Did you miss your free training?

Last week, we gave you details of how to get your free training course.

Incredibly, some people still missed out because they signed up late. Sorry guys - mad panic emails won’t help - and it is not fair on those who did sign up as requested.

Remember - we only give serial numbers away to subscribers who are SIGNED on by the deadline we specify well in advance.

Why not sign up now - so you don’t miss out in future?

Go to the box in the middle column of this page and add your name & email

Free training for charities

Most charities struggle for cash and donations. Sometimes the most worthy causes are not the ones who get the most publicity.

That’s why Sharp End Training would like to help. If you are a charity, trust, or non-profit making organisation, please contact us. We would love to help.

We would suggest that our training works best if you have large numbers of staff who need the same message.

Obviously, we can’t help everyone, (and we do have bills to pay) so it would be helpful, if you could prepare a few lines about the nature of your charity and how you think online training & learning will help.

We can then have a chat and get you going.

Personal use of the internet at work costs over £10billion

The Confederation of British Industry announced that personal use of the internet at work costs UK PLC £10.6 billion.

We agree with CBI Chief John Cridland who says that allowing staff to use the internet in works time can boost productivity if it is managed correctly.

Allowing unlimited use will encourage staff to do very little work. Using forums and reading blogs can be almost an addiction.

A blanket ban, on the other hand, will encourage staff to find other ways to stay in touch and gossip with friends. These include sloping off to the toilet or using text messaging. Neither of these can be policed as easy or effectively as the internet.

Trust is essential and a good internet & email use policy will foster this.

Weekly update subscribers can access a free internet use policy from the members only site

The full story is here

New look for our blog

The Sharp End Training Blog has recently changed design and we hope you like the new look.

Fitting better with the rest of the site, we think it is a definate improvement.

Over at the Learn-on-Demand blog. we have done the same thing. (But you might notice a slightly different colour.)

Any feedback is welcome.

We have a number of new things planned for the next few weeks. We are just putting the finishing touches to a new course on “Display Screen Equipment Risk Assessments”

While not everyone’s cup of tea, this course will be of particular interest to health and safety inspectors, union officials and similar.

Learn on Demand

As you may have read in an earlier post, our learn on demand site has moved to a new server.

One unexpected side effect of this is that all discount serial numbers now no longer work.

If you are using a serial number, please contact us for a replacement.

Don’t forget that all weekly update subscribers will receive a free serial number with this weeks email update.

How to retain good staff

The following article was sent to weekly update subscribers this last week

How to retain key staff

Key staff are essential for any business. When an accountant or financial person looks at your staffing structure or business set up – they just see numbers on a sheet and people as a fixed cost without taking account of the value they provide.

But for the effective manager, this is where the art of management comes in – some people are more use than others and a key management skill is to retain key staff.

What are key staff?
Key staff have what we have called “corporate know-how”.

They know how to get things done. If a large delivery comes incorrect or there is a power cut or a water shortage or a leaking roof – chances are key staff will know what to do and most likely – start doing it. These are the sort of staff you need.

Staff you don’t need are those who stand around waiting for someone else to take the lead.

Quite often though – key staff can be quite hard work and almost exhausting to work with. The trick is to wind them up and let them go…

Failure to keep up with them can mean they become disillusioned and look to move on..

How to spot when key staff are unhappy?
If you are getting requests for references for other jobs, this should reveal something crucial about your business..

Moreso, if you look at the job description and think

“they would be wasting there time doing that”

The thing to remember is – They don’t think so – otherwise they woudn’t have applied and that is pretty damming on your organisation or business.

But how to reward them?

A common discretionary way to reward staff is to award what the British public sector calls an increment. At around £20 per month, £5 per week (less tax of course!) , this is at best a token gesture, at worst an insult.

We would suggest that financial rewards are not the best option in these circumstances. These people aren’t (totally) in it for the money – yes it helps – but the want to do a good job as well.

If you are going to provide them with training – then give them a booking form or a web link so they can book it themselves.

Saying “yes – we will sort out that training course” and then doing nothing about it is a way of saying “go away and calm down”

Bending the rules and knowing which rules to apply is another management skill which can help here.

Suppose the person you want to reward wants to leave work 30 minutes early to watch a child in a school concert or important sports match.

For the non key staff (who stand around waiting for other people to do things), a half day leave would be required but for the key staff, being flexible and just asking them to just make the 30 minutes up some other time is the way to go.

However, you must get them to trust you and you them that your “special arrangements” are perks for them personally and not for “general consumption”

However, you do it, you must recognise that key staff are very valuable to you and your organisation. The key is to build trust and relationships so what is good for them is also good for your business.

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…

Free Training Course

Our sister site www.learn-on-demand.co.uk has being moved to a new server this week.

To celebrate this, we are offering a free training course serial number to all weekly update subscribers.

The serial number will be sent out next Wednesday (11th June) so you must sign up by 5pm Tuesday 10th June (British Summer Time) and will allow 100% discount off any training course.

This is a fantastic opportunity for any small business (or anyone) to receive free high quality business skills training.

Remember - You must be signed up by 10th June at 5pm as serial numbers are NOT backdated.
At least one person missed out last time we did such a promotion. So don’t let that be you.

You can sign up by entering your name and email in the floating box that you saw when this page loaded or go to the top middle column of this blog.

PS - You also get access to our subscribers only website www.training-subscribers.info which features free downloads and training resources for instant use in any industry.

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…

Free Training Course - The detail

A recent subscriber to our weekly update asked us how to get the FREE workplace violence training course. So we thought it would be helpful to confirm our policy on this.

New courses and products are only made available (via an exclusive serial number) to weekly update subscribers who are subscribers when the course is launched.

Anyone who signs up after a course is launched, unfortunately, is not eligible.

However, we are moving some content to a new server in the next week or so and will be sending all subscribers a FREE gift to celebrate.

What does this mean for you?

Don’t miss out - get signed up now…
Not only will you receive a free training course but the following absolutely free;

A weekly email update with hints and tips to help you manage better
Password controlled access to a members only website with tons of pdf downloads to print off and use

So to get all this, and to be sure of not missing out on free training, sign up today with the box at the top of the middle panel.