Develop Staff Skills Resource and Build a Community Where Capability is Respected.

Staff need to be able to adapt to new situations quickly, in fact they need the capability to perform many varied tasks. But how do you give them the tools, skills and environment they need to the capable in the situations that they face? And how do you ensure that your organisation has the capacity to meet the demands of modern business?

Capability and resource capacity can be purchased via recruitment of permanent and temporary resources to meet immediate needs. However, it is far more cost effective for organisations to have development programmes in place that grow from within, using resources that already know and understand their business.

Investment in training and development are also an important differentiator for staff satisfaction and impacts successful staff retention and lower recruitment costs as these activities mark the organisation as an employer of choice.

The WorkTrends Survey KRI 2007 shows that employee motivation and their ability to execute tasks can be improved by:

• Setting a clear career path programme
• Goal development and monitoring
• Regular feedback sessions with managers
• Tracking Progress

The survey also shows that by focusing on talent management organisations in six countries* questioned showed their employees were more engaged and more satisfied with their jobs and employer companies over all.
*Countries surveyed UK, USA, Brazil, China, Germany and India.

Use your staff’s potential combined with a programme to build a capability community and your business will see a return on investment and reap quantifiable rewards in terms of an efficient and able workforce.

Building both capacity and capability begins with a common step ~ understanding the current level of skills, knowledge and ability for each employee.

If you would like Maven Training to help you build staff capability and organisational resource capacity please call our team on 020 7403 7100

Project Management 2010 Benchmark Report

As a valued partner of Arras people (Project Management Recruitment) we are helping promote their ‘Project Management Benchmark Report for 2010. This report covers the project management industry in areas such as salaries, rates, gender, current climate, and specific project management areas like professional bodies, competency and the outlook for 2010.

The kind of questions which are to be asked are based around current issues and hot topics within the PPM arena including statistics on salaries, remuneration and day rates so that a database can be created so comparisons can be drawn on last years statistics.

To take part in the survey please visit:
http://www.arraspeople.co.uk/PMReport/


2009 Survey Highlights

• Recession has hit the project management market, with the majority of professionals fearing redundancies and cuts


• Over a third of all respondents said they were ‘worse off’ last year and 22% of freelancer experienced decreased rates, with a significant number (11%) experiencing cuts of more than 10%


• Employees feared better than contractors with salary expectations being met in 2008


• Project Managers are a resilient lot. Despite the widespread doom and gloom, only 8% described their personal situation as ‘gloomy’, 63% described their situation as ‘steady’ and 18% as ‘neutral’


• A massive 84% of Project Management Professionals believe they have a significant role to play in helping the UK economy out of its current difficulties


• Public sector employees are better protected than private. Twice as many private sector employees and 5% more contractors expect rewards to fall in 2009


• The gender pay gap is not closing

For previous reports please visit: http://www.arraspeople.co.uk/projectmanagementsalarysurvey/2010/projectmanagementbenchmarksurveyreport2010.html

I’ve heard change management is beneficial, but I don’t know how it works. What does it involve?

Change Management involves analysing the current capability for change; identifying any resistance and barriers to implementing the change; and then determining an appropriate approach and plan for implementation. The aim is to minimise the level of disruption that individuals, teams and the organisation as a whole experience when the change is introduced. Organisations that are skilled in successfully delivering change will benefit from a decrease in the cost and time required to action the change, together with an increase in the probability of the change being accepted by stakeholders.

For Change Management to be successful an appropriate approach to implementation needs to be in place that focuses on delivering change in a visible, controlled and orderly fashion. Some of the factors that need to be considered in determining the best implementation approach are:

· Investigating and defining the change: Do we know the true scope of the change? Are we clear on what the change vision is? What resistance can we expect, from who, and when? What are the key activities that we need to include in our Change Plan?

· Developing the change: Do we need the support of certain influential stakeholders to ensure successful delivery? Is there support for the change at all levels of the organisation (executive through front line management)?

· Transitioning the change: What training and coaching will be offered to those affected? How will stakeholders be supported through the transition? How will successes be celebrated and new behaviours rewarded? When and how will the newly embedded behaviours, attitudes and beliefs be measured?

Carving the right approach to change requires a sound understanding of Change Management principles. Organisations are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of employing exceptional change teams to deliver successful change – which could explain the increased interest in developing Change Management intelligence.

Maven Training have launched their new Change Management Foundation and Practitioner courses - click here for more information

Project, Programme and Change Management Xmas Free Briefing

Do you want something to talk about over Christmas lunch? Are you short of ideas for your New Year’s Resolutions?

Join Maven Training in the last few days of 2009 to hear how you can plan your career development through 2010 and beyond by using accredited qualification to professionalize your CV. In addition to getting the opportunity to work with Melanie Franklin, the acclaimed Maven in the Project and Programme Community, you will receive up to 3 PDU units towards your professional development and also get plenty of Christmas cheer with mince pies and refreshments.

Attending will be members of the Maven team who you can ask in detail about all the courses available and which ones are suitable for you. Bring your CVs as there will be an opportunity to speak to recruitment specialist Matchtech about the current state of the market place and how best to represent your professionalism to the market place.

Comments from previous attendees include: “a rousing presentation” to “inspirational…I will be writing my own development plan this weekend” and “Melanie is a powerhouse of ideas and enthusiasm – my whole team was energized by her delivery”.

Further information