Human Resources Diplomacy

Human resource management is not always or solely the presentation of gifts. Sometimes bad news has to be delivered. We are not thinking here of bad news as in, "You're fired," in which the relationship is ended. Think instead of "You did not get the promotion" or "We will not fund that training in your case." It sometimes helps to be able to layoff at least some of the blame in such instances. Doing so can help preserve cordial relations between a superior and subordinate. In addition, hearing bad news from a third person may help the person getting the bad news to save face, a psychological fact of life that has a lot to do with the persistence of management consulting as an industry.

As for objectivity, it is sadly the case that some general managers are less than paragons of objectivity and virtue. Some are susceptible to corruption, some attend to private agendas, some are prejudiced, and some are simply capricious. To place the administration of human resources practices solely in the hands of such a manager is unlawfully to produce good outcomes. Moreover, to place the administration of human resources practices solely in the hands of a virtuous paragon can lead to (incorrect) feelings of caprice, corruption, prejudice, and so forth. Not all paragons have had the time and track record needed to develop the untarnished reputation that deserve, and an employee who is denied a promotion or rise by a paragon can be forgiven for sometimes confusing his own unhappy exit with managerial discretion exercised unfairly. And when an individual manager is given a lot of authority, even if she is incorruptible, the temptation to try to corrupt her might prove too strong for those who futures she will influence.

Even a line manager who is a veritable paragon of merit and who is recognized as such has a lot of concerns to balance. When some of those concerns involve measures of performance that can be affected quickly (such as product shipping date) and others involve noisier, long-delayed outputs (such as the manager's and firm's reputation with the work), line managers may make compromises that are not in the organization's long-term interests.

Individual line managers may not fully understand or appreciate the organization's human resources strategy and policies, and the long-term reputation sent with employees. This can be a particular problem in settings characterized by relatively high rates of managerial mobility, which can impede stability, consistency, and "memory" as far as human resources management is concerned. Simplicity, consistency, and clarity must be traded off against the complexities of real life.

For all these reasons, human resources experts in particular special areas can play an important role in advising and educating line managers; helping sustain a coherent and consistent human resources philosophy through the organization; and even, in some cases, acting as independent authorities or appealing officers, in case employees feel aggrieved by line management decisions.

In-the-field human resources specialists can also help in evaluating and improving the performance of line managers. It is perhaps difficult to evaluate performance in the area of ​​human resources strategy and policy formation, but even evaluating how well policies are implemented is difficult. General Managers have a lot of things to attend to, and it is therefore expected and natural that human resources will be pushed toward the back burner.

Promoting a culture that elevates the management of human resources, relying on intrinsic motivation of line managers to some extent. But some accountability - some measurement of performance - will support the desired culture. Specialists are likely to have the best training and widest range of evidence for conducting comparative evaluations of human resources performance. Hence, they are well positioned to provide measures of performance on which line manager accountability can be based and to counsel line managers regarding how to improve their effectiveness in formulating and implementing policies for their units.

How To Evaluate A Business Idea For Developing An Enterprise

Why Do You Need A Business Plan?

Planning is a process that never ends for all businesses. It is extremely important in the early stages of any venture when the entrepreneur will need to prepare a preliminary business plan.

There are different types of plans that may be part of any business operation. These include but not limited to Financial plans, Marketing plan, Human Resource plan, Production plans, Sales plans etc. Plans may be short term or long term or may be strategic or operational. Whatever the type of plan or the function, plans have one important purpose; to provide guidance and structure to management in a rapidly changing market environment.

A business plan on the other hand is a written document prepared by the entrepreneur that describes all the relevant external and internal elements involved in starting a new venture. It is often an integration of functional plans such as marketing, finance, manufacturing and human resources. It also addresses both short term and long term decision making for the first three years of operation. So, the business plan, or road map, answers the strategic questions of where am I now? Where am I going? And how will I get there? Potential investors, suppliers and even customers will request or require a business plan.

How I Prepared My Preliminary Project Proposal

In my case, I followed the following break downs keeping each section as brief as possible.

1. Background : In this section, I established the context of the project by giving an account of the problem it is trying to address.

