Category: Business Insights

In recent days, compliance regulations and requirements for traders and banks have been expanding dramatically due to leveraged technology and the need for accountability and higher standards. Due to these new regulations, Global Call Forwarding has increased our long-term call recording storage up to 6 years to enable easy access and a trustworthy platform for banks and Forex traders. As a result, these changes ensure that traders, banks, and contact centers are in full compliance with every new regulatory requirement.

Naturally, governments around the world have stepped in to increase regulations to combat ever-widening capabilities of corruption by forcing companies to expand their recordkeeping capabilities via audio. Because traders and bankers are now required to record and archive voice communications, Global Call Forwarding understands the need to have these recordings easily available on demand in the event a dispute should arise. Due to the highly sensitive nature of such calls, we offer the safest security standards. Our platform makes it simple to access and download calls kept in storage with the simplest navigation.

Globally, call recording is becoming required across a multitude of industries for the purpose of record keeping. This is why long-term storage is such a necessary service. Consider the following examples:

• As of January 1, 2018, the markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has now required stockbrokers to compulsorily keep a record of orders placed by clients from January 1, 2018. This mandate includes phone recordings. This puts the burden of proof on the broker to produce documentation for trade disputes that may be unauthorized.
• As of August 31, 2017, the FDIC has ruled that banks and other financial institutions must keep recordings (and other documentation) of “suspicious activity” for 5 years from the date of filing a suspicious activity report (SAR).
• In Europe, under the General Data Protection Regulation, bankers and traders are required to keep recordings or face steep penalties as a consequence. For firms that don’t comply, they can be fined €10,000 per infraction. However, these fines can reach up to a staggering €20 million or 4% of a firm’s annual revenue.

Why Do You Need to Record Your Calls?

It’s obvious that brokers and bankers should take these new regulations seriously and record/ store their calls immediately. Here are a few reasons you should consider:

• The Price of Noncompliance: As mentioned before, the price of non-compliance can be high. If traders or banks don’t record their calls, they could potentially be hit with significant fines or potentially lose their license. Even for companies that are willing to roll the dice when it comes to avoiding potential audits, the risk of being unable to conduct business is a significant deterrent against not integrating call recording services into your business.
• Maintaining Your Public Image: In the Information Age, having records and proof is often an essential part of your business. Therefore, call recording needs to be at the forefront of your business strategy. Staying ahead of the curve, and in line with regulations can keep your business away from negative outcomes and any possible disasters that await unprepared banks and traders if they choose not to take the necessary precautions in long-term storage of their calls.
• Peace of Mind: Even without such regulations, call recording services are an excellent way to ensure that your business is accountable internally. Consider a few of the advantages, including the ability to verify suspicious activity from customers and the ability to ensure your employees maintain accountability for adhering to your company’s standards of ethics.

Quality of Recording Services Matters

Not all call recording services are created equal. Consider the ramifications of having lesser-quality recording services that cannot be trusted when you need them most.

Hypothetically, what would happen if you discover that some of your recorded calls aren’t audible or are missing? By the time that you discover these anomalies, your records may be, in fact, missing thousands of calls. Sometimes, stored calls need to be accessed immediately, and if you can’t trust the storage system, you may run into some serious trouble. By most standards of legislation, not having the recording document is the same as not having made the effort to record them in the first place.

And even if there is an attempt to find the information, many auditors request recorded calls typically within 60 days. With this short time frame, your company may not be able to respond quickly enough to avoid violating the law.

How Global Call Forwarding Can Help

No one wants to lose their license or be fined over a simple mistake. To avoid these possibilities, it is so important that you have a quality service provider that can help you store your calls and provide instant access when you need it. However, we cannot stress enough that this service needs to be top-notch. This is precisely why so many businesses rely on Global Call Forwarding, especially when it comes to call recording for Forex trading and international banks.

