Marketing plan for a training company

How to develop a marketing plan for your training company

What is a marketing plan?

A Marketing Plan is sometimes called a marketing strategy, in essence it is an action plan of what it is you are going to do to promote your business. Like any SMART goal  it is a written plan that states the marketing goals and the objectives to be achieved over a specified period of time.

So if you are currently in business or looking to set up a training company or starting out in freelance training, the one thing you need is a clear plan – well in fact two plans… a business plan (a simple one page plan will do) and a marketing plan.

A marketing plan looks at three factors:

1. Where is your business now?
2. Where do you want/ need your business to be? (and why)
3. How are you going to get your business there?

Jumping straight to step (2) or three is a waste of time without REALLY understanding (1) – where is your business now (are you now)? What do you do? Who do you do it with? For how much?

We need to follow some sound principles…

Knowledge -> Understanding -> Action

We need Knowledge of where we are – we need to understand or make sence of this in order to take appropriate Action

 

A  Marketing Plan Template (example)

 

Executive Summary - What is the plan about – one or two simple paragraphs

Business Overview 

- What do you do – be specific (to say you run management training courses is too vague)

Target market - who do you do it do/ with? The narrower & more specific the better

Vision – what do you want to be ?

Mission – Why are you in business? what is your purpose?

Current Analysis - where are you now ? what do you do? who to? for how much?

External Analysis – What is happening in the environment in which you are, or want to operate? 

Conduct a PEST/ PESTLE analysis

Internal Analysis

Conduct a PRIMO-F analysis

Use the PESTLE & PRIMO-F data to complete a comprehensive SWOT analysis. Use this to consider where you are, where are you going and how are you going to get there?

 

Marketing Strategies – your plan

Consider what approaches (strategies) are required to achieve your desired goals. Look at:

• Marketing Mix (4 ps – product, place, pricing, promotion)
  • Your target market
  • Service/ product strategy
  • Pricing  approach
  • Promotional strategy- how do people know you exist?
  • Customers – acquisition, maintain – also see Ansoff matrix

  

Implementation Plan

What needs to be done. What actions.. by who… by when

Resourcing requirements

• How much money/ cash you need for your business plan
• Investment from you ?
• The people involved – is this just you? associates? partners?

This template will work equally well for a coaching or consulting company.

What is Performance Management? CIPD Research

Performance Management – why do we do it?

The term performance management has been with us for some time, developed out of “appraisals”, Performance Management remains one of the consistently used phrases in the human resources and management field. Recently the CIPD has conducted some research into performance management recently and the responses from 507 people are interesting.

This short article looks at three of the outputs from that research and explores the potential meaning for HR, OD and managers involved in Performance Management.

From the graph it can be seen that different organisations appear to have a different meaning.  For some it is about appraisal for others it is about 360s and competence.

Why do Performance Management?

This was one of the questions asked in the survey, and to me there is one main reason – to ensure people have the skills required and deliver the required performance – so you can guess I was very surprised to see the survey results:

As most seem to be saying that it is intended as a benefit for the individual – why do so many individuals dislike the process?  have you ever spoke to a “typical employee” and they said you you in a happy tone “I have my appraisal today” – it does happen, but it is the exception rather then the norm. Indeed a few minutes on the web and you can find page after page of results listing why staff dislike the process, and that performance management is a good thing for the organisation.

So why the mis-match with this research?

Maybe it is down to understanding. In the survey, professionals were asked what they considered Performance Management to be:

With such diverse answers as “regular review meetings”, appraisal, 360 feedback, I can only hope that managers and HR professionals in a given organisation all agreed as to what the process is, and who it is for.

Judging by this research we should stop the process. If it is not adding value to the organisations bottom line through ensuring a sensible level of performance through clear objectives and appropriate skills and knowledge, why do it?

Performance management however you describe it is costly from both a line management point of view and a time perspective. In difficult trading and economic conditions we need to ensure that we all focus on what is important. As this seems to be an area where there is confusion and lack of clarity, then maybe it is time to drop this long standing approach, it was after-all only introduced to cover the non performance of managers managing their people in the first place – so if the managers aren’t managing and the process is not covering the ‘gap’ why bother?

What does Performance Management mean to you, your managers and importantly your people?  Who is it for, and how do you measure the results?

This research can be downloaded from the CIPD site Performance management in Action

Bullying at work, recognising it & its impact on innovation

Bullying at work on the increase

Or so the reports and surveys tell us. What we do know is that where bullying exists, trust does not. We also know that innovation requires openness and trust. So what do we really have in our organisations – innovation OR bullying?

Are you being bullied at work – or are you a work place bully?

As employers we have a responsibility to our employees, customers and suppliers for them to be respected and not bullied in any way. To deliver on that responsibility we need to first recognise when bullying is taking place.

It is said that half the population are bullied (not all at work)… most only realise it when they read articles like this.

How to spot a workplace bully:

Bad (ineffective) Manager/ Team Leader	Good(effective) Manager/ Team Leader
Bully / Coward	Leader
Random/ impulsive	Decisive
Rigid/ short term	Identifies short & long term goals
Abdicates responsibility	Accepts responsibility
Takes all the credit	Shares credit
Denies failings	Acknowledges failings
Inability to learn or change ways	Learns from experience
Inconsistent	Consistent
Critical, singles people out	Fair, treats people equally
Disrespectful and inconsiderate	Respectful & considerate

Bullying is often characterised as offencive, intimidating or insulting behaviour, an abuse of power through means intended to undermine, humiliate or denigrate the recipient.

Harassment is unwanted behaviour affecting the dignity of an individual in the workplace. It may be related to sex, age, religion, race, disability or personal preferences of the individual. It may be persistent or a one off incident.

What is bullying?

