The following is a short article written by ITS Tutorial School’s corporate training director on some simple tips when writing an office memo or sending an email. To read more interesting articles written by ITS’s staff please visit our website.

• English tuition HK
• IB revision classes
• IELTS classes Hong Kong
• Schools in Hong Kong
• Chinese language version
• IELTS information in Chinese
• Education resources for Hong Kong

A simple memo or email can cause tongues to wag, ears to burn, eyebrows to raise , and noses to be put out of joint. It might even cause heads to roll. The interoffice memo is a powerful document.

Some offices are more political than others, but all operate according to certain unspoken rules. While the political environment and the rules of etiquette differ from company to company, the following general warnings may help you save your neck.

Know when not to write

Highly sensitive or highly personal messages are often better communicated ‘off the record’. Information that is confidential or critical , bombastic or sarcastic should probably not be written either.

Send your memo/email to the right person

Send your memo to the person responsible for an activity or function . Never go over anyone’s head. If you get no results, courtesy demands that you tell the person that you plan to take the matter up with someone in higher authority.

Ask who should sign a memo/email

Occasionally, even though you have written a memo, your boss might want to sign it. If you guess this might be the case, simply ask ‘Would you like to sign this memo, or should I?’

Send copies to the right people

Send a copy to anyone affected by or interested in the subject, anyone in a direct line of authority between you and the addressee, and anyone you have mentioned in your memo/email.  Avoid sending copies to curry favour or to put someone on the spot.

Avoid territorial battles

Concern yourself with issues that fall within your area of responsibility. If you are writing about an issue that involves others, or that others might see as their special area, acknowledge their involvement, compliment them for their contributions, or invite them to collaborate in writing the memo.

Avoid surprising your reader

Prepare your reader for news that might be surprising, especially if the news will not be greeted with enthusiasm. Call ahead to say ‘You’ll be getting a memo later today explaining why we have had to cut your budget’, or attach a short covering note that softens the blow.

Give important information to important people first

If you are disseminating important information, consider sending it a couple of days ahead to important people, that is, to those who would be embarrassed if they did not know about it before others. Not everyone reads mail when it arrives.

Good luck…

But where to start, that’s a good question? Well, here’s a good answer. By logging on to a bingo reviews website you will find all the details of all the top online bingo websites, with recommendations and opinions from the people who play; the ‘bingo maniacs’. You’ll be able to find out all about free bingo sites, that’s right, you read it correctly, you can play no deposit bingo for real money without spending any cash at all, absolutely free. If you do deposit some of your hard earned cash, many of the sites will match it with a deposit of their own, you won’t be able to believe it, there are offers you simply won’t be able to resist. With so many new bingo sites springing up, there are always plenty of fantastic offers out there, just waiting for you to cash in on.

And it’s not just the new sites which have fantastic offers. Try some of the traditional and established sites too, they all have special promotions from time to time, you can even win prizes like laptops and TV’s, if you know where to look. Take a peek at Virgin Bingo, Gala Bingo, Foxybingo, Ladbrokes Bingo and Tasty Bingo, for all of the latest information and special offers just waiting for you. There’s a good reason that these sites are so popular, it’s because they really are that good!

The sky’s the limit if you choose to play at Sky Bingo. They even have run a special promotional game with a massive £20,000 jackpot prize fund available for a 2p ticket; how crazy is that? The offer is finished now, but watch out for something equally fantastic to come along, you can really reach for the sky on this fantastic site.

Make sure you get over to Paddy Power Bingo on the last Sunday of every month for fantastic games with fantastic prizes. Games start at 8pm so make sure you’re there to take advantage of their madness. You might just have the luck of the Irish playing at Paddy Power Bingo.

Bingo Scotland has some great ideas to keep you coming back for more. They will give you £30 free for just depositing £10, you’re in the money already, and with the added advantage of earning ‘Scottie points’ with every card you buy, the more you play, the more free games you can get. You can earn these points by referring your friends too, so what are you waiting for, tell all of your friends about it now. It doesn’t get much better than that now, does it?

