More women in the boardroom

Gareth Osborne, Director General of APA, has welcomed the publication of Lord Davies' review, Women in the Boardroom, which calls for firms to adopt voluntary targets in order to achieve a minimum of 25% female representation on boards by 2015.

Gareth said: "Everyone involved in the governance of British firms now needs to step back and recognise that there needs to be a fundamental shift in established perceptions of what a great board member looks like. That is the only way we will ensure we get to and beyond the 20% target swiftly and in a sustainable way.

“Jackie Orme of CIPD put it well when she said that meeting Lord Davies' objectives must be about more than skirts on seats. Board members should continue to be appointed on merit - but the definitions of what constitutes 'merit' has to be revised. We need to get better at drawing from non-traditional sources and the benefits of that approach will extend far beyond getting more women around the table. It holds out the prospect of generating a vibrant new generation of board members, capable of challenging orthodoxy, banishing group think, and generating more sustainable growth for their firms.”

"By seizing this opportunity to challenge established norms, we'll do so much more than just ensuring women are allowed to make up the numbers. Lord Davies has created a platform we can build on - but everyone involved in the governance of our biggest firms now needs to step up and play their part."

APA

Its growth Jim but not as we know it

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) forecasts growth for the economy in 2011, but warns that the pace of recovery will be slow. The knock-on impact of December’s bad weather has stifled enterprise and the business group now expects this year’s GDP growth rate to be 1.8 per cent, down slightly from an ‘already sluggish’ 2.0 per cent.

Although risks remain, the CBI maintains its view that the risk of a double dip recession is low.
Fears of a return to negative growth were heightened by official figures suggesting that GDP shrank by 0.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2010.

John Cridland, CBI director-general says, ‘The early estimate for GDP growth in the final quarter of last year came as a surprise to everyone, suggesting that underlying growth may have been weaker than previously thought.’ He adds that next year may bring better fortunes. ‘We must wait and see just how weak it was, and how much was down to December’s bad weather, but we do expect growth in 2011, albeit rather anaemic and sluggish, which will accelerate during 2012.’

APA

Business Advice – SMEs know best

New business owners prefer to do their own research rather than relying on information made available by the government according to a survey by software company Sage of 1,510 UK businesses. Just 14 per cent view business advice from the government as something they would depend on.

Less than a quarter of business owners (21 per cent) think the government is doing enough to provide sufficient support for those starting a business. As a result, many have resorted to their own desk research to get the information they need, with 40 per cent of respondents relying on internet searches, while 34 per cent mostly look to newspapers, journals and magazines for business information and advice.

Paul Stobart, CEO of Sage Northern Europe, says, ‘The resilience of SMEs in the UK is quite remarkable. Despite red tape, lack of access to capital, and a nervous economic environment, the SME is coming out fighting, determined to invest in and grow their business.”

Gareth Osborne of APA said: “Sage is right to praise small business tenacity but things have always been the same. Government shouldn’t be telling new businesses what to do; it should simply be directing them to appropriate professional bodies. APA can provide all the professional advice PAs need if they chose to start their own business and if they are providing services outside the profession then they should look to other similar bodies for help.”

APA

PAs at the heart of government

APA has today called on BIS, the Government Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, to recognise the important role played by PAs, as the principal supporters of business leaders, across all sectors in the UK.

Ahead of the launch of its Annual Business Leaders Survey APA Director General, Gareth Osborne, reiterated to Government the important role played by PAs in the effectiveness of every organisation, he said: “Our survey, now in its fourth year, has consistently shown that a great PA can increase a CEO’s personal organisational effectiveness (productivity) by as much as 45%. And, given the huge differential in remuneration, demonstrates why a PA is such a major asset to Directors and Senior Managers. Every leader should have one.”

APA is proactively promoting the significant advantage of PAs, especially to early-stage new businesses, as Government cuts are likely to causes redundancies in the public sector. Gareth, himself an entrepreneur with numerous successful businesses behind him, said: “Most businesses are started by two people, both having a skill or passion for the purpose of the business (two recruiters will start a recruitment agency). As experts in their field they possess the passion to make the early stage business successful and profitable. They work hard and grow and start to recruit specialist staff who need to be managed, and founders progressively find themselves doing less of income generating work and more of the things they are neither trained for nor good at. The solution is easy, one great PA will take all the day-to-day work from them and handle a range of varied and challenging tasks, leaving them free to be the best in their specialist field.”

