News & Updates

Gift of Time

Isn’t it nice to have someone do the chores for us, which we ourselves do not want to do?. Now ‘time’ can be purchased for someone special and while they are allowed to enjoy their life, while their chores are taken care of by a virtual assistant (VA). On special occasions make the loved one feel special by gifting them the precious gift of time. Now ‘gift time’ from GetFriday to the loved one and help them assign their chores to a virtual assistant, who will take care of the chores while they can indulge in doing things they love. You can do this on every other occasion where your loved one would feel special: Birthdays Most of us love celebrating birthdays, especially those of our near and dear ones. This is the day when we make them feel quite special by wishing them well and making them look forward to the coming year. In line with this, what if someone offers them the gift of time, where their chores will be taken care of by a virtual assistant and they could enjoy the time saved in doing things they enjoy. This can be done by purchasing ‘time’ from GetFriday and gifting it to your loved one for them to enjoy their time in doing things they love. Anniversaries It is the time to recall the best moments in someone’s life. Moments when happiness was felt during marriage or setting up of a company etc. During the time of anniversaries are the times when most feel like unwinding and may be taking a break. This is in fact possible with the ‘Gift of Time’ offer from GetFriday where time could be bought for a loved one to do their mundane chores by a virtual assistant, while they enjoy with the saved time doing things enjoyed by them. Mother’s Day Mothers evoke positive emotions in everyone. So having a day dedicated to the mother should not be such a big ask. In fact, there is a need to have such observances to increase the bonding among family members. Moreover, it also calls for taking action on the occasion to make her feel special on that particular day. A novel way to do this would be to give her a ‘Gift of Time’ card from GetFriday, where she can assign her mundane official chores to the virtual assistant, while she enjoys the time doing things she loves. These are a few instances in which you can gift time with GetFriday’s ‘Gift of Time’ voucher. Log in and make the most of the unique gift. 1) Log on to the and fill the form @ “Gift of Time” page 2) Receive the gift card from the GetFriday representative 3) Gift the time to your loved ones 4) The assigned VA will take care of everything virtually

Gift of Time Read More »

Isn’t it nice to have someone do the chores for us, which we ourselves do not want to do?. Now ‘time’ can be purchased for someone special and while they are allowed to enjoy their life, while their chores are taken care of by a virtual assistant (VA). On special occasions make the loved one feel special by gifting them the precious gift of time. Now ‘gift time’ from GetFriday to the loved one and help them assign their chores to a virtual assistant, who will take care of the chores while they can indulge in doing things they love. You can do this on every other occasion where your loved one would feel special: Birthdays Most of us love celebrating birthdays, especially those of our near and dear ones. This is the day when we make them feel quite special by wishing them well and making them look forward to the coming year. In line with this, what if someone offers them the gift of time, where their chores will be taken care of by a virtual assistant and they could enjoy the time saved in doing things they enjoy. This can be done by purchasing ‘time’ from GetFriday and gifting it to your loved one for them to enjoy their time in doing things they love. Anniversaries It is the time to recall the best moments in someone’s life. Moments when happiness was felt during marriage or setting up of a company etc. During the time of anniversaries are the times when most feel like unwinding and may be taking a break. This is in fact possible with the ‘Gift of Time’ offer from GetFriday where time could be bought for a loved one to do their mundane chores by a virtual assistant, while they enjoy with the saved time doing things enjoyed by them. Mother’s Day Mothers evoke positive emotions in everyone. So having a day dedicated to the mother should not be such a big ask. In fact, there is a need to have such observances to increase the bonding among family members. Moreover, it also calls for taking action on the occasion to make her feel special on that particular day. A novel way to do this would be to give her a ‘Gift of Time’ card from GetFriday, where she can assign her mundane official chores to the virtual assistant, while she enjoys the time doing things she loves. These are a few instances in which you can gift time with GetFriday’s ‘Gift of Time’ voucher. Log in and make the most of the unique gift. 1) Log on to the and fill the form @ “Gift of Time” page 2) Receive the gift card from the GetFriday representative 3) Gift the time to your loved ones 4) The assigned VA will take care of everything virtually

How to Increase Office Productivity

It is everyone’s dream to work to their optimum capacity, but there are only 24hrs in a day and in those hours, we have to maximize our efficiency. There is always a plan at the beginning of the day to maximize our productivity at work. But it just becomes a hollow plan by the end of the day. While it may not be everybody’s cup of tea to find out ways to work smarter, here is a list of strategies that will help improve productivity at work. While it may not happen that your working habits undergo a drastic change overnight, it is possible that gradual changes can add up to big changes in productivity. It is best to start with one-tip and follow it up before you can adopt next tip to your schedule. Being accountable to someone at work or announcing your targets to others helps keep you stay on track in the course of your activities and in the long run. It is best to keep in mind that we are humans and have a tendency for slip-ups. Hence, it is with this attitude you should approach productivity improvement tips. Whenever, there is a slip-up it is best to forgive yourself than to brood about it overtime which only adds up to unproductive time. You have to understand that multi-tasking is an over-used term. Studies have very clearly indicated that our brains are not equipped to multi-task and focusing on one task alone will help us accomplish much more than trying to multi-task and accomplish more. It is also seem that while multi-tasking, the brain loses its ability to be creative. The brain is like a muscle the more work we give it, the stronger the muscle is likely to become. By focusing on one single task helps you make those connections stronger. Before you leave work each day, it is best to write down, 5-6 things that you want to accomplish the following day and in a separate page write down personal errands that you would like to accomplish. Keeping the list shorter helps it keep realistic. Have a strategy while you begin each day and stick to it as far as possible. There is a theory and it states that our primal mind craves distraction especially when you are in the course of accomplishing your listed tasks. It so happens that we would turn our attention towards some easy unlisted task such as liking a picture on Facebook or spending more time jotting down the list can also be part of ‘structured procrastination’. So give yourself five-minutes or less to complete writing the list and stick to your list in hand as far as possible without getting distracted. Piles of paper lying on your desk are a sign of unfinished tasks and unorganized work. Since you are lagging behind, the remedy is to delegate the tasks. By delegating you will be able to realize your productivity goals sooner than later. If in case you are not very proficient at something, it is best to ask someone about how to use something more efficiently. This simple request can ensure you are improving your productivity. Another distractor at the work place is e-mail. It is prudent that you embrace e-mail as an ally rather than making it your nemesis. You can manage your email better by dividing your email into two groups – first group requiring quick responses and those needing some degree of thought. You can acknowledge the receipt of the mail for the latter, but can answer the mail after some days. And make it a point to follow through. Another tactic could be to turn off your email notifications for some time, if there is a need to focus on a specific task for 20-30 minutes without distractions. The next thing to do is to learn e-mail management from someone, who is more proficient at it. Learn about different labels, folder, filters, archives and unsubscribe lists etc will help you spend less time on emails. Taking regular breaks at work may sound counter-productive but research has shown that your consistent level of performance can be maintained while taking short breaks during long tasks. And, taking no breaks decreases your level of performance. Giving yourself a deadline helps in accomplishing the tasks quicker and lets you focus better on the task. For open ended tasks, try giving yourself a deadline and then stick to it. You may be surprised just how focused and productive you can be while watching the clock. Any task that needs less than two minutes to accomplish must be accomplished quickly without a second thought in the mind. Completing the task right-away actually takes less time than having to get back at it later. It is much common among entrepreneurs to get hung on attempting to perfect a task – the reality is nothing is ever perfect. Instead of wasting time chasing a mirage, it is realistic to complete the task to the best of your ability and move on. It is better to complete the task right away, since most times you can come back and improve on the task later. Being pro-active and not reactive helps in accomplishing more than the other way around. By responding to emails and calls for the day, you will be able to put out the fires, but that is all you will be able to do during the day. It means you get dictated by the calls and emails at all times. Instead set aside time to respond to emails, but don’t let them determine what your day is going to look like These are some of the pointers towards increasing your productivity. It is not practical to adopt each one of the points into your life. Instead find a preference for some and you could incorporate these into your life. To improve your productivity further, you could hire a Virtual Assistant (VA) from GetFriday and assign your administrative tasks to your

