An outstanding delivery

Emma Kernan-Staines FAPA DipPA, PA to Sir Trevor Brooking CBE at the FA and a passionate supporter of APA, and its journey to create a career pathway for PAs, gave a highly personal and passionate take on her career and beliefs when she spoke at the Office* 2010 Show at Earls Court this week.

Interviewed by Gareth Osborne, Emma told a packed Keynote Theatre about her route to becoming a PA, her strong relationship with and commitment to her Boss, the challenges and frustrations she faces as a PA and how she now wants to use her experience to help others achieve the same job satisfaction she enjoys from working with Sir Trevor.

Emma presented and answered questions in her typically calm yet self assured manner which was doubly impressive given that she is within 3-weeks of the arrival of her second child.

Gareth, the Director General of APA, said, “Emma is an outstanding PA and a true ambassador for the PA profession. The audience was thrilled to hear her speak and she has received numerous accolades subsequently. Emma has worked tirelessly at the FA to win HR and senior management support for her ‘FA PA Pathway’ programme which we now hold up as a model of best practice for major employers across the UK.”

“I am sure all APA Members and staff would wish to join me in sending best wishes to Emma, Ben and India on the pending arrival of their new team member,” concluded Gareth.

APA

APA verdict: Office* 2010 a Triumph

“The outstanding success of the last two days has put many ghosts to rest for the PA profession” said Gareth Osborne commenting on Office* 2010 held this week at Earls Court. “And full credit must go to the organisers, Diversified, who have invested heavily to ensure PAs got a show they can be proud to associate with.”

“Office* was delivered by a professional and dynamic team led by its MD, Carsten Holm and they worked tirelessly to ‘get it right’ and definitely succeeded,” said Gareth. “There may be one or two minor lessons to learn for next year but Diversified have shown keenness at every step to get better and better.”

APA used the event to launch the first ever Degree designed exclusively for PAs. The new BA in Business Administration for PAs, developed in partnership with Middlesex University Business School will play a major part in APA’s mission to ‘elevate the status of PA to that of a profession.

“We were thrilled to see so many of our Members at the show and they spent time networking as they visited our Stand. Next year we intend to have an APA Members lounge adjacent to the stand for even greater interaction”

“Overall, and especially for a first show, it was a definite 10/10 and APA has already committed to being there again next year but we would like to hear Members views on what they liked and what they would like to see enhanced. Please let me know your thoughts through this and all others APA mediums,” concluded Gareth. “The PA profession more has a credible annual show and a professional business running it. The future looks bright and the floor looks extremely pink!”

APA

Better deals ahead for Broadband users

Media regulator Ofcom is aiming to make it easier for consumers and businesses to switch broadband provider, it has been reported.

The watchdog says customers should be empowered in their relationship with internet service providers (ISPs) but, at the moment, the complications involved with changing vendor mean this is not the case. Research conducted by Ofcom found that 45 per cent of web users believe switching ISP is too complicated a task.

Gareth Osborne of APA said, “If the regulators are able to improve the freedom of users then the suppliers will be forced to make prices more competitive and services choices more innovative. Businesses and consumers are likely to change providers as they search for increased value and improved customer service.”

However, industry specialist s feel it will be difficult for the regulator to enforce immediate changes, given that there are two ISPs, and potentially a third in some cases – in the form of landline operator BT - involved in any switching transaction.

"Currently most users perceive that it's a bit of a pain and it's quite difficult to switch providers,” said Gareth “And it shouldn’t be. This is a proactive and commercial essential action and APA will be writing to Ofcom to encourage them to progress their aim.”

APA

Jude joins the team

APA is thrilled to announce the appointment of Judith Fine to the Membership Team of APA. She has impressed us with her knowledge of the PA profession and her passion to make it even more important within the world of business. She will be supporting our interests in the West Midlands and surrounding counties and helping identify and recruit new members there.

Judith (or Jude to everyone who knows her) runs a freelance PA business called Finesse Jude has over 16 years experience as a PA and Marketing Manager/Director. Having spent 10 years working at 3i plc looking after 7 Industrial Advisers (ex MDs/FDs of businesses), she gained experience in different sectors including printing, oil and gas, food and drink, chemicals and automotive. She spent a number of years organising travel all over the world, conferences in a number of venues around Europe and spent a large amount of time visiting those countries.

From there, she worked for IDN Telecom plc as PA and Marketing Executive for the company. She supported the Board, brought all the marketing in-house from an outsourced agency and arranged seminars around the UK. When IDN sold to Redstone plc, Jude became Marketing Manager and PA to the Managing Director, controlling the entire Marketing budget for one of the four key divisions in the company.

It was at that time, that Jude decided to use her skills and experience helping a number of individuals/businesses who all needed PA and marketing support, so that is just what she did! Her clients include catering industries, designer shoes, charities, professional services and training companies.

Jude is a PA in the true sense of the word. She absolutely loves the diversity of the projects/tasks she gets involved in and just loves the job she does. In her spare time, she is an absolutely gym freak and will often be found on a cross trainer or treadmill together with Blackberry! She also enjoys meeting new people, putting people in touch with each other and talking!! She is contactable at judith.fine@paprofessional.com.

Welcome to the team Jude.

Gareth , APA

Millions now facing the lowest pension ROI since records began

Despite saving the same amount of money into their pensions, older employees now face the dire prospect of getting about half the income they would have received 15 years ago, research reveals today. And this comes on top of the collapse in final salary pension schemes, with millions locked out of the best type of retirement provision.

Experts said employees who want to retire are facing a nightmare which no previous generation has had to cope with.

The plunge in pension payouts is because annuity rates have nose-dived. Annuities offer a guaranteed monthly income to those who have saved into a pension pot, but over the last month several major investment firms, such as Aegon, Aviva and Legal & General, have started to cut their annuity rates. Their rivals are almost certain to follow and experts predict that rates will fall even lower over the coming months. Around 50,000 people a year buy an annuity, with up to £20billion of their hard-earned cash ploughed into the investment products.

Today's research, from the financial information firm Moneyfacts, looked at the annuity which a £10,000 pension pot can buy. In 1995, a 65-year-old man buying an annuity would have received an average annual payout of £1,111. Today, a man of the same age with the same pension pot would get just £606 a year, a drop of 5 per cent which shows how rapidly annuity rates have plummeted. Just 12 months ago, the same fund would have bought a pension of £647 a year.

