Greater Manchester Buses (South), better known as Stagecoach have been ordered to pay £41,000 to former employee Jayson Andrews after a tribunal ruled that former employee Jayson Andrews, who has a disability, suffered discrimination and harassment at their hands when his shift pattern affected his life-threatening condition.

Andrews resigned from Stagecoach, following what his solicitor said was ‘appalling treatment’ by the bus company after Andrews struggled to maintain regular attendance at the company’s Stockport depot due to the effects of his medication.

Leading Employment Solicitor Danielle Ayres of Gorvins Solicitors, who represented Andrews, assisted him in the claim for wrongful dismissal, disability discrimination and constructive unfair dismissal against his former employers in the Manchester Employment Tribunal.

After an initial hearing lasting 5 days, the Tribunal panel agreed that Mr Andrews was harassed and unlawfully discriminated against by Stagecoach and that they had breached their obligation to make reasonable adjustments to help and support Mr Andrews.

After a further hearing to decide on an appropriate remedy for Mr Andrews, the Tribunal awarded Mr Andrews just short of £41,000, with an injury to feelings award of £16,500.
The tribunal ruled that Mr Andrews should not have been given formal warnings about his sickness absence related to his condition, nor should he have been told that his job was risk if his attendance did not improve.

Stagecoach failed to support Mr Andrews by not providing him with a shift pattern or alternative work that would have enabled him to take his medication at set times each day and attend specialist clinic appointments. The judgement condemned Stagecoach management who insisted that Mr Andrews changed his medication so that his sickness absence levels would go down, saying he would otherwise face losing his job.

Stagecoach opposed Mr Andrews’ legal claims and placed him on cost warnings throughout the case, saying his claims had no merit and even asked his Unite Trade Union Rep to appear as a witness for them.

Andrews Solicitor, Danielle Ayres (above) welcomed the decision, saying:

“It is fantastic that the discriminatory treatment and harassment that Mr Andrews faced at Stagecoach has been recognised by the Tribunal.

For a long time he felt side-lined, dejected and alone due to them acting as if his condition was a burden to them. He was ready, willing and able to work, however, Stagecoach completely failed in their duty of care towards him.”

While a recent announcement that doctors and nurses will now be exempt from Tier 2 visa caps, enabling the NHS to recruit skilled professionals from overseas, many within the industry are concerned that a poor talent pipeline could lead to major skills gaps in the long term.

Specialist healthcare recruitment consultancy, Healthier Recruitment has warned that the breadth of career options within healthcare must be promoted to school and university leavers if we want to build a strong pipeline of UK healthcare talent.

Market analysis of the firm’s key specialisms has also identified the most sought-after clinical roles across the UK, most of which already feature on the Government’s current Shortage Occupation List (SOL).

1. Accident and Emergency Doctors – There is currently an acute shortage of doctors to work in A&E departments, which is highlighted in the current SOL. As such, permanent professionals with experience in this area are highly sought after.

2. Radiographers – HPC registered radiographers are in short supply nationally, with the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) recently admitting that there is ‘no end in sight’ for the current staffing crisis. The organisation also revealed that the NHS spent nearly £88 million in 2016 paying for backlogs of radiology examinations to be reported – the equivalent to the salaries of 1,028 full-time consultants.

3. Mental Health Nurses – while the availability of permanent nursing talent across the board is notoriously sparse, experienced mental health nurses at band 5 and above are particularly sought-after. The Care Quality Commission has highlighted a crash in numbers over the past seven years as ‘underpinning’ a range of concerns facing the sector and we are currently seeing a boom in demand for ANP level professionals to be placed into mental health settings.

4. Occupational Health Nurses – We are currently seeing a rise in demand for occupational health nurses to work closely with employee line managers and HR professionals to promote good health in the workplace and reduce sickness rates. The shortage of candidates for these roles can be attributed to the fact that this route is not promoted as a viable career path.

