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If you need to improve your employees' performance, then we'll work with you to
create a tailor-made training programme to develop staff skills according to your
business needs.
Things are changing fast in the business world - especially where new technology
comes into play - and many employers want to make doubly sure staff are up to
speed, to keep their competitive edge.
We are absolutely certain that we can develop the right training programme. We
have over 100 courses on offer, which include administration support, management
development, IT and personal development options. These courses can be adapted
to meet the needs of your organisation
Many companies provide onsite finance and accounting training, but are not there when you need followup. This is where Alliance is truly unique. We are available to provide support after the training. All of our
finance and accounting trainers are subject matter experts in their fields and have extensive hands-on
experience. In addition, they are master facilitators. This rare combination of extensive finance and
accounting experience and excellent training skills ensures you will receive a true learning experience.
In todays challenging market conditions and intensely competitive landscape, being able to get your
people moving in the same direction and working together as a team is critical to achieving goals.
Successful organizations recognize the need to continually develop both their employees and managers
knowledge in finance and accounting. At Alliance, we focus on performance. Whether your group is large
or small, Alliance has the right trainer and the right finance and accounting program for you and your
organization.
Martha Jenkins
(Over 1,000 training and speaking engagements to over 50,000 people)
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Articles
Experience
Martha specializes in the areas of payroll, wage and hour law, garnishment issues, and sales and use tax.
Making the obscure and complex simple and easily understood is undoubtedly Marthas greatest gift as a
trainer, consultant and teacher.
Martha Jenkins is a founder and president of Alliance Training and Consulting, Inc. Marthas business
training courses, E-learning programs, and graduate-level curriculum have been purchased and promoted
by some of the worlds largest and most respected training companies. Marthas curriculum development
capabilities provide programs which are truly customized to our clients needs. This unique ability is
appreciated by both our clients and other nationally recognized training companies. Martha provides
Alliance with the curriculum development capabilities to enable Alliance to create and design complete
training packages for our clients.
Education
Further studies
Background
Over the past 25 years, Martha has served as content developer and technical expert for a myriad of
businesses in manufacturing, construction, distribution, retailing, and service providers. Martha has
written courses on payroll, garnishment, employee benefits, wage and hour, and sales and use tax and
has presented over 1,000 public seminars to more than 50,000 customers. She takes a very personal,
competent, and studied approach to her clients. Martha understands that even though these issues may
not dazzle the average person, they are critical for the financial health and success of every company.
Implementing budgeting best practices is essential to meeting the strategic goals and objectives of the
organization. The following are key budget issues and best practices for every organization:
Best budgeting practice: Make certain strategic goals are set before budgeting begins. This not
only makes it easier for budget developers at all levels, fewer budget revisions are
required. Budget development then becomes not only faster and less costly, but also far less
frustrating.
Managers see budgeting as a chore that ends up being a guess (at best) and something they
must endure to keep their boss and the controller off their back.
Managers see budgeting as a numbers game where you: Make the revenue match the expenses.
Show lots of complicated financial information.
Managers think the best way to get the budget approved is to use the phrase: Trust me, it all
adds up.
Managers take the approach of: Just tell me what you want, and Ill make the numbers work.
Managers understand the Do more with less motto, but dont have a clue as to how to do it.
Managers think making across-the-board cuts means to simply dilute all projects, services and
resources by a certain percentage.
If any of these budgeting myths sound familiar, your managers need this training.
When managers do not understand the budgeting process they are unable to effectively participate in a
decision-making process that can make, or break, your organization.
Tough economic times challenge managers to be good leaders. This is especially true when it comes to
dealing with financial issues. Economic pressures can cause indecision and poor decisions when it
comes to budgeting. Unfortunately, many managers have not had sufficient training to meet the challenge
of developing effective budgets even in good times.
This seminar trains managers how to build valid assumptions to make good financial decisions and build
flexibility into their budgets for a rapidly changing business environment.
Who Should Attend
This course is designed for managers who do not work in the accounting department, but need to have a
good understanding of the budgeting process.