The average pension pot is about £30,000. For a man aged 65, this would have resulted in an annuity worth around £3,300 a year in 1995, compared with just £1,800 today.

The report's author said the findings would be 'a rude awakening for many'. The victims will be 'baby-boomers', born after the end of the Second World War who are now starting to retire. After a lifetime of saving into a pension, many will be shocked and disappointed by the income that they will get from it, and feel that they are being forced into staying at work.

PAs are encouraged to check that their bosses best interest is being preserved by good pension management; find out who does it and that they are on top of the rapidly declining marketplace.

Gareth, APA

Wishing the day away

Council staff 'waste’ more than two-thirds of their working day according to research by a management consultancy.

The study indicated that only 32% of working time was spent productively. The cause it reported was poor supervision. This was far lower than the equivalent productive time by private sector employees, which was still only 44%.

Paul Weekes, principal consultant at Knox D’Arcy and the report’s author, said improving productivity in local government could ‘significantly offset’ planned cuts in the Government’s deficit reduction plan. Consultancy firm Knox D’Arcy, which carried out the research, said if all councils improved to match the private sector, they could increase productivity by a third and do the same amount of work with 500,000 fewer staff.

The research also revealed that public sector managers spent just 15 minutes a day on average actively managing their staff. It suggests that council managers lacked the skills to implement the scale of cuts requested and so were as likely to deliver chaos and reduced services as savings.

From its own work with the public sector APA has seen what can be done to increase management productivity by empowering PAs (which it considers a poorly used resource in some public sector areas) and has specifically created its programme called ‘The Productive PA’ with the NHS to support them. APA Director General, Gareth Osborne, said, “From early research by one of the Scottish universities we know that 31% of time is ‘wasted’, we then found that another 25% is unproductive; constantly being interrupted, redirected or inadequately briefed and managed leading to procrastination and frustration. We can all learn from these chilling facts and look at ways to improve output from 9 to 5.”

APA

40-years of good intent!

Despite 40 years of equal pay legislation a survey by the Chartered Management Institute has shown a male manager in the UK earns £10,071 more on average than his female counterpart. It has suggested that girls born in 2010 will face the probability of working for around 40 years in the shadow of unequal pay.

At a senior level, male pay outstrips female pay by as much as 24pc, the survey found. Even at a junior level, male executives were found to have received £1,065 more than females carrying out the same work, the study of pay at 197 organisations, covering 43,312 employees. This is despite a 2.8pc growth in pay packets for women over the last year, compared to 2.3pc on average for men.

APA lobbies hard for pay equality and stridently supports CMI’s call for Government to “take greater steps” to enforce pay equality by naming and shaming organisations who fail to pay male and female staff fairly. But it’s not just Government that needs to enforce its own legislation, businesses also have to neutralise subliminal gender biases it the equality goal is ever to be achieved..

Gareth Osborne, DG of APA said, “The forecast of continued decades of pay inequality cannot be allowed to become reality. We must press Government to take the matter much more seriously.”

The IT industry was the worst offender, the survey showed, with women on average getting paid £17,736 per year less than men. The pharmaceutical industry generally paid its female workers £14,018 less than males.

Across the regions, women in the Midlands fared the worst, taking home £10,434 less than men doing the same jobs, the survey, carried out in conjunction with XpertHR, showed. Even the smallest pay gap, in the North East, stood at £8,955.

The Equal Pay Act, designed to eradicate gender inequality, was introduced in 1970. Four decades after the legislation, the national gender pay gap stands at 16.4pc, according to the Office for National Statistics. In certain sectors, such as finance and law, women working full time can earn just over half the amount men get.

The Government’s new Equality Act due to come into force this October, is expected to outlaw contractual gagging clauses that prevent colleagues from discussing pay and bonuses. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, said the move will bring an end to the “culture of pay secrecy” that has dominated the workplace for decades.

APA

As we head towards equality

An employment appeal tribunal has backed an equal pay claim by female workers at a Merseyside hospital, which could pave the way for further such challenges. The original case, supported by the union Unison, took St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to a tribunal for paying women a lower wage at weekends than men.

The women, working as healthcare assistants, domestic supervisors and receptionists, were paid time-and-one-third for working on a Saturday, and time-and-two-thirds for working on Sundays and bank holidays. But the men who were doing comparable roles received a higher pay rate of time-and-a-half for Saturdays and double time for Sundays and bank holidays. The trust argued that unsocial hours payments were part of their staff's normal working week, and that payments for these hours could not be separated from basic pay. In December 2009, a Newcastle tribunal found in favour of the trust.

But now a London appeal tribunal has found that women working at St Helens and Knowsley NHS Trust should be entitled to the same level of unsocial hours pay as men. This decision means women at the trust and at other hospitals could challenge pay discrimination on the same grounds. The appeal judge agreed with the female employees that unsocial hours payments are a separate term of the employment contract, and can be directly compared.

Audrey Williams, head of discrimination law at Eversheds, said: “In essence, this case confirms previous cases including a previous Swedish midwives' case for equal pay mentioned in the judgment. “The debate is often around trying to identify and break down the different components in a reward package, to find the discrete elements.

“When employers are reviewing their pay arrangements – undertaking an equal pay audit for example – they need to do so by reference to each element of reward, benefits, individual pay provision, pay term and pay component in the contract; breaking it down and analysing it for any gender pay distinction in a term-by-term comparison.”

APA backs all moves made towards equality of pay for both sexes and will continue to lobby for this in all cases.

Gareth, APA
Source: PM Online 10/08/2010

Focused on figues

Within the last hour the Bank of England has downgraded its growth predictions in its latest overview of the financial health of the UK.

Bank of England Governor, Mervyn King, adjusted down the growth estimates made in May of 1.5 per cent growth this year and 3.4 per cent in 2011.

He stressed that the Bank is committed to steering a steady recovery and avoiding dramatic measures or effects. He suggested it would be many years before the balance sheet would return to normal and recovery is likely to continue but weaker than was previously thought. He refused to be drawn on how much this was due to measures introduced by the new Government.

