Managing staff performance can feel uncomfortable, unprofessional and simply not what many lawyers, accountants, doctors, bankers or other professionals feel should be part of their job. The good news is that managing individual performance is relatively easy if you apply the concepts, processes, and overall philosophy.
Effective people influence client retention, happy clients can mean happy staff, and happy staff can result in retaining the talented people within your business.
This book sets out the component elements on Performance management in a step by step approach plus lots of tips and techniques on how to introduce and maintain an effective system. Based upon a number of years of experience that Patricia Wheatley Burt (FCIPD) and colleagues have had, she has put together a simple 'how to' book, with guidance, check lists, competency frameworks, etc. to make introducing effective Performance Management simple.
The book includes:
- The purpose, scope and typical policies you can introduce
- Performance Management Essentials
- Management responsibilities and how it should work
- How to use competencies effectively
- KPIs – some ideas
- Change management and shifting mind sets
- Change Management – making it happen
Patricia Wheatley Burt (FCIPD) has spent the last 20+ years working in the professional and commercial services sector and is increasingly involved in international projects on Change Management.
New Book! The Role of the Managing Partner
Is being the Managing Partner of a law firm for you:
- ‘a thankless task’
- a poisoned chalice no one else would take hold of;
- ‘an administrative job to be done – and then you can get back to the law!’
- ‘an opportunity to get the firm into shape!”
This book is the result of 18 months research into the role of the Managing Partner in law firms, by Patricia meeting over 60 Managing Partners and gathering their thoughts on the subject. Inevitably there are some major differences, some common themes, a range of ideas, the expected cynicism and a few bad jokes to be shared.
Frustrated by the lack of information on the subject, this book has been compiled to provide guidance and inspiration for all you existing and prospective Managing Partners at whatever stage you are in your careers. Whether your firm is large or small, global or national with a number of offices, the outcomes of the research covers a wide range of management situations that typically face a Managing Partner. There are ideas, tips and techniques for every sort of Managing Partner from administrative through to corporate and strategic. This makes an excellent reference guide and initial induction book for any Managing Partner.
If you feel you are “Managing a sack full of ferrets” and that the role of the Managing Partner feels like a “poisoned Chalice”………… read on.
Patricia Wheatley Burt (FCIPD), Principal Consultant and Trainer of Trafalgar – The People Business Limited, is a business and HR consultant who has worked for nearly 20 years both in the UK and globally, dealing with a range of people management issues that face professional and service businesses.
Hot People Property - Buyer Beware? - September 06 In the first half of 2006 the UK Property market has been frenetic. Properties are moving so quickly that emailed details are often sketchy, (full details rarely get printed), a phone call alerts prospective buyers to view and view now, and really, if you don’t make an offer within the first 48 hours of a property being on the market, then you’ve lost it!
There are Contract races to Exchange with probably no time to have a survey, or establish building consents, and just to compound things, almost every property, certainly in the London area, has gone for considerably more than the asking price. You do all this – and then you get Gazzumped.
Sound similar to those of you Recruiting at the moment? There are endless phone calls to the HR and Management team, relaying a sketchy work history or CV on candidates, and pressure to instantly telephone interview them.
You are harried to organise first and second interviews in a couple of days, followed by an urgency to make a job offer often without enough time to check suitability, culture fit or even references: ‘Make me an offer I can’t refuse’ the confident candidate will demand. This can blow salary scales apart and maybe breach policies and legislation too. ‘All that glisters is not gold’: how sure are you that in this haste, you are not being pushed to employing someone who will not deliver?
As Anthony Robinson, Legal Director of the Commission for Racial Equality, said, referring to the new Employment Equality (Age) Regulations (1st October ’06): “These Regulations will for the first time make it unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of age. The demographic changes that are rapidly occurring in the UK, with an ageing population made this an urgent issue that needed to be addressed”.
So what can you do to ensure you have rigorous, yet swift methods to advertise, select and assess candidates, and still remain within the growing levels of employment regulation?
What every employer must do:
1. Draw up an action to plan to review all HR policies to ensure that they do not discriminate, including now on the grounds of age.
2. Ensure that all employees are aware of and understand the revised HR procedures as well as the revised equal opportunity/diversity/equality policy.
3. Provide training on Recruitment & Selection on age discrimination to your people managers and recruiters.
4. Expand the objective processes used in Recruitment & Selection to include rigorous assessments to underpin the interviewing process, e.g. Personality, IQ, Competencies and Emotional Intelligence.
