What is Annual Revenue? Quick Explanation

Companies are increasingly using floating holidays to retain their talent, especially since the start of the Great Resignation. Employees are being offered more flexible time off work to improve morale and encourage them to stick around.  So, what is a floating holiday? It’s paid time off that gives employees more schedule flexibility. In the following post, we’ll take a look at some of the benefits of this practice and how to implement it in your organization.  Providing Floating Holiday A floating holiday is a benefit that lets employees take paid time off work but isn’t considered part of their paid annual leave or vacation time. Under such schemes, employees take time off at their discretion for personal reasons, special occasions, or religious holidays.  Floating holidays are available on any day the office is open. It can also be used to compensate employees who had to work on a standard holiday. Administering them manually can be burdensome, so most companies use human resources information systems to streamline their processes. Floating Holidays vs. PTO In most cases, employees are eligible to take floating holidays immediately upon joining a firm. This doesn’t apply to other types of holidays, which require accrual.  Employees typically start off with a base amount of paid time off or PTO and accumulate more the longer they work at a certain company. But unlike other types of PTO, floating holidays usually don’t carry over to the next year.      Floating Holidays vs. Vacation Floating holidays are not the same as standard vacation days. They are a perk that employers offer in addition to PTO.  Why Offer Floating Holiday? Floating days off offer advantages to both firms and employees. Here are some examples: It Gives Employees a Better Work-Life Balance Employers sometimes get into the habit of believing that life follows a strict schedule. Workers, they tell themselves, wake up in the morning, get ready, go to work, and then return home again. Everything goes like clockwork.  However, real life often disrupts these routines. Things come up, and sometimes employees need time off in addition to their standard PTO.  A floating holiday policy accommodates your employees’ needs for time off on short notice, enhancing their work-life balance. For instance, giving employees flexible time off enables them to seek regular medical check-ups, attend their kids’ birthday parties, or run urgent errands. They can also use floating holidays to bookend their existing vacation time, extending their breaks, if necessary. It Helps Keep Your Business Running During the Holidays Many companies automatically give people time off during Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year, assuming that everyone wants to spend these days with their families. However, in companies with diverse and inclusive teams, some employees might not celebrate these events.  A company floating holiday policy can help keep operations running at all times in situations like this. For instance, you can offer most employees leave around popular holiday times while keeping a skeleton crew to keep operations ticking over. The remaining employees can take a break at other times of the year. Arrangements like these can be especially beneficial in companies that have heavy workloads over holiday periods, such as online retailers, grocery stores, and medical facilities.  It Lets Employees Preserve More of Their PTO Workers sometimes need to take time off for sudden or unexpected personal reasons (such as weddings and funerals). However, they don’t always want to eat into their PTO for vacations or sick leave. A paid floating holiday lets them take days off when emergencies arise.  It Makes Your Culture More Inclusive Not everyone working in large firms has the same cultural background. The days they want to take off during the year differ. Therefore, offering a floating holiday policy to accommodate employees of different dissent is more inclusive and a way to do diversity right.  It Can Compensate Employees for Working on Standard Holidays Lastly, floating holidays can compensate employees for missing standard holidays. For instance, a software developer might have a strict deadline shortly after Christmas and not be able to meet the deadline without working through the holidays.  Floating holiday pay is reassurance for employees, promising them that they can take time off in the future, even if they can’t take standard holidays because of workloads. How to Create a Floating Holiday Policy We’ve discussed the meaning of floating holidays and why firms use them. Now it’s time to look at how to implement them.  When developing a floating holiday policy, it’s critical to communicate all the details so that employees know how it works. You’ll need to clearly describe how employees can take advantage of it, as some may not be familiar with the concept.  When creating a floating holiday policy, you’ll need to follow the steps outlined below:  Schedule all your paid holidays. These are days when the office is closed to everyone.  Choose how many floating holidays (or personal days) you want to offer. Generally, these are paid days off so long as the office is open.  Issue guidance on how employees should use their floating holidays. For instance, which days can they use as a floating holiday? How much notice do they need to give? Can they roll over their unused floating holiday into next year? Create a memo that makes it clear what floating holiday time is. This document should define:  Regular holiday time Vacation time Sick leave Floating holiday time Add the contents of the memo to your employee handbook and make sure all your employees have access to it.  Set the pay for floating holidays. They may be partially paid or fully paid.  Make it easy to administer the policy. You can do this with HR software. Wrapping Up We’ve started this article by asking a simple question: what is a floating holiday? Now you know that one of the biggest advantages of this practice is flexibility and the fact that it enables workers to take time off without eating into their other PTO. Another advantage is that it can be used on short notice, offering employees a better work-life balance and allowing them to get “life stuff” done or bookend their vacation time.

