HOW TO DO IT

Winning back my job

Activity and continuous learning can us move on to our dream job.

Losing a job fundamentally changes your life. In addition, initially, nobody knows how long on end their period of unemployment is going to last. It will last as long as we allow it to last! There is always a road to go down.

1. Mental and physical balance – the first step to take is keeping your mental and physical balance. Losing a job strongly affects our assuredness and self-confidence. The best course of action here is to keep yourself busy to such a degree that you have little time to analyze your own self-confidence. Exercise, studying, training courses, all these will help you strengthen your physical fitness and mental alertness.

2. Positive thinking – helps you to boost your self-assuredness and get good vibrations. Pessimism has never brought success to anybody, and, mainly, has not made an employer think you are the right employee for them. You can acquire the positive thinking through reading positive newspaper articles, discussing with positive friends, or rejoicing at little achievements.

3. Keep your daily routine – your will and resolve tend to recede in time. It is, then, all too easy to get used to the fact you are not required to go anywhere, do anything. In order to keep yourself active, it is appropriate to carry on following the original daily routine. On weekdays, getting up at the same time, busying yourself with varied activites for the minimum of 8 hours a day (looking for a job with prospective employers, participating in retraining schemes, for instance… ), having your daily meals regularly.

4. Analysis of financial standing – no later than in the first few days into the period of unemployment, it is appropriate to check all receipts and expenditures. You need to establish for how many weeks/months ahead you have your costs covered and so how much time you have on your hands to find a new job. Also, the process of cutting all possible costs has to be started instantly. The general rule applies we are capable of saving up to 10% of our earnings each month. Sometimes it only takes to start having less opulent meals.

5. Responsibility analysis – our lives always come with their history. We bear responsibility in respect of our children, spouses, parents, and we should not be forgetting about that. We can only live up to that responsibility in full, if we have a job and a sufficient financial income.

6. The key to a new job are my abilities – any job-search starts right within ourselves, with the fundamental questions being – „What can I do best?“, „What line of business am I most successful in?“. These are the two areas you need clarified before you begin searching for any employment. For it is inadvisable to look for a job you do not enjoy doing and have little qualification for.

7. I want to work or do business – another fundamental decision to take. Your next course of action depends oo which one you have decided for.

I want to be an employee:

• Search for those employers who need your abilities – concentrating on all employers who are looking for employees makes no sense. Suffice to limit your search to those who are looking just for you and the abilities you possess.
• Elaborate your structured CV – it is a basic document every employer will demand to see. It will tell them what your knowledge is, how experienced you are, and what kind of work you are fitting. You should be very particular about elaborating it.
• Get ready for a job interview – during a job interview we are really supposed to prove our worth. Good communication is of the essence here. It is almost impossible to manage it well without some preparatory work. It is a good thing to take a job interview up with friends and prepare the answers to the basic questions which are unavoidably asked in any job interview.

Where to look for employers:

• Entrepreneurs – companies´ websites. Companies are listed according to branches at Seznam.cz, Google.cz …
• HR departments – in bigger companies they are responsible for the selection of workers. It is approprate that they know about you, so that they can react to your query and tell you whom they need.
• Personal placement agencies – they have the best knowledge of which employers are currently hiring workers and for which positions. Select a number of agencies, make some appointments with them and give them your CV. No doubt they will ask you what kind of work you would like to do. You have your answer ready 
• Internet d-bases – job.cz, profesia.cz, yob.cz, ….
• Work exchanges
• …

I want to do business:
There are always lots of business opportunities on the market. Unable to find an employer and having a promising entrepreneurial intent, you may easily get a trade licence and start your own business. In many cases, start-ups do not need any overly massive capital. Here is the basic scheme to launch a viable business:

• Business idea
• Profiling of your prospective customer
• Entrepreneurial intent/plan
• Verification of the entrepreneurial plan
• Prenegotiating cooperation with the first prospective customers
• Prepare for the first order
• ..

The aforementioned procedure makes an indispensable base to understand where and how to start a business.

Conclusion

There is nothing to wait for. Life equals motion! Yes, activity represents the key to winning back a work or starting your own business. Believe me, your delight in having won the first customer or a new order or a new job is much bigger than waiting for a decent job offer from Employment Office.

