Now it’s easy to plan and track your digital marketing campaigns

Best Practices, Kanban & Lean, Tutorials,

If you’re a small business, startup, or big corporation, and you want to win in the digital marketing world, you have to be excellent at running your digital marketing campaigns. To make sure you’re excellent at this, you must have a solid way to run and track all the campaigns.

You’re probably using something that is not designed for this purpose, like a spreadsheet or emails, but they’re not efficient enough. This is why we have designed a template within Kerika that helps you handle all of your digital marketing campaigns, like a pro.

Kerika helps you plan and track your digital marketing campaigns easily.

Whether you’re working solo or as a part of a digital marketing team, Kerika has just the right tools to help you level up your online marketing game. Let’s see how you can use Kerika to plan and execute its digital marketing campaigns.

A free Template to organize your Digital Marketing Campaign

This template makes it easier to plan your digital advertising efforts by using cards and columns. The columns show different types of campaigns, starting with resources on the left and ending with completed campaigns on the right.

Let’s learn how you can use these columns for your online marketing campaigns:

  1. Resources: Resources are the necessary fuel that helps you fire up your campaigns. You also need easy access to the policies of all the online marketing platforms. That way, you can ensure your campaigns are always on point and aligned with the latest rules. Refer to this column whenever you need a marketing tool or the policies of the online marketing platforms — it’s that simple.
  2. Social Media Marketing Campaigns: This column is designed to help you streamline your social media campaigns. This column also offers templates to create ads for Facebook and Twitter. You can copy and edit this template for your ads. There is a template for managing your social media marketing budget as well.
  3. Google Ads Campaign: You can plan, create and optimize your Google ads in this column. It gives you the option to create a card for each ad, or you can copy the existing templates and edit their content for your own Google ads.You can also easily manage all aspects of your Google ad, like creating an ad budget, assigning tasks to your team, creating the banner design, writing video scripts, etc.
  4. Influencer Marketing Campaign: This column is to manage your influencer marketing efforts. It allows you to create cards for each campaign and provides templates for creating a budget and affiliate contracts. You can also assign tasks to your team members or assign campaigns to your influencers within the card.
  5. Affiliate Marketing Campaign: This column helps you simplify the process of managing your affiliate marketing campaigns. You can create a separate card for each marketing campaign, making it easier for you to track and manage multiple campaigns simultaneously. It also offers ready-to-use templates and useful resources for planning your marketing budget.
  6. Email Marketing Campaign: In this column, you can easily create and manage your email campaigns by creating a new card or duplicating the existing template. It also offers a template for creating email marketing budgets, so you can make sure that all financial aspects of your campaign are tracked and managed effectively.
  7. Content Marketing Campaign: This column is designed to help you manage your content marketing efforts. You can create a card for each content piece or idea and have a clear and organized view of your entire content marketing strategy. You can also find budget templates, which allow you to effectively plan and track your content marketing spending.

Onboarding Your Digital Marketing Team in Kerika

If you are a solo digital marketer, you are ready to use this template. However, if you are leading a team within an agency or company’s digital marketing department, it is important to have others onboard correctly for greater success. Onboarding is really easy with Kerika

Invite your team

Most digital marketing teams are usually made of a social media expert, Google ad expert, email marketing expert, content writer, and a graphic Designer. Simply add them one by one as Team Members on this board.

Once added to the board, team members will be able to make real-time changes to the board and all the updates are instantly accessible to everyone. This makes collaboration and communication efficient throughout the campaign.

Set up your Visitors

In addition to granting team members access to the board, you can also give visitor access to stakeholders who need to view the progress of the campaign but do not need to make any changes.

Assign these stakeholders as Visitors to this board, so they can see what’s going on in real-time. However, they won’t be able to move any cards or make any changes. This means they accidentally won’t mess up your careful workflow, and you won’t have to keep giving status reports. That’s a double-win for both of you.

And the best part is, adding a Visitor on this board team is completely free. That makes it a triple-win situation for everyone!

Understand the campaign management

In this board, each column represents a specific type of campaign in the digital marketing process. The cards within each column represent individual tasks for that campaign, such as creating a display advertisement for Google ads.

To start working on the tasks in a Kerika board:

  1. Open the first card in the first column
  2. Review the instructions within the card
  3. Examine any resources attached to the card
  4. Take necessary actions.

It’s best for you to handle crucial tasks personally and delegate the others to your team members based on their areas of expertise.

