Trainers Kit Gets an Overhaul

Our training materials website Trainers Kit has undergone a bit of a revamp

and had had lots of great new features added to it to make your buying experience much easier.

The new layout is cleaner and easy to navigate. As well as the new look, these great new features are now available:

• One click add to cart – No need to look at each item if you already knwo what you want
• Wishlist – Keep these things there and either delete them or check them out at a later date
• Compare Products – Not great for training materials, but we will be launching new training tools and games later this year
• Reward Points for each purchase – Earn points for each purchase then redeem them against future purchases
• Affiliate Programme – Sign up, get a link to our site and earn 10% commission on every sale one of your referred people makes.

To celebrate the new look there are some great offers on the site. We’ve reduced a handful of our best selling material packs until the end of September.

If that’s not enough, here’s a 50% off voucher for you to use. Just add it at checkout and 50% will be taken off the price of your cart. The code is de55th77 and it’s valid until the end of September and can even be used on discounted items.

Click here to go to the site now.

Revolution Human Resources Ltd is a HR Consultancy that works with organisations to increase business performance by ensuring that policies and processes that exist in the organisation work. Our business includes a Human Resources Consultancy, Training and Development Consultancy and Recuuitment Consultancy, read more

We’ve Launched Online Training Courses

Revolution Human Resources and Revolution Learning and Development are pleased to announce the launch of our brand new online training courses.

These courses take place in our online virtual classrooms and will be bite sized courses, around 2 – 3 hours in length.

The courses themselves try where possible to be as close to learning in a real classroom.  The courses are interactive, you can interact with your trainer and fellow delegates via a microphone and webcam as well as see slides, documents and videos that your trainer wants to share.

We think that this is a great new way of learning, especially if you struggle to get out of the office to learn.

If you would like to see more information about our online courses, please visit the website that we have set up for this exciting new service.  Click here to go to Training TV now.

Revolution Human Resources Ltd is a HR Consultancy that works with organisations to increase business performance by ensuring that policies and processes that exist in the organisation work. Our business includes a Human Resources Consultancy, Training and Development Consultancy and Recuuitment Consultancy, read more

Undercover Boss – The Lessons to Learn from the Series

Having just watched the last episode of the series of Undercover Boss, I think there are some key lessons that we can learn from each of the episodes.  Here are my thoughts on the lessons from the series:

Poor Communication Leads to Poor Performance – When a business grows it can be easy to lose touch with the people that work on the ground.  Organisations MUST but practices into place where two way communication happens.  Feedback must be sought from those that work on the ground.  These are the people that are customer facing and know exactly what the issues are in the business.

If ideas and changes cannot be implemented, then feedback must be sent down through the workforce to help them to understand why changes cannot be made and what changes will be implemented.

If this communication does not happen, then the workforce quickly become demotivated as they feel as though they don’t know what is going on.

Leaders and Managers Must Be Recruited/Promoted Based on Leadership Ability – It happens in many organisations where people are promoted based on their technical ability or the amount of time they have spent in the business.  They are not promoted based on their ability to lead.  It should be understood that just because someone is good at the technical aspects that they automatically can lead people.

Investment Should Be Made In Training and Development – In these tough times training budgets seem to get cut, but if organisations are not investing in training and development, they won’t have the skilled workforce that is required to work in a lean and trimmed environment.

Customer Feedback Must Be Acted Upon – If a business has no process in place to seek customer feedback they will have no way in finding out what they like about the business and what they don’t.  Businesses need to use any tools available to seek feedback from their customers and changes made based on the feedback.

Processes Should Work For the Staff and Not Against Them – Policies and processes are a requirement of any business, but ultimately they should be there to make things clear and easy for the staff and not there to hinder them.

Inadequate or unclear policies and processes can bring a business to a standstill, generate low morale and impact on performance.

Policies and Processes should be made clear to everyone and they should also be accessible.  Not only this, but processes should be joined together and work together.  If the they are not, then the processes not only work against the staff, but they also work against each other.

The Leadership Team Need to Lead From the Front – If the leadership team want the people working in the business to live and breathe the values and work toward a vision, the ALL of the leadership team should be clear about what these values are and demonstrating themselves.  It can be quite easy in large organisations for these values to become diluted as they work their way through the business and through each of the various levels in the business.

If everyone is to live and breathe values, then the leadership team at all levels must be clear about what they are, how to demonstrate them and demonstrate them at all times.

If you see some of these things happening in your business, then we can help.  Take a look through our comprehensive website to see the services that we offer that can help.

Revolution Human Resources Ltd is a HR Consultancy that works with organisations to increase business performance by ensuring that policies and processes that exist in the organisation work. Our business includes a Human Resources Consultancy, Training and Development Consultancy and Recuuitment Consultancy, read more

The Difference Between an Assessment Centre and Development Centre

Many organisations use these two things these days, but what are the differences between an Assessment Centre and Development Centre?  Along side this, what should the two things be used for and what are the benefits of using them?

