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Category: Features

  • New online diploma for changing events industry

    Patrick Crowder

    The event management industry has undoubtably taken a hit from the pandemic, and with the rise of new norms in safety, communication, and event expectations, the industry is quickly changing. Despite setbacks, the events industry is expected to grow by 19% in Europe between 2021 and 2027, so events managers are soon to be in high demand. A new online course called Event Crowd allows students to earn a diploma in events management in just three months.

    The course offers a fast way into event management, backed by industry professionals who organise everything from Glastonbury to the Olympics. Dodge Woodall, who founded Event Crowd Diploma, highlights the changing nature of the events industry and the urgent need for new, swift training methods.

    “Like every industry, we have had to adapt. As the events industry recovers from a challenging economic period, losing many staff and with production, health and safety changing vastly over the last few years, we felt we had a responsibility to support the industry’s recovery and upskilling of new talent in current times,” Woodall says, “We reached out to leading events figures across the world and over the last two years cumulatively have created a high quality, up-to-date, world-leading learning experience in events management. With the events industry booming again post pandemic, the demand for fresh talent in the industry is at an all-time high. Event Crowd provides three years’ worth of education in the space of three months and covers things that you won’t learn from textbooks in a library. The course is already proving to fast-track graduates into a career in the events industry.”

    For 22-year-old student Ben Onslow, Event Crowd provided a way for him to stay focused and increase his skill set during the pandemic. Though he was once worried about the pandemic affecting his career prospects, he is now employed by international exhibitions organiser Mack Brooks.

    “I knew I wanted to have a dream career in Events, so I focused on what I could control and took the Event Crowd Event Management Diploma. I needed something to keep me motivated and act as a light at the end of the tunnel. I wanted to be set for when the normal world returned,” Onslow says, “The course was challenging, but it definitely gave me a competitive edge and, as the pandemic was ending and the events industry started bouncing back, I secured a full-time, salaried event executive position at Mack Brooks getting to plan and work on large exhibitions. I am hugely grateful to the course for the insight and motivation it kept within me.”

    While you can finish the course in three months, it is not required.  You can take up to one year to finish, which allows for flexibility. Students learn how to plan, deliver, and market an event, learning from industry professionals. The course costs £2995.

    https://theeventcrowd.com

  • Distracting tech poses data breach risk

    Patrick Crowder

    There can be many distractions in the workplace, but with today’s constant connectivity, hard to navigate technology can become a nightmare. This goes further than missed emails or slight productivity slumps – a study from the secure email provider Zimmer suggests that stress and distraction caused by technology can pose a security risk.

    The 7,000-employee survey shows that 50% of employees feel that overly clunky IT systems slow down their work and make them more prone to errors due to distraction. Email is a popular place for these errors to manifest, and due to its assumed safety, is one of the main ways a data breach can occur. Despite this, 33% of employees don’t recall receiving any data security training in the past two years.

    Zivver CEO Wouter Klinkhamer recognizes that human error is inevitable, but he believes that systems can be kept secure without adding undue stress to an employee’s workday.

    “We can try to design cybersecurity so employees don’t make errors, but errors are ubiquitous,” Klinkhamer says, “The best businesses are those that best manage employee mistakes to prevent them from turning into a security incident. IT teams need to engage with employees without security measures getting in their way and create an effortless and frictionless experience by tailoring security policies and technology to them. Only then can employees truly be empowered in their work, with the freedom to focus without the distraction of clunky IT processes.”

    Email is the primary method of communication for most businesses, particularly in work-from-home scenarios. 88% of employees use email predominantly, and feel that it is a safe method of communication. However, of those same employees, 62% admitted to sending emails in error due to a high-stress environment.

    Steven Bond is Information Rights Manager at The Open University. He highlights the need for email security in the age of remote working.

    “Email has been heavily relied upon for decades now, for better or worse, to disseminate the lion’s share of communication – from inconsequential one liners to mass broadcasts. As more people than ever have been working remotely, email security has surged up the agenda for businesses. Supporting people to be able to make better decisions, implement effortless tools, and avoid being overloaded should be key drivers for businesses.”

    Credit: https://www.zivver.com

  • The Great Banking Exodus – burnout in the financial sector

    Patrick Crowder

    The financial sector can be a stressful environment, and we’re seeing large numbers of industry professionals leaving the sector following the pandemic. A new study by the global digital accountancy platform LemonEdge shows that 62% of financial services and banking professionals are planning to either leave their current role or leave the industry altogether due to high pressure.

    A third of professionals surveyed say that a reduced workload is the best way to deal with burnout. 27% say that more time off work would solve the issue, and others say that they would benefit from more management support and upgraded technology.

