Emergency Communications

Different emergency situations require different solutions.

If you have just experienced a hurricane that left your area temporarily without phone and electrical service you probably won't need a world wide radio communication setup with the accompanying extensive antenna system. But if you just went through an event that caused Continent wide destruction that will take months or even years to repair you may need a long reaching more complex system of communication with all its supporting elements.

For the purpose of this article I will layout what I believe may be required for two very different scenarios. Scenario one is a short term temporary phone outage lasting a few days to a couple weeks and the second one being a long term total communication failure.

Emergency Communications

For short term local communication needs there are several options available. The best known probably being the good old citizen band 40 channel AM transceiver. FRS and GMRS hand held walkie talkies can also be used if you prefer but don't believe the hype about the 17 mile range. In real world situations you are lucky to get 2 mile range.

Of these options I would recommend a quality 40 channel CB with SSB (single side band)capability. SSB is a mode of transmission that concentrates the outgoing power in just one side band and suppresses the carrier and other side band which enables the transmitter to have three times the output power of a garden variety AM CB set.

Another more reliable solution for short range (up to 50 miles) communication is the 2 meter Amateur Radio FM handie talkie. The problem with these radios is they require an FCC License to operate legally. A "Technician Class" amateur radio license (needed for 2 meter FM) is fairly simple to obtain. All that's needed is a study guide (readily available through ARRL) some study time and the successful completion of a 35 question multiple choice exam.

Phone and power outages with no foreseeable chance of restoration is a very different problem. In my opinion a modern High Frequency ham radio would be the best option for both short and long range reliable communication. HF (high frequency) sets usually span from just above the AM radio band to about 30mhz.They can also be used to monitor short wave broadcasts from FEMA and other agencies.

You will need to pass a more advanced Amateur Radio Exam in order to transmit legally on these radios.

Any radio you acquire will also need a matching antenna.

Antenna Matching

Most transmitters, with the exception of the hand held variety that come with an already attached antenna, need the antenna matched to the feed line and transmitter.

The lower the transmitting frequency the longer the antenna. Transmitting antennas in the AM radio band are 300ft. long. CB radio antennas are around 8 ft. long. If the antenna isn't matched properly to the transmitter, part of the outgoing power will be reflected back to the final stage in the transmitter where it could burnout the final amplification stage. (that's a bad thing)

The formula for a half wave dipole (a simple transmitting antenna) is "freq in megahertz divided by 468 equals length of the antenna in feet. " A quick search on Google will give you many home brew antenna building plans.

After constructing one of the above antennas you will need to check the SWR (standing wave ratio) of the antenna to make sure its matched properly with the transmitter and feed line. This procedure is easily done with an inexpensive SWR meter, found at any electronics store.

Don't worry about not getting it right the first time. Most modern transmitters have a limiting circuit that will cut power if the antenna isn't matched properly, Thus saving the finals from any damage.

Emergency Communications
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F.E.Stacey is author of Emergency Communications as part of a more expansive interest in Survivalist Homesteading. Http://www.survivalisthomestead.com

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Top 5 Ways to Make a Woman Irresistibly Attracted to You

If you want to attract women, you have to think like a salesman. Know what your clients want, and tune your product--that's you--to fit the clients' needs.

In order to do that, you have to do the same thing all marketers do to capture people's interest with their products: develop killer PACKAGING. Hey, let's face it: women judge men based on looks. And who can blame them? Before they can get to know you, they only have visual things to judge you on: your clothes, your height, your body language, your status. We men are just like any other product: in order to sell well, we need great packaging!
It all comes down to women's evolutionary instincts: find the best mate for them and their unborn children. How do they do this? By seeing which men are strong, which ones are successful, and which ones have high status.

While times have changed, still these instincts remain. One evolutionary scientist, Dr. David Buss, did a study of over 10,000 people in 37 countries, on six continents, and found that women value men based on three big things: ambition, status, and financial resources. Similarly, relationship expert, Andrea P. Roberts, suggests that women determine a man's worthiness based on 3 "T's", or "takais," a Japanese word that represents good qualities: education level, physical height, and salary level. Quite a bit deeper than having a nice ass and big
breasts, isn't it?

Top 5 Ways to Make a Woman Irresistibly Attracted to You

Okay, some of you may be thinking: Well, I'm not tall, and I'm not rich. Now what?!?

The good news is, height and wealth aren't the be-all and end-all of attraction; they're just aids to success. It's similar to saying you want a really expensive car...but that doesn't mean you'd never drive a Honda. In fact, for a lot of people (including women!), when you learn that Hondas have better mileage than Hummers, they can be more attractive! As Roberts writes, "even an ordinary man doesn't have to be exceptionally rich or powerful to make women want him. It's all a matter of the women's perspective if he ends up taller, smarter or wealthier than them."

Got that? It's all about perspective: how you market yourself successfully to a woman. Hey, lots of people know that Creative MP3 Players are better quality than I-Pods, but that doesn't seem to stop Apple from selling I-Pods like hotcakes, does it? So if you're short, or of average income, but present your positive traits in the right way, it won't matter: you'll become the I-Pods of men! As Roberts writes, "Think of Napoleon, Mickey Rooney or Groucho; they are humorous, artistic or politically powerful men who wooed women into their beds and, horizontally, the height issue wasn't a factor. Polite and persuasive persistence is the best trait."

So what we have are five areas that we must market effectively if we want to spark an initial attraction from women. After that, it's up to you to show what a great guy you are: let her know you're special, unique, one of a kind. That's what makes you...a best-seller!

1. Ambition

From an evolutionary stand-point, this one makes complete sense. Think cavemen and cave women in the Stone Age, with some of the weaker cavemen seeking a higher station in the tribe. Who do you think the cave women went for? The men who hobbled along meekly in the bottom of the order...or the men who strived for more and sought a higher place in the pack? Much of a woman's desire to be with a man who is ambitious and seeks success, is based simply on survival: The more powerful the man, the more likely she'll survive and live well. Logically, going for a guy who has no ambition means she's likely to live in poverty and struggle. Not very appealing, is it?

So you have to present yourself as a guy who's not satisfied with his station in life. This is good for both you and her. If you're making an hour at McDonald's and are content to stay there, not many women are going to be attracted to you. But if you're making an hour and working your ass off to own your own franchise, taking business classes at night so you can learn how to run a business: well, suddenly you're not so bad-looking! Believe me, women will give men a chance, they want to give men a chance--as long as they see potential. Know that quote, "Behind every great man is an even greater woman"? Show you've got potential and direction, and you'll get that great woman.

2. Status

Again, evolutionary instincts of survival make women naturally attracted to men of high status. High status=good living for herself and her children. Fortunately, projecting high status does not have to be difficult; according to Roberts, "Wearing the right clothes, especially nice shoes, can go a long way toward portraying wealth. Taking on the unshaken or unworried attitude of wealthy men can project affluence. Hesitant, irresolute, bland men come across as having lower incomes and being less reliable." Got that? You don't have to be a powerful, articulate man yourself-you just have to project similar qualities.

Some of these qualities include:

* Not putting yourself down. Without being a braggart, talk positively about your accomplishments, job position, and possessions-even if they're not much. If you treat things as a big deal, other people will, too. Conversely, if you downplay your accomplishments and character, women will, too. Your attitude is contagious, so make sure it's an enthusiastic, enlivening one that people enjoy.

