Management Symposium gets congress off to a flyer

In April of this year, Lee Martin, Toojays MD, was invited for a second year to be a guest speaker at the British Small Animal Veterinary Association(BSAVA) Management Symposium, held at Birminghams International Conference Centre (ICC).

As the Veterinary Times, the industries leading publication, reported in its April edition:

"The sympsium, one of the profession's leading management seminars, featured a programme of inspirational speakers who took every opportunity to get everyone to their feet.

The seminar organised by Veterinary Times' sister publication The Veterinary Business journal, this year set out to arm practice managers, senior veterinarians, owners, assistant vets and head nurses with the knowledge they need to help their practices survive the challenges of business competition.

A mainstay of the pre-BSAVA satellite day for more than 10 years, the symposiom is constantly evolving and seeking fresh ways to empower delegates to improve their practices.

For this year's seminar, the title of which was Survival of the fittest, most speakers delivered interactive presentations that involved members of the audience working together in teams or on set tasks.

In one session, speaker Lee Martin got the audience to make paper aeroplanes. Those who threw the furthest had to make additional planes, but with subtle changes. The exercise demonstrated how practices introducing change had to constantly adapt to keep the momentum going.

Paul Imrie, editor of The Veterinary Business Journal, said "This year's symposium once again provided practice owners and managers with fresh ideas to take into their practices. The speakers did a great job of engaging with the audience and had some innvative ways of putting their messages forward. I'm sure ours was the only session at BSAVA where delegates where actively encouraged to throw paper areoplanes."

For further details of Lee Martin's inspirational speaker sessions please contact info@toojays.co.uk

Government Pledges to Boost Staff Skills

Leaders across central government have made a commitment that every eligible employee will be helped to gain basic skills and a level two qualification.
The commitment covers over 475,000 people working to deliver public services in 19 departments.
Sir Richard Mottram, Chairman of Government Skills, said: "I am delighted that these departments which together employ over 90% of those working for central government, and one and a half per cent of the entire UK workforce, have specifically committed to raise the skills and qualifications of their employees. This clearly signals the determination of the civil service to meet the skills challenge highlighted in the Leitch report on skills". Government Skills has now commissioned a skills survey across the entire sector.
Andrew McDonald, Chief Executive of Government Skills, said: “This survey will give us a very detailed picture of the current skills of employees which we can share with employers – and training providers – to enable us to plan more effectively the learning and development activity required both now and for the future. This is a vital part of our work to ensure employees within the public sector have the right skills to deliver effective public services."

Website update & Customer Service Survey

Ruth Peasgood, from Clipston Communications carried out an extensive, independant Customer Service Survey for Toojays in February of this year. The results were fantastic and highlighted again the customer centric strategy that we believe in.

Her results can be seen on the new, restyled website www.toojays.co.uk at the Testimonials page.

what do you think of our new branded image and website layout.

Let us know your comments

Ed

A right Royal Affair

The Royal Garden Hotel, a 5 Star London hotel and established client of Toojays held their 2nd Leadership Development Programme at Dorney in Windsor on the 18Th & 19th Jan.

The two day programme was a combination of experiential activities and classroom facilitation to draw out the delegates key learning.

Prior to the event Nikki Turner & Lee Martin had conducted our online 360 degree review with each of the attendees. This gave a useful pointer to the key development issues to focus upon on the event.

With Nikki on hand during the two days to provide additional feedback and observational input the group found the process enlightening.

The two days culminated in the group delivering a final presentation on their learning and action points to HR Manager Zoe Hiscoke and Assistant GM Johnathan Lowry

Scottish & Newcastle start the year off!!

2007 started with a chilly event in dorney, Windsor, with the first Scottish & Newcastle International Graduate Programme, Development workshop.

The cold (and Snow!) didn't however hamper the graduates enthusiasm or enjoyment of the event.

"There was a great mixture of indoor theory as well as practical outdoor activity" commented one delegate.

Over the four days the group worked on a variety of subjects that enforced the 'Personal effectiveness' workshop. Utilising the SDI, Strength Deployment Inventory model as a grounding to understand each others motivational values and relationship awareness the workshop was a success.

Hopefully the next workshop in June will bring warmer weather!!