Update the cards as the campaign makes progress

  1. As your campaign makes progress, the tasks related to it may require more than one teammate. You can assign the same card to multiple teammates or use the checklist option to divide the tasks and assign them to your team.
  2. Use the status option to indicate the status of your card. There are statuses such as READY, IN PROGRESS, REVIEW, etc. This will make it easy for everyone to know the status of that campaign without opening the card.
  3. Use the DUE DATES to make sure the campaigns and tasks get done on time and nothing gets slipped.
  4. Communicate with your team with Kerika’s chat option instead of email. This make your communications more streamlined and focused

The ‘Done’ column

When your campaign is over, and the card no longer needs to be in the column, you can move it to the ‘Done’ column or just mark it as done.

The ‘Trash’ column

Sometimes campaigns don’t work out or they need to be stopped before the time. You can move those cards to the ‘Trash’ or just mark them as trash and the card will automatically be transferred to the trash column.

If you accidentally Trash the card or want to continue the past discarded campaigns, you can simply retrieve those cards from the Trash column the card will reinstate itself where it previously was.

Now that you know how to use the cards and how to move them around, let’s learn more about the cards you get with this template. These cards contain helpful content, and they are there to make your digital marketing campaign process a lot easier.

Start with the Resources column

This is the leftmost column in this template and contains 12 cards:

The cards in this column include helpful resources.
  1. How to find ideas for your digital marketing campaign: This card is useful for you if you are looking for inspiration for your digital marketing campaigns. It provides helpful tips and suggestions to spark new ideas and get the creative juices flowing.Whether you’re planning a social media strategy or developing a new email marketing campaign, a card can be an invaluable resource.
  2. Best social media marketing tools: This card gives you a comprehensive list of tools and suggestions for social media marketing. Whether you’re looking to schedule posts, measure your performance, or find the right hashtags, the card has you covered.With its curated selection of top-performing tools, it makes your digital marketing efforts a breeze. Keep this card handy to ensure your campaigns are always on point.
  3. Facebook ad policies: The card comes in handy while creating Facebook ads. By opening the card, you can get a comprehensive overview of Facebook’s ad policies and ensure your ads comply with the latest guidelines.It will help you avoid the risk of your ads getting banned, which could negatively impact your marketing efforts.
  4. Twitter ad policies and process The card feature provides a comprehensive overview of Twitter’s ad policies, making it a must-have resource for Twitter ads.By using this card, you can ensure your ads comply with Twitter’s guidelines, helping you avoid the risk of having your ads banned.
  5. Reddit ad policies and process Whether you’re new to Reddit advertising or an experienced marketer, this card helps you ensure your ads comply with Reddit’s guidelines and avoid the risk of having them banned.Read this card to stay up-to-date with the latest policies and run effective ad campaigns on Reddit.
  6. Google ad policies and process: This card offers a complete understanding of Google’s ad policies and procedures.After reading this card, you can be sure that your ads are in line with Google’s guidelines and that you steer clear of potential bank risks by simply accessing the card.
  7. Google ad tool: By opening the card, you’ll have access to a wide range of tools to help you create, manage, and optimize your advertising campaigns.From crafting the perfect ad copy to analyzing performance metrics, the card has everything you need to succeed.
  8. List of popular affiliate marketing platforms: In this card, you’ll get a variety of affiliate marketing platforms to choose from, making it easier for you to find the best fit for your specific needs and goals.Whether you’re looking for a platform with a high commission rate or one with a wide range of products, the card has you covered.
  9. Must-follow rules for email marketing:This card gives you a comprehensive list of must-follow rules to ensure your email marketing efforts are effective and compliant.From crafting subject lines that grab attention to avoiding spam filters, the card covers it all.
  10. Tips for running an effective email marketing campaign: In this card, you’ll get access to tips and best practices for running an effective email marketing campaign.From building your email list to crafting compelling subject lines, the card has everything you need to succeed.
  11. How to write articles to the target audience?: Open the card to gain access to expert tips and strategies for running an effective email marketing campaign.From growing your email list to creating captivating subject lines, the card provides everything you need to know.
  12. Tips for managing influencer marketing campaigns: From setting clear goals to negotiating fair compensation, this card provides step-by-step guidance on every aspect of influencer management.Discover best practices for identifying the right influencers, creating contracts, monitoring results, and building long-term relationships.

