View The Latest Issue
Official Media Sponsor
C&M is published by
Minimum wage ‘most successful government policy in the past 30 years’
A survey of political experts has named the minimum wage as the most successful government policy of the past 30 years. Researchers at the Institute for Government polled 159 members of the Political Studies Association for the project, as the policy beat other popular initiatives such as Sure Start children’s centers and the Northern Ireland Peace Deal.
The minimum wage was introduced in April 1999 as Labour acted upon one of its core manifesto pledges in the run-up to the 1997 general election. Although the policy was initially opposed by the Conservatives, who argued it would have a damaging effect on business, the minimum wage now has the rare distinction of garnering universal cross-party support.
The minimum wage was £3.60 per hour when it was first introduced, and has been raised incrementally over the past decade to its current rate of £5.93 an hour. The rate is lower for workers under the age of 21.
Mark Woodhead, chairman of the British Cleaning Council, said: “The research indicates that the most popular and successful policies are the ones that have a positive impact on a large number of the population. The minimum wage has seen the wages of thousands of cleaners increase while giving employers a clear benchmark of their obligations to their workers, and despite the early hostility to the policy, it is now a well-established part of our national identity. I hope that politicians of all stripes will take note of the findings, as it is clear that beyond the day to day goings on in Westminster, they will be really remembered for implementing policies that make a difference to people’s lives.”
www.britishcleaningcouncil.org
HSS Training receives endorsement from the FMA
HSS Hire, the national supplier of tool and equipment hire and related services, has received formal endorsement for its specialist training division, HSS Training, from the Facilities Management Association (FMA). HSS is the first company under this newly launched scheme to gain such recognition. HSS Training was rigorously assessed by the FMA to gain this endorsement, achieving full compliance across all categories including management, venues, training material and trainers.
Mark Winfield, HSS Training director, said: “We are delighted to have received this endorsement from the FMA - we are committed to offering the best training and to making it easy for our customers to access the training they need and it’s nice to have what we do formally recognised by such an important third party. Over the past two years, we have invested significantly in our training capabilities with new training centres across the UK and Ireland and we’ve expanded the courses we offer and in the team of experts that deliver them. We look forward to continuing this progress into the new year and beyond.”
Chris Hoar, chief executive of the FMA, said: “HSS Training is a very professional organisation, something that was evident as soon as we entered their training centres. They demonstrate an excellent commitment to the highest standards in training with a skilled team of trainers, a broad range of courses that link to trade organisation and professional body requirements and very good, modern training facilities. The FMA had no hesitation in endorsing HSS’ training capability and the courses they offer. They are the first company to achieve our endorsement and have really set the standard for the rest of their industry.”
www.hsstraining.com
ABCD leadership workshop
The Association of Building Cleaning Direct Service Providers (ABCD) held a ‘behavioural leadership workshop’ at the Britannia Stadium in Stoke-on-Trent on Thursday 25 November 2010. Over 50 managers and supervisors directly involved in facilities management within the public sector were present to hear Bruce Faulkner, of 3 simple rules management consultancy, outline his philosophy during the one day event. Each session offered guidance and advice designed to help managers engineer improvements in both efficiency and performance amongst their staff, in an era of economic uncertainty and increasingly demanding workloads.
After a welcome address by Ken Baxter, ABCD chairman, Bruce Faulkner opened with a session on the reasons that underpin our behaviour within the working environment. After defining behaviour as inclusive of everything ‘that we say and do’, he invited the audience to question every aspect of their work, and whether it helps them reach daily goals or is merely a product of well-established habits and norms.
He then asked delegates to review the barriers which can act as a performance hindrance within the workplace. The audience was asked to review their behaviour and actions through the prism of downstream impact, establishing how the permutations of each choice and decision they make will have a trickledown effect on every layer of an organisation, and the positive and negative outcomes that this entails.
Later in the day, delegates looked at the antecedent, behavior and consequence model, which they were advised should form the basis of any procedure change within the working environment. To close, the focus shifted onto how direct and open communication between colleagues will form the bedrock of any review of performance diagnostics. It was advised that this should be coupled with an analysis of whether staff have sufficient resources and knowledge available to them as they successfully complete their daily tasks.
In attendance was Gail O'Shaughnessy of Birmingham University estate management, who reflected on the workshop: “In facilities management we often find that motivating staff is often the biggest challenge, with part-time workers sometimes resistant to traditional incentives. While there were several good ideas touched upon over the course of today, I think it served as a reminder of the importance of reviewing our regular behavior, with an emphasis on communication, as we address the challenges we encounter.”