5. Health Care Assistants – while HCAs are, in theory, relatively easy to source, finding the quality and volume of talent that trusts need at this level is a perpetual challenge for internal hiring managers. High levels of turnover exacerbate the situation, bogging down internal hiring managers whose time would be better spent on recruiting for specialist, niche roles.

Commenting on the shortages, Michael Johnson-Ellis, Managing Director at Healthier Recruitment, said:

“Local and national skills shortages mean that public sector organisations can struggle to recruit desperately needed healthcare professionals. However, while there are widespread perceptions that NHS trusts and other healthcare organisations must look to overseas to source the skills they need, we must begin by managing existing talent pools more effectively.

“For example, relying on temps and locums to fill positions better suited to permanent staff or those on fixed-term contracts erodes resources, while a failure to inspire and engage emerging talent pools will result in poor availability of skills moving forward.

“We must focus on creating a healthier NHS through best-practice workforce strategy. In order to advert ongoing skills shortages it is vital to combine efficient workforce planning in the short-term, and effective talent pipelining for the future.” 

New Research from Group Risk Development (GRiD), the industry body for the group risk protection sector, reveals that larger employers with over 250 employees have significantly more absence management issues than smaller businesses.

The study, which spoke to HR decision makers, reveals:

• Companies with over 250 employees have the highest absence rates – averaging 7.5 days per year.
• Micro businesses with between 1-9 staff only see their staff take an average of 2.8 days absence per year.

Worryingly, 5% of HR decision makers also admitted to not recording or monitoring absence at all.  This is more prevalent amongst SMEs (6%) than those with over 250 employees (1%), however this equates to nearly 300,000** businesses across the UK who have no way of measuring how often staff are off sick, whether they have a legitimate reason for being off work or whether specific individuals take more sick leave than others.

Furthermore, 55% of large businesses believe they have a higher sickness absence rate than their industry average, with 25% of these putting this down to ineffective absence management. This begs the question why they aren’t doing more to prevent it.

Katharine Moxham, spokesperson for GRiD, believes that one issue to explore is that many organisations may not know that support for employers, line managers and employees exists at no extra cost via group risk products (employer-sponsored life assurance, income protection and critical illness protection benefits). She said:

“Employers that get the most from their group risk products don’t simply rely on them for an insurance payment, but use the inbuilt services to help keep people at work and also to facilitate a quick return to work – even in cases where no claim is made.”

Day one intervention

GRiD also stresses that some group risk products offer ‘day one intervention’ meaning that employers get help to manage workplace absence and employees are supported from the first day they are off work.

GRiD also points out that, in many cases, absence issues are not clear-cut for an employer: a combination of issues can cause a member of staff to be off work, and each issue may require a slightly different type of help. Musculoskeletal conditions may benefit from fast access to physiotherapy. Other absentees may need a second medical opinion. Employees suffering from stress or mental health problems may benefit from fast-tracked access to talking therapies or from utilising an Employee Assistance Programme, as would someone struggling with relationship problems, addiction, childcare or eldercare responsibilities. All of this support can be made available within group risk benefits.

Moxham continued:

“No single organisation can expect to be an expert on every one of the issues its staff faces but, via the right group risk product, they can provide access to help, which can enable people to stay at or return to work, thus earning a salary and retaining a sense of normality.

“There are two sorts of communication strategies required here: the first is to make sure all staff know that support is available to help them stay in or get back to work. The second, which is often overlooked, is about how line managers can signpost their staff better to support and help the Board improve absence reporting and management.

“Keeping tabs on every single member of staff at a larger firm is by no means an easy feat – particularly for companies whose staff travel between or work in multiple locations. However, many of these companies may well already have group risk products in place whereby they can access support for individuals and the organisation as a whole, without requiring any additional expertise or spend.

“Where an organisation currently doesn’t buy in to group risk, we would certainly encourage them to consider it as, by offering such products to staff, management will benefit from an absence solution too.”

A new report from the Association of Professional staffing (APSCo) has identified that the recruitment profession has a vital role to play in supporting the growth of the Scottish economy.