Global Call Forwarding’s easy to use technology ensures that all calls required to be recorded for legislation and regulatory purposes are recorded with high-quality content, and are not inaudible. To help Forex traders and banks to comply with these new requirements, we have increased our long-term call recording storage capacity to ensure absolute peace of mind.

In addition to the increase in Global Call Forwarding’s long-term call recording storage capabilities, our platform provides customers the ability to store calls for up to 6 years and access each recorded call with an easy-to-navigate user interface. With only a few clicks, recorded calls can be easily accessed for listening or downloading through a highly secure online control panel. Multiple levels of redundancy ensures safe and secure storage of recorded calls. Best of all, our customers can combine call recording and long-term storage with the ability to reach international markets by utilizing local and/ or toll free numbers available in over 140 countries on our network

Paid Vacation Days in the United States

The United States is the only developed country in the world where paid time off is not required.

Yes, you read that correctly. Though the average American takes off about ten days off per year, none of them are actually required by law. While The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does offer standard benefits such as basic wages and overtime pay, it does not entitle employees to paid time off. Not for vacations, not for holidays, and most disturbingly, not for those facing any illnesses.

Instead, employers have the option to make individual contract agreements between themselves and their workers. However, this tends to be problematic for a number of reasons. For example, under this system, two employees with the same amount of job experience can still have an unequal amount of paid leave. This opens the door to favoritism or prejudice. More than that, many people will often avoid using their paid vacation out of fear of losing their job.

U.S. Federal employees have situations that prove to be a little better than the rest of the country. Depending on seniority, the government offers a standard amount of time for vacations and breaks. In addition to that, they are all given time off for ten federal holidays a year.

Americans have been proposing Congress mandate a solution to this dilemma for years, suggesting a minimum of at least two weeks. However, experts agree it’s just not likely that this will be resolved in the near future.

Paid Vacation Days in Other Countries

In contrast, every single country in the European Union, including Sweden, Italy, and France, have at least four mandatory weeks of paid vacation a year. There are differences based on individual government mandates. However, countries that rank the highest in terms of satisfaction are generally in these areas. Here is a breakdown of some of the other more successful ones:

New Zealand: 30 days off
Italy: 30 days off
Belgium: 30 days off (after they work for their employer for at least one year)
France: 31 days off
Spain: 34 days off
Germany: 34 days off
Portugal: 35 days off
Austria: 35 days off

Austria wins the prize for the most amount of time off, with 13 paid holidays and 22 paid vacation days. Additionally, if a person has at least 25 years job experience, they are entitled to more.

There are other ways international businesses are attempting to make improvements for workers. For instance, France has had a 35-hour workweek since the year 1999. Recently they have introduced new legislation that encourages employees to turn off their work phones and avoid emails during their time off.

Sweden is also considering shorter working days for their residents. It is reported that their 6 hour work days could make people happier and healthier than ever.

Finally, other countries desire to take parental leave more seriously. While the U.S. offers no mandatory parental leave, Denmark provides nursery care for all citizens so that mothers and fathers alike can have a better work-life balance. New parents are given one year of paid leave after they have a child, or if they have adopted a child. Finland has also made it a law that parents of smaller children are able to use subsidized child care centers.

Vacation Days Directly Linked to Productivity

So what is stopping the United States from adopting these same laws and ordinances for citizens? It could be that employers fear that time off equals more expenses they simply cannot afford. This is especially true for smaller enterprises and startups trying to compete with much larger organizations. Some offices would need to hire replacements or have employees work overtime to make up for that “lost” time. But hundreds of studies prove that workers are overall more productive with increased vacation time.

In a study by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) for Project: Time Off, HR managers believe that taking vacation time leads to greatly improved performance (75%) and better job satisfaction (78%). In other words, vacation gives a person the chance to “recharge their batteries” and mentally rest from their job. When they finally return to their desk, morale (and overall productivity) is improved.