2. State of the art: I gave an overview of existing and emerging technology in the field, including an account of rival technologies and a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of the various options.

3. Proposal: I wrote an overview of the proposed project and the approach, ie the activities which I will be mandated to achieve the project objectives. Clearly establish the research element or novelty component in the proposal.

4. Consortium: an overview of the proposed manpower and establish the required ability to carry out the project successfully (eg skills, competencies, etc.)

5. Objectives and Deliverables: Identify (1) the objectives and (2) the deliverables of the proposed project.

6. Competitiveness: if applicable, establish the competitiveness or advantages of the proposed solution compared to other solutions, whether these already exist or are still being researched.

7. Cost: give an overview of the project cost (including start-up cost and working capital requirements).

8. Impact: this section should include:
i. Markets and Uses: identify possible uses and markets for the deliverables of the project.

ii. Benefits and Beneficiaries: identify the beneficies of the project's results (eg the project participants, the general public, third parties) and the manner in which they will benefit.

iii. Roadmap: give an indication regarding what further steps, effort, costs and timeframes are necessary before possible benefits can be realized from the deliverables or results of the project (unless these are realized within the lifetime of the project).

iv. Spillover Benefits: identify any secondary benefits of the project (eg facilitating participation in funding programs, improving Malta's ranking, strengthening Malta's reputation in a particular area, etc.)

Preparing a Detailed Business Plan
Stages of writing a business plan are: After deciding to go into business, before starting the business and when updating is required.

Business plans can be written for retail business, wholesale business, service business, manufacturing and any other type of business.

A business plan is written by doing the following:
Identifying all the questions that could have asked about the business.
Determining what additional information needs to be collected to answer all the questions.
Obtaining all the necessary information.
Comparison various alternatives
Making a decision on each question.

A business plan should:
Have a good appearance
Provide an index
Provide a summary
Number each copy
Be signed to show who is submitting it.
Depend on the nature of the business.

A business plan should be organized to carry a cover page, table of contents, executive summary, business description, marketing plan, organizational plan, operational plan, financial plan and appendices.

Outline of a typical business plan is as below;

1. Title: Feasibility study Report on______________________
Commissioned by_________________
2. Project consultants
3. Table of contents:

Executive Summary
The Report
Project Background
Objective of study
Project description and
Loan promotion
Promoter
Location

Market and marketing plan
Potential customers
Competition
Pricing
Sales Tactics
Advertising and Promotion
Distribution.

Technical Feasibility and management plan:
Factory
Machinery
Overhead charges
Packaging materials
Raw materials Manpower and Labor costs.

Financial Projection / Feasibility:
Overview on capital requirement
Financial plan
Projected cash flow
Projected profit and loss account
Expected balance sheet
Break-even analysis
Source and application of funds

Organization Plan:
Form of ownership
Identification of partners / Principal shareholders
Authority of Principals.
Management team background
Roles and responsibilities of members of organization

Assessment of Risk:
Evaluate weakness of business
New technologies
Contingency plans.

Schedules:
12 months projected sales
12 months proposed purchase
Fixed Assets and depreciation schedule
Profitability index.

Thanks for reading

Resume for Chief Auditor

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Fleet Managers Using Geofencing to Monitor and Track Company Assets

Asset monitoring using geofencing is a cost effective way for businesses to track inventory and high valued content.

Asset monitoring and protection is an important part of fleet management.

An essential part of monitoring and protecting your company's equipment, fleet, or high valued content is being able to know where they are and what they are doing at all times.

This is what makes geofencing so valuable.

Geofencing or geo-fencing, is the process of using GPS tracking software to create a virtual boundary around a specific geographic location to be tracked using GPS tracking hardware.

Aside from just being a way to track activity within a specific geographic location, geofencing is a powerful tool used in establishing driver accountability, improving daily operations, and increasing overall company productivity.

Creating geofences to efficiently begin monitoring activity into and out of a specific location is very simple.

Step One: To begin creating your geofence, select the polygon radio button. Then give your geofence a name.geofencing

Step Two: Draw a polygon around the geographical location you want your geofence to encompass.

