Tuesday 26 October 2010

Talent Management

The concept of talent management has evolved into a common and essential management practice and what was once solely attached to recruitment now covers a multitude of areas including organisational capability, individual development, performance enhancement and succession planning

Organisations find greater value in formulating their own meaning of what talent is than accepting universal or prescribed definitions and there are considerable differences in how talent is defined across different industries and sectors. That said it is helpful to start with a working definition for both ‘talent’ and ‘talent management’:

- Talent consists of those individuals who can make a difference to organisational performance, either through their immediate contribution or in the longer-term by demonstrating the highest levels of potential.

- Talent management is the systematic attraction, identification, development, engagement, evaluation, retention and deployment of those individuals who are of particular value to an organisation, either in view of their ‘high potential’ for the future or because they are fulfilling business/operation-critical roles.

*source CIPD

The issue with many companies today is that their organisations put tremendous effort into attracting employees to their company, but spend little time on retaining and developing talent.

This definition underlines the importance of recognising that it is not enough to just attract individuals with high potential. Developing, managing and retaining those individuals as part of a planned strategy for talent is equally important, as is adopting systems to measure the return on this investment. More organisations are also now broadening their definitions, looking at the ‘talents’ of all their staff and working on ways to develop their strengths.

If you want to develop your staff and help them understand the implications of talent management, visit Trainer Bubble and download our Talent Management training course materials.

Tuesday 21 September 2010

Equality Act 2010 - Training Materials

Trainer Bubble have just added Equality Act 2010 training materials to our portfolio.The Equality Act 2010 comes into play on the 1st October 2010 and will affect every organisation in the UK. Make sure you are ready with our half day training course materials available at www.trainerbubble.com.

Whatever our role within an organisation, we need to know about equality. An employer may be small or large - equality law still applies. Whatever the sector an organisation is in or whatever the type of systems and processes it uses, equality issues are all around.

The focus on equality issues is sharpened by the implementation of the Equality Act 2010 which is effective from 1st October 2010. All employers and employees have legal obligations under the Equality Act. Of course, embracing all of the changes brought about by the Act are employers of choice - those forward thinking businesses that recognise the benefits to everyone of showing respect and dealing with issues openly and fairly at work.

Equality Act Provisions coming into force on 1 October 2010...
  • The basic framework of protection against direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation in services and public functions; premises; work; education; associations, and transport.
  • Changing the definition of gender reassignment, by removing the requirement for medical supervision.
  • Levelling up protection for people discriminated against because they are perceived to have, or are associated with someone who has, a protected characteristic, so providing new protection for people like carers.
  • Clearer protection for breastfeeding mothers;
  • Applying the European definition of indirect discrimination to all protected characteristics.
  • Extending protection from indirect discrimination to disability.
  • Introducing a new concept of “discrimination arising from disability”, to replace protection under previous legislation lost as a result of a legal judgment.
  • Applying the detriment model to victimisation protection (aligning with the approach in employment law).
  • Harmonising the thresholds for the duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people.
  • Extending protection from 3rd party harassment to all protected characteristics.
  • Making it more difficult for disabled people to be unfairly screened out when applying for jobs, by restricting the circumstances in which employers can ask job applicants questions about disability or health.
  • Allowing hypothetical comparators for direct gender pay discrimination.
  • Making pay secrecy clauses unenforceable.
  • Extending protection in private clubs to sex, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity, and gender reassignment.
  • Introducing new powers for employment tribunals to make recommendations which benefit the wider workforce.
  • Harmonising provisions allowing voluntary positive action.
To purchase these Equality Act 2010 training materials, visit Trainer Bubble now.

Monday 23 August 2010

New iPhone App for Icebreakers, Energisers and Games!

Trainer Bubble are pleased to announce the completed development of our brand new Trainer Bubble iPhone App, which provides users with access to 100's of Icebreakers, Energisers and Training Games right in the palm of your hand.

This will save you the trouble of pre-preparing activities or using the same old icebreakers or energisers every time, as you'll have a vast resource right with you, wherever you go. Of course the icebreakers, energisers and training games can be used in any kind of event including meetings, training, teambuilding or large events. The possibilities are endless.

The Trainer Bubble iPhone App has the following key features...

  • Scroll through hundreds of icebreakers, energisers & training games to find the best suited to your needs

  • Save favourites into groups of your choosing for easy access

  • Use the Categories section to access activities by time or type

  • Alter the colours of each sectionto easily identify where you are

  • Shake the iPhone, iTouch, iPad for a 'Lucky Dip' activity

  • Regular updates, enhancements and improvements

A few screenshots...


So, if you'd like to find out more about this fantastic new app, pop over to the Trainer Bubble website or view it directly via the iTunes website.




