Jessica Lunsford Blog

It’s belief in numerous businesses that, when all of their employees have sufficient health and safety training, they are adequately prepared to manage an emergency. The reality is that, irrespective your industry, employees should have far more than the basics in health and safety legislation. You must supply your employees with competent supervision, the appropriate equipment, and last but not least regular practice. Someone in a supervisory capacity has an even greater role to play than simply supervising the work environment. The supervisor you employ requires good people skills and see health and safety instruction as essential.

In addition to insuring compliance with health and safety regulations, the supervisor furthermore must ensure that employees perform all their tasks to the highest standard. This is a tough task. A capable supervisor needs to possess a comprehensive understanding of the industry best practice and manufacturing procedures as well as an in depth knowledge of the latest legislation regarding safety, risk appraisal and first aid. Simply having health and safety training isn’t sufficient for your staff. To effectively discover a problem area they need to put their skills to the test. Employees need to know the best way of eradicating safety risks not to mention how best to act when disaster strikes. Not until these processes have become a routine are staff properly educated. Instruction is in reality useless without the necessary safety apparatus. Without the right equipment or should employees see that equipment is broken only after a crisis has occurred, the education your staff have already taken is in vain.

You must examine all your apparatus regularly to make sure that all the essential apparatus is there as well as checking that everything is in good working order. If anything does not come up to the relevant criteria, be certain to have it repaired ASAP and put it back in the right place. The right health and safety instruction is essential to the well-being of your personnel, but they need the right gear, regular practise sessions, and an educated supervisor who gets everyone charged up about being safe at work. If you implement these steps you should find health and safety legislation will before long become established in your business culture instead of an inconvenience everyone has to attempt to remember.

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Competent human resource management techniques are crucial in attaining the best in your business success. With a little effort you can succeed in learning these techniques. Having a spontaneous affinity for communicating with people may be an advantage, but there are numerous skills you can do that will make this process easy.

Relationship Building: Addressing co-workers by name is a great beginning. Talk to people; look individuals in the eye as you’re talking. Do be respectful, in addition listen to what the other person says, regardless of whether you are in agreement with them. Listening to what others say is one of the best human resource management skills you can develop. Be sure to exhibit interest in what they can contribute to the business. Live up to promises: Keeping your promises is very important. When you don’t deliver on what you have promised, the delicate bond of trust is shattered, and without trust employees certainly won’t perform at their best. When you say something or make a promise about something, make sure you can deliver or it would be more sensible not to give your word at all. To be frank, when you can’t be depended on, your team can’t be relied on to be there when it’s really important. Encourage any comments: It’s a two-way street. Maintaining an open mind with regard to other’s opinions is an important skill in effective human resource management. If you are willing to show that you are approachable and open, you prove that your co-worker’s ideas are important to you, your opinions will be appreciated in the same manner. Welcoming discourse also promotes evolution of creative troubleshooting, original methods of fulfilling the mission of the team, and strengthens the company dynamic. When team members can express themselves, each employee takes an interest in the project’s outcome.

Make sure to review our prime prime source for hr manufacturing clues.

Promote all sorts of communication: Dealing with staff comes down to the same concept — communication. Be approachable, practice listening techniques, be open-minded, and give all your staff a chance to speak. The team should be encouraged to talk to each other as well as with you. The growth of a business relies heavily on the interchange of ideas, when the employees communicate efficiently, it is much easier to find any issues before they present as problems, and corrective measures may be applied before matters get out of hand. A little work is essential, nonetheless the rewards far outweigh the work. Through inspiring a good team dynamic and by taking on board your team’s suggestions, you can easily have a successful business.

It’s thought in a lot of companies that, by offering each staff member training in workplace safety, they are suitably equipped for any situation. Realistically however, basic education in health & safety regulatory affairs just is not sufficient. You need to supply your employees with adequate supervision, the appropriate equipment, and the chance to practice.

Someone in a supervisory job has a much bigger role to carry out than just general management. Your choice of supervisor must express enthusiasm and additionally consider training crucial.

