To adequately address health and safety issues, companies need to look not only at whether an employee is performing their job safely but whether they’re healthy and fit enough to do their job without a high risk of injury. Issues like obesity, poor physical fitness and inadequate nutrition make it harder for employees to carry out certain tasks in the workplace.

The link between health and safety

According to research published in the American Journal of Public Health, people who are obese are at higher risk for occupational health issues and injuries. When obese staff are exposed to chemicals on the job, they’re at higher risk for occupational asthma and heart and lung issues compared to a non-obese person. They’re also at greater risk for ergonomic issues and bio-mechanical problems including carpal tunnel syndrome. If companies focus on workplace safety without addressing the obesity issue, the bigger problem remains. A unified approach that integrates occupational safety measures with wellness initiatives that emphasize good nutrition and weight control provides a more effective solution to the problem.

There’s also the issue of back injuries. Back injuries are one of the most common workplace safety issues, and people who are overweight and physically unfit are at higher risk for injuring their back on the job. Most back injuries occur as a result of lifting objects at work and ergonomic issues. Although it’s not possible to prevent all work-related back problems, integrating wellness with safety by emphasizing regular exercise to strengthen muscles in the lower back can reduce back injuries. Integrating workplace safety and wellness offers a more well-rounded approach to preventing back injuries.

What part does wellness play in safety? Wellness programs that focus on stress reduction, smoking cessation and alcohol and drug-related issues are also important for workplace safety. According to a study published in a Canadian publication called The Daily, smokers are at greater risk for being injured at work compared to non-smokers. Among women, the risk was nearly double. Stress does more than just affect employees psychologically – it increases their risk of being injured on the job. Employees who are under stress at home or at work are distracted and less able to focus on doing their job safely. Integrating stress management into a workplace safety program can help reduce the number of injuries and motivate employees to be more productive. Nutrition is another factor that a workplace safety and wellness program should address. Employees who start their day with only a cup of coffee are more prone to blood sugar drops that can lead to workplace injuries. Good nutrition is an integral part of any safety program.

There’s another benefit of merging wellness and workplace safety. Employees are less likely to participate in programs that address workplace hazards than they are wellness programs that focus on personal benefits. Integrating the two makes it more likely that employees will take part.

The bottom line

Combining workplace safety with wellness has a number of benefits for both employees and employers. Most importantly, it helps to create a safer, healthier and more productive workplace – and that’s something every company should strive for.

Improved Workplace productivity [http://triscope.com.au/workplace-productivity] can help your company reduce its business costs and improve team morale.

Even worse, you’ve got a deposition in two-weeks and key information needed to help win the case were also lost. You quickly call a service technician and have them come over to check the computer out, only to hear the worst news of all….your data has been lost. When a hard drive crashes, it’s too late to worry about what you “should have done.”

Today data recovery is a multi-million dollar industry. The number of data recovery firms out there seems to exceed the number of fast food restaurants for the entire planet. These companies specialize in helping their clients retrieve data on anything from hard drives to flash-roms. In the following report, we will discuss what data recovery really is; the different types, the costs, and what you can realistically expect when it comes to getting your data recovered.

What To Do In The Event Of Data Loss?

Around 44% of all data loss is caused by hardware failure. It’s important to make sure that you immediately shut your system down if you suspect that hard drive has crashed. Don’t even try to go through the shutdown procedure, just pull the plug from the wall. Do not try to run off the shelf data recovery software or drive utilities. Many times these applications will assume the drive is functioning properly and will increase the risk of permanent data loss.

Types Of Hard Drive Failure

When we discuss data recovery in this report, we will primarily focus on issues surrounding hard drive failures; since these types of failures are most common. There are really two primary forms of failure in a hard drive, logical and physical. Logical failures are usually a result of file-system corruption. This can occur due to a virus, accidental deletion of key files or registry components, and in some cases even electro-static discharge. In most cases where a logical failure has occurred, the drive is still recognized by the system BIOS, but it will not boot. In most cases, your data should still be intact on the drive, even though it may appear to be inaccessible.

If the system BIOS does not detect the presence of the hard drive, then chances are a physical failure has occurred. Physical failures can result from a wide variety of causes. There are really two sub-categories for physical hard drive failures; mechanical and electronic. Mechanical failures usually result from a failure of the spindle motor. Spindle motor failure can result from excessive heat due to a bearing failure. The increased heat resulting from the bearing failure will expand the drive shaft and therefore seize the spindle motor. Suddenly, your drive will become inoperative. Occasionally, you will get a warning that something bad is about to happen. You may hear a loud whining, a grinding noise, even high-pitched screeches. If anything like this starts to occur, BACK UP YOUR DATA IMMEDIATELY.

