Archive for November, 2008

Chlorine bleach has been used as a general germicide for many years. In fact, some state health departments still recommend it as a sanitizer and disinfectant. Chlorine bleach is also much cheaper per gallon than hospital-grade disinfectant cleaners. With all this going for it, why doesn’t everyone use it?

Here are some facts you should consider before adding bleach to your arsenal of maintenance products:

Chlorine is a strong oxidizing agent. In recent tests, chlorine bleach was exposed to samples of commercial-grade copper, cold rolled steel, and alu-minum. The copper samples dis-colored in three hours and showed green corrosion in 24 hours. Aluminum showed signs of corrosion within 24 hours, and on the surface of cold rolled steel rust formed within 30 minutes.

Some grades of stainless steel also can be damaged from the use of products containing chlorine. A process known as “hydrogen embrittlement” may occur as the chlorine bleach attacks the stainless steel,trapping hydrogen gas in the pores of the metal. Over time, the hydrogen can be released, resulting in weakened metal. It is especially damaging to welded joints.

Continue reading ‘Why not Just Use Bleach?’ »

If you’ve already tried traditional methods to get rid of stage fright and it hasn’t worked, it’s time to try more serious public speaking training techniques.

Stage fright is caused by how you hold representations in your mind – a fancy way of saying that whether you know it or not, you’re running scary movies in your mind that create fear.

Using this public speaking training technique you can conquer stage fright quickly and easily.

One of the most effective public speaking training techniques you can use to get rid of stage fright is what I call “The Hero Process”, here are the steps:

1. Identify Your Hero:
Who can you think of that would never have stage fright, not in a million years? Who can you think of that could confidently speak to any size audience? This person may be living or not, real or imaginary, someone you know personally or not. Important: pick a Hero that would not have stage fright, ever.

2. Observe Your Hero:
It doesn’t matter if you observe your Hero in your mind, on a video, or in person. What you’re looking for here is the outward demonstration of a total lack of stage fright – in other words, how does their face, their voice and their body look when they’re calm and confidently speaking to an audience? Make detailed notes about their face voice and body.

Continue reading ‘Stage Fright & Fear of Public Speaking: How to Cure it Right Now’ »

Orlando, FL — November 04, 2008 — It is no surprise that medical coders and billers are essential to the success of every practice. A well-prepared coding and billing staff will deliver careful chart examination, accurate code selection, cleaner claims, fewer denials, and enhanced revenue.

Staying on top of coding changes affecting their specialty is crucial to a medical coder and biller. Why? Because even a simple mistake can lead to thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

In preparation for the 519 new, revised and deleted CPT changes expected for 2009, coding and billing professionals across the nation are expected to attend the 2009 Coding Update and Reimbursement Conference on Dec. 4-6, 2008 in Orlando, FL or Feb. 8-10, 2009 in Las Vegas, NV. Attendees at these conferences will be provided with the most up-to-date information for their specialty from nationally-recognized coding, billing and reimbursement leaders.
At the Orlando conference, there will be 12 specialty tracks to choose from, including: Ambulatory Surgery Center, Anesthesia, Clinical Lab, General Surgery, Multi-Specialty, Neurosurgery, Oncology, Ophthalmology, Optometry, Orthopedic, Pain Management and Pathology. Additionally, attendees will be able to jump from one specialty track to another free of charge.

Continue reading ‘Incorrect Medical Coding and Billing Can Result in Thousands of Lost Revenue for Your Practice’ »

Training
needs at work are overlooked believe almost 50% of employees and 33% would like to use the extra day in the leap year for training, according to a recent survey.

The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) questioned over 1,000 employees to ask what they would most like to use the extra working day for, with training coming top.

A Way To Get A Pay Rise…

LSC’s previous survey has shown that employees can increase their salary by $4,000 to $6,000 per year by getting the right training.

Employers overlook training because:

1. Everyone is too busy and can’t find the time for Training and Development

2. During hard times the Training and Development budget is slashed

So what’s the alternative?

To develop and enhance your skills you have to take accountability and put the effort in yourself. The days have long gone, whereby employers provide Training and Development on a plate. You are much more alone these days.

Continue reading ‘'training is Overlooked' for Most Workers’ »

Customer Service Agents are the frontline staff of the company they are who customers speak with first. Essentially, they are the voice of the company.

If a Customer Service agent is professional, friendly, and can solve a customers needs, that customer will have a positive impression of the company. This pleasant experience can lead to repeat business and even referrals increasing profitability.

On the other hand, if a Customer Service Agent is unprofessional, uniformed, and unable to solve a customers needs, the customer will hang up the phone in frustration resulting in a negative impression. Consequently, the customer will indeed talk about your company, but with a very pessimistic tone which can discourage customers away from you and to your competitor decreasing productivity!

As a leader, it is your responsibility to train the staff with proper telephone skills and company and product knowledge as well as the requisite customer service skills necessary to excel customer expectations. With this education, you are arming the Customer Service Agent with the power to better assist customers and increase productivity creating many positive first impressions along the way!