Time away from an office setting also gives people a chance to tap into their creative side. This is especially important for those who frequently face complicated challenges at work. Rest can stimulate new ideas to solve old problems by helping individuals gain new clarity. It is an excellent way to refresh or renew motivation.

The Case For Businesses to Invest in Paid Vacations

It’s not just the employees who stand to gain from mandatory paid vacations in the United States. Organizations will also see long-term advantages. When they invest in time off for their workers, they see the results in terms of work quality after they return. Not only that, there are a lot of cost savings involved.

How does this work? Employees tend to feel more valued when offered a certain amount of time away from work. Organizations with happier workers will see less turnover. A high turnover rate incurs high costs. Every time you lose an employee, Human Resources must spend time with the process of interviews, onboarding, and training. This takes up not only time but also money. In fact, every time a business replaces a salaried employee, it actually costs them, on average, 6 to 9 months of that person’s salary. So even if that person was making only $40,000 per year, a business stands to lose at least $20,000 in resources.

When employees have the flexibility of paid vacation days, they are much less likely to “call in sick” at the last minute unexpectedly. They feel more empowered to take care of themselves and their personal needs in their own time.

Finally, paid time off gives employers a strategy to attract more experienced workers. For example, a company offering a standard three-week vacation will help you recruit the best and the brightest in the industry, especially if a competitor only offers ten days.

As more and more companies expand globally and source employees from around the world, working in different time zones is becoming increasingly common. Working with clients and employees in different time zones can be a challenge. It also requires making some changes to the way you think about conducting business. If you’re new to international business, this may take some time to get used to, especially when it comes to remembering everyone’s current time zone. Here are some tips and tools to help.

Benefits of Working in Different Time Zones

Multinational companies and large enterprises often have office bases in more than one country or location. This helps them grow their geographic coverage and sell to more customers across the globe. Even small businesses are trying to break out of geographical boundaries and increase international sales. So, why work across multiple time zones? Here are some benefits of expanding your company and working in different time zones:

• Grow as an international business.
• Establish a local presence for your business in multiple locations.
• Improve business awareness and visibility.
• Make it easy for global customers to connect with your business for sales or assistance.
• Adopt a Follow the Sun model for global customer support.

Tools for Working in Different Time Zones

There are many services and tools available to make it easy for businesses to work across time zones and countries. These services and tools help improve communication, productivity, and collaboration:

• Call forwarding and time-based routing to route customer calls coming from across the time zones.
• Time zone trackers (more on this below) to be aware of different time zones.
• Virtual voice and video communication tools to communicate effectively.
• Project management software to track projects and tasks and support team collaboration.
• Customer relationship management systems (CRMs) to keep track of customer information.

Besides using these tools and services, what can your business and teams do to make working in different time zones easier?

Working in Multiple Time Zones: Best Practices

Let’s looks at the best practices you and your teams should pay attention to when working across different time zones and dealing with global customers:

1. Mind the Time

Make the most of the clock features on your mobile phone or tablet. If you have employees or clients in multiple geographic locations, set up a world clock for each of them so you can see at a glance what the time is wherever they are.

2. Set Time Zone Boundaries

Each time you begin working with a new employee or client in a different time zone, discuss issues that may arise because of time differences. This is particularly important when arranging meetings, setting deadlines, and any other time-sensitive communications. You will need to decide whether to book the dates and times in your zone or theirs.

3. Be Considerate Of Time Differences

If you’re working with clients or employees in a time zone that is very different from yours, show some consideration. Don’t book meetings or set deadlines that are very early in the morning in their time zone unless they specifically request that. Bear the same thing in mind when you are texting or calling people.

4. Keep Communication Channels Open

If you are rarely going to meet with your clients or employees in person, it’s important to maintain regular communication. Otherwise, they will begin to feel left out of the loop. Schedule a Skype or Facetime call now and again so that your communications don’t become too depersonalized.