No wonder the whole nation is turning into bingo maniacs. With all of these special offers, promotions and fantastic prizes, you’d have to be a maniac not to play.

• wink bingo review
• costa bingo review
• posh bingo review

• HR Software
• HR Systems

A Practical Guide to Delivering Meaningful People-Based Information
This Briefing Paper explores the concept of people-based business intelligence, an emerging approach to people management that moves reporting and analysis away from inward-looking HR metrics into a broader business context. Made possible by a combination of software tools, process automation and evolving people management priorities, business intelligence gives organisations greater insight into their employee base and helps propel Human Capital Management up the boardroom agenda.

The Briefing Paper argues that:

Senior management teams struggle to get the information they need about their employees because so much reporting is rooted in the inner workings of the HR department. While operational HR indicators have an important role to play, people-based business intelligence provides a deeper insight into underlying trends, meaning and business context.

People-based business intelligence transforms the scope of HR reporting and analysis. Measures range from operational efficiency (‘How fast are you recruiting?’) to effectiveness (‘Are you recruiting the right people?’); from cost assessment to trend analysis; and from ad hoc ‘what if?’ analysis to strategic workforce planning
While some components of people-based business intelligence software have been available for the best part of a decade, take-up has been relatively slow. Adoption levels are likely to increase, however, with the emergence of easy-to-use software tools, context-rich management dashboards and distribution mechanisms such as employee portals. Business intelligence capability is also starting to be offered as a hosted service, where the provider takes on the IT burden of running the software and the customer accesses it over the internet.

One prerequisite for people-based business intelligence is an effective data management strategy, pulling together people-related information and centralising access to it. Many organisations will look to use their HR Management System as the ‘central source of truth’ for people-related activities, inside and outside the HR department. Taking this approach doesn’t simply improve business intelligence: it also helps simplify complex, multi-function activities such as onboarding.

Traditional approaches to software projects tend to focus on automation ahead of business intelligence, partly because automation tackles highly visible inefficiencies. As a result, business intelligence initiatives are often relegated to a second phase of implementation – and frequently forgotten in the face of more pressing day-to-day priorities. Webster Buchanan Research believes that the two components should go hand-in-hand: automation, after all, generates much of the data needed for effective business intelligence, which in turn gives organisations greater insight into their operational efficiency.

While improvements in software provide the platform for business intelligence, some HR functions lack the necessary analytical skills to make the most of the outputs. In the future, service providers are likely to step in to offer these skills as an additional outsourced service.

When Webster Buchanan Research carried out a recruitment survey earlier this year, several questions about metrics gave a good insight into the way HR directors and managers think. Our findings demonstrated that recruitment reporting is still largely centred on traditional HR-specific metrics such as time/days to hire, rather than business-centric measurements. Less than a quarter of respondents (23%) said they report on the direct cost of recruitment today, for example, and just 6% on indirect costs (for example, in HR/line managers’ time). Only a third of respondents report on the business impact of unfilled vacancies, including the impact on productivity.

Although respondents to the survey were committed to changing the way they report – over a quarter expect to start reporting on the business impact of unfilled vacancies this year – the results demonstrate that much people management reporting is still rooted in the inner workings of the HR department, rather than assessing its impact on the broader business.

Reference: ‘Recruitment 2008: From Marketing Theory to the Practicalities of Web-based Hiring’, a survey published in March 2008 by Webster Buchanan Research.

Establishing this link between traditional people-related metrics and broader business drivers is fundamental to any Human Capital Management strategy. As the HR function strives to find a voice at board level, the ability to present employee-related issues in a relevant context for senior management is becoming increasingly important – a way of thrusting people-related issues to the top of the agenda and reinforcing HR’s business credentials. This combination of business context and board level relevance is what Webster Buchanan Research terms ‘People-based Business Intelligence’ – sometimes called HR Business Intelligence. It’s about making better use of the rich sources of data that the HR function has at its fingertips, both for HR’s own benefit and for the broader business.