* Act like you deserve good women. Don't let women assume a higher status than you. Show them that YOU are the one with higher status. You can do this in a number of ways, including not acting impressed by a woman's beauty or career (say, she's a model); teasing her about her clothes or makeup; and asking her to buy you a drink. Chances are she won't, but just by acting like you deserve it, you raise your status! She's not such an untouchable goddess in the end.

Remember, as well, that women want to EARN a man; they relish the challenge of luring in a winning catch. So play hard to get: talk to other girls, say you've got to be leaving just when things are going well, don't immediately ask for her phone number. If you act like a man who can have his pick of women, then chances are, you will!

* Knowing people of high status. This is a great one. Get to know the people of power: the club owners, bartenders, maitres'd. Position yourself as a sociable person who's in the know. When a woman sees you getting special treatment and chatting with high-status people, she'll see right away that you're someone of importance. It will also reduce the importance of the other factors, such as height, money, and ambition; immediately you've proven yourself valuable.

* Social proof/Female acquaintances. Hey, nothing says, "This guy's attractive" than having females around him. Of course, the hotter they are, the hotter you look, but even just having average-looking female company can only help: it shows women that other women are interested in you. Do your best to get your female friends and family (sisters, cousins) to come out with you. It's social proof, and it works!

* Wearing nice clothes. "When a man is well dressed," writes communications expert, Leil Lowndes, "it signifies his ability to provide for her offspring." You don't have to be rich and powerful to wear nice clothes. You just have to show that you're a man of quality, a man headed towards somewhere who pays attention to dress (something women cna never get enough of). Formal clothes, such as a suit, convey that you are serious about success; you desire good things. So just by wearing a nice sports jacket, dress shirt, and slacks, you let a woman know you're a man with status. You're a man who could provide for her and her children.

The colors you wear are vital: Studies show that red, burgundy, and black clothes convey high status. So get yourself some slick black suits or formal wear, a red shirt, and one of my favorites (and girls'!), a sleek burgundy button-down shirt. They all convey regality and strength.

In the case of red, you have the added bonus of sexuality, power, and dominance: definitely good qualities to portray! Go and purchase a nice red polo shirt, or red tie for your suit.

If you enjoy white clothes-the color of purity and cleanliness-then make sure you work on your TAN. White clothes against a dark backdrop make you look exotic, sexy, and well-travelled. You don't have to be an jet-setting playboy, to look like one!

* Winning body language. Women judge men by the way they move and position themselves; it's part of their superior communication skills to know what a man is thinking or feeling based on his body language. So, position yourself in the right way: don't slouch, sit upright, gaze at her knowingly, lean into her to initiate intimacy. I've got a great column on body language that will teach you the right ways-and the wrong ways-to project high status.

3. Financial Resources
According to Matthew Fitzgerald, "Studies with college coeds show that when shown photographs of men dressed in high-status uniforms, ties, expensive watches, etc.) and low-status uniforms, these women would be significantly more willing to enter into relationships with the more expensively-attired males regardless of the man's physical appearance. To a woman, attraction is simple: green is very good-looking."

Okay, so not every guy has money for expensive suits and watches, and materialism may not be part of your game. However, if you want to impress women, one of the fastest ways is by wearing snazzy clothes, sporting nice shoes (girls LOVE shoes!), and driving an expensive car. Especially when it comes to designer brands, women are VERY keen at spotting high-quality products. It's just part of their nature; with expensive possessions come high status and ambition, and a more comfortable lifestyle. Again, this all comes from their instinctual drive for survival and prosperity for themselves and their children. By owning the best, you become the best. At least on the surface.

Ultimately, if you want true love it's up to you to find women who share the same goals and values. If money and status aren't the most important things in life for you, don't chase the girls who do prioritize those things. Don't go for the shallow, bitchy types who only judge a man by how much he can spend on her.

4. Educational Level

Knowledge really is power, and on top of that, it's an aphrodisiac! Gone are the days when being smart was acquainted with being a nerd; now, knowledge and intelligence are your friends. It's the easiest way to money, and the easiest way to success. So show it off a little. Let her know your TALENTS, your interests, your areas of special knowledge. As Roberts writes, "Women are drawn to experts like the Crocodile Hunter, Bill Gates and Chris Rock because they're experts in their industries." None of those guys is particularly good-looking, but they're good at what they do, and parlay their knowledge into success, which drives women wild.

A guy who's an expert is one who is clearly successful and of higher status. At the very least, having a special knowledge means you have the TOOLS for success, and can provide intellectual stimulation for a girl (which, unless she's a bimbo with an IQ of 70, is quite important for women).

Additionally, just being in school is a great way to show off your knowledge: "If you're in school, not only are there more women available, but you've already demonstrated to them that you're getting educated. Otherwise, it's up to you to come across as reliable and credible without making her feel dumb."

5. Physical Aptitude

Physical height alone is an easy way to catch a woman's attention, but it's not the only thing. Again, evolutionary mechanics come into play here. A man who is tall, strong, and athletic is more likely to fend off threats to the woman and her children. He is also more likely to have a strong immune system, which will further aid their chances of survival. So, you can't blame women too much for valuing these things: in the world of female attraction, it really is a survival of the fittest. Those who show women they are in shape and healthy are much more likely to survive the dating game! Ergo, athletes, bouncers, firemen get the girls.

As for height, it's all a matter of perspective. We've all seen short guys with tall beautiful women. Neil Strauss himself, the best of the best pickup artists, is just 5'6" yet gets more beautiful women than we can imagine. How? By believing in himself. By positioning himself as a man of high status. By not bowing down to women of greater height or beauty. And by being a guy women know is fun and energetic to be around. In short, he's got INNER GAME, and when you have that down, nothing can stop you. You may even find yourself dating women who are taller than you!

But remember, presenting a man who's healthy and strong, willing to stand up for himself and the girl in a fight: that's the kind of guy who women will go for, regardless of height. Did you know that men with strong immune systems give off pheromone scents that women are instinctively attracted to? If you pay attention to what you eat and go to the gym on a regular basis, you're going to build your immune system up, and attract women without even trying! So do it, and watch the number of dates you get, soar.

In the end, men are like books: women judge them by their covers. But inside is an even great story. So make your cover captivating, and you'll become a "best-seller" in no time!

Top 5 Ways to Make a Woman Irresistibly Attracted to You
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000Relationships' "How to Be Irresistible to Women" delves into the secrets of attraction and seduction. Since 2000, it has helped thousands of men around the world build confidence and get the women they deserve. To get your free six-part mini-course, go to:

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Will YOU be the next success story?

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Project Communications - How to Keep Your Team Engaged and Informed

Communications are a critical deliverable of every successful project and a key project management soft skill. You may not have thought of communications as an actual project deliverable, but it is. It may not be the one your client or customer places the most emphasis on, but that's because every client and customer will take good communications for granted.

Project communications is one deliverable that you are personally responsible for and it's one that has a large influence over your project's success or failure. I say this because personal experience has taught me that the best managed projects, delivering on all their promise, on time, and on budget can still get a bad reputation and be perceived as failures. The reason: the project manager did not do an adequate job of communicating project success to their stakeholders.

We hope that the information and template in this section will help guide you to choose the right information, schedule, and communication vehicles for your project.

