StaffNEWS Winter 2009
In this issue Business wins Spotlight feature Success across the country New opportunities in EEF EEF awards Supporting members ‘Out of office’
welcome Welcome to the Winter issue of your staff newsletter. In this issue you can meet the new Head of I&R, and learn about the new EEF awards programme. Learn what happened when EEF met Gordon Brown in Liverpool, or which HSCE adviser races bikes around Europe. Read up on the latest wins in the business, and how new career opportunities in EEF can lead to relocation, relocation, relocation…
Single EEF, single recruitment EEF has a new partner to manage recruitment, CPH consulting, who will have a dedicated team working full time from EEF offices.
Trent training Account manager, Matt Hynes, will be splitting his time between Birmingham and our other offices, while Jana Pienaar-Josifkova will be primarily based from Birmingham.
“Recruiting through a single agency will be far more cost effective.” Matt and Jana, who both have extensive experience in direct recruitment, report to CPH Service Delivery Director Jerry Wright, who will typically be working from an EEF office one or two days a week. The CPH team will be working with EEF HR business partners to support recruitment activity. “Recruiting through a single agency will be far more cost effective than working with a number of agencies and will ensure a higher calibre of candidate.” said HR Director Caroline Gumble. She added, “CPH Consulting has been very successful in building and managing direct recruitment models for its clients using a combination of advertising, online databases, networking sites, referrals and recommendations, and targeted headhunting”. Said Matt, “We have been getting to know the EEF business, understanding exactly what you are looking for in potential employees, and we’re looking forward to building a very successful partnership.”
Jana Pienaar-Josifkova Matt Hynes
Employment act encore Hot on the heels of two sell-out Employment Act seminars delivered in November, Jeff Neild, HR & Legal Leader at Warrington, gave the end of year income a further boost by focusing team effort on delivering a third event in December. Jeff worked with Jo Britton, Marketing Manager in the north west to develop a targeted approach followed-up by a call made by Hollie Linfoot, the HR & Legal team trainee administrator. HR & Legal advisors also made members aware of the event during normal day-to-day contact. A further 44 delegates were signed up in a week for the final event, bringing the total for the three seminars to 150 and a total income of £31,500. Said Jeff, “We can all spot opportunities and maximise them. If we can find out what keeps our members awake at night, we can then offer them a solution they are willing to pay for.”
Business wins
Mapping out our successes It’s a tough climate out there – for our members and customers. But businesses still want to hear the story we have to tell, now more than ever. In a year of upheaval and restructuring, 2008 still saw solid growth. Membership increased by 8%, adding 115 net new members. All other services like training and consultancy (excluding MAS) increased business by 4%. And how have we been doing over the last few months? Here are some of the highlights around the business…
Unilever has brought its PG Tips business in the north west into membership, worth about £12k. It has been so impressed with the HR&Legal service it’s now getting from us, Unilever is talking about holding its monthly management meetings in our Warrington office, so more staff can benefit!
Business has been brisk in the south east, where Fin Meccanica has bought £15k of HR consultancy from us in the last few months, before also buying a package of HSE consultancy too. Zotefoams too has signed up for £17k of MPD training, while Anglian Windows will be benefitting from £15k of HR&Legal training.
Woodland Grange has agreed £40k of training through an ongoing three day 'Control of Contractors' course with Coca Cola Hellenic across their plants in Europe and Africa. The team there is also finalising details of Senior manager training for DHL starting in March.
Food and drink manufacturer Tulip Meats in the south west has signed up for around £19k of HSCE and MPD training, including diversity, discipline and grievance, managing people.
EEF’s north west training team has built up a close working relationship with ABB over the last four years, delivering £250k of training in that time. ABB has now requested a national training contract with EEF and we are now its preferred supplier for soft skills training. This year, 2500 ABB staff will be able to book appraisal-linked EEF training via their own intranet.
In the Midlands, Cobham Advanced Composites is a FTSE100 aerospace engineering firm, with a number of government defence contracts. Originally a target of the regional advocacy campaign last year, it has just brought its multi-site, high-tech business into membership.
Rexam is a multi-national packaging company with worldwide sales of £3.6Bn. Its three UK factories have been members of EEF through the Sandy office for several years but in October 2008 we managed, with the help of the HR&Legal team, to get the London Head Office into membership as well.
