Unemployment levels are falling so it is a good time to arrange more training for your organisation

UK unemployment rate drops to 7.1% is the headline on the BBC News website earlier. It is now close to the point at which the Bank of England has said it will consider raising interest rates.

According to the Office for National Statistics 

• The employment rate for those aged from 16 to 64 for September to November 2013 was 72.1%, up 0.5 percentage points from June to August 2013. There were 30.15 million people in employment aged 16 and over, up 280,000 from June to August 2013.
• The unemployment rate for September to November 2013 was 7.1% of the economically active population, down 0.5 percentage points from June to August 2013. There were 2.32 million unemployed people, down 167,000 from June to August 2013.

Commenting on this the CIPD issued a press release saying  the Labour Market Statistics released today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Mark Beatson, Chief Economist at CIPD, said: "We have recently seen unemployment start to fall quickly and forecasts being revised downwards but, even so, today's figures are a surprise with the headline unemployment rate falling from 7.4% to 7.1% in a single month. 

We should remember these figures are statistics with margins of error attached to them and this does not mean we should expect to see falls of this size every month.  Nevertheless, today's figures are consistent with the state of the labour market last autumn." 

Minister of State for Employment  Esther McVey MP told the BBC "Creating jobs and getting people into employment are central to our economic plan to build a stronger, more competitive economy, so it is very encouraging news that we've seen a record-breaking rise in employment over the last three months"

With more people being employed and workforces growing it is vitally important that work standards are maintained and productivity increases. One way of making sure this happens to arrange TRAINING for your staff. Whether it be a Leadership Training Development programme, one to one coaching or a specialist course on Equal Opportunities this is the time to arrange your organisation's training.

Training is very cost effective, you might think you are spending out a lot of more, but do remember the average company will be able to gain tax relief on their profits. For local Government, NHS divisions, Housing Associations, Colleges and Universities the staf are more efficient and more productive.

jml Training Consultancy has a great selection of training programmes. The advantage of going to a bespoke training company like jml Training Consultancy is that they make the training to suit the individual client's requirements. Training programmes are all in-house. Open courses are not held.

For more information visit www.jml-training.com  or www.jml-diversity-training-services.co.uk     

Forget the gym professional training will keep you ahead of the game in 2014

The February 14 edition of "The Negotiator" arrived in the post last Saturday.

The Headline "Fit for the Job? Forget the gym, professional training will keep you ahead of the game in 2014" caught my attention.

Moving swiftly inside the magazine I came across the article. Naturally being a lettings agent and estate agent's publication it is geared to that market however the objectives are the same no matter what business you are involved in.

The majority of topics covered apply to all - Professional Knowledge - Efficiency and Standards - Cost  Implications - Return on Investment - Greater Earning Potential - Competitive Edge and Quality Assurance.

If you are wanting to get more from your staff in 2014 and everyone needs to keep up standards and develop learning skills, or you are a member of an organisation that could do with more training, then this is the time to plan ahead.

jml Training Consultancy does not hold open courses, but designs bespoke in house courses for organisations. Courses can be a one off course, a series of courses or a complete development programme over many months.

Keys areas are Leadership, Coaching, Team Building, Diversity and Equality and International Training Services.

The company has been delivering training services since 1997 and during that time have provided training services for  Government Ministers, Government Departments, NHS Trusts, Housing Associations, Local Authorities, establishments in the University and College sector Corporations and smaller companies.

Size does not Count: It does not matter what size the organisation is, to stay ahead of the competitors or purely to achieve greater goals in the present workplace it is essential to keep training up to date and be fit for the job. Find out more about jml Training Consultancy Here 

New Diversity training site is launched

jml Training & Consultancy has just launched a specialist Diversity and Inclusion training site.

The company has been providing training in this specialist area since 1997 and offers in-house training courses for UK based organisations.

Over the past seventeen years diversity training programmes has been provided for Housing Associations, National Government Departments, Government Ministers, Local Councils and Authorities, NHS Departments and Private and Public companies and corporations.

