News Feed | Elizabeth Michael Associates http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/ http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/report-into-graduate-recruitment-suggests-skill-shortages/157 EN Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:00:00 -0530 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/report-into-graduate-recruitment-suggests-skill-shortages/157 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/employment-law-shake-up-revealed/153 EN Thu, 24 Nov 2011 09:00:00 -0530 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/employment-law-shake-up-revealed/153 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/agency-workers-get-greater-work-rights-from-1-october/148 EN Fri, 30 Sep 2011 09:00:00 -0530 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/agency-workers-get-greater-work-rights-from-1-october/148 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/how-to-have-an-honourable-resignation/144 including Fraser Nelson of the Spectator, believed he was was doing it for all the right reasons. Davis later regained his seat but has still yet to regain his place in cabinet. But, away from politics, perhaps the biggest resignation in living memory was the abdication of King Edward VIII. On 10 December 1936, the king signed away his right to the throne in the name of love. His chosen partner, Wallis Simpson, was not only an American, but an American divorcee. Unacceptable to the powers that be, the choice was eventually either give up Simpson or give up the throne. They remained married until Edward's death in 1972. While many choose to go quietly, others refuse to go without making their views known. And few ways are more obvious than making that resignation on air. In 1993, Radio 1 DJ Dave Lee Travis chose to make his resignation public on his radio show. He was upset about the way the station was heading and there were rumours that he was going to be pushed out in a station re-shuffle. "Changes are being made here which go against my principles," he said. He was not the first British radio presenter to resign on air. Radio Lancashire's Terry Durney, known as Terry the Post to his colleagues because of his parallel career as a postman, picked his moment in 1991 to voice his discontent about the station moving towards more discussion-based programming. 'Downward spiral' Resignations have sometimes been used as a kind of protest, something that has become increasingly common over recent decades. Journalist Stephen Pollard inserted an obscene acrostic message to new owner Richard Desmond in his last leader column for the Daily Express. But the stunt led to a job offer at the Times being withdrawn. Fellow journalist Richard Peppiatt resigned from the Daily Star, saying he was tired of making up stories and arranging for his resignation letter to be printed in the Guardian. The Daily Star said he couldn't resign as he was only a "casual" in the first place, and suggested he had become disgruntled at not getting a staff job. "March 1 was going to be the day that I did it," Peppiatt says. "Partly because it was the day I got paid, I wanted to make sure I got my expenses for the last two months and my wages. For about 30 seconds [after sending it], I was uncontrollably sobbing. You hadn't just burned your bridges, you'd gone back and strafed them for good measure." If a resignation is not done quickly, the negative attention can damage someone's career permanently. But sometimes, when faced with pressure to go, those in the firing line - or more correctly in the resignation line - think that carrying out the job they are meant to do is the only honourable thing. Former FIA president Max Mosley was facing pressure after a newspaper revealed his participation in a sado-masochistic sex session with five women. Despite a wave of criticism, he decided to stay in his post until the end of his term. "There are situations where you're in charge, it's not your fault but you have to resign," he says. "I think if there'd been a big accident in Formula 1, with part of the car going in the crowd or something serious like that, I would have felt probably I ought to resign or at least offer my resignation. "If I had resigned, I don't think it would have been an honourable resignation, I think it would have been a cowardly resignation because I'd done nothing wrong. I hadn't done something I shouldn't do, which is when you should resign. This was something to do with my private life."  ]]> EN Tue, 02 Aug 2011 09:00:00 -0530 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/how-to-have-an-honourable-resignation/144 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/pay-is-the-key-reason-for-changing-jobs/142 EN Wed, 27 Jul 2011 09:00:00 -0530 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/pay-is-the-key-reason-for-changing-jobs/142 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/your-cv-is-a-vital-marketing-tool/139 EN Thu, 07 Jul 2011 09:00:00 -0530 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/your-cv-is-a-vital-marketing-tool/139 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/28-people-chasing-each-new-job-in-parts-of-city/138 EN Wed, 06 Jul 2011 09:00:00 -0530 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/28-people-chasing-each-new-job-in-parts-of-city/138 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/agency-workers-regulations/113 EN Tue, 17 May 2011 09:00:00 -0530 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/agency-workers-regulations/113 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/redundancy-rules-could-be-relaxed,-says-government-/108 EN Thu, 12 May 2011 09:00:00 -0530 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/redundancy-rules-could-be-relaxed,-says-government-/108 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/2-business-development-executives/95 cvtemp@elizabethmichael.co.uk.]]