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New Head of Operations appointed We are delighted to announce a new addition to the senior management team. Julia McCreadie has been promoted from her position as Operations Manager to Head of Facilities Management. Julia takes over at a time when FM is showing great signs of growth especially in schools’ catering. Julia told the Cordia View “I am delighted to take up my new job and I’m excited to address the challenges ahead. I am lucky to have the support of a strong team to help me develop the business.”

THE CORDIA VIEW

December 2011

About usThe Cordia View is the newsletter for all Cordia staff. It is published every two months.

CONTRACT SUCCESS AT GCUEncore Hospitality Services lands a £21M deal!

Encore Hospitality Services has won the catering contract at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), worth an estimated £21m over the contract period. The deal, for a four-year period with a three-year option, includes the provision of all catering and hospitality services for the university - and involves the management of six outlets for the use of GCU’s 1,800 staff and 16,000 students. Encore had previously held the GCU contract for the last 10 years.

David Melvin, Cordia’s managing director, said: "Make no mistake about it, this is a significant contract on a UK scale that was firmly on the radar of the biggest catering companies in the business. These companies brought their considerable resources to bear in a bid to take this work, and it is an outstanding achievement to have won it against such competition.

"The winning of any contract is cause for celebration. I believe the award of this contract shows recognition of the highly innovative approach we have brought to the table, in particular since the birth of Cordia, with a standard of quality provision that has resulted in a more than doubling of annual turnover.

"That we have won it is testament to the hard work and imagination of our head of commercial strategy David Potter and Frank McCabe, Encore’s in-house manager, whose team has developed and

grown a strong relationship with GCU over the last decade and two previous contracts.”

Therese Fraser, GCU’s Head of Campus Services, said: "GCU is looking forward to the challenges of catering for a diverse customer base which Universities now represent. Cordia have recognised the importance of our international offering while complementing the existing services. Their commitment to the University’s environmental agenda is to be commended".

Encore's relationship with GCU has seen a series of innovations and brand initiatives that have sought to recognise the beliefs and profile of both students and staff. These include; the introduction of Cafe Roots (a Fair Trade outlet); menus that recognise the ethnic diversity of GCU's students including the introduction of a special menu for African students; and the introduction of an electronic points reward system for staff dining where lecturers and support staff gain points for healthy eating.

We have also supported the University in a number of ways including support for MBA students and the Students’ Association charity initiativies.

Our picture shows Head Chef Brian Watson with students (l-r) Carla Fyfe and Sinead McIntosh

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Agreement reached with GMB to protect jobsDiscussions began in March 2010 to find a way forward to respond to a wage claim from

the trade unions for Cordia staff.

As an organisation, Cordia was clear that any wage award would have to self financing, as

there was no budget available to fund it. The issue was discussed with the trade unions for many

months before Cordia took the decision to implement a 0.65% pay increase. To ensure that this

increase was self-financing, it was linked to a change in the rates for overtime and the

enhancements paid for public holiday working.

Following on from this, Cordia and the trade unions continued to meet and a further two

offers were made by Cordia to resolve the position. All of the trade unions had a consultative

ballot with their members and the GMB members voted to accept the Collective Agreement.

This agreement with the GMB union will allows us to move forward in a positive way in difficult

financial times.

Cordia’s key objective is to safeguard jobs and services provided by Cordia staff and this is

also a key priority for the GMB members. This common view has resulted in a signed Collective

Agreement, applicable from 3 November 2011.

The key elements of this Collective Agreement are:

For the remaining trade unions that have been unable to sign up to this agreement at this

stage, we will leave it available on the exact same basis should they or their members wish to

reconsider their position.

This Collective Agreement between

Cordia and the GMB has taken a long time

to reach however both Cordia and the GMB

are convinced that this will safeguard jobs

and services provided by the organisation,

especially through the very challenging

economic times that will exist over the coming years.

This new agreement undoubtedly comes at a difficult time where hard decisions need to be

taken. We fully appreciate the valuable work that Cordia staff deliver day in day out and we

would like to thank all our staff who have supported this collective agreement.

ENCORE’S SMILING STAFF!

Our pictures show members of the Encore team as they go about their work in museums, theatres, leisure centres and iconic buildings such as the City Chambers. Encore employs over 450 members of staff and works in over 40 locations.

Over 90% of Cordia staff are now part

of this collective agreement.

• Enhanced payments for staff that worked on the September 2011

public holidays have been processed for payment on 29 November 2011

• The overtime differential for a 12 week period from 15 November 2010

to 5 February 2011 will be processed for payment by 27 December 2011 or

by 24 January 2012 at the latest

• Public holiday arrangements for the remaining eight public holidays in

2012 will be split into four days to be worked and four days will be defined

as public holidays. The four days to be worked, which will be subject to local

agreement, will be added to an individual’s annual leave entitlement, the

other four days will remain as public holidays.

• For staff that have to work on Christmas and New Year public holidays

this will attract an enhancement of double time or plain time plus a day in

lieu.

