Day One guide for placemakers

Day One guide - Monday 1 April / Tuesday 2 April

Hello!

We’re delighted to welcome you to ISS – where people make places.

You’ve joined one of the UK’s largest employers, at the start of an incredibly exciting seven-year partnership with DEFRA, which will see us work together to create a best-in class workplace experience.

We understand that even positive change can be unsettling, and are fully committed to making the transition as seamless, transparent and efficient as possible; so have prepared this reference guide to tell you what you need to know about the first stages of the process.

Our belief that ‘People Make Places’ is at the core of everything we do. Working with us means you’re more than an employee, regardless of your role; which is why throughout this and other documents you will notice that we use the term ‘Placemaker’ instead.

We’re counting on your extensive experience to help us to get this right, so if we’ve missed anything that you think other colleagues would find helpful to know on their first day, we would love to hear from you.

We’re sincerely grateful for your support, and look forward to working with you moving forward.

Getting started - Up to and on 1st/2nd April 2024:

What will change?

Initially, you will mostly work in the same way and complete the same tasks as you did before your transition to ISS.

We won’t expect you to perform any tasks you haven’t trained on, and if there are any changes to the way you are required to work, we will discuss these with you first and provide any training you might need.

Speaking of training, we have developed a detailed training matrix to identify any training requirements for your role. This will help to ensure we meet our minimum statutory requirements, whilst ensuring you have all of the knowledge you need to work safely and effectively – you will hear more about this later in the transition process.

Key things that you need to know for the first few days:

Arriving at work - 1st/2nd April 2024: Hub and corporate office sites

On the 1st or 2nd of April (depending on whether you're working on Easter Monday), you will arrive at your usual place of work and at your usual start time.

After clocking in for your shift using the new system detailed below (Hourly Placemakers only), you’ll be welcomed by a member of the ISS Welcome team who will deliver a short training session covering the basics of working at ISS, as well as giving you the chance to ask any questions you may have.

If there’s anything we can’t answer immediately, or we need support from another department to resolve something, we’ll do our best to get back to you on the same day where possible with an update or solution.

After the welcome session, you’ll be able to get back to your working day as normal.

Our support team will be available on site or via the helpdesk - follow the link or use the number 0870 191 3844.

Health and Safety - Reporting Accidents and Incidents:

Keeping you and our clients safe is a top priority at ISS.

Any incident relating to Health & Safety should be reported to a manager as soon as possible, on the same day that it was observed, and before leaving the site.

This also includes anything you notice in the course of your work that has the potential to cause harm to people or property (we call these ‘Near Hits’).

We’ve provided some specific guidance for reporting Incidents and Near Hits in a PowerPoint presentation which will be shared on Day One.

Site Equipment and PPE Orders

You will initially need to contact Regional Operations Managers who will orders on your behalf for any equipment required, their contact details are included in the attachments included with this email.

We’ll be updating this process in the near future, and will keep you posted when something changes.

Facilities Helpdesk

If you need to raise a maintenance job/work order, or make workplace and FM enquiries, you can call our dedicated helpdesk on 0300 131 6750. Please note that this number has recently changed from the previous 0870 191 3844

Although we will be placing posters around sites with the Helpdesk details, we recommend saving this number to your phone for future use. More information on the helpdesk can be found here.

Online Payslips & HRe

All payslips are provided digitally via a dedicated online portal called HRe, which can be accessed from any mobile or computer device with an internet connection.

Your payslip will available to view and download the day before each payday.

If you haven’t already, you will soon receive an email from <WorkflowService@sdworx.com> which informs you of your ISS employee number and the password you will need to access HRe.

If the email hasn’t come through by 2nd April, please ensure you check your junk mail and contact the DEFRA Helpline on the number listed in the ‘useful contact’ section below; and we’ll get this sorted for you as quickly as possible.

Annual Leave Requests

If you are paid monthly and wish to request annual leave, you can do this by submitting a request using the HRe system, which will be sent to your manager for approval.

If you are paid fortnightly/hourly – you will need to request your annual leave directly with your line manager who will follow a different process.

We’ll share more information and training on the HRe system, Holiday request process and pay slips as the transition progresses – but if you have an urgent request in the meantime, please contact your line manager.

Absence Reporting

If you think you might be late or unable to attend your scheduled shift for any reason, please call your line manager as early as possible to allow for cover to be arranged.

Finally...

We’re really looking forward to working with you, and you have a committed team behind you working hard to support and elevate the important work you do to meet DEFRA’s needs, both now and throughout our partnership.

We do hope that you will say hello if you see us around your site, and that you will let us know if there’s anything we can do to support you, or any feedback that you think might help us to build a stronger organisation where work is work simpler, and bring us closer to achieving our ambition to be the world’s best service organisation.

Key contacts

We highly recommend saving these details so they are easy to find if you need them:

Facilties Management Helpdesk

Use this for helpdesk calls about your building.

0300 131 6750

DEFRA / ISS TUPE and Transition Helpdesk

Use this for all general enquiries related to your transfer to ISS

07714 277 829 or transitionukteam@uk.issworld.com

Open 0900-1700, Mon-Fri, 1st Feb - 15 Feb

Tom Lingham, Regional Operations Manager, South West

07514490759

Tom.lingham@uk.issworld.com