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Sweating Bullets!

A few years ago, the following conversation ensued between me and a colleague at work. Me: Hi Kate! I’ve not seen you in about a month. You must have been traveling. Kate: Yes, I was at three of our plant locations this past month. Me: Really! What were you doing?…
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Employee Retention: 3 Make or Break Factors (Video)

In this video blog, Lisa Smith discusses some employee retention strategies. Transcript Do you sometimes struggle with recruitment and retention issues in your organization? Well, if you do, I have a survey that you'll enjoy. Recently, the Society for Human Resource Management surveyed a variety of workers across the United…
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How to Create a Secondary Axis Excel Chart (AKA Dual Axis Chart)

If you have two data series that are related, but not comparable, it might be tough to chart it. For example, let’s say you have data representing the sales of products. You also have the production costs. When you subtract the production cost from the sales data, you get the…
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How to Create an Excel Gauge Chart (AKA Speedometer Charts)

You might think you need some fancy add-ins to create charts that look like a speedometer. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create this snazzy image from a pie chart and a doughnut chart. Download CreatingGaugeChart.xlsx to follow along. The Steps Create the data for the speedometer. If a…
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Employers Must Have a Written FMLA Policy (Video)

Does your organization currently have a written FMLA policy? In the short video below, Lisa Smith discusses the Department of Labor's new FMLA requirement. Transcript Well, it looks like the DOL is at it again. In June of 2016 the Department of Labor released a 76 page guide regarding the…
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Customer Service Training Activities: Stories and Strategies

The best team building activities allow people to have fun, while also creating something that will be useful to the team in the future. In this post, we share some small group activities to share with your customer service teams. First, form small groups of people that provide similar types of…
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Group Problem Solving: Customer Service Challenges

In this post, we offer an idea for a customer service call center exercise with groups of 10-60 people — you need a large space, chart paper and markers.  The goal is to allow people to share their customer service experiences — and fears — in a safe supportive forum.…
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Rewarding Customer Service: Creative Gifts

Everyone likes to feel noticed and appreciated — and for staff working on the front lines with customers, a small reward or gift for the work they do can be particularly meaningful.  I once worked with an employee-centered customer service manager who has a great set of small symbolic gifts…
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How to Calculate Compound Interest in Excel

Whether for personal or business application, it’s a good idea to know how to calculate compound interest for loans and investments. There are two methods you can use, the long form and the FV (future value) function. Download ExcelCompoundInterest.xlsx to see the examples. Long Form In this first example, we’ll…
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Accounting Magic – What You Need to Know About Accounting Excel Formulas

Accounting is more than just debits and credits. It is the calculation and analysis of those debits and credits that generate accounting information an organization can act upon. Let’s take a look at two types of reports a professional in the Accounting Department might be asked to generate. Then, we’ll…
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