Looking to 2011 he suggested that inflation would remain above 2% and growth would remain around 2.5%.

He explained how the damage to High Street Banks had been felt mostly, but not exclusively, by small businesses which couldn’t justify borrowing at the new higher rates that Banks were forced to charge.

In parallel, new figures from the Office of National Statistics showed employment saw its largest rise for more than 21 years as the jobless total fell 49,000 in the three months to June. Unemployment fell to 2.46million after the biggest quarterly decrease for three years. The drop came after a 184,000 hike in the number of employed to 29million, marking the largest quarterly rise since May 1989.

APA

A call for Mentors

Small businesses need mentors to help them grow and avoid making the same mistakes as their predecessors; it has been claimed by Tim Campbell, a former winner of TV show The Apprentice.

This comes in the same week that APA has launched its own Mentoring Service for PAs with experts drawn from within its membership as Fellow Mentors, who generally offer their support for free to other members, and external, fee charging Consultant Mentors. Both groups are fully validated and approved against a Code of Professional Practice (Ethics). APA Members are encouraged to view the new Mentor Zone within the website for more details.

Tim, now chief executive officer of the Bright Ideas Trust, said that for companies to grow there needs to be adequate professional support in place. He added that Jobcentre Plus should offer support to small firms in terms of providing the right staff and training and stressed the importance of providing young people with a business education and supporting those who want to become entrepreneurs. Cashflow was identified as one of the major obstacles firms are facing as was the upcoming VAT rise.

Gareth Osborne of APA said, “All business people need support to develop skills and expertise and the best way to learn is from your peers. In the case of PAs who better to act as a Mentor than another PA and we have some of the very best in membership.”

APA

Labour Market stalls

Labour demand in private sector continues to off-set the sharp fall in demand in the public sector, but not for long, says the latest quarterly KPMG Labour Market Outlook survey

The survey indicates that the employment recovery has stalled, but that the disparity between the public and private sector remains significant. But worse is to come as redundancy intentions have picked up among the 600 employers surveyed, representative of the whole economy.

While recruitment intentions generally remain stable, the proportion of employers intending to make redundancies has increased for the second quarter in succession, returning to levels last seen a year ago. A third of employers (32%) expect to cut jobs during the next three months, up from 29% in the Spring quarter and 26% in the Winter quarter. The survey findings reveal that organisations in the public sector are once again going to be the most affected; a reflection of substantial budget cuts. Over a third of public sector employers (36%) are planning to make redundancies during the next three months, compared to 30% in the private sector and 24% in the voluntary sector.

Alan Downey of KPMG, says: "Managers in the public sector have woken up to the scale of the financial crisis that they face, and many are now contemplating redundancy programmes. Surprisingly, some are still intending to recruit, albeit at a reduced pace. The big question is whether the private sector can create new jobs in sufficient numbers and quickly enough to offset the downturn in the public sector. Are we about to return to strong and sustained economic growth, or will we experience a faltering recovery in which unemployment will rise steadily because of the retrenchment in the public sector? The survey suggests it is too close to call."

APA

Time for some sensible debate

APA is backing CIPD’s call for government to bolster [public sector] employee engagement in order to avoid mass strike action, despite swingeing cuts to public services

CIPD suggests there are a number of high stake options open to government in seeking to avoid strike action as spending cuts bite, but ultimately only a focus on building public sector leadership and management skills and improving consultation will make a real and lasting difference.

In its latest report, Developing Positive Employee Relations, CIPD highlights the higher stakes policy options the government should be considering to protect public services if there is an upsurge in industrial unrest, including banning strike action by workers involved in the essential services.

Other policy options open to the government set out in the report include legislation to require parties to public service disputes to take part in compulsory arbitration prior to industrial action and changes to balloting requirements so that ballots should be counted separately for each employer.

The paper highlights research from the CIPD's quarterly Employee Outlook survey series, showing:

- low levels of trust and confidence among public sector employees in senior management teams - just 16% of public sector employees say they trust their senior leaders

- 54% of public sector staff agree most people today are not willing to lose pay by going on strike, compared to 47% in the private sector.

- More than four in ten employees are in favour of banning public sector workers involved in the delivery of essential services from striking

Trade unions have the power to disrupt only if employees trust them more than they trust management. The fundamental need is not to 'manage the trade unions' it is to manage the employment relationship and communicate the case for change. Both sides have heavy duty weapons available to them but neither has much to gain from deploying them. Unions, government, frontline workers and public alike have far more to gain from a strategy focused on building trust and avoiding conflict.

APA

New train of thought

Anyone who, like me, travels regularly on the London Underground system knows that it is a horrendous experience on the hottest days of the year; not that it is that much better on the 360 others!

But relief is only a short distance away now that the first air-conditioned Tube train has gone into service on the Metropolitan Line; the first of a 191-strong fleet of new trains to be rolled out by Transport for London (TfL). TfL promises to have populated 40% of the network by 2015 with the new trains. It will have completed the Metropolitan Line by the end of 2011 and the Circle Line, the Hammersmith & City Line, and finally the District Line, by 2015. AT a total cost of £1.5bn.

The budget to cool Tube carriages on the London Underground was slashed by £10m in July to fund TfL cutbacks but the organisation has confirmed that the introduction of new trains would not be affected by this.

A heat map that monitored the Underground in 2008 found the Central Line was the hottest, with temperatures of up to 32C (90F). The Metropolitan Line recorded temperatures of up to 27C (81F) and the Jubilee Line was significantly cooler with most stations recording temperatures of 25C (77F).

I personally believe the benefits will be seen in terms of the productivity of the commuting workforce who will arrive at work less stressed and be less exhausted when the return home. I did it for years and can confirm it is draining; I’m off to search for the air-conditioned train.

Gareth, APA

Get a grip and go on leave

Bosses should set the right example for their employees by switching off when out the office, it has been claimed.

A survey conducted recently by the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) found that over a third of managers continue to work while on annual leave, with four out of ten returning from their break more stressed than when they left.

Some 80 per cent of bosses said they responded to emails while on holiday, over half said they received phone calls and ten per cent admitted they even went into the office.

In response to the survey CIPD advised that managers in particular have a duty to set an example to staff by taking a proper break from work.

