Category Archives: Employability

career, Career choices, Career Success, Employability, Interview, Leadership, Leadership Insights Series, Michael Josem, Personal Values, Webinar

Leadership Insights Series – Michael Josem, Senior Manager, Game Security Team, PokerStars.com

In the first of our ‘Leadership Insights Series’ Webinars for 2011, Gary Ryan will interview Michael Josem, a successful young professional who has created a highly successful career as a result of playing games!

Michael will share a series of turning points and decisions that enabled him to ‘out’ an online gaming fraud, which created a series of events that resulted in him being offered a job in the field of work associated with playing online poker, a passion of Michael’s that had developed while he was at university. One of these events resulted in Michael being interviewed on the USA 60 Minutes program for his role as an internet security expert in discovering the online fraud which result in over $20Million being returned to players.

With a strong sense of personal values Michael’s role involves ensuring that ‘fraud’ is kept out of the system and that online poker players all have a fair chance for success.

If you have wondered how jobs such as Michael’s are discovered, or how online poker can be driven by an organisation with a strong sense of fairness and integrity, then register for this 30 minute webinar, I’m sure you will find it intriguing.

Michael, in his late 20s will share his story and how his passion now has him setting sail to work from the Isle of Man.

Seats are limited for the exclusive webinar so please register now.

Seats are limited for the exclusive webinar so please register now.

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Customer Service, Employability, Employability Skills, Leaders, Leadership, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence

News Flash – Great service attracts customers!

Leonard Berry (author of On Great Service, 1995) has long advocated that great service attracts customers. This is because there are so many companies who are poor at service delivery. It is therefore easy for customers to differentiate between good and poor service companies and providing the benefit that the customer receives is more than their burden for obtaining that service or product, customers will continue to be attracted to great service.

Berry also highlights that a large benefit of great service is that positive word-of-mouth advertising is generated by great service. In short, great service attracts customers.

Quote from a research participant
For a long period of time my friend had been telling me about this bakery near where she lives. Finally I went there. She was right! The people and the ‘taste bud delights’ were fantastic! You should go there too!

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Employability, Employability Skills, Leaders, Leadership, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence, Strategy

Great service identifies what we shouldn’t be doing

Just as great service tells us what we should be focussing upon and where our resources should be allocated, great service also helps to identify what we need to stop doing or what we should not start doing in the first place.

Southwest Airlines is an example of an organisation that is clear about the service that its customers want. They want safe, regular, reliable services that will get them to their destination on time delivered by genuine, caring and courteous staff.

Everything else, the in-flight food, the styling of the tickets etc. is all secondary to the main expectations of its customers.

Southwest’s Customer Charter outlines how it respects and addresses the expectations of its customers. You will not find Southwest Airlines placing a lot of focus on in-flight food. While it is available, it is not the main focus of their service. So they don’t put any more effort than is required into that part of their service.

Southwest’s service focus enables it to know what to do and what not to do.

Quote
After we had expelled three members from the centre and fully refunded their memberships (even though they had already used 90% of their time) we were approached by more than 30 members who told us that if we had not acted and expelled the three people, then they would have all gone and joined another centre. It really re-enforced that our members’ code of behaviour was there for a reason. The worst thing we could have done was to have turned a blind eye to it. It would have cost us.

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Career-Professionals, ebook, Employability, Employability Skills, Personal Development, What Really Matters

What Really Matters! Volume 2, Number 4, 2010 ebook released

What Really Matters! Volume 2, Number 4, 2010 is now released.

This issue includes contributions from Tanya Rutherford and Alicia Curtis.

The ebook is created from the top articles that have appeared on the OTM Academy during the period October 1st 2010 through to December 31st 2010.

Topics include:

  • How to create the conditions for team members to maintain their motivation
  • The role of awareness in providing service excellence
  • Various ways to ensure a consistent and high level of service delivery
  • The link between listening and conversational skills
  • Identifying personal values
  • Workplace trust
  • Problem solving
  • Planning for 2011
  • and much, much more!

As this is a free ebook you have permission to share it with others, providing you do not change or alter the ebook in any way.

You can download the ebook here. 

I encourage you to search the blog tags on this site for all the other free ebooks that are available for you.

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Annemarie Cross, Business Success Podcast, Employability, Leaders, Leadership, What Really Matters For Young Professionals

Business Success Podcast Interview with Annemarie Cross


Listen to a short interview on the Business Success Podcast hosted by Annemarie Cross.

Annemarie is a Branding Specialist and Business Coach and recently requested if I would be happy to be interviewed on her Business Success Podcast show.

In this interview I talk about:

  • The importance of organisational values
  • How to hire the right staff, and
  • How to build a top performing team, and much more!

Please take the time to listen to the short interview here.

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Customer Service, Employability, Employability Skills, Leaders, Leadership, Service Excellence

Income grows when you deliver great service

We have already identified that great service requires everyone and everything in the organisation to be aligned to enable the business to meet/exceed customer expectations. Think about your own experience as a customer. When your expectations are met and/or exceeded are you likely to use that service and/or to recommend it to others? Most often the answer to this questions is, “Yes!”.

