The environmental impact of the workplace
June 30, 2008
There was a short feature on the breakfast news this morning about how organisations need to make changes to the way they impact on the environment. Many people now take more responsibility for things like recycling and energy efficiency in their homes, but this still needs to be transferred into a lot of workplaces. In my organisation, we recycle paper and card board, but that has only really started to take place in the last few months. As the presenter commented this morning; if you go through any city at night time, even in the middle of the night, there are lights on in offices all over the place when there’s nobody there. It was suggested that some places may have cleaners working in the night or people working later in the evening, but I suspect for a lot of the office spaces it is more about the way the building looks with the lights on when it’s dark outside, particularly in a city centre where everything looks trendy and stylish.
On the breakfast programme there was the owner/manager of a business that was trying to change the company culture and working processes to be more eco-friendly, and an eco-auditor that works with companies to do this. The main point they were making was that to make environmentally friendly processes work in organisations, ‘permission’ or buy in is needed from the top, so the boss needs to demonstrate his/her commitment to the eco-agenda in order for this to be properly championed at every level. The auditor said that this needs to be done from bottom up as well, with workshops for staff to change attitudes and develop the culture from within.
A good place to start with this is to develop a report on the areas that can be improved, researching methods of improving efficiency and reducing wastage, and attaching costs to this (any boss that needs convincing on the reasons for developing the report will like this part). The Carbon Trust estimates that an average office wastes around £6,000 per year through leaving equipment on when it’s not needed, but a colleague of mine recently calculated this to around £13,000 for the office I work in!
The report can then be developed into a policy, with sections on the different areas. These sections may cover things like recycling, energy efficiency, and schemes such as car sharing and flexible working to reduce travel (this will also be a popular one in terms of cost reduction for employees!).
The most important aspect of this project however will be the communication of it. This is where workshops or even just a presentation will be valuable. Employees need to understand the commitment the organisation is taking to contribute to the eco-agenda, and as I said before, this needs to be sponsored by senior level management. One good point made this morning was that some sceptical employees may feel that the company is only making changes for reasons of cost saving or profit making, but to counter this an incentive may be included, for example that a proportion of costs saved will be given back to employees, e.g. in a bonus or on a particularly good Christmas party.
For companies that are really serious about their environmental impact, organisations such as The Carbon Trust help businesses reduce or negate their carbon footprint. Also, environmental management standards such as ISO 14001 are a way to systemise your approach to making the company eco-friendly, and in addition the standard allows the company to demonstrate its commitment to sustainability to customers, suppliers or indeed prospective employees. I imagine that in future these kinds of standards will become statutory requirements for businesses as the Government increases its legislative programme relating to green issues. I reported back in February that ‘environmental beliefs’ could be viewed as part of the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003, (which will form part of the Equality Bill in future). So this topic is something that organisations cannot afford to ignore for much longer, for reasons of legality if nothing else.
Controversial new law on discrimination planned
June 27, 2008
Yesterday Harriet Harman announced plans for a new Equalities Bill, expected to be introduced in the next Parliament which starts in November. Whilst some of the plans sounded like a good idea and were welcomed by many, certain controversial elements appear to have caused a backlash from members of the public, if the listeners of Radio 1 and visitors to the BBC website are anything to go by.
The Bill will replace existing pieces of legislation that make it unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of age, sex, race, religion or belief, disability or sexual orientation, which will hopefully make it much simpler for employers to understand and manage this within their organisations.
However, the Bill will also allow employers to use ‘positive discrimination’, whereby staff can be appointed on the basis of their gender or race, if they have the same skills. The idea is that this will increase diversity in workplaces as employers will start to introduce it without the risk of discrimination claims. I think this is the most ridiculous thing I have heard in a long time and I’m convinced it is going to backfire even more than the statutory dispute resolution regulations have done.
With this new law, an employer can choose a woman over a man simply because they want more women, as long as the candidates are similar in ability. But they could also lawfully choose a man if they wanted to, so how is this going to stop those bosses who, like Alan Sugar said a while back, want to only employ men because they think women might drop them in it when they want to have a baby? The answer is, it’s not going to stop them at all. And how are employers going to prove that the candidates they were choosing between had equal abilities? Yes, they can show the criteria they used for selection but I can imagine a huge grey area over how similar they need to be and I think that lots of employment tribunals will take place because of this point. There are always ways in which you can distinguish candidates because you measure them on various areas relating to the job and some will be better than others when measured across the board.
