Sunday, July 31, 2011

A BIG money gobbler - WEAK ADMINISTRATION

Companies under estimate the large sums of money they lose because their staff are weak at adminstration.
During the workshop I run aligned to my book "The CLIP System" - this is a check list methodology, using check lists as a control tool - I can guarantee that only 2 out of 20 people have some kind of "control tool" in place that helps them manage their job functions effectively. Managing your job function includes IT, processes and procedures, time management and prioritisation. The secret is getting all these functions aligned, so that it results in managing risk, managing cost and giving excellent customer service.
IT'S TIME TO PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR ADMINISTRATION........How well you do it and how timeously you do it is important.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

STATUTORY COMPLIANCE

Recently, the subject of statutory compliance by companies has been at the very core of my thoughts. I have wrestled night and day, trying to comprehend the complacent manner in which companies embrace statutory compliance issues.
The most recent statutory complaint topic that has raised it's head at least 5 times in the last week, covering many different instances, and a number of different companies, has been Occupational Health and Safety - commonly known, or should I say "should be known" as OHS.
In a restaurant, a lady has a "heart attack" - no first aider is found in the company, and even more horrifying was that, the manager was not even trained in first aid. A crisis arose which could have cost the lady her life, for the sake of complying to OHS rules and regulations, regulating these kinds of incidents where the public and even more scary, clientele meet.
OHS is in place for positive reasons, for the safety of clients and staff members. When I began asking a few questions about their OHS plan, since I am allergic to well over 24 substances and it is important for me to frequent places that would be competent if the need arose, the manager threw up her hands and said "huh, OHS what's that - no restaurants follow those rules - whatever for?
What remains to be said then is this...... IT IS THE LAW - whether we like it or not, whether others do it or not, it is a statutory compliant issue that is governed by the laws of our country for good reason, and it is our corporate responsibility towards staff and clients to be compliant.
Most companies are SARS compliant - WHY? Because if they don't comply SARS is right there, in their face, making them comply. BUT it appears that if it is a "lesser" statutory compliance issue, which the category OHS falls into in their minds, they feel they have the CHOICE of whether to comply or not, just because inspections are not controlled as strictly as SARS controls theirs.
The thing is, IT IS THE LAW and our own integrity should be guiding us in this regard.
Non-compliance in anyway whatsoever can result in a VERY costly exercise, with long term negativity..... it doesn't take rocket science to know this.
To wrap it up then....
ARE YOU STATUTORY COMPLIANT IN EVERYTHING?
THIS SHOULD BE A GOAL,
NOT A PERSONAL CHOICE "SHOULD I OR SHOULDN'T I"

Monday, July 4, 2011

RE-GOUPING AND PRIORITISATION PARTNERSHIP

Well, here I go again on the topic of re-grouping, but this time from a different angle..... Since re-grouping involves analysing, prioritising and attacking that which has been prioritised, it is important that people in the workplace know how to prioritise. This question gets asked frequently - often by people with a trying to "catch you out" slant. Probably the most frequent question around prioritising is this - "what if there are two items of the same priority, which one do you do first?".........Well, the way I see it is this, the following question needs to be asked and strictly answered - "If I don't do it, what will the conseqences be?" Obviously if they are then still on the same level of importance, you need to get yourself together and do both tasks, post haste.
Using the "TRAFFIC LIGHT" symbol as a benchmark for prioritising, prioritising becomes a little more simple.
RED = MUST DO IMMEDIATELY
ORANGE = COMING UP TO HIGH PRIORITY
GREEN = NOT QUITE READY FOR ORANGE YET
There is a simple rule to follow so that prioritising is not so pressurised and that is:
NEVER HAVE MORE THAN 3 ITEMS ON YOUR "MUST DO" LIST AT ONE TIME. When you have finished one high priority item bring one up from the "orange" group.
Never panic, as the pilots say "if you panic you die". Stay focused and use the TRAFFIC LIGHT....