Social Media and our Changing World

Ok so we know that Social Media’s here, but the statistics and evidence this presentation on You Tube evidences really might surprise you.  It certainly goes a long way to demonstrating why we all need to get with the Social Media revolution.

 

Sit back turn up the volume and enjoy!

 

Social Media in a Changing World

November Newsletter

It’s that time again. Read all about Recession-busting tips for Recruitment success here:

November Newsletter

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Best wishes

Michelle Fischer
Director
Creative-Leadership.co.uk

Train travel between the South Coast and London 5/12/09 – 10/1/10

Many of you may wonder why I’m writing a post about train travel! Helping people get to where they want to go being a very loose metaphor here..! However as someone who regularly travels to London from the south coast by train to client sites, I was interested to learn of proposed work that will affect travel in December and January and thought you might be too.

In short, if you’re planning to travel through Southampton between 5th December and 10th January this will in some way affect you. It seems that there will be major work to a bridge in Southampton that will impact off-peak travel adding at least half an hour to your journey time. At weekends and between Xmas and New Year there will be severe disruptions and in some cases no train service.

In every situation I’d advise you read more here: http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/SWTrains/News/_southampton+tunnel200910.htm

I hope this helps you get on the right path to where you need to go.

Best wishes
Michelle Fischer
01202 853647

What do you value most at work?

I watched an interesting presentation today which talked about the changing face of work values.

Conducted by a well-known HR consultancy, the report outlined that people value their relationship with their manager or boss more than trust, purpose, challenge etc and over and above hope and stability.

I’m intrigued to know your own views to this, so have created my own poll. I invite you to take it here:

http://polls.linkedin.com/p/61050/jsjmw/

Latest News – Our first newsletter

Check it out and sign up if you’re interested in Talent Management:

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We’re trialling software from Mailchimp to those of you interested in dabbling with newsletters yourselves. So far so good…

SHL’s new OPQ32r

If you use psychometric tests or personality measures at work there’s no doubt that you’re familiar with SHL’s OPQ32 personality measure, which has been around since 1984.  It’s a tool that we at Creative Leadership have provided extensively for various clients in recruitment and outplacement and recommend for it’s robustness in validity and reliability.

Yesterday SHL launched their new version – the OPQ32r.  They claim it “significantly improves the OPQ32 and revolutionises workplace personality assessment by using the very latest techniques to make it faster, easier to use, more powerful and more precise”

In conjunction with SHL we’ve taken a quick peek and can elaborate on some of the key areas you might find of interest:

Time to complete: The test is less time consuming to complete – rather than taking 40 – 45 minutes to complete it should now only take candidates 20 – 25 minutes.

Outputs: Remain the same and indeed there’s some discussion by SHL that the validity is in fact more rigorous!  The proof will be in the pudding I guess.

Simplification of Candidate Interface: Interesting to note that this is a generic change to all SHL tests (MQ/CCSQ etc) and they purport the interface for candidates is easier to use and more intuitive.

Dyslexia-friendly: There is a function to allow more time for those people who suffer with dyslexia

Price: Remains the same.

There are of course many other products which assess personality, behaviour, motivation, judgement etc etc in the marketplace (we also work with Disc, Myers Briggs, Thinking Styles, The Judgement Index, Factor 5 to name a few…!)  It all depends on what you need.

If you’d like us to help you understand what would work best for you then we invite you to a FREE CONSULTATION.  Simply call us today on 01202 853647 or email info@creative-leadership.co.uk.

In our view this latest move by SHL to focus on the candidate experience is a big step forward in the psychometrics world, and we’re looking forward to watching how things progress.

For more information about the new OPQ32r take a look here: http://www.shl.com/Campaign/Pages/JointheRevolution.aspx

Employment Law Update – Changes that affect your Talent Management

If you’re an employer or HR representative responsible for Talent Management in your workplace, here’s a round up of the latest changes in Employment Legislation that you should know about:

The National Minimum Wage Regulations 1999 (Amendment) Regulations 2009

Effective from 1 October

What does it mean?

These regulations implement the annual increases in the National Minimum Wage hourly rates. The main rate will increase from £5.73 to £5.80. The development rate (for workers aged 18 to 21) rises from £4.77 to £4.83, and the youth rate (for 16- and 17-year-olds) from £3.53 to £3.57.