As well as insuring compliance with health & safety legislation, the task of a supervisor also includes supervising employee efficiency. This isn’t a easy job. The supervisor needs to have comprehensive knowledge of both the industry and the product as well as an in depth familiarity with the safety legislation, risk assessment, and CPR. It just isn’t adequate to send any staff to a health & safety course. To successfully find a hazard they require practical experience. Employees have to know how to eradicate safety hazards not to mention how best to react when something goes wrong. Your staff are only totally prepared when their training and procedures have become automatic. Education is ineffective if you don’t buy safety gear. If employees discover they are missing apparatus that is required, or even determine that they’re broken when they are required, even the very best instruction won’t help them. You must schedule regular checks to ascertain if you possess everything you need and to make sure it’s functioning correctly too. If you find something is in less than perfect condition, ensure it is fixed or call out a service engineer as a matter of urgency.

Your staff need to get the right health and safety training, but they also require good quality supplies, scheduled practise sessions, and an educated supervisor who gets staff charged up about being healthy at work. And then adopting health & safety legislation will before long be established in the culture of your business not something challenging that staff have to try to remember all the time.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Steve Schwarzman was born on February 14, 1947. He attended Yale University where he and former president George W. Bush were dorm mates. He graduated in 1969 with a degree in Bachelor of Arts in Science. Steve Schwarzman then went to Harvard Business School in 1972, where he received his Masters in Business Administration.

After graduating, Steve Schwarzman worked in law firm Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette. Soon after, he left and started working at the Lehman Brothers, an investment bank, where he soon became the managing director in 1978. After such time, he became the head of the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) group of Lehman Brothers.

It was in Lehman Brothers where Steve Schwarzman met his future associate Peter George Peterson, who at that time was the chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers. In 1983, he left Lehman Brothers and teamed up with Steve Schwarzman to found an asset management company in 1985, called the Blackstone Group. The name “Blackstone” was obtained from the founders’ names in cryptogram. Schwarz means black in German, while Peter means stone in Greek.

Each of them invested in $200,000 to be able to establish their firm. Less than a decade after its establishment, Blackstone Group became one of the world’s largest private equity investments.

If you are like most folks, by this time of the year you are either discouraged about your lack of progress toward your goals or you have given up on them altogether. In either case, allow me to offer you two words: consistency and decision.

In graduate school, I was fortunate enough to be able to play racquetball just about every day. Racquetball is one of those games where you can play well, lose focus for just a second, and then play very poorly.

Consistency is the key

We had a saying back then that applies in the present: Consistency is the key. Consistently focusing on doing the necessary things to achieve your goals will win out every time.

If your goal is to get in better shape, then consistently exercising and eating right will get you there.

If your goal is to save more money, then spending less on junk and consistently putting money in the bank will get you there. You either consistently blow your money on junk or consistently save it.

So if consistency is the key, what is the key to consistency?

Decisions. Making the right decision, making the right choice over and over again over time equals consistency. The word decision comes from the word incision, which means to cut. So to genuinely decide to do something means to cut off any other possibility.

If you want to get into better shape, get the junk food out of the house, because if it’s there you will eat it. If you want to save money, have it taken out of your paycheck and sent to savings before you ever see it.

There’s one question to ask yourself often to keep you consistent and making the right decisions. What do you really want? Do you really want the short-term enjoyment of that candy bar or do you genuinely want the long-term enjoyment of being in better shape and saving money?

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I learned this technique from an ancient Umatic (3/4 inch) video cassette. It was produced to assist car dealerships in getting the most money from trade-in sales. I don’t know if car dealerships still teach this, but I’ve never had it fail me, yet.

Here is how it works in the video. Someone wants a thousand dollars for their trade-in. It’s worth a thousand dollars, but you don’t want to pay them a thousand dollars. You only want to pay them six hundred dollars, which they have already turned down. You let them see you think about it and then you pull your money out of your pocket. Into their hand, while counting, you put a one hundred dollar bill, then another, then another, then another . . . you hesitate . . . you slowly give them one more hundred dollar bill . . . and then add one more hundred dollar bill, and stop. You think about it and then say something like, “No, I’m sorry I know it’s worth more than that, but that’s all I can afford to pay.” You have placed them in a predicament. They have six hundred dollars in hand. Ready money. Hard cash. You reach out to take it back. What do you think they do? No one ever, ever, ever wants to give back money. They pull it towards themselves. In that one little action you’ve made the deal. You just bought their trade-in for six hundred dollars and gave yourself a 40% discount.

