One Minute Training Videos

Having worked in the training video production industry for quite a while, I have been brought up in the school of thinking that the ideal length of a training video should be around 12 minutes.

You could imagine how my eyebrows were raised when I was approached by the OHS Manager of a multi national corporation recently to ask me to think about producing some 60 second training videos for them. In his words; “every one is time poor nowadays, instant coffee is not quick enough and we can’t afford to take our people off their lines for 30 minutes to watch a training video even though OH&S is a hugely important part of our business”

“I also have to compete with Production, HR, Administration and sales for employee attention during our staff meetings, so I want a communication that is quick, edgy and effective”

A series of 25 x 60 second occupational health and safety training videos were written and produced as if they were television commercials. They featured a cartoon character and supporting posters were produced and put up on all factory walls throughout the country. These 1 minute productions also found their way into the company’s tool box meetings and were emailed from factory to factory, employee to employee.

The short sharp messages proved to be great motivations for some dynamic discussions that followed their screening The campaign has been so successful that the training videos were translated into several languages and distributed around the world.

A great lesson was taught to me by someone who was willing to think a little outside the square!

Article by Scott Weston

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The Secret to Great Training

It is well known that presenting is different from training. A good trainer focuses on delegates and his intention is to transfer a set of skills to them. In contrast a presenter is interested to report what has already been accomplished for the benefit of the audience. Although they are both public speakers, their roles are fundamentally different. A good trainer should put the delegates at the centre of the learning process and continuously use novel interactive high retention methods to make sure the delegates learn the new skills and remember them well after the course is finished.

How exactly can a trainer achieve this? The following is a number of core principles a good trainer should follow to get quality results from the training he provides.

Learn Every Ones Name and Use it.

One fun way to do this is to ask participants to ask the person on their right the following two questions:

1. What is your first name?

2. In a movie about your life, which Hollywood actor or actress should play you?

Then ask the participants to introduce the person on their right with their first name and the Hollywood name. This exercise is a good ice breaker and also helps you to remember names more easily by association.

Teach with Examples.

There is nothing like a good story to help people remember a principle or technique. Use stories from famous people and their experiences as your examples. Have at least two sets of different examples for each concept. Look animated and enthusiastic when telling the story and use participants questions and expressions to improve your examples and the way you communicate with them.

Make it Fun.

Studies from the University of New Hampshire have shown that humour has a positive impact on a variety of processes including communication, development of goals and emotional management. These result in increased productivity, viability and personal development. Light hearted humour and some spontaneous interactions with delegates can increase participants’ interests and attention in the subject and therefore boost learning.

Ask Effective Questions.

Asking the right questions is essential when it comes to information exchange which is exactly what we do in a training session. Trainers obtain some information from delegates by questioning and give some information back in the form of techniques, principals and concepts. There are many different types of questioning techniques that can be used but one of the most effective ones which can be applied to almost any situation is Kipling’s questions:

“I keep six honest serving men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
and How and Where and Who”

Get Feedback.

At the end of the session ask every delegate these two questions:

1. Which part of the session did you find most useful?

2. How would you apply this technique/method/principle to your life?

Asking specific questions helps delegates to recap the course in a few seconds and think about the application of the materials in their professional and personal life.

Offer half day follow up courses after three month.

Follow up courses enable participants to examine their learning and discoveries and get a chance to put the techniques and methods suggested in the course into practice. Be prepared for questions and suggestions. This is also an ideal time to collect valuable feedback to improve your course for future.

Article by Chelsea Elm

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Your Workplace and Anti-Harassment Training

A major area for litigation that continues to grow on both the federal and state fronts is that of Harassment and Discrimination. Under federal law, Title VII prohibits workplace harassment and discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, pregnancy, sex stereotyping. In California, the state legislature has adopted Title VII and expanded on the protections afforded under anti-harassment/discrimination laws to include protections based on religious creed, color, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, marital status, and perceived sexual orientation.

Federal law requires employers in the U.S. respond immediately to claims of sexual harassment and provide assurances that work environments are free from harassment. The EEOC has established minimum standards and guidelines which states should adopt in order to adhere to anti-harassment laws. The EEOC Enforcement Guidance provides that employers should ensure that supervisors and managers receive periodic training so they fully understand their responsibilities under anti-harassment laws and harassment/discrimination complaint procedures.

Many states, prompted by the federal government, have passed training mandates across a broad spectrum of topics for employers. A prime example is California’s AB 1825 otherwise known as California’s Sexual Harassment Prevention Training law. California employers are subject to the following requirements if they have 50 or more employees.

Two Hours of Training Every Two Years. Must be provided to each supervisory employee, every two years.

New Hires and Promotions. New supervisory employees must be trained within six months of their assumption of a supervisory position, and then every two years.

High Quality Training Required. The training mandated must be of a high quality, conducted via "classroom or other effective interactive training" and must include the following topics: Information and practical guidance regarding federal and state statutory laws about sexual harassment. Information about the correction of sexual harassment and the remedies available to victims of sexual harassment. Practical examples aimed at instructing supervisors in the prevention of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation.

Failure to Comply Opens the Door to Harassment Lawsuits. A claim that an employer failed to provide AB 1825-mandated sexual harassment training does not automatically result in the liability of an employer for harassment. Plaintiffs will argue, however, that the failure to meet the training mandate is evidence of an employer's failure to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.

Workplace professionals argue that the training required under AB 1825 must extend beyond sexual harassment and to other forms of prohibited harassment, discrimination and retaliation. Thus the well-rounded sexual harassment training will include, at the minimum, discussions of "how harassment of an employee can cover more than one basis.”

an article by Michele O'Donnell

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Indonesia HR Conference 2009 "Changing People Changing Nations"

The need of an organization to give more attention on HR issues is getting inevitable. Considering its duties to shape qualified HR with vital skills and knowledge, HR nevertheless should be regarded as an asset that is able to contribute more into business operations. HR Conference is a proportional combination of practical case studies and interactive discussion that provides participants with opportunities to obtain fresh insight and perspective from acknowledged leaders and experts on human resources development in Indonesia.