What is bullying?  Constant nit-picking, fault-finding or criticism of a trivial nature – the triviality, regularity and frequency betray bullying; often there is a grain of truth in the criticism to fool you into believing the criticism has validity, which it does not; often, the criticism is based on distortion, misrepresentation or fabrication Simultaneous with the criticism, a constant refusal to acknowledge you and your contributions and achievements or to recognise your existence and value Constant attempts to undermine you and your position, status, worth, value and potential Where you are in a group (eg at work), being singled out and treated differently; for instance, everyone else can get away with murder but the moment you put a foot wrong – however trivial – action is taken against you Being isolated and separated from colleagues, excluded from what’s going on, marginalised, overruled, ignored, sidelined, frozen out, sent to “Coventry” Being belittled, demeaned and patronised, especially in front of others Being humiliated, shouted at and threatened, often in front of others Being overloaded with work, or having all your work taken away and replaced with either menial tasks (filing, photocopying, minute taking) or with no work at all Finding that your work – and the credit for it – is stolen and plagiarised Having your responsibility increased but your authority taken away Having annual leave, sickness leave, and – especially – compassionate leave refused Being denied training necessary for you to fulfil your duties Having unrealistic goals set, which change as you approach them Ditto deadlines which are changed at short notice – or no notice – and without you being informed until it’s too late Finding that everything you say and do is twisted, distorted and misrepresented Being subjected to disciplinary procedures with verbal or written warnings imposed for trivial or fabricated reasons and without proper investigation Being coerced into leaving through no fault of your own, constructive dismissal, early or ill-health retirement, etc

 

How to recognise a bully:

How do I recognise a bully?Most bullying is traceable to one person, male or female – bullying is not a gender issue. Bullies are often clever people (especially female bullies) but you can be clever too. Who does this describe in your life?  Jekyll & Hyde nature – vicious and vindictive in private, but innocent and charming in front of witnesses; no-one can (or wants to) believe this individual has a vindictive nature – only the current target sees both sides Is a convincing, compulsive liar and when called to account, will make up anything spontaneously to fit their needs at that moment Uses lots of charm and is always plausible and convincing when peers, superiors or others are present; the motive of the charm is deception and its purpose is to compensate for lack of empathy Relies on mimicry to convince others that they are a “normal” human being but their words, writing and deeds are hollow, superficial and glib Displays a great deal of certitude and self-assuredness to mask their insecurity Excels at deception Exhibits unusual inappropriate attitudes to sexual matters or sexual behaviour; underneath the charming exterior there are often suspicions or intimations of sexual harassment, sex discrimination or sexual abuse (sometimes racial prejudice as well) Exhibits much controlling behaviour and is a control freak displays a compulsive need to criticise whilst simultaneously refusing to acknowledge, value and praise others When called upon to share or address the needs and concerns of others, responds with impatience, irritability and aggression Often has an overwhelming, unhealthy and narcissistic need to portray themselves as a wonderful, kind, caring and compassionate person, in contrast to their behaviour and treatment of others; the bully is oblivious to the discrepancy between how they like to be seen (and believe they are seen), and how they are actually seen Has an overbearing belief in their qualities of leadership but cannot distinguish between leadership (maturity, decisiveness, assertiveness, trust and integrity) and bullying (immaturity, impulsiveness, aggression, distrust and deceitfulness) When called to account, immediately and aggressively denies everything, then counter-attacks with distorted or fabricated criticisms and allegations; if this is insufficient, quickly feigns victim-hood, often by bursting into tears (the purpose is to avoid answering the question and thus evade accountability by manipulating others through the use of guilt) Is also … aggressive, devious, manipulative, spiteful, vengeful, doesn’t listen, can’t sustain mature adult conversation, lacks a conscience, shows no remorse, is drawn to power, emotionally cold and flat, humourless, joyless, ungrateful, dysfunctional, disruptive, divisive, rigid and inflexible, selfish, insincere, insecure, immature and deeply inadequate, especially in interpersonal skills

Taking action at work to stop bullying:

Creating an anti-bullying ethos

Developing an anti-bullying policy is part of a wider commitment to ensuring a safe and productive work environment and a healthy workplace. Creating an anti-bullying ethos is a comprehensive and challenging objective which needs to be carefully thought through and understood before you start. This like any other organisational development strategy will require stakeholder buy-in and time to develop and implement. Like all change their will be some that welcome it and others that will not (use some of the tools in our change management sections). Often it will be the perpetrators that create the biggest resistance to this change. Be consistent, and seek help from professionals that are experienced in this area.

Bottom Line

All staff will perform better and more effectively in an environment in which trust exists. If we want innovation, we cannot have any form of bullying or harassment – as an organisation we have a choice – innovate and survive or don’t and die eventually – we cannot have widespread innovation where bullying exists.

Many of our organisations are striving to develop the innovative capacity of our people, however to have a culture of innovation requires openness and trust – bullying is symptom of a culture which cannot sustain openness and trust.

 

For more information please visit http://www.bullyonline.org/workbully/index.htm and support the organisation by purchasing their resources

CIPD qualifications for Learning & Development (New – CDP)

New CIPD qualifications for Learning and Development

Late in 2009 the CIPD have announced some new qualifications that will supersede the CTP, Certificate in Training Practice. There will be two new qualifications for this market – a level 3 and a level 5 programme.

There are not much in the way of details at the time of writing this however the information given below is provided in good faith and as-is.

The announcement of these two programmes is a first for the CIPD, in that for the first time their qualifications are mapped  to the national framework model for professional qualifications. This opens a path for more focussed qualifications linked to the CIPD and the HR/ OD function.