5. Offer 24/7 Customer Support

If you own an online company and provide products, services, or both and your reach is global, your customers will need 24/7 access to your customer service team. If you’re a small business and don’t have a call center, an easy and affordable way to get around is with international call forwarding. You can give your customers virtual, toll-free international numbers that are local to them, and the calls will be forwarded to the number of your choice at various times of the day.

Related: 5 Ways to Leverage Time-Based Routing for Global Expansion

6. Maintain Realistic Boundaries

Although it may be dinner time in your time zone, it might be breakfast time in your client’s region. Although you may be gung-ho about working 24-7, not everyone else can handle that kind of rigor, especially if they are part of a different culture. Remember that your employees and clients may have family responsibilities, and it is important to be reasonable with your expectations.

Tools for Managing Time Zones

Here’s a rundown of some tools and apps that can help you manage time zone differences.

World Clock Meeting Planner: Things can get tricky when you’re trying to schedule a meeting with three different people, each of whom is located in a different time zone. But it doesn’t have to get too confusing. This tool will let you pick a date and plug in your location and the locations of your clients. The app will then generate a series of suggested times that may be feasible for your meeting. It even color-codes the times into sleeping, non-working, and working hours to clearly find a suitable time for everyone involved.

Spacetime.am: Slack has become one of the most popular cloud-based collaboration tools available today. If you are one of the 3 million users, you might want to add Slack bot Spacetime.am to benefit your whole team. Each member of your group can add their location and schedule their work hours so everyone can see who is available online, when, and for how long. This tool also allows you to arrange meetings and automatically adjust the time zone to suit each user.

World Time Buddy: This tool has a three-fold application; it converts world clocks and time zones and can schedule meetings. You can plug in numerous locations, and each time you revisit the site, they will load up. The neat color-coding system helps you keep track of business hours and where they sync.

Every Time Zone: If you’re looking for a tool that can keep track of your time zones with a pleasing and easy-to-use overlay, this is the one. Wherever in the world you and your clients are, Every Time Zone makes it easy to see the location and the time and how they correspond.

Time Zone Converter: When you need a simple tool that quickly converts the time across any time zone, this is a great choice. It’s a great app for people who are constantly making business trips all over the world.

24 Time Zones: This app’s colorful interactive world map makes it easy for users to see where in the world it’s time for business and where it is nighttime. Just click on a city to see the time there.

Time.is: Designed for time zone management, this tool displays the atomic clock, which can be set for any time zone in the world. Other useful graphics accompany the clock. It’s also a good app for telling if your computer’s clock is slightly off.

Time Zone Abbreviations: Are you familiar with AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight Time), CAT (Central Africa Time), and PYT (Paraguay Time)? Time zone abbreviations can be confusing, especially when you come across one you haven’t seen before. This tool provides a list of all of them, so you can easily look them up and avoid confusion. Now you won’t get mixed up between British Summer Time and Bangladesh Standard Time.

With more than 24 global times zones, it can be difficult to keep up with everyone if you’re conducting business internationally. Following these tips and using the suggested tools can help you keep your time under control.

Being active in your trade involves quite a lot these days. Pursuits such as continuing education and constant networking can really take a toll on the average professional, and conferencing may seem like one of these time-consuming activities. However, when done the right way, participating in regular conferences offers a return on your investment that makes it ultimately worthwhile.

A conference – also known as a trade show, seminar, or convention – often seems like a waste of time and resources. This is especially true if you spend a few days out of the office and shell out revenue for plane tickets, hotel reservations, and meals. Sponsors of conferences also set aside budgets for marketing materials. But you should know that if you have attended conferences in the past and have seen little to no results, you might be attending the wrong types of conferences. Read below to learn how you can purposefully choose a trade show to reach your business goals.

Choosing the Right Type of Professional Conference

There are many different types of events out there, and millions are planned on an international level every year. Workshops, for instance, are focused on educating professionals, while a consumer show is open to the general public. Not every event will be beneficial for your company, however. Here’s a list to guide you through the decision-making process.

