Doug Sandler's Blog

In the last decade, there has been something of a mass exodus in the world of business. This wholesale migration has been from traditional in-house storage and server hardware to cloud-based equivalents. Plus, an equally large migration has been taking place from the use of installed software to the use of Software As A Service (SAAS). 

Almost all businesses have, to some degree, recognized that the cloud is a powerful tool for collaboration, remote working, expansion, and budget-cutting – although there is not a wealth of experience held by business leaders in terms of the dos and don’ts of cloud migration. As such, here is a very brief guide to some of the things that should be considered by business leaders leveling up from in-house to remote services. 

Internet Connectivity And Bandwidth

All cloud services rely on the internet to provide remote storage, Software As A Service, and computing power. Therefore, any business using the cloud must have adequate amounts of bandwidth so that the cloud can be used efficiently. 

Bandwidth provision is one of the first things that needs to be set out as part of a cloud migration plan – and companies need to be willing to spend money updating the internet connectivity and infrastructure available on their premises in order to properly install and get the most out of cloud services.

Endpoint Devices 

Who will be using the cloud service, and what devices will they access it on? Cloud migration specialists like bridgehampton.io consult with companies looking to move to the cloud and take into account all endpoint devices when planning their migration. 

With remote work being more prominent than ever, companies need to prepare for compatibility with mobile devices as well as laptops and desktop computers. Furthermore, many businesses have started to offer remote workers endpoint devices to improve security and compatibility. 

Disaster Recovery 

Disasters happen, and effective strategies need to be put in place for the safe and swift recovery from a data mishap. Hacking infiltrations, security breaches, data loss, and accidental leaks need to be considered ahead of migration.

Cloud computing is relatively secure, but advanced state-sponsored hackers are naturally always going to be one step ahead of the game when it comes to breaking into a network – and businesses must remain ready and constantly keep on top of their antics. 

Data Silos

A cloud network needs to be set up so as to avoid harmful data silos. Data silos are areas in which data is uploaded, stored, and left unaccounted for, and this unaccounted-for data becomes useless. 

In fact, it becomes worse than useless, often causing companies to hoard terabytes of needless duplicate data and spend far too much money on data storage and expansion. Therefore, businesses need to work out how to create enough transparency in their cloud storage solution to avoid data silos. 

Security

When it comes down to it, technology is about increasing connectivity. Because of this, network security has become even more important for businesses looking to protect themselves from malicious attacks that purposefully exploit the high connectivity of cloud networks to wreak havoc and make money – and any good cloud migration plan will involve a comprehensive security strategy at its core. 

There are many obstacles you have to face when running your business. When you hire people, you will be managing a lot, and you can often struggle to do this by yourself. HR or human resources is an important area, and it is one that you must be prepared to invest in. If you do not invest in human resources, you may find that you have employees who do not feel valued and may even feel conflicted.

Employees Are at The Heart of Your Business

When employees feel valued, you will find they will be more productive and more efficient. All employees have to feel valued, and it is important to always put them at the heart of your business. Valuing your employees by respecting them and by fulfilling their needs and wants is important, and it is something that you must weave into every area of your business.

Focusing On Communication

Communication at all levels is key. When communication is open, ongoing, and in place, you can be sure that conflicts do not get the chance to escalate. When it comes to communication, you have to be sure that everyone has the opportunity to have their voice and their say. If people feel that they are not listened to, or they feel their opinion and voice is not respected, they may rebel, and they may become unproductive. This may then have a knock-on effect within your business and with other employees too.

Having a Plan for Conflict

Your workplace may be harmonious and productive for a lot of the time, but it may not always be like this. Sometimes you can only do so much. When employees are working with others, perhaps in a small team or within an office environment, you can find that workplace conflict can happen. There are many types of conflicts and disagreements, and not all of them are detrimental to your business. However, as much as you value your employees and as much as you communicate your needs and wants, you can still find those discrepancies can occur. In addition to discrepancies, you can also find a breakdown completely. When this breakdown happens, quick resolutions can be hard to find. Handling and resolving these issues should be one of your top priorities. To handle situations like these, you need to have a plan in place, and you need to have experts on hand to support you.

