Training budgets

Is it me or has there been an uplift in the tone of economic reporting over the last couple of weeks? The media can still come up with doom and gloom - giving a negative slant to a neutral / positive story, but the mood seems to be turning.

This seems to be reflected in the number of requests for training that we are receiving. Clients tell us that budgets are still tight but well justified training is getting funded. This is good news for our users and we are trying to help in whatever way we can. We tailor our training around clients exact requirements and always try to leave them with an immediate ROI. If we can save them even the smallest amount of time it can pay for the training.

The latest success we have had is getting training covered under the Train to Gain scheme. Not all training is covered but it's worth a try. This gets £500 paid for and a futher £500 matched. If you want more information feel free to drop me an email.

Managing HR in a small business

Most small businesses can not justify having a dedicated HR person. The admin heavy and / or complex HR processes can be a real drain on management time. Companies often hire in a part time person to help with HR but this can cause problems:

• Hire a highly skilled HR person and you run the risk of this expensive resource getting bogged down in HR admin (booking holidays, recording sickness etc..) or
• Take on extra admin resource to help with HR processes and you run the risk of non core processes running out of control.

If you are a manager in an SME the chances are you didn't sign up to do HR - nothing wrong with HR, its just not your thing. You should be focusing on selling, operations or delivery. The solution can be found in automating the repetitive HR tasks and outsourcing the complex HR activities.

Tasks that can be automated include:

• Holiday booking & authorisation
• Sickness reporting (including back to work interviews)
• Employee address and core data updating
• Frequent tasks - appraisal reminders, new starters, leavers etc
• Report production

Having a central system for HR data relieves management of a non core task, saves time, increases accuracy and satisfies data protection legislation. It is also an essential tool to maximise the efficiency of outsourced HR services.

Lastly, it provides management with reports and analysis on staff activity. Managers can easily combine data on various topics into one report on which to base decisions. Having access to pre-formatted reports on such topics as employee absence by reason, workers compensation statistics, and salary by department makes understanding the strategic "big picture" much easier.

One word of caution - not all HR systems have the ability to automate tasks. Some only act as an electronic filing cabinet. To get the maximum benefit from this approach you need a system that has employee self service functionality and has been designed for SMEs. Take a look at breatheHR.

Expensive software sitting on the shelf?

All businesses are looking for that extra edge - the things that make a difference; whether it's increasing revenue, saving costs or just plain making life easier. One area that every company needs to look at is the software that is being used or in some cases not being used!

Research shows that businesses rarely use more that 20% of the functionality of any software system. This is great news as it leaves a whopping 80% still to benefit from. In addition to this there are many systems not being used at all - still in the box, never installed or never really understood and forgotten about.

A great example of this is Sage ACT! - with over 2.8m users there must be a whole host of companies out there not using it to its full potential. Every organisation needs to manage sales, improve customer service or just free up some admin time and a bit of training could make all the difference.

If you work for an organisation that has been in business for a while I bet there is some benefit to be gained from looking around your network or in the cupboard where your software boxes are kept. It may take a little research or some training but the potential is definitely there. There may even be government funding to foot the bill!