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View a Sample Datasource

Allena is designed to work with a datasource file. A datasource file is also known as a backend database. You can create as many copies as needed of the default datasource file that comes with Allena. This default datasource is named allena_be_empty.accdb. Use windows explorer to find this file and make as many copies as necessary. To view a sample datasource that has sample data entered follow these steps.

  1. Begin by getting familiarize with the database
  2. Go to the main menu or ribbon
  3. Click on the Home tab
  4. Under Sample Files section of the Home ribbon click on View Sample Database

Explore the different modules provided by Allena by generating new trainings, adding new employees or contacts.

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How to Start Networking

List everyone you know professionally with whom you want to reconnect. Motivate yourself by starting with people you like, respect and share mutual work or personal interests.

  • Make connecting a priority. Schedule time weekly to contact different people.
  • Connect in whatever way you prefer: talk by phone, have coffee/lunch, work out together, etc.
  • If your time for connecting is limited, use e-mail
  • To meet new contacts attend all hands meetings, seminars and other talks. If you prefer, go with a colleague/friend for support when meeting new people.
  • Create ways to motivate people to connect with you:

– Give presentations and speak with audience members afterwards
– Include your e-mail address on your presentations and handouts
– Work with people outside your job group: Contribute to a cross-functional team
– Participate in a community volunteer project

  • Express appreciation for your contacts’ help and tell them how their information was of value to you
  • Build mutual connections by sharing information, contacts and referrals with others
  • Follow through with information and referrals from contacts
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Getting Started

Get started with Allena training management software. The first step is to create a new datasource.

Training Management - Getting Started

What is a DataSource?

Allena is a combination of two main files, the user interface and the datasource. The user interface is also known as the Front End. The front end provides with  navigation interface, training, registration, contacts and scheduler windows as well as toolbars, reporting, sorting and filtering features. The datasource is where all the data; employees’ names, birthdays, training information, etc is saved.

You can create different datasources for different companies or organizations and connect with that data individually to manage those trainees.

Looking At A Sample DataSource

By looking at a sample datasource you can get familiarized with Allena’s structured and data. Visualize how your data will look finally look.

1. First, open Allena and go to the Home Tab located in the Ribbon (toolbar) on the left top section of the user interface.

2. Click on View Sample Datasource located under the Sample Files section

Training Management Software - Allena

Allena interface has been redesigned to provide user a minimalist look and efficient interface.

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Starting Allena

iTrainingTracking Management Software runs on a Windows operating system. If you are unfamiliar with Windows procedures, refer to the Windows documentation before starting Allena.

There are a few ways to start itrainingtracking on Windows Vista

  • Start Windows. From Windows Desktop
  • Double-click the Allena iTrainingTracking Icon on the desktop. A splash screen displays for a second and then the main menu.

Training Management - Starting Allena

Or From the file manager

  1. Open the file manager.
  2. Switch to Allena’s installation subdirectory.
  3. Double click allena.exe.
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How To Manage Your Company’s Training with This Training Management Software

How can you schedule trainings for 23 employees in 20 seconds? iTrainingTracking Software has just released Allena 3.3.2 beta version, free training management software that tracks employee’s training with ease and organized manner.

Boulder, CO. October 7, 2010 – Allena has a clean, open interface and big buttons. Let’s face it, if you have to do something as boring as scheduling training for, your or, others employees you want a tool that gives you big buttons, easy navigation, and helps you schedule everybody in seconds.

Allena is intuitive and easy to learn. We have minimized the screens and removed most redundant feature found in nowadays training management software. In a few easy steps you will be managing your staff’s training requirements with ease.

Continue reading

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Four ways to reduce work related injuries during a slow economy

safety-no-brain-machineAs the economy worsen more Americans overlook to follow important safety procedures and protocols.

According to a survey released by Kimberly-Clark Professional 89% of safety professionals have witnessed workers not wearing PPE when they should.

The main reasons for workers not complying with important safety rules and protocols are directly related to the economy.

As business concerns get more attention, safety concerns get impacted during though economic times. Other reasons affecting safety programs are;

  • Safety training programs or resources are affected by the economy
  • Employees have more to do within the same time period due to workforce reduction
  • Less money available for safety education and training

In the US, work related injuries cost more than $50 billion a year. The great majority of these injuries are cause by employees not complying with PPE protocols due to comfort and style.

This year’s survey also polled safety professionals about the steps they have taken or intend to take to encourage greater PPE compliance.