Openness and Transparency

Encouraging openness and transparency at all levels is crucial. When areas of your business or workplace are not transparent, you can find that issues and problems can be bigger than they have to be. An open and transparent workplace is going to be beneficial to you and to your employees too. When there are no secrets, you will find that employees will feel valued and appreciated, and of course, this is what you want. Being open with employees and encouraging everyone to be open and co-operate sets a good foundation in place for your business. Achieving this by yourself can be difficult, however with the co-operation of HR professionals, you can create open and transparent policies and working conditions.

Starting a YouTube channel and building an audience can take time and be a daunting task. There are a lot of complicated tasks associated with getting a YouTube channel running successfully. You need consistency in your posting schedule and in the quality of your content. To do this successfully will require organization and a solid plan on how to complete all the necessary steps. In this article, we will look at the steps you need to take and give some tips on how to help you stay organized.

Creating Your Own YouTube Channel

Creating your own YouTube channel is exciting. It is fun to share an interest that you are passionate about with others. You can also make some money off of your videos. Advertisements on the site offer revenue sharing with video creators. With almost 300 hours of video uploaded every minute, YouTube is an excellent platform to share your content. It has incredible potential to build a huge audience for whatever it is that you are passionate about.

Getting Started on YouTube

The main thing that you will need to build a successful YouTube channel is time. It takes time to become an expert on the subject that you are talking about or creating videos on. You can continually improve your skills as a filmmaker, video editor, and marketer over time. The best thing that you can do for yourself when starting out with YouTube is just to create and upload videos. Focus on your passion and be creative while keeping in mind that you are trying to build an audience for yourself through your videos. The more videos that you have, the better chance you will have at reaching a large number of people.

Building Your Audience

When building your audience, remember that content is king. Create original content that is specific to your interests as well as content that you know others will enjoy. There are several ways to go about building an audience for yourself online. Social media has become a large part of people's lives these days. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all provide excellent platforms to share videos with your friends and the world at large.

Interact With Your Audience

The best way to build an audience for yourself is to interact with them. Answer questions, post polls, and engage your viewers. The more you do this, the more likely it will be that people who like your content will subscribe to you. YouTube also gives users the opportunity to "like" videos as well as comment on them. These features allow users to interact with each other as well as the content creators directly. The more that you can engage your viewers and make them like you, the more likely it will be that they will watch your videos and follow your channel.

Planning Your Shoots

Planning your production days is important to having a successful shoot. The more detailed the plan for the day is, the more efficiently everyone will work. One of the best tools for planning a shoot is a call sheet. A call sheet is a great tool to help you organize your production day. This document provides a script breakdown and a list of information that will be needed when shooting. It also provides a place for the director, cinematographer, and camera assistant to sign off on the video equipment that is being used in the shoot, including lenses, sound equipment, and other necessary items for capturing footage.

If you have not created a call sheet before, don't worry. There are many call sheet templates online for you to borrow from. When looking for a free call sheet template, make sure it has all the parts that you would like it to have. One call sheet example might be too large and overwhelm you. Don't overcomplicate this process. Start with a simple call sheet template and add or subtract things as you see fit.

An important piece of a call sheet template is a shot list. Shot lists are basically a list of what shots are needed for the day. It is important to have enough variation in your shot list so that you can create something interesting and engaging for your viewers while also catering to the specific video needs of your client or project. This document helps you and everyone else on set because it provides a detailed map showing everyone exactly what needs to be shot.

In a shot list, you should have the camera angle, shot type, location of the shot, props needed for each shot, and any special instructions. The crew will greatly appreciate a well-thought-out and descriptive shot list. It helps clarify what is taking place and takes away any confusion that might happen.

Another important tool is a prop list. A prop list is very similar to a shot list in that it provides information on what specific items are needed per video production day. Props are anything that show up in your videos, including items needed in specific shots, people's clothes, food items, etc. The prop list provides not only the name of the item but also a photo or drawing so that everyone knows what they are looking for when they are shooting.

