blogs

outplacement - supporting your employees during redundancy

2008-07-04T13:57:58Z

The credit crunch is now hitting us all hard and unfortunately companies are now restructuring and budgets are being frozen and people are being made redundant. Is your company providing support to those being made redundant? I worked in Singapore during the last economic crisis as a consultant supporting all sorts of individuals being made redundant as well as working with those employees left behind - they also need support, direction and coaching as well! I found this part of my career to be the most enjoyable and satisfying. Why? because it gave me the opportunity to help people gain clarity on what they wanted to do next with their lives and to support them in finding suitable employment quickly and with confidence. I remember running a career continuation workshop for a multi-national technology company to provide a programme for their dislaced factory workers. Most of them had worked in those jobs for all their working life and were shell-shocked that they were now out of work. On returning to the site a couple of weeks later to facilitate another workshop, I was met by a lady who had attended the previous workshop. She greeted me with a big smile and said that the workshop had made such an impression on her that she had used everything she learnt to help her daughter find a new job and she had successfully been offered the first job she applied to! It was so nice to know that not only had the outplacement programme helped her, it had also effected someone else as well!. If you are a company experiencing a down-turn, do ring A Brave New World as we can help your employees during this time. We do not offer blanket solutions and pride ourselves in providing a personal and holistic approach. It is important to realise that outplacement is not just about how to write a CV, there has to be an element of self-assessment and how to cope with change within the programme. If you are an employee experiencing redundancy and you are not being offered outplacement, give us a ring - we are offering a discount on our one to one programmes for all those people being made redundant.

Controlling your career and taking an intelligent approach during uncertain times

2008-05-02T16:36:04Z

We can not pick up a paper or turn on the radio or TV without some gloomy news in relation to the credit crunch. This is now causing problems for many of us with every day costs spiralling and companies having to down-size and make important changes within their organisations. Over the last few years we have experienced an up turn in the UK and many people who have embarked on a career coaching or career advice programme have normally done so because they have either reached a cross roads within their career or have been unable to secure the promotion they were hoping for. Over the last few weeks, A Brave New World have been talking with lots of individuals about embarking on a career coaching programme due to feeling uncertain about their job stability and possible redundancy. Times have changed - it is more crucial now for people to start taking control of their own career. Managing your own career and taking an intelligent view of it now will provide you with the security that if your current employer is experiencing hard times and going through a change programme you will be ready for any change before your colleagues and any transition you are required to make will be easier and quicker for you. Investing in a career coaching programme will provide you with the right tools and self-knowledge to enable you to seek out a job which matches your personal career drivers and will shorten the length of time to secure the right job in the right company for you. It would be wise to invest now - before it is too late and you find your self without a job or being moved internally to a job and department which you do not want. Why not ring us on 01483 243564 for a confidential chat about your career or maybe you need some help with your CV or an upcoming interview. All of our programmes are flexible and we tailor-make all our career development programmes for each individual. Don't take any chances with your career - manage it well and you will be in control of it and have the knowledge and skills to plan your future.

students - want some help with your career choices?

2008-04-17T17:07:56Z

While scanning the internet today - yes, i actually had a free moment! I came across this web site: http://www.insidecareers.co.uk/ which provides detailed information on careers for students. Once registered you can: apply for any of the hundreds of graduate vacancies from leading employers view informative company profiles from a comprehensive list of recruiters browse expert career advice be kept informed of application deadlines, careers events, and university visits track the companies to which you've applied download the career advice section of the 2007-08 guides Don't forget that using a career coach will help you clarify what you want out of your career, help you understand your individual career motivations, drivers and what values are important to you. The next few months are very stressful for students as exams are just around the corner! - Just remember to take time out to exercise, rest and eat well. A Brave New World wish all students the best of luck in their exams.