> EN Fri, 08 Apr 2011 09:00:00 -0530 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/2-business-development-executives/95 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/50-office-speak-phrases-you-love-to-hate/67 Lucy Kellaway's campaign against office jargon. Here, we list 50 of the best worst examples. 1. "When I worked for Verizon, I found the phrase going forward to be more sinister than annoying. When used by my boss - sorry, "team leader" - it was understood to mean that the topic of conversation was at an end and not be discussed again." Nima Nassefat, Vancouver, Canada 2. "My employers (top half of FTSE 100) recently informed staff that we are no longer allowed to use the phrase brain storm because it might have negative connotations associated with fits. We must now take idea showers. I think that says it all really." Anonymous, England 3. At my old company (a US multinational), anyone involved with a particular product was encouraged to be a product evangelist. And software users these days, so we hear, want to be platform atheists so that their computers will run programs from any manufacturer." Philip Lattimore, Thailand 4. "Incentivise is the one that does it for me." Karl Thomas, Perth, Scotland 5. "My favourite which I hear from the managers at the bank I work for is let's touch base about that offline. I think it means have a private chat but I am still not sure." Gemma, Wolverhampton, England 6. "Have you ever heard the term loop back which means go back to an associate and deal with them?" Scott Reed, Lakeland, Florida, US 7-8. "We used to collect the jargon used in a list and award the person with the most at the end of the year. The winner was a client manager with the classic you can't turn a tanker around with a speed boat change. What? Second was we need a holistic, cradle-to-grave approach, whatever that is." Turner, Manchester 9. "Until recently I had to suffer working for a manager who used phrases such as the idiotic I've got you in my radar in her speech, letters and e-mails. Once, when I mentioned problems with the phone system, she screamed 'NO! You don't have problems, you have challenges'. At which point I almost lost the will to live." Stephen Gradwick, Liverpool 10. "You can add challenge to the list. Problems are no longer considered problems, they have morphed into challenges." Irene MacIntyre, Courtenay, B 11. "Business speak even supersedes itself and does so with silliness, the shorthand for quick win is now low hanging fruit." Paul, Formby, UK 12. "And looking under the bonnet." Eve Russell, Edinburgh 13-14. "The business-speak that I abhor is pre-prepare and forward planning. Is there any other kind of preparedness or planning?" Edward Creswick, Exeter 15-16. "The one that really gets me is pre-plan - there is no such thing. Either you plan or you don't. The new one which has got my goat is conversate, widely used to describe a conversation. I just wish people could learn to 'think outside the box' although when they put us in cubes what do they expect?" Malcolm, Houston 17. "I work in one of those humble call centres for a bank. Apparently, what we're doing at the moment is sprinkling our magic along the way. It's a call centre, not Hogwarts." Caroline Garlick, Ayrshire 18. "A pet hate is the utterly pointless expression in this space. So instead of the perfectly adequate 'how can I help?' it's 'how can I help in this space?' Or the classic I heard on Friday, 'How can we help our customers in this space going forward?' I think I may have caught this expression at source, as I've yet to hear it said outside my own working environment. So I'm on a personal crusade to stamp it out before it starts infecting other City institutions. Wish me luck in this space." Colin, London 19. "The one phrase that inspires a rage in me is from the get-go." Andy, Herts 20. "'Going forward' is only half the phrase that gets up my nose - all politicians seem to use the phrase go forward together. 'We must... we shall... let us now... go forward together'. It gives me a terrible mental image of the whole country linking arms and goose-stepping in unison, with the politicians out in front doing a straight-armed salute. Is it just me?" Frances Smith, Toronto, Canada 21. "I am a financial journalist and am on a mission to remove words and phrases such as 360-degree thinking from existence." Richard, London 22. "The latest that's stuck in my head is we are still optimistic things will feed through the sales and delivery pipeline (ie: we actually haven't sold anything to anyone yet but maybe we will one day)." Alexander, Southampton 23. "I worked in PR for many years and often heard the most ludicrous phrases uttered by CEOs and marketing managers. One of the best was, we'd better not let the grass grow too long on this one. To this day it still echoes in my ears and I giggle to myself whenever I think about it. I can't help but think insecure business people use such phrases to cover up their inability for proper articulation." Leon Reilly, Ealing, London 24. "Need to get all my ducks in a row now - before the five-year-olds wake up." Mark Dixon, Bridgend 25. "Australians have started to use auspice as a verb. Instead of