Working Long Hours

Working long hours is no indication of how hard someone works, according to a new survey.

The survey, from T-Mobile and Kingston University Business School, shows that 59% of employers do not think how long employers work is an indicator of how hard they work, while 46% of employers offer no reward to those who work late or more than their normal hours.

Ollie Chivers, head of business marketing at T-Mobile UK, says: "It is encouraging to see that employers are increasingly aware that staff do not need to spend all night in the office to be productive and do their jobs effectively. In fact we've found that people think they are more productive when they work away from the office, and mobile working has a clear role to play in tackling the UK's notorious long hours culture. These findings are good news for all those who already enjoy the flexibility of working outside of the office, and give food for thought to those employers considering how to increase productivity without damaging morale."

Article Source:
BD Recruitment are a specialist recruiter for the internet marketing jobs sector, with a flurry of graphic design recruitment in Manchester and IT jobs in Leeds.

IT Recruiters Optimistic Despite Downturn

The findings from a recent poll conducted by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation were revealed at the recent IT & Communications Sector Group meeting, which was attended by leading recruitment figures from the sector.

It showed that IT Recruiters are still optimistic about the future despite the effect of the economic downturn on the UK Labour Market.

At the groups last meeting in June it showed that recruiters rated their confidence in the market conditions as 7 out of 10. The poll taken more recently showed their was a slight downturn in their confidence to 6 out of 10 but despite this it show recruiters are still optimistic about sectors economic outlook.

The number of workers in the IT sector showed an increase in Q2-Q3 period despite advertised job vacancies falling for the third consecutive quarter according to research conducted by the REC'S 'Demand and Supply in the IT Sector' report.

Jeff Brooks, chair of the IT & Comms Group said: "Business confidence in the sector is generally stable. In most, if not all organisations, IT provides the sinews to make an organisation, operational, stable and productive. Much like the continual need for workers in the healthcare sector, despite the economic outlook, demand for IT contractors is still high. Specialist IT roles are still vital to the company".

ArticleSource:
BD Recruitment are a specialist recruiter for the creative IT jobs sector, with a flurry of web design recruitment in Sheffield and IT jobs in London.

Intricate Detail and a Sense of Humour

A little ditty in Penzance: Photographic Memories is in the Foyer Gallery of the Penzance Arts Club - admission free - Chapel House, Chapel Street, from 10am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday, until December 12th.

LIKE Hamlet, Penzance-based photographer David Carley succeeds in "wiping away all trivial fond records from the table of his memory", leaving only those things that matter in the 16 photographs, mainly black and white studies, that make up his exhibition Photographic Memories, now being held in Penzance Arts Club.

David's images pay tribute both to the Cornwall he remembers from a few years ago and to which he has now returned, and to Europe where has lived and worked in the interim.

The exhibition is dominated by the large Tree – Cornish Blackthorn which he says reminds him of the Ingmar Bergman film Through a Glass Darkly and of the fact that the quality of light in Cornwall is similar to that in Sweden where "the sparseness belays brutality and yet beautiful tranquility, struggles against nature, struggles against the past".

It is the first time David has exhibited his work and it is hard to believe that he is a self-taught photographer.

He believes in the power of "intricate detail", which would be an apt subtitle for his show. This use of intricacy is demonstrated well in three close-up studies of flowers, Lily, Clematis and Rose – in which he uses soft focus to alter the shapes and structure of the petals, taking away the starkness and encouraging something more organic in the compositions – and in Salagou Landscape, in which he concentrates on a fragment detail of this sprawling wild and hot part of the world.

From one end of the spectrum to the other – from the huge, such as his Tree, to these delicate flower studies – this is an aspect of photography which he finds particularly appealing.

His photographs could hardly be more rewarding: from a quartet of studies of the Gothic portal of Chartres Cathedral, with its perpendicular and horizontal jamb statues, to a jewel-encrusted beetle – in which one can all but feel the heat of the sun which has helped weather them – to Number 21, a corner of the small village of St Guilheim Les Desert in the Languedoc, which "pulls everything together, religion, fun and sobriety, and could easily be seen as a homage to the artichoke", his sense of humour adds enormously to the pleasure of his pictures.

Whether looking at the Seagram Building, which he sees as a glass stairway to the heavens; or at the agony and the ecstasy of the Arezzo Cross; at a Thuringer Landscape, with its red-roofed barn; or at a Rugen Island Trabant – two of the few colour shots in his show – his compositions possess the precision and mix of delicacy and strength which are found, as he says, "in the simple Japanese woodcuts of Haku Maki".

As a final word, he reminds us that photography allows no distractions: the focused image takes precedence over all else.

"You can't shove an old tractor (McCormick Tractor) around till it's in a better light. You have to set the scene, be it fun or sombre," he says.

He is to be commended for coming up with a first solo show which is as inviting as it is intricate and as delightful as it is detailed.

Photographic Memories is well worth a visit and can be seen – admission free – in the Foyer Gallery of the Penzance Arts Club, Chapel House, Chapel Street, from 10am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday, until December 12.

Author:
Frank Ruhrmund
This is Cornwall

Age Discrimination Concerns for Employers

EMW Picton Howell, the commercial law firm are warning recruiters and employers of the growing number of job applicants exploiting age discrimination legislation in order to file claims.

There appears to be a growing trend of people applying for jobs whose adverts tend to suggest a certain age range is required. Upon sending their CV and not receiving an interview, they then lodge a complaint on the basis of age discrimination.

Head of employment at EMW Picton Howell, Jon Taylor, said: "These kinds of multiple claims can be worthwhile as employers sometimes decide it will just be cheaper to pay off the claimant to get rid of the claim."

These age discrimination claims appear to be a modern twist on the race discrimination claims, where an applicant would apply for a job separately using their own foreign name and an assumed Anglo-Saxon name. On receiving positive feedback from the Anglo-Saxon named CV only, a complaint would then be lodged.

Phrases in adverts are actually sought out by the applicants, intent on financial gain. Such wording as "newly qualified" or "10 years experience is essential" are clear examples of instances where a claim could potentially be taken seriously should an applicant not fall into this category, yet feel they are capable of doing the job.

Taylor states: "For example, if an employer or recruitment agency advertises for a "recent graduate" it's relatively easy for the claimant to prove statistically that the majority of recent graduates fall with a fairly narrow age range. This will be enough evidence to shift the burden of proof onto the employer, who then has to justify the use of the term if he is to successfully defend the claim."

Any agency or employer must be extremely careful when publishing adverts, so as to genuinely encourage the application of all potential candidates. Some things to consider within the adverts are:

- Actually write a clause at the bottom of the advert stating that age will not be a factor when considering applications.
- Make sure all response to adverts is logged and kept along with a copy of the advert itself.
- Where practical and possible, give explanations to applicants as to why they have been rejected.
- Show vigilance with the language used. Ensure the advert is not biased towards a particular section of society (such as "experienced candidates" or "recent graduates/ trainees").
- Try to advertise across a wide spectrum of media to ensure maximum expose to your market/s.