Roofing and Gutters – Some Home Improvement Tips and Process

Roofing is the process in which one deals with the construction of footing and weather shelter to protect the precious property. In this process, a weatherproof skin is organized over the property in order to save the property from degeneration. The materials used for the roofing process vary in various terms. It varies with cost range and also with the region in which the roofing is to be done. The basic components of this process of roofing are the rafters, tie beams and the joints. The tie beams are also known as the ceiling joints. With the help of these basic components, the roof is established. The roof is indirectly given support from the main building and the basic components of roofing serve the purpose of weight sharing. Weight sharing, in simple terms, means that the weight of roof is distributed all over the existing supports, so as to keep the existing structure out of overloading. There are various roofing companies all over the world that specialize in various roofing techniques. The roofing companies in Cumming specialize in best quality roofing and associated system provision.
Home improvement is the process in which the existing property is modified with latest techniques keeping various goals in minds. Usually people go for home improvement services for various reasons like comfort generation, maintenance, repair, space addition, energy conservation and safety modes. In comfort generation, facilities like air conditioning, heat proofing, heating, ventilating etc are included. Soundproofing of rooms and waterproofing of basements are much in demand. Most of these services are executed for indoor comfort and especially for bedrooms. Maintenance of property is another major need of people. Regular plumbing and electrical system maintenance is always in need. The roofing and its maintenance is another major process. With the green living phenomena coming up each day, it has been an important issue among alert citizen to create the energy efficient houses. This is the main reason of people going for energy saving device utilization. This is one of the leading vertices of home improvement in Cobb.
Today, there is a number of remodeling companies in Cumming that deal with all kind of remodeling and renovation services. Remodeling is a technique in which the various indoor and outdoor structures are redesigned. There are a number of professional companies that provide you with various home remodeling services dealing with land planning, finishing, structural repairs and space modifying. There are major two types of remodeling. One of it is commercial and the other is residential. On can go for the self made remodeling for the residential kind but when it comes to the commercial remodeling, it is much recommended to go for the professional service providing company. The major reason behind it is that the commercial remodeling directly gives you a face value that is much important for the growth of your business. Whatever the scenario is, the vital thing to note is that today it is much needed to go for home improvement and remodeling for a better face value or comfort.

Essential Cosmetics For Women

Cosmetics are designed for beautifying the body, especially face. Women all across the world commonly use cosmetics. Women usually have them in their house and accompany them along while traveling to places for retaining the look of their facial skin including that of eyes, eyebrows, lips and cheeks.
As always, the beauty industry is booming and in recent times, numerous makers of cosmetic products offer a variety of cosmetics. Women usually wear makeup mostly to be a center of attraction at parties, get-together and events and to show off your beauty.
No matter whatever your purpose is, having beauty cosmetics at home and in your handbag is a wise idea indeed. Of late, a number of cosmetic product makers have made it possible for women and girls to order cosmetic products directly from the comfort of their homes via the Internet. Thus, you may look forward to buying beauty items online.
Women are choosy, when it comes to stocking lipstick in their makeup box. They are very keen while selecting lipstick, as they feel that this beauty item has to go along well with their lips and perfectly match the texture and color of their skin. While some like the dark and bright colored lipsticks, some go for light and natural colors.
Lips are primary attention grabbers while interaction. Whether you communicate with one person or offer lip service addressing a larger audience, onlookers mainly concentrate on your lips and as such, having a lipstick that steals the show and makes you stand out of the crowd is something you need to stock for sure in your makeup kit.
While shopping for lipsticks, women may pick them in neutral shades, specifically in bronze handy or pink, along with one red lipstick. Moreover, for eye care, you might definitely want to have mascara, which is used to darken and thicken the eyelashes. Mascara livens up your entire look in just a few minutes.
Mascara for eye makeup not only benefits those aging women, who have big eyes, but also suits girls those in their teenage years, no matter of what dimension their eyes are. Your eyes appear ravishing and out of the world for those looking at you. Women and girls may consider having mascara that is water-based offering a well-defined and clear finish to the eyes.
Next, among cosmetics, you may want a concealer to complete your makeup foundation. It is important to have if you do not possess an impeccable complexion. Women use it for hiding skin blemishes and ugly pimples. It offers you radiant clear complexion. It is available as liquid and however, a lipstick version of it shows better results.
Women looking forward to stocking some beauty cosmetics may even consider having bronzer as one more addition in their routine makeup kit. It transforms your complexion and lends it a unique look. Make sure to choose a bronzer that does not stain garments.
Overall, if you want to control the aging of your skin all on your own, having some essential cosmetics handy is never a bad idea.

