How to effectively retain your employees in today’s professional world Name a successful company. What is the first company that jumps into your mind as soon as you are asked that question? Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, or Infosys maybe? What do all of these companies have in common? Not only do they hire big, but they also ensure that key retention of the best and most experienced employees withing the organization. Today, employee retention has virtually become non-existent, due to multiple applicants for limited openings, the room for negotiating between employer and employee is also closing. As an employer you would be inclined towards hiring the most experienced or most accomplished candidates, once the employee begins to realize the value they bring to the table, they will attempt to negotiate for more benefits. But very few employers take into account that longevity within an organization matters more in the long run. If an employee is contented with the work environment and benefits at the workplace, the thought of leaving will not even cross their mind. The past year has been unprecedented for employers as more and more employees are quitting their current jobs in search for better opportunities. A September 2021 study by Amazon India indicated that nearly 50% of job seekers are looking for opportunities in sectors where they barely have any experience. This is because candidates are looking for new challenges due to stagnancy on the job, imagine following the same routine for a long-term basis, sooner or later you tend to get exhausted and bored with it. In addition to this, the work environment also plays a bigger role than most think, a study by MIT Sloan School of Management indicates that a toxic work environment was a major reason why employees decided to quit in 2021. As per the research over 40% of all employees were considering leaving their jobs at the start of 2021. The biggest misconception is that by increasing the compensation, you can somehow downplay the effect of a toxic environment. Take the Investment Banking sector for instance, employers are increasing the bonuses and compensation to their employees but even that is not stopping them from leaving due to the work culture. So, what steps can you take to put in place a healthy employee retention strategy? 1.   Develop a positive work environment Ensure that your employees are motivated, if they are on the verge of burning out, or have any other issues that affects their productivity. Do not shy away from complimenting them on a job well done, no matter how small. 2.   Try out different working styles Implement different working styles on a monthly basis, try them and observe which style works best for your organization and your employees. Companies such as Google keep their work attire casual, the employees get frequent breaks, and the company has apt infrastructure in place such as gaming rooms where the employees can unwind. What may suit one organization may not suit another, hence you need to determine what works best for you. 3.   Make your employees feel valued Earlier last year, there were reports of the CEO of an organization firing nearly 900 employees over a virtual video call. There was a lot of outburst after this incident became public, as more and more employees began to complain about the toxic work-environment prevalent in the organization. As an employer, try to keep your employees as updated and involved into the activities and the decisions of the organizations at every step. This does not mean that you cannot fire your employees but do it in a respectful manner with basic decency as you never know what the employees are going through in their personal life. 4.   Ensure they are compensated well Compensation may not be the only thing that matters but it does play a substantial role for an employee to be satisfied. A fair salary is the right of every employee, in addition to this, ensure there are incentives linked to their performance which will motivate them to outperform themselves. Make sure that they get raises and promotions as and when they deserve it. 5.   Ensure a healthy work rotation As mentioned before, if an employee does the same job on a long-term basis, it affects them mentally. Try to keep your employees doing different things on a routine basis. Not only will this increase their skill set but also provides you an opportunity to find a diamond in the rough. One of your employees could be good at a particular skill set but they could be better at dealing with a different kind of task. Their only opportunity to discover these hidden talents is when they get to try their hand at different tasks. By following these simple tasks, you can retain your employees and maintain a healthy work environment, remember that your employees are the heart of any organization, without them you have no shot at success!

