Friday Filosophy v.03.04.2022

Friday Filosophy v.03.04.2022

Mother Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu – 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997, honoured in the Catholic Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, was an Albanian–Indian Roman Catholic nun and missionary. She was born in Skopje (now the capital of North Macedonia), then part of the Kosovo Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. After living in Skopje for eighteen years, she moved to Ireland and then to India, where she lived for most of her life.

In 1950, Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation that had over 4,500 nuns and was active in 133 countries as of 2012. The congregation manages homes for people who are dying of HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis. It also runs soup kitchens, dispensaries, mobile clinics, children’s and family counselling programmes, as well as orphanages and schools. Members take vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, and also profess a fourth vow – to give “wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor.”

Teresa received a number of honors, including the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Peace Prize and the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. She was canonized on 4 September 2016, and the anniversary of her death (5 September) is her feast day. A controversial figure during her life and after her death, Teresa was admired by many for her charitable work. She was praised and criticized on various counts, such as for her views on abortion and contraception, and was criticized for poor conditions in her houses for the dying. Her authorized biography was written by Navin Chawla and published in 1992, and she has been the subject of films and other books. On 6 September 2017, Teresa and St. Francis Xavier were named co-patrons of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Calcutta.

  • Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
  • There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.
  • Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.
  • Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.
  • To reach something good it is very useful to have gone astray, and thus acquire experience.
  • I know the power obedience has of making things easy which seem impossible.
  • God gave us faculties for our use; each of them will receive its proper reward. Then do not let us try to charm them to sleep, but permit them to do their work until divinely called to something higher.
  • Our body has this defect that, the more it is provided care and comforts, the more needs and desires it finds.
  • It is no small misfortune and disgrace that, through our own fault, we neither understand our nature nor our origin.

The Time is Now.

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Loyal Staff: Does Corporate Training Really Work Well for Uplifting Employees’ Skills and Boosting Loyalty?

Loyal Staff: Does Corporate Training Really Work Well for Uplifting Employees’ Skills and Boosting Loyalty?

We are pleased to introduce another new guest writer here at Learning Without Scars. Natallia Dmitrenko is a content specialist at Grinfer with a focus on content management and blog promotion. She gained experience studying at the University of Nebraska taking graduate-level classes and working for a number of companies based in the US and in Minsk, Belarus. Tonight, she writes about loyal staff, and asks the question that many of our clients have asked: does corporate training really work well for uplifting employees’ skills and boosting loyalty?

What is one of the most expensive mistakes managerial staff makes? The answer is: unsuccessful hires. Indeed, statistics indicate that a wrong hire can cost three to five times the compensation of the candidate.  On the other hand, according to Go2HR (one of the most trusted sources on HR): “40% of employees who receive poor job training leave their positions within the first year.” Lack of loyalty among employees?

So, how to stave people off from leaving in the first year of hire? No wonder why HRs spend a big chunk of time figuring out best ways of improving training programs for staff. In fact, an engaging corporate L&D training program can become an effective solution for boosting retention and reaching business goals.

Today, L&D online training programs have become a dynamic and almost inseparable part of any business venture. In 2022, almost 50% of L&D professionals confirmed that those employees who were engaged in corporate training were highly engaged in overall corporate processes as well. Hence, being aware of all the popular/efficient trends in the world of L&D is essential for the effective management of staff. Well, especially in the current COVID-19 realities.

Indeed, there are two types of L&D training that exist today: on-the-job training and online training. If the question arises what kind of training to give, this depends upon a multiple of factors: overall productivity and work experience of employees, particular types of hurdles faced at work, the recent work performance, etc. However, the rising tension caused by the never-ending COVID-19 epidemic is forcing companies to pay more attention to L&D training offered via the Internet. Many have already admitted that it really works!

New “work from home” practices prove that if companies engage employees into online training programs, they won’t bet on the wrong horse. Some of the main positive impacts of taking classes on e-learning platforms are:

  • E-learning boosts cooperation by enhancing such soft skills as leadership and communication. As employees work and interact in these training sessions, which helps to build stronger interpersonal soft skills, reliance, and support which ultimately leads to better cooperation.
  • The main advantage of e-learning is in its ability to convert staff into a skilled workforce while providing instant access to learning resources. And then the upskilled workforce can turn complex scenes to opportunities in more effective client-centric ways.
  • Effective online programs open more opportunities to employees to apply new skills in response to potential job challenges.
  • Less supervision required if the employees are trained well. If employees’ liability is amplified resulting from the effective online training program, more man hours can be put to good use. Plus, staff will be more worked up to take on challenging tasks at hand in the future.
  • An effective corporate training program delivered online instills values of learning, evokes creativity in staff, improves decision making skills, breaks the ice and contributes to interacting more openly. Hence, an increased self-esteem motivates employees to work better and develop a stronger sense of loyalty to a place of employment. And that’s just like having a healthy fruit in the diet – the bigger employees’ loyalty, the more companies benefit from the positive corporate culture.

Of course, corporate training programs vary depending on the company. For example, a company that lays concrete for warehouses odds are will probably need a different training program compared to a tech software company.  Still, engaging workers in online training builds a progressive company’s image, foster loyalty, and boost retention rates. Plus, a good online training program also makes any company look more progressive therefore, more attractive to new recruits.

