Health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off are some of the most common benefits employers provide to their staff – and with good reason. While a competitive salary can attract top candidates to your company, the key to retaining highly qualified staff is showing them how much they’re valued. Offering additional benefits to your employees not only shows them how much you care, but it motivates them to put their best foot forward on the daily basis. If you’re interested in extending a little appreciation to your staff, here are some ideas that won’t break the bank. 7 inexpensive benefits to show your staff they're appreciated:

Do you feel maybe that your employees aren't as productive in your business as you'd like them to be? Want to create a more productive environment at your company? Here are some suggestions for simple things that can help to create a more productive environment for your business:

We've all heard the expression that we need to work smarter, not harder. But what does that really mean? Most people believe it describes a focus on prioritising tasks, reducing wasted steps, and delegating responsibility. That generally holds true, but the overwhelming task list of today's worker means that new solutions might be needed. "Work Smarter Not Harder" is more than a platitude!

If your work is primarily at your desk, then this doesn’t mean your health has to fall by the wayside. In fact, there are several ways to take care of yourself despite the sedentary nature of your work. Here are 5 simple approaches for staying healthy at your desk:

When faced with a range of suitable candidates, how do you go about recruiting the right person for your business? Placing a job ad can bring in hundreds of applicants who apparently have the right qualifications. But having achieved the best exam results doesn’t necessarily make them the best person for the role. So how, in that sea of CVs, can you spot someone who has real potential to shape your business? Here are recruitment strategies that you can use for talent spotting for your business.

Attracting and retaining staff is one of the biggest challenges facing businesses and organisations. Recruiting staff is time consuming and expensive and a settled staff line-up means more productivity and continuity as opposed to interruptions and slow-downs caused by gaps in the workforce and the time taken to replace them. Along with a competitive salary, an attractive and flexible benefits package is a major driver in attracting and keeping staff. Here's how to create the perfect benefits package for your SME:

Lazy and entitled - just two of the adjectives used to describe the millennial cohort in the workplace. But new research looking into the amount of overtime employees are doing each week suggests otherwise. And lo and behold, it's millennials that make up the greatest segment of that percentage.

Do you know that stress levels, chronic health disorders, and high absenteeism rates cost companies nearly $450-$550 billion annually? IFEPB reports that stress, less focus on-the-job, physical health concerns and absenteeism are the top barriers negatively impacting the workplace. But there's another change afoot. Here's why absenteeism is driving flexible working uptake:

When an employee is first hired, they must usually complete a training period in order to effectively get going with their new job. A fun and interactive training period not only boosts morale and motivation, but also allows employers to be confident their new employees are engaged with their new company. Here are 4 ways to use training to get new employees up and running quickly:

Hiring is hard. I mean, how are you supposed to know after reading somebody’s CV and a talking to them for a few minutes if they’re the right fit for your company? And yet if you don’t, you run the real risk of spending a lot of money on somebody that ends up doing more harm than good. So what can you do enhance your chances for success? Here are 8 tips to help avoid costly hiring mistakes:

Why is talent management so beneficial to small and medium-sized businesses? Interestingly enough, the reasons are remarkably similar to why bigger and more well-known companies benefit from them, only with small businesses the valuable perks are more immediately obvious. Here's why a talent management strategy is beneficial for your business:

Reputation is everything, and with today's always-on social media-driven world, your reputation can be damaged by what your profile does or doesn't say. But social media aside, here are 9 other things that can prevent you from having career success:

Leaders spend a better part of their lives helping others grow and build capacity, sometimes to their own detriment. Saying No is an important part of learning to be a good leader. Here are some instances when you should say no and mean it.

Staff can be motivated by an increase in their wages, or by a good incentive program. However, often employee motivation can be increased with the aid of a great motivational speaker. They can motivate and inspire a workforce in a way that no manager can by simply appreciating them from the point of view of an outsider. Motivational speakers do not need to be expensive although the cost of hiring a good one can be more than offset by the increased productivity and motivation of your staff. Here's how using motivational speakers can help engage employees.

A motivated sales team is a productive sales team. Improving motivation has long been a primary focus in the sales department because it translates into higher drive and increased revenue. But too often managers think monetary compensation is the ultimate motivator. For some, it is; however, many people are motivated through other means. Here are 5 sales team motivation ideas to help up performance:

As you grow and build your business and beyond it is important to have motivated employees around you, so how do you make sure to keep them motivated and enthused? Here are 10 straightforward things to do to make sure not to kill your employees' motivation:

In the past few years, there has been a massive emphasis on Millennials in the job market. In fact, many companies have rebranded and reinvented themselves to attract employees from this generation. But as companies start looking to the future, it is important to think of the next crop of employees. That’s right, it is time to start thinking of Gen Z! How can companies attract Gen Z candidates to their business?

Remote working is the future. In ten years’ time, many of us will reminisce fondly about the time when we had to commute into the centre of big cities, just to sit in front of the same computer we have at home all day. If you're facilitating or thinking about introducing remote working, then here are 5 essential tools for successfully managing a remote team:

It's hard negotiating the world of business and achieving success. Reputation really is everything. Here are 9 simple things that can prevent you from being successful:

It can be a lonely place at the top. The buck stops here, there can be few people to truly rely on and it’s often a cut-throat, dog-eat-dog environment too around the highest boardroom in an organisation. There are good reasons to make sure managers are recognised just the same as employees. Here are 4 reasons why employee recognition is important for managers too: