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A warm welcome to Edition Two of KSNEWS and I confess, I am still reeling from the overwhelming wave of enthusiasm and commitment generated from our Annual National conference held at Latimer house in March. I personally felt it was our best ever, with an incredible amount covered in a little over a day and a half. Newly appointed staff were treated to the warmth and friendliness that KS are now famous for and it gave long-standing members of staff a chance to pass on their experience and share in their long service celebrations with a glass of bubbly. So a very big thank you goes out to all staff who worked so hard to make the conference such a success.
Women in Security – Southwark is Expanding At a time when many other providers seem to be retracting and retrenching, KS are proud to be launching a very exciting, major new LSC/ESF funded Programme - Women in Security - which started on the 1st April at our new site in Southwark. Andy and the Team at OID, our office shopfitters, worked tirelessly over Easter to ensure our new centre was up and running after the Easter break. The programme offers comprehensive training for any women interested in working within the Security Industry. This doesn’t just mean the traditional roles of "frisking" people at Airports but a whole host of opportunities, including the sexier work at Film Premieres, Award Ceremonies. It is also proving to be a highly flexible job, often entailing part-time or early evening work, which can be slotted in around family commitments. Lone Parent Advisors - take note - this could be exactly what you are looking for. Lee Cousins and the WIS team have generated a great deal of interest in a short time and it is looking promising for the first intake at the beginning of May. Anyone interested in referring clients from Jobcentre Plus please contact Annie Rumley on 020 7407 0759.
Performance – Support and Development As I highlighted in my address at the conference, KS is in the midst of a cultural shift and in keeping with this shift towards a more focused Job Broking operation, we have just launched a new initiative at Holloway Road, where we are taking the traditional Centre Manager role to a new level, namely that of a Business Manager. For Zehra Ekrem, at Holloway, this now means she is in charge of a much wider remit which involves the performance, success and future development of the entire centre. It is our intention to launch a programme of support to equip Business Managers with the skills needed to grow and develop their centres, beyond existing funding streams to encompass more holistic solutions for the local communities, local and national employers. VREC will also offer excellent support to Business Managers at local level, as it provides extensive reporting from the new fields we now need for accurate Job Matching and comprehensive ethnicity data for our internal analysis at Head Office. Contact Frank Overland our Systems Manager on 0207 263 0203 for more information.
Business Planning Looking to the future, business planning is mainly concentrated on the work of the Business Development Team in their efforts to secure a new and diverse range of contracts. Our plan is to achieve sustainable growth ensuring a bright and prosperous future for KS and all our stakeholders.
Strategy Away Day This April saw the return of KS staff to the Latimer Conference Centre. Senior management met to discuss strategies for developing the company. Chris Towers, an external facilitator took us through a strategic planning process and from this we developed strategies to consolidate and build on the high level of growth that KS has already experienced.
Exceeding Targets Achieving targets is one thing and we are entitled to celebrate those projects who, in particular, have managed to consistently exceed them. Our focus for the future however, is more strategically on exceeding targets, whilst maintaining our very high standards and replicating them on new programmes, wherever we are invited to go.
Urmish Patel, our Employer Liaison Officer, has some major recruitment drives, often providing exclusive access to jobs for KS clients before they go to launch.
We need to work closely with Jobcentre Plus to ensure that we are working together in the most effective way to secure and place clients and fortify our long-term relationships with many major employers including;- NCP, Lexis Nexis, American Express, Drakes Group and many more. The next few months will be challenging and eventful I am sure, with some major opportunities coming our way. I know that all the team at Kennedy Scott will welcome these opportunities and the chances for us all to develop, as we shape the future of our company.
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