The new jml Diversity Training Services  site contains a great deal of articles and information on Equal Opportunities, the Equality Act and other relevant topics.

If your organisation is thinking of running a course, the place to find out more information is http://www.jml-diversity-training-services.co.uk   

In support of middle managers

I read an article recently that rather unkindly referred to middle managers as the “muddle in the middle”. This got me thinking about how often middle managers get a bad press. I wonder if the “squeezed middle” might be a more appropriate description.  So, I write in defence of the middle manager.

They are required to communicate the organisational vision, frequently when this vision is not being clearly communicated from the top leadership.

The have to motivate tired employees, threatened by job insecurity from yet another organisational change, and this is no easy matter.

Securing cross-functional collaboration when resources are more and more constrained is a challenge they face on a daily basis.

But that’s not all they face! At times middle managers are also in the firing line from their staff. They are a readily available target when someone from “management” is needed to take the blame. Yet many employees are unaware of how frequently their managers shield them from poor leadership.

Middle managers are bridging the gap between executive managers and front-line managers, and at a time when they need to be developing and up-skilling they are not getting enough organisational attention.

Behavioural capabilities such as fostering co-operation, securing employee engagement and ensuring best practice are core aspects of a middle management role. They are also key requirements for organisations facing volatility, trying to negotiate change and seeking to encourage innovation.

The link between organisational capability and business performance has been made many times, there is no need for me to repeat it here. Developing the behavioural capability and empowering middle managers, who are able to respond and adapt to changing environments, will increase such organisational capability.

Yet learning and development opportunities have been curtailed in many organisations as part of cost cutting measures.  So, let’s support the middle managers, recognise their contribution to the bottom line, and invest in their development.

 

Find out more about jml Training's Leadership and Management Training Services Here

Heavy workloads, organisational change, long hours, doing more with less

These are factors that can lead to people feeling out of control and therefore stressed.

If the work pressure is building up within your team and reducing collaboration or even leading to conflict, maybe it’s a good time to intervene and help your employees reflect on the different ways that people respond to stress and how to build resilience.

MBTI is a particularly useful instrument when you wish to get a team to work together more effectively. It provides opportunity to reflect on differences and how they can be used constructively, rather than being a point of irritation or even conflict.

Fostering resilience in your team will increase confidence and team work and give your organisation a competitive edge.

Contact us here for more information.

SQS to increase workforce in Ireland

The SQS Group (SQS) which is the world’s leading specialist in software quality has announced today that it is expanding its Irish operations by adding 75 jobs over the next three years. Fifty of the positions will be based in Dublin and the company said, a further 25 at its Northern Ireland office in Belfast. Up to 30 of the jobs will be filled by the end of the year.

SQS established it's office in Ireland in 2002. The German company  which is listed on the London stock exchange currently employs 200 people in Dublin and Belfast at present. The new jobs are high end specialist roles and include software quality engineers, software testing managers, business analysts, performance engineers and software test analysts.

The company's chief executive Dik Vos made this comment ''Our continued expansion in Ireland is a strong reflection of the growth of the IT industry and the increasingly important role that independent software testing and quality control plays in the successful rollout and ongoing operations of IT systems,'' 

While the CEO Dik Vos said "there was no doubt that recruitment of such specialist roles remains a challenge, he added that working closely with the country's third level colleges and initiatives such as the SQS Graduate In-Take Programme, have proved very successful."

He went on to say "that  such measures will remain a key part of the company's recruitment strategy, ''providing valuable training and investment in developing key skillsets to support businesses in the Irish economy to the required SQS quality standards''. 

The Taoiseach Enda Kenny, TD, described the company's expansion as a welcome development and "another encouraging sign of the ongoing rise of Dublin's Digital Docklands". 