How to Increase Office Productivity Read More »

It is everyone’s dream to work to their optimum capacity, but there are only 24hrs in a day and in those hours, we have to maximize our efficiency. There is always a plan at the beginning of the day to maximize our productivity at work. But it just becomes a hollow plan by the end of the day. While it may not be everybody’s cup of tea to find out ways to work smarter, here is a list of strategies that will help improve productivity at work. While it may not happen that your working habits undergo a drastic change overnight, it is possible that gradual changes can add up to big changes in productivity. It is best to start with one-tip and follow it up before you can adopt next tip to your schedule. Being accountable to someone at work or announcing your targets to others helps keep you stay on track in the course of your activities and in the long run. It is best to keep in mind that we are humans and have a tendency for slip-ups. Hence, it is with this attitude you should approach productivity improvement tips. Whenever, there is a slip-up it is best to forgive yourself than to brood about it overtime which only adds up to unproductive time. You have to understand that multi-tasking is an over-used term. Studies have very clearly indicated that our brains are not equipped to multi-task and focusing on one task alone will help us accomplish much more than trying to multi-task and accomplish more. It is also seem that while multi-tasking, the brain loses its ability to be creative. The brain is like a muscle the more work we give it, the stronger the muscle is likely to become. By focusing on one single task helps you make those connections stronger. Before you leave work each day, it is best to write down, 5-6 things that you want to accomplish the following day and in a separate page write down personal errands that you would like to accomplish. Keeping the list shorter helps it keep realistic. Have a strategy while you begin each day and stick to it as far as possible. There is a theory and it states that our primal mind craves distraction especially when you are in the course of accomplishing your listed tasks. It so happens that we would turn our attention towards some easy unlisted task such as liking a picture on Facebook or spending more time jotting down the list can also be part of ‘structured procrastination’. So give yourself five-minutes or less to complete writing the list and stick to your list in hand as far as possible without getting distracted. Piles of paper lying on your desk are a sign of unfinished tasks and unorganized work. Since you are lagging behind, the remedy is to delegate the tasks. By delegating you will be able to realize your productivity goals sooner than later. If in case you are not very proficient at something, it is best to ask someone about how to use something more efficiently. This simple request can ensure you are improving your productivity. Another distractor at the work place is e-mail. It is prudent that you embrace e-mail as an ally rather than making it your nemesis. You can manage your email better by dividing your email into two groups – first group requiring quick responses and those needing some degree of thought. You can acknowledge the receipt of the mail for the latter, but can answer the mail after some days. And make it a point to follow through. Another tactic could be to turn off your email notifications for some time, if there is a need to focus on a specific task for 20-30 minutes without distractions. The next thing to do is to learn e-mail management from someone, who is more proficient at it. Learn about different labels, folder, filters, archives and unsubscribe lists etc will help you spend less time on emails. Taking regular breaks at work may sound counter-productive but research has shown that your consistent level of performance can be maintained while taking short breaks during long tasks. And, taking no breaks decreases your level of performance. Giving yourself a deadline helps in accomplishing the tasks quicker and lets you focus better on the task. For open ended tasks, try giving yourself a deadline and then stick to it. You may be surprised just how focused and productive you can be while watching the clock. Any task that needs less than two minutes to accomplish must be accomplished quickly without a second thought in the mind. Completing the task right-away actually takes less time than having to get back at it later. It is much common among entrepreneurs to get hung on attempting to perfect a task – the reality is nothing is ever perfect. Instead of wasting time chasing a mirage, it is realistic to complete the task to the best of your ability and move on. It is better to complete the task right away, since most times you can come back and improve on the task later. Being pro-active and not reactive helps in accomplishing more than the other way around. By responding to emails and calls for the day, you will be able to put out the fires, but that is all you will be able to do during the day. It means you get dictated by the calls and emails at all times. Instead set aside time to respond to emails, but don’t let them determine what your day is going to look like These are some of the pointers towards increasing your productivity. It is not practical to adopt each one of the points into your life. Instead find a preference for some and you could incorporate these into your life. To improve your productivity further, you could hire a Virtual Assistant (VA) from GetFriday and assign your administrative tasks to your

Making up your mind for hiring a VA

In a perfect world, you could be doing everything on your own and waiting for things to turn your way. However, in reality it is not the case. We cannot manage everything on our own and need help. The books you read about from outsourcing might suggest great things about working with from virtual assistants and they are not wrong. Virtual assistants can definitely help in the regular administrative tasks, while you focus on high value tasks, that only you can do. This article seeks to tell you how to get over your apprehensions before hiring a VA: Does the VA have enough experience to handle all my tasks? You can gauge this by asking the VA for a one -on- one interview. Having worked before as VA gives him/ her definite advantage over others. If he/she is into freelancing, there would be other clients, whom she would be freelancing. This need not be a stumbling block because if the VA is confident of executing all your tasks, it is essential that you validate her skillset in a trial period to test her skill sets and capabilities. And, if he/she is working for a company, he/she would be supported by the entire team if the need arises. So, in all the above cases, it is definite that the hiring a VA comes with its fair share of advantages. Does the VA have experience in a specific domain to help you out? Most VA’s are “Jack of all trades and master of none”. VAs are trained to handle all kinds of tasks without getting limited to a defined domain. However, there can be VAs with specific domain experience from previous jobs, which encouraged them to take up VA work in a specific domain. For instance, you will find VAs who work only in the field of web designing or as social media experts. Either, way it is a win-win situation. A VA with generic experience will be able to handle most generic things that do not require deep domain knowledge or skill. On the other hand, the VA with specific domain expertise would bring in a wealth of experience, which needs to be put to the right use by you when employing him/her. Is it affordable to hire a VA? Consider a simple equation to understand this better – if your time is worth $100/hr and you could be paying your assistant about $20/hr, the ROI on the transaction is $80/hr. It turns out, it is not an additional cost, but an additional revenue for the business., Imagine if you find a VA for let’s say $15/hr. Being able to reduce your administrative tasks and able to devote your time to grow your business makes it really necessary to hire a VA. Secondly, if the VA comes from a developed country, chances are that the service would be expensive. But, for an Asian country such as India or Philippines , due to the difference in the dollar exchange rate, it would turn out to be quite cheaper. Do I hire employees or manage VAs? The answer is really a no-brainer. There are businesses which are in a hurry to hire employees and later repent it. After the hires do not go in their favour, they can turn into a financial burden if you happen to hire employees soon.The advantages of hiring a VA and an employee has been listed out: There is a training period for the employee, which is comparatively less for a VA   It is easy to let go a VA compared to a regular employee.   Most times, businesses don’t hire part-time, but VAs can be hired part time.   Will I remain ‘in control’ of my business with a VA by my side? This again stems from the fact that unless you do everything in your office, you are not in control. Getting a VA and relinquishing some control would come as a welcome relief for you after hiring a VA. This would also help you create some space in your schedule and help run your business more efficiently. For example, you can cut down the time spent on replying to mails when you hire a VA. The time hence saved will be spent on finding new clients or generating new revenue streams for business. In addition, most of the tasks which your VA does on your behalf are those which are not critical or those in which you do not have expertise. With a virtual assistant taking over the basic tasks you gain more time in the day to focus on tasks that make better use of your time. Can I expect overnight turnaround in my business if I hire VAs? This thought comes from someone, who has pondered over the question for a long-time, but always was skeptical about it. Now that he has made up his mind, he looks forward to a dramatic shift in his business. The reality being, there is a lot of work that goes into accommodating VAs into organisations. From ensuring they are rightly trained, to assigning them tasks all the way to ensuring that they are the right fit for the business. It can also be said, that unless you properly spell out the instructions of the task to be done, it will be not be possible for the VA to work with his/her optimum efficiency. So, in the end it all comes down to the kind of understanding you create with your VA to make him/ her understand the needs of your business. These are some apprehensions for someone, who would like to hire a VA. And these are the tips for someone to handle those apprehensions and to comprehend them before recruiting a VA. For all you know, you could hire a VA from GetFriday, a trusted name in VA services.

