4-CONSULTING E-ZINE
Welcome to the first of our e-zines for 2008. We
wish all or our clients and readers a happy and prosperous
New Year. In this edition, we look at some of the
increasingly important issues that our clients are dealing
with today.
Funding constraints on public sector organisations are
forcing them to look for more ways of improving their
efficiency and financial performance. Shared service
arrangements have been around for a while but the emphasis
is now moving to the delivery of front-line services.
Recent surveys on staff sickness and unplanned
absenteeism highlights some surprising differences in
attitudes between the UK and the US.
Our consultancy team have lots of experience in these and
other interesting areas and we're keen to share our
knowledge with our readers. We hope you’ll find the
articles of interest and, if there is a topic you would like
us to cover in a future issue, please let us know.
Please feel free to forward this e-zine to a
colleague.
In this issue
Shared Services for Improved Financial Performance
Shared services arrangements have been around for a while in
the private sector, often as a part of larger joint ventures
between businesses. In the public sector, there has
been a drive over the last three years or so to develop
shared services in the back-office. There is now a
growing interest in developing shared services arrangements
for the delivery of front-line services.
We look at some of the issues that have to be addressed and
the barriers that can cause these initiatives to fail.
Click here for the complete
article
back to contents
Sick of Being
Ill
Recent surveys in the UK and US highlighted significant
differences in workforce attitudes to taking sick leave when
members of staff are genuinely unwell. On the other
hand, unplanned absenteeism, ("sickies") are a growing cost
to businesses on both sides of the Atlantic. We've
some thoughts from the US on a survey looking at the
effectiveness of carrots and sticks that employers can use
to dissuade workers from taking unauthorised absences from
work.
Click here for the complete
article
back to contents
Making the Most of Word and Excel
Our regular "tricks and tips" features offers practical
advice on using Word more efficiently to create great
documents and creating, formatting and navigating Excel
spreadsheet workbooks.
Click here for the complete
article
back to contents
Recent Successes
Since our last e-zine, we completed the development and
publication of the ICT Strategic Plan for the
University of St Andrews and we've been
commissioned to
carry out an evaluation
of the Edinburgh Criminal Justice Project
back to contents
Tell us your view
In our last e-Zine, we asked if you thought ageism is
prevalent in the workplace. We had the highest ever
response to the survey and ever reader agreed with the
question.
We hope that you will take a moment to answer the
following question:
Do you think that an ailing bank,
whose traditional customers are small savers and mortgage
holders, should be propped up by central government with
loans worth almost twice the UK's annual defence budget?
Answer our question and let us know – all responses are
confidential.
If you would like to suggest a topic for future
e-zines or have any comments about this one, please send it
to:
ezine@4-consulting.com.
back to contents
For more information about 4-consulting visit our
web site at
www.4-consulting.com. Please feel free to forward this
e-zine to a colleague.
To unsubscribe
click here or the link at the bottom of the email.