Another physical issue that sometimes rears its ugly head is an electronic failure. If you look at a hard drive you will notice a circuit board on the bottom. This board is basically the brains of the drive, and it is where the computer interfaces to the hard drive. An electrical failure can occur unexpectedly at any time. Even brand new hard drives are not totally immune to having electrical failures. Sometimes it’s just a faulty component, sometimes it’s improper installation (i.e. electro-static discharge, grounding out the board, damaging circuitry during installation). It’s important to also keep your system clean and well ventilated, since excessive heat can damage the electrical components on the drive. If you have a system that is in a somewhat contained area, you may look at adding an additional 80mm fan to cool the internal components of the system, especially the hard drive. No other component of a computer works as much as the hard drive, and therefore it is vitally important not to overlook it when cooling issues arise.

How Is My Data Recovered?

One of the most often asked questions that customers ask is, “how do you get my data back?” Well, it’s really not black magic or rocket science. It’s just a matter of having the right tools and the knowledge necessary to know what to do, much like a surgeon performing heart by-pass surgery. Many prominent data recovery facilities have a large array of hardware, software and tools for recovering data.

Generally speaking when a hard drive is received by a data recovery firm, the first thing they do is evaluate it, and determine what recovery solution will be necessary. If the drive failure is a logical issue as mentioned earlier, then a scan of the drive will be performed to try and repair the file system corruption. Sometimes a partition can be repaired and the drive restored to the status that it was before the failure. If this is not possible, then a very low-level scan will be performed that essentially searches every sector of the hard drive for files. Once the files are located, they can then be copied to the media of choice, i.e. a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or another hard drive. Logical recoveries can take up an enormous amount of time, especially if the drive is on the verge of physical failure. It’s not uncommon to allow for one day of scanning and a day for recovering the found files.

If the drive has suffered a physical failure, then the recovery procedure is quite a bit more challenging. As mentioned above, there are really two sub-categories of physical failure; mechanical and electronic. An important element in recovering data from a physical failure is having the necessary parts to get the drive functioning again. Unfortunately with hard drives if you have a 20GB Maxtor Hard Drive for example, then you will need another identical 20GB Maxtor Hard Drive for salvaging parts. In cases where the electronic circuit board has failed on the hard drive, then you have to have the exact same circuit board on hand in order to retrieve the necessary circuit components for replacement. Many times you cannot even exchange circuit board for circuit board. These repairs generally require soldering skills and a thorough knowledge of electronics to be successfully completed. You will most likely hear “Class100 Clean Room” thrown around a lot when talking to data recovery professionals. Simply stated, a Class100 Clean Room maintains exceptional air purity, and contains less than 100 airborne particles larger than 0.5 microns in each cubic foot of air. This is vital in protecting sensitive internal components of hard drives. Anytime a hard drive is having an invasive procedure performed on it, a Class100 clean room or better is needed.

The time frame for recovery is generally 5-10 business days for physical issues and 2-4 days for logical issues. Sometimes if components are not readily available, then it may take weeks to complete the recovery. Some firms offer expedite service and you definitely pay for this added attention.

What About Data Recovery Software

This is one area where you really do get what you pay for. Try to stay away from software in the $20-$60 range, since these utilities are generally very limited in what they can do. Also make sure that you NEVER and just to emphasize, NEVER EVER get data recovery software that writes anything at all to the damaged disk. You run the risk of overwriting data that may otherwise have been recoverable, but will be lost forever. If you are fairly computer savvy, then there are a few good data recovery software solutions available.

What To Look For When Shopping For Data Recovery

There’s an old saying, “you get what you pay for.” In most cases this is true. However, just because a company with a fancy website quotes you $3,500 for data recovery, does not mean that they are any better than a company that quotes you $1,500. Also, try to stay away from companies that want to charge $50-$300 for evaluating your drive. There has been a movement in the data recovery industry over the last couple of years to offer a number of free services. Most reputable data recovery companies will evaluate standard IDE drives free of charge; so don’t let the word “free” this or “free” that stop you. The data recovery market is quickly becoming saturated, and a company does not necessarily cheapen itself or lack expertise by offering free evaluations.

