Data Analysis & Results, Inc.

DA&R Expands and Enhances Its Learning Portfolio with DA&R Live Class

2018-02-11

DA&R Expands and Enhances Its Learning Portfolio with DA&R Live Class

Read below for information on how to take advantage of virtual and in-person best-in-class training...

Data Analysis & Results announces our new learning platform, DA&R Live Class. This new, broader portfolio of virtual training courses allows learners to join classes in real time, with instructors and participants interaction, video, so they can enjoy a more interactive professional training experience.

Read on to discover more about our online, live, and in-person education offerings and how we can help you save time, money, and keep your people up to date with both custom and our DA&R catalog of professional education courses that all contain best practices.

Let's review your Training Assessment, Customization, & Delivery needs now!

Contact Us to set up a

Training Assessment, attend a private briefing on how we deliver Virtual Training, or so arrange a course or program.

DA&R is ready to do the hard work of assessing, developing, and delivering real operatings results via enhanced professional training.

Why DA&R Live Class? You need flexible learning options for you and your staff.

Learn anywhere!

Experience the benefits of live, instructor-led classroom instruction at your location in-person, at one of our training centers, or at any commercial location around the world. Live, instructor-led classes are now available anywhere using state-of-the-art Virtual Training Technology. Attend in-person or Remotely from your computer, tablet, and other devices with DA&R Live Class. DA&R uses leading technology so you will reap all the benefits and personal contact of classroom instruction right from your desktop.

This convenient format allows for less disruption by reducing travel time and expenses. Allow your people to reduce travel hassle and days spent away from work and home. You get the same important content and instructor direct interaction as you do in our physical classroom but with the convenience and cost effectiveness of remote online attendance.

This type of direct instructor and learner interaction is proven to enrich the overall learning experience, boosting attention and retention.

To provide this interactive environment for learners and instructors, DA&R uses training solution software from Zoom Video Communications Inc., a Gartner Quadrant leader. Zoom technology is free for attendees, robust, easy to use, and requires little setup when using any browser. Zoom offers a best-in-class virtual remote learning experience regardless of learner location.

Learners can participate in DA&R Live Class from anywhere, anytime, and on most Internet-enabled devices. The instructor-led learning provides immediate expert feedback, individual learning support, and interactive collaborative exchanges with peers during the sessions and anytime via discussion groups.

Experience Live Virtual Remote Training
DA&R Live Class Live Virtual Training is also an excellent option for teams, including distributed, non-local, geographically remote teams. Discounts are available three or more.
Want to know more? Contact Us to attend a private briefing on how we deliver Virtual Training. Your brief, no cost, no-obligation private briefings allows you to experience our DA&R Live Class Virtual Learning Environment. There are no expensive equipment requirements and our training is as easy on your bandwidth as is possible.

By offering virtual classrooms, DA&R provides one more option to acquire important critical skills toward a successful digital transformation, career enhancement, and results via operations process improvement.

Have Virtual Workers or Multiple Locations? Best Practices suggest using a group room at each location for Virtual Training works best. Consider using one laptop and projecting on a screen so your attendees in each location can attend as a group. Benefits include much higher attention rates than staff taking training at their desk as they will be working on exercises in a true group setting. Other benefits include bandwidth savings and better learning through local collaboration.

All DA&R courses and services can be delivered onsite or Virtually in any time zone for world-wide Learner consistency.

Contact Us to deliver this course on non-consecutive days to allow Learners to implement best practices between sessions.

Related Services & Resources	Click to Access
Customize Your Program for In-Person and/or Virtual Training	Customize Your Program
Training Assessments - Comprehensive or Specific	Reviews & Assessments

Most Important

Make sure your Training Provider is selected with an eye towards the real results you will gain from a program, not just a training class. You may want to use a blended training solution with in-person on-site or training center courses along with Virtual courses to pick up absentees, new hires, and remote staff. This can be a handy way to ensure your training effort is budgeted from both time and cost perspectives.

We are happy to assist you via consulting for Training Planning, Course Customization, and of course Training Delivery anywhere in the world for just the right fit for you.

Why Data Analysis & Results (DA&R)?

We share in your success! Our courses are consistently rated excellent, as are our very experienced Consultant Instructors, who average 20+ years in project management, operations, and other key leadership roles. For organizations, we can support your projects and change efforts via Consulting, Speaking, Training, and Staffing. For individuals, we provide advice and limited job placement help if you are seeking employment. Here are our Testimonials, Clients, and Course Calendar professional development education training courses.

Contact Us to discuss your Training needs now!
DA&R is ready to do some of the hard work of training planning and delivery for you.

#Training #ProfessionalEducation #Courses #Virtual #Classes #Remote

We can all use a little encouragement so remember to give encouragement to others!

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." - 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NIV.

StartUps Success Story Project Briefing

2018-02-11

StartUps Success Story Project Briefing - A Tale of 2 StartUps and a Turnaround - CxO: CEO/COO/CIO

Read below for how we have helped clients with decisions, processes, and results...

Hospital Quality SaaS Software StartUp: Staffing, Processes, Funding, & Technology.

Online Retail Healthy Cosmetics Africa/USA StartUp: Business Model, Processes, Risk Mitigation, & Technology.

Multi-million dollar Auto Collision / Body Shop / Repair / Maintenance: Partners, Contracts, Processes, Revenue generation, Staff, & Technology.

Read on to discover more about how we help StartUps, Nonprofits, and firms from $5-50m USD.

DA&R is ready to do the hard work of your StartUp or Turnaround process, projects, and operations.

Each of the StartUp founding teams reached out to us to help them save time, money, and reduce inefficiencies, that led to faster profitability. We stepped in on a retainer basis as one or more of CEO, COO, or CIO Interim Executive. Either as Fractional (part-time) or dedicated to allow Founders and staff to continue ongoing operations. In each case our goals included removing blockers and setting best practice processes in all areas that led in each case to faster time to market for their products and services. For each StartUp situation below, we cover a quick glimpse of Challenges, Solutions, and Results & Benefits. Please contact us if you are forming, have, or know of a StartUp that could use a boost to reach their goals.

