Some people seem to think that generating paper is a goal in itself, but the only good reason to write documents is to help you manage your business better. If it doesn’t help, you won’t use it and it will gather dust. So how can documents help? Any time you … Read More
The most difficult part of risk management is figuring out what risks should be managed. Management involvement is important here; in a perfect world, the management team would spend some time brainstorming possible risks, which could then be evaluated and actions taken. The relevant risks to be managed depend a … Read More
One of the major changes in ISO 9001:2015 is the addition of risk-based thinking. Technically it has always been there, but now risk management takes center stage, replacing preventive actions and feeding the corrective action and improvement systems. Done poorly, this is one more piece of paper to gather dust … Read More
One technique that can be used to make board meetings more efficient, especially for boards with a lot of routine matters, is a consent agenda. A consent agenda is a way to corral all the straightforward board approvals into one item that can be voted on quickly: minutes, financial reports, … Read More
When you are putting together a Return to Work program, one useful item is a set of functional job descriptions. These differ from the job descriptions you might already have by focusing solely of the physical requirements of a job rather than on the tasks; instead of “store packages on … Read More
When you are busy running a business or nonprofit, it can be hard to remember that you have an employee manual sitting on a shelf gathering dust somewhere. But if you have one, you need to keep it up to date; it is not something to ignore. If you ever … Read More
Being on a board for a nonprofit can be satisfying and interesting – but drawn-out board meetings that slog through a vague agenda and spend more time on housekeeping details than on ways to improve the organization take the fun out of it. Luckily, there are couple of simple things … Read More
If you live in a community that hosts a National Guard or Reserves post, you may end up with a service member as an employee. You may not know about it when you hire them (among other things, it is a bad idea to ask candidates if they are a … Read More
Anytime you have to convince someone to accommodate your request, it helps to consider things from their perspective, and to demonstrate that you have done so. Find what they are looking for and keep it front and center when you write your appeal. For instance, if you are looking for … Read More
One question that often comes up in audits, whether ISO-9001, AS-9100, or food safety, is whether or not your people are qualified to do their job. How do you know that they are qualified to turn out a quality product every time? How do you know that they know how … Read More