    Gareth Hewitt, who is the Co-Founder and CEO at LemonEdge, describes how these burnout-driven departures from the industry should be taken as a warning sign.

    “An exodus of industry professionals is a sure sign that levels of burnout have reached an unacceptable scale. Any experience of burnout is serious, and with thousands of employees planning to leave the industry as a direct result of high pressure, it should be a clear warning to firms before they risk losing valuable talent,” Hewitt says.

    With 31% of financial services and banking professionals planning to leave the industry, it is easy to see why this is a problem which must be solved. About a third of professionals say that working from home has increased their burnout, and 23% say that they are concerned with their physical and/or mental health. So what’s the solution? Hewitt says the answer lies in technology, which could enable reduced workload.

    “The risk of burnout to employers is huge, and there are simple measures firms can introduce to reduce the risk of burnout, making the lives of their employees much simpler, easier, and less stressful. Firms need to be aware of the impact absenteeism and presenteeism will have on both their employees and business productivity. Just because you’re working from home, or in a hybrid model, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy time off,” Hewitt says, “Firms need to look at their approaches to improve the lives of their staff. In this day and age, technology not only can but should provide the automation and flexibility that can contribute to reduced stress, reduced working hours, and lower risk of burnout.”

    A third of professionals surveyed say that a reduced workload is the best way to deal with burnout. 27% say that more time off work would solve the issue, and others say that they would benefit from more management support and upgraded technology.

    Credit: https://www.lemonedge.com

  • The Crown Estate launches hospitality careers fair

    The Crown Estate is hosting a careers fair designed to support the hospitality industry. The free event will give over 500 applicants the chance to earn a role in hospitality at one of 25 West End businesses.
    The hospitality industry has suffered greatly from the pandemic, and a recent Opinium poll shows that only 5% of young adults are considering a job in hospitality. This means that it is an ideal time to find a position, with so many vacancies available.

    Crown Estate Customer Partnership Director Leanne Catterall explains how this jobs fair represents a new direction for the Crown Estate, and new opportunities for applicants.

    “This is the first jobs fair of its kind for The Crown Estate and will act as a pilot for how we can continue working with, and supporting, our customers and communities in the future,” Catterall says, “It will be a great opportunity to not only support our customers, by showcasing the fantastic career opportunities within hospitality, but also unlock new opportunities for people from all different backgrounds.”

    There is a wide range of positions to fill, so participating businesses are looking for baristas, bar tenders, waiters, chefs, operation managers, pastry chefs, housekeepers, and more.

    The businesses involved include top London restaurants and cafés, including Park Row, Ole & Steen, Café Murano, and the critically acclaimed Fallow restaurant. James Robson, who Co-founded Fallow in St James’ Market, is excited for the chance to participate following such a hard time to find staff.

    “What a great event to be a part of. We launched Fallow at a tremendously difficult time – just days before the first lockdown. Our sector has been crippled by the pandemic and staffing is a major part of this,” Robson says, “We need to do all that we can to show prospective employees the wonders that a role in hospitality can provide, and the jobs fair will do just this.”

    The event will take place on Tuesday, June 14th, from 10AM to 4PM at Park Row restaurant on Brewer Street. The fair, which will feature culinary and industry workshops, is free to attend.

    Tickets: https://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/en-gb/about-us/the-value-we-create/community-jobs-and-growth/hospitality-careers-fair/

  • Edtech Interview: Plum Innovations founder Ji Li on the rise of remote learning

    Christopher Jackson

     

    By the time I talk to Ji Li the pandemic has receded enough that I could probably meet with him face to face, but it’s fitting that I don’t. That’s because our conversation is all about the way in which information technology has changed in schools over the last twenty years or so – and the remarkable ramifications that’s had for education in this country.

    Li is the CEO and founder of Plum Innovations which specialises in the provision of education technology to schools, and so is well-placed to give an overview. “It’s a fascinating evolution,” Li says over Zoom. “It helps to look a bit deeper at the statistics to consider the scale of the change. According to the British Education Supplier Association Research, in 1998 there were 820,000 computers in schools in the UK. That amounts to about 31 computers per school.”

    It’s worth briefly concentrating on that statistic, and thinking about what it meant. This was a world without that culture we’re familiar with: a laptop for every table – a computer as a kind of accessory of yourself. And of course that had ramifications for schools. “As a result of that,” Li explains, “most of the schools in the UK were serviced by local authority IT technicians.”