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Stephen Martin

Senior HR AssistantHow long have you worked in the public sector?For nearly eight years. What did you do previously?I worked in a cash and carry!Where are you from?Cambuslang.What do you enjoy about your job? I like meeting staff face to face that I’ve generally only dealt with on the phone.Career highlights?Promotion in October 2009 to my current role.What would make your job easier?I wish my computer would go a bit faster and do more of the thinking work for me!What are your hobbies?Watching and playing football.What would you have liked to have been?I was a keen tap-dancer when I was young (honestly) but I would have liked to have joined Strathclyde Police as a police officer.

STAFF FOCUSNew guidance on Social MediaIn its simplest terms, social media

sites are places on the world wide web

where people share information, photos,

videos and other information about

themselves and their lives. FaceBook and

Twitter are the most obvious examples.

Social media sites are good and

serve a lot of positive purposes

particularly as they allow you to express

yourself to friends and family. They are

also a great way to stay in touch with

those who don’t live locally to you.

However when people use social

media sites in relation to their work or

their work colleagues’ lines can be

blurred and issues raised. Cordia has

new guidelines in place to help you

protect yourself and to help Cordia

protect ourselves and our good name

when using social media sites. The main

point to note is that, if you bring Cordia

into disrepute in any way through your

comments or postings on any social

media site, even if it is in your own time

or using your own equipment, you could

face disciplinary procedures, if it is deemed

that the organisation’s code of conduct has

been breached. All the policies relating to

bullying, harassment or data protection

apply.

The following points are good advice

when engaging in social network activities:

The full guidelines on the use of social

media are available from your line manager

or directly from the Cordia extranet.

www.facebook.com/cordiaservicesllp

Technology changes home careOur new home care bases have given area operations managers and home care

co-ordinators a new place in which to work and engage with the organisation. Over

the initial period of these offices going live there was an obvious necessity to

introduce ICT training to support staff.

Led by Denise Hay, the ICT team has worked over the past few months to

increase both knowledge and confidence in the use of systems by home care staff.

Working with the home care team we seconded Cathy McKay, a home care co-

ordinator from the East of the city, to help us and to coach staff in each of the

bases. The mixture of classroom based support and support in the bases has really

helped skill levels rise. Training has included: Blackberry e-router; Home care

Annual Leave Planner; Public Holiday Spreadsheet; Laptop Training; 1-1 coaching

sessions and email training. Denise and Kathy have also made use of e-learning

material created by the BBC to support staff.

The whole approach to this training is to make it as relaxed and informal as

possible. Denise said “It’s really important that staff who have not used technology

before don’t feel intimidated. Our approach is to help build confidence slowly

ensuring that outcomes are achieved and confidence boosted every step of the

way.”

• “Think public.” If you

wouldn’t like what you are saying

being read by anyone don’t post it.

• Be aware that your written

comments can easily by mis-

interpreted

• Don’t post pictures of you in

the workplace doing silly things

• Don’t ever talk about home

care service users, other clients or

customers

• Ensure you have high privacy

settings activated on your social

networking accounts

• Remember other people are

quick to let Cordia know if they

notice an issue

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About The Cordia ViewEDITOR: Brendan Murphy

CONTRIBUTORS

Stephanie McDowall, Kirsty Loughrin

PHOTOGRAPHY

Ian Watson, Brendan Murphy

PUBLISHER

Cordia (Services) LLP Marketing

We want your ideasIf you have any news ideas or ideas for

stories then we really want to hear from

you. Either contact your line manager or

send to:

cordiaview@cordia.co.uk

All ideas for the magazine will be

considered.

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100 Borron Street

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GLASGOW

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e: cordiaview@cordia.co.uk

COMPETITIONFor a chance to win a fabulous first prize

of a £100 Tesco voucher or a runner-up

prize of two pairs of CineWorld cinema

tickets simply answer the following

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Q. What is the name of the social

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Email your answer to:

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January 2012 or send your answer with

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October winnersThe winners from our last issue competition were: Bernard Smith (Catering Manager)winning a £100 M&S voucher.Ann Gaughan (Home Carer)Patricia Scott (SVQ Co-ordinator)each winning a pair of CineWorld film tickets.

TSA AWARD WINNERS!Cordia’s Cathy Waddell and Chris Barton are pictured at a recent awards ceremony

in London. The awards were part of the “International Telecare and Telehealth

Conference 2011” and Cordia were there to receive an award for achieving TSA

accreditation for referral, monitoring and response relating to the alarm service we

provide to over 13,000 Glaswegians. This accreditation requires us to meet exacting

standards in the delivery of our service and we will be regularly audited against the

“Telecare Code of Practice” which is recognised across the industry.

 Chris said: “Our accreditation helped us

formalise all the processes and procedures

undertaken in the Response Centre. It

highlighted where services could be

streamlined or changed to improve the quality

of service delivery. Looking to the future it’s

great news for the Response Centre and for

Cordia.”

If you are a Facebook user then why not become a fan of our all new Cordia page? Remember, we have no way of seeing your

private information and you get first-hand news about Cordia!www.facebook.com/cordiaservicesllp