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Course of Study: Learning to understand business cultures

Course Link: http://sbinfocanada.about.com/c/ec/32.htm

This introduction to business cultures will teach you how culture is just one perspective that can help us to understand more about a business. ‘

You’ll also learn that culture is a metaphor which can be used to explore the identity of a business.

In this course you’ll study Hofstede’s five Cultural Dimensions Resource, and a series of perspectives that we might use to achieve a different insight into business was introduced by Morgan (1986) in his book entitled Images of an Organization.

You will also receive working abroad resources.

Furthermore, you’ll be provided with definitions of organizational culture and culture as socialization.

You’ll learn about symbols within business resources, and how academics and managers attempted to diagnose these largely hidden aspects of business.

This course tackles factors influencing culture.

If you’ve never considered business cultures, this course is a great place to begin.

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Course of Study: Learning to master speaking effectively

Course Link: http://sbinfocanada.about.com/c/ec/32.htm

You must master communication skills, if you want your business to succeed.

Good communication is essential for sales. If you cannot speak well with your clients, they’ll find someone else to do business with.

Communication is essential in management, also. If you fail to communicate successfully with your management group, your sales people, and/or your banking folks, messages will get confused and may even turn into serious problems.

Communication is also a big part of marketing. Even the best laid plan will falter if you don’t present an accurate message to possible customers.  Worse still, you’ll give them the wrong message.

And when it comes to communication, being able to speak well is one of the most important abilities.

If you desire to leave a good impression with what you say, and if you want to make face-to-face encounters go smoothly, without ruffling any feathers, this is a great class for you.

This Speak for Success course is comprised of six speaking sessions and a wrap-up. It results in helping improve your oral communication abilities. With each session, you’ll focus on a particular speech tool by being exposed to similar speech troubles and participating in exercises prepared to weed out that speech no-no.

All of us pick up bad speaking habits along the way, which cause others to misunderstand us or resist listening to what we have to say. This course’s sessions for improving oral communications will turn you into a more professional and polished speaker. In the end, you’ll have  the tool of effective communication, which will lead directly to business success.

Here’s what you should know,  before you sign up for this course:

• Type in your email address with care. If you make a type, the teacher will get a “bounced” email and have no method of notifying you.
• Because of the large proportion of spam,  the teacher cannot individually reply to any anti-spam ISP you might incorporate.  Therefore, if you’re blocking email email until an actual person sends it, you’ll need to turn it off to receive the class, OR include sbinfocanada.guide@about.com in your “approved” email list.
• If you intend to work at a faster pace, click on the “Missed Lessons” link at the bottom of each lesson, and select the lesson(s) that you want receive right away.

This course lasts seven weeks. You’ll get lesson one the moment you sign up, and then a new topic each week thereafter.

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Course of Study: Thoughtful quotations, self-motivation ideas, managing and working well with people tips, newsletter fillers, news about trends affecting workplaces and more

Course Link: http://humanresources.about.com/c/ec/4.htm

Do you find yourself seeking a hopeful phrase to give you a lift right away? If so, Your Tip of the Week for Success in Work and Life provides you with a weekly jolt of quotations, great ideas, motivational thoughts, management and people skills suggestions, as well as workplace trends. This regular email will make you feel good, make your heart smile, and provide you with information you can use.

This is a forty-one week course, which always includes helpful hints and links to a pair of articles for you to delve deeper into the topic at hand. However, you’ll be helped even if you don’t take advantage of the articles.

Every tip — although not the articles — can be reproduced within your company publications, your speeches, and on the internet, so long as a source citation is included.

Simply put, this course provides news you can use.

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Course of Study: Finding and hiring the best workers for your company

Course Link: http://humanresources.about.com/c/ec/1.htm

This course provides tested and current recruitment techniques in interviewing and employee selection.

Here are just some of what you’ll learn:

• Unique methods of locating possible employees.
• Ways to utilize a team in recruiting.
• The reasoning behind why productive job descriptions make logical sense for the first step in recruiting.
• Ten top recruiting ideas.
• Methods for screening possible employees.
• Discussion of eight hiring mistakes some employees make, ranging from the application to the interview.
• How to ask the right questions during interviews.