Dik Vos CEO SQS Report Irish Times 19-9-13

SQS was founded in Cologne in 1982, it employs around 2,500 staff in Europe, Asia, North America and Africa. Along with a strong presence in Germany and the UK, SQS has further subsidiaries in Austria, Egypt, Finland, France, India, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, and the USA. SQS also has a joint venture in Portugal and a partnership with a company in Spain. In 2012, SQS generated a turnover of €210.1 million

Dik Vos was appointed to the SQS Management Board in March 2011 and started in SQS as COO, responsible for global sales and operations. In this role, he focused on driving forward company growth and improving the operational excellence of the global SQS Group.
Source: RTÉ News, The Irish Times & SQS

Celebrating Equality and Diversity at work

Everyone knows that it is illegal to discriminate in the workplace, directly or indirectly, against anyone on the grounds of; age, sex, disability, religion or belief, pregnancy or maternity, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership or race.

But it wasn’t always like this… read  Celebrating Equality and Diversity at work

In the meantime is your organisation equipped to manage diversity? Find out more about jml Training's Diversity and Inclusion training services Here

Arrange your 2013 / 2014 in house training now.

Two in five professionals will work through their annual holiday according to report from Questor Insurance

Vehicle hire excess and travel insurance specialist Questor Insurance looks at figures which show that two in five workers* plan to carry on working during their summer holidays.

Despite our holidays traditionally being the perfect time to escape from the pressures of the 9 to 5 and our daily work deadlines, it seems that many of us can’t bear to tear ourselves away from office life – even if we are sunning ourselves on a beach thousands of miles away.

The findings of research commissioned by global workspace provider Regus, found that more than a third of holidaying workers will invest one to three hours of precious holiday time on their work, while one in ten will forgo more than three hours of their relaxation time to ensure that they keep up with what’s going on at work.

Far from lazing under a palm tree or going for a leisurely swim in the sea, more than a third of holidaying professionals prefer the joys of responding to work phone calls or carrying out other work-related tasks...who knew switching off was so hard?

In effective for these workers’ holidays are akin to business trips in disguise, with it being ‘business as usual’ despite it officially being their time off.

Professional men are the most likely to succumb to the lure of ‘workations’, as they’ve been dubbed are, with 31% taking their workload on holiday with them, compared to 25% of professional women.

Commenting, Questor Insurance CEO Andrew Lawrence, said: “Despite the economy recently picking up workers are keen to make the best impression they can in the current market, even if it means sacrificing their holiday time
.
“If you have to work for a portion of your holiday, securing your business travel insurance in advance will help to ensure that any business equipment you do use will be covered.”

Buy your business travel insurance at Questor today Here.

Questor Insurance’s ‘Be Holiday Savvy’ campaign is running from June to September and will provide travellers with a wealth of handy hints and tips to make the process of planning and executing their foreign holiday that much smoother. Source Questor Insurance

Labour Market Outlook shows employment confidence at its highest level since the 2008 recession according to CIPD Report

The CIPD - Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development  issued a press release today "CIPD Labour Market Outlook shows employment confidence at its highest level since the 2008 recession - With more employers looking to hire, pressure mounts to attract the right talent " 

The CIPD is the professional body for HR and people development. It has over 130,000 members internationally working in HR. In 2013 it celebrated its centenary offering one hundred years of leading HR into the future. 

The press release went on to say "The Summer 2013 CIPD/Success Factors Labour Market Outlook (LMO) survey report, published today, shows that for the sixth quarter in a row, employers expect jobs growth - meaning more openings for job seekers but more competition among employers for the right candidates.

The report shows that the net employment balance - which measures the difference between the proportion of employers who expect to increase staffing levels and the proportion who intend to reduce staffing levels - stands at +14.  This is an increase from +9 in the previous quarter and the highest figure since the recession in 2008. The Labour Market Outlook has shown itself to be a reliable leading indicator of the official employment statistics quarter on quarter and the latest results suggest a degree of optimism we have seen reflected in other economic indicators, most notably Q2 GDP.

Private sector employers remain positive about employment intentions with an increase in the net employment balance from +21 in Spring 2013 to +26 in the Summer 2013 survey.  In contrast, public sector employers are still more likely to expect overall job cuts but here there was also an improvement in the net employment balance (-25 in Summer 2013 compared to -31 in Spring 2013).