Making up your mind for hiring a VA Read More »

In a perfect world, you could be doing everything on your own and waiting for things to turn your way. However, in reality it is not the case. We cannot manage everything on our own and need help. The books you read about from outsourcing might suggest great things about working with from virtual assistants and they are not wrong. Virtual assistants can definitely help in the regular administrative tasks, while you focus on high value tasks, that only you can do. This article seeks to tell you how to get over your apprehensions before hiring a VA: Does the VA have enough experience to handle all my tasks? You can gauge this by asking the VA for a one -on- one interview. Having worked before as VA gives him/ her definite advantage over others. If he/she is into freelancing, there would be other clients, whom she would be freelancing. This need not be a stumbling block because if the VA is confident of executing all your tasks, it is essential that you validate her skillset in a trial period to test her skill sets and capabilities. And, if he/she is working for a company, he/she would be supported by the entire team if the need arises. So, in all the above cases, it is definite that the hiring a VA comes with its fair share of advantages. Does the VA have experience in a specific domain to help you out? Most VA’s are “Jack of all trades and master of none”. VAs are trained to handle all kinds of tasks without getting limited to a defined domain. However, there can be VAs with specific domain experience from previous jobs, which encouraged them to take up VA work in a specific domain. For instance, you will find VAs who work only in the field of web designing or as social media experts. Either, way it is a win-win situation. A VA with generic experience will be able to handle most generic things that do not require deep domain knowledge or skill. On the other hand, the VA with specific domain expertise would bring in a wealth of experience, which needs to be put to the right use by you when employing him/her. Is it affordable to hire a VA? Consider a simple equation to understand this better – if your time is worth $100/hr and you could be paying your assistant about $20/hr, the ROI on the transaction is $80/hr. It turns out, it is not an additional cost, but an additional revenue for the business., Imagine if you find a VA for let’s say $15/hr. Being able to reduce your administrative tasks and able to devote your time to grow your business makes it really necessary to hire a VA. Secondly, if the VA comes from a developed country, chances are that the service would be expensive. But, for an Asian country such as India or Philippines , due to the difference in the dollar exchange rate, it would turn out to be quite cheaper. Do I hire employees or manage VAs? The answer is really a no-brainer. There are businesses which are in a hurry to hire employees and later repent it. After the hires do not go in their favour, they can turn into a financial burden if you happen to hire employees soon.The advantages of hiring a VA and an employee has been listed out: There is a training period for the employee, which is comparatively less for a VA   It is easy to let go a VA compared to a regular employee.   Most times, businesses don’t hire part-time, but VAs can be hired part time.   Will I remain ‘in control’ of my business with a VA by my side? This again stems from the fact that unless you do everything in your office, you are not in control. Getting a VA and relinquishing some control would come as a welcome relief for you after hiring a VA. This would also help you create some space in your schedule and help run your business more efficiently. For example, you can cut down the time spent on replying to mails when you hire a VA. The time hence saved will be spent on finding new clients or generating new revenue streams for business. In addition, most of the tasks which your VA does on your behalf are those which are not critical or those in which you do not have expertise. With a virtual assistant taking over the basic tasks you gain more time in the day to focus on tasks that make better use of your time. Can I expect overnight turnaround in my business if I hire VAs? This thought comes from someone, who has pondered over the question for a long-time, but always was skeptical about it. Now that he has made up his mind, he looks forward to a dramatic shift in his business. The reality being, there is a lot of work that goes into accommodating VAs into organisations. From ensuring they are rightly trained, to assigning them tasks all the way to ensuring that they are the right fit for the business. It can also be said, that unless you properly spell out the instructions of the task to be done, it will be not be possible for the VA to work with his/her optimum efficiency. So, in the end it all comes down to the kind of understanding you create with your VA to make him/ her understand the needs of your business. These are some apprehensions for someone, who would like to hire a VA. And these are the tips for someone to handle those apprehensions and to comprehend them before recruiting a VA. For all you know, you could hire a VA from GetFriday, a trusted name in VA services.

GetFriday Celebrated DIWALI With Pomp And Style

November 9, 2015 was the start of another power-packed, exciting week at the GetFriday office and it also happened to be a propitious day, as it welcomed one of India’s feted festivals – Diwali!   A Brief Background Diwali is celebrated across the 28 states of India because it marks the end of the vile, ‘Asura-King’ Ravana (‘Asura’ is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘Evil Soul’) and the glorious homecoming of Ayodhya’s most adored king, Lord Ram (‘Ayodhya’ is a birth place of Hindu Mythological God ‘Ram’). In a turn of unprecedented, hostile events, Lord Ram was banished to the forest for 14 years, where he, along with his brother, Lakshman and Ram’s devoted wife, Sita, spent their lives as hermits in solitude. It wasn’t long before Sita was abducted by the Asura-King. A fierce battle ensued between Ram and Ravana in the kingdom of Lanka (Now known as the country Sri Lanka), and Ram came out victorious, rescuing his wife, defeating the king and returning to his kingdom. This glorious return gave birth to the festival of Diwali and is now, celebrated around the world by Hindu communities. On this auspicious day, houses are decorated with ‘diyas’ (earthen fire lamps), embroidered with colorful floor designs, commonly known as ‘Rangoli’, with communities getting together to burst crackers, eat sweets and indulge in merrymaking. How GetFriday Celebrated ‘Diwali’ When the whole of India was gearing up for this auspicious, colorful festival and offices in Bangalore were festooned in lights, how could GetFriday be far behind? The GetFriday office celebrated the festival in pomp and style. Employees were dressed in their ethnic best on this day and the workstations were bedecked in lights, earthen lamps and floral decorations. The office was buzzing with excited employees walking into office in their new, colorful traditional wear and distributing sweets among each other. Wearing new clothes for Diwali is customary and the women employees of GetFriday engaged in excited banter and displayed their new jewelry sets and saris, among other carousing. The celebrations at GetFriday continued through the day, with a special lunch organized for the employees. This lunch consisted of all the popular delicacies from around India and a whole variety of lip-smacking sweetmeats. As twilight approached, GetFriday witnessed a dynamic “Rangoli-making” competition between the teams present. Each team was given standard pack of powdered colors and the idea was to come up with the most visually appealing, innovative Rangoli design using only those colors and nothing else! Revelry prevailed and every employee who participated in this event made sure that they put their best foot forward to make sure their Rangoli design was the best! The festivities continued well into the night-shift and these teams also competed to earn the coveted spot among the winners of the “Rangoli” competition. All in all, the day was a grand success and every employee who was present in office on this day can only agree that the Diwali celebrations uplifted their spirits and set the tone for the rest of the work week! As GetFriday employees work incessantly through the year, it is festivals such as these that give them a chance to celebrate their hard-work and efforts and offers them a well-deserved break! GetFriday is now gearing up for Thanksgiving and Christmas, with double the fun and festivities! Stay tuned to this festive feed for more fun, GetFriday updates! Cheers!