Being open minded offers scope to take advantage of your local, employable population – as the Portman Building Society in Bournemouth, found out when targeting older workers to fill administrative roles. They found themselves tapping into Retiree-returners, a group of people who have a more mature attitude to work and a better understanding of Customer Service requirements as well as better social skills and a sense of humour”.
In the housing market, home-owners need to be opportunistic. So too Employers need to be opportunistic to find good quality, imaginative and creative staff. We all have a wider pool to select from: just ensure that in your haste, decisions remain objective and non-discriminatory.
Or do you want to risk it, and not know until the ‘paint peels off and the cracks appear’?
Patricia Wheatley Burt (FCIPD)
Attracting Generation X+1 - Don't over Promise: 6 Quick Ideas - August 2006
‘Work-life balance’, ‘brand values’, ‘wanting more out of life’ are just some of the buzz phrases today that Senior Management teams are having to grapple with when pondering how to attract and keep intelligent and talented people.
Is this the first sign of many, that Generation X +1 is here, is different and is beginning to flex its muscle? The work ethics of the late 90’s, to slog your way to the top, to be too exhausted to enjoy life after work, put up with a heavy workload and demands for delivering against targets, is no longer acceptable to this demanding and powerful (because of their scarcity) group.
These young people whom I have dubbed ‘Generation X + 1’ are the product of our “have it now” society. They are the off-spring of parents of the 70s and 80s who, through their guilt at being out at work, have given their ‘angels’ anything and everything they ever wanted – for a quiet life.
Their expectations are probably wholly unrealistic, but the media, school, friends, (even motivational speakers), have egged them on to believe that the world is their oyster and they can succeed at anything they decide to do. This sounds so good, that these wannabes want it …. and now! Their impatience is palpable. Not failing has been their watchword; exams, sports, have all been made so anodyne that everyone gets a point just for turning up, let alone taking part and even being competent. Why should paid fun (i.e. work) be any different?
This presents an enormous challenge to any employer, especially when it comes to setting up their stall to attract Generation X+1 star performers; having sifted through all the clever smoke screens. They have been ‘advertised to’ for years, are cynical and wary about glitzy promises. At the same time they like the excitement of adverts such as the Renault Clio (“I see you baby, shakin’ that ***!”), or Sheila’s Wheels car insurance (“For ladies who insure their cars….!”)
The “talent crunch” is nearly upon us and employers need to plan now how to combat its effect. In America, they have between 10 - 12 million people working illegally: without whom the US economy would not be able to function. In Western Europe, there is an influx of Eastern European crafts people, without whom the UK property boom would not be flourishing.
Traditional advertising for vacancies in the newspapers or specialist magazines, is now shifting online with some 10,000 active job sites. Estimates vary as to the cost to employers of losing and replacing individuals but the total runs into tens of billions of pounds a year globally. Given that time and cash invested in recruitment communications can produce better recruits and reduce attrition, it is clearly an area that HR Directors should be devoting attention to. This will give HR a much stronger opportunity to raise its standing at Board level.
So how can you use your recruitment advertising campaign effectively to get the Talent from Generation X + 1? Here are some ideas: -
Develop relationships with a few select recruitment agencies; don’t keep them at arms length, work as business partners and share some of your resourcing objectives with them;
Work with your marketing and branding organisations to ensure you reflect core values linked to the job in your text and interview processes;
Use the demographic information agencies have to help you target your prime candidates;
Advertising in magazines, newspapers or the internet, provides a transaction that reflects your organisation; make sure that experience is accurate, fast and responsive;
Identify customers staff would serve, and how this is done;
Identify the core competences, knowledge and experience an individual needs to deliver, illustrating career successes and progression opportunities too;
Be careful of writing in ageist statements / requirements (more on this another time);
Identifying and working with a few good recruitment agencies could well be your saviour in the future, as the crunch for talent becomes more evident. Now is the time to be calling upon these organisations to work with you as well as your PR and marketing consultancies. Get into the public eye, so win competitions e.g. The Times top 100 companies, raise your organisation’s profile.
After all, you want candidates to come to an interview having seen your brand name in a number of media, visited your website … and now they will be keen and eager to work in your organisation. Inevitably, you are selling as much as you are buying so be prepared to know what it is you offer and what will be attractive to the candidates you want to focus on. This is about shifting from being a buyer to a seller in a very competitive marketplace. Do remember though, “don’t over-promise and under-deliver”.
