HR OLYMPICS SPECIAL


What steps are UK public sector organisations taking to prepare for London 2012?


Improve flexible working facilities for existing staff


Design a specific communications campaign for the Games


Preparing to be able to offer our


services/advice out of usual hours Hire extra temporary staff Expand their service capacity


Improve technology security and resilience Increase call centre capacity Re-train existing staff


Increase network capacity


Enhance multilingual call centre facilities Enhance their supply chain management


Hire extra permanent staff Source: BT’s Race to the Line report 5% 9% 8% 18% 35%


34% 34%


25%


23% 23%


22% 48%


Recruitment and engagement are two of the core strands


to the HR director’s role and with unemployment soaring, public sector employees mobilising in industrial action over pensions and workplace stress levels higher than ever before, according to the CIPD, will these be the media highlights the world’s press will fish out when they come? Sally Jones-Evans, HR director of operations at Lloyds


Banking Group (LBG), thinks not. “As a British citizen, I don’t think we have anything to be ashamed of – the press will always find something negative if it wants to. The entire developed world is struggling with economics and this is not a UK phenomenon. I’m not overly concerned, because we have a great heritage. “In the UK, we are self-flagellating, but the rest of the world


doesn’t see the UK that way.” But she adds: “My advice to an HRD would be: ‘Don’t be


the one who gets to September and realises you have missed the chance the Olympics could bring.’ This is not just about London – and UK employers need to plan in advance.” When it comes to planning, UK employers are getting


there slowly but surely. According to research published at the start of the year by BT, 38% of private firms and 48% of employers in the public sector have already put a flexible working plan in place. But there is more to the opportunity than forming a


contingency plan for Olympics disruption. Leon Taylor, Olympic silver medallist (Athens) in diving


and BT’s Olympics 2012 ambassador, says: “The games will be watched by two-thirds of the world’s population. This is


6 HR March 2012


far bigger than sport – it is a tool that will attract the world’s population. The games could bring a £1 billion boost to the UK economy and we are so close to the Olympics; business needs to capitalise.” Jo Causon, CEO of the Institute of Customer Service,


couldn’t agree more. “With a growing range of media, includ- ing social networks where customers can write about their experiences, the Olympics will provide a great opportunity to show the world what we are good at. But there is also the risk of visitors writing about poor experiences,” she says. “Every year, we carry out a survey of 26,000 customers and


satisfaction scores in the UK are on average 77 out of 100 and rising. But we find organisations with scores of 80 or more are the ones really seeing the profits of good customer service. There is a direct correlation between engaged staff


performance of their workforce and how to deliver when it matters.


Keith Hatter/K2 hrmagazine.co.uk


Employers need to consider the collective elite


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