You will find as you shop around for data recovery that prices vary greatly. You will get quotes that range from $300 to $5,000 for standard hard drive recoveries. It’s not uncommon to literally get quotes that have at least a $1,500 high/low spread. We shopped one prominent data recovery company where we gave them specific indicators of a physical hard drive failure. We were eventually quoted a price range of $600 to $2,900 for the recovery. Many times this is a bait and switch type tactic. They get you to send in the drive with the low-end $600 price, then they let you know it’s going to cost $2,100 for the recovery. You end up being well under the $2,900 high-end price, but well over what other reputable companies would charge. Since most customers won’t go through the pain of having the drive sent back, only to have to send it out to another company, these bait and switch companies end up making huge profits off of unsuspecting customers.

Try to find a company that will give you an up front cost for either a logical or physical recovery. Most companies will be able to tell you within a couple hundred dollars the cost of a recovery. However, don’t misunderstand a company that gives you a price for two different procedures. For example, some companies will give you a price if the failure is logical and a price if the problem ends up being physical. We called one firm and were told that if the drive had a logical failure the price would be $400 and if it ended up being a physical issue the price would be $1,600. This is not a high/low spread as mentioned in the earlier example, this is simply quoting a price for two different types of recoveries.

On average you can expect to pay anywhere from $400 to $600 for logical recoveries, and $1,200 to $2,000 for physical recoveries on standard IDE hard drives. If you have RAID drives, SCSI, etc. depending on the configuration prices can be as high as $15,000. Remember, backup backup backup backup backup!!

Can My Data Be Recovered?

In most cases the answer to this question is yes. On average, the success rate for data recovery professionals is about 75-85%. However, there are times when the data is just lost, either due to extensive damage to the platter or unavailability of replacement parts.

How Do I Get Started?

If you have a hard drive that has crashed, the most important thing you can do is contact a data recovery professional immediately. Make sure you aren’t being charged an evaluation fee if you have a standard IDE hard drive. Most companies only charge evaluation fees for complex RAID and network server drives.

It is important to do your homework, call and talk with the companies. When you find one that you feel comfortable with, give them a chance. Your hardest job, may be finding data recovery firms that actually have someone available to answer the phones. Ask questions and be sure to have the following information available:

Size of the drive

Operating system (i.e. Windows 98, Windows XP, etc.)

Situation of failure (what happened just before the drive stopped wor

Your data doesn’t have to stay lost, however. Data recovery services specialize in restoring files that most people wouldn’t think would be recoverable. Keep reading to learn how data recovery services work.

Why Data Recovery is Possible

The files stored on your computer are all written onto the hard drive, which consists of thin, round platters coated with a shiny magnetic data storage medium, much like the shiny coating on the thin ribbons contained inside VHS and cassette tapes. Just like in a VCR or a tape player, a head inside your computer’s hard drive reads and writes the data onto the magnetic storage medium.

When you delete a file on your computer, it is not actually erased from the hard drive. The hard drive simply changes the marker on that space from “occupied” to “vacant.” The data itself is still there until it is written over. Think of it as a home video that you have decided you don’t want anymore. Until you actually tape over it, it’s still there.

Even once data is written over, it can still be found. This is because the data that is written over it is usually imperfect, leaving traces of the original file. With the proper tools, these traces can be located, deciphered, and – usually – reassembled into complete files. However, the more times an old file is overwritten, the more difficult it will be to retrieve it – so the sooner you contact a data recovery service, the better.

What the Data Recovery Service Does

When you contact a data recovery service, usually the first thing they will want to know is how the files you want to recover were lost. You might have accidentally deleted the files, or the data might have become corrupted. In a worst-case scenario, your hard drive might have sustained damage, ranging from relatively minor damage such as hard drive crash, to serious physical damage such as flooding or fire. However, the data recovery service most likely won’t be able to give you a quote until they have inspected the hard drive, so you will also need to drop off or mail your hard drive to them.

Before the data recovery service begins work on your hard drive, they will make an exact copy of the drive. All work will be done on this copy, to avoid doing any more damage to the drive itself.

Using the copy of the original drive, the data recovery service then uses a variety tools and techniques to try to recover the lost data. Every hard drive creates a sort of table of contents at the very beginning of the drive; by retrieving old tables of contents, the data recovery service can tell where the files you need would be located on the drive, making it easier to make sense of and restore written-over data.