CS Ellis is a midlands-based logistic business, family owned for the last three generations, which has recently signed up for membership. Its family owner is potentially joining his regional council.
Newcastle-based food and drink manufacturer Ringtons has brought its 100-year old business into membership, having opted for EEF over its previous legal supplier Peninsula. 26 sites are now in membership, including its tea-selling retail outlets.
Huge success for the north east region, winning nearly £100k business from Sheffield Forgemasters for IOSH training for their 800+ strong workforce.
We brought Sheffield-based Thornton Precision into membership recently, which supplies precision forgings, castings and machining to the orthopaedic, aerospace and power generation industries.
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Spotlight
Spotlight on Michèle Fordyce, Head of Information & Research In our Spotlight feature in this issue, we talk to Michèle Fordyce, who joined us at the end of November 2008 to head up the I&R service. Michèle has specialised in knowledge and information for many years and has spent 23 years in the City working within law and investment banking, before she joined us. What difference do you think it will make to EEF to offer Information & Research as a single service line? I think coming together nationally will add huge strength to EEF’s Information & Research capability. We have a great deal of unique data collected via our members and the ability to combine this with external research tools gives a powerful I&R offering to manufacturing across all regions.
Creating a single national team and a standardised approach will enable us to do that. I am looking forward to developing the service in regions where we have been less ‘hands on’ until now and also to working more closely with the other national service lines. I am hoping I&R will truly add value to EEF’s membership offering.
What have we got planned for our members? There’s a lot of competition in the I’m also looking closely at our members’ information sector, but we have the needs. There is ample opportunity to advantage of providing I&R as expand our service in support of part of a robust manufacturing; one and respected immediate benefit would “I am keen to encourage membership and develop a knowledge be to do more at director organisation. We level. Other organisations culture at EEF” hold an incredible offer directors’ pay and amount of national compensation but they manufacturing data particularly in don’t focus on providing specifics to relation to employment trends, pay and manufacturing and we are being asked compensation, but we also have strength by members to fill this gap in the market. in our relationships regionally to be able to service members’ needs going forward There is of course opportunity to offer and provide more innovative and I&R services outside of our membership targeted research. and we are starting to look at how we can work effectively with public sector and What are your priorities at academic institutions. the moment? I’m getting to know my team and seeing With my background in knowledge and where our strengths are. I would like us to information services, I am keen to be more consistent in the service we offer, encourage and develop a knowledge at the moment this varies from region to culture at EEF. The huge amount of region. We also need to be more focused internal data that we have needs to be and diligent in the way we collect data managed and organised so it is widely from members. accessible and can benefit people within EEF in all parts of the organisation.
Michèle’s CV She spent 10 years with Herbert Smith, one of the top six international law firms, and more recently, two years at Citigroup as Global Head of Knowledge and Information Services. “In that environment, demand for data is high and the quality of output has to be good, you have to produce work to the best of your ability.” At Citigroup, Michèle managed an offshore facility comprising 60 researchers in Mumbai and had knowledge coordinators across the world in Sydney, Hong Kong, London and New York, “I’m very used to working with geographically spread teams,” she says. “The challenge of the post at EEF attracted me. I was looking for an opportunity to work outside the City but it had to be a role that was right for me. The great thing about EEF is that it’s well established and respected, it’s also growing and changing and presents a fantastic opportunity to work in an organisation which is looking to the future.”
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Success across the country
“Advantage – members!” within member companies and reach beyond the employer to their employees, helping to strengthen the value of membership.
through a tender process. All the packages negotiated are bespoke, tailored to our members specific requirements.
Under the Membership Advantages scheme which launches in April, we have negotiated some unique membership packages across a range of services such as insurance and employee benefits, with more planned for the future.
“The medium-size companies that we represent are simply not big or powerful enough to negotiate the terms that we can,” said leader of the programme, Kathy Riley. “We represent 6,000 businesses with one million employees and this allows us to get exceptionally good deals that you couldn’t buy as an individual employer.”
“The programme will help us retain members and also attract new members outside of our traditional strongholds of HR and health, safety and environment,” said Kathy. “We have a list of potential services we would like to offer and welcome views on whether people think these would benefit our members.”
What are the advantages for our business? Membership Advantages will help us develop multiple touch-points
Market research is undertaken to select the benefits that members really want and the best suppliers are identified
Contact Kathy on 07767 220070 or kriley@eef.org.uk for more information
We are harnessing the collective buying power of our members to launch a new range of benefits that will help member businesses attract and retain staff and make a real difference to their bottom line.