Tuesday 8 June 2010

PowerPoint in Training - When a good thing is not a good thing

I thought I'd write a few words about a topic that often comes up in discussions about training, and that is the use of PowerPoint slides. I have received many emails, had many discussions and attended many meetings where the subject of PowerPoint in training is raised. What is obvious is that there are those that are strong advocates and others that are not so convinced by the use of PowerPoint. Personally, I fall into the latter category.

I should start by announcing that I think PowerPoint is an excellent tool and its use has helped presenters and trainers immensely over the last two decades. The idea of returning to acetates and an OHP fill me with dread. Having said that, I believe the fantastic ability and usability of PowerPoint means that those very users have become too reliant on the tool and training has suffered as a result.

As a trainer and training designer, I get very frustrated by people who equate a good training course with how many slides are included. I have even recently read a training design company's view that a days training should include between 60 - 100 slides. I'm sorry, but this is just poppycock! This would mean that you are displaying at best 10 slides per hour or 1 every six minutes. If you are showing slides at that rate, then you are simply providing no time for activities, review, discussion or even any meaningful commentary from the trainer.

This point brings me to the key element of importance regarding PowerPoint during training and that is the statement, ‘PowerPoint should support the message, not the trainer supporting PowerPoint’. Without following this critical element you fall into the trap of letting the technology, not the content, become primary.

Training should be interactive and indulgent for the learner. It should allow time for the participants to explore the practicalities of an issue as well as to absorb the theory in a relaxed environment. If we simply present information to participants in a slide format we become lecturers, not trainers. To reiterate, PowerPoint should support training materials and the trainer in order to help the learner learn. This means using the tool as a reference point, a method of highlighting a point with an image or where it is not possible to demonstrate a point without a graphic or text based representation.

Some argue that they use PowerPoint as a method of ‘sorting their thoughts’ and although their training course has 2698 slides with it, ‘I won’t be showing most of those’. Well, great, but there is always the danger that someone else training your course will and besides that, surely there are better ways of laying out the structure of a course? That, to me, is why we invented Trainer Notes.

A
regular study that is carried out by a website called, ‘Think Outside the Slide’, shows the dangers of PowerPoint and how it is perceived by the audience. Although the data is aimed at presentations rather than training I think it shows very well how problematic PowerPoint can be. The data reveals what annoys people most about PowerPoint.

The speaker read the slides to us - 69.2%

Text so small I couldn’t read it - 48.2%

Full sentences instead of bullet points - 48.0%

Slides hard to see because of colour choice - 33.0%

Overly complex diagrams or charts - 27.9%

As you can see, the speaker reading slides is the most annoying thing to people and although this study was taken in 2009, the same point has been top for every bi-annual study since it started. The author reads a lot into this and it is well worth a read, but my thinking is that the participants don’t like having the slides read to them mainly because they could do that for themselves. As someone on one of my courses recently said about a previous course, ‘The trainer was so intent on putting his notes on the slides, I couldn’t help but feel he should have just emailed his notes to us.’ This brings me back to the point that training should be interactive and involve the participants throughout. PowerPoint limits the potential to do this.

On a typical Trainer Bubble training course you will find something in the range of 12 – 24 slides per day. This will include the ‘title’ slide as well as two ‘objectives’ slides (one to open and one to close the session). PowerPoint advocates might feel that this is a bit sparse and that consequently the training course lacks content. This is certainly not the case and our thousands of customers will testify to this. The fact is, our training content is based in the Trainers Notes, where it should be, and the participants that attend one of our courses will gain knowledge through the information provided by the trainer, the activities they explore, the exercises they carry out, the discussions they take part in and then finally the supporting materials they see and receive. After all, as Confucius said, "Tell Me and I Will Forget; Show Me and I May Remember; Involve Me and I Will Understand."

Confucius probably had it right too , because from various research sources we know that we remember from: the Lecture (5%); Reading (10%); Audio Visual (20%); Demonstration (30%); Discussion group (50%); Practice by doing (75%) and Teaching others (90%). Even a good set of slides will only meet the Audio Visual element of this and at 20%, that’s not a very good return. Of course it’s not possible to make teachers out of all our participants and so the aim is to involve areas from each of these principles. A good training course will do this and allocates as much time and effort to each principle as the output justifies.

To sum up, PowerPoint is an effective tool to use during a training course, but it is only as good as the person using it. Let it support your training course, but don’t let it BE your training course.

Tuesday 25 May 2010

Optical Illusion? Assumption is not the way...

Here's an interesting little diversion that goes down really well during a training session...Place the following image on a slide and ask participants which line is the longest....

Of course, everyone knows this one, they are both the same length...BUT WAIT!!!