Once the data has been restored from the drive, the data recovery service checks to make sure the files they have recovered are complete. Again, they can use old tables of contents from the hard drive to check for holes in the files. Once they have ensured that the data is all there, they will back it up to CDs or another storage medium, and send it back to you.

Data Recovery Service Alternatives and the Risks Involved

There are many data recovery software packs available online. These may be pretty tempting, but remember that depending on what you need done, they may or may not satisfy your needs. And even if software can fix your problem, using them without a professional’s guidance may inadvertently create more problems, not only ensuring that you will have to use a data recovery service, but also creating more work for them (and therefore a higher price for you).

A common type of data recovery software is “undelete” software, which enables you to restore files that you have accidentally deleted. However, remember that when you delete a file the hard drive marks it as available storage. In other words, anything you do after deleting that file – whether downloading undelete software, saving another file, or even just shutting your computer down as normal – can overwrite the data, rendering it impossible to recover without a data recovery service.

A way around this is to download the undelete software to a separate drive, such as an external drive or even a USB drive. Unless you know what you are doing, though, you should probably call a professional right away – the longer you wait, and the more you tinker with your computer, the more likely you are to create the need for major data recovery in order to restore your deleted file.

Another type of data recovery software is one designed to find and/or fix lost or corrupted files. Again, the hazard is that every piece of data you write to the disk could overwrite the file you are trying to restore. Since the file is lost or corrupted, you cannot trust that the hard drive will know not to overwrite it. Again, immediately contacting a professional is probably the best course of action.

Data Recovery Services Protect Your Important Information

Because of the nature of a hard drive or another type of memory storage, data loss is not necessarily permanent. An experienced data recovery service can easily help you restore your valuable photos, financial information, or small business data. However, don’t forget that when your valuable data has been deleted, lost, or damaged, time is of the essence if you are to get it back: The longer your computer runs, and the more often it writes to the hard drive, the worse the situation gets.

Factors that Influence the Cost of Services of a Data Recovery Company

Data recovery companies can minimize on your business’s downtime by providing a quick turnaround time. Most companies will be able to recover your data within the range of 24 to 72 hours. Consider the valuable time that would be wasted if you try to recover the data on your own. Since complex procedures need to be performed within a short period of time, the costs associated with the services are high.
There are times when people use DIY software or their own expertise to recover their lost data. In such instances, there is a high probability of losing your data forever. In today’s world, data means information, and information holds the power to make or break a business. A data recovery company ensures that your data is recovered in the most effective manner and is able to recover all or major portion of your data. A data recovery company hires experienced employees and uses effective tools to recover your data. These experienced employees come with a sound educational background as well as good industry experience. The nature of the work of these professionals is also highly complicated. Data recovery specialists need to evaluate and assess the nature of the data loss. Their skills are extremely effective in replacing or repairing fragile components. Therefore, the data recovery company has to match their salary with their experience. In addition, most data recovery companies use proprietary tools to recover the damaged data. These tools can be extremely expensive.
There are some overhead costs involved for a data recovery company. There are times when hard disk parts would need to be replaced. However, replacing these parts becomes very difficult because the hard disk manufacturers do not sell these parts. Therefore, only a hard disk of the same batch and model can be used to ensure that the data can be read off the disk platters in an appropriate way. A hard disk that has the same model but is of different batch will have different set of parts inside. Therefore, to avoid wasting time in looking for hard disk parts, the data recovery companies tend to keep a stock of hard disk parts. These stocks contribute towards overhead costs.
Hard disks are extremely fragile and prone to any kind of dust, air, or environmental contamination. Therefore, a data recovery company needs to invest in clean room facilities to ensure that the hard disks are handled in an appropriate environment. Establishing and maintaining these clean room facilities can be very expensive. Therefore, the data recovery companies tend to charge higher for their services.
Since the nature of work of a data recovery specialist is very technical, the data recovery companies tend to provide extensive training to their employees to ensure that the data and the media are handled appropriately and the success rate is maximised. Each data recovery company tends to develop their own trainings in this field because not much training is available through schools or colleges. Companies tend to spend significant amounts on developing their own training procedures. These costs are reflected in their cost of services.

