27 December 2011

Anti-money laundering

Well laid out and concisely written information - useful for finding ways of complying without 'using a sledgehammer tom crack a nut'.

The Law Society - Anti-money laundering: "the level of money laundering and terrorist financing risks are low"

21 December 2011

Anti-bribery training

Completed an on-line training session to keep me up to date on anti-bribery training.

Applying it to my situation I was initially concerned to think that I might be responsible ensuring that recruitment agents finding me new roles understand and follow the rules.  After further thought, it seems that the agents are finding applicants for a vacancy rather than finding vacancies for an applicant,  On that basis, the client is responsible for ensuring the agent follows the rules.

I should point out that I and Smart Accounts Sussex Ltd, only work with reputable agents and would (as required by the law) report any suspicions of bribery.

The worldwide application of this law is good from an ethical stand point but does mean that British companies may struggle to compete in countries where bribery is an endemic part of the culture.  It could though over time be very good for the brand of UK plc?

05 December 2011

04 December 2011

QR Codes

Want a way to give someone a web address without them having to type it into their phone?  Try a QR code that they can scan with their smart phone.

The applications are endless:

  • You could stick a QR code to a printer that will take people to the manual
  • You could put a QR code on your business card to take people to your Linked In profile
  • All adverts could have QR codes to give people more information
  • You could have a QR code by every station/bus stop giving a link to live departure information

The best thing is you can create them yourself for free.

Here's an example of a QR code; if you scan it with a bar code scanner on your smartphone, it will take you to a sailing club web site.

And here are ways of making them:

Top 10 Free Online QR Code Generators

Beginner's guide to LinkedIn

Here's a handy starter's guide to Linked In.  If you are not using Linked In to keep your business contacts you are missing out.  It's amazing how often you find something that you would like to pass on to or ask a former colleague if you had their up to date details.  With Linked In you have that and the opportunity to perhaps to contact the contacts of your contacts.

Mashable - The Social Media Guide

03 December 2011

Which browser is best? Chrome or Internet Explorer?

I have never seen Chrome (or FireFox) in use in the workplace, where many people use the internet the most.  Now that Internet Explorer is used by less than 50% it makes you wonder whether most people use IE at work and something else at home.
I use Chrome at home for the speed.  The predictive searching saves seconds here and seconds there which all add up.  It's surprising how resistant to technological change many organisations are.
Google Chrome takes second place from Firefox - Telegraph

02 December 2011

KPI Excel/Powerpoint training

A day of handover training to learn how EDF creates 'Monthly Monitor', a massive pack of kpi graphs presented in Powerpoint.