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BusinessLink, Wednesday, October 22, 2008 9 Meeting-in-a Box: New SupervisorToolbox gives small business ownersan easy way to enhance their hiring and team skills. Briefings Publishing Group includes eight DVDs in the toolbox, including: How to SHINE in Difficult Management Situations Conquer the Chaos: The Best Ideas in Time Management Interviewing Techniques That Help You Hire the Best How to Communicate Clearly and Effectively with Employees Training to Win: Helping Employees Meet or Surpass Their Goals Resolving Conflicts: Strategies for a Winning Team Mastering Memos Becoming a Coach: Bringing Out the Best in Employees The DVDs are well developed, albeit staged. They are informative and educational, but admittedly far from entertaining. For example, in Resolving Conflicts, the host clearly makes his desired points by discussing the situation, identifying the problem behaviours, and offering simple techniques to improve the situation. The acted scenes reinforce the points made. The DVD acknowledges that even though you have the tools to deal with a Reluctant Roger, Coldwater Carl or a Dominating Dan, it takes time for people to change and occasionally they wont. A manual and a CDROM are included that offer tips, quizzes and questions to help you get the most from the material. The additional mate- rial is only marginally useful unless you plan to offer your own training course for your employees/ team. Most peo- ple will likely just focus on the videos. The videos benefit visual learners and make learning effortless. Each disc is between 15 and 30 minutes, so if you watch just one, you will still take away some ideas you can use immediately. For instance, if you watch the Interviewing Techniques DVD prior to an interview, youll take away a few ideas to help you prepare. Youll learn to identify essential job functions, create a variety of probing questions, and objectively rank candidates using a job candidate evaluation form. The Meetings-in-a-Box, New Supervisory Toolbox is packed with practical, easy-to-learn information for small business owners or new supervisors willing to invest a half-hour to watch a DVD or two. Meeting-in-aBox: New Supervisor Toolbox Briefings Publishing Group ISBN: 0872283704 Book Review Courtesy of Halton Hills Library Lora Greene, Agent 211 Guelph Street, Unit 6 Georgetown, ON L7G 5B5 Bus: 905-873-1615 lora@loragreene.ca State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company Aurora, Ontario statefarm.ca P050446CN 11/05 Car + Home = BIG SAVINGS See me for Car and Home Insurance Savings Benefit Facts Many group benefit plans provideemergency health insurance fortravelers. But what if the traveler is your dependent child, whose destination is a post-secondary school outside your home province? With Chambers Plan, dependent students are covered. To qualify, your firm must include one of the Chamber Plans health benefits in its group benefit plan. And the employee has to be insured for family, rather than individual, benefits. This extends coverage to a spouse and dependent children. Under the Chambers Plan, family benefits include all dependent children up to age 21. Over that age, dependents whom are full time students are covered up to age 25 (age 26 in Quebec). When an eligible dependent is at school outside the employees normal province of residence, the Chambers Plan can provide emergency medical benefits. An emergency would include an accident or an acute illness, but not routine medical services. Regular check-ups and predictable appointments must still be scheduled at home! The plan will cover many expenses arising from an emergency, if the student contacts the out-of-country coordinator at the outset. The experts at the emergency centre will help the student find appropriate treatment and will work with the students medical practitioners to consider repatriating the student as quickly as possible. Benefits also include help with travel arrangements, a bedside visit by a parent, and return of vehicle services. However an emergency unfolds, the Chambers Plans emergency medical benefits provide a safety net for students enrolled outside their home territory. If you have a family member planning on studying abroad, be sure you send them off to school with details of this coverage. Include your firm number, your employee certificate number, and the toll-free contact information for the emergency help line. Once youve done your homework, your child can concentrate on school confident that they know what to do, even in a medical emergency far from home. Benefit Facts presents information to help you manage your employee benefits. Brought to you by your Chambers of Commerce Group Insurance Plan agent, rep- resenting Canada's premier group plan for small and medium sized business. 1-800-665-3365 www.chambers.ca At work for small business since 1970 DO YOU HAVE MEDICAL EMERGENCY COVERAGE FOR DEPENDENTS AT SCHOOL?