ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘news’ CATEGORY

In a new report the British Safety Council says our understanding of changing risks to health, safety and wellbeing needs to improve, in a new report about the future of work

The public debate on the future of work has centred so far on the likely shape of the workplace and its implications for both employers and employees. There has been far less focus on what this might mean for workers’ health, safety and wellbeing. When wellbeing has been considered, the discussion has centred on the present, rather than preparing us for the challenges of the future. Yet, the impact of automation on the workplace will be more fundamental than is commonly understood, with 11 million jobs predicted to be lost in the next 20 years in the UK. As we are already seeing with some ‘gig’ working, it may undermine such basic human needs as social identity, economic security and a sense of belonging.

These issues have been examined by the Future risk: Impact of work on employee health, safety and wellbeing report commissioned by the British Safety Council from RobertsonCooper researchers. It reviews the existing literature on this subject and makes a number of recommendations. While providing an overview of the landscape of work, the report explores the changes that employers and employees are likely to experience over the next 20 years. It focuses on the risks of these changes to the health, safety and well-being of the workforce.

Professor Cary Cooper CBE, Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health at the University of Manchester, founder of RobertsonCooper, said: “We know that work is changing, which is why there is currently so much conversation about the future of work. However, we know less about the risks this might bring to the health, wellbeing and safety of employees, so it’s a challenge for businesses to prepare for this.”

The main themes explored by the report are:

• Implications of ‘anytime, any place’ work. A move away from standard work practices, hours and location will challenge the relationship between employers and their workforce. “We are currently seeing loyalty between employers and employees decreasing, which means that retaining healthy, high performing employees is even more important. Organisations of the future need to trust their employees and manage by praise and reward,“ explains professor Cooper.
• Need to build resilience. The future world of work will place new pressures and forms of stress on employees. Working alongside intelligent machines and robots, which never stop, outperform humans and are incapable of social interactions, will require an entirely different set of skills. This may strip away everything good work in traditional social environment offers employees, such as a sense of identity and belonging, as well as social support. That’s why employers will need to introduce specialist training and wellbeing programmes to help their employees gain skills that will build their resilience and help them to cope in new circumstances.
• Forward-thinking education. New jobs in partially-automated, remote or less secure workplaces may require a greater variety of ‘soft skills’, including creativity, leadership, flexibility and social skills, as well as skills related to new technology and the ability to collaborate with intelligent machines and robots. School and training bodies should start developing such skills and this process should continue beyond the compulsory education system. Such training must teach employees how to look after themselves, as well as how to take responsibility for their own health, safety and wellbeing.
• Updating regulatory systems to protect modern workers. In modern workplaces, where humans will work alongside robots, and companies operate across borders, the answer to the question of where ownership of risk lies, i.e. who should take responsibility if something goes wrong, will be of crucial importance. As employment contracts are increasingly diffuse (people in the gig economy are often not classified as workers), companies may wish to avoid the costs of sickness absence or liability insurance. The government should look at all measures to protect the self-employed and gig workers.
• Understanding future risks. These fundamental changes to work and the work environment present huge risks to employers, employees, the economy and the environment. For example, the fast pace of innovation, insecurity around employment status and a drive for efficiency are putting increasing pressure on people, which can lead to stress, which people working remotely may not be able to handle, particularly if they are older. The current understanding of these risks is poor in places. The report, while identifying the risks which have particular relevance to employee health, safety and wellbeing, calls for further research into this area.

Matthew Holder, Head of Campaigns at the British Safety Council, said: “At a time when work is rapidly changing, whether through technological innovation or types of employment, there is an urgent need to have a more strategic view on what research says about the future of work and risk, and how these two issues are related. Future risk: Impact of work on employee health, safety and wellbeing tells us that the state of this research needs to improve if we are going to take action to enhance people’s physical and mental wellbeing.

“I’m also pleased to see the report go beyond this ‘call for more research’ and make concrete recommendations how Government, regulators, businesses and the trade unions, the educational system and organisations like the British Safety Council can act today to prepare us to face the risks of tomorrow.”