The report, entitled ‘The Beating Heart of the Scottish Economy‘, discusses the future of work in Scotland and features insight from recruitment leaders including Managing Director of Bright Purple, Paul Curry, CEO of BE-IT Resourcing, Gareth Biggerstaff, and Director of Aspen People, Nigel Fortnum, also highlights the importance of flexible working, and the role of APSCo members in boosting productivity and dynamism in the labour market.

With a recent report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) revealing that Scotland is facing challenges in the supply and demand for skills, APSCo’s research also explores how apprenticeships, self-employment, and the impact of Brexit will influence recruitment and how the role of the sector must be recognised as a driver of productivity.

Commenting on the report, Regional Director at APSCo, Moya Rylands says:

“The recruitment profession is valuable in supporting business growth and boosting the Scottish economy. With employment in the country at its highest rate, our members are keen to work alongside the Government and others to reduce skills gaps and increase productivity. Equipped with the personal knowledge on the skills and careers most valuable to individuals and the economy as whole, many of our members on the ground are already working in partnerships with schools, businesses and Skills Scotland.”

“It’s clear from our research, that in order to support the development of talent, the Government must increase access to existing apprenticeship funds for Scottish businesses and continue to develop apprenticeship programs. APSCo members working in tandem with Scottish Enterprise will also help both sides to gain an understanding of the skills demand and motivate more individuals working in the sector to cement long term growth for the country.”

Guest blog by Liam Butler, AVP EMEA, SumTotal, a Skillsoft company

A recent survey found that more than 55% of UK workers are unhappy in their job.  Chronic unhappiness within a job role can lead to an employee quitting their job or failing to perform.  According to research by the University of Warwick, happy employees are around 12% more productive, using their time more effectively and increasing the pace they can work without sacrificing quality.

A positive environment can lead to increased productivity and employee engagement, greater satisfaction amongst the workforce and improved business ROI.  There are a number of methods that businesses can employ to help boost employee productivity and engagement.  Below you can find three simple areas to focus on that can have tangible results:

1. Offer flexible working time

For many employers, work/life balance remains a difficult issue, despite attempts to improve this balance for employees.  However, while the primary intention is to provide some relief to employees who feel overworked and stressed, addressing the balance also gives them an opportunity to work when they are at their most receptive and productive.  Few people are capable of continued concentration over long periods and reports suggest that shorter working days could ultimately drive greater productivity.

By having a more flexible working culture and allowing workers to take themselves out of the office, employers can see improvements to efficiency and productivity.   If employees are working in environments that they perceive to be more conducive to work, they are more engaged, happier and output is likely to be greater.

2. Offer Learning & Development programmes

Today’s workforce values greater flexibility, recognition of achievement and better opportunities for personal and professional development, often over financial incentives.

Many organisations have come to realise that almost 80% of employees will stay longer if they can see a career path within the company.  However, with the dissolution of traditional career ladders, demonstrating this can be challenging for employers.  By allowing employees to explore desired roles within their organisation, L&D initiatives can help them see where the opportunities are and where they have gaps in their experience.  They can also connect employees to the relevant learning they need to progress a career in their chosen direction.

While advancements in technology have fuelled the need for continual training across multiple sectors, they have also enhanced the processes and platforms that enable employees to access information and increase their skills and knowledge.  With the introduction of big data and advanced analytics processing, HR departments can now automate the process of monitoring learner progress and allocating relevant content to help learners achieve both their personal goals and the objectives set by the business.

To attract workers and ensure that they remain happy, motivated and productive, businesses will need to integrate professional development opportunities into their benefits packages.

3. Think about employee benefits

Employee benefits are an easy way to increase employee happiness and engagement.  From gym memberships to company cars, it is these ‘extras’ that are perhaps more sought after than monetary remuneration – or at least ‘make or break’ a decision to leave a company.  In the current employment landscape, which now includes a large proportion of Millennials, many employees are happy to switch jobs every few years.  Offering good employee benefits is playing an increasingly important role in the attraction and retention of desired talent.  If a business is struggling with this, adding a few interesting benefits can be a ‘quick win’ and go a long way to retaining current employees.

