Customer Services
I read a variety of blogs and recently read one about poor customer service in the railway industry. The blog can be found here Committed to Customers? – BusAndTrainUser – journeys around Britain by bus and train and, in summary, highlights difficulty in making contact with customer services teams. The author, before retirement, ran a highly regarded bus company. Some of the comments, after the article are quite amusing. Of particular note is the one where some one sent a compliment and received a standard letter which apologised for the issue and enclosed a £25.00 voucher!
But, how do we deal with customer service? As the new normal emerges and blended working impacts many we do have to have systems in place. It need not be complicated – just some one to deal with customer comments as part of their job. And, they should have time scheduled to undertake the task.
When I was CEO of a Community Enterprise I kept reminding my team that we had customers who were service users; customers who were people visiting and customers who paid the bills. The distinction was made for a variety of reasons.
Service users are customers because they use the services provided. If they are not up to the mark they will complain and, if too many complaints reach the customer who pays the bills the service will be taken away from us. So, we treat service users as customers, provide excellent service and respond to comments quickly and appropriately. We don’t send out a £25.00 voucher and an apology when some one says that we have done well. We don’t hide when some one says that we have not done well.
People who were visiting were also customers – regardless of the visit. Treat them well and provide a good experience and they could buy from us in the future. It is well over a decade since I moved on from that organisation. A successor has successfully repositioned it as a venue hire operation – an action prompted by feedback from purchasers of services resulting from visits to other events. The operation was alert to market changes by focussing on customer service.
But, the operation paying the bill was the ultimate customer. How service users were treated was part of the future contract negotiations. Value is more than just price or cost. Good customer service, at all levels, can enable an enhanced price. Poor customer service has long term effects in a market where there is choice.
Andrew Rainsford
20th August 2021
Employing Ex-offenders in the VCSE Sector Event Summary
VSNW Presents ‘Employing Ex-Offenders in the
VCSE Sector’
19th May 2021 4pm-5pm
A full recording of the event can be found here.
The pandemic has exaggerated unemployment levels, which has had dramatic effects on individuals, families and the wider community. Ex-offenders have a particularly high risk of unemployment after finishing their sentence, which, amongst other factors, enhances the likelihood of reoffending. Helping and securing employment can have long and prominent positive effects, not only for the individual but for wider society too.
VSNW welcomed a selection of speakers to discuss their processes and experiences of working with and employing ex-offenders, including an inspiring insight from John, who has been through the process himself.
Our key takeaway messages:
People deserve a second chance-employment is vital in lowering re-offending rates.
Re-creating real-life work scenarios inside prison is an important process of getting offenders ready to work.
Supporting offenders release from prison with travel expenses ,meeting them upon release etc is vital to the transition.
Many ex-offenders have transferable skills intrinsic to business and the workplace.
Support and buddy programmes needed as ex-offenders can be vulnerable.
Employment is only one variable that effects re-offending rates,family support and housing being examples of others. This needs to be kept in mind.
For organisations wanting to implement practices to employ ex-offenders, partnerships with other organisations to support can be key. Whether that’s another organisation already successfully employing ex-offenders to learn employment practices from, or a housing or mental health organisation for example to provide the wrap around support that can sometimes be required.
Darren Burns, from the Timpson Foundation, discussed the history of the foundation and how the group became invested in employing ex-offenders and giving them a second chance. They are now proudly the largest employer of ex-offenders in England.
They have four main streams of employment:
1: ROTL (Release on Temporary License)
This begins with informal interviews after liaising with prison staff, the aim of which is to grasp the character and personality of the individual. ROTL allows successful applicants to leave prison in the day to work and return to prison in the evening. They receive national living wage.
2. Prison training academies:
As a lot of prison work doesn’t get prisoners ready for the real world, these prison training academies aim to replicate a real Timpson branch environment for practice and assessing skills. When the prisoners are then eligible for ROTL, the continuity of environment is very positive.
