Category: Management

Does your company have a workplace safety policy in place? If you don’t, you could be exposing your company to substantial risk. Many states require that companies with employees have a written workplace safety policy and that they hold regular safety committee meetings. Check your state for specific regulations.

A Health & Safety (H&S) policy is a written promise by the Company and specifically Management to provide a healthy and safe workplace for the employees.

Check Out: Employee Safety Manual

Implementing a workplace safety policy and holding monthly safety committee meetings can help protect your company from accidents and lawsuits. Each industry has different concerns and regulations that need to be addressed when establishing a workplace safety policy. To help you create a safety system that will fit your company’s needs, CEO Systems has created “The CEO System: Workplace Safety Policy.” This system will walk you through the steps you need to create a safety policy and implement regular safety meetings.

Establishing your Workplace Safety Policy

Your company’s safety policy should include:

Inspections:

1. Define how often safety inspections shall occur.
   2. Establish the company position responsible for overseeing and performing safety inspections.
   3. Establish the company position responsible for reviewing inspection reports and suggesting changes to implement.

Accidents/Incidents:

1. Document your company’s accident investigation procedures.
   2. Establish the company position responsible for overseeing and performing accident investigations.
   3. Establish the company position responsible for reviewing accident reports and suggesting changes to implement.
   4. Document the company position responsible for ensuring that suggested changes are implemented.

Hazards:

1. Document how hazards are reported to management.
   2. Document the company position responsible for following up on hazard reports.
   3. Document how corrections and preventions will be implanted into daily operations.

Accountability:

1. Establish defined rewards and disciplinary action to keep employees accountable for following the safety procedures.
   2. Document and implement a Reward/incentive program for the number of days without accident.
   3. Document and implement disciplinary action for not following safety procedures.

Check out the safety committee books and meeting notes I have available on Amazon

Safety Meeting System

Safety Meeting Tips:

• Safety meetings can be informal.
• Discuss hazards and how hazards are reported.
• Discuss past and possible future accidents.

What to learn more about establishing a safety committee, check out my post

Keeping proper meeting minutes is key. Check with your state regarding what information is required to be documented.

A health and safety policy is a vital document that clearly defines responsibilities, processes, and expectations for safety within an organization. It should specify who is responsible for particular safety tasks, when these tasks should be carried out, and how they should be performed. The policy should also include the company’s broader health and safety goals and specific, measurable objectives to track progress and ensure accountability.

To make sure the policy is accessible and understandable for everyone, it should be written in simple, clear language. This ensures that all employees, regardless of their role or expertise, can grasp their responsibilities and the established safety procedures.

Creating a health and safety policy starts with a thorough risk assessment. This process identifies potential hazards that employees and others might face in the workplace. While it is impossible to predict every possible hazard, the assessment should focus on the most likely and severe risks. Highlighting these helps the company prioritize its resources and efforts toward preventive measures.

Based on the risk assessment, the organization can establish specific working practices and control procedures to manage identified risks. This may involve providing safety equipment, training employees in safe practices, and setting up emergency response plans. The primary goal is to prevent accidents and incidents rather than just reacting to them.

In larger organizations, it may be useful to create multiple health and safety policies for different areas or departments. This approach ensures that each policy is concise and relevant to specific risks. A single, lengthy policy can be overwhelming and might deter employees from reading and understanding it. By having focused policies, safety information becomes more accessible, relevant, and easily understood, fostering a strong culture of safety and compliance throughout the workplace.

Check Out: Employee Safety Manual

 

A well-crafted health and safety policy also ensures that adequate resources are allocated to effectively manage health and safety concerns. It should identify where additional resources, such as extra funding or personnel, are needed. By clearly outlining these needs, the organization can proactively address safety issues and ensure the necessary resources are in place.

Implementing accident prevention measures benefits everyone involved. For employees, it reduces the risk of painful injuries, illnesses, or even death. A safe environment promotes well-being and allows employees to concentrate on their work without worrying about safety. From the employer’s perspective, preventing accidents is not just a moral responsibility but also a sound financial strategy. Accidents can lead to significant financial costs, including fines for non-compliance with safety regulations and potential lawsuits from injured parties.

Workplace accidents can also disrupt business operations. Injured employees may be unable to work, leading to decreased productivity and lost revenue. To maintain productivity, the company might have to increase the workload on other employees or hire temporary workers, both of which can be costly. Temporary workers may need time to adjust to their roles and might not be as productive as the regular employees they replace. The recruitment and training of temporary staff also incur additional costs.

For a health and safety policy to be truly effective, it must be regularly reviewed and updated to reflect the current operations and equipment used by the business. An outdated policy that refers to obsolete practices or equipment is not only unhelpful but can be dangerous. Incorrect or irrelevant information can cause confusion and potentially worsen the outcome of an incident. For example, if a policy assigns emergency duties to former employees, these tasks may go unfulfilled during a crisis, increasing risk.

Regularly updating the health and safety policy ensures that it remains relevant and effective, offering clear guidance on managing current risks. This proactive approach helps maintain a safe working environment, protects employees’ well-being, and shields the company from financial and legal issues. A dynamic and well-maintained health and safety policy is a key element of a responsible and efficient business operation.