As Richard Branson – one of the most recognisable figures in UK business – famously said:

“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” 

Great leaders know that improving employee engagement has a significant impact on business performance, and this is now a top priority for many companies.  Embrace making employees happier and reap the rewards: better financial performance, higher customer satisfaction, higher employee retention, and more productive employees.

New research commissioned by Centrify has revealed that more than a third of senior executives perceive that younger employees are the “main culprits” for data security breaches in the workplace.

More worrying is that the study also reveals that despite these concerns, the c-suite have taken little action to prevent their perceived ‘culprits’ from accessing critical data.

The study reported that over a third of 18-24-year olds were able to access any files on their company network and only one in five had to request permission to access specific files. Less than half (43%) were found to have access only to the files that are relevant to their work.

The study, conducted by Censuswide, sought the views of 1,000 next generation workers (18-24 year olds) and 500 decision makers in UK organisations to discover how security, privacy and online behaviour at work impacts the lives of younger employees and the companies that they work for.

While password sharing tops the list at 56 per cent as to what keeps decision makers awake at night, 29 per cent of younger workers reveal that they are in the driving seat when it comes to password changes with their employers leaving it to them to decide when they need a password change. Furthermore 15 per cent of them admit to freely sharing passwords with colleagues.

Attitudes to social media and online behaviour

Asked how younger employees could negatively impact the workplace, 47 per cent of decision makers admitted they worry about them sharing social media posts and the impact these could have on brand and reputation.

One in 5 employee respondents admitted they were not bothered about how their social media activity might affect their employers – and 18 per cent freely admit that their posts could compromise employers’ security and privacy policies. Less than half say their company has social media guidelines in place, highlighting the need for strong social media access controls that follow the principles of a ‘Zero Trust’ approach to security, which assumes that users inside a network are no more trustworthy than those outside the network.

When it comes to this generation of workers, 40 per cent of decision makers are concerned about their misuse of devices, while 35 per cent say they are too trusting of technology and 30 per cent worry they share company data too easily.

Young workers ‘too relaxed’, say senior executives

While 79 per cent of decision makers report having a strong security policy in place and 74 per cent of them think that their employees abide by it, over a third (37 per cent) feel that young workers are too relaxed about security policies.

Decision makers also say the next generation of workers have a good awareness of the Dark Web (87 per cent), underground hacking (79 per cent) and crimeware (81 per cent). Although around half (48 per cent) say they have strict guidelines in place for employees accessing these new ‘dark arts’, 39 per cent feel they could be better.

“Some may think of younger workers as always online, always ready to share information and perhaps not being as concerned about privacy or security as older workers, but we must remember they are the business leaders of tomorrow and we must help not hinder them,” comments Barry Scott, CTO EMEA, Centrify.

“While it’s clear that employers are concerned about this new generation entering the workforce – and see them as a potential risk to both the business and brand – these same companies are perhaps guilty of not putting in place the right security processes, policies and technologies. If you give employees access to any information at any time from any place, or fail to enforce strict password and security policies, they are likely to take full advantage, putting both their own jobs at risk as well as the company itself.”

Millenials don’t pose any special risks – but untrained staff do, say security experts

Cybersecurity Expert for leading IT Services provider ITCS, Wayne Harris said that his actual experiences don’t prove perceptions that millenials pose any more risk than other employees.  Wayne said:

“The results of this study are concerning.  It shows that our senior executives still don’t have a clue about cybersecurity and are making fear-led decisions based on preconceptions and judgements rather than actual risk assessments.  

“All employees lead busy lives and are under occupational stresses that can lead to them making poor security decisions.  While millenials may freely share passwords, older staff may leave them on a sticky note attached to their screen, ignore a virus warning or walk away from their desk without logging out, because they don’t appreciate the risks these practices pose.  Every staff member should be viewed as insecure unless they have received security awareness training.