Key Benefits
- Discover new technology that able to expose HRD to reach business goals.
- Learn and discuss strategies to strengthen the skills and capability of HR organization.
- Build character to enhance personal performance through motivational method that able to create regeneration of leadership in organization

Forum Speaker:
- Fauzi Bowo (DKI Jakarta Governor)
- Samuel Sung (Chairman of JobsDB.com)
- Chandra Ming (General Manager of JobsDB.com Indonesia)
- James Gwee (Director of Academia)

Stream Speakers:
- Joris De Fretes (Director Corporate Services of Excelcomindo Pratama)
- Steven Seek (Managing Director of JobsDB.com Singapore)
- Jansen H. Sinamo (Indonesia "Guru Etos")
- Lucia Nany Lusida (Human Resources Director of HM. Sampoerna, Tbk)
- Alexander Sriewijono (Director of Daily Meaning)
- Freddy W. Liong, MBA (Director of Freddway International Learning)
- Latif Harnoko (Corporate Services Division Head of Trans TV)
- Lucy Sycilia (VP Corporate HR of Elnusa, Tbk)
- Jakoep Ezra (Character Specialist of Power Character)

Event Date: 18 - 19 March 2009, 09:00 - 18:00 WIB
Venue: Blitz Megaplex, Grand Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia

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Training | A Major Focus of the U.S. Stimulus Package

President Obama was signed the massive $787 billion dollar stimulus legislation, called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (HR 1) on February 17, 2009. The bill is designed, in part, to stimulate the economy and to create millions of jobs across the United States.

The stimulus package includes more than $5 billion in training for a variety of programs across a number of U.S. federal agencies. The bill will invest heavily in new technologies, infrastructure projects, and health care. It also calls for investments to help laid off workers get back to work. An important part of the legislation allocates $3.9 billion to the Department of Labor. $2.95 billion will be used for training and employment services through FY09. The Department of Labor has 30 days to allocate funding to the states.

What should you know about this bill, and what can you do to help your organization take advantage of these opportunities?

The majority of the training funds will be allocated through the publicly-funded workforce system. You can access information about how much of these resources are coming to your states and communities by reaching out to the executive director of your local Workforce Investment Board or to the manager the local One-Stop Career Center in your community.

A significant portion of training funding – $750 million – is being devoted to competitive grants for high growth industries, and $500 million of these funds will invest in projects as part of the new Green Jobs Act. If history repeats itself, the competitive grants will require active private-sector participation with community colleges or higher education institutions.

With billions devoted to training, it is clear that U.S. lawmakers understand the important connection between learning, job creation, and economic recovery. This increased focus on training means that everyone in the workplace learning and performance profession has a huge opportunity to engage in the economic recovery efforts. Let’s work together to help our organizations and communities make the best use of their investments in training and development.

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What Are Employee Assistance Programs?

It happens! work related problems and stress can cause major health issues for workers who then land up with severe health problems! The UK Health and Safety Executive issued a statement which said that Work-related stress, depression or anxiety was the main cause of staff absenteeism causing a loss of about 12.5 million days a year in the year 2003/4. And that means that office related worker problems required intervention from companies to ensure the well being of their staff!

How it started!

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations presented a legislation in 1992 which presented a company obligation towards the health of its staff. According to the ruling office related stress was to be considered to be an occupational hazard which companies had to deal with to ensure optimum productivity of their staff. This also meant that employers were responsible for dealing and helping with the mental anxiety and physical risk to the workers when they were at the workplace.

Advantages to the organisation!

Although the primary fear was about dealing with the rising cost of setting up a Employee assistance program which the company had to pay for, in the long term the benefits became obvious! Organisations and their staff began to accrue several benefits like:

1. Employee assistance programs were able to recognize and help workers who were suffering from office and work related problems of drug abuse, deaths in the family and office related chronic stress problems. One great effect of these intervention programs is that companies were able to assist workers before situations got out of hand. It also definitely helped to reduce staff absenteeism

2. Many employees have relationship problems which can hamper their office work and attendance. But they are embarrassed to get in touch with counselors or lawyers for legal issues related to personal problems. Quite a few of these personal problems could be settled with timely intervention from a good employee assistance program.

3. About 5.6% of a companys outgoing cash is spent on absenteeism and coping with absenteeism in the form of replacement staff. With the help of a good employee assistance program, absenteeism is significantly reduced. And the cost to the company is about less than 1% for a single employee! This turns out to be a huge cost saving for the company.

4. Employee retention increased. Several studies indicated that in about 65 to 80% of termination cases, the main reason provided was personal or work related issues. An employee assistance program was able to catch these problems early on and provide a solution to the problem before termination became necessary. As a result, employee morale increased and turnover rates decreased.

5. A good Employee Assistance program can also catch stress related issues early on by diagnosing symptoms like office aggressiveness, lack of creativity, concentration and motivation.

Getting an Employee Assistance Program in place is a vocal commitment from the company for employee health. And it does work.

Source: Best Management Articles by Richard Reid

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CPLP from ASTD

Sounds familiar with CPLP? If not, CPLP is Certified Professional in Learning and Performance™ credential to provide a way for workplace learning and performance professionals to prove their value to employers and to be confident about their knowledge of the field. CPLP build by The American Society for Training & Development Certification Institute.

The CPLP™ competency testing process requires candidates to pass both a knowledge exam and a work product assessment. The knowledge exam has 150 multiple choice questions covering nine areas. The work product assessment requires a sample of recent project work and essay responses. The work product must pertain to one of the following areas: Designing Learning, Delivering Training, Improving Human Performance, Measuring and Evaluating, Facilitating Organizational Change and Managing the Learning Function.

Eligibility Requirements:

Professionals in the learning and performance field who have a minimum of three years related work experience may apply, though five or more is preferable.

Become a CPLP? Check it out here...

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Induction Training For Employees

Every organization has a big picture, in which they want to achieve their goals and objectives. In order to achieve these one could consider it a sum of all parts, as all employees and all departments need to pull their weight and carry out their functions for the business to succeed and strive for higher goals and objectives.