With the advancing world, how we live and work is constantly changing. Many industries that used to be labor-run are now automated, so working in a leadership position in any industry now is not how it used to be. There are many jobs that have become common due to the popularity of the internet, creating more job opportunities. The vastness of job opportunities and modern take on the job descriptions of many posts has made job searches around the world both more difficult and easier at the same time. The latter is because of the number of jobs available, while the former is observed because finding the right job between all of these opportunities becomes difficult. In fact, job searching is now a talent in itself.

LinkedIn is a service that serves simply as a Facebook for professionals, as many already call it. How it works is that any individual or organization can share their professional details online on a well-organized site that categorizes each type of experience, capabilities, and employment details. This serves as an online CV of a kind since many employers look at the LinkedIn profiles of people that they might employ.

While making it easy to look for jobs, LinkedIn also allows employers to research their potential employees and helps organizations and professionals connect with one another more easily.

This article will cover the job searching factor of LinkedIn, discussing how the service helps people look for jobs to find something that they are interested in and that they are suitable for, but first, let’s discuss how your LinkedIn shows how you are suitable for where you’re applying.

LinkedIn Profile Optimization

LinkedIn is a site with over 337 million professionals, making it one of the top networks for professional development as well as job searching. However, with all this traffic, it is difficult for an individual to stand out for any job. How you can assure this for yourself is by optimizing your LinkedIn profile to maximize your chances of successfully landing a job, which includes being able to build a powerful presence by making the most of its features and sharing your expertise.

Sharing All Your Necessary Professional Details

If you look at LinkedIn as an online, customizable CV, you will understand that adding information about yourself on this site will clearly be beneficial to those evaluating your profile. Completing and adding details about your employment history, including your current position, past positions, capabilities and skills, a professional picture of yourself or your industry, your education information as well your current industry and location makes for a LinkedIn profile that really sells itself.

Adding to all those details, you can also make your LinkedIn profile stand out by selecting a proper URL for yourself, which is SEO friendly as well as easy to remember. All of this is the basic information any user has to add for their profile to stand out.

Sharing Your Purpose

An excellent way to land a job is by fueling any chances to stand out in a recruitment search. The number one way to catch the eye of any recruiter to finally end that long job search of yours is to make your purpose clear.

Now, your purpose may be as simple as ‘looking for a job’ or can be tailored to explain with accurate detail what your purpose in the industry or for job searching is. Again, the latter can be simplified to a simple reason where one tells the type of job they’re searching for.

Recommendations

Getting recommendations from your peers is important. LinkedIn maintains and keeps these recommendations online, sharing them with professionals only. The peers that you get recommendations from may be one of your customers, colleagues, employers or people working for you.

Adding Skills

As stated before, this is a part of completing one’s professional profile on LinkedIn. Adding details about skills is much more sophisticated and professional on LinkedIn than just simply writing skills. Once you write about these skills, your peers and work group are sent a confirmation regarding this and the skills that are verified by people are known as endorsements.

Endorsements are very important for your LinkedIn profile as they show what skills you are known for, which would give the right impression to the recruiters as to why you’re suited for a job, hence making your job hunt easy for you.

Your Summary

We can look at this part of the LinkedIn profile as the very professional and influential counterpart of Facebook’s description. It has to be a precise summary about an individual’s professional life, what they have accomplished and what they have set out to accomplish. The summary can be about 200 characters long and is important for your profile to stand out, so be sure to write a precise and impressive summary that will catch the attention of recruiters.

Links to Relevant Websites

Add links to the websites of the organizations you work for, blogs you write, or any pages or publications that are relevant to your professional life. Editing these and adding in the right keywords for these sites is important too since it gives a good impression and helps recruiters browse through your online profile.

Order and Arrangement of Your Linkedin Profile

LinkedIn allows one to customize their profile considerably for ease of use and so that you may note down and showcase your accomplishments and abilities as best you can. One of the features that LinkedIn offers is the option to change the order of your profile to however you want it to be; the sections can be rearranged and suited especially for your professional profile. Rearranging the profile is easy too since all you require is a simple click-and-drag action to change the order.

Use Specific Keywords

What will help recruiters and potential connections find you is the use of precise and to-the-point keywords that you add to your profile. These have to be eye-catching and serve to give off a good impression. Another benefit that specific and catchy keywords provide is to search engine optimize your profile. The more relevant keywords you add, the more chances are of you to pop up on a Google search. This will help you end your job search by bringing organizations to you.

Add the Specifics

Writing about the projects you’ve worked on, the awards you’ve won, the causes you care about, and the places you’ve volunteered at will help brighten up your profile significantly. This will be the final touch to your profile and would help with your job hunt more than you think.

The causes you care about and the places you’ve volunteered at help describe how you are as a person and matter in the profile you’ve created for your job hunt.

Linkedin Job Search

Once your LinkedIn profile has been created and optimized to ensure you get some views every day or simply pull in a good audience, your job search will be made much easier since it increases your chance of getting selected by a lot. However, just optimizing your profile like this will only serve to increase your chances and raising the possibility of ending your job search altogether. Searching for a job yourself is a whole other story which requires patience and a very thorough approach.

This section of the article will cover how you can search for the jobs you are suited for so that you have a higher chance of landing one.

Check Out: Job Interview Ultimate Guide

Headline

After optimizing your profile and making sure all of your professional details are filled in and optimized for organizations, including a headline about your current job search status will let employers find you and scoop you in. However, this is very much a challenge, and although adding a catchy headline would draw in a number of views to your profile, if your profile isn’t edited to stand out, the headline won’t help with your job search at all.