We’re being told constantly that there’s a ‘war for talent’ and we need to concentrate on finding and developing the best people to make businesses prosper in these difficult economic times. Surely we just want the best people possible then, regardless of who they are, where they’re from or how old they are? There are definite business reasons for having a diverse workforce, but I think trying to force this at the expense of millions of people who will just feel let down and disadvantaged themselves is not the right way to go. What might be more useful is guidelines from the Government about how to recruit and retain top quality staff from any background without discriminating, and better promotion of the diversity agenda, with information resources and other schemes. I know these things already exist but surely putting some sort of statutory commitment to these arrangements would be a better starting point than introducing yet more confusing and potentially damaging legislation? Also, if we’re trying to make sure men and women have equal opportunities for a career and salaries, then why is it still only women who can take a year’s maternity leave?
I don’t know what the answer is to the gender pay gap and inequality of opportunities for all people, but I’m just not convinced that this part of the Equalities Bill is it, and from comments I heard on the radio yesterday and the ‘have your say section’ on the BBC, I don’t think I’m alone in my opinion. There were lots of great comments to read, but I think my favourite one was this:
As an old woman from an ethnic minority I would like Harriet Harman’s job. I should be allowed to have it as I’m old, a woman, and also from an ethnic minority so I score on all points. I have no qualifications however but neither has she by the sound of it!
This is typical of many of the comments so far, so although the Government may be well-meaning in this development, they don’t seem to have communicated it well enough to win over the people that matter – the voters.
What do you think of this legislation? I’d be really interested to hear other people’s thoughts.
Time management training activity (2)
June 26, 2008
Yesterday I was describing the time management training I recently delivered in my organisation. This is another technique to help organise your time that I came across in my search for better time management tools:
The urgent/important matrix
Even people who use a diary or task list find that their time is too stretched or that they cannot manage it effectively. These are common ways of organisation and time management, but they don’t necessarily distinguish what is important, urgent or what is ‘nice to do if you have time’. One way to classify tasks in this way is to use an urgent/important matrix, as shown in the diagram below:
We all probably spend a lot of time on tasks that are (seemingly) urgent, but this means that we are sometimes failing to focus on those that are important as well. At work we need to be efficient, but we also need to be effective – and the important tasks will make us effective contributors to the business. Another good way to think about this is to consider the tasks you have in relation to your performance reviews and any objectives that have been set (if you have them). If you analyse the tasks in this way you should be prioritising activities that contribute to your performance outcomes.
Box 1 will contain tasks that need doing immediately, such as dealing with emergencies and fire fighting. You need to evaluate each task and decide on its urgency in relation to others, discussing this with the person who asked you to do it if needed. In this box should also be projects that were previously in box 2 – that you have planned in time to complete and on which the deadline is now closing.
Box 2 has the important tasks that need to be done to make you an effective contributor to the company. A lot of the time these tasks get neglected because of ad hoc requests or emergencies, so they need to be planned carefully and time scheduled to complete them – when this time arrives they become a box 1 task. These sorts of tasks will include research, strategic thinking, planning, large projects (which can be broken down into manageable chunks that can be scheduled).
Box 3 has tasks that really don’t need to be completed by you, are unnecessary requests from others, or are pointless tasks that just get done because you have always done it that way. This is probably the hardest box to manage because it requires being diplomatic and sensitively rejecting requests from others (who may be your boss!). The best way to do this is to have a visible plan for your time and showing this to the requester, then probing them as to what really needs to be done and why. It’s up to them to negotiate with you for your time! Good time managers recognise unnecessary routines and make changes to them.
Box 4 does not contain tasks that you would consider need doing, but you need to recognise that you do these things so that you can work out how to stop them. Things like daydreaming, excessive cigarette breaks, net surfing and email conversations will go into this box. The best way to avoid these activities is to have a detailed plan/schedule for each day so that you know what you are supposed to be doing and won’t be tempted to drift off, which could be discussed in another section of the training session.
A good idea for a workshop session would be to ask attendees in groups to discuss and note different daily activities they do in each box. Then they can discuss how to drop the activities in boxes 3 and 4 and effectively manage to achieve those in box 2 as well as the day to day urgent tasks.
Tackling the time bandits!
June 25, 2008
In my role as a HR professional, I have many different demands on my time, as I’m sure all people in the profession have. Recently I’ve been having a think about my time management skills, which I realised needed to be brushed up as I was often struggling to complete all my daily tasks, despite using a diary and my email system to organise my workload. I came across a few good hints and tips in my search for self improvement, and recently turned this into a workshop for employees in the business. If you’re responsible for these kinds of responsibilities for your company, the activities I carried out might help you.
