Business leaders have breathed a sigh of relief after a crackdown on rogue employers of vulnerable workers announced today did not include new laws.
The strategy instead features a telephone helpline for vulnerable workers to report abuses, and a £6m information campaign to raise awareness of employment rights as reported in personneltoday.com.
The Vulnerable Worker Enforcement Forum made recommendations which included representatives from business, unions, recruiters and the government.
Neil Carberry, head of employment at the CBI, said; "This report is good news for law-abiding employers. Britain has a strong framework of employment rights and it is where these laws are flouted that employees are open to exploitation. New laws and regulations do little to tackle unscrupulous firms, who simply ignore the law while they undercut law- abiding businesses. This package of reforms will not increase the burden for honest businesses, but will help protect workers who are being denied their employment rights".
The new Fair Employment Enforcement Board, chaired by the employment relations minister Pat McFadden, will co-ordinate the work of the government enforcement agencies covering minimum wage, health and safety, employment agencies and gang masters.
Among the new measures is the induction of a telephone helpline to report abuses to government workplace enforcement agencies. The Employment Agencies Standards Inspectorate is to be strengthened by doubling the number of its inspectors by the end of July 2009 and have its profile raised significantly, while BERR (The department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform) will also introduce stronger penalties for agency offences. As part of the crack down, agencies are being encouraged to share more information.
Pat McFadden said: "There are still dark corners of the labour market where rogue employers seek to mistreat their workers and more needs to be done to safeguards people's rights. We want to prevent unscrupulous employers who undercut honest competition and prey on people who are fearful or so desperate to earn a living that they are open to exploitation. It is vital we boost awareness of employment rights and ensure those rights are properly enforced".
Author:
Chris Crawford is the MD of BD Recruitment, a specialist recruiter for copywriter jobs, sem jobs and web programmer jobs, based in Manchester, UK.
Monday, 11 August 2008
Re-Think Redundancies
Employers need to retain staff to see out the economic downturn, according to Hull based human resources consultant Rob Coates; The Managing Director of Willerby Hill.
Rob's Comments are supported by a recent study by Deloitte Touche, which concludes that 2008 is the year when there will be more jobs than people to fill them.
Coates claims that staff expertise and skills are needed most during a downturn to see companies through it. He said "Apart from depriving yourself of prized assets that may be vital to weather hard times, you could be delivering competitive advantage to business rivals by letting go high calibre players whose training and development you financed."
"The fact is that, whatever the short to medium-term trends, the UK workforce is aging and shrinking rapidly, with decent staff increasingly aware of their value and far more ambitious. As such, the employment market is more predatory than ever before and businesses should be positioning themselves as top employers in their sector and geographic area so that they attract and retain the best workers."
Yet still it seems that too many companies are taking the knee-jerk reaction of streamlining three vital areas: marketing, training and staff- with the impact of redundancy invariably echoing long after people have departed. As the morale of the surviving staff is then low and they are feeling insecure they then start to seek alternative opportunities – which then in turn leads to more staff losses.
Rob says that even if business is doing well and there doesn't seem to be any plans to make redundancies then communication and transparency are vital in the face of the slowdown. This way everyone knows what's happening around them and they are kept in the picture.
Author:
Chris Crawford is the MD of BD Recruitment, a specialist recruiter for web development jobs, seo jobs and .net developer jobs, based in Manchester, UK.
Rob's Comments are supported by a recent study by Deloitte Touche, which concludes that 2008 is the year when there will be more jobs than people to fill them.
Coates claims that staff expertise and skills are needed most during a downturn to see companies through it. He said "Apart from depriving yourself of prized assets that may be vital to weather hard times, you could be delivering competitive advantage to business rivals by letting go high calibre players whose training and development you financed."
"The fact is that, whatever the short to medium-term trends, the UK workforce is aging and shrinking rapidly, with decent staff increasingly aware of their value and far more ambitious. As such, the employment market is more predatory than ever before and businesses should be positioning themselves as top employers in their sector and geographic area so that they attract and retain the best workers."