• Business goals – Before you begin searching for events this year, ask yourself these questions: “What do we want to get out of this conference? What are our goals?” For instance, you might be looking to generate new leads or meet new vendors. By keeping your ultimate goal in mind, it is easier to pick which will be best for you.
• Cost – Add up the total cost of attending the event, and then consider your potential return on investment. If gaining just one or two new customers covers your cost, then it might be worth your time to go.
• Attendees – Who is your target audience, and will they be in attendance at the event? For instance, if you are only looking to meet C-level executives, then an academic networking event is not necessarily the best fit.
• Speakers and topics – Make sure that any topics covered are relevant to your field. It won’t do you much good to attend an accounting seminar if you’re in the auto industry.
• Networking opportunities – Some conferences will have events specifically for down time and social activities. You need to decide whether or not these can be used as time for connecting with other professionals.

How to Prepare for a Professional Conference

Even if a conference lasts through a long weekend, it can still fly by pretty quickly. This is why planning everything ahead of time is absolutely essential.

This includes making the right travel arrangements. Consider reservations for hotel rooms, rental cars, and transportation. Sometimes conferences will give you a discount on specific vendors, so it doesn’t hurt to give them a call and ask. Because there will be hundreds of other attendees, you want to make sure you have all the accommodations in place beforehand. Otherwise, you will waste valuable time.

Right before you travel, gather all of the necessary travel documents and confirmation numbers. These should all be in one place for easy access. This is especially true when traveling with a team of other people.

Pack accordingly. Since you will be on your feet for most of the events, bring a pair of comfortable shoes for walking in. If the weather is cold, bring a few layers of clothing. Extra phone chargers and small snacks also come in handy. Just be sure to make a list of everything that needs to travel with you so you won’t run into surprises if something necessary is forgotten.

When it comes to the actual seminars, are you prepared to promote your business? This is a very common mistake for conference attendees. When a potential customer is interested in your products or services, and you don’t have anything to show them, this can cost you revenue in the long run. Instead, print out additional business cards and marketing materials like brochures (if relevant). Most companies order promotional items like keychains and pens ahead of time. Keep business cards with you at all times, because you never know when you will run into a new opportunity.

By the way, don’t forget to follow up with new connections as soon as the conference is over! Gather their workplace email, phone number, and website if possible. There are many opportunities to sell to a potential lead by offering a special discount simply because you met in person at a seminar.

How to Make the Most Out of a Professional Conference

Gain visibility with active participation. Become a presenter, facilitator, or volunteer for just a few hours. Organizers are always looking for an extra set of hands to help. This is a proven way to strengthen professional relationships and get in front of your target audience.

Our next tip is to make sure to choose the sessions that will benefit your business the most. There are many different types of sessions, ranging from skill-building to simple meet and greets. Each type of event will have a host of different attendees, so plan your time wisely. Ideally, your agenda should be fairly full. However, if you need to take a quick break away from the crowds, plan a time for rest during the “less busy” hours of the conference.

Finally, participate in the conference through popular social media channels. Major attendees and speakers will already have Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts, so you can follow and connect with these accounts before the conference even begins. Have your social media coordinator write about the event and make several announcements about your attendance. This helps build excitement for the event.

Additionally, conferences should have a designated hashtag that everyone can use. For example, this year’s popular Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has the official hashtag #CES2018. Be sure to take plenty of photos and use this hashtag when you post them. Hundreds (or even thousands) of people will potentially view the hashtag, so your account will most likely get noticed!

Working at a desk all day long does not seem physically taxing at first. You are only sitting, right? Yes, but sitting for hours at a stretch comes with its own share of drawbacks. And we all know, being sedentary is far more dangerous than being active. It eventually leads to our bodies being incapable of performing important physical tasks.

