MANAGING HR FROM A LEGAL PERSPECTIVE “IGNORANTIA JURIS NON EXCUSAT”

The Latin term “Ignorantia Juris Non Excusat” means that ignorance of the law is no excuse for not following the law. This Latin maxim states that a lack of facts can be excused, but ignorance of the law cannot. Each individual must be familiar with the laws of the country where he resides, and ignorance cannot be used as an excuse. Even if the individual is physically in another country, the laws of that country must be obeyed when the individual is there.

Recent research from Statista Research Department reported 7,287 low-wage violations by United States employers during the fiscal year of 2021 because they failed to pay the minimum wage. An effective HR department can anticipate such concerns in advance and address them, saving the company a lot of time and resources. Instead of just hiring, training, and retaining employees the role of Human Resource Manager can greatly vary with different scope and extent in the organizations, however, the law has always had an important role in the management of risk in an organization and it is an essential component of every HR manager’s role to ensure compliance with the law.

As HR professionals can be affected by the law in almost every aspect of their work, they must become proficient in it to handle situations that may result in serious legal ramifications. In many cases, HR managers perform their duties without having much knowledge about the legal principles that govern the duties and this can pose quite a risk to the organization. A human resources manager’s primary responsibility is advocating, implementing, and enforcing various organizational policies. Legal awareness and human resource management can produce an incredibly inclusive work environment that could dramatically enhance a company’s productivity.

The HR department drafts policies that have an impact on the entire organization, and companies are duty-bound to adhere to the legal compliance that protects both employees and employers. Hence, the company’s strategy and objectives should be aligned with the employment laws. It is essential that businesses must comply with a variety of laws as noncompliance can also lead to stiffness and penalties. A legal-minded human resources department can help reduce the chances of lawsuits, financial losses, and reputational damage, and add credibility to decisions made by the department.

Why Embracing Uncertainty is Critical to your Success: Try to Push Open the Envelope … bit by bit

Undoubtedly, we all live in uncertain times. Pandemic and its varied challenges made it amply clear that uncertainty is a constant companion of our life world. The newspaper headlines tell us about economic instability, climate change, political strife and its implications. Uncertainty has been and will continue to be a part of our life. We yearn for the good old times of pre-Covid. Ah! To be free to meet our friends, be out in the open gardens, hold our loved ones closely to us, and enjoy our freedom. In other words, the choice/s we have to manage and control our environment. Familiarity with our daily routine is essential for our health and well-being.

The previously set ways of thinking and behaving are known to us; hence, we find comfort in them. The continuity between the past and the future brings stability to our lives, but at the same time, as some might say, it sets a monotonous tone. On the other hand, while changes are scary in nature, they make us think differently, challenge our actions, and bring newness and adventure. In short, change and some amount of uncertainty makes us feel alive and kicking.

Hence, how do we plan and map our path through uncharted waters? For example, transitioning from school to college or, in other words, from being an adolescent to becoming a young adult may make you feel excited yet frightened and scared. The heady mixture of wanting to go forward towards the uncertainty that possibly invites and repels you too! So do you leave the confines of your comfort and the familiar? Or retreat into your shell and close your eyes and ear to the cacophony of noise hammering in your mind!

I, too, have been in such situations where I have had to submit to the guarantees of what I had and become accustomed to. I left home at the age of 5 to join a hostel in the hills and learned to not give in to tears when I left home for boarding. Who I am today is possibly because I had to give up the security of a mother’s lap, taking up the new opportunities that came my way. Each step required strength and resolve. Yes, I did waver often, felt tired, alone and lost. Yet, life taught me to accept the uncertainties that come up in life and attempt to turn some of them into personal growth, confidence and a transformation.

We can succeed in our work, relationships, career, and in life when we push the envelope bit by bit to open up new horizons. When we willingly attempt to hug the unknown and try to be open to the new experiences that come our way. Risk-taking, within limits, means pushing yourself to achieve new heights. From this perspective, the uncertainties are a vital part of exploring ourselves and the social environment in which we are embedded.

Rather than resisting the uncertainties, let us draw upon the following inputs to sustain ourselves.

Uncertainty is a part of our life. We cannot control everything. At times we have to just let go. Let us ease ourselves into slowly and gradually accepting that uncertainty is and will be a part of our life. If we panic all is likely to be lost. Let us take a deep breath. Accept that we will lose some battles and win others. Life need not be perfect.

