Everybody Has A Voice
Volume 2 - September 2016
Welcome to another newsletter from the Security team. We hope you find this informative and fun! We have selected what we consider is relevant to you, so we have captured articles that will help with your working life and your personal one also. As this is our second we are keen to hear back from you on what exactly you would like to see appear in your newsletter. We also look forward to receiving articles from you and your team members to include in the next one.
In this one in particular we have a few stories from site, “ a day in the life” if you will”, we have articles about My Interserve and the great savings you can find, Share save that open this month for your consideration and other articles on similar topics. We would like to bring to your attention also the everyone has a voice – Employee Engagement Survey that comes out on 5th September and to update you on key changes happening in our business.
For those that wish to submit articles or speak to the newsletter team please contact us on everbody.hasavoice@interserve.com we really want to hear from you to ensure this newsletter continues to be as valid as informative as you decide!
Happy Reading......
Rewards and Recognition
For those who have recently received a reward and would like to be feature please email a photo to everybody.hasavoice.com
"Do the Right Thing"
Hardev Chahal receiving his award from Matt Telfer-Malarey, our CBRE Client
“Bringing Better to Life”
Ellie Waller receiving her award from Paul Lotter, Operational Director
A Day In The Life Admir Cakraj – Corporate Security Officer at Springer Nature
'You've got to be a people person, as well as assertive in order to get this job done!' Admir, 2016
Admir joined Springer Nature in 2014 as a corporate security officer in King’s Cross, London. He originally hailed as a security officer with Knightsbridge Guarding, with over 14 years experience within the security industry. Such knowledge and experience has seen Admir work on major successful projects, including the regeneration of Kings Cross Estate.
Admir enjoys his role as a corporate security officer at Springer Nature, because no two days are the same. His main responsibilities include: assisting staff and visitors, whilst ensuring a high level of security; responding to complaints, carrying out inspections and dealing with all levels of safety concerns and customer enquiries (e.g. fire alarm evacuations) in any of the five buildings for the Springer Nature London campus.
A typical day for Admir starts at 07:00, starting with front of house greeting of staff members, as they begin their busy schedules. He then goes onto a rotational basis to inspect various buildings upon site, to ensure all the stringent security measures are adhered to. During this time, he also conducts Health and Safety checks and ensures all matters of concern (from both staff and the public) are dealt with, or escalated through the appropriate channels.
Admir says that the best part of his role is when he is able to meet the clients requirements; ranging from assisting individuals with directions and delivering great customer service. He has often been praised by the clients here at Springer Nature for his patience and professionalism.
Admir Cakraj
Porters Gate South
Glasshouse Reception Entrance
A Day In The Life Agy Gorzynska - BBC Media City
Agy, a security officer, explained to us that she enjoys working with her colleagues and the BBC client and feels Media City is a great place to work. She enjoys being able to provide a high standard of security work and making use of her customer service skills on a daily basis for the client, colleagues and the many visitors that frequent Media City.
Her favourite parts of the role are being able to interact with the diverse people that come through the doors at the BBC on daily basis. Agy tells us that part of what makes her role enjoyable is being able to work with a great team where she can have a lot of fun and laughter; but equally supporting each other through difficult situations.
Agy explained to us that each shift is different to the next as she could be working Front of House duties in addition to patrols and other additional tasks as required. Agy considers safety and happiness as an important factor for working on the BBC contract.
A few years ago Agy joined ‘Leigh Pulling Power Arm-wrestling club’ and since then has become a multiple British Champion. She is a Bronze World medallist holder and has competed in other national and European events. Agy has proudly appeared as a guest on BBC Breakfast, CBBC Sam & Mark Show and has hosted the BBC Sport Relief Arm-wrestling Challenge.
Thank you to our contributors, Admir and Agy for your input within our newsletter. Having heard from you, we would like to give you our updates
National Threat Level
Following terrorist events across Europe, including France, Belgium and Germany, the threat to the UK from international terrorism remains unchanged at “SEVERE”, meaning “an attack is highly likely”.
The “SEVERE” level, falls one level short of the highest threat level that can be set by JTAC, namely, “CRITICAL”, where an “attack is expected imminently”. Thus it is important to stress that there is currently no intelligence to suggest that there is an imminent threat to London and the United Kingdom.
The National Coordinator Protect and Prepare (NCPP) and the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) provide updates through the Cross-sector Safety and Security Communications (CSSC) in relation to incidents.