Yet still it seems that too many companies are taking the knee-jerk reaction of streamlining three vital areas: marketing, training and staff- with the impact of redundancy invariably echoing long after people have departed. As the morale of the surviving staff is then low and they are feeling insecure they then start to seek alternative opportunities – which then in turn leads to more staff losses.
Rob says that even if business is doing well and there doesn't seem to be any plans to make redundancies then communication and transparency are vital in the face of the slowdown. This way everyone knows what's happening around them and they are kept in the picture.
Author:
Chris Crawford is the MD of BD Recruitment, a specialist recruiter for web development jobs, seo jobs and .net developer jobs, based in Manchester, UK.
Frustrated Employees
According to new research conducted by the global management consultancy Hay Group: one in five UK workers are frustrated in their current jobs. 20% of the UK workforce felt frustrated by their work, while 35% think their job does not make the best use of their skills and abilities and 50% believe that they lack the authority to make decisions crucial to their jobs.
The majority of people at work are aligned with corporate goals and objectives and enthusiastic about making a difference- but they are held back by roles that do not suit them or work environments that get in their way. "Frustrated" employees represent a real lost opportunity for organisations. From a motivational perspective, business leaders have these employees where they want them. Where strong motivation to succeed is not paired with similar levels of support, employees are likely to either tune out or leave.
The report also showed that 56% of senior managers fail to generate a high-performance climate, while 41% thought managers were guilty of creating a de-motivating climate for employees.
Ben Hubbard, regional director (Europe, Middle East, Africa) at Hay Group’s employee survey division, said: "The frustrated employee phenomenon poses a major risk and a significant opportunity. With fierce competition for the most talented employees, companies' efforts to engage their people will be wasted if not backed by a supportive and enabling environment".
According to a report written by hay group there are several ways in which organisations can help beat the employee "frustration":
· Performance Management: By clarifying personal goals and priorities enables performance by allowing employees to focus on essential, value-added tasks. Likewise, by continually 'raising the bar,' ongoing feedback about performance helps ensure that employees are using their full capability.
· Authority and empowerment: Where employees have appropriate autonomy and discretion, they are better able to structure their working patterns to suit the way that they work best. And, by managing how they work, employees are more likely to find opportunities to leverage their skills and abilities fully in their jobs.
· Available resources: An enabling environment requires that employees have the information and resources (e.g tools, equipment, supplies) needed to do their jobs effectively.
· Training: In an enabling environment, employees are provided with job-related training to ensure they have the knowledge and skills necessary to carry out key tasks and deal effectively with internal and external customers. Appropriate training, which can turn potential into productivity, is also essential to ensure that organisations get the most from the abilities of their employees.
Author:
Chris Crawford is the MD of BD Recruitment, a specialist recruiter for creative account manager jobs, marketing account manager jobs and technical project manager jobs, based in Manchester, UK.
The majority of people at work are aligned with corporate goals and objectives and enthusiastic about making a difference- but they are held back by roles that do not suit them or work environments that get in their way. "Frustrated" employees represent a real lost opportunity for organisations. From a motivational perspective, business leaders have these employees where they want them. Where strong motivation to succeed is not paired with similar levels of support, employees are likely to either tune out or leave.
The report also showed that 56% of senior managers fail to generate a high-performance climate, while 41% thought managers were guilty of creating a de-motivating climate for employees.
Ben Hubbard, regional director (Europe, Middle East, Africa) at Hay Group’s employee survey division, said: "The frustrated employee phenomenon poses a major risk and a significant opportunity. With fierce competition for the most talented employees, companies' efforts to engage their people will be wasted if not backed by a supportive and enabling environment".
According to a report written by hay group there are several ways in which organisations can help beat the employee "frustration":
· Performance Management: By clarifying personal goals and priorities enables performance by allowing employees to focus on essential, value-added tasks. Likewise, by continually 'raising the bar,' ongoing feedback about performance helps ensure that employees are using their full capability.
· Authority and empowerment: Where employees have appropriate autonomy and discretion, they are better able to structure their working patterns to suit the way that they work best. And, by managing how they work, employees are more likely to find opportunities to leverage their skills and abilities fully in their jobs.
· Available resources: An enabling environment requires that employees have the information and resources (e.g tools, equipment, supplies) needed to do their jobs effectively.