 New Level 3 qualification – certificate in learning & development Practice (CLDP or CDP)

These programme are aimes at practitioners, those involved in the design and delivery of learning solutions

New CIPD Certificate in Learning and Development Practice – CLDP or CDP  (26 credit points)
Unit title (table 2)	Credit value	Designation
Developing yourself as an effective learning and development (L&D) professional	2	Core
Understanding L&D and the organisational context	3	Core
Recording, analysing and using L&D information	3	Core
Delivering learning and development activities	6	Core
Table 3	14 credits
Undertaking a learning needs analysis	3	Option
Preparing and designing learning and development activities	3	Option
Evaluating learning and development activities	3	Option
Developing your coaching skills for the workplace	3	Option
Developing your mentoring skills for the workplace	3	Option
One or two units from the Certificate in HR Practice (see table 2) (maximum of 6 credits only)	6 or 3	Option
	12 credits
Note:
1. Certificate in L&D Practice (26 credits) Learners will be required to take the core units (total of 14 credit points) and may choose units from the options listed in table 3 (and some from table 2) up to a value of 12 credit points in total. This allows considerable flexibility e.g. 2 x 6 credit units; 4 x 3 credit units; 1 x 6 credit units plus 2 x 3 credit units. Students enrolled on the Certificate in L&D Practice must take units totalling a minimum of 6 credits from the L&D list in table 3.
2. Diploma in L&D Practice (38 credits) Learners seeking a Diploma in L&D Practice will be required to take the same core as the certificate and a minimum of four L&D units from table 3, plus units from table 2 to achieve an overall total of 24 credits for the options.

Level 5 programme: new CIPD Certificate in Learning and Development Management CLDM or DLDM or Diploma in Human Resource Development (DHRD)

 This programme is at an intermediate level, and suited to managers of Learning & Development functions.

Table 2 ROC for New CIPD Certificate in Learning and Development Management (26 credit points)
Unit title (working titles and subject to change)	Credit value	Designation
Developing yourself as an effective practitioner	2	Core
Analysing the organisational context and the role of L&D	3	Core
Managing and co-ordinating the L&D function	3	Core
Improving practice in learning and development	6	Core
Table 3	14 credits
Developing, piloting and evaluating learning and development initiatives	6	Option
Facilitating organisational learning and development activities	6	Option
Meeting organisational L&D needs through blended learning	6	Option
Evaluating learning and development within an organisation	3	Option
Working with third party suppliers to deliver organisational learning	3	Option
Developing coaching and mentoring within organisations:	3	Option
One or two units from the Certificate in Managing Human Resources -maximum of 6 credits only	6 credits maximum	Option
	12 credits
Note:
1. Certificate in HR Development (26 credits) Learners will be required to take the core units (total of 14 credit points) and may choose units from the options listed in table 3 (and some from table 2) up to a value of 12 credit points in total. This allows considerable flexibility e.g. 2 x 6 credit units; 4 x 3 credit units; 1 x 6 credit units plus 2 x 3 credit units. Students enrolled on the Certificate in HRD must take units totalling a minimum of 6 credits from the HRD list in table 3.
2. Diploma in HR Development (38 credits) Learners seeking a Diploma in HRD will be required to take the same core as the certificate and a minimum of four HRD units from table 3, plus units from table 2 to achieve an overall total of 24 credits for the options.

There appears to be some discrepancy in the documentation available as to the title of this course. I hope that they include the term “management” as this will enable providers and purchasers to apply for public funding where available. Table 1 contains the HRM content and is not reproduced here.

As soon as more information is available on these new qualifications from the CIPD I’ll let you know.

The data in the table is (c) the CIPD

Employees leave their boss not their job!

Are our managers leaking talent, or retaining it?

While responding to a question on a network group I belong to about employee motivation and engagement, I recalled some research about the fact that people left bosses not their jobs.

Then I came across a recently published piece of research carried out by a the Florida State University that clearly suggests employees leave their bosses not their jobs.

Matching employees to managers is an element of recruitment which is rarely done (except at some very senior posts), we seem to focus on job competency, when we all know that it is attitude and behaviour that is the difference that makes the difference. 

The study at Florida conducted by FSU professor Wayne Hochwarter and two doctoral students – Paul Harvey and Jason Stoner – shows that 40% of employees work for bad bosses based on survey results.

• 23% said their supervisor blamed other to cover up personal mistakes or minimise embarrassment
• 24% indicated their boss invaded their privacy
• 27% report their supervisor made negative comments about them to other employees or managers
• 31% said their supervisor gave them the “silent treatment” during the past year
• 37% indicated their supervisor failed to give credit when due
• 39% of workers said their supervisor failed to keep promises

Read the FSU research summary here.

How many good people have you lost through having a poor manager?

While writing this piece, it reminded me of the situation with my wife and here employer, great people, she loves the job, but the manager is proving that she cannot manager and is undermining the business (a small medical practice) with her poor decision making abilities and thinking. Had it not been for a family illness and bereavement she would have changed employers by now.

How much is employee turnover costing you and your business?

1. Total Work force x % of Exempt Employees ___________
2. Multiply answer to #1 x your turnover % ___________
3. Multiply answer to #2 x average salary ___________
4. Add to your final answer some of the potential costs from demographic changes.

Our company turnover cost ___________
Had enough? Maybe it’s time to get serious about reducing turnover in your company!

How many people do you have that at the first opportunity will leave. In HR and management we say our people are our most valuable asset, but do we manage and take care of therm as though they are?

Other research on why people leave:

Harvard Research
An insightful blog article on engagement

Want to take action to prevent this from happening in your firm? have a look at our EESS a cost effective employee survey that you can run yourself – and benchmark progress too!

The Perfect Resume (CV) to get you through to interview

Writing the perfect resume  or Curriculum Vitae (CV)

At a time when vacancies are hard to come by and there is increasing pressure in us to secure that all important role. But how often do we get the ‘dear john’ letter and fail to get an interview?