Project Communications - How to Keep Your Team Engaged and Informed

The Major Elements of Project Communications

Who to Communicate to
You could just say that it's important to communicate with all the project's stakeholders and leave it at that but this approach would guarantee failure. Each individual stakeholder has a different set of requirements for project information, and prefers different ways of receiving their communications. It will not be possible to define a unique set of communications and communication vehicles for each stakeholder in most projects so the best you can do is identify the different category of stakeholder and define the required information and communication methods that best suits the group.

Executive Sponsor/Business Sponsor Probably the most important customer(s) of your project's communications. It's going to be worth your while to define a custom set of communications for each person in this category. Generally speaking, these are busy people who don't have a lot of time to read a lot of detail. Charts and graphs that tell the viewer a lot about the project at a glance will probably work best for them.

Take the time to interview them about their preferences: what they need to know, how they want to be communicated with, and how often. Keeping them informed about project performance is critical because they sign the cheque for the project (including your salary). They also need information so they can keep their peers apprised of the project's performance. Remember, they are your project's champions so the better armed with information they are, the better job they can do promoting your project.

Tip: don't report a problem to them without suggesting a solution. For example, if you're reporting an SPI of less than 1.0 for the 2nd week in a row, you need to include a corrective action with the report.

Project Team Members This is the single most populous group in your list of stakeholders. You may want to subdivide the group into sub-groups based on their roles. For example you may want to have a different set of communications for the Business Analysts and Software Developers, or for the Electricians and Plumbers on your project. This group has a different perspective on project performance than sponsors: the sponsor views the project as work being done for them. The team member views the project as work being done by them and therefore reports on project performance are a reflection on them. A good report pleases everyone - project sponsors and team members. A bad report will cause the sponsor to worry but may negatively impact team morale.

Customers/Clients These can be internal to your organization, or external to it. These people may profess no particular interest in project communications until the final product or service is delivered. You need to overcome this disinterest and pique their interest in project progress. The more informed they are on the project as it progresses through its lifecycle, the more likely they are to accept the resulting products or services.

Partners These are people who are doing work that is in some way affected by the work of your project. You may both be working on projects that are part of a program, or your projects may simply affect one another without further integration. For example, you may be managing a software project that requires a corresponding database project - the database project team is your partner. Or, you may be working on a software system new software system that will utilize an existing web portal for customer access - the portal team is your partner despite the fact they aren't performing a project.

Community Stakeholders These are an increasingly important category of stakeholder. As more emphasis is being placed on organizations ethical behavior and social responsibility, there is an increasing demand for projects to be performed ethically. One of the ways this is done is by treating those who don't belong to the performing organization, or to the customer/client organization, as project stakeholders. Consideration of these stakeholders must go beyond communications, but project communications constitute an important part of your ethical dealings with them.

Project Manager Don't forget to include yourself as a stakeholder. Your need for project information is perhaps the most important for the project. If you aren't receiving the information you need to run the project, you won't be able to share it with other stakeholders. Your needs will stem from the need to be updated on the progress of the individual tasks of the project so that you can keep the project plans up to date and identify preventive or corrective actions.

Project Management Office (PMO) Your PMO may have requirements for project information that will enable it to identify opportunities for process improvement. While these needs are very much like the needs of sponsors, customers, and clients to know how the project is progressing to plan, its focus is on the project processes, tools, techniques, and best practices it supports. Your PMO may also be tasked with reporting on project progress to the organization. Reports which the PMO is responsible for should provide very specific requirements for information.

What to Communicate
What project information to communicate to a stakeholder group is inextricably tied to the information that is available for communication. After all, you can't communicate what you don't know. On the other hand, if the need for the information is real and gathering the information is feasible, you should make every effort to make it available. The choice of the information to be communicated cannot be made without considering the project's tools and techniques for gathering the information and vice versa.

Project communications is not a key deliverable of the project, but it should be treated as a project deliverable. Start with your Project Charter: does the project charter contain any requirements for information? If it does, the information and its target audience ought to be included in your Communications Management Plan. Your Scope Statement may also include requirements for project communications. The Statement of Work (SOW) may also have captured requirements for project communications. When you are performing a project for an external customer or client the SOW is your bible and any project communications that are part of the legal contract should be specified there.

After identifying all the needs already expressed in the project documentation to date, you need to solicit requirements from the various groups of stakeholders. This solicitation should be done in the context of what is feasible for the project to deliver. Be prepared to meet with your sponsor to identify their requirements. Be specific as to presentation: should the SPI (Schedule Performance Index) be shown as a bar graph with a rolling 6 week tally? Should it be shown as a line graph with the benchmark line of 1.0 and a rolling 6 month tally? You may even want to mock up some sample reports to let them choose the format.

A project dashboard is a popular instrument for communicating project progress to sponsors and other senior executives. The dashboard is meant to show the status of your project at a glance and may consist of the project's SPI, CPI (Cost Performance Index), SV (Schedule Variance), CV (Cost Variance), PV (Planned Value), AC (Actual Cost), and EV (Earned Value). As a rule, you shouldn't mix schedule indicators with cost indicators, but you can show schedule and cost indicators in any combination your sponsor would like. You may also want to include such things as the top 5 risks, top 5 outstanding issues, metrics on change (number of change requests, number accepted, number of rejected, total costs, etc.), and quality (number of tests, number passed, number failed, outstanding bug reports, etc.). You should try to keep your dashboard to a handful of slides and provide supporting detail in text, or Excel format as backup.

You should repeat the requirements gathering exercise with each group of stakeholders, weighing their need for information with the project's ability to gather and communicate it. Tip: share as much of the information reported to the other groups with the project team (the people actually doing the work of the project), as is possible. Your organization may have policies or guidelines around what can and cannot be shared outside executive offices; share as much information with the team as possible without violating these policies. You'll find sharing positive reports will boost morale, while sharing negative reports will stop the rumors that will further erode morale.

Be prepared to capture and report information by stakeholder group, department, or sub-project. The individual groups on your team will want the ability to view their progress in isolation from the rest of the team. Tip: make sure that you break the work down so that tasks performed by individual groups or departments are identifiable. This will enable you to report performance group by group or department by department and still roll totals up to report for the entire project.

The information you plan to communicate will drive your activities throughout the project. Your plans should include the metrics that must be gathered in order to support the information you plan to communicate. You will need to identify who is responsible for providing the information and where the information is to be stored and reported from. There are 2 questions you need to ask yourself before you commit to providing a report:
1. How do I get this information? (i.e. what metrics do I need to capture and where will they come from)
2. Where will I store the metrics?
A failure to answer both questions will mean that either you have to alter your plan to task someone to gather the metric, identify a tool to capture and retrieve the metric, or drop the requirement.

Finally, don't forget individual accomplishments and rewards when reporting project progress. There's nothing like a good news story to keep team morale high and the celebration of a team member's accomplishment is something most sponsors enjoy hearing about.

How to Communicate
There are many different means of communication available to you - face to face, e-mail, intranet, internet, regular mail, phone, video conferences, etc., etc. These can be grouped into 2 groups: "push" communications and "pull" communications. Push communications requires you to push the information onto the recipient as the name would suggest, while pull communications requires the recipient to actively retrieve the information from a central source. Web sites and centralized repositories are examples of pull communications, while e-mail and meetings are examples of push communications.

