Posts Tagged ‘Management)’
A Different Area of Usage for Online Training
The responsibility of a company multiplies when it sends any of its employees overseas on duty, guidance to the employee can now be given through online training. This training makes an employee aware of various cultural, ethical and safety tips that would be of great use to him/her in the location they go to. Do you make use of online training to serve this purpose? You need not look at this as a futile investment of money as it provides long term benefits to your employees as well as your organization.
Employees are a bit prejudicial when it comes to training, they would only search for reasons to skip it or avoid it. This idea regarding training will certainly change if you provide ‘International Travel Safety Tips’ through online training methods. These training programmes can be made interesting and informative when taken online. The employee can travel to a different country virtually and see the conditions of it.
Real life problems that an employee might probably face can be recreated in online training. This training is conducted on most occasions by the travelling team itself or an individual from HR. This training takes place whenever an employees team goes abroad. Both the employee and the trainer would start to feel bored after a certain stage.
Apart from gaining knowledge through this online training programme the employee also gets a certificate for completing it. You can see if they have made progress by conducting simple assessments. One need not slog excessively to finish this training.
It is a very common thing for companies to send their employees abroad to complete some work. This means that the trainers should be aware of the various locations and their respective conditions. A good online training system lets you share knowledge about different locations in a single interface. There is a great difference in the knowledge gained through online training and that gained in a traditional classroom setup.
Online training materials are also available on the Internet and can be obtained easily. You can also tweak the training module to suit the needs of your organization. Some good online training are fully concerned with travel safety alone. You’ll be able to provide complete information about the destination, the trip and things to do in case of emergency using online training.
Earlier, international travel safety tips didn’t feature significantly in a company’s trainings list. Companies have started to make this training mandatory as the immigration laws of countries are only becoming stricter of late. Your employees can know about how to ‘be a Roman, while in Rome’ with the help of online training.
This kind of training can be a bit hectic but highly beneficial at the same time. Employees should also be trained properly about handling emergencies. Your employees would for sure love it if you provide online training on such an important thing.
Find additional information on travel safety training online on this LMS blog.
Learning Management System - A Modern Technique of Learning
A learning management system is a method through which organizations provide opportunity to the employees to improve their talent and capabilities. An LMS carries out various functions like, employees’ trainings, fixing time gaps between trainings and planning a program schedule for achieving progress in business.
Visit Coggno website to start using an LMS for your company training.
A classroom training is not versatile for the trainer as well as for the employee. Most companies are conscious about the benefits of a learning management system such as, increase in output, decrease in cost and an efficient tool for business progress. learning programs.
to Economic benefit on training can be established conclusively. An LMS helps the employees to find out ways to their advancement of career and the managers can locate the targets to make it happen. For that matter, assessments of a learning management system can be a single platform for the managers and employees with respect to the regular appraisals.
A learning management system enables the companies to scrutinize the working capability of the employees and give them suggestions for improvement of their skills and their evaluation. It offers guarantee for safety awareness and administrative duties. Those who believe that training is essential, can be benefited by an LMS for monitoring their progress, and can improve their skill and expertise in the position they hold.
After the training is completed, the employees have to give their opinion about the usefulness of the training program. It facilitates the management to examine the results of LMS training and suggest various methods for perfection and improvement.
off locations can obtain the help of a learning management system, which keeps a check on their efficiency and also suggests techniques of improvement in particular areas. An LMS permits managers to keep an eye on the employees’ progress, grant sanction for training, create reports for observing the employees’ eagerness and finalize areas of improvement after discussing about their performance.
In a classroom atmosphere or due to the non They are not capable of producing comprehensive reports and the data they have gathered may not be absolutely correct. The employees can take LMS course training, whereas the managers can evaluate the good points of the employee and also his abilities along with this performance objective.
In short, a learning management system is a hi With the help of LMS, trainer accessibility, proper training, setting up classes, the time required for training can be arranged. Using the LMS training budget and management information like personal history and training records can be maintained.
With the help of these advantages, a learning management system can help in accomplishing business objectives and can provide valuable training for improving the employee’s efficiency. Check this out to check out more stories on elearning.
Online Training A Valuable Aid in Preparing Employees to Meet Their Duties
Online Training helps you enhance the skills of your employees and increase productivity. Skilled labourers form the backbone of a company. Employees are hired by companies so that they provide a great future to the firm. Retaining employees is also important as new employees cannot be trained easily. This proves that job-satisfaction is for sure one of the things an employee expects from the company. The company can ensure this by providing good wages, benefits of the position and training that enhances their knowledge.