Content Release Schedule

As you build your library of content, it is important to deliver it to your audience with consistency. Your audience will be looking for new content often, and it's your job to give it to them in a scheduled manner. There are many great tools and programs to help you do this. A content scheduler is the easiest way to plan ahead. One of these programs will allow you to auto-publish your videos, along with the descriptions for those videos. It is easy to sit down and plan your content for the whole month.

After a few months of posting, it is important to look at the analytics of your videos to see what is most popular with your audience. One great tool is YouTube Analytics. They can tell you where your viewers are coming from and what YouTube videos are most popular. If you want to know which videos you should produce more of, simply look at what people like and do more of that. Social media platforms, like Facebook and YouTube, will also give you a better idea of what types of video different audiences gravitate towards.

In Conclusion

Knowing how to start a YouTube channel is all about creating unique content, building an audience, and then interacting with that audience. The content you create needs to be creative and eye-catching to get viewers' attention. It is important to be organized with call sheets, be consistent with your posting, and give your audience more of the content that interests them most.

Most of us are looking for that perfect career, a sustainable job choice that will allow us to progress and have a job for life. Being able to feel fulfilled in what you do for a living and enjoying this living is the crux of our daily existence. There are so many articles, webinars, and podcasts telling us how we too can improve our career choices and our lifestyles and have more opportunities in the workplace. This article will keep it simple for you, arguing that the best way for an improved career is to simply add technology.

The basics that you need to have

Before you add tech, it’s good to know and understand the sector that you currently work in. The only way technology will benefit your current role is to understand the role and how it fits into the overall business and then begin to develop software systems, processes, and technology to improve the process. So, before you can simply add tech, there is a proviso, and that is to know your sector or field very well.

The tech to add

Not all of it is technology per se, but included herein is the software, tech processes, systems, and opportunities that can be added to an existing job to make it tech ready. These technical skills prove essential in the modern age. Whether you take a short course or look to improve your entire knowledge base with professional NMU online degrees, ensure that you include the technical aspects that will future-proof your career.  

Big data

In an age of big data and information, it is the first aspect of data improvements that you should be looking at. How can big data affect and improve your current role, and how can you add this component to your current job? These are the questions that you need to answer to be able to use big data to improve what you do. Think of the type of data required, then where it can be collected, stored, and analyzed. Don’t simply rush out and purchase space in the Cloud and start collecting customer information. You need to have a data strategy, and as aforementioned, this will be premised on a great understanding of your current role.

IT infrastructure/hardware and software

Look to garner a thorough understanding of the IT infrastructure needed to integrate technology with your business functions. Cloud computing and aspects such as artificial intelligence and automation and how they can be used to speed up business processes will be the future of all work. As such, being able to get in on the ground floor for your specific job or business sector will be useful. 

App development

In an age of remote and hybrid work, there is a need for most sectors to develop means and ways for remote staff to be able to access and complete work in a seamless fashion. This is now predominantly being done using software applications on mobile phones and smart handheld devices.

Regardless of the career that you are in, it is highly likely that you will be able to improve and adjust the role by simply adding technology. This will serve to take you and this role into the future, making for a sustainable and long-term career.

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Video can provide a much deeper emotional experience than audio alone. With video, you get facial expressions and body language that help better express how your guest is feeling, adding tremendously to their energy level of your podcast. Video adds a level of emotion that is much more engaging than just audio. Video for a podcast doesn't just have to be a recording of the guests. Video can take you on a journey with the host, allowing the audience to see moments that might not be possible with audio-only podcasts. It brings the conversation to life through visuals.

Beyond the audience's experience, creating a video of your podcast can benefit marketing and SEO. Video is much easier to break up and repurpose for social media and other online venues. Furthermore, video can give your podcast a significant boost in discoverability and SEO. Growing your podcast will be much easier when it is more accessible to search engines.

Increase Audience Engagement

Podcasts are great when you are in the car or on your earbuds in the office, but daily life, post-pandemic, is much different. With so many people working from home, there is less drive time and fewer restrictions on what you can do while working from home. The workplace has changed, and so have the daily routines of everyone. Take advantage of this change and increase the engagement with your audience using video to accompany your podcast. Video drives engagement up, showing moments rather than telling them. Video lets you demonstrate people, places, and things that would be otherwise hard to describe in the audio form of a podcast.