Social Media Marketing Campaign

The which is the second column in this template, contains seven cards:

Template cards for running social media marketing campaigns
  1. Social Media Marketing Budget Template: You can streamline your social media marketing budget with the help of this card. Simply open the card and enter all the information about your platform, content creation, advertising, and reporting and analytics budget.With its customizable content, you can quickly and efficiently plan your budgets and track your progress toward your marketing goals. You can find more advanced budget planning options in the attachment.
  2. Your Social Media Marketing Campaign Ideas: With the help of this card, you can keep your ideas organized and accessible. Simply open the card and add, edit, or delete concepts as they come to mind.With all your ideas in one place, you can easily refer to the card whenever you need inspiration for your next campaign.
  3. Display Image Ad Template for Facebook Ads Campaign: This text-based template in the card helps you streamline your Facebook ad creation process. It gives you a preformatted structure to follow and guides you in filling in the necessary details and messaging.By using this template, you can effortlessly produce a professional and impactful Facebook ad.
  4. Video Ad Template for Facebook Marketing Campaign: In this card, there is a layout for creating professional and effective video ads for YouTube effortlessly.The preformatted layout simplifies the process, just fill in the blanks with your details and messaging, and you’re ready to launch on the world’s largest video platform.
  5. Display Ad Template For Twitter Ads Campaign: This card offers a text-based pre-designed structure to help you create Twitter banner ads quickly and efficiently.Fill in the blanks with your details and messaging, and it will help you create a professional and effective ad ready to promote copy.
  6. Video Ad Template For Twitter Ads Campaign: You can use this card to create video ads for your Twitter campaigns.Customize it with your own text, images, and other elements to effectively promote your products, events, or services on Twitter.

Like what you read so far?

Just like the Social Media Marketing Campaign column, there is a column for Google Ads, Influencer Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Email Marketing, and Content Marketing.

These columns will help you store your campaign ideas, generate great copies, manage your budget, and more. Click here to check out the template

You can try everything free, with your entire team, for 30 days.

Kerika has a Workflow for Planning your Blog Content

Best Practices, Team Collaboration, Technology, , ,

If you’re a business owner or a freelance content writer, it’s important to have a content strategy. Without a solid content strategy, you end up wasting a lot of time managing your content.

By having a solid plan and sticking to it, you won’t have to spend time coming up with new ideas or scrambling to meet deadlines. One of the best ways to build a content strategy is to use a content planner.

A Sample Board to View

Whether you’re working alone or with a team, a good content planner can really boost your productivity. So, let’s see how this company uses a content planner to plan and publish its SEO content.

Click on this image to view this sample board, live!

A Free Template to Use

If you found this board interesting, here’s a free Template from Kerika that you can use to set up your own board in just seconds:

Click on this image to view the Template.

The rest of this article will walk you through the process of using this template:

Step 1: Gather resources

If you’re a serious content writer, you already know the importance of gathering resources before you start writing. After all, you need to have something to write about!

One of the best ways to manage your gathered resources is to use a Content Planner. A Content Planner can help you organize your thoughts and ideas, and it can also help you find new and relevant information to write about.

Step 2: Research Content Ideas

Before you start writing, you need to have an idea of what you want to write about. Make a list of content ideas that you think would be popular with your audience.

You can get content ideas by checking out your competitors, looking for news stories, looking for guest post ideas, and brainstorming ideas with your team.

Step 3: Drafting

Now it’s time to start writing your content. Keep your keywords in mind as you write and try to include them naturally in your text.

Step 4: Designing graphics content

Graphics in blogs capture your reader’s attention, communicate your message more clearly, and overall make your blog more visually appealing.

Once the article is ready, the next step is to add graphics to it. Graphics are important to capture your reader’s attention and make your blog more visually appealing.

Step 5: Integration/Schedule Content:

Once you’re finished writing, you need to integrate your content into your website. You can do this by adding a blog to your website or by scheduling your content to be published on your website later on.

Step 6: Promote Content

Finally, you need to promote your content. You can do this by sharing it on social media, writing guest posts on other blogs, or by paying for advertising.

Like this Template?

You can use it for free!

How to set up a good YouTube Video Production Workflow

Best Practices, Kanban & Lean, Team Collaboration, , , ,
Click to view this Template

Producing great video content is essential to a successful YouTube channel, but it can be a time-consuming task if you don’t have a proper process and workflow.

A very helpful tool for planning your content workflow is the Kanban board.

Kanban boards, like Kerika’s Task Boards, can help you plan and execute your video production process, ensuring that each step is completed in a timely and efficient manner.