Going through an unenterprising phase? Check out these productivity hacks! We all have that phase in which we just do not feel like working or become very inefficient. Especially when you are working from home, it becomes very difficult to achieve the same level of productivity that you are accustomed to achieving in your office. Here are a few productivity hacks that we recommend you try out, even trying one of them out will make you feel the difference in your overall mood and approach while working! Plan your days: We cannot emphasize how important this is, plan your days ahead, or plan an entire week ahead if you can. What this does is it gives you a framework, when you go through your tasks for the day, you are mentally preparing yourself for it. You may not realize it, but you can stay motivated for longer. Try planning a day and then the next day just wing it, do not prepare a plan, just go with the flow of the day and you will notice the difference. Setup a dedicated workspace: One of the biggest challenges while working from home is the lack of a dedicated workspace. Working from comfortable spots where you are accustomed to relaxing and unwinding such as your bed or couch is guaranteed to hinder your productivity.         No matter how small the space, a simple table and chair along with a notebook and some pens will suffice. Keep it exclusively for working, when you sit at a space that is the closest to the setup in your workspace, you can think better, you are less likely to doze off or sit for long hours without finishing any tasks. Take frequent breaks: We get that it is hard focusing for long hours at a stretch at home. Especially considering that there will be a lot of reasons for you to get distracted at home. If you tend to get distracted often, follow techniques such as pomodoro. In this, you work in increments of 25-30 minutes without getting distracted. After this, you get 5-10 minutes of break time. Adjust this according to your preferences. With the incentive of timely breaks on your mind, you can work better. Get a workout in Exercise can help you focus for a long time. You do not have to workout in the middle of your workday, even a 20-minute walk around the block or a quick grocery run can double-up as a refresher. Not only will you feel better, but your creativity will improve, and you will procrastinate lesser. DO NOT PROCRASTINATE: Yes, we cannot emphasize how important this is hence it is in all caps! No matter how tired you are but do complete the tasks that you have planned to finish for the day. If you postpone your work, you just end up piling one task above the other. This will end up demotivating you more! If you are really tired, then you should attempt to complete a small part of your task, remember that every bit counts! Use productivity-boosting apps! There are numerous apps for iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows that help you track your productivity and give you tips to boost it! Mac users can try Serene, an app that blocks all the apps and notifications that tend to distract you and get in your way! Todoist is another notable app that breaks down your complicated tasks into smaller chunks that you can achieve. You can create tasks, set deadlines and goals, and keep track of your progress with the many features available. Wunderlist, Trello, Slack, Monday, and Airtable are some of the other apps that all help you boost your productivity. With these apps you are sure to have a boost in your overall productivity! Do give these tips a try! Notice the change in your productivity!

Does the concept of metaverse have any substance to it ? Metaverse, you might have come across this word a lot over the past few months, some think of it as an interesting concept, however, it is probably the most hyped concept in the recent past. Imagine a scenario in which you get to design your own character, give them a makeover from head to toe, you can buy any property for a fraction of the price that it retails for in reality, build your own dream home, own any car, and basically live your best life. Now who would not want to live that lavishly! This is exactly what the Metaverse provides, think of it as Earth 2.0 with endless possibilities. History: The concept of metaverse has been dubbed as the second coming of the internet, like how in the early 1980s the concept of internet sounded utterly ridiculous to anyone who heard it, metaverse sounds just as ridiculous. Is this actually true or is it just an attempt to get people in on the hype train by convincing them that they could miss out? Let’s find out. The Metaverse is an online, 3D universe that is a combination of multiple virtual spaces, think of it as the ultimate use of virtual reality. With virtual reality, you can experience games and movies realistically. The metaverse goes a step ahead and lets you experience an entirely new life in a digital world. All you would need is a VR headset that immerses you in a 3D environment and a couple of motion-sensing controllers to interact with virtual objects and a microphone to talk to others. So, that is all that it is? You get to make a digital alter ego and interact with your friends and people globally in a digital environment? Endless possibilities: Well yes, but the hype is due to the possibilities that it holds. For now, games such as Fortnite and Apex Legends have the integral elements of the metaverse in them. What developers wish to do is use it for other purposes. Now with online meetings on platforms such as zoom, Microsoft teams, and other sites, you tend to face a lot of interruptions. You cannot hear the other person or vice versa and it just removes the inter-personal element involved in meetings. Imagine an alternative universe wherein you and your colleagues conduct conferences in a virtual meeting room. A room that will look exactly like the one in your office and you can move and sit next to your colleagues. You can present information and strategies on an actual whiteboard in the room. It is the closest thing to holding an actual meet in reality. In addition to this, there are platforms such as Sandbox and Decentraland which are actual metaverses where you can purchase property. That may sound ridiculous to you, but investors are paying huge amounts to get a piece of realty. A member recently paid $4,50,000 to be rapper Snoop Dogg’s neighbour in the Sandbox metaverse. This has given rise to the