In a recent article we discussed that Waitrose had come top of a survey performed by consumer based organisation Which? as favourite high street shop. So who didn’t fare so well in the survey and why according to Which?

Well, electrical retailer Curry’s were near the bottom, as were PC World and Vodafone. The report also commented:

“Once again, JJB Sports and JD Sports claim the dubious honour of being the bottom two and, like poor performers in other sectors, staff are a key letdown – both score a dismal one star for environment, staff and a mediocre two stars for product,”

JJB has said that they are going to review the report. One would hope that they will invest in some management training courses, and invest in the personal development and learning of their store staff, as well as more senior positions.

Some consumers sympathised with the bottom performing stores, blaming the need to employ very young staff allegedly at minimum wage. However, there are many companies that employ young staff on low wages, yet still have processes to provide them with career development and new learning and skills options. Perhaps that’s why they continue to perform well?

Blamed on the global economic downturn which has led to sharp fall in recent steel prices, the Anglo-Dutch group Corus (which was bought only in 2007 for nearly 14 billions dollars) has been forced to axe 3,500 jobs in the UK.

This announcement has resulted in grave words of concern by business leaders, the government and unions alike; the GMB’s John Wilson describing it as a “a body blow for UK manufacturing”.

Corus’ chief executive Philippe Varin commented:

“The company will keep its focus on priority areas such as training, research and product development, which, together with today’s initiative, will ensure Corus is in the best possible shape to compete strongly in the future.”

Many leading thinkers believe that organisations need to continue investing the skills, training and personal development of their staff to strengthen their ability to ride out this recession. The TUC have been making regular statements on the subject; “Learning and development through skills training is now vital for workers to survive the economic crisis”.

If your company is looking to cut back everywhere possible in your outgoings, make staff training, skills and personal development last on your list. In fact, investing in it is only going to help.

Much has been reported in recent articles about the need for businesses not to stagnate the learning and personal development of their staff during this recession. If companies are to emerge strong and competitive, then their personnel need to be at the leading edge of their field; informed and educated.

However, since cash flow is only trickling at the moment, some companies are looking to cut back on their off site training course budgets and focusing instead on e-learning; utilising technology (generally the internet) to deliver training packages. They should beware though; in some cases it might be a little cheaper but there are some significant disadvantages to e-learning:

• e-learners can suffer poor motivation as they are often working on their own
• they might fall behind in their study due to lack of a proper timeframe and structure
• they don’t get the experience of fellow trainees who might otherwise share views and experiences in the classroom
• they lack the one to one, face to face interaction with a tutor
• e-tutors may not always be available when they’re needed
• poor technology such as slow internet connection or computer problems can greatly hinder the service
• the student might have to have quite high ICT skills in the first place
• e-courses often lack the ability to simulate hands-on techniques effectively

Many wise businesses in the UK recognise the importance in investing in the personal development and skills training of their staff. It’s believed by business leaders and business organisations alike that therein lies the key to businesses surviving and emerging from the recession more efficient and effective.

So the recent news announced by the Secretary of State of Universities, Innovation and Skills that the government are injecting an additional £140m to extend the funding of apprentices, is welcome. It has been praised by the TUC, whose general secretary noted:

“.. funding boost will give thousands of people the chance to re-train or learn new skills as apprentices. We also welcome plans to use procurement to ensure that any private sector company awarded a Government contract is committed to skills and apprentices too.”

It’s expected that £140m extra funding (in addition to the £1 billion already in place for the scheme) will help create an additional 35,000 apprenticeships next year, and indeed Prime Minister Brown has set a goal for one in five young people to be on an apprenticeship within ten years.

Many small to medium sized business managers are looking at this scheme, as well as the government’s ‘train to gain’ scheme to get the long term unemployed back to work, to strengthen their workforce and skills base. However, many still feel that unless more is done for banks to loosen their credit restrictions to assist cash flow, difficult times are still ahead.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has recently published a report urging the government to make state funding available to workers facing redundancy. The report, entitled ‘Skills in the Recession’ is positive about the government’s ‘train to gain’ scheme which is providing a £350m injection for small and medium size companies to train their staff. However, the TUC would like the scheme to go further by making it accessible to for those threatened with losing their jobs.