‘Great PAs Pay’ is a training course recently launched by APA to show Directors how to recruit, train and use a PA for maximum effect. For further details contact training@paprofessional.com

APA

Sickness cheats

APA is supporting Government plans to conduct a review of sickness absence as part of its shake-up of the welfare reform system.

In an Absence Management survey (CIPD 2010) it was found that the average level of absence is 7.7 days per employee per year, with nine out of ten employers saying absence is a significant cost to their business.

In launching the review the Prime Minister said: “A short spell of sickness can far too easily become a gradual slide to a lifetime of benefit dependency,” and APA welcomes the weight he is throwing behind efforts to solve this seemingly intractable problem. Employers, government, and voluntary and private sector providers need to work together to do more to stop people falling out of work for long periods.

APA will work closely to ensure any initiatives are fair and even-handed and encourages members to share their views on the matter asap.

APA

One Lump or Two?

I like to watch Masterchef on the BBC, and have done for many years. I am particularly fond of the humble potato and its versatility, and enjoy eating potatoes in all their different guises.

I have found myself getting more and more annoyed with the two presenters dislike and disgust when presented with lumpy mashed potatoes.

You could say that mashed potatoes with a few lumps are rustic and more interesting in their texture. Let me know your opinion, and whether you would vote for lumpy or not.

Shelley Young, APA

Credit where it is due

Pictured are: Debbie Walker (L) and Maureen Davis (R) with ‘PA of the Year’ Laura Richardson.

APA has today announced the award of more Diplomas in Personal Assistance (DipPA). The results of three programmes, totalling 11 PAs, were judged earlier this week by a panel of APA Fellows and the successful delegates were informed today.

The Director General, Gareth Osborne, praised all the new Diploma holders for their commitment to career development and hoped that some would go on to enrol for the new PA Degree. Speaking about the Diploma he said: “It is a challenging and rewarding programme and most attendees feel that it will add significantly to their career, the support they give their Boss and the business. The Diploma teaches some state of the art PA tools and techniques and recognises that PAs are managers; managing the business’s key asset, its senior staff. We are always pleased by how well the course is received and work hard to ensure it is relevant and demanding.”

One recent attendee, Mo Davis FAPA DipPA (pictured right) said: “The Diploma has encouraged me to question information presented to ensure correct outcomes are achieved.”

Further information about APA training can be found on the website: paprofessional.com or by emailing training@paprofessional.com.

APA

UK unemployment total rises again

UK unemployment rose by 44,000 to almost 2.5 million in the three months to the end of December, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said. Youth unemployment rose to a fresh record high, with more than one in five 16 to 24-year-olds out of work after a rise of 66,000 to 965,000.

The unemployment rate is now 7.9%, with youth unemployment running at 20.5%.
The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance also increased, by 2,400 last month to 1.46 million.

Prime Minister David Cameron said unemployment, particularly among the young, was "a matter of great regret". But he stressed that it had been a problem for some time.

The number of people in part-time work because they could not find a full-time job rose by 44,000 to 1.19 million, another high since records began in 1992.

"The latest UK labour market figures provide further evidence that the jobs recovery has gone into reverse as public sector cuts start to bite and the faltering economy disrupts business," said APA Director General Gareth Osborne.

Long-term unemployment also deteriorated, with 17,000 more people out of work for more than a year, to a total of 833,000. Other data from the ONS showed that average earnings rose by 1.8% in the year to December last year, slightly down on the 2.1% growth in the year to November. The figures also showed that unemployment fell in Scotland by 13,000, but rose in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

APA

Redundant Britain

Redundancies look set to rise sharply in the first quarter of 2011 in the public sector as Government cuts bite, according to this quarter's Labour Market Outlook from CIPD and KPMG, but job creation in the private sector offers some hope to the overall employment picture.

The survey of 750 employers indicates that overall employment levels, which have held up relatively well in 2010, are heading for a fall in 2011. The Labour Market Outlook net employment index, which measures the difference between the proportion of employers that intend to increase total staffing levels and those that intend to decrease total staffing levels in the first quarter of 2011, has fallen to -3 from +11 in the past three months.

However, the private sector will continue to generate jobs growth, with manufacturing (+20) and private sector services (+20) providing the majority of the jobs. In sharp contrast, two thirds of public sector organisations (-66) will be looking to reduce the size of their workforces in the first quarter of 2011.

