Blog – FMJ

Recruitment Fraud Alert

dan@cbwstaffingsolutions.com (Dan Barber) — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 14:28:29 GMT

Recruitment Fraud Alert - Please Beware

We have recently been contacted by several people who are not registered with CBW (i.e. Not on our database) who have received text messages from fraudsters claiming to work for CBW Staffing Solutions. In some cases, these individuals are impersonating and using the name of actual CBW staff and offering jobs to candidates. We urge you not to provide any personal details over text or email and to contact CBW immediately on Info@cbwstaffingsolutions.com or 0203 583 3099 to verify the approach. CBW Staffing Solutions are a leading Facilities Management, Engineering & Construction recruiter and would therefore not be offering work outside of these specific sectors.

Protect yourself against employment fraud

Check the official records to confirm that the organisation offering you the job actually exists. If it does, contact the organisation directly through officially listed contact details to confirm the job offer is genuine.

CBW would not text any job application links (Do not click the link)

Check any texts / documents for poor spelling and grammar – this is often a sign that fraudsters are at work.

Beware, too, if the employer or agent provides a webmail email address such as @Yahoo or @Hotmail as a point of contact.

Do not provide any bank details. If you’ve given them any money, contact your bank immediately.

Please report any incidents to https://lnkd.in/dwvz22n

Time to reskill our people to meet the needs of the digital economy

Wed, 24 Nov 2021 10:47:00 GMT

T he Autumn Budget presented an opportunity to reshape the economy around technology and scientific innovation and take a proactive approach to reskilling for a digital era.

This means the upskilling of certain professions, particularly across the hospitality industry which attracts many school leavers and other youngsters who have grown up with technology at their fingertips. Them, and their roles, should be treated with great respect because it is they who are needed to support digitalisation. However, it starts at education. Many children are now taught at school with iPads or laptops, so it’s important to develop digital programming skills in schools to set them up perfectly as they enter the ever-changing and digitally led world of work.

Technology has helped many hospitality and catering businesses survive the pandemic. Real time temperature monitoring has streamlined processes and procedures enabling all catering facilities, from supermarkets to independent cafes, to act immediately should any unforeseen issues arise. This was particularly important as technology supported catering facilities adopt to delivery models at the height of various lockdowns.

A NEW ERA

Those working in the hospitality and catering industries needn’t spend time going backwards and forwards through endless amounts of paper documents, nor should they expect it. Yet, despite entering a new digital era, some businesses remain unprepared for it.

Technology plays a crucial role in combating food storage and waste. Constant monitoring is required, and a cost-effective way of doing this is not through several manual checks of storage units each day, but with wireless data loggers. These are IoT-enabled devices which provide catering facilities, supermarkets, and transporters with the information they need to act immediately should any unforeseen issues arise when it comes to food temperatures. The danger of human error is bypassed, and the system is entirely paperless, removing the need for multiple members of staff to move between various control points while handling pens, paper, and thermometers. This is an important reduction in points of contact – key to ensuring a COVID-safe working environment. The pandemic and its ramifications look set to stay with us for some time, and many newly sharpened attitudes towards safety are here to stay. While this has placed extra demands on businesses up and down the food value chain, they can be overcome through stringent quality assurance and savvy investment in technology.

Whilst this equipment sounds expensive, the short-term investment can save a business money in the long term seriously impacting its bottom-line for the better. For example, let’s say it takes one person to perform five different temperature checks three times a day. That could reach upwards of 73 hours of labour annually, which based on minimum wage estimates to £636. Wireless data loggers provide a more accurate and regularly updated analysis for less than £30. Applying this technology can therefore save around £600 a year by freeing up more employee time. The 73 hours spared can be weeks’ worth of time dedicated to more fundamental work within the business.

The post Time to reskill our people to meet the needs of the digital economy appeared first on FMJ .

Time for FM to make the switch to a more sustainable transport solution

Tue, 26 Oct 2021 09:24:00 GMT

I n November, the UK hosts COP26 and the media channels will be full of debate about actions to be taken to reduce carbon emissions to combat climate change. Two of the most polluting sectors are the built environment and transport. Indeed, transport has overtaken power generation as the UK’s most polluting sector responsible for 27 per cent of the total greenhouse gas emissions.

That’s one reason the Government is backing more provision for safer active travel and wider use of bikes. Not just in the movement of people, but as a means of transport itself – moving goods and services. One example of Government commitment is a further £400,000 grant from the Department for Transport, administered by the Energy Saving Trust to help kickstart and incentivise the adoption of e-cargo bikes for businesses. Electric cargo bikes come in two, three or four wheel options and are primarily used in the last-mile delivery sector – although are replacing less efficient vehicles across a multitude of different applications. The power assisted bikes can carry loads from 150kg up to 400kg with a trailer. They are being used by construction firms like FM Conway and Morgan Sindall to move materials between sites, depots and their suppliers and construction logistics consultants such as O’Neill & Brennan and CSB Logistics are researching ways of making cargo bikes more mainstream.

