• Home
  • Forum
  • Events
  • Resources
    • Project Nomad Film
  • Library
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • February 23, 2012

public sector NOMADS

Leading the way in mobile & flexible working

RSSTwitterFacebook
  • nomadNEWS
  • nomadGENERAL
  • nomadEVENTS
  • nomadTECH
  • nomadWORKSTYLE
  • nomadCASESTUDIES

Mobile phones “could” cause cancer

June 2, 2011 By Ken Eastwood Leave a Comment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A working group consisting of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified the radiation emitted by mobile handsets as ‘possibly carcinogenic’.

The panel of 31 scientists from 14 countries concluded that there ‘could be some risk’ for phone users.

Dr. Jonathan Samet, chairman of the working group, said, “There could be some risk, and therefore we need to keep a close watch for a link between cell phones and cancer risk”.

Science blogger Ed Yong works for Cancer Research UK. He has written a very nice explanation of what the WHO announcement really means;

“It means that there is some evidence linking mobile phones to cancer, but it is too weak to make any strong conclusions. Specifically, IARC’s panel said that the evidence that mobile phones pose a health risk was “limited” for two types of brain tumours – glioma and acoustic neuroma – and “inadequate” when it comes to other types of cancer.

The Chairman of the group, Dr Jonathan Samet, said, “The conclusion means that there could be some risk, and therefore we need to keep a close watch for a link between cell phones and cancer risk.”

IARC classifies different things according to whether they are likely to cause cancer, from tobacco to viruses to certain jobs. They are the gold standard for this sort of thing. They have five possible categories of risk:

Group 1 is the highest, reserved for things like smoking, asbestos, alcohol and so on. It means that there’s extremely strong evidence that the thing in question causes cancer.

Group 2A includes things that are “probably carcinogenic to humans”. Here, the evidence is “limited” in humans, but “sufficient” from animal studies.

Group 2B – this is the one that mobile phones now fall under – means something is “possibly carcinogenic to humans”. It means there is “limited evidence” that something causes cancer in people, and even the evidence from animal studies is “less than sufficient”. Group 2B means that there is some evidence for a risk but it’s not that convincing. This group ends up being a bit of a catch-all category, and includes everything from carpentry to chloroform.”

It would appear that a decade after the Stewart Report (Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones) we are no further on in our understanding – there is still insufficient evidence to conclude either way whether using a mobile phone does or doesn’t increase the risk of cancer.

The UK government’s ‘precautionary approach’ for mobile phone use, which includes the recommendation that mobile phone use by children for non-essential calls should be discouraged, still stands.

Image: Hello Operator, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from derekolson’s photostream


Filed Under: nomadGENERAL, nomadNEWS Tagged With: health, Mobile, WHO

Agile Working – More With Less

March 29, 2011 By Ken Eastwood 1 Comment

As minds focus on the immediate need to do more with much less, “ slash and burn” may seem like the only option for organisations implementing drastic budget cuts. Councils are looking at grant cuts of 26% in the period to 2014, with some having to save as much as 9% of total expenditure in the first year. The scale and timing of required reductions certainly demands a more drastic response over and above the normal temporary fixes and limited tinkering around efficiency savings or departmental reorganisations.

While slashing  may achieve the short term cost reduction goal  it may also create damage to the ability of the organisation to operate effectively – reducing standards, staff morale, productivity and corporate confidence. Following the thoughts of John McCready, Head of the Government Property Unit, “it is important we build strategies that deal with both the immediate priority of tackling the deficit, whilst safeguarding the interests of future generations.” So to meet the new stringency challenges what is needed is a plan that is both sustainable and transformational, a change from traditional to new different and agile, but at the same time produces early wins.

Many organisations are having to make difficult decisions on service and resources in balancing their short and long term budgets – cost bases are inflexible, revenue is reducing, markets have diminished, service requirements are changing while price inflation continues to rise. In essence there is unrelenting pressure to do more with less, not as a “one off” but on an ongoing basis. To cope with this there is clearly an underlying  and urgent need to be more responsive to rapidly changing situations. Therefore organisations must become agile and adopt new workstyles.

People are an organisations biggest liability but conversely they are also their greatest asset. Employers are wrestling with the need for agility in the workforce – need for reductions, redundancies, outsourcing and doing things differently while trying to retain or attract talent to maintain services and  improve productivity, innovation and business value.  Simultaneously employees are fearful for the present and the future – certainty of employment, disposable income, and lifestyle in general. In this situation both the organisation and its people are now much more receptive to culture change, innovation and rapid implementation of agile working.