What will members get? Insurance
Employee benefits
Directors and Officers’ Insurance Providing tailored protection with preferential rates for members
Personal Accident cover Providing tailored protection with preferential rates for members Dental, optical, scanning, physio, GP helpline and Trade Credit Offering employee assistance Providing support and programmes (Cash Plan) placement of risk with a Healthcare plans that offer number of providers via cash benefits and valuable a specialist broker health services Environmental *Childcare vouchers Impairment Liability Providing preferential rates Insurance – Preferential rates for bespoke on Childcare from an ethical provider cover tailored to meet *Bikes for work scheme members needs Working exclusively with Halfords – one of the most robust and compliant schemes in the market *A range of salary sacrifice schemes that allows both employer and employee to save money on tax and NI
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Get your hands on a grand CPH Consulting is re-launching the EEF Employee Referral Scheme (ERS), which rewards you for recommending quality people to the recruitment team. If any individual that you refer to us – provided that he/she has not been approached by us in the previous twelve months – is subsequently employed by EEF, you will receive a ‘Referral Bounty’ of £1,000 gross. This will be paid with your salary at the end of the month in which the referred new employee starts work. The best bit? There is no limit to how many you can earn! A referral can be made by passing either a name and telephone number and/or a CV to our recruitment team – Matt Hynes – mhynes@eef.org.uk 07507 600 262 Jana Pienaar-Josifkova – Jpjosifkova@eef.org.uk 07956 671 989 Referrals are required across the board, including leaders and managers, business developers, experts and specialists, whether it’s someone you’ve worked with or know by recommendation or reputation. Any questions, contact Matt or Jana.
New Horizons The new EEF can provide us all with expanded career options – opportunities around the country for people to progress in their careers, move sideways to a new region or even change direction completely. “Of course it was possible to change regions before the restructure, but now there is greater visibility of where the jobs are and there is more commonality between job roles and responsibilities across regions,” said Head of HR Caroline Gumble. We speak to three people who have made the most of the new opportunities offered by a single organisation.
Gary Watts, Commercial Business Development Manager, South West Region Moving regions to the south west from south east proved a double bonus for Gary. Not only was it a job he wanted – but it meant he would be working nearer to home. “I live in Swindon so I was commuting over to Hook and working all over the South East. I was there for eight years and there wasn’t a lot of chance for further career progression. So when the vacancy came up in the South West I jumped at it. I know all the businesses in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire really well, which is now my patch. “It’s working out really well as the team in Bristol team are great to work with. There’s been a lot of strategic planning to do, looking at how we develop the area and identifying the type of companies we should target. We’re now starting to work on our own areas and there are some good prospects coming along.”
Darby Allan, HSCE leader, Midlands Region The HSCE role in the Midlands gave Darby a second bite at the cherry, as he had missed out on a similar role at Woodland Grange, where he was based. “When I first saw the job in the Midlands region I didn’t go for it because I assumed it would be spoken for, but that turned out not to be the case. I think the message is that if you see a role in another region, you shouldn’t assume it will go to someone already in the region. I went through a very rigorous selection process, the purpose of which is to get the best person for the job. “I’ve changed from basically a sales role as a business development manager to HSCE Leader, where I can use my leadership and organisational skills, plus use my HS&E skills more directly, which I really enjoy.”
Steve Jackson, Midlands Operations Manager Steve was one of the early pioneers in moving regions to progress his career. In 2002 he moved from EEF Sheffield to East Midlands to take up the reins as Head of HS&E. The following year he was then promoted to head up HS&E in the newly amalgmated East Midlands and Mid Anglia operations. Now he is running the Midlands operations team, and has, as he puts it, “…hung up my HS&E boots. I’m moved from being a deliverer to a full time manager! “Sheffield was a small Association so in order to progress you had to leave or move to another region. Not many people were moving between regions at that time but now it’s completely different. It’s easier to see where the opportunities are and the job roles and responsibilities are similar, so it’s much more of a level playing field.” Of his new role Steve says, “I absolutely love it. It’s hard work but we’ve got a big job on to bring together the two former Associations. We’re now the largest region with over 850 members and 60 staff.”