saying, 'under the auspices of...', some people now say things like, it was auspiced by..." Martin Pooley, Marrickville, Australia 26. "My favourite: we've got our fingers down the throat of the organisation of that nodule. Translation = Er, no, WE sorted out the problems to cover your backside." Theo de Bray, Kettering, UK 27. "The health service in Wales is filled with managers who use this type of language as a substitute for original thought. At meetings we play health-speak bingo; counting the key words lightens the tedium of meetings - including, most recently, my door is open on this issue. What does that mean?" Edwin Pottle, Llandudno 28-29. "The business phrase I find most irritating is close of play, which is only slightly worse than actioning something." Ellie, London 30. "Here in the US we have the cringe-worthy and also in addition. Then there's the ever-eloquent 'where are we at?' So far, I haven't noticed the UK's at the end of the day prefacing much over here; thank heavens for small mercies." Eithne B, Chicago, US 31. "The expression that drives me nuts is 110%, usually said to express passion/commitment/support by people who are not very good at maths. This has created something of a cliche-inflation, where people are now saying 120%, 200%, or if you are really REALLY committed, 500%. I remember once the then-chancellor Gordon Brown saying he was 101% behind Tony Blair, to which people reacted 'What? Only 101?'" Ricardo Molina, London, UK 32. "My least favourite business-speak term is not enough bandwidth. When an employee used this term to refuse an additional assignment, I realised I was completely 'out of the loop'." April, Berkeley, US 33. "I once had a boss who said, 'You can't have your cake and eat it, so you have to step up to the plate and face the music.' It was in that moment I knew I had to resign before somebody got badly hurt by a pencil." Tim, Durban 34. "Capture your colleagues - make sure everyone attends that risk management workshop (compulsory common sense training for idiots)." Anglowelsh, UK 35-37. "We too used to have daily paradigm shifts, now we have stakeholders who must come to the party or be left out, or whatever." Barry Hicks, Cape Town, RSA 38. "I have taken to playing buzzword bingo when in meetings. It certainly makes it more entertaining when I am feeding it back (or should that be cascading) at work." Ian Everett, Bolton 39. "In my work environment it's all cascading at the moment. What they really mean is to communicate or disseminate information, usually downwards. What they don't seem to appreciate is that it sounds like we're being wee'd on. Which we usually are." LMD, London 40. "At a large media company where I once worked, the head of human resources - itself a weaselly neologism for personnel - told us that she would be cascading down new information to staff. What she meant was she was going to send them a memo. It was one of the reasons I resigned - that, and the fact that the chief exec persisted on referring to the company as a really cool train set." Andrew, London 41. "Working for an American corporation, this year's favourite word seems to be granularity, meaning detail. As in 'down to that level of granularity'." Chris Daniel, Anaco, Venezuela 42. "On the wall of our office we have a large signed certificate, signed by all the senior management team, in which they solemnly promise to leverage their talents, display and inspire 'unyielding integrity', and lots of other pretentious buzz-phrases like that. Clueless, the lot of them." Chris K, Cheltenham UK 43. "After a reduction in workforce, my university department sent this notice out to confused campus customers: 'Thank you for your note. We are assessing and mitigating immediate impacts, and developing a high-level overview to help frame the conversation with our customers and key stakeholders. We intend to start that process within the week. In the meantime, please continue to raise specific concerns or questions about projects with my office via the Transition Support Center..." Charles R, Seattle, Washington, US 44. "I was told I'd be living the values from now on by my employers at a conference the other week. Here's some modern language for them - meh. A shame as I strongly believe in much of what my employers aim to do. I refuse to adopt the voluntary sectors' client title of 'service user'. How is someone who won't so much as open the door to me using my service? Another case of using four syllables where one would do." Upscaled Blue-Sky thinker, Cardiff 45. "Business talk 2.0 is maddening, meaningless, patronising and I despise it." Doug, London 46. "Lately I've come across the strategic staircase. What on earth is this? I'll tell you; it's office speak for a bit of a plan for the future. It's not moving on but moving up. How strategic can a staircase really be? A lot I suppose, if you want to get to the top without climbing over all your colleagues." Peter Walters, Cheadle Hulme, UK 47. "When a stock market is down why must we be told it is in negative territory?" Phil Linehan, Mexico City, Mexico 48. "The particular phrase I love to hate is drill down, which handily can be used either as an adverb/verb combo or as a compound noun, ie: 'the next level drill-down', sometimes even in the same sentence - a nice bit of multi-tasking." B, London 49. "Thanks for the impactful article; I especially appreciated the level of granularity. A high altitude view often misses the siloed thinking typical of most businesses. Absent any scheme for incentivitising clear speech, however, I'm afraid we're stuck with biz-speak." Timothy Denton, New York 50. "It wouldn't do the pinstripers any harm to crack a smile and say what they really felt once in a while instead of trotting out such clinical platitudes. Of course a group of them may need to workshop it first: Wouldn't want to wrongside the demographic." Trick Cyclist, Tripoli, Libya  ]]> EN Fri, 05 Nov 2010 09:00:00 -0530 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/50-office-speak-phrases-you-love-to-hate/67 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/50-office-speak-phrases-you-love-to-hate/66 Lucy Kellaway's campaign against office jargon. Here, we list 50 of the best worst examples. 