    But then Li produces the latest statistics: “However, in 2019, before the pandemic, there were over three million computers in schools. And you also have to remember that during the pandemic – because of the way that period went – that number has increased dramatically.”

    Those statistics aren’t yet available but are likely to be equally eye-popping when they are released. So what are the ramifications of that seismic change for the IT industry? “The IT landscape has changed absolutely. But what’s most notable is the way in which schools have relatively limited budgets and so technicians have to provide a cost-effective way to manage large quantities of computers – and they have to do that still with very limited time. They might still only visit each school once or twice a week.”

    It’s a radical but also exciting change – although, of course, it places stress on teachers, parents, students and the education technology industry alike. But Li also points out that it’s taken place alongside another development which might be deemed to be as significant in its way. “This trend for remote-learning and remote-working has come along at a time when there has also been a dramatic expansion in the number of multi academy trusts,” he says. “Before these came along, most of the computers were located in one premises – and so the technician’s role would be to attend that site, and whatever problem needed solving would be done there, within that boundary.”

    That might feel like a simple way of servicing schools, but of course it also places a certain strain on the technician involved. “Not only has the quantity of computers increased but the workload has too, and technicians have had to change their schedules in order to meet other requirements. On top of that,” Li continues, “another issue must be navigated: a good education technology company will also need to service the question of working from home and working at school – and that may even include servicing the parents as well. So I think all this has changed the way in which technicians work with schools, and how they can work more closely with providers. It comes down to a question of there being far more devices in circulation in schools – but a perennially limited budget.”

    All that, of course, means that Li, who has a team of four, has to pay extra attention to looking after his staff, as well as making sure that all things run like clockwork in the schools which he services. “The workload my technicians have is something we have to think about – but also we deal with the fact that every day we’re confronting new challenges. That’s part of the joy of working in a changing industry. But it also means that I need to make sure I concentrate on the well-being of my technicians – because that’s important to the schools as well.”

    So how does Ji Li cope with all this? This is where it helps to be a small and nimble business, he says: “As Plum, we’re quite small and more flexible than a large company and can adapt to changing situations. When teachers work remotely, we also work remotely so we don’t have to visit all different physical locations.” It’s details like this which make you realise how Li’s success is partly due to an ability to be in lockstep with his schools. Li continues: “We’ve also been very diligent about setting up a proper infrastructure so that when we have more devices we can manage them in a centralised unified platform and that reduces workloads.”

    The more time you spend with Li, the more you realise that what sets him apart is his passion for education – and his admiration for the teachers he works with. “We also work with teachers who are tech-savvy,” he explains. “And we work with teachers until they feel they’ve become used to the technology we’re all working with. That way everything goes smoother. It’s a challenge for them sometimes on the IT side – so our job is to reduce this stress wherever we can.”

    And how do schools feel about this seismic shift? Li is admiring of the headteachers he works with and their ability to see the bigger picture. “A good leader in schools will know what’s happening in their schools – and the ones I speak to are simply happy that they have more devices to access. The most important thing we can do is create a trusted relationship with schools, and send a positive message about the potential for IT learning.”

    And how are teachers handling the shift? Li is very positive about this. “In one of my schools in Kent, one of the teachers was pinged during the pandemic and told he had to work from home. But there weren’t enough supply teachers. Luckily, we had enough laptops for the class. So the teacher in question was able to be at home and do a Zoom call with his teaching assistant to plan the lesson. He was then able to do the whole class on Zoom, and the assistant was able to be present in the classroom. This was a huge reduction in stress for everyone – without that arrangement, the children would have missed the whole day.”

    What is enjoyable in this story is the sense we get of how much each day matters in a child’s education. Another positive is that the pandemic has accelerated teachers’ familiarity with technology. “Throughout the past two years, teachers are up to speed now. During lockdown, teachers had to use these platforms,” Li explains.

    Talking with Ji Li, I am struck by his passion for education, and his desire to drive things forward: “I’m lucky to work with schools who continue to utilise the equipment they became accustomed to throughout the pandemic. When they can, they want to teach in class, but they also understand the importance of digital skills especially from the top down. Headteachers know that for future generations digital skills are going to be vital.”

    All this makes for considerable job satisfaction for Ji Li, and for those working with him. “It’s a great feeling,” he says. “Before the pandemic and during it, we’ve tried to see how we can be ahead of the curve and that’s what we’ve done.” They certainly have.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • An interview with James Connor: Millwall F.C. footballer turned wealth manager

    Robert Golding

     

    James Connor isn’t exactly your traditional idea of a footballer – but then he’s not necessarily what you’d expect from a wealth manager either. But great businesses always have a certain generosity about them – whether that be a generosity of spirit or energy or imagination. But in the case of Connor Broadley, one senses a central kindness which comes back, you suspect, to Connor himself.