GetFriday Celebrated DIWALI With Pomp And Style Read More »

November 9, 2015 was the start of another power-packed, exciting week at the GetFriday office and it also happened to be a propitious day, as it welcomed one of India’s feted festivals – Diwali!   A Brief Background Diwali is celebrated across the 28 states of India because it marks the end of the vile, ‘Asura-King’ Ravana (‘Asura’ is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘Evil Soul’) and the glorious homecoming of Ayodhya’s most adored king, Lord Ram (‘Ayodhya’ is a birth place of Hindu Mythological God ‘Ram’). In a turn of unprecedented, hostile events, Lord Ram was banished to the forest for 14 years, where he, along with his brother, Lakshman and Ram’s devoted wife, Sita, spent their lives as hermits in solitude. It wasn’t long before Sita was abducted by the Asura-King. A fierce battle ensued between Ram and Ravana in the kingdom of Lanka (Now known as the country Sri Lanka), and Ram came out victorious, rescuing his wife, defeating the king and returning to his kingdom. This glorious return gave birth to the festival of Diwali and is now, celebrated around the world by Hindu communities. On this auspicious day, houses are decorated with ‘diyas’ (earthen fire lamps), embroidered with colorful floor designs, commonly known as ‘Rangoli’, with communities getting together to burst crackers, eat sweets and indulge in merrymaking. How GetFriday Celebrated ‘Diwali’ When the whole of India was gearing up for this auspicious, colorful festival and offices in Bangalore were festooned in lights, how could GetFriday be far behind? The GetFriday office celebrated the festival in pomp and style. Employees were dressed in their ethnic best on this day and the workstations were bedecked in lights, earthen lamps and floral decorations. The office was buzzing with excited employees walking into office in their new, colorful traditional wear and distributing sweets among each other. Wearing new clothes for Diwali is customary and the women employees of GetFriday engaged in excited banter and displayed their new jewelry sets and saris, among other carousing. The celebrations at GetFriday continued through the day, with a special lunch organized for the employees. This lunch consisted of all the popular delicacies from around India and a whole variety of lip-smacking sweetmeats. As twilight approached, GetFriday witnessed a dynamic “Rangoli-making” competition between the teams present. Each team was given standard pack of powdered colors and the idea was to come up with the most visually appealing, innovative Rangoli design using only those colors and nothing else! Revelry prevailed and every employee who participated in this event made sure that they put their best foot forward to make sure their Rangoli design was the best! The festivities continued well into the night-shift and these teams also competed to earn the coveted spot among the winners of the “Rangoli” competition. All in all, the day was a grand success and every employee who was present in office on this day can only agree that the Diwali celebrations uplifted their spirits and set the tone for the rest of the work week! As GetFriday employees work incessantly through the year, it is festivals such as these that give them a chance to celebrate their hard-work and efforts and offers them a well-deserved break! GetFriday is now gearing up for Thanksgiving and Christmas, with double the fun and festivities! Stay tuned to this festive feed for more fun, GetFriday updates! Cheers!

Industry News: Emerging Education Trends in Australia

The education industry is seen by governments around the globe as an increasing contributor to a country’s national wealth and economic development. This blog details the most significant emerging trends in the education landscape in Australia and how it is becoming the most preferred choice for international students at the Bachelor’s Pass level, Master’s Coursework and Master’s Research level. Statistics published by the Australian Government Department of Education and Learning show that the highest number of students arriving in Australia for higher education come from South-East and Central Asia; particularly, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and India. The reports show that there has been a major leap in the influx of Indian students coming into the country for higher education, with a staggering 47.6% increase from the year 2013. This makes India one of the largest exporters of international students, following China and followed by Malaysia. Though Iraq, Egypt and Nepal don’t fall under the top 5 countries that have outbound mobile students to Australia; all three countries have shown a relatively significant increase in the number of students between the years 2013 at 2014, with figures at 51.8%, 40% and 33.8%, respectively. There are plenty of reasons for these hefty figures and a growing international student population in Australia, apart from Australia being sunny all year round – Australia promises ‘world-class education’ to students across the world with eight of the country’s universities being listed in the top 100 universities around the world and 5 of Australia’s cities being listed under the to 15 student-friendly cities around the world. Another major reason as to why there is major crusade of Chinese, Indian and other international students’ movie to Australia, is because tuitions and cost-of-living fees are relatively cheaper than universities in the United States and United Kingdom (being the second most popular choice for overseas students). A high proportion of graduates secure employment in the Australian job market and also transition from the ‘fast-track’ option to ‘permanent residence’ within a short span of time. To add to the long list of benefits, Australia’s English language requirements (IELTS, TOEFL) for universities have been relaxed and institutions now allow the partners/spouses of the applicants to apply along and secure places in institutes or vocational courses quickly and without difficulty. Fig.1 – Pie chart showing Percentage increase (from 2013-2014) in the number of overseas students coming from the top 5 nationalities studying in Australia Here are other interesting statistics about the choice of courses for international students as per trends observed and published by the Australian Government department of Education and Learning, in 2013 and 2014 – The top 3 subject choices for higher study in Australia are Management and Commerce, Engineering and Related Technology and Information Technology at the Bachelor’s Pass level. This is followed by a second category of popular courses that include Health, Society and Culture and other non-award courses at the Bachelors and Masters (by Coursework) levels. Engineering and Related technologies has seen a whopping 4987% leap from 2013 to 2014 at the Bachelor’s Pass level, because the job market for Engineers in Australia has doubled over the past year and has opened portals to more lucrative opportunities to overseas students. In the year 2013, a total of 84 students had taken up the subject, whilst in 2014, the same course received 4273 international students. Management and Commerce at the Doctorate (by Research) level has shown a stark increase of 368% of students from the year 2013 to 2014. Also, in the year 2014 alone, a total of 89,868 international students took up the subject at the Bachelor’s Pass level and 60,334 took up the course at the Masters (By Coursework) level, making Management and Commerce one of the most popular choices for study among international students. Though Creative Arts doesn’t have a very high cumulative total of overseas students, it has seen a major leap of 630% from the year 2013 to 2014 at the Bachelor’s Entry level. According to statistics, there was a summative figure of 30 students for the course in 2013. The year 2014 had as much as 219 students for the same course, indicating a growth in the popularity of the ‘Creative Arts’ field. A relatively medium chasm remains between male and female student rates in Australia. 2013 showed that there was a total of 1, 68,089 males while there were 1,60,313 females for the same year. There has been a 7.4% increase since, in the number of males opting for higher education in Australia in 2014, with a corresponding, 4.1% increase in the number of female students. “It is predicted that within the next decade, Australia is going to have the largest percentage of inbound international students, particularly from China and India and followed by Malaysia, Nepal and Saudi Arabia between 000’s-020” – Britishcouncil.Org   This is further exemplified by the bar chart below – With the statistics listed above, take a look at the top 10 universities in Australia that are attracting foreign students for 2013-2014 – 1. RMIT University 2. Monash University 3. The University of Melbourne 4. Curtin University of Technology 5. Non University Higher Education Institutions (Victoria) 6. University of Sydney 7. The University of New South Wales 8. University of Wollongong 9. Non University Higher Education Institutions (New South Wales) 10. The University of Queensland This is the first of the many detailed studies that we will be publishing about the trends in Education Sectors around the world. While this one focused on the emerging education trends in Australia, there will be more articles on the education trends on other countries in the upcoming weeks. Stay connected with GetFriday for more such interesting insights and follow us on our social media sites for further updates!  