  • Improving existing education and training programs
  • Purchasing more comfortable PPE
  • Increased monitoring of employees
  • Tying compliance to individual performance evaluations and purchasing more stylish PPE

In the current economic climate it is more important than ever to invest in PPE that workers will want to wear. Busineses should not cut corners whenever it comes to employee safety, training and equipment. Even in a slow economy the financial burden of just one serious injury or fatality could put a company out of business. Safety doesn’t cost, it pays.

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6 Ways to Increase Productivity Factor

Some days it could be overwhelming to stare at the stack of papers needed to be processed or project folders sitting at your desk “screaming” at you.

Beware of reactive behavior

It doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day to tackle these tasks. Soon, you start jumping from one reactive behavior to the next one, from one interruption to an email. This takes your concentration away throughout the day making it difficult for you to complete projects and therefore decreasing your productivity factor.

What can you do to complete everything on your plate?
Taking a vacation or the day off is tempting but it will lead to more procrastination.

One solution is to identify and adopt new habit to increase productivity factor. Consider the following six new effective habits.

Know what to do first

Don’t spend time staring at your things to do or how many emails you have received. Spend 10 to 15 minutes at the beginning of your day organizing your work in batches. This is a simple and effective way to increase productivity. Once you have grouped your tasks, prioritize and identify the most important projects.

Divide and Conquer

It could be overwhelming to take over a complicated assignment. Break you work to smaller manageable tasks first. Look at what tasks are the essential ones and try to eliminate tasks that perhaps are unnecessary. Then integrate other tasks into main tasks and set a dateline. This forces you to avoid procrastination and create a sense of accomplishment each time you reach a milestone while working towards your goal.

Working at the right time

There are morning and night people out there. A recent survey indicates that 57 percent of executives are more productive on Tuesdays. Schedule the most important tasks and/or projects for days and times when you can have the highest productivity factor. For example; if you are a morning person don’t allow any interruptions during the first part of your morning. Focus and use this productive time to your advantage. Focus and concentrate until these small tasks have been completed during the early morning.

Use Email efficiently

Constantly going through an ever expanding inbox full of unorganized email can become a time consuming task. Instead of checking email constantly, turn off the reactive behavior by checking emails twice or three times per day. Use your inbox as a process tray. Create an archive folder that you will use to move emails you have dealt with. In your inbox, keep emails that need to be processed or need a response from a coworker before you can reply back.

Always think in bulk and anticipate your recipient’s answers. For example, if you receive three different emails from different coworkers that are involved in the same project, wait until most related emails have arrive (usually during the afternoon) and write one email directing each person into what to do. Have sections separated be the parties and sub parties involved that include actions to take for any possible questions and provide with anticipated answers.

Remember that sometimes is faster and better to pick up the phone for certain activities such as coordinating complex activities. The less email you send, the less you are apt to receive.

Close your door

Set boundaries whenever it comes to give access to coworkers. Establish office hours at your cubicle or office to avoid interruptions. This is especially important when you are under a tight deadline or working on an assignment. If necessary, you could hang a “Do Not Disturb” sign in you cubicle.

Get Fresh Air

Recharge and clear your head by taking short breaks throughout the day. Changing the scene of your cubicle and moving around can be invigorating from your routine and helps you get the energy necessary to tackle the next task.

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Allena 3.25 beta and updates

Training Tracking

Allena 3.25 beta has been just released.

New Features … We don’t even know where to start. Allena has been redesigned and now it has several features many of you have been asking for. For example, now you can import your existing electronic spreadsheets into Allena.

DOWNLOAD Allena 3.25 beta

Download your latest version from download.com

UPDATE from Allena 3.2.4 to 3.25

If you already have a previous version of Allena, you can download the update from here; update

Features

  • Import existing spreadsheet into Allena easily
  • Sort trainings by trainer’s name or company name
  • Employee’s first and last name is entered automatically once fullname field has been entered
  • All forms have resizing capabilities so you can take advantage of your screen by allowing more data to show
  • You can quickly get familiarized with Allena by reviewing a sample datasource. Once you have looked at the sample datasource return to your own datasource with just one click
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Cubicle Etiquette

Do you have annoying coworkers that don’t let you go through your day being as productive as you can?

If you constantly find yourself putting off little fires around the office, jumping from one task to another, loosing concentration and always behind schedule, it might be time to cut off cubicle interruptions.

From the coffee-mug-holder coworker that suddenly pops up through the partition to talk about what his children did during the weekend to the annoying mid forties woman that laughs loudly while gossiping on the speaker phone, all are interruptions. Here are a few cubicle etiquette guidelines to minimize interruptions and be more considered to your coworkers.