In this article, we will show you how you can use Kerika to set up a great workflow and process for your YouTube video production.

A Workflow for You

This template will set you up with a good workflow. Each phase of this workflow is represented by a column; let’s take a look from left to right:

Click to view this Template

Resources

The cards in this column contain helpful resources for you to get started with. The first card, for example, helps you understand how to use video tags; the second card provides a guide for how to write a good video description. And so on.

Content Ideas

This is where you start to gather all your ideas for different videos. If you are having trouble coming up with ideas, take a look at the first card in this column.

Create Video Scripts

When you have decided a specific topic you want to work on, move its card from Content Ideas to this column and start writing your script. (And there’s a card in this column with some really useful tips on writing a template for a script.)

Record & Edit videos

Use this column to track the videos you are currently working on: once your script is ready, move the video’s card from the Create Video Script column to this column. This helps you keep track of the videos that are currently in production.

Review Videos

Once everything related to a particular is done, move its card to this column. This will help you track videos that are finished, but you haven’t published them yet.

Schedule / Publish Videos

When you have decided when to publish a video, move its card to this column. This way you and your teammates know which video is when going live. Kerika will remind you if you scheduled a video but forgot to publish it.

Promote Videos

Promoting videos is essential to growing your YouTube channel: once a video is published, move its card to this column and create a checklist of where your videos should be shared and promoted.

Best Practices of Great Teams

If you are working just by yourself, you are ready to go. But if you are working for an agency or the Marketing department of a company, there will be others you need to get involved in this project.

Set up your Team Members

Kerika makes it really easy to organize your team: if there are people who will be actively involved in the video production, e.g. photographers or content writers, add them as Team Members on this board.

They will be able to make changes to this board in real-time, as they get their pieces ready, and everything that they do will be instantly accessible for everyone else that’s on this board’s team.

Set up your Visitors

There are often people who need to be informed, but aren’t necessarily going to contribute in an active way. For example, there may be a product owner who needs to keep track of videos that are relevant to their product, or a senior manager who wants to be kept in the loop.

Add these stakeholders as Visitors to this board team: they will always have a real-time view of what’s going on, but they won’t be able to move any cards or make any changes (in other words, mess up with your careful workflow!) and you won’t have to keep giving status reports. That’s a double-win.

Understand the Workflow

In a Kerika board, every column represents a particular stage in a workflow, and every card represents a specific task (e.g. a video that needs to be produced).

Start at the top-left

  1. Open the first card in the first column
  2. Read the instructions inside
  3. Check out any resources that are attached to the card
  4. Take action.

Some tasks are best handled by you, and others should clearly be handed off to coworkers.

Update the cards as work gets done

  1. A card can be assigned to one or more people, and this can change throughout the course of the project: something is initially assigned to you and then gets handed off to someone else.
  2. As cards get worked upon, update the status of each card: start with READY, then IN PROGRESS, and so on.  This makes it easy for everyone to always have a clear idea of where things stand.
  3. Set due dates. This will help you make sure nothing slips.
  4. Use Kerika’s chat instead of email: this will keep your communications quick and focused.
  5. Move cards along the columns as the work progresses.

Get to Done

The team’s goal is to get all your cards all the way over to Done, on the right-end of the board.

Sometimes things that were initiated need to be discarded: maybe something turns out to be a bad idea? In that case, move the card to the Trash column. (If you change your mind later, you can always retrieve items from the Trash.)

Kerika gives you Resources

The Resources column, the first in this workflow, contains six cards to help you get started:

Kerika provides you with resources
  1. Video Tags: Tags are important as they help YouTube algorithms understand what your video is about. This influences when your video appears in search results.
  2. Video Description Template: one of the most important things you can do is create descriptive, keyword-rich video titles and descriptions. This will help your videos rank higher in search results and give your audience a better idea of what your video is actually about.
  3. Video Thumbnail Template: Your thumbnail is what appears first on your YouTube channel and in the search results, so it needs to be eye-catching and representative of your video content.
  4. How To Edit YouTube Videos Quickly: All successful YouTubers put a lot of time and effort into their editing because that is what helps them stand out from the crowd. This card has useful links, including some of the best video editing tools.
  5. The Easiest Way To Write A Video Script: Writing a video script for YouTube can be as easy or as difficult as you make it. If you have a clear idea of what you want to say and how you want to say it, the process can be relatively straightforward.
  6. 10+ Places To Share Your Video For More Views: Sharing your videos on other platforms lets you borrow their audience and show your content to people who might not have found it otherwise. This helps get more views and subscribers on your channel, which leads to more success on YouTube.