Try to accept the overwhelming emotions of anger, frustration, disgust, fear, anxiety, grief, and loss. Each emotion, negative or positive, plays a vital role. Our feelings convey a message that all is not well! If emotions are acknowledged and felt, they will motivate us to take the necessary steps to accept the situation and the accompanying thoughts and feelings. Please take the message from your emotion and not shoot the messenger!

Take a reality check. Does the issue or situation call for alarm? Are you possibly overreacting? Or can you take a step back and objectively try to reassess the issue/situation? Perhaps something can be done and salvaged? If we let our feelings overtake us, then our thinking too gets disturbed. Fear and anxiety impact the way we think. Recall when you have been angry and you have been unable to express your thoughts. You are so angry that you may stammer or even say things you later regret.

Focus on what you can accomplish and succeed. Instead of overthinking about issues that you cannot manage or attain, recognise your limitations, particularly during times of stress and strain. Attempt new challenges, or push the envelope when you have identified and understood your strengths and limitations. Self-awareness is the key to success. Hence, tread softly and take firm steps towards self-knowledge.

Finally, uncertainty can bring disappointment. Students across the globe could not attend university and missed out on the experience of friends, excitement, and learning. Of having to stay at home, the inability to go abroad for further studies, your plans for the future were at a standstill. At such times give yourself the space to contemplate as to what this means to you. Talk to people you trust and who will help you unravel fear, anxiety and angst. The more you share and discuss your thoughts and feelings will untangle to provide a deeper understanding of your issue/situation.

Throughout our lives, we must reflect upon whether we are letting the fear of uncertainty grip us. Do not be afraid to fall, for we often judge ourselves for falling down, or are we allowing ourselves the bandwidth to grow and move forward ourselves a failure. Remember falling down and not getting up is more likely to be a failure. If you fall, get up, dust yourself and stand up, albeit a little shakily. This act will lead us toward the path of accomplishment and success.

Inculcate Academic Lawyers to Practice Law

Academic professors in educational institutes have mentored countless students with their knowledge and guidance. Those disciples have shaped the future of this country and brought changes in the society. The field of law has been no different. Now, why isn’t it that the same professors on whose principles these changes have been bought haven’t been allowed fully to implement their knowledge in courts and guide the judiciary and executive to make informed decisions on cases. This is clearly suboptimal use of talent in our country.

Even though there has been slight support which has been given by individuals to showcase faith in academic professors, the Indian judiciary system has majorly neglected this angle of inclusion. India has rarely nominated academic professor to international judicial and legal bodies such as ICJ of UN and the Appellate Body of WTO. Also, the current government hardly opts for law professor to serve as a full-time expert in any of the ministries. Contrary in US, numerous law professors served as judges of Supreme Court.  Additionally, many practicing lawyers teach in universities in UK. We do have acts supporting advocates to teach for limited hours but vice-a-versa engagement is very limited as full-time academic professors are not able to appear in courts.

India’s lawyers and judges have exhibited excellent intellect capabilities and flair. Renowned academics such as Shamnad Basneer, Upendra Baxi, Mrinal Satish, Aparna Chandra and Latika Sarkar have intervened or assisted in judicial matters, gripping court’s attention to take them up. The Courts deserve nothing but the best of law minds for handling complex cases and supporting judgements. History itself is a proof that there have been judgements where courts have heavily relied on academic publications and observations. This academic inclusion would also bring a fresh perspective since law as a profession is heavily intellectual and relies on interpretation, fact of laws and policy inputs. Decision makers must realize that they have to develop a system to incorporate the talent of academic lawyers to serve the nation better. Only then, the synergy among the entire legal system and academia will create euphoric system.

*Author: Chavi Sood, Assistant Professor, IILM Law School

Reference:

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/engaging-academic-lawyers/article65480160.ece

https://www.barandbench.com/columns/academics-law-case-facilitate-academics-practice-law

 

 

“Bouncing Back: Swim but don’t Sink, Bend but don’t Break”

Ms. Megha Kochhar and Dr. Kriti Vyas

Assistant Professor, Dept. of Psychology

29th March 2022     10 mins Read

Resilience has often been referred to as “ordinary magic” while it looks like an extraordinary act. It is more than once thought. It’s a human trait inhibited by all, but only used by some.