Keep it down
I remember having a project manager talking trash to a contractor in a loud tone. Why? She wanted to sound busy and on top of the project. Reality was, she was disorganized and never plan ahead. Many people put a lot of effort looking busy and even worst, sounding busy. Managers know better. A loud voice makes working conditions difficult for your cubicle neighbors. It makes listening to a concurrent telephone conversation difficult – I’m sorry, could you repeat that? I’m having some background noise. –

Speakers
Get rid of everything that has speakers – not everybody likes your music. Some people even find it difficult to concentrate if music that they even like is playing. Use earphones instead. The same applies to speaker phones. I still haven’t been able to figure out what is the purpose of the speakerphone. One might think this is convenient because it allows you to type and talk at the same time. Ask the person to send you an email instead, take notes, get to the point and hang up. There is really no reason for speakerphones.

Good Vibrations
When at work, I always set my cellular in silent mode. I put it next to my laptop or inside my pocket. I have taught my relatives to send me text messages if they want me to call them after I’m done with work. If it is an emergency they will text me and leave a message. Most of my friends know I won’t answer the phone and very often they leave a message that I hear a few minutes later to evaluate how quickly should I call back.

Turn Down the Volume
If you receive several phone calls per day, it is annoying for your neighbors to ne listening to a loud ring the hold day. Lower the volume of your telephone ring as much as possible as a consideration to your coworkers.

Let’s get together. Conference Rooms
I have always been opposed to meetings. Eighty percent of meetings are; unnecessary ways to make someone look important and, time waster. Meetings should NEVER be held in your cubicle. Reserve conference rooms in advance for meetings with potential clients, contractors or designers.

Try to keeping meetings to a minimum items and as short as possible. Send an email with meeting agendas, Q&A, and reports in advance to attendees. Keep meetings under thirty minutes and never, ever have a cubicle meeting.

Interruptions
Quit sugar. I believe sugar plays a big role regarding interruptions. Most people can seat still and will find any excuse to walk around and interrupt someone else. Do not just pop up into someone’s cubicle just because there is no door and you just need some attention.

Always consider other’s time and space. Send an email if your request can wait.

Batch requests of information – Throughout the day you will need different people’s feedback. Start creating emails at the beginning for each person. Don’t send the email until a few hours before the day is over. Keep adding, rewriting and or eliminating items you might not need to know. If it is urgent call the person and explains why it is urgent to have him/her sign a document, then stop by for the signature.

Hey You! Interruption
Weaving at someone and/or using sign language it is just pure laziness. Wait for the person to be done with the task at hand. Stop being reactive and start been proactive.

Confidential matters
Another reason to schedule meeting rooms is to keep important information confidential. The thin walls of your cubicle don’t prevent people from listening to your conversations.

Smells
Perhaps, one rule of cubicle etiquette many don’t consider is odors and smells interruptions. It is very annoying to work around people that wear to much cologne, aftershave or perfume. This strong smells can get allergic coworkers to sniff creating noise.

Don’t eat at your cubicle. Strong smelling food can off putting other coworkers.

Organization
Self promotion is a skill many cubicle people don’t consider in a working environment. Keep your cubicle clean, tidy and uncluttered. This says a lot about how much in charge you are of your work. Start by eliminating unnecessary objects and pictures. Show to other how professional you are by been organized and focused. Your desk organization is a reflection how your mind effectiveness.

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How to Stop Junk Mail

to stop junk mail

Is it annoying for you to sort through all the junk mail every day? Here is what I used to do with junk mail until I discovered how to get rid of it.

1. Open overstuffed mail box and cut finger while pulling all the junk mail mixed with important mail.
2. Walk into the house while sorting through the “mixed mail”
3. Find the shredder; feed the junk mail one by one into the shredder.
4. Fight the shredder – aargg! – Pull the jammed paper and try again.
5. Dump shredded junk mail into the recycle bin in the kitchen
6. Once recycle bin is full, tale it to the bigger recycle bin outside.
7. Pay every month for the trash company to recycle shredded junk mail.

Seems like a lot of work and time spent on something I don’t want to receive and something I want to get rid of.

Solution: Cut it off at the source – “Hasta la vista, junk mail”.

Here is what you have to do to free yourself from junk mail. How to stop junk mail is easier than you might think, just go to this link;

https://www.dmachoice.org/MPS/proto1.php

This website allows you to remove your physical address (opt-out) from junk mail lists and other commercial lists, for example; those annoying catalogs. I’m against catalogs because most of the time those are “want items” you’ll just end up buying instead of “need items”.

There are two ways to register;

  1. Fill out a form online – fastest way –
  2. Complete a mail-in registration form. You will need to pay $1 for processing fees.

Nowadays I only check my mailbox once every two weeks. There are a few other tricks I implemented to be able to do that. Stay tuned …

Questions and Comments:

How many times a week do you check your mail box? What percentage of Junk Mail do you get?