Industry News: Emerging Education Trends in Australia Read More »

The education industry is seen by governments around the globe as an increasing contributor to a country’s national wealth and economic development. This blog details the most significant emerging trends in the education landscape in Australia and how it is becoming the most preferred choice for international students at the Bachelor’s Pass level, Master’s Coursework and Master’s Research level. Statistics published by the Australian Government Department of Education and Learning show that the highest number of students arriving in Australia for higher education come from South-East and Central Asia; particularly, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and India. The reports show that there has been a major leap in the influx of Indian students coming into the country for higher education, with a staggering 47.6% increase from the year 2013. This makes India one of the largest exporters of international students, following China and followed by Malaysia. Though Iraq, Egypt and Nepal don’t fall under the top 5 countries that have outbound mobile students to Australia; all three countries have shown a relatively significant increase in the number of students between the years 2013 at 2014, with figures at 51.8%, 40% and 33.8%, respectively. There are plenty of reasons for these hefty figures and a growing international student population in Australia, apart from Australia being sunny all year round – Australia promises ‘world-class education’ to students across the world with eight of the country’s universities being listed in the top 100 universities around the world and 5 of Australia’s cities being listed under the to 15 student-friendly cities around the world. Another major reason as to why there is major crusade of Chinese, Indian and other international students’ movie to Australia, is because tuitions and cost-of-living fees are relatively cheaper than universities in the United States and United Kingdom (being the second most popular choice for overseas students). A high proportion of graduates secure employment in the Australian job market and also transition from the ‘fast-track’ option to ‘permanent residence’ within a short span of time. To add to the long list of benefits, Australia’s English language requirements (IELTS, TOEFL) for universities have been relaxed and institutions now allow the partners/spouses of the applicants to apply along and secure places in institutes or vocational courses quickly and without difficulty. Fig.1 – Pie chart showing Percentage increase (from 2013-2014) in the number of overseas students coming from the top 5 nationalities studying in Australia Here are other interesting statistics about the choice of courses for international students as per trends observed and published by the Australian Government department of Education and Learning, in 2013 and 2014 – The top 3 subject choices for higher study in Australia are Management and Commerce, Engineering and Related Technology and Information Technology at the Bachelor’s Pass level. This is followed by a second category of popular courses that include Health, Society and Culture and other non-award courses at the Bachelors and Masters (by Coursework) levels. Engineering and Related technologies has seen a whopping 4987% leap from 2013 to 2014 at the Bachelor’s Pass level, because the job market for Engineers in Australia has doubled over the past year and has opened portals to more lucrative opportunities to overseas students. In the year 2013, a total of 84 students had taken up the subject, whilst in 2014, the same course received 4273 international students. Management and Commerce at the Doctorate (by Research) level has shown a stark increase of 368% of students from the year 2013 to 2014. Also, in the year 2014 alone, a total of 89,868 international students took up the subject at the Bachelor’s Pass level and 60,334 took up the course at the Masters (By Coursework) level, making Management and Commerce one of the most popular choices for study among international students. Though Creative Arts doesn’t have a very high cumulative total of overseas students, it has seen a major leap of 630% from the year 2013 to 2014 at the Bachelor’s Entry level. According to statistics, there was a summative figure of 30 students for the course in 2013. The year 2014 had as much as 219 students for the same course, indicating a growth in the popularity of the ‘Creative Arts’ field. A relatively medium chasm remains between male and female student rates in Australia. 2013 showed that there was a total of 1, 68,089 males while there were 1,60,313 females for the same year. There has been a 7.4% increase since, in the number of males opting for higher education in Australia in 2014, with a corresponding, 4.1% increase in the number of female students. “It is predicted that within the next decade, Australia is going to have the largest percentage of inbound international students, particularly from China and India and followed by Malaysia, Nepal and Saudi Arabia between 000’s-020” – Britishcouncil.Org   This is further exemplified by the bar chart below – With the statistics listed above, take a look at the top 10 universities in Australia that are attracting foreign students for 2013-2014 – 1. RMIT University 2. Monash University 3. The University of Melbourne 4. Curtin University of Technology 5. Non University Higher Education Institutions (Victoria) 6. University of Sydney 7. The University of New South Wales 8. University of Wollongong 9. Non University Higher Education Institutions (New South Wales) 10. The University of Queensland This is the first of the many detailed studies that we will be publishing about the trends in Education Sectors around the world. While this one focused on the emerging education trends in Australia, there will be more articles on the education trends on other countries in the upcoming weeks. Stay connected with GetFriday for more such interesting insights and follow us on our social media sites for further updates!  

GetFriday Newsletter – GetFriday Turns 10!

GetFriday completed it 10 years of existence in the Virtual Assistance Industry in August 2015. This is a huge milestone to achieve for us and on this joyful occasion of turning 10; Team Get Friday would like to thank you all. You are the clients believing in our abilities and supporting us for very long time; we owe it all to our clients and the strong bonds we have fostered through time. Through the course of these 10 years, GetFriday has seen its share of ups and downs, but thankfully, we have had more ups than downs. For 10 years, GetFriday has helped offload tasks for more than 13,000 clients around 60 countries with its personal virtual assistance services. A lot has changed and we are now slowly evolving to be a business support service from virtual assistance support. The competition has been tough. Many of our competitors have disappeared and others are stuck in middle age blues. Our steadfast focus on learning from our customers has enabled us to survive and flourish for a decade now. We believe, GetFriday has gone on to bring about a positive change in the lives of all its clients, no matter how small or big the task outsourced. During a time when personal virtual assistance services were literally unheard of, GetFriday sprang up in 2005 as the sister concern of YMII (Your Man In India) and began offering personal, administrative, secretarial and specialized services to clients, virtually. The success of our venture, which began way back in 2005, was featured and documented in the best-selling book, “4 Hour Work Week” authored by Tim Ferris, in 2007. Within just a span of 2 years, GetFriday achieved so success and acclaim and carved its place as an indomitable player in the market of virtual assistance services. As a celebration of our successful 10-year run and for having been associated with us during our incredible journey, we are going to run a year-long campaign with oodles of benefits and exciting offers for our wide client-base.