Start Generating Content Ideas

The second column is Content Ideas and it contains five cards:

  1. How to Generate Video Ideas: content ideas are the basis for your YouTube videos, and without a clear idea, it is hard to plan, make, and edit videos that are engaging and effective.

    This card will help you generate good video ideas. It gives you useful resources and a list of content ideas that you can use for your videos.
  2. Your Video Ideas: Use this card to keep a list of video content ideas. Remember, no idea is too specific or too vague! Refer to this card when you need a content idea to work on.
  3. Example Video (DUPLICATE THIS): This card will come in handy while writing your video script: it contains a template for writing content that you can duplicate for each of your content ideas and a checklist that divides the script writing process into smaller tasks.

(Example) Video Idea: Latest Smartphone Review is an example of a video idea that discusses the latest smartphones. This video needs a script to educate the viewers about the pros and cons of the latest smartphones launched this year.

(Example) Video idea: How to create a successful advertising campaign is another example of a video with tips on how to create an advertising campaign:

Create Video Scripts

This column contains two cards:

Create Video Scripts
  1. The first card will save you time by giving you a ready-made format for scripts. It offers a clear and consistent structure for you to follow, which can help organize your script ideas and ensure that you tell the story in the most compelling way possible.

    The card also includes guidelines for things like video titles, introduction, body, conclusion, and call to action. It will help you follow industry-standard conventions and make it easy for you to read and follow later on.
  2. The second card will help you write a script that keeps your audience interested and engaged in your content, and this card shares some of the most useful tips to help you with it.

Record & Edit Videos

This column contains two cards:

Record & Edit Videos
  1. The first card helps you understand keyword optimization, which is an important aspect of creating and promoting YouTube videos.This will increase the number of views on your videos, ultimately leading to more engagement.
  2. The second card has useful tips to improve the overall quality of your videos and make them more professional-looking.This will increase the chances that viewers will watch your videos all the way through and even share them with others. Overall, video editing is an important part of creating successful videos on YouTube.

Review Videos

As videos are ready, drag the video card here and assign them to the folks who will be reviewing them, and change the status of the card to NEEDS REVIEW.  If you need feedback by a certain date, set the Due Date on this card so people understand its urgency relative to everything else that’s going on.

Schedule & Publish Videos

When a video is ready to be scheduled for publication, move its card here. This makes it easy for everyone to know what the publishing queue looks like.

Finally, Promote Your Video

When you promote your videos, you are essentially making people aware of its existence and inviting them to visit and subscribe. This can help attract more viewers and subscribers, which can in turn help your channel grow and become more successful.

We have some tips for you in this template.

Tips for Promoting Videos

Like what you just read?

Here’s the template: just one click, one the USE TEMPLATE button, will set you up with a new Kerika account and your first board, in just seconds.

Click to view this Template

You can try everything free, with your entire team, for 30 days.

 

 

How to manage a Product Launch

Best Practices, Kanban & Lean,

A product launch is a critical moment for any company. It is the moment when a new product is introduced to the market and becomes available for purchase. A successful product launch can drive sales, create buzz, and generate excitement for a company and its products.

But before you launch your product, there’s a lot of preparation that needs to happen. Here’s a quick guide to launching your product successfully.

Click to view this Template

Pre-launch preparation. 

As you prepare for your product launch, there are a few key things to keep in mind. First, you need to make sure that your product is ready for launch.

This could include collaborating with team members, creating a mock for a press release, finalizing the product name, planning media outreach and pitching, briefing experts and analysts, and more.

Check out the pre-launch preparation of this company.

Pre-launch Prep

Internal preparation documents: 

Before launch day, you have to create an Internal preparation document that outlines everything that needs to be done.

It will help you stay organized and on track on the launch day. This prep document could be about what problems your product solves, building a buyer persona, and creating a growth strategy framework.

Internal Prep Documents

Create internal content. 

This could include creating scripts for product demos, product battle cards, and creating content for talking points. This will ensure that your team is prepared for the lunch and ready to answer any questions that come up about the product.

Create Internal Content

Create external content

This is the content that will be used to promote your product, like product images and videos, content for the knowledge base, blog content, in-app messages, email announcements, landing page, etc.