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New EEF awards coming soon…
Celebrating our sector – the very best in manufacturing EEF is launching a high profile national awards programme that celebrates the very best in UK manufacturing. “It’s time for the UK manufacturing industry to get the recognition it deserves as the true engine of economic growth and a hotbed of innovative thinking,” said Marketing Manager, Sue Curtis-Davison. “The awards will be a great way of showing what EEF is all about to a wider audience.” The EEF Future Manufacturing Awards will be open to members and non-members. As well as giving manufacturers a well-earned pat on the back, they will provide a host of opportunities for consolidating relationships with existing members and recruiting news ones. Said Sue, “The awards will give regions plenty of opportunities to get closer to their contacts through identifying award-winning projects and encouraging members and prospects to enter.”
“The awards will be a great way of showing what EEF is all about to a wider audience.” The plan is for there to be five regional finals with the winners in each of the three categories – Enterprise, Innovation and the Environment – going forward to a grand national final. At the grand final, all the award winners will be in with a chance of claiming the ultimate accolade, ‘Manufacturing Achievement of the Year’. The awards will be launched in March with a media and direct marketing campaign – signposting potential entrants to web microsite from which information about the awards and entry forms can be downloaded. To find out more about the awards and how you can get involved, email Sue Curtis-Davison at scurtis-davison@eef.org.uk The EEF Future Manufacturing Awards will recognise outstanding achievement in three key areas (with additional apprentice awards being finalised now): Enterprise – The Business Growth Award – The Skills Award Innovation – The Innovative Working Practices Award – The Innovative People Practices Award Environment – The Climate Change Business Opportunity Award 6 – The Environmental Achievement Award
Risky business Risk assessments may not be the first subject you’d choose to base a drama on, but actors taking part in a training workshop brought the subject alive for audiences earlier this year. The risk assessment training workshops were organised in partnership with the HSE and run at ten regional offices throughout England and Wales. Two actors played the parts of a manager and an employee asked to prepare a risk assessment. “We had very positive feedback from the sessions and people particularly liked the actors and the mix of presenting styles during the rest of the day,” said H,S&E Adviser Steve Walter from the London office, who provided the framework for the workshops. “The drama helps to get people engaged straight away. And as part of an interactive session with the actors, the audience is invited to suggest ways of improving the outcomes.” Around 350 people attended the workshops, many of whom were from non-member companies, providing a useful opportunity for regional offices to develop contacts.
Supporting members
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Influence in the right places The representation side of our business can be a valuable benefit to member businesses – but what do the team who work in the external affairs team actually do? The current economic downturn has brought the importance of manufacturing to the UK economy into sharp focus. The external affairs team sees evidence of this in their efforts to influence the business environment on behalf of members.
External Affairs has direct links with members through Regional Councils. Through these forums, small groups of members are updated by advisers on topics such as the economy and upcoming legislation. In turn they talk about the issues affecting them. “Their input is invaluable in helping us shape policy’” said Steve. The department also runs individual policy committees for members in specialist areas, such as employment law, the economy, health and safety and skills.
“We have very good access to policy-makers – MPs, MEPs and agencies such as the Environment Agency and the HSE – and they are open to suggestions of how things can be made better for manufacturing,” said Senior External Affairs Adviser, Steve Coventry.
An awareness of new legislation and its implications for manufacturers puts EEF in a good position to develop new services for members. “If it’s a compliance issue, such as flexible working, then we can provide a service that tells them how they will be affected and what they need to do,” said Steve.
Knowing what members are thinking and experiencing is, of course, vital to being able to represent their interests. “We work closely with colleagues around the business who talk to members every day and this gives us lots of valuable intelligence,” said Steve.
Where they work External Affairs have representatives in each of the English Regions and in Wales, as well as a team of three based in London and an adviser in Brussels. “A lot of key decisions are now made at a European level so it’s important we maintain links there,” said Steve.
New resource for members External affairs advisers are contributing to our new business support resource Reality Check – you can see it now at www.eef.org.uk/realitycheck It will link up our influence work with our products and services, providing daily analysis on the tough economic situation from our economists and policy advisers, with the rest of the site acting as a helpful signpost to EEF services and external resources which can help members.
Away day bonds new team Newly-appointed Midlands Operations Manager, Steve Jackson, took his new management team off site for a day to get to know each other, share ideas, and make sure everyone was signed up to the region’s 2009 business plan. “It was the first time we had all met up so it was a good way to get to know each other and it really helped bring the team together,” said Steve.