The report can be downloaded at britsafe.org/futurerisk-report

Be social and share

A new management team is set to revitalise Hobart’s service division as 2018 ushers in a fresh approach to business.

The new four-strong team shares over 80-years of industry experience and includes the company’s very first female Sales Director.

MD Keith Mackie, formerly of UCC Coffee and widely credited with transforming the operations side of the business, joins Sales Director Louise Plant, previously of service specialists JLA, Finance Director, Darren Beech, formerly of Premier Foods, and Operations Director, v, who has joined from Miele.

Our task as the incoming management team is to firmly establish the division as the best in class for service supportAs Mackie comments “For many years Hobart Service has quietly gone about its business with a network of over 160 directly employed technicians delivering high quality reactive and planned maintenance to a ‘who’s who’ of customers nationwide. I am delighted to have built a team with vast experience working with high-quality corporate brands and entrepreneurial customer-focused backgrounds.

“Our task as the incoming management team is to firmly establish the division as the best in class for service support, raising awareness of our core strengths – the fact we service all makes and models alongside an unparalleled nationwide reach."

“The expertise and relationships we have built through our shared time in the industry will also be leveraged to help grow the division. Hobart Service UK is a business within a global manufacturing and service conglomerate, ITW with all the expertise, backup and resource that delivers. The division holds an enviable position in the UK market as a brand leader and is now set to take its service offering to a different level to ensure brand protection and future growth. Establishing ourselves as market leaders is a task that we take on with great excitement and enthusiasm.”

Hobart’s service programmes include year-round support; 24-hour access to technical, operator and spares information and access to 160 fully trained company-employed technicians.

Be social and share

Ericsson is launching the IoT Accelerator Marketplace to help address the need for collaboration within the digital ecosystem community and benefit developers and service providers alike.

For service providers, it is a catalogue to find IoT apps from the global ecosystem to offer enterprise customers and provides a shorter time to market for new offerings to their enterprise customers.

For application developers and application partners, it is a window to an IoT ecosystem to connect with service providers through one single platform, exposing global cellular connectivity APIs. It also includes monetization and settlement capabilities to facilitate monetization and billing across the ecosystem.

The launch of IoT Accelerator Marketplace will unlock the potential for different players in the value chain to deliver value. It is another stepping stone to make 5G a reality by enabling massive adoption of massive IoTCarrie MacGillivray, Group Vice President, Internet of Things & Mobility at Market Intelligence firm IDC, says: “Communications service providers are racing to scale and differentiate in the fast-moving IoT market. It’s necessary for these service providers to have a robust developer ecosystem that helps them compete. For developers working across multiple service provider networks and platforms, the challenges of fragmentation are addressed by utilizing APIs that apply globally and are consistent across all mobile networks.”

Jeff Travers, Head of IoT, Ericsson, says: “The launch of IoT Accelerator Marketplace will unlock the potential for different players in the value chain to deliver value. It is another stepping stone to make 5G a reality by enabling massive adoption of massive IoT. This supports service providers as they seek to expose network connectivity IoT APIs and monetize these assets.”

Application developers can benefit from a new go-to-market exposing their offering globally through Ericsson. This will enable app developers to scale their business and at the same time develop applications based on cellular connectivity APIs with added value for enterprises, such as fast and automated device and subscription onboarding, higher security, ubiquitous cellular coverage around the world improved for indoor utilization, and superior handling of battery life.

Service providers and application developers can request access to the IoT Accelerator Marketplace here: IoT Accelerator Marketplace 

IoT Accelerator Marketplace is being demonstrated by Ericsson at MWC 2018. Ericsson’s IoT Accelerator is a cloud-based horizontal offering comprising of platform services and professional services, for service providers. It provides continuous incremental functionality offered as a Service to enable agile creation and deployment of solutions for the Internet of Things.