Intelligent career how it works

2008-03-10T14:21:51Z

I came across an excellent article on the Intelligent Career today, this paper, written by the founders, explains how the Intelligent Career was developed and how it can be used in organisations - not only for individual career exploration discussions and career planning, but also, how it can benefit 360 appraisal systems. Here is the link: http://www.derby.ac.uk/cegs/publications/IntelligentCareerCardSort.PDF

Coaching IS essential to business

2008-02-08T12:14:53Z

This week I read a report that coaching is at last being acknowledged by business, with companies seeing it as an essential part of their training and Talent Management Programmes. Companies are seeing actual commercial benefits and according to a recent survey by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, the annual worldwide revenue produced by coaching was a staggering $1.5 billion! This all made positive reading for me and the work that we are promoting through A Brave New World, but how disapointing it was to have to read the following sentence and even more worrying as it was a quote taken from an individual that works for a leading coaching organisation: "Leadership is an acquired skill and coaching can provide the key to nurturing the next generation of leaders. But inspiration alone isn't enough. For talented people, the support of a great coach will significantly accelerate their growth into leadership." Leadership and talent have 2 very different meanings and surely it is about time that people stop labelling the 2 together. Managing talent is not about creating just 'leaders' it is all about HOW to retain key skills within the business in line with the organisations future growth and operation needs. 'Talent' includes individuals from all areas and stages within an organisation. 'Leadership' is about employing individuals who can lead from the front, who are motivated and driven by being a 'leader' as well as possessing the required skills to motivate others, combined with strong and natural communicaton skills. Having recently completed a career coaching programme for a number of individuals on a 'Talent Management' programme within a large organisation going through major corporate change, it was interesting to see that only 3 individuals out of a total of 10 wished to be considered as 'future leaders'. They were happy where they were presently in their careers and wished to continue utilising and developing their technical and functional skills, which they acknowledged as more important to them than the skill of leadership. Coaching is an excellent opportunity for individuals to speak freely with someone outside of their company about issues they may not feel comfortable raising internally. It provides an avenue for them to become more self-aware and how to intelligently plan their future career. So what really are some of the commercial benefits to companies employing a coach to support their training and 'talent' programmes? Increased retention of 'key talent' - saving money on re-recruitment and training. Their employees are taught how to search for opportunities internally - focussing on their key career drivers and key skills, as well as those they have identified as being crucial towards their future career needs. Mobility within the organisation - a key benefit for knowledge sharing and succession planning. Motivation and productivity levels are significantly increased, promoting a successful and positive working culture. Employees can learn how to align their career drivers, values, beliefs, skills and communication styles with the organisations vision. Employees learn how to take control and plan their own career. Improved networking and communication. Senior Management can simultaneously gather data on how to best manage, utilise and develop the company's talent pool if they employ the 'Intelligent Career' model. Coaching should be viewed as an essential if organisations want to retain and develop their 'talent'. It doesn't have to be expensive - for some levels of employees it works well to run a group workshop rather than employ a one to one programme. But what ever you decide, you will see a real return on your investment.

HR Directors Business Summit - a great success for A Brave New World

2008-01-31T14:02:00Z

I have just returned from attending and sponsoring this years HR Directors Business Summit in Birmingham. It has been an exhausting week but hugely rewarding both personally and professionally. A Brave New World were launching their talent management programmes and showcasing how the 'intelligent career' approach can motivate individuals within their career and provide companies with a tool and consulting approach that tackles retention and inspires talented individuals. It was so refreshing to hear from many HR Directors and other talent management suppliers that the shift from a processed and psychometric talent management approach is begining to move towards the need to truly understand what the individual employee's specific needs and career drivers are. Employers are waking up to the realisation that to retain and motivate their employees, requires a more investigative and consultative understanding of what makes them tick. Also they can now appreciate how important it is for their employees to be given the knowledge and tools on how to take an intelligent view of their own career, enabling them to plan and move forward with clairity and focus. How can you possibly retain, manage and develop someone if you don't know why they work, how they like to work and what they want out of their career? ABNW are very excited to have the opportunity to be working with such a wide variety of people and organisations during 2008. We hope to publish over the course of the year some new articles and interesting case studies on how A Brave New World's innovative approach has helped organisations to increase retention, develop and motivate their employees.