Step Three: After completing the polygon shape, type in a contact name and email for the geofence alert to be sent to. Click 'Set Geofence' go create.

NOTE: When creating a geofence, you want to make sure to create an entry / exit point to be used to trigger incoming and outgoing geofence alerts. If the location you are creating a geofence for contains a wash area, make sure to create an entry / exit point for it to trigger it's own event when trucks / vehicles are done unloading and need washing before being reloaded. Geofence alerts can help businesses to further manage a positive customer experience with real-time data about a drivers current location and whether they are loading, unloading, or even in a washing event.

Once a geofence is established, anytime traffic enters or leaves that specified area, alerts will be sent to fleet management specifying either an entry into or an exit out of the location.

Geofence alerts and reports allow dispatch to not only know where their fleets are, but also gives them the ability to know if their fleet, whether it is a vehicle, loaded trailer, or a piece of equipment, is moving or not.

This is especially important in cases where construction equipment left on a site sets off a geofence alert after-hours.

It may also indicate a possible theft or off-hours use of company equipment by an employee or someone else.

Either way, asset monitoring using geofencing means being able to catch both instances of activity and could mean a savings to the company bottom-line.

Computer-Based Therapy Can Help Treat Patients of Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is not as common as other mental disorders like anxiety or depression, but the symptoms can be quite disabling. The person afflicted with the condition may lose touch with reality and can think, act and behave differently. A recent research suggested that a computer-based approach can be effective in helping people battling schizophrenia.

The researchers found that on interacting with a computer avatar, which represents their hallucinations, patients can feel an improvement in the symptoms. The results of avatar therapy were compared with that of supportive counseling and it was found that the former was effective in reducing auditory hallucinations after a 12-week follow-up.

The study, published in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry in November 2017, comprised 150 participants who were struggling with schizophrenia for the past two decades and were experiencing distressing auditory hallucinations continuously for over a year. Half of the study population was provided with avatar therapy and the remaining was given supportive counseling. All the participants continued taking their antipsychotic medications alongside the therapies.

Avatar therapy versus supportive counseling

Before starting the avatar therapy, the participants worked with the therapists to create their avatars or the computer simulation of the voice which they wanted to tame with features like how it looked and what it said. The avatar sessions lasted for about 50 minutes each, over a period of six weeks. The sessions comprised a three-way dialogue between the patient, therapist and avatar (voiced by the therapist). Every session had a set target and included a face-to-face interaction, lasting for around 10-15 minutes between the patient and his or her avatar. During these one-on-one interactions, patients learned the art of standing up to those distressing voices and clearing any misconceptions. This led to a better control of the situation and a shift in power from the avatar to the patient. Eventually, the avatar realized patient's strengths, positive qualities, higher control and greater power in the relationship. Each session was recorded and handed over to the patient to listen to when they heard the voices again. The supportive counseling also comprised the same number of sessions and tried helping patients by suggesting ways of improving their overall quality of life. The sessions ended by recording a positive message.

After a period of 12 weeks, the patients who took avatar therapy reported a marked alleviation in the disturbing symptoms and power of the voices they often heard. They fared better than their counterparts who were offered supportive counseling.

Important to seek help

Schizophrenia affects 1.1 percent of the American adult population. The chronic disease can take the form of psychosis, necessitating the need for early interventions. While the novel therapies like avatar therapy looks promising, the disease management usually involves a multipronged approach, comprising medication, family education, counseling, behavioral therapies and skill training.

The mental health experts at Sovereign Health understand that suffering from schizophrenia can make life a living hell for individuals and their families. Our trained staff, doctors, nurses and mental health specialists are committed to providing the best treatment in a safe and compassionate environment. Our recovery programs are tailor-made to suit the specific needs of a patient to ensure a better and illness-free life.

Dangers Of Lacking Financial Education And Giving Value To Others

In this article, I am going to talk about the dangers of lacking financial and values education which are just as important as our school education which mainly and still focuses on theory and academic score having read and understood the books by Robert Kiyosaki like Rich Dad Poor Dad as well as watching all videos of Eben Pagan on what it takes to succeed in business, relationships, wealth and improving all areas of life as his subscriber and customer which are in contrary to what we have been taught and conditioned to think and do by our parents, grandparents and teachers.