This from Dr. Laura Presley, PhD. on another startup engagement not listed below - "Darrel Raynor was recommended to me by the Executive Director at Discover Hope Fund. He assisted us in the start up phases of a new company that several colleagues and I are investing in. He was incredibly creative and knowledgeable at identifying tactical areas for improvement and new business strategies. His personable style was a wonderful fit for us and we benefited greatly by his expertise. In addition to his tactical and strategic guidance and advice, Darrel exhibited a very high level of integrity and professionalism. We really enjoyed working with him and would recommend him to anyone starting up a business or wanting to further and expand their existing market share."

This from Nikolas White - CFO, Triand - "Darrel was great to work with and is a natural leader. Specifically at Triand Darrel led an overhaul of our sales and marketing programs which resulted in significant new revenue and customers. He also made significant improvements in our Operations business process reengineering for Development, Support, Human Resources, and IT. Darrel's finance, accounting, M&A, and equity events expertise was incredibly helpful too. I consider Darrel a close advisor and recommend him wherever there are challenges to overcome. Darrel works collaboratively, faces challenges as they arise, provides leadership and guidance, and is not afraid of the hard decisions sometimes necessary. I learned a lot from Darrel and hope to work with Darrel again."

PristaCorp

Results & Benefits

The firm moved from an Excel-based solution to a robust, secure, and scalable hosted cloud subscription service, drastically improving maintainability, scaleability, and lowered cost for customer acquisition and onboarding. Reduced initial and ongoing infrastructure costs by over 75% as we moved from servers and PCs to cloud-based product and operating processes. The Founders were able to concentrate on their product and marketing, gradually taking over operations as they finished their projects and were able to scale their attention.

**Hospital Quality SaaS Software StartUp:*Staffing, Processes, Funding, & Technology***.

This vibrant and growing Long-Term Acute Care (Nursing Homes, Recovery Facilities, etc.) Hospital Software-As-A-Service Quality Software firm now has customers in 24+ US states and is growing rapidly. Their product allows reducing risk, expensive settlements, audit findings, and greatly increases the chance that the hospital will rank highly in government ratings allowing maximum recovery of costs through insurance payments, medicare, medicaid, and other similar programs. Contact us for investment or other information.

Challenges

The founders had deep medical management, medical quality, contract, and technology backgrounds but not enough time to do the research to set everything up in their StartUp in the most efficient manner. and still make rapid improvements in their product and move it to a new platform.

Solutions

Trusting us to take the role of COO/CIO, we quickly selected and prototyped process and tool selections which allowed fast stabilization of internal processes. While the founders were building the first versions of their product, working with hospital alpha partners, and lining up funding, we worked on their Operations, Human Resources, and Marketing... We set their technology platforms, collaboration environment, communication and other internal protocols, and handled procurement, accounting, staffing/hiring, and business model adaptations. We managed vendors, employees, and contract staff as we built their operating environments.

Related Services & Resources	Click to Access
Consulting Services	www.dataanalysis.com/consulting-services
4 Steps to Quickly Hiring Contract of Permanent Staff blog	www.dataanalysis.com/blog/4-steps-to-quickly-hiring-contract-or-permanent-staff

Online Retail Healthy Cosmetics Africa/USA StartUp: *Business Model**, Processes, Risk Mitigation, & Technology*.

A nonprofit executive reached out to us when he partnered with another person to found an Environmentally, Work Conditions, Employee-Centered manufacturing, marketing, and distribution firm for Socially Responsible personal products made in Africa and sold across the globe. They knew exactly what they wanted, 1-2 factories in Africa, sales via online and pop-up stores, and across the board ethical policies and results.

Challenges

The founders had deep marketing backgrounds but not enough expertise to set everything up in their StartUp in the most efficient manner. and still make rapid improvements in their product and establish everything needed to drive product sales worldwide. They traveled often making meeting scheduling sporadic.

Solutions

Trusting us to take the role of COO/CIO, we quickly selected and prototyped process and tool selections which allowed fast setup of internal processes and external partners. While the founders were honing in on product ingredients and the initial marketing blitz, we worked on their Operations, Human Resources, and Infrastructure... We set their technology platforms, collaboration environment, communication, accounting, and other internal protocols, and handled risk assessment and mitigation, procurement, and business model adaptations.

SkinIsSkin Tiossan

Results & Benefits

The firm quickly outgrew their home office and in-house manufacturing to a contract and multi-site. Their startup expenses were far lower than their original projections. Many Risks were mitigated that they had not considered. We helped them pull together their vision and a virtual team that over time resulted in a suite of products and companies that is still growing.

Confidential at client request...

Results & Benefits

Revenue went up over 25% immediately and profit more than doubled within 3 months. Employee satisfaction went up over 40% as some of the good employees knew about the theft and sloth and felt bullied. The son gradually took over operations over three months and we found him an ongoing business coach to keep him on a growth path. The founder was able to monitor the business via the cameras and online accounting and continues to help guide the son to continue growth and profitability.

Multi-million dollar Auto Collision / Body Shop / Repair / Maintenance:Partners, Contracts, Processes, Revenue generation, Staff, & Technology.

The owner of a North Texas large scale auto shop reached out to us for help. He was sick and was getting worse, that was keeping him from being at his shop. He suspected his employees were stealing from him and shirking many of their responsibilities. The owner wanted to preserve the business, recover what he could from the employees running wild, and train up his son to take over.

Challenges

His son was learning the business but was nowhere near ready to assume control. His staff was uncooperative and unresponsive to his and our requests. One was edging on threatening violence if he was not left alone. Revenue was slightly down but profits were down to negative! His employees, especially the two managers, were skimming. Other employees were doing work under the table for cash and charging parts, supplies, and services back to fake work orders. Collections were non-existent. The value of the business, according to a business broker, had fallen by half in the last six months.