The Advantage Of Using Wooden Flooring Services

For floor surfaces, real wood has several restrictions as a result of the natural attributes of solid timber. Expansion and shrinkage of wood from dampness and temperature variation sets quite a few sizing constraints on timber flooring. Usually, 5 inch broad and 34 inch thick panels would be the biggest which can be constructed from hardwood without diminishing the construction of the flooring surfaces, although some companies make broader planks utilizing exclusive milling procedures. There is certainly no common measurement that will work well in each and every setting. For modern design methods, the most important attribute of wooden floors is they are usually not advised to get installed directly above cement. Wooden flooring services will be able to give advice on this.
Hardwood floors can come in a wide array of sizes and designs, with every plank created from real timber and machined from one section of solid hardwood. Hardwood floors have been initially utilized for structural requirements, getting fitted vertically with respect to the timber support beams of any building. Contemporary building methods now seldom use solid wood building supports, and timber floors are utilized mainly for their looks.
It is not easy to compare and contrast in generalities wooden floors to manufactured wood flooring, because there is an array of manufactured wood floor qualities. Manufactured flooring surfaces generally are pre finished more frequently than real wood floors, and in most cases are given with bevelled edges, impacting the look. There are various restrictions on hardwood giving it an increasingly reduced range of use. Hardwood must not be mounted immediately above a concrete floor, ought not to be put in basements, and it should never be utilized with under floor heating. Hard wood is additionally commonly restricted in plank breadth and it is much more vulnerable to spacing, crowning, and cupping, with increased plank size.
Manufactured timber flooring has several advantages over real hardwood, over and above dimensional stability and widespread use. Trademarked installation techniques like Fiboloc, provide speedier set up and uncomplicated replacement of planks. Engineered wood also enables a ‘floating’ assembly’ (in which the panels will not be attached to the floorboards beneath or to one another), additionally improving simplicity of restoration and decreasing set up time. Generally manufactured wooden sections are lengthier and broader than solid panels. The surface areas of solid and manufactured floors share the same qualities of hardness and sturdiness. Contacting wooden flooring services will provide all the details of the best floor choices.

Details on Auto Transport Quotes

Working With Different Vehicle Transportation Services
Often, when you’re moving, you’ll need the help of vehicle transport services. You’ll find that vehicle transport companies can be a real help to people who can’t figure out how to get multiple vehicles to their new home. You actually have a pretty good choice of ways to achieve cross country auto transport.
First, Ask for Quotes
The first step to ship a car is to get vehicle shipping quotes. When you do this, you should get vehicle shipping quotes from at least 3 different car companies. This gives you the power of comparison shopping between the vehicle companies. This will help you get the best deal for each cross country car transport you consider.
Check Delivery
The car transport company can’t issue a guaranteed delivery date, according to federal law. In fact, if you get a one week window for delivery, especially with cross country auto transport, you’re lucky.
Seeking Discounts
If you will ask the vehicle transport services which days are best for shipping a car, you may be surprised by the discount you can receive. The car transport quotes consider only the amount of time needed to complete cross country auto transport, rather than the easiest days for them to move your vehicle. Many times, you’ll find that car transport companies like to move cars on a certain day for local vehicle moving, or a certain time during the week with cross country auto transport. This is because the vehicle transportation companies know the local traffic patterns, and if given the opportunity to plan around predictable heavy traffic, you may get a discount. For instance, the car transport companies know if there is a tourist attraction along the route, and may be able to plan to go through that area on a weekday rather than a weekend, saving hours of transit time.
You can also spare your budget with cross country auto transport if you don’t use your car for cargo shipping. Transport services must consider the weight of your vehicle when planning the cross country car transport, and if you overload it with household belongings, it may make the load too heavy. At that point, the car transport companies charge more for hauling your car. If you’re using a moving van, anyway, see if you can get all of your belongings on the van, instead of paying the vehicle transport services to move items that could go on the van.
Packing Your Car
Should you choose to pack your car, anyway, the transport companies will have a list with details of items prohibited from shipment in your car. The list is a long one, and many of the items the vehicle transport companies refuse to transport seem obvious to some people. You can’t, for instance, ship guns and ammunition, or explosives in your car if it is on a cross country car transport.
The troubling thing about this list is, that car transport companies wouldn’t have to make those rules unless someone had tried to ship those very items.
Following the basic guidelines for transport will make your life a lot easier. A person’s vehicle is important to them and should only be trusted to a competent auto transport companies. After doing the homework to find solid vehicle transport companies your car or truck will be transported within your state of with cross country auto transport.