In terms of induction training, of which is also sometimes referred to as onboarding, the trainer will have the opportunity of communicating these goals and the entire corporate picture to the new employee. It will also allow the proficient training of the employee to conduct their work in the way that is desired and stipulated by the company. This time and process of induction training is in effect the first impression that the new employee will have of the organization, and the trainer is advised to make the most of this process, obviously without making false claims and promises.

One of the key tips when providing induction training for new employees is to try and keep the training sessions as interesting and as simple as possible. The new employee is out of his or her comfort zone, and without overburdening the employee with new information and details, you would rather want them to gain a good understanding of the business in as simplistic manner and detail as possible. This will insure that the new employee gets an understanding of the entire business. Professionals also recommend that a welcome pack or email be sent to the new employee prior to their first day at work, this will help the employee to get a basic understanding of the company as well as who the key players are in terms of the organization; that is if the company has a suitable website of course.

Each company and organization has a culture and a few of their own unique traits and traditions that they may follow, such as casual Friday, or drinks at the pub on Tuesdays, whichever the case may be. The new employee should be informed of this and be made to feel welcome to attend these informal get together sessions, it will make them feel valued and part of the team. They should not however find out the long way round, but rather ate the induction training; it will instill that sense of belonging form the very beginning. These little tricks will enable and empower the new employee so that he or she will feel as if they are part of the so called corporate family even before they begin working with their new peers, it will also take the edge off of being the so called new kid on the block.

Induction training enables the corporate training to effectively introduce an organization, its policies and procedures as well as an avenue to be used to welcome a new incumbent into the organization.

Source: Best Management Articles by Chris Kennelly

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The Importance of Career Planning to Your Future Fortunes

In this article we will cover a little about the meaning and purpose of Career Planning. When it comes to career planning, you tend to think the craziest things when you are young and not yet focused on life. When you are a child you want to be the President, the Pope, or an astronaut; kids tend to shoot for the stars, however, when you grow up, you need to aim more realistically for your success, but not necessarily aiming lower than you can strive to succeed to.

You will want to make sure that your plans are something that you can enjoy and something that you can reach. When it comes to career goals you do not want to set the bar too high, but you do need it to be a slight challenge. A lot of career satisfaction comes for achieving goals in the workplace that you had to work hard to make happen, including your own pathways and the roles of team members.

The only thing that you will want to worry about when it comes to picking a career is that it is something that you can reach. If you can see you can do it, right? Well sometimes, it depends on your means. When it comes to planning your career you need to think about support, money, and effort.

When it comes to support, you are going to need some family and friends to back you up when everything falls. You are going to need some people to act like a support system. You are going to need some people when things fall apart so that you can pick yourself up and make something of your life.

Your career will dedicate your life so it is important that you take career planning seriously and that you think about your future when you choose a career.

It is also very important that you make sure that the career path that you choose fits your personality and your future goals. There are a lot of career tests that you can take online and offline so that you can pick a career that suits you. You will notice that your career planning may be rough in the beginning, but if you do your research you should be able to find a solid path for your future.

If you would like to do some further counseling you may want to ask yourself about seeing how people in the careers that you pick act and work. You may want to become an intern or you may just want to get more involved in the career by becoming an assistant.

There are lots of things that you will want to take inconsideration when planning your career. Location has a big effect on your career path. You may end up having to move away to become what you dream of. You will also have to research the wages that you can look forward to having.

You will also want to research the odds of finding a job in that career. If you plan to study for a higher qualification, you should start your research before you go to college so that you can declare a Major.

I have found a site created by Helene Malmsio who has had 20 years of employment recruitment and staff training experience. On this site there are hundreds of resources to help you plan your career, including a no-obligation report download and eCourse you can also subscribe to, that can be used by anyone wanting some expert help in trying to develop their career further.

It is important that you do enough research because you don't want to end up in a career field that will make you unhappy. When it comes to a career you may want to think about aiming high because your goals are going to always be changing, but you will be able to get a clear idea of what you are looking for out of the perfect job.

As for effort, how much are you willing to give to your career? Are you willing to give it your all? How far are you willing to take your dreams? If you cannot drive yourself to reach your goals, you will never be able to make your dreams come true.

Just because you have one problem with the above, does not mean that you cannot make your dreams come true, however, it will be more of a challenge. The most important thing that you will ever need is personal motivation and commitment to your career goals. If you got drive then you will find a way to make the money and the support system for your career training or college degree to appear. Money can hold a person back, but it can never stop a committed person from following their career dreams.

You will want to speak to many people in the job field as well as some people who can give you some advice or guidance in your career planning. It is important that you make something out of your life so that you can live a fulfilling life.

Get the best tools you can to make sure you are fully equipped to make the best decisions and choices from the career opportunities open to you, and to learn the professional skills to sell yourself to your ideal employer. We all had to learn these skills, no-one was born with them, but your career path will be fast-tracked to success when you give yourself the leading edge in your career planning.

Learn everything there is to know about career planning from the bottom up, so you get it right the first time...

Do you find the prospect of planning your career daunting and unmanageable? If you are one of the millions of actively seeking job hunters in the market today, you have to gain a competitive edge to get ahead.###

Source: Ezine Articles

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The Benefits of NLP Coaching

A good NLP Coach will use a number of techniques on themselves and with their clients to get results fast. This article demonstrates the use of a great NLP coach and the techniques they use.

Perceptual Positions an NLP Technique

Perceptual positions is an NLP exercise geared to looking at a situation from multiple perspectives. Any given situation has several different perspectives and different information can be gain from each. The first is obviously your own, the second is the perspective from another person that is involved in the situation and the third is a neutral, unconnected perspective. Each of these positions would give you more information about the situation and the opportunity to influence what is happening. A fuller explanation of perceptual positions can be found on my website.

A Business Coaching Example of Using NLP Techniques

There are many NLP tools that a coach might use in the first instance, but for illustration purposes we will restrict this to just using perceptual positions.
The coach might use this technique for themselves initially to get a flavour of what their client is thinking and, if it is a business context how the business views the situation.
A typical business coaching situation might involve a client who has a new role that they have some doubts over. Perhaps they also don't know how to approach their new team and are unsure about what is expected of them.
You could use Perceptual Positions for every part of this situation.