Following Companies

LinkedIn offers more than just pages of individuals. This site with over 337 million professionals helps by making pages and details about companies themselves. These pages can be followed and it’ll be in your best interest to do that since that way, you’ll be up to date with the current events of every company while updating you if any of these companies is searching for people to recruit. This is a major step in your job search as your target companies will be right there for you. Thus, you can research about them as well as keep yourself up to date about any opportunities that arise.

Connect

While you’re searching for your job, a lot of things factor into finding just the right job. One of the most important steps you should follow is to increase your connections as much as possible and as soon as possible. After creating a good account, showcasing your abilities, getting recommendations and following companies, it’s very important to connect with as many individuals and organizations as possible. Remember that this will help you connect further with other people and all of these connections will be helpful for your career at more than just one point in your life.

I am always open to connecting with people on LinkedIn, here is my profile

So what this basically means that although LinkedIn profiles help showcase your skills and connect with people, nothing helps more than promoting yourself in person among your peers. So watch out for the people that can be of use to you. Keep a look out for well-known companies that you can work for or new and rising companies that you can help promote both in person and on the internet. As we mentioned before, this site is like a Facebook for professional connections, so even though making new connections through LinkedIn itself is efficient, it’s better to connect with people you have worked with, people you have worked for as well as the people working for you since you know their capabilities well and they know yours.

Contacting Peers

Once you have made connections, contacting them through LinkedIn is also easy since the site offers the option of messaging your connections privately. With a fully functional instant messaging option, you can manage your work optimally.

This feature also helps with job searches as you can contact many companies and individuals regarding your job directly through LinkedIn and keep track of the available positions and their current state.

 

Conclusion

A lot of things factor into a successful job search, including your achievements and capabilities, but what bears fruit in your job search is not the achievements themselves but how you showcase them. Adding what you learn from any experience and the skills you have learned throughout your personal life that will affect your professional life, pinpointing certain strengths, and using precise keywords will ensure that your LinkedIn profile is search engine optimized, which will, in turn, ensure that your profile pops up on searches on Google and other search engines whenever a search about a particular keyword is made.

Adding to that, completing your profile is necessary with the summary, causes you care about, recommendations, and the entirety of the sections listed above so that your profile provides all information to any recruiter. The advantage this gives you is significant and it can factor into your job search well enough for better job opportunities.

In conclusion, the jobs out there are numerous, but ironically, finding jobs – especially the right one – is really an issue many of us face. In fact, job hunts of even the most capable of people bear no fruit until they finally catch their big break, so LinkedIn is a service that comes in very handy. Keep all of the tips mentioned above in mind, keep seeking opportunities and stay vigilant in your job search because on LinkedIn, the right job is just a few clicks away.

An important aspect of enhancing one’s communication skills is becoming a good listener.

People tend to place the emphasis on speaking as the most important aspect of communication, but this is not necessarily so. Breaking down the percentage of time spent throughout the day for an average

person engaged in one of the four aspects of communication:

• Listening-42%
• Talking-32%
• Reading-15%
• Writing-11%

The reality is that the majority of people only listen for approximately 25 percent of the time. And in many cases, most people only listen to the first couple of words from a speaker before starting to formulate a response in their minds. There is a distinct difference between listening and hearing.

Merriam-Webster (1994) describes “hearing” as: “the process, function, or power of perceiving sound” (pg. 346).

Merriam-Webster (1994) describe “listen” as: “to pay attention in order to hear” (pg. 433).

The key to becoming a better listening is to stop simply hearing what someone is saying and to start listening to what is being said.

The following are some suggestions for becoming a better active listener:

• Do No Interrupt.

To become an effective listener, wait until the speaker is finished before providing feedback or expressing opinion. People have a tendency to become impatient while listening and cannot wait for the speaker to finish. Not only is this rude, but it will drastically limit the information exchange and damage the communication process.

Check Out: Effective Communication Skills – NONVERBAL

• Do Not Jump to Conclusions.

Do not assume that you know what the speaker is going to say. People can process information faster than one can speak (up to three times faster). For this reason, one might start formulating a response before receiving all the necessary information. This can lead to confusion and poor response on behalf of the listener.

• Do Not Judge the Speaker.

Do not allow ones opinion of the speaker to interfere with the message being received. The speaker’s accent, speed of delivery (talks too fast or too slow), appearance, and age are just a few factors that can create bias and limit effective listening. Concentrate on the content of the message, not on the speaker.

• Take Notes to Hold Interest.

Not only is taking notes a good way of retaining information for a later time, but it also helps the listener maintain interest, shows the speaker that you are paying attention, and helps eliminate distractions.

• Ask Questions.

Asking good questions, paraphrasing, and providing feedback are essential to good listening. This will help one listen more carefully and will also strengthen the relationship between the speaker and the listener. Good listeners play an active role in the communication process including head nodding, eye contact, and asking questions. Some rewards for becoming a good listener include “expansion of knowledge, vocabulary development and language development, ability to evaluate messages, passing examinations, saving time, accruing financial benefits, and short-cutting acquisition of knowledge. This will also help in the areas of public relations, investigations, and crisis/emergency management situations.

