Student unions turn to gyms and juice bars in today’s sobering times

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Title – Student unions turn to gyms and juice bars in today’s sobering times
Source – The Times
Date – 23rd November 2009

That students habits and spending power are changing will come as no surprise to anyone working in this sector. As this article points out, the reasons are a combination of tuition fees, student debt, increased competition, heavier workloads and more focus on an exit strategy; ie. what they will be able to show for their three / four year to potential employers.

What it fails to point out is the growing sophistication of students as consumers. Where once convenience and price were the only significant factors in decision making (at a time when a degree used to all but guarantee employers would welcome graduates), now students demand more for their money.

They already make these demands from the University itself, which they are now paying up-front for. It used to be the exclusive right of ‘foreign student’ to make demands of the University as their high tuition fees were of such significance to University finances; now every student can demand that same level of service and they do. Universities are competing for students (for the funding they attract) and to do this they have to be more than academically excellent.

This new breed of student demands as much academically as they do from the ‘lifestyle’ they can expect. The University with a diverse and proactive students’ union has an additional selling point and the length of the bar is no longer a sign of prestige, if anything in many cases it has the opposite effect.

What we must not however do is underestimate the importance of a good ‘night life’, good bars, clubs and other social activities will always remain part of the student experience and an important part. It is one of the areas where people can meet new friends, explore different interests and relax after what is an ever more stressful environment. The key is that it is only one element and it has it’s place; generally late night entertainment.

Even 20 years ago when I started working in this sector the image of students sitting round at midday drinking all afternoon was not realistic and not the mainstay of the business of Student Unions. That they have continued to evolve is simply a reflection of society generally. The internet generation are never satisfied and are always looking for the latest thing, exchanging information and trying to set the trend rather than follow it; now it is harder than ever to get ahead of the game and not be seen as playing catch-up. ‘Catch-up’ is not the place to be, because today as soon as you do catch up they have already moved on.

So how do you approach this environment to ensure success?

The solutions involves real engagement. We regularly preach to business that they need to engage with their customers; nowhere is this more important that with students’ unions. The key is to realise that this is not a simple process, it is not something you can set up a committee for because many of the people whose opinions you need, are those not already involved. The age old problem of managers being blinded by familiarity is a real one, it exists in every business and is one of the least recognised problem in business and the most difficult to rectify.

Another area where we find our clients fall down is in not making the most of all the assets they already have at their disposal; engaging with employees at every level provides a real opinions of your business. Just having a staff meeting does not facilitate this resource, it is something which takes time and trust to be effective; you have to be seen to act on suggestions and ideas whatever your personal impressions.

But above all as with every business quality and service standards will define you. The number of University outlets I visit and am served coffee which is fit only for the 1980’s or where the choice of soft drinks varies between J2O and draught coke is striking.

The description in this article of the student who is a member of the debating society and socialises in Starbucks, is probably never going to overwhelmingly attracted by ‘drinks promotions’ and ‘pub crawls’. Universities often overlook their best assets, they have access to a ‘cheap’, educated and enthusiastic labour force. The mistake they make is to limit the training they provide on the assumption that they are ‘transient workforce’ and will only be employed for a short period of time.

How many employers in the hospitality sector would welcome staff loyalty and a guarantee of employees staying for 3 years?

We know training can be expensive in the short term, the pay back is difficult to quantify, but the rewards coupled with effective management of employees will always payback handsomely. A student can easily be trained to make a coffee or fresh juice as well as Starbucks? Provide the right environment, the right product and exceptional service and Students’ Unions will flourish; stand still and you’ll stand alone.

At Beyond The Blue we offer a Consultancy Service and run a number of courses for those working in the Licensed Retail Sector including The National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) which qualifies candidates to apply for their personal licence and the Award in Customer Drinks Service – Licensed Hospitality (ACDS-LH); Our Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR) course compliments these courses to help employees deal with Workplace Violence and alcohol related disorder.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.

For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.

Boozy Britons drink the most alcohol in Europe

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Title – Boozy Britons drink the most alcohol in Europe
Source – Metro
Date – 23rd November 2009

This should please the comedy circuit ‘Britain retains its place at the top of the European league table’, but it is rightly pointed out that this is an area of concern for the UK.