Please contact ABCD - abcd@wherton.freeserve.co.uk or 01604 705934 - for further details on the workshop or to find out more information about ABCD’s events in the future.
Washroom services company wins London Business Award
A Docklands based company that delivers a range of washroom services to companies in London and across the south east has won its first award. Staff at Just Washrooms are celebrating winning the ‘Growth Strategy’ category of the 2010 London Business Awards.
Founded just four years ago by Carlton Brown and Kristian Lennard, and now delivering washroom services to more than 600 sites across London and the south east, Just Washrooms has quickly built its reputation on service. Customers now include banks, offices, hospitals and colleges.
Director Carlton Brown said: “We are really thrilled to win this award. We have worked extremely hard to grow Just Washrooms and it’s fantastic for the team to get this recognition and for our customers to know that they are working with one of the best companies in London. Just Washroom is a sanitary disposal and washroom services company with a difference. Our success is being achieved on the strength of our people, our attitude, our commitment, our integrity and our dedication to total customer satisfaction.”
The team heard the news at a special ceremony held at Planit Embankment Gardens. A wide range of businesses, and the people who work for them, triumphed at the awards which recognised significant achievements in a number of categories.
www.justwashrooms.co.uk
Chambers’ national award for ‘excellence in customer service’
A company known for managing the UK’s vacant properties has become the first protection business to win the British Chambers of Commerce national award for Excellence in Customer Service. SitexOrbis, a company responsible for protecting some 50,000 properties annually, was chosen from almost 100 entries for the way it had ‘transformed its business’, the award organisers said.
The transformation came after an independent survey of customers in 2008 rated SitexOrbis number one for customer satisfaction among competitors, yet highlighted unmet customer needs. In response, the company launched Project Pride with the aim of involving staff in the creation of a more customer-centric approach that, through innovations, would give customers better results for less cost. Levels of happy customers have now increased to 96% and the business has achieved 10% growth despite the recession.
Recent innovations include triple-award winning eMAKS that makes key collections unnecessary for property managers and a unique vaporisation process for more efficient and faster infection control and mould eradication.
Neville Reyner, president of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “SitexOrbis had the courage to take a long, hard look at itself and make the brave decision to radically change the way it had always done business. Since then the company has gone from strength-to-strength and is continually monitoring its performance against its own high expectations. This is a difficult thing to achieve and hard to pull off, but SitexOrbis has succeeded at a high level.”
www.sitexorbis.com
Solar launches new business venture
Preston-based The Solar Group (UK) Ltd is launching a new venture, Solar School Care Ltd, and is set to double turnover in the next year after securing a £150,000 asset based finance facility from Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance.
Solar School Care Ltd provides cleaning services to local and national customers across the public and private sectors, focusing on schools and government buildings nationwide. Established in 2009, the company has experienced rapid growth and currently employs 130 members of staff. The firm found it needed a cashflow boost to capitalise on growing national demand and to launch Solar School Care to service the growing number of school-specific contracts it is taking on.
The Solar Group (UK) Ltd approached Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance, which provided an asset based finance facility to release the value of its growing order book and allow the firm to use this capital to purchase new equipment, employ more staff and continue to win new contracts.
The Solar Group (UK) Ltd, which includes trading divisions Solar Training Services Ltd, Solar School Care Ltd, and Sandafloor Ltd, is now on track to double turnover to £1.75million by the end of next year, with hopes to treble this figure in two years time.
Dave Ashmore, managing director at Solar, said: “Since starting the company we have experienced fantastic demand for both the floor cleaning and the contract cleaning services we offer. We were eager to capitalise on this demand by branching out nationally, as well as diversifying our service by launching a dedicated school cleaning firm. However, we found that in order to sustain growth and secure contracts, we needed a steady flow of working capital. The asset based finance facility from Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance is ideal as it is flexible and grows in line with our expansion. The certainty of funding means we are now in an excellent position to reach our turnover targets over the next three years.”
Geoff Webster, regional manager at Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance, said: “Solar has done extremely well in its first year of trading and this is testament to the company’s strong business model, and its recognition of a gap in the market for high quality cleaning services. Asset based finance is an ideal form of funding for Solar as it grows in-line with sales, releasing cash as and when needed to fund expansion and as a result, the company is in a strong position to capitalise on opportunities in the local area and nationally.”
www.ltsbcf.co.uk