metaverse land rush, a Canadian company, Tokens.com has invested nearly $2.5 million on a patch of land in Decentraland. Purchases such as these have led to the rise in virtual properties by 500%. What is the use of purchasing properties on the metaverse? It isn’t like you can actually live on it, well think carefully. The primary currency used in metaverse is cryptocurrency, Decentraland uses MANA coin and Sandbox uses Sand coin. You can resell your property for higher prices in cryptocurrency or you could rent it out. Artists like Travis Scott, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, and DJ Marshmellow have performed concerts in the metaverse! This offers an amazing personal touch to fans and saves them from the hassles involved in attending an actual concert. Now, these artists also require venues to perform, if you own a sizeable chunk of land, and build a unique structure such as a stadium, you will actually be able to rent it out for a considerable amount. Automaker Ferrari has also announced that they will be bringing some of their most popular models into the metaverse, the costs of maintaining a Ferrari in real life could be high, but that shouldn’t stop you from driving and owning one in the digital world, should it? By this point you can understand why there is so much hype surrounding the Metaverse, but the technology also comes with a considerable amount of drawbacks. The flip side: The metaverse provides an opportunity to design your avatar from scratch, this could lead to users loving their digital avatar more than their real personality. This could increase the self-consciousness issues amongst users and could also lead to addiction. Like how you risk addiction and separating yourself from reality while you play games for hours, with the metaverse, this risk is amplified as you are literally in a virtual world with every possible amenity available. Another valid risk is if this technology will even take off. It is common to see technologies hyped but not every one of them actually lives up to it. No matter how good the metaverse is, the real world will always be better and at the end of the day, it is and will remain to be a knock-off of the real world. Nevertheless, metaverse is still in its infancy stages but is developing at the speed of sound, so you definitely should stay updated on it as it carries a lot of great investment opportunities with it.

How work-from-home culture has revolutionized the traditional 9-5 culture Disruptors. This word appears to be the theme of the last 5 years, there has been so much change in the methods of working, the nature of jobs has also changed drastically, a decade ago if you were to tell anyone that you earn through means of social media then you would probably be laughed off. Only positive of the pandemic? As bad as the last two years have been due to the pandemic, the virus is also a disruptor in its own way, as it has forced us to adapt to alternate modes of going about our day-to-day activities. The most prominent one is the shift from the traditional office work culture to working-from-home. Initially it did involve some discomfort but as time has passed, people have adapted to this new culture very quickly, majority of them have viewed it as a boon. The time you spend travelling to and from your office, in crowded public transportation, or stuck in slow moving traffic takes a certain toll on you mentally and physically as well. Imagine going through this when you are aware there is a virus that can spread through the air and at times virtually shows no symptoms. The new way to go: With work-from-home, there is a sense of ease among employees as you are the most comfortable in your own house. Besides this, you can take a break to relax and spend some time with your family in between the working hours. This has resulted in the improvement of the work-life balance of a lot of people. The biggest beneficiaries of this new culture are women, the modern woman not only excels in the professional atmosphere but also balances her family life as well. Spending more time with their children has become a boon for them, and pregnant women and mothers of newly born children have seen this new development as a godsend as usually, you will need to take a year off to ensure the well-being of the child, working digitally, you are able to make time for the child while ensuring you get some work done as well. Employees are not the only ones reaping the benefits of the digital work culture, employers are having a field day saving large costs that are involved in running an office. The fact that you do not require an actual workspace has resulted in majority of them downsizing their existing office spaces, some firms have switched to working from home on a permanent basis as well. The real-estate costs incurred in renting or leasing are usually sky-high especially if you are a firm operating on a comparatively larger scale. In addition to that, other costs such as electricity and security along with having to maintain housekeeping staff and furniture for employees also bump your budget up. There are also companies that offer cab services and travel allowances for their employees to commute to and from home. With all these costs significantly reducing, this has resulted in the increase in other benefits or performance-based incentives for employees. Increased comfort or increased pressure? Despite its immense benefits, work from home culture does have its fair share of cons as well. Imagine you have a gym at home, yet you still would prefer to exercise in a public gym, just because the environment there is different. Same goes with working from home, a lot of employees witness a drastic reduction in productivity due to working in an environment where you are accustomed to relax and unwind, apart from this, a lot of them were ill-equipped as you need a basic setup to work from anywhere, everyone did have a laptop and a decent internet connection, but you need a workspace, where you can focus, sit down and really get some business done. Then comes the issue of your family being around you, while it is beneficial as you spend more time with them, if you have toddlers and teenagers, you risk being interrupted by their shenanigans as even they have online classes and are virtually bored for the remainder of the day! Since you work digitally, there is no in-person connection or contact between employees, which