That we are compared with our European neighbours is not the important thing, that we deal with the ‘problem’ drinkers and the binge drinking culture in the UK is.

I have often talked in this blog about binge drinking and the relationship between the ‘drinks industry’, the licensed retail sector, the authorities and the general public, as well as the need for a co-ordinated approach to alcohol consumption. I don’t think there is a need for me to re-emphasis these points, but rather to let these figures speak for themselves.

If you actually look at the figures the big difference between the UK and other European countries is not in those who drink daily (certainly a concern at 6%), but really those who drink several times a week (29%) and the number of units drunk per week. If we consider the recommended daily allowance, according to these figures we can assume over 25% of people exceed these limits.

These excesses occur and define the UK’s ‘binge drinking culture’, or rather the binge drinking culture amongst an element of our communities. ‘Binge drinking’ is loosely defined as 3 times or more the recommended daily allowance and binge drinkers tend to drink several times a week (typically the heavy Friday & Saturday night drinkers).

Additional legislation will not tackle binge drinking, it may curb the excesses and change the nature of the problem, but only education, awareness and a cultural shift will start to change these activities. Cultural change does not happen in a short space of time, it takes a generation; education and awareness needs to start now to help initiate the cultural shift; in that everyone has their role to play.

At Beyond The Blue we run a number of courses for those working in the Licensed Retail Sector to help them sell alcohol more responsibly. These include; The Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR) designed for front-line staff to help them meet their statutory requirements; The National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) which qualifies candidates to apply for their personal licence; Our Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR) course compliments these courses to help employees deal with Workplace Violence and alcohol related disorder.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.

For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.

Concert-goers condemn crush chaos

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Title – Concert-goers condemn crush chaos
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 15th November 2009

What seems remarkable about this story is the fact that the organisers of this event were very lucky to get away with as few injuries as they did. The simple fact is that the result could have been much much worse and could easily have resulted in fatalities.

Now my comments which will follow are based on assumption, we were not involved in this event or witness to it and I comment from the news coverage and information which has so far been made available; it is for the inquiry to look at the detail.

There seem to be a few key errors from the information we have so far.

The first and possibly the worst is the estimation of the numbers who would attend. With the line up of artistes playing appealing to a range of the demographic (including JLS currently appearing top of the charts with a large fan base of young people and Natalie Imbruglia appealing to a older section of the population), the concert would attract not just one section of the community but the whole community. This may be good as far as variety of the event goes, but will naturally attract more people in total. In addition the concert was free which removes another barrier for young people, especially those who may not be able to afford the usual concert ticket price.

The only real surprise with the numbers is that only 20,000 turned out and here is the first place where the organisers had some luck, had the weather been better they may well have had many more attend. JLS alone could sell out an arena tour at the moment, with 10,000 – 15,000 attendees each and at £30+ a ticket… who didn’t envisage that a free concert may attract twice this number?

Now we are not privy to the police plan or the risk assessments that must have been carried out by the organisers and the security companies involved. However the other questions which we must ask from what is seen in the cctv footage is how entry to the event was protected.

Presumably the cctv footage which is out there is of the holding area outside the event itself. It should have been predicted that thousands of people would be in this area. One of the main questions for us is what type of barrier was used, because from the evidence an unsuitable choice was made and led to collapse without too much pressure being exerted on it. This is probably the second area where the organisers got very lucky, although many of the injuries occurred during the barrier collapse, had the barriers been slightly stronger (not the correct barrier choice which would have withstood the pressure but something in-between) the effect of the collapse could have been catastrophic.

By collapsing when they did, this failure actually relieved the pressure in the crowd (what occurred in the event itself where those people moved to we are unaware, but could have caused further problems). Here again we feel that the organisers got a little lucky.

The way the barriers were set up in this area meant that as the crowd built up there was no way for people at the front to leave. There is a distinct ‘V’ shape and ‘right angle’ at the focal point of this crowd towards which the entire crowd is pushing, thus trapping those at the front. Even with a much smaller crowd this would have caused significant problems; especially without suitable crowd management behind the barriers and first aid facilities to deal with crush injuries.

Crush injuries can be very serious and a few broken bones are far from the worst consequence. Crush injuries often lead to breathing difficulties and death over very short time scales. Without experienced crowd management and paramedic support who understand crowd dynamics, these are the inevitable outcomes.