Gareth Osborne of APA warned that “Modern technology, designed to make lives easier, could actually be making things worse and disabling people from really switching off. Its fine to stay in touch for the big decisions but it appears that all too many people are still processing the trivia. Where possible, PAs should take a firm grasp of the situation and severely limit the information going to their bosses while on leave (and vice versa). Better delegation of responsibility would also help.”

APA

Banks to come under cosh again

Banks are set to come under renewed pressure from the government to increase lending to small firms. Business Secretary Vince Cable says banks are "not acting in the national interest" and measures may be needed. He has suggested dividends and bonuses could be a target as part of a "carrot and stick" approach to boost lending.

Mr Cable is due to unveil a joint consultation paper with the Treasury containing options to improve cash flow to businesses. Under the proposals, banks could be made to sign up to the same type of lending agreements placed on the part-nationalised RBS and Lloyds. These include penalties on executive remuneration for failures to boost lending.

In a Sunday Times interview, Mr Cable said: "We are very worried about the behaviour of the banks. They are not acting in the national interest. I don't think they get it. At the moment we are talking to them in an amicable way and we are monitoring them, but if this doesn't work there are combinations of carrots and sticks that can be employed and they are under no illusions about that - and we are not either."

A spokesperson for the British Bankers’ Association said, “Demand for lending is currently low as businesses are not keen to take on additional borrowing when the economic outcome is uncertain”

Other options due to be outlined by Mr Cable include proposals for regional stock exchanges in cities such as Birmingham and Edinburgh and more government loan guarantees. The banking industry, meanwhile, maintain that lending to smaller firms is stable while it is rising among larger companies.

APA will be following these announcements closely and engaging with Mr Cable to ensure they best fit the needs of business; especially small business.

APA
Source: BBC News

APA joins call to 'Make Tax Simple'

Simplifying the UK's tax system will have a range of benefits for small businesses, it has been claimed. Andrew Hubbard, immediate past president of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, said companies operating in the sector are subject to a number of quite complex rules, which continue to change year-on-year.

He said small business taxation has become "a very unstable system" due to the large number of anomalies. "Small businesses and their advisors will spend a lot of time playing around with the numbers, trying to work out what the best way to structure them is as opposed to getting on with running the business," Mr Hubbard said. He commented that the boundary between employment and self-employment has been a very difficult area. "In many ways, it is an advantage to be self-employed because from an individual's perspective you are not under PAYE, you've got much more opportunity for claiming relief under expenses and you only pay your tax twice a year," Mr Hubbard explained.

Gareth Osborne of APA said "We need to create a simple system that gives new businesses stability so that they know what tax regime they are going to need for the foreseeable future and then help them genuinely understand it. At present, the burdens on small businesses in terms of the complexity of the tax system take up a disproportionate amount of time.”

Chancellor George Osborne announced this week that the Office for Tax Simplification has now been officially established. Let’s all hope it can make an immediate impact.

APA

Save us from ourselves

Everyone has done it at one time or another. You dash off an email to a colleague or client and when they reply it’s clear they have taken immediate offence to what you have written.

Now a technology firm has come up a system which it claims will stop misunderstandings

ToneCheck, developed by Canadian firm Lymbix, works as an add-on to Microsoft’s Outlook email service and checks the tone of your email in the same way a spell-checker does. After you have composed an email, you simply hit Tonecheck button and it scans the email and tells you the dominant tone of the message.

Users can even set a tone ‘tolerance’ and the system will stop you sending an email before checking if it falls outside of your usual parameters. You can then adjust the tone before sending or simply ignore the warning and send it regardless. The program’s sensitivity can also be adjusted and it offers eight different ‘emotional ratings’ to help you get the tone of your email right. These include Affection and Amusement at the positive end of the scale while Sadness, Anger, Fear and Humiliation are the emotions most users will try and avoid.

Lymbix has also developed a version which monitors your updates on Twitter for any unintentional deviation in tone.

The service is available as a download from today and is free for the first 30 days. APA will be giving it a road test and reporting in the next Members email.

Check it out at: http://ww.tonecheck.com/

Shelley, APA

Sweet baby George James

APA announced recently the birth of baby George to its Director Carly Beales and her partner Terry. APA Directors had a day out in Kent yesterday with the new family, in their new home (Carly never does things by halves) and we can report that all are doing extremely well and George is, as predicted, a bright and bouncy boy with a great temperament – just like his Mum.

Carly has promised to remain engaged with APA while absent from her day job at the Bank of America and still focusing most of her energy on George, Terry and the new home (multi-tasking at its best!). Well done Carly.

Gareth, APA

'Pulling a Sickie'

A new study has highlighted stress as the major cause of employee absence in the UK workplace. In an online poll conducted by smallbusiness.co.uk, 48 per cent of respondents said physical and emotional pressures are directly responsible for the majority of unauthorised days off. Some 27 per cent of absence days were said to be employee 'sickies', where the worker has made up a false excuse for failing to come into work.

Meanwhile, back problems accounted for ten per cent of days away from the workplace, the same proportion as annual leave, with just three per cent of absences down to 'other reasons'.

Commenting on the poll, Gareth Osborne of APA said, “There is a massive difference between those who are happy to ‘pull a sickie’ for the weakest reason and the ‘troopers’ who soldier on and come into work when they really are too ill and should genuinely stay at home; to avoid infecting the entire organisation. Common sense lies somewhere in between.”

Employers claim that workplace absence costs the economy £17 billion per year and currently an employer is rendered "powerless" when an employee calls in sick.

APA will be taking this matter up with the Secretary of State for Business in its forthcoming meeting.

APA

It’s not the size but the result that matters

I read a wonderful statement made recently by Doug Richards, the former Dragon, and thought it must be repeated here. Doug said:

“A business success can be measured on the bottom line. A business success is not measured on its top line. I have heard celebrity entrepreneurs brag about their businesses, calling out their total revenue as though the sheer volume of cash that their business touched was somehow meaningful. I picture them skinny dipping in all that cash as it washes by, cackling irrationally and not realising that the flow of cash is not the same as the stickiness of profit. The reality was that they made a skinny one per cent profit on all that cash. A business with one tenth the revenue that makes ten per cent on its money is precisely as successful. Revenue is just not profit.”

