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In this issue:

1. Accenture Cites Lack of Essential Skills as Hindrance to Corporate Success
2. Business Training Library Now Offering Integrated Authoring Tool, Lectora
3. AIM Learning Group, Partners with Video Arts Group
4. Course Review: The Balance Sheet Barrier
5. Client Spotlight: Flinn Scientific



1. Accenture Cites Lack of Essential Skills as Hindrance to Corporate Success

NEW YORK—June 21, 2006—Most senior executives report that their workforces lack the skills their companies need to achieve market leadership, and that even their critical functions—sales, customer service, finance, and strategic planning—do not perform as strongly as they should, according to an announcement regarding research released by Accenture.

The Accenture High Performance Workforce Study, conducted approximately every 18 months, is intended to measure workforce management trends among executives in large corporations in the U.S., Europe, and Australia. According to the announcement, this year’s research, of more than 250 senior executives, found that only 14% of respondents described the overall skill level of their organizations’ workforce as industry leading, and just 20% said the vast majority of their employees understand their companies’ strategy and what’s needed to be successful in their industry.

“The lack of essential skills is a vital issue for senior managers,” said Peter Cheese, global managing partner for Accenture’s human performance practice, in the announcement. “As the competitive environment grows more demanding and as markets become increasingly commoditized, the need to cultivate these skills—particularly in the critical functions—should be at the top of every corporate to-do list. Those companies that fail to develop their workforces risk losing their competitive edge.”

According to the research findings, and as cited in the announcement, these shortcomings can be attributed, in part, to several key human resources- and training-related findings. For example, just one in ten respondents reported being very satisfied with the performance of their HR and training functions. The research reportedly uncovered possible reasons for this, including a lack of connection to business drivers, failure to measure the business impact of HR and training efforts, ineffective or nonexistent knowledge-capture and -sharing capabilities, an aging workforce, and lack of functional leaders’ involvement in people issues.

The research did identify a group of companies that Accenture refers to as “human performance leaders”—companies in which the three functions their executives deem most important perform at the highest levels. These leaders are more likely to be successful in addressing the organizational issues that contribute to strong financial performance, the announcement stated.

www.accenture.com

“Accenture Cites Lack of Essential Skills as Hindrance to Corporate Success.” http://www.workforce-performancenewsline.com/ June 21, 2006.




2. Business Training Library Now Offering Integrated Authoring Tool, Lectora

• Finance
• Appraisal Interviews
• Selection Interviews
• Customer Service
• Sales
• Communication
• Coaching, Training and Counseling

AIM Learning Group has received a great deal of feedback from its customers speaking to the reason for this library’s success:

a. 86% of the participants completed the entire course including all exercises.
b. 89% of the participants said that the course enabled them to obtain a sufficient level of financial knowledge for their job. Specific reference to “Balance Sheet Barrier”.
c. 93% of the participants said they would recommend the Video Arts library to their peers.
d. 95% of the participants found the courses contained a variety of methods to impart knowledge.
e. 96% of the participants found the course appealing, interesting and motivating.

4. Course Review: The Balance Sheet Barrier

Course Group
Finance

Media
DVD

Course Overview
The light-hearted approach of this world-famous video helps take the fear out of financial documents and complex concepts, and although they may never become a manager's favorite topic, it does at least make them understandable. Using the device of contrasting the apparent worldliness of a well-educated company director and the business acumen of the streetwise owner of a small factory, we're shown how the whole process of business finance works.

Target Audience
This course will be useful for learners beginning to learn the basics of accounting and the function of finance within the business. It could also be used as a great refresher to the recently trained employee.

Expected Duration
30 minutes

Ryan's Rating
 5 Stars (Out of 5)

Ryan's Review
I don’t know about you, but I love John Cleese. He starred in the classic Monty Python acting troupe and has always had a knack for humor. It turns out he also has a knack at training presentations. This is a perfect combination when using “The Balance Sheet Barrier” to acclimate an employee to this accounting procedure. This video helps the trainee stay interested in an otherwise drab subject – accounting. Many people are fearful of certain accounting practices, like the balance sheet, and the difficulty associated with them. Fortunately, this video keeps it simple which makes it easy to learn and easy to use in the workplace. The presentation also uses the humor to keep the trainee interested in the simple presentation of the information. A perfect fit and a memorable, therefore valuable, set of skills presented.