The questions here should not be about the numbers of police or private sector security nor should any blame be put on ‘people being determined to get in…’ as there is no indication that those in the crowds were behaving in any other way than would be expected for such an event. This was not a riot, civil disturbance or protest, it was enthusiastic (mainly young) people trying to get into a free event. Initially at least the cause does seem to be poor planning and execution.

Beyond The Blue provide training and Consultancy in a number of different areas including Event Security Planning and Event Management.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.

For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.

How the middle classes still treat themselves to the best – by stealing

Unfortunately the Times On-line has started charging, so we can not link to this article. The Daily Mail covered the same story Click Here to view)

Title – How the middle classes still treat themselves to the best – by stealing
Source – The Times
Date – 10th November 2009

The recession / the credit-crunch (call it what you will), has affected almost everyone to one degree or another; some have however decided that making cuts is not acceptable to them and they are going to maintain their lifestyle by whatever means they need to.

Shop-lifting has increased by 20% to £5 billion; another European league table we can be proud to top…

Shop owners beware the traditional profile of a shop-lifter has changed and high value items which may not be ‘traditional’ shop-lifter bounty are now firmly on the ‘shopping list’ of people trying to maintain their pre-credit-crunch lifestyle.

Alcohol however remains a firm favourite of traditional thieves and this new breed; alcohol stocks need to be protected more than ever.

At Beyond The Blue we run a number of courses for those working in the Licensed Retail Sector including The National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) which qualifies candidates to apply for their personal licence; Our Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR) course compliments these courses to help employees deal with Workplace Violence and alcohol related disorder.

For larger retail outlets we also run the BIIAB National Certificate for Door Supervisors (NCDS) which allows candidates to apply for their SIA Door Supervisor Licence. This licence allows them to operate in the capacity of Door Supervisor or in Security Guarding.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.

For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.

Pubs fall very short in National Customer Satisfaction Survey

Title – Pubs fall very short in National Customer Satisfaction Survey
Source – BIIAB & Retail Eyes
Date – 30th October 2009

The BIIAB recently released figures from the National Customer Satisfaction Survey carried out by market research company Retail Eyes into customer satisfaction in various sectors.

The figures make for disturbing (if not unexpected) reading for the pub sector.

The figures suggest that only 6% of respondents said pubs offer good standards of customer service.

The hotel industry fared better with 52% (of 6523 respondents) ranking the industry as the best for customer service. Restaurants scored only 23% with supermarkets at 11%.

Tim Ogle, chief executive of Retail Eyes said: “Some of the things we found that turn off customers the most about drinking in pubs and bars are tables with empty glasses or dirty plates left out, having to wait at the bar and bar staff that aren’t interested in engaging.”

The UK is not synonymous with great customer service, walk down any high street and the number of outlets offering excellent customer service are heavily outnumbered by those offering indifferent or poor service to customers. We have developed an attitude in many sectors where businesses operate to meet employees needs rather than focussing on customers. Employees are often only trained to understand their particular role rather than the customers expectation.

The pub sector is clearly struggling in these more challenging times, I am often asked by people who are starting new businesses if it a sensible time to come into such a depressed industry? My answer in always unequivocally yes, now is a perfect time. The price of ‘entry’ is depressed and there are some bargain properties out there worth purchasing / leasing for anyone looking to buy into the industry.

It’s true that competition is fierce; some parts of the industry are discounting heavily offering price sensitive customers a glut of choices, but the one area where there is still plenty of room for new businesses to flourish is a business providing excellence in customer service.

I write this as if it is the easiest thing in the world, because I believe providing excellence in customer service is not difficult, but only if you are prepared to develop your business round your customers rather than round yourself or your employees.

Key decisions in this process will be who you employ, how you train them and developing an effective management style. All three have to be in place to be successful in this area.

I have always also adopted the policy that employees have to have ownership of the business, in other words they have to have a vested interest in the success of the business rather than simply be salaried. This can be achieved in a number of ways; share schemes develop loyalty; pay and bonuses can work but such schemes must be proactively managed to ensure they are linked to service standards rather than just turnover; but the most effective does not require any additional costs and is achieved by employing and training employees with integrity whose reward is doing the best job they can and meeting agreed targets, this is the hardest to achieve and is wholly reliant on an excellent management style.