The first time I used this technique was to buy a gold necklace for my wife. I slowly played out the money and bought the necklace for my price. I’ve done this for over twenty years from antique stores and car lots to negotiating tables. The technique works well with variations and for all kinds of transactions.

Years ago, I needed to update my video production studio. I saw an ad in a professional video magazine for a complete television studio: two cameras/recorders, two video tape recorders and a controller for editing. They were a few years old, but in tip top condition. They were being offered for about ten percent of their original price. This was a super deal at $21,000. The ad also mentioned O.B.O (or best offer). I knew I could deal with this. I made arrangements to fly from Washington State to Texas. The producer picked me up at the airport and took me to his studio and showed me the equipment. We then went to a restaurant for lunch on the way back to the airport. The equipment was in great condition. It was a super deal. I asked him for his best price. He gave it to me: $16,000. I told him that was a great price, a fair price, and worth every penny, and I was sure that my partners would agree to that when I explained about the quality of the machines when I got back. I then mentioned that I had a money order with me for a price that I was authorized to grant right then, but it was much less than the value of the video equipment. I pushed it over to him with an apology. It was four thousand less than his best price. The money order stayed in Houston. The video equipment went to Washington.

The reason this technique works is because people know how hard it is to find someone who wants to buy what they have, and once they have cash in hand, or a money order, they just can’t turn it away. It’s easier to complete the deal then it is to turn it down . . . even if it means making a little less.

Author Don Doman: Don is a published author of books for small business, corporate video producer, and owner of Ideas and Training (http://www.ideasandtraining.com), which provides business training products. Don also owns and Human Resources Radio (http://www.humanresourcesradio.com), which provides business training programs and previews 24-hours a day.

Mention barter and many people think it was something those ancients did by
swapping things for food and vice versa when money wasn’t around. Its time to wake up dude! You have been there, done that. You have bartered as kids. Remember those super hero comics you got for the baseball cards your pal didn’t have? Well, the news is, barter as a form of business is alive and kicking, and making fast inroads into modern trade.

A standard dictionary defines barter as trading goods or services without the
exchange of money. It is conducted between two parties who have products or
services that each other need. The key word here is ‘need’. In ancient times, if a
toolmaker wanted eggs, he could only get them if the egg dealer wanted tools. And
if he didn’t, the toolmaker very well went without eggs. Or he went right back and
clobbered the egg dealer silly with his tools to get those eggs! Err… this latter
exchange may not qualify as bartering!

Since antiquity all societies successfully practiced barter as an accepted medium of
exchange. In the not so distant past, doctors were being paid in chickens, apples or
other farm produce! Then money made its appearance and became the lifeblood of
business. And bartering was thought to have died a natural death.

Nothing could have been further from the truth. Bartering thrived all along, albeit on
a low key. Take the case of the communist countries during the cold war. Barter
often played an important role in trade for them, as their currencies were not readily
convertible. Or take the case of Germany after the two world wars. Bartering became
their prime means of exchange at the retail level, as currencies collapsed due to
hyperinflation. So, barter saved the day for these countries.

Glyn Davies very rightly observes in A History of Money from Ancient Times to the
Present Day that “barter has, undeservedly, been given a bad name in conventional
economic writing, and its alleged crudities have been much exaggerated”. Barter has
survived to this day. Why? Simply because people needed it then, as they need it
now, only the methods have changed.

In the modern day, the advent of computers not only revolutionized the world, it
also facilitated a sudden resurgence of bartering. The tremendous capabilities of
this new technology of tracking barter transactions and maintaining huge
inventories made bartering an easy and inexpensive form of trading. The spread of
barter exchanges, which create markets for traders, has also fueled its spread.
Bartering has become serious business and comes under the purview of the income
tax and the sales tax departments.

Today, it is amazing to see what all can be obtained through barter… computer
hardware and software, household items, jewelry, books, CDs, movies, hotel
accommodations, real estate, etc. The list may well be endless! Barter is big
business and getting bigger with every passing day.

Bartering is becoming popular because it offers some excellent benefits. It saves
cash and increases profits by boosting the bottom line. It strengthens relationships
because of closer interaction with barter customers. It generates new business, as
barter customers often end up becoming cash customers or rope in others. It helps
market business in ways not otherwise possible by attracting certain customers that
are otherwise difficult to obtain. It helps to move surplus stock that will otherwise
lie unsold. And it has the potential to expand the market area dramatically.

