So, if you didn’t know that you need work experience to land a job this summer, good luck sweeping the streets. The question is, at what cost do you get that experience? To be fair, arch-homosexual and journalist Johann Hari has been bleating for a while about how unfair work experience is as, often being unpaid, it favours those whose mummy and daddy can supplement the pocket money. 66% of young people feel obliged to work for free because of the recession – leaving them feeling exploited and underpaid. Be realistic: two weeks is about the limit for unpaid work, 4 weeks in the media. If the employer is trying to get more out of you than that, they are taking the piss: decline after two weeks and walk away – its still all on your CV. Make them understand that your own debts are huge, any business worth its salt will help you out. All you want is train and beer money after all (about £80 a day). AS listed on Onrec, the NCWE’s tips to help students and graduates avoid exploitation: • Discuss the purpose of the internship and clarify expectations from the start • Ensure the placement is valuable – does it give insight into a particular industry? Will it improve certain skills or clarify career aspirations? • Discuss the possibilities of any future paid work with employer, pointing out the skills that you have gained during the internship. • Re-consider the value of the internship if it ceases to supply useful contacts and training opportunities • Everyone has a choice and if the balance between valuable work experience tips into exploitation then it is up to you to decide whether to continue or not

Tags: getting paid for work experience, Work Experience, Work placements

Good old Gordon, he does know how to put his boot in.  Not content with 4851 consecutive bad news stories surrounding the recession and expenses and the speaker and his general incompetence, his decided to clear up the definition of heat, just in case one or two of us become confused by the our available options.  I’ve often been told I’m ‘Hanson, you’re so hot right now’ and I am, but personally I prefer to stick with the traditional ‘It’s so f****** hot’.  And now the TUC are following suit and urging employers to keep their employees cool by relaxing their dress codes and cooling down their offices.  It was obviously a slow news day for Brendan Barber the General Secretary of the TUC when he said: “We’d like British bosses to think seriously this week about how they can make their workplaces cooler and their staff less overheated. Allowing employees to dress down in the current heat wave will prevent them from collapsing at their desks, and could also save companies money as they are able to turn down the air con a notch. Employers have got to remember that it’s no fun working in a baking office or factory and they should be doing all they can to take the temperatures down. Clearly vest tops and shorts are not suitable attire for all front line staff, but those not dealing with the public should be able to discard their tights, ties and suits and opt for more summery clothing this week”.  So when you applying for jobs this summer remember to check out what your potential and not just in the way of air conditioning.

Tags: Government, heat wave, perks, TUC

What with the recession and all, the Institute of Directors have found themselves with a little extra time on their hands, so they’ve decided to have a chat with 1,000 business leaders.  My invitation must have been lost in the post.  This chat, probably over brandy and Hob Nobs by an open fire, revealed that over the last 6 months 80% of the directors either maintained or increased their organisations training budgets.  But as one hand gives and the other hand takes, as 47% declared that their training focused on short courses that directly addressed their businesses needs, rather than long term universal training.  I now have a flurry of stats, so prepare yourself: 76% believe training increases employee morale, 69% believe it enhances customer satisfaction, 62% think it aids staff retention, 21% believe training improves recruitment and 43% believe in the Easter Bunny.  For more training information check out these videos

Tags: institute of directors, Training

If you work for Kellogg’s I’d guess that the last thing you’d want more of is Tony the Tiger, Snap, Crackle, Pop or the unimaginatively named Cocoa the Cocoa Pop Monkey, but apparently I’m wrong.  Kellogg’s have decided to reinvent their staff reward system, abandoning jargon and buzzwords and instead use their ‘popular’ mascots to make their staff reward statements easier to understand and beautiful.  Within the staff reward scheme is the company’s pension system, so if you managed to land yourself a job at Kellogg’s you to could open up a pension statement delivered by Tony the Tiger with Snap Crackle and Pop sat in the background.  There is a serious reason behind their choice (although it’s completely lost on me!), which my good friend David Lowe will attempt to explain: “Now, more than ever, we want our people to know they matter to us so we made a conscious decision to ‘sell’ our reward offering a lot more proactively than we have done in the past.  Our trademark characters are fun, and features such as our ‘Corn-flex’ section are backed up with a serious agenda. The statements are a new way of talking about reward for us - they do more than communicate the facts and figures relating to an employee’s pay and benefits; they embed our company culture, inspire employees and demonstrate we value them enough to put serious consideration into communicating their reward.”

Tags: Communications, kellogg's, Pensions

The affects of the recession are spreading far and wide as a joint report from SkillSoft and OnePoll shows 30% of employees in Europe are being under trained due to financial cutbacks imposed due to the recession.  It’s scary stuff especially if those one of those 30% are being left to prepare my drinks at the lodge. SkillSoft and OnePoll have really rolled their sleeves up and dived into the deep end of the stats.  As 80% of employers across Europe offer some sort of training, but 76% of staff think this training could be better.  A further 61% of staff think that training and personal development is important when applying for a new role. You may be wondering why I’m telling you this?  In part it’s to show off my stat mastery, but mostly it’s to show you exactly how important training is and how it should be top of your list when you’re asked if you have any questions in an interview and will show that you’re thinking about a long term future with this company.  If you’re wondering what companies have to say about training here are some videos on the subject.

Tags: polls, Survey, Training