Solutions

Trusting us to take the role of CEO, we quickly placed cameras with recording and remote monitoring, inside and out, and put in many other controls. We assessed each employee and had to release five after video recorded them either stealing or working so far out of standard process that they were endangering others. We found kickback programs from parts vendors that were eroding profits. We had to release seven more after they all flunked a drug or background check. We mapped all parts to work orders and those to receipts. We revamped all their tech for shop, office, and mobile, as well as social media and other marketing and advertising. We negotiated an 'Impound Yard' contract with the city which allowed vehicles to be towed there after accidents or malfunctions which later increased revenue by 30%+. We offered referral fees to tow truck drivers in a partnership program that brought us many more vehicles. We revamped every process, created a training program for all employees, and instituted a 401k and bonus program to increase employee satisfaction.

Most Important

Make sure your StartUp Effort has the right people with the right skills and attitudes to leverage to get setup and running fast!

We are happy to assist you in consulting and staffing for your StartUp. We also represent executives for interim work.

Why Data Analysis & Results (DA&R)?

We share in your success! Our consulting, staffing, and courses are consistently rated excellent, as are our very experienced Consultants, who average 20+ years in project management, operations, and other key leadership roles. For organizations, we can support your projects and change efforts via Consulting, Speaking, Training, and Staffing. For individuals, we provide advice and limited job placement help if you are seeking employment. Here are our Testimonials, Clients, and Course Calendar professional development education training courses.

Contact Us to discuss your Staffing needs now

DA&R is ready to do some of the hard work of hiring for you.

#ChangeManagement #BusinessTransformation #Projects #ProcessImprovement #Turnaround

We can all use a little encouragement so remember to give encouragement to others!

The Vendor Siren Song… An Agile Transformation Without Tools Series Blog

2019-10-20

The Vendor Siren Song… An Agile Transformation Without Tools Series Blog.

Read below to learn how Vendors try to sell you tools before your optimal time and your free and easy alternative...

The Problem: Don't Fall For The Vendor Siren Song.

Scenario: Vendor Content - Use It, Don't Lose It.

What To Do: Use Existing Productivity Suite Tools to Collaborate.

Read on to discover more about how you can Adopt Agile Proven Best Practices without spending time and money on tools.

3 Whys to use Business Transformation Change Management

2018-02-11

Business Transformation Change Management gets you better results faster!

Read below for information on how to apply best practices and tips...

Why 1: Employee Engagement and Buy-In.

Why 2: Smoother Adoption and Initial Use.

Why 3: Lasting Value and Reduce Backsliding.

Read on to discover more about the 3 Whys to your Change Management efforts and how to apply these best practices.

DA&R is ready to do the hard work of your Business Transformation Change Management projects or operations.

Why 1: Employee Engagement and Buy-In

Many operations efforts and projects attempting to implement process improvements or new tools receive far less assistance than anticipated during the planning and implementation of change efforts.

We actually heard a Sr. Vice President at a Fortune 500 firm say, "We'll just tell them to do it and they will!" When I asked how they were going to tell them, they said via email! We argued long and hard to apply some obvious and needed Change Management processes which would have only increased the project budget by less than 10%. They refused all help. Needless to say this was a huge fail and waste of almost half a million dollars as adoption started out low and dropped to less than 4% over the first six months after implementation.

When you are tasked with implementing a change effort, it is only natural to assume that people will get on board and help. Sometimes they will, but that is in the vast minority of cases... People, left to their own devices, generally will not welcome change that they did not think of... NIH Syndrome (Not Invented Here...)

Our assessments across major organization comprised thousands of people showed the following types of responses:

This is just a management fad like all the rest, I am going to wait it out...
They will want something else next quarter and forget about this.
Why would I give management the ammunition to increase our work and do more micromanagement?
What's in it for me? (WIIFM) Things have run just fine for years, why change now? It does not sound like this change will benefit me, let's wait it out or at least delay our participation.

These negative responses can be reduced or even eliminated with a real effort to get Employee Engagement and Buy-In.

Here are a few best practices to reduce this needless friction when planning and implementing your initiatives.

Solicit feedback from influencers at all levels of the affected organization. Use both formal written surveys and open meetings while keeping a public log of all ideas and actions.
Act on feedback that makes sense and does not dilute the goals or anticipated results. Sometimes just implementing some innocuous wording changes can buy you a champion or at least move someone from negative to neutral or from neutral to positive! You may be surprised that some of the feedback will clearly make the initiative better and faster to implement...
Publicize the feedback process and changes you made. Close the loop with everyone involved and praise the people who gave feedback. Get permission and use their names as testimonials that their ideas have been added.
When you do not act on feedback, explain to those why you did not. Be sure to thank them and continue to solicit feedback from them.
Set realistic expectations of the planning and implementation processes. This includes how much work is involved, who will do the work, as well as what changes and benefits to expect in the future.

All DA&R courses and services can be delivered onsite or Virtually in any time zone for world-wide Learner consistency.

Contact Us to deliver this course on non-consecutive days to allow Learners to implement best practices between sessions.

Related Services & Resources	Click to Access
CHANGE MANAGEMENT - BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION Services	www.dataanalysis.com/consulting-services/change-management-business-transformation
Business Transformation Change Management course	www.dataanalysis.com/business-transformation-change-management

Why 2: Smoother Adoption and Initial Use

Why do perfectly logical projects have adoption and initial use problems? Yes! Usually due to low or nonexistent Business Transformation Change Management plans and execution! Questions to ask ourselves...

Did we know enough about the project, the people, and the desired results to choose the right Change Agents (both Change Leaders and Influencers)?
Did we position the desired Changes as desirable to all with specific reasons and in-person influencing?
Did we ask the people for their help or just assume they would go along?
Did we position the Change as relevant to these stakeholders: Change Team, those affected most, senior management, and end-users or customers?

People like to be involved. They like to be asked, not told. They like to have management and other leaders think about what change would mean to them, not just to the stakeholders who may benefit the most. Let us know if you have interest in a follow-on post on details for various Change Management techniques, or if you would like help in planning for and delivering results using Business Transformation Change Management to leverage and speed up your efforts...