Creative Camera Moves and Editing

Creatively shooting your podcast videos will keep your audience visually stimulated and more intuned with your podcast. Often video for a podcast is thought to be a wide camera shot of the recording studio and then close-up shots of each of the participants in the podcast. Instead, get creative and use multiple camera positions and camera movement. A camera dolly system is an easy way to improve the quality of your footage without a camera operator. You can purchase camera dollies inexpensively; they are simple to set up and add great cinematic appeal to an otherwise stagnant shot. A camera dolly is a device your camera attaches, and it slides on rail tracks. The device can be programmed for different movements used in tracking shots or dolly zoom shots. 

Tracking Shot

Tracking shots are when the camera has a subtle movement from side to side while keeping the subject's face in the center of the frame. The movement of the camera position is much more attractive to the viewer than a stationary shot. Tracking shots are one of the great dolly shots that are easy to achieve and will significantly increase the quality of your video. Tracking shots are prevalent in interviews and the perfect fit for the podcast format.

Dolly Zoom Shot

The dolly zoom shot is another classic dolly movement in which the dolly track is in line with the subject in front of the camera. The dolly then moves back and forth, zooming in and out very slowly. This dolly shot brings the viewer into the conversation with the camera movement. Since the video is intended to include motion, this dolly shot dramatically increases the quality of the footage when compared to the stationary shot. Again, the simple use of a camera dolly will make your footage more cinematic and enrich the viewer's experience.

Post Production

Using camera dolly moves is an excellent start to your podcast video, but the video now must be edited together. Editing is just as important as shooting the video. Editing doesn't have to be complicated. With a few tricks and tips, you will be able to get your footage edited and on the web quickly. When editing, it is crucial to draw attention to the essential parts of your podcast conversation in a creative way. The way you edit can create drama or give a comedic effect. When editing, you want to pay attention to how sequential shots work with one another and avoid jump cuts, which can have a jarring impact on the audience. You want to make sure there is a smooth transition between two sequential shots. Make sure the flow of your edit works with the rhythm of the conversation between the guests. After a few video edits, you will be able to do them quickly and get the footage prepped for distributing it.

Repurposing Your Video

Creating and editing your podcast video takes a lot of time and effort. Your efforts need to be rewarded by getting the most value out of that video. Video has a much higher click rate compared to still images on social media. Use this to your advantage. Let's take that video and break it up into much smaller bits that can be used creatively as teasers to draw in new listeners. 

Repurposing your podcast video clips gives you endless amounts of content. Often it isn't easy to come up with content constantly to stay relevant. When using short clips on social media, it is in your best interest to put captioning over the video. For one, this is incredibly beneficial to anyone that may have a hearing impairment. Secondly, closed captioning will allow them to receive the message if someone is in a place where it is inappropriate for audio. 

Another way to get extra mileage out of your video clips and in front of more viewers is to send the clips to your guest and ask them to cross-promote you. If they spend the time to come on your podcast, they will value it and want to share it with their audience. Chances are there are people in their following that will become aware of you and start following your pages and podcast.

Become More Shareable on Social Media

As discussed earlier, sharing short clips on social media will grow the reach of your podcast. When done well and consistently, you should see steady growth of your following and listeners to your podcast. A big key is consistency. The audience that loves you will be looking for new content often, so you should give it to them. While they may love you, there are many other people making podcasts, and you don't want to lose their loyalty because they forgot about you. Second, come up with a solid schedule for posting on social media. It would be best if you had a plan for teasing upcoming episodes and giving the highlights of recent episodes moving forward. Draw the audience into what's next, and ensure they don't miss the episode you just released. Lastly, encourage your audience to share what they think about the episode and what they would like to hear next from your podcast. Your goal is to increase engagement with your audience on social media. You want them to share why they love you and your podcast.