Fashion Styles That Make You Look Taller – Knowing How to Dress to Make You Look Taller

You are one of many people who really want to look taller. You have tried almost everything to make you look taller, but they’re all failed. Well, if you are described by these sentences, just don’t give up your hope. Many people just don’t know that there are some fashion styles that can make you look shorter. So, this article will show you the way to look taller, and trust me, it’s easier than you think.
Before talking about the fashion styles as mentioned, there is something that you should learn about your bone health. Do you ever know that your bone health has a big effect to your height? Well, it has. So, frequently exercise is important, along with having a good food. Avoid doing this can make you shorter than before, really.
Well, you have the right to think that this is impossible. Since when we are first born, we have only gristle, not solid bone. But, as we are growing, this gristle fortify to form solid bones. And when we are teenager, the end of our long bones are plated by the growth of gristle. This helps our growth spurts.
However, if you don’t have any good foods during these important years, you actually can suppress your growth. So, which is the food that I am talking about? It’s easy. Just try to eat foods rich in calcium, amino acids, calories, and protein. This is to make sure that you can grow as much as you can. Especially, when you are teenager because this period has a lot of changes that is important.
When you get older, your bones get weaker because of the lack of exercise and having poor foods. Besides, your bones start to shrink because of the low level of calcium. So, having a good food will keep your bones strong and healthy. Don’t forget to regularly exercise also. This can be helpful too.
Now, it comes to the fashion as previously stated. If you want to look taller, try to wear darker or solid colors clothing, since it covers your waistline. Do not wear white shirt with black pants because this will emphasize your middle. In addition, wearing vertically striped clothing can help looking taller. For women, if you want your legs to look longer, try wearing vertical striped stockings.

Why You May NOT Want to Use Your Health Insurance for Counseling

Why not use your health insurance for counseling? Isn’t that what it is for?
Perhaps.
But using health insurance for mental health services is a little different than other medical issues. Sometimes mental health issues are not covered by your health insurance. Once you use your health insurance for mental health, you will have a mental health diagnosis on file – a mental health disorder/mental health illness must be on the insurance claim in order for insurance to pay for treatment. This will be in your permanent medical record.
Of course you want to consider using your health insurance for counseling, but there are some good reasons for you to consider why you may not want to use your insurance for counseling services.
Why doesn’t my counselor accept my health insurance?
Many counselors choose not to accept health insurance for very good reasons. They want to focus 100% of their time in treating you. If they accept health insurance, there is a lot of extra work involved in accepting insurance, in addition to agreeing to work for a discounted fee. The counselor may spend hours on the phone getting benefit information, authorizations, or following up on claims payments. The counselor has to wait a month for payment from the insurance company. The counselor has to file progress reports with the insurance company. The counselor is required to submit treatment reports and other details about your medical history with the insurance company.
It’s not that counselors don’t like insurance companies, or don’t want you to use your insurance (we have health insurance too!), but many counselors prefer to focus 100% of their time and energy in helping clients, rather than doing paperwork for insurance companies.
But this isn’t the only reason counselors may not be in network with your health insurance company.
The other reasons are more compelling, and you need to consider them BEFORE you decide to use your health insurance.
Many counselors prefer not to work in network with health insurance companies so that they can better protect your confidentiality. Any information (claims, reports, or treatment plans) filed with health insurance leaves the protection of their office and their locked files and your personal, private, emotional information is outside of your counselor’s office. In order for any insurance company to reimburse or pay for counseling (both in network and out of network), you must be considered “ill”. You must be diagnosed with a mental health illness or disorder. If you are not ill enough to warrant a diagnosis, then insurance will not pay for counseling services. If you do qualify for a mental health diagnosis, your illness will be listed in your permanent medical record. Many counselors don’t like this “medical model” of declaring someone ill, so they choose not to accept insurance because they want to focus on their client’s strengths, and not label them as mentally ill.
Do you want to be considered mentally ill? If you have a mental health diagnosis already, because you have been to counseling or psychiatric appointments in the past, find out what your diagnosis on file is. If you already have a mental health diagnosis, this may not be a concern to you, but if not, you may not want this in your medical record.
Counselors also do not like releasing information to others to protect your confidentiality. Once a claim is submitted to the insurance company, who knows how many people take a look at it and rubber stamp it while it travels through the system? If insurance pays for any counseling sessions (in network or out of network), then the insurance company has the right to audit your complete file. They can request copies of counseling notes, assessments, and other personal emotional information to determine if you really are “sick enough” to warrant their payment. They can deny services to you if they think you aren’t sick enough or if they think your counseling is not “medically necessary”.
Additionally, there are many counseling issues that are not even covered by insurance at all. Stress management and anger management are usually not covered. Marriage counseling is usually not covered. Certain medical conditions/mental health conditions may be excluded (such as attention deficit disorder or adjustment disorder). Even if your illness or disorder is covered by your insurance plan, they may limit the number of visits they will cover (sometimes only 20 per year), and they will set a maximum amount they will pay per calendar year or in your lifetime.
Additionally, counselors prefer not to have someone in the insurance company telling them how to treat their clients. Insurance companies can decide what type of counseling is covered, what diagnoses are allowed, and how many times the client needs to come before they are cured. Many counselors prefer to work directly with clients to serve their needs, without interference from an insurance company.
Using your health insurance for counseling services can also affect your security clearance, life insurance rate, employment, or future health insurance coverage.
For the above reasons, I recommend that you be informed about using health insurance for counseling. You may choose to file anyway, but be an informed consumer.