The ‘perfect CV’ is the one that gets you the interview.

Never underestimate the power of a good resume or CV. Your resume is part of marketing yourself to the recruiter, so it needs to demonstrate who you are and what you stand for. It needs to reflect your personality. There is no point going for or getting a job where the employing organisation’s culture does not have a comfortable fit with your needs.

Accepting a job must be a two way agreement.

Many people think the role of a Curriculum Vitae is to get them a job. That is not what happens in reality.

The role of a ‘Perfect CV’ is simple; it is to get you a first interview. No more.. no less.

Many recruitment agencies use the CV as a screening out tool, a reason not to select you. Using  this information, we need to ensure that there is nothing on the CV that will give them a reason to de-select you. We all know about the law and equal opportunities etc but people are human – we need to work with people prejudices’ (yes we all have them – it’s how we manage them that counts).

To select or de-select
We now know that many recruiters use a CV to de-select candidates long before they have had a change to speak to anyone. So this means making sure that there is little that can give a person a reason to de-select us.

These things include:
Age - DOB, – the law may say one thing but people still behave unconsciously and with prejudice – do not include this
University – what if the recruiter had a bad experience at the university you went to or does not value the ‘name’ of the university? Grade – unless you gained honours – stating a 2:2 or 2:1 may again give a reason to not select you
Subject of study – unless directly relevant to the role (or your first job), do not include it. The fact that you took theatre studies while applying for a job in a call centre says to the employer – wants to do one thing but needs short term employment – a risk if they need to invest in your training
Marital status – not relevant – do not include it
Children – not relevant – again a recruiter may decide for you that because you have children that you are not prepared to travel so rule you out
Qualifications – be prepared to show certificates
Disability – if this does not impact your ability to do the role do not declare it at this time
Pregnancy – do not mention this until after appointment
Photographs – another reason for them not to like you – unless explicitly requested – do not include
Hobbies – be careful here as some may generate stereo-typical behaviours, i.e. train spotters, mountain climbers

Words to use/ not to use in your ‘Perfect CV’

1. There are two types of person looking at your CV:
2. The recruiter – they are looking for a job skills fit
3. The manager thy are looking to answer three questions:
   1. How can you make the company money? and
   2. How can you save the company money?”

With this in mind we need to look at the language we use. Avoid fluffy language:

1. Successfully
2. Highly qualified
3. Professional
4. Results focused
5. Effectual leader
6. Has talent for
7. Energetic
8. Confident

Don’t just say… show.

Focus instead on what you have DELIVERED and SAVED. The new employer is primarily interested in what you can do for them, and in their mind former success brings success – and former failure (and poor working relationships) brings poor performance. 

Recruitment Software and web sites
As organisations become more sophisticated, they start using CV reading software and web sites that filter us out long before a human even reads the CV. We need to learn these techniques to give us an edge over other candidates. This is a little like getting a website Google friendly. This means using key words. For example, using “competency” in your CV as a description is fine but if the software is looking for “competencies” your CV will be rejected. Software is stupid. It can only look for what it has been told to look for. Another good example of this is “training and development” and “learning and development”; a human looking at these will know that in many organisations these mean the same thing – software does not. carefully look through job adverts and look for the current appropriate language to use and include.

The most successful candidates now include a list of keywords on the CV. This can be a small section at the end of the CV. Your keywords section should contain the types of words that recruiters might be looking for in your industry. This way if you do not cover all the bases in the main CV the keyword list will contain them. Also, in the same way search engines look for key words and word density, some software looks for key word frequency – so having this helps your CV to be seen.

This does not mean that the ‘old rules’ of CVs do not apply – white space, good clear font, correct spelling (organization or organisation??) etc. Also, remember agencies like to take your personal data off the top to send to potential clients, so make it easy for them.

Email addresses – please have a professional looking personal email address – addresses like bigboy@hotmail or sweetlips@hotmail do nothing for your professional image! Remember your goal – provide enough information for them to say “invite to interview” but not anything that says “reject this one”.

Truth and lies
Simple – do not lie. You will get caught-out and if this happens after you have been hired you will lose your job and have a bad reference.

You may write something which is factually correct but may be read in the way the recruiter chooses to – for example – “experience of interviewing” – reality was that you sat in on an interview once. It is still experience. It is a little like the advert we see on some products – “as seen on TV” – well, yes, it was on Watchdog, an advert once on a cable channel, or even a passing shot on a news broadcast. The reality is that if you lie and are found out at a later date you can be sacked. Equally, you can put yourself in a position with a lot of stress because you are not competent.

If you lie about a qualification, again that is grounds at a later date for dismissal.

Keep it short.
A Perfect CV should be two pages long, one page if you have less than three years’ work experience. Rarely longer than two (although certain professions have specific content and format requirements).

Summary of Perfect CV ‘rules’

• Remember the role of the Perfect CV is to get the interview not the job – so focus this on getting your foot in the door
• No more than two pages – although you can include an appendix
• Pass it around to friends and colleagues for various comments
• Your cover letter is an extension to your CV make it work for you – specific to each role you apply for, show how you meet their needs
• Have multiple versions of your ‘Perfect CV’ – write a version for EACH application
• Do not have anything which a recruiter can use as a de-selector:
  marriage status, number of children, university attended, grades
• Most modern websites and recruitment software processes use keywords to short list CVs so make sure that you use the current jargon for your career history. I also recommend including a section called ‘keywords’ just as a website does!

Remember the bottom line for most orgainzations, they are looking for someone who:

• can save them money
• can create income
• can improve the view of the organization to the outside world
• who can do more with less
• can work with others as well as on their own

Show this and you are in

Job search a guide for professionals

A guide to job hunting and why you should never appear desperate for a job

When you are under time pressure to secure a role its easy to accept the wrong one and give the wrong message to the ‘right’ role for you.

