Investment in Employee Skills Training is Boost for Business

The Government has outlined how a massive extension of the Train to Gain scheme will offer bespoke skills brokerage and high quality responsive training to enable all employers to identify and then meet their skills needs. To find out more visit http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/31395/close-skills-gap-with-training-pay-planning

The doubling of funding in the Train to Gain Service is part of a massive investment programme announced this month by Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills John Denham, which will see more than £11 billion a year invested in education, employment and training.

Since its launch in 2006, Train to Gain has helped more than 52,000 employers and enabled over 240,000 employees to undertake training.  Just one call to the Train to Gain helpline gives employers access to an impartial and independent skills broker to help them identify their skills and other business needs, and source training from a range of available skills solutions to best meet those needs.

To enable every company to access appropriate training, the following major expansion to the Train to Gain Service has been announced:

More funding will be offered for a broader range of skills.  Part funding will now be available for those doing a second full Level 2 qualification and funding for Level 3 will be increased nationally.  Skills for Life training will now be supported as a stand alone offer as well as part of a full Level 2 qualification;

The funding cap to be lifted for the best providers, enabling them to do more business as their performance improves;

A massive boost for SME management training – the budget has increased  from £4 million per annum to £30 million per annum, which will support some 60,000 key directors and managers in around 42,000 companies over the next three years;

The LSC’s National Employer Service will be expanded, with additional account managers to help more of the country’s largest national employers, while skills brokerage will also be extended to help provide  even more companies with specialist support;

By working closely with Jobcentre Plus through their Local Employment Partnerships, Train to Gain will support people who have been unemployed to secure employment with training and progression on to higher level skills;

New compacts with each Sector Skills Council which will tailor Train to Gain to ensure it meets the skills needs of employers in each sector – and joint investment planning so that public and employer funds work together to boost skills and improve.

Skills Minister David Lammy commented:  “Lord Leitch’s report spoke of a partnership between the state, the employer and the individual.  Today, in partnership with the business community and training providers, we set out our plans for the expansion of Train to Gain as a vehicle for creating a truly demand-led further education sector.  To this end we have cut bureaucracy to make sure that those colleges and training organisations that can best meet employers’ needs are able to expand to meet demand.”

Contact Centre Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Secrets Revealed

The secrets behind customer satisfaction and customer loyalty is a happy workforce, according to research by ORC International. Everything from printed lanyards UK to promotional gifts are great at maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty, but there are many other things that can be done too.

Research by ORC International, the leading global research group, found a link between employment engagement and customer satisfaction in local Government. Simply put, a happier workforce has a direct co-relation on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. It studied 50 local authorities to reveal the positive impact an engaged workforce has on customer satisfaction – the first evidence of its kind in the public sector. The findings can help inform effective contact centre customer satisfaction and customer loyalty approaches.

Contact Centre Customer Satisfaction

Contact centre customer satisfaction and customer loyalty is a hot topic for the call centre industry. Call centres and contact centres have repeatedly been in the firing line over the issue of customer satisfaction. In fact, a major report from Citizens Advice detailed feelings of stress and frustration when it came to call centres and contact centres. The Hanging on the Telephone report catalogued widespread discontent when it came to customer satisfaction. 

Customer Satisfaction Encourages Customer Loyalty

To reach its conclusions, ORC International mapped 50 local authority best value performance indicators against key questions from employee surveys. The best value performance indicators are statutory for all local authorities. This data alongside employee survey data allowed ORC International to find direct correlations between customer satisfaction and employee engagement.

“Improving citizen satisfaction is an ongoing challenge for local authorities across the UK and it is often assumed that the key to this lies in increased spending,” said Richard Abraham, Head of Public Services Research at ORC International. “Our research shows that in fact, great improvements can be achieved by improving management skills and internal communication.”

