Different Navigation on 2 new courses

We launch 2 new courses today to weekly update subscribers first and the everyone else afterwards.

Presentation Skills & Train the trainer compliment each other nicely.

However, the navigation is slightly different so this short video is a “how to”

Here is the link to the music

New Support Arrangements

We are delighted to announce the launch of our new support desk.

To log a query or enquiry with a Sharp End Training or a Learn on Demand product, please take a ticket from www.traininghelpdesk.co.uk

For a short period, you can continue to use email and phone support, but we will be removing this channel in the future.

How to turn text upside down in powerpoint

Turning text upside in powerpoint is a neat trick to be able to do. Hopefully this short video will help someone.

If it helps you, please leave a comment.

Thanks

A different approach to training needs assessment

Here is a slightly outside the box idea that we came across recently and liked (but not at first). We will tell you more about it in a moment.

But first a question
How do you currently carry out your training needs assessments?

(Assuming you don’t do it online) You probably have a meeting with the staff member concerned. Maybe annually, maybe every 6 months. Maybe in conjunction with an appraisal or similar, you ask the staff member how its going and fill in a form of some sort.

The result for the staff member
A completed form which they have struggled to fill something in because they didn’t understand it or didn’t want to have to “defend” it at a meeting.

The results for you
(Depending on how many staff you supervise) a frazzled few days where you carry out a lot of meetings, feeling completely shattered by the end of it AND have a pile of normal work to catch up on.

But is there an alternative?

Maybe, but first, think of what HMRC do with tax returns, think of what happens if someone is off sick (for the first few days anyway), even, think of what is starting to happen at the humble swimming gala - where swimmers count their own lengths…

So why noy get staff to self certify their training needs?

Staff are much more likely to be forthcoming if they don’t have a slightly artificial meeting.

It will save A LOT of management time and be a good way to build trust between managers and staff.

Does this sound too “far out” for you?

It did for us at first..

If anyone has any thoughts, please leave a comment. If there is enough interest, we will design a “training self cert form” for you to use (free of course…)

But is there an alternative?

What is failure demand?

Two key terms are becoming increasing common in these cost conscious and efficiency minded times.

Value demand & failure demand

VALUE Demand:
Value demand is demand for a service, created by the customer when they need something, for example:

“Can you let me know what time the next train to Leeds leaves & which platform?”

Some value demand is hidden because its what a business does every day.

For example, people expect the Council to empty their bin every week – they don’t have to ask for this to be done

… But what if it doesn’t happen? Then it becomes “failure demand”

What is Failure Demand?
FAILURE Demand:

Failure demand (sometimes called failure driven demand) is demand when an organisation fails to do what the customer expects, or fails to do something how, or when, the customer expects it, for example:

“You didn’t deliver my new fridge when you said you would.”

“I asked for a claim form last week, but I’ve not received one.” or, less obviously:

“I’ve received a letter from you, but I don’t understand it and I’m not sure what to do!”

if the Council had done what the Customer expected - that is emptied their bin
or the delivery men done what they had promised - delivered the new fridge
or the authour been more thoughtful in the wording of the letter;

…then the Customer wouldn’t have had to make extra contact;

the action (or failure of action) created failure demand from the Customer!

Why Does Understanding the Difference Matter?
It is important to understand the difference between Value and Failure demand because;

Failure demand is bad for customers – they have to make contact with an organization to sort it out.

Failure demand is bad for the organisation – every time it happens time and money is spent on sorting it out

If a business doesn’t know failure demand is happening, or how often, then it will never do anything to change it!

Who Creates Value and Failure Demand in Services?
This doesn’t mean that people creating or delivering failure demand are bad people, or doing a poor job..

Failure demand normally occurs as a result of the ‘system’ within which they work – the ‘system’ is what sets the limits as to what they can do, how they can do it, when they can do it, etc

They may know that something isn’t working well, but don’t feel able to change it and have no way of showing the problem.

Gathering information on value and failure demand gives managers knowledge of its ‘systems’ and helps it to learn where the ‘systems’ may need to change

So perhaps the question should be ‘What creates?’ rather than ‘Who creates?’ failure demand!

How Can I Assess Whether its Value or Failure?

Think about what drove the customer to make this contact with you
(It’s about the cause and NOT the outcome of the contact).

This will usually be obvious when you talk to the customer to establish need, and listen to (or read) what the customer has to say.

This is the easy part…

Of course – fixing problems and identifying the causes of failure demand is usually the hard part

Weekly update subscribers will be able to access a short “value game” in next weeks email update to share with staff & help them learn to tell the difference..

How much money is spent on training

Recent figures show that companies spent £38.5 billion on staff training in 2007. The National Employer skills survey spoke to 79,000 businesses.

A total of 218 million days were spent on training.

The average money spent per employee went up 11% from 2005 from £1550 to £1750

We hope that managers, trainers and those paying the bill are confident that they have seen an improvement in business results.

New course - Final pre launch checks being made

We are putting to finishing touches to not one but two new courses.

These two courses cover an essential skill for almost any business. The courses come as a pair but each can be taken by itself.

The first one also cover perhaps the most feared of all business skills.

The second covers an essential skill which is likely to cost a business A LOT of money if they don’t have it in house.

In a break from tradition, we are giving weekly update subscribers first access to these two courses.

That is - BEFORE it goes on sale to the general public.

To make sure that you don’t miss out on this launch - just sign up to our free weekly update on the left hand side of the screen.

Existing subscribers - you don’t have to do a thing… Just wait for your free serial number to drop into your inbox…

Iceland Foods & relevant training

There was an interesting article in 26th June edition of People Management (the CIPD Magazine). It was regarding the food retailer Iceland.

In 2005, the chain employed 17,000 staff and had 23 full time training officers.

The 23 has now been reduced to just 3.

How?

The article goes on to explain how the company had a large range or courses, some of which were not relevant to business needs. It doesn’t say but I would guess these were full day, classroom training sessions which removed people from the workplace en-mass.

The group has moved towards bite sized learning and uses a more flexible network of regional trainers.

They have also invested heavily in management training. This really is key. The course called “tough talk” - for conversations about performance of staff sounds really interesting.

(As we have said before, a lot of people when they become a manager, think they just need to do their existing job better.)

As a result all staff surveys show happier staff compared to two years ago and turnover is low (thus reducing costs). The company has had an “amazing growth in sales”

Making training relevant to the needs of a business is something we have blogged about before

http://sharp-end-training.co.uk/blog/2007/11/02/more-on-running-training-like-a-business/

http://sharp-end-training.co.uk/blog/2007/10/31/running-training-like-a-business/

http://sharp-end-training.co.uk/blog/2007/04/10/developing-and-measuring-training-the-six-sigma-way/

But it is nice to see a large company like Iceland going for it and getting results.

Bomb Alert Procedures

We were out and about the other day, when the building we were in had a fire drill. Of course most people and businesses have a fire alarm test and even a fire drill once in a while.

But how many people have a bomb alert procedure?

Past readers will know how hot we are on procedures. How we think they are making time to save time.

So we decided to write a bomb alert procedure for our weekly update subscribers.

This 11 page document is completely free of charge to subscribers. It features clear plain english guidance on what to do when you receive a bomb threat. Together with printable charts and guidelines.

New subscribers, just sign up with the box on the right hand side.

Existing subscribers - just login

Add us to your contacts in googlemail

Some of our weekly update subscribers use googlemail for their email. If you do, don’t risk this valuable information being sent to your JUNK folder. This short video shows you how to add us to your CONTACTS folder.

The email address to add is [email protected]