Patricia Wheatley Burt (FCIPD)
Can you teach old dogs new tricks? There is much in the media about skills shortages in the UK and Europe, a reducing population available for work (fewer babies being born) a growing, healthy but ageing population, problems with pensions – and now a proposal from the Government to extend the retirement age to 68 by 2050.
As a 54 year old (and I am not ashamed to declare my age; I feel youthful) I am slightly disheartened by the rather surprised statements I have seen in the news that: there are more ‘over 50+ year olds’ being employed in 2006 than 30 years ago – what a surprise. A new body called the Third Age Employment Group suggests that at 50 people are starting the third part of their lives. 1st Age is childhood and education, 2nd Age is our primary career (from 20 – 50) and so - hey, we can reinvent ourselves into our 3rd incarnation, at work on into our 70s.
Apparently being 70 is the new 50, or so I was reliably informed by a 62 year old man recently. And when you consider how this fits with divorce, second or third marriages, children born to mothers over 45, new fatherhood at 60+, we rather need to keep going to keep up with this extraordinary shift in Western society. Recently when I was interviewing for research into the role of the Managing Partner in the professional sector, one interviewee said: ‘ I’ll have to keep working till I’m 70 as I have a 5 and 3 year old’; he is 55 at the moment.
So what does this mean to employers in 2006? Clearly Recruitment and Retention strategies have to be developed to continue to provide customers and clients with repeatable, quality service set against the triple issues of:
- money (pensions),
- experience (competence to do the job) and
- age (we ‘oldies’ are still very active) versus youth (not enough of them)
We live in a commercial world where youth is apparently in greatest demand – but why is this? What is it that youth has over the older and more experienced employee? It is thought to be attitude, ability to change, innovation, energy and familiarity with technology. However, consider the attributes of the 50+ employee who often has all the above plus:
- a wealth of life experiences, which they can draw upon;
- a sense of stability and self worth (hopefully), more balanced Emotional Intelligence;
- customer service skills honed during the past 30 years;
- knowledge of typical customer care systems (both as a deliverer and as a recipient) if empowered to deliver; and
- loyalty and not given to job-hopping, (ageism is still prevalent today).
How do your Organisational Design and People Plans and strategies access this growing and rather overlooked or dismissed employee pool? Do your Recruitment and Selection processes include use of psychometric tools to predict behaviours, personality and Emotional Intelligence? How sophisticated is your competency framework to assist the selection process? What are you doing to offer more flexible ways of working for the future, whether part time, flexi-time, (pay pro rata) grandparent leave, re-training, sabbaticals or structured retirement programmes?
Recently I came across Anthony, an 82 year old, who had his first computer only 10 years ago and now has the ultimate paperless office. He scans and bins papers, learnt Sage Payroll 4, (for his wife plus two staff) has a phenomenal computer system, and all supported by a personal IT trainer.
It might take us longer to learn new tricks, but we can learn, let us use technology to support our memories and value the life skills we have; we just might know something about living as we have been doing it for quite a while although there is always more to learn! There is life in the old folk yet!
Patricia Wheatley Burt (FCIPD)
ICS Conference - Emotional Capital & Personalities - October 2006
Making the most of your People:
Dumping the Dollops and Cheering the Champions!
by Patricia Wheatley Burt, Principal Consultant and Trainer,
Trafalgar – The People Business
How ‘wired up and fired up’ are your staff? Are you getting the most out of your people?
Well one professional services organisation (with @ 280 staff and @£17.7 million turnover) decided to work out why they were only getting @ 67% utilisation from their people. By meeting a sample of staff and senior managers over 3 days, looking at figures on staff turnover, sickness, cost of recruitment and the hidden ‘lost opportunity costs’ of managers spending too much time not managing effectively, it showed they were losing £4.8 million each year.
If they could save 50% of this cost, it would allow them to employ 36 more staff and generate additional income of nearly £6 million!!
Now did they have Dollops or Champions? We looked at this business in the context of Emotional Capital, which is all about how to get the buy-in you need from managers and staff alike. You need both their:
- Intellectual buy-in or understanding, i.e. minds and
- Emotional buy-in which is commitment and drive, i.e. hearts!
If you plotted these two axis, Intellectual buy-in on the left (bottom - top) and Emotional buy-in on the bottom (left to right), it produces a quadrant. We looked at the staff and found the following classic types in the business and developed strategies to help them all get closer to being Champions!
- Observers, (top left) Dougal – accepts his under performing team by £727k; understands what to do, but would watch senior management fail and do nothing, as he had ‘seen it all before and nothing really changes’.