  • Be an informed consumer.
  • Know your mental health diagnosis.
  • Talk to your counselor about the diagnosis.
  • Ask your counselor about your treatment reports.
  • Decide if you have, or want to have, a psychiatric illness.

If you have clinical, severe depression, anxiety, or other issues, then you probably already have a diagnosis.
But if you are stressed, having relationship problems, or trying to figure out your purpose in life, your symptoms may be minor, and you may not want to have a mental health diagnosis in your records.
Once an insurance claim is submitted to your health insurance company, your diagnosis becomes part of your permanent medical record, and can affect future life insurance, preexisting conditions, or the cost of private health insurance.

Classic Home Furniture Styles

Classic home furniture styles endure the test of time. While trends come and go, the materials, construction, lines and proportion of classic furniture ensures that the styles will retain their popularity. Decorating a home in classic designs gives homes a look of permanency, history, and tradition. Here are several house furniture styles that have become classics in interior design.
English Style
The English style is a collector’s dream-come-true. The look features armoires, curio, and china cabinets to showcase collections, frequently those of glass or china. Wood is the prominent material in homes decorated in the English style, from paneled walls and wood flooring, to wood living room furniture and wood-framed bed canopies. The English style also features upholstered furniture in fine fabrics, often with plaid, paisley, striped or floral patterns.
The color palette for the English style includes strong, saturated colors like crimson, forest green and navy blue, as well as a heavy use of gold and golden yellow. Dark wood is favored over lighter woods like pine and oak, and the strong color palette helps balance the deep, rich tones of mahogany, walnut, and cherry. The scale of a large English manor is reflected in a modern use of the style with an oversized mirror, chandelier or floor-to-ceiling window treatment.
French Provincial
French Provincial furniture is influenced by the ornate style of the French Court of the 1600s and 1700s, as interpreted by the period’s less affluent merchants and peasants. The scale, lines and proportions of the home furniture echo those of Louis XIV and Louis XV, but with a decidedly country feel. French Provincial furniture has a handcrafted look, with a heavy use of cane and wicker. White painted furniture also suits the French Provincial style. Strong blues and yellows are popular, as are more muted shades like terra cotta and rose. Home furniture stores may refer to this style as French Country.
Romantic Style
While the Romantic style does not encompass a particular historical period, due to its enduring charm and appeal, the look has achieved classic status over time. A predominant use of fabric dominates home furnishings in the Romantic style. Textiles can include rich, textured fabrics like brocade, but most often feature lighter fabrics, such as silk, lace and chintz. Painted furniture with smooth, arcing lines are popular choices for the style, as is furniture upholstered in floral patterned fabrics. Pastels comprise the Romantic style’s color palette, with white used as a unifying element.
Both online home furnishing retailers and home furniture stores offer a variety of classic furniture designs. When shopping for classic home furniture styles, identify the style by its characteristic use of material, textile and line, to ensure that the furniture you buy best reflects the style’s signature look.