Employee benefit As a single organisation, we can develop relationships with suppliers and retailers which can benefit all our people as well as our members. The first such employee benefit is with leading womenswear brands Jacques Vert, Windsmoor, Precis Petite and Planet. EEF employees get an exclusive 20% discount* in store and online across all four brands. To redeem your discount: 1. In store: simply take a proof of employment to your nearest stockist and a copy of your newsletter including the promotional code detailed below. 2. Online: The full range of styles is available from its various websites. Simply make your choice and at payment checkout, and enter the promotional code EEFDISCOUNT Offer is valid until 25th April 2009. Offer is valid in Planet, Précis Petite, Windsmoor, Jacques Vert stand alone stores and concessions in leading department stores excluding John Lewis. See website for full store listing. The 20% offer is not restricted and can be used on multiple occasions. Not to be used in conjunction with any other offer. * Valid on all merchandise including sale items.
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Purple patch
Bish Bash Nebosh
December 2008 saw the culmination of 18 months of training for Woodland Grange’s middle management and supervisory management by Learnpurple, the hospitality industry’s leading management training organisation.
Woodland Grange recently celebrated the completion of its 10th NEBOSH International General Certificate course in Brunei, run with partner Megamas.
Twelve managers and supervisors of Woodland Grange’s venue business took part in the training ranging from ‘Budgeting & Forecasting’ and ‘Manage & Motivate’ through ‘Coaching & Feedback’ and ‘Sales Through Service’.
As a part of its international business, Woodland Grange and Megamas were the first to conduct the NEBOSH IGC in South East Asia. Since the first course in December 2004, the programme has been seen as a landmark in setting new standards in safety training.
Certificates awarded are accredited by the Institute of Hospitality, the industry’s leading professional organisation and this is the only course to be recognised by the Institute of Hospitality.
Colin Preston, Senior Tutor at Woodland Grange has delivered these highly successful courses since the first in 2004. “This is a great course to run. The delegates are keen to learn the basics of health and safety practice. It is good to know that together with Megamas, we really are making a difference to the standards of health and safety competency in Brunei.”
Woodland Grange will be continuing the training with Learnpurple into 2009.
New audit system for HSCE 2009 will see members being offered a standardised Health, Safety and Environment auditing service across the whole of EEF.
John Herbert
Health and Safety and Environmental auditing is to be a key part of the offer of the HSCE service line. The team will be using the HASTAM Chase auditing package (badged as EEF's own), which allows them to audit with key drivers including issues such as corporate manslaughter legislation. “The new system includes recognised management systems like ISO 140001 and allows us to analyse data from a multiple
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number of sites, and then benchmark. Standardising across the business brings the members real benefits, like consistent reporting and data across all their sites”, explains the project’s leader, John Herbert (pictured). Initially it’s to be used on laptops but potentially PDAs at later stage, and it will be used internally to audit our own business. All consultants should have access to the software by April, and have had a training opportunity. If you have any questions about EEF’s new audit service please contact John Herbert at jherbert@eef.org.uk
What do you get up to when your ‘Out of office’ message is on?
Singing the blues. And opera. And jazz… Working full time for EEF as a legal secretary and administrator at the Bristol office hasn’t stopped Sarah Allen making the most of her talents as a trained singer. Sarah studied at the London College of Music, successfully graduating from the Professional Performer course. She performed in several operas, including Dido and Æneas and Turandot and taking the part of Carmen in Carmen, before deciding that life as a full time professional singer wasn’t for her. “I decided to come back to Bristol and perform in my spare time, raising money for charity,” said Sarah. A concert at the internationally-renowned St George’s in Bristol, a former church famous for its excellent acoustics, raised over £2000 for St Peter’s Hospice.
Since then Sarah has performed in venues and private houses in and around Bristol in a variety of styles. “I’m quite versatile, I do jazz and contemporary as well as classical. I like doing private soirées, weddings and christenings – it’s quite a niche market.” If you’re in the Bristol area on Saturday 9 May, Sarah will be performing at the Bristol Folk House singing ballads and show tunes. “It’ll be me and a pianist and should be great fun.” If you’re interested in booking Sarah, you can contact her on 0117 906 4811 or by email sallen@eef.org.uk
Fun on two wheels Burning rubber on two wheels may seem an unusual hobby for someone who advises on safety for a living, but Senior HSCE Adviser Gary Latimer says it’s all about managing the risk. Gary, based at the Hadleigh office in Suffolk, is the proud owner of a dedicated track bike (capable of 190mph) which he races at circuits all over the UK and, more recently, in Europe. “Before you even start riding at a track day there is an obligatory health and safety meeting. Riders are then divided into three groups, novice intermediate and advanced so you’re with people of similar experience and bikes of the same capability. The great thing about track racing is that there’s nothing coming the other way!” .
