Keeping Stress in Check

November the 2nd is National Stress Awareness Day and Staysure the specialist insurance company ran a small article on their community news at the end of  last week "Keep stress in check with regular exercise"

They were saying that "Exercising has a wide range of physical benefits, but it can also help psychologically, helping to keep stress under control. Keeping active helps to keep the body's emotional chemicals in balance, underlines Ann McCracken, chair of the International Stress Management Association."

"This means we think, behave and react more appropriately to the situation we find ourselves in; this in turn increases the resources we have to deal with situations we perceive as difficult or challenging," she explained.


Diet can also play a large role in lowering stress levels. Eating starchy foods such as rice and pasta along with plenty of fruit and vegetables, some protein-rich foods and milk and dairy has a positive effect on stress.

Ann McCracken also recommended that people trying to control stress should stay away from eating too much fat, salt or sugar.

They should also drink plenty of water, which nourishes the cells in the body, allowing all organs and functions to work better."


The International Stress Management Association UK is the UK's leading association for stress management professionals

According to the October 2011 CIPD survey "Stress has become the most common cause of long-term sickness absence for both manual and non-manual employees"  More information on this on jm Training blog 12th October

Are your employees feeling stressed.? jml Training & Consultancy offers an in-house Stress Management Course Information Here

Want to find out more about Staysure Insurance - Travel Insurance for the over 50s - Holiday Home Property insurance for the over 50s Find out more Here

Advancement of women in the workplace

There has been a great deal of media activity around the arena of "women in the workplace".

Earlier this year Lord Davies report was published on the "Equalty in the boardroom" issue and the Prime Minister David Cameron was calling for more women to sit on the boards of UK companies.

Today the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has issued a press release "Entries now open for the Opportunity Now Excellence in Practice Awards"

The CIPD said "The Opportunity Now Awards recognise the advancement of women in the workplace through a celebration of outstanding examples of best practice, innovation and individual achievement. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is proud to partner with Opportunity Now for the Directing Diverse Talent Award for the fourth year running. The Award recognises the individual impact of an HR professional's ingenuity and determination in driving diversity forward in their organisation.



The opportunity to enter applications is now open and any employer with a UK presence is eligible to enter, the deadline for submission is Wednesday 7 December 2011. A panel of expert judges will review the applications and score individuals against a scale of best practice. The award winners will be announced at the Opportunity Now Awards Dinner in London on Wednesday 18 April 2012. Organisations that achieve the highest overall scores will be included in The Times Top 50 Employers for Women list.


Last year's winner of the Directing Diverse Talent Award was Caroline Stroud, Employment Partner and Global HR Partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Ms Stroud succeeded in presenting the business case for a diverse talent strategy. She developed an action plan to improve gender diversity including an initiative to provide unconscious bias awareness training to all partners, which ensured a fair and open way to develop talent.


Dianah Worman, CIPD Diversity Adviser and expert on the judging panel, says: "In a difficult economic climate it is even more important for employers to sharpen up their approaches to recruiting and developing people from as diverse a pool of talent as possible. This is the only way to compete successfully in the global marketplace. Our research shows that personnel professionals are well placed to deliver useful insights into developing a sustainable agenda for diversity within the organisation and that they should use their influencing skills to do this.


"I hope HR practitioners that feel they are making a difference by engaging their organisations in driving the diversity agenda will enter the competition as a way of celebrating their successes."


Awards categories include:


• The Advancing Women in the Workplace Award


• The Agile Organisation Award


• The Champion Award


• The Directing Diverse Talent Award (in partnership with the CIPD)


• The Global Award


• The Inclusive Culture Award


• The Santander Award: Inspiring the Workforce of the Future


If you are looking for more information on "Training Development for Women" take a look at the specialist page on the jml Training Website Here

Stress and Appraisal Course details now on jml Training website

jml Training has been providing Appraisal and Stress Management courses for a number of years and has recently updated the details on the jml Training website

Appraisal Training from jml Training and Consultancy

Two appraisal training courses are featured - Performance and Effective Appraisals and Managing Your Own Appraisal.