Ever wondered how a person got a job that you didn’t, even though you have more experience and skills?

I have seen an increasing number of professionals asking for guidance as to what they should do to gain employment after redundancy. Whether you are looking for a job because of redundancy or you just fancy a change, the following will help you be better prepared. Let’s look around the job search field and explore the ‘tools of the trade’.

Getting started:

Get your CV in shape
Never underestimate the power of a good CV. CV styles have changed over the years and there are as many styles of CV as there are books on how to write them. Reading a book about writing CVs is one thing, applying the ideas is quite another – what they all miss is the fact that few people are trained to read them!

What is the purpose of a CV?
Many people think the role of a CV is to get them a job. That is not what happens in reality. The role of a CV is simple; it is to get you a first interview. That is all. You and the interview get the job, not the CV. More on CVs.

Make it known that you are on the market
Contact anyone and everyone you know and tell them you are on the market. Make use of structured networking tools, like www.linkedin.com (free at a basic level). If you are a member of a professional network, CIPD, CMI etc go to networking events. Build relationships. Ask for advice and help from people. If you do not ask you will not get.

That person you spend half the meeting talking to may be about to place an advert for a role you could fill. Save them time and get yourself ahead of the game.

Internet and Web Boards
Put your CV on Monster, Reed, Totaljobs and other boards – then up load a ‘fresh’ copy every weekend. Most agencies using these boards do not look at CVs older than one week (and guess what, they check them on a Monday!) Many job sites are listed at Paler.com
If you post and forget the jobs will pass you by.

Professional Journals
Go through back issues of the sort of publications that you have seen adverts for similar roles – go back two to four years – then speculatively call the company. This was by far the best strategy I found. Websites like Wayback machine also do this for websites!  Remember what is on the web once – is provably there for a long time – if not for ever!

Books
There are many to choose from, my personal favourite is Tough answers to tough interview questions by Martin Yate. I have several editions of this as I have found it a particularly useful resource over the years. The questions and sample answers are themselves good – and there are other techniques listed which are rarely mentioned in other publications.

Taking Action:

Interviews
Most people interviewing are ill prepared and poorly trained (on both sides of the desk). Your role is to be better at interviewing that the person on the other side of the desk. You need to control the interview with them believing that they control what is going on. Peter Landau of Intelligent Dressing™ talks about taking PRIDE when meeting people. This can also be used in preparing for interviews (internal and external). He has an excellent book – Intelligent Dressing – winning without words, worth looking at.

Prepare and plan – what questions might they ask? What answers would you give? Have a couple of answers or examples for any given scenario.

Ask a colleague to run you through a mock interview – practice makes permanent – so make practice right! You need to be comfortable in an interview situation, if this is your first for a long time you are risking a lot by not rehearsing it. You do think that an athlete goes to the Olympics without training or warm up competitions? So as a candidate in ‘job search’ mode you need to follow the principles of the very best in a given field. Prepare, rehearse and rehearse.

This may be stating the obvious but the less work the interviewer does, the easier it is for them to say yes – providing you ensure they have all their questions asked and appropriately answered. Talk too little and you will not engage with the interviewer, talk too much and you will not know if you have answered all of their questions.

The stuff most books or agencies won’t tell you:

Wanting a job too much
Never, never be too desperate for any single job. Remember when you were looking for a date – nobody wanted you (or was that just me?) and then when you are in a relationship everyone is interested – well the same thing happens when you look for jobs – if a particular role is important to you – you will appear too desperate and the interviewer will see this and cross you off the list! Get one offer and often others come in at the same time. If you get your applications right you will have a choice of roles – rather than juts the first. Better to get and accept the right role than just to have a role. If you are not happy, your work will suffer and sooner or later, you will be job hunting again. This puts you on the back foot. You need to put yourself in a position of strength not in defence mode.

Managing agencies
Make appointments to meet representatives from a number of agencies. Build a relationship with key people – and talk to them at least once a week. Remember people buy people, they are more likely to put you forward for a role if they know who you are. Make sure your name and CV is at the front of their mind.

Remember these ‘young things’ (well many of them) that work in the agencies are sales people. They really do not care about you. They are employed to hit targets. They will take the easy route if they can. Often they will reject your application and they may say something like ‘you lack the experience our client is looking for’. When this happens – be cool, ask for specific experience the client is looking for (it is never on the job description or advert) and then sell yourself. Remember your goal here is not to get the job but to get put forward. They are often on commission so help them (the recruitment consultant) understand HOW you can help them get their commission!

 Using a Coach
Increasingly people are hiring a coach to help them with the job search process. Many of us benefit from that external, independent support. Before hiring a coach check out there background, track record and references. Remember like any service provider you can agree price, like staying in a hotel – most of us never pay the ‘rack rate’. Personally I prefer to use close friends and colleagues. Have an agreement with one or two to help check on your progress and give you a gentle nudge every now and again.

Using the Net

The internet is a powerful communication channel, use it wisely. If you are on Linkedin, change your status to show you are looking for work – if people don’t know they cannot help. Search and find relevant job boards and discussion groups – be active.

Use Twitter to chart your progress – but keep it positive and upbeat.

 Putting it all together:

A planned approach
Job hunting is and should be almost a full time job when being done properly. It requires investment in time, effort and intelligence. You are in the role of sales person. Your product is you. Think like a sales person. Set clear targets, weekly and daily goals. In the warm weather, it is easy to go to the park or sit and watch sport. Your job is to submit x many applications. Make phone calls to keep in people faces (in a good productive way). Keep networking and catch up with old contacts, to do your research on potential employers.