Ryan Glowczewski has been with Business Training Library since last November and was recently promoted to Training Consultant. He is an independent film lover and watches St. Louis Cardinals baseball as if his life depended on the outcome.



5. Client Spotlight: Flinn Scientific

Founded in 1977, Flinn Scientific is a leading and rapidly growing comprehensive multi-line catalog supplier of more than 8,250 manufactured and purchased specialty science education products and curricula. Flinn Scientific is based in Batavia, Illinois, and their products are distributed to more than 55,000 high school and middle school science teachers at more than 27,000 schools across the United States.

Since its founding, Flinn has continuously expanded its product lines and markets and has developed an intensely loyal, growing base of science teacher customers. Flinn’s workforce totals around 140 employees, and during the peak summer months they bring on 30+ seasonal employees to manage the increased volume.

Challenge
Before joining Business Training Library's Lending Library, Flinn Scientific lacked an internal training program. As an alternative, they allowed their managers to attend two external seminars per year. What they found, however, is that with such busy workdays, it was often difficult for their management team to set aside an entire day or even a half-day away from production. According to Human Resources Manager, Joanna Janecek, this approach wasn’t cutting it. “We weren’t doing enough to equip our managers with effective coaching skills, and the material wasn’t always applicable to their job at Flinn.”

Since managers were given the freedom to choose seminars they felt would benefit them, there was a lack of cohesiveness. Their managers were attending a variety of different seminars, and that knowledge wasn’t shared with the rest of the management team upon their return to work. Janecek and the management staff were yearning for the next step. The same coaching and leadership issues kept coming up, and they realized they needed new methods to address these challenges.

Janecek began looking for a program that she could easily implement onsite, so that she could have control over the schedule. That way, when things got busy for their management team, they could make adjustments. It was also important that she be able to offer a variety of topics. “I wanted to have all the hot topics at my fingertips … coaching, performance management, sexual harassment.”

Implementation
Flinn Scientific created a leadership program utilizing the Lending Library service. There are 25 managers involved in their initiative, and they meet every two weeks, with the exception of the busy summer months. Their schedule breaks out to 18 sessions per year, and with 25 managers involved, the cost per manager, per session – breaks out to a little more than five dollars! “We broke down the cost per person and we now have way more training and availability to so many additional resources for a fraction of our previous training costs.”

Without a trainer on-staff, Joanna needed to be able to rely on her Account Manager at Business Training Library to provide her with marketing and implementation materials, best practice ideas, and help in course selection. Although Janecek had 10 years in HR under her belt before partnering with Business Training Library, she was new to the world of training. With the help of her Account Manager, she was able to outline her entire first year of training and set a calendar.

During their second year as members of the Lending Library, Janecek decided to make the training more interactive for her leadership team. Prior to each bi-monthly session, two of the managers work with Joanna to select training topics, determine activities to apply the topic to Flinn, and create a lesson plan around the course that is suggested by their Account Manager. The leaders actually present the material, and when they feel it’s applicable for their own teams, the managers present the material to their teams after the session.

Conclusion
Flinn Scientific attributes fostered team building to their relationship with Business Training Library. “Our training program ended up serving a dual-function. One hour every two weeks, we have team building and training in one. Our entire leadership staff is learning the same things, and that way they can hold each other accountable.” Their leadership staff is stronger and more knowledgeable then ever before. Janecek noted that there has been a dramatic increase in self-coaching and their training has improved and opened new avenues of communication.

With Business Training Library, Flinn has cultivated a relaxed learning environment, where role-play and discussion are encouraged. She noted that one manager in particular, who struggled with an abrupt management style, experienced an “aha” moment during one of their sessions, and has since blossomed into his management role. The training proved to be a turning point for him - softening his previously harsh management methods and drastically improving his communication with his staff. Joanna and everyone at Flinn Scientific have also been pleased with the cost-effectiveness of the service, the superior customer service, up-to-date materials, the flexibility it allows in scheduling, fast turn around time and large selection of course materials.

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