"Sorry, I can’t go to lunch, I really need to finish a few more things." "I had to miss another yoga class last night. I’m just so swamped at work that I can’t seem to get everything done!’ Do these or a variation of these sound familiar? It’s not surprising that people are overworked, burned-out, and stressed. We see it everywhere. Many people act as if being overwhelmed is a badge of honor. If they constantly skip lunch and other activities, it shows their dedication and expresses to others that they are working the hardest at their job. I say they are foolish. Taking a break and enjoying life outside of work creates better mental health. Better mental health means you think more clearly. You think clearly and you get stuff done. Have you ever been late leaving your house for an important appointment only to start running around searching for your keys because you don’t remember where you put them? If you could go back, take a deep breath, and calm yourself, do you think you would have found your keys faster? When we rush around in a frenzy, we are too busy telling our bodies what to do, instead of listening to what our brain has to say. So, take a break for lunch. Walk around the building and breathe in the fresh air. Find a dark corner and take a power nap. You’ll find when you return to your desk, your mind is sharper and ready to conquer your To Do list. Check out this great article by EOS on taking a clarity break. A Clarity Break Confession

In my last blog, we built a global Student Notes feature in Lectora®. Entry fields, like the one we used on the Notes Entry Page of the feature, require you to supply a character limit value on the field. But this is a value that the user cannot see automatically. And when the character limit is reached, with no warning, typing further content into the field is prevented. This could leave users scratching their heads! So, as a nice user-feedback feature, let’s add a character counter to our Notes Entry Page that shows the user how many characters are remaining in the character limit. If you built your own Student Notes feature using my last blog, open that now. Or, you can download the completed version from the Trivantis® Community and follow along. Download Example Let’s begin by adding an additional text field to the Notes Entry Page. If your version does not yet have the Character Remaining text block, add a Text Block to the Notes Entry Page and position it to the left of the Notes Summary button. Resize it so that it fills the space between the left side of the page and the Notes Summary button, and has a height to accommodate one line of text. Type the following text into the new text block: Characters Remaining: 250 Rename the text block in the Title Explorer to Characters Remaining. Now we need to add an additional User-Defined variable that will keep track of how many characters can be typed into the entry field on the Notes Entry Page. Every time a character is typed into the entry field, the value of the variable will change and its value will be displayed in the Characters Remaining text block. From the Tools ribbon, open the Variable Manager and click the Add button at the bottom of the User-Defined tab. Set the Variable Name of the new variable to _NoteCharsRemaining. Set the initial value of the variable to 250, and click OK. The Notes Entry page should already have one action attached to it, OnShowResetForm. This will clear out the previous note that the user typed. If the action doesn’t exist yet, add it now. Action 1 - This action resets the contents of Form_1, in this case the Entry_0001 field, to its initially empty state. Name: OnShowResetForm                   Trigger: Show Action: Reset Form Target: Form_1 Since we are resetting the form and clearing out the contents of the entry field, we need to reset the value of the _NoteCharsRemaining variable back to 250. Action 2 - This action resets the value of the _NoteCharsRemaining variable to 250. Name: OnShowModVar _NoteCharsRemaining = 250                   Trigger: Show Action: Modify Variable Target: _NoteCharsRemaining                   Type: Set Equal To                   Value: 250 After this action, we want to add a series of actions that are triggered by keystrokes that will add or subtract to the value of the _NoteCharsRemaining variable in this order. Action 3 - This action always subtracts 1 from the _NoteCharsRemaining variable regardless of which key is typed. Name: OnAnyKeyModVar _NoteCharsRemaining - 1                   Trigger: Any Key Action: Modify Variable Target: _NoteCharsRemaining Type: Subtract from Variable Value: 1 Conditions: All conditions must be true Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Greater Than Or Equal Value: 1 As you know, not all keys add a physical character when typed and some actually delete characters. So, we need to add a series of actions to offset the subtraction done by Action 2 by adding 1 or 2 back to the value of _NoteCharsRemaining when one of these keys (such as Backspace, Home, End, or arrow keys) is typed. The following 10 actions do this. Action 4 - The Backspace key does not produce a physical character and it deletes a physical character, so we add 2 back to the value of _NoteCharsRemaining when this key is typed. Name: OnKey Backspace ModVar _NoteCharsRemaining + 2                   Trigger: Keystroke Key: Backspace Action: Modify Variable Target: _NoteCharsRemaining Type: Add to Variable Value: 2 Conditions: All conditions must be true Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Greater