Preference for either push or pull communications is typically a personal preference. Some people deal with information best when it's presented to them and some prefer to retrieve it at their own convenience. Be prepared for conflicting requirements from individuals in your stakeholder groups. You may have to make the final decision on which method to use if there are conflicting requests. Alternatively, you may be able to identify a spokesperson for the group who will be empowered to identify the group's requirements. The exception to this rule is your project's sponsor. Because there is only one or two of these people, you need to ensure that your communication methods suit their requirements.

Tip: If you determine that the project must have a new tool, such as a web site, to satisfy a stakeholder requirement, you'll need to justify the cost with a business case. State the benefits to the project in business terms that justify the costs. You can also include benefits that supersede your project. For example a web site or tool such as Lotus Notes could benefit all projects your organization performs, and may even provide a benefit to operations. You may also want to explore having the PMO, or Operations bear the cost of the new tool.

When to Communicate
Your communication schedule will be driven by the needs of your audience and the availability of the information to be communicated. For example, if you had the bandwidth, you could report on any metrics managed by your MS Project file daily. On the other hand, you can't report on the results of your Gate Meeting until the Gate Meeting has actually been held. There is also no reason that a report communicated to one stakeholder group bi-weekly, can't be communicated to another group every week.

You need to use common sense in addition to capturing your stakeholders' requirements. If you choose to use a "town hall" to communicate to all stakeholders, don't schedule the meeting to occur weekly. Tip: when planning a meeting that involves you (or another team member) communicating information to an audience, count the audience, multiply that number by the number of hours the meeting lasts and multiply that number by the loaded labor rate for that group. Avoid spending large amounts on frequent communications.

Other meetings, such as status review meetings with project teams must be done more often to avoid the project going off the rails. I find that when the project is on track, weekly status review meetings are sufficient. When your project encounters problems, you might want to increase the frequency to better control the work. In extreme cases such as a project rescue, you may need to hold them daily. Tip: when the project is running smoothly and you have an alternate means of identifying completed tasks, don't be afraid to cancel a status review meeting and give the team an hour off!

Remember that communications is part of the project work. You should manage that work in your MS Project file like other project tasks, but be sensible - don't overload yourself by tracking every meeting in MS Project. You should be using the "walk around" style of management if your team is collocated, you needn't track each informal meeting you have with individual team members. Use MS Project to help you control the project, not overload yourself with work.

Tools and Techniques
Tools and techniques include tools you'll use to convey the information, tools you'll use to gather the information, and tools you'll use to store and retrieve the information. Conveyance tools will include e-mail, web sites, web casts, conference calls, video conferencing, public directories, town hall meetings, and graphical tools such as Excel. What you're communicating, how you need to communicate it, and your communication budget will determine which of these tools you'll use.

There is one tool that you'll rely on more than any other to manage information about your project: MS Project (or Primavera, if that's the tool your company has selected for use). These tools are referred to as Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) by most PMP Exam preparation courses and in the PMBOK. These tools are capable of capturing, manipulating, and reporting most of your project's relevant information so you need to be very familiar with their use. There are many excellent courses available that will ground you in the fundamentals of their use.

Your organization may employ a time tracking system in which case you have an additional source of information. Your time tracking tool should allow you to report on labor costs for your project (i.e. support the charging of time to your project code). It should also support the reporting of these costs by group and by type of work. For example it should tell you how much time was spent last week on analysis of your software project. You should reconcile the metrics from the time tracking system with your MS Project file to ensure they tally. Tip: if your time tracking system is used to generate the pay cheque for your team, make it your bible. A discrepancy means your MS Project file may be inaccurate.

MS Project comes complete with a selection of "canned" reports ready for your use. I have found that it's most useful feature for reporting project progress is its ability to export data to an Excel spreadsheet. Because Excel has been around so long it's feature rich and supports just about any type of graph or chart you can imagine. The trick here is to export the information you need to base your report on, then edit it in Excel. MS Project contains ample help facilities on how to export data.

I mentioned the 2 different categories for distributing information: push and pull. Many of your project's communications will lend themselves equally well to both methods. For example, if you communicate you can review your dashboard report with the project executive steering committee during a meeting, push it to the project team via an e-mail broadcast, and archive it on a public directory or the project's web site.

Lastly, remember that the accuracy of the information you communicate about the project will have a profound affect, either good or bad, on your reputation. You need to do your utmost to ensure the information you communicate is accurate. Measures such as the reconciliation between time sheets and your MS Project file can save you from making claims about project progress that aren't supported by the facts. Even with that degree of scrutiny your information can still be misleading or out of date. Be open and honest with your communications: tell your audience where the information comes from, how it was compiled, and how old it is. Be forthcoming with any information that could impact on the accuracy of your reports and let your audience form their own opinions of the accuracy and value of your communications.

Project Communications - How to Keep Your Team Engaged and Informed
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Integrated Marketing Communications - 5 Primary Communication Tools

Communication is always one of the most important and vital strategic areas of an organization's success. You can have the best or most innovative products or services, but if your internal and external communications are weak, then the demand for your products or services raises a personal flag of concern. When communicating the value of your products or services, you want to focus on how they will benefit your clients.

When planning your strategy for Integrated Marketing Communication or IMC, you want to have dialogue with your customers by inviting interaction through the coordinated efforts of content, timing and delivery of your products or services. By ensuring direction, clarity, consistency, timing and appearance of your messages, conveyed to your targeted audience, these factors will help avoid any confusion about the benefits of your brand, through the connection of instant product recognition.

When looking at your marketing mix, you're examining price, distribution, advertising and promotion, along with customer service. Integrated marketing communication is part of that marketing mix included in your marketing plan. IMC strategies define your target audience, establishes objectives and budgets, analyzes any social, competitive, cultural or technological issues, and conducts research to evaluate the effectiveness of your promotional strategies.

Integrated Marketing Communications - 5 Primary Communication Tools

If companies are ethically planning, communicating, and following industry guidelines, they will most likely earn the trust of their customers and target audience. There are five basic tools of integrated marketing communication:

1. Advertising:
This tool can get your messages to large audiences efficiently through such avenues as radio, TV, Magazines, Newspapers (ROP), Internet, Billboards and other mobile technological communication devices. This method can efficiently reach a large number of consumers, although the costs may be somewhat expensive.

2. Sales Promotion:
This tool is used through coupons, contests, samples, premiums, demonstrations, displays or incentives. It is used to accelerate short-term sales, by building brand awareness and encouraging repeat buying.

3. Public Relations:
This integrated marketing communications tool is initiated through public appearances, news/press releases or event sponsorships, to build trust and goodwill by presenting the product, company or person in a positive light.

4. Direct Marketing:
This tool will utilized email, mail, catalogs, encourage direct responses to radio and TV, in order to reach targeted audiences to increase sales and test new products and alternate marketing tactics.

5. Personal Selling:
Setting sales appointments and meetings, home parties, making presentations and any type of one-to-one communication, to reach your customers and strengthen your relationship with your clients, initiate this IMC tool.

Decisions linking the overall objectives and strategies during the marketing planning phases help to evaluate and fine-tune the specific activities of integrated marketing communication. Before selecting an IMC tool, marketing, product and brand managers must look at social, competitive, legal, regulatory, ethics, cultural and technological considerations. One thing you want to avoid when activating the tools of integrated marketing communication is reaching inappropriate audiences and causing controversy. That could be damaging when trying to build brand awareness and encourage consumer spending with your company. When marketing managers examine the beliefs, emotions and behavior of their targeted audience towards their brand, they can influence their beliefs to achieve product awareness, by attracting attention to their promotional campaigns.