About Oxy Fuel Cutting Machines

Just like welding, cutting is also an important process in heavy duty industries. Cutting is an important procedure as the accuracy and the clean finish is important for any process. When a metal piece of solid thinness is cut, the cutter must make sure that the machine used to cut is as efficient to make a clear cut without any chip or cracked finish. Same ways metals sheets of thinner thickness must be handled carefully. Therefore the importance of a proper cutting machine is equally significant just like a welding machine. Among the other cutting machines, Oxy Fuel Cutting Machines are one of the latest, and let’s see about them in brief in this article.
Oxy fuel cutting is one such procedure which makes use of pure oxygen for the purpose of cutting metal sheets like that of steel. The point behind the procedure is the oxygen that reacts with the steel; this is where the reaction happens which gives rise to iron oxide. The combustion process happens with the help of fire, which actually heats the steel to a high temperature, which is calculated to be just about 1800 F. The 1800 F is the temperature at which the pure form of oxygen used in the Oxy Fuel Cutting machine is made to flow in a steady stream and this reaction is the one that creates the perfect cut.
Oxy Fuel Machines are nothing but metal cutting machines that work according to the above procedure by having oxygen as their fuel. The important point to note down in this method is that. These machines take help of the high-velocity, high-temperature that the oxygen gas gives when heated. The cut is actually made because of the ionized oxygen gas which falls out of the nozzle of the welding machine at a very high velocity. The velocity of the ionized gas is the force that is behind the necessary heat that is provided to melt down the metal sheet. The perfection of any cuts made out of this Oxy Fuel Machines is too high and is the main reasons why technicians prefer these machines for cutting steel metal sheets.
It is not that we have just one single model of Oxy Fuel Machines in the market. There are several kinds of Oxy Fuel flame Machines that are available in the market these days and each has their own specialties. Portable cutting equipment or plasma cutters, shape cutting machines and profile cutting machines are some of the Oxy Fuel flame Machine. If you were thinking that the Oxy Fuel flame Machine are fit only for cutting steel, then you are wrong, you can even cute electrically conductive metals such as aluminium and brass with the help of these machines. As the perfection of these oxy fuel machines is higher they are widely available as shape cutting machines. These shape cutter machines are in general used for the purpose of cutting metals into varied shapes as we desire like circular, flanges, squares, rectangles, straight line and much more.

Building Your Own Talent Pool: 8 Challenges and 8 Possible Solutions for the Banking Industry

