Is redundancy a problem or an opportunity?
Friday 15 May, 2009
The Newbury Business Group met this morning and it was a tight fit as our reputation for being the foremost networking organisation in West Berkshire continues to precede us and today had attracted many guests!
Naturally as the chairman I would say that, but ask any of our members and they too will start raving about the brilliant business networking expertience at Newbury Business Group, which is not for profit and only exists to benefit its members.
I had brought two guests along this morning: Gary Cranford is the Business Manager for the West Berkshire Chamber of Commerce, part of the Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce, who avid readers will have recognised from yesterday’s blog post on a seminar I gave on Organic PR. He was laughing when I introduced him to other members and guests as a matchmaker, but honestly he find out about the Chamber’s members, what they need, who they would like to work with... and then he will try and facilitate it. See matchmaking!
My other guest was broadcast journalist Jeanette Britton, formerly of Meridian; she has launched a corporate video company, Clayton Media, that combines her considerable skills with that of professional cameramen and editing expertise of her former colleagues to offer television broadcast standards for corporate filming.
My relationship with ITV goes way back to chasing some of the same stories as a journalist and then being regularly interviewed as a Thames Valley Police press officer. Jeanette has interviewed me quite a few times and most recently when Morgan PR was interviewed about marketing your way out of the recession.
Both produced great one minutes as did everyone else in the room, with some earning applause for their educational or business value.
Members also take turns giving a 10 minute presentation each week and it was Michelle Lucas a terrific career coach, from Greenfields Consultancy. Last week she had asked the members who knew someone who had been made redundant to raise their hands – and almost all did. So for her 10 minutes she posed the question:
“Is Redundancy a Problem or an Opportunity?”
Michelle said that certainly redundancy can be a problem. It can cause financial pressures; there may be fear about re-entering the job market and it is not uncommon for people who are defined by their jobs to lose their sense of identity when they lose their jobs.
However, as Michelle illustrated, redundancy can also provide an opportunity. She said: “Few people really know ‘what they want to be when they grow up’ and redundancy may be a chance to pursue something different. Most people are so busy coping with the 9-5 that they do not take time out to examine what they want and while many people have a huge tool-kit of skills yet they have stayed with what they know. Redundancy can certainly be an opportunity.”
She then revealed she was launching a ‘Which Way Now?’ workshop that was aimed squarely at professionals who have recently been made redundant or believe they soon could be! The kind of people that we as members could refer would be professionals who want to re-evaluate what they do as a career, because their job market had been squeezed, they want to re-think what is really right for them or perhaps they can afford to re-think what is right for them.
She plans to host the one day work shop locally once a month, working in small groups of no more than eight people, with individual support both before and after. There would be a pre-workshop coaching session with Michelle to help ensure ready and focused for the day and homework to prepare before the structured workshop with formal input plus the time to reflect and discuss with people in the same situation.
She explained, “There will be a morning of exercises that help structure people’s thoughts and draw out when they know about themselves already and then we would use the afternoon to make sense of all the information and turn it into action plan.”
The fees for this support are only £200 including VAT per person, and it includes pre-work pack, two 20 minute phone coaching sessions and the one day workshop. Optional components available include full Emotional Intelligence assessment; additional coaching sessions, CV writing and interview preparation.
Visit Michelle’s website if you are interested, or know someone who would benefit – I know after such a good 10 minutes many members will be surely referring redundant friends and associates at this challenging time.
She finished up with a suitable quote:
“It’s never too late to change what you want to be when you grow up ….!”
You can learn more about The Newbury Business Group here.