Research by Dan Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist, suggests that no matter how extreme the difficulty may seem, people will bounce back to their happiness baseline in what seems like a short time. Rather, it surprises us how fast a huge majority of people who experience any kind of tragedy or trauma get back to their daily routine, as Gilbert notes “We don’t recognize that we are as resilient a species as we turn out to be.”

I don’t remember someone teaching me to be resilient nor telling me that trouble and turmoil would be an inevitable part of my life. That, someday I would face really tough times with disappointment, fear, and the occasional carpet pull (when life pulls the ground beneath your feet.) I always grew up thinking life was a fairy tale, all rosy and that staying safe and secure was the best strategy to survive. Over the years I have realized I have become much more resilient by challenging my own limits, facing my fears and enduring through my perceived limitations. After surviving near to death situations in my life, I started to face more challenges in life.

The secret to resilience is not stopping, it is to keep trying hard, then falling, getting up then recovering, again trying, then falling, then getting up again and keep trying again. It’s more like climbing a mountain without a route map. Yes, it undoubtedly requires time, effort, and support. One may face setbacks and roadblocks along the way. However, you will eventually reach the top and will feel proud of your journey. It’s all about becoming aware of and then building the endurance levels residing within you.

You are stronger than your beliefs, this is the affirmation you need to give yourself every moment. Build your stamina. It’s all about your self-belief, hope and optimism. Stress is an internal process and our emotional reaction that we add meaning to based on external events in our life.

Dr. Martin Seligman, founder of Positive Psychology writes “Talk to yourself. Give yourself a cognitive intervention and counter defeatist thinking with an optimistic attitude. Challenge your downbeat thinking. And replace it with positive outlook.”

The bestseller author of Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goldman also opines that changing our self-talk makes us more resilient. This is the key to resilience, and we overcome from our self-induced stress. Positive conversations with our self, give our lives a perspective that opens new windows of hope and belief. We have heard of the flight-or-flight response. So, the way we fight back and regain our control over our self helps us to talk to our inner self in a compassionate and gentle way. Being mindful of your internal states helps us to become generative, positive and more pragmatic.

So, step one is to take care of physical body, love yourself, and eat healthy, foods that have all colors of the rainbow. Get quality sleep. Install a habit tracking app. Make self-care your second nature. Finally, rather than blaming yourself about what all that’s happening in you life world treat yourself, with love, compassion, and empathy.

Practice accepting life’s impermanence, nothing stays forever not even your pains. This shall also pass. Ask yourself “How can I mould myself to life’s changes.”

Get curious to deal with uncomfortable emotions like embarrassment, disappointment, failure, comparisons as they arise. Our ability to be comfortable in uncomfortable emotions builds our resilience. There are various forms of meditation like sound, water, light self-guided meditation, practice what resonates best with you.

Build a supportive network of friends, family, health care professionals whom you can reach out to, not all challenges in life re meant to be faced alone.

How about creating a set of Calm Cards, pick a card in the morning that will help you reflect on the intention of the day. Pick a card on Sunday to set an intention for the week. Pick a card when you are struggling with another person, explore his good qualities and ease your relationship. Send a card to someone who needs some inspiration in life.

Adopt a Furry friend, don’t know about you but, my dog Raja was one of my strengths during my tough times, fostering him and getting greeted by him with those extra cuddles was so therapeutic.

Self-Reflection works the best –

  • Embrace challenges as opportunities for growth. When you are facing tough time just ask yourself “What can I learn here” or “How can I add meaning to this situation of my life?”
  • Which part of me is tender and needs special attention?
  • Journaling really helps to get your stream of consciousness going.
  • Ask yourself “Am I taking anything for granted”
  • Am I letting matters that are out of control, stress me out?
  • Make a list of 21 things that make you smile. When was the last you followed them?

We all are aware that setbacks are a part of our lives. What matters is how quickly we learn to bounce back from adversity and negative events. In the words of Angela Duckworth that has inspired me “As much as talent counts, efforts count twice.”

Let us take a step forward and make our time worth it.

Share your experiences with us on megha.kochhar@iilm.edu / kriti.vyas@iilm.edu

 

Collaborative Research

In academic writing for research, the phrase “collaboration” is commonly understood to refer to an equal cooperation between two or more members of one or more academic institutions who are pursuing mutually fascinating and helpful research. Collaborative research is carried out by bringing together a large number of people from various departments. Different scientists and practitioners from agencies, universities, non-profit organisations, and businesses work together to frame the issue so that management or policy decisions directly benefit from the findings through collaborative research.

