BSN Ezine July 2006

A new BPF series of ready guides to practitioners in the plastics industry. Focus: Listgrove Ltd

1. Technical qualifications are important
Having the necessary competences to perform various roles and jobs at work is clearly essential - and a key part of recruitment and interviewing is to get this right.  Operational and production roles require technical and engineering expertise; sales, marketing and finance jobs require other kinds of professionalism, experience and qualifications.

2. Know your company values, culture and methods
In order to get the most from your company functions and roles it is vital to define what kind of company you run - its style, methods and culture. There are a number of preset models, management text books and methods for establishing your company style. The simplest and best way, however, is just to reflect on and describe your own firm in what it does - particularly looking at: What methods and systems work best at your company? What qualities win your company most business.

3. Establishing a person's character at 2nd interview is key
Technical qualifications and expertise provide few clues as to how a person will perform in any given role or job function. For that we need tools such as Competency Based Interviewing (CBI). The essence of this technique is a structured probing of the candidate in order to elicit their actual values, achievements and behaviours - as opposed to how they think and believe they perform and behave.

4. Match the character to the company role
If both interviews have been successfully conducted you are in an optimum position to match candidates to the roles you need. The strength of a well conducted series of 2nd interviews will allow you to mix and match these with the 1st interview results of technical qualifications.

5. Become trained in this work - and/or outsource the processes
Forward-looking companies should consider the benefit of outsourcing these HR methods. Expertise and outsourcing in this area allows businesses to take their HR competences to a higher and strategic level.

Click here or more information on these 5 guidance points.
Find out more about Listgrove at: http://www.listgrove.co.uk/

Envirowise urges business network to pull together for prompt action on waste. Businesses need more practical help to take action on environmental issues such as efficient use of resources and reducing water use, says new research commissioned by Envirowise. As many as 72% of small to medium sized businesses consider the reduction of waste to be an important issue, according to a Ipsos MORI survey of 751 small and medium-sized businesses. However, when it comes to implementing change, at least 41% say they need practical help and 17% have no idea where to turn for information.

Click here to read more.
 

On 12th /13th September 2006, the UK Polymer Showcase meeting is taking place in Wakefield, Yorkshire. Organised by The Polymer IRC, made up of the Universities of Leeds, Bradford, Durham and Sheffield, the two-day meeting, "Materials by Design", combines up to the minute talks on topical areas of polymer science and technology and soft nanotechnology. It is FREE to attend and there will be an opportunity for industrialists, science funders and scientists to mix together to discuss new developments and identify potential project partners.

For more information, click here .

When age discrimination law comes into force on 1 October 2006, employers will have to follow certain procedures in order to retire employees without claims for age discrimination and unfair dismissal. Special transitional provisions apply in relation to employees who are due to retire between 1 October 2006 and 31 March 2007 (inclusive), which broadly require employers to: If an employee makes a request to continue working, it should be considered in accordance with the procedure which includes a meeting and a right of appeal). If you would like further information about the retirement procedure or the transitional provisions, please contact any member of the Employment Department.

Visit Travers Smith at: http://www.traverssmith.com/

Members of the Business Support Network along with the British Plastics Federation will be exhibiting at the upcoming PDM exhibition (Plastics Design and Moulding) at Telford International Centre, Telford on 26 - 28 September 2006.

Those exhibiting are:

Polymer Training Ltd (PTL) - Stand A50
London Metropolitan Polymer Centre - Stand D58
IMSM - Stand F7
British Plastics Federation - Stand L31
Listgrove - Stand L30
Pera - Stand L28

PDM is free to attend in 2006. Visitors to the exhibition are invited to take their business needs to members of the Business Support Network. Organised at the show is an extensive seminar programme. The BPF will be presenting in the session entitled "Processor Clinic" in the morning of Wednesday 27th September and Business Support Network member, Pera will also have a presentation slot.

For more information on PDM, please click here .
 

Manufacturing should not be written off, the Chairman of the CBI's Manufacturing Council, Nick Brayshaw, told leading Yorkshire manufacturers during a dinner at Ripley Castle. He pointed out that although manufacturing output had been flat for the past 10 years, for the UK as a whole it was now 23 per cent greater than in 1980. Over the same period, productivity in the sector grew by 2.5 per cent a year. "In the first quarter of this year, UK manufacturing output grew by 0.5 per cent - exceeding service sector growth for the first time," he added. The theme of the dinner - hosted by business advisory firm Deloitte, lawyers Pinsent Curtis and Barclays Bank - was the challenge posed by emerging markets; particularly China and India.

Mr Brayshaw said China's GDP was growing at 10 per cent a year, but this was not bad news for the UK as the growth was driven by demand in the West. On the other hand, British companies should work harder to increase exports to China. "Our exports to China and India are growing by 30 per cent a year, but the reality is that we still sell more to Norway than we do to China," he said.

Click here  to read more.

 

Business Support Network member, John Hall Associates has recently gained coverage at the OPEC meeting in Caracas, Venezuela with reference to oil and the relationship between North America and Venezuela.

Click here to watch the video.