Voxel News

Poems and stories can provide powerful metaphors in training, particularly when you are trying to get a motivational point across. If you think about the things you remember from your past education, you will probably note that most of them have come from rhymes or stories of some kind. I mean how did you learn to say your A,B,C's? I bet you're even saying the rhyme in your head right now! I find that participants respond extremely well when you sum up a topic with a rhyme that fits the occasion and there are so many wonderful examples to be taken from past literature that it really doesn't have to take too much time looking for them either. An example of this for me was the subject of 'procrastination'. I really struggled to get the point across to learners when approaching what is a pretty dry topic. However, once I added the concept of 'Swallow the frog' (shamelessly stolen from Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn) they really started to get it. Now I quite

It is not good enough for others to say they will stop doing something offensive - they need to act themselves out of bad behaviors. Did you know that 50% of Australians have witnessed bullying in the workplace and have been unable to help mostly due to fear? Workplace bullying costs business up to $15 billion in lost production and employee leave annually 1 in 7 Victorian workers were bullied in the last 6 months *Source: Rob Moodie CEO Vic Health While these statistics may disturb you, they may not surprise you - the sting of the bully goes deep and most of us either know someone who has been bullied or have been bullied themselves. Bullying has been described by Victoria Workcover Authority as "Verbal abuse, excluding or isolating employees, psychological harassment Intimidation and damaging the self esteem of others, practical jokes, abuse of power, repeated sarcastic remarks, assigning meaningless tasks unrelated to the job, asking women with families to stay behind when they

Creating awareness for your healthcare facility, especially with little or no budget, can be a daunting task. New competitors, a lack of prior marketing, a poor reputation in the past and lack of funds are all reasons why your facility may be experiencing a decline in patients or a lack of growth. While a difficult task for any business, creating awareness for a healthcare facility can be especially daunting because there is so much competition out there. Here are a few inexpensive ways to let people know you're out there and what you stand for. 1. Write articles or provide tips to local homeowners' associations. 2. Provide educational information for small businesses in the community by contributing to your local chamber of commerce. Think workplace safety, workman's comp, etc. 3. Publish articles or inexpensive advertorials in your local community paper. 4. Partner with realtors in the area and target new families moving into the community. Make sure they know where you a

Making the transition from college student to full-time member of the workforce can be a difficult time for many graduates. Many graduates will accept responsibilities for their own lives and their own financial support for the very first time. A surprising number of graduates are advised of the challenges of finding a good job in the current job market. Many graduates are advised to simply apply for and accept any job that comes to their attention. Unfortunately, far too many new graduates are guided by this advice and settle for jobs in which they are undervalued and under-challenged. But, you don't have to settle. You can find a challenging job in which you will be valued and in which you can thrive. We offer the following top tips to new grads as they enter the job market. 1. Know your skills, abilities and strengths. This applies to both "hard" skills, and to those "soft" skills that make people good with other people. 2. Know what you want to do and focus

If you think hurdling the job interview had been tough, wait until it's time to give executive gifts. Selecting executive gifts can be a terrifying and time-consuming process, particularly because this is a time for confusion and self-doubt. What in the world can you buy for the boss who has everything? Or for the officemate whose cubicle is right next to yours? What do you give to that special client whose single real estate purchase helped you meet the downpayment for your new car? The most useful thing to remember in choosing executive gifts is to consider the personality of the recipient. Paperweights with humorous sayings, for example, won't meet much appreciation from that serious vegetarian who sits three cubicles to the right. Similarly, a bouquet of flowers will only meet blank looks from your dour, 58-year-old male boss who is always so busy he doesn't have time to smell his newly cleaned office, much more a bunch of poinsettias. The safest and the most reliable p