We all have mental health…

How are we feeling about the Prime Ministers announcements last week?  Too soon, too slow?
My parents are vaccinated, I have no underlying health conditions nor do my children, so for me it feels too slow.  But I appreciate everyone’s situation is different!

Moving forward…
“I KNOW HOW TO HELP YOUR ORGANISATION TO BUILD BACK GREENER FROM THIS PANDEMIC”.  If you want to chat to me about this, please contact me on 07867 780 661.

And Climate Change Professionals are offering a FREE MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING online session.  I’ll tell you how to register later.

I truly believe that organisations in order to attract the right talent, retain the right talent, secure new business, retain existing clients, all need to have an eye on becoming a Net Zero organisation.  And a free tip here too, taking these steps will give your organisation a COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE and SAVE YOUR ORGANISATION MONEY.

And who doesn’t like saving money?  Your organisation could be the first in its sector to boldy say “WE WILL BE NET ZERO BY 20XX” and even better if you have a plan to succeed and achieve the status.

More importantly, it will help you make informed decisions about your organisation, so that its impact on the planet is lowered, protecting the World that we live in for future generations.  What is the carbon footprint or Climate Change impact of the decisions we make, wouldn’t you like to find out?

MAKE THE FIRST STEP TODAY AND SIGN THE CLIMATE CHANGE PROFESSIONALS PLEDGE.

https://www.climatechangeprofessionals.co.uk/service/the-pledge/

Also, by signing our pledge you will be invited for a FREE MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING online session.

Some of the work we have been doing in this area is fascinating for our clients and I truly believe to be a supplier in the coming years, most organisations have some work to do understanding their impact through operational and emboded carbon and will need to take action.  I know that you will not find a better placed team to help you – the team are the Climate Change Professionals NET ZERO ALLIANCE.

As always, my January’s are filled with dashing outside at the first flurry of snow to make snow angels with my kids.  And during these crazy times boy did I appreciated the few days that we had to do just that.  My time is also filled talking to colleagues and co-directors about the year ahead and putting our plans into action.

February is also the month to closely analyse numbers from January to see if we are on target with projections made at the start of the year.

It’s usually a good indicator of what will happen in the year and whether plans need to be amended or business plans need to be tweeked.

The Great Minds Property Group operates a number of different businesses, working in many different sectors of the economy.  We have a diverse portfolio in Property, Energy and Digital Media and Marketing, with some amazing talent, who are our “GREAT MINDS”.  We are very well placed to help organisations buy, build, develop maintain and manage property, through our Building Surveying, Structural Engineering and Property Management companies.  We also help the same clients with low carbon advice and consultancy, meaning they reduce their energy use, earn money from renewables and comply with all enviromental legislation and obligations.

Some of our latest offerings are involved with RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING, through Climate Change Professionals.  Helping individuals to retrain to a new industry or increase their skills and find a new and exciting opportunity within the Cliimate Change space gives me an enormous amount of satisfaction, particularly on the backdrop of the huge unemployment levels not witnessed for years, post pandemic.

Additionally, placing these newly skilled “FOOT SOLDIERS” within organisations to help them on the right path to a Net Zero future, means that day by day, more and more join the fight to combat Climate Change.

Here I should insert a Big Smiley Face Emoji, as this makes me happy!

If you are interested in finding our more about our Climate Change Manager and Net Zero Manager training courses, please take a look on our website;

https://www.climatechangeprofessionals.co.uk/product-category/training-courses/

The success of our courses means that for every full course, we will offer a FREE PLACE TO AN INDIVIDUAL CURRERNTLY UNEMPLOYED AND LOOKING FOR A NEW CAREER WITHIN THE CLIMATE CHANGE WORLD.

If you are currently looking for work or you have contacts looking for work, please check out the amazing vacancies on our website and share with those looking for work.

https://www.climatechangeprofessionals.co.uk/job-listings/

Back to that analysis… last week I did some in-depth analysis on one of my companies working in the Property sector, helping many residential and commercial clients.  My co-director and I analysed sales and expenditure, including labour costs.  We found that despite a small drop in sales, our labour costs as a percentage of sales had risen.  i.e. we were still paying staff the same wages, with the same number of colleagues on the team, yet our charge out was lower.  What does this mean?  For this company, I do not believe that the stop/start of business, the lockdowns and working from home is the most effective.  These factors create inefficiencies.  And a task that might have taken an hour one year ago, is now taking an hour and fifteen minutes.  This is definately felt with colleagues away from the office.  Consider the training of a graduate.  If you are in the same office as your mentor, you can simply swing around on your chair and ask your colleague for help.  When both you and your colleague are working from home, that assistance only comes through the next phone chat or online zoom.

Also, with staggered working in the office with collegues just there for a few hours per day, to keep colleagues safe, picking up a job, then putting it down, only to pick it up again at home in the afternoon, results in inefficiencies.

I think, the stop/starting of the economy and the stop/starting of project work also results in inefficiencies and genuinely my colleagues are having to go about their business in a totally different way, like social distancing through site visits.

I know not all companies are the same and I know some sectors of the economy have been hit much worse with no sales at all for instance.  I also appreciate that my colleagues are doing a superb job with the issues they have been faced with, but the sooner my colleagues can work together in an office, the better.

You might be finding the same thing with analysis of your organisation.  KEEP AND EYE ON THAT LABOUR COST AS A PERCENTAGE OF SALES.  IT MIGHT SURPRISE YOU…. AND I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU ON THIS.

It’s not just about money, many collegues have commented on how they like that social interaction in the workplace, those discussions about their families and activities, which are not as easy over a weekly zoom call.  They also want their homes to return to being their homes and not mixed, especially if they don’t have a dedicated office space and are using a child’s bedroom for instance.

I think everyone is coming to terms with the “NEW NORMAL” and maybe a hybrid approach will work in the future.  Back in 2005 when I worked from home following the sale of my first business, I wasn’t efficient with my time.  It took me almost a year to become disciplined in a home office (and these were the days without children and home schooling).  And so might our colleagues now.

Let’s all be kind on ourselves and our colleagues in these times and also lets be kind on our suppliers and clients who might also be going through tricky situations, that this pandemic has created.

I recently did a poll on Linkedin and found that 75% of respondents thought that their mental health was worse now, that over a year ago.  A very worrying statistic.  So, without delay, go and sign the Climate Change Professionals Pledge.  It will help you and your organisation understand about Climate Change and NET ZERO, but it will also give you access to a FREE MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING online session.  The session which is run by two amazing frontline doctors Dr. Raphael Olaiya and his twin brother Dr. Daniel Olaiya, will give us some brilliant advice to help us reset during these challenging times.

I do hope you will join our session and I really do hope it will benefit you and your friends, family and colleagues.

Enjoy March and those Spring sunny days!

Best wishes

Dave