Author: Reginald Chan

Meeting planning can be a daunting task, but with a little preparation, it can be a lot more manageable. In this article, we’ll share some tips for hosting an effective meeting, from setting the right tone to making sure everyone has their say.

Preparation

Making sure your meeting is effective begins before the meeting even starts. Here are a few tips to help make your meeting go as planned:

Plan the agenda ahead of time – Make sure you have all the important details down before the meeting, this will help keep everyone on track.

Have a location and time set – If you cannot agree on a location or time, it may be best to postpone the meeting until these issues can be resolved. Figure out a meeting room booking system in advance to avoid last-minute cancellations. Plus, try to set a time that works for everyone, so there is minimal disruption.

Arrange for refreshments – It is always helpful to have some refreshments available for when the meeting gets going, this will help keep everyone happy and engaged.

Have all participants registered – If someone does not show up, it can cause delays and confusion. Make sure everyone registers in advance, so there are no surprises!

Meeting Format

If you’re looking to host an effective meeting, here are a few tips to help make sure the event goes smoothly.

-Select an appropriate meeting venue. If you’re meeting in person, consider selecting a location that’s comfortable and easy to access. If you’re meeting online, look for a moderated forum or chat room that is conducive to communication.

-Prepare ahead of time. Make sure all of your materials are ready before the meeting begins, including agenda items and any notes or slides you’ll be using. This will help avoid confusion and ensure that everyone has the same understanding of what’s going on.

-Set clear expectations for attendance and participation. It’s important that everyone knows what is expected of them during the meeting, so there are no surprises later on. Make sure everyone knows when they should arrive and leave, as well as any specific time limits for discussion.

-Encourage open dialogue. Be prepared to listen rather than speak during the meeting, and allow time for members to share their thoughts and ideas. This will help build trust and cooperation among participants, which will lead to more productive discussions overall.

Tips for Handling difficult guests

Guest seating arrangements can be the make or break of a successful meeting. By seating guests in a way that best suits their personalities and individual needs, you can ensure that everyone feels included and respected.

If there are difficult guests in attendance, it is important to keep them in mind when seating them. Avoid placing them at the center of the table or group, where they will have the most control over the discussion. Instead, place them near other attendees who they may be more receptive to communicating with.

In addition to seating guests, it is also important to create an environment that is conducive to productive discussion. Make sure the lighting is bright and cheery, and avoid using too many closed doors or walls between participants. Freezing discussions off at certain points can also inhibit productivity.

Overall, hosting a successful meeting requires patience and flexibility. By taking some time to think about how best to accommodate everyone’s needs, you’ll be on your way to a successful meeting!

Setting the Tone

If you’re hosting an important meeting, it’s essential to set the right tone. Here are a few tips to help you do just that:

1. Start off on the right foot by arranging your space in a way that reflects your priorities. For example, if you’re focusing on creating a productive environment, put away all the toys and decorations that take up space and distract from the discussion.

2. Make sure everyone has everything they need before the meeting starts. Include copies of any important documents, materials, or announcements you made beforehand. And if possible, have aides available to help participants with any questions they might have.

3. Keep the conversation focused on the agenda item at hand. It’s important not to get sidetracked by extraneous comments or debates unrelated to the topic at hand.

4. Avoid using power dynamics to control discussion—and ultimately outcomes—during meetings. For example, don’t assume that everyone in attendance is obligated to agree with you or share your viewpoint. Allow dissenting voices to be heard without aggression or intimidation.

Using Technology Effectively

Technology has made it easier than ever to conduct effective meetings. However, using technology effectively can be difficult. This blog section provides useful tips for hosting an effective meeting.

1. Use a meeting scheduling software program to create a schedule and track attendance. Meeting scheduling software programs can help managers keep track of who is present and absent from meetings, which can help avoid conflict and ensure that all participants are informed about upcoming meetings.