· Training: In an enabling environment, employees are provided with job-related training to ensure they have the knowledge and skills necessary to carry out key tasks and deal effectively with internal and external customers. Appropriate training, which can turn potential into productivity, is also essential to ensure that organisations get the most from the abilities of their employees.
Author:
Chris Crawford is the MD of BD Recruitment, a specialist recruiter for creative account manager jobs, marketing account manager jobs and technical project manager jobs, based in Manchester, UK.
Tuesday, 29 July 2008
Train to Gain a Government Initiative
The Government is earmarking £200 million for training in key sectors of the economy, such as construction and IT. At the moment the bulk of government funding is aimed at improving the literacy and numeracy of lower-skilled employees through their flagship training initiative, Train to Gain. Employees with low levels of basic skills or who do not have a level 2 qualification can benefit from the independent Train to Gain scheme. Specific funding initiatives are also in place for achievement of management and leadership qualifications and some level 3 qualifications.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) says that if the government is to realise its ambition of raising the nations productivity levels it needs to expand its support to other areas in which recruitment is difficult due to genuine skill shortages. The most effective method would be to provide additional training to internal staff to fill the posts rather than recruit people who do not have the necessary skills.
Employers should be playing their part too. By investing in training they can add to the supply of skilled labour and help combat recruitment difficulties. Employees are more likely to able to progress further in the company with internal training and the amount of employees that would stay with a company would increase.
Another recommendation from the government is that every school leaver should have the right to an apprenticeship by 2013. At present only 6% of employers offer them. John Denham the skills secretary from the Learning and Skills Council said
"An apprenticeship will become a typical choice for young people and adults- at the same time ensuring that businesses get the vital skills that they need. Apprenticeships are at the heart of the country’s economy. They unlock talent and are the key to our future prosperity".
Even with the offer of an apprenticeship scheme the first port of call would still be through LSC'S Train to Gain service.
Author:
Chris Crawford is the MD of BD Recruitment, a specialist recruiter for web designer jobs, account manager jobs and asp .net developer jobs, based in Manchester, UK.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) says that if the government is to realise its ambition of raising the nations productivity levels it needs to expand its support to other areas in which recruitment is difficult due to genuine skill shortages. The most effective method would be to provide additional training to internal staff to fill the posts rather than recruit people who do not have the necessary skills.
Employers should be playing their part too. By investing in training they can add to the supply of skilled labour and help combat recruitment difficulties. Employees are more likely to able to progress further in the company with internal training and the amount of employees that would stay with a company would increase.
Another recommendation from the government is that every school leaver should have the right to an apprenticeship by 2013. At present only 6% of employers offer them. John Denham the skills secretary from the Learning and Skills Council said
"An apprenticeship will become a typical choice for young people and adults- at the same time ensuring that businesses get the vital skills that they need. Apprenticeships are at the heart of the country’s economy. They unlock talent and are the key to our future prosperity".
Even with the offer of an apprenticeship scheme the first port of call would still be through LSC'S Train to Gain service.
Author:
Chris Crawford is the MD of BD Recruitment, a specialist recruiter for web designer jobs, account manager jobs and asp .net developer jobs, based in Manchester, UK.
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
Think Smallest Business First
The Forum of Private Business (FPB) has written to members of both the Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet, seeking support for its 'Think Smallest First' campaign. They are urging senior MPs, including the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, to pledge their support for the UK’s smallest firms first and to consider the impact of the regulation on the smallest businesses at every stage of the legislation process.
Prof Whyman, who has written exclusively for the FPB, refers to small businesses as the "backbone of virtually all economies", quoting figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which show that almost half (47.1%) of the UK's working population – 22.4 million people – are employed by small businesses. In turn, they produce £2, 6000 billion worth of goods and services. He also writes that small businesses have the potential to be more customer – focused than their larger competitors, often operating in niche markets, identifying new opportunities and satisfying market demands that would otherwise remain unfulfilled.
More than 99% of the UK's businesses are small (1 to 49 members of staff); however, the majority employ fewer than 10 employees. The recruitment and Employment Confederation estimates 9,070 of the 11,354 recruitment companies (80%) earn less than £1m in turnover.