    “I come from a working class family,” he tells us. “Dad ran his own heating business and for most of his career was a one-person firm, with mum as his secretary. If the phone went when we were having dinner, it could be a new client and so you’d have to answer the phone.”

    The family business did well enough to send Connor to the Mall in Twickenham. As I get to know Connor I will note how he tends to see the best in situations and in people, and this is the case with his schooling: “I like to think I had the richest upbringing. I did have a really working class family: we used to congregate at my nan’s house every day up until the age of 13, with uncles and aunts and cousins. But Zak Goldsmith was in my class at school, and there were a number of high-profile actresses and actors who had sent their children there. That gave me a sense of self-confidence.”

    As it turns out Connor would have plenty of reasons for self-confidence – but I never get a sense while talking to him that he has a shred of arrogance. Early on, he realised he was good at sports, although initially there was scepticism from his teachers as to whether football – which in time, would be his chosen sport – would ever pay. “I remember being told: ‘James, you’re good at sports but it will never be a career for you’. This was the pre-professional era, and money hadn’t come into football then.”

    In time, Connor would attend Hampton, a former grammar school, where his passion for football deepened. Initially, after unluckily breaking his arm on the night of Republic of Ireland v Romania during Italia 90, Connor thought he had lost the chance to pursue his dream. “But as luck would have it, my nan had moved to Aldershot – which was 92nd in the football league out of 92 clubs. She heard they were doing a last chance saloon trial day, offering seven apprenticeships at the end of it.” Connor secured one, but decided after breaking his arm to do his A-Levels at the same time. When the club folded, Connor again thought a football career might not happen.

    Good fortune struck again however, when his former Aldershot manager called the Connor family while James was interrailing in Europe to say he’d moved to Millwall and he’d like him to join the trial. Connor was on the training pitch 48 hours later. “I saw the career that I could have,” he recalls. “Millwall had one of the best youth academies at the time, and it was well known for building the best youth players and selling them, and there were internationals in the youth team there. That was August. By November I had signed a five year contract, a PFA representative came to see me. Dad encouraged me to buy my first house at 18 which is where my interest in personal finance came from. Only Garth Crooks and Paul Gascoigne at that point in history had been offered a five-year contract.”

    Connor was a quiet player, and the only privately educated player on the team. Mick McCarthy was the manager at that time. “We were doing a drill – and Mick was a very strong person, and reminded everyone that I wouldn’t be shouting for the ball,” Connor recalls. In this, he also draws a parallel with his current role in wealth management: “I’m much better operating one to one, since this job is about intimate conversations and relationships: it’s not a job which involves talking to large numbers of people. I like to go about my business discretely and be respected for being good at what I do.”

    There were other skills which Connor developed at Millwall F.C. “One of the great things about football at all levels is that it attracts a real social mix. And you just love it and embrace it for what it is. Your team mates are all equals. Similarly, entrepreneurs come from all walks of life.”

    These skills meant that Connor was better prepared than he perhaps realised at the time, when his career ended through injury. You sense that this was a challenge even for someone with his innate optimism. “It was the defining point in my life,” he says. “It left me so determined to make it at something else. Football is a brutal industry and there’s no support network for people once you exit the game.”

    But again Connor would be fortunate. The then chairman of Millwall was Peter Mead – the Mead in the UK’s then largest advertising agency Abbot Mead Vickers. He took Connor under his wing. “Difficult as it was not doing what I wanted to do at 21, being thrust into the creative advertising scene was an amazing education in itself,” Connor recalls.

    Gradually, Connor’s career began to evolve. Everything kept coming back to an interest in personal finance, which had been planted in him by his father. “In my twenties, I found myself going to buy the Sunday newspaper to read the personal finance section. By the age of 27, I realised it would play to my strengths. I took a 90 per cent pay cut then but I knew it would suit me and I was prepared to do it.”

    It would turn out to be a masterstroke, and again, Connor draws a comparison with football: “One thing you have to have in sport is a good instinct. I find it eyebrow-raising when I hear people making career moves when they have no natural segue into it.”

    At first Connor was, in his own words, “just a bag carrier”. He loved the work and built an impeccable reputation, but when a fraud scandal occurred in the firm, Connor decided that he had to preserve his hard-won reputation. Though the scandal had had nothing to do with him, he started his own firm to avoid being tainted by it. “A number of people said: ‘Don’t be implicated in any way. Go and set up your own company and we’ll come with you.”