Let’s take a look at Executive Team Building as a subset of the generic team building exercise. Officer level managers require a whole different approach to Executive Team Building. Here are some thoughts on why senior manager team building is difficult. I have found officer level managers arrive at their positions for three reasons: they are part of a family business; their persona and experiences match a corporate leadership culture (often characterized also as-who you know); and/or, they have skills (achieved through education or former positions) that are needed to fix a problem such as a manufacturing problem. Point being, everyone arrives at the officer level by different and sometimes circuitous methods. By this point-in-time, people’s management styles and personality traits are developed and tested: what you see is what you get. Even this perspective is sliced a little thinner by the way we are wired. For example, engineers approach management from a different perspective than a marketing person. Junior members of a company are much more malleable in shaping their views and are motivated to demonstrate that they are team players.

The title structure of a company may be Senior VP, Executive VP, President, etc., depending on the size of the company. Whatever the hierarchy, the pointy end of the pyramid is very competitive and therefore has far reaching effects on shaping each manager’s attitudes toward their peers. Additionally, senior managers develop a persona within their respective industries that can last a career lifetime. The projection of an industry persona becomes important should a manager feel their career is becoming stagnant and they want to explore career changes.

The point here is that Executive Team Building is really Executive Team Meeting. At senior levels in an executive’s career, he/she has traits that a CEO must recognize and manage through “performance evaluation” tools and not Executive Team Building/Meetings. Team Building is not about shaping relationships between peers. When there is a small cadre of senior manager’s, personality types are evident to all. The politics in these environments can be exacerbated to a level that makes “passive aggression” becomes an art form and Team Meetings are not a cure.

Here is a short case study to illustrate my point of reference.

A few years ago I was part of a growing company in a very dynamic industry. All the officers were A-type personalities and very ambitious to achieve recognition within the industry and by the corporate owner. All were hard driving, creative, highly educated. The senior management ran the age gambit from very young to more experienced and were both male and female. Because this was a very young company, the “charter members” of the senior management team resented new senior manager’s coming into their ranks having not “paid their dues” and fitting into the culture. Most of these managers would minimize a peer on the team rather than let them excel in their respective position (if that someone were competing for the next CEO position).

To solve the problem an organizational psychologist was brought in to get the team working together. The team took a battery of tests and did personal interviews with the psychologist. The results of the tests were reviewed individually with the participants and a team meeting was held to discuss the dynamics at play within the team. Bottom line, it was not a success; probably for the same reasons General’s Patton, Bradley and Montgomery were always at odds-a group of over-achievers with juxtaposed ego’s and the next promotion.

But not all is for naught. Even personal animus within a team may be addressed as long as it is not addressed in a manner that is in the category of “manipulation”. Executive Team Building is not training; rather it is com

Indoor activities can include icebreakers, like name games and quizzes while out door activities will most likely involve games and sports. If you have a high energy staff, outdoor activities are best. Regardless of which option you choose, team building can be 100% free.

Playing games out doors FREE: Setting up games such as volleyball, tag, scavenger hunts, adventure plans and relay races. All of these games are free and will bring your team closer together these games are able to teach the team members about accountability and being a good team player.

More structured outdoor games can also be played. These games are specifically designed for team building and are created by the government and other associations. Each one of these games is free and able to be played by small or large groups.

Gym based activities: Games and activities done in gyms or large open spaces are also free. These are much like the outdoor games, but is indoor based. If you do not have a gym facility available many schools will happily open their doors for a team building course.

Gym games that some team builders use are: red rover, dodge ball, human pyramid and gum ball building.

Board room activities: These can be played at the board meeting table, or any place where the team can sit. These are more “get to know you” games and can help the team bond by sharing information. This is a free way to create team awareness and trust between the staff and management. This is also

Ice breakers: These can be done anywhere, and are sharing games. These types of small quizzes and questions usually precede the actual team building activity. These are free short activities that can be found through any team building company or website.

Building a team does not have to cost money. In fact there is more free team building activities for adults, then ones that cost money. This is because building a team is not about props or gimmicks; it is about real communication and togetherness. If your team has been holding back on team building due to costs, this does not have to be. Talk to your management team about some creative ways to create and manage a seminar or activity day. The price of the activity does not determine the out come, when you are working with a team it is the determination and the motivation of all the team members that makes the event a success or a failure.

To get more out of your team building check out my Team Building Activities website. I

Team building events are recreational and entertaining, but they are more than fun activities. They are held to meet certain fundamental objectives. In order to meet these objectives, team building events must be planned carefully and conducted professionally. That is why businesses often partner with successful team building and corporate event companies to meet and fulfill event requirements. However, if you are hosting a team building event, here are a few tips to help you make it effective and successful.