1. "When I worked for Verizon, I found the phrase going forward to be more sinister than annoying. When used by my boss - sorry, "team leader" - it was understood to mean that the topic of conversation was at an end and not be discussed again." Nima Nassefat, Vancouver, Canada 2. "My employers (top half of FTSE 100) recently informed staff that we are no longer allowed to use the phrase brain storm because it might have negative connotations associated with fits. We must now take idea showers. I think that says it all really." Anonymous, England 3. At my old company (a US multinational), anyone involved with a particular product was encouraged to be a product evangelist. And software users these days, so we hear, want to be platform atheists so that their computers will run programs from any manufacturer." Philip Lattimore, Thailand 4. "Incentivise is the one that does it for me." Karl Thomas, Perth, Scotland 5. "My favourite which I hear from the managers at the bank I work for is let's touch base about that offline. I think it means have a private chat but I am still not sure." Gemma, Wolverhampton, England 6. "Have you ever heard the term loop back which means go back to an associate and deal with them?" Scott Reed, Lakeland, Florida, US 7-8. "We used to collect the jargon used in a list and award the person with the most at the end of the year. The winner was a client manager with the classic you can't turn a tanker around with a speed boat change. What? Second was we need a holistic, cradle-to-grave approach, whatever that is." Turner, Manchester 9. "Until recently I had to suffer working for a manager who used phrases such as the idiotic I've got you in my radar in her speech, letters and e-mails. Once, when I mentioned problems with the phone system, she screamed 'NO! You don't have problems, you have challenges'. At which point I almost lost the will to live." Stephen Gradwick, Liverpool 10. "You can add challenge to the list. Problems are no longer considered problems, they have morphed into challenges." Irene MacIntyre, Courtenay, B 11. "Business speak even supersedes itself and does so with silliness, the shorthand for quick win is now low hanging fruit." Paul, Formby, UK 12. "And looking under the bonnet." Eve Russell, Edinburgh 13-14. "The business-speak that I abhor is pre-prepare and forward planning. Is there any other kind of preparedness or planning?" Edward Creswick, Exeter 15-16. "The one that really gets me is pre-plan - there is no such thing. Either you plan or you don't. The new one which has got my goat is conversate, widely used to describe a conversation. I just wish people could learn to 'think outside the box' although when they put us in cubes what do they expect?" Malcolm, Houston 17. "I work in one of those humble call centres for a bank. Apparently, what we're doing at the moment is sprinkling our magic along the way. It's a call centre, not Hogwarts." Caroline Garlick, Ayrshire 18. "A pet hate is the utterly pointless expression in this space. So instead of the perfectly adequate 'how can I help?' it's 'how can I help in this space?' Or the classic I heard on Friday, 'How can we help our customers in this space going forward?' I think I may have caught this expression at source, as I've yet to hear it said outside my own working environment. So I'm on a personal crusade to stamp it out before it starts infecting other City institutions. Wish me luck in this space." Colin, London 19. "The one phrase that inspires a rage in me is from the get-go." Andy, Herts 20. "'Going forward' is only half the phrase that gets up my nose - all politicians seem to use the phrase go forward together. 'We must... we shall... let us now... go forward together'. It gives me a terrible mental image of the whole country linking arms and goose-stepping in unison, with the politicians out in front doing a straight-armed salute. Is it just me?" Frances Smith, Toronto, Canada 21. "I am a financial journalist and am on a mission to remove words and phrases such as 360-degree thinking from existence." Richard, London 22. "The latest that's stuck in my head is we are still optimistic things will feed through the sales and delivery pipeline (ie: we actually haven't sold anything to anyone yet but maybe we will one day)." Alexander, Southampton 23. "I worked in PR for many years and often heard the most ludicrous phrases uttered by CEOs and marketing managers. One of the best was, we'd better not let the grass grow too long on this one. To this day it still echoes in my ears and I giggle to myself whenever I think about it. I can't help but think insecure business people use such phrases to cover up their inability for proper articulation." Leon Reilly, Ealing, London 24. "Need to get all my ducks in a row now - before the five-year-olds wake up." Mark Dixon, Bridgend 25. "Australians have started