“Well trained staff add a layer of security protection, whereas untrained staff add additional risk – and no employee, including executives themselves, should have free access to more information than they need to do their job.  If senior executives want peace of mind in a high-risk business climate, they should start by implementing robust security practices and investing in staff training for ALL age groups – urgently.”

Barry Scott, CTO EMEA, Certify agrees:

“Traditional network perimeters are dissolving and security professionals must adopt a Zero Trust approach that assumes bad actors are already on the network. With Zero Trust Security we verify every user, validate their device and limit their access to only the resources they need, and use machine learning to ensure the resulting improved security has no impact on efficiency. Let’s be clear that Zero Trust Security is not saying we’ve lost trust in our employees, but rather it enables them to work exactly the same way wherever they are, and provides the company with a stronger security posture.”

The Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), which represents many recruitment organisations within the UK, has welcomed this month’s announcement that NHS doctors and nurses will be excluded from restrictions to the number of visas granted to skilled non-EU migrant workers.

The number of Tier 2 visas offered to skilled workers outside the EEA and Switzerland is currently limited to 20,700 people a year. According to data obtained by the Financial Times, 2,630 of 3,599 Tier 2 visa applications submitted by non-EU doctors were refused in the five-months to April 2018, despite crippling staff shortages across the NHS.

APSCo’s 2018 Market Survey found that 26% of healthcare recruiters are currently experiencing skills shortages, with 87% of those recruiting highly skilled workers expecting access to talent to worsen in the next two years.

Commenting on the announcement, Samantha Hurley, Director of Operations at APSCo, said:

“It’s no secret that Britain has been built on skilled talent from overseas and the decision to remove doctors and nurses from the UK’s restrictive visa regime is an entirely sensible one.
“Our members have long reported that finding healthcare professionals to work within the NHS is becoming increasingly difficult, and with Brexit on the horizon many foresee the situation worsening.

“This move should also help to marginally ease talent shortages elsewhere, with visas currently issued to doctors, nurses and other health professionals each year becoming available to other sectors. However, it is our view that immigration policy may have to be reviewed more widely if we are to retain access to the volume of skilled professionals the UK economy needs after we leave the EU.”

Recruiters responded positively to the news.

Michael Johnson-Ellis, Managing Director at Healthier Recruitment, said the decision was necessary:

“It is unfathomable that NHS Trusts are desperately crying out for permanent specialist staff while healthcare professionals who are qualified and willing to fill open vacancies are being told they are not welcome.

“As an organisation which is on the front line of recruitment into the NHS, we understand the challenges that many Trusts are facing to recruit the skills they need to give patients the service they deserve and maintain patient safety.

“While there is, of course, a place for agency staff, for too long all gaps have been habitually filled by temporary workers to the detriment of continuity of care. And, with the NMC register recording a significant fall in the number of EU nurses since the referendum, something most definitely had to give.”

Philip Braham, co-founder of specialist doctor recruiters Remedium Partners said they were ‘delighted’ by the announcement:

“We are hopeful that this decision will go a long way towards removing the NHS’s reliance on expensive agency locum doctors as a short-term solution to staffing gaps.

“Given that a single locum can cost as much as £100,000 in agency fees alone, the NHS not only stands to save significant amounts of money long term, but it will be better placed to provide patients with continuity of care due to a much larger pool of permanent doctors.

“While today’s decision marks an exciting period of transformation for the NHS, Trusts will need to focus on strategic workforce planning strategies that not only attract overseas doctors to work in their hospitals, but also retain them on a long term basis. Support with relocation, the development of robust induction programmes and access to ongoing professional development will be crucial to the success of Trusts’ long term attraction and retention strategies.”

Safety app specialists StaySafe have launched IncidentEye, an app that allows companies to quickly locate and monitor the safety of their staff in the event of a terror attack or other emergency.

IncidentEye, which is compatible with both Android and iOS devices, is a smartphone app and cloud-based hub which allows an employer to rapidly locate and protect employees during an emergency.

The solution has been developed in response to the growing number of incidents, both man-made and natural, that are affecting businesses around the world.