Create External Content

Pre-launch internal & communication

Make sure everyone on your team knows about the product launch and what their role is. This will help prevent any confusion on launch day. This could include preparing the sales team, customer support team, content training, and PR team.

Pre-Launch Internal Training

Pre-launch logistics. 

This includes things like sending internal calendar invitations, updating staging/test versions, and sharing the launch day schedule. Basically, everything needs to be done to make sure the launch goes smoothly.

Pre-launch Logistics

Launch day execution. 

On launch day, make sure everything is ready to go. Do a final check of all your content, make sure your team is prepared, and then go live!

This includes pushing website updates, making landing pages, product pages and FAQ pages live, sending email announcements, pushing press releases, publishing a knowledge base, etc.

Launch Day Execution

If you want to set up a board like this, we have a free template ready for you.

Make your SEO Blog Content Planning easy

Best Practices, Technology

If you’re a business owner or a freelance content writer, it’s important to have a content strategy. Without a solid content strategy, you end up wasting a lot of time managing your content.

By having a solid plan and sticking to it, you won’t have to spend time coming up with new ideas or scrambling to meet deadlines. One of the best ways to build a content strategy is to use a content planner.

Whether you’re working alone or with a team, a good content planner can really boost your productivity. So, let’s see how this company uses a content planner to plan and publish its SEO content.

Click to view this live Template

1. Gathering resources

If you’re a serious content writer, then you already know the importance of gathering resources before you start writing. After all, you need to have something to write about!

One of the best ways to manage your gathered resources is to use a content planner. A content planner can help you organize your thoughts and ideas, and it can also help you find new and relevant information to write about.

2. Research Content Ideas

Before you start writing, you need to have an idea of what you want to write about. Make a list of content ideas that you think would be popular with your audience.

You can get content ideas by checking out your competitors, looking for news stories, looking for guest post ideas, and brainstorming ideas with your team.

3. SEO optimization

Without SEO-optimized content, your articles and blog posts will never be seen by search engines, and you will never get the traffic you desire. Therefore, you need a solid SEO strategy.

4. Drafting

Now it’s time to start writing your content. Keep your keywords in mind as you write and try to include them naturally in your text.

5. Designing graphics content

Graphics in blogs capture your reader’s attention, communicate your message more clearly, and overall make your blog more visually appealing.

Once the article is ready, the next step is to add graphics to it. Graphics are important to capture your reader’s attention and make your blog more visually appealing.

6. Integration/Schedule Content

Once you’re finished writing, you need to integrate your content into your website. You can do this by adding a blog to your website or by scheduling your content to be published on your website later on.

7. Promote Content

Finally, you need to promote your content. You can do this by sharing it on social media, writing guest posts on other blogs, or by paying for advertising.

If you want to set up a board like this, we have a free Template ready for you.

Best practices for On-boarding New Employees

Best Practices, Team Collaboration, Technology, Tutorials, ,

From the moment a new hire walks in the door, they start forming opinions about your company culture, their role within the organization, and what it will be like to work for you. That’s why when it comes to hiring new employees, first impressions matter.

When done correctly, on-boarding can help new hires feel welcome, valued, and prepared to do their best work. But when done poorly, there are a lot of things that could go wrong. Here are a few tips to help make your on-boarding process as smooth as possible:

1. Start with the background check

Before you bring a new employee on board, it’s important to run a background check. This will help you verify that the person is who they say they are and that they don’t have any red flags in their past that could negatively impact your business.

A background check can also give you peace of mind that you’re making the best hiring decision possible. To know about a candidate, you need a process that ensures the new employee is the right fit for the job. Check out how this company conducts a background check for its new employees.

Start with the background check
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Check one business reference

When it comes to bringing on new employees, it’s important to do your due diligence and check their business references. This will help you get a better sense of their work ethic and what they’re capable of.

Screenshot showing card on Kerika board
Check one business reference

Check one personal reference

Personal references can give you valuable insights into an applicant’s character, work ethic and overall suitability for the job. They can also alert you to any red flags that might not be apparent from their resume or cover letter.

Asking for personal references is a simple but effective way to screen applicants and make sure you’re making the best possible hiring decision.

Screenshot showing details of a Kerika card
Check one personal reference

Check applicant’s resume/CV for completeness & accuracy

While on-boarding a new employee, it’s important to check their resume or CV for completeness and accuracy. This will help you ensure that there are no discrepancies in their work history.