Getting the client to look at the situation from the perspective of their new boss and doing a skills analysis from this perspective would give them confidence. They were employed for the role therefore someone has faith in them and seeing their skills from this perspective will help.
Seeing the role from the perspective of the job and the organisations might yield clues as to direction, goals expectations.
Looking at the new team's perspective and then getting the client to plan their approach from this and the organisation's perspective might give them a different view of how to meet, motivate set expectations with the new team.
Also, getting the client to imagine a future version of themselves that is happy, comfortable and settled in the role may help. But what if you took a neutral, observer perspective on the difference between the two and develop the action plan to take you from the current state to the future state?

Coaching using NLP Techniques

The illustration above was just to demonstrate how a foundation level NLP Tool could be used in multiple ways in a single coaching situation. The reality is that there are many powerful NLP Techniques a good coach will employ for you to get results.
As an example, whatever you happen to be doing there is an ideal frame of mind associated with it. Athletes recognise this as being in the zone or a flow state. Any good coach will have a coach state they have anchored and can fire off to be in the right frame of mind to assist you as a client. If appropriate they could be showing you how to do the same for your role.

The Real Power of NLP Coaching Techniques

Language (both verbal and non verbal) binds the relationship between coach and client. But language is just a filter on our thoughts and impacts how we represent the world to ourselves.
A good coach is trained to notice these filters in themselves and others and then can open or restrict them to provide a better frame on the situation. A good NLP Practitioner Course will show you how to do that and much more. This is why all good coaches study NLP.
My expectations of a good hypnotic NLP Business Coach to that coaching situation described above would be to linguistically given you change strategies, installed empowering beliefs and set preframes that eliminate self doubt before you have even started the session. All of a saddened you might find yourself filling in the detail and getting results within a framework of fun coaching session.
Anyone interested in getting great performance out of themselves should consider a coach…but if you are unreasonable, impatient and want those results faster then a NLP Coach is a serious consideration.***

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5 Strategies To Getting Your Money's Worth At Seminars & Workshops

You open your email to find a notice about an upcoming seminar or workshop on a topic you desperately want to learn more about.

Later that day, you get the mail and there's a postcard inviting you to the same workshop.

"Should I go?" you think.

"It's expensive, I'll have to pay for airfare and hotel, but I'll learn *so much* and will really be able to propel my business forward," you say to yourself.

After much wrangling between those two guys that sit on each of your shoulders, you decide to go for it. You tell your clients you'll be gone, you buy the plane tickets, book the hotel, pay the workshop fee and you're excited!

The day finally arrives. You can hardly wait. You get a seat and wait for things to start.

By the second hour, your head is brimming with ideas while your stomach is full of coffee. You desperately want a break and can't focus on anything else.

The break comes and goes and now you are starved. "WHEN is lunch anyway?" you hear yourself asking your neighbor.

After wolfing down something which the hotel is convinced passes for food, it's back to the workshop. Now the carb crash comes and you need a nap -- the speaker is very interesting, but hey, you're getting the seminar CDs and will catch up on anything you miss then.

Does this sound familiar? I've been to three workshops/seminars in the past two months and have watched this scenario unfold for HUNDREDS of people -- again and again.

It's critical you have a system in place to insure you get the most out of each and every seminar and workshop you attend -- after all, you're spending your money AND time attending.

1. Bring a notepad.

Insure you have either a notepad or notebook dedicated ONLY to "Action List" items.

This is not a "To Do" list -- "to do" lists sound like work and generally lower your energy. This is an "Action" list -- completing these items will propel your business forward.

Personally, I put a small box next to each item that I can check off as it's completed. I don't number them as these are not in priority order. The order is based on when the item pops into my head.

2. Bring a notebook.

You should have ONE notebook for ALL your seminars and workshops. This is for your "Notes" -- if the presenter provides you with a handout of his presentation, GREAT, you can take notes directly on it.

If not, however, you'll want to keep all your notes in this notebook -- start the section with the seminar name, location and date and note each speaker's name and presentation title and any notes from it.

Notes, NOT action list items. . .action items go on your Action List. It's important to keep them separate so you don't need to search through pages of notes for your action items.

Always remember: It's not what you know that matters; it's what you IMPLEMENT!

3. Bring plenty of business cards.

You'll be amazed at how many people forget to bring business cards with them when attending workshops.

Always insure you have plenty of cards with your current information and, preferably, a picture of you on it. We meet so many people at seminars; you want to insure people remember you when going through their new stack of cards at home.

4. Take a day.

If possible, take a day or 1/2 day when you get home to unpack, get back in the swing of things and take a good look at your Action List.

Are there items which can be done in 10 minutes or less? If so, identify those items and schedule an hour for each group of 5 activities over the next week (this allows a little extra time). This will insure you make steady progress soon after the seminar.

Do you have bigger projects? No sweat, break them down into smaller chunks -- 30 minutes at most -- and schedule them on your calendar.

By scheduling these activities *on your calendar*, you'll have a start and end time for getting them done and insuring you got the most out of your time at the workshop.

5. Follow-up.

Chances are you've met new friends and potential clients.

Now's the time to drop them a brief note and let them know you're happy to have met them and follow-up with any information you may have promised.

And, remember, if appropriate for you, thank the speaker for the seminar and all you learned.

Your Coaching Challenge

Your coaching challenge for this week is to prepare a "Seminar Toolbag" which includes a notepad, notebook, business cards, two pens and anything else you may need.

Here's what's in my Toolbag (a bag I take to all seminars) in addition to the above: granola bars, lip balm, post-its, tissues, peppermint patties, a digital camera and since I'm not a coffee drinker, my favorite tea bags.

Copyright © 2008 Sandra Martini

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Tools to "Celebrate a New Hire"

Part of HR's job is to educate managers on the importance of making new hires feel welcomed and important. Managers and employees need to take a larger role in "closing the sale" and owning the process of assimilating the new hires because their talent will improve the teams chance of meeting it's goals. Managers should consider using one or more of the following "celebration tools" to raise the enthusiasm of and for the new hire.

