When things get busy at work and the pressure is on, locating and controlling key documentation is of paramount importance to ensure efficiency and productivity ‘ but how often do you find yourself coming up against any of these eight familiar complaints?

Workflow Efficiency: The Eight Familiar Complaints

If any of these complaints are familiar to you, then a document management solution can help:

- I employ somebody just for filing and archiving

- I can’t keep up with customer service enquiries

- When somebody goes on holiday, we’re lost without them

- I never seem to know where anything is

- I’ve had to rewrite important documents because we lost the originals

- If we were sued, we’d spend ages finding the appropriate documentation

- We have too many paper records for compliance purposes

- Everyone in my company seems to have their own filing system

Workflow Efficiency: The One Simple Response

Document management is a glamorous name for keeping things organised. Perhaps the truly paperless office might never happen, but at least all the documents you have can be organised properly. Consider for example - what is the true cost of a key proposal which gets lost on somebody’s computer because they’ve gone on holiday and no-one can find it? Or what is the true cost in lost time of rifling through acres of archived documents looking for one sheet from five years ago?

Document management is the result of several useful technologies (printing, scanning, archival and storage) coming together in a useful and co-ordinated way. Good document management software has the following properties these days:

- Easy for staff to use

- Won’t break the bank, and offer a genuinely money-saving ROI

- Can be installed in-line with your existing IT infrastructure.

Document Management Systems: Save Time

Forget filing and photocopying (and their associated costs). With document management tools, everything is stored electronically on computer. Everything is named too, so finding documents is simple - helping you improve service to your customers and your colleagues too.

Document Management Systems: Reduce Costs

Of course good document management saves staff time. But in practice there are so many other cost savings too. Free up your storage space and use it for business! Reduce administration time. Manage projects more efficiently and reduce the margin for costly errors. Improve communication internally, response time, and customer service. Our document management solutions can help you achieve all these cost savings. And you’ll spend less on paper, postage and faxing too!

Typically, a good document management system installed and configured correctly can pay for itself in six months- time you can wisely use to push your business forward.

Document Management in Practice

Here are some key elements to workflow and communication improvements which stem from the use of document management systems:

Creating documents:

Whenever a document is created, it’s named according to your own conventions (even if it’s scanned or copied). Everything’s organised from the start and you’ll never lose a document again.

Everyone has an In-Tray:

Documents, pictures, e-mails, whatever… they all come in through your in-tray, where you can categorise them, label them, and then act on them. Send them on, collaborate with other people, and manage versions of documents automatically- so you’ll never be stuck working on yesterday’s project.

Find and retrieve:

Before document management, you had to remember filenames. Now, search by author, client, date, project- even just a phrase, and you’ll soon have the document you need.

Out of the office?

No problem- we can give you access to your office documents with the same find-and-retrieve functions over the web- at home or on the other side of the world.

Scan it in…

No need for huge paper archives. Scan it in and forget about the paper copy. You can even scribble notes in the margin electronically.

…e-mail or fax it out

Electronic documents are so much more flexible than paper. With your documents in electronic form, emailing and faxing them (and making alterations and corrections) is only a click away.

Getting ready for an interview is something that both you and your interviewer will be doing. Your interviewer will choose questions based on your previous work experience as a sort of test (and an interview is nothing if not a test) of how you would perform if given this position. You need to convince your interviewer that choosing you for the position will add to their record of success with the company in question. Try to be prepared for the tough and tricky questions which will be asked during the job interview.

There are a few questions that you can expect to be asked in any job interview. These include why are you interested in this position? Why do you want to work at this company? What are you making now? Other than these three, you will most likely be asked about your relevant skills and experience as well as what your expectations are for this position. Try to make your answers as detailed as possible and answer truthfully.

It is imperative that you have some answers to give for these questions - it is even more important that you be able to give examples from your personal experience to illustrate these answers. You can use these anecdotes to build a rapport with your interviewer, which is very important in trying to land that job.

Have all of your materials and documents with you when you walk into a job interview. Be sure to have at least two copies of your most recent CV/resume, a few references (two or three) and if applicable to the position you are applying for, work samples or a portfolio. Remember that your task in a job interview is to present a case to the interviewer that you are the perfect candidate for this job.

A very important thing to prepare for a job interviewer is a few company-specific questions for your interviewer. Asking these questions will work for you by demonstrating that you have put some thought into this position and are serious about this job and this company. Your interviewer will take note of this.

Make sure to look professional for a job interview. Dress professionally, but keep a relaxed manner about you. The most important thing is to project confidence; this is likely to make you memorable to your interviewer.