Integrated Marketing Communications - 5 Primary Communication Tools
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Kym Gordon Moore is a Creative Marketing Strategist and Public Relations Administrator for Moore 2 It Productions, a firm dedicated to coordinating cost-effective, creative strategic marketing packages for new small businesses and newly published authors. http://www.moore2itproductions.com She is the author of "Diversities of Gifts: Same Spirit," Co-Founder of Favorite Things for a CAUSE, a member of the American Marketing Association, American Authors Association and the North Carolina Writer's Network. http://www.kymgmoore.com

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New Communication Technology For Business

Every successful business needs to have the best communication equipment available on the market. It's just a simple fact. If you can't properly communicate with your different branches, then your efficiency will take a big hit. Communicating isn't that hard though. There have been many advances in the past few years that grant great advantages to your efforts.

One of the easiest would be in the form of a simple teleconference through something like the polycom soundstation. You probably already know what this is. It's basically just one big conference, except you don't need to pack everyone into one board room. There are a number of advantages to this setup. The first is that you are in a perfect position to take full advantage of telecommuting. Any of your remote workers can just press a few buttons and log into the conference from their home phone. This also works for any remote branches who want to be involved. There are nearly countless benefits to having one installed. You will have greater function in your meetings and you'll be able to include everyone without annoying travel plans. There is also the usual ability to tape the conference for better archiving. Avaya IP office phones will work in this capacity to make everything function a bit better.

It is important that you take the time to setup the connection properly though. There is no reason to buy an inferior product for your teleconference. If you go cheap and don't have it professionally installed, then the static and poor pickup will effectively ruin any good conference. The good news is that you have a lot of options. The Polycom system works to give you a large microphone range which should be able to handle any small or medium room. There are other options though. Just a basic search online will show a number of companies who want your business.

New Communication Technology For Business

You could go with a phone system through Avaya partner ACS. They offer similar setups for your conference needs. It's really just about getting what you want from a reputable company. Check to see who has local branches and then see whether one of their products fits your capacity needs better. It's hard to tell you what's the best without understanding your exact situation. These two companies should be a good place to start though. Just one phone call could let you start having teleconferences that make everything run smoother and more efficiently.

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Caitlina Fuller is a freelance writer. One of the easiest would be in the form of a simple teleconference through something like the polycom soundstation. You could go with a phone system through Avaya partner ACS. They offer similar setups for your conference needs.

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Free Cell Phone Number Search

Cell phone numbers are generally not listed in telephone directories for reasons of maintaining confidentiality. In fact the very reason people go in for cell phones is because it offers them privacy. With a cell phone you can virtually choose people whose calls you would like to receive. No longer need you worry about being hassled by unwanted telemarketing agents, constantly pestering you to buy the most mundane things at all the wrong times. Such intrusion of privacy is not possible with a cell phone, to a large extent. Note the word 'large extent'. No longer are cell phone number searches impossible. Thanks to the increasing presence of online resources which offer cell phone number search.

Most of these online search agencies can track cell phone numbers, using 'reverse lookups'. You can now find out the name of the person using a particular cell phone number, his/her address, other related addresses of an individual and possible other names attached to these addresses. So the next time you want to find out a cell phone number, you need not despair. Just surf the net and you will be able to successfully find the all-elusive number. Log on and find out. Although most of these online search agencies charge a fee for these search options, you will be surprised to know that the number of online agencies offering this service free of cost is increasing by the day. Go to these free cell phone number search web sites and key in the relevant requested information. The number you had been searching for is listed in front of you in a matter of seconds. It doesn't stop only with the number; you also get to find out the address. It is just like using your good old yellow pages or any other telephone directory.

Free Cell Phone Number Search

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Importance of Business Communication

We all understand and appreciate the importance of communication in our day to day lives. A breakdown in communication between two people can result in some tumultuous times for them. This is the reason why communication is all the more necessary for conducting business in an efficient manner, because it involves not just two, but numerous people who may be located anywhere on the globe. Read on to find more about the importance of business communication.

The Best way to Communicate
Good communication means that the message that you wish to send is received by the intended recipients without being distorted in any manner. This is the reason why verbal communication is supposedly the best form of communication there can be. This is because there is very low possibility of distortions and there is instant feedback to be received. But in the context of business this is not always possible chiefly because of the 'one to many' nature of business communication.

How Business Communication works
So most business communication is of a non-verbal type and can be anything from e-mails, letters, circulars, notices or memos.

Importance of Business Communication

The use of these methods lays even more emphasis on the importance of business communication. This is because there are no spoken words or feedback and body language to fall back on. So if the message lacks clarity then it may result in various incorrect assumptions being made by the recipients.

This requires all written communication to be concise and accurately worded. The sentences need to be examined for any unintended double entrendes. You must remember that a confusing message may result in an unfavorable response from your intended audience.

But the modern tools of business communication can also work in your favor. They can be a universal mode of non-personalized communication that you can look to use throughout your business set-up. They can help maintain an impersonal and formal tone and thus promote the concepts of equality and uniformity in your organization.

Cross-cultural Communication
The importance of business communication cannot be ignored in today's global business environment. Technological advances have made the world a smaller place and turned cross-cultural communication into an important dimension of any business. So it's best to learn something about the different ethnic groups that you may want to communicate with. This is because nuances can make a big difference to the way that people perceive your message.

This is true for both verbal and non verbal forms of communication. So you should look to avoid stereotyping and be open to new ideas on how best to communicate with various groups of people.

Barriers to Communication
The final aspect of business communication that needs a bit of discussion is the barriers that may arise in communication. Sometimes you may find out that despite your best efforts, you just can get the message across! While the content of your message may be perfect, some barriers may be at work here. They can be anything from barriers of language, perception, gender, familiarity or even emotions. You may need to find a way around them in order to be successful in sharing your idea.

All said and done, you may have realized the importance of business communication and some of its dimensions by now. Just remember to keep it simple and your business communication will speak for itself!

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Human Resource Information System - HRIS

Human Resource Information Systems

The purpose of this paper is to identify other companies who have faced similar human resources issues in regards to information technology. Through benchmarking different companies we can learn how other companies have handled certain human resources issues related to information technology, information systems, new technology, and data security. An overall analysis has been completed using research on IBM Europe, Ameriprise Financial, Terasen Pipelines, Shaw’s Supermarkets, CS Stars LLC, IBM, WORKSource Inc., and Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. This paper also includes eight synopses of companies facing similar issue to those in the reading.

New Technology

Human Resource Information System - HRIS

With the changing world and constant new technology that is available, managers need to be aware of the technology that will increase effectiveness in their company. Human resource information systems (HRIS) have increasingly transformed since it was first introduced at General Electric in the 1950s. HRIS has gone from a basic process to convert manual information keeping systems into computerized systems, to the HRIS systems that are used today. Human resource professionals began to see the possibility of new applications for the computer. The idea was to integrate many of the different human resource functions. The result was the third generation of the computerized HRIS, a feature-rich, broad-based, self-contained HRIS. The third generation took systems far beyond being mere data repositories and created tools with which human resource professionals could do much more (Byars, 2004).