None of this is to demean the stature of classic HR reporting. Metrics such as days-to-hire are key indicators of HR operational efficiency, while absenteeism statistics and other data provide useful comparators, both to measure against historical performance and to compare with external benchmarks. But people-based business intelligence takes this kind of analysis to another level and provides a deeper insight into the underlying trends and meaning. It doesn’t just measure absenteeism rates, for example – it measures what absenteeism costs the business in terms of bottom line profit, employee morale, opportunity cost and so forth.

Much of this impact analysis depends on an organisation’s ability to tie together different pieces of information. For example, most organisations retain data relating to employee performance, built around individual performance appraisals and departmental performance against target. Likewise, information about salaries, bonuses, and benefits are readily available, albeit often in different systems. The problem is that many organisations struggle to link the different sets of data together to ensure that compensation is closely tied to individual and group performance.

Part of the issue here is cultural, although this is slowly changing as people management rises up the corporate agenda and demand for better information grows. Part of it is about how effectively organisations manage their data, which tends to be scattered between spreadsheets, HR management systems, finance systems, specialist applications, filing cabinets and in many cases, employees’ heads. This too is changing, thanks to the emergence of a new generation of affordable, easier-to-use software applications and tools. And part of it is about how well equipped organisations are to analyse data when they actually get their hands on it.

This combination of changing HR philosophies, new technology enablers and practical solutions to skills shortages provides the platform to deliver effective business intelligence.

Computers In Personnel Ltd
28-30 Chapel St
Marlow, SL7 1DD
0870 366 2345

• Chauffeur Insurance
• Taxi Insurance
• Minibus Insurance
• www.xyzinsurance.co.uk
• Motor Trade Insurance
• Van Insurance
• Breakdown Insurance
• Home Insurance
• Motorcycle Insurance

If you own a taxi or a minicab, which in other words is called a ‘private hire vehicle’ means that you need to have it insured. There are a wide variety of options available in the market when it comes to choosing the right taxi insurance for your vehicle. In order to get an all inclusive taxi insurance it is necessary that you do a small amount of surfing and studying the market.

Choosing the right kind of taxi insurance also hugely depends on the individual requirement and your priorities. If you operate a taxi company that stocks a fleet of taxis then the most suitable insurance scheme for you would be the taxi fleet insurance. It not only helps in saving money big time, but also saves a lot of administration time. However, there one factor that plays a major role in qualifying for the taxi fleet insurance, and that is the number of taxis available. This factor varies from company to company.

If you own a couple of taxis then it be a good decision to shop around a bit and study the market properly before taking any judgmental decision. Find out if any company offers a taxi fleet insurance for two or three taxis. The biggest advantage of getting a taxi fleet insurance is that under this scheme, several types of vehicles can be insured. For instance, if you have a combination of say, 2 minicabs, one taxi and a minibus, then you can get them all covered under the same insurance policy. Some companies also provide coverage for your spouse’s car free of cost, along with insuring your vehicle.

The best option would be contact an insurance company which specializes in a providing taxi fleet insurance. They can help you to get the most suitable taxi insurance, fitted to cover all your needs. You can surf online to find contacts for insurance companies who can let you know if a cost saving insurance option is available for you.

Apart from the number of vehicles, another factor that determines the cost is having different drivers to drive your private vehicle. There are a wide variety of taxi insurance options available for you. Getting a fleet of vehicle insured for any drivers is perhaps the most expensive form of insurance available. However, this does not imply that having a fleet of taxis means you also own different drivers for driving them. The drivers can be alternated when the vehicles are in repair or according to the requirement of the customers.