In the US, there are two main ways to earn a wage. These are earning a salary and getting paid hourly. There are pros and cons of both ways of running payroll. In this informative guide, we’ll discuss salary vs. hourly pay in detail, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages and explaining how both systems work.  What Is a Salary? Most people who have a job in the US are salaried employees. A salary is an annual wage paid monthly, biweekly, or weekly.  So, how do salaries work? If you receive a salary, you’ll get consistent payments in exchange for working a set number of hours. The amount of money you earn, the number of hours you work, and the frequency with which you get paid should all be outlined in your employment contract, while the payroll schedule and information about bonuses and tax deductions should be explained in your company’s employee handbook. Many employers operate a salary range for different jobs and levels of seniority. The salary value will usually reflect industry averages and the level of experience. Salaries can vary hugely, depending on the type of job, the sector, the level of demand for skilled employees, the level of experience and expertise, and the position within the company.  To calculate your yearly salary and turn it into monthly or weekly payments, your employer will take the total sum you earn in a year and divide it by the number of weeks or months to produce a total for each week, fortnight or month, depending on how often you get paid. This figure will represent your earnings before deductions.  What Is Hourly Pay? Hourly pay, also known as hourly wage or rate, is the amount of money you earn per hour of work. Hourly pay is an alternative to a salary. Rather than earning a set amount per year for working a fixed number of hours, people who are classed as hourly employees earn money per hour. If you work more hours, you’ll earn more. Let’s take a look at an hourly rate example: If you have an hourly rate of $40, and your employer wants you to work for 40 hours one week, they will pay you $1,600.  Your earnings will be calculated by taking the hourly rate or wage and multiplying it by the number of hours you work. Your employer should pay you for every hour you work.  Differences Between a Salary and Hourly Pay The way employees are paid can affect how much they earn for the work they do. Here are some key factors to consider when weighing in on hourly wage vs. salary: Exempt vs. nonexempt jobs One of the most important differences to understand between a salaried employee and a worker with an hourly rate has to do with the category of exempt versus nonexempt jobs. The Fair Labor Standards Act governs the majority of jobs in the US. Under this law, exempt jobs don’t receive overtime pay. If your job is classified as nonexempt, you’re entitled to overtime pay if you work more than 40 hours per week in a single week. Overtime pay is 50% higher than your standard pay rate.  Most salaried employees are exempt, which means they don’t earn extra money for overtime. However, if a salaried employee is classed as nonexempt, their employer must pay overtime wages in line with the FLSA. This is designed to protect worker rights.  Hourly workers are nonexempt, which means employers must pay them overtime in line with federal guidelines for salary vs. hourly pay. If an hourly worker works over 40 hours in a given week, they must be compensated at a rate of 150% for any extra hours. This means that if an employee has an hourly rate of $20 and they work 50 hours in a single week, they’ll be paid $20 per hour for 40 hours and then $30 per hour for the extra 10 hours.  Set hours  Before the beginning of the onboarding process, employees who have a salary will sign an employment contract, which outlines how many hours they’re required to work per week. They’ll have fixed hours every month and receive a fixed payment every week, fortnight, or month.  It’s more common for hourly workers to have a more flexible schedule since they may not be guaranteed set hours or a minimum number of hours per week. Some hourly workers have weeks or months that are much busier or quieter than others.  Payment rules There are rules for hourly workers as well as salaried employee rules. Hourly workers must be paid the minimum wage, which varies from state to state. Salaried employees earn a wage based on a minimum annual compensation figure. The total for the year is divided by the number of payments to produce the weekly or monthly wage value. If an employee has a salary of $120,000, which is paid monthly, they’ll be paid $10,000 per month before deductions, such as taxes. From January 2020, all salaried employees who earn less than $684 per week ($35,568 per year) must be classed as nonexempt.  Flexibility Hourly workers generally have more flexibility than salaried employees, who are required to work a set number of hours per week, every week.  