Than Or Equal Value: 0                                                       ———- Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Less Than Value: 250 Action 5 - The Delete key does not produce a physical character and it deletes a physical character, so we add 2 back to the value of _NoteCharsRemaining when this key is typed. Name: OnKey Delete ModVar _NoteCharsRemaining + 2                   Trigger: Keystroke Key: Delete Action: Modify Variable Target: _NoteCharsRemaining Type: Add to Variable Value: 2 Conditions: All conditions must be true Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Greater Than Or Equal Value: 0                                                       ———- Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Less Than Value: 250 Action 6 - The Left Arrow key does not produce a physical character, so we add 1 back to the value of _NoteCharsRemaining when this key is typed. Name: OnKey Left Arrow ModVar _NoteCharsRemaining + 1                   Trigger: Keystroke Key: LeftArrow Action: Modify Variable Target: _NoteCharsRemaining Type: Add to Variable Value: 1 Conditions: All conditions must be true Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Greater Than Or Equal Value: 0                                                       ———- Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Less Than Value: 250 Action 7 - The Right Arrow key does not produce a physical character, so we add 1 back to the value of _NoteCharsRemaining when this key is typed. Name: OnKey Right Arrow ModVar _NoteCharsRemaining + 1                   Trigger: Keystroke Key: RightArrow Action: Modify Variable Target: _NoteCharsRemaining Type: Add to Variable Value: 1 Conditions: All conditions must be true Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Greater Than Or Equal Value: 0                                                       ———- Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Less Than Value: 250 Action 8 - The Up Arrow key does not produce a physical character, so we add 1 back to the value of _NoteCharsRemaining when this key is typed. Name: OnKey Up Arrow ModVar _NoteCharsRemaining + 1                   Trigger: Keystroke Key: UpArrow Action: Modify Variable Target: _NoteCharsRemaining Type: Add to Variable Value: 1 Conditions: All conditions must be true Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Greater Than Or Equal Value: 0                                                       ———- Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Less Than Value: 250 Action 9 - The Down Arrow key does not produce a physical character, so we add 1 back to the value of _NoteCharsRemaining when this key is typed. Name: OnKey Down Arrow ModVar _NoteCharsRemaining + 1                   Trigger: Keystroke Key: DownArrow Action: Modify Variable Target: _NoteCharsRemaining Type: Add to Variable Value: 1 Conditions: All conditions must be true Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Greater Than Or Equal Value: 0                                                       ———- Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Less Than Value: 250 Action 10 - The Home key does not produce a physical character, so we add 1 back to the value of _NoteCharsRemaining when this key is typed. Name: OnKey Home ModVar _NoteCharsRemaining + 1                   Trigger: Keystroke Key: Home Action: Modify Variable Target: _NoteCharsRemaining Type: Add to Variable Value: 1 Conditions: All conditions must be true Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Greater Than Or Equal Value: 0                                                       ———- Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Less Than Value: 250 Action 11 - The End key does not produce a physical character, so we add 1 back to the value of _NoteCharsRemaining when this key is typed. Name: OnKey End ModVar _NoteCharsRemaining + 1                   Trigger: Keystroke Key: End Action: Modify Variable Target: _NoteCharsRemaining Type: Add to Variable Value: 1 Conditions: All conditions must be true Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Greater Than Or Equal Value: 0                                                       ———- Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Less Than Value: 250 Action 12 - The Insert key does not produce a physical character, so we add 1 back to the value of _NoteCharsRemaining when this key is typed. Name: OnKey Insert ModVar _NoteCharsRemaining + 1                   Trigger: Keystroke Key: Insert Action: Modify Variable Target: _NoteCharsRemaining Type: Add to Variable Value: 1 Conditions: All conditions must be true Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Greater Than Or Equal Value: 0                                                       ———- Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Less Than Value: 250 Action 13 - The Page Up key does not produce a physical character, so we add 1 back to the value of _NoteCharsRemaining when this key is typed. Name: OnKey Page Up ModVar _NoteCharsRemaining + 1                   Trigger: Keystroke Key: PageUp Action: Modify Variable Target: _NoteCharsRemaining Type: Add to Variable Value: 1 Conditions: All conditions must be true Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Greater Than Or Equal Value: 0                                                       ———- Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Less Than Value: 250 Action 14 - The Page Down key does not produce a physical character, so we add 1 back to the value of _NoteCharsRemaining when this key is typed. Name: OnKey Page Down ModVar _NoteCharsRemaining + 1                   Trigger: Keystroke Key: PageDown Action: Modify Variable Target: _NoteCharsRemaining Type: Add to Variable Value: 1 Conditions: All conditions must be true Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Greater Than Or Equal Value: 0                                                       ———- Variable: _NoteCharsRemaining Relationship: Less Than Value: 250 And finally, once all of the other keystroke actions have run, we need an action to update the contents of the Characters Remaining text block with the new value of the _NoteCharsRemaining variable. Action 15 - This action updates the contents of the Characters Remaining text block every time a key is typed. Name: OnAnyKeyChange Characters Remaining                   Trigger: Any Key Action: Change Contents Target: Characters Remaining Value: Set Text Text: Characters Remaining: VAR(_NotesCharsRemaining) When you are done adding actions, the Notes Entry Page should look something like this in the Title Explorer. Now you can run the title, open the Notes Entry Page, and watch the value of the Characters Remaining text block change as you type into the entry field. If you have not done so yet, you can download the finished version of the Students Notes Feature Example from the Trivantis Community. Download Example The post Lectora Advanced: Adding a Character Counter to an Entry Field appeared first on .

When you sell a product online, whether it’s an online course, an ebook, or some physical good, you need a sales page. This is what your visitors will read through before purchasing. That means your sales copy needs to be really compelling, and the best way to do that is to tell a story that connects with readers emotionally. Learn how in this episode of Teach Online TV. I often get asked about how to write good sales copy for your online courses and there are numerous ways to go about doing this. But one technique that I find works in almost every scenario, and it’s not your entire sales copy but it’s a piece of it, is to tell a story. Like any good story, this story will take the reader on a journey from struggle to triumph. You want to have a little bit of emotion built in there if possible, but what it’s going to do is it’s going to take that reader through the problems that they may be experiencing now. Those problems will be mirrored in the story in the problems that you experienced in arriving at the solution that you are presenting them in your online course. It could be your story, or it could be the story of one of your clients was already taken your course. But what it’s going to do is it’s going to start with the problems that are going to be solved by your course and help people connect emotionally to the problems, help people identify with them and say, "Yeah, that’s what I’m suffering from right now." And then you’re going to take them through the journey of how you’re going to solve those problems for them. And often a good element of the story is showing that it can take time and effort and work to solve those problems. But your course is going to make it easier, it’s going to make it happen faster, so they don’t have to search on their own for the answer like you did or like your client in the story did. You’re going to give them the easier answers and help guide them through that journey. So if you haven’t already, consider telling a story as part of your sales copy and you can test it out and see what kind of an impact it has on your conversion rates. If you have more questions, shoot them over but I would also love to hear if this makes a difference for you and see examples of the stories that you are telling. The post Teach Online TV #13: How To Tell A Story With Sales Copy appeared first on Thinkific.

When you create a course on Thinkific, you get a free Thinkific branded domain name. If you want to look more professional and control your branding, you need a custom domain. This can be your main site or a sub-domain of it. Watch the video to learn more about it. Today at Teach Online TV we’re going to be talking about integrating your online course right into your website or essentially putting it on your own custom domain. Now anytime you set up a Thinkific account, you get your own site automatically for free. But one thing that will take your business to a new level is to integrate that into your website, to put it on your domain. So instead of our branding, you’ve got your own branding. It’s very easy to do, it only takes a few minutes and it’s definitely worth it because it really ties the course and your product directly to your brand and we’re no longer in the picture. So whether you’re using WordPress, Squarespace, Weebly, Wix, or any of these other products or you have your own custom HTML and CSS site, you can drop your Thinkific courses into it, add it to your custom domain and make it part of that. And that means when people are taking courses from you, they’re going to see your domain or your website address up in that address bar which is just a further element of building your personal brand and making it look more professional as well. So if you haven’t already, make sure you set up your custom domain and get Thinkific to be part of your website. For more instructions on setting up custom domains with your Thinkific account, read our step-by-step guide here. The post Teach Online TV #14: Using Custom Domains For Your Online Course appeared first on Thinkific.