Impact:

The government estimates that nearly one million workers will be affected by these increases. Because the rises are so modest it thinks the net cost to employers will be negligible, as average earnings are likely to show a larger increase.

Gillie Scoular, partner, Mills & Reeve

Work and families (Increase of Maximum Amount) Order 2009

Effective from 1 October

What does it mean?

The maximum weekly amount for calculating unfair dismissal and redundancy payments increases from £350 to £380. The limit is normally adjusted each February in line with the RPI and this has always led to a rise. The current RPI would, however, most likely have led to the limit remaining the same or falling to £340.

Impact:

The limit of £380 will remain in place until February 2011. This increased level of termination liability will have an adverse financial effect on employers who are struggling more than ever in the current economic climate.

Kate Holbrook, associate, Dechert

Data Protection (Notification and Notification Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2009

Effective from 1 October

What does it mean?

Under a new two-tier structure public authorities and private organisations that have been in existence for more than one month, have annual turnover of at least £25.9m and have 250 or more employees (Tier 2 organisations) will be subject to a £500 registration fee. The previous flat fee of £35 will still apply to all other, Tier 1 organisations. Charities and small occupational schemes will always fall into Tier 1 regardless of size and turnover.

Impact:

The aim is to ensure the fee structure is fairer, reflecting the resources invested by the ICO in regulating larger organisations. It will result in a significant increase in fees for these larger organisations, with a particular impact on group companies where there is often more than one data controller within the group.

Catriona Aldridge, solicitor, Dundas & Wilson

Tips: National Minimum Wage Regulations 1999 (Amendment) Regulations 2009 prevents tips being included in minimum wages

Effective from 1 October

What does it mean?

This will change the way that tips, service charges and tronc payments are treated for NMW purposes. Troncs operate where tips are centrally pooled and then distributed by an employee appointed as troncmaster.

Impact:

Employers will not be permitted to take into account any gratuity payments paid to workers when assessing whether the NMW is being paid, irrespective of whether they are paid directly to the workers, paid by the employer through its payroll or paid through a troncmaster. Employers should therefore ensure that their basic wages rates comply with the NMW without any service charges or gratuities being taken into account.

James Williams, partner, Archon

Police Act 1997 (Criminal Records) (NO 2) Regulations 2009,

Effective from 12 October

What does it mean?

The regulations make changes to the process of issuing certificates by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and introduce a new Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS). The latter scheme was established under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 (see below). The VBS will become the first centralised system for those working with children and vulnerable people.

Impact:

Employers and those working in the voluntary sector therefore will have to carefully review and identify who carries out tasks that could be covered by the VBS. They must ensure they carry out enhanced checks now and that any new employees, those moving jobs and volunteers will be ISA registered.

Pam Loch, founder, Loch Associates

Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006

Effective from 12 October

What does it mean?

The Act introduces a centralised vetting system for people working with children and vulnerable adults. The new Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) will be operational from 12 October 2009. Employees and volunteers will need to apply to register with the ISA and will be assessed using data gathered by the Criminal Records Bureau. Only ISA-registered persons can undertake regulated activity, involving frequent or intensive contact with children or vulnerable adults. Employers who employ an unregistered person could be imprisoned or fined up to £5,000. Registration and checking will become mandatory in November 2010.

Impact:

Employers need to review their recruitment procedures to ensure that the necessary checks are carried out and to prepare for vetting all their existing staff. In addition, employers will need to put in place policies governing the information which will be provided to the ISA. The biggest potential problem with the ISA is likely to be delay. In 2004 a backlog of CRB applications caused chaos in the education and childcare sectors. The introduction of the ISA could see this repeated on a larger scale.

Mary Clarke, employment partner, DLA Piper

If you’re worried about how these changes might affect your business, call us for a free consultation today on 01202 853647 or visit www.creative-leadership.co.uk.

Source

Personnel Today:  www.personneltoday.com

Crystal Gazing: The Employment Horizon

The latest employment figures will be announced shortly and it is predicted that unemployment will have reached 2.5 million lives. To pre-empt this the CIPD has given their assessment of what this means for the UK labour market:

It seems that this time round unemployment has not kept pace with the overall fall in production, unlike the downturns of the 80s and 90s. Had it, it’s estimated that we may have seen figures beginning with 3 million… The CIPD’s chief economist John Philpott put this mismatch down to the willingness by the country’s employed population to accept reductions in incomes for everyone over job cuts for some. He termed it the Shared Pain Recession.

