In its International Migrant Outlook Report 2013 the OECD has found that migrants have a distinct advantage over native workers which might explain why so much of the conversation you hear around you is not English.
There are approximately the same number of native workers employed as a decade ago despite a significant increase in the workforce over that period suggesting that almost all newly created jobs have gone to foreigners.
Clearly native born Britons are now at a disadvantage because of the foreign competition, something that is unlikely to change because employers have found that immigrants tend to be more reliable, have a better work ethic, are often far better educated AND are prepared to undertake menial low-paid roles without complaint.
The Government is being urged to look at the impact of migration on the country as a whole though what they might be able to do about it is debateable.
So for all its back to work and make work pay initiatives the Government faces an uphill struggle to in any way reform the benefits culture particularly as any new legislation is likely to fall foul of Human Rights or EU legislation.
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Apparently today is Tax Freedom Day, the point at which employees start to earn money for themselves rather than the taxman. The calculation takes into account all taxes, not just those on your payslip and totals 41% real taxation.
High taxation offers little incentive for people to better themselves, after all bridge the basic rate tax band and you can see 61% lost to tax.
Low tax economies have been proven by economists to be better environments for growth,( it is the basis of capitalism), so it is right to try to reduce this burden.
Too much of the UK economy is based upon benefits, grants and other incentives which distort investment and waste taxpayers money. Let’s concentrate on getting value from Government spending, not high speed rail links or vanity projects but ones which offer real benefits.
Achieving SEPA compliance in time for the February 2013 deadline is proving a challenge for many companies, particularly those with legacy accounting systems which may not have the necessary format fields and XML functionality demanded by the new SEPA payments.
Others are experiencing problems with the quality of data they hold. Some is obsolete, a duplicate or held in multiple places in unsuitable formats.
Why not combine your SEPA project with a data cleansing and quality programme for minimal extra cost?
For more details give us a call.
I was talking to an individual yesterday who is looking for someone to join his team and so far has had 270 inappropriate CV’s and not one which even warrants an interview. HR are using their preferred suppliers who are not coming up with the goods, in fact it would seem that they have little comprehension of the sort of person needed and have “just chucked mud at the wall”.
This is just a waste of my friend’s valuable time and yet HR are resisting his attempts to persuade them to seek other suppliers and are quite happy with their preferred suppliers who are targeted to send volumes of CV’s.
Surely the test of a good supplier is not how many CV’s are presented but the conversion rate of CV to interview and ultimately filled position.
For their part the preferred suppliers are more than happy to just press a button and extract all the CV’s in their database with a certain combination of key words and to send them off without in any way whittling down the list. I wonder how many breaches of the Data Protection Act result?
HR are happy to see a good response and yet the business suffers a lot of wasted time and delays in recruiting key personnel. A bit ironic when you think about it!
At Aegle we believe in reducing the business burden, we will sift the shortlist down to a few individuals who we believe most closely fit the requirements and we will never send any CV without the express permission of the candidate.
Any FCA qualified person interested in this?
With news this morning that the EU are investigating price fixing by the oil companies dating back 10 years and possible espionage at Bloomberg one has to wonder just what other underhand practices are prevalent across the world.
IT makes it so much easier to snoop, spy or carry out insider trading, again we have reports of the Chinese reputedly stealing top secret plans for stealth fighters and insider trading at Blackrock. There have been 23 successful convictions for insider trading in the last four years.
The problem is that with instant communication means at their disposal it becomes second nature for people to text, tweet or contact others and it is impossible for any company to control. As with any other law if the perpetrator does not expect to get caught the level of any possible sentence or fine is irrelevant. I truly pity the compliance people trying to keep control.
Can it be blamed on the increasing globalisation of industry or is it a fundamental change of attitude towards profit at all costs?
Whatever the reason it is time for the authorities to examine, redefine and enforce. Perhaps it is time for the compliance officer to be a neutral external appointment reporting to the regulatory authority directly, free from the conflicting influence of the board and directors.
It might just be me but do you agree that getting anything done is becoming more and more difficult?
This week I have been trying to sort out my dear old Dad’s affairs as he is now confined to a nursing home.
Last year I went through an avalanche of paperwork, hoops and hurdles to get the enduring power of attorney accepted by a myriad of companies, all wanting different “evidence” to identify both him and me and proper “certification” on the facsimile. With so many now being internet only it is not even that you can show a real human being the original.
A year on FOUR companies (and counting!) have sent letters to his old address despite having acknowledged in writing to my address that they have noted me as his representative in their records. TWO can find no record of my authority to act noted on his account. This is despite every single one having a central unit (centre of excellence) to deal with the power of attorney’s correctly.