Why 3: Lasting Value and Reduce Backsliding

How do we increase the chances of realizing Lasting Value and reduce the chances of Backsliding into the old ways and processes? After implementation of your planned Changes, it becomes a different sort of challenge to actually realize the long-term value. Executives who may have been active sponsors and supporters will pull back since the project is over and move their attention to the Next Crisis or Initiative. Change Team members will transition away from Change efforts. Communication, unless you continue, will taper off to become nearly invisible. It is basically up to you to instill why and how to keep this going. So, what do you do? Here are a few tips:

During the project, publicize the updating of documents, processes, and metrics that are critical to lasting value from the Change such as Job Descriptions
Adapt Performance Measures for annual reviews and other measurement points
Set and use Team and Group Metrics that are part of Dashboards and other tracking mechanisms
Update Training Programs and in-process help (context sensitive)
If possible, award Bonuses or other rewards for lasting adoption and benefit realization

Most Important

Make sure the Business Transformation Change Management Effort or Project is selected with an eye towards its prospective Proponents and Opponents. You may want to use Force Field Analysis (explained here https://www.odi.org/publications/5218-management-techniques-force-field-analysis). This can be a handy facilitation tool to make sure enough Change Management effort is budgeted from both time and cost perspectives.

We are happy to assist you in either consulting for Change Management (see above) or staffing for just the right fit for your contract or permanent staff such as Project Managers, Business Analysts, Technical Writers, mid-level managers, and selected technical staff. We also represent several executives for interim work.

Why Data Analysis & Results (DA&R)?

Contact Us to discuss your Staffing needs now!

DA&R is ready to do some of the hard work of hiring for you.

#ChangeManagement #BusinessTransformation #Projects #ProcessImprovement #Turnaround

We can all use a little encouragement so remember to give encouragement to others!

4 Steps to Quickly Hiring Contract or Permanent Staff

2018-02-06

Quickly Hire Contract or Permanent Staff without hassle.

Read below for best practices and tips...

Step 1: Refine Your Job Description and Performance Expectations.

Step 2: Streamline Your Hiring Process.

Step 3: Work With A Trusted Staffing Partner.

Step 4: Make Your Offer and Negotiation.

Now to review what is most important to hiring.

Read on to know more about the 4 Steps...

Contact Us to discuss your Staffing needs now!

DA&R is ready to do some of the hard work of hiring for you.

Step 1: Refine Your Job Description and Performance Expectations

We see many organizations with totally outdated, incomplete, and even incorrect job descriptions. Don't be one of them! Remember, goals of your job description are twofold:

Sell qualified candidates on your organization and your job
Set realistic expectations of your hiring process, current work, culture, and future prospects.

Here are some tips:

Concentrate on what the candidate will do.
For example: "You will lead our new customer prospecting team and interact directly with both line and procurement management at local manufacturing plants to reduce their purchasing costs and timelines."
Concentrate on the benefits for the candidate, not what they can do for you...e.g.: "You will gain or refine experience in customer management, business development, and negotiating with Operations on what can and cannot be promised."
Help them understand your culture by being very realistic...
e.g.: "Our teams work long days, since some of our prospects get in early and some leave late. Your day can be flexible as negotiated with your peers to ensure covering the working hours of our prospects and customers."
Let them know the deliverables they will be responsible for and generally how they will be reviewed.
e.g.: "You will update our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system with every planned and attained prospect and customer communication to both set an example for subordinates and to aid senior management in coaching you on process. You will update and present forecasts and status to peers and senior management. Your growth will depend on how accurately you maintain these documents and how many prospects are converted to customers."
Drop or drastically scale back
- Your organization description. Instead, link to your web and social media About pages.
- Description of your professional, not company, benefits like medical and paid time off. Instead, link to your web for those. Use something like, "Industry leading benefits including medical, paid time off, and more, see www.yourURL.com/benefits for details.
- If you are selling a location, find a couple of links touting how great the area is to live in and link to those. Use something like, "Our staff loves it here and here are two sources of (whatever point you are trying to make, such as low cost of living, great for sub/urbanites, friendly neighborhoods, etc.) such as Relocation guides from local Chambers of Commerce and Realtor firms.

See the infographic here... Just scroll to bottom of our Staffing page. Infographic

Step 2: Streamline Your Hiring Process

When we talk with candidates and dozens of job seekers at our speeches and in discussions to prepare candidates for submission, they are all turned off by lengthy hiring processes. There have been many articles and LinkedIn posts on this topic and most agree, a long hiring process serves no one. We recommend treating your hiring process like any other operations or project process and re-engineer it to have only the steps that are really needed, with specific role and named responsibility with SLAs or time goals so that each step is actually followed. Get rid of the steps that have crept in from probably a dozen or more people who felt they needed to insert a step or two... what has likely become bloated and inefficient. Have a process expert map and apply Lean or other efficiency techniques to it!

Some have said that the presentations and work they do is unpaid. We have even seen some edge cases where interviews include soliciting ideas for improvement that they make without hiring the candidate. Not good... Let us know if you have interest in a follow-on post on Streamlining Your Hiring Process, or if you would like help in paring down what may have become a more complex process than needed...

Here are some tips:

Make your first interview step a phone, Skype, Google Hangout, or other online interview that does not require travel.
Make sure you have a backup interview leader to avoid rescheduling.
Set onsite interviews such that if there is obviously not a fit, you can cut remaining interviews, saving your employees and the candidate time.
Present Your Choice to Objective Advisers in related areas in your organization and be sure to include all interview notes. Culture fit trumps specific expertise almost every time.
Clearly lay out next steps and deadlines for communications. No one likes these things to drag on. If you want to leave candidates with a good taste in their mouth, be diligent with your brief follow-ups and include any reasons why they were not selected. Candidates hate the 'Valley of Death' of the 2-3 weeks after an interview without hearing from an employer.
It only takes a minute to send an email...
Followup on every step via email to build candidate loyalty and keep their impression of your organization positive. GlassDoor and other sites are getting fairly sophisticated in their reviews of organizations, make sure yours is not labeled poor due to simple followup.