I think we have become complacent in this country, we expect certain things to be given to us on a plate (including pay and employment), success is defined by the financial reward rather than pride in the work you do and all too often we don’t value other opinions in a positive manner but rather see it as a criticism; in other words we are closed to change and new ideas, rather than embracing them.

I am not going to be telling anyone anything new when I say it is very important to regularly look at your business from a completely new angle, to see what your customers see; effectively from ‘outside the business’. This is one of the most difficult things to achieve as a manager and while most think they are doing this, the majority will be unwittingly ‘blinded’ by familiarity.

There are various ways to achieve this; you can employ consultants like us to come and look at your business and advise you on how to progress it; you can talk to your customers and ask for feedback (make sure you are asking ‘open’ questions, not yes / no questions and consider asking only for criticism not compliments as that will tell you how and in which areas you need to improve); or if you are the one in 1,000,000 who can be entirely impartial and detached you can do this yourself.

The point is, this is one of the most difficult aspects of management; successful managers are those who recognise this as a problem and find the solution. Asking for another opinion is not a sign of weakness it is a sign of strength.

Think about it this way. There are no businesses where every customer is entirely satisfied. So what about the customer who ‘is never happy’? They are the one you have to work hardest to please and then treat everyone the same way. Meeting the most difficult customer’s expectations will set standards high, improve overall customer service and set your business apart from others and on the road to success.

If only 6% of pubs offer good standards of customer service, just think of the potential of 94% of customers to pubs in your area who will consider your pub first, if you can get the service standards right…

At Beyond The Blue we run a number of courses for those working in the Licensed Retail Sector to help them improve customer service standards. These include; BIIAB Award in Customer & Drinks Service (Licensed Hospitality) (ACDS) and the Award in Customer Service Excellence (Licensed Hospitality) (ACSE).

We also run statutory qualifications such as The Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR) designed for front-line staff to help them meet their statutory requirements; The National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) which qualifies candidates to apply for their personal licence; Our Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR) course compliments these courses to help employees deal with Workplace Violence and alcohol related disorder.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.

For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.

NHS Assault ‘not taken seriously’

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Title – NHS Assault ‘not taken seriously’
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 29th October 2009

The statistics are shocking by any standard; an NHS employee is physically assaulted every nine and a half minutes or to put it another way every 570 seconds; or to put it yet another way over 150 NHS workers are physically assaulted every day!

Even when you work in this sector these types of statistic seem unbelievable, we know it is a big organisation (the third biggest employer in the world), but our country should really be ashamed that this takes place.

There are undoubtedly risks presented by some of the people that healthcare workers have to deal with, but there are also too many excuses made for the perpetrators of these crimes and why those who are criminally culpable not held criminally responsible, where it can the whole weight of the law must be brought against them?

It is of coarse much easier to write this then to enforce it and it requires more than simply the will of those involved in enforcement to follow through, but rather a fundamental shift in the attitude of our society to those who perpetrate such crimes.

It is difficult to see what it will take for such change in mentality to take place nationwide, if the thought of 150 physical assaults taking place every day against healthcare employees is not already enough to shock us.

For our part we support those who seek to push on with prosecutions by highlighting the problems where ever we can. We very much support the NHS and its employees and understand the limitations faced through budgets and sheer size which can stifle even the best intentions. However we also support the continued efforts which are being made by the NHS and the NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service (CFSMS) in providing assistance to the NHS workforce; it is work that despite any set backs must be ongoing.

For our part we provide Conflict Resolution training to the sector and believe strongly in the benefits this training can bring, both to the prevention of Violence in the Workplace and in the confidence imparted in the workforce.

Training in the sector does vary considerably and our approach is to provide comprehensive courses which incorporate the ten learning objectives set out by the CFSMS and go beyond them.

We understand that time is often a limiting factor in Conflict Resolution training, but believe that taking the time to provide effective training is a valuable longer term strategy. On a financial basis the time lost when staff are assaulted through reduced productivity, absenteeism and high staff turnover is significant. On a human level, providing the skills to reduce the effects of conflict in the workplace from harassment, aggression, threats and physical assault, allows employees to be more confident and effective in dealing with the more ‘difficult’ people they meet.

