by Richard Bentley, Executive Director

Do you have a “hey Bob” in your office?

Your chief “hey Bob” will be easy to spot. They are the anointed power user of a piece of software/system or several pieces of software or systems. The problem with the office Bob is they are probably one of your least productive people even though they are a guru of the software or process in question and showed so much promise on induction.

The Bobs of the world should be smashing their KPI’s and setting a benchmark others push themselves to achieve. However, due to the other members of the team relying on Bob, as they are indeed the font of all knowledge, more convenient and attentive than Google, Bob is getting interrupted more than Hillary Clinton in a presidential debate.

The point I’m trying to make is if you indeed have a Bob in your organisation, you either embrace the role and ensure it is recognised or you train your other staff to a level where Bob can get on and achieve. It would be fair to say Bob is your training litmus. Bob won’t change colour, if they do you have bigger problems than just training.

So look to your Bobs, talk to them and act to increase the skills of your entire team and it will return big dividends in productivity across the team.

Don’t wait, skill up now!