Step 3: Work With A Trusted Staffing Partner

Why work with a staffing partner? Why not just do it all yourself? There are literally hundreds of articles and blog posts on this topic... Here are the key points that are relevant to working with DA&R as your staffing partner for positions in our areas of expertise...

Save time, money (yes money...), and hassle for your employees. Your people are busy. They are likely not specialists in both the area of hiring and recruiting these specific type of folks. For example, keeping up with expert project managers, business analysts, technical writers, and mid-level IT/MIS managers is quite different than petroleum engineers or marketing staff. You should pick a firm that is, has done, and keeps current on issues, salaries, and available experts in particular domains.
We know how to best describe your position to make it attractive to candidates yet be truthful and transparent.
We act as 'Project Manager' to fill each position, keeping everyone focused on making the right hire. In fact, you will likely deal with a Professional Project Manager (PMP) or an alumni of our Advanced Project Management Certificate program so rest assured nothing will fall through the cracks!
We handle most of the candidate feedback which saves staff time and inconvenience.
Unless requested to broaden a search, we know each and every candidate as alumni of our training, from our consulting engagements, professional association interactions, or from volunteer work.

Contact Us to discuss your Staffing needs now!

DA&R is ready to do some of the hard work of hiring for you.

Step 4: Make Your Offer and Negotiation

Yes, you need to be ready to negotiate... Why? Two reasons:

The days of take-it-or-leave-it hiring practices, at least for professionals, are in the past... Many if not most candidates expect to test the waters with salary, time off, and other parameters before accepting. Setting a hard stance on everything does not set a good precedent for a loyal employee relationship. Be ready to talk things over and explain your positions, even if some are non-negotiable.
You will find out more about the candidate and the local hiring environment market conditions. Just negotiating and not rejecting a question or counter-offer out of hand will buy you and your organization a lot of goodwill.

Here are some negotiating tips distilled from our courses on negotiation and from our experience negotiating with many candidates:

Seek to first to understand, then to be understood. Listen and gently question until you hit the root of the concern. Is the requested salary what they need to preserve their lifestyle? Is it just what they think they are worth in the market? Is it just a number they picked? Is it what or near what they were making before? Once you know why, you can choose a response with confidence.
Widen the discussion, don't let it be just about salary or any other one thing. You may be able to address salary concerns by educating the candidate on the many benefits of working for your organization. Shoot for Win-Win-Win (the candidate, the hiring manager and team, and the HR function.)
Consider a few of these higher salary alternatives:
- Starting and performance bonuses. Sometimes a candidate is coming off a long job search with immediate needs for cash. You could also do perhaps a few weeks salary paid in advance or as some sort of loan. Any of these might remove the initial need for cash.
- Probationary period then an automatic raise to at least mid-point assuming after establishing they are a good fit for the position and culture.
- Short feedback cycles that could be tied to a minor compensation review.
- Performance-based raise or bonus paid quarterly, short enough to matter and long enough to make sure the candidate is really performing.
Expect the candidate to come in with vacation plans and a time of scaling back of current activities such as volunteering or taking classes. You might mention working a 3-day week the fist few weeks to ease the transition or offer a quick start date if their calendar can be cleared.

Most Important

Make sure the candidate is treated as a valued person every step of the way. Remember, they all have friends and not much to lose if they feel slighted and decide to post negative reviews on social media and other sites...

We are happy to assist you in staffing just the right fit for your your contract or permanent Project Managers, Business Analysts, Technical Writers, mid-level managers, and selected technical staff. We represent several executives for interim work.

Contact Us to discuss your Staffing needs now!

DA&R is ready to do some of the hard work of hiring for you.

#ProjectManager #BusinessAnalyst #TechWriter #AustinStaffing #HireAustin

"May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us– yes, establish the work of our hands." - Psalm 90:17.

Knocking the Stupid out of Job Search & Career Enhancement for Professionals

2016-05-16

This blog is updated often, please send suggestions to Info@DataAnalysis.com if you find great Job Search resources!

Career

What we at DA&R may be able to do for you...

We have an opt-in LEADS list where we email when we have or know of a specific opportunity. Sometimes contract sometimes employee... Let us know if you want on that list!
For senior professionals, see our Staffing - Experts Available page... If you have senior level skills contact ExecAsst@DataAnalysis.com for information on how to get a listing. It will be anonymous so that opportunities come through us, no one else will know. We will need an updated resume highlighting the skills on your expert blurb.
We sometimes have limited short-term opportunities to work, pro bono, on some of our accounts, for professional associations, and some volunteer, to freshen your resume, meet a lot of good people, and maybe get hired!

Career Enhancement

There are many thin gs you can do to maintain and grow your career trajectory... Important topics include learning and more important, applying what you learn to do more for your employer or nonprofit organization you volunteer for.

As you research and add best practices, tools, and experience to your professional expertise, take a minute and document as you go. Update your LinkedIn profile, resume, and other social media areas appropriate for your industry, or yearly performance documentation to ensure you have ready answers and can present a brief summary of the area including benefits of adoption to others.

As you see in-house or external jobs you may want to apply for, grab relevant keywords and make sure your materials contain them and synonyms.

As a leader, think about documenting your current practices this way as well. Many others in your organization or even outside your organization may benefit.

Career & Resume Coach

Are you confused, frustrated, and worried…not getting results from your job search and resume? Lost in all the advice others give? Ready for a change…want to listen to something new? The PIP System is the answer to the loud job battle-cry, “how do I get attention?” 6 years in development and some 100 case study participants, the PIP System offers a new approach to Career Success and Job Search that actually changes the way we think, who are, how we and others behave and, most importantly, how the market is hiring and how to sell you!

Doug Whatley is the best, period. He will put you through a process that will focus you and help you dramatically increase your traction… If you want very intellectual help from perhaps the best resume and career coach in the business, contact Doug Whatley, be persistent… Doug Whatley LinkedIn profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougwhatley/ and tell him we sent you! Doug has a massive network and has been known to place a few people with great organizations too!

