A 2014 report carried out by Oxford Economics and featured in HR Review revealed that the cost of replacing a member of staff averaged more than £30,000.
This cost comes from a number of factors, which include logistical costs (such as temporary workers, recruitment fees, advertising, as well as time spent interviewing and shortlisting), but predominantly in lost output as the new staff member comes up to scratch with the role. This was found to take an average of 28 weeks, varying by sector, and even longer if the new recruit is coming from unemployment or a different sector altogether.
Why then, with the cost of replacing staff so high, should employers not be willing – even eager – to invest in their teams, make them feel valued, and ensure they remain within the organisation?
This is precisely the approach that DJ Alexander have shown their staff this year, by inviting them to take on a range of bespoke training courses with Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce.
DJ Alexander have invested in a number of courses over the past few months, with their staff attending workshops uniquely designed and delivered to meet their specific needs. Rob Trotter, Associate Director at DJ Alexander says “what we needed was to come up with a unique set of training courses to develop our staff in the areas most relevant and important to them and their roles.
“We approached the Chamber, who we know have access to all types of trainers, we briefed them on what our requirements were and what content we were after, and they came back with the right trainers to deliver that content.”
The Chamber’s bespoke training courses are entirely crafted to the needs of the individual organisation. We invite those interested to meet with a member of our team, where we discuss options around numbers, needs, dates and location. Taking all of this in to account, we then hand-select the trainer we feel will best suit the requirements, and facilitate a meeting between the trainer and the organisation. In 2016, we ran over a hundred courses on a range of topics, delivered by thirty individual trainers, each an expert in their field. Our trainers are constantly refining their content to ensure it remains up to date, engaging, and informative – and for our bespoke offerings, relevant and relatable for the team they’re delivering to.
”What has impressed us most has been the trainers that the Chamber chose to suit our needs” says Rob. “They have each been spot on. The trainers immediately got a grasp of what we were after and came back with unique course content which was highly relevant and entirely appropriate for our staff.”
These sentiments are echoed by the attendees. At the close of each training session, we allow delegates to give their feedback so that we can continue to improve our product offering. Following the courses crafted for DJ Alexander, recurring themes in the feedback forms include ‘insightful’, ‘informative’, ‘practical’, and ‘relevant’, with one writing that the course content “allowed me to think about everyday scenarios in a completely new light”.
DJ Alexander are seeing other benefits outside of simply up-skilling their staff, too.
Rob Trotter says “our staff feel very enthusiastic about the investment by DJ Alexander to develop them personally and professionally. I have seen that these trainings have boosted their confidence and their loyalty to the firm. Investing in their training and development has showed them that we respect and value them – and they really appreciate that.”
Looking to up-skill your staff? Contact us to discuss your needs, and hear how a bespoke training course could benefit your organisation: 0131 221 2999 / training@edinburghchamber.co.uk
Big Challenges need Big Ideas, therefore this year bioConclave are bringing new exciting projects, case studies, technologies and Innovations which are creating impact in the field of Genomics, Big Data and Connected Care.
bioConclave 2017 will explore how these ideas are driving R&D and the diagnostics and treatment of diseases today, and in the future. The audience will hear views from industry leaders, experience technologies in the exhibition demonstrations, meet and network with leading academics, investors and industry innovators. The website is at bioconclave.com, which outlines the Speakers and Agenda.
6th Sept: Main event in London, hosted by law firm Pennington Manches LLP, 125 Wood St, London, EC2V 7AW
7th Sept: One-day Indian delegation visit to Birmingham, hosted by BioHub Birmingham at the University of Birmingham
Speakers include:
• Suresh Narayan, COO, ABLE
• Dr Prabhu Mishra, CEO, StemGenn Therapeutics
• Dr Villoo Patel, Founder and CMD, Avesthagen
• Hitesh Thakrar, Partner, Syncona Investment Management
• Dr James Wilkie, CEO, Alta Innovations, Birmingham Science Park
• Professor S.S. Vasan, Senior Business Development Manager, Public Health England
• Rajlakshmi Borthakur, CEO, TerraBlue XT
• Pratik Dattani, Director, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)
The delegation from India will be led by the Association of Biotech Led Enterprises (ABLE) in Karnataka, including by Narayan Suresh, the COO of ABLE, and Prabhu Mishra, CEO of StemGenn Therapeutics.
Registrations are done through the website bioconclave.com.
Organisers would like to extend an offer of £99+VAT tickets to up to 10 members of the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce. To get the discount, email at spatel@economicpolicygroup.com quoting “Edinburgh”. Beyond the first 10 tickets, the remaining can be at a 20% discount, so £399+VAT instead of £499+VAT (offer is not applicable to law firms, consultants or solution providers).
The Consumer Insight Centre at Queen Margaret University (QMU), Edinburgh, has launched the world’s first postgraduate degree for professional complaint handlers.