Truth being said, most of us only think of making money for ourselves, families and loved ones if we are married and have kids without understanding that in order to make money, we need to give and deliver value to others which is just as important. That also ties in with what Zig Ziglar said that you can have everything you want in life if you give enough people what they want in life. The only knowledge we have is that we have to study hard to get good grades and qualification so that we can get great jobs with high pay in order to have our homes, marry, retire, and live happily ever after. While our parents - especially those from low and middle-income families - told us this out of concern, this sort of mentality is sadly outdated in the current 21st century. And even more so with digital technology looking to shape and change the way we live, study and work.

A rich parent - for instance the current US President Trump - will never tell his children that. Sure at first glance, they will tell their children to respect others in public and tell them off if they are disobedient and do not behave. But behind closed doors of their homes only known to family members and maid serving them, they will share with them other things that poor and average parents will never share with their kids.

Which is while making and saving money are important, delivering value and smart investing to maximize it are just as important.

According to Eben Pagan in his YouTube videos, he said after years of studying about business and wealth, he learnt two critical things. One is that people do not like to give away their hard-earned money without getting any value in return. When I say value, I am not talking about anything that sales and marketing people offered them. But what people really need and want for themselves and loved ones. Second is that money has a hole in its bucket and unless you know how to earn, you will lose every dollar you spent never mind on what things.

Here is another truth of life which I discovered after my very own study and research on other articles and blog posts besides reading and watching videos by those gurus. That is money is never given or distributed evenly all the time. It is only for those who delivered the most value as in helping and making a difference to others' lives as well as those that others feel closest to. Even if it is otherwise, most people will squander on things they like short-term but are not essential long-term. Especially luxury items such as cars, condos, gadgets and jewellery to name a few. And when they spend all their hard-earned money with little or no savings, they will usually resort to those things.

1. Taking on 1 to 2 part-time jobs on top of their main one just to be able to cope with the daily expenses and support their family.

2. Borrowing from families and friends,

3. Asking for loans from creditors, loan sharks and banks,

4. Applying for credit cards,

5. Gambling in casinos, lottery and sports betting

While there is nothing wrong with the first though it might put additional stress on individuals' health and well-being, there is everything wrong with the other four which I myself was guilty of in the second and fourth.

Because every time you borrowed, you needed to pay back as we Asians have a very strong ethnic and principle on it. If they are not carefully abided by, tragedies may occur. Not just on individuals who cannot pay back and lose everything but their families as in their parents, parents-in-laws, spouse and children as well.

And the saddest truth is when the family is poor, the spouse have to work or take extra job as well to bear the costs and the children will have to give up their passion, interest and even studies just to work early to copy with the family burden costs.

For the rich, it is another story. Suppose if one or both your parents are running the company as bosses or CEOs, you will be required to help them out upon completing your studies.

Otherwise they will be judged as "selfish and unfilial who only think of themselves, inconsiderate and uncaring about their families' well-being."

That is if they want to pursue their ambitions, interests and passions they once have as children but are dismissed by most parents as naive child words, play and who are just asking them what they like to be when they grow up simply to make fun of them.

It may sound weird to you but that is the situation in my country Singapore.

Which explains why most people are conditioned to study hard, work hard, save hard and retire comfortably with just one working job income they see as honest earnings.

Any income incurred outside are dismissed by baby boomers in particular - as fraud from cheating other people of their hard-earned money which is partially true with some entrepreneurs but it is wrong to dismiss every business owner because of a few rotten eggs.

Given the fact that government supports them because they are our pioneers, very little room is given for youth development not just in terms of creativity and innovation but in terms of money and wealth management be it creation, multiplication and preservation.

The only things they know are saving, working and borrowing money as well as buying insurance policies from financial advisors who may or may not be acting in the interest of their clients.

Hence their ignorance, overspending and not earning enough leads them to be over-dependence on government to the extent of asking more and blaming the government when things are not going the way they expected and wanted. That will cause serious implications on our economy and society well-being in general be it relationships and the daily essentials of life we, our families and future generations need.