Obviously, staff upskilling through e-learning helps employees understand their jobs and company’s policies better. Proper training contributes to higher retention rates, greater job satisfaction and, as a result, increases loyalty of staff. People feel like they work in an inclusive atmosphere where everyone feels like they can contribute. And this is a part of the retention secret sauce.

Job satisfaction is a necessary ingredient for efficient and enthusiastic job behavior of staff. And that’s the case when a proper corporate training really adds to that dish and brings the whole meal together.

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Maximizing Profits Through Spend Management

Maximizing Profits Through Spend Management

Tonight, we are pleased to introduce our readers to our new guest writer, Jennifer Albright. In her first post, Jennifer educates readers on maximizing profits through spend management. But first, allow us to introduce Jennifer Albright in her own words:

My start in Procurement began unexpectedly with a temporary position, evolving into a career spanning over 20 years and becoming a true passion. I’ve worked in industries ranging from manufacturing to high tech to heavy equipment including 11 years with a large heavy equipment dealer, all of which have reinforced the fact that best practices are truly universal and the biggest strength of any organization is its people.

I enjoy bringing value through the details – working with systems, analyzing data, reviewing contracts – but my true passion is people, building relationships and figuring out what motivates people in order to bring about positive organizational change and millions in cost savings.

Education

  • Certified Professional in Supply Management – Institute for Supply Management
  • Certified Purchasing Manager – Institute for Supply Management
  • Six Sigma Green Belt
  • EdM – Education – Boston University
  • B.A. – Psychology – Rutgers University

Many dealers have yet to embrace spend management as the strategic opportunity that it is; it’s only natural put the focus on sales since that’s the obvious profit generator. The thing is, there are two ways for any business to increase profits – sell more and spend less. I’m not knocking our sales friends, but the savings a dealer can experience through effective spend management can make all the difference in the world during an economic downturn, global pandemic, the off-season, or any time when sales are more of a challenge – and when times are good it can make profits even higher.

If we look at dealers through a spend lens, they typically fall into one of the 4 stages outlined below:

We’ve been fortunate to work with a number of dealers in Stages 4+, and many who are in Stages 2 and 3 who are typically surprised by the magnitude of opportunity within their dealerships. We often hear things like, “I care about selling iron, not what we spend on copy paper” – but it’s so much more significant than paper.

Okay, so how significant?

The Center for Advanced Procurement Strategy (CAPS) is a nonprofit research center at Arizona State University, dedicated to supply management research. They have done extensive research on savings opportunities to be gained through a “mature procurement organization” – meaning, a company who embraces best practices in procurement and spend management.

They were able to quantify addressable spend – meaning, the spend you have control over – as a percentage of gross sales. They went on to define the percentage of savings a company should be able to save through the use of best practices. My colleagues and I have taken their numbers for Industrial Manufacturing and refined them further to find more specifically how the CAPS findings apply to the heavy equipment distribution sector. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you’d like to learn more about this research, I’m happy to share as many nerdy details as you’re interested in hearing.

Bottom line – dealers who embrace spend management as a strategic business function can aim to save 1% of gross sales annually. The average dealer size in North America is approximately $75M – which means a potential savings opportunity of $750K. By focusing solely on sales, the average dealer is letting up to $750K slip through their fingers each year. And the bigger the dealer, the larger the opportunity.

At this point, if you’re in Stage 2 or 3 I hope you’re wondering where to start.

First stop – look at your spend. Who are you buying from? How does your category spend shake out – meaning, do you have 42 office supply vendors when 1 or 2 would do the job? The same goes for tools, furniture, shop supplies, tires, and nearly everything else you buy. Supplier consolidation means higher volume with your chosen suppliers, which leads to larger discounts and other perks with the suppliers you choose to work with, which leads to stronger relationships with those supplier partners. Then, when the next Big Thing happens (hopefully not a pandemic!) you’ll have key partners in place to support you.

Next, look at your processes – you’d be surprised by the cost of waste. As dealers grow and especially as they add new locations, it becomes easy for processes to splinter and to find that you have many ways of doing the same task and that most are likely not as efficient as they could be. Anything from how you process parts orders to how you pay your suppliers, the layout of your facility, closing work orders or processing warranty claims – if you haven’t stepped back and given your processes an objective look, now is the time.

Embrace technology – while this industry is built on relationships and handshakes, many of our customers are becoming more tech savvy. If the pandemic has taught us anything it’s that dealers need to follow suit if they haven’t already. There are so many incredible systems & tools designed specifically for the equipment industry that can save time, streamline processes, and ultimately save money – which means increased profits, and in many cases makes it easier for your customers to do business with you. If you haven’t gotten out there and looked lately, take a moment to see what’s available.

Last but most certainly not least, hire a procurement manager. It may sound excessive for a small dealer, but keep that 1% savings opportunity in mind. This person may initially need to wear multiple hats but an experienced professional will more than pay for themselves a lot faster than you might think.

It’s an exciting time to be part of the equipment industry. By embracing these types of opportunities to improve profitability, dealers can ensure that they will be able to weather whatever storms may come next.

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