Train to gain underspends
The training journal has a very interesting story.
In these days when Gordon Brown & Alistair Darling are spending all their time getting us to spend more (or in the case of the banks - start spending), it seems that Train to gain can’t spend what it already has.
Train to gain is a government initiative that has been heavily promoted on TV as the one stop training solution.
We think that it is the same old, same old - with armies of bureaucrats producing endless spreadsheets and charts to justify their existence.
Where as John Seddon would put it, showing that you have hit the target becomes more of an objectives than the reasoning behind the target and the benefits you get from it.
At an event I went too recently, (sponsored by Train to Gain), the “goodie bag” included a useful highlighter pen.
Right, and this helps me train staff how…
(and no-one post a comment saying that it helps with Train to gain “branding” - Branding comes from providing a service and building a reputation - not spending money on stuff from a catalogue..)
The answer with any work related problem is rarely to just blindly throw money at it that just creates work for accountants & pen pushers.
It’s far beyond my humble status to suggest solutions for government problems but one thing is for sure “forcing” training on people via TV commercials & “useful” pens & handouts is like telling them they must have fun.
Sharp End Training - the UK's leading online training company, works with managers and trainers to get value for money from their training budget. We produce high quality, interactive online training material. Director Jonathan Senior (pictured)and his team work tirelessly to save YOU money. Try a free online training course or sign up for our weekly newsletter. Share This Filed under Press releases & news, Training | Comment (0)
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Virtual Yard Sale - Have a look
For sale are various items that I have used over the last few months and even (cough) years.
NONE have been abused & all have been stored in smoke/pet free environments.
Delivery/collection can be arranged offline but I would prefer to avoid postage because some items are very bulky/fragile.
First up is a OHP/acetate projector - Model 3M 1615. This is the “old fashioned” type acetate projector.
Don’t risk your next presentation being sabotaged by a caretaker with too much control of an LCD projector.
This has only been used a couple of times & bulbs alone for these are around £20 so make me an offer round £50-60. Below are a couple of photos showing it STILL BOXED.
Note: This projector has my name written on the inside of the machine.
Next up is a flipchart stand & virtually a full pad of paper.
This has the usual car boot/travel wear & tear but a new paper pad costs around £20 from Viking Direct.
Offers around £40 for both
Changing directing - The next item is a book - “Macromedia Robohelp x5 - skills & drills”
This is for sale on Amazon.co.uk here for £22 but £20 direct will stop amazon from taking a cut..
(Probably have some more text books shortly)
Finally, the domain name www.sillyrules.eu
This is registered at daily.co.uk & would be ideal for an anti-europe blog or political rant/satire site.
Can be moved from daily via an auth code (I can talk you through this) although it does expire on 28th February 2009
Sharp End Training - the UK's leading online training company, works with managers and trainers to get value for money from their training budget. We produce high quality, interactive online training material. Director Jonathan Senior (pictured)and his team work tirelessly to save YOU money. Try a free online training course or sign up for our weekly newsletter. Share This Filed under Press releases & news | Comment (1)
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Enforcement Training - Looking for partners
Enforcement is going to be BIG in the next few years.
The constant debate over rights & responsibilities, new powers handed to police & local authorities means that there will be large demands for training on all matters of enforcement.
Amazing, the domain enforcementtraining.com (& .co.uk) was available to register. So we did.
The term “enforcement training” receives around 700 google searches each month. (Not counting people just typing it into their browser)
We would like to meet & talk to training companies with experience of enforcement for possible joint working. Of course, you will be an expert in your particular field of enforcement. We will provide the expertise & software to convert it for online viewing.
In the first instance, please contact us via the contact form or telephone 44 1909 772729
Sharp End Training - the UK's leading online training company, works with managers and trainers to get value for money from their training budget. We produce high quality, interactive online training material. Director Jonathan Senior (pictured)and his team work tirelessly to save YOU money. Try a free online training course or sign up for our weekly newsletter. Share This Filed under Press releases & news | Comment (1)
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Do you ask staff about workflow?
I went to donate blood yesterday/ (UK readers, blood stocks are at 30% of where they should be at this time of year - so get down there…)
Anyway, when I first went in, there was a long queue with waiting times of around 40-50 minutes just to get onto the donating bed.
Went away, battled round the sales and came back to a much shorter queue.
Talking to the assistant about the queues. The laughable thing is, they know about the delays, the reasons for them AND the solution.
I won’t trouble you with the in’s and out’s of donating blood but suffice to say that the “flow” of “traffic” is roughly as follows.