You’ll improve your workforce through a documented hiring practice that:

• Defines the expected accomplishments from those you hire.
• Develops a job overview that specifically pinpoints performance expectations.
• Develops the biggest group of job-ready candidates possible.
• Creates a well-rounded employee selection method, developed to hire the best staff.
• How to do thorough background checks.

• Helps you make employment offers that make you into a prime employer.

Classes commence each week. You will get your weekly study materials the very morning you sign up, and this will be delivered to your email address. You can go at your chosen pace, although you will get emails each week.

This Recruit and Hire the Best is free. It will only cost the time you put into learning.

Please keep the following in mind:

You may not change your email address after the class has begun. Therefore, be certain you have an email address that will be valid for a minimum of seven weeks. The teacher cannot reply to “anti-spam” during the class period. If you have a spam blocking program, please turn it off in order to get the class materials. It is also suggested that you do homework during this class, even though it will not be given any grades. If you need questions answered, place these in the HR Community Connection forum.

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Course of Study: Performance appraisals and/or annual reviews

Course Link: http://humanresources.about.com/c/ec/14.htm

Managers will likely tell you that they enjoy annual reviews and appraisals least of all, when it comes to rating their duties. With performance management, however, focus is taken off the annual review or appraisal,  and placed instead on the big picture of performance management and development issues. This system includes employee performance, cross-training, training, distribution of challenging assignments, and regular feedback.

Those that take this e-course will study the following topic over the course’s four weeks:

How performance management is defined.

• The reasoning behind why performance appraisals are disliked and ineffective.
• How to apply performance management to assist employees in succeeding and improving.
• How to provide performance feedback.
• How to create attainable goals that can be measured as part of a performance development planning session.
• How to make performance management system participation effective.
• How to put into place 360 degree or multi-rater feedback within the performance management system.

You’ll also learn how to apply performance management in developing a high-performing workforce using a documented performance system. This system moves you form putting together a job description through the nuts-and-bolts performance development meeting, in addition to a strongly suggested followup after the session.

Classes commence each week. You’ll get weekly study guides aligned with the mornings you signed up for the course to have it sent to your email address. You can go at your own speed, although emails will continue to arrive every week.

This Powerful Performance Management e-course is free. The only thing you pay is the time you put into it.

Please keep these factors in mind: You cannot change your email address mid-course,  so be sure you have an email address you plan to stick with.

The course administrator cannot reply to anti-spam messages, so if you’re using a spam blocking program, be sure and turn it off for this course. The administrator also cannot reply to emails saying a particular phone number must be called to prove one is signed up.

If you’d like feedback, enter these questions into the discussion forum at HR Community Connection in the e-course folder.

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Course of Study: Communication skills

Course Link: http://sbinfocanada.about.com/c/ec/32.htm

The ability to communicate well is essential to a having a successful business.

For instance, effective communication is needed for sales because if you cannot clearly relay messages to your customers, you might just lose them.

Manager also need to know who to communicate well.  If a manager does not communicate well with the management team or the folks they manage, misunderstandings can arise and adversely affect productivity.

Furthermore, a business cannot market itself correctly without also communicating. The best laid marketing campaign plans will falter if your business does not get the correct message to its potential clients. Or worse still, if it sends a completely incorrect message.

One of the very basic communication tools is the ability to speak effectively.

Are you someone that thinks about the impression you leave when you speak, and are somebody that never wants to irritate others during in-person encounters? If yes, this course was designed with you in mind.

This course contains six speaking lessons, as well as a capping lesson that assists you in shaping oral communication abilities. Every lesson targets one particular speaking skill, where you will also get informed about an associated poor speech issue. To counter each poor speech issue, you will be provided with exercises to eliminate unhealthy speaking habits.

These lessons will enable you to sound more smooth and skilled. And this ability to communicate effectively will lead to a more successful business.

Here are a few things you’ll need to know from the get-go:

• Carefully put in your email address. If you don’t take this care, your email will get bounced.
• You’ll need to turn off any anti-spam blockers, or include sbinfocanada.guide@about.com in your list of “approved” emails.
• For those that may want to move ahead, you can simply click on the  “Missed Lessons” link at each lesson’s bottom, and then choose the lesson(s) you’d like mailed right away.

This course spans  seven weeks. You will get lesson one the moment you register. A brand new lesson will arrive each week.

