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Losing good employees is not only an expense in terms of time, effort and the associated cost of finding a suitable replacement but also in the untold cost of losing valuable knowledge and experience that is unique to the organization; Prevention is the best cure against the problem of losing good employees.

Employees leave their employers for many valid and unavoidable reasons but it is important that an employer knows the reasons their employees leave in case they are found to be reasons that if addressed and resolved could have been avoided.

Concerns of employees can be identified early by the regular use of well designed job satisfaction surveys, allowing for problems to be resolved and helping to minimize needless loss of staff. However some problems, for example those that are the result of a clash of personalities, do not always come to light until it is too late.

Two of the most common reasons personnel decide to leave an organization is due to a lack of career development and/or poor management. Both of these problems can be difficult to identify even for organizations that adopt regular 360-degree appraisals (i.e. where as part of the overall review process, employees may be asked to evaluate their managers).

While employed employees can be reluctant to criticize their managers for fear of the consequences, they can however be more candid when completing an employee exit survey.

Once an employee has decided to resign it is very unlikely that an Exit survey will prevent them from leaving, however the survey may help identify areas that if not addressed could result in more preventable resignations.

Lack of Career Development

Not all employees desire, nor can employers always provide their employees with a clear and long term career path. Some people find comfort and job security in doing one job but there are just as many who prefer to be continually challenged, always acquiring new skills and steadily moving up the corporate ladder. Organizations that succeed and excel need the balance of having high flyers and steady Eddies.

Where losses due to a lack of career development are occasional they may also be inevitable, but where they are frequent, then changes to the organizational structure might need to be considered to allow for greater career development of the employees.

Poor Management

Many a manager has achieved their managerial position through hard work and a deserved promotion, but a good worker does not always make a good manager and many are awarded a management position without any management training.

Poor managers can be quick to discredit the views of disgruntled staff, ‘I was thinking of getting rid of them anyway’ and ‘they were a waste of space’ are typical responses to being asked if there is a problem causing people to leave an organization.

It is understandable that senior management would want to support their line managers by giving them the benefit of any doubt and a poor employee may not be averse to unfairly criticising their line manager. But by conducting exit surveys, if a man-management problem were to be identified early there is a good chance that it can be addressed and resolved with the appropriate formal training and guidance.

Records

It is not uncommon for people to leave an employer and at a later date put in a claim for constructive dismissal. With legal representation now adopting the ‘No win no fee’ model even good employers are finding this to be a real problem. At best Exit surveys will provide an organization with a valuable record of the employee’s reasons for leaving, and at worse, provide advanced warning that a possible claim for unfair dismissal might be expected.

Unless it is on record a tribunal will not necessarily accept an employer’s word that when an employee left they did so without indicating any grievance.

Timing of the exit survey

Exit surveys can with the employee’s agreement be delayed for a few months or be conducted as part of the termination procedures.

There can be an advantage in delaying an exit survey for a few months in that a former employee may be less emotional and more honest with their views and may be in a position to compare their previous role with their new role.

The advantages with conducting an exit survey as part of the termination procedure is that although emotions may be running high it is probably more reflective of the employee’s state of mind and therefore closer to the reasons they have decided to leave (justified or otherwise). If the exit survey is delayed then any comparison between the ex-employee’s past and present role may be the result of them putting on a brave face or just biased because of them having a new and fresh role, and if the reasons they left be ones that require action, then the delay may hamper the problem from being resolved.

Summary

Organization that include exit surveys as part of their employee termination procedures will generally benefit in a number of ways. They will at the very least provide good records that could prove very valuable later, at best they will provide management with information that can help improve an organization spiritually and with the bottom line.

See the following survey for sample exit interview questions.

While most vacations go as planned, something can always go wrong, whether it’s a child’s illness, an accident or a parent’s work-related emergency. It is important to ask yourself ‘what if,’ to consider the alternatives, and to protect your family and your wallet against any number of possible mishaps that can occur,” says Ed Walker, US Travel Insurance Association president. He adds that many companies offer family travel insurance that includes children at no additional cost. Before purchasing a plan, you should check with your existing health insurance carrier, travel booking site and credit card company to see what travel benefits are included in your current plan, if any. Then you’ll know where the gaps in your coverage lie.

Family travel insurance also covers medical emergencies away from home. Most health insurance policies only cover individuals within their network (or the continental United States), so families traveling abroad will be responsible for out-of-pocket medical expenses. However, with a travel insurance health policy, you’re covered up to $1 million in emergency medical coverage. Prescriptions, doctor visits, dental work, ambulatory transport, hospital stays and any other urgent medical care will be paid for by the insurance company.