Last month London based e-bike specialists Fully Charged hosted a well-attended e-cargo bike summit in association with the Energy Saving Trust, with people from construction, last mile delivery firms, catering, flower delivery, the textile sector and even an investment bank. But no one from FM. Why? Well, the transition is a hard one from a van to bike. The construction firms using cargo bikes are still learning – but certainly FM Conway is committed and others, such as HSS Hire are adopting them too. We know of one FM firm that is looking at trialling bikes, but no others. Even major suppliers to FM companies struggle to see how the logistics of vans can be changed to a cargo bike.

The trick is to go to events like Fully Charged’s e-cargo summit. EVs are not the single answer. Transport in facilities management, like transport across the UK, requires an integrated approach – vans and bikes together. It works for a lift maintenance firm that bought bikes from Fully Charged. Their teams now complete their work in less time and their operatives are healthier and happier – and so are their clients.

Think about the choices. Electric vans do not reduce congestion. They do not save time. They do not save on parking charges. Couriers using bikes that have also used vans argue the bikes are 60 per cent faster. Emissions are 90 per cent lower than diesel vans and 33 per cent lower than electric vans. Research claims that over 50 per cent of freight (and this includes service movements of MRTs in white vans) can be replaced by a cargo bike.

If the transition is too hard then think about customer expectations. The investment bank attending the Fully Charged’s e-cargo event is demanding all of its suppliers, including its FM service provider, decarbonise their operations and look at using different modes of transport. I know of at least one major cleaning company in London that expects its supplier to decarbonise and is waiting for a switch to cargo bikes from vans to deliver cleaning materials. If the dry-cleaning company Oxwash can run a business in Oxford, Cambridge and across London using a business model reliant on cargo bikes why can’t cleaning materials be delivered using a bicycle?

If FM’s do not rethink their logistics then customers will do it for them. A commitment to reducing carbon emissions is now a given in every invitation to tender. Major public sector customers such as the MOD, NHS, and the MoJ will all be seeking reductions in CO2 across their sites. Some of these will be easier to implement a transition from traditional vehicles to e-cargo bikes as they are closed, or campus sites. So, when responding to bids for something like a nuclear plant or secure defence research facility, a bike could, or should, be part of the integrated transport solution.

With the current 130 per cent supertax and grants available from the Department for Transport, administered by the Energy Saving Trust, there is no better time to make the switch to a more sustainable transport solution – more efficient and more productive, lower costs with increased profitability.

The post Time for FM to make the switch to a more sustainable transport solution appeared first on FMJ .

In the pursuit of net zero

Mon, 21 Jun 2021 12:00:00 GMT

W hether you place your trust in Government, the investment fraternity, well respected scientists or passionate activists, the unarguable fact is that we now have only 10 years available to us to save the planet.

The science makes very clear that without significant change in the next 120 months by all of us that consider earth our ‘home’ we will reach a tipping point in our climate beyond which climate change will be both irreversible and catastrophic.

Glasgow hosts the COP26 conference in November and this event will put the UK in the global spotlight for demonstrating positive environmental action. To ensure success, those of us working in the built environment need to play a leading role in supporting both the UK and countries around the globe in delivering on their commitments to reach net zero emissions as soon as possible. The way we design, construct and operate the built environment will have a fundamental impact over the next ten years in helping our communities and local economies adapt to climate change.

We must lead a revolution in the sectors within which we work and break our dependance on polluting energy systems and seize the opportunity that exists from the falling costs of renewables and advances in energy storage. At a structural level we must contribute to and support the acceleration to zero carbon transport and the development of green infrastructure. To make all this possible, we must better understand and support the green transformation of the financial systems so that we can champion clean and resilient investments.

The transition to Net Zero will, however, involve deep structural changes that will affect people, communities and economic sectors in very different ways. The political acceptability of the transition and by implication public support, will depend on those changes being seen to be science based, fair and demonstrably impactful.

Across the Built environment though, we have a mountain to climb. In the 2020 progress report to the UK committee on climate change it was made clear that whilst some fantastic progress on emissions since 2008 had been achieved within the UK, the significant progress had been almost all been made in the power generation sector. The report further demonstrated how other major sectors were lagging way behind, one of the most disappointing areas being building.

The report concludes that “Buildings have seen limited progress in the last decade”. Whilst emissions relating to the building sector have reduced by 13 per cent, the policy driven successes of the first half of the decade have not been maintained. In the housing sector, the challenge to provide low carbon heating remains and the necessity to shift existing households away from natural gas to greener solutions is critical. The scrapping of the 2016 Zero Carbon Homes standard now means that we have more new homes requiring zero carbon retrofit than when the Climate Change Act was passed. Energy efficiency in existing building stock across all sectors and the challenge of widespread renovation and retrofit remains largely unaddressed with various Government incentives schemes not generating the demand anticipated.

