The Juice- Issue 7
Welcome to The Juice- the newsletter that keeps you posted and refreshed.
Every quarter we aim to bring interesting and fun articles to you. If you have any suggestions or would like to see an article/interview featured, please let us know by emailing emily.bennett@mendas.com
These are the topics that caught our attention this quarter...
The role of psychology in training
In the current economic climate budgets are being reduced, and it may be tempting to see training as an easy target for cutbacks. However, training is more important than ever during these times of recession.
Training should therefore, be seen as an investment, not only for the individual but for the business as a whole. And everything should be done to make sure that the investment is worthwhile by ensuring the training programme is an effective one.
This article will look at providing some insights and practical tips into what you need to do to design and deliver an effective training programme. We will cover some of the insights from the world of psychology that can be useful at the different stages of the training cycle.
In this first instalment we will look at what the training cycle is and will give you practical tips around the first three stages of the cycle. We will then cover the following 2 stages (Implement Training and Evaluate Training) in the next instalment but if you can’t wait, please feel free to give us a call.
Read more on the role psychology plays in training- by Helena Murray, Junior Psychologist Mendas Ltd.
Sifting- practical tips to manage high volume of applications
With the credit crunch hitting the job market, organisations are receiving, or are expecting to receive a greater number of applications than normal. This can present a number of challenges for organisations. So what can you do to avoid being inundated with applications for every role you advertise? And how do you manage the applications once you have received them?
These potential challenges in managing large volumes of applications broadly fall in to two categories: how to manage application numbers before receiving them and how to manage application numbers after they have been received.
Read some thoughts and practical advice on sifting from Mary Wakefield, Junior Psychologist, Mendas Ltd.
Do you need to get your delegates thinking about change?
With change being a hot topic at the moment there are some simple activities that can be done to get people thinking about this topic:
- Folding over arms in the opposite way to what you usually do
- Writing with dominant and then non-dominant hand
After both of these get your delegates to reflect on how difficult/uncomfortable it was, and how, with more practice, they can get better at it.
Dealing with change can have the same impact on people as they will often need to work in different ways to what they were used to and that can feel uncomfortable/unnatural. However, with practice, people do get better at it until the Change becomes Routine again.
Following on from the previous exercise, you can get your delegates to pass an object around. They will need to work out how best to do it as the difficulty is increased by timing them. This reflects the increased pressure they are likely to experience within the workplace. Then, get people to stop and think how they can do it differently, as they would need to do in the workplace during a period of change.
Mendas in the Press
Check out Mendas Media Centre for all articles featuring Mendas in the press here.
Whilst all the media out there was making public the job cuts by yet another big company, Justin Spray, Mendas Founder and Director, was being interviewed by The Guardian on how to support managers who have to announce redundancies. Justin had also plenty to say to Personnel Today about the prospects for HR graduates.
Competition
Back to last issue’s competition and the type of motivation that comes from the pleasure one gets from the task itself. Sorry to those that answered extrinsic or eccentric motivation but the right answer was intrinsic motivation. Well done Anita! We hope you’ll enjoy your £100 theatre tokens.
And if you fancy £100 theatre tokens for yourself, enter this quarter’s competition by emailing paola.meloni@mendas.com. It is easier than you think!
What did Justin Spray say in his interview featured on the article “Redundancy: They called me The Angel of Death” published in the Guardian on 22nd August?
a. Learning to breaking bad news can make you better at your job as it teaches people the art of making decisions
b. When making people redundant it is important that you learn not to blame yourself
c. When the UK entered into the recession we were lucky to have a large percentage of our workforce able to deal with this difficult situation