HR Directors Business Summit 2008

2008-01-24T09:25:18Z

On the 29th and 30th of January, the World Trade Group are hosting the HR Directors Business summit at the Hilton in Birmingham. This is one of the most prestigious and well attended events within the senior HR community. It is an opportunity for HR practitioners to network, learn about industry trends and meet with new and innovative suppliers to the HR community. A Brave New World will be sponsoring and exhibiting at the summit. We are excited that we are able to be taking a key part in the event and will be launching the 'Intelligent career theory'. We will also be discussing how our unique career development and career transition programmes can help retain key talent, motivate individuals and increase productivity. For those of you attending, we look forward to meeting with you and for those not able to attend, we will report back how the event went.

New year, new career?, new job? promotion?

2008-01-09T14:52:27Z

2008 has begun, happy new year to everyone, I hope that you had a good rest and are now ready for a happy and prosperous 2008.This is a good time to start thinking about your career and planning what you want to achieve during the year. We all start the year with a positive note and set ourselves various goals, the challenge is to keep to the goals, keep positive and achieve our personal objectives. So why not make 2008 the year to review your career. Perhaps you have been hoping for a promotion which has not yet come your way?, maybe you want a career change? or just want to evaluate your key skills and identify and plan where you want your career to take you? Take some time out of your busy schedule and make a resolution to give yourself some personal time to self-reflect on where you want your career and life to take you. Update your CV if you haven't done so for a while. It is important to keep your CV up to date and include recent achievements. Keep your networks up to date - contact people that you haven't spoken to for a while, you never know when you might need their support or professional advice. Write an action plan and think about how you can overcome any barriers that may be in the way to reaching your desired objectives. If you find it hard to self-assess yourself and build your career action plan, then think about employing a career coach to help you. It is often easier to work with someone to help achieve your goals, than struggling on ones own. Good luck for 2008. ABNW have an exciting year ahead - we are embarking on a new career coaching programme for students from aged 16 upwards and will be working with a wide variety of people empowering them to achieve their goals and find job satisfaction. We will be working with companies in the UK and internationally providing expert support to companies talent management programmes, career development programmes and assisting those employees being made redundant, providing them with support, coaching and professional advice to move forward within their careers. We are also launching our NLP training programmes and have recently recruited an expert NLP trainer and coach to support our NLP and communication training programmes. ABNW will be attending the HR Directors Forum in Birmingham on the 29th and 30th January where we will be launching some of our new programmes, including the 'Intelligent Career' approach. For those attending the event, we look forward to meeting you there.

CIPD Career connect workshop

2007-11-28T12:22:16Z

Last night A Brave New World were invited to facilitate a workshop for the CIPD, Career Connect Group. It was a fun and highly interactive evening and the participants, of which all were in some kind of 'career transition' were able to experience a short taster of how to individually identify with why they work, how they like to work and how they like to build relationships. Interestingly, most of the attendees were feeling apprehensive towards the changes that are happening within the HR field. A number of participants were about to experience redundancy due to down-sizing of the HR department and the creation of an 'HR call-centre'. Some individuals felt that this was a major concern to their personal careers, fearing that to succeed within an HR role meant possibly loosing the 'people' element, (which many enjoyed) to becoming a more strategic resource, which requires different skills and competencies. If an industry changes, which of course in this 'global, knowledge economy' is ever changing, it is more apparent than ever that people who invest in reflecting on what they want out of their own career and implement a workable career plan will be successful and experience personal fulfillment.

Self-assessment -

2007-11-20T18:00:07Z

This week, while working with some of A Brave New World's new clients embarking on their career coaching programmes, it has been very rewarding for us to recieve some very positive feedback so early into their 'career coaching' programmes. In only 2 hours of working on our self-assessment programme, our clients have told us that they felt: more motivated, self-aware, inspired, excited, challenged, positive, energised, buzzing and confident. It confirmed in my mind how important quality self-assessment exploration is for any individual wishing to seek clarity and a focussed direction on their career. Self-assessment allows people to reflect on why they work - what makes them get up in the morning to go to work, what they are motivated by, what values are important to them, what skills they see as key strengths and those that they enjoy using or want to develop further. Self-awareness brings about a huge amount of benefits, not only for the individual - who will naturally become more motivated, productive, happy, successful and in a job and company that meets their individual needs, but the company they work for will be employing a more motivated and focussed individual who understands what they want out of their career and more likely have chosen their organisation as it directly meets their 'key career drivers'. The more I use the Intelligent Career methodology I become more excited with the positive results and how it allows individuals at any stage of their career to easily take a subjective view of their own career, puts everything into perspective and allows for open discussion resulting in the opportunity to plan a future career with clarity and genuine self-awareness.