is bad from a team-building perspective. Working at the office, you talk, you joke, there is some chemistry that you build, and this does have an impact on how you work with your team members as well. It has now rather become robotic, in the sense there are team meets scheduled, where you conduct strictly work-related discussions and that is all, everyone goes their own way after. The one recurring point you would have seen spring up through this article is improvement in work-life balance among employees, but is it really the case? Since in offices, you had strict timings such as 9AM to 5PM there was some sense of ease after work ended. But when you are working at home, you do not realize how time goes, in addition to that you have the pressure of deadlines to meet and in order to achieve them, employees end up working for longer than expected, work has in fact increased for many. The biggest con however, is the loss of jobs, since you need staff apart from your employees for running an office. Now that there is no office, the manpower requirements have also significantly gone down, the employees at the lower stages of the professional hierarchy have bore majority of the brunt. Work from culture does have a lot of benefits, however, if it makes sense to completely switch to it or not is subjective, some companies need offices, the nature of the business and the results produced by employees working from home need to be analyzed to determine if the firm will be better of adapting a digital work culture, but it is a welcome move regardless, the best balance appears to be a mix of working from home and in the office

Has real estate become more affordable? The realty sector is one of the most recognized sectors across the world, there is something that comes with buying your own house or office that gives you a sense of independence and freedom. Buying your own house is often the first stop on almost every individual’s bucket list. Especially considering how rent prices are soaring for relatively average properties. The realty sector comprises four sub sectors: housing, retail, hospitality, and commercial. The growth of this sector is well complemented in developing countries by the increasing growth in the corporate environment and the demand for office space. If there is an increase in office space, as a result there is also an increase in the demand for urban and semi-urban accommodations. The looming threat: The global real estate market is valued at a whopping $326 trillion, it has been of the most consistent sectors, one that you could say will 99.99% of the time deliver guaranteed returns. However, the last two years have shaken the real estate sector and tested it to a large extent as the threats of another recession loomed due to an increase in vacancies in rental complexes, commercial hubs that were once hustling and bustling with full of life now practically seeming like abandoned villages and default in payments by occupants. This is not all, the global direct investment in commercial real estate fell by 29% in the first 6 months of 2020 alone. This drop was a result of lockdowns in all developing and developed nations and travel restrictions. Investment in real estate in the United States alone witnessed a 37% decline, the Asia Pacific region witnessed a 32% decline in investment. This in addition to the massive surge in unemployment globally has resulted in individuals rethinking their financial positions. Investing in real estate is the last thing on their minds. This is not all, since the world was forced to adapt to this new normal, the emergence of work from home culture has delivered a bigger blow to major developers who often view building business parks and commercial spaces as a safe investment. Firms globally are realizing they do not have to spend a lot of money into renting and leasing properties for employees, in fact, there have been a lot of amendments made to existing leases, with firms reducing their workspace. The residential sector witnessed a sharp dip in the sector after the first two waves of the pandemic hit. However, the sector was beginning to pick up and recover for a brief period of 5 months until the new omicron variant was discovered. On the positive side of things, once the vaccination rates across major metropolitan cities began to pick up, the real estate markets began to stabilize. Though the recovery and growth rate are nowhere near to what it was before, there is a ray of hope and in due time, it appears to be heading back to securing a double-digit year-over-year growth rate. However, there are other issues as well. The investment in massive commercial projects across the world has reduced. Most of them being developing projects, since investors have pulled their money out, the projects are stuck under development, the contractors do not have funds to complete them and investors all around are hesitant to bet on the future of such projects. This in addition to the already high inventory of empty spaces has put the debt of the real estate industry at an all-time high forcing government and regulatory bodies to step in. A glimmer of hope amidst the darkness: The major benefactors of this crisis were individuals who were already gearing up to invest in the real estate sector, this paired with the eagerness of banks to provide home loans at relatively attractive rates has encouraged prospective homeowners. As a matter of fact, countries such as India witnessed the lowest real estate prices in over a decade, due to the reduction in demand. However, not for long as prices will pick up. Global real estate is set to grow at a rate of 34.5% over the next two years. Realty developers are now turning from having commercial and housing properties as their primary focus to developing more warehouses, data centers and buildings that serve as more conducive to the logistics needs of companies. Diversification from retail sector and hospitality sectors have become a top priority as due to global travel restrictions paired with the reluctance of individuals to travel, premier hotels and resorts are witnessing barely any bookings. It will take some time for the industry to reach its former glory, and there are a lot of things to figure out, investments in luxury properties and hospitality projects are likely to be put on hold for now. There is also a need for more government assistance to ensure the industry gets back on track.

