One of the fantastic members of Norfolk Chambers of Commerce has flexible office space to let in NR1.
Co-working office space
1 – 4 people
Flexible competitive terms
All-inclusive price
Air conditioning
Access to meeting room
Few minutes’ walk to city centre
Onsite parking available
Shared facilities & kitchen
24-hour access to the building
A city-centre building with services including air conditioning, a shared kitchen and meeting room. Easy access to the inner ring road and links to all main arterial routes. Norwich bus station within 5 minutes-walk and 15 minutes Norwich to railway station. Flexible terms available in a variety of configurations to suit different occupiers. Suitable for 1 to 4 people – a small business or individual workers who need a desk. Car parking. Guide Price £375 + VAT per person/desk per month. For any enquiries and prices please call 01603 664665
We have amazing news! Three company pledges of £250 so far!! Norwich Puppet Theatre is delighted to announce 3 companies have pledged to support our newly launched Passport to Puppetry Scheme. Thank you:
Fosters Solicitors
Osiris Technologies
Misternic management consultants
Could your company be the next to help us achieve the critical mass of 10 pledges for just £250? Why would your company want to help this Christmas?
Many young people live in financially restricted households or difficult circumstances, unable to afford access to creative cultural experiences which can greatly improve children’s health and well-being, sense of aspiration and ambition. With help from Norfolk Chamber of Commerce we are inviting local businesses to support the first wave of a new fund enabling Passports to Puppetry. How it will work:
Companies and individuals donate to our Passport Fund.
The Passport fund will support the work of Norwich Puppet theatre and allow us to offer Passports to children, enabling them to share and enjoy the wonderful world of puppetry.
10 donations of just £250 will enable us to launch with 25 passports allowing access to 4 show and workshop events at Norwich Puppet Theatre at no cost to their families, growing to 40 or 50 next year.
Passports will be issued to a child, family or group most in need of some smiles and will be valid for 1 year. Choosing from the exciting and vast array of performances and workshops in our public programme, each passport holder, with an accompanying adult, will have the opportunity to journey into the magical world of puppetry. We are working with leading local charities and services to set up safe and secure connections between the families with children we aim to benefit and ourselves – Break, Benjamin Foundation, Nelson’s Journey and others. Chair of trustees, Nic Hopkins said, “Sponsorship will give children access to enjoyable, exciting and inspirational creative and cultural activities for free. Our supporters will make a major contribution the overall costs to make all this additional access to smiles happen. Our partners will help us link to the right children and families and help us manage these sensitive relationships really well.” “Sponsors will share in the opportunities to use stories of involvement in Passport to Puppetry in their own publicity. At the same time this scheme will help Norwich Puppet Theatre provide meaningful and enriching experiences for everyone.” Contact our lovely team via [email protected] or 01603 515564 to discuss Passport to Puppetry further. Find out What’s On this month and over the festive season at Norwich Puppet Theatre: https://www.puppettheatre.co.uk/whats-on We are always keen to welcome partners to a guided tour of our amazing venue to tell them more about our work and a range of ways to get involved! We welcome all ideas about how companies and individuals might like to support or get involved with Norwich Puppet Theatre, one of Norwich’s treasured cultural gems.
Pure is proud to be one of only a few recruitment agencies to use competency-based interviews to assess potential candidates as standard. We see it as best practice because it brings significant benefits to helping us make great matches for our clients and candidates.
Our senior recruitment consultant Claire Bush recently shared her expert insight on using competency-based techniques at a breakfast session for HR professionals. Here’s just some of the ways in which it can make employers feel more confident and informed when making hiring decisions and some top tips for putting this approach into practice.
What are competency-based interviews?
Competencies are the personal characteristics which can contribute to outstanding, rather than average, performance in a particular job. They are the soft skills and personality traits such as communication, enthusiasm, teamwork, decision making and resilience – all of which can be hard to identify or measure.
Competency-based interviews, also known as structured or behavioural interviews, are used to help discover these transferable skillsets within candidates and how their abilities, behaviours and mindset could impact on their effectiveness in the role. The interview is set out to include questions which specifically target a particular skill or competency relevant to the role and the candidate is asked to share an example of how they used or demonstrated that particular competency in the past.
Why use this interview approach?
Competency based interviewing helps you to see beyond the candidates who just talk or look the part and provides a specific set of answers which can form the basis of a profile to measure candidates against each other. Asking candidates to share past examples of where they have demonstrated a particular competency, such as teamwork or resilience, is a strong predictor of their future behaviour in similar situations. It is far more factual than asking candidates hypothetical questions about what they might do if they were faced with a possible scenario.
This approach also helps to prevent unconscious bias by taking away some of the subjectivity of a more traditional, biographical interview. It supports interviewers to stay open-minded, listen throughout, and not to be overly influenced by initial first impressions. For example, some candidates can come across very confident in an interview setting, but this doesn’t mean they are confident overall. If confidence is a particular competency you are looking for, it is important to delve deeper. The person you may have perceived as being a little subdued could be the one who provides the best example of when they have confidently challenged authority to influence a positive outcome. Whereas someone who had struck you as being full of confidence may not be able to give any examples at all.