A curtain call with a difference Beth Le Gresley, who runs the Engineering Connections website at the Technology Centre, wasn’t expecting to be part of the show when she went to see boyfriend Alex Howell perform at a local theatre… At the end of the play at the Aldridge Youth Theatre in Birmingham, Alex told the audience he’d got an announcement to make. “I was sitting about half way back when the spotlight went on me and I thought, ‘Oh no, what’s he doing?’” said Beth. Alex went into the audience and brought Beth back to the front of the stage, where he proceeded to go down on one knee and propose. “There were a few expletives when he came down into the audience. I was quite embarrassed but he was more nervous than I was, he was absolutely shaking. “But I did say yes.” The story made it into local papers in the West Midlands, including the Birmingham Post and is to feature in That’s Life magazine. Beth and Alex, both 23, have already set the date for April 2010.
Last December, Gary spent four days racing on the Cartagena circuit in Spain. “It was my first European racing experience and it was an amazing experience,” he said. 9
Trent training is tops
Severn Trent Success What’s the link between a bunch of flowers and £110k? The answer? A huge training project between the team in the midlands and Severn Trent Water.
including in an ‘Employee Relations’ course, designed to improve working relationships and create the right environment for good employee relations across the company.
One of the biggest successes of last year’s ‘Big Brains’ marketing campaign was the conversation it enabled us to have with this utilities business.
Severn Trent were particularly interested in using actors and an approach called Forum Theatre which they had seen great success with before (see the box out)
As one of our top targets, Severn Trent’s Policies Manager received our Neil Atkins, Training & Development personalised ‘Big Brains’ mailings Executive at the Oakham office, last spring, accompanied explains. “I have a good deal of by a bunch of experience with flowers to ensure “This is a collaborative this approach and that the message approach across the Midlands style and so Jenny got to the and I met with with both the MPD Team at right person. Severn Trent again Oakham and the HR & Legal to begin to put a When he got in proposal together. team in Birmingham touch with us to providing trainers and talk about how we Once this had been facilitators for the course.” might help his accepted by Severn business, the lead Trent, the proposal was handed on to Malcolm Green in was developed over a number of pilot the Birmingham office. In turn, sessions into the ‘Managing Employee Malcolm helped set up a meeting that Relations’ programme that we are summer for Jenny Owens and now providing. Lynne Pownall with Severn Trent. The initial 32-course programme, The utilities business presented a attended by 24 delegates at a time, number of key elements they wanted began in October and will continue
Interim BIS arrangements plug the gap Following the closure of EEF’s business improvement service EBIS, interim arrangements are being put in place while a new business model is being defined for this area of consultancy. Currently the only business improvement schemes offered by EEF are the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) team in the south east as well as the team delivering MAS in Yorkshire and Humberside, where these teams are still able to support member activities. Said MAS and Manufacturing Services Manager Phil Brownsord, “Any large contracts outside of the south east or Yorkshire and Humberside that require the 1 10
until April when the programme becomes a regular offering for Severn Trent managers. Neil Atkin
Neil Atkins explains, “It has been delivered right across the midlands, from the Welsh borders to Leicestershire and has a total value of approximately £110,000, making it one of the biggest single pieces of work we have undertaken. In addition feedback from both Severn Trent and the delegates themselves has been excellent.” EEF training isn’t always in traditional ‘classroom’ style. For example, in addition to the theory elements and group work, one of the key parts of the Severn Trent programme is Forum Theatre. This is an interactive demonstration where two actors play out a scene between a manager and an employee and the audience then have the opportunity to make improvements and change what they see. As well as being a great way to learn, this also sets the scene for the rest of the course in which the delegates tackle difficult employee-related issues including absence management, grievances and discrimination.
setting up of a delivery team will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. “At this stage we don’t have an economically viable option outside of those areas to deliver small pieces of work. Instead the aim is to refine our relationships with the Regional Phil Brownsord Development Agencies and point our members towards MAS where this is appropriate.” Phil will be rolling out a revised business support package in 2009, which will clarify the services available in each region and when they start. In the meantime should anyone have any questions you can contact him at pbrownsord@eef.org.uk.