Banks manage financial assets and the success of that management is dependent on the capabilities of the persons who manage those assets.
Therefore growth in this sector is dependent on effective management and leadership capacity and dominance in retail services is directly related to the expansion of the branch network through which the bank’s retail products and services are distributed.
The central departments or bank headquarters form the nerve center of the bank by providing direction, developing new products and services, handling high value investments, treasury management and credit activities. However, it is through the network of bank branches that the retail services developed by the central marketing function are distributed. The network of branches acts like the five senses as well as the arms and the legs of the body by sending critical information from the field to the central departments and executing the corporate strategy by successfully linking the needs of the public to the products and services developed to meet those needs.
The quality and the quantity of that exchange between the branches and the central departments have a great impact on the ability of the bank to leverage its products and services in the market. Simply put, the branches are the points of sales for all the retail products and services developed by the bank. Even though sophisticated, high-value products and services are facilitated by the central departments concerned, the ‘retail services’ are the ‘Cash Cow’. A bank’s ability to expand its branch network through which its products and services are distributed is therefore critical to its growth and profitability.
The question arises – “What is that growth dependent on? And the answer is – “It is dependent on the human capabilities available in the form of individuals who have the skills, the knowledge, the experience and the personality to successfully manage newly established branches. Herein lies one of the major challenges faced by many banks: Their need and their readiness to open new branches both in the home country and abroad is frustrated by the scarcity of individuals who are genuinely capable of successfully launching a new branch or ‘turning-around’ an existing branch.
The purpose of this article is to explore some of the reasons for the scarcity and to suggest some things that can be done about it the in the short term and in the longer term.
8 Challenges and 8 Possible Solutions
Challenge 1: There is no training and development program designed specifically to prepare individuals to move from ‘competent employee’ to ‘competent branch manager’ with the requisite leadership skills.
Solution: Identify individuals with leadership potential as early as possible in their careers through various activities and through multiple sources and methods. For example, if ‘leadership’ is identified as one of the core competencies of the bank and it is fully integrated into the appraisal system at all levels, there will be regular feedback through the performance appraisal system. This feedback can be further validated through regular Assessment and Development Centers designed to identify talent in various areas. Once identified, a clear career path should be presented to these individuals and a systematic development program applied to ensure that we not only identify capable individuals but that we retain them. A clear career path with well defined requirements for moving from one position to another contributes very strongly towards the retention of ambitions and talented leaders. When linked to ‘Succession Planning’ there will also be a timeline that ensures adequate preparation for successors and minimal disruption of work due to sudden departures.
Challenge 2: The competition for talented individuals who have the potential to lead is very high because the demand far exceeds the supply. This increases cost because salary levels have to be raised in order to attract and hopefully keep the best talent.
Solution: Recognize that intelligent and talented individuals are looking for something more than just the salary. So make your bank one that attracts the kind of people you want. Intelligent individuals with leadership capability are looking for a credible organization where they can grow and where they are given the opportunity to contribute as well as enjoy the fun and challenge of working in that place.
Challenge 3: The type of person who is good at managing the branch operations and attending to all the administrative details may not necessarily be good at leading and managing a bank branch from a commercial perspective. Therefore the assumption that it is possible to promote the operations manager to branch manager and then bring someone up from the ranks to handle operations is simply not valid.
Solution: Recognize that ‘Work Preferences’ are an even more powerful predictor of job satisfaction and productivity than academic qualifications and experience. ‘Work Preferences’ must be measured, understood and built into career management and staff retention programs. A person who is good at one thing may not necessarily be good at another. The ‘Work Preferences’ that make a good operations manager are the exact opposite of those that make a good branch manager. When Operations Manager and Branch Manager positions are filled with individuals whose ‘Work Preferences’ are congruent with their skills and their roles it leads to complementary. This increases to a high degree the potential for a great performance. Therefore ‘Work Preferences’ should be factored into the recruitment, selection, career planning, talent management, and succession planning and retention programs of the bank.
Challenge 4: The ‘Critical Success Factors’ for the position of Branch Managers need to be redefined so they reflect current market realities. The branch manager certainly needs to have a solid foundation in the banking know-how that brings the highest revenues to the bank – Credit and Trade Finance. There are far too many branch managers that are not really able to discuss business affairs with their more sophisticated clients in a satisfactory manner. Moreover, many are also unable to adequately coach their staff on the effective preparation of credit files or trade finance documentation and credit.
Solution: Develop a rigorous testing and evaluation system in these areas and use it as a pre-requisite for promotion to the position of Branch Manager. In other words, if candidates for promotion to the position of Branch Manager are unable to pass a knowledge test and a practical skills assessment, they will have to develop their abilities and pass the tests and assessments in these areas before their promotion can go through.
This will contribute to building a sense of professionalism in the sector.
Challenge 5: There is little or no emphasis on the essential ‘soft skills’ for branch management. This includes the effective management of people – inspiring, motivating, developing and challenging them to get the best results. The soft skills are underrated in comparison with banking techniques, whereas they are equally important. Here there are a wide range of skills that are vital to success; the least of which are customer relationship management that goes beyond dinners and lunches or funerals and weddings. Business Ethics is another critical area that must receive attention in light of the recent global economic crisis.
Solution: Develop a set of corporate values and a clear set of interpersonal and managerial competencies that are ingrained into the psyche of every employee through an ongoing coaching and mentoring program. Train and develop your managers so that coaching and mentoring is part and parcel of their daily routine. As they communicate these values and build the competencies into daily behavior, they will contribute to the creation of a new corporate culture where those who do not fit will move out and those who do will move up. This will increase the supply of better qualified candidates for leadership and managerial positions.
Challenge 6: Many think of the Branch Manager as a Public Relations Officer or a Liaison Officer facilitating the exchange of documents and information between the central departments and the branch. In fact many banks have designed the job of the branch manager so that he or she is no more than an informed ‘button clicker’ authorizing transactions through the bank’s operating system. Certainly the ‘control’ function is a very important one and one that cannot be relinquished. However, it has to be considered in light of the role of the branch manager and the optimal utilization of capacity.
Solution: Answer the question of what exactly is the role of the branch manager and what is the most valuable contribution that such a manager should be making. Unless this question is discussed in depth and in light of the future strategy of the bank the role of the branch manager will remain vague and will by necessity be defined by the personal preferences of the individual occupying that position. Those who like dealing with people will become Public Relations Officers, those who like dealing with things and with numbers will become Controllers, those who like ‘challenges’ will become Demanding Bosses. Each role has its merit but the bank needs to decide which role it wants to emphasize and to select its managers accordingly. The important thing is that the decision must be aligned with the banks corporate strategy for growth and expansion.
Challenge 7: From the branch manager’s perspective the question always arises: “Do I have any real power or authority within this centrally controlled structure?” There is no doubt that there are those who will take charge and confidently communicate with the central departments and get the support they need and there will be those who perceive themselves as waiting for orders and are therefore not really responsible in the final reckoning.
Solution: This relationship needs to be considered and clearly defined including the identification of the inevitable ‘grey areas’. Some individuals will be able to rise to the occasion but are waiting to be invited or to be told that they do have permission of the ‘powers that be’ to interact assertively and openly with the Central Departments. They are on the same side.
Challenge 8: Branch Managers also ask: “Where do I go from here? What is my future? Do I remain a Branch Manager for the rest of my life?”
Solution: The answers to these questions are critical to attracting suitable candidates for the position. This is also linked to the role we want our branch managers to play. Are we looking for ambitious entrepreneurs with a solid ethical grounding who are prepared to go after promising opportunities? Or are we looking for ‘button clickers’ who will scrutinize the details, follow the rules and religiously adhere to procedures? Or are we looking for someone who enjoys being a Public Relations officer and gets along really well with people but lacks the solid banking knowledge that will yield high returns from these customer relationships?
This is an important decision as it will determine who you get to fill the position. If you don’t want to settle for taking the first ‘okay’ candidate, a decision must be taken.
Looking at these Human Capital challenges and solutions leads us to propose two main courses of action. One is to make the most of the current situation and the other is to be better prepared for the future. Below are the details on both approaches.
Short Term Human Capital Investment:Take advantage of the current crisis to recruit the talent you really want and to build a pool from which to choose in the future. In the Harvard Business Review you will find steps of consideration to ensure that when you do hire, you hire the right person, at the right time, with the right skills to ensure that when you need specific outcomes, your people are able to deliver.
Hiring Top Executives: A Comprehensive End-to-End Process
1. Anticipate the Need