Job security Given that both salary nonexempt and hourly workers are compensated for working overtime, the main difference between their statuses is, in fact, in the job security level. If you have a salary, your job is likely to be more secure. If you’re an hourly worker, employers can reduce your hours relatively easily. Pros and Cons of a Salary Are you considering making a switch from hourly pay to a salary? If so, you should know that, in addition to the benefits of a salary, this type of pay also has some disadvantages. Pros of a Salary Regular payments: With a salary, you know how much you’re going to earn every month. Employee benefits: Most salaried employees have access to a benefits package, which may include health insurance and sick days, for example. Job security: Salaried employees enjoy better job security. They are guaranteed a set number of hours and receive fixed payments for their work. Career opportunities: If you have a salary, you may find that you have better opportunities to progress within the company than an employee with an hourly rate.  Cons of a Salary Overtime: Most salaried employees are exempt, which means they don’t receive overtime wages, even if they work more than their allotted hours. Hourly workers and nonexempt salaried employees are paid for overtime at a rate of 150% for every additional hour over the standard 40 hours per week.  Less flexibility: Salaried employees have to stick to a schedule and are required to work a set number of hours per week. Hourly workers are likely to enjoy greater flexibility.  Holidays and leave: Some salaried employees may be limited in terms of when they can take paid holiday or time off compared to hourly workers. There is less autonomy when you’re a salaried employee.  Work-life balance: Maintaining a healthy work-life balance can be difficult if you work long hours. If you have a salary and work set hours, you may also find it harder to switch off and separate your work and personal lives.  Pros and Cons of Hourly Pay Just as there are advantages and drawbacks of having a salary, hourly pay has its pros and cons. Pros of Hourly Pay Flexibility: Hourly work often offers greater control over your schedule and more flexibility than a salaried role.  Overtime wages: Hourly workers are classed as nonexempt, which means entitled to overtime wages. Hourly workers will receive time and a half for every hour they work over 40 hours in a single week.  Work-life balance: Hourly workers may find it easier to separate their work and personal lives and find a healthy work-life balance.  Control: People who have an hourly rate usually have more control over their schedules and when they take time off than salaried employees.  Time for other interests: Some hourly workers may not work as much as salaried employees. This means that they have time for other interests and activities.  Cons of Hourly Pay Fluctuations in earnings: Salaried employees know how much they’ll get paid every week or month. With an hourly rate, there’s less certainty as income can fluctuate. Some people may have months or prolonged periods when they work more or less than usual, and their income may rise and fall.  Lack of stability: Job security can be an issue for employees on hourly pay, as employers can reduce their hours more easily.  Benefits: Salaried employees usually have access to better benefits than hourly workers. If you’re on an hourly rate, you may have to fund your own healthcare insurance and forgo pay if you want to take holiday days, for example.  Hourly Wage vs. Salary: Which Is Better? When looking for a job and analyzing various options, it’s important to think about what would suit you best. Here are some factors to consider: Your hourly rate: If you have a very high hourly rate and your skills are in demand, you could earn a lot more by being an hourly worker than a salaried employee. Overtime: If you have worked long hours without compensation before, you may be reluctant to do it again. If this is the case, you may wish to opt for hourly work or look for salary nonexempt positions.  Benefits: For many employees, benefits are an important draw when choosing a job or a company to work for. It’s worth noting that salaried employees usually have access to better benefits packages.  Flexibility: Some people want to find more flexible roles that give them greater control over their schedules, while others prefer the certainty of set hours and fixed earnings.  Job security: Job security is essential for many employees who have bills to pay, a mortgage, and a family to support. Salaried work is often more secure and consistent than hourly work. Financial need: Many people who are looking for a job will need to ensure they earn a certain minimum amount of money per year. However, this may not always be the case. If you’re in a comfortable financial position, or you are only looking for part-time work, hourly work may suit you better. 