The Performance and Effective Appraisal skills course is an interactive workshop designed for people managing the performance and appraisals of employees.




It provides a combination of theory, skills development and practical exercises that will increase the professionalism, competence and confidence of the participants when conducting appraisal interviews and managing performance


Managing Your Own Appraisal - In many organisation appraisal and performance training is provided for people managing the performance of others. The idea of providing training to employees being appraised is much less common and this is a great mistake. Details of both these courses Here


 As reported in this blog last week at  "Stress Workplace hits the news again" This subject never goes away and is very important for organisations to  provide this type of training for their employees.

Pressure is a part of everyday life. This can be positive when the pressure is a source of stimulation and creativity or negative when it becomes a source of worry or tension. If people experience an inappropriate amount of negative pressures over a period of time they will become stressed.
Find out more about this course Here

Managing Stress in Your Organisation



Stress in the Workplace hits the news again

There has been a lot of talk in the media in the last ten days around "Stress at work". The CIPD have issued a press release a few days ago saying that Stress is no. 1 cause of long-term absence - Stress is, for the first time, the most common cause of long-term sickness absence, according to the 2011 CIPD/Simplyhealth Absence Management survey. Public sector respondents identify organisational change and restructuring as the number one cause of stress at work.

Stress is number one cause of long-term absence for the first time as job insecurity weighs heavy on the workplace, finds CIPD/Simplyhealth Absence survey



Stress is, for the first time, the most common cause of long-term sickness absence for both manual and non-manual employees, according to this year's Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)/Simplyhealth Absence Management survey.

A link between job security and mental health problems is also revealed in the survey. Employers planning to make redundancies in the next six months are significantly more likely to report an increase in mental health problems among their staff (51% compared with 32% who are not planning redundancies).

For manual workers, stress is now level with acute medical conditions and has overtaken musculoskeletal problems to become the top cause of long-term absence. While among non-manual staff, stress has moved ahead of acute medical conditions.


There is a particular increase in stress-related absence among public sector organisations, with 50% of these respondents reporting an increase. Public sector respondents identify the amount of organisational change and restructuring as the number one cause of stress at work, highlighting the impact of public sector cuts to jobs, pension benefits and pay freezes. Job insecurity is also reported as a more common cause of work-related stress in the public sector this year (24%) compared with last year (10%) and is higher than in the private (14%) and non-profit sectors (14%).

Unsurprisingly, given the significant budget cuts, more than two-fifths (43%) of public sector organisations report they will be making redundancies over the next six months (compared with 17% in the private sector and 24% of non-profits).



Dr Jill Miller, CIPD Adviser, says: "The survey this year shows that stress is for the first time the number one cause of long-term sickness absence, highlighting the heightened pressure many people feel under in the workplace as a result of the prolonged economic downturn.

"Stress is a particular challenge in the public sector where the sheer amount of major change and restructuring would appear to be the root cause. To a large degree, managing stress is about effective leadership and people management, particularly during periods of major change and uncertainty.

"Line managers need to focus on regaining the trust of their employees and openly communicating throughout the change process to avoid unnecessary stress and potential absences. They also need to be able to spot the early signs of people being under excessive pressure or having difficulty coping at work and to provide appropriate support."


Gill Phipps, HR spokesperson for Simplyhealth, comments: "Stress can often have a negative effect on the workplace, which can result in loss of productivity and disengaged employees. It's therefore encouraging that almost half of employers have a wellbeing strategy in place, with 73% offering counselling services and a further 69% providing an Employee Assistance Programme. These benefits allow employees access to information and advice on workplace issues, as well as emotional, psychological and personal issues, and can be a huge help during difficult times. Employers need to ensure that benefits such as these are communicated effectively to staff in order for employees to get the most from them.