Setting goals is vital, you need to get out there – rarely will people come to you unless your name is known. Remember there will be some recruiters that will Google you to see if you have any history of contributing to your profession etc. If you have a personal blog or twitter – be careful what you write – it can come back when you least expect it! Best to use a nick name. Many large organizations will use a range of net checks to find out about you – are your details accurate, what is said about you in the press, on professional forums etc. What appears to be your attitude to certain professional practices etc.

Whatever your chosen route, Mike and the RapidBI team wish you well.

Identifying levels of training needs analysis (TNA)

Levels of training needs analysis (TNA)

Planning and evaluation are key elements in the effective delivery of training that will satisfy business or operational needs within an organisation.

For managers to begin to take responsibility for training and development of their people they need to be able to understand the needs of the people they manage and how these can be met with a variety of training methods.

There are three types of training or learning  need:

Organisational – training and development needs are those relating to the competence of individuals in their jobs, what those individuals do in their jobs, and what they should do to ensure that the organisation is able to meet its objectives.  An example of this could be the ability to care for customers.

Occupational – training needs are those which relate to skills, knowledge and attitudes an individual must have to carry out a job irrespective of who he or she is.  An example could be a typist requiring word-processing skills, or a operator in a call centre knowing how to use the software and the knowledge of relevant products or services.

Individual (personal) – needs relate to the needs of the individual jobholders.  For example, a manager may wish to learn keyboard skills in order to be more effective in his or her job, even if this is not a prerequisite for the job.  This will also include interpersonal skills development.

For each level of training need there are two types:

1. Present	Where training is most needed, i.e. what skills and knowledge are required and which individuals require what training?
2. Future	How will training needs be affected by changes in technology, business development, growth and legislation?

The manager’s role is to develop the skills of the people he or she manages.  The training input may well be the responsibility of people outside the manager’s team, but the manager remains responsible for ensuring the skills learnt are put into practice and that the individual develops as a result.

Nine step Training Needs Analysis (TNA) Plan

Conducting a Training Needs Analysis (TNA) can be a daunting task, TNAs get easier with experience, however it can be a straightforward process.

An effective Training Needs Analysis needs to be a good fit with your existing (and future desired) business and culture.

Nine steps to producing a TNA:

1. Identify the business need (gap in performance/ capability) for the training
2. Strategically align the training need with your objectives
3. Conduct a TNA (gap) analysis
4. Conduct an audit of current internal (and external) skills and competencies
5. Consult with your organisation to decide if training is the action required to address the identified gaps
6. Agree outcomes and assemble a framework that fits with expectations
7. Select appropriate delivery methods
8. Agree an assessment so the business knows if the training is worthwhile (this also sets the evaluation criteria – i.e. how will you know the training intervention has been successful?)
9. Get buy-in from stakeholders to commence project – if the solution(s) is owned then there is increased success of the project

Some organizations look to outsource this activity, if you do ensure that you have KPIs for each of the steps and agree success at each step before progressing. The same could be true of gaining stakeholder acceptance at each stage if doing this internally.

Starting change from the bottom – or without support from the top

On a change management forum recently I come across this interesting post:

• Does anyone have any comments or experience about how it is possible to change the culture within a department without support from the top?
• In fact the very top may actually be part, in no way all of, the cultural problem.
• Cultural issues have been identified such as fear of top, lack of innovation, mistrust, low motivation, negativity
• Managers and sample of staff are happy to try to work on this Senior management who will sanction any action are seen to be part of the problem
• The question is whether it is possible to effect any form of cultural change without support from the top?

This I am sure is not an uncommon situation faced by many HR, L&D and project teams. and to those members it is a perfectly reasonable problem to solve.
 
Having been involved with change at all levels in organisations and as an external adviser, I know that culture change like this can be initiated in this way (indeed it happens when you bring any new manager in) the challenge is to have the consistent culture across the organisation.

BUT – and it is a big one…who wants the change? Why?

Incremental change when individuals enter the organisation and adapt the micro culture in their part of the organisation is one thing, but without the commitment and desire of the owners or key stakeholders do we have a right to change the culture? Do we fully understand why the culture is what it is – the advantages this style may well have?

Often while a culture may APPEAR to be a distractor – it may well be the factor that is keeping the organisation afloat.

I feel that too many of us have read the books on empowerment and have started to believe the hype… some of the most successful organisations are autocratic (look at Jack Welch and GE) – who is to say that a style is effective or ineffective – sure it needs to be consistent and that people employed ‘buy-in’ or accept the culture.

Case study
Once I worked as an adviser to a successful office supplies organisation – £22m t/o. the owner wanted to reduce his working week from 7 to 3 days, and to do that he needed to use the managers he had as ‘managers’ rather than as highly paid office staff. So even with the full engagement of the owner we started a change process. Over the months there were some manager casualties – they were not up to the job and left – but the remaining five were sound individuals. Having achieved the goal within 12 months things looked fine – but when a slight downturn occurred – the managers lacked the ability to adapt the culture to suit – and 3 years later the owner/ manager was back in the driving seat – having host t/o slashed by 45%. This was due (we discussed this at some length) to the culture, most of the people were originally hired into the ‘old’ culture and could not work as effectively under a more open environment.

Conclusion
Do we as change agents look at culture as something that needs to be ‘right’ or ‘perfect’ ? While we may understand the principles of culture do we stop and take the time to understand just how culture is integrated in everything the organisation does – and do we undertake a full analysis of what impacts what and why before making grand plans for change. I suspect on the whole not. Culture is a factor of the person or persons at the top. It is created by their actions and inaction’s. In my view unless the person(s) at the top want and demand the change – leave alone – or at least enter with extreme caution, and above all do not believe the hype in the latest book on organisational fads…

So can you make bottom up change – Yes

Should we make bottom up change – No!