Why is Employees Training Essential?
Online training aids you in meeting your organizational training needs without facing any difficulties. Training employees means to prepare them for the position they have been offered by increasing their qualification. But still, an employee needs further training. Employee retention can be made possible only if the employee feels certain of a bright future in. Any employee would want to acquire more skills and be an expert in his area of interest. The employees will start looking for better opportunities if they start to feel they aren’t progressing in their job. It is after all not a bad thing to let employees acquire the skills they need to excel in their profession. The knowledge of an employee determines his performance.
The Uses of Online Training
Training over the internet promises both personal advancement as well as professional advancement. Position-centric training is what online training promises to employees. Online training also lets new recruits to make themselves acquainted with the things they need to know to be successful in their position. Existing employees can take up this training to move up the professional ladder. For instance, an employee can gain knowledge about other departments through the learning content if he wants to switch to a different department.
Personal growth is also promised through online training. This way they can do their present job better and look for promotion at the same time. For instance, an employer is providing computer courses. The employee can take up this course and add value to his/her profile. A really skilled employee will apply his newly acquired skills in his present work to improve its quality. This would benefit them greatly when noticed by the employer.
Benefits of Online Training
Many companies have started to adopt online training methods instead of conventional ones. The main reason is that it is convenient as well as cost effective. As it can be provided at a low cost, the company can train many employees for a certain amount. Employees can work wherever they want based on their convenience. They can easily attend to emergency situations if they’re in the office. But they can also choose to continue their training even at home.
If you’re planning on online training for employees, start with a learning management system that is easy to use, flexible and scalable to your needs.
Useful Suggestions For Properly Valuing A Liquor Store For Sale
A liquor store for sale can be one of the most attractive prospects for those who are seeking to enter the world of entrepreneurialism. Traditionally they are seen as purveyors of “essentials,” with good turnover and reasonable margins. However, performing a liquor store valuation can be a tricky business, even under the best of circumstances. The whole industry has become overly reliant on out-of-date barometers, and more often than you might expect, an owner will try to sell you their business based on long-standing traditions instead of actual “real world” elements.
Due to these traditions, the industry has a somewhat veiled view of measures used to assess actual, individual business values. When it comes to liquor stores, no two are identical, as they have different locations, specialities, and the absence or existence of certain subsidiary products which could easily represent significant values in themselves, etc. Always keep in mind that you need to place your attention on the actual claim of profits, not to references of percentages or to the simple fact that the business in question might have solid sales, as sales in and of itself doesn’t mean anything.
While you can certainly go over the percentages which are provided to you and use them to clarify any abnormalities which come up, the most useful method of business valuation, liquor store experts all agree, is specifically based on cash flow or owner benefits. Often times, these individuals will refer to a figure which represents a “multiple,” and this multiple could easily be three, four or five times. What does the multiple refer to?
The most common figure used represents the owner benefits. This refers to the money that you will have left after you have taken all expenses into account and essentially represents the funds you will use to service the debt, pay yourself accordingly and to build the business. When looking at the books your owner benefit is defined as net income added to the owner salary, perks, depreciation and interest less capital expense allocation. The latter element refers to any major alteration or investment you will need to make in the foreseeable future, by installing updated computer systems or redecoration, as examples. Always be sure that any “add backs” are appropriate and reasonable.
As you are going to buy liquor store business at a premium, in relation to the “multiple” attached to the value, you must of course be sure that it is being sold as an ongoing concern. This claim is particularly appropriate when it comes to the inventory of the business. Make sure that you buy this inventory at terms which are realistic to you. Often, buyers will seek to remove the cost of the inventory from the valuation and add it on separately. It should always be treated as an integral part of the valuation and not used to inflate the seller’s position. Typically an inventory is turned over by a liquor business between eight and 10 times per year and you should ensure that your particular stock does not include a large element of items which may be unsalable or seasonable.
Be wary of an owner who claims a large amount of cash sales, as if they cannot prove it, you should never pay for it. In other words, they should not benefit twice – first when they fool the tax department and secondly from an inflated business sale value.
Remember that you must have a good conversation with the leaseholder or management company, assuming that the business occupies a rented space as is most common. Understand before you go any further what you would need to do to assume the lease or to qualify for a new one.
A word on owner financing, which may be offered. Generally speaking, you may add the value of between 30 and 50% of the amount financed by the seller and consider that to be a premium to the stated business value, versus an all cash transaction.