Last month the UK Government committed to reducing emissions by 78 per cent by 2035, a commitment that will set the tone for COP26 and lead to similar stretching targets for many of the worlds most polluting countries. 2035, however, is only 14 years away, in the context of the built environment or the investment lifecycle of an asset this is no time at all.

Achieving these targets will require wide-ranging policies that are credible, consistent around the globe, long-term and of a robustness to transform behaviours and how our communities and wider society relate to energy, food, transport, waste and the use of finite resources. The challenges to how we all live and work will be significant.

The future of our planet is fragile, precious and our responsibility to maintain for future generations so there can be no greater purpose for all of us that work in the built environment than to contribute all we can to protect the globe.

The post In the pursuit of net zero appeared first on FMJ .

Home working lessons for FMs

Fri, 24 Jul 2020 10:20:00 GMT

H ow ironic. Facilities management spent years distancing itself from cleaning and janitorial services, casting these out as undervalued, commoditised and margin-less activities, in favour of the sparkly lights of workplace management. Then, in a matter of weeks, these services were thrust into the spotlight, front and centre of every corporate’s office re-entry plans.

So, where does the sector go from here? The scale of opportunity for FM teams to demonstrate their value is unprecedented. Yet the chances of squandering that opportunity are of a similar magnitude. Suddenly, cleaning is sound business. Board rooms are empty, but the C-suite has moved workplace to the top of its agenda. Soon, however, it will want data and later it will demand proof.

The initial data from Leesman’s assessment of employees’ home-based experience suggests that employees have adapted well to their new settings. More than three in four (77.5 per cent) of the first 10,000 employee respondents report that their home environments enable them to work productively. Compare this with our corporate office survey data where only 62.8 per cent of respondents can say the same for their office workplace.

Perhaps, however, this says more about the quality of the experience that the average corporate office provides, and casts doubt over whether these spaces are really designed for the employee and their role.

The corporate office has a new competitor on the block: employees’ own homes. And for corporations, that’s an attractively cheap alternative to upward-only rents and service charges.

But, before anyone signs an execution warrant for the workplace, they ought to hear the whole story. A deeper look into Leesman’s new data reveals that home working suits certain activities crucial to the vast majority of today’s workforce. For example, people do a lot of individual focused work. In our office-based index of 740,000+ responses, 91 per cent of employees describe this activity as important. And despite the shift to home working, people’s roles haven’t changed. In the home working data, 91 per cent of respondents claim that individual focused work is important. Yet 87 per cent of home workers report that their home environment supports this activity, while 78 per cent of office workers feel the same way about their workplace. We might infer from this that the home offers fewer interruptions and that employees benefit from exercising greater control over their space and schedule.

It’s a similar story for work activities such as meetings. Home-based employees feel considerably better supported than their office-based counterparts when it comes to planned meetings (+12.9 per cent) and video conferences (+28.4 per cent). Perhaps this is down to the Zoom revolution. As the only way for colleagues to stay connected while socially distancing, video conferencing tools have surged in popularity since March.

However, our research also bares the inherent limitations of video conferencing and home working more generally. The data suggests that employees working from home feel far less able to learn from others and interact with colleagues. Zoom calls have their advantages, but they will never replace those precious few minutes before and after a face-to-face meeting. There’s a lot of cynicism for so-called ‘water cooler moments’ – much of it justified – but it is undeniable that bringing colleagues together under one roof creates more opportunities for interaction, socialising, collaboration (spontaneous or otherwise) and team learning.

Our home working survey has almost reached 50,000 responses. When it does, we will have more insights into this mass home working experiment. Already, however, our data has revealed some urgent pressure points. As organisations form their back-to-work strategies to minimise the spread of COVID-19, FM departments will need the data to determine why their colleagues want to return to the office and what support they will need when they get there. At a moment when millions of people are rushing to conclusions about the new normal, and plenty of workplace vendors are flogging their products, knee-jerk decisions could prove to be the FM department’s undoing. Not following the data will tear up years of carefully considered progress in workplace.

The post Home working lessons for FMs appeared first on FMJ .

FM and business resilience

Tue, 26 May 2020 10:01:00 GMT

W e are living in a crisis like no other. Although it will eventually come to an end, none of us know when, and nobody can predict what the new ‘normal’ will look like.

This uncertainty could be our undoing if we fail to build business resilience, because the economy is likely to be fragile by the end of this pandemic. Currently, British workers seem to understand the almost impossible position some businesses are in – and that understanding is perhaps one of the reasons why most are accepting pay cuts and furloughed leave.