In Closing

In short, to do well in a job interview you need to do three things. Learn about the company and position so you can appear interested and knowledgeable, prepare your documents and examples from your experience and display confidence and charisma. If you can do all three of these things, you are certain to do well in a job interview.

These are some of the common bases for employment complaints and its corresponding government agencies handling employee grievances:

• Wrongful Termination – this pertains to the illegal discharge of an employee without any just reason. Usually, this performance occurs as due to an employer’s retaliatory acts against an offensive worker.

Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) or Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

• Employee Discrimination – another common cases that many employers are culpable of, discrimination is an illicit act of singling out an employee for any of the following bases (race, nationality, age, gender, marital status, religion, disability, among others)

Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE)

• Violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act – this pertains to the resistance of the employers to give their workers twelve weeks of unpaid protected leave for reasons of: caring for a newborn or adopted child, caring for a seriously ill family member and seeking medical treatment for their own sickness.

Department of Labor, Wage & Hour Division or Department of Fair Employment and Housing

• Violation of the Right to Organization – this labor law infringement is associated with any acts of an employer to prevent an employee to organize a union or to be involved in any activities arguing wages and other unpleasant work conditions.

National Labor Relations Board

• Failure to Give Worker’s Compensation – employees who will be injured in exercising their jobs are entitled for worker’s compensation benefits to help them with their medical expenses. These financial aids also aim to compensate injured employees for the period they were not able to work.

Dir, Division of Workers’ Compensation

• Hazardous Workplace – any employee has the right to refuse from entering a dangerous workplace if not appropriately informed of such conditions. They may also demand for special protective gadgets in case of unavoidable workplace risks.

Dir, Division of Occupational Safety and Health

All these government institutions are always geared up to resolve any case of labor problems and disputes. Yet, in case an aggrieved employee wishes to bring his case in court, it is imperative to hire the aid of an LA employment lawyer who is well equipped about the particular law provision that may apply in a particular case. This is to ensure the protection of his rights under the law.

Author: Jacqui Mitchell

The happiness equation is a simple tool to help you discover what’s necessary in your working life to make you feel fulfilled. Each of the 5 factors begins with the letter “P” and if you can work out what each of these factors means to you then you’ll be well on the way to discovering you ideal career. Let’s consider each of these factors in turn;

1. PURPOSE - Whatever you do in your working life must be aligned with your life purpose. Most people don’t have a clue what this is and a fair bit of digging is normally required to uncover it. This is an area where a coach can be of great assistance but if you’re trying to work this out for yourself then ask questions such as;

- What would you do if you had enough money coming in each month and didn’t actually have to work?
- What would you like to be remembered for?

2. PASSION - When you undertake an activity that you’re passionate about then you’re on a natural high, you lose all track of time and you experience what’s called “flow”. You do this for its own sake rather than for any reward that might result. Ask yourself;

- What activities or causes excite me? These may be work based or may currently be a hobby.
- When have I been so involved in doing something that I’ve lost all track of time?

3. PERSONALITY - Working out your MBIT personality profile is an excellent way to become more self-aware and understand which careers are best for you. You can do a quick test at www.personalitypage.com and there are lots of excellent resources available to help you understand more about the specific strengths and weaknesses of your type and the careers that are most suitable for you. I would particularly recommend the book “Do What You Are” by Tieger & Barron which can be purchased on the resources page of my website (www.jigsawcareercoaching.com). Remember that not everything that is written about a particular personality profile is necessarily relevant to you so just pick what resonates the most.

4. PERFORMANCE - This factor allows you to consider your natural strengths and talents. Ask yourself;

- What skills and abilities come naturally to me?
- What am I able to do with little effort?
- What am I better at than others?
- What have been my key achievements to date?

You may wish to read the book “Strengths Finder” by Tom Rath which can be purchased on my website and undertake the on-line test that will give you your top 5 strengths.

This factor can also be used as a bit of a reality check. For example, you may be passionate about singing but if you’re honest with yourself you would admit that you’re not particularly talented so you are unlikely to find success in this field.

5. PLACE- Your working environment can make a huge difference to your satisfaction at work. Key things to consider here are whether you prefer working for small or large organisations and whether you prefer to work alone or in a team. Other questions to ask yourself include;

- Where would I like to work ie. which geographical location?
- Do I prefer to work with people, data or things?
- What sort of culture I prefer?

Once you’ve completed all five factors you should start to see some patterns or themes emerging which should assist you in forming some career options for the future or even make you realise what needs to change in your current role for you to experience greater career satisfaction.