2. Make sure all attendees are aware of the meeting’s purpose and the purpose of any agenda items. All attendees should be familiar with the goals of the meeting before they attend so that they can better participate and contribute to the discussion.

3. Use video conferencing technology to create a more interactive meeting experience. Video conferencing allows participants to see each other in real time, which can increase engagement and collaboration. Additionally, video conferencing allows for remote participation, which can be helpful for those who are unable to attend the meeting in person.

4. Use electronic documents as tools for sharing information during meetings. Electronic documents such as white papers, PowerPoint presentations, and webinars can be used to provide information about topics being discussed at a meeting. This can help participants learn more about the topic and provide them with the opportunity to ask questions.

5. Use sticky notes and flip charts to help facilitate discussion during meetings. Sticky notes and flip charts can be used to capture ideas and feedback from participants during the meeting. This can help ensure that all relevant information is captured and that everyone has a chance to voice their opinion.

Meeting planning can be a daunting task, but with the help of these tips, it can be a lot easier. By following these simple steps, you will be able to create an effective meeting that everyone will enjoy. If you find yourself struggling with any aspect of meeting planning, don’t hesitate to reach out to your colleagues for help. Meeting planning is something that can easily be improved with a little bit of effort and perspective.

One of the biggest challenges for business owners is ensuring that the people that they hire are qualified, experienced, and suitable for the jobs being advertised. It is very common for people to lie on their resumes, which complicates matters even further.

Without a doubt, the most effective way of determining whether or not a candidate is right for a position is to interview them. Very few people can lie effectively in job interviews, because they can be very intense. Interviews make separating the wheat from the chaff a lot easier.

This post will tell you how you can conduct a successful job interview.

Skill Training

Conducting a job interview isn’t easy. It is just as nerve-wracking for the interviewer as it is for the interviewee. Because of this, interview skill training might be worth considering. If you are worrying more about yourself and your performance in a job interview than the candidate, then you won’t be able to effectively determine their suitability. It is also worth noting that if you don’t have good interview skills, then your questions might not be effective.

Prepare Questions

Before leading an interview, you need to make sure that you have carefully planned out the questions that you are going to ask. The worst thing that you can do is to not plan out your questions, because you will be put on the spot and could end up asking things that aren’t relevant or that sound stupid. In skills training, you should be taught what the most effective questions are. You can also read online guides for interviews and even lift questions straight out of instructional articles. You should also give candidates the opportunity to ask you questions, too.

Reduce Stress

If you want to hire the most suitable and qualified candidates, then you need to make the interview as casual and relaxing as possible. Even the most experienced candidates can buckle under pressure. If you want to reduce a candidate’s stress, then a very easy way to do this is to send them some of the questions you will ask by email the day before, so they can prepare. You may also want to interview more informally (i.e., on armchairs and sofas, without a desk separating you from the candidate).

Involve Others

A good way of making interviews less stressful for you is to involve others. If there are any senior staff members who have experience in interviewing, then you can ask them to join you. If the person that you are hiring is going to be working under a specific person, then you might also want to bring that person along to the interview, too. Bringing the person that the candidate is going to be working under will give them an opportunity to meet them and to get to know them. Involving other people can make the interview more stressful for the candidate though, which is something that you should be aware of.

Background Checks

Before getting to the interview stage you should perform a few background checks on the candidate. Most businesses only do background checks after, but it’s a very good idea to do them before, too. You can pay a private investigator or professional screening service to investigate your candidate’s social media pages and any information that is available about them online. An internet search can tell you a lot about a person. Once you are satisfied with the candidate and have performed a screening check, you can then move on to checking their criminal record and referencing them.

Important: Don’t forget about reviewing resumes that are send over!

Work Culture

Most companies have a company culture. It is important to make sure that the person that you are hiring fits into your company’s culture. Even if a person is a fantastic candidate if they don’t fit into your company culture then there’s no point in giving them the job, because they could clash with other employees. It is very common for internal conflicts between employees to lead to people quitting their jobs, which could lead to you losing qualified and experienced staff members. Involving other people is one effective way of determining whether or not a person fits into your company’s culture.