However, we need to prepare for the eventuality that the economy may not just ‘bounce back’ to where it started when lockdown and social distancing ends. What’s more, if the government support ends before British business gets back on its feet, then there’s every chance we could witness another recession.

I was promoted to Managing Director of BMG in 2008, just two weeks before the Lehman Brothers collapsed and the subsequent financial crash. It was a strange time. Initially we saw a real surge in work, albeit a different kind of work. Rather than expanding their property portfolios or moving into larger premises, businesses were consolidating and downsizing. This kept us reasonably busy to begin with, although not as busy as we’d been used to.

There’s a massive temptation to cut costs and to reduce prices when there’s less work as a result of a crisis. Back in 2008, we curbed the costs we could, those that wouldn’t be too detrimental to the business. Yet, we weren’t going to start cutting our prices in the hope of receiving more work. No, for us it was about believing in the value we bring customers, and that was our catalyst for thinking harder about all the ways we could continue to provide the best service, maintain our relationships and retain our best talent.

Our decision was to hold strong. And that approach served us well. In fact, it made us more robust.

The key lesson back in 2008 was the importance of adapting to the new reality. As a business operating in a time of crisis, you adapt or die. You have to communicate better than you’ve ever communicated before. And you have to stay true to who you are.

Workplace management is a business-critical profession which can help organisations shape new and innovative ways of working. And that’s what we need right now. The coronavirus outbreak provides us with an opportunity to think about the ways businesses may have to adapt, not just during the lockdown, but afterwards when life starts to return to a closer version of normal.

Forward-thinking companies will be talking to their employees, their supply chain and their customers in order to build a strategy that takes onboard everybody’s experiences. This will allow them to introduce step-change processes that will better support the business, and everyone who’s part of it, in the future.

Let’s recognise there is no normal. And let’s become as resilient as possible so we can bend and sway with whatever’s thrown our way. Keep communicating. Act with integrity. Be adaptable. Change quickly. Trust in people, trust in yourselves. And don’t lose that sense of who you are and how you like to operate.

The post FM and business resilience appeared first on FMJ .

The effect of TUPE on FM is multifaceted

Tue, 20 Aug 2019 11:05:00 GMT

F or almost 40 years businesses have had to consider the Transfer of Employment (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE) when transferring a relevant undertaking or implementing a service provision change. In the FM world, TUPE is an everyday occurrence. Whether this is dealing with a first-generation outsourcing, a change of outsourced service provider or an in-sourcing contract, TUPE can apply.

TUPE exists to protect the rights of employees and has introduced three concepts into UK employment law. The first concept is an automatic transfer principle that ensures employees transfer on their existing terms and conditions with their continu ity of service intact. This requires the transferee to step into the shoes of the transferor in regard to all “rights, powers, duties and liabilities under or in connection with” their employment contracts. The second concept is protection against dismissal in connection with a TUPE transfer and the third concept is the obligation to inform and consult with those employees affected.

From a legal compliance perspective, both outgoing and incoming service providers (and of course customers on a first-generation outsourcing or an in-sourcing contract) have obligations to adhere to under TUPE. Failure to comply with any of those obligations, such as the obligation to provide employee liability information (ELI) within specified time periods and the obligation to inform and consult with the right persons, could result in legal action against the offending party as well as financial repercussions.

From a commercial perspective, being able to price an opportunity correctly relies on thoroughly understanding the cost of the employee base that is linked to that opportunity. Therefore, receiving complete and accurate ELI data for a TUPE transfer is very important to an incoming provider. From a practical perspective, managing a workforce that could potentially be engaged on hundreds of different sets of terms and conditions is a minefield if the correct systems and processes are not in place to accurately capture employee data.

For businesses, it is commercially, financially and reputationally important to get TUPE right so keep the following in mind:

The post The effect of TUPE on FM is multifaceted appeared first on FMJ .

New vacancy - Air conditioning engineers required

Fri, 26 Apr 2019 07:36:43 GMT

https://www.cv-library.co.uk/cgi-bin/yourjobs.cgi?agency=354292">Current vacancies

Register today.....

Mon, 22 Apr 2019 09:09:21 GMT

Get in touch with CBW Staffing Solutions today to see how we can assist you on the search for your next career move.

By Phone - 0203 583 3099

By Email - Info@cbwstaffingsolutions.com

Once again sport gives a reminder that anything is possible if you don't give up and believe in yourself. prove your doubters wrong

Tue, 16 Apr 2019 09:12:59 GMT

Once again sport gives a reminder that anything is possible if you don't give up and believe in yourself. Prove your doubters wrong

One week to go...

Mon, 15 Apr 2019 09:18:29 GMT

One Week until the launch of CBW Staffing Solutions... Exciting times ahead