The advice received from the CSSC can be broken down into 4 key messages to businesses and the public:
• “Remain vigilant, be alert not alarmed”
• “If you suspect it, report it! – You could save lives”. Call the confidential anti-terrorist hotline on 0800 789 321 or 999 in an emergency.
• Familiarise yourselves with the public information film “Stay Safe”, this provides advice on steps to take to keep safe in the event of a firearms or weapons attack: www.npcc.police.uk/staysafe
• The 3 key things to remember during a firearms and weapons attack is to “RUN, HIDE, TELL”
Further information can be found at: http://www.npcc.police.uk/NPCCBusinessAreas/WeaponAttacksStaySafe.aspx
Further advice and information in relation to protecting yourself, your staff, your business and your community can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/national-counter-terrorism-security-office
Drive for Excellence
Fourteen years back when I joined Knightsbridge guarding the security industry was transforming. Since the implementation of changes by the SIA in licensing and appropriate training for the security officers the drive for excellence and the creation of a more professional guard force is still ongoing. One of the most important elements in the creation of a successful security service provision is motivation. Highlighted by many studies, the significance of motivation in generating and promoting professionalism is unquestionable.
In the current risk environment with the terrorism threat level in the UK raised to ‘severe’ the issue of professionalism and motivation in particular is important for our organisation. The challenges facing the security sector must be addressed with increased levels of vigilance; contingency planning, and rapid response. Therefore, the investigation of the degree of motivation within our security guard force is of great importance not only for the company and also for our clients.
Currently as a student of the criminology department of Leicester University I am in the final year of a bachelor’s degree in Security and Risk management. My experience in security as a Knightsbridge Guarding employee for the last 15 years confirmed my intention to develop my research proposal in the area of motivation. As a member of the Security Institute for the last five years I firmly believe that better research in the sector will transform security to one that is valued more, while increased effectiveness and professionalism will separate first-rate providers from the second-rate.
Finally, this project will seek to develop an effective response to negative factors affecting employee motivation by establishing a set of best practice standards in order for Knightsbridge Guarding to provide an optimal security service as well as retaining and maximising its client base.
The role of the security officer is expanding alongside the remarkable growth in size and profile of the private security industry. It is important to note that, a greater understanding of staff will lead to the improvement of key performance indicators. Furthermore, encouraging employees to reach higher levels of performance as well as supporting them in achieving organisation goals will build a good company reputation consequently leading to better business opportunities in the expanding security marketplace.
To be clear, the values and work related goals of all security officers working for Interserve and Knightsbridge Guarding in particular has to be in line with the organisation’s mission and vision in order for a high level of motivation to be maintained. Despite the complexities of such a task the underlying forces that will lead to excellence are already in place. It is evident that our security guard force is one of the best among the security providers.
However, there is always room from improvement. In order to investigate the extent of motivation and extract meaningful results that will help Interserve I would like to request your kind cooperation by asking volunteers to come forward and participate in this research.
With the help from all of you I am confident that we can make Knightsbridge Guarding the best company in the UK security sector.
I can be reached in my personal email address: anthonypetroulakis@googlemail.com
Share Save Scheme
Sharesave is a savings scheme which allows employees to save a fixed amount of money each month (or week, if weekly paid) for three years. The savings are held by Yorkshire Building Society (“YBS”) and the Scheme is administered by YBS Share Plans on behalf of Interserve Plc (“Interserve”). At the end of the savings period, known as the “Maturity”, participants have the opportunity to purchase Interserve shares at a price that is fixed when the invitation to join the Scheme is made. Alternatively, they can simply withdraw their savings. An easy way to save, savings taken straight from your net wages.
The scheme provides an opportunity to buy shares in Interserve Plc at a discounted share price fixed shortly before the contract commencement date.
If the share price goes up, you may make a profit.
You are always in control, you can stop saving whenever you like and get your money back.
You may contribute a maximum of £1,800* per tax year (or 10% of salary if lower). For the 2016 offer, the maximum monthly savings amount has been increased to £100.
** Offer Closes 6th October 2016 **
My Interserve
Sign up to MyInterserve enjoy staff discounts and preferential employee pricing to 100s of different shops and services including:
Hotels.com
Enjoy up to 50% off
Expedia
Up to 50% off
CinemaPerks
Employee Pricing on Cinemas up to 55% off
Joe, from Birmingham
I have purchased tickets for the Odeon Cinema and for a family of four there was a good deal to be had.