“It [success] is not measured by the number of people it employs. Over and over I hear people talk about the size of their organisations. All I hear is the cost of their payroll. Is this just a man thing? Are we really comparing size still as adults? Get over it. In business size doesn’t matter.”

I agree passionately with Doug about profit but both revenue and profit would be excellent and doubly exciting!

Gareth, APA

The plane truth

Now here’s a surprise. Outspoken Irish entrepreneur Michael O'Leary of Ryanair has publically apologised “unreservedly” to his arch rival, easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

Earlier this year, O’Leary ran a series of ads depicting Sir Stelios as Pinocchio with the words: “easyJet’s – Mr Late Again,” telling Sir Stelios to “stop hiding the truth” about flight delays, saying easyJet should resume publishing weekly details of on-time performance.

When Sir Stelios initially requested an apology, O’Leary was defiant; making a host of ridiculous gibes. So Stelios decided to take legal action.

The libel suit was settled out of court, with O’Leary issuing a public apology this week in the Guardian and Daily Telegraph. Sir Stelios accepted £50,100 in damages, which he will donate to his philanthropic foundation and will be used for the Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneurs. “It is not very often that someone as arrogant and as powerful as O'Leary is forced to apologise in public and in writing,” says Sir Stelios. "I took this legal action to protect my reputation. I am not a liar and that statement was libellous.” He dedicated the victory to all those "who have suffered verbal abuse at the hands of O'Leary”.

“Boys will be boys!” Said APA DG, Gareth Osborne, “But I really think we should keep childish playground rivalries out of a serious business like aviation. What next? Aerial dogfights.”

APA

Unemployment falls - in part!

Latest official figures have revealed that unemployment fell by 34,000 people in the three months to May. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the number of people out of work stood at 2.47 million people across the quarter. At the same time, those claiming Jobseeker's Allowance fell in June by 20,800 to 1.46million.

While the number of people in work rose, suggesting many businesses recruited in a bid to get more done, the increase was in part down to a record 148,000 rise in the number of part-time workers. The ONS said the percentage of workers in part-time jobs was 27 per cent – the highest since records began in 1992 - totalling 7.82 million.

Last week, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation reported that the number of both temporary and permanent appointments increased during June 2010.

APA.

Humbling the Banks - but is it enough?

UK Government has laid out the details of its proposed levy on Banks as they seek to raise 2.5 billion pounds a year to help stave off the costs of any future financial crises.

The Treasury has detailed its plan, which it plans to introduce in stages from 2011, and has asked for feedback by October 5. Along with France and Germany, Britain has been pushing for banks to pay for their part in the financial crisis and to implement measures to encourage them to move away from risky funding, which triggered the liquidity crunch.

The key points are:

Levy Rate - The government will first introduce a 0.04 percent levy on balance sheets in 2011, rising to 0.07 percent in 2012. There will also be reduced rate for longer-maturity funding initially set at 0.02 percent and rising to 0.035 percent.

Coverage - The levy will apply to three areas of banking and only to entities who have relevant liabilities of 20 billion pounds or more. These are 1) Global consolidated balance sheets of UK banking groups and building societies, 2) Aggregated subsidiary and branch balance sheets of foreign banks operating in the UK and 3) Balance sheets of UK banks in non-banking groups

To see the Treasury's consultation document, please click http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/consult_bank_levy_condoc.pdf

APA will be taking the opportunity to respond to the Consultation on behalf of the banking interests of Members and their businesses and would welcome comments and opinion.

Gareth, APA

On-line media - do's and don'ts

Companies without an acceptable Social Media policy in place are flirting with calamity, it has been claimed.

The managing director of the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) Europe, said collaboration without governance is "a recipe for disaster". He was commenting on a new report from Gartner, which claimed that social networks will replace email as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20 per cent of business users by 2014.

AIIM advises companies to put a policy in place stating that contributions to non-company websites are the personal responsibility of employees and do not reflect the company's views or attitudes. This protects the company and allows it to deal with any "indiscreet" member of staff within the terms of its disciplinary procedures.

Colin Minto of APA said, “It’s simply a matter of common sense, with a policy you can detail what is acceptable when using the social media channels and what isn’t. How else can you expect staff to know? There are enough horror stories out there to make Company Directors recognise the importance of this action but sadly too few are going the extra mile and creating a policy.”

APA Members can find sample Social Media and Blogging Policy documents in the Knowledge Zone of the website; Members Area/Knowledge Zone/PA Best Practice Guides.

APA

The long and winding road

Interest rates have been frozen for yet another month following the meeting of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), the base rate will remain at its historic low of 0.5 per cent for a 16th consecutive month as the Bank attempts to support a full economic recovery.

In addition, no change was made to the MPC's £200 billion quantitative easing programme, halted in February, at the two-day meeting. Both decisions were widely expected in light of the government's austerity measures announced in George Osborne's emergency Budget last month.

APA has warned that the severe but necessary public sector cuts risk plunging the UK back into recession and recommends extreme caution. With this danger in mind, the Bank of England is not expected to increase its base rate before 2011. The European Central Bank has chosen to keep interest rates on hold at one per cent.

Gareth said, “We are all going to be pushing the car for a long time before the engine starts but I am confident it will. After that we will have to nurse it gently for a while and hope normal running resumes in the near future.” He apologised for his car analogy and blamed it on the mix of stunning weather and the British Grand Prix.

APA

Blogging for APA

All APA Members at Fellow grade are permitted to apply for ‘Bloggers Rights’ and post their thoughts about their role as a PA and comments about issues of life and business impact on how they do their job from day-to-day.

APA’s Blog is rightly acclaimed and has a high Google ranking ensuring that the issues important to our Members are seen by the widest possible audience. We have strict standards on material content and a definite house style but everything else is up to you.

If you are interested in having your say then simply email Gareth (gareth.osborne@paprofessional.com) and he will send you details of the application process and simple instructions to register to Blog.

APA

Government cuts to hit business suppliers

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude met with chief executives of the 19 biggest suppliers to the government this week to discuss what they could do to help cut the cost of the services they provide, his office said.

The Minister is planning to renegotiate key government contracts as part of its efforts to tackle a record budget deficit running at 11 percent of national output. It has already committed to making 6.2 billion pounds of savings from government spending in the 2010-2011 financial year.