There are thousands of activities to choose from. Team building events could be held indoors or outdoors; they could be mental or physical; they could be simple or complex. The kind of activity you choose plays an important role in the success of the event. The right activity is one in which every member can contribute equally. No one should be reduced to the role of the spectator. You could take your team to the cinemas or you could all go river rafting. The activity must be chosen keeping the following in mind:

- Cost

- Goal of the event

- Physical condition of team members

- Location of the activity

- Size of the team.

Determine the budget allotted for the team building event. This is vital because everything – from the kind of activity to its location – depends on how much spending money you have. If you decide to take the team to a far away location, you have to factor in expenses such as food and accommodation too. This might be a costly proposition and your budget may not always allow such an event. That said, it must be remembered that great team building events are almost always held away from the workplace because employees feel more relaxed away from campus.

If possible, do not organize the team building event on the weekend or during holidays. It is essential that the company runs these events ‘on the house’, so to speak. Employees should not be forced to participate in team building events on their time off. Instead, try to involve team members. The best way to give teams the activity they love is to ask them what they want. A survey can help you pick the best activities, ideal location and games. When the members of the team contribute towards organizing the event, there is a greater sense of commitment and common purpose. Also, there is a palpable sense of excitement within the team.

Chosen activities must align themselves with the values and principles of the company because members need to come back and reinforce what they have learnt by putting it into practice at the workplace. Activities must not be too hard to too competitive. This could be counterproductive.

Mix people from different functional groups. The event should ideally offer an opportunity to mingle with and build relationships with everyone, even those outside the primary team. This introduces an element of diversity and prevents the formation of buddy gangs within the company. It also destroys prototypes and improves understanding between teams within the same organization.

Building your team deepens and creates trust between co workers and management teams; this is something that is no easily gained. The reason that trust is so important in a work environment is because in order for one person to do a job correctly, they will need to ask for help from others. If you want to do some free team building exercises based on trust, you can play games such as catch me, 2 truths 1 lie and human knot.

Learning how to accept help from others, and help others can be a hard lesson for some to learn. Games such as G.P.S games, gumball building and mock problem solving. All of these games are free (if you have the G.P.S units) and can help teams learn more about the way team work needs to be done.

Creating bonds is important when you work on a team, and these bonds can last a lifetime. Team building can help create these bonds and allow them to grow. If you are looking to create bonds within the work place, perhaps some of these team building ideas can help: celebrate birthdays, play outdoor games and hold staff picnics. These events and activities can help your team bond outside of work hours.

The basic principle of building a team is learning about each other and accepting people for who they are. A work environment can never do well when people do not get along or have poor team spirit. Building your team will also help productivity go up, and create a happier atmosphere in which to be. None of these things cost money, and every person who attends these team building sessions will feel like they are part of a community, rather than a workplace. Below are a few more ideas on how to make team building exercises free at your workplace!

- Field games

- Ice breakers (name games, quizzes)

- The wallet game (empty contents and show the group)

- Capture the flag (2 teams are needed)

- Create a group flag ( put staff in groups of 3 and each team can create a flag)

- Lunch together

In defining team building, there are many type of such events are organized. Before we could acquire details about Results Driven program, it would proper for us to understand various type of team building.

Team building is known as systematic process towards achieving team bonding and cohesiveness towards accomplish desired objectives. In brief, some of the common types of such programs are:
1. Retreat program – the purpose of this event is to provide an avenue for team members to have fun and feel entertained through games and activities.
2. Basic Team Bonding Program – a program prepared to allow members to acquire conceptual and micro understanding about team work, as well to have proper ice-breaking of every member in the team.
3. Motivational program – is aimed at inspiring individuals of a team to realize their hidden potential and work towards attainment of their goal. With the changes made after team building by each individuals will definitely improve the overall productivity.
4. Conflict/Crisis Management Program – is specifically designed to support an organization to overcome conflict at workplace, team conflict, departmental conflict, sudden crisis response for emerging problem.
5. Results Driven Program – is designed to provide ROI on specific areas through team building. These include Sales Drive, Workplace Productivity Drive, Customer Satisfaction Improvement programs.