Become More Discoverable with SEO

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is how search engines recognize what you are sharing online and categorize it to give people the best search results. Search engines do not know how to listen and index content that is auditory. Therefore, we need to help them. Using closed captions in your social media posts and including essential keywords and hashtags for those clips in the post description will make your social media posts searchable. You will increase your chances of gaining new audience members looking for more information on the topics you are covering. 

Next, you will want to get transcripts of your podcasts to post on your website. By doing this, you are turning your auditory podcast into written words that are searchable through SEO. Over time your transcripts will help your website rank for keywords and increase your position in web searches. Search engines use algorithms based on the quality of the content on web pages. Your podcast should be with well-informed guests that are knowledgeable on specific topics. The content-rich transcripts will be gold for your SEO ranking. Having a podcast and posting transcripts regularly is your best bet for increasing your rank for particular keywords.

3 Things To AvoidDon't Bore your Audience

Make sure that you are having fun and inviting people into the experience with you. Your content should be informative and engaging. Get away from static video shots and make your footage more cinematic with camera movements and editing.

Avoid Overdoing it on Social Media 

Stay constant with your posting schedule, but don't post a new clip every hour of the day. Don't overwhelm your audience with content. Try to stick to one new video teaser a day unless it is incredibly relevant news that everyone needs to see.

Don't Forget Your Keywords

As you edit each short snippet of your video, use keywords relevant to the topic being discussed. This will help you with your metadata and SEO when people search for keywords related to your podcast episodes.

In Conclusion

Video is an incredible way to improve your podcast. Whether you're looking for more social media shares, better search engine rankings, or just trying to cut down on editing time, video clips from the podcast can be a great tool to boost valuable stats and maintain listener engagement. The tips we shared should help get you started with some simple ways that video content can increase your podcast's reach while also saving you time when it comes to creating new marketing content.

After the stress, worry, and general devastation that the coronavirus pandemic has caused to businesses across a wide spectrum of different industries throughout the United States and beyond, if you are lucky enough for your business to still be functional and intact, and, if you are particularly fortunate still yielding large profits, you should reward your employees this December by celebrating their performance and recognizing their commitment by throwing them the ultimate office Christmas party.

Ask Your Staff What THEY Want

As much as you are surely a communicative and genuine boss, colleague, and, ideally some would say, a friend to your employees, it would be fairly inaccurate to say you know exactly what each and every one of them prefers to do with their downtime and what kind of party they each prefer.

Hold a meeting in good time before you even start the initial party preparations to let them know you are going to treat them to a huge party and discover from your employees what it is they consider to be a killer party vibe. 

Let the Drinks Come to You

Instead of messing about ordering bulk supplies of spirits and mixers, wine, and beer, take the stress and worry out of the alcoholic element to your Christmas party by hiring the professional and experienced bartending services Denver who will ensure your work’s Christmas party is truly one to remember. 

Organize Games

By no means should you plan and schedule the whole evening by treating it like another working business day, but have a select few activities and games on standby to make sure the team is engaged and everyone is included. 

If you are feeling particularly generous, why not arrange for some amusing novelty prizes for the winners of each game to make your employees feel extra appreciated and give them a good laugh at the same time. 

Hire a Photo Booth

There are a plethora of brilliant benefits to hiring a photo booth as a fun and exciting element to your office party, one of the main ones being the opportunity to have souvenirs in pictorial form of colleagues together that usually work in different areas or departments within the company. 

Photo booths capture those more private and playful moments of an evening, and people tend to let their guard down much more for a photo booth picture than a more formal group one at the beginning of the night. 

Music Is a Must!

Now ideally, hiring a world-famous band to play live in your office for the night would be pretty damn impressive, but, failing that, a playlist on an app such as Spotify coupled with one or two good quality Bluetooth speakers is all the music you need for an amazing party atmosphere.  

For an even more personalized musical experience, why not ask each of the guests to email you their top five favorite party tunes to form the basis of the playlist.

The rise of online shopping and the way in which this dominates the current consumer market has made it one of the most important avenues of profit generation in the information age. However, the only way to build a committed following of consumers who will translate your online presence into the all-important profit you need is to have a genuine brand.

This article will provide four simple ways to build and develop your brand online.