It is no different in a shop, the shelf ticket shows 4 for £1 or 39p each yet the till has not been programmed accordingly. It takes a girl 10 minutes to rectify and requires the use of a mobile phone to calculate the 14p per item difference. The queue behind were understandably irate.
Increasingly it seems that nobody takes training seriously, staff are provided with the bare basics they need to do the job and left to fend for themselves. They accept that the computer is always right and are given no authority to deviate from the norm. They are little more than robots.
Perhaps it is the fault of IT, after all the systems are not always flexible enough or intuitive enough to cover all eventualities.
Providing service excellence costs money and accountants are constantly trying to find ways to save expense, can they not see that there is a risk of losing customers – no because it is unquantifiable.
Companies should remember “the customer is always right” because without customers they are nothing. Now if only I could find a company that gets it right…
It appears that today’s teenagers have unrealistic expectations of their employment prospects and harbour ambitions to be pop stars or sportsmen.
In fact employers are becoming more frustrated than ever at the standard of education and lack of preparation of candidates. It could be said that with their text-speak and opinion that the world owes them a living that employers and candidates might just as well be on different planets.
Employers are receiving thousands of applications for a few vacancies and face an enormous job in whittling down the candidates to a shortlist. Regrettably most fall at this first hurdle through poor spelling, grammar and the use of text speak in their CV’s and covering letters.
Many more fail because they have failed to communicate how their skills and experience are relevant to the role or simply have not even taken time to read the job description/requirements and fail to meet the criteria.
Even if they have cleared these early hurdles employers report that interviewees turn up inappropriately dressed, late and totally unprepared, having done no prior research on the company or given any thought on how to answer even the most obvious questions such as “why do you want this job?”
It seems that employers and youngsters are at polar opposites, is it any wonder that youth unemployment is so high?
It is easy to blame the schools for failing the youngsters, and this is certainly part of the problem, but I think it is the parents who are most to blame. They are the ones who have either doted on their children and stifled their desire to better themselves or set a bad example through claiming a multitude of benefits and eschewing the work ethic.
These youngsters need to be taught some home truths:-
Everybody once started at the bottom and advanced through hard work and application
It is ambition that provides the drive to achieve, without it you are (and will remain) nothing.
Nobody owes them a living, sponging will get you nowhere
Learn some social skills: politeness, consideration and teamwork are essential in any walk of life
The State is unlikely to be able to afford to provide in the future so the sooner you fend for yourself, the better.
There appear to be differing opinions if leaks and statements from the IMF and Bank of England are to be believed.
What appears obvious is that economic activity is stuttering and any growth is at best feeble if not anaemic. Economists are looking for clear signs of improvement where there are none and so are hence clutching at straws.
For all of its talk of austerity the UK government has failed to make any significant cuts to spending in real terms and because of falling tax revenues those it has achieved have failed to have any impact upon the deficit.
In common with most of the developed world the UK economy is over-borrowed and continuing to run a deficit. Any hopes that an increase in economic activity would stem the tide are looking increasingly unlikely.
Austerity timetables need to be lengthened yet again to allow conditions to improve. In reality this will probably mean years of minimal benefit increases and little likelihood of governmental economic stimulation.
What will kick-start economic growth? Answers on postcards please!
The world appears to be awash with acronyms, every company and department seems to be adopting them and sowing seeds of confusion. I wonder how many mistakes arise from misunderstandings and mistypes?
To the uninitiated, those who may be new or unaware there is a dilemma. Admit you have no idea what they are talking about and show your ignorance or stay tight-lipped and hope you can begin to understand as the conversation continues. It must be hell when you join a new company!
The problem is that the brain has difficulty in keeping up when it needs to compute the translation of the acronym and continue to make sense of the meaning of a conversation (or is that just a male problem?)
Personally I quickly lose the will to live when acronyms start to be banded about and I wonder what damage might be done to established trade names when they choose to be known by acronym rather than their full name. The potential confusion can result in customers being lost.
Type almost any acronym into a search engine and see what a vast array of similar sequences of letters there are. To the uninitiated it is a potential minefield but there is a very real risk in becoming too fixated.
So next time you are tempted to adopt and converse in acronyms perhaps it would be wise to ensure that the other party understands otherwise you have no more chance of making yourself understood than a geek talking technobabble to a layman.
More pertinently remember to be careful when using acronyms in a CV, the reader might have no idea what they mean and you may be passed over for interview through ignorance.