Motivated Staff for Business Success

Contact centre customer satisfaction is crucial for customer loyalty. Keeping staff motivated is simply good for business. A motivated workforce results in higher productivity and profit margins. And in the service industry, such as the contact centre and call centre sector, motivated staff who provide better customer service and encourage long-term customer loyalty are vital. And staff who are motivated are more likely to stay with their employer, helping reduce recruitment and training costs as well as developing an experienced workforce for long-term success.

Employee Engagement Impacts on Customer Satisfaction

The results of the research showed that certain areas of employee engagement directly impact on customer satisfaction. The statement: 'I am treated with fairness and respect at work' was found to have the strongest correlation to achieving motivated employees and customer satisfaction. As well as developing a fair and respectful internal culture, employee awareness of long term goals and pride in their workplace were high on the list. For the contact centre industry looking to develop customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, the research highlights the importance of a supportive culture for call centre staff, clear leadership and the importance of a strong organisational brand image that staff can take pride in.

Help Desks – Lack of Skilled IT Workers Causes Concern

The gulf of skilled workers in the IT sector is now so substantial that it has reached record levels and this inevitably has knock-on consequences for the functionality of help desks in various different industries throughout the UK. To find out more visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/may/18/what-thinking-call-centre-workerv

According to recent reports, there is now a chronic shortage of skilled IT workers in Great Britain and this is causing a reduction in the standard of service from help desks which are overstretched, particularly at the busier times of year. According to research findings released by the Information Technology Communication (ITC) Inquiry, the shortage of skilled IT workers to man help desks has now reached record levels are there are concerns that the lack of skilled workers in the industry is becoming endemic. The most pressing finding to emerge from the research was the fact that the number of firms who believed that they lacked the necessary IT expertise within their company had increased by a substantial 14% since the previous year. This invariably has implications upon businesses’ help desks and makes it difficult to provide a sufficiently high calibre of customer service if the employees don’t have the sufficient knowledge base to deal with their customer’s queries.

Help Desks – Overcoming Obstacles

The severe lack of skilled IT workers is an issue that needs to be addressed as quickly as possible if further problems and ramifications are to be avoided. The impact that this lack of skilled IT workers to operate help desks is having on UK businesses is vast and the findings from the ITC report indicate that the ramifications of this shortage are more profound than ever before. One of the principle findings from the report is that, due to a chronic shortage of sufficiently skilled staff to operate help desks, IT managers are often being contacted during their holidays or outside of work hours to deal with even the most trivial of IT queries. This is obviously not an effective or viable use of their time and, as such, measures need to be taken to help increase the number of skilled staff manning IT help desks.

Help Desks – Dearth of Suitable Candidates

The extent of the problem regarding the staffing of help desks is borne out by the statistic that as many as one in five IT recruitment companies were unable to find staff that had the required skill sets for their positions and help desks and various other IT roles. In relation to this, Des Lekerman of Eurodata Systems, states, “In today's fast paced business environment one of the biggest risks that a company faces is the recruitment of temporary contract IT staff. This is particularly evident during the summer months when many contract workers take holidays.”

Top Tips for Improving Your Office Environment

In uncertain economic times, your employees can become stressed and over worked. Keeping their enthusiasm for the job at a productive level can be difficult and end up costing you money. More and more companies are investing in a healthier office environment that promotes calm, stress-free staff with a desire to work to their best potential. With so many corporate fitness specialists to choose from, there are a range of things your business can do to improve your office environment.

Redesign – Redesigning your office interior can do wonders for your employees, customers and business in general. Companies like Area Sq can tailor the interior design of your office to suit your exact needs and business requirements.

Health Screening – Corporate fitness teams can provide health screening for your employees on site to determine their physical fitness levels. From blood pressure to lung capacity; an insight into their current health situation could help you identify the health problems that previous business practices have contributed to. This could enable you to put a new corporate fitness program into place to improve staff health and wellbeing in the office.