Visuals heavily influence customer impressions of your business in digital and physical environments; as such, visual merchandising is a powerful tool for improving customer experience inside your store and, increasingly, online. We will first define visual merchandising, and then run through some helpful ways you can use it in your business to drive sales and build your brand. Visual Merchandising Definition Many decades ago, companies realized they could influence customer perceptions by organizing products in their stores in a specific way. Instead of laying items out in the most convenient way, visual marketers focus on customer experience. Their goal was to find a product merchandising formula that would lead to higher sales. Online and retail visual merchandising has several objectives: Making customers feel welcome Retaining customers’ attention Prioritizing the most profitable products Using products as a branding tool For instance, a store might put a large figurine at the front entrance to create excitement, even if they never plan on selling it. In a similar vein, an online store might put its special offers or “most wanted” products on its home page, instead of hiding them away in a menu.  Although they may not be strictly visual, other merchandising techniques leverage: Scents that promote calmness (e.g., lavender), or excitement (e.g., orange blossom) Technology that allows customers to interact with merch via digital displays or their hands Space to encourage shoppers to move through the store Lighting for an ambiance that gets people in the mood for spending Colors that match your brand Scents that make customers feel nostalgic about the past Sounds that foster relaxation, such as running water, chimes, or soft music Sounds that incentivize action, such as rock or dance music The goal is to exploit the senses to complement the brand message you want to convey. In other words, you need to use digital arrangements, display tables for boutiques, and all other tools at your disposal to provide in-store experiences that incentivize customers to part with their cash. Types Of Visual Merchandising So, how do you create a compelling visual merchandising experience? Brand-Aware Design Brand-aware design in visual merchandising means choosing store upholstery, textiles, flooring, and cladding to represent your company’s signature aesthetic. In other words, your efforts should go beyond the signage above your front door. Especially if you don’t really have a front door: In the online space, retailers include brand-specific designs in product photos and accompanying content, going far beyond branded headers. Interior Fixtures As mentioned, the fixtures you use in your store influence the vibe customers get when they walk in. Depending on your choices, you can create a fun, laid-back, luxurious, serious, or affordable aesthetic. Bundling Stores use bundling – i.e., displaying several products in a single display to show how they work together -  to entice customers to make bigger purchases. For instance, you might bundle t-shirts, pants, and shoes together on a mannequin, or several matching kitchen appliances on a single countertop. Exterior Signage If you are a visual retailer, you often want to influence customers before they set foot inside your store. Exterior signs play a role in setting the tone for the kind of shopping experience customers can expect when they step inside. Window Displays A visual merchandising classic, window displays are meant to pique the interest of potential customers walking by your store.   Online operators can create digital versions of window displays on their websites, perhaps in the form of a banner on their homepage. Layout How you organize your store can also be a powerful tool for influencing brand perception. Stuffing shelves with products up to the ceiling tells shoppers that you run a budget-friendly store, while leaving plenty of open space and celebrating each product with an individual display creates a luxury vibe. Seasonal Displays Seasonal displays can entice shoppers to spend more on themed products. In the US, most shops have seasonal collections for: Halloween Easter Christmas Diwali All four seasons New Year 4th of July Valentine’s Day The most beneficial seasonal displays depend on your business. If you sell clothing, individual summer, spring, fall, and winter displays will be the most important, whereas food stores will have Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas as their top priorities. Checkout Displays Checkout displays, also called “point of purchase” displays, take advantage of the fact that customers often make impulse purchases, especially if they have to wait in line, with cheap products everywhere they look. You can adapt this concept for online stores, too. When customers get to the checkout page, you can offer discounts if they buy in bulk or recommend products that complement the items in their basket. Music Music contributes to visual merchandising in unique ways. For instance, research shows that certain melodies can enhance other sensory influences, such as taste or sight. Moreover, some music genres will be more in line with your brand message than others. For example, if you run a clothing store for teenagers, playing music currently charting well with that demographic can help ingratiate you with them. Similarly, if you run a department store where most shoppers are over the age of fifty, you might want to focus more on golden oldies or subtle music that won’t overpower your products. Mannequins Mannequins are visual merchandising staples. Brands usually avoid making their models look overly human to avoid unsettling people; they are generally made to represent “ideal” body types and