There are three forecasts from the CIPD about how the country will emerge from the current recession:

★ Jobs-loss recovery
Weak economic growth leading to continued redundancy and lack of confidence, a possible further dip in the stock market and a climate offear and uncertainty. Should this be the case the CIPD anticipates unemployment to continues to rise to a peak of 3.5million in the next decade, with no return to pre-recession employment levels for the next decade.

★ Jobs-light recovery
Modest economic growth supported by a corresponding balance between redundancy and recruitment for a period of time and a gradual increase in job creation, returning to pre-recession levels after 2015.

★ A Jobs-lined recovery
Seeing sustained growth and demand enabling an increase in demand for a more flexible labour market and creation of jobs and employment with a predicted return to pre-recession job levels by 2012.

Philpott predicts
The current altruism employees are showing by taking the pain of the recession together will not last forever. Should more prosperous times return quickly, workers will return to a more selfish attitude about work.

If we slide into a jobs-loss recovery, employees will eventually become disengaged and their willingness to be flexible about pay and working conditions will melt away. According to Philpott, this is a finite resource.

What Creative Leadership thinks
In order to survive this latest employment trend and be successful, businesses will require creative Talent Management strategies that address communication, resourcing, reward, development and succession planning.

Should your business fail in this regard you will inevitably face the consequences. This could include; increased resignations and sickness, disengaged employees, increased disciplinary and grievance procedures (and possibly subsequent employee tribunals) and most worryingly a decrease in the productivity of your business.

If you’re worried about how this might affect your business, call us for a free consultation today on 01202 853647 or visit www.creative-leadership.co.uk.

Sources
CIPD: www.cipd.co.uk
BNET: www.bnet.co.uk

Twenty Years…

I read a rather poignant quote today which I thought might resonate for many of us:

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor.” (attrib Mark Twain)

This leads me to ask myself:

What’s stopping me from doing what I want to do?
Is that really stopping me or is it something else?
How’s that helpful?
What’s really possible here?
How can I achieve my dreams?

I’ll leave you to fill in your own gaps and remembering that you’re a long time regretting the things you didn’t do…

Latest News – ChangePaths

Some changes are afoot here at Creative Leadership.

Sign of the Times
As well as helping businesses with recruitment, these days much of the work we’re doing is helping many of the same businesses with redundancies and outplacement (career and job coaching) too.

We’ve seen the way the job market works shift completely during the Credit Crunch with fewer opportunities available, much less reliance on recruitment agencies and more people looking for work. This more hostile job-seeking landscape is a very difficult place to navigate for those people who find themselves out of work.

It’s unsurprising that those people we’ve worked with, who have an insider knowledge of recruitment and resourcing, have been able to secure the jobs they want within a very short period of time. They tell us how much they’ve benefitted from the support that an outplacement programme has given them and ask could we help their friend with interview tips…a relative with job application advice…their partner with their CV etc etc… Basically we’ve been getting lots of approaches from people who want help getting another job.

Most of the time we’ve been able to say yes, however up until now we’ve only been able to do this rather haphazardly, with an eye on the work we’re doing for our business clients.

Ch..Ch..Ch..ChangePaths…
Haphazard is not something that someone out of work needs. They need real solutions that are available, affordable and individually applicable to them. Also, it’s only a lucky few individuals who work for organisations who offer outplacement or the wholesale advice provided by generic job websites or recruitment agencies.

But how to do it without compromising the work we already do? We thought long and hard about this and came up with loads of ideas. We tried a few new things. Canned a few others. Eventually we decided that the solution was to create a wholly separate entity trading under Creative Leadership, but only used for our work with individuals. We’re calling it ChangePaths.

It’s from ChangePaths that we offer various services including CV writing, help with job applications, Interview coaching etc. It’s also from ChangePaths that we’ll be continuing with our career workshops and Job related blogging.

It’s early days and there’s much to do not least getting our blog up and running (this will be it’s first post at www.changepaths.wordpress.com), and the new website www.changepaths.co.uk

We thought about waiting but then we reckoned that what would the point be to that? If you need our help with finding a job it’s important that you know we can.

So if you want to move forward with your job search give us a call on 01202 853647 or email us at changepaths@creative-leadership.co.uk.

Oh and we’re offering the first 10 individuals who approach us quoting reference WP649L a 10% discount on a CV review. Now there’s an incentive…