Job Search Resources

Austin Job Seekers Network: www.linkedin.com/groups/1696057/ Run by a DA&R alumni and sponsored by the Hill Country Bible Church has many resources, meetings, job fairs, tutorials, and other very useful tips and events.
Launch Pad Job Club: www.linkedin.com/groups/3078 Is a longstanding great group that meets Fridays in Austin and has all sorts of resources for job seekers.
Austin Digital Jobs: (Facebook Group) www.facebook.com/groups/austindigitaljobs/ and their weekly newsletter Curated career links emailer #TGIF https://theamericangenius.com/tgif/
Austin Freelance Gigs: www.facebook.com/groups/freelanceatx/
Remote Jobs: www.facebook.com/groups/901954586546769/
There are dozens of local job groups as well, check your area with search terms in Facebook such as 'Austin Job'.
There are even sites dedicated to 'experienced' older workers:
https://jobs.aarp.org/v#index - http://www.workforce50.com/ - http://www.seniorjobbank.org/
Google and Udacity free job search classes - https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/04/udacity-and-google-launch-free-career-courses-for-interview-prep-resume-writing-and-more/

Volunteering Resources

Everyone should volunteer and it is especially important for job seekers. Expand your network, increase your skills, and give back, all at the same time! Volunteering looks great on a resume, especially if you have a gap... Don't limit yourself to local opportunities, you can do a lot remotely.

Attitude

Please be mindful of your attitude... We see so many people who have been laid off, sometimes multiple times, through no fault of their own and you can feel the anger still burning in them. Don't blame others, always be cheerful. Don't be what people in the industry call, "Damaged Goods" with a chip or martyrdom on your shoulders...

"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." - Proverbs 17-22 NIV.

Wipe the Sink

2016-11-30

Who should read this: Everyone at every level, especially executives!

We see it often in early, mid-career, and even in very experienced people - the tendency to push hard problems to their manager. This inefficient tactic is often used in projects and operations, by well-meaning Business Analysts, Project Managers acting as Business Analysts, and supervisors, managers, and others doing staff work…

I was reminded recently of our human, work, and leadership responsibility by an employee action at a vendor I was visiting as a client. While washing my hands in the restroom I recognized an employee as they washed their hands. He tossed a paper towel toward the waste bin and missed. I looked at him, he looked at me then without acknowledging me or the missed shot, he walked out.

So what did I do? I finished drying my hands, quickly wiped down the sink area, then stooped down and tossed both our paper towels in the bin. As a long-time consultant I have always trained my people to leave each place at least a little better than you found it. As a project manager, executive, and member of the human race, I know that walking the talk is important so I try to lead by example and not just by decree.

Was I obligated the do this? Of course not, I was the customer. However it left a sour taste in my mouth that the employee was not engaged, aware, or cared enough to pick up after themselves.

I mentioned this to the office manager when we were alone. She moaned, "Yes, many of them are like that..." I asked her what should have happened. She replied the employee should have picked up the towel and tossed it in the bin. She said she would address the behavior with the employee and thanked me. Sheesh.

Now she has a disengaged employee who will be griped at by his supervisor which will very likely drive him further away and possibly be the straw that causes him to quit or worse become a zombie employee who shuffles through his day for dollars. Another horrible outcome would be a process-crazed addition to the "rules" and a page or two about restroom etiquette. This is how stupid rules are born... Good intent to modify unproductive behaviors yet just putting them down on paper or online can further damage morale of everyone, not just the offender.

Before we get to the obligatory Bullet point list of how to make this better, a real life example...We do part of our personal and business financing at Amplify Credit Union in Austin since they are also a client. When I visited one day, I noticed a couple of pieces of paper in the "airlock" entry door area. Several customers came and went as did a couple of employees. I happened to meet the long-term President & CEO Paul Trylko, in the lobby and we shook hands. He seemed just a bit distracted and asked if we could continue the conversation in a moment. I of course agreed. He stepped over to the airlock, picked up the papers, glanced at them, and tossed them in a trash can. He then returned to our conversation which quickly wrapped up. I saw at least four employees noticed what he did.

THAT is the way to lead by example! He did not ask someone to pick them up, he just did it. He was not negative. You could tell he just wanted a great environment for customers and employees. I bet he did not create a new set of rules or gripe to anyone for the oversight. I also bet more employees will take pride In their customer centric environment than if he addressed the matter in a negative way.

What could have helped turn around the negative situation I encountered at the other vendor? There is to gain by addressing the specific behavior with the employee or in creating a huge book of stupid rules... Now for the obligatory set of Bullet points I promised you.

Act as you would want your employees to act.
Everyone, especially management, should lead by example to set an example for all.
Review your policies to find areas to simplify and empower rather than stipulate or specify behaviors.
Think about your culture and if you would benefit from focusing on people and intent.

What are potential Next Steps?

Here is where the money, or at least ROI, grows… While there are books and how-to’s on Culture, Doing The Right Things, and Change Management, experience in both Change Management and your organization are critical to your project success. We have performed and advised on many projects and the most successful ones always include Change Management. Let’s sit down and review your current and future projects to see where Change Management can be affordably added to greatly increase your chances of success. Let’s get that planned ROI to actually materialize! Info@DataAnalysis.com +1-512-850-4402 to set a free initial consultation.

Knocking the Stupid out of Certification Training Risks & Rewards

2016-11-07

To Certify or Not to Certify, that is the question…

If you are a job seeker in a specialty that rewards certification, the answer is clear. Read below for how to get Project Management and Business Analysis certifications.

If you are an employer the choice is not so clear for two reasons… They may not be what you think! Employers read on for a fresh perspective on two considerations for you to work through… Reward and Risk. and how to frame your decision.

The Reward Aspect

Certification based training has two main rewards, one for your employee and one for your organization.