If you find any inaccuracies, be sure to follow up with the employee to get clarification. It’s also a good idea to run a background check to verify the information on the resume. By taking these precautions, you can help ensure a successful on-boarding process for your new employee.

Screenshot showing details of Kerika card
Check applicant’s CV for completeness & accuracy

Confirm that applicant has all claimed academic & professional qualifications

It’s always a good idea to confirm that an applicant has all of the claimed academic and professional qualifications before onboarding a new employee. This can help ensure that the individual is qualified for the role and can help avoid any potential issues down the road.

There are a few ways to go about doing this, such as contacting references or requesting transcripts. Take the time to do your due diligence and it will pay off in the long run.

Screenshot showing details of Kerika card
Confirm that applicant has all claimed academic & professional qualifications

Credit Checks

Credit checks are an important part of the onboarding process for new employees. They help employers to verify an applicant’s identity and to ensure that the person is who they say they are. Credit checks also help to determine an applicant’s financial stability and to assess their risk of defaulting on their financial obligations.

Screenshot showing details of Kerika card
(Optional) Credit Checks

2. Get the necessary paperwork

Make sure you have all the necessary paperwork in order before the new employee starts. Here is a good example of how a US-based company collects all the necessary paperwork upfront from a new employee. The paperwork includes the W-4 form to calculate taxes, the I-9: form to verify the employee’s identity and eligibility to work in the US, the direct deposit form, and the employee handbook acknowledgment.

Screenshot showing details of Kerika card
Complete the necessary paperwork

3. Set clear expectations from the start.

New employees should know what is expected of them in their new role, and the best way to do this is to set up an Orientation Program and Schedule mandatory training sessions.

Orientation Program

The Orientation Program is a great opportunity for employees to learn more about their role, and ask questions and get to know their colleagues.

For the Orientation Program to go smoothly, choose a date and time that work for both you and the employee. You’ll want to make sure the program is informative and engaging. If your new employee feels welcomed and comfortable, they’ll be more likely to hit the ground running and be productive from day one.

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Schedule Orientation Program

Schedule mandatory training sessions

Training sessions for compliance and regulation are important for several reasons. First, they ensure that new employees understand the company’s policies and procedures from the day one.

Second, they help to ensure that employees are up-to-date on any changes in the law that may affect their job.

Finally, training sessions provide an opportunity for employees to ask questions and get clarification on any points that are unclear.

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Schedule mandatory training sessions

4. Make sure they have all the information about their team and department.

New employees should feel informed about their role, the company, and the team they’ll be working with. In the following example, the HR has organized a team lunch. This is a great to way to introduce a new employee, this gives a employees get to know each other well.

The department is also getting introduced to the new employee, and this is just as important. So a formal announcement about the new employee, helps existing employee know them better.

Screenshot showing details of Kerika card
Prepare departmental announcement

And last, but not least, don’t forget a Team Lunch on Day One!

Screenshot showing details of Kerika card
Organize team lunch for Day One

If you want to set up a Task Board for this, we have a free template ready for you.

Security Awareness for Distributed Teams

Best Practices, Technology

(Guest post from Cybernews)

According to researchers at Ladders, 25% of professional jobs in North America will be remote by the end of 2022. Remote jobs skyrocketed from under 4% in 2019 to 9% in 2020 alone. This means that working from home is here to stay.

With this change in the job market demand, distributed teams have become more common and will continue to be adopted by small and big businesses alike. The need to secure company and employee data is important given the rise of internet scams. It is advisable to have all team members engage in security awareness training to have them prepared against malicious hackers and phishing sites.

Here are measures distributed teams can take to protect themselves and the company from a security breach.

Public Wi-Fi

Avoid using public Wi-Fi, especially from unknown service providers. If you must connect to a public server ensure you have a VPN installed on your computer to prevent hackers from monitoring your internet activity.

Social engineering

Social engineering uses manipulative techniques to gain confidential information that can put an individual or company at risk of cyber-attacks. Hackers have gotten smarter over time creating the need to be cautious mainly when workers use their own devices for office duties. Here are tips to save you from falling victim to such scams.