If you have queries, feel free to contact author and consultant Jiří Střelec

Small business management system preparation

Preparation of Quality Management System for small company (ISO)

Preparation of the system is easy for anybody who has ever worked with a system and – better still – was there when the system came into existence. A quality consultant, however, should master this procedure brilliantly. Here we are introducing one of a number of possible procedures that delivers results really fast and without any needless drawbacks.

1. Requirements for the system – decide on which requirements your system is supposed to meet. Will it be the quality management system requirement pursuant to ISO 9001, or the environmental management system requirement pursuant to ISO 14001, or the occupational safety and health management system requirement pursuant to OHSAS 18001, or the information security management system requirement pursuant to ISO 27000, or will there be more than one requirement thus forming an integrated system?

2. Modelling and descriptive method – select what outputs and system description would suit your company and its workers best. A modelling method of choice has a strong effect on the subsequent changes in the system. The Microsoft VISIO, for instance, appears to be a suitable tool for this purpose. In this stage, it is also appropriate to determine the system´s structure.

3. Information system support – the resultant system is strongly influenced by your current information system, for example, where you file your orders, where you do stock holding, and the like. Description of the system´s operation is, then, referred to the information system you are using, and everything is going to be markedly simplified. In most cases, neverthless, the company does not possess any information system, and the system description prepared is later to become a setting for implementation of an information system.

4. System implementation deadline date – establish in advance when you need to have the system ready, and direct all activities in respect of this date. It is hard to complete the system without the final deadline date. The best way here is to have the responsible people interested in keeping the deadline financially or otherwise.

5. Process map – it first defines principal processes and subprocesses you need to manufacture your products or to provide your services.

6. Preparation flow chart – count the number of days from the set deadline date backwards to establish the length of time available for the preparation of the system. Include in the flow chart each defined process, sub-process, approval, record, data bases, inspections, audits, trainings, reporting and, also, the period of time for checking on the cohesion of the individual processes. Keep in mind you need to have qualified and trained internal auditors, if you want to have an ISO certificate. Your auditing work may also be outsourced, yet it is not recommended to do at the beginning.

7. Process setting – define a definite form in which each process is to be described, while utilizing flow charts or just texts or the like. In this stage, working with the person responsible, or the process possessor, each process is already defined in the process map. In simple processes, count around 2 to 3 hours per process. The processing time increases with increasing complexity up to 15–30 hours.

8. Training in processes and the system – each worker who will use a process should be trained in that process. The most appropriate arrangement is training your workers continuously as the processes are being prepared. Towards the traning´s end, it is also good to show the system as one functioning whole, highlighting how interconnected the individual processes are, and what benefits it is going to bring the company.

9. Test operation – having prepared the system, let it run and watch how the workers stick to the established rules, whether there are non-compliances occurring and how they are being resolved.

10. Internal audits – eventually, get internal audits started and verify each individual process and its functioning. Following the audits, make good all non-conformities and faults found.

11. Functioning evaluation – evaluate all things functioning. Take advantage of the process metrics and the reporting established. Prepare the system´s review by the management.

12. Certification audit – if your system works, invite a certification auditor (it is advisable to choose a good certification company right at the preparation beginning) who, as an independent auditor, will examine your company.

The above are the most important steps to take for preparation and implementation of the company´s management system. Each step would indeed make a separate article, but it is sometimes better to invite a consultant who will navigate your way through the preparation.

Period of the system´s preparation

Surely you are interested in how long the preparation of a quality management system will take. Based on experience, the preparation period ranges as described in the table below. The times can vary up and down depending on the workers´ resolve and interest.

Entrepreneurs tend to save most time on training, test operation and audits. That approach will, inevitably, affect further functioning of the system.
Note: It is not that so much has been going on in Czech Republic really, for a cerfication company will invariably issue the desired certificate, if you pay for it. Such certification companies that would decline, if they found the system being insufficiently prepared, are rare indeed.

The period of preparation is strongly influenced by the following factors:

• Industrial branch and line of business
• Range of the system the entrepreneur opts to create
• Integration of systems – quality (ISO 9001), environment (ISO 140001), safety (OHSAS 18001), IT services (ISO 20000)
• Entrepreneur´s interest in having a functioning system of quality
• Financial and time resources

If an entrepreneur who opearates a 5 to 10-strong company decides to prepare the system swiftly and, working with an experienced consultant, shuts themselves off from the company´s daily operations, they will be able to prepare almost the entire system.

The „How to do it“ procedure has been prepared by consultant Jiří Střelec on the basis of his own experience.

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