Free Careers film on the web!

2007-10-31T14:42:01Z

Today I have spent some time doing some research on career information that is available for people on the web. Among lots of useful information, the one that inspired me was a site by careerbox that offers free careers films on the web. It is a national careers library where you are able to view free films online. You are able to see real people doing jobs from sectors including Automotive, Utilities, Engineering, Banking, Nursing, Retail, Accountancy, Local Government, IT, the Police and many more! Take a look at http://www.careersbox.co.uk/index.php

Changing careers? it is possible! 2 clients offered jobs of their dreams all in one week.

2007-10-24T11:09:10Z

A Brave New World had yet another fantastic week with 2 of our clients who were looking at making significant career changes successfully getting offered the jobs of their dreams. Both clients had been working with ABNW on a career coaching programme as they had felt at a cross roads in their careers. After working with their career coach over a number of sessions and using the Intelligent Career theory to help identify their key motivators, values, skills and personal goals, they both realised that they were in the wrong jobs and organisation. With the help of their career coach, both clients began to explore a variety of career options and developed a career action plan. Their plan included how they were going to secure the job of their dreams and what barriers and obstacles they needed to overcome. Using 'Informational Interviewing' as a form of networking and job searching, both approached people they Knew who were already doing the job(s) they were considering. This approach helped them to cross off any jobs that didn't meet their specific needs and helped them to understand more clearly what each job entailed. Once they had decided which job and career path they were going to follow, they used their networks to pursue opportunities. At their interviews, when they were asked why they wanted to make a career change, they were able to explain that they had invested personal time to work with a career coach to help them define what they wanted out of their careers. This then led them to pursue opportunites within this new field, using their transferable skills within a job and organisation that met all their personal career drivers. The jobs that our clients went for were both within highly competitive industry sectors and they were competing against other candidates who possessed more relevant experience. Our clients tell us that without investing time in career coaching, the transition and success of moving careers may not have had such a happy ending.

LBC radio and ABNW

2007-05-16T10:43:11Z

We were very excited a few weeks ago to be invited to join Anna Raeburn on her afternoon show to discuss all the barriers and issues that affect women and men when they wish to return to work after a career break.

After a nervous start and being told the hour will be the fastest I have ever experienced, I soon relaxed - partly due to Anna Raeburns excellent ability to make her guests feel comfortable and her skill in interviewing. We had some great calls and e-mails from people telling us their stories about their journey back to work and those thinking about it - but not sure how to do it. Lack of confidence was the main barrier and of course - child care issues - the costs and lack of availability - particularly for the over 11 year old.

We have been very touched by the number of e-mails we have received since the show and are pleased to say that A Brave New World is now working with a number of individuals, helping them to return to the work place.

We will be asking some of our clients to share their experiences - and will report on this soon. So far, we seem to be making a huge difference to people's life's and their careers.

Alice and I love this job - we know that we are making a real difference to people and have been surprised by the number of individuals who have paid huge amounts for career coaching, only to be in a more confused state at the end of their programme. Thank goodness, they are now working with ABNW.

ABNW is mentioned in the Daily Telegraph

2007-03-12T17:52:28Z

What a week we had. ABNW made it to the national press, with us being mentioned in the Daily Telegraph. We then went to an international womens day event on Wednesday evening, hosted by aurora,and sponsored by HSBC. It was all about inspiring women to become entrepreneurs. The ticket cost was over priced and we felt it was rather hypocritical to ask for £35.00 from women who are just starting out in business. We drank one glass of bubbly and ate a small cocktail stick of food at gone 9pm - far too late to want to eat.

The speakers were mixed, the best was a lady who had been the first women fighter pilot in the world - an amazing women and certainly someone that young girls should look up too. She was inspiring and motivating - her speaking style was excellent and I have to agree with her - to get on in life, you must try to be nice to people.

Good to hear some true old fashioned values being expressed.