April Newsletter 2008

Helping people with Autism in the workplace
Meet our new recruits
Has Corporate Social Responsibility had its day?
Blockbusting Brands: Fairtrade
Client case study: EAT
HR regulations – changes for contract staff?
Healthy start for Reading’s award-winning food student
Other news
And finally

Helping people with Autism in the workplace

Jane Jonas, founder of Jonas Consulting, provides personal insight into how commercial and non-profit organisations can work together for the benefit of the wider community.

I have been running my own recruitment company for eight years and have over this time given various donations to different charities. I recently decided it would be a good idea to give a specific amount a year to one particular charity and also offer my services in some way as I now have a little more time on my hands.

My youngest daughter was diagnosed to be on the “autistic spectrum” at a young age and I therefore felt The National Autistic Society would be a good choice. My daughter is an adorable child and a delight to be around, however, we do worry how she will manage when she is of an age to leave home and venture into the realms of getting employment.

I contacted The National Autistic Society and offered to give them a donation and also offered my services to help them with fundraising or anything else they thought I may be able to contribute. I was invited into their offices to meet Trevor Anderton, the Director of Fundraising and learnt a lot more about the The National Autistic Society and their recent campaign “Think Differently about Autism” which was launched in February. I attended the launch event at the Houses of Parliament where speakers included Ivan Lewis MP, the Minister for Care Services, and The National Autistic Society President, Jane Asher. Aly Glynn, a performance poet, shared her experiences as an adult with autism through a powerful poem called “Abacus” which urged the Government to “count her in”. Before I started my own recruitment company I had worked in the Houses of Parliament as a PA to the Rt Hon Lord Richard QC so going back as a guest at this launch was very exciting for me - the Palace hadn’t changed at all!

At the launch I was introduced to David Perkins who is the Manager of The National Autistic Society Prospects. The National Autistic Society Prospects is the arm of the The National Autistic Society that has been set up to help people with autism and Asperger’s syndrome find work. David told me about Prospects' exceptional work and explained how Prospects had struck up an extremely beneficial relationship with Goldman Sachs who has taken on 23 employees over the last five years who are on the autistic spectrum. I have since met Richard Bremer of Goldman Sachs who has highlighted his positive experiences in employing people with Asperger’s or autism, in particular a young lad called Gary who was very much an extrovert and loved talking to people which was unlike the description Richard was originally given about AS. Gary’s original placement with Goldman Sachs was for four weeks but as he was so successful they extended it to eight weeks. At the end of this time he promptly left and found a fulltime position outside of Goldman Sachs.

I have since met David at his offices in Islington where I had the opportunity to look at their work more closely and was invited to sit in on one of their workshops, which involved four clients who are on the autistic spectrum being coached on skills they would need in the workplace. David has since asked my advice in respect of how Prospects could follow more closely the recruitment agency model to command a placement fee similar to how we do at Jonas, in order to fund all the necessary first-year support for both the employer and the new employee. This will enable them to have more funds to help continue their essential work, as they have to rely totally on Government grants and charitable donations from people like myself. We have already been successful in commanding a fee from one of David’s customers with my input. I am having regular meetings with David and will be committed to helping him find more employers who will open their minds to taking on people with autism or Asperger’s syndrome. These people have such a lot to offer and we need to educate the general public in understanding autism.

To find out more about The National Autistic Society click here

Top of page

Meet our new recruits

Since our last newsletter we’ve welcomed a number of important new additions to the Jonas Team.

Manpreet Mangat joins the retail team as a Consultant to help with the increasing demand from our retail customers. In her spare time Manpreet enjoys sport and regularly attends her local gym.

Liz Lake joined us from McVities last year. She is a Consultant on our Commercial Team where she will be putting her years of food industry experience to good use.

kelly

Kelly Symmons joined us in January as a Resourcer on our Operations desk. In her spare time Kelly enjoys socialising with her friends, watching football and shopping.
Robert Kenyon joined our engineering team in February to help service the ever-growing demand for skilled engineering staff. In his spare time Robert likes to play football and socialise with his friends.

Stephanie Shaw is a Resourcer within our NPD and Technical area. Stephanie is a qualified squash coach and when she’s not on the court she enjoys playing most other sports. On a recent company night out she proved to be pretty handy at ten pin bowling as well!