    Again, Connor’s experience in football was formative. “I’d noted as a footballer that when I was approached by financial professionals there was such a lack of integrity – and there is still is in some quarters. We wanted to be respected from day one. We didn’t try and entice previous connections over; we waited for the phone to ring. Our first client fee was £250 and we felt like we’d won the lottery at that point.”

    This commitment to integrity sometimes meant giving advice which was in contradiction of their own personal interests. “Our first enquiry was from a longstanding accountancy connection. She’d lost her husband and there was a tabled investment proposal which she didn’t think was in her interests. We were asked to take a look. We had to explain we were in our first few days of business. I took one look at the lady in question and realised she was in no fit state to make a decision as she’d been through a life-changing event – and I know about life-changing events. We told her to stick the money into a bank account to take stock of her life and to talk to us when things had calmed down. She’s now been a client for 15 years.”

    The approach has worked. Connor Broadley now has an AuM of £500 million – with an expected £100 million increase to come this year alone. But Connor insists it’s not about the numbers: “Growth at Connor Broadley should come as a consequence of looking after clients, giving them advice and underpinning it with a personal service: it has to be the right kind of growth. Word is spreading and we continue to grow: we attract nice people – people that appreciate a longer term relationship genuinely.” That word ‘genuine’ is overused but it certainly applies to Connor.

    So how do you become a client? “The entry point is £1 million of eligible longer term money if we’re going to commit to providing them with an ongoing service.” The firm has a cautious approach. “The way we invest clients’ money is geared to growing purchasing power of our clients’ money by a specified amount above inflation after fees are taken into account across a number of different risk profiles. We don’t purport to be a wealth manager that’s offering double digit returns from one year to the next. We want to look after the wealth people are dependent on to live comfortable lives.”

    This is a firm set to grow in the next years, as it brings – starting at the top – some much-needed integrity into the difficult-to-navigate world of wealth management.

     

     

     

  • Opinion: Why human resource management deserves to be seen as a desirable profession

    Dr. Liz Houldsworth

     

    In the opening episode of the new drama Slow Horses, a wrongly disgraced Mi5 officer takes some comfort when he visits his nemesis and, on finding him in a room full of filing cabinets, realises that he is no longer a practicing spy and has been ‘relegated to Human Resources’.

     

    Such depictions in film, TV and written word are not uncommon. A well-known piece by Hammonds in 2005 heralded ‘Why we hate HR’; parodying the function for its technical jargon such as ‘internal action learning’ and arguing that it was not a role for the brightest and best, typically populated by those who were not the ‘sharpest tacks’.  More recently Douglas Murray in the Telegraph was indignant at discovering the role of HR manager to be one of the most desirable and highest paid.

     

    Having worked and researched in Human Resource related fields for over 20 years I recognise this as a continuing, and key, debate. With the Masters students I teach at Henley Business School, I make the point that for most organisations people are both the largest single element of operating (variable) costs and the single resource that can generate value from the organisation’s other resources. Managing any organisation cost-effectively therefore requires knowledgeable, careful and skilful human resource management.

    Put simply, for the majority of businesses it really is all about the people.  The news that HR managers might now be one of the better paid jobs perhaps suggests that organisations are finally putting cash behind the hyperbole that ‘People are our Most Important Asset.’

    For the specialists we teach, who choose to go into HRM as a profession, it is important for them to understand the kind of ignorant assumptions that they may face, but it is also important to understand the motivation of these bright and enthusiastic individuals who have chosen to invest their time and money to qualify to work in the HR profession.

    A common misbelief is that HRM Is for individuals who like working with people. As many other commentators have pointed out, HRM is not about being nice to people.  A former colleague once said to me: ‘I used to think HRM was easy, all about people, but these ‘soft’ things are really hard.’ Done well, HRM is carried out by business-focused individuals who make difficult decisions and lead effective change programmes in ways which don’t attract negative media attention. To take one recent example, a US mortgage company recently sacked 900 staff by Zoom, attracting massive negative publicity and harming the business.

    One of the reasons my students cite as a driver for selecting a career in HRM is that they want to make a difference to people’s working lives. This impact might be through the shaping and maintenance of the organisation’s culture, or by responding in a timely fashion to fast-changing needs. Such a fleet-of-foot response is not synonymous with the self-important bureaucrats seen through Murray’s distorting lens. Had HRM generally been populated by such individuals we might still be waiting for the health and well-being programmes that supported so many millions during the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent implementation of hybrid working.

    Of course, as with all the other functions of any effective business, production, finance, IT or marketing, HRM has a normal range of individuals from those who are naturally brilliant at it and are heavily relied upon members of the top management team, to those who are incompetent drudges.