No wonder when considering funding applications, venture capitalists are
increasingly evaluating the ability of applicants to barter. That barter is gaining
legitimacy as a corporate asset is demonstrated by the many seminars targeting
Corporate Finance Officers.

Businesses generally use two types of barter. The one-on-one bartering, which is
the true form of bartering involving two parties, and third party bartering that uses
some form of currency to allow more dynamic exchange between the parties
involved.

If statistics provided by the International Reciprocal Trade Association are anything
to go by, barter today is a huge six-billion-dollar business-to-business hit
worldwide. And this figure is expected to grow by more than ten percent annually.

If you are not already bartering, you should probably consider it. There are
numerous ways to find barter deals online. You can search for online barter
websites, join online barter clubs or contribute to bartering newsgroups. If you have
your own website, you can set up barter message boards or chat rooms to get
barter offers.

For better or for worse, barter is here to stay, making business lucrative to the
cash-rich and the cash-strapped alike. Edmund Burke has rightly noted in his
speech on the occasion of Conciliation of America in the 1700s that, “All
government - indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every
prudent act - is founded on compromise and barter”.

M. Bawri is an entrepreneur and a fashion designer. She prefers to create a separate
space for each of her activities.

Here are my 7 tips for polishing your presentations and giving maximum value to your audience:

1. Involve the audience by asking them questions and for their own stories and experiences to support what you are saying. However, only ask a question if you know they will get the answer right! You are not there to test them and a series of wrong answers will take you off-track and begin to irritate.

2. Talk for about 15 minutes at most without audience participation, or you will lose their attention. People always start to perk up if they think they may be asked for a contribution!

3. Use plenty of anecdotes and human interest to engage your audience’s imagination. Human beings love stories and they will be more inspired to think about what you are saying.

4. Don’t be afraid to repeat important points several times or to allow a pause for something vital to sink in. Even the most quick-witted amongst us welcomes the opportunity to mentally catch up and really appreciate a point before you move on.

5. Use plenty of visuals, whether that be Powerpoint, props or visual imagery. Being able to see or imagine something brings it alive in a fresh and powerful way.

6. You will probably need to speak more slowly, more clearly and more loudly than you would naturally. A normal conversational pace can come across as a gabble in a presentation.

7. And most importantly of all - look as though you are enjoying yourself! Moods and emotions are catching, and if you look as though you are happy to be there, talking to them, your audience will be more responsive.

Enjoy putting these tips into practice and you will become a popular presenter!

Andy Britnell specialises in sales and customer service training for the private and public sectors. Go to http://www.andybritnell.co.uk/ and you can sign up for my FREE short monthly newsletter and FREE e-mail coaching.

I coach corporate and SME clients who wish to fulfil more of their potential by thinking and behaving more effectively - see http://www.executive-coaching-for-business-growth.com/

According to study findings recently release by ISR, 34% of employees surveyed reported the demands of their jobs “seriously interfere with their private lives.” Since 1990, the U.S. has ranked as one of the highest industrialized nations in average annual hours worked per person according to statistics from the International Labor Organization of the United Nations.

In order to combat employee burnout and to ensure the proper work/life balance, practice the following five tips:

Practice Right-thinking - Half of the battle against employee burnout is emotional in nature. Employees who maintain an appropriate and positive perspective of their work environment are more prone to stave off burnout. Consciously choosing to improve your mental attitude will work wonders in the battle against work/life imbalance.

Plan Your Work & Work Your Plan - Many times work/life balance is destroyed by irregular hours, and long workdays. Spending 15-30 minutes each evening planning the major accomplishments required for the following day will increase the likelihood of having a normal workday. Find ways to say “no” to unnecessary busywork, or work that doesn’t directly contribute to your plan.

Strengthen Relationships Both Inside and Outside Work - Relationships are the key to a high quality life. Having friends inside and outside the workplace with whom you can discuss achievements and struggles will reduce the pressure and contribute to developing a positive perspective. Using these “inside” friends to hold you accountable for maintaining a positive perspective will also have a positive impact.

Don’t Over-spend - “Work depression” can develop because employees feel trapped in their current jobs, often due to the demands of consumer debt and other financial obligations. Because they feel they have no choice, employees allow themselves to be held “hostage” by their current places of employment. Reducing expenses can relieve significant pressure allowing employees to feel as though they do have choices.