Communicate the backstory

Knowing where you come from is important for planning where you aim to get to. Your business backstory is the journey and reason for starting the company. Make sure that you and those that work for you know the story and are able to tell it. This will also translate into the values you want to promote in your business and which will become key to securing the consumers you want. For example, if your business was started because of you value local and low-carbon footprint products, this is an important and growing niche that you can optimize to communicate your backstory but also drive the future direction of your business. Once you know that your backstory is clear and recognizable, you can use a Company Swag Store to go one step further to increase visibility through client and partner gifts that show off your unique and distinctive logo.

Build rapport with customers and clients

People buy people, and not necessarily products or things. Therefore, being able to build a sustainable relationship with your clientele is critical to develop ongoing avenues for sales. This means excellent customer service and letting your customers know that you are there for them. Whether this means a sophisticated chatbot that goes beyond simple directions but provides real advice, or ensuring your customers can connect with each other, that kind of rapport and relationship is important.

Create a distinctive and recognizable logo

Building a unique brand is not only about products or services but relies heavily on being recognizable among the many thousands of other businesses doing similar things. Ensure your logo speaks to your values or mission so that anyone looking at it can create a connection between the visual logo and what the business does or provides. As more people spend more time online, they will be inundated with visual cues and information, so making sure your logo is memorable is important. Creating an inspirational and memorable logo with interesting colors could increase brand recognition by up to 80%.

Building your brand online through a signature logo can then be translated into other branded goods. 

Use the right marketing and SEO support

Many businesses believe that they are capable and able to do their own marketing and advertising. Yet, new online requirements and the ability to spread the right message online require specific skills. Without professional SEO, the likelihood of spreading the right message is low. Instead of using your valuable time delving into marketing, employ a consultant or company that provides a holistic service and will ensure your foray into building your online brand will be seamless and successful.

These are four simple ways that you can start today to build a brand that will be around for  ages.

Getting yourself prepared for a life of work can be a difficult thing to do, especially if you have never really been properly engaged in a work environment. Fortunately, there are a great many things that you can do to better prepare yourself for the working world so that you can put your best foot forward while working.

Improve Your Education

One of the things that will most strongly impact your ability to do your work properly is your education, which means that the best way to fully prepare yourself for the workplace and all its pressures is to ensure that you have the best education you can. Luckily for you, there are a ton of options when it comes to securing a good education.

Invest in University. Without a doubt, the most highly regarded form of education across the world is a university degree. Institutions like Point Park University https://online.pointpark.edu/online-degrees/ set the standard for high-quality education and reliably brilliant students. This means that if you are looking to set yourself for work in the best possible way, then enrolling as a university student is likely your best bet. The university environment embeds students in enough work to mirror the workplace, but students are also required to work under their own power, helping you develop your independent work abilities that are vital to the workplace. 

Study Yourself. If you cannot justify the cost of a university degree, then there is another fantastic alternative available to you: self-led learning. You can teach yourself everything you need to know about the topics you need for work, and by doing so, you will develop your personal motivation and work ethic to the point where completing work in the workplace will be a cinch.

Build Useful Skills

On top of improving your education, one of the most effective methods to prepare yourself for the workplace is to spend time building skills relevant to your preferred career path.

Identify Your Preferred Career. To do this, the first thing you need to do is identify the career path that appeals to you the most. Whether you want to work in business, technology, or anything else, your preferred career will inform the kinds of skills that you need to build.

Determine Which Skills will be Useful. Once you know the career that you are planning on pursuing, you should be able to use that information to identify a range of useful skills for you to develop. For example, if you want to work in technology, IT and coding skills might be relevant.

Practice as Often as Possible. Finally, once you have identified your relevant skills and begun to learn them, there is only one thing left for you to do. Practice as often as you can. Your ability with any skill is a direct result of the amount of time you have dedicated to that skill, so make it your mission to dedicate as much time as you can to every skill you want to develop.

When it comes to the medical industry, there are plenty of roles and jobs that may spring to mind, such as surgeons and nurses. However, there is also an analytical, business side to the healthcare industry, in which a lot of data has to be collected and analyzed for a variety of reasons. Here are just a few of the tools, methods and software that are available for this purpose, and are widely used throughout the industry.