    But for the most part serious organisations, and commentators, recognise HRM as more strategic and deserving of its seat at the table.  In the more sophisticated organisations, there is a clear understanding of the transition of HRM away from being a largely administrative function to becoming a more strategic function. Of course, there is still a bureaucracy around hiring, payroll, pensions administration, etc.  It is important that these things are handled competently and consistently (if you are not sure about that, think what would happen if people didn’t get paid the right salary at the right time).

    But there is much more to the role. To take a crucial example, recruitment is one of the core skill areas within HRM. Get the right people in and many other management problems become much easier to resolve; get the wrong ones and the organisation is building up near and long-term future problems for itself. In organisations of any significant size, recruitment is a holistic resourcing strategy and HRM specialists are expected to manage the flow of resources (people) into, through and eventually out of the organisation.

    Human resource planning may be an area which has less of a trendy image than other areas of management – and will be unknown to many casual commentators on HRM. It requires detailed data collection, analysis of changing external circumstances (most recently Covid, of course), understanding the likely availability of internal and external labour markets (think Brexit) and the organisation’s likely future demand for labour. Without effective thinking – consider the travel industry at present – businesses will swerve within weeks from being expensively over-staffed, to being desperately short of appropriately trained employees.  Anyone thinking this is a low-value activity should try telling that to the people struggling to get away for their Easter break because of a lack of baggage handlers, or to farmers unable to get their produce picked or hoteliers without chefs or waiting staff.

    Depicting the individuals who specialise in order to do this work as presumptuous dullards is perhaps what got us into these situations in the first place.  A country should indeed encourage young people to excel and be great at things that are important, and roles in human resource management are high on that list.

    The writer is the Programme Director of Henley’s MSc International Human Resource Management.

     

  • Jubilee weekend: royal-themed SMEs surge

    Ahead of the Jubilee weekend, there has been a 70% surge in royal-themed small businesses. According to a study by Simply Business, the most common royal words used in small business names are Queen, Royal, Crown, Princess, and Regal.

    Simply Business CEO Alan Thomas explains why the bank holiday could be a boon for small business following the pandemic.

    “This year’s additional bank holiday comes at a pivotal moment. Independent retail, hospitality and leisure businesses have been disproportionately affected by Covid-19, losing a staggering £40,000 each on average due to the pandemic – almost double the £22,000 average losses reported by UK small businesses,” Thomas says, “With almost six million UK SMEs, contributing trillions of pounds a year in turnover, it is vital to the country’s economic recovery that they bounce back. This bank holiday could provide a substantial boost to small business owners across retail, hospitality and leisure, at a time when it’s needed most.”

    East Anglia proved to have the most patriotic small business owners, with 14.7% of the national share of royal-themed business names. North West and North East England followed close behind, with 13.7% and 13.2% respectively.

     

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  • Dr David Moffat’s career transition advice

    Dr David Moffat

    Not that long ago many young people were able to decide upon their preferred career path and predictably pursue this path. However, the developing complexity of careers today has led us to believe the need to change jobs or occupations frequently is now the rule and not the exception. Today, jobs are subject to many changes and uncertain prospects as a result of growth in automation adoption, the increasing geographic concentration of employment, the shrinkage of labour supply, remote working, the shifting mix of industry sectors and occupations, and searching for a greater work/life balance. These uncertainties require people to continuously adapt to this changing employment landscape.

     

    In this article, I would define career transition as the period during which a worker objectively takes on a different role and/or subjectively changes the orientation of a role. In short, disengaging from their previous work situation and engaging in a new one. Moreover, career transition can take several forms, for example, ‘organisational change’ – moving from one department or division to another within the same company, and ‘occupational change’ – a transition from one type of job to a different type of job. Whatever the kind of career transition it often requires a change of focus and direction in terms of objectives, purpose, attitude, individuality, and vocational routines. Faced with such changes, people react in various ways and no rules exist as to how they are experienced as each individual has their resources and barriers to deal with.

     

    Career transition can lead to new opportunities and the benefits are many, but equally, career transition can also lead to increased pressure and unwanted stress (i.e., psychological, interpersonal and financial). In other words, the consequences of career transitioning may be either stimulating (e.g., challenging oneself, identifying new opportunities) or negative (e.g., increased stress, family pressure, lack of confidence, financial risk). These consequences depend largely on the individual’s capacity to manage the different demands relating to the transition and particularly on their psychological resources (e.g., optimism, extroversion, self-efficacy, commitments, and values).  Experts have identified certain characteristics that are particularly relevant for those coping with career transitions; these can be categorised into five factors:

     

    1. Readiness – reflects how individuals appraise their motivation for making a career transition.

     

    2. Confidence – assesses how capable a person feels of completing the tasks required for a successful career transition.

     

    3. Control – reflects what extent individuals view the career transition as being in their control.

     

    4. Perceived Support – relates to how much support individuals feel they are receiving from people around them as they contemplate a career transition.

