I must admit to being concerned that people are being pressed to gain “work experience” by working for free for companies. I’m not against the project to enable young people to gain work experience, just that the work is unpaid!

A Panicked multi-millionaire
The label given by David Cameron describing those that oppose the programme as “Trotskyites”, as reported by the BBC, is untrue and shows how panicked the multi millionaire happens to be about getting the peasants back to work!

I agree when Mr Cameron told MPs: “The whole country wants young people given the opportunity that work experience provides.” . It’s essential that young people gain work experience but one aspect of that experience is the individual being given a sense of achievement that’s been appreciated with a reward. In this instance some sort of payment. Even the boy Scouts understood the relationship between reward and service with their “Bob a Job” scheme.

Concern from Business
Concern about the project comes from Supermarket Tesco who changed its policy within days of a protest
at one of its stores, saying it would start to pay those on work
experience and guarantee a job when placements went well.

Baker Greggs has offered 40 placements since June, with 14 of the participants going on to secure permanent jobs. Its chief executive Ken McMeikan said his firm still believed in the scheme but the benefits penalties for those that dropped out had created concern.

Workcamps
In the depression of the 1930s the Government at the time created “Work-camps” for the unemployed where they were centrally housed and “did unpaid work” and these work-camps were in operation up to the start of the Second World War…..
Do I detect the Government doing something similar today but without the camp?

What do you think?

It’s inevitable that as companies such as Barclays, Lloyds TSB, Marks & Spencer and even Tesco suffer reduced profits they are developing a strategy that reduces costs by reducing staff.
 
Such companies then create smaller working teams or integrate the remaining staff into other departments together with their responsibilities.

There is a hidden downside with this strategy.That is that often there isn’t enough time, or motivation due to a sense of emergency, to integrate the new team properly so that they are capable of being as productive as they might be.

Our research, over nine years, into individual and team productivity following the integration of new people shows that only 60% of such changes deliver the results that were anticipated.

Poor communication, lack of understanding of team results and changes in management style all contribute to the potential failure. The result is that costs rise, goals and opportunities are not met and this results in further downsizing.

Companies that are changing their teams need to consider that they are in effect changing the make up of the team dynamic and need to consider a integration period in exactly the same way as if they were to be introducing a new members of staff