A well specified policy or managerial need characterises collaborative research. It is a collaborative approach that provides systematic and expressive chances for user feedback, as well as a project structure in which practitioners and scientists collaborate to impact project scope and design, as well as generate research results and outputs.

People engage in collaborative research for a variety of reasons when working on a topic. Many funding agencies favour interdisciplinary research teams that may pool their resources and, as a result, have a larger scope. One of the most significant advantages of collaborative research is that no one person bears the entire load because it is based on the equal division of labour model. There are also numerous opportunities for team members to learn from various departments while working on the project. Collaborative research ensures that scientists, politicians, and managers’ strengths and perspectives are utilised, and that different teams collaborate to address relevant and important challenges. Doing research with practitioners instead of doing it for them yields better benefits for everyone involved.

There are majorly five different types of collaborative research:

  1. Within academic institutions– here members from different departments in the same institution come together to work on a project. Since it is done among the departments of the same institution no external funding is involved and the division of labour is also equal among the different groups.
  2. Between academic institutions– here members from different departments from different institutions come together to work on a project.
  3. Academic institutions and a government agency/department– in this type of research an academic institution works with a government agency to address an issues. For this research, the funding comes for the government agency.
  4. Academic institutions and industry– in this type of research a researcher from a private company works with the research group of an academic institution. During this time the non-academic researcher pursues his own project while at the same time learning about the current techniques and research questions from the members in the group.
  5. Domestic and International– two or more institutions are involved in this type of research collaboration for different countries to work together on a project.

While collaborative research is one of the most fruitful types of study, it can also raise a variety of ethical concerns, owing to the enormous number of people, institutions, and resources involved. It raises a slew of ethical concerns about authorship. Different domains have different agreements about the type of contribution that must be made to a project before researchers can have their names listed in a publication. Before being registered as an author, each member of the research team must provide a “substantial intellectual contribution” or a “major scientific contribution” to the project.

Corporate Social Responsibility in Pandemic

The Concept of Corporate Social Responsibility was very much there in India However, for the past two years, while the country faced the Covid-19 pandemic, many dimensions related to it came up. Corporate Social Responsibility is the act of fusing environmental and social concerns with a company’s planning and operation. The basic idea behind fusing this idea was to reduce the adverse effects of businesses on society. We can define Corporate Social Responsibility as an effort to improvise a company’s eco-friendliness and increase its social impact.

In 2020, the companies (CSR Policy) Amendment rules 2020 was drafted to carry out amendments in the companies (CSR POLICY RULES), 2014. This brought in a balance between the interest of Corporates and society. In a pandemic where individuals were suffering from the shortage of cylinders or beds the idea of bringing in help from corporates by giving them benefits under the tax regime was proved to be helpful.

For a company to be socially responsible, it first needs to be accountable to itself and its shareholders. Often, companies that adopt CSR programs have grown their business to the point where they can give back to society. Thus, CSR is primarily a strategy of large corporations. Also, the more visible and successful a corporation is, the more responsibility it must set standards of ethical behaviour for its peers, competition, and industry.

The data available on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs website for money spend by big corporate under the flag of Corporate Social Responsibility shows the standard created. For the Financial Year 2019-20 Reliance industry spend 908.71Cr., Tata Consultancy Services spend 602.00 Cr., Oil and Natural Gas have spent almost 582.35 Cr. Big corporates have spent a lot to promote the environment and protect individuals’ rights. This not only helped the society at large but also provided relaxation to the big corporates in the form of tax deductions.

CSR tries to touch the triple bottom line that is Economical, Environmental and Social Performance. It is a proven fact that CSR is a effective tool to accomplish the 2023 goal of Sustainable Development. The Sustainable Development Goals are a universal call to action to end poverty and promote and protect individuals’ environmental and social rights.

There are seven pillars of Corporate Social Responsibility that helps in making strategy. These are as follows: –

  1. Use and reuse of resources for better implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility.
  2. Cross learning
  3. Nurturing and Supplementing Corporate Social Responsibility.
  4. Knowledge management and documentation
  5. Per beneficiary cost reduction and maximizing the impact while reaching more people
  6. Capacity building of the CSR workforce and re-skilling.