1. A phone call from the CEO/ GM welcoming them to the organization.
2. An invitation by the CEO/ GM to visit their office on their first day (or the CEO stopping by their work space).
3. A letter from the CEO/ GM welcoming them to the organization.
4. Cake and candles on the first morning to celebrate their joining the "family"/team.
5. A new hire luncheon on the first day to meet the team.
6. Welcome banner for their cubical signed by the CEO and all.
7. Take a Team Picture on the first day and have it signed by all.
8. Give them a Tee Shirt signed by all.
9. Place a Notice/Ad in the Local Paper welcoming them to let everyone know of your new team member (like consulting/ law firms do).
10. Give them a Plaque - Celebrating their First day.
11. Give them a "2 for dinner" certificate to tell their spouse or friend about their new job.
12. Place a welcome Note/ picture on your corporate Web site.
13. Put new hires pictures in our local ads or in regular corporate advertising.
14. Send their spouse/kids first day welcome gifts, corporate products or cards to make them feel they are part of the team and to build support for the new company.
15. Have other spouses call and welcome their spouses.
16. Have a new employee lunch for spouses during their first month.
17. Have a "No forms/ video/ manuals" policy during the first day/week. Consider sending them to their home to read prior to starting or let it wait until at least week 2.
18. Give them a "new hire" pin/ hat to let all know they deserve special help. The pin/ hat also entitles them to ask "dumb questions".
19. Give them a "pre-dated" 5 year pin to show them we expect them to be part of the team for a long time.
20. Give them a "meet everyone card" that requires (rewards) them for getting the initials of all key team members on the card during the first ___ days.
21. Give them a "new hire" reserved parking spot to celebrate their first week.
22. Give them a License Plate Cover for their car announcing their new company

This post is a part of Dr. John Sullivan article: The New Hire Orientation "ToolKit".
Dr. John Sullivan is a Head and Professor of Human Resource Management College of Business, San Francisco State University

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10 Ways to Stimulate Employee Motivation

Today's fast-moving business environment demands that the effective manager be both a well-organized administrator and highly adept in understanding people's basic needs and behavior in the workplace. Gaining commitment, nurturing talent, and ensuring employee motivation and productivity require open communication and trust between managers and staff.
1. Understand their behavior
People at work naturally tend to adopt instinctive modes of behavior that are self-protective rather than open and collaborative. This explains why emotion is a strong force in the workplace and why management often reacts violently to criticisms and usually seeks to control rather than take risks. So, in order to eliminate this kind of perspective and to increase employee motivation, it is best that you influence behavior rather than to change personalities. Insisting what you expect from your employees will only worsen the situation.

2. Be sure that people's lower-level needs are met.
People have various kinds of needs. Examples of lower-level needs are salary, job security, and working conditions. In order to increase employee motivation, you have to meet these basic needs. Consequently, failures with basic needs nearly always explain dissatisfaction among staff. Satisfaction, on the other hand, springs from meeting higher-level needs, such as responsibility progress, and personal growth. When satisfaction is met, chances are employee motivation is at hand.

3. Encourage pride
People need to feel that their contribution is valued and unique. If you are a manager, seek to exploit this pride in others, and be proud of your own ability to handle staff with positive results. This, in turn, will encourage employee motivation among your people.

4. Listen carefully
In many areas of a manager's job, from meetings and appraisals to telephone calls, listening plays a key role. Listening encourages employee motivation and, therefore, benefits both you and your staff. So make an effort to understand people's attitudes by careful listening and questioning and by giving them the opportunity to express themselves.

5. Build confidence
Most people suffer from insecurity at some time. The many kinds of anxiety that affect people in organizations can feed such insecurity, and insecurity impedes employee motivation. Your antidote, therefore, is to build confidence by giving recognition, high-level tasks, and full information. In doing so, you only not refurbish employee motivation but boost productivity as well.

6. Encourage contact
Many managers like to hide away behind closed office doors, keeping contact to a minimum. That makes it easy for an administrator, but hard to be a leader. It is far better to keep your office door open and to encourage people to visit you when the door is open. Go out of your way to chat to staff on an informal basis. Keep in mind that building rapport with your staff will effectively increase employee motivation.

7. Use the strategic thinking of all employees.
It is very important to inform people about strategic plans and their own part in achieving the strategies. Take trouble to improve their understanding and to win their approval, as this will have a highly positive influence on performance and increasing employee motivation as well.

8. Develop trust
The quality and style of leadership are major factors in gaining employee motivation and trust. Clear decision making should be coupled with a collaborative, collegiate approach. This entails taking people into your confidence and explicitly and openly valuing their contributions. By simply giving your staff the opportunity to show that you can trust them is enough to increase employee motivation among them.

9. Delegate decisions
Pushing the power of decision-making downward reduces pressure on senior management. It motivates people on the lower levels because it gives them a vote of confidence. Also, because the decision is taken nearer to the point of action, it is more likely to be correct. Consequently, by encouraging them to choose their own working methods, make decisions, and giving them responsibility for meeting the agreed goal will encourage employee motivation among your staff.

10. Appraising to motivate
When choosing methods of assessing your staff's performance, always make sure that the end result has a positive effect on employee motivation and increases people's sense of self-worth. Realistic targets, positive feedback, and listening are key factors.

If you follow these simple steps in increasing employee motivation, rest assured you will have a good working relationship with your staff at the same time boost you company's productivity. Just bear in mind that people are employed to get good results for the company. Their rates of success are intrinsically linked to how they are directed, reviewed, rewarded, trusted, and motivated by the management.

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Ways to Measure and Increase Training Productivity

All training programmes don’t deliver results that were expected. Company leaders need to strategize how to assess and increase results.

We take for granted that in the corporate world, training schedules rule. This is even more true in an evolving world with the unprecedented opportunities. It is therefore important to ensure that these training sessions are indeed productive.

Now, how do we assess this quantifying and increase evolving processes? There is a simple process behind this.

