16.The first day was particularly useful because there were some interesting speakers, mainly from big multinationals, talking on such as I'm interested in, like the international aspects of industrial relations and employment law. Then in the evening I had some extremely interesting conversations with ??? speakers. I hope there'll useful contacts in the future. But other delegates thought it wasn't very well attended, because the organizers ad decided against having an exhibition area so fewer people came. 17. We revealed the month's work and discussed next month's targets. We decided that we definitely need some extra help with the personnel selection because there's just too much for one person. Generally I think we're a pretty good team. Of course there're a few problems now and again, but we always discuss them in a very calm and sensible way and come up with solutions that work, so far, anyway.
18. All I can say is that I'd stood out as the best applicant straight away or they took an instant dislike to me. I'd expected it to last at least 45 minutes, and possibly to involve 2 sessions. But I left I managed to go for a swim and do some shopping before I got back to the office for lunch.
19. I've been over all the obvious things I knew they would ask me with a colleague and I practiced all my answers over and over again. I felt sure I could deal with anything they'd put to me. Well, they started asking me what I though my weaknesses were. I just hadn't prepared for that, but because I had done so much preparation for other questions I managed to come up with a really good answer.
20. Well, I got there and I thought I am really well prepared for this. I was wearing my best suit. I arrived on time and so did the other three applicants. But they kept us waiting for an hour and a half while they tried to sort themselves out. By the time I went I was so patient with the company I didn't want the job any more.
21. It's fine, isn't it. I can do it now. I knew what they were going to ask me. But when you are under all that pressure and all those questions are coming at you, something let you down. And whatever you say, you know you haven't got the message across right and they haven't understood what you really meant. If only could get a second chance.
22. I got home late from the meeting than I before (???) and I was really tired, but I lay awake all night. I guess I should have thought more carefully about wearing the right sort of things. But I was a bit disorganized and rushed out of the flat as if it was just an ordinary day and then felt like an odd one out when I got there and saw everyone else in suits. I was so embarrassed.
Part III F: With me today is Peter Williams from Kingston University. Welcome! Peter. M: Thank you. F: Peter, you recently a large research study on training in small businesses. What made youfocus on small businesses? After all, most of your experience has been with the huge multinational Cleantex. And in fact you eventually you ran their training department, didn't you? M: Well, you are partly right. You see, when I joined the university a year ago they wanted me to start a training program for small businesses. I'd just sold my own small business, which I'd started when I left Cleantex. The 8 years I ran my own business taught me more about training than all my years with Cleantex. But I felt I couldn't base a training program on my experience alone. So I decided to do research first. F: And how much training did you find in most small companies. Can they afford to do much training? M: Well, firstly small businesses are often accused of not doing enough training. But that is the opinion of big businesses of course. It's true that the government is encouraging small firms to increase their training budgets. They're trying to introduce financial assistance for this. But I have to say I find lots of training going on. The real problem is that most small businesses don't always know how much training they're providing or how much it's actually costing them. F: But surely businesses have budgets and training records. M: Unfortunately most small companies don't set aside a specific training budget. It's not that they don't want to spend the money but that they operate differently. You see, things change very quickly in small firms and it's impossible to predict the training needs. An employee can be moved to a new project very suddenly and then training has to be organized within days. And most small businesses prefer to use their experienced staff to do any training on the job. F: Did you manage to work out the costs of training? M: Well, it took time to work out the indirect costs. You see, most small business managers don't include these costs in their calculations. Most of them keep records of obvious expenses, like, many expens es like external courses, travel, training manual, and videos, etc. But not many firms have specific training accounts and they don't include the time managers spend on training, waste of materials, lost of productivity and so on. I spent hours with company accountants trying to see where these hidden costs were. F: How much are small firms spending on training? M: More than half of the businesses I surveyed spent at least 1% of their annual salary bill on training. And some of these spent up to 5% of their pay roll. In fact smaller firms are investing on average over 10% more on training per employee than larger firms. F: How good is that training? M: As I said, small firms usually get an experienced employee to show new staff how to do that job. This can be useful if the person is carefully selected and well-trained himself. But it's not really enough. The trainee needs to do the job with the experienced employee on hand for guidance and feedback. This gets trainees much better skills than any packaged courses. F: And has your study helped you plan new courses for small businesses? M: Definitely. I now understand what they want and how they want it delivered. I now know that small firms were only investing in training if it immediately helped their enterprise. But most formal training focuses on long-term business needs. Most small businesses can't plan far ahead. They want direct results from training in skills they need now. New technologies and IT skills are identified as a priority by all the firms I surveyed. F: What is the first course the university offer small businesses? M: Up till now most of short courses for companies in general have dealt with helping businesses grow. These aren't really appropriate for small companies as growth can be very risky for them. They obviously need to grow but they're afraid of fast growth. I'm going to start with courses on IT and software the small companies are likely to require because of thebusiness growth to come later. And they'll need to be changed to make them more relevant to small businesses. F: Well, I wish you every success with the course.