IILM University being a Management University has contributed a lot to fulfill its Corporate Social Responsibility in pandemic. IILM believes that social change should be deeply ingrained in the community of business leaders. It focuses on guiding and creating a businessman who knows the aspects related to Business Management. IILM Social Impact programming is designed to expand its PGDM student’s awareness of the pivotal role of management plays in society. It aims to inspire business leaders to create a positive, significant, and sustainable impact on society and the world.

IILM has various Social Initiative programs like the ICHHA Club, Donation Drives, and Blood Donation camps through which the University fulfills its Corporate Social Responsibility and becomes a brand.

Moving towards Inclusivity in the classroom

 

 

 

For the effectiveness of successful learning of the students, a faculty needs to ensure that the student feel accepted, motivated , & continuously guided & supported by their teachers & classmates. In a class room you will always find a very diverse group coming from various cultural backgrounds with high disparity in the class. It becomes crucially important as a mentor & guide to bring to class, equality, inclusion, belongingness and most importantly purpose to learning. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the classroom are more important than ever as students return to their campuses; it’s imperative that educators show they are committed to helping every student feel valued, represented, and heard.

From my experience , would like to share some personal observations on how to ensure that you’re creating an inclusive and welcoming learning environment for all your students—on the first day and every day.

Make students feel accepted & inclusive

How much are you prepared as an educator to approach students and ready to discuss topics, that might make them uncomfortable. If faculties are on edge talking about social or economic disparity, it’s going to ensure, students don’t feel to drag away from there is the first encounters with the professors and would feel positive that the semester will go successful.

Talking about differences is important, acceptance is important

Its important for the educator to share an understanding and comfort about subjects that require open conversations. Practical exposure is the best way for an educator to feel comfortable about conversations about diversity & inclusion. For example, if educators find themselves strongly opinionated about subjects like “Black and brown people” or “LGBTQ+”, then they need to do the work outside of the classroom to normalise it for themselves.
Try joining a book club, debate club, talking with colleagues about these topics, and attending workshops devoted to building cultural competence and cultural responsiveness. It’s important to expose ourselves to difference in order to be comfortable with that difference.

Don’t let biases built in your module

To achieve true inclusivity, educators need to identify with our own biases and be aware of what they are. It’s important to carefully reflect on self, as yourself about the barriers that pervert you form being fully engaged with your students and accept the biases to be able to deliver the content is class that gives student the freedom to make a choice, make their own opinion, speak out your mind and be able to question, once’s beliefs and biases. Knowing the answers to these questions and realising what may cause some difficulty for students is a big part of fixing the problem.

Disparity in Online & hybrid teaching needs to be accepted & acknowledged

The disparity of access of technology among students has really hit home during this pandemic. Students going to their local internet café , shops to learn from your class is true and has to be accepted by the educators.
Educators teaching online should take a moment to acknowledge the challenges faced by your students in online learning and let them know that you have made sure such issues are incorporated in your module teachings these challenges and connectivity issues. The technical resources to be shared and challenges accepted in these learning environments. Let students know you understand there will be connectivity problems or times when students have to share technical resources with others. This will show students that you’re aware of the trials and tribulations students are facing and that you’re concerned about students and their well-being


Prof. Nidhi Gupta
Design Department

IILM University

Digital Transformation in Design Education

The current scenario we are in, change has become the only constant. Designers have always been known as early adaptors and change makers. The sudden paradigm shift in the way lifestyle, health and economic scenarios are building, designers require to evaluate the current health situation is bringing to light problems, changes and opportunities for the industries that make us wonder what is truly important and what is needed to readjust to the new normal. The need to have more designers in the industry to bring out the change has made many educational institutions put more emphasis on design integrated thinking. Management uses fields of design with tools like critical & design thinking, whereas technology is ready to embed and explore design experiences which incorporate the new normal.

Today’s ‘New Normal’ reality is set in motion by the age of global consumption, data mapping and artificial intelligence. As a result, designers needed with updated toolkits to respond to these new conditions. IILM University sees education as a responsibility to equip students with set of tools to understand the contemporary condition and allow for the emergence of new types of multidisciplinary design practices. Speculative design understanding is not supplemental to the serious work of remaking the society, but essential to its responsibilities in a moment of change and uncertainty.

The impact on global wellness and the economy has forced organizations in every industry to flex and evolve, both in real-time and in the long-term. The curriculum we design is a  collection of ideas, thoughts, and strategies, to explore how design can play a role in making the world a healthier place, a successful and forward looking careers that are purposeful and immune to the changing world.