Health Plan Overpayment Recovery

It can be tricky to pick up on errors in a claims payment, as there may be a large volume of information or claims to get through, and small errors can be easily missed. These little errors will add up over time, causing losses for the organization, which will have a knock-on effect. When dealing with health insurance overpayment recovery, there are many areas in which errors can crop up including capitation, per diems, outpatient surgery and fee for service. For example, a claim may get billed twice by accident, or on purpose, and the repeated claim is not denied. In this case, the organization will lose money and if records are not properly kept or audited, the reasons for this may not be clear.

Keeping tabs on claims and overpayments helps to save money, and also to make sure people get paid the correct amount. A combination of software and in-person auditing can help to keep an eye on these areas, even being able to go back over data from previous years.

HEDIS Reporting

HEDIS stands for Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set, and is a set of over 90 measures that fit into six different domains of care. These are:

Experience of care

Effectiveness of care

Access/availability of care

Utilization and risk adjusted utilization

Health plan descriptive information

Measures reported using electronic clinical data systems

Every year, the measures are revisited and evaluated, resulting in removal, additions and edits. The aim of HEDIS reporting is to collect data from different healthcare organizations, and use this to assess the performance of their different healthcare plans. This has benefits for the organizations, as they can see where they need to improve and where they are succeeding, as well as the patients, as the results may help to influence their choice of healthcare plan.

Audits

Audits happen in any industry or business, and are the external and objective analysis of part of a business. Usually, this is the financial element, and the aim of financial audits is to prevent and identify fraud, and make sure all financial books and paperwork are present and correct. Medical audits can be done to ensure that spending is correct, but also to evaluate other areas and records, for example during HEDIS data collection or while looking over paperwork and records in regard to claims and overpayments. 

There are many benefits to getting an audit done - not only does it show the public and investors that you have nothing to hide, it also provides you with recent data upon which you can make informed decisions about elements of the business or organization.

You've left the cocoon of full-time education, your scholarship money/student funding has run dry, your parents are moaning at you to get a job, and you're faced with the prospect of embarking on a career that will consume the next 40-50 years of your life. One thing's for sure — life as a graduate isn't always easy or straightforward!

If you want to hit the ground running when you enter the race for employment and, in turn, lay solid foundations for yourself as you attempt to climb your chosen career ladder, be sure to heed the following advice. Here are two things you must do to succeed in the job-hunting jungle:

Stand out from the crowd

No matter what educational institution you attended, what subject you studied, what grades you achieved, or what career pathway you are looking to embark down, you aren't guaranteed to be handed the first job that you apply for. The reason for this is really quite simple — you will face A LOT of competition. Thousands upon thousands of other students will graduate at the same time as you, which means that you will face stiff opposition every time you apply for a different job role. If you're to steal a lead in the race for employment, you're going to need to find a way to make yourself stand out from the crowd.

There are a number of things that you can do to make yourself memorable in the eyes of potential employers, optimizing your email brand being one of the most simple yet most effective. Once you attach a student signature to your emails, you will inject personality and professionalism into each message that you send. This will draw more attention to the applications that you make, which in turn will increase the likelihood of you being considered as a candidate. To find out more about email signatures and their plethora of amazing benefits, be sure to check out rocketseed.com.

Give your goals some serious thought

If you're serious about fortifying your professional foundations as soon as you leave college, it's imperative that you take some time to give your goals some serious thought. You aren't going to get very far with your job-hunting endeavor if you stumble from one interview to the other, not knowing what you want, who you are, or where you wish to see yourself in 10 years' time. When setting your goals, consider whether they are S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound). 

Setting career goals in your early 20s isn't an easy task to undertake; there's no denying that. If you're to achieve this all-important feat, you must:

Conduct an audit of your skills, expertise, and passions

Book an appointment with your college's careers advisor

If you're recently left college or university and now find yourself in the thick of the job-hunting jungle, it's imperative that you explore your options, exercise a lot of patience, and never give up. The perfect job is out there; you just need to get out there and find it!