National Express adds to nation’s job cuts – a blow to good marketing

National Express added to nationwide job cuts yesterday with cuts of 314 staff announced at its East Anglia franchise. The total includes 72 vacancies which will now not be filled, said the Transport Salaried Staffs Association.

The biggest chunk of these jobs occurs in the NE’s call centre – 94 jobs in all, of which 21 will be transferred to a call centre at Norwich station, and this is perhaps symptomatic of our times – that as economic gloom hits, it is our services that will feel the pinch first.

But does this mean endless queuing to get through to a customer service operator, or is it simply that National Express overstaffed in the first place, and that these cuts were inevitable and will not impinge on National Express’s customer satisfaction experience?

The fact that the remainder of the cuts are in administrative positions gives a clue – that as usual it is crucial to employ staff according to customer demand.

This is one of the basic principles of marketing – providing a good customer experience is part of developing a company’s product image to its maximum potential.

But whatever you may think about National Express’s image, the fallout of these losses will be felt keenly by consumers. For years we have been complaining about hosting call centres in Asia, but this news implies that a British firm has found UK-based call centres too expensive to run, despite proven added value for customers.

Meanwhile, cuts elsewhere at Avis, Logica, Deutsche Bank, Legal Aid and ITV suggest even tougher times in the UK jobs industry ahead.

 

4 of 10 employees want a new job

A recent survey by Investors in People has highlighted that 4 of 10 employees are looking to leave their current job within the next six months; of these employees 43 percent of them revealed that they felt unmotivated in their current role !

44 percent of respondents claimed that they were demotivated and that their managers were not fully supporting of their career growth.

Simon Jones, chief executive said “This research reveals a worrying picture, not only because such a significant proportion of UK employees are demotivated, but because it suggests that valuable employees may be heading for the door.”

If you’re one of the 4 in 10, why not try looking for sales jobs from BMS-UK, our recruitment partner.

 

Interim Executive Management jobs are a popular career choice

Interim Management is a career for those who enjoy a job with challenges and for those who like change. The very nature of an interim management job will require an interim manager to possess both of these qualities.
An interim manager, often called an interim executive will be subject to a variety of challenging, enhancing and intensive experiences with exposure to different industries, products and processes, organizational structures and cultural styles.
An interim management job typically will bring a greater choice of working hours from part-time or full-time work to the flexibility of home working or on site. Organizational politics tend to be less of an issue for an interim manager as they are not a permanent employee.

Interim Management in the UK is now worth an estimated £1bn in terms of the value of fees spent on interim managers. Furthermore, there is a growing trend for interim managers used in more strategic leadership and change management jobs rather than just for short-term gap filling. Reasons for this increase include savings in time and money, important in any business.

Government change has introduced new initiatives and targets that many departments have struggled to cope with. Interim managers address this shortfall and are being used to support and mentor delivery teams through a process of change. Interim managers bring in experience and clarity to high-pressure situations, providing guidance and direction for organisations coping with change.

In days gone by, external agencies and consultancies helped with this shortfall but high costs and disappointing results put many organizations off using them and are now far less popular.
The main difference between what an interim manager can offer as opposed to using external consultancy is experience. Interim Executives are experienced executives who join the senior management team to help the organisation meet targets. Interim managers influence from within rather than the consultancy model based upon external advice. An interim manager will become part of the organisation providing clarity and guidance that can have an immediate impact.
Speed and cost of hire are significant factors, particularly in the cost-conscious public sector as with many businesses. Interim managers will fit into the team quickly without the expensive recruitment process normally associated with hiring at a senior level.

An interim manager will be required to hit the ground running, complete their assignment and then leave. With fees that typically ranging between £500 and £1500 a day, interim managers can often be far more cost-effective than external consultancies.

The different types of job roles that interim managers are being hired for reflects their growing versatility. HR still remains the single most common job function with more than 1 in 4 of interim managers but interim managers are increasingly being used within finance, marketing, IT and senior board-level positions.

Interim management is often incorrectly perceived as a reactive response to organisational failure. It appears that a new breed of interim managers are emerging who have transferable leadership skills that can be applied across all sectors. The implication is that the interim management industry is evolving to become a profession in its own right.

 

Caterer.com Release News Portal

I have been looking at a lot of job sites over the past few weeks, hence why i haven’t posted (plus i been busy in real life). I have been on some good sites i have been on some bad sites, but i thought that this was a really nice site when i found the press release for it. This was how i got to the site.

Press Release has been linked here

While browsing through the hospitality news website it lead me onto  a job board site called caterer.com. This website was really nicely laid out. I had my suspicions that it looked similar to a site that i had seen before and by golly it did! Secretarial Careers had almost the same site, or caterer was similar to Secretarialcareers. However all was well because I also noticed that the 2 sites where part of the Total Jobs Group.

All in all this site is really well designed too. I have put it as a perma link on my blog roll for you all to enjoy

 

What a morning. Blinding sunlight finding its way through the narrow streets and giving a radiant, optimistic glow to what felt like the beginning of a really good day. After a cold and damp winter this was spring coming in with all guns blazing. Walking to the bus stop with the park on one side of the road, and gleaming white regency buildings on the other, was my wake up time, and since I’d started skipping coffee for this fast paced stroll, this kind of weather certainly did the trick.

I take a bus from here on into the city. 10 minutes of to-ing and throw-ing but it’s rarely crowded and mostly leisurely, especially as it gives me time to send a few texts and set up any potential socialising for after work. As a secretary working in a large yet friendly firm I’m fairly unstressed most of the time.

But it makes me wonder sometimes whether I should climb up some sort of career ladder, whether I’m just hiding from any more challenging roles. Working through an agency gives me a lot of freedom, or at least gave me a lot of freedom flitting from place to place with no long term office politics to deal with and things like that.

I pick up a PA jobs section from a newspaper that someone’s left behind on a seat in front of me, and skim through. I’d like to apply for a permanent position, but I’d definitely need to train for new skills. Most ‘proper’ secretarial jobs require a range of abilities and knowledge that sometimes you can’t always learn from just any secretary job.

But the glorious weather has inspired me. I think about the qualifications I do have, and how to build on them. The bus swerves round a corner – somebody’s eager – and I slide along the seat a little. I think of last year’s skiing holiday and the sunshine on the mountains. What a relief it is after those gloomy winter months to finally get some decent weather, and it’s so much more profound in the city when it’s like this. Puts everyone in a good mood.

Careers advice is hard to come by in the work place, and it’s kind of weird for me to just ask for something without offering something in exchange, but I do need some sort of challenge in my job that’s going to be worthwhile and build on what I can do so far.

I’m nearly there now, and from the bus stop it’s just a hop skip and jump from the gleaming office block off the main street. I’m all set for the day. I’m still holding that newspaper jobs section so I tuck it under by arm – don’t want to give my office manager the jitters – they’ve come to rely on me but then again, there’s always the possibility they’d take me on permanently.

 

Just to let you know…

I am still around its just that work and some of my other blogs have been taking all my time away from this one. To be perfectly honest i don’t actually have any interesting news at the moment. Although i have been looking into some other blogs and found some fairly good ones, I have posted them below for you, they are a bit like mine but have much more content and have been around much much longer, hence why i was checking them out  looking for some sort of inspiration of where to go with theis site in the future. Im actually thinking of moving it to another blogging platform cause WordPress is rubbish.

Any way i am going to stop ranting now because it bores me so i am sure that its boring you. Have a great weekend and ill see you Monday!