Assessment Centres – Assessment Centres are a way of measuring candidates for positions that organisations have to fill.  Unlike a straight forward interview they use a range of exercises to test the candidate in a range of areas.

They allow organisation to test candidates in a range of situations and can last from a few hours to an entire day, depending wholly on what the organisation would like to test.

The organisation should decide on the criteria that candidates will be measured against.  This measures may be behaviours or competencies or particular skills, experience or knowledge that the candidate must posses and this criteria (especially competencies or behaviours) should run through each exercise.

The types of exercises that are used can vary depending on the type of job that is to be filled.  Typically they include: a Behavioural Based Interview, a role play scenario, Presentation, Psychometric Tests, a hands on task and group exercises.  

At the end of the assessment day they assessors should meet together to discuss each of the candidates and look at their performance against the agreed criteria.  This should then help them to decide which candidate is most suited for the job.

There are many benefits to using this approach for recruitment, one of the major benefits being that the organisation gets to see the candidate perform in a range of scenarios, including some of those that they will be involved in if they were in role.  Of course, there are downsides and one of the major being that they are resource intensive.

Development Centres – Are very similar to Assessment Centres in that they use exactly the same approach and exercises; however, the purpose of a Development Centre is different.

Development Centre’s are used for people who already work for the organisation and are already in position.  They are not a test to see if the person is suitable for the role, but are used to highlight individual or organisational development needs.

The data gathered from a Development Centre can highlight where an organisation should focus its attention when it comes to developing it’s staff.  It will quickly show where the team are lacking Skills, Knowledge, Experience and Behaviours and development interventions can be designed to close the gaps the organisation has.

The feel of the Assessment Centre will be the same as a Development Centre so it is imperative that if an organisation chooses to run a Development Centre for their workforce that they completely brief the staff as to the purpose of the exercise.

Would you like a Development Centre or Assessment Centre for your organisation?  Then talk to us to find out what we can do to help.  Take a look at the Assessment and Development Centre information page to learn more.

Revolution Human Resources Ltd is a HR Consultancy that works with organisations to increase business performance by ensuring that policies and processes that exist in the organisation work. Our business includes a Human Resources Consultancy, Training and Development Consultancy and Recuuitment Consultancy, read more

Leading a Team You Were Once Part Of

In my career I think one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do is to take over a team that I was once part of.

I was reminded of this time today after talking to a delegate in a Leadership skills training course that I was delivering who was currently going through the same experience.  The difficulties I faced were exactly the same as they currently are and I used my experiences to help him deal more effectively with his.

The challenges that I faced when leading a team I was once part of firstly stemmed from the previous leader, but not in a negative way.  Our previous leader was highly effective and helped us to work together as a strong unit.  Team morale was high, the team bond was strong and we respected him as a leader.

The problem with this was when I was promoted to the leader of the team, the team still saw me as part of their group and so did I.

Not only did I face this problem, this was also my first every leadership role so I had no other experience to fall back on when it came to dealing with this situation.

I turned to the previous leader for help and advice.  He hadn’t left, just been promoted and he gave me some very clear advice.

Set your expectations early on – In fact on the first minute of the first day.  I sat down with the team and we had an open and frank conversation about my promotion and how they felt.  Some of this was fantastic where most of the team members showed real support for me, but there were a few that thought it was a bad idea.  At least I knew that I had most of the team members support and would have to gain the trust of the others.

Be clear with the team what you are there to do.  Explain that even as the leader you are still part of the team, but you now have the added responsibility of managing the teams performance.  Explain that you will do everything you can to support the team and the individuals in it, but you will also have to take the necessary action should someone’s performance drop or they demonstrate a behaviour that requires action.

Re-iterate that although the leader has changed, the overall purpose of the team hasn’t.  Remind them that they are still there to achieve the same goals and objectives as before.

Use the knowledge you have to your advantage – Remember, you know these people.  You have worked closely with them and therefore know the strengths and areas of improvement of the individuals.  Use this to your advantage by delegating tasks to the people you know will thrive on, and develop the skills of those that have areas for improvement.

Use any feedback you heard when you were part of the team.  I.e., you may have all thought that the old leader wasn’t particularly great in one area but was fantastic in others.  Adopt those fantastic things and change the things that were not great.  Don’t make the same mistakes as they did.

Involve the team – Get the team together and ask them how they think things are going and what else they think you and everyone else could be doing to make things better.

Don’t take this to the extreme though and do this for everything.  As a leader it is right to listen to the team, take on their feedback but the final decision rests with you.

Move on – It’s time to let your old job go.  I kept finding myself going back to my old tasks to help the team out, but quickly began to realise that I was neglecting my leadership tasks.  I then had to finish those off and felt as though I was neglecting the team.

You need to consciously move on.  Draw a line in the sand and move on from your old job.  Remember, you are not just responsible for achieving your goals and objectives now, your responsibility is now ensuring everyone else in the team achieves their objectives so the collective team achieves what they need to.

It’s no easy task, but using the tips above should go a long way to helping you in the transition from team member to team leader.