Another safeguard family travel insurance provides you with is peace of mind over sudden adverse weather and natural disasters. Hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, fires and tornadoes could put a stop to your holiday plans, so it is crucial that you have insurance to cover this if you are traveling to a place that has had some kind of natural disaster in the past. Of course, no place on earth is immune from occasional bouts of bad weather. Trip insurance with delay coverage can set you up in a hotel with meals for the duration of your wait, which can be a real lifesaver!

Even with all these great benefits, some travelers may still be wondering if they should buy family travel insurance or not. As a general rule, if you are not prepared to lose the full amount of your deposit, then you should invest in a trip insurance policy. It also depends upon how much peace of mind is worth to you. Particularly when children are involved, most parents want the most comprehensive coverage they can get. Since plans are so flexible, you will likely find something for under $100 that meets your family’s basic needs.

The aluminum Honeycomb panel is structured of the interlining of honeycomb type. It is a kind of a higher strength external building material, which was just applied in the aeronautic industry in the past. honeycomb sandwich panels can withstand an external load such as severe gust wind, typhoon and artificial load by distributing uniformly the external concentrated load into the internal hexagonal core column. The strength of dynamic aluminum honeycomb panel is as strong as iron material of the identical thickness. Aluminum thin marble panel has the same function as fiberglass thin granite panel. Light weight: 3.70 pounds/sq.

Cores, in comparison to the supplemental structural value they add, are extremely cost effective. With a core material for sandwich panels, less material is needed than with a solid structure. Core material is rock wool with density at 100kg/m3, the rock wool is upright against the surfaces. There are high strength vesicant between rock wools and surfaces. Core in a sandwich panel is comparable to the web of an I-beam, which supports the flanges and allows them to act as a unit. The web of the I-beam and the core of the sandwich panels hold the beam shear stresses. With a sandwich, less material is required than with a solid structure.

Typically, an adhesive is used to bond the face sheets to the core for cleanroom panels. The adhesive must rigidly attach the facings or skins to the core in order for loads to be carried from one facing to the other and to permit the structure to fulfill all the assumptions implied in the acceptance of the normally used stress calculation methods. Typically, two honeycomb core layers 2 and 3 will be provided, separated by a center septum 5. Facing skins 4 and 6 are provided on the front and rear surfaces, respectively, of the sandwich panel 1.

Canon are a one of the big guns in the photographic world and have been for a very long time. They’re well known for their point and shoot digital cameras and perhaps the most successful has been the Powershot range. Motion detection technology is now incorporated in the A590IS model, to set the best overall settings for any movement of the subject.

The bane of all small cameras is red eye. It occurs because the flash is too close to the lens axis on small cameras. Red eye is taken out of flash photos wiith the Canon face detection technology. That happens before they’re written to the memory card. A real boon to anyone who takes a lot of flash pictures of friends and family.

Face detection also includes ’select and track’ which lets you pick one face from a crowd and concentrate on that face, even if the person moves around. For anyone with young children that’s an absolute boon! Exposure and flash are set to keep faces looking natural and with the optical image stablization system camera shake could become a thing of the past. You’re not limited to just a couple of focus modes though. There are plenty of choices for every shooting situation.

There are 3 settings for the image stabilization, which offers great image quality. Even if you try to take a blurry shot, you probably can’t! That’s how good it is. Remember that there is a 4x zoom so the image stablisation system is great for helping you make the most of that zoom range. Handheld long shots will be sharper and clearer because of the IS part of the A590IS.

Unlike the expensive and extremely highly specified Powershot G10, the A590IS is a powershot for the whole family.

With 8 megapixels and a 2.5 inch LCD screen, the Canon A590IS is easy to use even for beginners, especially when it comes to printing. The A590IS features a dedicated Print/Share button for direct printing and downloading. It’s literally pushbutton simple, so even your children can do it. The Canon Powershot A590IS represents a fantastic blend of form and function at a sensible price.

Wheel Center Caps: Not Only Needed But Fashionable

Car manufacturers have a lot of branding options when it amounts to getting cars look like they’re part of a specific manufacturing line; the car’s logo or the company’s logo appears on a lot of places. One of them is on the center of the wheel. This is named a wheel centre cap, and sadly, they tend to be a minor casualty of the numerous bumps and scrapes that cars get into as a normal course of operation.

If you’ve got a car that’s lacking a wheel centre cap, it appears a little bit odd - the wheels are mismatched, the lug nuts may or may not be exposed, and it looks a little bit incomplete. Luckily, there’s a flourishing after market of substitute center caps that can be bought and put on your car. These can extend from original factory substitutions to custom-made wheel caps made around a motif. It is the little points that make a car look complete, and one of the easiest ways to improve the resale value of your car is to put back the wheel caps - it’s something that most people subconsciously respond to as a sign for ‘well cared for vehicle’.