With virtual offices on the rise and an increasing number of people choosing to work from home, a vast majority of employed people now spend their days hunched over a desk in front of a monitor. The result? Nearly 80 percent of Americans suffer from lower back pain, stiff neck, and other joint pain because of a sedentary lifestyle. Even when you exercise every day for an hour or two, the long hours spent at a desk can still be detrimental.

According to a study, spending eight to 12 hours sitting down daily can lead to high rates of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Considering there are millions of people who go through decades of their life in this scenario, the findings are alarming.

But all is not hopeless. It is possible to survive long hours working at a desk if one is willing to add a little change in the routine. These following tips help counteract the negative effects of a sedentary job.

Pick the right chair

More often than not, the reason for lower back pain is using the wrong chair. The chair that you use at home or the office may be either too low or too high, causing you to strain your neck as you look at the monitor. The remedy? An ergonomically designed chair that’s just the right height to the desk.

You might need to try out a few different chairs to find the perfect one, but once you do, it may be the answer to your aches and pains.

2. The right desk and monitor height

Once you have found the right chair, it will be time to adjust the height of your desk and the monitor. Most of the time, a desk that is either too low or too high, can cause aches and pains. Make sure you are looking straight at the monitor and not bending or hunching over the desk.

You don’t need any fancy equipment; just placing your computer atop a few books should do the job.

3. Use a standing desk

Counter the debilitating effects of prolonged sitting by getting a standing desk. Research shows that you can burn up to fifty extra calories every hour just by working at a standing desk, instead of sitting down. Although it doesn’t seem like a big deal, standing actually helps improve your posture and strengthens your legs.

Considering the amount of time we spend sitting, using the same time to stand will burn so many more calories. Adjusting the height of your monitor is all you need to do.

4. Get up and walk

While sitting and working at a desk for long hours, we often lose track of time. We forget to get up and walk at frequent intervals, leading to stiff neck, joint pain, and backache. Whether you work from home or from an office, it is important to get up and walk around to avoid muscle stiffness.

To make sure of this, implement the use of regular reminders via apps on your phone or computer that will remind you every couple of hours to leave the chair and walk around. Going for a walk during your lunch break is also a good way to keep active and loosen your muscles.

5. Walk or cycle to work

Cars ruin our health more than we realize. If you commute to and from work daily, you may spend more than two or three hours sitting down every day. If possible, walk or try to bicycle to work sometimes to counteract the negative effects of sitting down. Both cycling and walking are great exercises for the body, and if your office is close by, ditching your car for your bike is a great way to save gas and incorporate a workout into the routine.

6. Exercise while watching TV

Instead of sitting and watching TV on a sofa, bring your treadmill out of retirement and place it in front of the television so you can use that time more constructively (and enjoyably) while watching a fantastic show. This will make sure that you get to watch TV only when you are walking, maximizing your time while taking care of your body.

If you don’t have exercise equipment, walk around the room or march in place while watching TV. Not being a couch potato will not only keep you active but also reduce your chances of cardiac problems.

7. Schedule a weekly walk or hike

After working at a desk the whole week, schedule a family walk or hike during the weekend. This is a fantastic way to keep yourself active and help your muscles relax after a sedentary week. It’s also an ideal way to spend some quality time with your family.

The average American is highly accustomed to sitting down. In fact, our bodies are trained to be seated – while eating, watching TV, and working. Even if you exercise every day, sitting long hours at a desk can negate all the benefits of exercise. For some perspective, there is a rural village in China known as the Longevity Village where people live up to a hundred years on average because of their lifelong active habits.

You don’t have to go to great lengths to be able to lead an active lifestyle. You can incorporate subtle changes in your life to balance out the harmful effects of a sedentary job. You may not be able to change the nature of your work, but you can always change the way you work.

Adjusting your desk and chair, walking around every half hour, and incorporating regular exercise into your work week and weekends are excellent ways to survive long hours working at a desk.