Made any poor hires lately? Have you hired individuals despite red flags? Do your interviewers follow the right hiring processes? Do they focus overly on technical fit, or chase down irrelevant leads? Would you want to make your hiring process more effective, and enable recruiters to make the best choice? The hiring process in any organisation involves having conversations with applicants to understand their qualifications and also assess whether they are a ‘fit’ for your corporate culture. However, most interviewers do not demonstrate the acumen to conduct interviews. Not surprising, because nobody outside of HR trains for interviews! Usually, interviewers go with their gut instinct, or get into irrelevant details, and usually end up with wrong recommendations. Interviewing, particularly in larger organizations, becomes a roulette (Russian if the hire is particularly bad). So, there’s a pressing need to stop gambling with your hires and train recruiting managers to be better interviewers. Interviewing Simulations is an effective solution since this works well as a training format. They are a very effective mechanism for interviewers to learn, apply, and experience the process within a simulated environment. The interviewer learns how to engage with a virtual candidate, conduct an effective interview, and gauge the interviewee’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as their fitment for the position. To know more, read Impactful Interviewing: Hiring to Win

Millennials watch 11.3 hours of online video a week! With the average YouTube video at 4 minutes long, that means they are watching about 171 videos per week. Educators need to take note of this trend, and take some tips from the "TubeGurus" on how to create engaging videos for their courses.Our webinar on March 2, 2016 talked about a number of topics from the use of humor, to how to get started with ideas. We shared and discussed some of the best practices below, and applied them to videos for online and flipped courses.  Some of the best practices included:Shorter is BetterUse the 5A's of EmotionTell a StoryCall (Students) to ActionCreate a "Viral" titleAs always, the best way to get started is to meet with an instructional designer, with your objectives and a few sketches on what you want to do.  Below is the summary video, slides and resources.Resources:Summary videoPowerPoint slidesFrame-by-Frame TemplateVideo Idea Links:YouTube First VideoCrash Course Heredity VideoMichael Angilletta's Funniest Professor VideoDialogue Video ExampleZaption Video Example:References:Humor in the Classroom Effective Educational Videos

Initially published on Medium.com, as Hierarchies in Perpetual Beta, the following is based on several previous blog posts. A Post-Job Economy The job was the way we redistributed wealth, making capitalists pay for the means of production and in return creating a middle class that could pay for mass produced goods. That period is almost over, as witnessed by 54 million self-employed Americans. The job is a social construct that has outlived its usefulness. Freelancing may be a replacement but often lacks a safety net, and many of the self-employed become pawns of the platform monopolists. We are entering a post-job economy. Our careers will be shorter as our lives get longer. Companies and institutions are no longer the stable source of employment they once were, as even the Fortune 500 companies now have an average lifespan of 20 years, as opposed to 60 years in 1960. Consider that almost all of our institutions and many of our laws are based on the notion of the job as the normal mode of working life. Schools prepare us for jobs. Politicians campaign on job creation. Labour laws are based on the employer-employee relationship. What happens when having a job is not the norm? In the USA today, half of all jobs are at a high risk of automation. These will soon disappear and are not being replaced at the same rate. The decrease in salaried employment is a key factor that will change the nature of work teams. As long as people have jobs, we will have hierarchical teams. The job is premised on the assumption that people can fit into existing teams like cogs in a machine and that team members can be easily replaced. We already have other ways of organizing work. Orchestras are not teams, and neither are jazz ensembles. There may be teamwork on a theatre production but the cast is not a team. It is more like a social network. Hierarchical teams are what we get when we use the blunt stick of economic consequences as the prime motivator. In a creative economy, the unity of hierarchical teams can be counter-productive, as it shuts off opportunities for serendipity and innovation. In complex, networked economies, workers need more autonomy. Autonomy at Work In the triple operating system (Awareness > Alternatives > Action) work gets done by self-governing work teams with a degree of autonomy operating in temporary, negotiated hierarchies. Self-organizing teams are more flexible than hierarchical ones, but they require active and engaged members. One cannot cede power to the boss, because everyone is responsible for the boss they choose. Like democracy, self-organized teams require constant effort to work. Hierarchies work well when information flows mostly in one direction: down. They are good for command and control. Hierarchies can get things done efficiently. But hierarchies are useless to create, innovate, or change. Hierarchies in perpetual beta are optimal for creativity and to deal with complexity. What is autonomy in the workplace? Employees are given different degrees of autonomy in terms of the decisions they are allowed to make within the confines of organizational power. Discretion for action