Yesterday saw the eventual publication of the Beecroft report by the Government (Link) after the Telegraph leaked a copy earlier in the day. The leaked copy (Link) which would appear to be an earlier draft of the report, contains some elements not included in the official report. This has led to claims of political editing by opposition parties and groups and yet again the Government seem to be driven by events rather than driving the agenda themselves. Indeed, the Business Secretary, Vince Cable is not in full support of the report. His statement on the BIS website is clearly distancing himself and the department from the report (Link).

There is lots of negativity in the news right now, families facing the reality of public sector cuts, the risk of redundancy, uncertainty whether the private sector will really be able to pick up the shortfall in the employment market and now a double dip recession.

Many a wise person has already commented that the savings needed in the public sector should be conducted avoiding a non thinking “salami slice” approach.  Departments and other public bodies have been working hard these past two years to or more to deliver required savings without impacting service users. I have written here myself about the terrible and difficult choices having to be made in Prisons and Health as just a couple of examples.

We know that times  are tough, we get told about it at least five times a day, so it is interesting that now is the time that a number of Trade Unions choose to call for action , including strike action in relation to pay and pension claims.

After dropping my son at school this morning, I popped into one of my local ‘Big 4’ supermarkets to pick up a few items.

As I wandered around the aisles I came across the store manager and a senior regional manager discussing how things were going.

The store manager was quite up beat in his assessment and was commenting that “despite the current climate, things are going well and I’ve got a happy staff group.”

I have been mulling on the issue of leadership in organisations over the past couple of days, not least because more and more it seems,  leadership qualities  is increasingly identified as the missing magical “something” that organisations are using to differentiate  their workforce. They are using the description of these seemingly mystical behaviours to a) describe the next layer of performance that high performers should be aspiring to, and therefore also all those operating beneath them if they want to be successful, but also b) to sort the wheat from the chaff, in a time of extreme cuts it is being used in organisations as a means of identifying those who no longer fit; redundancy criteria.

This is an important observation in both categories a and b, after years of talking about and getting people to focus on performance at work (I’m thinking in particular about the Public  Sector here) and finally getting it, now it seems something altogether different is required.

I was really disappointed to hear reported in the news this weekend that the Chancellor has a plan to move away from National Pay rates for Public Sector workers: (Link)

My disappointment comes in several forms, firstly that we are living with apparently our first generation “professional” politicians, many of the people in power and in the key opposition positions have never done anything else, stints as SPADs don’t count. With this career history in mind it is my (probably naive) expectation that irrespective of party political persuasion, they are well versed  in the detail of  the history of previous administrations of the 20^th Century. Here’s the second big disappointment, the announcement this morning tells me that there really are no new ideas,  not even in this professionalised group of people. We have been here before. 

Ideas of regional variation have been floated before. It was dealt with by Local Pay Allowances, where certain locations attracted a pay addition that differentiated the National rate.

The government is launching a scheme whereby employers will receive a fee for providing ex-offenders with employment opportunities and then keeping them on for two years or more. (Link)

This will come as welcome news to many in the criminal justice sector, as employment and sustained employment is one of the major hurdles offenders face upon release from prison.

One thing that I truly hope the scheme will provide though is a wide range of employment opportunities for the offenders. Whilst it is true that there are many unskilled and poorly educated men and women within our prison system, this is not true of the total population.

News that the board of RBS approving a bonus for CEO Stephen Hester has caused much consternation.

The political and media pressure has resulted in Mr Hester waiving the bonus. There is much discussion at the moment between whether the bonus was a contractual clause or a matter of discretion for the board.

In the end Mr Hester has taken a course deemed by many to be the correct, propriety rather than payment.

However, is it right?

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house

Nothing was stirring, not even a mouse.

Lo! What’s that noise, someone quietly sobbing?

An interloper sat beside Santa’s fire

while he’s gone a-jobbing.

Stop this silly iambic pentameter; kids don’t go for that anymore you say!

“What’s wrong dear lady, why the tears?”

Fat, hot blobs run down her cheeks (and a fair bit of snot too, but we’re too polite to say).

If you’ve seen the Chris Rock film ‘Head of State’ you’ll know that the ‘small man’ on the presidential campaign trail has a light bulb moment where he stops trotting out the prepared corporate line and to the outrageous injustices staring him in the face, shouts loud and clear “that aint right!” Of course with the magic of Hollywood a triumphant election campaign ensues, you can guess the rest.

We’re having our own “that aint right” moment. Trawling back through the wellbeing section on our website we have written about stress, toxic behaviour, messy management and a plethora of factors that contribute to ill health, lost productivity, excessive costs and damaged performance on numerous occasions.

Signal was pleased to attend the first NoOffence! Criminal justice conference yesterday. This relatively new group has, in a short space of time, brought together an impressive cross section of professionals all interested in criminal justice reform.

We at Signal are currently working with NoOffence! on a working group to improve employment support for ex-offenders and potential employers.