Jackie, from London
I purchased some new work shoes from Clarks and received £20. Although I did get to save WOW points of which have got £8 already to spend towards something of my choosing.
Additionally, my Mum purchased some cardigans through Marks and Spencer’s and made a saving of £5 on each on them which she was rather pleased with.
Coping with shift work
It can be more difficult for shift workers to stay in good health. As well as day-to-day problems such as fatigue, research suggests that shift workers are at higher risk of conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease and strokes. There could be several reasons for this, including the disruption to the body’s circadian rhythm (the 24-hour cycle), as well as poor food choices and unhealthy habits – such as increased alcohol consumption – that may help workers cope with a disrupted daily rhythm. So if you’re a shift worker, or you have shift workers on your team, what can you/they do to stay healthy? Here are some of our favourite food and lifestyle tips.
Sleep
If you have to sleep during daylight hours, then you need to do everything you can to maximise the quality of that sleep. Darkness is essential, investing in a blackout blind for your bedroom can be worth every penny. Earplugs can be useful too especially if other members of your household. Make sure that your habits aren’t affecting your sleep.
Coffee, tea and other sources of caffeine can be tempting when you need to stay awake, but overdoing them can lead to a vicious cycle where you can’t sleep when you do go to bed, then need to consume even more of them to stay awake the next day.
And although eating regular meals is important, eating a huge meal just before bed will only disrupt your sleep – if you can, eat more lightly before bed and eat a larger meal when you wake up.
Heart
As shift work may pose a risk to heart health, aim to include plenty of heart healthy foods. At the top of the list is fruit and vegetables.
They provide potassium to keep your blood pressure in check; magnesium to support muscle function (the heart is your most important muscle) and plenty of antioxidants, which have protective effect on the heart and blood vessels. Also beneficial are nuts and seeds, which provide a range of essential minerals and can help to maintain healthy cholesterol levels; as well as olive oil.
Everyone Has A Voice
As you know each year we complete an annual employee engagement survey whereby we actively seek to understand and listen to your views and opinions about the business and your unique working environment. We genuinely value anything you have to say and we welcome and encourage you to participate in this exercise.
The method this year will be a link that will be sent to your mobile phones and you will have a generic set of questions to answer about how you view your company.
With your feedback you can help us to identify strengths and weaknesses in our management performance and organisational policies and technology. This will drive operational performance and improve employee satisfaction.
With a clear method of communication we can ‘bring better to life’ by going the extra mile and supporting you with any issues in the workplace you may have. Together we can make a positive difference and build long standing relationships based on mutual trust and respect.
Your feedback can ensure that we all ‘do the right thing’ by creating an environment which is fit for purpose and that everyone’s health, safety and wellbeing are fully catered for. We want everyone to have a healthy work/life balance.
If there are barriers preventing you from doing your job, we want to hear about it and work with you to provide solutions. We want to ensure that your issues and concerns are at the forefront of our agenda.
Your views shape how we work across the business, and at a local level. It’s seen more of our managers get out and about to meet our colleagues, it’s shaped the way we’re promoting job opportunities, and the investment we make in communicating who we are and what we do to our frontline teams. The survey is open until 24 September, and you can take part in two ways:
Paper surveys available at sites
Online survey open from 5 September: www.everyonehasavoice2016.com
Your role in sharing the survey
With only a three-week window, it’s up to all of us to encourage as many people as possible to take part. Your role in championing and cascading the survey among your teams is crucial in driving uptake. To help you do this, a briefing pack and poster will be made available on IRIS next week.
Reminder of the Key Dates
The next opportunity for you to take part in the employee survey is from 5th September with the opportunity to provide feedback running until 24th September. Don't miss out!
Thank you in advance for taking part and we look forward to hearing from you!
You said from the last survey and we did the following
Since the last surveys were carried out in September 2015, we have listened and acted on your feedback. For example, this newsletter was created as a direct result of your request for us to communicate with you and to provide business updates with news that relates specifically to you and your contracts.
From the survey feedback, employees also wanted to see more development opportunities made available. For example, those with line management responsibility asked for support and training to improve their people management skills.
We recognise you and the roles you perform are integral to our success. As a result we want to share with you our customer proposition and what we want to achieve before 2020.
