UK industrial output rose unexpectedly in April for the first time since February 2008, official figures have shown.The Office for National Statistics said output rose by 0.3% from the previous month, compared with forecasts by analysts of just a 0.1% rise.

Manufacturing rose 0.2%, which was also an unexpected rise. Commenting on the figures, David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), says: “Manufacturing output has recorded a modest increase, which is better than analysts expected. “By any longer-term perspective, manufacturing is in deep decline of more than 13% compared with a year earlier. Any talk of recovery at this stage is premature and potentially misleading.”

Source: Recruiter Magazine 10th June 2009

But boosting productivity through happiness is not a simple matter of offering pay rises or bringing in an interior decorator to feng shui the office. In fact, Pryce-Jones’s research suggests that neither of these things will make the slightest difference. What people actually want from work is to do something they feel is both valuable and valued, she said.

Managers can make a difference by taking simple steps such as acknowledging good work and giving people more control about how they manage their tasks. “The big thing everyone wants is to fulfil their potential and do interesting things that stretch them.” However, individuals also have to take responsibility for their own happiness.
Pryce-Jones couches it in terms of self-awareness and attitude, not an expectation that every moment will be ecstatic: “It’s about recognising that lows are part of life,” she said. Another useful approach is to shape your job to maximise the time spent on doing things you enjoy – many people dawdle over tasks they dislike and thus find themselves less able to focus on what they enjoy.
The biggest single step that individuals can take is to choose to be happy, said Alex Kjerulf, chief happiness officer at the Happy at Work Consultancy and the author of Happy Hour is 9-5. “Rather than settling for a job that’s not too bad, say to yourself ‘I want to be happy at work’,” he said. “You can be happy as a bus driver, as a mortuary worker, as a doctor . . . but a lot of people don’t seem to want to be.”
Kjerulf, who is Danish, attributes this to an innate British tendency to see work as something to be endured rather than enjoyed. “Danes have more of an expectation that work should be fun, something that people should look forward to in the morning. Yes, we want the salary and the benefits but more than that we want to be happy.”
Finding the right job and the right employer is critical – as is a willingness to leave an unhappy position. That’s what Lisa Blackshaw did when a lack of training meant that she felt unequipped to do her work properly. The knock-on effects were significant. “I used to hate getting up to go to work,” she said. “And as well as being unhappy at work I was taking it home and it started to affect the relationship I was in.”
She was shocked to discover just how much difference moving to a job in a supportive environment made. The 26-year-old is now a receptionist at Moneypenny, a telephone answering service, where she feels supported by her colleagues and managers. “You get trained, you know what you are doing. Everybody works together in teams where you bond with other people and if you have problems one of your team members can help.” As well as loving her job, she is much happier overall, she said.
Her advice to others who are unhappy at work is straightforward: leave and change your life. Kjerulf said that most people wait far too long to quit. Part of the problem is that we are good at listing the reasons not to quit – financial risks, trouble finding a new job and so on – but we rarely list the downsides of staying in a bad job. “You can lose your health, your marriage, your career,” he said. “It can grind you down over the years to the point where you have no self-esteem, no confidence.” It can also damage health. “I talk to a lot of people who quit and I have never spoken to anyone who said that they wished they had not done it, or that they wished they had waited,” said Kjerulf. “Everyone says they wish they had done it sooner.”
What the experts say: Concentrate on the parts you find most enjoyable Bruce Stanley, a life coach with Embody, a creativity company In the West, when we talk about happiness and unhappiness at work we tend to use a remedial approach: we think that when we are unhappy the best thing to do is to diagnose what’s wrong and then fix it. This can help people to move away from what’s making them unhappy but it does not do anything to actually create happiness. The most effective way to do that is to make small steps based on spending more time doing the things we enjoy, which we are good at. That in turn means focusing not on what makes us unhappy but on embracing our strengths. For example, this could involve reshaping your job so that you can spend more time doing the parts you find enjoyable. However, the other important factor is changing the way you think.
So, rather than saying “I hate doing accounts”, think “When I have done these accounts I will be in a better position to advise my customers effectively”, or whatever it may be that you most enjoy. Build a wide network of supportive colleagues Nic Sale, head of diversity at Pearn Kandola, the business psychologists Most of us spend a lot of time at work and very often what we do is a big part of our identity.
That means that if we are not happy, the chances are this will affect our psychological well-being. All the research says that to be happy at work you need to enjoy what you are doing and think of what you are doing as worthwhile. Critically, however, you also need good links with your colleagues. One of the biggest factors for people being unhappy at work is not having strong social relationships with coworkers.
That’s not to say everybody has to love everybody but you should have as wide a network as possible. Simply relying on one or two close colleagues isn’t enough because it can leave you vulnerable if they depart. Aim to develop the biggest possible group of contacts. The more people you have in your network, the more sources of support you will have when you are under pressure or when things go wrong.
Put people in the job that is right for them Neil Wilson, managing director of Badenoch & Clark, the recruitment company that publishes the Happiness at Work Index Many businesses now acknowledge the importance of engaging workers: for a start, the research indicates that engaged workers are more productive, more innovative and less likely to quit. There is a strong link, also, between happiness and engagement – people can’t be engaged if they aren’t happy – but it’s not the same thing. For example, an employee who can get away with doing a minimal amount of work might well be happy but an engaged worker combines happiness with a desire to work hard. Companies have to help all staff to develop a sense of purpose. People should be able to see how what they do contributes. Staff also need to be given clear expectations and support. Perhaps most importantly, companies need to ensure they have the right people in the right jobs – a mismatch makes it nearly impossible for staff to be happy. Create a sense of freedom and autonomy Stefan Wills, programme and client director at Ashridge Business School The Chinese have a proverb that says people need three things to be happy: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for. I believe that a person’s vocation can influence all three of these but it has a particularly big part to play in the second, because for most people work is intimately linked with their own sense of purpose.
Employers can also help by allowing people a degree of freedom and autonomy in how they do their jobs; this in turn will benefit the business, as this generally translates into a higher degree of creativity. Interestingly, many people have far more freedom in their jobs than they realise – often they imagine constraints that do not actually exist. Leaders thus have a responsibility not simply to give people autonomy at work but to help them see where it already exists. Some managers may feel that it is their job to direct staff, but the best leaders realise that it is more effective to act as coach and supporter.
Source: The Sunday Times 7th June 2009

