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Business Management Information
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Communicating with Offsite Workers How do you, or would you, communicate with employees who work offsite? You Get the Behavior You Reward On consulting assignments, here are some of the questions I frequently ask the employees I interview: Phone Sex is Bad for Business On August 3rd/2005, Reuters reported that a German man had colluded with a phone sex operator to defraud his employer's company out of approximately 16,000 Euro or almost 20,000 US dollars, by making 160 phone calls over a year and a half from work. He apparently split the profits 50/50 with the phone sex operator. The courts convicted the man and gave him a suspended sentence of eight months. Comparing Ancient Programs from the East to Modern Programs like Stephen Covey. Comparing Corporate and Personal goal attainment programs that have developed over thousands of years with those of modern day legends such as Covey - "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" You Cant Afford the Luxury of Disengaged Employees In today's business environment with increases in staff reductions and rapidly changing roles and responsibilities, it is crucial that all of your team members be fully engaged in the tasks at hand. According to a Gallup survey, 350 billion dollars are lost each year in American companies due to disengaged employees. How then do you minimize the impact of this costly problem within your organization? Below are key strategies to help you grow your people toward peak performance and enable you to produce quantum results with your team. Change Management: Getting Everyone on Board the Change Train How do you get everyone on board the change train that is gaining speed and heading out of the station? How do you get your people to, not only go through the motions, but also actually "buy into" the changes that are necessary? People's resistance to change is not entirely irrational; it stems from good and understandable concerns. Here are the six most common reasons people resist change and tactics to convert this resistance to commitment. Strategic Clarity for Communication Management Over the past few weeks I've been developing plans for a communication project, a media relations campaign. Budgets! Budgets! There I've said it. For some the most hated and feared word in business. But it doesn't have to be that way. As a matter of fact, a well thought out and constructed budget can be the small business owners best friend. After all, a budget is just a laid out plan to produce profits and profits is what we are all after. Encouraging Behavior That Gets Results You're the boss, and you have every reason to feel good about your organization. Integrity... Should It Matter? In our fast paced work culture, manned by technology savvy generation in a globally competitive environment, quality and productivity became the battle cry of corporations to stay in business. Though this is not necessarily bad, an equally important ingredient to succeed is seemingly taking the back seat. Take the Easy Route - Delegate It was 2.30 am. It was cold and dark and I'd been in bed for just a half hour when the phone rang. Beyond Management Coaching: When Things Are Getting Out of Control Leaders and Managers often ask us, 'What do you do when you have tried to coach and counsel an employee about a performance concern, and the employee has not responded? Experiences of Management Coaching (Part 2) In our experience, we have found that there are several reasons managers fail to get employees to see and acknowledge that they have a problem. The Compliance Officers Killer Application It used to be that only the largest multi-nationals needed a Compliance Officer. Today most practices, regardless of size, would be wise to charge someone within their organisation with the responsibility of keeping abreast and managing the compliance process.Take as an example European employment law that has been introduced over the last few years that has changed the face of European businesses. Small businesses in particular are finding that a casual and informal approach to employment issues can now result in statutory fines that have no bearing on the financial health of the individual company and could, without as much as a by your leave, directly result in the demise of a company.Small to medium businesses do not often have the luxury of employing a full time Compliance Officer and although larger organisations can afford a dedicated person they are finding that with compliance issues mushrooming the Compliance Officer now has a team, a department and if not already, how long before compliance becomes a division? Regardless of size, the first step in compliance for any organisation requires them to identify the areas of compliance that are applicable to them. Rules and regulations are being introduced monthly on a local, regional, national and international level, covering everything from data protection and freedom of information, anti-money laundering to environmental waste control, race relations to health and safety; with ignorance being no defence there is a requirement on the individual businesses to know their responsibilities, and fines for those that wait to be told. Having identified the areas of compliance the company then needs to understand what they need to do to ensure they comply. It is becoming conceivable that with the shear volume of compliancy issues that companies who can show a good faith effort in complying will, even when they fall short, reduce the risks of fines.Having identified and understood the compliance issues the Compliance Officer needs to define and implement policy and disseminate the information throughout the organisation.It is important for the Compliance Officer that they do not inadvertently become the company's patsy. Senior managers are not averse to ignoring the internal memos they receive advising them of their responsibilities. Compliance Officers need to deliver their messages up and down the corporate food chain and record that their advice and directives have been received and more importantly understood.The Compliance Officer has to avoid becoming the company scapegoat. This won't happen by itself, a sales team that has a long history of success though a relaxed attitude to selling is not going to willingly adopt new, and what they will see as restrictive, practices without a fight. 