How important is flexible working for technologists?

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There’s no doubt about it. The number of technologists looking for flexible working is huge and is still growing! Over 70% of the hundreds of technologists we have surveyed are ideally either looking for part time or freelance roles, though would take a full-time role.

Flexible working is defined as either part-time or if a work pattern involves reduced hours, shift choices or the ability to work from home for some/all of the working week. It can provide flexibility on where, when and the hours they work. It could mean working part time or perhaps compressed hours. It could be freelancing.

Research from Timewise (Flexible working specialists) recently shows that the general population are even more keen for FWA (Flexible Working Arrangements) with 87% of people either currently with flexible arrangements or seeking to do so.

Despite this, employers have a long way to go to satisfy employees FWA needs, as less than one in ten jobs paying over £20,000/annum are advertised as being open to FWA’s in 2015 (www.ten2two.org). To put that into perspective, almost 90 percent of people are looking to move to flexible working, but only one in ten jobs offer flexible working!

It would seem that there are many benefits.  For employers, higher productivity and lower attrition rates and for employees – a better work life balance, less stress and greater contentment within roles.

However for these kinds of arrangements work well, organisations need to be flexible and ensure that individuals can be supported adequately.

This gap is slowly closing… A 2017 survey of over 250 businesses showed that 83% of employers agree that flexible working has benefited their business showing that they recognise the benefits aren’t just for the employees. And with the advances in technology, like broadband and video conferencing, flexible working has never been easier.

HARRY STEPHENS

ian morris

Essential tips when using Test Houses

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As a retailer or brand, large or small, your product will need testing at various stages of the product’s life cycle; product development, first bulk production (particularly if the product has a promotional benefit eg water resistant) , ‘Due Diligence’ testing of finished goods (a legal requirement) and customer compliant resolution – e.g. safety related injury, skin irritation, loose dye staining, etc.

Choosing the test house group (or groups) to work with

Assuming you elect to work with one of the major global test house groups, you will know they all have the majority of their testing capability covering the same main areas of colour fastness, physical, safety, and chemical analysis testing.

On the surface – it may appear that only the price of testing is the distinguishing factor between the organisations.

I would suggest that, based upon over three decades of experience at a major UK retailer, whilst price is key, the following are arguably even more important to consider for a technical team at a retailer or brand:

  1. Globally recognised credibility- Important, so that if a test report with its name on could, in a legally contested issue, stand up to scrutiny in a court of law, or with a very demanding customer or local authority
  2. Location of laboratories- Is the test house group represented in the key sourcing countries your company uses? If not, and samples need to be flown to a nearby (or remote) country for key tests, time is lost, and it may be difficult to speak to the actual technician who carried out the test, in the case of a query.
  3. Global experts- In critical speciality areas e.g. chemical analysis (referred to last month by my former colleague Phil Patterson), does the test house group have a series of ‘global experts’ to call upon in cases of complex issues to be resolved, offering expert opinions, or providing know-how on standards and legislation?
  4. Interpretation of results service-Is the test house group primarily set up to just deliver reports, and leave it to you, the retailer, to read and interpret those reports? Or do they offer, as part of their service, an accessible team of experts who can offer interpretation of the results? This can be very important if you have new technologists in your team, who may not always have the experience to understand, for example, ‘borderline’ test results.
  5. Liaison- Does the test house have a knowledgeable liaison team who regularly visit your offices, or possibly, if the business is large enough, are prepared to have an Intern from their organisation based within your buying office?
  6. Special projects- When these arise e.g. benchmarking one of your products against its equivalent being sold by other retailers, do they have the resource and project management skills to manage and deliver this effectively?

Many retailers and brands choose to have two (or more) test house partners, partly to ensure that price competitiveness between the laboratories is actively challenged, but also because certain test houses may not always be represented in every sourcing country, or key location, whereas its competitor may be.

Finally, I would recommend that whilst links with the test houses should primarily be with the product specific technologist in the buying office, appointing a central technical expert, or small team, to be the businesses’ key link, can ensure that standards, projects, and new test method development, are all effectively managed and coordinated across the organisation.

IAN MORRIS

The secrets of building a global technical team

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Only this week, I was kindly asked to speak at an event for a major retailer about my experience of building and leading a global technical team. My journey started in 2005 when we were trying to make a case to open a small number of overseas technical offices to support the day to day technical activities of quality, ethical standards, factory quality assurance systems, finding new suppliers …. etc. Little did I know that 10 years later I would be the Director of Technology & Sourcing leading eight sourcing offices around the world!

Outlined below are the key challenges, watch outs and opportunities when building or evolving a global technical team:

Positivity – each member of the UK technical team must believe that a global technical team is stronger, for the business, than a UK centric team. For any chance of success negative chatter must stop – “it will never work, can we trust our overseas teams? who’s fault is it if it goes wrong?…” etc. Just remember there is no such thing as a perfect world – things will go wrong and there will never be total clarity in modern businesses.

Keep it Simple – you can process map until the cows come home and try  writing down who performs each task and who’s accountable for every part of the process across every product. I would suggest it is impossible to write down every eventuality. Instead have simple guiding principles around a few key processes. For example, for a brand where quality is important the guiding principle might be – the UK teams develop, agree and sign off product specifications and the sourcing teams ensure the product is manufactured to those standards.

Focus on what’s important– the business should have one strategy. Everyone, particularly the overseas team should understand the key priorities. If you understand the big picture then local decision making and work load prioritisation becomes easier. Unfortunately, the overseas teams can become out of touch for no fault of their own; UK teams must constantly update the overseas teams of business strategy and priorities.

Don’t be a maverick– the business needs one way of working with a few common-sense variations, not 51. If you do your own thing, the suppliers and sourcing offices will get totally confused as they often work across multiple departments and industries. Their job is hard enough as it is without trying to operate across multiple buying processes.

Play in position – UK teams should be customer focussed, developing excellent products, looking at the competition and driving innovation. The overseas teams should be focused on manufacturing excellence, ensuring company policies and standards are met around ethics, chemicals, safety …etc. The UK teams must stop being control freaks and let go of certain activities!

Be one team – don’t slag off your colleagues as the suppliers will have a field day and play divide and conquer. It’s very easy to blame a sourcing office or the UK team and suggest that you would have made a different decision. Don’t undermine each other!

Clear communication– UK teams must be very clear with what they want as some cultures will literally do exactly what you’ve said and will not interpret information. Overseas teams do not need to write two pages when all they are trying to say is “I’ve rejected the fabric for poor colour fastness”. Feedback of good and poor communication as it happens should take place.

Keep travelling– avoid the dangerous binary conversation around overlap and duplication. Teams must travel to continue to seek out opportunities, build strong relationships …etc

Grasp the opportunity– if you are lucky enough to work for an organisation that has taken the brave decision to invest in a global technical team then make it work. For the UK technical teams, this is your chance to do all the things you want to do, which is really about focussing on the customer.

KRISHAN HUNDAL