The first 3 programs are the most common type of such program organized by organizations. However, over the last 5 years, there are emerging trends showing that most large organization are turning to Results Driven Program as their best option to accomplish their organizations’ objectives. Many MLM and Trading companies are acquiring the expertise of Results Driven program organizers to host their Sales Drive activities. While some other companies are making use of such team building to achieve other objectives, such as Customer Satisfaction drive, Retail Sales Improvement, Safety Response Team Challenge and many other programs focusing on accomplishment of other specific targets.

While many business owners and HR practitioners are still doubtful on this, many other organizations are already reaping rewards or ROI by choosing Results Driven Team Building program.

Let us see how we could utilize Results Driven program to reap a similar or better success in results through such program. There are 9 most important tips on how your organization could make use of Results Driven program to accomplish their organization targets.

1. Team building is for empowerment
Who said Results Driven program has no FUN? This is really a pre-matured judgment. All type of team building should blend the element of FUN and CHALLENGING together. For a program that going to drive results for an organization, it need to incorporate a lot of empowerment towards the audience proper blend of activities. Audience can only be empowered if they feel that they are appreciated. Only appreciated members will truthfully contribute towards growth of their organization.

2. Be clear of your target
Business owners or Management need to be clear that a proper designed program can be used to boost or empower their people to accomplish their objectives. With this in mind, business owners and managers need to come up with specific expectations to accomplish through such event. These expectations could be Sales volume, level of customer satisfaction, productivity improvement, project dateline or others. It need to be specified in quantity or volume.

3. Choose team building consultant
There are 2 different types of organizers of such program at the market place, which are event organizer and team building consultant. Event organizers are normally capable to conduct the first two types of team building. But, the rest need the expertise of team building consultant. As the client, an organization has all the right to obtain useful information on how to accomplish their expectations through such event. At the same time, consultant need complete details about the current performance, demographic details about their target audience and other useful details. It is worthwhile to share such information.

4. Design of program, activities and experiential learning activities
One of the most important area to give close attention in organizing a Results Driven program is on the Program structure. A well designed program should incorporate a mix methodology of team building delivery and it should have the following components; a) Games, 2) Motivation, 3) Challenges, 4) Competition and 5) Rewards. It should have the balance between FUN and LEARNING. Fun is to ensure the audience is excited with the program. While Learning is to ensure that the audiences are with necessary skills/knowledge to be prepared for the challenge.

5. Take Back Challenge
Members should be aware that they have brought back a set of challenges to accomplish within a period of time. A good take back challenges should be briefed thoroughly during the team building, and it should be implemented within 7 days after the program. The duration of challenge could be at least for duration of 1 month. The take back challenge itself should be designed in away that members have to compete to accomplish target given. It will be like a race between individuals or members. For example, the Challenge could; “Who could be the Best Sales Team?’, Which Department has shown Greatest Increase in Productivity?”, “Which shop has highest level of customers satisfaction?” and others

6. Tracking Tools
Since there are target to accomplish, a periodical tracking is required to gather actual performance results. These tracking should generate daily, weekly or monthly reports. Through the report, managers can compare the performance shown by each member who attended the results driven program. A tracking format can be made available through manual report, spreadsheet, software or other options. The best person suggests a proper tracking would be the Team building consultant. Without tracking, it is ineffectual to run a challenge.

7. Management / Leader’s Involvement and Intervention
Management or immediate superiors’ involvement is seen as one of the most important intervention required during implementation of take back challenge. One important matter to note here is that the superior need to use empowerment approach when dealing with their team. Otherwise, the inner confidence and sense of ownership created among staff during team building will defeat the main purpose. Superiors are expected to provide their best support to their team in order to accomplish the given challenge successfully.

8. Offer Rewards
This must be made known that reward plays a crucial role in empowering individuals to perform. Individuals who results driven always want to show their competitiveness by showing that they are in great desire to win the reward offered. Rewards can be offered to most successful individuals or team, and it does not have to be expensive. It would be useful if rewards can be offered on weekly and at the end of the challenge. A hamper, certificate of achievement, mobile phone, paid holiday trip can be useful reward to offer. But, managers must ensure that the rewards offered are worthwhile for the results accomplished.

9. Discuss on measurement of success – ROI
It is very important to measure the success of a Results Driven program by looking at the financial gain reaped compare to money spend to conduct the program. A positive ROI will definitely indicate a similar team building program could be used to accomplish similar or other targets in an organization

By having these 9 tips in our mind now, we are ready to organize