Our newest recruit is Emma-Jane Snell, who joined us in March, who will be working from the offices of our sister company , Hutchinson Consultancy, in Corsham, Wiltshire and will be focusing on permanent Operations roles.

We wish them all the best of luck in their future careers with Jonas.

Top of page

Has Corporate Social Responsibility had its day?

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is all about taking responsibility for the impact your business has – not just on your customers but on your stakeholders, employees, local community and the environment at large. While it has gained huge momentum and endless lip service since the 1980’s, it remains a controversial concept.

One of the main arguments against CSR is that businesses are owned by their stakeholders and any money spent on social responsibility is effectively theft from shareholders. Shouldn’t it be up to them if they want to give to charity?

And what about the pressure it puts on smaller, newer companies who need to focus all their efforts on their core businesses to survive? Has corporate responsibility evolved beyond being the luxury of the super secure to being a fundamental part of any future success of a business?

It seems so. Despite the dissenters, CSR is a fundamental part of business culture and there’s a growing emphasis on the quality of what you do, rather than simply whether you do it at all. A statement of intent won’t win you much credibility in the face of rigorous benchmarks of quality, established to measure the impact and outcome of activity, such as the Dow Jones Group Sustainability Index and BITC’s Corporate Responsibility Index.

The Food & Drink federation, the industry sector body, has brokered one of the most recent major CSR initiatives. Currently, the food and drink sector accounts for around 10 per cent of industrial water usage. A group of major food companies have pledged a reduction in water usage as part of an overall package aimed at cutting their environmental impact. The group of 21 firms, including Cadbury Schweppes, Nestlé UK, Premier Foods and Tate & Lyle, said that they aimed to cut water usage by 20 percent over 12 years.

The latest Corporate Responsibility index, a cross-sector ranking produced by Business in the Community, shows that FMCG and major retailers are doing their bit. J Sainsbury, John Lewis Partnership, Marks & Spencers and Tesco all score over 95% and are credited with being committed to corporate responsibility at the highest level, incorporating social and environmental issues into all strategic decision making. Click here for more information.

Beyond the industry, Salesforce.com is often quoted for its CSR policy of giving 1% of its profit (in the form of products), 1% of its employees' time, and 1% of its equity to charities and other non-profit organisations. Google has recently adopted the same policy.

Inevitably, there are also examples of major companies leading by bad example – Enron won awards for its CSR policy and gave millions to local charities. In 2006 its chief executive was jailed for 24 years on multiple felony charges.

Does CSR become irrelevant if the nature of the business is dishonest or morally questionable? All the major cigarette manufacturers have extensive CSR policies but do the ethics of their product put the value of their CSR policies into question, or is it just about doing the right thing?

Despite the philosophical debate surrounding CSR, the concept is undoubtedly here to stay. And for all the bad examples and criticisms, the great majority of CSR cases appear to be having a sincere and positive impact, not only for the wider community, but for the companies themselves.

CSR is firmly established as a core business issue, not just for multinationals but for the smaller, newer companies too. It has become a process by which businesses manage and build their relationship and reputation with stakeholders and customers. Across the world it is of growing importance to how businesses make their money, not just whether they give some of it away.

Top of page

Blockbusting Brands: Fairtrade

blobk This month we’re celebrating the rise of the Fairtrade ‘brand’ and the impact it has had on the retail landscape in the UK.

The Fairtrade Mark has become a symbol for ethical shopping and appears on 3,000 products on sale in the UK. The independent consumer label certifies that a fair price has been paid to the producer organisation at the start of the supply chain. And the UK should be proud of its support for the brand – stimulating the most dynamic, wide-reaching Fairtrade market in the world through consumer support and grass roots activism.

Fair price, fantastic sales
At the beginning of March, to coincide with Fairtrade Fortnight, figures were released demonstrating the increasing impact that the Fairtrade Mark has had on the UK food and retail industry. Sales of Fairtrade goods leapt from £273m in 2006 to £493m in 2007 – a massive 81% increase, following 40% year-on-year increases since 2002. The sale of Fairtrade bananas alone reach £150m, with coffee and tea both rising by 24% to reach £117m and £30m respectively. All this has been achieved despite an economy that has seen consumer caution and poor sales for many reputable organisations.