Show participants the next slide, with this image on it...


They are not the same, the top one IS bigger than the bottom. And do you know why? Because I changed it. Things change and we should be prepared to change with them, if our mind is closed to the change and assumes that everything stays the same we have already failed.

Never assume, always leave your mind open to possibilities...

Tuesday 11 May 2010

Negotiation Skills

We recently came across this video clip, which provides a clear idea of negotiation skills and how best to use the 'If...then' strategy of negotiation. We thought it was worth sharing...




Or, if you're just looking to have some fun with negotiation skills, try out this video clip...

If you are looking for a practical, easy to follow set of training materials on negotiation skills then visit http://www.trainerbubble.com/ and view our negotiation skills training course - The Art of Negotiation.

Thursday 18 March 2010

Accredited Materials - New Partner

We are extremely pleased to announce that Trainer Bubble have recently partnered with the Institute of Commercial Management (ICM) who have reviewed and accredited our training materials. ICM are an internationally recognised examining and awarding body for business and management students and, as part of this accreditation, ICM will provide certification for participants that complete a Trainer Bubble training course. Visit us now to find out more at Trainer Bubble.

Trainer Bubble will also be providing training materials to support ICM's social and economic development programmes overseas.

We are very proud to be part of this initiative. We would like to personally thank the team at ICM who have supported us throughout the entire partnership process. We are happy to be working with such a professional organisation.

Wednesday 24 February 2010

Conference Calls - A Bit of Fun

I'm sure you've been involved in conference calls that can become somewhat mundane to say the least. Well, I've taken to pepping them up a little lately and thought it might add a little amusement to your day to hear about it...

We use an automated system for most of the conference calls I have to dial in to and these are set up to allow you to record your name at the start of the call. This not only introduces you at the start of the conversation i.e. 'Andrew has joined the conference', but also announces your departure, 'Andrew has left the conference'. It occurred to me that this little tool could add a whole new dimension to conference calls and offer a little bit of light relief when needed.

I have started the idea off simply and recently made sure that I logged into the call early so that nobody heard the introduction. Then half way through a particular heated discussion where I felt we were going round in circles, I hung up the phone. Now, of course I wasn't there to hear it, but I took great pleasure in knowing that my colleagues had just heard the message, 'Common sense has left the conference'. Childish I know, but these things must sometimes be done to brighten the day.

I've got a few more ideas up my sleeve and look forward to the next conference call. Who knows? If I keep it up, they might stop inviting me.

Friday 5 February 2010

Are they working for you?

"The only thing worse than training your staff and having them leave, is not training them and having them stay".

Check out these worrying staff sightings from around the UK. Ask yourself, 'Is this my staff?'

Worrying Employee Sighting #1

My daughter and I went through the McDonald's take-out window and I gave the girl a £5 note. Our total was £4.20, so I also handed her a Twenty pence piece She said, 'you gave me too much money.' I said, 'Yes I know, but that way you can just give me a pound back .'

She was puzzled and went to get the manager who asked me to repeat my request. I did so, and he handed me back the 20 pence and said 'We're sorry but they could not do that kind of thing.' The girl then proceeded to give me back 80 pence in change!

Do not confuse the staff at MacDonald's.

Worrying Employee Sighting #2

We had to have the garage door repaired. The GARADOR repairman told us that one of our problems was that we did not have a 'large' enough motor on the opener. I thought for a minute, and said that we had the largest one GARADOR made at that time, a 1/2 horsepower. He shook his head and said, 'Madam, you need a 1/4 horsepower.' I responded that 1/2 was larger than 1/4 and he said, 'NOOO, it's not. Four is larger than two. ' We haven't used Garador repair since.

Happened in Moor Park , Nr Watford UK

Worrying Employee Sighting #3

I live in a semi rural area. We recently had a new neighbour call the local town council office to request the removal of the "DEER CROSSING" sign on our road. She said the reason was: 'Too many deer are being hit by cars out here! I don't think this is a good place for them to be crossing anymore.'

Story from Potters Bar, Herts, UK

Worrying Employee Sighting #4

My daughter went to a local Kentucky Fried and ordered a taco. She asked the person behind the counter for 'minimal lettuce.' He said he was sorry, but they only had iceberg lettuce.

From South Oxhey . Herts. , UK...

Worrying Employee Sighting #5

I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an Irish airport employee asked, 'Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge"? To which I replied, 'If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?" He smiled knowingly and nodded, 'That's why we ask.'

Happened Luton Airport ... UK

Worrying Employee Sighting #6

The stoplight on the corner buzzes when it's safe to cross the street. I was crossing with an intellectually challenged co-worker of mine. She asked if I knew what the buzzer was for. I explained that it signals blind people when the light is red.Appalled, she responded, 'what on earth are blind people doing driving?!'