Be on the lookout during times when you meet with the owner, visit the premises or otherwise conduct your due diligence. Consider the number of patrons that you see going in and out of the store and use this as a benchmark, bearing in mind the time of day of your observation. Do you see many family members of the owner working there or watch the owner working excessive hours? Ask yourself whether you want to replicate the situation and how you can truly arrive at a value for the work input by the family members, especially if they are being paid off the books.
When considering how to value a liquor store, remember that valuation is an art not a science!
Richard Parker is the President and founder of the prestigious Diomo Corporation - The Business Buyer Resource Center. His celebrated materials, seminars and consulting have encouraged thousands of aspiring business buyers from around the World to pursue their dream to buy a business.
A Discussion on Quality Management and ISO 9001
With the increase of companies asserting that they are conforming to the requirements of this particular international Standard, we may well begin to believe that product and service quality has reached perfection and every customer is completely satisfied with the level of achievement of their ISO 9000 registered supplier. However, it’s entirely possible that we could have just misunderstood the actual purpose of this Standard and the registration process itself. Maybe the Standard isn’t about quality of service or product.
At Present, the (year 2000) version of ISO 9001 is undeniably directed toward the definition of a Quality Management System. This is by tradition the means by which an organisation defines and oversees the quality of its output distribution. This current document is the latest in a series of ISO Standards devoted to the topic, and shortly to be replaced by a 2008 version - but not just yet. These Standards can identify their exact history back to the mid-point of the previous century, these having antecedents with origins most definitely back to the beginning of the 20th Century.
Originating within the manufacturing industry, and until comparatively recently predominantly focussed there, their original objective was to control the manufacturing processes so as to correct the errors endemic within the ethos of working class operatives. It was a ‘given’ that product (and now service) errors occurred due to the nature and attitudes of the workers employed. Rarely was it thought possible that errors and omissions - i.e. defects, could have any relation to the managers themselves or the management methods which were implemented within the industry. Therefore, these Standards were created with the single purpose of locating and fixing failings before they became an issue for a customer, or servicing the customer requirement for repair or replacement after delivery. E.g. warrantee. The working ISO 9000 structure is founded on the method Plan Do Check Act, and for Act we can fairly accurately say ‘Fix’ - although this isn’t quite how Act is usually explained in any sort of publicity information. Without a doubt, this is an implied acknowledgement of possible failure, as opposed to a program to avoid failure.
For those who disagree, ask yourself how often you’ve heard the expression - it must be one of those Monday morning or Friday afternoon products. Maybe partly in jest, but originating from the concept that workers generally don’t care, and systems have to be devised to put right what they, the workers, do wrong.
As the years have gone by, the Standards have developed and their presentation has changed to a less prescriptive form, but underneath lies the same concept, that all work is prone to error, and management planning must recognise this and act accordingly. The likelihood that work of any kind could consistently be done ‘error free’ doesn’t have any place within this or any other Standard.
This failure to recognise what is both a major weakness and an opportunity is not confined to Standards makers, but is endemic in much of industry and commerce. A large supplier of domestic kitchen fittings has recently admitted that they’ve increased their expense in after sales service operation - or put more clearly, in the repair and replacement required after a new installation. The possibility that the money could have been spent solving the cause of the problem rather than correcting it does not seem to have been considered. Is it any surprise that organisations continue to perceive the ISO Standards as being useful only in the context of improving their marketing image?
Earlier in the 20th Century the managers of quality systems became besotted with so-called statistical data gathering and presentation. Based on a lifetime of belief-reinforcing experience that compelled them to believe in the inevitability of error and failure in any work process, they persuaded their masters to support the concept of Acceptable Quality Level (AQL). This term, when used in a truly statistical situation, is a reliable method of predicting the quality of a batch through the examination of a smaller sample. As applied within industry it generally became a justification for accepting the inferior in both service and product delivery. This then has developed into the League Table idiocy driven by government and their civil servants that contains the tacit acceptance of less than perfect work performance, so long as there are those whose performance is deemed inferior to the current product or service examination. League tables are a failure because they support the inevitability of failure. This is a failure to recognise the fact that the present situation arises from a historic perspective of work and culture, along with the absence of the realisation that it doesn’t have to be like it is. To quote a 20th Century Guru - Philip Crosby, ‘It costs no more to do the job right than it costs to do it wrong and then again’. Quality is Free!
So, as we look to the coming of yet another ISO Standard for a quality management system, what are the prospects of a turn-round in philosophy, and a drive for Error-Free working?
Don’t hold your breath!
Ed. Bones is a chartered quality professional and an IRCA registered Lead Auditor. He is also a senior partner with the Meon Consulting Group, supplying expert audit and consultant services for ISO9001 & ISO14001 management systems. The company web site provides detailed information for your perusal, and includes the special offer of FREE Advice. Want to learn more?