is usually accorded by virtue of one’s place in the hierarchy. Usually the higher one goes, the more autonomy one has. One way to look at autonomy is the type of action people are allowed to take without permission. There are five levels of increasing autonomy in the workplace. Where you work + How you get things done + What you work on + Who you will work with + Why you do the work in the first place Each one builds on the other, so that people should be able to decide for themselves where to work before they can be autonomous in how they work. The constraints of space and place must be released in order to find the best ways to get work done, such as the selection of the appropriate tools. Once people can decide where and how they work, they can make informed decisions on what they will work on, as nurses at Buurtzorg do. Given this autonomy, workers can then decide who they work with, as employees at Semco do. Finally, when business strategy is informed by the emergent activities of all employees with their customers and environment, the why of work truly reflects the organization and is not imposed on the people doing the work. This is full autonomy which is necessary for the network era, because you cannot manage a network. Principles of Network Management As networks become the dominant organizational form, the way we think about management has to change, as well as the way those in positions of authority try to influence others. In a network society, we influence through reputation, based on our previous actions. This is why working out loud and learning out loud are so important. Others need to see what we are contributing to the network. Those who contribute to their networks will be seen as valuable and hence will have a better reputation and may be able to influence others. Management in networks is fuzzy. Here is how I define networked management: It is only through innovative and contextual methods, the self-selection of the most appropriate tools and work conditions, and willing cooperation that more creative work can be fostered. The duty of being transparent in our work and sharing our knowledge rests with all workers, especially management. Image: perpetual beta series 1. innovative & contextual methods = in the network era work and jobs cannot be standardized, which means first getting rid of job descriptions and individual performance appraisals and shifting to simpler ways to organize for complexity. 2. self-selection of tools = moving away from standardized enterprise tools toward an open platform in which workers, many of which are part-time or contracted, can use their own tools in order to be knowledge artisans. 3. willing cooperation = lessening the emphasis on teamwork and collaboration and encouraging wider cooperation. 4. duty of being transparent = shifting from ‘need to know’ to ‘need to share’ especially for those with leadership responsibilities, who must understand that in the network era, management is a role, not a career. Transparency is probably the biggest challenge for organizations today, and it can start with salary transparency. 5. sharing our knowledge = changing the environment so that sharing one’s knowledge does not put that person in a weaker organizational position. An effective knowledge worker is an engaged individual with the freedom to act. Rewarding the organization (network) is better than rewarding the individual, but only if people feel empowered and can be actively engaged in decision-making. Intrinsic, not extrinsic, motivation is necessary for complex and creative work. A Framework for Network Management In the network era, organizations need to build their own unique model, based on some general principles, within their specific complex context, which only they can understand. There are no cookie cutters to organize for complexity. Improve insights — Traditional management often focuses on reducing errors, but it is insight that drives innovation. Managers must loosen the filters through which information and knowledge pass in the organization and increase the organizational willpower to act on these insights. Encouraging small experiments to probe the complexity requires an attitude of perpetual beta. Provide Learning Experiences — As Charles Jennings notes, managers are vital for workers’ performance improvement, but only if they provide opportunities for experiential learning with constructive feedback, new projects, and new skills. Focus on the Why of Work — Current compensation systems ignore the data on human motivation. Extrinsic rewards only work for simple physical tasks and increased monetary rewards can actually be detrimental to performance, especially with creative work. The keys to motivation at work are for each person to have a sense of Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness, based on self-determination theory.  Relatedness "is the universal want to interact, be connected to, and experience caring for others". This is what it means to be a social enterprise, and why social learning is so important to help knowledge flow. Help the Network Make Better Decisions — Managers should see themselves as servant leaders. Managers must actively listen, continuously question the changing work context, help to see patterns and make sense of them, and then suggest new practices and build consensus with networked workers. Be Knowledge Managers — Managers need to practice and encourage personal knowledge mastery (PKM) throughout the network. Be an Example — Social networks shine a spotlight on dysfunctional managers. Cooperative behaviours require an example and that example must come from those in management positions. While there may be a role for good managers in networks, there likely will not be much of a future for bosses. Distribute Authority — Coupled with a willingness to experiment, distributed authority is needed to ensure the organization stays connected to its outside environment. People at the outer edges of the organization often can see the environment more clearly than those at the centre. The future of work is in temporary, negotiated hierarchies connected through human and digital networks. Image: perpetual beta series