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Wired for success A course to update electrical engineers on wiring regulations run by our Technology Centre in Birmingham recently celebrated its 150th successful student. The City & Guilds-backed course is the update from the 16th to the 17th edition of the wiring regulations, which involves some significant changes. It has attracted member and non-members employees from design engineers to domestic electricians. The course is run as a day release over four consecutive Wednesdays, followed by an online exam. “It’s a demanding course but the feedback we have is that students prefer day release approach to evening study and our success rate is much higher,” said Business Development Leader, Jeff Matthews.
The only female electrical engineer to so far attend and pass the new wiring course is a former apprentice from the EEF Technology Centre, Sonia McKeown who works for Goodridge. “Sonia was an excellent student and in fact changed to electrical engineering after she qualified. Sonia is an example of how the EEF Technology Centre continues to support people throughout their careers,” said Jeff.
A tale of two cities (and a visit by the PM)
Star performance by Warrington team generates new business leads
The Cabinet Office’s visit to the north west in January provided two opportunities for EEF and its members to get up close to senior government figures.
A team of north west’s HR & Legal and HSCE advisers were one of the star attractions at the Business North West Conference and Exhibition held in Manchester in November
Region Director David Ost attended a meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and around 40 private and public sector business leaders in the unusual venue of Newz Bar, owned by Liverpool FC’s Jamie Carragher. David was accompanied by Alberto Bertali, Vice President of the Hoover Candy Group and acting chairman of the NW Regional Council. Meanwhile, Andrew Semple was invited to a cosier gathering of 12 business leaders over at the Lowry Centre in Manchester with the other PM, Peter Mandelson, Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform.
The visit was the third Cabinet Office meeting to be held outside of London since September last year, part of the Government’s move to find out first hand what is happening in the regions. Said Andrew, “Most of our discussion was about debt, the credit crunch and the role that Government could and should play in persuading the banks to get lending going again,” said Andrew. “Another hot topic was the congestion charge scheme, which was recently rejected by voters in Greater Manchester, although Lord Mandelson thought the debate wasn’t done yet.” Earlier Lord Mandelson had announced a £35m start-up programme for the north west region to help get new companies off the ground.
Says Jo Britton, Marketing Manager for the region: “We set out to raise EEF brand awareness and to generate as many leads for new membership and consultancy work as possible. The team worked really hard at preparing and delivering a top-class seminar programme designed to create leads and opportunities for new business. We are delighted with the results. The event attracted around 10,000 visitors over the two days and over 500 delegates attended EEF’s fully-branded World of Work Theatre. From the event we converted 144 into leads which the business development team are now busy following up.”
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Learning without boundaries EEF Technology Centre is extending learning opportunities outside of its walls with the creation of a virtual learning environment. The online learning facility will give students access to digital resources such as training videos, Powerpoint presentations and text books via home PCs, laptops or other portable devices. It’s been made possible by a £50,000 Learning Innovation Grant from the Learning & Skills Council (LSC),
administered by the Association of Learning Providers (ALP).
what kind of work the students are involved in.”
“We also hope it will become an interactive social network for the whole centre,” said Graham Cowan, Quality Leader. “Students will be able to join forums to discuss aspects of training with tutors, instructors and their peers.
The system is due to go live in time for the next academic year in September.
“Staff will also be able to get remote access to documents while they’re out and about and even employers and parents will be able to log on to see
High interest in low carbon event Business opportunities for UK manufacturers presented by the move to a low carbon economy was the theme of a conference organised in the north east at St James’ Park in Newcastle last November. The event brought together around 150 senior managers and directors from businesses across the region to learn about the kind of opportunities that are available and how to access advice, guidance and financial support from EEF as well as a range of agencies. Speakers at the high profile event included our CEO Gilbert Toppin and David Thomas, the recently appointed Deputy Director of the Low Carbon Unit, part of the Department for Energy and Climate Change, with representatives from the Regional Development Agency, One North East, National Energy Action, The Carbon Trust, and the Technology Strategy Board. “The event had a practical focus, with delegates also being offered one-to-one sessions with experts,” said Greg Ward from our Washington office, who organised the conference.
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