TUC WELCOMES NEW STAFF SHARING SCHEME

“Staffshare is part of a new approach that is needed if we are to avoid the waste of talent and human tragedies that occur if companies rush prematurely into redundancies when conditions start to get tough.” – Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary

A new service which enables organisations to sell the time of their staff has been announced.

StaffShare will allow organisations to register individuals, who are currently under-utilised or in a redeployment pool, on a website offering their services on short or medium term secondment basis. Organisations interested in an individual, which will initially be restricted to charities and the voluntary sector, can then buy their services for the selected period through the website.

Phil Flaxton, chief executive of Work Wise UK, the organisation behind StaffShare explained: “The last ten years have seen unprecedented growth and employment levels within the UK. Recent events mean that all sectors of the economy will come under increasing pressure to work smarter and be more productive.

“The credit crunch has seen companies of all sizes forced to reduce their running costs but instead of losing trained, skilled employees during a 'period of economic adjustment' we can help you offer these skills to charitable and other organisations.

“StaffShare provides organisations with a simple yet effective conduit through which specialist skills can be safely traded via employee secondment without the risk of loss of skills, intellectual property, unique selling points or market intelligence.”

TUC general secretary, Brandan Barber, said: “The TUC hopes that lots of organisations sign up to this innovative scheme which will keep people in employment whilst allowing third sector organisations to draw on specialist expertise.

“Staffshare is part of a new approach that is needed if we are to avoid the waste of talent and human tragedies that occur if companies rush prematurely into redundancies when conditions start to get tough.”

The website will match under-used corporate skills with charities and voluntary organisations which have a need to use those skills, but perhaps not the resources or requirement to deploy them permanently.

Phil Flaxton continued: “Charitable organisations, which often find themselves under-resourced at key times of the year, can use StaffShare as a way of bringing in expertise (eg for grant writing, fundraising campaigns and end of year accounting) at exactly the right time and in precisely the right place to better accomplish its goals.”

StaffShare has been launched by Work Wise UK, a not-for-profit organisations which promotes smarter working practices. Working in partnership with the TUC, CBI, British Chambers of Commerce, BT, Transport for London and others, Work Wise UK stages various initiatives , such as Commute Smart Week, National Work from Home Day and Work Wise Week, which highlight the benefits of smarter working.

Organisations can currently register individuals to be included in the pilot StaffShare scheme, which starts this month, at www.workwiseuk.org. The same website can be used by charities and other Third Sector organisations to search for the skills that they need.

Further details about Work Wise UK can be found on the website (www.workwiseuk.org). There is also a dedicated pressroom available through the website or directly at www.workwiseuk.pressrooms.net.