Be social and share

Jacobs Engineering Group and Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, have reached a non-exclusive collaboration agreement to provide predictive, condition-based maintenance and field services optimization solutions to clients across industry sectors including water, energy, transport, aviation, nuclear and the built environment.

The enhanced data capture and analysis offers clients greater understanding of their assets, helping them to reduce operational and reactive maintenance costs, optimize performance, and increase return on asset investment.

“This collaboration with Atos will help us create more opportunities to leverage disruptive technology and deliver strategic digital innovation for complex government, infrastructure and industrial programs,” explained Jacobs Buildings and Infrastructure Europe Senior Vice President and General Manager Donald Morrison. “With our in-depth industry knowledge and combined digital capabilities, we are well positioned to help our clients achieve performance excellence and maximize their opportunities in this dynamic technology space.”

The digitization of front-line operations means solutions that reduce cost through predictive and preventative maintenance are in high demand“All industries are undergoing huge transformation due to the maturing of the Internet of Things (IoT) and analytics services,” said Paul Albada Jelgersma, Senior Vice President, Global Head of Atos IoT Services. “The digitization of front-line operations means solutions that reduce cost through predictive and preventative maintenance are in high demand. This is a highly synergistic collaboration and our recognized expertise in end-to-end strategy covering consulting, development, advanced analytics, managed IoT and IoT security will enable us to provide integrated solutions to clients from the outset.”

Harnessing the professional technical services expertise of Jacobs with the digital and IoT capabilities of Atos, the combined offering will provide further value to clients through real-time insights that detect anomalies and performance patterns, determine critical assets and understand the root cause of asset failure. This enables clients to better anticipate potential asset failure and performance issues and to proactively plan for timely maintenance and replacement.

The collaboration will leverage part of the Atos Codex portfolio of offerings, together with Jacobs Connected Enterprise (JCE), a suite of integrated digital capabilities and solutions in data analytics, IoT deployment and cybersecurity.

The agreement will initially focus on the U.K. with the option to extend to other markets.

Be social and share

Smaller UK contact centres need to “evolve or fail”, according to one of the sector’s leading players. Manchester-based allldaypa, the leading contact centre for the SME industry, reports that businesses face a ‘perfect storm’ of market conditions that will cause the profit margins of smaller operators to be wiped out.

Reuben Singh, CEO of alldayPA and VC investments company Isher Capital warns that the industry will see costs rise by over £440 million when the minimum wage rise takes effect from 1st April this year.

Commenting further Singh says: “I support the increase in the minimum wage. Failing to prepare for it, however, means smaller UK-based call centres are now sleepwalking to disaster by not considering these additional costs, alongside the need to invest to modernize and evolve to future-proof their businesses.

Contact centres are being challenged to form new strategies to meet the evolving requirements of customers or face losing out to either off-shore or larger firms.Contact centres are being challenged to form new strategies to meet the evolving requirements of customers or face losing out to either off-shore or larger firms.

“The phone remains the most important communication tools for businesses, the rise of digital has only heightened the need for a professional, personal and proactive communication, which is so crucial for business partnerships. The digital age has meant the opportunities for strong growth in this industry lie in multi-channel services, incorporating functions such as web chat and social media interactions into already existing strategies. The budget needed for this modernisation and training to deliver these offerings to customers is significant.

“With depleting margins already hitting the smaller call centres, they are going to fall even further behind.”

For this reason, alldayPA backed by Isher Capital is seeking to make acquisitions, having assembled a fund around £20m to buy regional contact centres or related businesses, to drive managerial and back office efficiencies using its tried and tested operating strategy.

The group is aiming to drive revenue from nearly £30m to £100m. Created by a network of eight to 10 contact centres spread nationwide; safeguarding jobs and growing the headcount of the current portfolio of companies from 500 to 2,000.

Commenting on the plan, Singh says: “The aim of each acquisition will be to preserve local jobs, building a nationwide network of contact centres with the back-up and resources or a major player.  We will create the right blend of local identity with our best practice systems and training.”