Change? Well, Dougal had been drawn into projects, is being coached and supported but also made accountable.
- Mavericks (bottom right) Kirsty – team turnover @ 27%; and she rushed about achieving a lot, but without checking how what she does fits in with the team or core direction of the business. Loads of energy, a bit prickly – and misdirected!
Change? For Kirsty it required accepting that she had to go slightly more slowly, include her team to get everyone’s buy-in, to implement her ideas.
- Dollops (bottom left) Morag and many others had high sickness (£83k p.a.) and seemed to do the least they could get away with because they felt defeated by the lack of management. This was at the heart of the problem!
Change? For Morag and many other staff, the managers had to spend more time communicating, valuing, reinvigorating and re-focusing them – to get their energy levels up - and it worked!
- Champions, (top right) William, achieving 110% utilisation and being part of the senior team, solved most of the business problems, did all the work and still smiled – and he did!
Change: William doesn’t need to change much – just make sure he and others like him don’t take on impossible tasks ‘by yesterday’ and don’t get frustrated by the others. However, now there are more like-minded people to share the load!
If you would like more information on Making the most of your People, please contact Patricia Wheatley Burt or call us on +44 (0)20 7565 7547
Pre - Nuptial Agreements for Managing Partners - July 2006
Pre – Nuptial Agreements for Managing Partners
Why do some lawyers decide to take up the challenge (opportunity?) of managing a law firm when it seems to be like:
- “Herding cats”
- “managing a sack full of ferrets”
- “pandering to mavericks or Prima Donnas” who have a different take on the vision or working with other partners in a risk-averse culture.
Has the profession got the role of the Managing Partner right?
The research being undertaken into just what it takes to be a competent and successful Managing Partner in a law firm is progressing well. Over 30 out of 60 Managing Partners (MPs) who have agreed to take part have been interviewed. They have been selected based upon turnover, number of partners, fee earners and total staff, location, niched or boutique practices, newly appointed MPs, long standing MPs and a couple of UK / US firms have also been included in the selection. The results so far raise some interesting debates for the profession on the future of this pivotal role, namely;
- What key traits are essential to manage a law firm,
- What are the selection, election and preparation processes for the role? Are they active or reactive?
- How can you develop a quasi “pre–nuptial” agreement or golden parachute to ensure you entice the right candidates into the role of Managing Partner?
Exiting from the role is as complicated and sensitive as being the right person: it didn’t used to be like this. 20 or so years ago a typical firm was loosely managed, seen very much as a professional organisation with little commercial emphasis. Partners were equal share holders, held together by a sense of collegiality, some common interests, or just the same front door.
When the brass plate was replaced by freer advertising, the Enterprise Initiative (do you remember that ‘whoosh’ logo?) came out like a bad rash all over many firms, taking advantage of the subsidised marketing reviews of their practices. Often doors were propped open by these weighty tomes, never to be read beyond the way-too-demanding Executive Summary. The “how was it for you?” client feedback forms, often found languishing in the Managing Partner or Senior Partner’s office, resulted in absolutely no action. Firms were beginning to have to manage far more than just the staff.
The Managing Partner nightmare had just begun.
In 1992 -3 the Legal Aid board introduced the Legal Aid Franchising criteria and with that came the emphasis on managing finance, services provided, people, infrastructure, file and case management and client care, echoed by the Law Society’s Practice Management Standards. Whilst most firms had had an accountant or finance manager, they did not have any HR, Marketing or IT managers – so recruitment started. The role of the Managing Partner developed out of the Senior Partner’s role along with the various ‘checks and balances’ structures, such as committees and Boards.
The roles of Managing Partner and Senior Partner have definitely evolved since those early days, with many firms playing around with the responsibilities, shared duties, levels of authority, autonomy and more recently accountability.
The accelerated growth of many firms has come about from the vision, aspiration and opportunistic spirit of those in situ. There are Managing Partners who are strong, visionary and charismatic people. For the majority of practices though, there has often been a less obvious choice. Now many of the more able and respected Partners are actually not putting themselves forward for the role. Why? Because there is concern over what happens when you finish being a Managing Partner.
There have been a number of casualties over the last ten years where Managing Partners have been selected based on their manifesto for, for example, accelerated growth, or plans for stability, or changes to the infrastructure which were not successfully implemented. It may be that they were the right person with the right skills but at the wrong time, or that they failed to take their fellow Partners with them. Whichever way it was, those Managing Partners have found themselves faced with the prospect of returning back into transactional fee earning work, having finished their term in office, or in fact, having to leave the practice altogether.