In terms of ascertaining the reach of training programmes, an accurate indicator is: data – the productivity of employees before and after the training programmes. When data shows significant improvement in their productivity, it can be said that their training programmes delivered. In case there is not a noticeable, or if you find yourself needing to use a lot of adjectives rather than cold data then it didn’t work as expected.
What is it that we can do?.

To begin with is the content of your training. We often see training as simply stating of the obvious. Even though this is good enough for entertainment purposes, it is important to have an eye on what it is that we are conveying that the group doesn’t know and could benefit from knowing. It works well to have a meeting to identify the intention, content and boundaries of the training programmes.
Contrary to how it seems, boundarylessness is not an advantage when it comes to training. Talking about infinite subjects doesn’t lead to infinite learning, but detracts from the intensity of the core subject by talking about too many things and not having time to invest in them.

The next thing to do follows from this. Plan your flow. This could be called your programme schedule, your training design, or simply be a small chit of paper you carry around and refer to for options to follow at any point in the training. Something that gives you an idea of where you would be planning to arrive at the end of the session or day or programme. Without that, the training is like driftwood. It could look nice on the beach, but it could just as easily be floating unnoticed in the sea.

It is important for the facilitator to realize that he is a tool to change, not a participant in the change. It is a role boundary that needs to be respected, if the training is to have results that extend beyond its duration. Too often, we see trainers participating in the change. Classic symptoms of this include the facilitator having suggestions on how things “should” be done, explaining failures to reach targets rather than staying with the data and leading the group. Recognizing and accepting failure is perhaps the single biggest step to deep change.

A facilitator’s participation will also typically show more impressive “results” during the training programmes (and ensure that the facilitator seems to make a great impression about his effectiveness) than if participants initiated the change, because the facilitator has greater experience of resolving problems due to the nature of his profession. However, these results will not last in the absence of the trainer, because they are results of his leading the group, rather than enabling change in the group itself. Trainees will typically have a tentative and slowly evolving process. This doesn’t seem like much, but because it belongs with the group, it goes back into their routines with them.

The final and important thing is to set identifiers for results. This means seeing the statistics to you and identifying the area that the training aims to impact. For example: number of consumer complaints per week, attendance records, quantity of handmade paper produced per month, etc. The key to this is in its being a clear quantity. It is also important that you have the data available before the training. For example, it is no use using attendance records as a parameter for training on punctuality, if I have no data on the group’s attendance before the training to compare it with.
With this, we can hope to have an accurate assessment of the value of the training programmes we are doing.***

Source: Ezinearticles by Vidyut Kale

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What Can You Do For Your Team Building Event?

Team building can take place anywhere and can be achieved through a wide range of different activities. It is a method that is utilized to improve the level of morale in your team and to also improve the skills and interrelationships of people in your team or organization. Typically team building events involve people in an activity. These activities are typically challenging activities that encourage people to work together to achieve success.

The theory goes that teams that play together stay together and as a result these activities tend to encourage teamwork. There are a massive range of different activities that can be considered team building events. Often these events take place in three main different areas. They can be events that take place in an office or out of the office. Many companies utilise team building trainers to provide team building workshops that are directly related to the office environment. These providers enter the office and offer training in house. The other type of training takes place out of the office and can entail a number of different activities.

Outdoor activities
There is a great deal of different outdoor teambuilding activities that can be undertaken. Many managers will want to take their team out into the fresh air of the great outdoors to test their mettle on a physically and mentally demanding challenge. There are a vast range of different activities that fit this bill. These kinds of activities include vehicle racing days, military training days, shooting events and multi activity days. Activities such as rafting, abseiling and climbing are also often used as a method of encouraging team during these breaks.

Driving activities
Driving activities offer a great deal of excitement for all people that want to challenge themselves and one another. Often great for both men and women these events involve activities such as go-karting and off road driving.

They give people the opportunity for a break from the norm and they often have an element of competition which can be extremely stimulating. This friendly competition can really bring your team together and if your office works with a number of smaller teams or pods then it might be an opportunity for each team to pit their collective wits against one another in a relay race.

This is sure to stimulate a talking point that could bind the members of the entire office for a long time. There are also events where you can drive blindfolded. In these events the driver is instructed by the passengers and this is an extremely effective way of improving communication between members of a team.

Treasure hunt activities
One of the most popular team events for people of all ages are treasure hunt activities. Like the games that people used to play when they were little these events tap in to everyone's inner child. The fun of going on a treasure hunt is developed with a level of sophistication in which teams have tasks to perform or riddles to solve before they are able to find the treasure.

This encourages a great deal of team work. The main benefit of this type of teamwork is that it encourages communication as team members have to interact successfully so that they can find the treasure. It also demonstrates the values of encouragement to the team.

Author: Shaun Parker | If you like the articles from this blog subscribe to RSS Feed or via email

Certified Service Professional (CSP)

CSP course is an initiative by the Singapore Workforce Skills Development Agency (WDA). It is based on the Service Excellence Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) framework and aims to prepare 36,000 non-tourism workers to take up service jobs in the tourism sector by providing training in essential customer service skills.

Whether you are looking for job opportunities in the tourism-related service industry or looking for courses to train your new staff*, this is the right course for you!

Who Should Attend

This course is suitable for those who wish to work in the tourism-related service industry:

• Workers currently employed in non-tourism-related service industry who seek to acquire new skills and switch career;
• The unemployed who seek to enter the tourism-related service industry; and
• New entrants* employed in the tourism-related service industry who seek to upgrade their skills

Singapore citizens and Singapore Permanent Residents of the above categories are eligible for enhanced funding support.

Course Synopsis

Key Objectives

• Develop the mindset & passion of an excellent service professional
• Know your products, customers and organisations
• Make every encounter a GEMS moment
• Work with your colleagues to delight customers
• Invite your customers to come back
• Keep improving your service

Methodology

• Focus on developing mindset: adopt positive attitude, explore new ways to see things
• Intensive experiential learning: learn by doing
• Real-life service applications
• Highly-engaging learning via discussions, role-plays, team games, exhibitions, case studies etc

Assessment

• Behaviours in class throughout the course
• Participation in activities
• Formal assessments that are aligned to the requirements of Service Excellence WSQ

Duration

• 5 Days or 40 training hours

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E-learning - Singing from the same hymn sheet

E-learning gives you the opportunity to deliver and measure whether or not, you are achieving your goals. But the term E-learning has a certain internet geeky stigma attached to it. It sounds complicated and technical. But the truth of the matter is it's neither. Take the E out of E-learning and everyone becomes more comfortable.