Underpinning our key objectives are 4 key operational themes. Our key focus is to you and to our clients to ensure we keep doing a great job and to improve our service delivery through improving performance by having a more engaged workforce.
Changes Within the KGL Business
As you are all aware, the business has been making some minor but significant changes to your pay date and how your holiday year runs. We have sent letters to you over the past two months to provide clarity on these changes.
As mentioned within those letters, the business will be changing the pay date to the 11th of the month for our hourly paid colleagues, and to the 28th on the month for our salaried colleagues. The main reason for us progressing with this change is to bring our business in line with the other sectors within Interserve and ensure that in the security Business Unit we only have two payrolls to run. There should be no negative impact to you as a result of this business streamlining.
In addition, please be aware that the holiday ban over the festive season is still in effect between the 14th December and 4th January.
We have supplied supplementary guides to all of our management team to ensure that they in addition to HR can support you with any queries you may have. With moving pay dates from 14th to the 11th, this is solely to bring KGL in line with the wider security business.
As another gentle reminder, please do not forget to check the dates your direct debits and/or standing orders are due to go out to prevent any issues.
If you have any concerns about your change of pay dates or your holiday leave year please do speak to your Line Manager or our HR team. As ever, the business would like to thank you for your continued support and understanding throughout this period of change.
Changes Within the FSG Business
FSG are changing to E-Payslips. This is one of the final roll out phases within the wider interserve business. Letters with be sent out to all affected people giving more detail of the changes and explaining the benefits.
All payslips will be available via My Interserve.
Timegate
For those that are currently use Logosoft, over the next month we will be upgrading our systems to Timegate. It is viewed as the superior system and will ensure our continuous improvement in becoming one security business. Managers who roster on site will receive training on it by the provider throughout September. We are currently working on the best way to make this training bespoke to each sites requirements.
Why Timegate - Timegate has been selected by the senior management team and a project is underway to consolidate all Logosoft business onto Timegate. The FSG brand has used Innovise and Timegate for over 22 years and see them as a trusted and proven provider.
What Changes will you experience? We will need to issue you a new pay/ID number and a new telephone number to call to book on. You will receive more detailed communications about these changes under separate cover. We will ensure you have all these details before the switchover, so that you benefit from a seamless transition.
The timelink number that will be applicable to you is: 0203 051 6031
The key benefits of this change project are :
- Provide a stable and scalable platform
- Increased use of system functionality to enhance the Business
- Enable the use of one finance system, consolidate teams
- Standardise operational processes in order to reduce risk and errors
- Create a baseline for continuous improvement
Why consolidate - The business is currently running two applications: Timegate & Logosoft in parallel and there are obvious benefits of consolidating on to one solution:
- Reduced licensing costs
- Reduced operating costs
- Increased efficiency
Moving to the latest, cloud based, version of Timegate allows the business to tap into increased functionality, bringing the Security business into a new era, and align with mobile technology for an improved employee experience. With a cloud solution, hosted by Innovise, we will always be using the latest version of the software, it’s available anywhere with an internet connection and is a fully supported solution.
Recruitment
For any other colleague that are wanting to advance their careers with us and think using the newsletter would be a useful format to reach a wider audience, please submit your requirement to everybody.hasavoice@interserve.com and we can review how we as a collective are best placed to support you.
Toms Final Word
Hi All,
Thank you for reading our newsletter, we hope you found it interesting? Can I ask a personal favour and that is to get in contact with you anything you would like to see included in the next newsletter or better yet submit an article to be included. A big thanks to Admir, Agy and Tony for taking the time to contribute to this edition, I found reading about their personal stories fascinating and I look forward to reading more about our colleagues in the next newsletter.
On a personal note, I have been with the Security business now for a year and I can confidently say all the people I have met have impressed me with their professionalism, site knowledge and credibility. I think we have a great team and I look forward to meeting more of you as I continue to visits our sites up and down the country. Thank you all for the time you’ve spent with me to share with me your stories and site understanding it has made my time here much easier.
I am looking forward to what the next year holds for us as we have a lot of exciting opportunities that I can discuss in greater detail in the next edition. I would like to close with a personal thank you to all the people who I have met and also to those I haven’t had a chance to, who make our business unit such a great offering. I have received such positive client feedback. And to be clear that is entirely down to you all working so hard on our client sites, it is YOU and your unique sense of pride which make us great!
Tom