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Course of Study: Balancing responsibilities

Course Link: http://humanresources.about.com/c/ec/59.htm

The key to a happy home life and work life is balance. And with this 10 Days to a Happier, successful Career and Life, you’ll receive training on employing the necessary balance in your life.

Life is always throwing challenges at you. Maybe you’re putting students through college, trying to fix up an old house, while all the while trying to save for retirement. Furthermore, you’d love spend quality time with your family.

With such issues in mind, this course focuses on the ten most necessary concepts that can give you the tools to succeed in your work — in spite of it all. However, you’ll also learn how to succeed at work without failing at home.

Everybody wants to be successful and happy, and this course will show you that you do not need to give up one for the other. This is a ten lesson series, where you’ll grow while you read. Most importantly you’ll take the necessary time to stop and think deeply about your life.

There are two ways to take this class. The first involves subscribing to the email newsletter.  O, if you like, you can use this website as the launch pad: http://humanresources.about.com/c/ec/59.htm

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Course of Study: Increasing business success

Course Link: http://sbinfocanada.about.com/c/ec/20.htm

You are the one that makes your small business unique, and by investing in yourself, you can make your small business more successful. And that’s what this small business success course is all about.

Here’s what you’ll learn about in this free course:

• Freeing up more time by getting organized.
• Relaxation methods, which empower you with added energy to take on the multiple items on your to-do list.
• Techniques to market your business more successfully, by marketing yourself better.

Taking it one week at a time

This class is specifically geared toward the harried business person.

You’ll receive a brief topic focus each week, which lays out the success area covered during that 7-day period, along with a related assignment.

Along with your assignment, you’ll be provided with added information, which you can also read if you choose to do so.

Keep the following in mind, before signing up:

• Be careful when putting in your email address. Incorrect emails will get bounced.
• If you want to learn at a faster pace, there is the option to click on “Missed Lessons” link, which appears at the bottom of the lessons, then choose any lesson(s) you want to get right away.

This class lasts for 10 weeks, and you’ll get your initial lesson the moment you sign up.

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Course of Study: Interviewing potential employees

Course Link: http://humanresources.about.com/c/ec/72.htm

No business person ever wants to regret hiring any particular employee. Therefore, it is essential to know the ins and outs of conducting safe, legal job interviews, which also lead to choosing the best applicant for an open position. After all, the interview just might be the most significant factor in the hiring process.

For instance, you want to make sure any candidate fits your company culture. Therefore, enhancing your interview skills can only make your business that much stronger, which makes this free email class a must for any serious business person.

Class objectives:

To gain interview tips and specific interviewing techniques that transform interviews into an effective tool and method to best size-up job candidates.

You’ll learn the following:

• Available job interview approaches
• Planning successful interviews
• Conducting job interviews
• Conducting behavioral interviews
• Recognizing illegal questions, and why they’re illegal
• How to choose excellent behavioral job interview questions

General class information:

Classes commence right as you sign up and receive your sessions. You will also be sent a daily study guide every morning from then on. When taking the class, please feel free to go at your own pace. However, you will see messages in you in-box every day.  Nevertheless, you can click on a link within your first newsletter, which gives you the option to have classes sent in one complete bundle.

Also, please keep in mind that you will not be allowed to change your email address while taking the class. To be safe, make certain you use an address you’ll have for the minimum of five days. Furthermore, the teacher cannot reply to any “anti-spam” measures during this class. Simply put, if you’re computer restricts emails until a “real sender” sends it, you’ll have to turn this function off in order to proceed with the class. If you desire feedback, you may also post questions in HR Community Connection Forum

Course / Program Name: Organize Your Small or Home Office

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Course of Study: Business organizational skills

Course Link: Take this course.

This course covers ways to organize a home office or small business, so it will be of the most use to you. This can be done whether you’re just starting a small business, or if you just have a space so messy you don’t know where to begin. With these helpful tips and tools, you’ll be more productive because this free study will get you organized and transform an office area into a space where work gets done consistently.

In a mere seven weeks, you’ll be exposed to general knowledge about small offices and home office designs. Furthermore, it will prepare you to implement a filing structure, put all your important documents in order, assure the safety of all business information, and just generally be a more efficient businessperson.