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Gems backs children’s hospital
Sheffield’s Gems Hygiene is celebrating 25 successful years in business by adopting its first annual charity - The Children’s Hospital Charity. Throughout 2011, Gems will be dedicating its fundraising activities to the charity, which supports and enhances the work of The Children’s Hospital in Sheffield.
Gems is planning a calendar of individual and group events to raise money for the hospital, ranging from physical challenges to more sedate activities such as dress down days. At the heart of its fundraising will be its 25th anniversary summer garden party at the firm’s headquarters.
Dave Campbell, Gems’ managing director, said: "Gems has always played an active role in the local community, but to mark our milestone 25th anniversary, we have decided to consolidate our work by nominating an annual charity. Many of our staff, colleagues and professional partners have needed the services of The Children’s Hospital at sometime in their family’s life and we are confident they will be keen to participate in our fundraising this year."
Cheryl Ridge, a fundraiser at The Children’s Hospital Charity, added: "Backing from local businesses is vital to the ongoing success of our fundraising activities and we would like to thank Gems for pledging its support during 2011. The dedication and enthusiasm of employees at firms across the city makes such a difference to our efforts and we are looking forward to working closely with the team at Gems in the coming months."
www.gemshygiene.co.uk
Wetton adopts software solution
Wetton Cleaning Services has selected Templa-CMS, the fully integrated sales, operations and finance solution, to assist in its ambitious growth plans. Over the last 20 years Wettons has shown very strong year-on-year organic growth, with high retention rates.
"Selecting new software to base the future of your business on is not something to take lightly," said Jason Baker, finance director. "Templa-CMS is an enterprise-wide solution which supports our key objective of managing all our contracts efficiently and profitably, by providing all the information we need in a single database. This will reduce administration yet improve our performance - but crucially Templa-CMS has been chosen because it will provide the foundation for our business for many years to come."
Some of the key drivers for changing its current system include: the incumbent supplier could not demonstrate a long term strategy for product development; the constant reliance on MS-Excel for contract control, wage variance analysis and site profit/loss reporting had to be eliminated; the move to an automated payroll process reduces overheads; the unnecessary paper trail through the business had to be replaced by introducing intelligent workflow; and the ability to link both contract and management documents to Templa CMS meant all relevant contract information had instant availability at the touch of a button.
Rick Stoor, managing director of Templa, said: "At Templa, we realise that software change is a big move for any business, so our proven roll-out methodology and data migration tools will ensure Wettons receives all the benefits of our software very quickly. We are delighted that it has chosen Templa as its partner and look forward to our software assisting its business in its plans for the future."
Award for MITIE’s Real Apprentice Scheme
MITIE has won two Business in the Community awards for its Real Apprentice scheme. The scheme won the ‘innovation’ and ‘large company’ categories in the UK leg of the BITC’s European Volunteering Awards and will now go forward to the Europe-wide competition.
The Real Apprentice scheme works to help people of all ages and backgrounds get back into work through placements both at MITIE and with its clients. With support from mentors, the ‘apprentices’ get the opportunity to work in a number of different roles.
The programme is designed to break down barriers that people face when they’re looking for employment. With the help of mentors from both MITIE and its clients, the Real Apprentices get the opportunity to work in a number of different roles.
Since the start of the scheme in 2005, 197 people have taken part, with 134 Real Apprentices completing the programme and 97 of those being offered permanent jobs, both at MITIE and with other employers in London and Glasgow. Plans to extend the scheme to other regions are underway following its success.
Jane James, employment regeneration director at MITIE, said: "We are delighted to be awarded the European Employee Volunteering Award UK. The Real Apprentice scheme gives people from all walks of life the opportunity and support to achieve their goals. Not only is there a social and moral case for working together to make a difference to peoples’ lives, there is a solid business case. The Real Apprentice is about people helping people, and we encourage all individuals and organisations to get involved."
Stephen Howard, CEO of Business in the Community, said: "Businesses can play a valuable role in supporting those who face multiple barriers to work in getting back into the workplace. This is good for society and for business. I would like to congratulate MITIE Group for winning the UK leg of these awards and wish them the best of luck against their European counterparts. In turn I hope others will be inspired to increase and improve their level of activity during the European Year of Volunteering."
www.mitie.com/real-apprentice
Noonan wins Irish Eco Business Award
Noonan, the largest integrated facilities services provider in Ireland, has received the Eco Business Award at the Corporate Social Responsibility Awards for 2010 organised by Chambers Ireland. The award was presented at a recent gala dinner attended by over 500 people representing all industry sectors in Ireland.