Therefore it is not rocket science to see the relationship between providing a consistently good service/product and income growth. Don’t forget that a basic principle of great service is knowing and meeting/exceeding customer expectations. As expectations change, so does the service or product. Great service is not great service if it is not current. Gronroos (2000) highlights that it costs 5-6 times as much to attract a new customer as it does to keep an existing customer. So not only does great service increase income, it keeps costs down.

Why not use this article to stimulate Conversations That Matter® within your team or organisation?

Quote from a research participant
I’m a financial clerk. My job involves a lot of report writing. One day I asked one of the recipients of my reports if there was anything else that I could do for him. He said yes and explained this new report he wanted. It didn’t take long for me to create it and I now include it in my monthly reports. Last week he told me that he had recently made some decisions based on the patterns emerging from the new reports and that sales had gone up. I couldn’t believe it, I’m a financial clerk and I had actually contributed to making more money for the company.


What are your example of how great service has grown income?

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Customer Service, Employability, Employability Skills, Leaders, Leadership, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence

Delivering great service gives us job satisfaction

All staff, whether the CEO or the lowliest paid employee in the organisation, have a high sense of job satisfaction when they are able to serve their customers properly. When systems & processes exist to support the passion of people, great service can flow through an organisation.

The satisfaction that comes from serving people results from the positive relationship that staff feel with an organisation when they are supported in serving their customers. Positive staff relationships result in improved service. In turn, this type of relationship results in a positively reinforcing virtuous cycle that generates great service. In this sense, it is absolutely vital that systems & processes support staff in building positive relationships with clients, customers and stakeholders. Without this support delivering great service and staff job satisfaction fall through the floor.

How well do systems & processes support staff to deliver great service in your organisation?

Quote
Relationship employees work harder and smarter. They care about the business, its future, its destiny. The business becomes their business. (Leonard L Berry)

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Employability, Employability Skills, High Performing Teams, Leadership, Teamwork, Webinar, What Makes People Tick

Teams That Matter Webinar Recording

Webinar Recording, November 2010.
Gary Ryan introduces the seven key elements for creating Teams That Matter. High performing teams are rare, but they don’t have to be. Discover the key elements that will help you to create a high performing Team That Matters.

Please contact me if you would like to learn more about how I can help you create a Team That Matters.

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
AAGE, career, Career Success, Casual Work, Employability, Part-Time Work

Research shows that part time work and volunteering pay off

Research based on member responses and presented at the Australian Association of Graduate Employers (AAGE) showed that 83% of graduate roles were given to applicants who did part-time or casual work. The research also showed that doing volunteer or charity work is highly regarded from a prospective employers perspective as 48% of successful candidates had indicated that they had been volunteers.

Establishing your employability largely comes from your ability to demonstrate that you can work with people to achieve shared objectives. Part-time/casual work and volunteering provide opportunities to do exactly that.

I often hear young people say, “Oh, I just work in a supermarket” or “I just work in a cafe.” or “I’m just doing some volunteering for my local charity”.

There is no such thing as ‘just‘ a part-time/casual job or volunteering role. All these roles help to prove that you are employable because they all involve teamwork, communication, leadership, innovation, problem solving – the list goes on!

The evidence is overwhelming that part-time/casual and volunteering roles matter. Don’t forget it. Notice the ‘real’ employability skills that you are learning. Employers are interested and your chances of being employed are significantly higher if you understand and practice this fact.

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
career, Career choices, Employability, High School, Post Secondary Education, Post Secondary Training, students, University

After Year 12, What’s next?

If you or someone you know has just completed Year 12 in Australia and would like to know which career paths are most likely to result in an available job, then you can’t go past the DEEWR New Jobs 2010 Report.

The report includes job projections to 2014/2015 for the following 19 industries, with the most growth expected in declining order:
1. Health Care and Social Assistance (3.3% per annum)
2. Mining (3.3% per annum)
3. Education and Training (2.7% per annum)
4. Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (2.6% per annum)
5. Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services (2.4% per annum)
6. Construction (2.4% per annum)
7. Transport, Postal and Warehousing (2.3% per annum)
8. Accommodation and Food Services (2.0% per annum)
9. Information, Media and telecommunication (1.8% per annum)
10. Retail Trade (1.8% per annum)
11. Financial and Insurance Services (1.6% per annum)
12. Administrative and Support Services (1.6% per annum)
13. Arts and Recreation Services (1.5% per annum)
14. Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (1.5% per annum)
15. Public Administration and safety (1.3% per annum)
16. Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Service (1.3% per annum)
17. Other Services (0.5% per annum)
18. Wholesale Trade (0.5% per annum)
19 Manufacturing (-0.7% per annum)

This information can be vital in terms of the post secondary education/training choices that people make, so it is well worth keeping up to date with the report, which is available here.

It is also important to recognise that qualifications take time to be completed, so looking ahead at what the jobs landscape can be very helpful and important.

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com