Events - 2024

We are delighted the Minister has accepted our invitation and look forward to our event.  This event is postponed from 26 September 2023.

In response to interest from a number of GIUK members into the use of digital tools to enhance organisational engagement, two of our member companies presented their applications and experiences in use of the technology to some 20 of our members at our first GIUK Online Meeting of 2024.

John Pickering, Managing Director of Miele GB, Ireland and South Africa and Aisha Tague, Service Director, gave an in depth review of their experiences and achievements with their Digital Employee Engagement activities at Miele UK. They highlighted how the initiative related directly to a key strategic objective for the Miele Global group which was to further develop six key cultural levers in support of achievement of their overarching organisational goals. The extent of the initiative covered their extensive and geographically distributed service team as well as their office based colleagues and required impressive levels of openness from leadership to engage the wider organisation in a genuine two way dialogue across all team members. The approach outlined was also very much multi channel, from top leadership video messages and celebrating employee achievements on their internal platform, through to colleague ‘Drop In’ VCs and technical podcasts on topics of common interest. The rewards of this significant effort were also multi faceted and were underpinned by some key lessons learned such as how to maintain consistency in messaging and to ensure the relevance of each topic to the intended audience.

Steve Wilkins, Managing Director of Brose UK then presented how their myBrose app was planned and created to engage each team member more deeply within the wider Brose UK and global organisation. At Brose they adopted a specialist app provider who was able to support such a global initiative and had great success in reaching and engaging thousands of active users and a significant percentage of their global organisation. Key to their success was sharing the right balance of local (region specific) information and global group insights, to attract the interest of team members and expand their insight into the wider Brose organisation. The content within the app related to both practical operational information, such as shift plans, safety and suggestions and well as key cultural development elements such as celebrating team successes and leadership transparency. Their choice of a dedicated app platform had allowed them to focus on the creation and sharing of relevant content and was seen as a key contributing factor to the wide uptake of the myBrose app across the organisation.

Both of the presentations were well received by members, who were able to correlate the examples given to their own businesses across the diverse market sectors.

The meeting, chaired by our Chief Executive, Phil McClennon, has inspired discussion of ‘business culture change’ as a topic of interest to GIUK members, something that will help shape the agenda of future meetings for 2024.

With the General Elections coming up in the autumn and maybe a change of Government, we would like to discuss our challenges in the UK with a possible Labour Minister

In response, we had an online meeting to discuss the challenges faced with labour mobility between the UK and Germany, chaired by our Chief Executive, Phil McClennon.  Over 20 of our members took part.

To set the Scene for the discussion, representatives from two of our member companies (BMW & DHL) presented their experiences, solutions and the remaining hurdles within the topic.

In summary, those present concluded that significant barriers still exist for moving workers between the EU and UK, which can impact talent pipelines, leadership mobility, and specialised/semi-skilled labour flexibility.  All sizes of companies struggle with the increased paperwork although visa requirements, and planning complexities for cross-border work, have a much greater impact on the efforts of small and medium sized businesses who must deploy service engineers internationally.  Members welcomed the plan for potential youth mobility schemes (under 30) between Germany-UK to partially address the talent pipeline mobility constraints.  The primary area which members see that Government can improve through policy would be to create a fast-track process for short-term specialised workers when they are needed to address peak workloads and project-specific needs.

Our Executive President, Dr Bernd Atenstaedt, has since written to the Minister of State for Industry in the Department for Business and Trade and said that fast-tack options for short-term specialised workers are needed.  He also welcomed the Youth Mobility Scheme and hopes very much this will happen soon.

On 31st October, the day after the new Chancellors budget, some 20 members of GIUK met online to discuss the implications on business and the wider market and share their impressions of the measures announced.

First impressions from the group were that the budget’s potential impact would not be as severe as many initially feared, and as a product of this and the Governments preparation, markets would likely remain relatively stable.

Amongst the diverse scales and sectors of GIUK’s member companies, the SMEs felt disproportionately affected by the tax increases and noted the absence of targeted support for them.

Many members shared their concerns about the potential for prolonged high inflation and interest rates, which could continue to constrain the retail sector business growth and limit wider economic growth.

On the spending side of the budget, members shared their experiences and ideas about the use of funds raised, and concerns remain about the effectiveness of the planned Government spending and investments.

Further statements about the upcoming industrial and infrastructure strategies to be launched by Government were highlighted as key deliverables to support each members business to make future plans and attract new inward investment.  The Industrial Strategy Green Paper and the review of Made Smarter were welcomed.

Finally, the group recognised the role of the new Skills England body announced by the Chancellor, and how it’s role in unifying the currently diverse aspects of UK vocational training would reinforce the improvements already made.  This will go along with the German Vocational Training System which has been our focus for a long time.

We are delighted Minister Jones has accepted our invitation and look forward to our event. This event is postponed from 10 July 2024 due to the General Election.