Central to the success was Noonan’s participation in the Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Cleaner Greener Production programme and the introduction of the innovative SmartDose range of concentrated building care cleaning products from Diversey to support its sustainability objectives. The company selected SmartDose as its main building care product as soon as it became available and has already introduced it into over 1000 sites, with more to follow.
"The ease of transition to the SmartDose system which has been seamless from a client perspective has been critical in gaining the support of our management team and expediting the roll out of this initiative," said John O’Donoghue, group CEO at Noonan. "Our clients have enthusiastically endorsed this as in many cases they are actively engaged in their own sustainability initiatives."
Sarah Kearney of Noonan continued: "Noonan planned to be the first integrated facilities services provider to lead the way with sustainability within the BSC industry and the first in Ireland to focus on environmental issues. We wanted to reduce our carbon footprint while introducing simple and safe solutions for Noonan staff nationwide."
Through its participation in the EPA’s Cleaner Greener Production Programme, Noonan wanted to introduce green chemicals, make measurable reductions in consumption of water, energy, chemicals and reduce the generation of waste. The company selected SmartDose following detailed studies to identify a set of cleaning products that met its stringent criteria and complied with EU Flower certification.
"After analysing the systems available from key manufacturers and suppliers our senior management team recognised that Diversey's SmartDose system ticked all the boxes in relation to EPA standards and Noonan's achieving a major part of its overall sustainability objective," continued Kearney.
www.diversey.com
£10 million MITIE Entrepreneurial Fund launched
MITIE has launched the ‘MITIE Entrepreneurial Programme’, commencing with its first £10 million fund to back management teams with innovative ideas for starting mutually owned businesses in the UK.
It is open to people from both the private and public sectors who want to run a business with MITIE’s support. With a rapidly changing landscape in the UK public sector, the fund will be particularly targeted at teams that have considerable public sector experience and innovative business ideas to support the government's focus on efficiency and deficit reduction.
The new fund will be open to dynamic management teams with a viable business plan to develop a mutually-owned business with the support of equity, working capital, management expertise, back office and administrative infrastructure from MITIE.
MITIE, which stands for Management Incentive Through Investment Equity, has a long history of partnering with management teams to start up businesses, having participated in over 80 successful start- ups using the 'MITIE model' in its 23-year history.
The 'MITIE Model' is structured so that management teams take an equity stake in a business which they are motivated to grow over a five to 10-year period and is eventually acquired by MITIE in full.
This model has not only supported hundreds of entrepreneurs to build successful businesses in the UK, but has contributed to MITIE's excellent track record of growth and allowed those entrepreneurs to share in that success. It has also provided the basis for many successful careers in outsourcing, with a large number of MITIE's senior management team having participated in equity models.
Ruby McGregor-Smith, MITIE’s chief executive, said: "We are passionate about providing opportunities for people to develop their careers and grow successful outsourcing businesses. With the launch of this fund we hope to attract dynamic entrepreneurial teams that want to start mutually owned businesses which provide innovative services to their customers and create jobs in the UK."
www.mitie.com/entrepreneurs
BCC Conference focuses on social responsibility
The British Cleaning Council has announced the date and location of its 2011 conference, which will once again be brought to you in partnership with C&M magazine. BCC Conference 2011 - Social Responsibility, will be staged at Kings Place Conference Hall in London on 11 October, aiming to provide 400 attendees holding senior positions from both the public and private sector with high-quality content, first-class speakers and networking opportunities.
In recent years, changing expectations mean that businesses are engaging with their responsibilities to both society and the environment in new and original ways - the key challenge is establishing where best practice exists and how it can be successfully applied to an organisation. The BCC Conference programme has been designed to help delegates answer this question, ensuring they receive a broad, fresh and invaluable insight into the social responsibility issues that are defining the modern business era.
The day will feature influential and highly regarded speakers from the areas of health and safety, ethical remuneration, business sustainability, the broader economic outlook and international labour laws, sourced from across business, government and the media. By assembling this diverse line-up of industry leaders working at the top of their professions, the BCC is able to offer the brightest speakers around to share their experience and insight with the cleaning and facilities management industry.
Mark Woodhead, chairman of the British Cleaning Council, said: "After the success of last year’s conference we are delighted to offer professionals from across the industry the opportunity to attend our annual event once again. In response to last year’s unprecedented demand, we have decided to grow our event and allow a greater number of delegates to attend, exposing them to the very latest ideas and business-intelligence around social responsibility, high-calibre personalities and unrivalled networking opportunities."
Further details and tickets are available from the BCC website: www.britishcleaningcouncil.org/cleaningconference.html