"I am laying down the challenge to major government suppliers to ask them what they can do to take costs out of contracts," said Mr Maude, joint head of the government's efficiency board. "Some of this will come out of margins, but we will also invite ideas on how we can structure things differently to reduce complexity and cost. We will look to put into effect immediate savings and also create plans to further reduce costs in the medium to long term."

Chief executives who met with Maude on Thursday included those of computer manufacturers Hewlett Packard and IBM, telecoms providers British Telecom and Vodafone, and consultancy firm Accenture.

Gareth, APA.

Big isn't always beautiful

The government should consider actions to intervene to help small businesses suffering from late payment at the hands of larger organisations; it has been claimed by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). This call comes after computer firm Dell was added to the Forum of Private Business' list of companies which regularly make late payments, alongside firms such as Argos, Carlsberg and United Biscuits.

APA broadly support this call and Director General, Gareth Osborne, said, "Small businesses rely on prompt payment, at least in line with agreed terms, but all too often large organisations; particularly public bodies, take advantage. Even APA has occasional difficulty extracting payment from larger organisations that should know, and act, better. In most cases it is simply poor credit management practice and failure to adhere to their own policy for payment but who complains? We are all too afraid of losing the business!”

The FSB spokesperson claimed that larger organisations continue to lean on small businesses over payment issues, even though they have the cash flow to pay earlier. APA will be acknowledging the FSB’s call and writing to Ministers but it recognises this is not a new problem and may be difficult to solve, “The problem has definitely been heightened by the impact of the recession and tighter financial constraints imposed by the High Street banks but has been around for decades, Gareth concluded. “Large organisations all too often abuse their smaller suppliers!”

APA

Beware of the Mismatch

The private sector will not want to grow fast enough to absorb job losses from government-funded organisations, APA has warned.

Gareth Osborne, Director General of APA has warned the Government that there is a strict limit to the number of new employees the private sector will want to absorb even though signs show increased demand in recent months. He said: "The minimal growth in private sector demand for new workers is not yet anything near strong enough to compensate for the suggested public sector job losses and won’t be for some years to come. For public sector workers the biggest problem they face is a skills mismatch and government would be well advised to address this quickly."

Gareth was commenting after exclusive reports from the Guardian, based upon leaked government data, claims that 100,000-120,000 public sector jobs will go each year until 2014 as the government reduces spending. However, he noted that private sector businesses are "increasingly conscious" that they face a skills shortage as the economy continues to improve.

According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's recent Resourcing and Talent Planning survey, 68 per cent of organisations have experienced recruitment difficulties in recent months. In 67 per cent of cases, this was due to an absence of the skills they were looking for among jobseekers.

APA.

Lorry accident rate high

An alarming statistic, broadcast by the BBC today, suggests that although lorries account for less than 10% of all road traffic, they are involved in more than 30% of accidents.

APA will be writing to the Transport Minister and expressing serious concern about the claim, asking for further clarification and recommending a detailed review of current legislation targeted at road haulage operators and suggesting some modification.

Gareth Osborne, Director General of APA said, “We hear news daily of trucks causing major accidents and closing motorways for hours and hours. The impact on the national (and local) business economy is enormous and paralyses; even gridlocks, the road network. Government should be looking at ways to ensure higher driving standards amongst lorry drivers and placing limits on how they operate larger vehicles. One recommendation will be to consider banning lorries overtaking on inclines; this practice is in common use on some European roads.”

APA

Professional women must save for retirement

More than a third of female professionals will retire below the poverty line, a new study has indicated. Prudential's Class of 2010 retirement survey indicates that 35 per cent of women planning to retire this year will receive an income of under £14,000. This compares to 29 per cent of men who will be in a similar financial predicament.

According to Prudential, the gender gap becomes even starker over the age of 65, where 42 per cent of women will have incomes below the poverty line compared with 33 per cent of men.

Vince Smith-Hughes, the company's head of business development for pensions, said the findings highlighted the need for businesswomen to take retirement planning into their own hands. "Women are more likely to take a career break when they start a family and possibly the last thing on your mind when you're taking care of children and the home is how you're going to fund your retirement years," he stated. "Evidently there is a vast difference between men's and women’s anticipated retirement income and we believe government and the retirement savings industry can do more to encourage men and women to save more into pensions."

The government announced this week that the default retirement age of 65 is to be scrapped.

APA

Qualifications boom

Shown Back Row (L-R) are: Sue Pope, Claire Brewer, Tania Saunders, Tanya Willington, Debbie Baxter. Front Row: Jo Oldham, Payal Patel and Susan Ahmed.

Another group of PAs demonstrated their commitment to continuing professional development yesterday by undertaking training on the one-day APA ‘PA Professional’ workshop. This stand alone course can be taken in isolation or as Module 2 to the much prized Diploma in Personal Assistance (DipPA). The course was lively, challenging and delegates contributed enthusiastically to discussions and debates.

Gareth Osborne, who delivered the course, said, "This was another great group of PAs, keen to learn and open to new ways of managing (and improving) their boss's working life and I am confident they will return to their businesses with a renewed vigor and eager to implement ideas."

For more details about this or other training programmes please visit the APA website or contact training@paprofessional.com or call 0800 107 1030.

APA

More PA stars undertake APA training

Wednesday has seen another 'PA Apprentice' course being dellivered in London and has attracted existing and aspiring PAs. Pictured right are attendees; Gemma, from the Isle of Man, Sam, Michelle and Claire.

Pictured left is Claire Howrad DipPA who visited the course to wish delegates well, share her own experiences and receive her Diploma Certificate from APA Director General, Gareth Osborne.

APA

The Budget

If you want to see the full Budget document; as issued by the Treasury, go to:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/documents/digitalasset/dg_188581.pdf

APA

Budget - first response (Budget +45 mins)

In a Budget that the Chancellor, George Osborne, described as 'unavoidable' he announced that VAT will rise to 20% from 4 January 2011. The rise, alongside a raft of spending cuts, will help see the country's deficit fall to 1.1% of gross domestic product by 2014-15 from its current level of 11%.

However, Mr Osborne admitted that the measures will have an impact on growth. The economy will grow just 1.2pc this year, 2.3pc next year and 2.8pc in 2012.