If you are looking for taxi insurance for your personal vehicle of a fleet of vehicles, trust XYZ Insurance to serve you better. They constitute of a dedicated team who research them market and all pains to present you a panel of Insurance schemes. You can ask for your quotes online and XYZ Insurance will check with their providers and offer you the best suited insurance quote to cover all you needs. This makes your task easier and you also get the benefit of getting the best option available in the market!

• Samsung Tocco Lite Black
• Cheap Nokia N97 Mini
• Sony Ericsson Satio Black
• Cheap HTC HD 2
• Nokia N900
• Nokia N86 8MP Black
• Nokia N97 Black
• Nokia X6 Blue
• Mobile Phone Deals

There are simple, cheap mobile phones and there are complex, expensive mobile phones to choose from when you are looking for a new mobile phone. How do you know how to select the right mobile phone to satisfy your needs? How do you know whether to choose a texting whiz like the Samsung Tocca Ultra or the Nokia N97 with full keypads, or a mobile phone designed especially for music and entertainment such as the Nokia 5800? Are you looking for super fast speeds offered by phones like the Samsung Jet? With so many options to choose from, choosing the right mobile phone can be daunting.

Perhaps the most basic step in selecting the right mobile phone is also the most obvious step; think about how you are going to be using the phone. Will you use the phone only on rare occasions or for emergencies or will you be inseparable from your new phone? Will you text constantly, sometimes or maybe never at all? Do you need a phone capable of sending and receiving email? Will you use your phone to play games, will you be browsing the web, will you use your phone for music and entertainment and do you plan on taking videos and still pictures? These are but a few of the considerations to ponder before making the final selection of a new mobile phone. One of the real keys to being satisfied with a mobile phone is buying a phone that is capable of doing everything that you need it to; so think about your needs before you buy.

Another factor critical to selecting the right mobile phone is choosing the right network service. The best phone in the world will be useless if you sign up with a service provider that is shoddy or one that does not serve your geographical area. Ask around among your friends, family and co-workers for their service recommendations. It would be a disaster to buy a spiffy new phone from a network, sign a year contract and then find out their service is poor or non-existent.

When considering what type of service you need, think about how you will use your phone. If you will be using it only for rare calls you would be fine with 2G service. However, if you will be doing much downloading, 3G is definitely the way to go. 4G is on the horizon so soon, even faster speeds will be available; if you require high speed be sure to sign with a provider capable of delivering it.

Overall, choosing the perfect mobile phone for you is not so difficult; especially if you go online to thephonenetwork.co.uk to make the easiest comparisons and score the best deals. Thephonenetwork.co.uk makes it simple to compare over 439,000 mobile phone buys from major network service providers such as T-Mobile, Orange, Virgin, O2, Vodaphone and 3 Mobile.

Finding the mobile phone that is right for you equates with finding the phone and service that does everything you want while fitting comfortably into your lifestyle.

• Ilink 9000
• Ilink 8000
• SV 360
• SV-8000 HD
• SV IHub
• Conaxsat
• CNX Nano 2
• Dreambox 600
• FTA Receivers

Entertainment is very important for our physical, psychological and emotional health. There are thousands of ways one can entertain oneself and with technology advancements the options keep on increasing. Just a few years back we had very few options, such as reading a book, listening to your favorite music, going out for a walk or eating out at a restaurant; but now the options are endless. However, it is another well-known fact that entertainment is expensive and if we want to go for cost effective solutions, poor quality is always a risk. Let’s discuss a quality and cost effective source of entertainment – Free-to-Air.

Before going into the details of Free to Air, let us discuss other entertainment options available to you while choosing television entertainment. With a wide range of products out there if you wish to entertain yourself by watching a soap opera in your native language, what options do you currently have?

Your first option is to go for a satellite system subscription for which you need to buy a dish network. This will cost you in buying the hardware and also you have to pay the provider a monthly subscription fee to view restricted or coded channels.

Your second option is to buy the required equipment and go for those satellite providers who don’t charge any monthly fees. This is a good option but to keep up with it, you need to spend on Electronic Counter Measures to view programs.

