Beyond The Blue Training & Consultancy

‘There is only one thing worse than training someone and having them leave; that is not training someone and having them stay’

Our focus is on how we can change attitudes and views to ensure that clients gain an effective advantage. We provide them with skills, knowledge, confidence and perspective to help them manage in a more positive and professional manner.

Monday 23 November 2009

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




To view the original article Click Here


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 EuropeSource – 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.


Sunday 15 November 2009

Concert-goers condemn crush chaos


To view the original article Click Here


Title – Concert-goers condemn crush chaosSource – 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.

Tuesday 10 November 2009

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 stealingSource – 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.