Corporation tax will be cut from 28% to 27% next year, and by 1% annually for the following three years. The rate for small companies will also be cut to 20%.

The threshold at which employers start to pay National Insurance will rise by £21 a week above indexation from April, the chancellor said.

“Reform of the corporate tax regime will help rebalance the economy away from household debt and government consumption", Mr Osborne said.

In other key measures the Chancellor announced a major adjustment of the welfare package including an abolition of tax cedits for families earning more than £40K pa. He outlined increases to personal income tax allowances - up £1000 to £7475 - and an increase in Capital Gains Tax for higher earners to 28%. Perhaps most popularly Mr Osborne announced the introduction of a Bank Levy which he forecast would generate £2 billion pa from Jan 2011 for the Treasury.

A more detailed analysis will be available to APA Members in the Knowledge Zone from tonight.

Gareth Osborne, APA. (no relation)

One million young people unemployed

The latest unemployment figures published by the Office for National Statistics, has shown the number of people out of work has risen by 23,000 to 2.47 million in the three months up to April.

Commenting on these figures, Gareth Osborne of APA said, “It is alarming to see the number of people out of work edging towards 2.5 million again. With increasing pressure being placed on the public sector in this week’s emergency budget, this figure could rise rapidly and may soon exceed 3 million. However there is some encouragement as we are seeing signs of increasing confidence and demand for staff in the private sector.

“It’s particularly worrying to see that there are currently 926,000 16-24 year olds that aren’t in work or some form of training. APA will be lobbying Government over coming weeks to support drives for better and more relevant youth training schemes; with an emphasis on PA skills to support small business owners.

Gareth, APA

Hackers Paradise

Business owners and employees have been reminded of the dangers of making personal data freely available online. One IT security expert claims that social networking users risk becoming the victims of identity fraud by innocently giving away too much information.

A ‘reformed hacker’ (presumably a member of Hackers Anonymous), said the details many people make freely available on the internet are often enough to allow fraudsters access to their bank accounts. The trouble is, if you put out on the internet in general things like your date of birth, where you were born, what your mother's maiden name is, where you went to school – those are the same bits of information that banks want to know for security questions," he explained. “It is very easy to guess somebody's password after finding information about them by looking online, and "this is one of the things that fraudsters do."

Research released this week by CPP, a provider of life assistance products and services, revealed that people in the UK receive an estimated 420,000 scam emails an hour - the equivalent of one every seven seconds. Fortunately most are blocked by strong Firewalls or good security software.

With this in mind, APA urges all web users to take greater care with their bank details when using the internet. "The golden rule is never ever type in usernames, passwords or credit card details after clicking on a link within an email message," said APA Technology Director Colin Minto.

APA

Banks still getting it wrong

The main reason small business owners are dissatisfied with the banks is because of their reluctance to offer credit, it has been suggested. A recent study by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) indicated that the removal of decision-making powers from local branches, and the provision of multiple account managers, has damaged the relationship between high street banks and small companies.

Gareth Osborne of APA believes the main problem is the banks' continued lack of financial support for the small business sector. "Instead of providing much-needed funding for businesses, many banks are now trying to repair their balance sheets, and small business owners feel that they are being made to pay for the banks' previous poor investments.With the Bank of England freezing its base rate at 0.5 per cent for the 15th successive month in June, many small business owners are finding this "difficult to swallow", he stated.

In the FSB study, a quarter of all respondents said they were dissatisfied with the level of service currently provided by their high street bank.

APA

Post recession stress syndrome

Statistics that show a quarter of UK employees go the full working day without a break should give employers "a wake-up call" about pressure in the post-recession workplace, it has been claimed. Carly Beales of APA said, “Employers should be looking out for signs that employees are not coping.

She was commenting on a report published by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy which indicates that 36 per cent of staff regularly skip their lunch break due to the size of their workload. "It's not just working through your lunch break; it's also whether people are working excessive hours, whether they are staying on too long, whether they are working at home over the weekend or sending emails in the middle of the night," she said.

She added that knock-on effects from the economic downturn - such as lower company headcounts - have accentuated workplace pressures. "The ongoing impact of the recession is really starting to take its toll and issues around workloads; such as whether or not people are taking appropriate breaks, are something employers should be watching very carefully."

APA is encouraging Members to watch colleagues carefully for signs of stress, depression or excessive outbursts of frustration and report these incidents confidentially to the Boss (or HR).

APA

Banks reach all time low

Over a quarter of small businesses have been dissatisfied with the support offered by their high street bank in the last 12 months, it has been reported. The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) latest monthly survey reveals that 1.2 million companies have been unimpressed by the services offered by their bank during this period.

According to the survey, the highest dissatisfaction rates were witnessed among businesses which have had multiple business account managers over the year. Just 13 per cent of those whose account manager remained the same had cause for complaint, rising to 52 per cent for those with three different managers, 53 per cent for four and 70 per cent for five.

And despite 26 per cent of firms saying the working relationship they have with their bank manager influences their choice of provider, as many as 46 per cent of respondents' managers were not based locally.

Gareth Osborne of APA said, "It is imperative that the banks start to engage with their customers again. The average firm surveyed had held their account at the same bank for 14.7 years. When they first started banking there, the manager would have known their name and the business and would have been the one to make a decision about the account, not a centrally-based computer as happens now. Bankers have become ‘slick and arrogant’ and these are not qualities we appreciate in our professional service providers."

Gareth, APA

Congratulations to all the Winners

APA PAs have swept the board at the Hays and The Times 'PA of the Year' Awards - taking first, second and third places - and two are APA Diploma holders.

Congratulations go to Laura Richardson (centre), the 'PA of the Year' and her two runners up, Emma Jones (left) and Emma Kernan-Staines (right).

APA

Staff Flow Forecasting - essential for businesses in the new economy

CIPD urges HR to raise the bar through effective workforce planning with launch of a new guide

Workforce planning – defined as ensuring the people resources are in place to deliver short and long-term organisation objectives - should be a core process of HR in order to help build sustainable organisation performance. This is the view of a new Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) guide, Workforce Planning: Right People, Right Time, Right Skills, which demonstrates how organisations can deliver the business plan through its people.