Why not devise a pre-nuptial agreement or golden parachute?
For such a supportive profession this seems to be a churlish way to go about things. So why not have an exit strategy as well as the selection criteria, perhaps like a quasi pre – nuptial agreement or some form of golden parachute? This is where the practice agrees more formally how the individual will be able to have a viable career, income, lifestyle and respect, either in or outside your firm when they stop being Managing Partner? What are you doing about this?
In preparation for the next 3 – 7 years of management within your practice, the questions to ask yourselves are:
- what have you got in place so far?
- what do you need to put in place in preparation for the next round of elections?
- how can you make the role one where it is a rewarding experience for an individual to become a Managing Partner and successful for the practice?
- How can you make it possible to continue working after being a Managing Partner?
For more information about the research, and/or if you are interested in taking part and therefore receiving a free copy of the outcomes, please email Emily Tassi or call her on: +44 (0)207 565 7547
Knight of the Long Knives - July 2006
The Role of the Managing Partner – The Knight of the Long Knives
Why do some lawyers decide to take up the challenge (opportunity?) of managing a law firm? “Herding cats”, “managing a sack full of ferrets”, “pandering to mavericks or Prima Donnas” who have a different take on the vision or working with other partners in a risk-averse culture. Has the profession got the role of the Managing Partner right?
• Do you need a diplomat, a visionary, a caretaker, or a knight?
• Why should a successful Partner choose to “throw away” a good career to manage the practice?
• Can non-lawyers really manage Partners – or is that impossible?
The research being undertaken into just what it takes to be a competent and successful Managing Partner in a law firm is progressing well. Over 40 Managing Partners (MPs) who have agreed to take part, have been interviewed. They have been selected based upon practice turnover, number of partners, fee earners and total staff, location, niched or boutique practices, newly appointed MPs, long standing MPs. A couple of UK / US firms have also been included in the selection. The results so far raise some interesting debates for the future.
Some would say that the thin end of the wedge was when the brass plate was replaced by freer advertising in the mid 80’s. The Enterprise Initiative (do you remember that ‘whoosh’ logo?) came out like a bad rash all over many firms who took advantage of the subsidised marketing reviews, to find out what they should do to be more competitive. Often doors were propped open by these weighty tomes, never to be read beyond the way-too-demanding Executive Summary.
The “how was it for you?” client feedback forms were often found languishing in the Managing Partner or Senior Partner’s office, resulting in absolutely no action. Typewriters were replaced by Word Processors, and the battle between Apple Macs and IBM started. And then there was the fun of managing people. Article clerks became Trainees, Partners started to take on functional responsibilities such as Finance, HR, IT etc.., firms were having to manage far more than just delivering quality legal services, fired up by Legal Aid Franchising and Practice Management Standards.
The Managing Partner nightmare had just begun.
The role of the Managing Partner developed out of the Senior Partner’s role and all the structures around committees and Boards started to be developed.
The accelerated growth of many firms is down to the vision, aspiration and opportunistic spirit of those in situ. There are Managing Partners who are strong, visionary, charismatic people. For many practices though, there has often been a less obvious and even reluctant choice. Now many of the more able and respected Partner candidates are actually not putting themselves forward for the role. Why? Because there is concern over what happens when you finish being Managing Partner. They question the value of devoting 3 – 10 years of their Professional life to run a business which just doesn’t value that effort. And then when the MP feels s/he has done enough… they can be thrown on the scrap heap after a “Night of the long knives”.
Churlish Culture?
For such a supportive profession this seems to be a churlish way to go about things. So firms need to have sharper selection criteria as well as quasi pre-nuptial agreements with clearer exit strategies right from the start.
In addition, those involved in the research agreed that one needs different styles of management to take the practice forward at different times in its development. Over a 10 – 12 year period a firm will need all 3 core approaches:
Some believe they can provide all 3 styles, as MPs: this is extraordinarily tricky. Firms also have to take the plunge too, to allow the MP to be non-fee earning, to do the job justice. Growth is exponentially linked to the amount of real time given to Management.
So What Does The Future Hold?