Your third option is Free-to-Air! Free to Air is as the name suggests; it is free. You don’t need to pay any subscription fees, any monthly charges, any extra and hidden charges and without any contract you can view programs without limitations. The best part is that if you are not a native to the area, then your receiver may receive channels from your home country and you can enjoy programs in your own language, which doubles your excitement and entertainment.

Free-to-Air systems are the best for those who wish to enjoy TV in their own native language which makes them feel connected to their roots. There are hundreds of channels broadcast as FTA on the satellite; if you can’t find your desired channel, you can always rotate the dish to get the desired signals.

As far as multilingual broadcasts are concerned, you can see programs in thousands of languages. There are even languages which you probably never thought of having on your TV. There are languages like Greek, Italian, Spanish and Arabic, and on the other hand there are also unheard languages like Farsi, Pashto, and Tagalog. There are almost 300 different languages showing thousands of programs from around 180 different countries from all over the world. There are a few channels available in some languages like Italian, but in some languages like Arabic there are quite a large number of channels available. Once you decide to have an FTA system, the second step is to decide the equipment provider. If you select the best supplier around, they will help you with the installation and other aspects of your purchase, further reducing your cost.

One way to find the best mobile phone for you is to shop around. You can do this by going into your local store or simply online from the conveniences of your own home. Before you do this, however, you should have already decided what features you want on your phone and what features are available on each model of cell phone that you want. Most carriers have plans that will match the mobile phone features you wish to have.

One feature that is a must on mobile phones is a good battery life. You want to be able to talk or browse as long as you can without having to constantly stop to recharge. There is nothing worse than being disconnected due to a dead phone in the middle of an important phone conversation. You may even want to check into purchasing an extra battery to just to make sure everything is covered.

Another feature to have on mobile phones is phone insurance. By having insurance on your phone you are ensuring that you will still have a phone if something happens to your own device. Things that could occur would be dropping the phone, misplacing your cell phone when you are out, or your phone getting stolen. These things aren’t the most pleasant to deal with; however, having insurance on you phone makes times like these a bit more easy to deal with. Some of the insurance from your phone carriers will not include some of the newer smart phones, but there are some companies that will give insurance policies on those phones too.

Of course, there is also the normal features of the mobile phones like music, messaging, and other phone functions. The smart phones also have functioning devices that work more like a PDA or a mini personal computer. The applications for these devices might include more than just your typical e-mail, but also applications like Microsoft Word, Excel or other business and word processing systems.

Most of mobile phones like the Sony Ericson Satio Black also have the capability of playing radio and MP3 applications, as well as video and audio recording with crisp and clear quality. The cameras on these devices include zoom, multi-screen and multi-picture, while making sure the quality of your pictures are up to your high standards. These features are done while keeping the small and trendy designs.

You can purchase extra accessories to make the mobile phone experience even better. For example, the use of a Bluetooth device will allow you to drive or walk and talk at the same time. This feature is also safer than talking on your phone while driving. In fact, in a lot of states, you have to have a hands free device for talking on your mobile phone while driving to cut back on the number of vehicle crashes. Other mobile phones you might want to check out are the Nokia N97 Black, the Nokia X6 and the Blackberry Storm 2.

• Leather Briefcases
• Leather Document Case
• Leather Wallets
• Leather Purses
• Leather Handbags
• Leather Luggage U.K.
• Ladies Leather Briefcase
• Leather Backpacks
• Leather Attache Cases
• Leather Briefcases

Italian leather, and the products made from it, is world famous. These products can range from purses to shoes to car upholstery. However, this world famous Italian leather comes with a price much higher than leather manufactured in other countries. This price is what prompts consumers to ask this question: what is so special about Italian leather?