“Recent years have seen a rise in terror attacks and active shooter incidents, whilst climate change experts predict that warmer temperatures and high tides will continue to increase the number of natural disasters occurring” comments Don Cameron, CEO, StaySafe.

“These events are unpredictable and can cause considerable panic and disruption, both to staff and business operations. IncidentEye provides organisations with an effective way to instantly respond in the event of an emergency and monitor the wellbeing of their staff. The app provides real-time information to instantly ascertain where employees are located, ringfence those in the area and communicates with them until everyone is accounted for, with minimal disruption to the rest of the workforce”.

The app, which lies dormant on staff phones until an incident is triggered by their employer, uses location data to establish if any employees the in the danger zone and prompt them to check in safely. The app can then be used to communicate with affected staff, sharing up to date safety information and warning any near-by employees to avoid the area until the incident is resolved. Status information and communications are also tracked throughout and are saved as a report and audit trail.

Owen Loeffellechner, Chief Safety & Security Officer at Bank of New Zealand is one of the first clients to go live with the new app.

“The safety and well-being of our people is paramount and so we are continuously looking at ways we can exercise our duty of care better.” states Loeffellechner.

“As a business, we have a large national footprint consisting of many locations, including an active mobile workforce. The combination of these elements, industry related risks and a country that can be subjected to earthquakes means emergency communication is essential.

We are therefore very pleased to have adopted IncidentEye as our emergency communication service. We believe in times of an emergency this will contribute significantly to our capability to confirm the welfare status of our people and provide a timely response, or to proactively communicate about serious threats”

Colin Hay, Vice President Sales UK at Puzzel, discusses why contact centre employers should not forget about their employees as the deployment of tech becomes more widespread.

In the late 1980s, contact centres became welcome sources of employment as soft skills in the growing service industry replaced traditional manual skills in the manufacturing sector. Today, around 6,200 customer-service centres in the UK employ nearly 1.3 million people (i) but that workforce is facing challenges itself as consumers embrace digital technologies. The latest predictions from ContactBabel estimate that 45,700 jobs will disappear from the sector between now and 2021 (ii).

Anne-Marie Stagg, chief executive of the Call Centre Management Association, believes machine-learning, which is inspiring a whole new world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), is the culprit or “current bogeyman” behind such predictions and goes on to explain that this is nothing unusual.  She recently said:

“Every couple of years there’s a bogeyman that’s going to take jobs, but we are not seeing it. Call volumes are declining but those that come through are more complex and take longer to resolve.”

Anne-Marie’s enlightening statement reflects Puzzel’s own conclusion that technology is vital to the evolution of the contact centre but people are pivotal to its survival. Therefore, is it time to stop the scaremongering?
I believe that there are 3 top contact centre roles that make humans invaluable:

1.Understanding the customer

Clever technology such as speech analytics and silent monitoring are great ways to capture the mood of the customer, and web analytics provide useful data on website visits and user experiences to assess what is working and what is not.

However, it’s no use having all this technology and information at your fingertips if you don’t use it properly. A good customer service strategy starts with good people and a carefully thought-out approach that involves close collaboration and communication within the whole organisation for example:

Use your agents – they deal directly with customers and will know why they are contacting you in the first place, if they are happy, what the pain-points are and which channels they prefer to use. Effective managers will devise mechanisms that allow agents to pool and share this important knowledge.

Managers take note – contact centre leaders should then act on customer feedback to improve call scripts and agent training and then enhance business processes that proactively manage predictable’ situations and resolve problems quickly.

Introduce technology that matters – when agents and managers understand their customers, they are better placed to introduce the technologies that support their customers’ needs rather than deploy technology for technology’s sake. For example, if you know that 80% of your customers are aged 65 years and over and prefer to use the telephone then invest in voice, rather than risk alienating valuable customers by too much emphasis on Web Chat or virtual assistants.