to use auspice as a verb. Instead of saying, 'under the auspices of...', some people now say things like, it was auspiced by..." Martin Pooley, Marrickville, Australia 26. "My favourite: we've got our fingers down the throat of the organisation of that nodule. Translation = Er, no, WE sorted out the problems to cover your backside." Theo de Bray, Kettering, UK 27. "The health service in Wales is filled with managers who use this type of language as a substitute for original thought. At meetings we play health-speak bingo; counting the key words lightens the tedium of meetings - including, most recently, my door is open on this issue. What does that mean?" Edwin Pottle, Llandudno 28-29. "The business phrase I find most irritating is close of play, which is only slightly worse than actioning something." Ellie, London 30. "Here in the US we have the cringe-worthy and also in addition. Then there's the ever-eloquent 'where are we at?' So far, I haven't noticed the UK's at the end of the day prefacing much over here; thank heavens for small mercies." Eithne B, Chicago, US 31. "The expression that drives me nuts is 110%, usually said to express passion/commitment/support by people who are not very good at maths. This has created something of a cliche-inflation, where people are now saying 120%, 200%, or if you are really REALLY committed, 500%. I remember once the then-chancellor Gordon Brown saying he was 101% behind Tony Blair, to which people reacted 'What? Only 101?'" Ricardo Molina, London, UK 32. "My least favourite business-speak term is not enough bandwidth. When an employee used this term to refuse an additional assignment, I realised I was completely 'out of the loop'." April, Berkeley, US 33. "I once had a boss who said, 'You can't have your cake and eat it, so you have to step up to the plate and face the music.' It was in that moment I knew I had to resign before somebody got badly hurt by a pencil." Tim, Durban 34. "Capture your colleagues - make sure everyone attends that risk management workshop (compulsory common sense training for idiots)." Anglowelsh, UK 35-37. "We too used to have daily paradigm shifts, now we have stakeholders who must come to the party or be left out, or whatever." Barry Hicks, Cape Town, RSA 38. "I have taken to playing buzzword bingo when in meetings. It certainly makes it more entertaining when I am feeding it back (or should that be cascading) at work." Ian Everett, Bolton 39. "In my work environment it's all cascading at the moment. What they really mean is to communicate or disseminate information, usually downwards. What they don't seem to appreciate is that it sounds like we're being wee'd on. Which we usually are." LMD, London 40. "At a large media company where I once worked, the head of human resources - itself a weaselly neologism for personnel - told us that she would be cascading down new information to staff. What she meant was she was going to send them a memo. It was one of the reasons I resigned - that, and the fact that the chief exec persisted on referring to the company as a really cool train set." Andrew, London 41. "Working for an American corporation, this year's favourite word seems to be granularity, meaning detail. As in 'down to that level of granularity'." Chris Daniel, Anaco, Venezuela 42. "On the wall of our office we have a large signed certificate, signed by all the senior management team, in which they solemnly promise to leverage their talents, display and inspire 'unyielding integrity', and lots of other pretentious buzz-phrases like that. Clueless, the lot of them." Chris K, Cheltenham UK 43. "After a reduction in workforce, my university department sent this notice out to confused campus customers: 'Thank you for your note. We are assessing and mitigating immediate impacts, and developing a high-level overview to help frame the conversation with our customers and key stakeholders. We intend to start that process within the week. In the meantime, please continue to raise specific concerns or questions about projects with my office via the Transition Support Center..." Charles R, Seattle, Washington, US 44. "I was told I'd be living the values from now on by my employers at a conference the other week. Here's some modern language for them - meh. A shame as I strongly believe in much of what my employers aim to do. I refuse to adopt the voluntary sectors' client title of 'service user'. How is someone who won't so much as open the door to me using my service? Another case of using four syllables where one would do." Upscaled Blue-Sky thinker, Cardiff 45. "Business talk 2.0 is maddening, meaningless, patronising and I despise it." Doug, London 46. "Lately I've come across the strategic staircase. What on earth is this? I'll tell you; it's office speak for a bit of a plan for the future. It's not moving on but moving up. How strategic can a staircase really be? A lot I suppose, if you want to get to the top without climbing over all your colleagues." Peter Walters, Cheadle Hulme, UK 47. "When a stock market is down why must we be told it is in negative territory?" Phil Linehan, Mexico City, Mexico 48. "The particular phrase I love to hate is drill down, which handily can be used either as an adverb/verb combo or as a compound noun, ie: 'the next level drill-down', sometimes even in the same sentence - a nice bit of multi-tasking." B, London 49. "Thanks for the impactful article; I especially appreciated the level of granularity. A high altitude view often misses the siloed thinking typical of most businesses. Absent