Training Benefits
Recognize the difference between direct, indirect, variable and fixed costs
Recognize the correlation between the strategic plan, budgeting and the managerial process
Recall the variables of budgeting: factors, attitudes, environment, functions and inherent
problems
Prepare and manage an operational budget for a department: burden rates, gross expenses and
earned value
Identify cost behavior: break-even, marginal costs, fixed & variable costs, committed &
discretionary costs, controllable & non-controllable, opportunity cost, regression
4.
(To this end, Finance for Nonfinancial Managers can be important training for many managers. Most fist-time
managers have never received training on how to read a financial statement or training at any level
of Financial Analysis.)
Not aligning department budgets with corporate strategy. Competition for resources within an
organization is inevitable. Every business unit needs funding for both capital and operating
expenses. Because needs typically exceed actual resources available, resources must be allocated to
support key strategies. When the budget is linked to corporate strategy, managers and employees have a
clearer understanding of strategic goals. This leads to greater support for goals, better coordination of
efforts, and, ultimately, to stronger companywide performance.
5. Not ensuring that the budget accommodates change. Developing budgets that accommodate change
help companies respond to competitive threats or opportunities more quickly and with greater
precision. Plus, knowing that budgets have some flexibility frees the manager from the need to "pad" the
budget to cover a wide variety of possible developments. This leads to leaner, more realistic budgets overall.
Formulating a vision and strategic plan for the department and the organization is the hard part. Formulating the
budget should be the easy part, but this is where many strategic plans are shattered. When managers understand
the budget process, crunching the numbers is far more simple. The key is training managers to develop
and administer their budgets effectively. Managers who develop and manage their budgets carefully will improve
performance in their department and help your organization meet and exceed your financial goals and expectations
even in tough economic times.
Business budgeting in tough economic times means more than just taking an axe to chop away the fat. Todays
business budgets require taking careful aim at how to best target corporate recourses to achieve strategic goals, and
it requires the knowledgeable budgeting on the part of every manager with a budget.
Learners have to make generalizations to relate the training content to job expectations.
They have difficulty applying new knowledge and skills on the job.
While TNA requires some effort, even the smallest business can benefit from the process without major
expense. The following are some basic guidelines to help you implement an effective Training Needs
Analysis.
At the most basic level, the TNA identifies the gap between desired performance and actual employee
performance. But the TNA must also consider the overall organizational strategy, specific tasks, user and
learner needs, specific content to be trained and the return on the training investment.
A Training Needs Analysis should include six types of analyses.
1. Organization Analysis
Training must have organizational support. Manager support is essential to provide the time and
resources needed. They must recognize the training as being in alignment with the business strategy. In
other words, what is the business case for the training? Look at organizational issues such as:
Succession planning
Skills inventory: currently available and short and long term needs
2. User Analysis
The important questions being answered by this analysis are: who will receive the training and what is
their current level of knowledge, what is their learning style, what training format will be used (instructorled, e-learning, blended, etc.) and who is qualified to conduct the training?
Training factors such as education, age, experience, time and even factors such as negative experiences
with past training can create resistance to some approaches to training and the willingness of adult
learners to participate in and benefit from a learning experience.
3. Task Analysis
The task analysis determines the Knowledge, Skills, Behaviors, and Abilities (KSBAs) required. It focuses
on specific responsibilities of the job, performance standards and how results are measured. Relating the
KSBAs to operating problems such as downtime, waste, poor quality, and service problems allow you to
identify the gaps between desired and actual performance. Plus, it helps define whether training is a
solution to the performance issue.
Additional key questions:
Are current standards being met? How often is performance feedback provided?
Are there consequences for poor performance? (If there are no consequences to
performance, the performance may not be seen as important. Adult learners must view
the task as important to be motivated to learn required knowledge and skills.)
Are there work environment issues that could cause poor performance? (Noise,
temperature, etc.)
Data should be gathered from people having direct knowledge of the tasks, responsibilities and the
expected level of performance. Subject matter experts, supervisors and high-performing employees can
give you the best information.
4. Learner Analysis
The learner analysis identifies who can benefit from training and who is ready for the learning experience.
For example: An advance Excel training session may not benefit the person who has no prior experience
using Excel.
Additional key questions:
Is the learner aware of the need for training? (This could be due to performance
feedback, being aware of coming changes in procedures, technology, etc.)