By using these listening suggestions, practicing them, and putting them into action, the security officer can maintain an open line of communication and will be better able to obtain sufficient information for reporting to supervisors and preparing for investigations. The security officer will also be able to gather this information while continuing to project a professional image on behalf of his or her employer.

How important do you feel listening is as part of effective communication?

Another aspect of effective communication is a basic understanding of body language. Studies have shown that more than 50 percent of a spoken message’s meaning can be determined by nonverbal gestures. It is claimed that only 15 percent of what is said is verbal and at least 85 percent of interpersonal communications are nonverbal.

For this reason, it is important for the speaker and the listener to be aware of three important characteristics and principles of nonverbal communications.

First, most nonverbal communication is automatic and unconscious. This means that it is essentially more difficult for the speaker and the listener to control their nonverbal responses than their verbal ones. It is because of this factor that most people will place more emphasis on the meaning of nonverbal clues as opposed to the actual spoken message. It is equally important for the speaker to be aware of their own body language in order to make certain they are conveying the message without contradiction to the verbal message.

Second, if there is an attempt by one person to deceive another with words, there will likely be a conflict betrayed by leakage of nonverbal cues. This means that a false statement provided by the speaker will likely be accompanied by a nonverbal cue, or nonverbal leakage, which actually represents the truth. One should also be aware of a conscious effort on behalf of the speaker to suppress nonverbal responses. For example, if one attempts to control their facial expression while providing a false statement, one might unconsciously display the truth through nonverbal expressions of the hands or feet.

The third characteristic to consider is that different types of nonverbal cues are usually interconnected and congruent in manifesting the same attitude or emotion. This is how two different people listening to the same story can come to the same conclusion despite paying attention to different types of communication cues. One might be more aware of the tone of voice of the speaker, while the other pays more attention to the visual cues, yet both interpret the same meaning of the message.

The following are some examples of nonverbal cues to be aware of for improving ones effective communication skills:

• Eye Behavior

This includes eye contact, tears, and pupil dilation. Eye contact can signify a willingness to listen and truth (direct) or avoidance and deception (no contact or very little contact.) Tears can indicate a wide variety of emotions, but most importantly, they tend to indicate the strength of the feeling. The dilation of pupils can be a good indicator of alarm, excitement, interest, and satisfaction. Conversely, the contraction of pupils can represent lack of interest, boredom, or tranquility.

• Facial Expression and Head Movements

The human face is capable of expressing more than one emotion at a time. However, the mouth of the speaker is more restricted than the eyes. There are different degrees of smiles, different degrees of spontaneity of smiles, and different degrees of congruity with the expression of other parts of the face, particularly the eyes. Because of this, it is very difficult to interpret the movements of the mouth and their meanings. One should seek additional training opportunities to become proficient in this area. Head movements such as up and down, which normally indicates agreement, or back and forth, which normally indicates disagreement are common. These movements can be very subtle during conversation, but can be very helpful in determining attitudes.

• Shoulders

Shoulders can be a good indicator of stress. As tension begins to rise, so will one’s shoulders. Conversely, as one becomes more relaxed, so will the shoulders

• Arms and Hands

Arms folded across the chest, animated talking with arms and hands, trembling or fidgety hands, fidgeting with an object while speaking, playing with hair, clenched fists, and pounding the table are just a few of the many indicators with arms and hands. Most of these will be self-explanatory to the observer and will likely provide the bulk of the nonverbal cues within a conversation.

Check Out: 5 Nonverbal Indicators in Interviews

These are just a few examples of nonverbal cues for the security professional to be aware of when conducting an interview or simply carrying on a conversation within the normal scope of duties. It is very important to keep in mind the different personalities and different cultural beliefs one might encounter when interpreting nonverbal cues. Do not jump to conclusions and be certain to take in the whole picture before making an evaluation.

 

A job interview is obviously something that must occur when seeking a job as a security guard, and many people get very stressed out over a job interview. This job guide will help you relax and be prepared for the interview.

Major Considerations During a Job Interview

Make a Connection with the Interviewer

Depending on how popular or sought after the job you are interviewing for is you will have a lot of competition for a few positions. A stellar interview is crucial to make you stand out from the rest of the crowd. To give yourself an added edge and cement yourself in your interviewer’s mind, try to make a personal connection with them at some point in the interview.

A personal connection can take numerous forms. If you are in the interviewer’s office and they have a picture of a sailboat on their wall (and you happen to love sailing), make an appropriate comment that identifies you as a sailor too. This may not put you above others more qualified than you but it will help you to stand out amongst those you are in direct competition with.

Take your cues from the interviewer, if they seem uncomfortable with relaying any personal information or are not comfortable veering off topic then follow their lead. If a personal conversation does develop, let the interviewer guide it. When they bring it to a close and either get back to the questions or say good bye, leave it at that.

At the end of the day, interviewers want to hire people that are qualified and who will fit in with the rest of the team at the company. If you can make a connection and have the right skill sets you will be giving yourself a better chance than someone else. You will also help the interviewer recall who you are and stick out in their mind as that candidate who knew a lot about sailing.

If you are not comfortable with discussing personal topics during an interview, don’t feel that you must go out of your way to do so. At the end of the day, your qualifications are what you should be highlighting.