  • Conducting ongoing, proactive analysis of future needs.
  • Continually evaluating the pool of potential talent.
  • Developing rigorous periodic forecasts of the company’s talent needs.

 
2. Specify the Job
 

  • Defining the specific demands of the job.
  • Specifying which skills and experience are relevant.
  • Identifying the team the candidate will need to work with or recruit.

3. Develop the Pool

  • Developing a large pool.
  • Including insiders, outsiders, insideĀ­rs, outsiders, and outside-insiders.
  • Considering people on the periphery of the organization (employees in remote offices, consultants, suppliers, customers).
  • Tapping your networks and involving the right external partners.
  • Asking candidates’ peers for nominations.

4. Assess the Candidates

  • Using a small number of high-caliber, well-trained, properly motivated interviewers.
  • Employing rigorous behavioral event interviews.
  • Conducting detailed reference checks.
  • Including top stakeholders in candidate assessment.

5. Close the Deal

  • Demonstrating active support for the candidate’s interests.
  • Describing the job realistically.
  • Involving the hiring manager personally, not just HR, in closing the deal.
  • Ensuring that compensation is fair to other employees.
  • Involving C-level for top positions.

6. Integrate the Newcomer

  • Using veteran top performers as mentors.
  • Making sure the newcomer checks in regularly with boss, mentor, and HR even when no problems have arisen.

7. Audit and Review

  • Removing bad hires within the first year.
  • Regularly reviewing recruiting practices.
  • Identifying and rewarding excellent interviewers.
  • Holding all assessors accountable for the quality of their evaluations.