"With many organisations looking for ways to save money, employee health and wellbeing shouldn't be over looked and should remain at the heart of the company. Benefits that engage employees do not have to be expensive. By introducing a recognition scheme or equipping leaders with the skills they need to care for the health and wellbeing of their teams, employers can make small, affordable changes that make a positive difference."


Overall employee absence levels have remained static at 7.7 days per employee per year. Public sector absence has decreased from 9.6 days per employee per year last year to 9.1 days this year and private sector absence has increased from 6.6 days in 2010 to 7.1 days in this year's survey. The trends in absence levels appear to reflect the relative fortunes of these sectors. Although overall absence levels show little change, the proportion of absence that is stress-related has increased. Nearly four in ten (39%) employers report an increase in stress-related absence, compared to just 12% reporting a decrease.


Other findings include:


• Absence levels are lowest among manufacturing and production organisations at 5.7 days per employee per year (6.9 days in 2010) while among non-profit organisations absence has increased to 8.8 days (8.3 days in 2010)


• Over a quarter (28%) of employers report an increase in the number of people coming to work ill in the last 12 months


• Organisations that were expecting redundancies in the coming six months were more likely to report an increase in presenteeism (32% compared with 27% of those who were not expecting to make further redundancies). They were also less likely to report they had not noticed an increase (48% compared with 66%) and less certain (20% report they didn't know if there had been an increase compared with 7% of those not making redundancies)


• Organisations that had noted an increase in presenteeism over the past year were more likely to report an increase in stress-related absence over the same period (49% compared to 33% of those who did not report an increase in people coming to work ill)


• Over a quarter of organisations (29%) report they have increased their focus on employee wellbeing and health promotion as a result of the economic context. Over two-fifths of the public sector report an increase in focus compared with just over one-fifth of the private sector

Source: CIPD October 2011

Are your employees feeling stressed.? jml Training & Consultancy offers an in-house Stress Management Course Information Here

Amey is the overall winner of the 2011 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development People Management Awards

Amey, a leading UK public service infrastructure provider, is the overall winner of the 2011 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) People Management Awards, according to a CIPD News Release issued today.

 The winners across all categories were announced at the Awards ceremony, held in London last night. Amey also won the Building HR capability Award, having shown ingenuity and innovation in the rapid transformation of their HR function to deliver significant business benefit as well as improved employee communication and collaboration.

Amey is experiencing an extended period of growth from 10,000 employees in 2009 to a predicted 35,000 by 2015. With many employees transferring in from other organisations its HR transformation needed to not only simplify that complicated process, but also reduce costs. More important, though, was the HR function's capacity to build organisational capabilities in order to achieve business objectives and drive continued growth. An emphasis on the development of the HR function itself has built commercial capability and developed project management skills. Amey has successfully implemented a number of other changes, including self service systems for non-office and older workers, and started new graduate and apprenticeship schemes.



Further improvements have included the mapping of roles with CIPD competencies, clear career paths right across the organisation and succession plans. Within HR, these improvements have been delivered alongside a reduction in HR costs of £1.6m per annum. HR has also contributed substantially to savings from organisational restructuring - including a reduction of £15m in overhead employee costs and of £0.7m in temporary labour spend in 2011. Last year the organisation delivered an increase of five per cent in profit despite client spend reductions.


Stephanie Bird, Director of HR Capability, CIPD, and chair of the judging panel for the Awards, said: "Amey has shown great insight and innovation for the sector in its work to build its HR capability in an integrated way and to deliver against a clearly understood business agenda. They have developed people in creative ways by introducing carefully targeted training and career paths for employees spanning all areas of the business, ensuring no single area could become a 'second class citizen'. They have also developed mentoring and cross-business projects. Amey's pride in delivery and willingness to take people with them in their development journey for growth has really shone through.