She is a Local County Councillor employee in Harrow, Middlesex, UK

Worrying Employee Sighting #7

When my husband and I arrived at Our Local Ford dealer to pick up our car, we were told the keys had been locked in it. We went to the service department and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock the driver's side door. As I watched from the passenger side, I instinctively tried the door handle and discovered that it was unlocked. 'Hey,' I announced to the Fitter/Mechanic, 'its open!'His reply, 'I know. I have already done that side.'

This was at Ford dealership in St Albans, Hertfordshire UK.

Worrying Employee Sighting #8

This is a personal one that happened to the MD of Trainer Bubble. He was in a local Tesco store and after putting his items through the checkout, handed a fresh faced sales assistant a crisp £50. The sales assistant looked at him suspiciously and rubbed a pen over the £50 note.

To our MD's surprise the assistant then called over a manager and said, "It's not supposed to go that colour", to which our MD replied, "But you used a highlighter pen." The manager exchanged glances with our MD and headed off to more pressing issues.

Can you afford not to train your staff? Visit www.trainerbubble.com and view our fantastic, affordable training resources.

Wednesday 3 February 2010

Worst Customer Compaints - Top Ten

All business owners have to deal with difficult customers at some point but how do your experiences compare with the 10 worst complaints one small company faced in 2009?

Clients are hard to win and even harder to keep, but there are a select few who can make life particularly difficult. Spare a thought then for online retailers Prezzybox.com, who last year had to deal with a client who wanted to return a used toilet brush – this being just one of the many zany gripes they received from clients last year.

Read on for the company's top 10 weird complaints of 2009:


  • A gentleman from Leeds was keen to return the green Slanket (or blanket with sleeves) that he had purchased for his wife because her hair was ginger and it would have made her look like a Leprechaun.
  • A toilet brush was sent back after being used to clean an especially dirty toilet.
  • A Glaswegian male called Trading Standards after the bars of his football table went rusty. He had left it standing outside for two years without covering it.
  • A Candy Bra was returned after already having been opened and nibbled.
  • One unhappy customer sent back a '20 Questions’ gadget, which guesses the object you are thinking about. After answering correctly 37 times, it had failed to guess a disposable nappy during game 38.
  • A 'Pets Eye View Camera' was returned after a female shopper indicated that the filming was not as 'exciting' as she had hoped.
  • A 'Puppy Bumperstop Doorstop' was sent back by one client because, although it kept the door open, their pet hamster kept bumping into it when running around in his exercise ball.
  • A lady returned her 'Henry Hoover Desk Tidy' because its smile was neither big nor happy enough to cheer her up in the office.
  • A female customer sent back her 'Tipsy Feet' fold-up shoes because she was concerned about the fact that she continued to fall over when walking home after a night out with friends.
  • A customer complained that the moods suggested by their 'Oggz Colour Changing Mood lights' did not reflect the atmosphere correctly.

Dealing with customer complaints can be one of the most challenging parts of customer service. Visit www.trainerbubble.com to view our training materials on customer service and dealing with customer complaints. By training your team in the art of dealing with customers, you will ensure a positive relationship with your customers and continued sales.

Tuesday 5 January 2010

Anxiety at Work - A New Training Course

Just prior to Christmas, we added a brand new course to our website. It may well have slipped under your radar as, if you've been as busy as the Trainer Bubble team, there's not been a chance to gather breath! Therefore, we thought we'd take the opportunity to let you know all about it...

In this course we take a good look at anxiety. As we progress, the course clarifies what anxiety is, what it is caused by and why it is so important for us to know about it in the workplace.

Underpinning our course is a crucial message – making anxiety normal.

The course takes a non-clinical approach – there is no medical or scientific element to this course; it takes a common sense, practical and straightforward stand.

This course is suitable for anyone at work. It has been designed to assist us all with achieving an understanding of what anxiety is and how it might be handled whether -as a sufferer, or as the manager or colleague of a sufferer.

When you reach the end of this course your participants will:

· Know what anxiety is and what it isn’t
· Be able to discuss the impact of anxiety on colleagues, on productivity and working life
· Know the role of the manager, employer and colleague of an anxious person – and the role of the sufferer
· Be able to draw sensible comparisons between anxiety and physical illnesses

Produce a plan to define the action they will take to address the stigma attached to anxiety with a view to improving business performance.


The course was designed by one of our new designers, Sue Buck, and is an interesting addition to our portfolio. We look forward to more of Sue's work in the future as, if this course is anything to go by, we can expect great things. You can view this training course and many others at our website www.trainerbubble.com