any scheme for incentivitising clear speech, however, I'm afraid we're stuck with biz-speak." Timothy Denton, New York 50. "It wouldn't do the pinstripers any harm to crack a smile and say what they really felt once in a while instead of trotting out such clinical platitudes. Of course a group of them may need to workshop it first: Wouldn't want to wrongside the demographic." Trick Cyclist, Tripoli, Libya  ]]> EN Fri, 05 Nov 2010 09:00:00 -0530 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/50-office-speak-phrases-you-love-to-hate/66 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/equality-rights-in-the-workplace/58 EN Mon, 04 Oct 2010 09:00:00 -0530 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/equality-rights-in-the-workplace/58 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/jobs-race/39 EN Thu, 26 Aug 2010 09:00:00 -0530 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/jobs-race/39 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/is-your-business-resilient/35 steve@elizabethmichael.co.uk     Note on UKWON The UK Work Organisation Network (UKWON) brings together employers, trade unions, frontline employees, universities, professional bodies, policy makers, and others committed to developing and disseminating new ways of organising work that lead to sustainable competitiveness and a high quality of working life. Resilience in times of change is an initiative led by UKWON and the CBI. You can find out more via this link http://www.workplaceinnovation.eu/back_iframe.htm ]]> EN Thu, 12 Aug 2010 09:00:00 -0530 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/is-your-business-resilient/35 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/getting-jobs-after-redundancy-your-questions-answered-/33 1. How should I lay out and present my CV? 2. Should I use professional advice to put my CV together? 3. Should I register with lots of recruitment agencies? 4. What should I do about gaps in my employment record? 5. What is the best way to get back into the labour market? 6. What advice do you have for older workers? 7. What should I do if employers think I am over-qualified? 8. What help is there for people with disabilities? 9. Should I try to change career or retrain? 10. What face and mindset should I present?   Q1. How should I lay out and present my CV?From Ian Gerard from Chesterfield, David Davies from Llandudno, Rajeev from Warrington, and Jenny in London. I would suggest that you need to devote equal attention to your covering letter as you do the CV itself. It is important that you are able to demonstrate quickly that you are an appropriate candidate - with the skills and experience that the organisation is looking for. Look at the advert for the job and highlight key words and phrases. If possible, contact the business and the recruiting manager or personnel and see if you can get hold of a more detailed job description - if you have not been sent one already. Try and use these key words and phrases in your covering letter and describe quickly how you fit the bill for the job. In the CV itself, aim to be succinct and have a clear presentation and writing style. It is still best to keep your CV to under two A4 pages as people have even less time these days to trawl through long documents. Use sensible headings to divide your CV up and draw attention to different sections of your CV. There is no one ideal format, but think about how you can convey the most relevant material upfront. For example, if you have some decent experience in the workplace, do not start by listing your GCSEs. Put your most recent work experience at the top of the page, and I would suggest highlighting achievements rather than just duties or responsibilities. What are you most proud of? Where have you helped company performance? When have you lead a team? Has the business been able to make cost savings as a result of changes you implemented? Even if you are making a lot of applications, do remember to check thoroughly anything you submit for spelling and grammatical errors. When it comes to sifting through CVs, first impressions do count. Do not rely on the computer's spell check as errors will still creep through. Return to questions   Q2. Should I use professional advice to put my CV together? Joel Goldman. It may be that this is something you are offered as part of outplacement support if you are being made redundant. In this case, as with all the support offered, I think it would be very sensible to take advantage of this offer. You can ask friends and current and former colleagues for advice - particularly any who work in the industry you are applying to, or who are involved in recruitment decisions themselves. Where possible, if you are not offered an interview, or indeed are interviewed but are not offered the job, then ask for feedback. It may not always be possible to get this when employers are inundated with applications. But, if you can, then you might get some valuable learning points which you can bear in mind when making future applications. Return to questions   Q3. Should I register with lots of recruitment agencies? Christopher Chadwick, Durham. If you go for a blanket approach, with very similar wording on every application form - yours is unlikely to be the one which stands out to the recruiter. You need to personalise each application to the job you are going for. If you sign up with dozens of recruitment agencies, you will not be able to maintain a relationship with all of them - so they know who you are and what your skills are. Remember, do