The HR agenda is increasingly strategic and diverse in today's competitive environment. Investing in and up-skilling the HR function against a clear agenda will not only add value, but also help to create a sustainable and successful organisation for the future."


Hugh Hood, BT, comments: "Choosing a winner from entries packed with sparkling innovation and enthusiasm was truly difficult. Ultimately Amey's edge was their crystal clear understanding of their business strategy and an approach that proactively blazed a clear line of sight to the heart and soul of that strategy. Their comprehensive approach showed a sustainable change in mindset, behaviour and capability not just within the function, but in a way that role modelled the changes that Amey needed to make."


The CIPD People Management Awards also recognise good practice in nine specific people management and development categories, four of which are new this year, as well as the Michael Kelly Outstanding Student Award. An Award was given to the winner for each category below:



• Building HR capability - Amey


• Health & wellbeing - Police Service of Northern Ireland


• Employee engagement - DB Regio Tyne and Wear Ltd


• Organisational learning - Wm Morrison Supermarket PLC


• Change management - West Midlands Fire Service


• Excellence through technology - Unilever and Silverman Research


• Performance & reward - Institution of Civil Engineers


• SME HR initiative of the year - vine HR


• Talent attraction & management - Warwickshire County Council and Warwickshire Children & Voluntary Youth Services


• Michael Kelly Outstanding Student Award - Jessica Haglington, Rolls Royce plc



BT is the headline sponsor for the CIPD People Management Awards. Category sponsors include JMP, Simplyhealth and Hays.


In September Amey was Named as a Top 50 Company for Graduates. The company  was listed in TheJobCrowd’s 2011 Top Companies For Graduates To Work For index, in recognition of how well the company looks after and values its graduates, as well as offering flexibility in career development.



Amey is a leading UK public services provider with more than 11,000 staff. The company works across three main markets - Inter Urban, Local Government and Built Environment, which are supported by their award-winning consultancy division.



Amey delivers services in the highways, roads, schools, waste, rail, fleet solutions, workspace, street lighting, commercial, housing and aviation sectors. By offering a complete life-cycle solution for services, they maximise efficiencies for their customers.


jml Training and Consultancy offers a range of  Management Training Services for small to large companies and organisations. Find out more about jml Training at www.jml-training.com  

Diversity in the Workplace

Came accross this supplement from "MEDIAPLANET"  in yesterday's (30-9-11) edition of "The Independent".

"Diversity in the workplace" is the tiltle  of an in-house  diversity training course that has been run by jml Training and Consultancy for many years now.

The Mediaplanet publication feature was a special issue promoting equality and had interviews with Jacqueline Gold the very successful Chief executive of Ann Summers, Chris Sullivan CEO of RBS Corporate Banking and other features and news reports around this subject.

There was a feature on Lord Davies discussing why having more women in the boardroom is not only about equality, but also about good business practice.

Back in February this year, jml Training issued a Press Release entitled "Equality in the Boardroom"  and this blog featured the report "Lord Davies' review, Women in the Boardroom now published"

The Equality and Human Rights Commission have recently issue their report In response to the Prime Minister's call for more women to sit on the boards of Britain's biggest companies. See this blog here

If you would like more information on jml Training's customised in-house diversity courses find out more by following this link

Sex and Power 2011 report launched

The Equality and Human Rights Commission have just sent out their monthly e-newsletter. One of the topics is the Sex and Power 2011 report.

In response to the Prime Minister's call for more women to sit on the boards of Britain's biggest companies, the EHR Sex and Power report revealed that more than 5,400 women are missing from Britain's 26,000 most powerful posts as they are still being passed over for top jobs.

"The progress of women to positions of authority in Britain has been tortuously slow. This year’s Sex and Power Report an index of women in positions of power and influence shows a trend which is not abating; while women make progress in some sectors, that progress regularly stalls or even reverses in other sectors. It is a trend of waxing and waning; not one of constant upward movement.