GetFriday Newsletter – GetFriday Turns 10! Read More »

GetFriday completed it 10 years of existence in the Virtual Assistance Industry in August 2015. This is a huge milestone to achieve for us and on this joyful occasion of turning 10; Team Get Friday would like to thank you all. You are the clients believing in our abilities and supporting us for very long time; we owe it all to our clients and the strong bonds we have fostered through time. Through the course of these 10 years, GetFriday has seen its share of ups and downs, but thankfully, we have had more ups than downs. For 10 years, GetFriday has helped offload tasks for more than 13,000 clients around 60 countries with its personal virtual assistance services. A lot has changed and we are now slowly evolving to be a business support service from virtual assistance support. The competition has been tough. Many of our competitors have disappeared and others are stuck in middle age blues. Our steadfast focus on learning from our customers has enabled us to survive and flourish for a decade now. We believe, GetFriday has gone on to bring about a positive change in the lives of all its clients, no matter how small or big the task outsourced. During a time when personal virtual assistance services were literally unheard of, GetFriday sprang up in 2005 as the sister concern of YMII (Your Man In India) and began offering personal, administrative, secretarial and specialized services to clients, virtually. The success of our venture, which began way back in 2005, was featured and documented in the best-selling book, “4 Hour Work Week” authored by Tim Ferris, in 2007. Within just a span of 2 years, GetFriday achieved so success and acclaim and carved its place as an indomitable player in the market of virtual assistance services. As a celebration of our successful 10-year run and for having been associated with us during our incredible journey, we are going to run a year-long campaign with oodles of benefits and exciting offers for our wide client-base.

GetFriday Newsletter – GetFriday’s Independence Day Celebrations!

August 15th, 2015 marked the beginning of the 69th year of India as an independent nation and the employees at GetFriday welcomed this momentous occasion with pomp and style. Each year, the Independence Day celebrations at GetFriday evoke the feelings of pride and love and people, no matter caste, creed, or religion, are awash with patriotism in in their hearts. This year too, was no exception. Right from the start of the day, all the way till midnight, each employee contributed to the celebrations in their own way and brought out the best of their cultures to the workplace. The office was decorated with balloons, flags and confetti and people walked in wearing the tricolors of the Indian flag on their clothes with pride and were seen flashing Indian wrist-bands, Indian flag badges and even painted the Indian flag as tattoos on their faces! Such was the air of nationalism at the cheerful GetFriday office during the Independence Day celebrations. Colorful saris, stately attires and unique jewelry were adorned for this occasion and each employee looked their Indian-best! GetFriday employees have been working round the clock and through the year tirelessly. Events such as these at the work place gives employees a chance to let their hair down, have some fun and bond with each other. In honor of this momentous occasion, two separate cultural events took place for the employees working in the day shift and the night shift. Revelry prevailed and every employee put their heart and soul into make the cultural events a grand success. The action-packed event began with fun games and an invocatory song and dance. This was followed by teams putting their sweat and blood into the collage-making activity, socially-driven street plays and a grand fashion show competition that displayed the rich culture and heritage of the different states of India. The celebrations at the GetFriday office in Bangalore lasted through the night and will go down as one of the most memorable events for the year 2015. Independence Day celebrations will remain etched in the hearts and minds of employees for years to come and promises to be bigger and better the next year! Here’s to our incredible India and here’s to more such wonderful occasions!

GetFriday Newsletter – GetFriday’s Independence Day Celebrations! Read More »

August 15th, 2015 marked the beginning of the 69th year of India as an independent nation and the employees at GetFriday welcomed this momentous occasion with pomp and style. Each year, the Independence Day celebrations at GetFriday evoke the feelings of pride and love and people, no matter caste, creed, or religion, are awash with patriotism in in their hearts. This year too, was no exception. Right from the start of the day, all the way till midnight, each employee contributed to the celebrations in their own way and brought out the best of their cultures to the workplace. The office was decorated with balloons, flags and confetti and people walked in wearing the tricolors of the Indian flag on their clothes with pride and were seen flashing Indian wrist-bands, Indian flag badges and even painted the Indian flag as tattoos on their faces! Such was the air of nationalism at the cheerful GetFriday office during the Independence Day celebrations. Colorful saris, stately attires and unique jewelry were adorned for this occasion and each employee looked their Indian-best! GetFriday employees have been working round the clock and through the year tirelessly. Events such as these at the work place gives employees a chance to let their hair down, have some fun and bond with each other. In honor of this momentous occasion, two separate cultural events took place for the employees working in the day shift and the night shift. Revelry prevailed and every employee put their heart and soul into make the cultural events a grand success. The action-packed event began with fun games and an invocatory song and dance. This was followed by teams putting their sweat and blood into the collage-making activity, socially-driven street plays and a grand fashion show competition that displayed the rich culture and heritage of the different states of India. The celebrations at the GetFriday office in Bangalore lasted through the night and will go down as one of the most memorable events for the year 2015. Independence Day celebrations will remain etched in the hearts and minds of employees for years to come and promises to be bigger and better the next year! Here’s to our incredible India and here’s to more such wonderful occasions!

ITC e-choupal

Internet’s role in economic progress; India

Can the Internet make a difference in a country like India that has 37 percent of its 1.2 billion population living below the poverty line? According to the Indian Planning Commission (govt. body that sets India’s economic policy) the poverty line for the nation’s cities was 578 rupees ($12.75) per person a month. For rural India, it’s even lower at about 450 rupees ($9.93) per month. The World Bank global poverty line, at $1.25 a day or about $38 per month, is three times higher than India’s urban level. In this context, does having the Internet or not having it, make any difference to the common man or people living in abject poverty? While it is appears that the statistics make the Internet look inconsequential to people living below the poverty line, there certainly is more than a glimmer of hope. One of the earliest Internet based initiatives (launched in 2000) in the rural sector that found success was the e-choupal from ITC. Prior to that, farmers in rural markets were deprived of market information and were forced to sell their produce through middleman at ‘mandis‘ (indian term for agri markets). ITC empowered farmers by setting up internet kiosks in villages that enabled access to real time market price info for their farm produce. ITC (that required the farm produce) benefited from making their supply chain more efficient through direct buying from farmers. Since then 6,500 e-choupals across 40,000 villages have empowered more than 4 million farmers in 10 different states. A clear case that grass roots application of technology can make a huge difference in the lives of people. ITC, incidentally started life as the Imperial Tobacco Company (sharing ancestry with Imperial Tobacco, UK) and then was known as the Indian Tobacco Company before being rechristened as ITC. They took their rechristening quite seriously and worked on changing their portfolio and becoming one of the most respected firms in the area of CSR. There are many more companies like Bharti, HUL, Tatas and foreign firms such as Google and Microsoft that are trying to make a difference in this space. Unfortunately, all their work put together will only amount to a drop in the ocean due to the vast expanse of India’s rural landscape. Recently the Govt. seems to have woken up and is coming up with an ambitious plan to connect 160 million Indians with high speed internet by 2014. Only time will tell whether they will succeed or allow India to fall way behind the other BRIC nations in terms of Internet connectivity. Watch the video and read Moska Najib‘s report for BBC “Bringing the Internet to Rural India’s business community“. If there are still lingering doubts on whether the Internet can play a role. Have no doubts, it certainly can; in education, tele-medicine and micro finance. Looking at this 2008 report “Internet changing life in Bihar & Orissa villages” by Nilanjana Bose for CNN-IBN it is clear that there is no dearth of ingenious ideas (DakNet) for using technology (wi-fi and wi-max) to connect villages that were hitherto unconnected. You can also see how the spread of knowledge and skills happens so fast with the Net that people can be trained to become employable with some efforts (in areas that don’t hinge on how well you speak English). And with connectivity, knowledge and awareness of opportunities improve and with it, lives of people are expected to improve. Speaking from our own personal experience at GetFriday, a significant number of our employees are from tier-II towns and rural centers. Some of them would not have stepped out of their towns all through their lives. But with a little bit of skill development and training, these same people manage to cut across cultural barriers, develop personal relationships with their clients and handle work across the globe. It is just amazing that very many innovations and ideas would not have been possible without the Internet. Knowledge is awareness and awareness empowers people. In a bid to create social uplift through entrepreneurship, good friend and veteran of the Indian IT industry, Dr Sridhar Mitta created a social entrepreneurship firm “NextWealth“. The idea is to provide IT and BPO services for the Indian domestic market through partnering with entrepreneurs who run centers that locally employ people in rural markets. Here is a Knowledge@Wharton report on this innovative concept. Arogyaswami J Paulraj, a professor emeritus of electrical engineering at Stanford University, says Mitta and his team are on the right track. “Offering employment opportunities to segments of population that have been locked out so far will make India more competitive in an increasingly tougher world market for IT services.” The social impact, Paulraj adds, will be to “improve wealth distribution and reduce migration to larger cities.” If the Govt. does its bit then technology can be real game changer for improvement of society. Especially in places like rural India or sub-Saharan Africa. Sunder P CEO All rights to contents referenced in this article belong to the respective copyright owners.