not rely on just one means of finding a job. To give yourself the best chance, you are likely to need to use a number of methods, such as looking at the trade press, looking online at job vacancies or registering with a recruitment agency. Many jobs are not formally advertised, but filled by word of mouth - so use contacts that you have, and keep your ear to the ground. Return to questions   Q4. What should I do about gaps in my employment record?Srinivas from Coventry and James from Bristol. There are many people in the same situation and when organisations restructure as frequently as they do now, redundancy does not have the stigma it may have done in the past. What would be useful to show is what you have been doing in the time you have been out of work. Have you been able to develop a new skill? Have you been able to do some volunteering to broaden your experience? Have you perhaps been working with your local community in some way? Anything that displays a degree of initiative or drive can make a difference. Return to questions   Q5. What is the best way to get back into the labour market?Chris Crabtree from Barnsley, Christina Lyttle from Newcastle upon Tyne, Paul Street from Bath. We received quite a few emails from people asking for advice on getting back after having time out from the labour market. Some of these were from people who had been on maternity leave; others had been on long-term sick leave or incapacity benefit. Here are some tips if you are in this kind of situation: • Make sure you stay up-to-date with the latest developments in your industry - look at trade press, read relevant journals and try and keep in touch with colleagues who can keep you posted on what is going on. • If you are on maternity leave with a job to return to, then you can ask your employer about any 'keeping in touch days' you can use. • Think about the skills you have developed in the time you have been away - and how you might apply them in the workplace. • If you have been unable to work for health reasons, then you might want to think about the best way to stage your return to work. Would it be helpful to look for some volunteering opportunities to help build your confidence and add to your CV in the first instance? Would it be useful to look for part-time work initially, if you felt better able to cope with this? Remember, people with some conditions will be protected from discrimination by the Disability Discrimination Act. Return to questions   Q6. What advice do you have for older workers? Alan Palmer from South Ruislip, Ged from Liverpool. First of all, remember that there is age discrimination legislation in place to prevent employers from discriminating against older workers. It is illegal to discriminate against on grounds of age under the Age Equality Regulations of 2006. To find out more information, or if you suspect that you have been, or are being, discriminated against because of your age, we would advise that you contact the arbitration service Acas. However, if it is more a case that you are concerned about age being an obstacle to getting a job, it is important to remember that older workers have a lot to offer a prospective employer. For starters, experience is invaluable to employers - not only a wealth of technical experience but interpersonal skills, which our research shows that employers value a great deal. Older workers are often very reliable, loyal, dedicated employees and employers are increasingly recognising this and what it can mean for their business. Organisations such as B&Q and McDonalds, for example, have often acknowledged the positive impact that their older workers have had for their organisations and productivity. The government also offers help for people over 50 who are trying to get back into the workplace. One scheme is called New Deal for 50 Plus and there is more information on this in on the redundancy expert website www.redundancyexpert.co.uk Return to questions   Q7. What should I do if employers think I am over-qualified?James Ratcliffe from Bristol. You may be applying for a non-managerial job even though you have managerial experience. It is important to make your willingness to carry out the level of work for the job clear in your covering letter, in order to avoid any assumptions being made. You can do this by focusing on your skills that match the job description that you have been given - this is the job you are applying for and, therefore, relevance is critical. That is not to suggest that you lie about, or ignore outright, your management skills but if they are not required then it is best to pay most attention to what is. This can also be reflected in your CV which you can tweak to include more details of your technical ability. Return to questions   Q8. What help is there for people with disabilities?Dave from Birmingham wrote in with this question about his son who is autistic. I understand the concerns you have that in today's job market it will be tougher for job candidates with disabilities to find employment. My advice would be to arm yourself with as much information as you can about what kind of support is available out there. If you look on the Mencap website, for example there is information about services they provide to help people with learning disabilities in the workplace. There is also information about the Workright scheme for UK employers - and an endorsement from Justin King, chief executive at Sainsburys. I would also make sure that you contact the National Autistic Society to see if they have any advice or