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

Free training - Deadline extended

Final testing of our latest course “managing violence at work” is well underway and we have decided to extend the deadline for signing up to receive free access. Remember, to get free access to this online training, just sign up to our weekly enewsletter.

Serial numbers are ONLY available to subscribers and the course will then go on sale to individuals and businesses in a week or so.

You can subscribe to our weekly newsletter by putting you email address in the floating window that appeared when this page loaded or the box in the top corner of the screen.

You will then be subscribed and your serial number will be sent out in the weekly update.

PS Don’t forget that subscribers have unlimited access to the subscribers only website training-subscribers.info and the user name and password is in the welcome email.

Free Training Course

At the moment, we are putting the finishing touches to a brand new course “Violence at work”. While all workplaces are different and giving advice is next to impossible, this course covers the basics of the management of workplace violence. The course is delivered online straight to your computer and features interactive graphics and high quality photographs (not cheap and nasty clipart).

Subscribers to our weekly eNewsletter will be receiving this course COMPLETELY FREE OF CHARGE as soon as the course is finished.

What does this mean for non-subscribers?

If you don’t want to get FREE training, do nothing. If you want FREE TRAINING, you need to sign up to our weekly update as soon as possible.

When is the deadline?

We will be sending access details for the course out in NEXT weeks weekly update which is usually sent out on Thursday so you need to sign up by WEDNESDAY 5PM BST. Sorry but if you sign up after this, you will miss out.

What if I miss out?

We will be releasing pricing options for the course in the middle of next week but we WILL NOT allow free access if you don’t sign up by Wednesday 5PM.

Any other free training available?

Yes, our free course, “meetings & time management” is always available at www.learn-for-free.co.uk

Taking this course automatically signs you up to our weekly update, so you can have 2 free training courses.

Remember, you must sign up by 5PM Wednesday BST or miss out…

Discount Training Voucher

Here’s how to get a 33% off voucher for our “learn on demand” site. You can use it on any of our interactive training courses.

Just go to our sister site www.learn-on-demand.co.uk - It looks the same as our main site, but the colour scheme is red.

A pop up window will open as soon as you are on the site. Just enter, your email address and name and your 33% discount voucher will be sent straight back to you.

It doesn’t matter what time of the day or night it is, you will be able to log on and learn within seconds.

The voucher is valid for ever and don’t forget that this is the same training we sell to big corporations.

Enjoy & have fun!