Internet’s role in economic progress; India Read More »

Can the Internet make a difference in a country like India that has 37 percent of its 1.2 billion population living below the poverty line? According to the Indian Planning Commission (govt. body that sets India’s economic policy) the poverty line for the nation’s cities was 578 rupees ($12.75) per person a month. For rural India, it’s even lower at about 450 rupees ($9.93) per month. The World Bank global poverty line, at $1.25 a day or about $38 per month, is three times higher than India’s urban level. In this context, does having the Internet or not having it, make any difference to the common man or people living in abject poverty? While it is appears that the statistics make the Internet look inconsequential to people living below the poverty line, there certainly is more than a glimmer of hope. One of the earliest Internet based initiatives (launched in 2000) in the rural sector that found success was the e-choupal from ITC. Prior to that, farmers in rural markets were deprived of market information and were forced to sell their produce through middleman at ‘mandis‘ (indian term for agri markets). ITC empowered farmers by setting up internet kiosks in villages that enabled access to real time market price info for their farm produce. ITC (that required the farm produce) benefited from making their supply chain more efficient through direct buying from farmers. Since then 6,500 e-choupals across 40,000 villages have empowered more than 4 million farmers in 10 different states. A clear case that grass roots application of technology can make a huge difference in the lives of people. ITC, incidentally started life as the Imperial Tobacco Company (sharing ancestry with Imperial Tobacco, UK) and then was known as the Indian Tobacco Company before being rechristened as ITC. They took their rechristening quite seriously and worked on changing their portfolio and becoming one of the most respected firms in the area of CSR. There are many more companies like Bharti, HUL, Tatas and foreign firms such as Google and Microsoft that are trying to make a difference in this space. Unfortunately, all their work put together will only amount to a drop in the ocean due to the vast expanse of India’s rural landscape. Recently the Govt. seems to have woken up and is coming up with an ambitious plan to connect 160 million Indians with high speed internet by 2014. Only time will tell whether they will succeed or allow India to fall way behind the other BRIC nations in terms of Internet connectivity. Watch the video and read Moska Najib‘s report for BBC “Bringing the Internet to Rural India’s business community“. If there are still lingering doubts on whether the Internet can play a role. Have no doubts, it certainly can; in education, tele-medicine and micro finance. Looking at this 2008 report “Internet changing life in Bihar & Orissa villages” by Nilanjana Bose for CNN-IBN it is clear that there is no dearth of ingenious ideas (DakNet) for using technology (wi-fi and wi-max) to connect villages that were hitherto unconnected. You can also see how the spread of knowledge and skills happens so fast with the Net that people can be trained to become employable with some efforts (in areas that don’t hinge on how well you speak English). And with connectivity, knowledge and awareness of opportunities improve and with it, lives of people are expected to improve. Speaking from our own personal experience at GetFriday, a significant number of our employees are from tier-II towns and rural centers. Some of them would not have stepped out of their towns all through their lives. But with a little bit of skill development and training, these same people manage to cut across cultural barriers, develop personal relationships with their clients and handle work across the globe. It is just amazing that very many innovations and ideas would not have been possible without the Internet. Knowledge is awareness and awareness empowers people. In a bid to create social uplift through entrepreneurship, good friend and veteran of the Indian IT industry, Dr Sridhar Mitta created a social entrepreneurship firm “NextWealth“. The idea is to provide IT and BPO services for the Indian domestic market through partnering with entrepreneurs who run centers that locally employ people in rural markets. Here is a Knowledge@Wharton report on this innovative concept. Arogyaswami J Paulraj, a professor emeritus of electrical engineering at Stanford University, says Mitta and his team are on the right track. “Offering employment opportunities to segments of population that have been locked out so far will make India more competitive in an increasingly tougher world market for IT services.” The social impact, Paulraj adds, will be to “improve wealth distribution and reduce migration to larger cities.” If the Govt. does its bit then technology can be real game changer for improvement of society. Especially in places like rural India or sub-Saharan Africa. Sunder P CEO All rights to contents referenced in this article belong to the respective copyright owners.

