Mindful of the fact that many of us are fed up with the ongoing ‘situation’ we all know as Brexit, we’ve delayed writing this post for some time. However, ignoring it won’t help anyone; least of all the sector’s employers, employees and contractors.

A lot has happened since the UK’s original exit date back in March but one thing that hasn’t changed is the uncertainty and how a deal or no deal agreement might impact the UK’s economy. Without knowing exactly what will happen come 31st October, it’s hard to know what the future holds but there is one dominating factor throughout all of this…people.

We would like to say a really big welcome to Laura Maddocks, the latest member of the 300 North family. Laura has joined us as a Recruitment Administrator to help support our team of consultants and make our client and candidate experience as smooth as possible. Laura has a professional background in customer experience, sales and administration and is looking forward to getting stuck-in to the recruitment process and leaning more about the Facilities Management Sector.

Careers. Our favourite subject. Especially those within the Facilities Management (FM) sector. However, there is a problem. Is FM given enough credit for its breadth of stimulating and diverse career options. No one goes through school proclaiming, ‘I want to work in FM when I’m older’. That’s because FM isn’t traditionally seen as an inspiring career path, despite its strong credentials.

Following on from an earlier post, listing 10 great reasons to work in FM, we continue our mission to:

• Fly the flag for FM.
• Campaign for better awareness of FM careers.
• Inspire a new generation of FM professionals.

On the 02 September Carolyn Taylor from Walking the Talk consultancy published an article in Facilitate Magazine about the importance of good culture in the workplace.

'Everyone likes to work in an organisation with a great culture because it brings out the best in us all. Like a rising tide that lifts all boats, a good culture helps us to be more constructive, more supportive of others and more courageous with our ideas. A great culture undoubtedly improves the wellbeing of those who work within it'.

At 300 North, having a great culture is something we place at the heart of our ethos. It is born out of our embedded values of honesty, integrity, knowledge and enthusiasm, all with a sprinkling of fun.

At 300 North we always aim to be mindful about mental health and wellbeing for our team and the wider community that we interact with. This is our second guest blog from Mindful Employer who we work with to ensure we are implementing best practice and staying up to date with advice.

Thank you to Martha Clowes, Mindful Employer Coordinator at WorkPlace Leeds for sharing the New Guide for Employers: Mindwell at Work. This shows the work that is being done in the Leeds region and may help others in different regions to identify how they can also provide support.

Mindful Employer Leeds has been thrilled to work with MindWell, the mental health website for people in Leeds, to create a new online guide which will support employers to improve staff wellbeing in the workplace.

In a recent blog, we spoke about our time at Facilities Show 2019 and some of the challenges, trends and predictions that caught our attention. Fast forward a few weeks and the 300 North team have put together this second blog to discuss our take on some of the key messages from this year’s Show. Join us as we delve into themes shaping Facilities Management (FM) and touch on key considerations influencing the sector.

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.