3 .Some people in custody do not have access to ROTL (perhaps they are in category B prisons/sentence is too short). In this instance they are risk assessed and interviewed and then met upon release and given a travel pass and a job.
4. People feel confident applying through normal streams as Timpson is renowned for its employment ethos.
Darren explained some of main reasons why the Timpson Foundation has decided to engage with the above employment processes:
People deserve a second chance-reoffending rates are dramaticallyr educed if employed.
Reoffending costs the taxpayer vast amounts each year, thus reducing this benefits family, individual, wider society, tax payer and communities
Experience of prison often gives people qualities of personal resilience. They are often more hardworking, more honest and can be business savvy.
Annie Gale, from COOK Ltd and the Raw Talent Programme gave an overview of their experiences and processes too.
The RAW (Ready & Working) Talent Programme supports people with convictions, who suffer from addiction and who are homeless. Their company values see their employees as “essential ingredients” to their success, which they regard as doing the right thing by society as well as turning a profit. The programme has the following stages:
1. Training before job offer (a supported trial shift)
2. All those who complete the programme are interviewed
3. The programme is run 3 times a year and 2-4 jobs are offered from each.
COOK Ltd strive to see the potential in people and maintain that somebody’s past doesn’t have to define their future. They believe that doing good business attracts good people, shareholders, suppliers and customers. They put equality at the fore of their ethos and make sure that their employees are offered support, buddy programmes etc. They have high expectations and a disciplinary process, which has been devised from learning over the years.
From This to That: Changes in the NHS
Confused about the upcoming NHS reconfiguration? Too many acornyms?
VSNW have produced a resource to help extrapolate key information relevant to the sector in light of the upcoming changes as outlined in the Whitepaper.
Click on the image below.
Social Sector Leaders Joint Statement on the Right to Campaign
The Sewell Report was released on the 31st March, a government commissioned report by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities in the UK; the findings of which were deemed highly controversial. The Runnymede Trust’s (who operate as the UK’s leading independent race equality think tank) response to the report which condemned the findings, caused a number of members of the House of Commons to complain to the Charity Commission. This government-led retaliation was not the first time they have complained to the Charity Commission over contrary statements to government commissioned reports.
ACEVO recognise that whilst the charity sector does and should not run along party political lines, their work which is often concentrated on people and communities is in that sense, political. They have issued a joint statement from social sector leaders and are asking for those leaders who wish, to sign up in solidarity to the sector’s right to campaign against injustices and inequalities in our society.
You can find the full list of signatories and details on how to sign up your organisation here.
Chairing Through Coivd
Being a Chair During The Pandemic
There has been much written about the effect of Covid working on staff employed by VCFSE bodies; similarly there have been many words written about service users. The financial effects of Covid have exercised researchers, policy makers, lobbyists and politicians. One area of work has attracted little comment – the role of chair.
The role of chair can be difficult at the best of times. When things go well and there is complete harmony, adequate resources, an agreed shared vision and contended service users there is no better role within a charity. Indeed, when one of these broad areas is not functioning as well as it could, it can be argued that the role becomes even more interesting, as the chair can use their skills to address the issue. However, when a pandemic strikes and the majority of the risk register suddenly goes red, then the role of the chair is very difficult indeed. And, to undertake the role in an unpaid capacity (with plenty of potential personal downsides) takes a very special person indeed.
The Association of Chairs published a landmark report in April 2021.
From a response of more than 700 chairs it is reported that the workload has, for some, turned into a full time job. Many report that relationships with the head of paid services (CEO) are better than they were but, for a significant minority (8% - which is not a lot but each case is significant as it affects individuals as well as operations,) they are not.
Chairs have had to cope with encorporating new technology into their role, as well as developing new ways of co-ordinating and chairing meetings. The ability to read nonverbal signals by attending physical meetings is, as for all, reduced.
The report indicated that a large number of operations do not have a training budget specifically for chairs. This may be because chairs are unwilling to deplete resources to increase their own skills.
Despite all of the issues that have arisen during the pandemic the overwhelming majority of chairs (83%) report that their motivation is at least as good as it was when the pandemic burst onto the scene.