CIPD research shows that too many organisations are neglecting to plan for the future. This year's Resourcing and Talent Planning survey shows most organisations carry out workforce planning for the next 1-2 years (41%), with a fifth planning less than one year in advance (20%). Responding to these concerns, the guide urges organisations to look beyond short-term budgetary planning to the longer term needs of the organisation for sustained performance.

APA Director General Gareth Osborne said, “I am delighted to see CIPD taking this stance and promoting staffing as one of the key factors of business planning. In 1988, at a then Training Agency conference, I coined the phrase ‘Staff Flow Forecasting’ in an attempt to get businesses to recognise the importance of their future staffing needs. Strategic planners have focused on cash flow alone for far too long and without the recognition that staffing; which accounts for at least 50% of the operational overhead of most businesses, must be planned and managed just as meticulously. It’s all very well to plan for long term growth but if you can’t get the correctly skilled staff; at a price the business can afford, to gain, process and account for the orders then strategic plans will never be achieved.”

“PAs should work with their HR departments to access this report and refer it to their Bosses.”

APA

The power of an NXD

Businesses owners can benefit enormously by enlisting the services of a non-executive director (NXD), it has been claimed.

Writing for the Telegraph, James Hurley noted that employing such an individual - an outsider who does not take an active role in the day-to-day running of the business - can be "a fast-track to commercial wisdom, astute introductions and constructive criticism of your strategy". A staple at board level in larger companies, he believes smaller businesses can also benefit from external expertise from an industry expert. Mr Hurley suggested that NXDs can prove to be an essential sounding board" for entrepreneurs, who often have only themselves to contribute to key business decisions.

"Many entrepreneurs are specialists filling the shoes of a generalist in order to manage a company's growth, so the majority of small businesses will be best served by an adviser with general knowledge to add," he suggested.

Continuing, Mr Hurley said the right adviser can add credibility ahead of a major deal or prospective investment round. He noted that NXD’s pay packet should reflect the fact they are working largely in a consultancy role, devoting perhaps a couple of days per month to the company.

Gareth Osborne of APA, himself a long standing NXD to a number of large and small businesses said, “I would recommend the appointment of at least one NXD to every business board. They are great value for money and have no ‘corporate axe’ to grind. Their advice is impartial and usually not vested in internal politics.”

APA

APA PAs scoop all prizes

APA PAs have taken all three top slots at the recent Hays and The Times 'PA of the Year 2010' awards.

Laura Richardson FAPA DipPA (pictured right) of Elexon Ltd wins the highly coveted 'PA of the Year' title for 2010.

Emma Jones MAPA of CSCCN came second and Emma Kernan-Staines FAPA DipPA of the FA Group came third.

Gareth Osborne said, "This is an outstanding achievement for Laura, Emma and Emma. They are all worthy winners and a credit to their respective businesses, the PA profession and APA. We are extremely proud to have them as Members."

He added, "I was not surpised that they and other APA Members finished in the top ten but am especially pleased that Laura won. She will be an exceptional ambassador for the profession over the coming year and has already started to make plans for her year in office. I think she's a star!"

APA

Bridging the gender gap

The new Government has vowed to take steps to increase gender equality in the workplace.
Included in the Queen's Speech yesterday was the vow to "promote equal pay and take a range of measures to end discrimination in the workplace".

Commenting on the announcement Gareth Osborne of APA suggested that it was long overdue and claimed that 40 years on from the introduction of the Equal Pay Act, a new approach to closing the gender pay gap "is desperately needed".

"It's important to consult with both employers and employees (and their professional bodies, like APA and CIPD) on any new measures. There may be opposition by some employers but it is important that this is not be reduced to an old fashioned, ‘union-style’ labour debate.”.

He added that increasing the number of women on the boards of listed companies (and all other businesses) is "a definite advantage ", but said this may need a fundamental shift in boardroom attitudes. "Extending the right to request flexible working and promoting a system of flexible parental leave will also bring positive changes to UK workplaces and benefit to millions of employees.”

According to the TUC, the full-time mean gender pay gap is currently 16.4 per cent.

APA

Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow

Slow broadband has been named as one of the biggest annoyances for British consumers, in a new study conducted by telecoms firm O2. Some 41 per cent of those surveyed cited a slow internet connection as the most frustrating aspect of their day.

The next highest annoyances were poor customer service (36 per cent), crime (26 per cent) and job cuts (18 per cent).

Commenting on the survey findings, APA Technology Director Colin Minto said there are a number of issues which potentially affect the speed of a connection. He explained that due to factors such as distance from the telephone exchange, the contention ratio and weather conditions, most people are never likely to get close to 100 per cent of the maximum quoted speed. "Some broadband providers will give you an idea of the expected speed before signing up to their service so it's always worth checking this before signing a contract," Colin suggested.

APA urges all business users to conduct broadband speed tests to see what their actual downloading and uploading capacity is and discuss it with the service providers.

APA

The first cut is the deepest

Dr. Gareth Osborne, Director General of APA, has welcomed the £6.24 billion package of public spending cuts for 2010-11 announced earlier today by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury:

"These are tough but necessary reductions and made in an urgent attempt to regain financial stability for the UK economy. The Government is right to focus on public sector spending and particularly Quangos, IT expenditure, external consultancy, advertising and civil service recruitment. It makes sense to reduce spending by Regional Development Agencies and on those training and employment measures found to offer a poor return to the taxpayer.”

The Treasury document makes no explicit reference to the impact of today's package of cuts on public sector employment but CIPD suggests the combination of a civil service recruitment freeze and reduced spending in other areas is likely to reduce total public sector employment by around 50,000 in the current financial year. In addition there will be knock-on effects into the private sector on businesses that undertake contract work for the central and local government and other public bodies, plus the wider impact on demand for labour in the economy as a whole resulting from lower net public spending of around £6 billion. Given the current weak state of the labour market this is likely to have a detrimental impact on unemployment.

Questions remain about whether this is the right time to enact these cuts but Ministers clearly consider the risk of failing to take immediate steps to cut the fiscal deficit outweighs that of starting to cut too soon.

APA will be watching closely the impact on business critical departments and especially any impact on its own Members in the public sector. Any damaging consequences will be taken up with Ministers in the forthcoming round of discussions APA has scheduled with the new Government.

APA