With 4% of UK workers employed in the call centre industry. This storm is putting one million UK jobs in jeopardy “Our plans in the marketplace are fluid and we have not implemented any specific timelines for making the acquisitions. My family and I have been investing and running call centres for nearly 20 years, we believe in maintaining our family values as we continue to grow our family business nationwide.”

With 4% of UK workers employed in the call centre industry. This storm is putting one million UK jobs in jeopardy.  This is particularly acute for Scotland and the North East of England where as much as 6% of the working population relies on the sector.

Despite these pressures, Singh believes that there is a strong demand for more regional contact centres, making it critical that they overcome the need for lower margins and higher investments.

Singh says: “Local regional suppliers allow businesses to oversee operations and ensure customer service standards are being maintained throughout, increasing the connection and empathy they have with customers.”

Be social and share

Janam has recently announced the launch of its XT100 series of rugged touch computers. Packed with business-critical features that enterprise organizations require, the XT100 surpasses its competition by delivering the latest enterprise-grade technologies in a stunning package, all at an extremely attractive price point.

The new XT100 eliminates the pitfalls and hidden costs associated with deploying consumer-grade devices in the enterprise and provides more features and functionality than any other device in its class. A standard 2-year warranty provides customers with both peace of mind and the level of service they require, at no additional cost, with optional Comprehensive Service plans available to those that want to further extend their mobile computing investment.

Key features include:

• Sleek smartphone design
• Android operating system
• 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ 410 quad-core processor
• Brilliant 4.3" touchscreen with Gorilla Glass 3
• Superior 2D barcode scanning
• Integrated RFID and NFC
• 1.2m drops to concrete
• Sealed to IP65 standard
• Lightning-fast 4G LTE voice and data
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
• Removable and rechargeable battery
• Wireless charging with optional accessory

The XT100 datasheet can be found here and our own Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland is currently road testing the XT100 so look out for our HandsOn review coming soon!

Be social and share!

Fleet Operations, the UK's leading independent provider of outsourced fleet management services, warns that many businesses within the fleet industry remain underprepared for the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The GDPR comes into force on 25th May 2018 and requires businesses to comply with a new set of rules designed to safeguard personal data.

One of the most significant changes means that organisations will now take responsibility for data protection breaches at any point within the supply chain. This puts fleet suppliers and operators at particularly high risk due to the large amount of personal data transactions that occur within the fleet supply chain.

And Brian Hardwick, Head of Operations at Fleet Operations, believes too few companies have got to grips with the full extent of their new responsibilities under the GDPR.

 

He said: “From our experience, it appears many organisations still have not assessed the full impact of the GDPR and taken the requisite action to ensure they will be compliant. There exists a perception that this is a minor adjustment when, in fact, businesses need to assess their entire supply chain to ensure each link is secure.

 

“As a starting point, it is vital for organisations to map all data flows across the business, which means documenting all data coming in and going out, as well as the various organisations or individuals that process information at each point in the supply chain. Contracts must now be in place between the data controller and data processor in each of these data transactions covering all the requisite details outlined by the GDPR.”

The consequences for failing to comply with the GDPR are high, with the maximum fine for infringements set at 20 million Euros or 4% of turnover, whichever is greater.

In this context, Hardwick insists it is the responsibility of everyone within an organisation to minimise the potential for breaches.

He added: “It is not sufficient for an organisation to simply hand all responsibility for the GDPR to a designated data controller – everyone should bear some of the burden. There are obvious data streams, such as payroll, but there are less obvious ones that include everyday emails. In this context, a breach could occur due to something as simple as copying someone into an email thread that contains data they do not have consent to view.

“That’s why it is important to communicate the new regulation – and the steps you are taking to address it – very clearly to all staff and put data protection at the centre of your organisational culture.”

 

Be social and share

FLS, Fast Lean Smart, a leader in field force appointment, schedule and route optimisation solutions, has recently announced the results of its annual customer satisfaction survey in the UK.

Jeremy Squire, FLS UK Managing Director comments “Outstanding customer satisfaction is what our customers strive to achieve from their field service operations and I believe we should be setting the right example”.

