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It is the time of the year when the haze strikes Singapore. From the weather forecast, it is expected to stay from September to November, due to forest fires in Indonesia & the prolonged El-Nino effect.

The Singapore ministries have urged people to stay indoors, and avoid strenuous exercises or outdoor exposure.

This does not cause much concern for the office goers… but for the people who have to stay outdoors to make a living – the technicians, service engineers, builders, foremen, from the service, oil & gas, marine, offshore kind of industries, it is a major concern.

It is important to take care of the employees, and ensure their safety and health. Simply giving out masks may not be enough. It is best to stay indoors.

One of the things that companies can do is to use this time to boost employee productivity, by sending their staff for training to improve their skills, and boost their productivity.

Steven Covey, in his famous book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” says that the 7th Habit – “Sharpen The Saw” is often the most overlooked habit.

Because we are so busy, in our “busyness”, we tend to forget, or postpone it to “someday”, or simply ignore the most important thing – our skills, our knowledge – the things that provide us with the  ability to get things done, earn our daily bread, and provide for our families.

So what can you do now… while waiting for the haze to clear?

Be Proactive: Take some action now that will protect and secure your future.

Use this time wisely. Invest it in your education, skill building, capability building. Not just for your self, but for your employees also.

What kind of Training is available for you and your employees?

• Computer Literacy: All people should know how to work on a computer. Basic skills like using the keyboard, using the mouse, and knowing the basics of Windows, Email does help everyone. With the declining cost of computers, there is no dearth of cheap computers. Even construction workers enjoy learning how to send an email back home.

• Basic Microsoft Office Skills: People like the office receptionist, admin staff, coordinators should all know the basic computer literacy, and more… they should know how to use Microsoft Excel to create a simple spreadsheet to track employee lists, inventory, pantry lists.They can learn how to create simple checklists, track expenses, and do simple calculations with basic formulas in Microsoft Excel. Learning about fonts, margins, tabs, documents, templates, spell checks, etc. can provide the basic skills for workers to write simple emails, type out letters, documents, and summarize minutes of meetings, all using Microsoft Word.

• Advanced Microsoft Office Productivity Pack:  Learning Advanced Excel equips you with using Tables, Charts, Pivot Tables, Macros, and using Advanced Formulas, Functions, and working with Protection, Passwords, Sharing of documents, and creation of management reports using only Excel.

Word Templates, Form Letters, Mail Merge, Creating Table of Contents, using the Thesaurus, Dictionary, using advanced document management options can benefit the people who do a lot of document management, and type policy and other documents using Microsoft Word training. PowerPoint presentations go much beyond the basic bullet points.

Today, you can build transitions, animation effects, YouTube videos, time and rehearse the presentation, and apply sophisticated themes, and styles, embed Excel charts, or Word Documents, and Present in numerous ways. Advanced Printing options allow you to print handouts, create slide shows, and deliver killer presentations.

• Project Management Skills: Most junior, middle level executives, and even managers are working on some project or the other. In fact, most are working on multiple projects. Wouldn’t it be beneficial to pick up some basic and intermediate level Microsoft Project skills, that will enable you to come up with the Gantt Chart, check the feasibility of the project vis-a-vis the available resources,  budget, and timeline.

Microsoft Project goes beyond a basic task list. Now you can establish a baseline, check progress against the plans, and take corrective actions intermediately, as the data is gathered directly from the workers, saving time, and prompting better and faster decision making. The newer version of Microsoft Project are getting better in terms of speed, and performance too!

• Soft Skills: Hard computer skills are good, but they do not teach you how to communicate, how to interact with people, and how to solve problems creatively. Learning how to communicate, how to get your ideas across, and how to lead, motivate, inspire your team to greater goals is a worthy effort, and is a continuous, life long learning.

Identify the areas of improvement, training for each of your staff, executives, project managers, and the leadership team. Go for it. Quickly put some concrete steps to Get The Edge!… while waiting for the haze to clear.

Once the haze clears, you and your team will have greater clarity to achieve your organization’s vision, and will have the knowledge, skills, tips, tricks to move to the next level!

Use Government Funding for Training your staff. We can advise you on how to apply and claim the available training grants for your organization.

The Intellisoft Training team is here to help you. If you would like to discuss about the training options, need to do a training needs analysis, and help you in choosing the different types of Word or Excel training courses for your team, simply call us at +65-6250-3575 or email to training@intellisoft.com.sg.

We will be glad to assist you in beating the haze, and transforming your organization for tomorrow!

Cheers,
Vinai Prakash
CEO & Founder,
Intellisoft Training