1. Welcome & booking in (time spent by customer 2-3 minutes)
2. Short health questionnaire & blood test (2-3 minutes)
3. Donating bed actually giving blood (10-20 minutes)
4. Recovery on bed (2-3 minutes)
5. Recovery area (eating & drinking as much tea/coffee & biscuits as you can)
The assistant passed the time of day and we discussed the delays. We both observed that at that random moment in time, NO ONE was actually donating blood but people were still waiting.
Unless structured correctly, the longest activity will always cause the “bullwhip effect” - where longs queues and delays alternative with periods of staff inactivity & standing around.
The silly thing was, the staff knew the solution and (because Sharp End Training have done some workflow work before - it made perect sense to me)
Do YOU listen to you staff suggestions or do you just dismiss them ?
Do YOU have the monopoly on bright ideas ?
Who actually DOES the work ?
Sharp End Training - the UK's leading online training company, works with managers and trainers to get value for money from their training budget. We produce high quality, interactive online training material. Director Jonathan Senior (pictured)and his team work tirelessly to save YOU money. Try a free online training course or sign up for our weekly newsletter. Share This Filed under Management | Comments (3)
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Christmas support arrangements
Just to let everyone know that the best way of support over the Christmas holidays is via support ticket. Just go to www.traininghelpdesk.co.uk & take a ticket. Responses may be slower than usual but a response is guaranteed.
We would also like to wish all our clients, suppliers, friends & family a very happy christmas and a peaceful new year.
Sharp End Training - the UK's leading online training company, works with managers and trainers to get value for money from their training budget. We produce high quality, interactive online training material. Director Jonathan Senior (pictured)and his team work tirelessly to save YOU money. Try a free online training course or sign up for our weekly newsletter. Share This Filed under Press releases & news | Comments (2)
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Health & safety at the Christmas party
The office christmas party season is in full swing and if you haven’t had yours yet, here are a few thoughts.
Alcohol in the office - No (exception - 1 small bottle of “boring” sherry” controlled by you
Drunks in the office - (Depends if they work for you but on the whole, no)
Drunks talking to customers - Depends if that’s normal or not but not to be recommended
People sloping off for a long (liquid) lunch - Make sure they don’t come back to the office
You being a scrooge - No
You buying drink - No (buy mince pies instead..)
Oh and check this post out from a couple of years ago…
Sharp End Training - the UK's leading online training company, works with managers and trainers to get value for money from their training budget. We produce high quality, interactive online training material. Director Jonathan Senior (pictured)and his team work tirelessly to save YOU money. Try a free online training course or sign up for our weekly newsletter. Share This Filed under Management | Comment (1)
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Flash player problems?
A couple of people have contacted us recently about being unable to see courses properly (or at all infact).
Instead of seeing this
Viewers were seeing this
Obviously not good !
Anyhow - we have been working to correct these problems and *think* that all affected courses are now fixed.
If you do have any further problems, please go to this link
Test your flash player version number (it will probably be 10. something)
and then take a ticket at the training help desk with details of the course(s) affected.
Sharp End Training - the UK's leading online training company, works with managers and trainers to get value for money from their training budget. We produce high quality, interactive online training material. Director Jonathan Senior (pictured)and his team work tirelessly to save YOU money. Try a free online training course or sign up for our weekly newsletter. Share This Filed under Technical | Comment (1)
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Happy Anniversary Money Laundering Regulations
One year on many firms are still failing to comply – can on-line training provide the solution?
15th December will mark a year since the revised Money Laundering Regulations were introduced, and many UK firms are still risking significant fines and even a prison sentence by failing to prove adherence to their stringent demands.
The Treasury estimates a minimum of 100,000 businesses are affected by the law, including accountancy firms, credit and legal institutions and estate agents - indeed any organisation dealing in goods over a value of £10,000. Add to this the fact that the Proceeds of Crime Act applies equally to all businesses, whether covered by the MLR or not, and the scale of the task becomes clear.
Some organisations are simply unaware they are affected, and many more do not understand the risks they run by not complying. The legislation itself can be applied retrospectively – any future investigation can demand to see what anti money laundering systems and procedures were in place at the time of the alleged event, post December 2007. It can constitute an offence not to train relevant staff to be aware of the risks money laundering poses to their organisation and ensure they are fully equipped to detect the dangers and follow correct procedures.
Despite all this, the current economic climate means many firms are finding it problematic to dedicate funds to ensure such compliance. As is so often the case, IT can provide a simple, cost effective solution, with online courses available from just £35 – a small price to pay to enable firms to demonstrate clear evidence they have trained their staff to be fully aware of the potential impact of money laundering in their workplace.
