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Radio theater shows are fantastic for us all! July 23, 2009

Posted by Pat in : nothing in particular , comments closed

When I started commuting almost an hour and a half to work, I got really, really bored. That’s a long drive, and frankly the news plays the same 5 minute sound bytes over and over again. I was losing my mind.

That’s when I discovered old time radio. I happened to be searching online and came across it. I don’t remember exactly what led me to it, but I’m so glad I found it.

My discovery led to some great old shows like The Shadow, Abbot and Costello, Lights Out, Campbell’s Theater. Very cool stuff. My drive to and from work for the day suddenly became a highlight instead of a chore.

However, the more I listened to the old time radio shows, the more I got interested in whether or not there were any new shows that were created in the same “spirit” as the old ones.

Sure enough, there were! Great shows like Red Panda Adventures and Black Jack Justice from Decoder Ring Theater products. Very cool stuff.

Now, any time I’m bored sitting in a waiting room or taking a long drive, or just whatever, I let old time radio keep me entertained and enthralled instead of twiddling my thumbs.

To my great surprise, I often find myself wishing that my waits or drives were longer! Now how’s that for proof of how great these cool shows are?

Why Employee Satisfaction and Employee Exit questionnaires are Important July 23, 2009

Posted by Pat in : nothing in particular , comments closed

With the need for many businesses to be more streamlined and productive a company can sometimes find itself with many of their employees working under pressure that can then lead to low moral and possible result in a high staff turnover. The benefits of a company having a highly motivated workforce can be considerable and the two goals of having a workforce that is both motivated and productive should not be regarded as being mutually exclusive to one another.

If problems are left unresolved then companies run the risk of alienating their employees and events can then cause employee frustrations to boil over resulting in managers finding themselves on the back foot, faced with problems that cannot be ignored.

Ideally employers would take time to understand the needs of their employees and learn from their experiences of working on the front line, but employers are often themselves tied up day to day fighting their own fires.

By automating much of the intelligence gathering process and providing the findings in a format that can be readily analysed online surveys provide employers with an efficient, effective and low cost method to help achieve a pleasant working environment, where staff satisfaction and productivity is high.

 

Dissatisfied & unproductive

There are a plethora of reasons why employees may become dissatisfied with their job that can result in them channelling their frustrations into demands for higher salaries and reduced hours. Employers who tackle problems thinking it is all about salary and hours, will often find later that they have been dealing with the symptoms and not the root cause.

 

Not just about the money

The following is a list of common barriers that will prevent an organization from achieving an increase in productivity, none of which are likely to be resolved by increasing salaries or reducing hours:-

The solution to an employee’s problems is not always through the awarding of higher salaries. There have been many studies made that have found that the level of financial reward is rarely the main motivator towards job satisfaction.

Take the case of a single mother who is juggling a full time job with the need to look after two children. Out of frustration she may demand more money so that she feels that she is able to cope where a better solution, for both her and the business, may be more flexible working hours.

 

Good communications is what it is about

It is in the interests of all companies to encourage good communication. Without good communication between personnel and management, or where management wait until problems are raised, management may assume that they have a content workforce when in actual fact the opposite is true. It can take only one aggrieved employee with one small problem for an entire workforce to develop a destructive ‘them and us’ attitude.

 

Improving communication

Ideally employer and employee would meet one on one but in practice this would seem practical only for very small organizations.

Regular meetings between management and worker representatives are good in theory but can degenerate into talking shops and slowly lose their purpose as the participants from both sides become familiar with one another and the meetings run the risk of being hijacked by the more extreme personalities.

Suggestion boxes are useful but can be viewed as token efforts by management as they wait for personnel to highlight a problem.

Newsletters can provide a positive contribution, but their purpose is generally to inform and not discuss employee issues.

 

Maintaining the initiative

Conducting employee satisfaction surveys on a regular basis you are able to ask each employee specific questions and present a pro-active management initiative where the whole workforce can be canvassed on various issues. Surveys are able to provide a level playing field between the quieter and more vocal employees.

Consultation should not be seen as a sign of weakness, a confident manager will often take counsel from others before making a decision. By issuing a survey the employer is able to keep the initiative and tackle problems from a position of strength as opposed to waiting for problems to manifest and then possibly develop out of proportion.

If small problems are left unresolved they can lead to a relatively minor problem breaking the camel’s back and management faced with a workforce whose mood has changed from positive to negative over night.

 

It’s quick and easy

For the majority of organizations online surveys represent a proactive and low cost solution. They are quick to design and for the majority of companies, where most of the personnel have desktop computers, they can be deploy through email direct to the individual.

Where not all of the personal have access to a computer there are various options available that will allow you to accommodate their responses such as providing a shared computer, conducting telephone surveys or as a last resort, a hardcopy survey where the hard-copy responses can be added to those who competed the survey online.

 

Job satisfaction

There are a number of elements that combined will provide an employee with job satisfaction, from company ethics, working environment, methodology and ethos to having good and effective management. Job satisfaction brings benefits through improved productivity and motivation from a workforce that feels that they are treated as individuals and not a commodity item.

 

Educate and inform

A less appreciated benefit of online surveys is that they can be used effectively to educate and deliver important information to the workforce, ensuring that the ‘message’ is delivered consistently and does not become corrupted as it is passed down the line.

An online survey can explain a difficult situation and get valuable feedback from the employees as to the best solution. It is rare in this situation that the workforce would appear negative; it is more likely they will feel informed and empowered and that might be enough to turn a potentially negative problem into a positive challenge that unites the workforce.

 

Exit surveys

Exit surveys are a good way for management to ensure that when people leave the organisation they are leaving for the right reasons and not due to reasons that if appreciated earlier could have been addressed and resolved. If a problem has been identified it may be too late to prevent an individual from leaving but if addressed it could prevent other key personnel leaving for the same reasons.

 

For a Sample Employee Satisfaction Survey:- Employee Satisfaction Survey Template

For a sample Employee Exit survey:- Employee Exit Survey Template

I Have A Few Ideas Pertaining To Virus Protection Computer Programs July 23, 2009

Posted by Pat in : nothing in particular , comments closed

I’m finding that it is possible to download some great software tools to help improve my efficiency at work and at home. Some are downloaded for free and some you must pay for. One of the most important things to discuss right off the bat is the need for solid antivirus software for your entire computer system.

If you need virus protection only for your home computer, you can find some pretty good products for free. Although the free software will protect you from the most terrible attacks, there are other threats that can be a problem. You need to pay for a full package if you want complete protection that is not available from the free versions.

The world of commerce is moving more and more towards a paperless atmosphere, and to stay current we need to be able to organize files from many different software programs. Translating to pdf format spreadsheets, database results, document files and photographs will be more and more common.

You’ll find a few different competing companies that offer products to facilitate working with pdf files. Adobe has certainly captured a big portion of the market with their Acrobat software, but they definitely have competition. If your needs are very basic, you might be able to get away with the free Adobe Reader, which is easily downloaded.

Whichever file management software you select, you’ll find that there are significant time savings in being able to quickly work with pdf files. Unless some new file type takes its place, the need for pdf file format is not going away any time soon.

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