We are aware that every NHS employee has to attend Conflict Resolution training, we believe this to be a very proactive step, however that training must be effective. A couple of hours skimming the surface can simply not meet the training needs of those working in this environment; yes it may tick the box but does it really meet the learning objectives?

Our one day course in conflict resolution is designed to help candidates really get to grips with the techniques and skills required to resolve conflict. All our instructors have attended the CFSMS familiarisation seminar and are highly experienced professionals. Our working practices ensure effective learning is delivered every time to every candidate. We train only in small groups and use classroom based teaching, interactive discussion, group work and scenario based learning to ensure we meet the preferred learning style of all candidates attending.

Each candidate is provided with a unique individually numbered certificate of attendance from Beyond The Blue and the employer is provided with comprehensive training records for each candidate including feedback forms.

We also run Physical Intervention courses, these provide effective disengagement and break-away techniques as well as restraint and escorting techniques where required. All techniques use low-impact skills which do not require strength, force or pain-compliance to be effective.
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.

For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.

Lip gloss test that spots if your drink is spiked with rape drugs / Women 'duped' by spiking myth

Title – Lip gloss test that spots if your drink is spiked with rape drugs (Evening Standard 16-10-09)
Title – Women 'duped' by spiking myth (Metro 27-10-09)

‘Date Rape’ or ‘Drug Assisted Rape / Sexual Assault’ is a serious issue, unfortunately the press have done victims and potential victims of this depraved crime no favours. If ever there was a need for a sensible approach then this subject is it.

Of coarse we welcome any device which helps reduce the risks faced from Drug Assisted Rape and this lip gloss / testing strip can be one line of defence. There are problems; how many strips are provided in comparison with the number of drink that might be consumed? How co-ordinated will an alcohol consumer be after a few drinks to remember or even be able to complete the fiddly test? But I don’t want to take anything away; something is always better than nothing.

What is much more important is education, alcohol retailers and consumers alike need to take proactive measures to prevent ‘drink spiking’ in the first place.

The first step is understanding the nature of the problem. When I ask a group I am teaching what substances are used in ‘drink spiking’, they generally refer to Rohypnol, GHB, Liquid Ecstasy, the more enlightened ones mention Ketamine, GBL, but strangely I almost always have to drag the most common drug out of them…. Alcohol.

Alcohol is the drug most commonly used in Drug Assisted Rape; fact.

I have yet to see any accurate numbers in relation to ‘drink spiking’. There are horror stories written in the press, but in reality that we may never see accurate figures, for the reasons highlighted in this second article. Sadly I would agree from experience that in many cases people now scream ‘drink spiking’ because they are embarrassed or unsure of how they got so drunk. The fact is those working in the Licensed Retail Sector have to take every potential case seriously and can never dismiss the potential consequences of a real drink spiking as exaggeration or an excuse.

If we consider that because of excess alcohol consumption many people have had nights they can’t remember (or part of the night); that alcohol is the most frequently used ‘date rape’ drug; that Ketamine now being used ‘recreationally’ as a drug of choice by 125,000 people in the UK; and that ‘date rape’ drugs they tend not to be traceable within relatively short period of time, it makes the prospect of ever finding out the true numbers of people spiked very low.

For those in danger of having their drink spiked, education into the risks and how to protect yourself from them is the most important step. Just understanding that alcohol is the most prevalent drug used in drink spiking, should go some way to helping people understand the real dangers. Protecting your drinks, being cautious of strangers behaviour or accepting drinks from them and in some cases the use of testing kits is a start. Having friends you trust to look after you, who are loyal, unlikely to disappear half way through the night and who will ensure you get home safely is the best ways of protecting yourself.

At Beyond The Blue we run a number of courses for those working in the Licensed Retail Sector to help them sell alcohol more responsibly. These include; The Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR) designed for front-line staff to help them meet their statutory requirements; The National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) which qualifies candidates to apply for their personal licence; Our Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR) course compliments these courses to help employees deal with Workplace Violence and alcohol related disorder.

For young people we run the Certificate in Alcohol Awareness (CAA) which provides real honest advice on the effects of alcohol and sensible measures which can be taken to ensure that the harm that can occur as a result of excessive consumption are reduced.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.

For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.