‘In 2015 The owners and managers of the Railway Hotel in Hornchurch, Essex, were fined £1.5 million after being found guilty of placing unsafe food on the market after a Christmas dinner served at their restaurant left a mother dead and dozens of other diners ill with food poisoning.’ This is not a headline that anyone operating a business within the hospitality sector would want to be associated with but sadly, according to the Food Standards Agency, around 500,000 people suffer from food poisoning each year and these are just the ones who have reported it. Many of these cases would not have arisen if the relevant Food Safety training had been undertaken and safe practices adhered to. Food safety is a scientific discipline describing the handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent foodborne illness. Over time, scientists and food professionals have developed a number of routines that should be followed to avoid potentially severe health hazards. To protect both customers’ health and themselves, businesses and food establishments must adhere to the minimum legal requirements for hospitality businesses in order to meet the required Food Safety standards. All staff should be trained in order to practice all the safe methods that are relevant to the job they do. Measures should also be in place within the business to ensure staff are supervised to check they are following the safe methods properly. Although in the UK there is no statuary requirement for food safety qualifications, no food business wants a headline such as the one in The Independent on February 4th which read: ‘Rat ruins Weatherspoon pub by ‘running up a man’s leg and stealing a chip’. Although a spokesman for the successful pub chain said there was no evidence to support the claim that the vermin did indeed run up a customer’s leg, they did confirm that rats had been found in their Wiltshire pub and had to tighten their hygiene standards. Not surprisingly, this bad publicity had a very negative effect on their trade. As part of their remit to protect the public, Environmental Health Officers (EHO) inspect businesses for health and safety, food hygiene and food standards. They follow up on complaints and investigate outbreaks of food poisoning, infectious disease or pests and will enforce environmental health laws when required. Although there is no statuary requirement to have food safety qualifications part of the EHO officer inspections will be looking to see that the knowledge, experience and training level of individuals involved in food preparation is relevant and relative to the job role and position. All food businesses must, by law, have a Food Safety Management System in place and this should serve as the backbone to the operational practices that take place. These systems should be based on HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control points). In simple terms, this process should identify any potential areas of concern and direct the business to define procedures and processes that will eradicate, control or limit them. Implementing some standard food safety training in any hospitality business will not only protect the public, business owners and the employees but could well be the difference between closures, prosecution and even, in the case of The Railway Hotel, death and imprisonment. Our Top Three Recommendations for Food Safety Training Food Hygiene - In the UK, food handlers don’t have to hold a food hygiene certificate to prepare or sell food, but it is highly recommended that they do. The basic food hygiene training package teaches the learner safe working practice and provides an understanding of the importance of food safety standards. Allergen Awareness - in 2014 new laws came in making it a legal requirement for caterers and restaurant owners to display to customers information concerning 14 common allergens or risk a fine of up to £5,000. HACCP - Businesses involved in the production, preparation or sale of food have a moral and legal obligation to ensure the safety of the food served. In order to create internal standards which will ensure safe food operations, a business must have a Food Management System. An understanding of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Planning (HACCP) will enable a business to put this at the heart of its Food Management System. All the recommended training courses are easily accessible as online learning and can be purchased through Elearning Marketplace. If you are a business owner requiring multiple purchases of each course then do contact us direct on 01488 580177 and we would be very happy to put together a bespoke proposal to meet your training requirements. Sources: www.theguardian.com www.thefoodsafetysystem.com www.food.gov.uk  

