Blogs

Whether furlough or work at home, there has been an overload of information, new policies, processes, technology and financial challenges for business and employees recently, so it’s no surprise some important elements have been overlooked Very little was possible to have been prepared for, except perhaps ability to work at home already in place.  Furlough – who’d even heard of that word 2 months ago?! For many SME’s they use outsourced HR Consultants, who have done a fantastic job of getting all the new legal elements and policy/process changes in place for multiple clients. So what element is being overlooked? Your employees work life hasRead More →

The business benefits of conducting Training Needs Assessments or Analysis (TNA) are predominantly to identify knowledge and skills gaps.  Addressing these gaps will increase productivity and effectiveness of teams and the business as a whole.  It also helps HR Teams or Training Providers to plan and design the most needed and beneficial training solutions. The Norm: Training Needs Assessments are designed, structured, distributed and analysed.  The result being an overarching view of the needs of that specific business or group of employees. The HR Team / Training Provider etc then go to work on designing the best approach to meet these needs. What’s often missed:Read More →

Moving to online feedback!  I’ve heard it more than once when discussing ditching the paper……. “I’ve tried online forms, but we didn’t really get many responses” What is often missed here is that changing your paper form to an online feedback option also requires you to adjust your approach in how you request feedback from attendees / clients. What to do: You need to tell them to expect it, and when! Ideally this is a face to face conversation, whilst they are still in the room – essential for training workshops. Explain why it’s important to you! What you will do with the responses, howRead More →

Training facilitators can sometimes become a little fixated on ensuring they capture attendee feedback from all of the participants. The primary purpose of collecting attendee feedback is to be able to continually improve the training, to identify key successes and, of course, be able to demonstrate the benefits to existing and future clients of your services. But how important is it that EVERYONE responds? The Pro – Knowing what everyone thinks gives you the full picture The Con – ‘Forcing’ attendees to complete, who really don’t want to, just encourages a ‘tick the box’ exercise.  This attendee feedback being pointless data that will skew yourRead More →

Chances are that if you’ve ever worked as part of a team, you will have attended a team building day at some point.  Maybe you were trying to drop an egg from a 58 story building without it smashing?  Perhaps building a bridge out of bits of paper?  Enjoying (more that you probably should) firing a paintball at the back of a colleague?  There are a whole host of choices when it comes to team building activity days. But what is the point? A team building day can often be thought of as a ‘bit of a jolly’.  The chance to get out of theRead More →

It’s a common fear – I’ll never get the workshop feedback if I let them leave the room before completing it! Don’t worry – it’s not as hard as you think! What’s wrong with this approach? You want to ensure that attendees leave on a high, ‘trapping’ them to fill out a form (with the feeling of being watched, and often brain overloaded from the day) is not going to get you quality feedback or a thank you! What do to instead: Paper forms are fiddly and require you to spend time printing / scanning / typing up results etc etc – they’re really notRead More →

“Should I ask for a name in my customer survey?” is something I get asked a lot from clients and contacts. There are pros and cons to both: Some of the pros: If there’s an issue you can contact the customer and resolve it. Having a name in the customer survey means if a great testimonial has been given you can use it.  Many people prefer to see names with a testimonial rather than just the comment (provided you have permission to use it!) You know who has responded! Some of the cons: If there’s a small niggling issue respondents are less likely to putRead More →

Great customer service promises and guarantees are something we see a lot from consumer businesses. Is customer service enough? The simple answer is no! A personal experience that explains why……. I recently travelled to the USA and booked to hire a car. The booking process was straight forward. The representatives friendly, helpful and supportive (great customer service!) HOWEVER…..upon arrival (after a long flight) we queued for over an hour to speak to the check in agent and get the paperwork for our car. When the tiredness and frustration subsided I thought about how different it could’ve been if they had looked at the whole experience.Read More →

Workshop Feedback Forms!! We’ve all been there, you’ve taken the day out to attend some valuable new learning. The trainer / facilitator has spent a lot of time and effort making sure they provide you with good content and exercises to improve your particular skill set. And then it happens……… Right at the end of the day, when your brain is full and your mind is thinking about what you need to pick up on the way home for tea, an A4 sheet of paper gets handed out to all the delegates. Before you go……(*mental groan*) “Can you just give me your thoughts about todayRead More →