You don’t even have to match your wheel centre cap to your make of automobile, since many wheels have similar mounting points common between different manufacturers. It may be ridiculous to place Toyota center caps on the rims of a GEO, but it’s perfectly achievable. Most mass-produced wheel caps are made from chrome moly alloy, but you are not restricted to only chrome as some are made from extruded aluminum or stamped stainless steel.

Beyond purchasing factory substitutes, there are companies that will sell custom wheel caps - these can be cosmetic in a lot of ways. Some use authorized logos (like the logo of a favorite sports franchise or college campus), others are more artistic, embracing religious or musical ideas. Others can be individualized; it’s feasible to get a center cap done up (usually in ABS plastic) with about any kind of art you desire, say your initials, or a message you believe in. (We’ve spotted SUVs with “Holding back glaciers” on theirs…)

Keep in mind, though, that if you’re purchasing a custom-built set of wheel center caps, you’ll need to know the diameter of your tires, in addition to how the caps mount. Since there’s a great deal of information available on the web about this, it shouldn’t be too much trouble. Simply look up the model of your automobile, obtain the size of your tyres, and determine if they’re a four, five or six nut attachment system, or if instead they’re an applique or screw on wheel center cap system.

Remember that in addition to decoration, wheel center caps also protect the lugnuts that hold your wheel on the car from corrosion; this can be critical when you have to pull a tire. Not much is less pleasant than prying rusty lugnuts off in the a downpour when you have to change a flat - so keep that vital protection function in mind.

Nowadays in the rush and clamor of living we tend to forget the treasured moments on Christmas morning when all the shopping and hunting for just the correct item (at the right price) pays off and our Dad, finally receives a little respect and reward for years of love and kindness. Happily because of the Internet it’s easy to find Christmas Gifts for Dad online.

I remember the smile on his face as he pulled back the final bit of wrapping paper to reveal the present within. My dad looked just like a kid again as he pulled that fishing reel out of the box and held it up for all to see. “Imagine the big fish I’ll be able to catch with this fine reel on my pole,” he said and everyone in the room beamed as we could imagine along with him the wonderful fish and times he would have with his new Christmas gift.

Christmas gifts for dad were always a special thing around our home. My father, like many Dads, was a unassuming man who never asked for anything. More often than not, he’d say “give it to the other guy” or he’d make sure everybody else got theirs before he took any. That’s why Christmas gifts for dad were so special. It was the one time each year when he would accept and really enjoy receiving gifts.

He liked the wrappings, and the pretty bows and would always “ooh and aaahh” as he gingerly tugged at the corner or held the package up to the light. “Just checking”, he would say or when he was feeling mischievous, he’d guess that we’d gotten him a “stuffed cat” or ” a box of pre-digested aardvark fat” with “stony crackers”. We didn’t laugh but smiled and played along with his silly jokes knowing that usually what we’d done for him was likely to be something he’d really wanted.

But gifts for him were relatively easy. He wasn’t fussy and he was always genuinely pleased with whatever he got. Christmas was the time we were able to fulfill the longings and the little hints he’d make over the year about not having “any socks that didn’t have holes” or “I know I could shave at least 6 points off my game if I had a Putter like that”. We just listened, sometimes writing a little note to ourselves or making a quick call when we were alone to confer with another family member about what size or color was the best choice.

It all paid off on Christmas morning. Dad’s beaming face. The sounds of Christmas carols in the background, the fun and excitement as he opened each of his gifts and thanked everyone for choosing exactly the right thing, what he “really” wanted (even if it didn’t quite fit and he would have to return it to get the right size), we all laughed and wished each other a very Merry Christmas.

Christmas is a joyous time and being able to share gifts and time with loved ones and your Dad always makes it the best Christmas every year.

Free Pr

There are many tips for taking great pictures with digital cameras. Many individuals believe that taking pictures digitally requires no specific skill or prior knowledge, but the truth is that digital based cameras integrate a high level of features that makes it challenging to capture pictures in the way that you want, or the way that you expect. By knowing a few tricks, you can capture beauty in every shot that you take. The following represents 3 tips that you can use in order to truly capture the essence of every photo that you take:

1. Many digital cameras come with preset balance settings such as “Beach”, “Sunny”, “Cloudy”, “Night”, and similar settings. Prior to taking pictures, it is important to learn how to access these balance settings and to experiment with each one. This way, when you indulge in taking pictures you will know which balance setting will compliment the photograph and can set the camera to that setting.

2. Do you enjoy taking a lot of pictures of the great outdoors or of people and places outside? If so, then it is likely that you will benefit from what is referred to as a “Polarizer”. This is a special filter that is often used when photographing landscapes and natural scenes. It works to reduce the amount of glare that is displayed in the image and even eliminates reflections that are not intended to be caught. If you are unable to acquire a polarizer filter, simply place a lens from a pair of old sunglasses over the viewing area of the camera - this will provide the same effect.