How Effective Leaders Use Positive Reinforcement For the Greatest Effect

Pauses and Silences are Okay

There are going to be a lot of periods during an interview when there are going to be pauses in conversation or flat out silence. This can be initiated by you or the interviewer and in most cases either is not an indicator that something isn’t going good.

You can ask for a moment to think of an answer and during this time there is most likely going to be complete silence. This is fine and perfectly normal, don’t get distracted because no one is talking, use the time you have asked for wisely and think of the best answer or example you can give.

If the interviewer is taking notes (and most likely they are), be comfortable with the fact that there is going to be pauses in between questions and they try and write everything down. This is actually a good thing because it means they have liked what you have to say and want to remember it when they are later making a decision on who to hire. Don’t feel the need to fill this space, let them continue writing and wait for the next question.

If you have answered a question and it is met by silence and the interviewer is not writing anything down, you may be at a loss as to what you should do. It could signal that the interviewer is expecting more information or they are not satisfied with the answer. You won’t know unless you ask, “Do you want me to elaborate on that?” If the answer is no, just patiently wait for the next question to be asked.

Don’t worry that the interviewer is not praising you on your answer to each question and continue onto the next one. They do not want to give you an indication of how you are doing during the interview and are trained to be neutral when responding to answers, if the respond at all.

The 7 Secrets of Effective Leaders

Procedural Questions

Procedures are a part of life, especially in the working world. Each company has their own set of policies and rules that they expect their employees to follow. An interviewer is going to ask questions to determine if you would do things they way they want (for instance making a sale or handling a customer complaint). Without training, you will not know with any degree of certainty how the company would want you to handle different situations but there are ways to answer that can increase your chances of getting the job.

What an interviewer is looking for in an answer is your philosophy towards circumstances that occur in the company. Your natural instincts and personality is going to come through at some point no matter what you have been trained to do. Questions like, “How would you satisfy a customer if they wanted to return something after the return policy has expired?” can be tricky to answer. The best way to answer them is to begin with saying, “Of course, if hired I would abide by the company’s guidelines – but in this circumstance I would…”

By starting your answer with this phrase you are showing that you recognize a company is going to have its own policies and ways of doing things and that you are flexible enough to modify your way of doing things to align with those processes. Even role playing scenarios for are a test to see if your way of thinking is in line with the
company’s. This genre of question can backfire on you though if your answer is completely opposite what the company is looking for. If you have done your research on the company prior to the interview you should have a good idea of how they handle customers and sales in general.

Some Myths and Truths About Safety Management

Answers Should be Thorough but to the Point

If you love to talk and when you are nervous can go on and on, or if you are the opposite and clam up when you are in a stressful situation – you need to be conscious of this and not do either in an interview. When asked a question, an interview wants enough information that will help them understand what you are talking about, but not extraneous irrelevant information.

If you are answering a question using an example from your previous or current job and there is a lot of jargon or acronyms – try to use more a common place term that people are familiar with or explain what you mean in the beginning. If you are asked to describe a time when you lead a project – explain what the project was about, how many people you managed and any key points that demonstrate what a great job you did. What you don’t want to do is get side-tracked and give details that aren’t relevant to the question. The interviewer is not going to be interested in a play by play of the entire project – they want to know your role in it.

Keep on topic; take a moment before answering a question to organize the details in your mind. You don’t want to start answering, get sidetracked and forget the point you were trying to make. If you stay on topic and know what you are going to say, you are going to be able to keep the interviewer’s attention.

If you are a person of few words, practice with a friend or family member before your interview. Learn how to expand your answers so you give thorough information without living the interviewer wanting more. But if you are in doubt, less is better – an interviewer will ask follow-up questions if necessary.

Using Social Media in Investigations

Ask the Interviewer Questions

Okay, you have made it to the end of your interview and the interviewer says it is now your turn. They want to know if you have any questions for them. And most likely you do: “How did I do” and “Are you going to hire me” – unfortunately you can’t ask either one. But there are questions that you can ask to glean some information on how you performed and to determine if the company is a right fit for you.

Although it is not acceptable to ask how you did in an interview, it is okay and encouraged to ask what the next steps are and the timeline for them. Depending on how this is answered, you may be able to figure out their reaction to you. But this is not full-proof and is not a guarantee. If they take the time to explain all the checks they need to go through, how many people they have left to interview and so on, they are probably interested and want you to understand that there is still steps left in the process. If they only tell you that you will hear from them within a certain period of time via letter, well it isn’t as promising.

Look at the opportunity to ask your own questions as your chance to interview the company. Of course you have done your research prior to attending and have made up a list that you wrote down before attending. Show your preparedness and pull out the list to ask your questions. Things like company direction and expansion show an interest in the business. Feel free to take notes; it can earn you brownie points. Ask questions that are important to you as well, if vacation time and benefits are a deal breaker for you, find out now what the company has to offer.

Within supply chains there are areas that some would call the “seven deadly sins” (according to quite a few articles I have read), but I would prefer to see these as cost saving and improvement opportunities that would make a supply chain more competitive. They are in short the ability to reduce overproduction, the ability to eliminate delays or waiting times, the ability to cut out any form of unnecessary transportation, the ability to reduce any kind of motion that people engage in that is unnecessary, the ability to reduce inventory, the ability to optimize the use of space and the ability to minimize the corrections needed or returns handled.