I don't mean to sound arrogant but if I am in the shoes of Minister for Education, I will make financial education compulsory as one of the main subjects. Especially when it comes to generating, growing and saving money while still acting in the interest of others as in giving value.

Which most people need to know but in actual truth, they don't which is absolutely critical.

Except for a selected few.

Like Warren Buffet, Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosaki and Eben Pagan I earlier mentioned.

Make Money Online - Starting Your Internet Business

Making money online by starting your own internet business is a big draw with economic conditions the way they are, many are trying to make extra or replace their income. Although the need and want are there, knowing where to start and what to market, gets many beginners very confused. Having a plan will help the confusion.

Time management is where many go wrong, they may have a regular job, or family to deal with and feel they just don't have time to start a business online. However having a plan with an effective system in place will allow even the beginner to run their business with less time.

Evaluate business opportunities When deciding what business you should set up, be sure they fit your needs and desires. Choose wisely, because by planning ahead you will be able to find many things that can be marketed by using the same type of system.

Choose one thing to market and learn the marketing techniques that it will take to make money online, by doing this before jumping to market a lot of different things at the same time, you will understand what it will take to make your business a success. Then you can take what techniques you know are successful and apply them to other markets.

By learning and improving your marketing skills, testing what works and fine tune it, you will be successful at starting your internet business. As an example: Many begin with affiliate marketing because it is easier to do, it can even be done without a web site or advertising budget.

However, as they learn an apply what the learn they soon realize that they can make more money online by having the proper tools in place, such as a domain name, web site and auto responder. These tools are used to build a list of potential buyers instead of sending them to someone else who will put them on their list and profit from you.

Another example is many start out writing articles to promote the products that they are selling because of budget restraints, but once they make enough they want to move on to pay per click or other ways to bring even more traffic, so take the time to learn and improve your skills and profit from them.

If you want to making money online by starting your own internet business, take action, make a plan so time can be managed, and you will have a system to follow. Evaluate business opportunities, and of course learn an improve as this needs to be done.

Performance Measurement, Operational and Financial Performance

Empirically, most strategy research studies employ the construct of business performance to examine a variety of strategy content and process issues (Ginsberg and Venkatraman, 1985). This second article in the series concerns the use of financial and operational performance; through the summarization of two seminal papers written by Venkatraman and Ramanujam (1986) and Kaplan and Norton (1992).

Venkatraman and Ramanujam (1986) study consider as an important document for the theoretical discussion regarding the evaluation of the measurement of business performance. One of the key issues addressed by this study is the attempt to delineate the performance concept. More specifically, whether business performance should be differentiated from the overall discussion on organizational effectiveness. The view taken by Venkatraman and Ramanujam (1986) was that business performance, which reflects the perspective of strategic management, is a subset of the overall concept of organizational effectiveness. The narrowest conception of business performance centers on the use of simple outcome based financial indicators that are assumed to reflect the fulfillment of the economic goals of the firm. Venkatraman and Ramanujam (1986) refer to this concept as financial performance. Financial performance measurement is a multi-dimensional one. Sample of financial measures, group into dimensions can be presented as follow: Profitability - return on investment (ROI), earning before interest and tax (EBIT), gross profit margins. Growth - market share growth, Sales Growth. Efficiency - return on sales (ROS), return on equity (ROE). Analyses made by using single financial measure or several measures relating to only one dimension may lead to misleading conclusions. According to Venkatraman and Ramanujam (1986) a border conceptualization of business performance would include emphasis on measures of operational performance, which consists of those key parameters which may lead to an improvement in financial performance. Venkatraman and Ramanujam (1986) note that it would be logical to treat operational performance measures such as market-share, new product introduction, product quality, marketing effectiveness, manufacturing value-added, within the domain of business performance.