 

Who should own and drive change:

HR – NO

Key stakeholders, CEO – YES

 

Who should be one of the key champions of change:

HR & OD
 

Further reading on Change Management
© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006, 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organisational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

Entrepreneurial Innovation – Fad or key to success?

The world economy is changing… are we reacting fast enough?

For many entrepreneurs innovation is just not happening fast enough according to recent articles and research from Boston Consulting Group’s annual study on innovation.
Many organisations know that in order to survive and then to grow they need to innovate. In recent years the focus of innovation has been on creativity and the innovative process, but the lack of results show that this is only half the picture.

Background to entrepreneurial innovation
In the 1960s and 70s Dr Richard Byrd developed some research which led to the publication of a model he originally called the C&RT or creativity and risk taking (1986). This model was adopted by the Pfeiffer publications company as a key part of a methodology they called Applied Strategic Planning. They realised that for successful strategy, risk and innovation as behaviour (rather than a process) was fundamental. In the 1990s Byrd’s daughter, Dr Jacqueline Byrd further refined and developed the C&RT and used the technology available on the web to make the Creatrix model more robust and provide the ability to delve deeper to ensure any development activity resulted in effective behaviour change.

Innovation everywhere but little progress
Many organisations have innovation departments, functions or teams and yet little progress is actually being made in terms of productivity, cost saving or market share. Certainly organisations are developing new and innovative products, but as technologies collide and merge and economies tighten, the consumer buys less. For example the markets or phones, music players, cameras and GPS systems are merging fast – where there used to be four markets increasingly there is one.
Innovation needs to be at all levels and in all elements within an organisation to be effective. In the 1990s benchmarking processes to identify the most effective way of working was everywhere, not organisations need to innovate internally to deliver best value in all that they do, not just product development. This is where entrepreneurial innovation leads the way.

Innovation assessment
The Creatrix starts as a personal profile, with each individual involved in the change process undertaking a simple online inventory. The results of this single profile show the individual on the Creatrix grid, a combination of the individuals risk taking assessment and creativity assessment. In addition the individual gets an output showing the seven drivers and their respective strengths.
Collectively all the individuals involved in the team or organisation are plotted on one matrix or grid providing an overall innovation assessment.

This enables the entrepreneurial team to review the current position of innovative behaviours and plan where is appropriate (there is no right or wrong profile – just more or less effective at that point in time). Then using the language of the Creatrix it is straightforward to develop a change based programme using the (now) common language to inspire and motivate appropriate change “Apply the same process you do at work by asking the following questions:

1. What does this individual or the members of this group want to achieve?
2. What is keeping them from achieving their objectives?
3. What can I provide or remove that would increase their chances of success?
4. How can I combine my answers to question three in a way that will add the most value to them?
5. Stop writing and move into action!

Mother Theresa was a classic example of this behaviour. She identified opportunities to add value and moved into action. We can do the same over and over again.“

The fish rots from the head
Is the old saying, but innovation grows from the head. When introduces from the top as part of an organisations culture innovation can really make a difference. The key is the culture of the organisation, effective culture change starts from the CEO or COO.
Using tools like the Creatrix, executive or entrepreneurial innovation can be easily developed and nurtured, then when entrepreneurs see the results they will soon want the whole organisation to behave this way too.

Dan Coughlin said
Identifying opportunities and taking action are the two critical elements, simple, and yet many organisations still have barriers in place. Some of these barriers are obvious, many are invisible and should not exist… but they do.

For innovation to be commonplace in our organisations we must stop looking at innovation as a process and start to look at it as a culture or set of behaviours.
Product innovation is one thing – entrepreneurial innovation is quite another.

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© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006, 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained.

CPM -v- CPD Is there a future in business led professional development?

CPM -v- CPD

The phrase CPD – continuous professional development has been around for a long time but do many organizations actually do it or do they practice CPM – Continuous professional maintenance – only doing enough to keep people at the same level, sure it may involve some learning but it is not about developing the person.

In some professions practitioners have to take annual or bi-annual assessments – not to show progress but to show that they have stayed still. Now in some areas I can understand this, for example in my voluntary work I am re-assessed for competence every 3 years – this is to check that the initial training has stuck and that I perform at least at a minimum level. On the other hand there are some professional qualifications that require people to stay at a level. Some of the ‘train the trainer’ qualifications for example – participants do not have to show progress against a previous identified gap – but to show that they still ‘conform’ to an arbitrary standard and not to have ‘progressed’. is this really what our customers and clients want?

So what do you want or expect your people to do – develop of maintain a minimum level… do you as an organization promote continuous development of skills maintenance?

Skills and competencies needs in HR to survive in tough economic climates

As the business world gets tough – so does the working environment for HR professionals. In a recent poll (CIPD April 09) members of the institute answered questions regarding the competencies believed to be most important to establishing the effectiveness and credibility of the HR function in the organisation.

The following results were identified as the priorities for HR professionals:

Skill/ Competence:	Result
Effective management of change	46
Strategic thinking	44
Business knowledge	36
Influencing/political skills	29
Understanding of HR practices	26
Empathy/communication/listening skills	23
Creative practices/ ability to do more with less	18
Ability to deliver against targets	17
Integrity	17
Leadership ability	14
Willingness to innovate	11
Negotiating skills	6
Organisational design skills	3

This is interesting as the HR profession does not believe that leadership or Innovation are important skills/ attributes to have. The low level of integrity is also worrying.

With only17% citing “ability to deliver against targets” as important guess which function will be seen as not strategically important and when the cuts bite deep…

This is a fascinating insight to what the profession feels is important.