Kevin Green, chief executive of the Rec, said: “Vacancies and appointments continue to decline, however there are some signs of recovery. For example, 60% of recruiters reported either a stable or increased demand for temporary staff in May. “This continuing dependency on agency staff further underlines the need to ensure that the current consultation on implementing the Agency Workers Directive does not jeopardise the viability of agency work.”

Mike Stevens of KPMG, which helped with the research, added: “There is now some reason to hope that the UK jobs market has overcome the worst, at least for this phase of the recession. “For the third successive month we have seen a slowing in the rate of decline in both temporary and permanent staff appointments. Demand for staff is still falling but much less fast than at the beginning of the year and many employers seem to be holding off shedding staff and contemplating recruitment. “However, it remains difficult to build real optimism of an incipient recovery because most of the world remains mired in the depths of recession. In addition, the uncertainties of public sector spending associated with the final year of a government that is losing the capacity to borrow make it all the more difficult for businesses to contemplate the investment – in people, ideas and capital spend – that would begin to show evidence of a sustainable recovery.”
Source: The Business East Midlands.co.uk

“The further substantial moderation in the rate of decline in UK manufacturing activity in May is clearly good news and boosts hopes that the economy could start growing before the end of the year. “Nevertheless, manufacturers still face serious handicaps and actual sustainable growth in the sector may yet be some way off.”
The Cips survey reached a low point in February, but has recovered since then, helped by easing rates of contraction for output and new orders. Production and new orders continued to decline in May, but at the slowest rates for 12 and 14 months respectively.

Vicky Redwood, of Capital Economics, said the survey suggested the improvement is down to more than an easing in the rate at which firms are running down their inventories.
“The balance is still consistent with annual falls in output of around 5%, but this would be a big improvement on the double digit declines of late,” she said. “Overall, further evidence is pointing to a more modest drop in GDP in Q2 than in Q1 – but still a long way to go before a sustained recovery looks likely.”
Large firms fared better than their smaller rivals, while consumer goods makers reported an increase in production for the first time in 14 months after a slight increase in new orders. But jobs continued to be shed in the sector for the 14th month in a row as companies look to squeeze costs through workforce restructuring and redundancies.
Source: Business East Midlands.co.uk

Ball says that a brick manufacturer recently told him that he had manufactured and shipped more bricks in March than in any month during the past five years.”I don’t think we are necessarily seeing green shoots but because of the restocking things are slowly grinding into motion.”
The number of such placings is not huge, “but if everyone orders a bit, that’s what we need”, he adds.”It’s going to be very interesting to see if this is a continuing trend.”Mark Hepworth, managing director of JobsGroup.net, which operates niche job board JustEngineers.net, told Recruiter there were signs of greater confidence in the engineering sector.
Source: Recruiter.co.uk

A number of stabilising factors will likely kick in, in the short term, he said. Such factors include the need to re-order cleared stock, the Bank of England’s printing more money and rising public spending. Also, Lambert said, exports will likely pick up because sterling has been devalued by 25% since summer 2007.
While increasing public spending will help stabilise the economy in the near term, Lambert said that the current state of public funding was a worrying issue. The UK must see more investment in infrastructure and green technology to drive the economy forward, he said. The Hays breakfast was held at the Grosvenor House Hotel.
Phil Walker Precision’s Director commented on the article: “As Lord Digby Jones stated at the recent Leicestershire Business Awards, this country still maunfacture half of all of Airbus’ parts, whilst the Europeans just bolt it together.”
Source: Recruiter.co.uk

Nuneaton Under 10’s RFC at the recent prize giving.

Tigers player’s Derek and Marco present a trophy to Alex.

Freeth Cartwright Solicitors, Tenon and Prospect Leicestershire sponsored the awards, which are in their 16th year. The organisers received over 100 entries in December from which 3 finalists were chosen for each of the 7 categories. The judges then visited each finalist in February 2009. All finalists were then put forward to win the prestigious Leicestershire Business of the Year 2009, which was won this year by family run business the Mark Group.
The evening was enjoyed by of all the team and it was finished off with some spectacular dancing. Anyone wanting to see the video of Scott’s ‘running man’ can send a request in!

The Precision team at the Leicesteshire Business Awards