ULR/Education Report
Go On Manchester
The recent official launch of the campaign has now culminated in HR/OD introducing a staff engagement questionnaire to determine who has no e-mail address and no access to the intranet in their workplace.
The staff will be asked to complete an on line form with support from the ULRs for those that need it. This should also generate an audit of digital skills and encourage staff to enrol in basic ICT skills, Maths and English courses.
In 2013 the introduction of Employee Self Service and on line wage slips will mean access to the intranet is crucial.
The campaign has now launched its own web page go-on-manchester with lots of information about the campaign and an opportunity to sign up as a digital champion. Digital Champions are what will drive the success of the campaign and I recently met with University of Manchester NUS who are now publicising Go On Manchester and will be actively participating in the campaign.
Housing Associations/RSLs are undoubtedly the sector that will suffer the most if tenants are not encouraged and enabled to access their benefits through Universal Credit. I have attended a number of meetings with social landlords, with many more to come, to ensure that they are fully aware of support that is available. This has also led to discussions about setting up ULR networks in their workplaces to encourage training and learning for their own employees. The outcome has been very positive and those discussions are being followed up vigorously.
National Stress Awareness Day
There will be a 2 day collaborative event with Trade Unions and MCC on the 6th & 7th November to mark the day with events and seminars arranged such as “Mindfulness”, an on line Stress Test drop in session, Heartmath, The Menopause, Windmills and others.
The GMB learning bus will take the event out across the City to give those staffs that are not city centre based the opportunity to participate. On 2 of the sites the public will be able to attend if they so wish.
The Town Hall Learning Centre/Town Hall will be the main focus in the city centre for the 2 day event with a satellite venue at First Street.
There will be a broadcast to all digitally included staff and posters/flyers sent out to depots, offices and other sites where paper is still the chosen format for communications.
Training & Learning
There will be series of training opportunities coming soon that will hopefully encourage members to participate in the union in a non confrontational role.
Health Champions linked to Health & Wellbeing and in particular in issues involving Mental Health Awareness and other health related problems. There is currently a pilot Mental Health Awareness training course running and I hope that, in the future, the course will run in the branch and actively encourage members who have an interest in Health & Wellbeing to come forward as Health Champions.
So sign up as ULR or a Digital Champion and watch out for the Health Champions role.
