300 North are proud to sponsor Paralympic athlete Callum Hall. Our last update from Callum was in May, so we thought we'd check in with him to see how his training has been going over the past couple of months.

We love working as a team from our offices in Leeds & Newcastle but it’s also important to us that we spend time away from our working environment, keeping up-to-date with the latest developments in the Facilities Management (FM) industry.

This allows us to understand any challenges, trends or predictions that might impact our business, our clients and our candidates. It’s also the reason we schedule one particular annual event into our diaries - the world's largest dedicated FM event that attracts thousands of people from all over the world - AKA Facilities Show.

Here's some news to cheer us up on a rainy June morning!...We're proud as punch to receive the news that 300 North has been recognised by CV Magazine in their 2019 Recruitment Elite.

The Elite looks to highlight some of the globe’s key players from across the industry who have stood out from the crowd during the past 12 months and achieved excellence in their retrospective sector.

Let’s keep the mental health and wellbeing conversation going in our workplaces!

Everyone has mental health, in the same way that we all have physical health. At times we can struggle to maintain good physical health due to different reasons, such as being too busy and tired to fit in a trip to the gym, or to cook dinner so we order a takeaway. Similarly, we have to work at maintaining good mental health where certain factors might make this a challenge. The workplace can often be an environment of high pressure and stress with impending deadlines and the expectations of exceeding targets. This atmosphere can be challenging for people experiencing mental health difficulties and create barriers to accessing the right support from their employers. 

It’s Wednesday 15th May and that means only one thing for the global facilities management (FM) community - World FM Day!

This annual celebration highlights the significant contribution FM makes to the global economy and recognises the essential work of FM professionals. The theme for 2019 is ‘celebrating global ISO FM Standards’, which is a nod to the welcome standardisation of FM practices internationally.

It's a while since we provided an update on Paralympic Athlete Callum Hall (who we are delighted to be sponsoring); So we've asked him to bring everyone up to speed on what he's been up to since the end of 2018.

Callum explains "In January I competed in my first marathon of the year in Dubai where I finished 7th. Unfortunately I had food poisoning the week before, which drained my energy levels and affected my lead up into the race, however I still pushed 1 minute outside my PB, a good sign that training has been working!

It’s an exciting, intriguing and nail-biting time for facilities management (FM). With each month that passes, the FM sector is required to meet the present and predicted needs of a market filled with challenges and complexities.

From workplace tech to wellbeing, all this talk of change has got us thinking about the trends beginning to seriously shape the future of FM.

Discussing Mental Health and Wellbeing can still be difficult for some people, so this ‘Time to Talk Day’ we want to encourage people to have the confidence to speak up. 1 in 4 of us will experience a mental health problem at some point in our life time, so it is important for everyone to feel that they can open up and discuss how they are feeling. Often speaking about an issue can be the beginning of recovery as you are opening yourself up to access help.

300 North are pleased to be a formal signatory to The Charter for Employers who are Positive about Mental Health. The Charter is one element of the MINDFUL EMPLOYER® initiative which is aimed at increasing awareness of mental health in the workplace and supporting businesses in recruiting and retaining staff.
One in four of us will experience mental ill health at some point in our lives. The World Health Organization defines positive mental health as “a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community”.

After weeks, months and sometimes years of good sales and hard work completing tenders, RFI's and proposals, detailed legal contracts and lots of late nights, you have won the new contract – yipppeee! Its great news for your client, for the business, for the sales teams and for marketing but what happens now? The reality dawns….. now we have to deliver it, we need to deliver what we agreed in the contract, we need to mobilise…..fast.

What makes a successful mobilisation?

Winning a new contract can often be stressful and very time consuming. Beyond the signed contract it is mobilisation that kicks off the life of a new project and makes it easy for everyone to do his or her jobs well. A good mobilisation can make the difference between a successful FM contract and one that is besieged by problems. This is why it is really important to consider having a specialist mobilisation team with the unique skills to create a specific mobilisation plan involving all the stakeholders to deliver a new contract smoothly and successfully.