We run a one day Introduction to Leadership training course that can help you to make the transition from team member to team leader.  Click here for the Introduction to Leadership Training Course Overview.

You may also be interested in our intensive Leadership Development Course.  Click here for the Intensive Leadership Skills Course Overview.

Revolution Human Resources Ltd is a HR Consultancy that works with organisations to increase business performance by ensuring that policies and processes that exist in the organisation work. Our business includes a Human Resources Consultancy, Training and Development Consultancy and Recuuitment Consultancy, read more

Business and Leadership Lessons From the Apprentice – Biscuits

This week the teams were tasked with bringing another new product to market, this time biscuits, and it was clear that lessons from previous tasks had still not been learnt.

The teams were mixed again this week with Zoe taking charge of Venture and Helen Logic.

Half of the teams were sent to a development centre in Swansea where the other half were left to think about marketing and packaging.

Jim headed off to the development centre with a brief to come up with a biscuit aimed at children.  Jim’s idea was to have a biscuit that had a star in the centre that went along the lines of children being rewarded with stars at school.  The idea was presented to a focus group of parents and children which they like.

They came up with the name and a slogan which was ‘A Treat for Any time’, but at the same time wanted to pitch it as a treat for after school or reward.  This was challenged by Natalie, but Helen over ruled really quickly and went with the idea.

Tom and Melody headed off to the development centre with an idea for a biscuit that people could share.  Tom came up with an idea to put a biscuit within a biscuit, something that the focus group loved.

Zoe and Susan stayed back and created some really nice packaging, but this is where it all started to come apart.

Zoe’s packaging was very feminine and aimed as a premium product, however Tom thought he was making a biscuit for the lower market.  The product didn’t match the packaging and vice versa.

Zoe wanted to go to the development centre, but the team thought that she would be better placed staying with the packaging.  This means that she never saw the product or tasted it.

The team came up with the name Bix Mix with a slogan ‘Snap and Share’.

Melody was adamant throughout that they should have a target market, something which they eventually didn’t come up with.

Lord Sugar set up pitches with 3 supermarkets for their products.

First up was Sainsburys and Venture pitched their star biscuit.  Feedback was that they didn’t like the slogan and the fact that the biscuit wasn’t healthy, baring in mind it was pitched at kids.

Logic’s approach was to do a role play at the pitch that left the buyers bewildered.  The feedback was that they wanted to aim for the mass market, but the packaging was very feminine.  They needed to identify a target market.

Next pitch was Waitrose.  Logic changed their pitch to say the product was aimed at a girlie night in.  They liked the concept, but didn’t like the taste of the biscuit.  Feedback for Venture’s star biscuit was similar to the previous pitch – too much sugar.

Last pitch was Asda.  Logic’s feedback was again about the product.  They said it wasn’t indulgent enough for the girlie night in market.

For Venture, Jim bamboozled the buyers with jargon an promised the earth in terms of advertising.

In the board room, there was nil orders for Venture’s Bix Mix, but Logic had an order for 800,000 units providing they gave exclusivity to Asda.

In the board room discussion about what was to blame for Venture’s failure, it came back to the product, the disparity between the product and packaging and having no target market.

Zoe got fired this week because she should have been at the design centre to sign off the product.

So, some very similar lessons to previous weeks:-

Pick your target market – Not sure how may times I’ve said this but it is so important.  Venture tried to deliver to the mass market, and not to a specific area meaning they had no aim for the product.

The leader needs to clearly communicate the vision and the direction to take – It is the leaders responsibility to communicate the vision to the team ensuring that everyone is heading in the same direction.  The leader needs to point out that direction to everyone other wise people will go where they think is right.  This happened in this task where there was disparity between the product and the packaging.

The Leader has to admit their mistakes and learn from them – Zoe didn’t give the direction, communicate the vision and ensure that everyone understood it.  The leader has to admit this is their error and be accountable for it if it goes wrong.

Ensure your brand is clear – Again a mistake from Venture in that their packaging didn’t clearly sell the concept of their snap and share biscuit.  Your brand and packaging must clearly show the concept.

The Leader needs to make the final sign off – This didn’t happen in this task, for both teams.  The Leaders stayed with the packaging design.  The packaging could look great, but if the product inside is not of the right quality, it won’t sell.

And finally……

Learn lessons from previous projects – In this task, the same mistakes were being made from previous tasks.  Everyone should learn from mistakes and ensure that steps are taken so they don’t happen again.

Next week, another selling task.  The teams need to sell products from a warehouse, learn which sell best, re-invest their takings in more stock, sell that on so on.

Until next week

David

Spaces to fill on Sales Skills Training Course in Southampton on 27th July

We have a few spaces to fill on our Sales Skills training course in Southampton on the 27th of July.

We can discount the usual rate of £199 + VAT by 20% to fill the remaining spaces.

For a full course overview and to book click here to see the Sales Skills Course page.  Please click pay by invoice and add the code sssblog20 to the comments box.  Or call us on 0845 8381729 quoting the same reference.

Thanks

Heather

Accounts Manager