I started by asking who thought they were good at time management, and why they thought so. I then asked who thought they were poor at it, and why. Most people were in the middle somewhere, i.e. they thought they were ok but could improve. We discussed the point that people tend to be very good at time management on the day before they go on holiday, and why this is so. The main reasons are of course that you are more focused, you have no choice but to do what needs to be done and you manage to turn the pressure into a positive thing rather than panicking over it. We discussed how this approach can be turned into a positive thing in every day working life rather than just before a holiday.
Time bandits
The first activity I did was called time bandits. It was basically a brainstorming session where every attendee at the training was asked what was their main time ‘bandit’ – i.e. the thing that steals their time. The main culprits included poor systems, clients and other members of staff. We then all gave ideas about how these things could be reduced – i.e. the time ‘sheriffs’. The session was good as it highlighted some important issues that need to be addressed within the company, which can now be taken forward as ‘projects’ or further discussions within teams or in management meetings.
Tomorrow I’ll go over another useful exercise for time management workshops.
Making sure virtual offices work
June 24, 2008
A while back I commented on the benefits of virtual offices as a way of working flexibly in locations outside of the office environment. However of course with all working arrangements there are drawbacks, and the concept of the virtual office does provide a few issues for HR when implementing the scheme. However, with careful planning and effective management, these issues don’t have to become a headache and it is possible to enable the arrangement to work exceptionally well if you take the time to consider what will stop it succeeding and how you can overcome this.
So what are the drawbacks to a virtual office arrangement? In any working arrangement, there are the positive and negative aspects, and for some employees the benefits of having the flexibility in where they are working can be reduced by the loss of social contact with other employees that is gained when working in an office environment. The road can be a lonely place when you’re on it alone for a long period of time. Other drawbacks include the difficulty of line managers to supervise, manage performance and provide support to workers who they do not see from one week to the next. There’s also a large amount of trust needed between manager and employee for this arrangement to work effectively, and managers who like to know what their staff are up to all the time will find it very difficult to adapt to these kinds of alternative working methods.
So what steps can organisations take to ensure the virtual office doesn’t fail in its early implementation stages? A virtual office policy would be a good place to start, as this would set out specific needs and actions to be taken by employees and managers operating with these arrangements. The policy would need to include provisions for regular meetings between employee and manager or ‘virtual’ teams, in order that the employee working flexibly is able to receive suitable support, training and performance management from their manager, and so that the sense of team spirit and team working, so important for many organisations, is not lost. Careful consideration must be made to the virtual office arrangements in performance management activities as it will obviously be more difficult to measure objectives when there is less contact. Objective setting should be based on easily measurable ‘outputs’, for example sales figures or customer feedback, and time should be allocated for the manager to observe actual performance so that the ‘inputs’, i.e. the employee’s sales technique, presenting skills etc can also be measured.
To combat the isolation factor, virtual office working can be a part time option for employees; no arrangement needs to be on an ‘all or nothing’ basis. This is where hot desking can be useful; so that employees who work half or more than half of their time in virtual offices in other locations do not need a costly permanent desk at head office but can have one available if needed.
Clearly, there are a few issues to consider when looking to introduce virtual office arrangements, however this should not be a reason to avoid the scheme altogether. If managed properly, giving due consideration to the possible pitfalls and resolving these issues prior to the start of the scheme, then the virtual office can be of great benefit to both employer and employee. With virtual office arrangements all over the country available from specialist providers, it is possible to have the best of both worlds with minimum effort.
Do you work in a virtual office environment? Have you met any of the problems highlighted above and how have they been resolved?
Staff involvement in the NHS
June 23, 2008
I was visiting a relative in hospital yesterday, and I noticed on one of the notice boards that the NHS Trust was operating a staff involvement scheme through the use of employee ‘communications champions’. The purpose of these champions is to ensure that information is passed effectively between senior management and front line staff on the wards, and that staff are able to make suggestions where appropriate.
The types of activities that the communications champions carry out are maintaining the notice boards, such as printing and displaying global emails, organising regular meetings in the ward or department to share important information, attending champions meetings and keeping an eye out for good stories to be passed onto the communications team.
These types of schemes are a fantastic way of getting staff involved in very large organisations where communications can be a challenge, especially in a hospital environment where staff work shift patterns and may not all have access to electronic communications such as email and intranet. Where I work this is not such a big problem as it is a 9-5 environment and there is a manager within each department that attends management meetings and can therefore pass information between staff and executive level. However in both scenarios, the structure is only as good as the person responsible for managing communications. The notice I saw in the hospital didn’t say, but I imagine that communications champions receive support and training in their role to ensure all wards and departments receive the same level of communication, and likewise it shouldn’t be assumed that just because someone is in a management position they are automatically capable of skills such as team briefing, presenting or summarising. Part of any communications plan needs to be the development of those responsible for carrying it out, and this is where HR has a role to play.