FLS customers include leaders in equipment maintenance, utilities/telecoms, healthcare, financial services/insurance claims, facilities management/property maintenance, engineering compliance inspections, retail home deliveries and more. In December 2017, FLS UK surveyed every live customer it supports directly with two key questions.

The first question was very direct “How do you rate the service you receive from FLS support? (1 - 10)”. The result was an average score of 9.3.The first question was very direct “How do you rate the service you receive from FLS support? (1 - 10)”. The result was an average score of 9.3.

The second was a Net Promotor Score (NPS) styled question “How likely is it that you would recommend FLS VISITOUR to a friend who has a similar scheduling requirement? (0 - 10)”

Using the standard formula for detractors (range 0-6), passives (7-8), promoters (9-10), there was no need for a complex calculation because every customer was a promoter for FLS VISITOUR scheduling solution, the NPS score was the maximum 100!

Best in class

Jeremy Squire reflects “I feel very proud of my team for the satisfaction they are delivering and the fact every customer would recommend us is possibly unique in this market. Our strategy will continue to focus on innovation and our customer on-going success using FLS scheduling software, and to build our business through recommendations.”

Jeremy concludes “This proves real-time scheduling and route optimisation solutions really can work well for a wide range of field service businesses, you’ve just got to choose the right technology and partner to work with”.

Be social and share

One of the largest suppliers of equipment and consumables for the dental industry is all pearly white smiles after deciding to swap its predominantly manual service operation for an automated one: Tesseract.

Wrights Dental supplies both NHS and private dentists with everything from syringe tips and toothbrushes to dentists’ chairs, digital imaging scanners and suction systems. Much of its business revolves around the sale and installation of equipment, but in the last five years, a shift has occurred. Mark Pitts, Technical Services Manager for Wrights, explains,

“Now, the ongoing service and maintenance side of things is just as important as sales. This is because the industry has changed. Dentists are open longer hours, which means more service and support is required. As a result, we’ve had to expand our service teams and increase their skill sets, flexibility and working hours.”

Till now, Wrights has got by with SAP for billing and invoicing, and Microsoft Outlook for diary management. “This was fine for a small service team,” says Mark. “But as soon as we began growing our teams to meet the increased demand, we realised we needed something more substantial.”

One of the big things for us was spare parts management. Tesseract gives everyone in the company full visibility on what we have and whereThe biggest problem with Wrights’ existing service management system has been its manual nature. A particular issue for Wrights was the movement of spare parts. As demand and the level of customer expectation grew, Wrights’ commitment to delivering the first-time fix became ever more important. There were instances when engineers would turn up on site without the parts they needed to complete the job, largely because tracking stock manually is arduous and prone to error.

This led Wrights to Tesseract, a comprehensive service management system from leading solutions provider Asolvi. Mark Pitts says, “We came across Tesseract on LinkedIn and it was obvious pretty quick that there were a lot of things it could do straight away. One of the big things for us was spare parts management. Tesseract gives everyone in the company full visibility on what we have and where. Everything is live on the system, including the full-service history of the site. It’ll help make sure all our engineers have the parts and information they need when they arrive, improving the likelihood of a first-time fix.”

Another big benefit for Wrights is Tesseract’s Remote Customer Access (RCA) tool. Instead of phoning a helpdesk, Wrights’ customers can report issues directly through the system.

“This saves our customers time,” says Mark. “It also stops the information from getting diluted before it gets to us. A customer can report the issue directly rather than passing it to a receptionist to make a phone call, which can lead to misinterpretation. Also, the improved accuracy of the information helps us work out which jobs are emergencies and which aren’t.”

In general, Wrights expects to offer a higher standard of customer service via the Tesseract system. The automation and optimisation of scheduling and stock management will ensure four things: right engineer, right area, right tools, right time. In addition, Tesseract will reduce the number of customer queries Wrights receives because RCA lets customers see live information about billing, outstanding jobs and the terms of their contracts.

Be social and share