  • Be suspicious if an unknown person asks you for information, they shouldn’t have access to it. All workers have team leaders they report to or team members that handle specific company data. If someone aside from the usual team member is asking for such data, be alarmed and report it to your team leader.
  • Pay attention to emails. It can be daunting to always have to check an email sender to be sure you’re not under a phishing attack, but it can save you from putting your company at risk. Look out for grammatical errors and the sender’s email address to be sure they aren’t impersonating your company’s or an employee’s email.
  • Beware of heightened urgency. Resist the rush to perform an action if you are feeling pressured to perform a certain action. Creating urgency is a common tool phishing scammers use to make their victims act fast. You should be more suspicious if the person is trying to make you ignore a mandatory security protocol.
  • Always hover over links to see where they lead. Don’t be quick to click links and open attachments sent to you from new contacts. Offerings of things that are too good to be true are not true. An example is an email congratulating you on an iPhone in a competition you never attended.
  • Never download unauthorised software or plug in an unauthorised drive or USB to your device.

Setting passwords

Most websites will tell you to create an 8-character password that contains uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols that should be changed every 90 days. However, cybercriminals now use technology that allows them to crack an 8-character password in 4 hours. That’s why you should be using strong password management.

Instead, use a 12–16-character password with uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. You can create a passphrase using multiple small words like “tiNyTombSPoon.” Combining your passphrase with numbers and special characters is advisable for added difficulty. Complex passwords like this should be changed every two years.

Never save passwords to browsers. Never share your passwords with anyone or log in to your work accounts with public computers. Ensure you use a unique password for each account, you can use a password keeper if necessary.

Always use two-factor authentication for all your accounts. Never use the same passwords for your personal and work accounts. Make sure to separate your personal and work life.

Security awareness at home

In a world of distributed teams, it is normal for workers to spend more time at home than in an office. Here are measures that can be taken to stay safe when working from home.

  • Never grant anyone access to your desktop unless you sort the remote connection. Always be careful of remote desktop inquiries. Never give out your login details to anyone over email or phone without consulting your supervisor.
  • Don’t respond to non-company numbers or messages regarding an issue when you didn’t open a ticket.
  • If you will be filling your data into any websites while working, ensure they begin with https://
  • Ensure your Wi-Fi router is secured with a strong password. Always restart your router frequently.
  • Keep your working devices out of the reach of family and guests. Use a different internet network for work and family or guests.
  • Only use company-approved USB sticks. Never use unencrypted USB sticks to connect or charge your work device in public places.
  • Never leave your work device unattended. If you aren’t actively using your device ensure you exit your work screen and lock or close your device.

Security awareness in videoconferencing

All virtual meetings should be cyber-safe and not open to the public. Links to video meetings must not be shared on public sites. Ensure all meetings require passwords to join. Avoid starting a meeting without the host – rather create a meeting room.

Enable host-only sharing, accept one user at a time, and lock the meeting after all the participants are in.

Other security measures

  • Avoid using your personal computer or smart devices for work. Ensure your operating system, antivirus and apps are updated frequently.
  • Beware of phishing links sent to your email. Alert your family members on using your devices without your supervision.
  • Beware of pop-ups on free movie sites and apps asking you to install software from unverified sources.

Conclusion

Although it is impossible to be 100% secure, raising awareness of the cybersecurity risks and taking all security measures stated above is key to preventing a security breach that can lead to catastrophic events. Ensure each team member is properly oriented on security measures to employ and things to look out for to prevent getting hacked.

A new template: Career Development for your Employees

Kanban & Lean, ,

We have a new Kerika template for folks who need to manage Career Development for their employees, in the private, public or nonprofit sectors.

Career Development Template

This template contains all tasks you need to complete, and it also comes with document templates, like this one for doing a Performance Appraisal:

Performance Appraisal

This template was prepared for Kerika by an experienced HR professional; we hope you find it useful!

Let us know what other templates we should be building.

 

How to import boards from Trello

Kerika, Technology, Usability,

We have added an exciting new feature: if you were previously using Trello, you can import that data, completely, into Kerika!

We have been testing this as a convenience feature and based upon positive feedback we have expanded this for everyone.

New users will be offered this as an option when they set up their Kerika accounts:

Screenshot showing how new Kerika users can import boards from Trello
How new Kerika users can import boards from Trello

All users will have this option whenever they want to create a new Kerika board:

Screenshot showing how all users can import from Trello when creating a new Kerika board
All users can import from Trello when creating a new Kerika board

We built this feature because we have heard from many people switched over from Trello and really liked Kerika’s user experience, features, and support. In the past they had to manually recreate their work inside Trello; now that’s all automated!

Everything is handled nicely: your Trello cards, lists, people, task details, etc. come over. Once you are done, a single click can then send out invitations to all your old Trello colleagues to join you in Kerika.

Enjoy.