7 Biggest Opportunities for Cost Savings in a Supply Chain

• Mismatched processes. Within an overall process, such as order supplies and produce finished goods, there may be several different processes, such as the supplier’s own process to deliver, the reception and stocking process within the client enterprise, and so on. If the end of one process does not dovetail with the beginning of the next one, there may be interruption and duplication of work, both of which increase costs. For example, if a supplier’s product codes or pallet sizes do not match those used by the enterprise, products will have to be recoded and reorganised. In the consumer packaged goods sector, this problem is big enough to have prompted the use of collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment (CPFR) between manufacturers and retailers. The same idea can be applied in other sectors too.
• Streamline Ordering Process: You need to make your ordering process as efficient as possible. This means at least a couple of things. Use a single software package for completing requisitions or else you might encounter situations where employees using different applications end up ordering too much of specific products or inventory supplies. Another thing to keep in mind is that you need to implement an approval process so that nothing gets ordered without the consent of designated officials.
• Transportation: Reducing your transportation costs can also boost your supply chain savings. Developing a transportation strategy allows you to consider multiple factors that could lead to reduced costs including, but not limited to, crowdsourced P2P transportation services, in-house product movement via drone, and on-demand shipping container services. From autonomous semi-trucks to warehouse robots, the world of transportation is changing. The more you pay attention to each aspect of your transportation strategy, the better positioned you are to discover cost-saving opportunities.

Check Out: Basics of Warehouse Safety

• Outsourcing:Outsourcing is one option you can consider if you want to reduce supply chain costs. Of course, you’ll need to conduct proper due diligence to ascertain whether or not service providers under consideration have the ability to provide enough of a productivity and efficiency benefit to justify your out-of-pocket expenses for such services. Under the right set of circumstances, an outsourcing arrangement can lead to substantial savings and a property functioning supply chain.
• Inventory Management: A well-honed inventory management strategy is crucial for decreased supply chain costs. Everything from incorrect stock picks and tracking errors to under-stocking and over-stocking can influence warehouse profits. A sound inventory management strategy includes multiple factors like a procurement plan and failure analysis (for when the inevitable mistakes happen). Without a clear plan in place for each aspect of inventory handling, you can’t spot inefficiencies or uncover potential cost savings. From preventing product theft to drop-shipping partnerships, each aspect of your inventory supply chain needs to be examined.

Check Out: Inventory Shrink can be a Hidden Cost

• Make Better Use of Space: Making the most of the space you have will save you money at the end of the day. As you no doubt already know, storing inventory and supplies in your warehouse comes at a cost. Assess whether or not you’re making the most of the space you have. You just might discover that you could save some money by finding a space that’s more in line with your actual needs.
• Supplier Management: If there is a cost that is almost immeasurable, it is when your supplier is unexpectedly unable to deliver. By working more closely with them and their systems, you can see the drop-outs before they happen and take steps to manage your lead times.
  • • • Use Multiple Suppliers: If you only use one supplier, you are eliminating competition for your orders. Find several suppliers who can compete on price, and use several of them at all times so you can avoid costly delays in receiving products. If one supplier is out, another may have the items. Using multiple suppliers protects you from spending money for less-than-satisfactory service.

There are a myriad of opportunities. Those astute enough can employ techniques to cut all the wasteful practices and emerge as market leaders. It takes conscientious monitoring and management of your supply chain though.

Research by Oxford Metrica shows that it is not the fact of suffering a crisis that damages a business – in reality no business can eliminate the possibility of a problem- rather, what really counts is how the organization is seen to manage the crisis: take control quickly, respond professionally, and communicate well and the organization is likely to prosper. Dither, hide or appear to be uncaring, and tough – even terminal – challenges may lie ahead.

As a result, thorough crisis preparedness is essential so that the organization can be off the starting blocks like an Olympic sprinter. And – just like athletics – what used to be speedy enough to win a gold medal is now far from world class. They used to say that the first 24 hours of a crisis were crucial. The speed and spread of crises today – largely driven by the immediacy and reach of on-line media – makes a mockery of this golden rule. Being prepared before the crisis breaks and being able to respond almost instantaneously allows organizations to retain control over their destiny.
This means that all the old lessons of crisis preparedness still apply (but more so):

• Understand your areas of vulnerability
• Develop and implement crisis management plans and processes
• Rehearse the plan and enhance it
• Train your people, especially those required to act as a spokesperson in a crisis
• Monitor the landscape
• Engage in pro-active issues management

But the power of online media presents a new and potentially scary dynamic. Digital media has enormous power to both create and destroy reputations. And many organizations are still grappling with how to harness online media in the face of this potentially business-critical challenge.

Failing to do this leaves the organization frighteningly vulnerable in today’s world. If a crisis is gestating online, then the organization must have the capability to also manage it online. Sticking to traditional media has the potential for at least three negative results. Firstly, you may fail to reach those people most affected and concerned by the crisis – the people talking about it online. Secondly, you lose the opportunity to engage with the online community which has the power to spread positive messages about what the organization is doing to deal with the situation. And finally, you may further escalate the situation by communicating bad news to people who were previously unaware that there was a problem.

The key to success is the combination of traditional reputation management insights and expertise, and the application of the latest on-line reputation management tools to get the message through.