The new MSc Dispute Resolution is an accredited qualification for professionals in the workplace who deal with disputes between consumers and businesses and between citizens and the state.
Complaints about public services and private industry are big business. The UK central government alone spends around £1.5 billion a year on professional dispute resolution.
The private sector also spends a significant amount on customer care and complaint handling activities. The Financial Ombudsman Service received a whopping 2,357,374 complaints and enquiries last year.
QMU’s Consumer Insight Centre has been collaborating with colleagues from the ombudsman and complaint handling world to develop accredited qualifications for professional complaint handlers. The University has a long standing relationship with the Ombudsman Association and the International Ombudsman Institute and regularly delivers courses to dispute resolution for professionals across the UK and beyond.
QMU is aiming to raise standards across the complaint handling industry by drawing on insights from its research and consultancy work. This includes the development of the University’s new MSc Dispute Resolution.
Chris Gill, MSc Dispute Resolution Course Leader at Queen Margaret University’s Consumer Insight Centre, said: “There is clearly work to be done to improve standards across the complaint handling industry and the provision of professional education is only one piece in an undoubtedly complex puzzle.
“We feel that it’s now the right time to speed up effort to develop professionalism in the complaints sector. Ultimately, good complaint handling provides better public services and fair consumer markets. It’s a crucial activity, which affects the everyday lives of consumers and citizens.
“It’s in everyone’s interest to ensure that – in years to come – a consumer can expect the same level of publicly assured professionalism when dealing with a complaint handler as they can when dealing with a lawyer, doctor or accountant. It is time to make this aspiration a reality.”
QMU will welcome its first MSc Dispute Resolution students in January 2015. The unique course is available as a Postgraduate Certificate, Postgraduate Diploma or MSc according to each student’s preferred outcome. The Postgraduate Certificate is available entirely online, while the Postgraduate Diploma and MSc are available by a mix of online and campus-based modules.
The MSc Dispute Resolution will provide students with a qualification which is relevant to the workplace and will maximise students’ potential to develop within their existing or new careers, including public health services, housing associations and banking.
QMU’s business and consumer experts have expertise in Ombudsman training, Complaint Handling, Dispute Resolution and Consumer Affairs.
Dispute resolution falls within the work of QMU’s Consumer Insight Centre and the University’s Division of Business, Enterprise and Management. The aim of the Centre is to be a nationally and internationally recognised leader in dynamic and innovative learning, knowledge exchange and research in consumer insight.
With an established reputation for high quality accredited training for ombudsman and complaint handling organisations, the Centre has provided accredited training for over 1000 ombudsman colleagues and CPD training for 700 regulatory staff during the last three years.
As the first academic institution to be licensed and approved for the provision of the Ombudsman Association case handler training courses, QMU holds a unique position in the university sector to run effective programmes for this sector and for organisations within the jurisdiction of ombudsman and complaint handling organisations.
For more information, visit: http://www.qmu.ac.uk/be/Research/cic.htm or email Chris Gill, MSc Dispute Resolution Course Leader at Queen Margaret University E: cgill@qmu.ac.uk
Drivers heading for the West End from the south of the City and Lothian Road could soon find their journey simplified if the City of Edinburgh Council approves changes to current traffic arrangements.
A review of traffic management in the city centre has been completed following the start of tram passenger services.
Among the recommendations in a report to the Transport and Environment Committee on 26 August 2014 is a proposal to allow all traffic to travel westbound from Hope Street to Queensferry Street, rather than buses only as at present.
Traders from the West End called for this in a deputation to the committee on 18 March 2014.
They noted that with the removal of the left turn from Lothian Road into Shandwick Place to facilitate trams, it had become difficult for private vehicles, cycles and taxis in particular to access properties and businesses in the West End.
The report also asks members to give the go-ahead for further investigation into the option of introducing a right turn from Queen Street westbound into Queen Street Gardens East.
Another recommendation, which follows on from the start of the new Experimental Traffic Regulation Order in George Street, is to change the priority of Young Street from an eastbound to a westbound direction.
Residents and businesses here have expressed concerns about a perceived increased volume of traffic and in particular, more vans and heavy good vehicles, since the George Street scheme was first implemented earlier this summer.
Councillor Lesley Hinds, Transport Convener, said: “Now that trams have been running for a couple of months or so, it’s a good time to make any appropriate alterations to surrounding traffic management so that we can make it as straightforward as possible to get from A to B in the city centre.
“We know that West End traders have had concerns about access to their businesses so the proposal to open up Hope Street for all westbound traffic into Queensferry Street should make things much better.
“I was pleased to meet recently with residents and businesses in Young Street to hear how their street has been adversely affected by increased traffic since we started the ETRO in George Street. This narrow cobbled street is simply not fit for the volume and nature of traffic it’s been experiencing of late. Changing the one-way direction will help divert traffic away from Young Street and on to Queen Street, which can accommodate commercial and through-traffic far more comfortably.”