We are approaching Volunteers Week. Ensure that your chair has a shout out of thanks. Where would you be without them?
People and Places- what are they worth?
People and places – what are they worth?
This article has drawn significantly from one written by Stephanie Corking, People Director and co-owner at business consultancy firm, Laws of Attraction. Her article appeared on thebusinessdesk.com on 10th March 2021.
The pandemic has been tough for many employees: new working environments, disrupting routines, changing roles and responsibilities, long term friends that have been made redundant and for many, being furloughed and not working for long periods. All of these may have created worry and uncertainty with many colleagues. Now, your people are your biggest opportunity and will be crucial to reviving the fortunes of the region’s individual businesses, towns, cities, and the economy as a whole. Therefore, an investment in your people (now more than ever), could be the smartest ‘post covid’ move you can make.
There is much talk currently, amongst both large and small business owners, of the post-covid recovery plan. Strategies, agendas, objectives, and detailed plans to get consumers back to our brands and spending again have been the talk of many a zoom call up and down the country. And for many businesses, the PM’s announcement of the UK roadmap on the 22nd of February has resulted in a flurry of activity for ‘return to work’ plans and how to welcome their customers with open arms when the doors are eventually allowed to reopen.
Whilst many have spent the last 6-9 months continually revaluating their operations, the focus is now on strategic priorities, learning from the lessons of responding to uncertainties and capturing the changes (and opportunities) of the last 12 months to move forward.
The same level of thinking should have taken place within the VCFSE sector as well. There is a danger that we may have been wrapped up in too much “here and now” and have left inadequate space for the “tomorrow and beyond”.
The effects of COVID-19 on the sector are profound and unprecedented. While retailers must work through operational and tactical considerations to re-open retail stores VCFSE bodies have wider issues to consider as well. These do create an opportunity to re-examine who you are as an organisation, considering:
• Customer — How has your customer evolved during and after the crisis? What are their expectations, needs, behaviours, and priorities in this new environment? In purely commercial terms a customer is the one that pays the bill. We have service users who may not be customers in the strict sense. To change a service to reflect the needs of the service user without consulting the customer is a very dangerous strategy indeed.
• Brand — What is the purpose of your operation, and how can you best serve customers? Do you need to evolve your value proposition to stay relevant? If so, how? Who are the stakeholders with whom you have to consult?
• Product — What are the key, best-selling products and services? Is it the right time to consider new categories, new services, and new business models? This style of thinking is sometimes seen as “not sector appropriate”. In a world where financial resources will be finite and variable customer focussed thinking will be of paramount importance.
• Store — What is the impact on the store channel, its role, and the corresponding operations? How do you keep your customers and associates safe, while playing a new role in customers’ lives?
• Digital — How do you keep what you have developed and worked without ignoring those who cannot access digital for whatever reason.
(Deloitte)
However, what is missing from that list above is People…
It has been no surprise that HR functions have been at the core of managing change in the past 12 months. And now, as leadership teams begin to mobilise the operational plans, how do we ensure that employee engagement stays high on the agenda to ensure customer engagement stays ‘high’ on the high street?
Recent surveys have told us, that overall, most companies did a good job of addressing their employees’ physical and emotional needs during the working from home and lockdown periods, ensuring they met the basic needs of safety, stability and security. However, as we approach the next phase, those needs are evolving and the need for a sophisticated return-to-work strategy that focuses on employee wellbeing, managing stress as well as motivation, listening and encouraging innovation from your teams and overall employee engagement are all things that should be high on the people agenda.
So how should HR functions be adapting and realigning their people strategy and how does this link to the North’s post covid recovery strategy? Stephanie observes,
“Developing a human-centric people strategy that has relationships at its heart and the ability to evolve consistently to support the corporate strategy, enables improved employee wellbeing and business performance.