Many companies have seen a need to transform the way Human Resource operations are performed in order to keep up with new technology and increasing numbers of employees. Terasen Pipelines moved its headquarters from Vancouver to Calgary to be closer to the oil and realized a major growth in employees. In the past recording keeping was done on paper and with spreadsheets. Mangers at Terasen realized that there was a need to change to a more computerized system and looked into different HRIS vendors. By making the move to a HRIS system, Terasen is able to keep more accurate records as well as better prepare for future growth. Another company that saw the benefits of keeping up with new technology is WORKSource Inc. To meet the challenge of handling 100 new employees, WORKSource Inc. acquired Web-based technology programs from GHG Corp. like electronic pay stub, electronic timesheet software, time-off system, and human resource information system (“Tips,” 2006). By adapting these new programs, WORKSource was able to reduce waste and cost.

The Internet is an increasingly popular way to recruit applicants, research technologies and perform other essential functions in business. Delivering human resource services online (eHR) supports more efficient collection, storage, distribution, and exchange of data (Friesen, 2003). An intranet is a type of network used by companies to share information to people within the organization. An intranet connects people to people and people to information and knowledge within the organization; it serves as an “information hub” for the entire organization. Most organizations set up intranets primarily for employees, but they can extend to business partners and even customers with appropriate security clearance (Byars & Rue, 2004).

Applications of HRIS

The efficiency of HRIS, the systems are able to produce more effective and faster outcomes than can be done on paper. Some of the many applications of HRIS are: Clerical applications, applicant search expenditures, risk management, training management, training experiences, financial planning, turnover analysis, succession planning, flexible-benefits administration, compliance with government regulations, attendance reporting and analysis, human resource planning, accident reporting and prevention and strategic planning. With the many different applications of HRIS, it is difficult to understand how the programs benefit companies without looking at companies that have already benefited from such programs.

One such company is IBM. IBM has a paperless online enrollment plan for all of its employees. Not only has the online enrollment saved the company 1.2 million per year on printing and mailing costs, the employees enjoy working with the online plan. "Since we began offering online enrollment, we've learned that employees want web access," Donnelly [Senior Communications Specialist] says, so they can log on at home rather than through the company intranet. So the company has been working to put in place a web-based enrollment system that employees and retirees can access from anywhere (Huering, 2003). By utilizing the flexible-benefits application HRIS has to offer, IBM was able to cut costs and give employees the freedom to discover their benefits on their own time and pace.

Another company that has taken advantage of HRIS applications is Shaw’s Supermarkets. In order for Shaw’s to better manage its workforce, the company decided it was time to centralize the HR operations. After looking at different options, Shaw’s decided to implement an Employee Self Service (ESS) system. The use of self-service applications creates a positive situation for HR. ESS gives HR more time to focus on strategic issues, such as workforce management, succession planning, and compensation management, while at the same time improving service to employees and managers, and ensuring that their data is accurate. With this solution, employees have online access to forms, training material, benefits information and other payroll related information (Koven, 2002). By giving employees access to their personal information and the ability to update or change their information as needed, HR was given more time to focus on other issues. Understanding the different applications HRIS has to offer will give companies the chance to increase employee efficiency and reduce costs.

Measuring the Effectiveness of HRIS

The evaluation should determine whether or not the HRIS has performed up to its expectations and if the HRIS is being used to its full advantage (Byars & Rue, 2004). One of the most significant challenges faced by public personnel executives today is measuring the performance of their human resources information system (HRIS) In order to justify the value-added contribution of the HRIS to accomplishing the organization's mission (Hagood & Friedman, 2002). Implementing an HRIS program may seem a necessary stem for a company, but unless it will be an effective tool for HR operations, it will not help increase efficiency and may hinder it instead.

One company that implemented a HRIS system is Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. (TAMS). TAMS put all employee benefits information online and created an open enrollment option when TAMS changed healthcare providers. Almost immediately upon rolling out the UltiPro portal [new HRIS technology] to employees, TAMS began seeing improvements, with an estimated 70% increase in open enrollment efficiency (Wojcik, 2004). By determining the efficiency of the new program, TAMS was able to realize the benefits of the new HRIS system.

Security of HRIS

The privacy of employee information has become a major issue in recent years. With identity theft becoming a common problem, employees are becoming more sensitive about who sees their personal information, and the security it is kept in. By making sure employee information that is kept in the HRIS is relevant to the company and making sure there is limited access (password protection) to such information, companies can make its employees more secure with the safety of their information. Whether electronic or paper, employee files deserve to be treated with great care. Establishing security and end-user privileges calls for a balance of incorporating, HR policy, system knowledge and day-to-day operations (O’Connell, 1994).

One company that faced a major security issue was CS Stars, LLC. CS Stars lost track of one of its computers that contained personal information that included names, addresses and social security numbers of workers compensation benefits. The bigger problem was that CS Stars failed to notify the affected consumers and employees about the missing computer. Though the computer was retrieved and no information seemed to have been harmed, many employees lost their sense of security with the company. New York's Information Security Breach and Notification Law, effective in December 2005, requires businesses that maintain computerized data which includes private information to notify the owner of the information of any breach of the security of the system immediately following discovery, if the private information was, or is reasonably believed to have been, acquired by a person without valid authorization (Cadrain, 2007).

Another company that experienced a breach in security is Ameriprise Financial. In late 2005, a computer that contained personal information on clients and employees was stolen. Because many of the employees at Ameriprise take their computers between work and home, the company determined there was a need to put more security into those computers. Ameriprise made sure all employees had the new security suite installed on their computers. By responding quickly to the need for more security, Ameriprise made sure all information is being kept secure. Making sure employees information is kept as secure as possible there will be more trust in the company and the HR employees working with that information.

Conclusion

IBM, Terasen Pipeline, CS Stars LCC, and Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. are good examples of companies facing issues similar to human resources information technology and human resources information systems. All of these companies know the importance of new technology, human resources information systems, and data security. The remainder of this paper provides synopses of more companies facing human resources issues, how the company responded to the issues, and the outcomes of the company’s responses.

Companies Benchmarked

IBM Europe

The Situation:

IBM is a global organization offering research, software, hardware, IT consulting, business and management consulting, ring and financing. It employs around 340,000 people, speaking 165 languages across 75 countries, and serving clients in 174 countries. In January 2007, IBM established a separate “new media” function within its corporate communication department. IBM main goal is to educate, support, and promote programs that utilize social media. IBM Europe decided to expand internal communication by blogging guidelines. The recognition was that blogging was already happening among IBMers, just in an unregulated way. In a similar way, institutionalizing a function to deal specifically with new media is not a corporate move, or establishing from scratch. It’s a response to the issues already emerging in the company. Now that those technologies are here, people are using them, they’re growing and there here to stay-we’re just going to put some structure around them so that we can try to optimize their use.” The users decide what technologies they want to use and how they want to use them. That main idea is that IBM understands that they must remember to respect the fact that social media are social. IBM had the need to connect its 340,000 global employees more effectively.

The Response:

IBM’s intent around social media has now been officially formalized. From January 22 2007, the company established a separate “new media” function within its corporate communication department. “Its remit: To act as expert consultants inside and outside IBM on issues relating to blogs, wikis, RSS and other social media applications. The main idea is to educate, support and promote programs that utilize these tools. IBM has a history of being a t the forefront of technology based corporate communication. From the multimedia brainstorming “WorldJam” that made news headlines back in 2001 in which 50,000 employees worldwide joined a real time, online idea-sharing session about the company’s direction. IMB has always prepared itself to use breakthrough technologies to establish a two-way dialogue with its employees. The need for social media was necessary and could no longer wait.