3. The next step to taking great pictures with digital cameras is to research the zoom mode on your camera. This is also often referred to as “Macro Mode”. This feature will permit you to take pictures of items that are typically hard to capture in close up. For example, you may capture a line of ants, or a flower in your garden.

It is easy to take great pictures with digital cameras. It may seem a bit overwhelming, but it is important to learn all that you can regarding the features of your camera. Once you know what can be done with it, you may incorporate these top 3 tips to capture some fascinating shots!

The author of this post is a big fan of Tip Drop, a great place to post tips to help out other users.

One of the most basic fundamentals of any kids bday party is the time spent playing party games. If well thought out, they can make fond memories for the bday child and guests equally; if not, they can be a recipe for disaster. Don’t fret! A little planning and common sense are all that’s needed to make your games for kids bday party a massive success!

Follow these 6 basic steps to successful kids party games:

1. Assemble at least six to eight suitable party games then adjust down according to your party timetable. Remember it’s better to have more games planned than not enough.

2. Run through each game to iron out any hiccups that might happen. The bday boy will be only too happy to help with this and get a preview of the party schedule in the process!

3. Ask other adults to act as aids so things will run smoothly and hassle free. You can promise to return the favour when their child’s birthday rolls around!

4. Ages and abilities of your party guests should be considered when choosing your party activities. A 5YO won’t be capable of playing charades, but he can probably pop a balloon with his bum to get the prize inside!

5. Timing is everything! Start your childs bday party with an easy opening game while guests are arriving and end with a tame game to help kids wind down from all the party excitement.

6. Gather resources you’ll need for each party game early and place them in the kid safe location. Pin the Tail on the Donkey just isn’t the same when you’ve forgotten the blindfold!

For games that require guests to bring personal items with them you should include a small note on the kids birthday party invitations asking the youngster to bring it. For example you could have a game where the kids have to identify each other from a baby photo. While this game is most popular as a fun baby shower game, it can also be included in the games for kids birthday party as well.

Whenever our family travels, I have one souvenir for which I always look for. That souvenir is a tote bag. I have collected tote carryalls from Disneyland and Mexico. I have them from our weekend trips to the coast as well as cruise ships. This one souvenir is always used. No one would think of traveling without one or more tote bags.

When I travel, I always find that I need at least one more handbag to return home with than I brought with me. Often a tote case is the perfect size to grab those last minute items from the hotel for the return trip home. I always tuck one flat in the luggage, just in case I do not find a new one that I want to purchase for the trip. They are the perfect size for an additional carryon handbag for the plane. Apart from that, they are no where near as costly as d a designer handbag.

Most carryalls are about a foot wide and one and one-half feet tall. While they are made of many materials, canvas seems to be the most durable and it can be thrown into the washing machine if the case gets dirty.

Teachers can use totes to transport papers home to grade. Items needed for a demonstration can be gathered in a tote handbag so that you know you have everything needed before you leave home for the day.

Crafters will find that totes work well for keeping items needed for a craft in one place. There is no need to search your craft room for supplies when everything is contained in one tote case. They are a great size for three skeins of yarn and a pattern book. I would never travel without one of my trusted tote bags.

Tote handbags are also great re-usable shopping bags. They are much more interesting than those cheap bags sold by stores. They are also more durable. Each time you shop, you can be reminded of a fun family trip as you bring home the your supplies.

In the THT, components are mounted on a contract manufacturing services by inserting component leads through holes in the board. They are then soldering the leads in place on the opposite side of the board. ECM companies do not brand their components in any way at all; instead the components remain un-branded and gain the name of the OEM Company that offered out the contract. In the SMT, components are added to a PCB by soldering component leads or terminals to the top surface of the board.

IBM started a trend by outsourcing certain jobs, they classed this as outside core competence and this in turn sparked a trend of contracts being outsourced which gave ECM companies a method of increasing economies of scale. In time the market power shifted from OEMs to larger ECMs, this was largely in part too many OEMs selling off all of their old production units to Electronic Contract Manufacturers. They can get the bare printed circuit boards required along with all of the other necessary parts. Specialists will not only assemble the PCB but will also conduct any necessary testing to make sure everything is working correctly. Tin-Lead soldering has been the basis for interconnections since the beginning of the use of led circuit board, and all associated materials and processes have been developed with the use of that material in mind.

If you already have all of the components necessary to create your PCB, a PCB manufacturing specialist can simply put them together and create the finished product. If your next project demands a custom-created circuit board fabrication (PCB), you may not be in a position to create one on-site due to facility, equipment or staffing limitations. Now that there are circuits on each side of the board, the components are connected via a series of strategically placed through-holes which allow for an unimpeded electrical connection between the two.