2. Handling today’s complex conversations

It might appear counter-intuitive but digitalisation has actually elevated the role of the contact centre agent. Agents today are expected to have knowledge of all products, services and manage multiple web chats, social media posts and emails, as well as answering calls, in equal measure. What is more, the voice calls that agents now handle often take longer, are more complex and require moral judgment and empathy. This is good news for those working in contact centres today. Businesses are paying a premium to attract and keep this new breed of super-agent because they, not technology, are driving positive interactions with customers that really make their organisations stand out from the crowd.

Of course, emerging technologies such as AI in all its forms – robots, digital assistants, virtual agents is radically transforming customer interactions but there is no substitute to the human touch when it comes to closing sales calls or delivering exceptional customer service.

3. Creating the right framework

Even legislation such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) must first be managed by people tasked with putting in place the right processes to handle a constantly changing regulatory environment. It’s up to people to ask the right questions and establish effective ways of working with technology providers and partners. This is where face-to-face human discussions come into their own. They encourage best-practice processes that can then be built into the automated technology and workflows to support them.

According to the scaremongers humans have been under threat in contact centres since the first dotcom bubble at the end of the 1990s. It is true that omnichannel communication has changed the way in which customer service is now delivered, however, human communication will remain at the heart of contact centres and an exceptional customer experience.
You are invited to share your own experiences and learn from fellow contact centre professionals about the role of people in contact centres at Puzzel’s ‘Get Connected Conference’ on 27th June at the China Exchange in London. To register and find out more visit the Puzzel website

In the meantime, if you missed the first blog in the series “Delivering an exceptional customer experience through people, process and technology – a three point plan”, visit Puzzel

Generation Z, those born from the mid-1990s onwards, will be the last generation to remember a product-based economy, according to a new global research report “The Rise of Asset and Service Data Gravity”, conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of ServiceMax from GE Digital.

As the trend to servitization (bundling services with products) and the appetite for outcome-based contracts and business models continues, seventy seven percent of those surveyed believe Gen Z will be the last generation to experience an economy dominated by products alone without any embedded services or outcomes.

All-encompassing service models are nothing new, with telephone systems, broadband and IT providers and even TV services like Sky already bundling together equipment and service into one monthly fee – but the model is moving to other areas.

National Managed IT Support provider, ITCS, says servitisation is a sensible model for business clients to adopt:

“Our customers are often not technology experts, so they don’t know which hardware goes with what and have not got the time to juggle multiple devices, multiple guarantees, multiple providers and separate service contracts.   If something breaks, do you call your PC supplier, your IT support guy or your broadband supplier?

“At ITCS, we offer a fully managed service which includes everything in one fixed monthly fee – broadband, phones, networks, IT equipment, software, everything if required!  If something then goes wrong, it’s easy for the business user – they call us and we fix the problem, and we replace the equipment when needed.  I’m not surprised servitization is spreading to home users, it makes sense.”

The research, which surveyed 600 IT decision makers and field service management leaders across the USA, UK, France, Germany, Turkey, UAE and Saudi Arabia, also revealed that 84 percent say they want the same outcome-based efficiencies in their consumer lives that organisations are currently experiencing in a business context.

“Servitization is reshaping business models, and demand for servitized convenience and efficiency means it’s just a matter of time before it reaches a tipping point in a consumer context,” says Mark Homer, Vice President Global Customer Transformation for ServiceMax.

“Outcome-based contracts and business models have put asset data in a critical new light, along with the service data associated with it. We’re seeing products, new revenue streams and operational interdependencies all gravitating towards the data because of the untapped value and insights it holds. The advent of connected equipment assets, industrial platforms and servitization has made service data more valuable and strategic than ever before, yet it remains under monetized for most companies.”

Respondents say vast improvements are needed in the management of real time access to their service data, as well as the ability to both aggregate and analyze it with the rest of the business. Eighty seven percent say the successful collection and use of asset service data will have an impact on their organization’s ability to remain competitive.

The research found that ninety five percent of companies that don’t currently operate a fully servitized business model say they are already working towards it or are planning to in the future, and eighty nine percent believe servitization will enhance the way their industry operates.

For more details about the research and the changing role of asset and service data, click here.