Property is the second biggest liability on the balance sheet and while it is clearly a business asset which does give support and value to the organisation, in the current economic climate some property can equally be seen as an increasingly underutilised, inflexible carbon inefficient liability that is a drag on rapidly changing organisational needs and business effectiveness. While the property market may not currently be conducive to major disposal activity, there are opportunities which can be found if organisations re-assess and re-focus on creating agile property strategies.

In such a climate has there ever been a better time to introduce agile working ? A recent survey of more than 250 facilities managers, conducted by Leesman research for the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM), suggests the time is right. It revealed that, “61% of organisations are actively encouraging remote and flexible working for all staff….and increasing numbers of employers are looking to displace their teams away from expensive corporate environments”.

It would be nice if  you could get “agile working in a box”, but every organisation is different and at different levels of capability. Therefore the agile journey may have similar ingredients but the path is likely to be individual for each organisation . However what is clear is that if managed well, introducing agile working can significantly cut  fixed and variable costs, reduce environmental impact, improve productivity, resilience and customer focus as well as creating a more satisfied workforce with a better work life balance.

The holistic benefits are real and significant for those with the leadership vision and capability to progress transformation across the organisation, but for many agile working has until recently remained no more than a “cottage industry” focussed on studies, small scale pilots and projects with long gestation periods. Too often management inertia, fear of disturbing the cultural status quo and focus on other political priorities often stalled any serious introduction.

The drivers for change are now clearly in place and agile working is a major element in addressing the ongoing “more with less” dilemma. Indeed the Westminster Sustainable Business Forum report “Leaner and Greener: Delivering Effective Estate Management” confirms that  by following best practice examples of low cost,  agile working practices, UK Local Government could reduce the space it occupies by 20-30 per cent, with the potential to deliver savings in running costs of up to £7 billion a year.

In the current changing economic climate a rapid move to deployment of agile working is therefore both irresistible and necessary. So what is delaying your organisation ?

Guest Post by: Paul Allsopp, The Agile Organisation
www.agile.org.uk

Filed Under: nomadGENERAL Tagged With: agile, agile working

Edinburgh Building Services

November 20, 2010 By Ken Eastwood Leave a Comment

Edinburgh City Council have been shortlisted as finalists in this years e-Government National Awards for deployment of a mobile working solution developed with BT and mobility partner, Kirona.

e-Government National Awards

Prime Minister David Cameron congratulated the finalists and said that digital communication was key to making government more transparent, “The e-Government National Awards recognise some of the brilliant work done by digital specialists working across national and local government,” he said. “I congratulate all the nominees and encourage all digital specialists across the public sector to follow their good example and innovation.”

The Building Services application at Edinburgh provides real-time jobs to the workforce and has also taken top honours at the council’s annual awards. Edel McManus, Business Improvement Manager, says, “Dynamic job allocation is allowing us to complete more jobs without needing to pass work to outside contractors. In fact, during the first six months of operation the mobile platform supported a 25 per cent reduction in outsourced jobs.”

Along with achieving the authority’s internal goals to better manage job material and van stock used, reduce administration,  and improve health and safety (integrated panic buttons, risk assessments and vehicle checks), there have been benefits for the council’s employees and tenants, too;

· The tradespeople have a more balanced workload and a reduction in travel time and paperwork.
· The Council’s call centre can now offer tenants a same-day appointments service for the first time.
· An automated text service provides appointment reminders to tenants and, on the day, advises when someone is on their way. This improves the customer experience and reduces the number of missed appointments – a further boost to efficiency improvement.

Find out more in this short video;

Read more about the awards here and for more information on the mobile working solution used at Edinburgh contact Kirona.


Edinburgh Council

Filed Under: nomadGENERAL, nomadNEWS Tagged With: BT, building services, e-Government Awards, Edinburgh, Kirona, Mobile

Stress: Workplace Pressures

November 3, 2010 By Ken Eastwood Leave a Comment

Millions of British workers feel forced to lie to their bosses about having to take stress-induced sick leave, research reveals.

A study by leading mental health charity Mind, released to coincide with Stress Awareness Day (3 November), finds that talking about workplace pressures remains a huge taboo.