'I didn't get the memo', 'I didn't understand it', 'I thought it meant something else', 'I thought these were only guidelines' are likely to be stock replies, along with the one or two old timers that didn't think compliance issues applied to them. It used to be a safe bet to blame IT, blame Compliance is rapidly taking its place.One valuable tool in the Compliance Officer's tool box is the online survey and questionnaire.The online survey can deliver a message internally to the individual; it can be informative like a memo and educational by referencing detailed policy. Importantly it can become a valuable self registering record that confirms that the information has been properly disseminated and understood.A single survey question can achieve all these objectives at the same time.Take an example:-Are you aware that section 45 of the Companies (Auditing and Accounting) Act 2003 imposes an obligation on directors of certain companies to prepare statements on their company's compliance with its relevant obligations? (Click here for a summary of Company's Policy on Compliance Reporting Obligations)YesNoFor those Directors that have not read the policy the survey will give an opportunity to view the company's policy online (using an embedded live HTML link). Should Directors answer 'No' the Compliance Officer knows who to target.The survey also records the manager's response and shifts the responsibility away from the Compliance Officer to the individual manager where the responsibility needs rest for a company to meet its compliance obligations.Using an online website such http://www.surveygalaxy.com where multiple surveys can be managed, easily modified, updated and re-issued on a periodic basis across an organisation online surveys can be the Compliance Officer's killer application.Through the regular use of online surveys the Compliance Officer will be in the driving seat, leading and not chasing compliance issues, not only circulating the information on a one to one basis but also monitoring and recording the level of awareness throughout the organisation.The Compliance Officer's role is a difficult one, like a parent keeping a wayward child on the straight and narrow, most employers, let alone their employees, often do not fully understand the true consequence of their, often innocent, minor discretions. Assigning a Compliance Officer is a start but enabling them to fulfil their remit will be the difference between a company being fully compliant and one that risks suffering the consequences for having let compliance take a back seat. Managing Group Meetings MANAGING SMALL MEETINGS: Keep the size of the meeting as small as possible. The larger the group, the more complicated communication becomes and the more garbled the purpose may get. For example, with a group of two, there are two communication channels, add a third person and six channels have been created. With each additional person, the number of communication channels increases exponentially. When selecting participants for the meeting, consider the following criteria: -- expertise in the topics -- contribution to the discussion -- pre-existing personal conflicts -need for new information. Successful Business Decision Making Some people make decisions without any difficulty, while others struggle. Are you having trouble making a decision? Do you feel overwhelmed by all the choices you have, and aren't sure how to pick just one? No matter how big or small those decisions might be, I can teach you how to strategically: Got A Meeting Planned? Ask This Question Meetings ? they are a fact of our business lives. And while the number of meetings and the amount of time you spend in them may vary based on your job title, it is hard to argue that they are a significant part of business life today. Hows Your Company RQ (Reputation Quotient)? In light of recent corporate scandals, from Enron and Global Crossing to those of once trustworthy mutual funds, is it any wonder that more people are asking, "Can I trust this company enough to do business with them?" But the trust issue isn't just relative to the buyers of your products and services, its vitally important to employees as well. Impacting their retention and performance in very real ways. The Four Key Steps In Hiring And Keeping Top People "When you hire the best, the rest is easy!" We have heard this phrase many times, but how do we put this concept into action? We know that hiring the best people is vital to the success of your business, especially for fast growing businesses. And certainly, your customers have high service expectations. So?how do you hire and keep top people? Let's start from the beginning. How to Approach Group Decision Making GROUP DECISION MAKING -- IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM: Tell specifically what the problem is and how you experience it. Cite specific examples. --"Own" the problem as yours and solicit the help of others in solving it rather than implying that it's someone else's problem that they ought to solve. Keep in mind that if it were someone else's problem, they would be bringing it up for discussion. --In the identification phase of problem-solving, avoid references to solutions. This can trigger disagreement too early in the process and prevent ever making meaningful progress. --Once there seems to be a fairly clear understanding of what the problem is, this definition should be written in very precise language If a group is involved, it should be displayed on a flip chart or chalkboard.
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