If you set up formal recognitions for taking training and a financial reward for certifying, people are more likely to attend, pay attention, and leverage the best practices they will learn.

It is great to take care of your employees and help them grow in their career. As they up their game using what they learned your organization will get better performance. Another blog will cover how to set up your program for high leverage.

The Risk Aspect

Certification training has two main risks...

Salary Structure Risk

One Risk is if your salary structure does not recognize certifications. You may experience attrition as a direct result of credentialing your employees. If your salary structure has ‘Golden Handcuffs’ or is at least in the mid-range of certificants in your area, you will probably be ok. Otherwise, good change management would be to increase your salary bands for certificants.

Disappointment Risk

Another Risk is more subtle… No matter how good your processes and people, no matter how appropriate the level of detail or control, certification training will open areas where improvement is possible. If the gap is big, your people may come back from training disgruntled or worse!

If your people feel they were sent to learn best practices yet when they return no change happens, they may get discouraged. They now know that there are proven best practices that could work in their organization yet they can get no traction toward improvements.

So unless you are ready to sponsor, manage, and actually change your organization, at least to some extent, you may be better off setting up an Internal Certification.

Internal Certifications

Internal Certifications can mitigate a good portion of both these Risks. They can be the best of both worlds for the organization, yet still add benefit to your employees.

When we have set up Internal Certifications in several organizations, both of the risks were addressed. When we have not set up Internal Certifications in at least half our clients there has been unnecessary churn...

Benefits include highlighting the type of behaviors you want to change with the training, pre-work, and follow up meetings and specific assignments to update processes for the better. The recognition can be higher and some of our clients even link their Internal Certification to enable promotions, bonuses, or raises.

Let's discuss how to set up an attainable, yet challenging and productivity enhancing, Internal Certification that benefits both your organization and your people.

Have you been thinking that your organization could do better? Not sure where to begin?

Contact us for a custom training assessment, to find out how easy it is to set up an Internal Certification or to find out how certification or best practice based training can help you and your people! http://www.dataanalysis.com/contact +1-512-968-0770 Info@DataAnalysis.com

The Data Analysis & Results, Inc. Story... Why We Are Here!

2016-11-21

Why Work With DA&R?

We love to help our clients with their problems, opportunities, and sometimes just a nudge to continue their never-ending process improvement and efficiency journey.

We understand Projects, Staffing, Consulting, and the importance of Cultural Fit!

Being senior leaders, we understand the limitations of most consulting, project, and staffing firms regarding how they must work.

Here are a few things we do not do:

Bid on projects that do not fall under our senior staff sets of expertise

Low ball a bid and then change order back up to size

Push work to low quality overseas vendors

Cold calling campaigns, either for candidates or clients

Resume trolling on the internet, including the big sites like Monster, Indeed, and DICE (although they have their place...)

Place all types of staff... We specialize in project, interim executive, mid-management, technical specialists, and business analysts

See Who We Are on our web for more about how we can help you!

Staffing / Staff Augmentation Placement

We are not a body shop. We know that successful placements require a strong culture fit with capable people, not an almost random word-association game of matching with huge candidate resume databases. Simple keyword matching does not really work. Using technologies like the old STAR system (which by the way was originally written and sold by senior DA&R technologists...) is a pale substitute for knowing your candidates and having a work or at least extended training or professional association project work.

DA&R advises careful wording of position descriptions that actually match both internal job descriptions and performance criteria. When all these are aligned, magic happens. We can help write and coordinate your approach to the needed staff and work to align organization and candidate goals, ensuring a great fit.

Project Placement

One size does not fit all... We work on project in all of the following ways Agile, Iterative, Waterfall (PMI), hybrid and of course we can and do adapt to the productive methods you have developed in-house. In our substantial experience, we have found that keeping what is working and adapting what is needed is the best approach. We can also start and perform projects in our methodology, both as a proof of concept for your executives and as a test to see if your staff is ready for wholesale change. In all our projects, we leave in place trained people, fully documented processes, and meaningful metrics (KPIs) that let you know the actual status for all your projects and their deliverables.

DA&R advises using our services on an important project... If we work on a small or less important project, we will likely siphon off expert resources from other projects. Let us help you with a key project first, make it and you look good, then trickle down the proven processes to the rest of your project portfolio. When sponsored projects are aligned with organization and staff goals, magic happens.

We have the flexibility to work with you to address your unique needs. While we do not have a cookie-cutter thick methodology, we do have a comprehensive set of flexible, proven methods that we can intelligently alter and apply to leverage our experience and substantial intellectual property around project and operations processes.

DA&R History

Data Analysis & Results, Inc. started when two huge California firms both asked us to do for them what they heard we did for another large firm.
Back then, we tuned massive databases.
(6 of the largest 20 databases in the world... other than military.)

Now we thank God that the first five, yes five, names for our firm that we chose were taken! We will not disclose them as they seem incredibly silly now...

So DA&R sprouted in 1985 to do full weekend database extracts, data cleansing, reloads, and many smaller performance tuning processes. At least twice we were able to help our clients avoid big hardware purchases by complex tweaking of their data, processes, storage and access methods, and some proprietary caching, etc.

Since then, we have planned and delivered many large projects. We have served our clients as an alternative to big money, big staff, big hassle large Big 5 consulting firms with equivalent or better people, processes, and of course agility. We can adapt to our client needs quickly!

As we like to say, "We are packed! Ready to serve on your site or remotely when and where you need us."

Now we tend toward executives with a big problem or opportunity...

Or a senior manager who absolutely knows their staff can do better,
but may not know exactly how to get them there.

Also we serve as "another pair or pairs of hands" for many of our clients when they get overloaded...

We have saved our clients millions of dollars over the big firms, and from what they have told us, they have gotten substantial value, more than they get from the big guys!

So here is our firm, *very* Senior people, great results over the years.The quandary has always been, how do we market? We are great project managers, business analysts, interim executives, planners, tech writers and more, but we and *not* great marketers... For ourselves anyway!

+1-512-850-4402 Info@DataAnlaysis.com Thank you.