Redundancy intentions have risen to their highest level since the survey began across the whole economy and are highest in the public sector where more than half (52%) of public sector employers intend to make redundancies in the first three months of 2011. More than three-quarters (77%) of local government employers plan to make cuts to their workforces.

APA is mindful of the likelihood that many public sector PAs will be looking for reemployment and has offered help to all Government Departments.

APA

Qualification are popular with PAs

APA training numbers continue to soar and again it has been asked to add new training dates and locations to its already busy calendar of events for 2011. It has been please to oblige. New dates have been added across the UK; especially for the highly popular Diploma in Persona Assistance (DipPA) – which now acts as an entry level qualification for the new PA Degree (BA & MA) with Middlesex University. There is no better time to train and a great PA will give a guaranteed return on the investment.

Contact APA for more details; training@paprofessional.com

Here are some of the recent attendees;

Left - London Diploma Programme (L:R) Hannah Baker, Vina Pancholi, Aisling O’Meara, Paula Clubbe and Dawn Coultard.
Right - Edinburgh Diploma Programme: (L:R) Terri Geering, Aisha Adams, Lorna Campbell, Lyn Macarthur, Phyl Lamont and Maggie Anderson (APA Trainer).

APA

BA raises fuel surcharge again

British Airways says it will increase its fuel surcharge on long-haul flights for the second time in three months.

From Tuesday, 8 February, passengers will pay at least an extra £12 per journey sector - taking the surcharge to between £75 and £125 depending on flight length and class of travel.

BA said the increase was the result of the rising cost of oil and jet fuel since the last rise in December.

Short-haul flights are unaffected by the changes.

APA

APA has this week launched its first course designed and developed exclusively for Directors and Senior Managers. Titled “Great PAs Pay” the programme plans to demonstrate best practice and share expertise on how to maximise the potential of a personal assistant and work with her/him as a team.

APA Director General, Gareth Osborne said: “In its founding survey APA asked the CEOs of the Top 5,000 UK businesses about the increase in productivity (personal business effectiveness) they attributed to their PA. The averaged response suggested an increase in performance of 35% - a huge result and a fantastic ROI. In working with the 1000+ PAs who have attended our training and qualification programmes we have learned that the Bosses need some direction too and this is our solution.”

On the one day course Directors and Senior Managers will be exposed to a series of unique tools and techniques to assure better use of time, greater adherence to strategic tasks, ways to keep work within the workplace for better work:life balance and how to assign trivia to the trash.

The course will be lead by Gareth Osborne, himself a CEO of both large and small businesses, and he will be joined by notable directors and award winning PAs. He says: “This is not another time management programme this is a detailed psychological evaluation of what will work you every attendee and why. Getting it right will add directly to the bottom line and help reduce the stresses and strains of working life.”

The course costs £499 + VAT and brave attendees are invited to bring their PA with them for just £50 more. They will initially be held in London, Birmingham and Leeds are start in March.

For more details visit the APA website, email training@paprofessional.com or call 0800 107 1030.

APA

Times are still tough but .....

This quarter's Employee Outlook Survey from CIPD illustrates the extent to which employees are concerned about their standard of living, as inflation continues to erode the real value of wages. The survey of 2,000 employees finds almost a third of staff say their standard of living has worsened over the last six months compared to 10% who say that it has improved.

On top of this, more than half of employees report their organisation has either frozen pay (46%) or cut pay (7%). Highlighting the growing impact of spending cuts on the public sector in particular, the survey finds that seven in ten public sector workers have had their pay either frozen (63%) or cut (6%). This compares to 42% of private sector employees who've seen their pay frozen, and 7% who've seen it cut.

There's also a growing sense of realism in the public sector relating to the risk of redundancy. The survey shows that a fifth of all employees (20%) believe it is likely they could lose their job, but in the public sector this figure rises to 31%, up from 25% last quarter. In the private and voluntary sectors, however, redundancy expectations have remained largely static, standing at 17% and 22% respectively, compared to 17% and 23% last quarter.

Gareth Osborne of APA said: "At a time when employees are feeling the effects of financial pressure employers need to deliver consistently high quality leadership and management on the front line. How managers communicate, consult, coach and develop staff is critical. Many leading organisations in both the public and private sectors are already prioritising improving people management capability and employee engagement as they recognise this is central to gaining competitive advantage. These employers are looking closely at how they develop and support managers (including PAs). APA is seeing an increase in PA training this year by companies positioning themselves for recovery."

APA