I for one cannot see how anyone can be strategic without understanding and being able to be innovative. Certainly the recognition that knowing and understanding business processes is important, and at last the HR profession is starting to ‘partner’ in the true sense – but at what cost to our professionalism?

 Not for one minute does the author believe that HR is corrupt or uncaring – but this does show what the results can be if a poll or survey asks forced choice questions – so when designing a survey – do it carefully!

Research ©CIPD 2009

Writing Key Performance Indicators KPI’s

Content on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) covered:

Introduction to KPI’s

Benefits of KPI’s

KPI -v- CSF

Critical Success Factors (CSFs)

Setting KPIs and CSFs

Visual KPIs

Example KPIs

Example HR KPIs

More example KPIs

Sample KPI page

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) - An Introduction

What is a Key Performance Indicator?
A key performance indicator is a financial and non-financial measure used to help an organization measure progress towards a stated organizational goal or objective.

 

The benefits of measuring Key Performance Indicators

• Can allow management to see the company or department performance in one place.
• A team can work together to a common set of measurable goals.
• It can be a very quick way of seeing the actual performance of a goal or strategic objective
• Decisions can be made much quicker when there are accurate and visible measures to back them up.

 

KPI -v- CSF

Key Performance Indicators should not be confused with a Critical Success Factors (CSFs).

• CSFs are elements that are vital for a given strategy to be successful
• KPIs are measures that quantify objectives and enable the measurement of strategic performance

A Critical Success Factors (CSF) would be something that needs to be in place to achieve that objective; for example, the launch of a new product or service. For example:

KPI = Number of new customers
CSF = Installation of a call centre for providing managing the customers

Critical Success Factors (CSF)

Factors
A plan should be designed and implemented in a way that considers an environment for growth and profits as well as takes into consideration the following typical Critical Success Factors:

• Money: Positive cash flow, revenue growth, access to finance and profit margins
• The future: Acquiring new customers and/or distributors
• Customer satisfaction: How happy are they?
• Quality: How good is your organizations products and service?
• Product or service development: What’s new that will increase business with existing customers and attract new ones?
• Intellectual Capital: Increasing what the organization knows that is profitable
• Strategic Relationships: New sources of business, products and revenue
• Employee Attraction and retention: Your organizations ability to do extend your reach
• Sustainability: Your organizations ability to keep it all going

Setting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Critical Success Factors (CSFs)

While there may be many Critical Success Factors in an organization at any one time, the chances are that only one or two in a given department or division.

The number of Key Performance Indicators however may be prolific throughout an organization The reality is that the most successful organizations limit KPIs to a handful.

KPIs are measurable performance objectives. This begs the question “How many objectives should you have?”. While there is a lot of debate about this, one thing is known, individuals appear to become less efficient and effective when trying to juggle more than 10. It is often said in OD text that 7 is optimum. So if seven is optimum, can a manager really handle 20+ KPIs?

We would argue that to be effective any part of an organization should have between 5 and 8 KPIs.

Visual Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) can be effectively used as a visual cue that communicates the amount of progress made toward a goal. The use of dashboards, intranet summary pages and graphics on notice boards.

By using graphical representations of KPIs, you can easily visualize answers to the following types of questions:

• What are we ahead or behind on?
• How far ahead or behind are we?
• What is the minimum we have achieved to date?

Example Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Typical departmental or organizational key performance indicator or measure include:

• Number of active customers
•  Number of new customers
• Customer churn
• Total revenues
  

Example HR Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Percentage of screened newly recruited employees
• Percentage of employees receiving regular performance reviews
• Average response time for routine HR inquiries
• Percentage of new employee retention
• Job offer acceptance rate
• Average Number of Interviews from Submitted applications/ CV’s
• Percentage of vacancies filled within x days

 

 

More Example KPIs

Are available on our Sample KPIs page

Key performance indicators in construction, healthcare, housing, manufacturing, maintenance, call centres, not-for-profits, local authority, public sector, schools, education

Service level agreements can use key performance indicators as metrics

Creating and maintaining a high performance culture

A High Performance Culture is something many organizations strive to achieve. Many have achieved it in their own unique and distinctive ways. However, certain fundamental common factors need to exist without which a “High Performance Culture” will not be created.

In difficult economic time this can be difficult to justify – however now is the time to prepare the organization for the future. Organizational development strategies take time to formulate, develop and deploy – and that is before the returns start to generate. Wait for the “good times” and your competitors will beat you. Start now and the culture will be in place ready for the next shift in the economy. Whatever the case – being a high performance organization is just as important in difficult times as it is good time – many would argue it is more important.

The five principles or ‘flows’ are:

PLOWS

Purpose- A shared purpose is the necessary focus for the performance of any task or activity in a high performing culture.

Learning – individual, collective and organisational. Such organisations understand change and its impact and quickly work out what needs to be done and what capabilities they need to survive and succeed.

Opportunity – recognising, seeking, creating and taking opportunities to change and improve capability, effectiveness, efficiency and performance.

Worth- understanding the value and worth of the work being done, the people who are doing it and the outcomes being delivered – and communicating it widely to all interested parties.

Support- from management and colleagues in the shape of resources, information, encouragement etc. so everyone feels able to the best job they possibly can.

 

Some practitioners add:

Engagement, Energy or Empowerment and Relationships

Engagement- the enthusiasm, drive and oomph that individuals deliver which is above and beyond – discretionary effort

Relationships- there is nothing more powerful than a team who respect, trust, recognise each others strengths, complement those, challenge and stretch each other.

Changing Purpose to Focus provides us with a more memorable mnemonic(s):

This creates the FLOWERS model to high performance cultures or as I prefer to call it the High performance Culture REFLOWS© model:

• Relationships
• Engagement
• Focus
• Learning
• Opportunity
• Worth
• Support

Note – check out Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi work on FLOW