The Outcome:

In the last few years IBM has been recognized as being the vanguard of social-media use: IBM was on of the first Fortune 500 companies to get behind collaborative wikis, published internal blogging guidelines as far back as 2003, and is now moving fast beyond RSS and podcasts into videocasting and “virtual world” technologies like Second Life. The intranet search facility extends to all areas of the site, including new media aspects. When an employee logs onto their portal an executes a key word search, the results they get back not only come from the main intranet pages, but include results from IBM forums, wikis, blogs and podcast/videocasts tags. IMB has an understanding that employees are no longer staying in a company their entire lives. It’s just not like that any more. In Belgium for example over 50 percent of 2,300 employees have been there fewer than five years. The company has come to the conclusion that with an increasingly young and mobile workforce, the likelihood is that an employee population full of a younger generation, for whom these tools are part and parcel of life, is not that far away. In years to come IBM will have to deal with employee base for which blogging is just the natural way to interact over a web platform. IBM has created centralized platforms for most tools that fall under its remit, which includes wikis. For Philippe Borremans, new media lead Europe for IBM, has the potential business applications of a wiki cover two broad benefits: Collaborating and knowledge sharing. IBM has scored some notable successes on both fronts in the near 5000 wiki pages now up and running in the organization. The company has been a huge pick-up in interest in podcasting over the last 18 months writing can seem such a technical skill, whereas people feel they can talk more freely than they can write. One of the most consistently popular IBM podcasts, with over 20,000 downloads a week.

Ameriprise Financial

The Situation:

The Department of Justice survey estimates that 3.6 million U.S. households were victims of identity theft in 2004. Trafficking in personal date goes beyond U.S. borders: the New York Times reports that stolen financial information is often distributed among participants of online trading boards, and the buyers are frequently located in Russia, Ukraine, and the Middle East. One reason clients are concerned about data security is the widespread publicity generated by breaches at financial services firm. In late December 2205, an Ameriprise Financial employee’s laptop that contained unencrypted data on approximately 230,000 customers and advisors was stolen from a car. Other financial services firm, including Citigroup and Bank of America, also acknowledge large-scale customer data losses in 2005. President of NCS, Rita Dew, a compliance consulting firm in Delray Beach, Florida, says that the Securities and Exchange Commission requires investment advisors to have policies and procedures that address the administrative, technical, and physical safeguards related to client records and information.

The Response:

Ameriprise Financial had to fight back and had to implement “layers of protection.” It is important for employees who their primary business computer, and employees regularly transport the computer between home, office, and meeting sites. The vulnerability of this arrangement and the need for a safety software program is much needed.

The Outcome:

Employees who are transporting lab tops should install the Steganos Security Suite on their computer. This software allows employees to create an encrypted virtual drive on the laptop that serves as data storage safe. Employees stores all client related data and tax preparation software database on the encrypted drive, which employees has set up with one gigabyte of storage space. The best thing is that when an employee turns off the computer the information is stored “safe”, the software automatically encrypts the virtual drive’s data. The software also generates encrypted backup files, which employees store on CDs in a fireproof safe. This should keep the data secure if any employee’s laptop is stolen or if the drive is removed from the laptop. Other financial advisors are relying on encryption both in and out of the office. Other programs that are being used to protect client’s information are RAID Level 1 system to store data on the drives that are encrypted with WinMagic’s SecureDocs software. Encryption ensures that anyone who steals the computer will be absolutely unable to read the data, even by connecting it to another computer as a “slave drive. This has given many financial advisors the greatest peace of mind.

Terasen Pipelines

The Situation:

Terasen Pipelines is a subsidiary of Terasen Inc. located in Vancouver, Canada and is located in several provinces and U.S. states. In 2001 the company changed its headquarters to Calgary to be closer to the oil. With the big move, the company went through a growth spurt. With the company in many different locations and the growing numbers of employees, the HR department saw a need to find a new system to keep more accurate records.

The Response:

In the past Terasen had kept records on paper and with spreadsheets and with the growth of the company, this system does not work as well as in the past. In order to compensate for future growth, Terasen began to look into HRIS companies to help with the HR operations. After researching different companies, Hewitt’s application service provider model with eCyborg was found to be the right fit.

The Outcome:

Although there was difficulty adapting to a new way of recordkeeping, Terasen was able to find a system that will help support the current and future growth of the company. Fortunately, some of the HR staff had experience working with an HRIS and were able to help their colleagues imagine new processes, as aided by a system. One theme often voiced throughout this process was: "You guys don't know how hard we're working when we can make it so much easier with a system that could do a lot of this for us. You don't always have to run to the cabinet for the employee file just to get basic information. It can all be at your fingertips." (Vu, 2005). In order to help Terasen ease the HR burden of implementing a new HR system, the management of Terasen was convinced to look for a vendor to help implement and maintain a HRIS system. This system has helped Terasen better prepare for current and future growth.

Shaw’s Supermarkets

The Situation:

Shaw’s Supermarkets is the second largest supermarket chain in New England. With a workforce of 30,000 located at 180 stores throughout six states, Shaw's HR staff is responsible for managing employees' personal data. Their employee mix includes approximately 70 percent part-time employees, consisting of students, senior citizens, second-job part-timers, and career part-timers. One third of the workforce is made up of union associates, and Shaw's staff oversees the company's involvement with three unions and six separate contracts (Koven, 2002). In order to help manage the workforce, the HR staff became interested in centralizing its HR operations.

The Response:

In order to centralize HR operations Shaw’s decided to implement an ESS (employee self-service) solution. The use of self-service applications creates a positive situation for HR. ESS gives HR more time to focus on strategic issues, such as workforce management, succession planning, and compensation management, while at the same time improving service to employees and managers, and ensuring that their data is accurate. With this solution, employees have online access to forms, training material, benefits information and other payroll related information.

The Outcome:

Shaw’s has had positive feedback since implementing the ESS solution. "The reaction from our employees has been extremely positive," Penney, VP of Compensation and Benefits, says. "We even had a significant increase in our medical coverage costs, and it was almost a non-issue because the online enrollment featured the plan choices, the employee cost, and the company subsidy. An employee self-service application makes it very easy for them to understand their contributions and coverage options. I received several e-mails from employees saying this was a great change and how easy ESS was, which the case is not often when employees are selecting their benefit options." (Koven, 2002). By giving the employees more access to their information they are able to see the benefit choices available to them. Employees are also able to update their information online, which helps reduce the paperwork of the past. Shaw’s has also seen improvement in productivity because employees are updating information at home, not during work hours.

CS Stars, LLC

The Situation:
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has announced that New York State has reached its first settlement with a company charged with failing to notify consumers and others that their personal data had gone missing. Cuomo’s office, which enforces the state’s 2005 Information Security Breach and Notification Law, charged CS STARS LLC, a Chicago-based claims management company, with failing to give notice that it had lost track of a computer containing data on 540,000 New Yorkers’ workers’ comp claims.