British women are better educated than ever before. They are attending university in ever increasing numbers and achieve better degree results than men . Intelligent, competent women are flooding the junior ranks of law firms, accountancies and medical practices" Follow this link to find out more

If you are looking for Equalities Training Services  follow this link and make sure your organisation is up to date with it's training.  

Maximising the true value of coaching in challenging economic times

The CIPD - The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has today issued a News Release " Maximising the true value of coaching in challenging economic times involves focusing on key areas of people and business development, says CIPD"

The new report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), Coaching Climate, investigates how coaching and mentoring are developing in organisations and helps HR professionals and coaches to deliver the best possible value from their initiatives.

This year 77% report coaching activity, compared to 90% in 2009. However, the coaching landscape is far from bleak with more than four-fifths of those using coaching reporting that they're doing more of it than two years ago. Coaching is utilised most as a tool for improving performance and is used nearly as much to improve poor performance (43%) as to build on good performance (48%). Although the bulk of coaching, in keeping with previous data, is delivered by line managers or in-house coaches, the proportion by external coaches has nearly doubled (up from 14% to 20%).

When looking at the extent to which organisations work on specific agendas most coaching assignments were found to focus on developing skills and competence (67% always and frequently), with supporting career transition (54% always and frequently) another key area. The focus on improving understanding of business, commercial and financial issues (26% always and frequently) was low.

Coaching is continuing to develop within organisations despite budget cuts, although the type of coaching assignment is of greater importance. In a tough economic environment understanding business and commercial issues should be top of the list for HR professionals, however the report highlights just how low down on the agenda it actually is, with only 5% of organisations always doing this and 10% never addressing the issue.

Dr John McGurk, Adviser Learning and Talent, CIPD, says: "The report demonstrates the value of coaching, and the need to use it to improve performance and build capability. It is good to see so many firms boosting their use of this important part of the learning and development toolkit.

"Although budgets remain tight it is encouraging to see that a relatively small number of organisations report decreases in their coaching budgets, compared to the number reporting decreases in overall funding in our Learning and Talent Development survey earlier this year.

"The report also identifies areas for improvement, particularly in the development of HR capability around business savvy, the ability to apply business knowledge and understanding to key people and performance issues and to fulfil strategic objectives. Our Next Generation HR research project challenged practitioners to develop and trade upon their insight within the organisation and link this to the business, driving real insight about how good people management can make the difference."

Other highlights:
• Seven in 10 report either increasing or stable expenditure on coaching, while under a quarter reported decreased expenditure
 • Just under two-fifths record evaluation around 'stories and testimony' as the method most used (37%), compared to under a quarter in 2009 (23%). The use of key performance indicators and business metrics (30%). The development of a set of evaluation criteria at the outset in the contracting phase (28%)
 • Nearly three-quarters of respondent organisations have some sort of mentoring scheme in place (74%)

To see the "Coaching Climate report", please visit www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/survey-reports/coaching-climate-2011.aspx

jml Training and Consultancy has been offering coaching services for business for many years now. Gráinne Suter of jml Training is a Member of The International Coach Federation and jml Training are an Organisational Member of The Association for Coaching.

To find out more about jml Training's Coaching Services please visit http://www.jml-training.com/coaching.htm  

New health authorities need to advance equality says Equality and Human Rights Commission

The Equality and Human Rights Commission said on the 11th July 2011 that new health commissioning bodies should learn from the mistakes of their predecessors and take steps to meet their obligations under equality legislation to make a real difference to health outcomes.

The Commission undertook a study assessing the performance of a sample of Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts in England with regard to the race, gender and disability equality duties. It found that many bodies were not taking sufficient action to address the diverse needs of people in Britain and to protect the rights of disadvantaged groups.

The Commission concluded that without a major re-think by new health bodies on how they tackle discrimination and advance equality some groups will continue to experience poorer health.