     

    5. Decision independence – indicates the degree to which individuals view the career transition as being an independent decision rather than a choice forced on them by the relational context.

     

    Having a narrative

    Career transition is a big step for you but also for those around you who are likely to doubt your decision and will ask lots of questions.  Typical questions that may be asked are “why now when you are so successful at what you do?” or  “is it not a little risky?”. To deal with answering these questions and others you must communicate your vision for the future effectively. You do this by creating a persuasive narrative explaining the utility you bring to the new venture. If you achieve this you are well on your way to winning their support. Below is a list of questions that I think everyone who is considering a career transition should answer. It will also help you construct and create your narrative. Moreover, the answers you provide will help in identifying your levels of motivation for change and your belief in your abilities to make a successful transition.

     

    1. Why do you wish to career transition?

     

    2. How do you see the career transition process unfold?

     

    3. What changed in your current or past work orientation to contemplate a career transition?

     

    4. What will improve in your life if you are successful with your career transition?

     

    5. What are the external forces that led you to consider a career transition?

     

    6. How would you describe your professional identity in your past and/or current career?

     

    7. How will you describe your professional identity after your transition?

     

    8. People may change with experience and adult development and come to find their interests and preferences change, what changes have you experienced in the workplace recently?

     

    9. Are you in search of a greater life/work balance? if yes why? if not why?

     

    10. Even though there are risks, how do you rate your chances of finding a better career choice and why?

     

    11. What were the key trigger events to motivate you to career transition?

     

    12. Some would say that career transition is a risky venture, please explain what you will do to minimise the risk of failing to transition?

     

    13. Even though the solution to your career transition may not be readily apparent, please explain how you will successfully work through it.

     

    14. Why are you ready to risk the security you have in your current career to gain something better?

     

    15. If people you respect say they think you can make this career transition successfully, why do you think that is?

     

    16. Within your social network do you have anyone who has responded negatively to your career transition? if yes, how do you deal with this negativity?

     

    17. Do you have a role model or any guiding figures who believe in you and can offer advice and support in helping you throughout your career transition?

     

    18. External relationships are valuable. Please explain how your existing networks will help you transition.

     

    19. While family and relationship needs are important when it comes to career transition, how do you prioritise those needs versus your own needs?

     

    In this article, I have aimed to granularly define career transition and activities to better understand the benefits and risks associated. Indeed, there seems to be no better time to reflect if you are on the right career path. If you are considering a move from one industry to another or starting over in an entirely different field, or entrepreneurship; these insights will help you make sense of what’s next in your journey. To chat with Dr David Moffat  please contact him by email:

    davidmoffat@hotmail.com

  • Waterfly on Liz Truss, Jeremy Clarkson and Boris Johnson

    Our round-up of the latest gossip in the education and work sectors

     

    Emily in Kensington

    Finito World’s own Emily Prescott has had an exciting few months, moving from her role at The Evening Standard, to become diary editor for The Mail on Sunday. At just 25 this is an impressive achievement. But this isn’t all. We also hear that she’s working on a book on the history of gossip. When she recently interviewed Michael Gove about diary journalism – Gove, who used to work as Diary editor at The Times – told Prescott that it was ‘a nice little apprenticeship.’

    But it can be much more than that. Indeed, for Prescott it’s been something of a baptism of fire. When Prescott published a piece about Jeremy Clarkson’s daughter Emily, and reported verbatim her quotes on Instagram about her ignorance of the Russia-Ukraine war, Prescott woke to find her Twitter had blown up after a fiery – and in Waterfly’s opinion, unnecessary – tweet by Clarkson himself calling her both a ‘shit journalist’ and ‘an idiot’. But Prescott’s good nature ensured that she didn’t reply, or even take it too hardly. “He’s just being protective of his daughter – as I’d be in his situation,” she says. Prescott adds with a smile: “I don’t think I’m either of those things, but at least I’ve never punched any of my colleagues.” Clarkson has 7.6 million followers on Twitter; Prescott, around 500. So from punching colleagues to punching down – there’s consistency there. 