Source: Fernandez-Araoz, C, Groysberg, B and Nohria, N 2009, ‘The Definitive Guide to Recruiting in Good Times and Bad’, Business Harvard Review, vol. 87, no. 5, pp.79.
Long Term Human Capital Investment:
Identify, develop and retain top talent by using a number of structured and unstructured innovations in ‘Talent Management.’
Build Your Own Talent Pool
Forward-looking Banks today realize that what limits their ability to expand and develop retail operations is the availability of qualified managers to head new branches. The absence of an effective second or third line management layer within a bank means that the bank will face a succession crisis if there isn’t a swift and effective response to this reality.
The challenge is how to make sure that the right persons have been selected and that the path of their development and training will be one that properly prepares them to carry the bank into the 21st century. More importantly, will these individuals be ready to respond to the impact of the political, legal / regulatory, environmental and social changes in the world and in the region? Will they be prepared to handle the reality of borderless financial markets and the ever-increasing pace of technology driven change?
There is no doubt that banks already have or are actively recruiting high potential individuals to lead their banks into the future. The problem, however, is how to accurately identify and accelerate the development of these high potential people so that they can get to where you need them to be in 1 or 2 years instead of five or ten. The second challenge is how to retain them.
These are the challenges that this Bank Branch Manager Accreditation program addresses.
CRITICAL PROGRAM SUCCESS FACTORS
This is an ambitious program and dictates that we proceed with full awareness of the necessary conditions to ensure success.

  1. Full support and or commitment from top management.
  2. Selection on merit and competence so that the investment is made in the right people and the program is perceived as credible.
  3. Selection on merit and competence so that the investment is made in the right people and the program is perceived as credible.
  4. Address the expectations of all stakeholders to prevent misconceptions regarding the outcomes of the program.
  5. Develop a supportive succession and retention plan for those in the program and those directly impacted by them.
  6. Set a realistic budget for this project and demonstrate the high return on investment.
  7. Give the program the optimal time for successful implementation.

OBJECTIVES
The main purpose of this program is to prepare successful individuals to fit smoothly into the role of future Branch Manager of fast-growing banks that have a regional and or international client base. This will involve a number of subordinate objectives:

  1. Train and develop future Bank Branch Managers quickly, effectively and economically.
  2. Use techniques that will bring out the best in your staff and help you decide, without a doubt, where each one will perform best.
  3. Ensure that the development program is totally targeted to your bank’s culture and business strategy.
  4. Identify those who can deal with high change and high stress business environments.
  5. Differentiate the true team players from those who do better alone.
  6. Change your corporate culture to reflect the values and competencies that are vital to the future success and sustainability of your business.
  7. Provide real management experience at low risk to you and your staff.
  8. Involve more than one group in the change process to ensure maximum ‘buy-in’ or ownership of the development process.
  9. Increase the supply of qualified candidates and so reduce the risk of poaching by competitors.

The more we know of human nature and the workings of the human brain, the more we realize that the story of our lives is written in every cell of our body and shaped by every significant relationship. The importance of getting the right people in the right place and the right group of people working together cannot be overestimated. The right outcomes will seem to come as if by magic.

The Critical Stage of CNBC Fast Money

This is a critical time for CNBC Fast Money with initial tests being conducted. It was noted that the CNBC rating has plummeted in the past years as cynical stock traders tried to escape the slowly crumbling industry. However, CNBC executives believe that the market is reviving to its old glory, even with the verge of new competition. How can we say that this US financial investing TV programis profitable?
Even though CNBC ratings might have been suffering from negatives, the network is still in high-revenue tier. Take note of its pretax income of about $ 270 million. With the US reserves and economic monitoring will continue to be the meat of financial talk shows, which is really the nature of the network’s plan to entice its viewers. However, this financial TV program is seen to be more appealing to a more natural type of consumerists or those traders who doesn’t give so much fuss about the weak points but just want to try venturing out with stocks and try to be rich. Is stock-picking important to CNBC?
The answer is yes. The kind of stock-picking in CNBC Fast Money is quite sensitive. In the past trading years in 1990s, CNBC received criticisms for including too many members in the panel who sometimes crazily peddling on stocks even without careful analysis. But CNBC defended that they had found a way to offer new responsible programs. However, the primary idea of the show will still revolve around turning money in the shortest period of time. What are expected changes in CNBC Fast Money?
Since news and analysis on financial trends have turned into measly commodity of the financial world, the network has to consider presenting news and financial information in the most innovative way without compromising responsible programming. The executive producers also want to include cultural relevancy on the program by providing access to the viewers and teaching them how to use such information for their stock trading. How could this happen?
Perhaps the secret of CNBC Fast Money is to widen its appeal without compromising its reputation among its advertisers. The network targets Class A and B market to maintain its standing as a major player in the business world. Fast Money TV program is indeed a primary network asset of CNBC. However, programming is in constant change with new ideas cropping up to develop the program and to implement changes. Talk shows and late night shows could be a challenge yet Fast Money is still a major TV phenomenon.