As the start point for online reputation management, companies should:

• Develop crisis management “dark sites” to respond quickly, clearly and effectively to emerging issues and incidents
• Ensure that it has identified and set up the infrastructure to communicate via social media such as Twitter and Facebook
• Implement online media monitoring to track what is being said about them in cyberspace
• Employ search engine optimization to ensure the company’s perspective is heard loud and clear rather than being swamped by the views of others
• Develop the capability to quickly create content – latest information, briefing papers, podcasts, blogs – for online media

The internet has the power to spark and spread a crisis: but used effectively, digital tools have enormous potential to help organizations prevent and manage them too.

The Importance of Communication During Disaster Management A crisis is defined by a series of events occurring rapidly and unplanned in an area that you manage. The importance of excellent communication cannot be stated enough, because all your decisions as the emergency manager are based on the information gained from all the responders and witnesses to the disaster.

In fact, a good emergency management plan will have a dedicated communication position and their sole responsibility is to coordinate all the other communication to provide the manager with a single stream of communication.

I have witnessed a manager trying to control a crisis, while using a company mobile phone, his personal mobile phone, a radio handset and people nearby speaking to him. Where do you think his ability to actually manage this crisis was?

Check Out: Strategies Behind Crisis Management

First failure point in disasters is the communication systems

It is strange to see just how many managers rely on mobile phones as the company communication system during a disaster. Take a second to think about how long a mobile system stays functional for during a disaster until it is overloaded with users and crashes.

This is where the importance of selecting the right communication equipment is highlighted. If the equipment fails, it doesn’t matter how skilled your emergency management team is, they cannot talk to each other passing on vital data.

Consider reviewing your emergency equipment for;

• Do your company mobile phones have all employees’ numbers in the contact list
• Do you have spare batteries, fully charged and ready to go for all phones relied on during the emergency?
• Will your landline phone system still be in use if the power/computer goes down?
• How do you manage multiple conversations on your mobile without hanging up on each other?
• Does always everyone on the response team have their communication equipment with them

The second failure point is lack of efficiency using the communication equipment

When conducting practices, it is easy to speak slowly and clearly with all waiting patiently for you to finish. This is no way to practice for emergencies.

Try this instead. Give everyone a radio/phone and tell them all to walk briskly around a decent sized park or oval nearby for a minute or two.

You move to the middle and then call them. Ask them to describe what they see quickly as they walk past the different objects. Listen to what happens next. If this doesn’t instill in you the importance of good communications during a disaster nothing will.

What you will experience is;

• Rapid breathing as adrenalin kicks in and people rush their spoken words
• Some cutting over others as they are not listening to the comm’s but thinking about what they will say next.
• A lot of dead radio space as people are trying to understand how to describe what they see to you and forgetting that they have the phone/radio on

As a direct result of this little experiment you will also get a taste of what it will be like to try and listen to 10-20 different messages coming at you in the center.

Check Out: Steps for Designing a Workplace Crisis Management Plan

How to improve your communications

Assign callsigns and radio codes for building names and locations for example so that you reduce the time each person stays on the network.

Assign a Communications Leader to handle all inbound and outbound calls by becoming the center spoke and allow you to make decisions and not take messages.

Good emergency management means everyone has a role to do and someone needs to be responsible for ensuring your communication systems will stand up to the challenge. Don’t just focus on fire extinguishers and first aid kits as these will do no good to you, if you cannot get the messages to your emergency team.

Even just four people in your communication system means there are eleven channels of communication that messages will flow along. Imagine how many communication channels need managing for 20 response staff.

There are six steps for defining a crisis management plan that can be easily remembered using the word “CRISIS.” Each letter of the word stands for a critical step that is necessary to be prepared to deal with a crisis. If you want to be fully prepared for an emergency, then go through each of the blow steps.

