Free training Course

Our latest course “display screen equipment risk assessments” is launched next week.

While not the most exciting subject around, this health & safety process is vital to keep staff happy, avoid accidents and make sure working areas are safe.

It is likely to be of interest to health & safety officers, union officials, managers & IT professionals.

To receive a free serial number - just make sure that you are subscribed to our weekly update by 5PM British Summer Time, 9th July 2008.

To sign up, just enter your details in the box on the left hand side of the screen.

As well as the course, you get our weekly update and access to the free subscribers only website which contains piles of training resources and downloads.

Help us - What courses do you want next?

We are looking at which courses to develop in the future and need your help.

In the right hand margin is the courses we are looking at developing.

Please “vote” for your favourite or preferred course.

You don’t have to leave your email address - voting is free. But if you subscribe to our weekly update at the same time (we can check with IP addresses!) we will send you a voucher for 75% off the cost of the course.

So go on … vote away…

A Training Ice breaker

Here’s a training ice breaker you may not have come across. This is suitable for any type of training or meeting where attendees or delegates don’t know each other and you want to lighten the atmosphere.

You will need a supply of post-it notes, small postcards or A5 sheets of paper.

Ask all delegates to take 1.

On it, they write 2 things.
Firstly, the answer to the question
“I have come today to this session because…”

and secondly, an amazing, unique or odd fact about themselves. (If they can’t think of anything, it’s OK to write what they dreamt about last night)

Put all the papers into a bag and delegates take out one (hopefully not their own)

Allow 5-10 minutes for delegates to find the person who has pulled out their paper.

Hopefully, this will lighten the mood, and encourage people to mix.

You can also ask people to write how far they travelled to the session and give a small prize to whoever has travelled the furthest/shortest and/or used environmentally friendly means of transport.

Effort driven tasks

Talking to a colleague the other day, the subject of staffing resources came up.

He wasn’t aware of the concept of effort driven tasks and non effort driven tasks.

So, for the benefit of others, here is an example.

Suppose you have a task, say moving a mound of earth from the bottom of the garden to the top. All other things being equal, the more resource allocated, the quicker it will get down.
(Resources being workers with wheel barrows, spades, protective clothing etc etc)

This is an effort driven task.

Now suppose that the task was installing a shower room in a pensioners “granny flat”. Space is likely to be cramped and there will come a limit when adding more resources is counter productive. (Mainly in this example because they will crash into each other…)

This is a non effort driven task

This principle is used extensively in project management but is worth knowing for the general manager.

Making the job easier or harder?

The HMRC lost discs

The report into last year lost discs has been published.

See the BBC report.

Most of our readers probably don’t work in organisations the size of HMRC but the lessons are there for everyone to learn.

• Poor relationship between management & staff
• Low morale
• No adequate procedures for data handling

(Incidentally - it was almost laughable to hear a junior minister on Radio 4’s "The world at 1" on Wednesday effectively say "Oh, yes, there are procedures, it’s just that no-one knew what they were")

To help with getting the message over - we have decided to make our course "The safe use of the web & email" available for just £12.99 per user until 31st July.

The course covers all aspects of using computers in the workplace including email, spyware & virus protection. It would be ideal as an induction or refresher course.

To take advantage of this offer - just contact us on 01909 772729 or email contact@(removethisforspam)sharp-end-training.co.uk

For more details of the course - visit the homepage

Display Screen Equipment Risk Assessments

Almost every office and workplace has PC’s and equipment covered under the DSE regulations.
However, most buildings were designed before the mass take up of IT. As a result, a regular risk assessment is not only a good idea but required under the regulations.

We have designed a course to walk managers and supervisors through the required steps to carry out a risk assessment.
However,final testing on this course has been delayed and we will issue further details in the next week or so.

Call that a skill?

Having carried out many recruitment activities and interviews for vacancies from clerical to managerial, we know that the most basic interview question which all candidates should have a stock answer for is:

“Tell me what skills you can bring to this position?”

Firstly, this lets us know if the person has even read the job description and secondly what they consider to be a skill.

We are constantly amazed when people say

“I can use the internet and email”

What?

Unfortunately these days that is not a skill. Most children aged 7 can use the internet – It’s that easy.

So before that important interview make a note of your skills. Give them the skills that they can use and more importantly – that no-one else has…

Travel light at Interviews

When you go for an interview what will you take with you?

This probably depends on what the interview is for – you might have to take tools or equipment to do a test for some jobs, but for most it will probably mean just a pen pencil and maybe a calculator.

At one interview session we conducted the first candidate arrived. He was laden down with briefcase, newspaper, umbrella, and raincoat along with a location map of the area.(nothing wrong with the map - you can put it away when you reach the location)

It seemed to take him about 10 minutes to get into the room and settle down, and we thought it was a wind up of some sort.

Why was all that stuff a bad idea?

At an interview you are bound to be nervous. (If you have taken our stress course you will know why) Giving yourself more stuff to carry will only increase you chances of fouling up.

So for all budding interviewees we suggest ‘Travel Light’.

Pen and pencil, calculator and note pad in hand and Qualifications if asked for.

But make sure you keep a hand free in order to shake hands as you enter.

All the rest of the stuff - leave behind…

The Data Protection Act - ? Gone mad?

There was an interesting article doing the rounds earlier this week.

Some councils are making couples sign a “fake” wedding register for the traditional wedding photograph.
This is on the grounds that other couples who have got married previously and who’s details show in the book would have privacy invaded.

The full story is here but we always thought a marriage is public (so people can go and object if they want to).

The information is publicly available for a specified period beforehand.

Maybe another case of the Data Protection going over board?

http://www.sharp-end-training.co.uk/dataprotection.html

Children learn faster with CD ROMs

Interesting article in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph pointing out that children learning languages performed better when using CD ROMs as opposed to traditional text books.
Researchers at the University of Durham analysed data of 1000 children split into 2 groups.

One group used traditional text books and the other used CD ROM’s.

The CD ROM group improved by 0.5 - 0.8 of a level compared to the text book group.

The Head Teacher said the school may look at other languages including Spanish and German.

The full story is here
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1935909/Pupils-learn-faster-with-computers.html