Sell the Job

A lot of business owners or people charged with interviewing candidates make the mistake of thinking that the candidate should be selling themselves to them when in many cases they should be selling the job to the candidate. If an especially talented candidate comes up, then you need to sell the position to them as much as you can. In addition to talking up the position in the interview, you should talk about the benefits of working with your business, which could include health benefits, bonuses, and lots of vacation time.

Follow-up Interviews

After a successful interview, it’s often a good idea to hold a follow-up interview. The purpose of a follow-up interview is to just double-check a candidate’s suitability. If you come away from this interview thinking that the person is a suitable fit for your company then you can reach out to them on the same day and make them a job offer. When you are making them a job offer make sure, again, that you include information about all of the benefits that the person gets from working with your company. If the candidate is especially talented and you think that they would be a good fit, then offer them even more benefits than you ordinarily would.

Negotiating Salary

Finally, it is often necessary to negotiate salary with interview candidates. This is especially true if you are very interested in the candidate. Make sure that when you are negotiating salaries you don’t lowball them. It could be that the person has received several job offers and is looking for the one with the highest salary. Low-balling could put them off and stop them from wanting to go ahead with working for you and your company.

Interviewing staff can be a challenge, even at the best of times. If you aren’t a very good interviewer, then you should consider skills training. In addition to skills training, take all of the other points mentioned here in this post into consideration, so that you can make each interview count.

It is a sign of how quickly inflation has increased that, from May 2021 to May 2022, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 8.6%, as noted on the Entrepreneur website. 

However, high inflation is hardly an issue limited to the United States, as 60% of advanced economies have been battling the same problem. If you run a business, you could have seen many of its ongoing costs rise — but how can you help yourself to rein them back in?

Streamline your expenses as far as practically possible 

When you look closer at your corporate running costs, you could notice that not all of them are strictly necessary. For example, if you are currently sourcing, say, your office space and online connectivity separately, you might be able to save money by obtaining them together.

Keep in mind that renting a serviced office from BE Offices would give you access to a dedicated workspace, high-speed Wi-Fi, onsite recycling points and free telephone calls, too.

Encourage your clients to pay you sooner 

Doing this can help you to improve your company’s cash flow, as you wouldn’t have to wait quite as long before paying vendors and investing in previously unexplored opportunities. 

However, the especially crucial word here is ‘encourage’. You don’t want your clients to feel under too much pressure to pay you earlier than usual, as they are likely to be facing their own struggles with inflation. 

So, you could gently nudge these clients in the right direction by offering discounts for early payment, and start requesting upfront deposits just for larger products or services.

Foster competition between vendors 

You need to get supplies from somewhere, but that ‘somewhere’ doesn’t necessarily have to be the same vendor time and time again. In fact, it can pay off handsomely if you strike deals with multiple vendors.

That way, if one of them raises their prices, you could switch to a different vendor — and perhaps, in the process, incentivise the original vendor to do what they can to reverse their price hikes. 

Keep as many of your existing employees as possible 

You might already be committed to doing this, but there could remain a need for you to redouble your efforts. That’s because your employees are likely to have been hit hard in the pocket as a result of inflation-driven increases in prices attached to everyday items.

Hence, these employees could be eager for a rise in their salaries. If you are unable to pay your workers more, you could instead offer them perks that would incur less expense for you personally — such as a wealth of remote-working options.

Implement cost-saving practices that you would likely be able to sustain 

According to a recent New York Federal Reserve survey mentioned by NBC News, consumers anticipate the annual inflation rate sitting at 5.7% by the fall of 2023. 

That figure is much higher than the Federal Reserve’s 2% target — underlining how important it is that, as a business owner, you plan for the long haul with your inflation-proofing measures.