Certified products range from fruit and flowers to wine and cotton clothing and the Fairtrade Mark is gaining increasing importance for suppliers and retailers, with consumer awareness of the symbol reaching 57%.

Sweet new deal for producers
This may be why Tate & Lyle has just announced a landmark decision to switch their entire retail cane sugar to Fairtrade within two years – becoming the largest UK company to carry the distinctive mark.

Fairtrade Foundation executive director Harriet Lamb recently told the BBC about the move, stating: "In terms of size and scale, this is the biggest ever Fairtrade switch by a UK company and it's tremendous this iconic UK brand is backing Fairtrade."

The company, which is this year celebrating the 125 year history of the world’s oldest brand – Lyle’s Golden Syrup – has a long history of philanthropy from its founders. The switch will occur for all packs of sugar sold in retail outlets and the company has longer-term ambitions to convert industrial supplies to Fairtrade goods.

Building the Foundation
The Fairtrade Foundation was established in 1992 as an independent non-profit organisation that licenses the use of the Fairtrade Mark on products in the UK. A number of charities, including Oxfam and the World Development Movement set up the organisation and have since been joined by other members.

It is a member of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO), which brings together over 20 national initiatives in Europe, N America, Japan, Mexico & Australasia with the producer networks in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Since 2001, Harriet Lamb has steered the organisation to extraordinary success – from £30m pa in the sale of Fairtrade products to the whopping £493m in 2007, by securing prominence in retailers’ shelf space and consumers’ organic cotton shopping bags.

The Fairtrade future

Last month The Adam Smith Institute produced a report implying that Fairtrade ‘does more harm than good’, a claim that the organisation strongly denies.

“The fantastic increase in sales of Fairtrade goods in 2007 shows the public’s huge and growing appetite for Fairtrade,” says Lamb.

“After years of chipping away, Fairtrade supporters are finally beginning to make some significant impression on the way companies trade. Increasing numbers of people in the UK are buying Fairtrade goods as a practical action everyone can take to help tackle poverty in the developing world.”

Not many brands can claim that.

The challenge for the future is to increase momentum and gain critical mass – from consumer support to supplier commitment - reducing the number of workers around the world who are trapped in ‘trade poverty’ by securing fair trade at a fair price.

Top of page

Client case study: EAT.

The Challenge

Owing to the ongoing success and growth of EAT. the high street café group, the company needed to recruit a Head of Production Operations to drive manufacturing and increase efficiencies. After taking a thorough brief Jonas took the requirement to the market.

The Solution

Jonas conducted a thorough search and identified a number of suitable candidates via various methods including data base search, head hunt and advertising. We then conducted an initial pre screening process before presenting short listed candidates to EAT. Eat then carried out second stage interviews before identifying their favoured candidate. An offer was made which Jonas presented to the candidate. The candidate gladly accepted the role.

The Feedback

"I was very impressed with how Jonas handled my recruitment process and I have no hesitation in highly recommending Jonas in the future." - Tai Li - Successful Candidate

"Jonas managed the process extremely well and came up trumps in filling our vacancy once again. Over the past few years they have found us a number of people for various positions across our business. I feel confident that when a vacancy arises I can turn to Jonas to successfully fill it." - Kerry Boyd - Hiring Manager

Top of page

HR regulations – changes for contract staff?

On 22 February, a Private Members Bill concerning the rights of agency workers successfully went through its second reading in Parliament.

But with many MPs and business groups against the Bill it will face a tough battle at the committee stage, when each clause will face scrutiny from a cross party group.

The Temporary and Agency Workers (Equal Treatment) Bill 2007-08 is described as: “A Bill to provide for the protection of temporary and agency workers; to require the principle of equal treatment to be applied to temporary and agency workers; to make provision about the enforcement of rights of temporary and agency workers; and for connected purposes.” Click here [link http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2007-08/temporaryandagencyworkersequaltreatment.html] for more information.

Some unions, including Unite, are backing the Bill, claiming that current British employment law fails to protect the country’s 1.4 million agency workers.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), however, asserts that: ‘Vulnerable workers would not benefit from complex new rules before Parliament on temporary agency work, but 250,000 jobs would be put at risk and the UK would lose a vital competitive edge.’