However, employers do not expect wage growth to accelerate significantly.  Among those LMO employers planning a pay review in the twelve months to February 2014, the average anticipated settlement for basic pay (excluding bonuses) was 1.7%, unchanged from the previous quarter.   

Mark Beatson, CIPD chief economist, comments: "These results suggest we should see further jobs growth over the summer and autumn and hopefully reflect a degree of optimism about growth prospects for 2013.  This is welcome news for job seekers. The challenge for the increasing proportion of employers looking to hire will lie in finding the right talent to fill their vacancies.  The annual CIPD/Hays Resourcing and Talent Planning survey suggests that turnover still remains low, perhaps because many employees are reluctant to leave the security of their current role for fear that the market dips again, so employers could find fewer ideal candidates around than they might have expected.  

To counteract this possibility, employers will need to be flexible and innovative in their approach to recruiting and retaining employees, and make sure their job offers are attractive to the more confident and active job seekers entering the market. If competition for talent remains high, as our annual survey suggests, employers will also need to think more than ever about ways in which they can grow their own workforces by recruiting for potential and investing in the development of existing employees.

"However, there is still little sign of improved confidence about employment prospects feeding through into pay expectations, which remain below the rate of inflation.  Clearly employers feel they do not need to raise pay to meet recruitment goals and, with turnover low, retention is unlikely to be a pressing issue for most organisations.  However, both these factors could turn as the job market improves and employers need to be prepared to adjust their workforce planning, development and reward practices in response."

Also commenting, James Reid, UK and Ireland Managing Director, SuccessFactors, said:  "Today's highly competitive economy has left businesses not only battling for custom and market share, but also for the acquisition and retention of talent. But an important balancing act must take place when it comes to employing new talent versus the training and development of the existing workforce. Businesses should not focus solely on new talent if they are to keep recruitment costs down and retain the best staff. Positively this has not been lost on business leaders. At SuccessFactors we are seeing a growing interest and investment in employee development and up-skilling across all staff levels outside of traditional HR spend, from e-learning to better on-boarding and performance management."  Source CIPD

So with the employment confidence come the need for manmagement training services. Since 1997 jml Training and Consultancy has been providing management training services to organisations in the UK and overseas. The summer holidays will shortly be over and people back at work after a rewarding break full of enthusiasm, so make sure your workforce is productive by being properly trained.

jml Training offers "in house" courses only. They run a great selection that are tailor made to the individual clients's requirements.

To find out more visit the jml-training.com webbsite today

Sexual Discrimination and Harassment at Work

The Independent on the 2nd March (and on line on the 1st March) ran a feature by Ellen E Jones on "Office relations guide: how to avoid being a sex pest in the workplace"

"It's not just the Lib Dems who are under fire over harassment claims. Organisations everywhere are struggling to respond correctly to issues arising from their employees' sexual urges."

The Indenpendent columnist then spelt out what is and isn't acceptable in the modern workplace. 

 She continued "It seems every workplace in the land is being rocked by a sexual harassment scandal and if even national leaders and heads of giant corporations are so flummoxed by the line between bad office etiquette, behaviour that requires disciplinary proceedings and criminal sexual harassment, what hope is there for the average office dinosaur? Here, by way of clarification, are 10 common scenarios and suggestions on how to navigate "

The full article can be found here  with comments from readers to the scenarios. There is also a link to "Free advice and specific guidance on handling sexual discrimination and harassment at work", however the link is currently not working.

If your organisation is looking for in house training on:

Diversity and Inclusion - Managing Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace


Equality and Diversity Awareness - Managing Diversity in the Workplace - Equal Opportunities in Staff Recruitment and Selection  - Women - Moving Beyond the Glass Ceiling - Understanding Oneself in a Diversity Context - Dignity at Work - Preventing Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace - Ensuring a Supportive Work Environment - Age and the Workplace - Promoting Age Diversity at Work

You need to contact  jml Training & Consultancy. We do not offer open courses, but in house training. Find out more Here