News Digest 0910

News Digest August 2010

As usual at this time of year, we find that everyone is either on holiday or resorting to some fairly indifferent commentary in relation to our business world!  I have read two articles today – one in Management Today making disparaging remarks about HR. This is unfortunate for us as we rely heavily on these relationships working well for the sake of our clients’ employees. I’d like to defend their role here and now as I have worked closely with some of the best people in the corporate world who have shown outstanding leadership and care – especially when they have to cope with all manner of difficult situations in respect of relocation. In recent times, they have also had to contend with internal job cuts and having to steer and guide line managers through the process of both making people redundant and asking them to consider relocation as well.Having talked to other people within HR it seems that corporate HR in respect of relocation has been usurped by the new "kid on the block" the Hybrid Finance/Procurement Manager. This creation has been based purely on financial decisions and has tended to push the old fashioned HR relocation manager away. This leaves the relocating employee - global or domestic - to be facilitated and administered but not professionally managed, so that the move is cost effective but lacking the discretion and care of company HR according to my sources. 

Hopefully, these rules and regulations will go full circle and corporate HR will be given the authority to manage the relocation system with the precision it requires. 

The other article in The Times drew my attention to the fact that there are some major shifts going on in terms of UK movement of personnel – including Michael Lyons’ recommendation that some 20,000 Civil Service jobs from the South East would move to other parts of the UK.

The article in question was written by Sathnam Sanghera who writes a very pithy piece about business quite frequently –this time talking about office moves – which he claims can be simply a question of moving down the road, as opposed to relocating up country to a totally different environment. He mentioned one company that throughout its move process ran a webcam link from their new premises so that employees could literally watch the paint dry! Another organisation set up a relocation service with a 24 hour stress counselling service; a removal specialist who sent people into the company to observe desk layouts of individuals so that when they moved, their desks looked identical to the ones they had left behind! He contends that an office move either just happens or it can become a hugely complicated process. Perhaps he means from the sublime to the ridiculous!

Business News

I wonder if the hostile takeover of Cadbury by Kraft will work out. If you recall, this deal was only struck after a lengthy period of Press speculation. The CEO of Kraft still hasn’t bothered to pay Cadbury a visit and this tells me that culturally, they are worlds apart. I remember a situation in Europe where two major organisations came together without taking this into account – the takeover failed miserably and the two companies returned to their original status. I wonder if this will happen to Kraft and Cadbury.

There’s some new research about the UK’s North-south divide which shows that there has been a shift over recent years. Professor Dorling of Sheffield University led the research which shows that the dividing line is moving south as Government cuts take effect including a huge amount of money (£2.3 billion) which was used by regional development agencies. The research will be published in a chapter of a new book, the Economic Geography of Britain. This might be worth a read as we know that there may well be some UK-UK moves dictated by the north-south divide in terms of costs. My previous reference to Civil Service jobs moving out of the South East (again) could be affected.

Management Today, in co-operation with The Mind Gym, is running a Master-Class on line which is all about ‘How do you manage.’ It includes an initial test which can be completed easily. I thought it was very useful and an article in their July/August magazine is written by the MD of The Mind Gym. Take a look and see if you are managing well. The Mind Gym is currently being used by O2, Sainsbury’s, British Gas, RBS, Unilever, among others – who are investing significantly in making their employees’ lives more balanced and more productive. 

Political Situation

I’m sure that the current political arena will have some impact on our industry in due course. But let’s hope it will be for the best. However, the proposed cutbacks haven’t started to kick in yet but we may well feel the effects by the Autumn. This may mean we have to take a long, hard look at what we do and how we can be even more effective with our customers, in order to save time and money.

The new coalition still haven’t taken the MP’s expense situation down the right route in my view and I think we really should try to influence this somewhat. Shall we set up a working party to take this on?While on the subject of politics, I had an approach from the Parliamentary Year Book media organisation – who tried to persuade me to have an entry in their 2011 book. I got quite excited and did manage to beat them down on price but when they kindly sent me a link to an on-line version, the relocation industry was totally missing. No wonder they were in touch with me – I must have been way down their list!

Their Business & Commerce section did include the IOD, British Chambers of Commerce, the CBI (with no relocation link) and Companies House. I was disappointed in what I accessed on their website and sent a detailed email to draw their attention to this. We should be represented here in my view!

Light Relief

Yesterday’s Evening Standard was bemoaning the use of non-English – which appears to be doing the opposite of communicating well – apologies on the Underground to ‘customers’ rather than ‘passengers’ and another classic example – a company adopting a name that means nothing at all – at least ‘Norwich Union’ gave us an idea that this was an insurance company based in Norwich but ‘Aviva’ doesn’t cut the same mustard! This will hardly help our incoming assignees when it comes to cultural differences, will it?

I’ve just come across a glorious piece written by a US expat living in the UK – where he raves about a number of things that he loves about our country – the list is extraordinary –from Banking (yes – much more friendly than the US), walking safely on our streets and across the road, the DVLA, British driving and its courtesy, our culture and not taking ourselves too seriously, Boots the Chemist – especially their name and its font ; not having to carry ID with you constantly and being a comparatively free society.

Finally he mentions our weather – a fine summer’s day in Britain, he claims, is one of life’s finest pleasures! I thought you’d like this treat – someone who is not complaining for a change!

Talk to you again soon.

Annie