The British Retail Consortium also believes that the Bill should not be supported, as the organisation:

‘Understands agency workers already receive key employment protection.
Believes the bill would deter employers from offering short term contract opportunities.
Argues that the flexibility of the UK labour market could be undermined if legislation does not incorporate a reasonable qualifying period.’ (ePolitix.com Parliamentary Briefing, 21 February 2008)

The date for the Committees stage has not yet been set, but the debate looks set to continue between UK businesses and unions for the foreseeable future.

For further details visit:
http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2007-08/temporaryandagencyworkersequaltreatment
http://www.tgwu.org.uk
http://www.cbi.org.uk
http://www.epolitix.com

Top of page

Healthy start for Reading’s award-winning food student

Stacey Griffin, Food Science student at the University of Reading, was the winner of the inaugural Hutchinson Jonas award. The award, launched in 2007 by Jane Jonas and Scott Hutchinson as an incentive to students training to join the food industry, is given to the person who performs best during their placement year.

The award received coverage in Food Manufacture and the student press.

The company
Stacey spent her placement year working at Katsouris Fresh Foods, part of leading food manufacturing group, Bakkavor. The Bakkavor Group owns sites in the UK, Europe, South Africa and China and is recognised as one of the world’s leading fresh prepared food and produce providers. It is currently the market leader in the key areas of ready meals, pizzas, convenience salads and dips and produces over 4,700 products in 17 product categories, and it supplies all the leading supermarkets, including: Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Waitrose and J Sainsbury.

Katsouris was founded by Cypriot brothers, Yiannis, Theodosis and Lozios, who began trading in the UK in 1951, where there was an ever increasing Greek and Cypriot population. Today, Katsouris Fresh Foods is based in North West London and consists of three main production sites and one centralised distribution site. Stacey worked at Cumberland Avenue, the company’s newest purpose-built food factory which specialises in houmous and mash products.

The placement
Stacey’s technical placement started with three months Quality Assurance training, where she spent time with the QA\QCs in the factory learning the different circuits, and the production and quality implications of each.

stacy

Stacey’s training began in the Goods In department and continued through the production stages of the product, on to the Packing and Despatch area. Initial training finished with a placement with the production and hygiene managers.

The next stage of the placement was to work alongside Marks & Spencer’s in preparation for its Christmas production. Due to increased production demands around the Christmas period, products are produced a few months in advance, frozen and then defrosted before going into stores. Stacey was responsible for ‘code approval’ which entailed signing off the frozen products and ensuring that they met the required quality specifications.

In the final six months Stacey worked with the process technologist, carrying out projects involving the validation of processes, the verification of HACCP plans, internal auditing and numerous other projects involving food safety and new product development.

The feedback
Stacey said: “The placement allowed me to apply what I had learnt on my course in actual situations while developing my education of the food industry.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the placement and would recommend it to anyone. I believe that an industrial placement is one of the most valuable aspects of the degree, and it really inspired me to follow a career in the food industry. Not only did it focus my enthusiasm but the experience will be really valuable during my future in the industry.

“I thank the Hutchinson-Jonas team for awarding me the prize, and everyone that I worked with in my placement, especially Clare Piper, Sarah Hewitt and Jadranka Prodanovic, and Glyniss Jodrell from the University of Reading, who works incredibly hard to set up contacts for the Reading Food Science students prior to going on their placements.“

Top of page

Other news

Jonas victorious over Food Manufacture 5-a-side team
In February Jonas took on the might of the 'Food Manufacture' 5-a-side team.

Jonas fielded a strong side including Operations Team Manager and ex Chelsea ladies star Kyproulla Loizou. Jonas got off to a strong start and soon raced in to a commanding lead. Rob 'the wall' Hill was unbeatable in goal much to the frustration of the persistent 'Len Beckett' and the cheering William Reed faithful, although bizarrely Hill eventually turned in to his own net after a freak deflected Beckett shot. Jonas continued to score freely and eventually ran out 14-4 winners.

We’d love to hear from any other FMCG industry challengers who are prepared to take on the might of Jonas Consulting, contact Adam agrainger@jonas.co.uk

Top of page

And finally

"Social obligation is much bigger than supporting worthy causes. It includes anything that impacts people and the quality of their lives."
William Ford Jr., Chairman, Ford Motor Co.

Top of page