Mums Finance

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

My how times have changed in the career world. When I was a young graduate from Secretarial College at the start of the 1980’s the technology of the time included the dictaphone and the word processor. You had to learn how to use these things if you wanted to work in an office back then. Anyone remember what a Stenographer did - or was…? I bet not.

You people who work in an office; all you front desk staff - can you write in Pittman or Gregg…?

I Bet not.

Times certainly have changed. Then as the eighties rolled along came job openings for data process operators; dictaphone typists and people skilled in word processing. 

Then you had to be familiar with Excel and Lotus123 - until Bill Gates changed the way we did everything when he introduced to the world his Windows. Whatever happened to the shorthand/typist - the stenographer through all of this…?

Simply this. She/he had no choice but to keep up to date with all the changing technology. Change with the times, learn the newest skills and explore territory never before dreamed about. They had to learn how to use a computer !

There are many directions I would point my kids towards career-wise these days. One direction would be Ophthalmology seeing as so many people now spend so much time in front of a computer screen that they will be needing glasses in the future; another would be Dermatology seeing as so many people still insist on frying their skins under the hot sun thus inviting melanoma en masse.

But the other direction I would point them to - money-wise and opportunity-wise - would be the IT Industry. After all, computers rule our lives now and will continue to do so.  This is where the real money lies these days. This is also where programmes such as Cisco certification really mean something; probably more to your kids than to yourself but then what is stopping you !

Using the Cisco learning network can bring you out of the past and into the present and shoot you towards the future.

The one thing that connects the generations today is the internet; we all use it whether we like to admit it or not. We all use it for a variety of reasons - mostly for work - just as much for entertainment purposes. I never thought, just a few years back, that I would be so computer literate as I am now. I thought these things were for kids - for nothing more than a bit of fun. The home computer that is.

Now I use it all the time; at home - for work and for play. We all do.

Popularity: 14% [?]

If the first, most trusted, and oldest workable life insurance company in the United Kingdom can go bust where does that leave the future of all the rest…?

So much has now been written about the fall of what was the most trusted and reliable institution and yet questions are still being asked as to how this could have happened at all.

The problem is that Equitable life was mutually owned - meaning that there was no-one to specifically blame for the catastrophe that occurred.  In the 1950’s the company began issuing guaranteed amount pension contracts; the point is that in the fifties the guarantee was something like four per cent when annuity rates were around eight per cent - result was that no-one used the guarantee back then.

But by the 1990’s the annuity rates had dropped to around three per cent - below the four per cent guaranteed by Equitable Life. So what happened…?

People who bought their policy in the 1950’s reached retirement age in the 90’s, saw the decrease in annuity rates, and so opted to use the guarantee from Equitable Life. This should not have presented any problems except that Equitable Life decided to pay out the four per cent but reduced the amount of money on which they were paying it.

This could have been avoided if in the early 1980’s EL reduced the amount of allocated return on the pension policies thus ensuring that pensions up to twenty years later would be safe. This action would have seen EL drop out of the top ten performing funds of the time…but they would have survived. In short, from the early 80’s the fund was paying out more money than it could afford to.

Then you had the legal action. EL counted among it’s policy holders lawyers, QC’s, doctors…when they learned of their reduced pensions they chose to take legal action and thus ‘emptied the pot’ of any funds still remaining in EL. They sued themselves so to speak and made the situation worse - like hitting yourself on the head and then taking yourself to court for it…what a waste of money. They ran up astronomical court fees when there was no hope of the company being able to pay out - as a result those already receiving their pensions from EL saw their value drastically cut.

So what now…?

The blame is being placed squarely at the feet of the Govt, and rightly so, but the directors of EL have as much fault to carry. The Ombudsman has ordered the Govt to compensate over one million policy holders within two years - to the tune of some 4.6 billion pounds…can the Govt possibly carry this and will all those people get back some of that money they were entitled to?

Yes, but expect a serious hike in taxes to fund this action - it will be those tax payers thirty years from now who will still be carrying the cost of this whole debarcle.

Popularity: 13% [?]

When you work in the industry of recruitment you will be fully aware of the amont of time you spend receiving, reading and then filing all the resumes that pass through your office each day, week and month. Just the task of reading is time consuming enough in itself; then you must decide where to file each resume and thus spend time organising folders for the task.

Maybe you still print and file resumes in paper form? then we can safely say that you would be spending even more time carrying out this job. What you need is a cost effective adminstrative assistant which will make your duties in applicant tracking so much easier and free up your time so you may increase your own productivity. Here are two areas of your job which need addressing…

* time spent reading and filing resumes

* time spent locating resumes in order to successfully match an individual to a job opening

Now, how much time you spend per day would actually depend on how many resumes you deal with on a regular basis; this is where acquiring workforce management software could increase efficiency and better utilise your valuable time - in short - the more resumes you process regularly the more this software would work for you and pay for itself.

Part of your task would involve sorting those resumes which are unsuitable -this where the software makes itself useful. It will do the reading and the searching for you, matching the best clients to the most suitable openings. As a recruitment worker your job should not just mean being stuck behind a computer - you will need to be talking to professionals, hiring staff and applicants and will need to be armed with the most up to date information when and where you need it.

Let’s also not lose sight of the fact that you love your career but would also relish the opportunity to be more hands on with those real people behind those resumes; just consider how much of an improvement to your working life that HR Software would make - consider it a small revolution in a way - but the results will be well worth your while.

Popularity: 13% [?]