Stress has forced one in five workers (19 per cent) to call in sick, yet the vast majority of these (93 per cent) say they have lied to their boss about the real reason for not turning up, citing everything from stomach upsets, housing problems and the illness of a loved one as reasons for their absence.

However, few employees actually want to hide their stress levels from their bosses – 70 per cent wanted to be able to discuss stress with their employers, and one third want their boss to make the first move and approach them directly when they are showing signs of strain.

Paul Farmer, Chief Executive of Mind said;

“Millions of people experience unmanageable stress at work, and the fact that so many people feel forced to lie about it rather than finding a solution should be a major concern for our businesses. If employees don’t feel they can be honest about the pressures on them, problems that aren’t addressed can quickly snowball into low morale, low productivity and high sick leave. We’d urge employers to encourage a culture of openness at work so they can solve problems now, rather than storing up problems for the future.”

The Mind research also reveals that the majority of employees (62 per cent) feel their bosses aren’t doing enough to look after the workplace wellbeing of their staff, which may explain why stress has made one in five workers (21 per cent) physically ill and driven a further one in 10 into counselling.

And employers who ignore the problem of stress in their workplace could be putting their businesses in jeopardy. Previous figures show that businesses are losing an estimated £8.4bn through sick days caused by poor mental wellbeing.

Paul Farmer continued;

“Stress can be a taboo word in many workplaces, but pretending the problem isn’t there only makes things worse. Looking after stress levels and promoting a mentally healthy workplace reduces sick leave, helps staff to stay productive and ultimately saves hard-pressed businesses money. In the current climate, it will be increasingly hard for businesses to prosper with an unhappy and stressed workforce, so it’s vital they work with their employees to discuss pressures on staff before they escalate. When pressure is high, managers need to spend more time on leading and managing people, not less. Taking time out with an employee can seem like an extra burden for managers with their own set of targets to meet, but supporting staff properly will reduce absence, improve performance and benefit the company as a whole.”

The top five lies employees use when covering up their stress are;

Stomach upset – 36%
A cold – 13%
A headache – 12%
A medical appointment – 6%
Bad back – 5%

Mind’s guide for employers to tackle stress

  • Manage workloads among your staff. Make sure that no one is expected to deliver more than what they are capable of.
  • Train managers to identify risks, recognise stress and support their staff.
  • For staff working in isolation, ensure there are clear and regular lines of communication. A monthly team meeting or a regular phone catchup will keep you in contact with these members of staff and enable you to prevent problems from occurring.
  • Offer stress coaching and on-the-job support. Start a mentoring scheme to help new members of staff understand your organisation faster and to support them in their role. Or you could start a buddy system which enables colleagues to support other colleagues outside the official line-management structure.
  • Make sure that work environments are suitable for the task. Noise, temperature and light levels can all have a big impact on wellbeing. Could space dividers, quiet spaces or music improve your workplace?

For more information visit www.mind.org.uk/employment/employers

Filed Under: nomadGENERAL, nomadNEWS

Open Plan Office

October 28, 2010 By Ken Eastwood Leave a Comment

Great film made in just a few hours starring the Senior Management Team at Heemstede Municipality, before staff moved into their new building.

Hot desks and clear desk policies such difficult concepts for some! Willem van den Berg, CEO, features in the film and spoke at WorkTech2010 earlier this year.

Filed Under: nomadGENERAL, nomadWORKSTYLE

NDL Mobile Working Report

October 10, 2010 By Ken Eastwood Leave a Comment

Download a copy of the NDL Mobile Working Report

Nomad contributed to the NDL Mobile Working Report.

This year’s survey looks at the adoption and use of mobile technologies in two key areas; Personal Information Management (PIM) and Line of Business (LOB), comprising process applications rather than personal ‘apps’.

It revisits the distribution of mobile technology, the most popular applications, benefits, and the barriers to use.

Key findings include;

- Use of mobile technology for Personal Information Management is heavily restricted to senior management level and is not filtering down into other areas of the organisation.

- The number of Line of Business applications is growing, as is the range of applications for which mobile technology is being used.

- Mobile working is without doubt supporting the service transformation agenda, in particular by driving efficiency and improving service delivery.

- Environmental benefits are becoming more apparent.

- Cultural change and integration of existing applications are still the greatest barriers to successful mobile working.

Download the full report here.

Filed Under: nomadGENERAL
« Older Posts

Please Login

You are not currently logged in.






» Register
» Lost your Password?

Return to top of page

All rights reserved, public sector NOMADS. View Privacy Policy