Do you have stress? 300 Breakthrough Stress Relief Tips

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How can I save money on my telephone bill?

Telephone TrickGrandCentral is a new web app. (recently adquired by Google) that allows you to redirect all of your phone numbers (wor, cell, home, etc.) into one number. There are many features that come with your GrandCentral account (GC Features).

How can I save money with this new service? My favorite feature is the Click2Call. I use Click2Call to reduce my cell phone bill significantly and to bypass that annoying Outgoing code I have to enter everytime I need to call someone out of the state.

Let’s go through the steps about how to accomplish have a zero long distance telephone bill for your company or home.

    1. First, open an account with http://www.google.com/googlevoice/ by reserving a number. This is usually easier for those who already have a google email account. The reservation process will tell you how to get a google email account if you don’t have one. The confirmation page let’s you know there may be some areas where they won’t have coverage.

 

  • Wait for their approved email and go through their well documented website to become familiar with the service.

 

 

  • Pick a telephone number in your area code and enter your office and mobile telephone numbers in your account.

 

 

  • Add a few family members and/or customer phone numbers from out-of-state into the address book.

 

 

  • Now, here is the trick; use click2call feature to have google voice call your office telephone (incoming call) and then make the connection to your out-of-state contact.

 

 

  • Voila !! You will be talking to your customer, friend or family member, no extra charge.

 

How is this possible? Since you are simply answering a telephone call from your service, http://www.google.com/voice/, it is not necessary for you to enter any access code to make an outgoing telephone call.

Please share this How can I save money trick with as many of your friends and remember to refer them to these instructions.

Subscribe to this blog for more interesting office and productivity tricks (top right form of this webpage).

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Hiring Practice

Hiring PracticeThe hiring process is not an easy one, especially during current times of high competition for talent during a great shortage of skilled labor in the US. Managers want to make sure they find and keep the best people. Therefore, it is a collaborative job among human resources representatives, managers and work unit employees to know what is considered the best hiring practice.

Involving your workforce staff in the hiring process helps to get a good employee and one that fits the staff therefore building a stronger team. Another good practice in the hiring process is to have the manager or supervisor interview the candidate for the tasks and duties to be performed under his/her supervision. Other practices to consider during at the beginning of hiring process are;

  • Make sure a resume submission process is in place
  • Create flexible job requirements for the description of your posting
  • Craft behavioral questions for the interview process. Open ended questions are best and considered great a hiring practice since they determine candidate’s natural tendencies when faced to resolve unexpected problems.

One of the most important and frequently overlooked hiring practice is to consider the work environment of your company. Ask yourself and your personnel what makes it great to work at your company. The best candidates will be more willing to apply to companies with great culture, benefits, promotion opportunities and work environment.

Learn more:
7 Steps For Hiring The Right Person First Time
Pre Employment Interviewing Skills And Hiring Practices Training

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7 Reasons To Subscribe

There are two main ways that you can keep up to date with the latest news at iTrainingTracking Software. Each option will suit different people and you’re more than welcome to pick any (or all) of them.

RSS Feed

For those of you familiar with RSS and News Aggregators you can follow iTrainingTracking via our RSS feed. Simply add it to your news aggregator and you’ll get notification every time something is published on Micromango Software. Learn More about RSS and how to use it.

Email Subscription

If you’re not an RSS user you can get an email that gives you any post that has been written on Micromango. You can unsubsribe from this this service at any point. This service is provided by a third party (AWeber) and you can subscribe to it by leaving your email address in the following field and following the instructions.

Seven Reasons to Subscribe

  1. You never have to check the site for updates again, and you get the latest and greatest first.
  2. It’s totally free.
  3. Using e-mail or RSS saves you wasted visits. More results in less time.
  4. Exclusive content is often limited to subscribers only. If you want the rarest opportunities, subscribing is the way to go.
  5. Your info will never be shared with anyone. I hate spammers as much as you do.
  6. Subscribing is worth testing for a few days just to experience it. Decide you prefer visiting? Just unsubscribe with one click and you’re back at the campfire.
  7. Subscribers are smart and hot.

Please note – your privacy is assured with any of the above options. We do not use your details for any other purposes than what you sign up for and details are kept private

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Allena Training Tracking Software

Training Tracking Scheduler
Training Tracking Scheduler

Start enjoying the benefits of Allena Employee Training Tracking Solution. Allena is a graphic-based, easy-to-use software designed for any-size organization. As a Windows-based package, it doesn’t require prior computer experience. Allena is equipped with Split Forms, allowing you to easily interact with all records and detailed information in seconds.

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