Along with a weekly wage or monthly salary, your employer may also have some sort of incentive program in place to keep you happy and motivated at work. But while several members of staff appreciate getting a free gift or monetary bonus every now and again, the vast majority of incentive programs are rather boring and repetitive. This is especially true if you have worked at one company for many years and continued to receive positive appraisals throughout this time, only to receive an arbitrary "incentive" as a reward. A lot of the time, each and every employee will receive the same thing too, which isn’t tailored to your contribution, achievement, or how long you have been a loyal member of staff. Thankfully, there is an alternative. You might associate gamification as a way to increase engagement with staff training, but it can also be used as an alternative to traditional incentive programs. Instead of handing out tangible presents that aren’t scalable according to the individual’s performance and can end up costing a great deal of money, gamification provides participants with unique aims and bespoke rewards. In the opinion of Gabe Zichermann, author of The Gamification Revolution, the majority of people aren’t achievement or winning-orientated anyway and would prefer the reward of being in control of their own destiny, which gamification goals and gratuity can afford. But how can gamification collaborate with workplace incentive programs?   Follow the SAPS model "People may be motivated by getting a gift card, but what really drives them is recognition [as well as] status, access power and stuff (SAPS)," says Zichermann. In fact, he believes that these things are want people want to be rewarded with in life - in that order. For example, higher tier airline fliers benefit from the status of being able to board first. "It turns out that cash isn’t that good of a reward," adds Zichermann. "Status is a fantastic motivator for getting people to do stuff." Unfortunately, several incentive programs do not recognise this fact and focus on physical gratification instead. However, it goes without saying that employees appreciate visible recognition from their peers and superiors, which can be built into a gamification campaign. Individual achievements can be acknowledged and published for the rest of the workforce to see.   Make recognition a more regular occurrence When it comes to receiving a bonus, most employees will have to wait until the end of the year to find out whether they are deserving of this reward. On top of that, an "Employee of the Month" picture or plaque doesn’t exactly inspire members of staff to keep performing on a daily basis. For this reason, it is a good idea to make recognition a more regular occurrence. Happiness and motivation levels among employees are bound to increase if gratification is being offered on completion of a gamified exercise or activity. As Zichermann explains: "Weekly recognition and incentives provide employees a chance to start the week fresh and work hard towards a SAPS structured goal."   Give rewards that relate to individual staff members As touched upon previously, not all staff members are created equal, especially in large organisations with a multitude of different departments. So, there will be little incentive for a travelling sales rep to work harder if the reward on offer is an in-car Bluetooth headset, which they probably own already. Therefore, be certain that individual members of staff will appreciate the gifts you are giving out. "Whatever the actual reward, make sure it relates to what the employees value," Zichermann recommends. "Consider conducting a gamified employee survey to help determine some specifics." Examples include giving customer service staff who work unsociable hours a complementary day off or providing software developers the opportunity to attend training, which could result in a new qualification and possible promotion.   Encourage staff to master a particular subject "When confronted with a game challenge, people are often more satisfied with mastery of the game than completion," cites Zichermann. "It provides a deeper sense of accomplishment, especially when their mastery is shared in some way with the group." This is where you can take advantage of things like cloud technology, which has the power to increase collaboration between employees but also share their incentive program achievements. But while members of staff should be allowed to participate in gamified scenarios at their own pace, it makes sense to establish a framework that encourages progress at a reasonable rate too. Otherwise there is a possibility that employees will become discouraged and lose interest.   Promote competition among your workforce Incentive programs should give precedence to fun and recognition, but this doesn’t mean to say you can’t introduce an element of healthy competition as well. After all, Zichermann believes that "incentives are typically valued more when they are ‘won’ and employees will take more pride in their accomplishments if they work hard to achieve them." It helps if competition is structured with multiple tiers, which features rewards that are accordingly equal. After all, the last thing you want is for a few staff members to outperform everybody else, causing the rest of the workforce to abandon the program altogether.   Place importance on originality for long-term engagement Even though employees will grow tired of the same old physical or material rewards, the same can be said gamification too. So, you should place importance on originality with your incentive program to achieve long-term engagement among the workforce. "Gamification should be kept fresh by tweaking the ‘game’ itself or by shifting the focus from one area of the employee’s work to another," believes Zichermann. "The rewards should also shift over time to encourage participation." By doing so, you will be able to provide employees with regular and meaningful recognition that keeps engagement levels high. As a consequence of greater interest, members of staff will also better serve the needs of the entire organisation as well as those of colleagues and customers. Share this post with your own audience

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