Exercise Classes – Office workers rarely get up from their desks during the day. This can lead to poor cardiovascular health, obesity and a whole host of other health problems. In-house gyms can be put in place by corporate fitness experts. Regular exercise classes can help promote healthy colleagues that are less likely to need time off in the future for health issues.

Stress Management – During financially difficult times, many employees suffer from stress. Not only can this lead to paying for time off but it can also affect the quality of work. Corporate fitness specialists can visit you on-site to give employees techniques to minimise stress in the workplace. From promoting healthy eating and lifestyles to on-site massage; you can do everything to make your office environment a stress-free place to be.

Which courier service is best?

Every day there are thousands of couriers cruising across the world delivering important items to and from businesses and individuals. There are a number of types of courier, which could be worth considering if you really have to gt something safely delivered. Take a look at the following options:

Your options for a courier service

Bicycle

For short distances the best option for a courier could well be bicycle. It is effective and great for scooting through traffic even in big cities where other forms of courier might be much slower.

Motorcycle

Motorbikes are another great way to get your items delivered quickly, whether they need to travel just a couple of miles or a greater distance – and in speed.

Truck

For larger items trucks can be the best option. There are numerous haulage companies offering this service throughout the nation.

If you need something delivering safely you could use the same day courier service from One Call

The importance of the right business telephone systems

In business it is essential to have the very latest systems in order to stay at the cutting edge and to compete with other businesses in the same field. Communications systems are particularly important in order to speak with clients, customers, colleagues and suppliers. Without adequate systems a company would lose potential profits and could even put off clients if they can’t get in contact easily and without hassle.

Thankfully there are plenty of communications and telephone systems that make business easier and consequently hep companies to develop.

Telephone systems are designed to suit different kinds of enterprise, from small single office buildings to large corporations. Well known names like Panasonic , Oak Telecom and Nortel carefully plan systems and various solutions are available on the Microcare systems website.

If your business is in need of communications systems they are out there to be found, so don’t settle for anything less than the perfect business comms.

Unified Communications – A Positive Impact on Contact Centres

According to a recent study, Unified Communications is perceived as a huge benefit to the contact centre industry.

A huge, international study into the impact of Unified Communications reveals that the majority of those surveyed felt the role of Unified Communications has a beneficial place in customer facing operations and the contact centre industry.

Unified Communications and Customer Satisfaction

The research was conducted by Strateco to uncover how the contact industry across Europe felt about the role and potential benefits of Unified Communications. The survey was particularly focused on finding out whether Unified Communication systems could help contact centres across Europe achieve key objectives and goals. The study was far-reaching with almost 300 contact centres, both public and private, across Europe questioned, including those in Spain, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and France. The research revealed:

l  A huge 85% of those questioned agreed that Unified Communications improved service levels thus impacting positively on customer satisfaction, boosting first call resolution levels

l  The majority believed Unified Communications helped improve real time communications - 82% said UC facilitated broader team work, offered a more focused, streamlined process and as a result meant fewer delays with improved team productivity in the contact centre

l  82% felt that United Communications was an important function that will provide a 'competitive differentiator' in the future

l  79% said having Unified Communications in their call centres would improve the perceived value of those contact centres within their organisations

l  67% said they felt Unified Communications would in the medium term (three to five years) deliver a cost advantage

Unified Communications – Work Together to Benefit All

But the path for Unified Communications wasn't so clear cut – although the majority of European contact centres surveyed agreed that UC strategies would have a positive impact on their operations, respondants were divided about how UC should be introduced into their organisations: 50% felt the IT department should introduce Unified Communications to the contact centres, whereas the other 50% said the customer service department should drive UC forward.

The marketing manager of Aspect in Europe and Africa, Anita Marsh, commented on the findings. She said the survey revealed how important it was IT and customer service departments worked together to ensure 'information silos are broken down' to maximise the benefits of United Communications: “The survey shows that when UC touches the end customer, the return on UC investments really begin to accelerate.”