ISO9001 Internal Audit
This ISO Standard contains an element (8) intended to encompass a range of features which together support a mechanism to improve the performance of the management system. Internal audit is a piece of this set, but only a piece, yet is - in all likelihood, the only aspect which is apparent to an average individual. Internal audit is necessary, not because of the end result of the process, but because the continuous registration process for ISO9001 organisations makes sure that Internal Audit is scrutinised regularly. It is our contention that the impact of internal audit on the average company is minimal to the point of being useless. This is mostly due not to the process of audit, but to the way in which it’s managed and carried out.
Generalising, quality management processes are tolerated rather than being welcomed. They have become a fundamental part of the usual cost of doing business, mostly due to the failure of the systems to bring forth any solid benefit past the marketing advantage which is said to come from the registered status of the organisations. A diligent examination of the complete requirements which are built into the Standard should deliver a reasonable level of assurance that the benefits of a controlled work environment will be realised by following its text in a way that matches the particular nature and prevalent philosophy of the organisation in question. But it just doesn’t happen. More to the point, it doesn’t seem to put forth evidence of unfailing benefits for the adoption of the standard anywhere near often enough.
With a Standard that is International in both origin and application, how can this be? To understand the reasoning behind this, it’s essential to look closely at the role of those individuals who see their position as that of policing the management system. Often carrying the title of Quality Manager, this individual (sometimes with a team of helpers) is held responsible for the integrity of the documented system and implicitly at least for the quality of the outgoing product or service. Quality Managers have their roots in a manufacturing function whose equivalent would have been the Chief Inspector. The name alone provides an indication of the status - perceived or actual - of this individual. He was without any doubt the final authority when it came to the acceptable level of quality of the organisation’s products. Acceptance or Rejection was entirely at his discretion. Without having actually been there to make a comparison, it still seems as if to many of today’s quality managers are behaving in a similar fashion. With little real understanding or appreciation of the management function, and certainly not the executive role, they fail to speak the language of their local leaders, with clear consequences.
It’s the responsibility of management to outline organisational objectives and policies, and management will organise - or have organised for them, specific systems to uphold these policies and objectives. Their need, although rarely put forward, is for some form of assurance that the systems are generating the specific controls and ongoing benefits they planned for. They need reassurance. The Internal Audit should provide information specific to the operation of the management system and focussed on this management need, but it seldom works that way. Most of the time, the reports of internal audit functions have within them a multitude of insignificant failings termed as ‘non-conformance’, frequently to a requirement that isn’t specified or is completely imaginary in nature, and having minimal bearing on the actual needs of management. Is it any surprise that Internal Audit is perceived to be a necessary evil, carried out to satisfy the ISO auditor, but having an insignificant amount of relevance to life in the actual world of commerce and industry?
When material such as this is provided to managers who see no real value in the investment, it is not just the audit that is ignored but the perpetrators of the audit also. A direct consequence of this failure to identify the audit customer’s need is a rejection of much that has a Quality Management implication. Managers and quality department staff universally complain of lack of management commitment (an ISO9001 requirement), and a general lack of personal advancement opportunities. But improvement is possible, even radical improvement, and it requires a change in strategy for both Executive Managers and those purporting to be Quality Professionals.
The change process:
1. The organisation must recognise that every manager and employee has a responsibility to perform in accordance with the requirements laid down for their work. Nobody else can be responsible for the quality of this work.
2. The title Quality Managers is clearly not a true indication of the function of this individual. Holding the QM responsible for a failure in product of service is clearly wrong unless that delivery was by its nature part of his (or her) normal function.
3. Internal audits should be a recognisable independent assessment of each business function, carried for the function’s manager and reported to that individual alone. (The functional managers have the responsibility for achieving a selection of business objectives, and it is they who need the information to support these objectives).
4. It follows that the auditors, while being independent of the function being audited, should also understand the role and responsibilities of senior managers, and speak at that level.
5. These changes require the dissolution of the existing audit regime, and some re-education of the management team who are responsible for allowing the adverse situation to exist.
6. Professional auditors with a wider experience than that obtainable within one or a limited number of organisations alone can provide the assurance and service level needed by an effective management team.
Ed. Bones is a chartered quality professional, an IRCA registered Lead Auditor, and is a senior partner with Meon Consulting Group, providing expert audit and consultant services for ISO9001 & ISO14001 management systems. The company web site provides detailed information, and includes the offer of FREE Advice.