CRISIS Management Plan Development

• Complete a threat analysis: Before you begin any planning or preparation, the smart thing to do is to do a threat analysis to consider likely crisis situations. This is usually done in a brain storming session by contemplating a list of likely disasters. These could include natural disasters like storms or earthquakes or it could include man-made disasters like terrorist bombs or war. Other crisis situations might result from loss of key data, computer systems, or cyber intrusion. Although crisis planning usually is focused on these extreme situations, it would also be possible to include possible threats from competitors, loss of key accounts, or unwanted publicity due to misconduct by key employees. During the threat analysis phase, it is usually best to consider the widest possible range of crisis situations for your organization, and decide later which are the ones that you want to plan for in the next step – scenario planning.
• Review possible contingencies – scenario planning: Now that you have listed the possible threats and crisis situations that your organization might face, it is appropriate to define which ones are the most likely and perhaps most threatening. Some situations might be obvious. For example, if your building is located near a major river that is known to flood the area periodically, then this is a scenario for which you will want to prepare. Other threats may not be as likely, but if they did occur, would be devastating. For example the treat of a cyber-terrorist attack targeted at your firm might seem remote; however, if it or a similar event occurred that caused the loss of all your important electronic files and computer systems it might be an unrecoverable event unless you had a plan. So, the key to this step is to select the most important contingencies and define the possible scenario in more detail. In other words, if this particular contingency occurred, what would the scenario look like? Defining what the situation would look like will help to define the recovery plans for that scenario.
• Identify critical preparations: After you have done some planning for the most likely or important scenarios, examine the critical preparations that must be put in place. These could be critical infrastructure like prepositions supplies, emergency kits, or back-up electrical generators. It could also be other “hot sites” for computers or data centers that would take over in the event of loss of your primary data centers. It might also include more mundane preparations like emergency calling trees, home addresses and cell phone numbers for critical personnel.
• Select and appoint a crisis management team: After you have planned for scenarios, and identified critical preparations, then you must select and appoint a crisis management team. If you have multiple scenarios, then you might have different people designated for the team depending upon the situation. Most importantly, designate a clear chain of command for the team to take charge during a crisis. They must not only have the responsibility, but also the authority to act and make decisions. If both the lines of responsibility and authority are not clear, then there will be confusion and arguments among the team when the crisis erupts which will cause them to loose focus and valuable time better spent in dealing with the actual crisis itself. If there are critical decision points where the team must get permission from the CEO or other key official, then they must understand their scope of authority to act and how to quickly reach the final authority during the crisis. Defining the key players and how decisions will get made is important to the success of the crisis management plan. Once the team is in place, they need to be trained and have an opportunity to work together as they review the plans.
• Inform & educate everyone: Once the plans and team is defined, then it is important to inform and educate everyone else. Explain important procedures like evacuation drills, emergency exits, and what is expected under the various likely scenarios. In large office complexes, you might designate assembly areas outside the building, and have people on every floor designated to do a final sweep to account for everyone during a building evacuation. Other scenarios might require educating receptionists to understand what to do if they get a bomb threat and what information to listen for when receiving the call. Thus, make sure that everyone in the organization at least understands the basics of what they might be expected to do when a crisis erupts.
• Support practice, debriefing and ongoing planning: Planning is never perfect, but it can be refined through practice. It takes a commitment by senior management to support practice drills and spend the time to review what happened during the practice sessions to refine the plan. One would hope that the plans would never need to be exercised in a real crisis; however, there is no substitute for a well rehearsed plan when a crisis occurs. Most crisis plans should be practiced at least once per year, and the plan should be updated. Key personnel will change, information and phone numbers will need to be confirmed, and key parts of the plan might need to be refreshed. It will be of little use to pull out an out-of-date plan during a crisis only to find out that the information is wrong or that the plan will not work because of changed circumstances.

The key to success in a crisis is having a realistic plan ready to execute. Good prior planning will identify not only the necessary steps, but also the required advance preparation of supplies, people, and training. Use the steps of “CRISIS” format and be ready to deal with the emergencies that your organization might face. You will be glad to have invested the time in advance of the situation.

Check Out: Crisis Management – Are You Prepared?

Five Tips on Developing a Crisis Management Plan for Your Business

One of the mistakes most commonly made is to assume that all crisis plans are the same. Having worked with a wide variety of Crisis Management Teams from many different industries and sectors, they can differ significantly according to the structure and function of the Crisis Management Team. This article is intended to help you to ensure that the plan you produce is appropriate to the team and purpose for which it is designed.

 

There are five principal steps which should be undertaken as part of the process of producing the plan, as discussed below.

The first step should always be to determine what type of team you are writing the plan for. Is it a strategic team or tactical? It may even be a mix of the two and the plan needs to reflect this. A plan may require a completely different format and content depending on the function of the team for which it is designed. Is the team responsible for Crisis Communications? Is it offering strategic direction or practical instructions? The team’s role is the principal determining factor in the content of the plan.

Secondly, it is essential to understand how the team operates. What is the structure? What are the team dynamics? Is it a virtual team? A good plan will reflect reality – writing a plan which tries to force a team to work in a way with which they are uncomfortable is inevitably counterproductive – the plan will be ignored and therefore will become irrelevant. Should the plan assume that all issues are addressed collectively? Does the team structure mandate structured review points? Find out how they work and construct the plan around it.

Check Out: Strategies Behind Crisis Management

Thirdly, what does the team want from the plan? Some plans offer lots of detailed information, others high-level checklists and flow charts. There is no “right” answer, except that the plan must give team members the level of direction and information that they feel is useful and appropriate. Typically, for example, presenting Senior Management with a plan full of pages of close-typed text is pointless. Equally, at a tactical level more information may be required. This can only be determined by working with the team.

The fourth step is to make sure that the layout of the plan is logical. The best plans map to the response process. Content should be ordered in a logical progression which guides the team through the steps of the Crisis Management process in the order in which they are likely to arise. There is nothing more frustrating than leafing through a plan to try to find what you need in Appendix C when you are operating under pressure. If my next step is to conduct an impact assessment, I would expect to see the impact assessment form on the next page, not buried in an Appendix. Remember – above all else, the Plan is a working tool.

Check Out: Essential Elements of an Emergency Operations Center

Fifth and potentially most important is to get the team to rehearse using the plan before you finalize it. Remember, these are the people who must use it in anger. Regardless of how good you think it is or how much input you have had from the team in developing it, there will be bits that just don’t work in practice or which can be improved. Also, people are much more likely to use the plan and follow the process if they feel that they have had a hand in developing it.

Often, Crisis Management Plans are developed independently of Crisis Management Teams, who are then expected to use them – clearly, this isn’t likely to promote engagement with the process. Every crisis plan is unique to the team it supports and the organization for which it is designed. There are no short cuts to preparing them and attention needs to be paid to the detail to ensure that it does what is required. The best way to validate your crisis plan is to run a scenario-based exercise as a table top and see how the team(s) find it – and develop it from the feedback.