Dhinesh Kumar - Get Friday

Our Stars of Last Quarter

““Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well” – Voltaire (French philosopher). And what good is appreciation that is not delivered openly. Now that we are back to being active on the blog, we decided to showcase the Star Employees of the last quarter on this wonderful platform. They put in their best efforts towards their work, exceeded their targets while also delivering near impeccable service to their external and internal clients. The deserving winners of this award were: 1) Dhinesh Kumar (Virtual Assistant – Team EST) 2) Karthik K (Virtual Assistant – Team PAYG) 3) Adarsh Paul (Research Assistant – Team EST) 4) Saladi Sriram (Executive – Team MIS) I wanted to profile them and sent out a bunch of questions and received some prompt and honest replies. One common thread I could see in all of them was their matter-of-fact humility and pride in their work. Here we go, let’s find out more about them. ——— Dhinesh Kumar (A very enthusiastic person with a zest for hard work) Hails from Pollachi a small town in Coimbatore District, Tamilnadu. He has a B.Sc in Maths from Texcity College. Has a lot of passion towards travel, music and food. Started his career working as an online tutor for math with an online tutoring company Planetutor based at Coimbatore, then joined GetFriday in the month of April 2010. 1) How do you feel getting this recognition? I am feeling great after getting such a good recognition from the CEO of my company. 2) What is the thing you like most about your work and why? I like the support that I receive from my fellow colleagues at work in getting things done, as and when I need help. 3) What is the most diffiult part of your job? Why? I find it difficult when my clients turn inactive. My worries do increase. 4) Which was your greatest moment at work? The greatest moment is when our RAs (Research Assistants) understand my instructions on a task (the way I understood it) and give a 100% correct result. 5) If there was a message that you would love to send to all your clients, what would it be? I would like to thank all my clients for their support, guidance and their clear cut instructions. Am also glad to share this happiest moment with them. 6) If there is something you want to share with your co-workers today, what would it be? “Hard work will be recognized” A Hearty Thanks to all my colleagues, TL’s and my manager for their support. 7) How would you describe yourself in 3 simple words. Motivated, Enthusiastic, Hardworking ———– Karthik K (Always ready to make a conversation and very diligent at his work) Hails from Madurai (city with a 2500 year old cultural heritage) in the state of Tamilnadu, India. A graduate in science. Was working in BPOs for the past 4 years in technical and customer support position. Likes to speak a lot and is keen on learning technical things. Loves to play shuttle badminton and carrom. 1) How do you feel getting this recognition? I am very happy about the recognition I got for my hard work. 2) What is the thing you like most about your work and why? Different tasks and different clients everyday, give me a better understanding about life in general, and also the nature of my work. 3) What is the most difficult part of your job? Why? Understanding some tasks where I don’t have any idea or prior experience. 4) Which was your greatest moment at work? (this recognition apart) First appreciation email given by my client Oliver Wolf for an ongoing task. 5) If there was a message that you would love to send to all your clients, what would it be? I always used to send my clients some inspirational quotes which I liked. I believe those quotes are my messages to my clients. 6) If there is something you want to share with your co-workers today, what would it be? Don’t care much about recognition. If we do our work with love and understanding, it will follow us. 7) How would you describe yourself in 3 simple words. Understand the nature, Love the need, and Observe the position. ———- Adarsh Paul (Cryptic and to the point, this soft spoken guy is very hard working) A computer science graduate (B.Tech) from Vimal Jyothi Engineering College, Kannur in Kerala state, India. His hometown is Kannur (port city, host to the world’s third largest naval academy). Driving is his passion. 1) How do you feel getting this recognition? Surprised, because I never expected that I will achieve this. 2) What is the thing you like most about your work and why? My approach to work. I try to make my work as simple as possible. 3) What is the most difficult part of your job? Why? Understanding tasks. Because each person will have a different way of looking at things. So it is very important to make sure that you have understood the task the way the client wanted you to. 4) Which was your greatest moment at work? (this recognition apart) My first appreciation… 5) If there was a message that you would love to send to all your clients, what would it be? Thanks for being with me. 6) If there is something you want to share with your co-workers today, what would it be? Enjoy your work. 7) How would you describe yourself in 3 simple words. Simple and soft spoken ——– Saladi Sriram (A silent toiler who is ever willing to handle work with a smile) Hail from an agricultural family in Amalapuram(a scenic little town on the east coast) in Andhra Pradesh state, India. He completed his B. Tech in (Electronics & Communications) from Pondicherry University in 2008. 1) How do you feel getting this recognition? Ans:) I am happy partially. I still feel

Our Stars of Last Quarter Read More »

““Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well” – Voltaire (French philosopher). And what good is appreciation that is not delivered openly. Now that we are back to being active on the blog, we decided to showcase the Star Employees of the last quarter on this wonderful platform. They put in their best efforts towards their work, exceeded their targets while also delivering near impeccable service to their external and internal clients. The deserving winners of this award were: 1) Dhinesh Kumar (Virtual Assistant – Team EST) 2) Karthik K (Virtual Assistant – Team PAYG) 3) Adarsh Paul (Research Assistant – Team EST) 4) Saladi Sriram (Executive – Team MIS) I wanted to profile them and sent out a bunch of questions and received some prompt and honest replies. One common thread I could see in all of them was their matter-of-fact humility and pride in their work. Here we go, let’s find out more about them. ——— Dhinesh Kumar (A very enthusiastic person with a zest for hard work) Hails from Pollachi a small town in Coimbatore District, Tamilnadu. He has a B.Sc in Maths from Texcity College. Has a lot of passion towards travel, music and food. Started his career working as an online tutor for math with an online tutoring company Planetutor based at Coimbatore, then joined GetFriday in the month of April 2010. 1) How do you feel getting this recognition? I am feeling great after getting such a good recognition from the CEO of my company. 2) What is the thing you like most about your work and why? I like the support that I receive from my fellow colleagues at work in getting things done, as and when I need help. 3) What is the most diffiult part of your job? Why? I find it difficult when my clients turn inactive. My worries do increase. 4) Which was your greatest moment at work? The greatest moment is when our RAs (Research Assistants) understand my instructions on a task (the way I understood it) and give a 100% correct result. 5) If there was a message that you would love to send to all your clients, what would it be? I would like to thank all my clients for their support, guidance and their clear cut instructions. Am also glad to share this happiest moment with them. 6) If there is something you want to share with your co-workers today, what would it be? “Hard work will be recognized” A Hearty Thanks to all my colleagues, TL’s and my manager for their support. 7) How would you describe yourself in 3 simple words. Motivated, Enthusiastic, Hardworking ———– Karthik K (Always ready to make a conversation and very diligent at his work) Hails from Madurai (city with a 2500 year old cultural heritage) in the state of Tamilnadu, India. A graduate in science. Was working in BPOs for the past 4 years in technical and customer support position. Likes to speak a lot and is keen on learning technical things. Loves to play shuttle badminton and carrom. 1) How do you feel getting this recognition? I am very happy about the recognition I got for my hard work. 2) What is the thing you like most about your work and why? Different tasks and different clients everyday, give me a better understanding about life in general, and also the nature of my work. 3) What is the most difficult part of your job? Why? Understanding some tasks where I don’t have any idea or prior experience. 4) Which was your greatest moment at work? (this recognition apart) First appreciation email given by my client Oliver Wolf for an ongoing task. 5) If there was a message that you would love to send to all your clients, what would it be? I always used to send my clients some inspirational quotes which I liked. I believe those quotes are my messages to my clients. 6) If there is something you want to share with your co-workers today, what would it be? Don’t care much about recognition. If we do our work with love and understanding, it will follow us. 7) How would you describe yourself in 3 simple words. Understand the nature, Love the need, and Observe the position. ———- Adarsh Paul (Cryptic and to the point, this soft spoken guy is very hard working) A computer science graduate (B.Tech) from Vimal Jyothi Engineering College, Kannur in Kerala state, India. His hometown is Kannur (port city, host to the world’s third largest naval academy). Driving is his passion. 1) How do you feel getting this recognition? Surprised, because I never expected that I will achieve this. 2) What is the thing you like most about your work and why? My approach to work. I try to make my work as simple as possible. 3) What is the most difficult part of your job? Why? Understanding tasks. Because each person will have a different way of looking at things. So it is very important to make sure that you have understood the task the way the client wanted you to. 4) Which was your greatest moment at work? (this recognition apart) My first appreciation… 5) If there was a message that you would love to send to all your clients, what would it be? Thanks for being with me. 6) If there is something you want to share with your co-workers today, what would it be? Enjoy your work. 7) How would you describe yourself in 3 simple words. Simple and soft spoken ——– Saladi Sriram (A silent toiler who is ever willing to handle work with a smile) Hail from an agricultural family in Amalapuram(a scenic little town on the east coast) in Andhra Pradesh state, India. He completed his B. Tech in (Electronics & Communications) from Pondicherry University in 2008. 1) How do you feel getting this recognition? Ans:) I am happy partially. I still feel

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