Kaplan and Norton (1992) have presented another seminal paper regarding the measurement of business performance. Its name, "The Balanced Scorecard - measures that drive performance" could suggest for the way they approach the issue. According to the writers, since there is increasing need, both for large and small businesses, to master a variety of capabilities in different fields, the traditional measures of financial performance gives inadequate, or in some cases inaccurate, perspective for the status of the business and its ability to keep improving. The balanced scorecard tries to overcome these difficulties through the completion of financial measures, which reflect for actions that already have been taken, with those of operational performance measures, which consists of parameters that may drive the forthcoming financial performance. Operational measures according to the balanced scorecard constructed from three dimensions - How do customers see us? (Customer perspective), What must we excel at? (Internal perspective), Can we continue to improve and create value? (Innovation and learning perspective).

Make Money and Love It

Someone once told me that play is work that we enjoy. I began to wonder why people do not play at work. There is a stigma that surrounds the word work. It is a necessary evil; it forces you to work for your weekend - the time you enjoy; it is just to be endured. But I do not believe it. Work can be fun, sure there will still be tough days, but there is nothing wrong with looking forward to going to work on Monday. Many things factor into whether you will enjoy your work: the people, the environment, and the work itself. These factors can keep you from enjoying work, but when used to your benefit, they can also help you find and retain enjoyment at your work.

What you excel in doing will affect if you enjoy the work you do. This is because individuals find satisfaction in accomplishes. I am a great goal-setter, planner and executor. I worked for a company where I severely got to use any of those skills. Instead, my time was focused on encouraging people to do things that did not want to do, which required skills in reading people, customizing messages to each individual person, and being a cheerleader; none of which are my strengths. Knowing this, each day I would try to improve how I talked to people and to influence them to smile at customers, and each day when my goals were not reached I went home feeling like a failure. Being in an environment where you can use your strengths allows you to go home with a sense of accomplishment. Spending your day toiling in areas where you struggle, leaves you feeling empty.

Many books have been written that will help you discover your strengths and weaknesses. Some go so deep as to help you find your undering motivators. These are fantastic resources which I recommend. For now, however, I want to focus on a quick analysis.

Think of your best day at work where you felt a sense of accomplishment. What happened? What activities were you doing? Did you land a tough deal? Did you overt a crisis? Did you create a successful plan? What attributes did that day's activities have? By boiling it down you will find the basics of what you enjoy doing.

What do people say you are good at? Does your boss ever refer co-workers to you for advice because you do something well? Do people seek you out as the expert in certain activities? What do you get recognized for? These are all great indicators of your strengths.

What do you find yourself doing when you do not have to? Are there activities at work or home you find yourself participating in even though you do not have (are not required) to? I am constantly creating plans and setting milestones for projects I do outside of life. My friend will sit down and pound out a book in a day. My husband will design and build things, not because it needs to be done, but because he enjoys the process. Figure out what you enjoy that can be translated to work.

Just knowing what you are good at is not enough, it is important to understand what you do not do well. What do you dread doing at work? Do you avoid paperwork like it is the plague? Do you make as few client calls as possible? What activities do you do that never seem to measure up to the status quo? My first internship I asked to cold call potential investors to see if they would be interested in speaking with a broker. After four hours of cold calling I went home crying. Each time I made a call that day, I would feel apprehension: afraid they would ask a question I would not have the answer to; afraid they would be rude to me; afraid I would get yelled at. Talking to strangers and trying to sell a product was not my strength.

After you know what you do not do well, there are two things to do: either manage those weaknesses or avoid situations that require them. To manage a weakness you need to leakage other skills to help you do that activity to the (level of the) status quo. Do not expect to ever make your weaknesses a strength. That same time you could use practicing and improving your current strengths and yield a much higher return on investment. Look at the activities you do not do well and see if there are ways for you to do that activity a little differently and still achieve it. Some things you can avoid absolutely. Is there someone at work whose strengths compliment your weaknesses? Maybe you can share the work. Do you have the authority to hire someone to take on the work you do not do well so you can focus on your strengths? In my business I am good at the organizational management piece where my partner is better at the sales piece (remember my cold-calling experience). I focus on directing the vision of our organization while he brings in the business. Would this work for you?

By understanding your strengths versus your weaknesses, you can begin shaping your job to fit you (or finding a different career). You will find you have much more satisfaction after spending your day being successful versus struggling through a workday by trying to rely on weaknesses. And go ahead, play at work.