I was listening to an online SEO seminar the other day, during which, the host was explaining how if he had to tell one more newbie what page rank was he would consider putting a gun to his own head. Amusing as the remark was, you could easily identify with the frustration of him having to repeat the same old message. All educators and that includes business owners and managers have the same problem.

There are only so many things you have to do to acheive a succesful outcome in any business task. By documenting those tasks just once means that the procedure can be repeated to all members of staff over and over again. Ray Kroc took the procedures for the McDonald brothers restaurant and duplicated it globally so that every member of staff within the restaurant was aware of thier procedures and responsiblities no matter what their position or where they were in the world. If Ray Kroc had access to the internet and E-learning when he was building the McDonalds empire he could have achieved his targets and educated the workforce more rapidly.

Now you may not have a global fast food restaraunt chain but the principles apply to all businesses. You may operate from a single unit or be geographically spread, either way its important for everyone concerned with the business to be fully aware of their duties and responsibilities and what the company is trying to achieve, It's mission Statement. The most efficient way to make that happen is to use an E-learning program. How many instances have there been in your business where things don't go to plan because you assumed everybody knew what they were doing?

Singing from the same hymn sheet
If only we could get everyone to sing from the same hymn sheet. A common cry across all organisations I have had the opportunity to work with over the years The following is a list of cries for help broken down into the problem (Pain) What needs to be done (vision) and how E-learning can help (the solution) Do any of these sound familiar?

The Pain: We provide professional advice to our clients - We don't know if the advice given is consistent with updates in legislation. The Vision: I need to make sure our staff's gives reliable information to our clients. The Solution: Using E-learning will test the knowledge of your staff on critical information updates

The Pain: My only form of education is to hope they read the manuals. The Vision: If I had a system where I could offer different training courses and achievement levels and with a testing method I would know that they are comprehending what is required for their job. The Solution: E-learning will track each learner based on modules

• which module they are on
• Length of time per module
• Test score per module
• Number of retakes
• Benchmark your employees
• Measure your employees
• Improve your employees

The Pain: My customers and site visitors keep asking the same questions The Vision: If I could set up an online training, testing and certifying system for customers thus helping them get the answers they need without the burden on our time The Solution: E-learning will benefit all companies wanting to educate customers it will also be seen an added value to the business relationship .

The one thing you need to know about E-learning is this - It's not about technology. It's about communicating your idea's and procedures and getting it into the heads of the recipients, after all, it is they who will put it into action.

There are many ready made E-learning programs available, some better than others. The benefit of ready made E-learning solutions is that you can be educating your staff within weeks But if you must have a bespoke E-learning program made and you need it up and running soon then try and keep it away from your IT department. Leave the pyrotechnics for another day.

Use video and audio where you can - People using E-learning learn better using a combination of tools. There aren't many people that can master something just by reading it.

Time Out
You, as the business owner or manager will know what is it that you want to communicate to your staff. Of course solving all these problems does take time and you will need to take time out from all that selling to achieve your goals but remember with E-learning you should only have to do it once. Say it once, loud and clear and then test them on their understanding of your message.***

Source: ArticleGeek by Anthony Fallon. Image from Cartoonstock

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Measuring Training Evaluation Effectiveness

While surveys have long been used to measure the effectiveness of training evaluation, these may not really provide a proper accounting or validation of the training. For training evaluation to be effective, it is important to satisfy the following considerations such as the extent of which the training needs and objectives are achieved, the extent of which the participants’ objectives are met, what the participants have learned from the training and whether the participants have made a commitment to implement what they have learned from the training once they get back to work.

Once they return to work, it is also important to determine the level of success in implementing action plans, the extent of which they were supported by their managers, the extent of which the action has achieved an effective training ROI for the company in terms of goal satisfaction or financial assessment.

Many companies usually fail to implement these training evaluation processes, especially in instances where the trainers and HR department do not have enough time or resources to do. Training evaluation must fit according to the resources available as well as the environment which can substantially differ from an organization to the next. Of course, a good and proper methodical evaluation yields a good and reliable data. A lack of evaluation performed, on the other hand, would also produce very little results about training’s effectiveness.

There are two major factors that should be resolved when it comes to training evaluation. These include the person responsible for the training evaluation and validation processes and the available resources needed for the said processes. These resources include time, money and people.

The training evaluation is traditionally left to but not limited to the trainer. It can also be the responsibility of the senior management, line management, the training manager and the trainee, each of which has distinct responsibilities. Moreover, the participants in the training program also play an important role in the validation and evaluation process as well. This is because evaluation would not be possible without their comments nor new skills and knowledge be carried out.

Training evaluation will also depend on various available resources as well as culture support. The more tools and the wider the approach used, the more effective and valuable the evaluation will become. However, you need to set realistic goals. Largely expensive and critical training programs more often justify more scrutiny and evaluation than small, simple and non-critical ones. Evaluation requires more precise details where there is huge investment and so much expectation. Training managers, in particular, should make clear expectations on validation and measurement with senior management before conducting new training programs in order to establish the right evaluation process.

In addition, when planning potentially critical and big training programs, training managers should exercise caution to make sure that sufficient measurement and evaluation processes are in tact. So that when the company’s top executive asks what you got for your investment, the training manager can be able to provide a full and detailed response.
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Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com By: Sam Miller

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The Importance Of Employee Development

Employee development is crucial for the growth and prosperity of any business as employees are one of the determining factors for the success of the company. The more capable and qualified the employees the better the performance of the company. When they are well trained, they can easily handle situations and please customers ensuring customer retention. They can also resolve any glitches easily without much ado.

Employee development programs are essential to improve morale and to motivate the employees to perform well. Employees like to learn new skills and meet challenges and they are more motivated when they feel there is great potential for personal growth. When the company shows interest in employee development, the employee naturally has a greater interest in the company's development too.