Phil Orford chief executive at FPB, said; "It is widely acknowledged that small businesses across the UK are struggling to cope with the increasing burden of red tape and other barriers to growth, such as the UK's disproportionate tax system."
"The key issue is that businesses at the smaller end of the scale most often lack the resources to over come these barriers. Considering the smallest, most valuable firms had to be the number one priority of all politicians when it comes to legislating on enterprise."
Author:
Chris Crawford is the MD of BD Recruitment, a specialist recruiter for the creative recruitment, marketing recruitment and technical recruitment industries, based in Manchester, UK.
Prof Whyman, who has written exclusively for the FPB, refers to small businesses as the "backbone of virtually all economies", quoting figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which show that almost half (47.1%) of the UK's working population – 22.4 million people – are employed by small businesses. In turn, they produce £2, 6000 billion worth of goods and services. He also writes that small businesses have the potential to be more customer – focused than their larger competitors, often operating in niche markets, identifying new opportunities and satisfying market demands that would otherwise remain unfulfilled.
More than 99% of the UK's businesses are small (1 to 49 members of staff); however, the majority employ fewer than 10 employees. The recruitment and Employment Confederation estimates 9,070 of the 11,354 recruitment companies (80%) earn less than £1m in turnover.
Phil Orford chief executive at FPB, said; "It is widely acknowledged that small businesses across the UK are struggling to cope with the increasing burden of red tape and other barriers to growth, such as the UK's disproportionate tax system."
"The key issue is that businesses at the smaller end of the scale most often lack the resources to over come these barriers. Considering the smallest, most valuable firms had to be the number one priority of all politicians when it comes to legislating on enterprise."
Author:
Chris Crawford is the MD of BD Recruitment, a specialist recruiter for the creative recruitment, marketing recruitment and technical recruitment industries, based in Manchester, UK.
Friday, 13 June 2008
Working Time Directive
The Working Time Directive was introduced in 1993 by The European Commission. It limited the maximum working week to 48 hours unless staff requested to work longer. After a recent review, EU ministers have agreed that Britain can retain its opt out of the legislation.
The opt-out has allowed member states to put in place measures allowing individuals to agree not to be subject to the 48-hour working limit. Employees are basically allowed to work as many hours as they wish now but with a cap at 60 hours over an average of 3 months.
According to the TUC, 3.3 million employees currently work longer than 48 hours a week.
John Hutton, Business Secretary commented : "Flexibility has been critical to our ability to create an extra three million jobs over the past decade. That flexibility has been preserved by ensuring workers can continue to have choice over their working hours in future years".
Industries such as catering, hospitality and recruitment rely heavily on this legislation.
Author:
Chris Crawford is the MD of BD Recruitment, a specialist recruiter for the creative recruitment, marketing recruitment and technical recruitment industries, based in Manchester, UK.
The opt-out has allowed member states to put in place measures allowing individuals to agree not to be subject to the 48-hour working limit. Employees are basically allowed to work as many hours as they wish now but with a cap at 60 hours over an average of 3 months.
According to the TUC, 3.3 million employees currently work longer than 48 hours a week.
John Hutton, Business Secretary commented : "Flexibility has been critical to our ability to create an extra three million jobs over the past decade. That flexibility has been preserved by ensuring workers can continue to have choice over their working hours in future years".
Industries such as catering, hospitality and recruitment rely heavily on this legislation.
Author:
Chris Crawford is the MD of BD Recruitment, a specialist recruiter for the creative recruitment, marketing recruitment and technical recruitment industries, based in Manchester, UK.
Tuesday, 6 February 2007
Meta Data Description
Google and Yahoo! SERPs both used my page’s Meta data description; this is fantastic, this is what I hoped for when I spent precious time writing the Meta description.
Unfortunately not all search engines are so kind, MSN and ASK didn’t use my Meta data description, no they used a random selection of text from the page. Well to be honest to them when I say in random they did actually use: firstly the 'h1' title of the page, followed by the text from an anchor link (with my initial search term in it), then the search term again highlighted in ‘bold’; you may think this is all well and good, but it’s not - yes it brings up all the search terms searched for, but in a very disjointed way, and the problem with this is that to your potential customer your page link looks like it was written by someone illiterate (unfortunately this loses trust).