With their current skills and knowledge, are they ready to move to the next level that the
training is intended to provide?
What are the real and perceived barriers to performance? (This could include issues such
as task overload, red-tape and problems with management or coworkers.)
To what degree is the employee involved in their own personal development and career
planning?
Keeping records such as training progress charts, up-to-date listing of current skills, performance data,
work samples and performance evaluation can help here. Interviewing employees about their job
challenges and training needs is often one of the best approaches to learner analysis.
5. Content Analysis
The content analysis guides the design of instructionally sound, meaningful, and interactive training
programs required by adult learners. Take care to understand laws, procedures related to the job and
what knowledge or information is used on the job. This information is often available in manuals,
documents, or regulations. An experienced worker can assist (as a subject matter expert) to define
appropriate content.
Additional key questions:
How will the content go beyond theory and be related directly to job application?
How will the learning be reinforced on the job? Performance feedback? Management
support and coaching? Other?
What training delivery format will be used? (Instructor-led, online, blended, etc.)
6. ROI Analysis
Training should be treated as an investment - not a cost. Analyze what the pay off will be. Define tangible
and intangible benefits that are expected from the training.
Additional key questions:
What specific benefits are expected from the training? Increased productivity, time, fewer
errors, etc.
What are the intangible benefits? Improved morale, lower legal liability, improved team
effort, etc.
Putting bottom line numbers to the benefits defines the return on investment (ROI) for the training and
helps build your business case for future training in your department.
How to Collect Training Needs Analysis Data:
The process of gaining the data for the TNA can be as simple as asking the employee questions or
sophisticated questionnaires and surveys.
Here is a good basic list of questions to get started with your TNA. Focusing interviews, questionnaires,
and other forms of collecting TNA data around these issues can help you collect appropriate information.
This list is not to be considered the only questions you will want to ask - it is just a good starting point.
What difficulties do you face when doing these tasks or your job?
What training do you feel could help you achieve your goals?
What kind of training in the past has been most helpful? Least helpful?
The answers to these questions can help steer your training and training development process in the right
direction. Getting this kind of information is essential to the TNA process. Interviews are one way to
collect TNA data, but there are more options.
Here are six approaches most commonly used to collect data for a TNA.
One-On-One Interviews: Interviewing staff, supervisors and relevant others, such as customers, can
provide excellent data on job, task and attitudes. Results can be difficult to analyze if not done by a
person with good interviewing skills. Anonymity and time are also issues here.
Observation: Observe the employee completing the task. A checklist of behaviors and sequences can be
helpful. Rating results is also an important part of this approach. Be careful that the observer does not
distract or effect the employee's ability to do the task. Observation can be time consuming.
Surveys/Questionnaires: Questions related to the organization, tasks or the individual themselves can
provide excellent data regarding knowledge, perceptions and attitudes. Make certain the questions are
carefully designed to achieve accurate information. Anonymity and perceived negative consequences can
create problems with this approach.
Group Interviews: Group interviews can save time and are especially good when multiple perspectives
are important. However, the interviewer must be a skilled facilitator to bring out all issues. Do not allow the
discussion to be dominated by a few or an individual with status or position.
Documentation: Performance records, evaluations, training records and other documentation can be of
tremendous value in determining training needs. Be careful that the data collected is accurate and
objective. Subjective performance reviews may be of limited value.
Performance Tests: While tests can be difficult to design and often expensive, certain skills can be
tested using standardized tests and metrics can be measured to provide quantitative data (multiple
choice, fill in the blank etc.) of performance levels.
There is no best method of gathering Training Needs Analysis data. A combination of methods is most
often the best approach.
The Training Needs Analysis is a critical activity for the training and development function. A thorough
TNA identifies what specific performance areas require training, who will benefit from training and how the
training should be designed. Effective TNA maximizes the return on your training investment.
Assess your companys present budget, manager's budget, budget forms, pre-budgeting activity
and budgeting process
Evaluate how your budget plans allow for the occurrence of inherent problems
Evaluate your budget plans to determine if these elements have been addressed
Day Two
Specify the key questions that must be answered before revenue forecasting
Verify the different types of capital expenditures and how they should be justified