Retail register for dishonest staff
June 20, 2008
A new register has been set up that is intended to assist retail companies reduce losses incurred by dishonest staff, which apparently costs the industry up more than £2billion a year from things like theft and fraud. The register has been set up by a partnership between the Home Office and The British Retail Consortium called Action Against Business Crime (AABC), and organisations such as Harrods and Selfridges are said to have already signed up.
The register, which went live at the end of May, will contain information about people who have left employment in the retail industry as a result of actions they have taken that could cost the employer money. So this would include people who have been dismissed, or those who left of their own accord but were under suspicion of an illegal act concerning money. It doesn’t take a genius to work out the problems with this scheme before it’s even got off the ground, and it’s no wonder Human Rights Groups and Trade Unions have already expressed their concern about the database. It’s completely at odds with the ‘innocent until proven guilty’ concept because of the inclusion of people who haven’t actually been dismissed for anything. Also, the statutory dismissal procedure, which should ensure that staff members get a fair hearing if they are accused of misconduct and involves a detailed investigation, does not apply to staff who have not had a year’s continuous service. So there may be occasions where staff have been dismissed without a fair investigation, and then end up not being able to get another job because they’re on the register.
Another important point is the management and policing of all this highly sensitive information. We’ve hardly gone a month this year without a Government ‘lost information’ cock up, and there have been major problems in the past with a similar database; that of the Criminal Records Bureau.
Clearly, AABC needs to try to do something about the issue of retail crime, but I don’t think this database is the right answer. Retail giants have a variety of ways in which they tackle shoplifting and other crimes by the public, and I think the money and time invested in this database would be better spent working with retail chains to come up with ways of adapting these methods for employees.
Light bulb moment! Keeping a candidate pool.
June 19, 2008
At the moment, recruitment is a high proportion of my job, and finding suitable candidates for lots of different roles at once is quite a challenge. I’ve just read about a great scheme that Nestle have used to enable a faster recruitment process and save money at the same time, and it might be something that I will look into in the near future. The Head of Recruitment for the global food company created an area on the company website that potential candidates could register interest for a variety of roles, some of which were not yet available, and then suitable candidates were kept ‘warm’, for as long as a year in some cases, until the roles became vacant. This led to Nestle saving £50,000 that they would have spent on agency fees. This scheme sounds like a great idea to me, and could certainly work in many organisations, although for smaller companies in industries that are less well known it may be that getting the candidates to the website in the first place is the difficulty, and this is why many companies end up using recruitment agencies to source people who are perfect for the role but have never heard of the company.
Eco cars lead to new jobs
June 18, 2008
What was I saying the other day? When the strikes by Shell tanker drivers started I commented on how I would put all my money into energy efficient and environmental vehicles if I were a budding entrepreneur. Well, today I’ve just found out that Jaguar Land Rover is launching a big recruitment drive for up to 600 new employees, most of which will be highly skilled engineers building new cleaner, more eco-friendly cars. This move comes not long after the massive takeover by Indian giant Tata.
This is certain to be the emerging pattern of the next few years, given the cost of fuel and the probable continuation of industrial disputes in the industry. I filled up on petrol yesterday and the price was astronomical. At least a further strike has been avoided as a pay deal has been reached between the tanker drivers and their employer, Hoyer UK and Suckling, although the actual value hasn’t been publicised yet, but is due to be later today. The union, Unite has said they have got everything they were looking for in the deal. It just goes to show the power of the collective voice!
Record breaker may lose her title!
June 17, 2008
A while back I wrote about a record breaking discrimination claim by Gill Switalski for up to £19million, and it was indicated at that time that the Law firm F&C Asset Management that she worked for looked set to appeal against the decision that she had been discriminated against, bullied and harassed. Well the latest from this case is that in the appeal which is currently going ahead, evidence has been put forward that may indicate that Switalski was in the process of securing a new high flying job whilst claiming that her career was over due to the treatment from her employer. It is claimed that although the lawyer couldn’t attend disciplinary hearings due to ill health, she went to three job interviews for a job with Royal London. If it turns out that Switalski loses her case because of this evidence, then her career will probably be over anyway, and it would be a very high profile and embarrassing situation to deal with. I will look forward to the outcome of this case with fascination!