The primary characteristic of Italian leather is the quality and craftsmanship of the products made from it. The leather producers in the country of Italy have consistently produced leather that is of a very high quality, in contrast to leather manufacturers in other parts of the world. Part of the reasoning behind this consistent quality is due to the fact that Italians have been working with leather for centuries. Tanning was a dirty business and when health, safety and pollution laws shut down leather manufacturing in other countries, Italy decided to take on the excess business. Countries began shipping hides from all over the world to Italy to be tanned into leather. A hide is not leather until is has gone through the tanning process. Many hides come from other countries, but if they are tanned in Italy they can be marked “made in Italy”.

The process by which leather is tanned in Italy has benefited from modern technology some, but remains essentially the same as it has been for the last three thousand years. Much of the process of production of leather in Italy is still done by hand and passed down in families that have history in the business. Animal hides are carefully inspected and only the finest specimens are accepted. Then, throughout the process, quality checks can be carried out at every step by a person trained to look for imperfections in the processes. The Italian leather producers also use high quality dyes and chemicals that will produce consistent, durable and long-lasting products.

There are also a number of Italian leather producers that still use the more traditional vegetable tanning. This process produces a deeper and longer lasting leather product, but can take up to 40 times longer to complete. It produces almost zero environmental toxins or pollutants and is much better for the health of the leather workers. In 1994, the Italian Consortium of Leather Tannery was formed to promote the more environmentally friendly and quality conscience production of leather and leather goods in Italy. Today, there are 26 tanneries stretched throughout Italy that promote the quality of the products. The consortium provides a certification to consumers that the product was manufactured from one of the 26 tanneries that are members. This certification guarantees the quality of the product. These products typically are so durable that the companies that sell them will guarantee them for life.

Italy has become famous over the centuries for its leather production, especially in Tuscany. Therefore, the process has been perfected in this industry and country for hundreds of years. These time-honored skills have been passed down from generation to generation. Today there are more than 2,000 leather workers in Tuscany’s leather district.

In many different north west buildings, many people are storing their items for different reasons. Whether it is for personal, business, or a combination of both, there needs to be adequate storage for whatever reason. Luckily, many companies cater to these people for just these reasons, offering various methods for these people who may need them.

Fortunately for the citizens of the north west, they have a lot of different options for people to store their things. The operators are often times friendly, professional and are dedicated to their craft. They understand what it is like for people to want to store their things, as they have devoted their lives to it. People simply want to make sure that their items are in good hands as they have spent good money on them, and they may have sentimental value attached to them as well. They can also be quite valuable, so it is imperative that they are in the best care.

For instance, say that a person may want to store an antique in one of the various north west storage facilities; they will need to find one that is very reputable as well as climate controlled. On top of this, they will want to make sure that it is safe, as antiques tend to be very valuable. Security measures are something that is very important, and should be treated as such. Without great security, a person may run the risk of having their items misplaced or stolen, which is to the detriment of everyone employing the services of these companies.

Regardless if the storage is for personal or business use, they will want to make sure that they have enough space so their items can be positioned comfortably. If not, they are subject to damage, as well as being very crammed. This will make retrieving these items a daunting task, a thing that everyone can live without. This is especially important for business or specialty use. In business, more often than not, they use large desks, equipment and other tools needed to run the business.

In finding the best storage solutions in the north west, it should be noteworthy to state that they are all not created equally. Luckily, there is this excellent service spacefinder.co.uk that can assist a person in finding the best company. By comparing the prices and supplying the prospective consumer with all applicable information, they will better be able to make their decision. With this service available, it can save time, money and energy too. This makes this a very valuable tool for the people who need it, and with the quality of services garnered, a person or business will know exactly what they need before they select a service.

Looking for a particular location:

Self storage in Liverpool

Self storage in Preston

Self storage in Blackpool

Self storage in Warrington

Self storage in Bolton

Lastly, it is noteworthy to state that there is also the need to investigate these services before they make a choice, just to make sure that they have found exactly what they need. If these steps are not taken, a person or business will not have the favorable storage facility at their disposal.