  Relevance of Supply Chain Management In 2021, the MV Ever Given, a container ship was passing through the Suez Canal, a narrow yet integral passage that is essentially the bloodline of global trade. Just to put this into perception, ships that pass through the canal carry $10 billion in goods on a daily basis. The ship faced certain complications and got stuck blocking the entire canal. This lasted for nearly a week, while the ship was stuck with an entire fleet of other cargo ships queueing up behind to pass through it, the impact of this was felt globally as prices of basic yet essential commodities rose. Fuel prices in the USA also shot up as containers could not get through the canal. This entire crisis just showed how important supply chain management is. What are we talking about? Supply chain management is the management of the flow of goods and services, from raw materials to final products. Looking at the global supply chain today, water transport is of paramount importance as there are essentially no roadways or railways if you were to transport goods or raw materials from Asia to Europe. Let us understand how the supply chain works, there are essentially five elements that form it. 1.    Planning: It involves planning and managing all the resources that a firm anticipates it will need to meet the demands for its product/service. Apart from this, when the supply chain is established, the firm will also need to determine if it is efficient, sustainable in the long run, and if it delivers value to customers and meets the goals of the firm. 2.    Sourcing: It involves choosing the right suppliers, transportation agencies, and other essential services that the firm needs to convert raw materials into finished products and then onto the markets. It includes some key processes such as ordering, receiving, managing inventory, and authorizing supplier payments. 3.    Manufacturing: As the name suggests, it basically involves converting the raw materials to finished products and then testing the quality, packaging and schedule the delivery. 4.    Delivery & Logistics: Once the finished product is ready, the firm needs to ensure that they reach the intended customer base. 5.    Returns: There has to be a network to make sure that in the event of a product turning out as defective, the customer can easily be able to return the products. Why is it so important? Business is all about minimizing your costs and maximizing your profits, with a sound supply chain management system not only can you save on production costs, but you can also reduce the production time involved. Take oil for instance, it is a commodity that needs to be replaced almost instantly as fuel is essential for any economy, developing or developed to function efficiently. Imagine if OPEC decides to hold out and not export oil for just a day or two, the impact of that will be felt globally, fuel prices will shoot up through the roof. There has also been another major shortage felt across the tech world in the last 2 years, the semiconductor shortage, the chips that power your phones, desktops, and even electric cars, there is a serious shortage in them. This was due to the COVID pandemic, as factories in Taiwan and South Korea had shut down, the two major chip manufacturers, TSMC and Samsung had to shut their factories down or work at reduced capacity. As a result of this, Samsung, Xiaomi, Apple, and even carmakers such as Tesla and TATA have had to reduce production due to the shortage of chips. The latest iPhone 13 Series, even though customers want to buy it, they are unable to, why is that so? Because most of the reputed distributors of Apple across India are unable to restock effectively, as their supply has been impacted due to this. As more and more managers are understanding this, it is no surprise that supply chain management was one of the most popular courses of 2021. How can the supply chain be made more efficient? The best way to ensure that there is a sound supply chain in place is to efficiently plan it out, a plan has to be dynamic. It needs to be changed and able to adapt to the global conditions as and when they occur. The latest technologies can go a long way in aiding this. Artificial intelligence and IoT can maximize the efficiency and performance of any supply network. Despite all the technology, human brains will always reign supreme. Make an effort to understand how the supply chain works on a global stage as well as on a regional stage. If you understand it, then you are more likely to be able to get around it. It never hurts to gain some more knowledge!