and innovative solutions.

Phoenix Lender Services offers end-to-end support for SBA and USDA loans, including underwriting, closing, servicing, and liquidation. The company also provides secondary market sales and exclusive origination services for Community Bank & Trust (CB&T), its sister company.

Justice Department Files Suit to Shut Down Florida Tax Return Preparers | Small Business Trends

January 17, 2025January 16, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The Justice Department has filed a civil injunction in federal court in Tampa, Florida, seeking to shut down Madison & Sons Enterprises, a tax return preparation business operating as Madison Tax Services. The suit targets the business’s owner, Darryl J. Madison, along with Malik F. Eugene, Yvette Madison, and Marlesa J. Brown, alleging they engaged in fraudulent practices to inflate customer refunds.

According to the complaint, Darryl Madison oversaw operations at Madison Tax Services, where he and his associates allegedly prepared and filed tax returns that falsely reduced taxable income and inflated customer refunds. The alleged schemes included:

5 Mistakes Managers Make When Giving Negative Feedback | HBR

January 16, 2025January 14, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

One of the toughest responsibilities people leaders must take on is confronting their direct reports about performance issues. I still remember how nervous I was giving corrective feedback to a team member as a first-time manager. I didn’t sleep much the night before and leaned heavily on the notes our HR department helped me prepare.

During my career as a CEO and people leader, I watched many new managers struggle with these conversations. We humans have an innate desire to be liked and to belong. Confrontation of any kind can threaten that, and leaders who are new to performance conversations often feel this the most. They fear that sharing critical feedback might damage their reporting relationships.

What Companies Succeeding with AI Do Differently | HBR

January 16, 2025January 14, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Three years ago, when we asked companies how they were using artificial intelligence in their operations, the highest-performing companies (the leaders), stood out in five areas: governance, deployment, partnerships, people, and data availability. Since then, generative AI (gen AI) has burst on the scene. So, in late 2023, we followed up, surveying more than 100 companies in sectors from automotive to mining and conducting in-depth interviews with senior executives.

We saw three notable developments. First, the gap between the leaders and the rest has widened. The leaders — defined as the top 25% of respondents — now see performance levels 3.8x that of the bottom half of companies, up from 2.7x in 2021. One reason for this is that as leaders build differentiated capabilities, these have a compounding effect over time, widening the performance advantage.

Ways to Navigate the Gen Z Workplace | Business

January 15, 2025January 14, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It seems like yesterday that millennials were flooding into the workplace, but we’ve already moved on to the next wave: Generation Z. Members of Gen Z, those born between 1997 and 2012, currently make up 18 percent of the workforce, but the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that they will account for one-third of all workers by the end of the decade. Like the generation before them, Generation Zers have their own workplace tastes, preferences and perspectives that are already affecting workspaces across the U.S.

Preparing your business for the entry of Gen Z workers means understanding their perspectives and expectations and then taking action to adapt your workplace accordingly. While Gen Zers’ needs are shaped by the unique experiences of their formative years — most notably, the pandemic — the changes they bring to the workplace will surely benefit your business as a whole. Let’s take an in-depth look at Gen Z workers and how to prepare your workplace for them.

Can Employees Be More Productive From Home? | Business

January 15, 2025January 14, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The world has undergone many lasting changes in recent years, with one of the most notable being the rise of remote work. Many companies transitioned to full-time work-from-home setups during the COVID-19 pandemic. This shift caused the number of people working remotely to triple between 2019 and 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. However, what was originally a temporary fix has become the norm: Gallup data shows that over 70 million U.S. full-time workers can conduct their jobs remotely.

Now, working from home is the preference of many employees across nearly all industries — even as some companies look for employees to return to the office. Many employers have retained at least hybrid work policies, in which businesses allow employees to work from home a few days per week.

But how do these arrangements impact productivity? And do hybrid and remote work policies offer help or hindrance to business goals? Here’s what the research has to say and how managers can optimize hybrid and remote work arrangements.

The latest iMessage phishing scam is easy to fall for. Here’s how to avoid it | Digital Trends

January 14, 2025January 13, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It’s a new year, but bad actors are still at it with an old trick repackaged for iPhone users. Bleeping Computer reports a rise in phishing attacks targeting iPhone users that involves tricking them into disabling built-in protections and clicking on malicious links.

In an increasing number of cases, text messages appear to come from fake delivery agents posing as service messages from the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Two Digital Trends contributors have received such sham messages recently in North America.

I bought a dumb phone for my grandma, but ended up using it myself | Digital Trends

January 14, 2025January 13, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

My grandma is 87 years old, and it goes without saying that she has a hard time around technology. So, when the battery inside her 10-year-old Nokia 110 breathed its last breath recently, I, as the IT guy of the family, decided to get her yet another feature phone instead of a smartphone. Except this time, I decided to go with slightly more advanced features than the last one. After weighing a few options, I chose a feature phone from a lesser-known brand, but one with promising specs, a guarantee of a secure build, and, above all, Wi-Fi.

However, when the phone arrived, I was so thoroughly impressed with the aspects beyond the ones I mentioned above that I ended up snagging that one and made my Nan wait for the second one to arrive. The phone in question is the Blackview N1000, and there are plenty of reasons why you, a most likely non-elderly adult, might be intrigued by this rather unusual phone, just like I was.