For example:
Men are less likely to report health conditions than women, leading to worse implications for their health;
Infant mortality is higher than average among Black Caribbean and Pakistani groups;
Muslim people tend to report worse health than average; and
Women report higher incidences of mental health conditions.

The Commission’s recommendations include a requirement that health authorities collect data to ensure they have the right evidence base on which to make decisions, and provide guidance to the people making decisions about commissioning.

Until April 2011, health bodies in England were subject to equality duties regarding race, disability and gender. This meant that public authorities had to take steps to tackle discrimination and promote equality amongst the people they serve. The duties were replaced by the public sector equality duty in April 2011 which covers a wider range of groups such as age, religion or belief and sexual orientation.

Andrea Murray, Director of Policy at the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said:

“The introduction of the new equality duty and the reorganisation of the NHS is a good time for health bodies to re-think their approach to equality. Our research shows that many health organisations see equality as a box ticking exercise, and few were able to show they have used the duties to make a real difference to the health outcomes of particular groups.

“Acting upon the equality duty will help health organisations to develop effective services that meet patients’ needs, improve the health of the population and tackle disadvantage faced by particular groups.”

Additional information:

In April 2011 the existing equality duty was replaced a new duty. The new duty covers the protected characteristics of age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientat.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is a statutory body established under the Equality Act 2006, which took over the responsibilities of Commission for Racial Equality, Disability Rights Commission and Equal Opportunities Commission. It is the independent advocate for equality and human rights in Britain. It aims to reduce inequality, eliminate discrimination, strengthen good relations between people, and promote and protect human rights. The Commission enforces equality legislation on age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation or transgender status, and encourages compliance with the Human Rights Act. It also gives advice and guidance to businesses, the voluntary and public sectors, and to individuals.

Source: Equality and Human Rights Commission

If you are looking for training services for your Hospital Trust, please contact jml Training and Consultancy HERE

News reports about The Equality and Human Rights Commission

The Equality and Human Rights Commission announced on the 2nd June 2011 the appointment of Mark Hammond as chief executive.

According to their press release "Mark Hammond joins the Commission after an extensive career in local and central government. He was previously chief executive of West Sussex County Council, a post he held from 2004 to 2010. He first joined West Sussex in 2000 as director of environment and development.

From 1985, Mark held a wide range of posts in the Civil Service including private secretary to the permanent secretary at the Department of the Environment; part of the UK team which negotiated the United Nations climate change convention; and the energy, environment and telecoms brief at the British Embassy in Washington.

Commenting, Equality and Human Rights Commission chair Trevor Philips said:

"Mark's appointment as permanent chief executive is a crucial step in the next phase of the Commission's life. We can already count many achievements to our name, including ground breaking legal cases and investigations, but we need to build on those successes - most of all in charting an inclusive path to economic prosperity.

"We've made much progress in modernising the organisation over the last 18 months, and we are now about to start consulting on a new strategic plan to deliver the Commission's vision of improving life for the whole of society. Mark will be leading the work to create an efficient, effective and creative organisation which can deliver that vision.

"His extensive experience of delivering large scale organisational change will be vital to us as we look to build on the progress made by his predecessors Helen Hughes and Neil Kinghan. The board is delighted that he will be leading the organisation into this new challenge."

Mark has also been appointed by the Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities as a commissioner and accounting officer.

Lynne Featherstone, Minister for Equalities added:

"It is vital that we have a strong, effective and independent equalities and human rights body. I congratulate Mark on his appointment and am confident that he will work towards delivering this.”

Meanwhile The Commission has launched the first of three phases of consultation to develop their next strategic plan.

The plan will cover our plans and priorities from April 2012 to March 2015 and is due to be laid before Parliament in April 2012.

They have designed a strategic planning process at the heart of which is consulting and involving all those interested in their work from start to finish.

If your organisation is looking for Diversity and Equalities Training services JML Training and Consultancy would like to help with an "in house" course. For further information contact jml Training Here