When the Meta description is written correctly giving the potential customer a good idea of what is at the other end of the link – yes let them know and if there’s a cost involved let them know that too – you give yourself a head start; why do you think that Adwords on the right hand side of the screen perform so poorly – there’s hardly any room for a description.
But it’s not all that simple, there has to be more than just an initial benefit for clicking your link, there has to be trust; I like it when I see the company title in the 'title' tag, I also like to see a good clear URL (uniform resource locator); I mean how many times have you searched and found the top five or six positions in SERPs have all got dodgy looking URLs, shady titles, or even the whole thing in bold or capitals – I mean where’s that coming from, it’s like opening your door to a salesman who thinks it’s cool to have dressed up like Leatherface.
So I think we’re getting there, that is Google and Yahoo!, MSN and ASK are just not playing ball at the minute. Where was I, oh yes benefits, a benefit is something essential to get someone to click through to your Website – this is the what’s in it for me situation; we covered trust, if you didn’t quite get trust here it is again – keep your page title, and URL looking sane and of course clean and tidy – it’s bad enough what MSN and ASK do before you really spoil it for yourself. Next it’s the trigger, this is what makes someone think – yes this is for me, I will find what I’m after one click from here, so make them pull that trigger.
So you see why I was so pleased when Google and Yahoo! decided to use my Meta data, they used my advert – and a reasonably lengthy one at 122 characters – an advert which says what I want my customers to read, not a keyword packed jumbled up sentence which will be of no consequence because this potential customer has now gone down a position and clicked on another link.
So no matter how good your SEO (search engine optimization) is it all means nothing if you don’t follow it up with a good Meta description and a clean and tidy link – so remember benefit, trust, trigger and stick with Google & Yahoo!
Unfortunately not all search engines are so kind, MSN and ASK didn’t use my Meta data description, no they used a random selection of text from the page. Well to be honest to them when I say in random they did actually use: firstly the 'h1' title of the page, followed by the text from an anchor link (with my initial search term in it), then the search term again highlighted in ‘bold’; you may think this is all well and good, but it’s not - yes it brings up all the search terms searched for, but in a very disjointed way, and the problem with this is that to your potential customer your page link looks like it was written by someone illiterate (unfortunately this loses trust).
When the Meta description is written correctly giving the potential customer a good idea of what is at the other end of the link – yes let them know and if there’s a cost involved let them know that too – you give yourself a head start; why do you think that Adwords on the right hand side of the screen perform so poorly – there’s hardly any room for a description.
But it’s not all that simple, there has to be more than just an initial benefit for clicking your link, there has to be trust; I like it when I see the company title in the 'title' tag, I also like to see a good clear URL (uniform resource locator); I mean how many times have you searched and found the top five or six positions in SERPs have all got dodgy looking URLs, shady titles, or even the whole thing in bold or capitals – I mean where’s that coming from, it’s like opening your door to a salesman who thinks it’s cool to have dressed up like Leatherface.
So I think we’re getting there, that is Google and Yahoo!, MSN and ASK are just not playing ball at the minute. Where was I, oh yes benefits, a benefit is something essential to get someone to click through to your Website – this is the what’s in it for me situation; we covered trust, if you didn’t quite get trust here it is again – keep your page title, and URL looking sane and of course clean and tidy – it’s bad enough what MSN and ASK do before you really spoil it for yourself. Next it’s the trigger, this is what makes someone think – yes this is for me, I will find what I’m after one click from here, so make them pull that trigger.
So you see why I was so pleased when Google and Yahoo! decided to use my Meta data, they used my advert – and a reasonably lengthy one at 122 characters – an advert which says what I want my customers to read, not a keyword packed jumbled up sentence which will be of no consequence because this potential customer has now gone down a position and clicked on another link.
So no matter how good your SEO (search engine optimization) is it all means nothing if you don’t follow it up with a good Meta description and a clean and tidy link – so remember benefit, trust, trigger and stick with Google & Yahoo!
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