In addition, the report wished to see a relaxation in the benefits rule which states that those in education for more than 16 hours per week are excluded from claiming financial support, believing that extended training and their new learnt skills will help them find employment.

Brendan Barber, the TUC General Secretary commented:

“Providing more training will give the millions of people who have lost their jobs a better chance of returning to work as quickly as possible. The Government deserves credit for increasing investment in training, such as the extra £140 million announced this week to boost apprenticeships.

‘But more can be done, such as expanding Train to Gain to all those at risk of redundancy and removing the ‘16 hour rule’ that discourages benefit claimants taking further education courses.”

It’s clear that the personal development of staff is high on the agenda to help UK industry ride out the recession and emerge stronger, fitter and with a better trained workforce.

In this recent series on the importance of cash flow management, we have been focusing on steps the business manager can take to make sure they get the money in more efficiently and effectively. There is of course another side to the coin; that of controlling your company’s outgoings.

Many small business managers get so wrapped up in new business development (and perhaps getting money in), that they do not invest enough time and effort into analysing when best to spend their money.

It’s important not only to be able to have a daily snapshot of your current cash flow status, but also to be able to forecast ahead. This may involve some re-engineering of how you operate at the moment and may mean you have to invest time and effort into the personal development training of your staff and their use of computer software to be able to do it.

Not only will this daily picture and analysis help you better indentify late payers, but you’ll be able to know exactly when to place a new order to your suppliers based on their payment terms in relation to where you are today and what money you are going to get in. Bear in mind, as we have discussed previously, you need to take steps to make sure you are confident about when your invoices are being paid.

You must do everything you can to minimise risk and reduce your reliance on your business overdraft to assist you with your cash flow needs.

Efficient cash flow management might be a topic that managers are interested in as part of a management training course. Never has this topic been more relevant than in the UK’s current economic crisis, with small businesses finding it difficult to borrow money to tide them over, even when they have a healthy order book.

There are some things that you might want to consider as a manager of a small business that may help you with your cash flow challenges:

Credit checking
It’s a wise move to carry out credit checks on any new customers. This should be accepted by any new clients as a relatively standard practice. If the client comes up with a poor credit history or a track record of CCJs (for example) then you might be best placed to focus your new business development elsewhere.

Ts and Cs
Review your terms and conditions to make sure they are fair and reasonable to both your company and your clients. Specifically look at how you manage late payments and ensure there’s a clear procedure and possibly penalty in place for those that don’t pay on time. Make sure you make these terms and conditions clear to new clients and set your stall out at the beginning that you intend to abide by them.

Staff motivation is an important topic that it regularly explored on a wide range of management training courses.

We have already looked at a couple of tips - the importance of sincerity and the timing of the reward. Now lets look at some other points to consider.

Linking
When you reward one of your staff for good behaviour or a positive outcome or performance, make sure what you give them in return is clearly linked to that outcome, behaviour or performance. This will reinforce the behaviour and will help future beneficial performance in that specific area. A fuzzy reward for an unclear activity or performance will lose its motivational power.

Audience
Where possible present your motivational reward to your member of staff for their achievement in front of their peers. Also, make sure that you announce it with a decent explanation of what they are getting, why they are getting it and what they did to deserve it. Not only will this give the recipient a boost to be praised in front of their peers, but it also acts as encouragement to those peers to raise their game and reach for better performance and outcomes.

A topic that is regularly explored by management training courses is staff motivation. One key aspect of staff motivation is having in place some kind of reward system. It’s generally accepted that companies that have good reward and recognition systems and procedures in place will have happier staff that will be more productive and take less time off.

Here are some guidelines to bear in mind as a manager when it comes to rewarding your staff:

Timing
If you’re going to reward a member of staff, you must do so at the right time. Make sure your reward occurs close in time to the event or activity that has merited it. This is much more effective in motivating your staff than if you just had an annual ceremony – which staff are less likely to be motivated by.

Sincerity
Don’t do it because you think you should, or because you think it’s expected of you by your boss or subordinates. Do it because you want to. Staff can have an acute sincerity sensor at times and if they think it is not offered with a genuine nature, it won’t help motivate future performance. If you have difficulty with the principle or type of reward, formulate something better which you can commit yourself to as a manager. Sometimes the most creative or personalised rewards can have the greatest impact on the employee and they don’t have to be costly.