Continue reading ‘First Impressions Do Count in Customer Service’ »

There is one common trait that many businesses share and that is a high turnover rate. This ongoing challenge makes it difficult for leaders to build a high performing department. But, with the right recruitment interviewing skills training and the right people in place, the business can thrive towards success!

Depending on your companies hiring practices, you may or may not be directly involved with the interviewing process and interview skills training. However, it is in your best interest to be fully aware of the process, as well as the employment patterns of your staff or the staff you are recruiting by having the appropriate interview skills.

For the purpose of clarity and understanding we are relating this article to the recruitment and interviewing of CSR (Customer Service Representatives) for a call centre environment

3 Reasons for High Turnover Rates

If your call center has a high turnover rate, you may be struggling with the reason why. Here are three of the most common reasons:

Continue reading ‘Interviewing Skills Training Can Help Avoid Staff Turnover’ »

When you invest in new staff, you want to make the wisest decisions possible. It is in your best interest to make sure that the decision you make is made on an informed basis which has been brought about by the training you have received for recruitment interviewing skills. It is time well spent reviewing resumes and conducting informative interviews to make sure you hire the best people for the job. When you hire the right people to begin with, you will save yourself a substantial amount of time hiring and training replacement staff down the road. The more skillful you become at recruitment interviewing skills the easier you will make the recruitment and management process

By hiring the right people, you will also be saving your company recruiting and training costs. As a leader, your company trusts you to interview and hire staff that will benefit the company. Let’s discuss these and other reasons in further detail.

7 Reasons to Hire the Right People the First Time:

1. You will save yourself time interviewing, training and hiring down the road. It takes a lot of time (and money) to advertise open positions, review resumes, screen applicants, set up interviews, conduct the interviews, extend offers, and then start training the new staff. The less time you have to spend doing this work, the more time you can spend leading, motivating, developing and training your team.

Continue reading ‘Good Recruitment Interviewing Skills Training Make Recruiting the Right Person Easy’ »

If you are new to interviewing, or have received no formal training in recruitment
interview skills training you may think that the hiring process begins as you interview candidates. However, the hiring process begins long before that!

There are many areas you must consider to help you be fully prepared for each interview. This preparation will enable you to be in total control of the interview and any situations that may come up.

The first and possibly the most important first step is to define the role

1. Define the role.

Key #1 – Define the Role

Know matter what your experience in interviewing or formal training you have received for interview skills training. You don’t want to hire a person (or several people) without knowing what their specific role within the team will be. The better you define the role, the better you will be able to manage your new staff member. Why? Because they will know before they start the job exactly what is expected of them.

Continue reading ‘Recruitment Interview Skills Training Outlines the Importance of Defining the Role’ »

As the global economy has changed over the past 12 months or so, more and more people are turning to Sales training courses to help them secure more sales.

For the past number of years companies have not had to worry about sales training as the economy was buoyant and sales people with the title of sales people did generally not need to fight for business. In fact to be honest in many industries they were order takers as opposed to salespeople. With this in mind sales training courses were not very popular as consumers with more money in their pockets were prepared to purchase anyway.

Based on personal experience I will try and explain what I mean:

If you were buying a new car in 1990 sales people would be trying every close in the book to sell the car to you. In fact they were even offering you a full weekend test drive, where you could take the car for the weekend to try and help you make the decision. In these times Sales training programmes and sales skills were badly needed as the market was tough. Formal sales training was a must for numerous companies.

Continue reading ‘Sales Training Courses Can Help You Close More Sales’ »

A team, according to Katz Enbach, is a small group of people with complementary skills, committed to a common purpose and a set of specific performance goals. As a team leader you are likely to inherit or build a new team at some point during your career. It is vital to your success to produce a team with individuals who share visions and interests, enjoy working with each other and have a winning attitude.

This article focuses on five main areas that should be considered by team leaders or project managers when managing a successful and productive team.

Set out the team agenda.

As a team leader, it is important to set out a clear agenda before starting on any project. Team members need to know precisely what is expected of them in the team and how they need to interact with others to achieve their objectives. Involving team members in developing the agenda whenever possible and working with the team to plan the actions towards the goal will increase the interaction between leaders and team members. This also gives individuals a sense of ownership and responsibility which ultimately increases their interest in the project.

Select suitable team members.

It is important to select the right people for every project. Individuals chosen for each team should be able to interact and work closely with others while at the same time have the ability to work on their own and make important decisions. If as a leader, you have inherited an existing team, you should carefully evaluate each team member to detect any imbalance in the structure of the team. Individuals’ expertise, experiences and skills should be taken into consideration as well as their social skills, people management and emotional intelligence. Individuals chosen for the team should be similar enough in background or education to want to work with each other but not so similar to offer no added values when it comes to ideas or innovations.

Continue reading ‘How to Build Effective Teams’ »