Knocking the Stupid out of PMO Business Models

2016-10-19

This is a draft. If you wish to review drafts like this one and more detailed information, please email ExecAsst@DataAnalysis.com. This message will be removed for final version.
Why Think About PMO Business Models?

There are two main reasons:

Most current PMO Business Models simply do not work and are not sustainable...
To raise performance of your people or their processes.

If you are considering forming, own, are part of, or interact with a PMO or related project management or governance organization, and you feel that your PMO could be a lot more productive, smoother, and add more value, read on...

The rest of this article will show where you should put your improvement effort. Let's go over some of the main points for professional and immediately useful PMOs.

Project Management Offices have waxed and waned through the years, searching for a working business model. Many have failed, most that remain are in a constant state of having to justify their existence. Your PMO can overcome the distraction label and really help your functional units perform better. What is the problem with traditional business models for PMOs?
These and other symptoms or problems may need to be addressed...

You want to reduce friction between your PMO and functional units.
You want to increase performance.
Your PMO does not feel sustainable or permanent.
Your PMO has to constantly justify its existence.
Your PMO goals are in direct or indirect conflict with function unit goals.
Failures occur more often than needed.

Sustainability is absolutely critical to long-term PMO and therefore organization success. PMOs fail when they:

Bloat by implementing their own “good ideas”.
Are Directive rather than Advisory.
Overreach Authority.
Hire anyone who does not Directly Manage Projects.

First, What Doesn’t Work & Why.

PMO as Governance Enforcer, a distraction from executive direction to business units.
PMO as Reporting Mechanism.

Now, What Can Work & How! Best Practices.

PMO as expert, friendly advisor to executive direction to business units.
PMO – Virtual, with each process owned by project managers from all areas.
Now What? Next Steps…

Results Possible

Roadmap for aligning functional (business) and PMO goals.
Roadmap for process improvement and change management.
Specific Best Practices choices to implement, we recommend one at a time...:
Goal alignment.
Virtual tools and possibly a full virtual PMO.
Forms, Process, Document, and Facilitation.
People reclassification recommendations.
Org chart and reorganization recommendations.

Methodology Choices

Onsite PMO experts to take control of your PMO (Fastest, most Political).
Onsite PMO experts to mentor your management implementing best practices.
Onsite review, then periodic visits to jumpstart and mentor one at a time changes.
Onsite review then remote participation to jumpstart and mentor one at a time changes.

Want Help Implementing This Improvement? Call the A&I™ PMOgre™ Team and let us quickly set up and implement the PMO Roadmap that is right for you.

Let us execute on your goals using our A&I™ PMOgre™ methodology. Contact us DARaynor@DataAnalysis.com for help or just to talk over your situation. We are in-process with one client on a PMO best practices project and have completed many and many types of PMO best practice implementations, some with focus on:

Project Management, PMO, Project Processes, Project Improvement Areas.
Business Analysis, BA COE (Center of Excellence), BA Processes.
Agile Project Management, Business Analysis, & Software Development Processes.
Customer Service, Customer Satisfaction, & Improvement Areas.
SDLC (Systems Development Life Cycle), Application Development Processes.

Journyx sponsors webinars: "Project Management Office: What Works and What Doesn't - Virtual is Best. PMO Business Models." http://www.journyx.com/library/webinars/archive We have several in their list.

Two of our clients and a couple of other interested organizations asked us to deliver customized versions on-site and to help them work through their PMO issues. Contact us to set one up for your organization.

We would be happy to talk these topics over with you anytime! DARaynor@DataAnalysis.com

"By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established;" Proverbs 24-3 NIV.

Data Analysis & Results, Inc.

DA&R Expands and Enhances Its Learning Portfolio with DA&R Live Class

DA&R Expands and Enhances Its Learning Portfolio with DA&R Live Class

Why DA&R Live Class? You need flexible learning options for you and your staff.

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StartUps Success Story Project Briefing - A Tale of 2 StartUps and a Turnaround - CxO: CEO/COO/CIO

Hospital Quality SaaS Software StartUp:Staffing, Processes, Funding, & Technology.

Online Retail Healthy Cosmetics Africa/USA StartUp: Business Model, Processes, Risk Mitigation, & Technology.

Multi-million dollar Auto Collision / Body Shop / Repair / Maintenance:Partners, Contracts, Processes, Revenue generation, Staff, & Technology.

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The Vendor Siren Song… An Agile Transformation Without Tools Series Blog

The Vendor Siren Song… An Agile Transformation Without Tools Series Blog.

3 Whys to use Business Transformation Change Management

Business Transformation Change Management gets you better results faster!

Why 1: Employee Engagement and Buy-In

Why 2: Smoother Adoption and Initial Use

Why 3: Lasting Value and Reduce Backsliding

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4 Steps to Quickly Hiring Contract or Permanent Staff

Quickly Hire Contract or Permanent Staff without hassle.

Step 1: Refine Your Job Description and Performance Expectations

Step 2: Streamline Your Hiring Process

Step 3: Work With A Trusted Staffing Partner

Step 4: Make Your Offer and Negotiation

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Knocking the Stupid out of Job Search & Career Enhancement for Professionals

Career

Career Enhancement

Career & Resume Coach

Job Search Resources

Volunteering Resources

Attitude

Wipe the Sink

Knocking the Stupid out of Certification Training Risks & Rewards

To Certify or Not to Certify, that is the question…

The Reward Aspect

The Risk Aspect

Salary Structure Risk

Disappointment Risk

Internal Certifications

Internal Certifications can mitigate a good portion of both these Risks. They can be the best of both worlds for the organization, yet still add benefit to your employees.

The Data Analysis & Results, Inc. Story... Why We Are Here!

Why Work With DA&R?

DA&R History

Knocking the Stupid out of PMO Business Models

**Hospital Quality SaaS Software StartUp:*Staffing, Processes, Funding, & Technology***.

Online Retail Healthy Cosmetics Africa/USA StartUp: *Business Model**, Processes, Risk Mitigation, & Technology*.