Director of on-line training provider Sharp End Training Jonathan Senior said:
“Legislation has responded to a growing problem, however many firms are either unaware of their obligation to train their staff or concerned about expenditure. On-line training provides an efficient, cost effective solution which can be proven and audited.”
As the UK heads for recession, organisations affected by the regulations simply cannot afford to leave themselves at risk of heavy fines for non compliance.
To eliminate your company’s compliance backlog please visit www.money-laundering-training.co.uk
ends
Notes:
The Money Laundering Awareness Course covers the basics of money laundering & risk management.
There is no special software to download and because it is online, it is accessible anywhere by anyone.
The course is written in plain English to be accessible to all staff, at all levels.
Included with the course is full online management reporting to assess competencies across the team.
Sharp End Training - the UK's leading online training company, works with managers and trainers to get value for money from their training budget. We produce high quality, interactive online training material. Director Jonathan Senior (pictured)and his team work tirelessly to save YOU money. Try a free online training course or sign up for our weekly newsletter. Share This Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (1)
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New utility makes long websites short
Just a quick note about a useful website.
Often when you want to send someone a web address through an email or you want to tell them over the phone a website like
http://www.samplewebsite.com/frtdfgg?=ref=45?&password=no?username=blank
is not very helpful.
You can paste that (or any) website in
and outcomes a short one
The example above becomes
http://gvlx.com//5
Good ‘eh
(But don’t forget you need to add the http://www. at the front…
Sharp End Training - the UK's leading online training company, works with managers and trainers to get value for money from their training budget. We produce high quality, interactive online training material. Director Jonathan Senior (pictured)and his team work tirelessly to save YOU money. Try a free online training course or sign up for our weekly newsletter. Share This Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (1)
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Freedom from Command & control - John Seddon
Freedom from command and control has been around now for a few years but as part of a project only recently, it crossed our desk and we read it.
John Seddon is a vocal critic of management fads, and has advised UK Government ministers. The book is blessed by Chief Executives and Directors from places like First Direct, Cranfield School of management and Westminster police.
Anyway the book is a tour around a number of areas of management starting with Toyota & Ford and moving to modern day phenomenon like call centres & local authority performance management.
He demolishes targets in just a few pages – sometimes he actually asks managers to explain why a business or service has targets. The conversation sometimes goes like this (apologies for quoting it almost verbatim but it did make us laugh out loud.)
Senior Manager “Here’s your target”
Team leader “But how should I go about achieving it?”
Senior Manager “That’s what you get paid for, deciding how to do things”
Team Leader “So is that the sign of a good manager, someone who hits targets?”
Senior Manager “Of course”
Team Leader “So, what if people achieve their individual or team targets by doing things that are not good for the organisation overall or actually stop someone else achieving theirs?”
Senior Manager “I expect people to be sensible & work in the best interests of the company”
Team Leader “But quite often people cover up deficiencies in procedures & safety to meet targets”
Senior Manager “Give me their names”
Team Leader “Oh, I am just talking hypothetically. Anyway, aren’t you better off with individual capability measures instead of targets. Who know’s what & what’s going on in the business and then you get a discussion about best practices and what is best for the customer and the business as a whole”
Senior “Eh? People can discuss all they want. Just so long as they achieve the targets I set”
However, his real fire and venom is saved for contact centres and call centres
Seddon argues a plain and simple fact about call centre and contact centres.
Contact centres can generate piles and piles of statistics on; numbers of calls, calls per agent, calls on hold. But completely fail to work out why people call
Understanding that leads us to the break and fix method.
Customer has demand—–business understand problem—–Determine how to resolve ——respond/resolve in efficient manner
OK, so far so good, but when he talks about failure demand then it starts to click in to place.
Failure demand is customer demand caused by a failure to do something right for the customer.
The something may be turn up ontime, call back, do something anticipated or expected by the customer.
Most organisations (even customer focused ones) are “swimming in failure demand”
Fixing that will make any target setting seem futile by comparison.
Is this book a very interesting read- Yes
Will quoting Seddon and his views make you unpopular and make you sound like a smarty pants - Yes
(He has no time for quality standards, UK initiatives like investors in people IIP & chartermark so if your organisation goes in for these, this book might may you sqirm a little)
In his summing up chapter he outlines that turning off the causes of failure demand is on of the strictest economic levers available to managers.
And we thing that is something worth working for and (maybe) even being unpopular for…
Sharp End Training - the UK's leading online training company, works with managers and trainers to get value for money from their training budget. We produce high quality, interactive online training material. Director Jonathan Senior (pictured)and his team work tirelessly to save YOU money. Try a free online training course or sign up for our weekly newsletter. Share This Filed under Book reviews | Comment (1)
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