transfer that aspirational quality to the clothes they’re showing off. As mentioned, mannequins show shoppers what clothes and accessories can look like when worn in conjunction, encouraging them to purchase entire outfits instead of individual garments. Lighting How you light your premises can also have a tremendous impact on your store’s atmosphere and product appearance. For instance, stores like Hollister keep shop floors quite dark and often diffuse essential oils into the air to create a unique experience for customers. By contrast, Walmart uses intense lighting that equally illuminates all parts of the shop floor and its products. Customers respond very differently to the lighting choices you make. Some view fluorescent lighting as cheap or are put off by harsh lighting, particularly when trying on clothes. Others may want bright lights to see what they are doing. Softer lights can calm people down and create a luxurious feel, while ramping up the lumens creates a more intense atmosphere. And even though most people still prefer in-store shopping, that doesn’t mean all your lighting efforts should be concentrated on your physical venue. Designing your website in shades that reflect your values and the brand “vibe” you’re trying to convey is essential. Cross-Merchandising Cross-merchandising is a strategy akin to bundling. The idea is to deliberately place complementary items alongside each other, even if they are not in the same category. Grocery stores often adopt this technique around Christmas time. Instead of storing turkeys, stuffing, and gravy pouches separately, they bundle them together in the same display refrigerator. Electronics stores do something similar. They will often display devices, like smartphones, alongside their accessories. Naturally, you can adopt a similar strategy online. Linking complementary products to the one your customers are currently looking at encourages them to spend more. What Can You Do To Improve Your Visual Merchandising? Reading through visual merchandising examples can be helpful, but if you want to significantly improve your storefront, here’s what to do: Research Your Audience First, learn as much about your customers as possible. Go beyond conventional demographics, such as income, age, and location, and explore more in-depth factors, such as your average shopper's hobbies, lifestyle, and interests. Conduct market research to uncover the primary preferences and characteristics of your best customers. You can then build customer personas (the most common sets of traits your customers have put together) and adjust the imagery in your shop to cater to them. Learn New Trends Next, find out as much as you can about how your rivals go about visual merchandising. Visit their stores, take note of what seems to be working for them, and how you could leverage it. For instance, if providing plenty of space between displays is en vogue right now, follow the industry leader. Similarly, if monochromatic designs are all the rage, try them for a season and see if they improve your sales. Make Displays Interactive Static merchandising works well, but interactive displays can boost engagement even further. For instance, you might link your physical displays to your online store, boosting website traffic. You could also offer customers the opportunity to try products before buying them. Hire A Consultant If you can afford it, you might want to hire a professional merchandising consultant. These experts are familiar with the best practices in the field, and can implement them much more quickly than you can. What’s more, having an expert on your payroll means fewer expensive mistakes. Still, bear in mind that the average visual merchandiser salary is $43,006 per year; if you want to have one in-house, you’ll need to make plenty of room in your budget for it. Otherwise, you can hire them on a case-by-case basis, if you don’t predict needing their services too often. Avoid Hazards Safety is a concern in any visual merchandising effort: Temporary arrangements can fall over and injure people.  If you implement any new interior or exterior signs, affix them safely to the walls so they can’t tumble down. Always follow instructions and maintenance advice for additional shelving, tables, or electrical circuitry you install. Also, check if your business insurer would be willing to cover your liability before undertaking any merchandising projects. Turn Merchandising Into Marketing To execute your marketing vision, use graphics that will inspire customers to share their experiences of your store with their friends. The more infectious you can make it, the more effective it will be. Use Themes Lastly, you’ll want to create themes in your visual merchandising: Perhaps they’ll be about seasonal items, new products, or celebrating fifty years in business. Whatever it is, having a theme with an attached storyline can draw people in. Test Regularly Try changing individual aspects of your merchandising strategy, such as the products on display, decor, color, themes, or number of mannequins at a time, and keep track of any concurrent changes in demand or revenue. The Bottom Line Visual merchandising is a method for drawing in customers and  increasing revenue by setting the tone for your brand. The most obvious examples of visual merchandising are seasonal displays in brick-and-mortar stores. However, that is far from the only way you can use this strategy; coordinating the sensory impression your physical or virtual storefront gives out can be a deciding factor in your success - you would do well to invest in it. Further Reading 7 Best Business Credit Cards The Best Direct Mail Companies for A Successful Offline Marketing Campaign Top SMS Marketing Tools on the Market