Image Credit: Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Let’s talk about how design education can build an optimistic & equitable Future.

Crisis give birth to creative problem solving. Education has reacted in real-time to the pandemic, addressing tactical challenges of shifting entire campuses online overnight, with innovation and sonic speed. In the process, however, systemic challenges and disparities have been exacerbated. By its nature, learning from home depends on access to technology and Wi-Fi, but on home environment, family situations, and emotional stability for learning.

Keeping in view, Design education at IILM focus on creating learning spaces, whether physical or virtual, that empower every student & faculty equally to create new ventures to exchange the power of knowledge and know-how. National Education Policy is navigating the strategy of varying degrees, exit points developing an infinite number of scenarios that students can design through, resources, socio-economic landscape, infrastructure, and purpose.

How can we take what we have learned during this time to impart positive change on our future to ultimately shape healthier, wiser, and more equitable communities?

Pandemic is not a change agent, but an accelerant for addressing some fundamental issues for education.

Image: Photo by Gaberiel Benois on Unsplash

A vision for a adaptable & equitable future

The core to the future of learning is learner-centred design, which implies a major repositioning of the learner, the role of the educator, and the environments we design.

Blended Learning is the key

We have been slow at adoption of alternative technologies and pedagogies as human resistance to change. The immediate shift to virtual learning that schools and universities across the world had to make, nearly overnight, has granted us an enlightened perspective. Educational Institutions need to find new ways to address the needs of every student. The demand for more engaged learning will accelerate new digital platforms, better equipping students to craft their own learning map and future.

Our each program combines hybrid and remote instruction using real world and social emotional learning. The program combines hybrid learning, real world learning, and social-emotional learning to “learning with a purpose.”

Gensler reports that Scott Galloway predicts that online learning and digital platforms will only continue to expand as universities navigate the indirect financial impacts of the pandemic. A focus on the student experience will double-down on the interplay between virtual and physical space. But it’s also critical to address inequities in remote learning, such as disparate access to technology, in order to ensure that digital and physical classroom environments are accessible for all learners.

Learning with a purpose, community & place development

During this pandemic big question has raised on online learning, called into question the need for a physical campus and generated much speculation as to whether the campus would cease to exist. While transitioning to virtual learning has proven successful for some students and for some types of course material, hands-on learning, soft skills, and connection to classmates and course material have been more difficult to translate to learning  online. Many schools and institutions saw the pandemic actually elevate the importance of human interaction, further underscoring place and community as a core value proposition.

Essential to campus experience, the value-add of space and community will evolve in near future. Just as creative environments will employ hybrid solutions for learning, so will student life, dining, housing, and recreation as they seek to engender culture and community. The campus here derives student experience increasingly combining digital platforms with physical space, also reprioritize on-campus activities for “highest and best” use of social and interactive space.

Encourage interdisciplinary approaches.

For nearly a decade, culture of innovation has held its place of importance — both inside and outside of the classroom. This urgency to transcend silos has changed the way departments solve problems both academically and administratively, and the pandemic has only heightened that trajectory.

Now campus assembles core planning teams, championed by senior leadership, that cut across disciplines to produce comprehensive solutions for immediate and near-term plans. The ability to solve challenges that have emerged from the pandemic will foster a lasting interdisciplinary mindset.

Our Campus develops enhanced infrastructures of technology and services Additionally, new career paths continue to emerge out of this need to collaborate in uncharted ways. To support the integrated thinking process and spur intrinsically-driven motivation in students, the spaces we design continue to provide a level of diversity, multimodality, and flexibility.

Turning campus into synergy spaces to build new processes

Connections made beyond the campus through partnerships with local business, government, and community makes learning resonant. With the pandemic, such connections are identified as essential for operations survival. As public and civic entities form new alliances between industry, technology, and education as a way of plotting the course to reopening, imagine what could happen if these alliances stayed together to solve problems going forward.

Top 6 Management Apps for Small Business Owners in 2023

 

In today’s time we all have different goals or resolutions as individuals. If it is to read more, think less or finally taking some time off. Apart from personal aspirations, we might have some for our businesses too. And we probably wish to get things faster, better and more efficient. Small business owners sometimes need to do many things by themselves, and it can be hard to manage. The good part is that now there are a bunch of applications and tools designed to help these small businesses. These apps can be operated by anyone with a motive of easy to use, affordable, no-commitment plans, good customer service, and good returns.