The next 10 years will see an increase in LLPs; ABS (Alternative Business Structures) and some firms will probably take up the option to list their shares on the Stock Exchange (post Clementi, Legal Services Bill). Firms need to have a Managing Partner who can handle these extraordinary changes and guide the practice through the opportunities and obstacles of the future. They need to be a Knight in shining armour to cope with those brandishing knives. So what questions should firms be asking themselves in preparation? They should:
- consider the selection process to ensure it produces the most appropriate and suitable candidates;
- build in forward plans, succession plans, and some form of induction equivalent to the first 100 days;
- have clarity around the role and authority of the Managing Partner and how it fits in with Management Committees and Boards;
- establish clarity around skills, competence, Emotional Intelligence and other attributes that may be appropriate for the next 3 – 5 year period;
- look at the Managing Partner candidates capacity for personal growth – (someone who has “got there” has already outgrown the role and will become stagnant enormously quickly);
- last but not least, firms need to recognise the enormous contribution that the role of Managing Partner can make to a firm’s success – they need freedom to act.
So how sophisticated is your firm at appointing your next Managing Partner? What are you doing to prepare for the next 10 years so that there are no nights of these long knives? For more information on the research and it’s findings, please contact Patricia Wheatley Burt
Profitable Performance Management - January 2006 Passionate about Performance Management, Patricia Wheatley Burt has now written a condensed guide to developing, reviewing or scrapping your Performance Management processes - so that you increase your Profits!!!Whooppeee!! Its Monday!! - is this how you and all your staff start the week? If not , you should read this excellent book.
To make this easier and quicker to get to you - we have produced the book as an ebook - so all you have to do is to go to the products page - and add to your basket to get this easy to read and use guide downloaded!
Managing Partner Research - October, 2005 The role of the Managing Partner in a professional practice, (law firm, accountancy etc.,) is demanding and there seems to be a gap between what is needed and the skills of many people faced with the challenge of running some very large businesses. This research is gathering data about what the most successful people are doing and what other managing partners can learn, or skills they can develop prior to taking up these challenging posts. Interviews have included some of the major law firms in the UK and a few from the US, a range of smaller or niche firms, as well as from several accountancy practices. If you would like to take part in the research, or interested in having a copy of the findings, do please let us know as soon as possible.
We believe the outcomes will be available in the Spring of 2006.
Sparkling Pierre Lang, Regional Meeting - June 2005 With some beautiful jewellery abounding in the room, Patricia took Pierre Lang representatives through Personality Styles and Traits, helping them identify how to sell different types of jewellery to different types of people.
Amanda Johnson, National Director was delighted that so many representatives were present and at how everyone would be able to apply the lessons learnt from Patricia’s session.
La Boheme at The Minack Theatre - July 2005 Recently Patricia performed with the Beaufort Opera Group in La Boheme at the Epsom Playhouse in June and at the Minack Theatre, Cornwall in July.
Every night was sold out at the Minack Theatre, in Porthcurno which has the stunning backdrop of the sea.
It is reported that Patricia will not be continuing her non speaking non singing career within the Opera Company, she feels she is ready for bigger and greater things! For more information on the Beaufort Opera Company, do access their website (www.beaufortopera.com )
JCI - London - May '05 The Junior Chamber in London attracted a large group of rising leaders and entrepreneurs – and Patricia wowed them with an insight into Personality and Motivation for now and in the future.
Asia Seminars - April '05 patricia@patriciawheatleyburt.com.
Global Summit in Singapore - April '05 Read more...
click here.
Also working with Simon Tupman, Patricia Wheatley Burt has produced a 30 minute CD-Rom featuring Simon in conversation. Order your copy here.
Launched 10th June, 2004 - New Product Range - attracting CPD points!
Hot People Property - Buyer Beware? - September 06 In the first half of 2006 the UK Property market has been frenetic. Properties are moving so quickly that emailed details are often sketchy, (full details rarely get printed), a phone call alerts prospective buyers to view and view now, and really, if you don't make an offer within the first 48 hours of a property being on the market, then you've lost it!
Attracting Generation X+1 - Don't over Promise: 6 Quick Ideas - August 2006 Is this the first sign of many, that Generation X +1 is here, is different and is beginning to flex its muscle? The work ethics of the late 90's, to slog your way to the top, to be too exhausted to enjoy life after work, put up with a heavy workload and demands for delivering against targets, is no longer acceptable to this demanding and powerful (because of their scarcity) group.
Can you teach old dogs new tricks? There is much in the media about skills shortages in the UK and Europe, a reducing population available for work (fewer babies being born) a growing, healthy but ageing population, problems with pensions - and now a proposal from the Government to extend the retirement age to 68 by 2050.
patricia@patriciawheatleyburt.com.
Read more...
click here. 
