Worcester Business Journal

18 Worcester Business Journal | June 11, 2018 | wbjournal.com 10 T H I NG S I know about . . . … Creating a truly diverse workplace By AiVi Nguyen Nguyen is a partner at law firm Bowditch & Dewey, chair of its Diversity Committee and vice chair of Worcester's Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council. Reach her at anguyen@bowditch.com. 10) Understand why it's important. Inclusion is not just the right thing to do, it's a strategic business move. The most successful businesses are the ones with a workforce with different experiences and skillsets. 9) Promote open positions to minority affinity groups. You first need diverse job applicants. Market directly to them. 8) Cultivate local young talent. Worcester kids tend to grow up to be Worcester adults. Get in front of local diverse kids early and support their education and development. 7) Assess applicants holistically. If your job requirements are things white men are more likely to have accomplished, only white men will qualify. Stop factoring in pedigree, because I bet your best employees were not at the top of their class. 6) Critically look at your elevation criteria. If you have a lack of diversity in leadership positions, figure out why. If it is because diverse employees aren't performing as well, consider whether they are given the same opportunities, training or mentorship as their peers. 5) Recognize promoting color-blindness is not promoting inclusion. Color-blindness defaults to looking at everyone as a white man. This is a waste of the different skills diverse employees bring to the table. 4) Don't make your diverse employees tokens. Employees will resent being singled out to act as the company's face of diversity, and clients will see right through it. 3) Have mandatory respectful workplace training. Every few years, you should have a training to remind all employees to not be jerks. 2) Punish the jerks – especially if the jerks are supervisors or rainmakers. Your message that bias and disrespect is not tolerated must be unassailable. 1) Encourage open communications. Talk to your people about any internal issues related to diversity. Loyal employees must feel included. K N O W H O W Harnessing the power of point-of-purchase signage 10 1: D I S C I P L I N E A T W O R K M arketing and sales materials surround us at all times. From the business cards you hand out at events, to the flyers tacked up on the community bulletin board, to the postcard you pull out of your mailbox – each piece of marketing collateral plays a role in some bigger campaign. And, when the goal of that campaign is to preempt a retail purchase, there's no signage more important or more effective than point-of-purchase signage. POP signage plays a number of roles, depending on the mental state of the person seeing it. In some cases, it ap- peals to impulse. In others, it reaffirms a decision to purchase. In still more sit- uations, POP signage can be the final, little push a shopper needs to buy. Because of its versatility, proven ef- fectiveness and overall contribution to the sales process, every retail establish- ment needs to take the power of POP into account when setting up their sales environment. POP signage is striking ere's a common misconception because POP signage is a staple in retail environments, it's more apt to being ignored. is assumption just doesn't stack up, however. Take a look around any mall, grocery store or other retail space, and you're bound to see POP signage throughout. People actively look for POP signage to alert them to discounts, deals and specials – and, more so, they active- ly seek out purchases based on POP signage. A great opportunity to showcase value e sole goal of POP signage is to in- still value – a reason for people to make a buying decision. Value takes many forms, however, and POP signage has the potential to hit more than one target when it comes to making an impression on shoppers. e most common way POP signage communicates value is through dollar signs. We've all seen signage with prices slashed or starbursts with new low prices listed. Here, the value proposition comes in the form of money saved. It's easy to appeal to someone's pocketbook. But what if that product isn't applica- ble to a shopper? ey do not care about price as the value proposition. Here, branding has the ability to still showcase value. Properly branded POP signage lets shoppers know you care about bringing them value as a company. Sure, the cur- rent on-sale product might not apply to everyone, but your dedication to offering sales and specials means future value. It's a latent value proposition encouraging shoppers to return. Finally, POP signage adds value to your brand image. Clean, crisp, eye-catching signage resonates with shoppers and improves perception of the overall brand. POP takes many forms Versatility is a major asset of POP signage. It can take nearly any form you need and can be placed strategically to affect buyers. Take a look at some of the most popular, effective POP collateral and who it benefits: • Window signage communicates in-store specials to passersby, drawing them in. • Flags, banners and streamers catch the attention of motorists and pedestrians. • Table signage can be placed near an actual sale site, driving customers to products. • Floor decals help customers navi- gate to one or many sales sites within the store. • Banners stand apart from other advertisements, calling attention to a specific area. • Overhead signage can be hung, so it's seen store-wide as a beacon for your sale. e above is just a small sampling of the truly malleable nature of POP sig- nage. ere's no end to the shapes POP collateral can take and no limit to the value of tailored, effective signage. Matt Mantyla is a business development and marketing strategist with AlphaGraphics in Worcester. Reach him at mmantyla1@ alphagraphics.com. BY MATT MANTYLA Special to the Worcester Business Journal BY SUSAN SHALHOUB Special to the Worcester Business Journal I n a perfect world, all employees exhibit exceptional time manage- ment, judgment and diligence. But even if that were the case, definitions of those concepts can still vary greatly from cubicle to cubicle. Which means every workplace needs clear rules and guide- lines. ere will be times, though, when even those standards are breached and upper management needs to step in. Consistency is crucial. Many work- place disciplinary process problems lie with the human resources manager. at is to say HR professionals can make the issue of employee discipline much, much more difficult on themselves (and the company) than it needs to be. Nothing must be le up to interpretation or not followed consistently. As NaturalHR. com states, "Every incident that requires a disciplinary process should tread the same path. Keep records of communi- cation, follow company procedures and make absolutely no exceptions." Warnings should be specific. Guide- lines come into play on the subject of warnings, according to Entrepreneur. com. "Warnings must carry weight … or they won't be taken seriously; if a proba- tionary warning is given, there should be systematic follow-through the next time serious disciplinary action is needed." Warnings need to be written and put in that employee's file, as well, and include a timeframe of the probationary period and exactly what is expected by way of improvement. Warnings should never be given in public, so as not to embarrass. Remember to consider the employ- ee's co-workers. ey are, aer all, writes Susan M. Heathfield at e- BalanceCareers.com, the ones affect- ed most, picking up the slack for an employee being disciplined for issues like absenteeism or poor productivity. "Coworkers will appreciate any action you take to correct the problem," she writes. "You can tell coworkers that you've addressed the problem – nothing more … they need to know that their complaints were at least heeded." W W W

• Cover