Training Program For Employees
Training programs are essential and companies provide either initial training to help the employee learn about how to perform their duties or ongoing training where employees meet regularly to discuss how to improve work performance.

ome companies sponsor employees to learn the latest training so they can perform their jobs well. Care should be taken to see to it that the training is relevant and that it has a positive impact on the employee's performance. It should benefit the company. Companies should carefully analyze and determine if their employees need training. If so, select appropriate courses and monitor the training to be certain it has caused a positive change in the company's performance. Good training programs will greatly diminish the need for hiring specialists to perform certain tasks, improve work efficiency, and help employees know the latest techniques to adopt for the betterment of the company.

Employee development training must be regularly scrutinized, goals must be set, and achieved within a certain period of time. Assigning employees correctly to perform their duties is essential. Initiating rewards such as raises, promotions, and tuition reimbursement will motivate employees and make them eager to participate in the employee development programs.

Companies must analyze carefully if they need to enroll their employees in specific development programs. If so, what courses are best suited for their company? What target results do they want from their employees on account of the training? They can answer these questions using a needs analysis and finding out which areas need extra training for employees. Usually managers need training to help perform better and manage more efficiently. Make sure the employees are up to date with the latest technology available to ensure they perform better. Convey to the employees all about the program, the outcomes you expect, and how important it is they do their jobs better by using the opportunity the company has provided them. Hence, employee development programs are essential for any business to thrive and succeed.
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Article Source: http://www.articlecafe.net

Assessment and Certification for HR Professional

In the development and training of personnel practitioners, the assessment and certification of learning plays an important role in the recognition of the professional experience, skills and knowledge of individuals. Certification can form the criteria of association membership, and can demonstrate an individual’s adherence to standards and a commitment to staying abreast of new developments in the HR field. It is also a visual statement of professional status and as such is a useful tool in career advancement
In devising a scheme of certification it is important that the scheme allows individuals to demonstrate that their knowledge, skills and experience in a generalist or specialist role in HRM and/or HRD are sufficient to meet the criteria for professional competence. This can entail the demonstration of professional experience and/or the passing of a written comprehensive examination to meet pre-set requirements.

Mechanisms

As with training and development events, the majority of Associations runs its own certified courses of study or recognizes courses run by other institutions. Such courses are different to the training programs offered, as they often involve a number of modules, and have an assessment process that can result in the award of a certificate.

The various assessment mechanisms range from the practical to the more theoretical. For example, skills can be measured through a competency portfolio assessment, whereby an assessor is appointed to judge a person’s work. An alternative mechanism and one which is more widely used, is a written examination of knowledge which can take the form of multiple-choice or essay questions. These courses are assessed against standards at national or association level (Wiley 1999).

Case Example

In this section three examples of well-established systems of certification are presented, each one having been designed according to a different mechanism.

Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI) - USA

In the USA, the HR credentialing body (HRCI) is separate from the HR association (the
Society for Human Resource Management - SHRM). This means that the HRCI runs a
voluntary programs, and is not accredited by anyone, nor does it accredit any programs that use its body of knowledge content outline. Equally there is no membership scheme and it does not run any courses: it purely assesses and certifies the knowledge of HR practitioners. This certification scheme has been in place since 1976.

Complementary to the work of the HRCI, SHRM provides certification preparation courses of study, and these have been running since 1988. These courses are available in different modes of study, primarily on a part-time or in-company basis.

The certification scheme is intended for those currently working in the HR field. There are two possible designations: Professional in HR and Senior Professional in HR. The assessment structure is based on having achieved the prerequisite HR experience (a minimum of two years in a position involving HR at least 51% of the time) and passing a written examination. This examination is based on the technical and operational aspects of HR at the Professional level, and on strategic and policy issues in HR at Senior Professional level. There is no prior requirement to have a university degree. The examinations themselves are based on 250 multiple-choice questions tested over a period of four hours. For the certificate to be awarded, candidates must agree to abide by the SHRM Code of Ethics and the HRCI Model of Professional Excellence. Re-certification is possible but not mandatory after one year, either through evidence of continuing education and experience or through retesting. Each year, around 7,500 individuals follow the certification preparation courses, with an average examination success rate of approximately 50%. Currently, some 33,000 individuals hold the HRCI certification, of which 17,000 are members of SHRM.

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) – UK

In the UK, the CIPD is the professional association as well as the certifying and awarding
body. It is accredited by the National Council for Vocational Qualifications and the Open
University. The CIPD has its own professional standards that have been developed through multiple stakeholders, and which have been mapped against the UK national standards. The certified courses of study run by the CIPD have been in place for 30 years.
Certification is awarded based on either experience and/or examination. The following list shows the different routes to CIPD certification:

Professional education
Approved centers offer a variety of courses including flexible learning courses and assessment via essay style examination, assignments and a management report.

Competence assessment against national standards
Individuals can gain both a National Vocational Qualification as well as the CIPD certification. This route is measured by the development of a professional portfolio that is assessed by a qualified assessor.

Professional assessment against CIPD standards
Again, this route is based on experience via portfolio development and assessment through an approved centre.

Assessment of prior certified learning
Relevant academic or professional qualifications previously gained are assessed against CIPD standards for certification to be awarded. These courses and assessment centers are either accredited centers which run internally assessed programs, or approved centers that prepare students for assessment by CIPD national examinations. Courses are run using a range of modes of study, with the part-time option being the most popular. Each year, around 12,000 individuals are successful in passing the certified courses of study, with approximately 76,000 individuals currently holding certification, but over 95,000 either certified or working towards certification. The average pass rate for the examinations is 55%. There is a requirement to be a member of the CIPD in order to sit the CIPD examinations. Agreement to comply with the standards of professional conduct is also required of CIPD members.

Each of the certification routes described above has a different certification level, which in turn results in a different grade of membership:

Certificate in Personnel Practice – Associate member
Certificate in Training Practice – Associate member
Professional Qualification Scheme – Licentiate member (after partial completion),
Graduate member (upon completion of the whole programs).

There is no re-certification requirement but Continuing Professional Development records are required for upgrading membership.