We provide you with a list of such best small business applications for 2021. The categories defined by us for these apps are ones necessary for business as per functions. Let us have a look at these applications.

QuickBooks

When it is a talk about money, depending on one’s business models, there can be a lot of paperwork. Managing and tracking money can be a tall order, but fortunately, you have QuickBooks. It is the most popular accounting software on the market as it efficiently manages your business needs irrespective of the size of the business. QuickBooks can track expenses, create and send forms (such as quotes, invoices, statements, etc.). It makes you understand where the cash flow stands and helps you with tax as well. A cloud-based software which offers numerous integrations.

Alternative to QuickBooks: FreshBooks, Wave, Sage business cloud accounting.

Gusto

Formerly known as ZenPayroll, easy to understand by name, is an HR app you might consider for full-service payroll. It makes the payroll process more accessible than ever before. It takes care of all onboarding paperwork, managing payroll and benefits, file payroll taxes, trackside days and vacation time and more.

Alternative to Gusto: Toggl, Teamdeck

Trello

It can be termed an app for project management or team & task management that helps keep track of tasks. It makes it easier for teams to collaborate by creating individual tasks or various for team members to complete. Within each step, one can assign due dates, tag others, create a checklist, and upload documents. It offers different integrations such as EverNote, Slack and even Google drive.

Alternative to Trello: Asara, Basecamp, Airtable

Square

It does not matter where you sell; if you need an all-in-one payment system, Square is your choice. You have likely heard of it as this POS provider which has changed the world of small business apps. It is an excellent affordable, and accessible set-up option that has improved the credit & debit card transactions with an easy option to build a custom solution also for each business. Square is best for low-volume merchants that work in low-risk industries.

Alternative to Square: PayPal, QuickBooks, Lightspeed, Shopify

SOS

Inventory tracking is an integral part of any business. SOS inventory is designed to make inventory tracking, order management and manufacturing easier. The best part is that this app can sync easily with QuickBooks and Shopify. One can easily manage inventory in more than one business location by tracking your item and hence giving different attributes to differentiate.

Alternative to SOS: Delivered, Sortly

Salesforce

It perhaps is one of the most prominent and most widely used CRM software on the market. Many small and big businesses use it worldwide, but the smaller businesses use lightning essentials, a basic edition of the same app. So this platform allows you to track and manage customer profiles across departments, make personalized marketing plans, respond to customer issues, and so much more.

Alternative to Salesforce: Spendgo, Belly, Nimble

We have listed the most famous and preferred small business apps above, and we know the usage of any of these will make your workday better. After all, there is basically an app for everything.

Being an Ally to the LGBTQ+ People

The 21st century has brought a lot of changes in the world, ranging from technology and science to reformation in societal norms and stigmas. The LGBTQ+ has been one such aspect that has created some stir worldwide. However, the LGBTQ+ community needs more and more allies to feel accepted and comfortable. Such allies can be instrumental in raising the effective and powerful voices for LGBTQ+ equality and aid them in coming out in their respective society and help others realize the vitality of equality and unbiased behavior for everyone regardless of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

Most of the LGBTQ+ community members decide to come out for the first time when they are in high school or university. There is no full-proof or single way to be a perfect ally, but one can practice the multiple ways to be a more supportive teacher, mentor, friend, parent, or colleague. You can start by being open to learn, listen and educate yourself, which involves knowing the difference between sex and gender and keep yourself updated on LGBTQ+-related news and issues. Secondly, you need to start speaking up or confronting people when you hear offensive or anti-LGBTQ+ comments and let your friends, family, and co-workers know that you find them offensive and degrading.

Thirdly, stop making assumptions that all your friends, co-workers, or relatives are straight as someone you know could be looking for some support in their coming-out process, and such assumptions can meddle with space and comfort they might have anticipated. Fourthly, understand that language matters, and if you’re not sure of someone’s pronoun or label, just ask them respectfully. And, lastly don’t hesitate to apologize when you mess up or assume someone’s sexual orientation and ask for guidance which will be appreciated.

In addition, being a good queer ally begins with taking a step back and listening to the people you want to help. The LGBTQ+ people are well aware of how to liberate themselves. Therefore, by truly centering their voices, the non-queer folks can provide an allyship that will have the power to promote real and lasting change.