In the majority of client conversations, we have had recently, I’m often surprised to hear that HR teams feel they haven’t done enough to develop their post covid strategy, in line with the business strategy, and then communicate, engage and inspire their colleagues across the business so that they fully understand that the people are the intrinsic part of getting customers back through the doors”.
66% of HR functions develop people strategic plans that are not linked to the organisation’s corporate strategy.
Our regions voluntary sector operations have an opportunity to improve the employee experience during the return-to-work phase. The good news is, we have the tools to achieve that. Advancements in employee listening platforms, pulse surveys, two-way communication channels mean that leaders can now address employee experience in a data-driven and targeted way. By using the data to drill down on which groups of employees need more and varied types of support, they can also tailor their communication styles and actions that create feelings of wellbeing and build relationships across the workforce.
In a recent survey, 87% of highly engaged employees said they are less likely to leave the company they are work for compared to their counterparts. There is a danger of complacency creeping in here. Someone leaves and there are plenty of people seeking work at present. We need to ascertain why some one is leaving and try to improve the areas that they highlight. Exit interviews are important and valuable if they are acted upon. There is more cost to recruitment than the price of the advert. Think about lost productivity; time to read applications; to interview or even creating the new job description in the first place. An employee walking out of the door because they see somewhere better to work (and it isn’t always about money) is probably money and value walking out of the door as well.
However, the fundamental key to success is that leaders and managers are responsible and accountable for the employee needs to help them thrive during the return.
Employees will be looking to the leadership teams and line managers for both strategic direction and emotional support (after all the most important relationship you have at work is with your boss), whilst customers will be looking to businesses’ front-line employees to deliver a safe, engaging and enjoyable return to the quality operations that they are used to.
In summary, having a ‘leader led’ approach to employee engagement (it’s not just an HR thing) will be your quickest win to mobilising your workforce and ensuring your returning customers continue to come back as the Northern and wider economy reopens and your employees feel safe, inspired and engaged.
March 2021 – with huge thanks to Stephanie Corking.
Walking Away from Funding Agreements
Funding thoughts – walking away from a contract/funding agreement
At first glance the article below, reproduced from Route One magazine, has little to do with VCFSE groups. Route One is an industry leading magazine for Bus and Coach Operators and the article relates to electric buses in Northern Scotland and South Wales.
“Two projects to introduce battery-electric buses have been terminated and the grant funding involved returned to the issuing body.
Orkney Islands Council (OIC) has withdrawn from the Scottish Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme (SULEBS). It was awarded £618,325 from the first SULEBS round towards five battery-electric buses and their associated infrastructure.
No reason has been disclosed for the change of heart, with OIC saying that “a live related tendering exercise” precludes it from stating why. It has not submitted a bid to the second round of SULEBS. Transport Scotland was notified in February that OIC did not wish to take up the grant. The money has been reallocated to the second round of SULEBS.
Additionally, Stagecoach South Wales will not take up the £2.84m it was awarded in 2019 through the Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme. The money was to go towards 16 battery-electric buses and their associated infrastructure at Caerphilly depot.
A Stagecoach spokesperson says that the decision was made in 2020 not to progress the work in Caerphilly (pictured). They add that the plans were reviewed “due to the ongoing impact of the pandemic and… funding uncertainty.”
The lessons that we can pull out from this article apply to all VCFSE groups in the North West and beyond. There are times when circumstances change and it is not sensible to continue with a plan. It may well cost more than it will generate (every pun intended). Here Stagecoach indicate that the pandemic has changed things and they are reviewing the business in South Wales so may not need the new vehicles – irrespective of then being (and associated infrastructure) subject to a substantial tranche of funding.
In the month that the Llangollen Steam Railway (a volunteer driven body) has filed for receivership – a decision caused by cost over runs on engineering contracts for which they tendered – we all need to look long and hard at what it costs to deliver a contract or commissioned service. If it costs more to deliver than it produces in income the shortfall has to be found from somewhere. Some organisations will have reserves, shop income, a significant donor base or even be part funded by legacies. Others will not be so well funded. If difficult decisions are postponed in order to continue to provide a service there is a danger that, in the medium term, the service can no longer be provided because the organisation does not exist. If the cost hike in a new commission is too great there is a high risk that a new service provider will not be commissioned, on grounds of affordability, with the result that the people you serve will be left high and dry with nothing in terms of current support.