The Response:

The owner of the lost data, which had been in the custody of CS STARS, was the New York Special Funds Conservation Committee, an organization that assists in providing workers’ comp benefits under the state’s workers' comp law. On May 9, 2006, a CS STARS employee noticed that a computer was missing that held personal information, including the names, addresses, and Social Security numbers of recipients of workers’ compensation benefits. But CS Stars waited until June 29, 2006, to notify Special Funds and the FBI of the security breach. Because the FBI declared that notice to consumers might impede its investigation, CS STARS waited until July 8, 2006, to send notices to the 540,000 New Yorkers affected by the breach. On July 25, 2006, the FBI determined an employee, of a cleaning contractor, had stolen the computer, and the missing computer was located and recovered. In addition, the FBI found that the data on the missing computer had not been improperly accessed.

The Outcome:

New York's Information Security Breach and Notification Law, effective in December 2005, requires businesses that maintain computerized data which includes private information to notify the owner of the information of any breach of the security of the system immediately following discovery, if the private information was, or is reasonably believed to have been, acquired by a person without valid authorization. The law affects not only businesses in their dealings with their customers, but employers in their role as custodians of employees’ personal data. (Cadrain)

Without admitting to any violation of law, CS STARS agreed to comply with the law and ensure that proper notifications will be made in the event of any future breach. The company also agreed to implement more extensive practices relating to the security of private information. CS STARS will pay the Attorney General’s office ,000 for costs related to this investigation. (Cadrain)

IBM

The Situation:

IBM's paperless online enrollment system, introduced in 1999, has proved to be a winner for both the company's 135,000 active U.S. employees and the company, according to Cathleen Donnelly, senior communications specialist at company headquarters in Armonk, N.Y. The company saves .2 million per year on printing and mailing costs alone, Donnelly says, and the employees’ can take advantage of a variety of technologies to learn about issues, research program information and access decision support tools from their desktop computers. (Heuring, 2002)

The Response:

One of those tools, a personal medical cost estimator, enables employees to calculate potential out-of-pocket health care expenses under each of the plan options available to them, Donnelly says. Employees log in personally and are greeted by name and with important information regarding their benefits enrollment, such as the deadlines and when changes take effect. They automatically get access to health plans that are available to them, and the calculator lets them compare estimated benefit amounts for each plan.

"Employees can select the health care services they expect to use in a particular year, estimate expected frequency of use, and calculate potential costs under each plan option," Donnelly says. "The feedback that we've received from employees tells us that this tool has really helped them to make a comparison between plans based on how they consume medical services." The calculator shows both IBM's costs and the employee's. (Heuring, 2002)

The Outcome:

"Since we began offering online enrollment, we've learned that employees want web access," Donnelly says, so they can log on at home rather than through the company intranet. So the company has been working to put in place a web-based enrollment system that employees and retirees can access from anywhere.

Employees can get summary information on the plans, drill down into very specific details and follow links to the health care providers for research. Donnelly says the system has received high marks for convenience because employees can "get in and out quickly."

WORKSource Inc.

The Situation:

To meet the challenge of handling 100 new employees, WORKSource Inc. acquired Web-based technology programs from GHG Corp. like electronic paystub, electronic timesheet software, time-off system, and human resource information system (“Tips,” 2006). These tools enabled CEO Judith Hahn to handling payroll procedures efficiently and effectively.

The Response:

WORKSource has eight workforce centers, with approximately 108 employees, located throughout a six-county region. Previously, payroll, benefits, and human resources for those employees were processed and managed by a Professional Employer Organization. The company also has 52 administrative staff in its headquarters office. When the contract with the PEO terminated on June 30, 2006, those 108 employees were immediately moved to the payroll of WORKSource, which meant Hahn’s workload more than doubled effective July 2006 (“Tips,” 2006).

Hahn, in an interview with PMR, said she relied on LEAN to help get a handle on what needed to change for her to manage the increased workload. Two years earlier, Hahn’s CEO had introduced her to LEAN, a Japanese management concept of eliminating wasteful steps and motion when completing processes. “I began to read as much as possible about LEAN and joined an HR LEAN focus group” (“Tips,” 2006).

The Outcome:

Mastering the concepts of LEAN led Hahn to develop and apply her own acronym of “REASON” to her department’s payroll and HR processes. Review the process: map payroll tasks from start to finish. Eliminate waste: determine how to complete a payroll task most efficiently without unnecessary steps. Analyze alternatives: research and evaluate the applicability of new technology. Sell innovations to management: document the return on investment of each innovation. Open the lines of communication: communicate openly—and often—with all stakeholders, including employees and top management. Never allow negativity: make change simple and fun. Give employees plenty of encouragement and time to learn (“Tips,” 2006). Judith Hahn was able to implement the right human resource functions using information systems.

Toshiba America Medical Systems Inc.

The Situation:

Lynda Morvik, director of benefits and human resources information systems at Tustin, California-based Toshiba America Medical Systems Inc. (TAMS), thought it would make sense to add a benefits communication component to it. By having all the benefit information online, the TAMS employee handbook would also be a living document, enabling Morvik to make changes when necessary. Such was the case halfway through the project, when TAMS changed health care plans from Aetna Inc. to United Health Group Inc (Wojcik, 2004).

The Response:

TAMS, an independent group company of Toshiba Corporation and a global leading provider of diagnostic medical imaging systems and comprehensive medical solutions, such as CT, X-ray, ultrasound, nuclear medicine, MRI, and information systems, had been using a payroll service bureau and an in-house solution for HR that didn't include easy-to-use consolidated reporting or an employee portal. After evaluating UltiPro alongside several enterprise resource vendors, TAMS selected Ultimate Software's offering and went live in September 2002 after an on-time and on-budget implementation. Almost immediately upon rolling out the UltiPro portal to employees, TAMS began seeing improvements, with an estimated 70% increase in open enrollment efficiency (Wojcik, 2004).

The Outcome:

In an effort to expand the usage of the Web beyond the benefits enrollment process, TAMS has posted a library of documents and forms on its HR portal, including the benefits handbook, which garnered a 2004 Apex Award for publication excellence. That same year, Business Insurance magazine also gave TAMS the Electronic Benefit Communication (EBC) award for outstanding achievement in communicating employee benefits programs over the Web. To continue elevating its use of Ultimate Software's HRMS/payroll solution, TAMS modified the UltiPro portal to meet the imaging company's unique needs (Wojcik, 2004). It was completely integrated with several proprietary applications created to address compensation and performance management issues so that TAMS employees have a central location for comprehensive workforce and payroll information from a Web browser that they can access with a single sign-on (Wojcik, 2004).

References

Byars, Lloyd L. & Rue, Leslie W. (2004). Human Resource Management, 7e. The McGraw-Hill Companies.
Cadrain, Diane (2007). New York: Company Settles Data Breach Charges. Retrieved June 3, 2007 from [http://www.shrm.org/law/states/CMS_021505.asp#P-8_0]
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Vu, Uyen (2005). Contracting out HRIS easy call at Terasen Pipelines. Canadian HR Reporter, 18(4), 5-9. Retrieved June 2, 2007 from ProQuest Database.
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Human Resource Information System - HRIS
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Steven Brown, MBA is a loving husband and father of two boys. He enjoys his time with his family by providing a strong family foundation of Christian Faith. After completing his Bachelors degree, Steven wanted to further his ability to teach and share to others his mindset that they can do anything if they would believe in themselves.

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