guidance they can offer. Use the contacts you already have to ask about opportunities they have come across in the past which might be suitable for your son. It maybe that families who have been through a similar experience (for example through a group or social networking website) could have some valuable advice for you. Also, make sure you think about how an employer will have all the information they need about your son, in order to make any adjustments they need to, as required by the Disability Discrimination Act, and to retain his loyalty and skills. Return to questions   Q9. Should I try to change career or retrain?Yianni Matthioudakis from Newbury, Jenny from London, AR from London, Paul Hghes from London and Jenny from London. Many people who have been made redundant have decided to change career totally, both their profession and sector. They see this as an opportunity to go and finally do what they have been thinking about for some time. First off, research is crucial. You need to dedicate a lot of time researching the job itself. Consider if would you enjoy doing it. Are you genuinely interested? Do you think you would be good at it? How easy a transition would it be in practical terms - for example, would you have to move in order to pursue this career? Another thing that would be really useful to do is to speak to someone already in that career. Ask them about their day-to-day work - what is involved, what are the high points, what are the pitfalls and challenges? Having an honest conversation like this can be really useful and give you a better insight into the job than hours spent online. If at all possible, see if you can secure some work experience in this area. This would really help you to make up your mind about whether this is the right career for you. Consider also what your career path would be. If you entered at a certain level, where would you hope to be in five years time? Another major question when considering a career change concerns training and qualifications. You need to find out how long it would take to qualify and what costs are involved. Are there any grants available? There is a government Adult Learning Grant, for example, which you may qualify for - more information can found here: www.redundancyexpert.co.uk/government-grants-for-retraining Also consider how you would retrain: full-time, part-time, or via distant learning? There's a lot of good information on the learn direct website - there is also a useful funder checker there to see if you would qualify for any funding. You also need to think about the volume and types of opportunities in the profession that you are planning to enter. If you have been made redundant in a sector that has been badly hit by the recession, it is probably not a good idea to go into another profession where there is also a surplus of labour with little demand. Try and have the end goal very much at the forefront of your mind, and work back - this job is the one that I want, now how do I get it? Return to questions   Q10. What face and mindset should I present? When we are made unemployed, we experience feelings equivalent to grief and despair. It is easy to sink into despondency, and when you think the economy has gone to hell in a hand basket, it is easy for your attitude, your state of mind and even your posture to betray your state of mind. Employers recruit increasingly on attitude so a lot of the secret of job hunting success is about optimism and frame of mind. It is also about resilience; sometimes it is even about whistling in the dark. If you seem downbeat and downcast - and you may have justification - then you will compromise a key factor in the selection process. Likeability is a key factor in job selection. Lots of experiments have been done on why people are hired and when people have got the same broad skills, the people who stand out are those who have the right attitude and approach. They smile, they research the company and they look as though they would be good people to work with. It is important to think about how you connect with potential employers and it is necessary to a step back and to think about how you come across. Return to questions   The opinions expressed are those of the author and are not held by the BBC unless specifically stated. The material is for general information only and does not constitute investment, tax, legal or other form of advice. You should not rely on this information to make (or refrain from making) any decisions. Always obtain independent, professional advice for your own particular situation. ]]> EN Fri, 06 Aug 2010 09:00:00 -0530 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/getting-jobs-after-redundancy-your-questions-answered-/33 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/tax-credit-application-extension/31 EN Mon, 02 Aug 2010 09:00:00 -0530 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/tax-credit-application-extension/31 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/elizabeth-michael-just-made-your-job-search-a-whole-lot-easier!/25 ]]> EN Thu, 01 Jul 2010 09:00:00 -0530 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/elizabeth-michael-just-made-your-job-search-a-whole-lot-easier!/25 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/-our-business-champions-do-we-walk-the-talk-/16 john@elizabethmichael.co.uk  or give him a call on (0115) 9799806 ]]> EN Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:00:00 -0530 http://www.elizabethmichael.co.uk/news_and_press/-our-business-champions-do-we-walk-the-talk-/16