    Spectating on Boris

    Talking of punching down, one person who doesn’t do that, according to The Spectator art critic Martin Gayford, is the Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Gayford witnessed Boris up close in his journalism days: “Boris was famous for going up to and over deadline, and certainly did make people quite cross although he probably knew by that stage that he was commanding enough readers to make people put up with it. Charles Moore certainly spiked one or two of his columns and said: ‘If he’s late, use something else’.”

    Gayford explains that he didn’t always have much directly to do with Boris when he was editor – except in one respect. “One thing I’d say about Boris is that he was unusually good at sending messages to lowly people such as those toiling on the factory floor of the arts pages when he was editor. You would get messages saying, “Boris liked that piece” and that sort of thing.” So does Gayford ever see something in Downing Street and think that’s a bit like what used to happen at The Spectator? “I’m not sure if you can compare running a country to running a little magazine in a three-storey building in Doughty Street,’ he says, chuckling. Yes, perhaps not.  

    King Richard

    Sometimes the hurly burly nature of British politics can be glimpsed in a single phone call. When Waterfly called Richard Harrington last year to ask to talk to him, he declined an interview: “You don’t want to talk to me – I’m just not interesting enough,” he said. “The person you really want to talk to is John Bercow.” Since that time, Harrington has become Minister for Refugees and Bercow has not only joined the Labour Party but been the subject of a report into alleged bullying when he was Speaker of the House of Commons. Who’s interesting now?

    An Ignob-el Mistake

    When we spoke with Gayford, we also asked him of his regrets as a journalist. He was decisive in his reply: “The worst thing is when you’re talking to someone interesting, or of historical importance, and you feel you need to contribute something to the conversation – and so you come in with your ten cents. Then you listen to the tape and wish you hadn’t interrupted. You’ve got to keep your mouth shut.”

    Waterfly would add you’ve got to be careful which day you call. Waterfly recalls phoning the Astronomer-Royal Lord Martin Rees last autumn, and found the kindly scientist in an uncharacteristically jittery mood. “I’m so sorry I just have to get off the line,” he said. When Waterfly did so, we went onto the BBC news website, and saw that that morning the Nobel Prize for Physics was being handed out. Rees had wanted us off the line, perhaps having thought we were Stockholm when we phoned. Oops.

    Goldsmiths aggrieved

    Waterfly has been in and out of the House of Lords these past few months, and in addition to receiving different appraisals of the food – Baroness Anne Jenkin holds a higher opinion of the canteen than does Baroness France d’Souza – Waterfly began to get a feel for the place. On one occasion, D’Souza passed Zac Goldsmith smoking a roll-up in the courtyard. “Ooh, I like your cigarette,” she said. “You must be the only one,” he replied, humorously but a little gloomily.

    Waterfly recalled catching up with Ben Goldsmith, who told us: “There are many professions which pay significantly more than an MP earns. I think it is a bit much for the public to expect people working in those professions to take a drastic pay cut in order to enter politics. Some may do it, many more  would not – and why should they?” And you can’t even smoke.

    An Artful Innovation

    Emily Prescott isn’t the only person in the Finito fraternity going places. Our business mentor Angelina Giovani has made an impressive step creating an innovation in the world of art provenance. “There are a lot of odd and funny requests one gets when working as an art researcher, that can be a dead giveaway as to whether someone is familiar with your line of work or not,” Giovani tells Waterfly.

    Two weeks into the first lockdown in London, an art collector rang Giovani to ask whether she could research his client’s 150 artwork collection, which he intended to sell. She tells Waterfly: “We certainly can, I responded: “What’s the time frame? “We’d like for it to be done this week.” I told him that this was like requesting the Pyramids be built in an afternoon.’

    But it was out of this exchange that the Collections Provenance Rating was born. The first of its kind – known as the CPR for short – assesses the state of documentation of a collection and offers recommendations based on the result.

    Giovani explains: “This allows collectors planning to sell, insure, appraise or use the collection as collateral and borrow money against its value, to speed up the process and have a new insight into possible problematic pieces. This does not eliminate the need for proper due diligence: on the contrary, it helps streamline and make the research process more time and cost-effective.” And that’s how they built the Pyramids.

    In Liz We Truss

    To the United and Cecil Club Dinner, an occasion which helps raise funding for marginal Conservative seats. The Guest of Honour was none other than the Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who, after being barraged with questions about Putin, recalled her time as Secretary of State for International Trade. Once famous for her remarks about cheese, her attention has now turned to another dairy product. In that role, she found that she disapproved of the way in which yoghurt is always made in France, but not always packaged to let you know that. “What we need is for the English to manufacture yoghurt,” she said. “By the way,” she added, “I don’t like yoghurt.” In politics, as in life, it’s always important to cover your blind spots.