Sometimes we have to be cruel to be kind and learn from the commercial world. If we don’t we cease to operate and that provides support and assistance to no one.
Andrew Rainsford
VSNW
March 2021
Employing Ex-Offenders
BBC Radio 4 - Lent Talks, Faith in 'Lost Causes' was broadcast on 7th March 2021 and features Sir John Timpson who owns Timpson- the UK shoe repair and key cutting chain.
Sir John discusses Timpson’s positive experiences of employing ex-offenders or even those still serving a sentence. Unemployment is a huge risk factor in recidvism rates, exacerbated by employers often dismissing those with a criminal record; The Timpson Foundation’s commitment to employing this marginalised group helps address this risk factor. Timpson is one of the UK’s largest employers of ex-offenders in the UK; approximately 10% of its workforce have had criminal convictions, giving people a second chance. Prisons and re-offending are a huge financial burden on the tax payer and thus by including rather than excluding this vulnerable group, Timpson are able to make a real difference to society.
With this in mind, if a commercial business can employ those straight from prison could the VCFSE sector also? Yes, it is a challenge, but isn’t that what motivates us? If Timpsons (and group companies) can allow recent prison inmates the responsibility of banking the cash takings from shops then why can’t we? Safeguarding and DBS processes can allow this to happen – we just need to manage the risk. .
How could this work? Many, but not all, VCFSE groups have premises; do these need decorating; can the grounds be tidied up; are there groups that need refreshments served etc? Community payback has been used to provide staff for charity shops. It is also another means of assisting the rehabilitation process and this works even better if there is integration between teams of employees and paybackers; this may only be at a shared tea break but it is an important part of the process.
Green Space for Well-being
Green Space for Well Being
The Tidy Britain Group held a seminar on 1st March which explored the value of green space to well being and mental/physical house. Just occasionally a seminar will contain a nugget that makes one think “doh” (Homer Simpson style) as it is so obvious. This one was the nugget that Green Space is more than just parks and publicly owned/operated open space. It is gardens (that some of us have) and office/work space grounds that many of us have. What can we do about those?
Some of the obvious things are that we can ensure that they are litter free. In some cases this is difficult to achieve but we can all plan a litter pick just before grass cutting rather than let the machine shred what is there into zillions of little pieces. If we start doing that we are in a stronger position to argue for the local council to do likewise.
Is it possible to consider the planting in the spaces over which we have control? Bee friendly plants may work well. There are a number of places that are seeking to plant bee friendly plants on the edge of car parks as, sometimes, it is thought that bees and people are not a good mix. Pyracantha is a spiky plant that is excellent for crime prevention and provides valuable bird food just as winter draws on. You will need gloves to pick out litter from it.
There are large number of voluntary “friends of park” groups dotted around the country. How many of them connect with their local CVS (or vice versa). Could it be possible for every park to have a friends group? Some groups raise money for additional items in the park. Others provide a cohort of volunteers who can pick litter just before grass is cut; who can be stewards at events; who can encourage the use of the park to deal with well being and mental health issues in addition to the obvious physical benefits. Some friends groups run the catering concession. All should be valued by local councils.
The seminar highlighted the work of Birmingham City Council. Their web-site www.naturallybirmingham.org provides detail of what they are doing and what they want to do. They are seeking to create additional green spaces and have metrics to show shortfalls on a ward by ward basis. Your premises may be able to help to address any deficit in the area in which you are based.
As is the case with these things there were a lot of powerpoint slides showing huge levels of detail. If this article has prompted some thinking of how you can develop something around green spaces in your area please contact Andrew Rainsfor, our Research and Policy Officer: andrew.rainsford@vsnw.org.uk; slides can be forward which will save on some thinking time and signpost areas of good practice.