Serve Someone in Need - One of the best ways to overcome burnout and depression is to get the focus off of you and onto someone else. Practicing random acts of kindness and/or volunteering to help someone in genuine need is a great way to generate positive emotions.

Dr. Jeff Standridge is co-Author of The Abundance Principle: Five Keys to Extraordinary Living (http://www.TheAbundancePrinciple.com). He can be reached at http://www.AbundantLifeProject.com, or by emailing Jeff@AbundantLifeProject.com.

It is 9:00 am on a Monday morning. Do you know where your employees’ attention is? Is it on work?

Picture this. You are at work. The phone rings. It is your aging father’s neighbor calling to say that Dad is walking around outside in his pajamas and seems confused. You have a full day of meetings and deadlines. Your heart sinks as you try to figure out how to care for your dad and keep your job.

The phone rings again. This time it is the school nurse saying that your asthmatic child is having trouble breathing.

According to the American Productivity Audit, one-third of respondents said dependent health concerns were a top reason employees were not able to focus on their job while at work.

What you may not know is that the situations above can just as likely happen to a working woman as to a working man. However if a woman gets the troubling phone call, she is more likely to talk about it at work while the man will not (2003 National Alliance for Caregiving national survey).

Millions of working adults - men and women - are juggling the competing demands of caring for a chronically ill or disabled parent, raising a family, and managing a career.

Working caregivers sacrifice leisure time, and often suffer stress-related illnesses. Negative effects on working caregivers include time lost from work, lower productivity, quitting a job to provide care, lost career opportunities and lower future earnings. Eventually, some 16 percent quit their jobs to provide care full-time. Work disruptions due to employee caregiving responsibilities result in productivity losses of $1,142 per year per employee. According to the Washington Post, researchers estimate that the cost of informal caregiving in terms of lost productivity to U.S. businesses is $29 billion annually.

Caregiving Takes Work-Life Toll

A recent MetLife study dubbed “Juggling Act” revealed some of the productivity-killing adjustments that caregivers choose to make to their work schedules:

• 84% make phone calls

• 69% arrive late or leave early

• 67% take time off during the workday

• 29% make up work at another time

In addition, a national survey conducted by the National Alliance for Caregiving in 1997 found that two in ten working caregivers turned down the opportunity to work on special projects; almost as many avoided work-related travel. Forty percent of the survey respondents said that caregiving affected their ability to advance in their jobs.

What Employers Can Do

Here are seven measures you can take to reduce employee stress, increase productivity and decrease lost work time due to employee caregiving responsibilities.

1. Offer “cafeteria style” employee benefits which allow employees to select supplemental dependent care coverage to reimburse costs for in-home care or adult day care. Benefits also should cover therapeutic counseling for employees to help cope with the stresses of caregiving.

2. Provide information on helpful Internet sites or resource centers.

3. Organize in-house caregiver support groups or coordinate with local community groups or hospitals so that employees can attend an outside support group.

4. One of the most critical benefits for an employee with caregiving responsibilities is time. Flexible work hours, family illness days, and leave time are key. Data from the Bureau of National Affairs (1993) found that flexible scheduling improved job performance, decreased lateness and employee turnover, and increased job satisfaction.

5. Companies with 50 or more employees must comply with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which allows for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a seriously ill parent, spouse or child, while protecting job security. Smaller firms can use the FMLA guidelines to provide support for individual employees.

6. Hold a company “caregiver fair” or a series of lunchtime seminars on issues such as health care planning before a crisis hits or coping skills for caregivers.

7. Offer private long-term care insurance coverage for employees, their spouses, and dependents.

Employers have a stake in designing responsive and effective programs to support their caregiving employees. Research has demonstrated that the cost to employers of lost productivity and other factors related to caregiving employees’ difficulty in balancing work and family is high. Taking action immediately starts to increase productivity, lessen direct and indirect financial costs, and enhance employer/employee work/life relationship - which directly impacts on employee morale, satisfaction and retention.

About The Author

Michael Christian is the President of Patient Advocate Solutions (PAS). PAS provides healthcare navigation and insurance resolution for consumers, employers and healthcare providers. Contact him at (732) 564-9800 or www.pas-now.com