Our top tips
If you are looking to include competency-based interviewing as part of your recruitment process, here are some of our top tips:
Don’t try and cover too much in one interview. Pick two or three competencies to ask about based on what is most relevant to the role and having read through the candidate’s CV.
Remember it is good practice to explain to the candidate how the interview will be structured, and to tell them that you will be including questions which will ask them for specific examples of when they have demonstrated the competencies required.
Do let the candidate know that you will be writing notes while they are giving their answers, so they know what to expect and don’t think that you are ignoring them.
When you ask a competency question, give the candidate space to think. Reassure them that it is fine if they need time to think of an example.
Make sure you give the candidate plenty of opportunity to talk. The purpose is to gain evidence from the candidate, so they should be doing most of the talking.
Continue to ask questions to help elicit the most relevant information. As well describing the situation and their actions, you want to entice from the candidate the final outcome or impact. Prompt them with questions such as what happened next? What did they say as a result? What feedback did you get from the team?
If a candidate really struggles to find an example, don’t leave them squirming. Move on to another question and come back to it later.
For more information about competency-based interviewing or support in finding the right candidate for a role, contact your local Pure office.
Method Marketing is pleased to release the results of its State of Content Survey 2019, which show that poor spelling, punctuation and grammar have an impact on business success.
The headline statistic shows that 94% of people are less likely to spend money with a company that has mistakes on its website, demonstrating that poor spelling, punctuation and grammar have a direct effect on a business’s bottom line.
This was in addition to 93% of respondents reporting that they are less likely to trust a company with spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors on its site. In an age when brands are trying to build trust and authenticity, this statistic illustrates that something as simple as a spelling mistake could erode customer relationships.
Other notable data showed that 84% of people generally notice errors, while 80% of people say that spelling mistakes are their ‘pet hate’. The research also revealed that people most frequently spot mistakes on social media (79%), in advertising content (75%) and in print media (67%).
The statistics also showed that people are typically more bothered when they see mistakes in education (91%), law (91%) and financial services (84%).
Says Method Marketing founder, Lucy Mowatt: “As a content marketer with an editorial background, I wanted to know about attitudes towards poor-quality content. Having noticed a decline in standards in recent years, I was keen to explore what effect, if any, it has on brand trust and sales.
“Now that the results of the State of Content survey have been collated and analysed, it’s possible to show that poor spelling, punctuation and grammar do have an impact.
“It demonstrates the importance of investing in professionally produced content, especially in high-trust sectors, such as education, law and financial services where attention to detail is vital to the services provided.”
Clean, clear, error-free content is easy to achieve by accessing the right skills, using the services of experienced writers, editors and proofreaders. If you would like help with this or any other aspect of your content marketing, get in touch.
Congratulations Panel Graphic Ltd. of Loddon on the successful certification of their quality system by BSI to the updated ISO 9001: 2015 standard.
Back in March, Panel Graphic determined that their quality system needed a shot in the arm to meet the needs of their ever expanding blue chip clientele. They are the leaders in the field in the provision of design, manufacture and improvement of protective and contrast enhancement front windows and panels for electronic information displays, and optical quality coatings for plastics.
Being Chamber members they scanned the Chamber directory for a local specialist in quality. They found John Campbell, a Norwich based consultant, with success in this area, and an action team was born.
After six months of planned improvement actions, The British Standards institute (BSI) awarded Panel Graphic Ltd. the certificate to the international quality management requirements standard ISO 9001: 2015.
This well respected certificate indicates that Panel Graphic Ltd. have a robust structure in place to give their discerning clients confidence in their products and services.
We are delighted to announce that all three of our Norwich offices are moving to a new headquarters – Prospect House in Norwich city centre.
Prospect House is a well-known building in Norwich as the base of regional news company, Archant, who will remain in the building as tenants. We’re looking forward to sharing the space with them, securing the future of this local landmark building.
As we continue to expand, we need space to grow into and this move supports our aspirations for the future. Relocating to the city centre will not only benefit our staff but our clients too, who can take full advantage of the great transport links to Norwich city centre and facilities in the building.
We aim to move in June 2020. Watch this space for updates, and we look forward to seeing you in our new place soon!
Alan Boswell Financial Planners are pleased to announce the introduction of our new Core Advice Team to help close the advice gap here in Norfolk, and further afield. In 2013 the Financial Conduct Authority removed most commission payments within financial advice. The advice now needs to be paid for separately from any charges that apply to the product being recommended and while this is entirely appropriate there have been some unintended consequences.
For example, a client who wishes to invest £30,000 often may struggle to find a financial planner to advise on this amount for a reasonable fee.
It has led to an advice gap, whereby a number of firms providing financial advice withdrew services for those with less than £100,000 to invest. Some companies introduced robo-advice, an online solution where clients were taken through an online journey and didn’t interact with a financial adviser at all! At Alan Boswell Financial Planners we recognise that financial advice needs the personal touch to fully understand the client’s circumstances. The Core Advice Team (CAT) is our answer.
Alan Boswell Financial Planners – Core Advice Team
The Core Advice Team can advise on virtually all areas of an individual’s financial planning needs. The team provides advice face to face in Alan Boswell’s Norwich office but can also operate over the telephone and via online systems such as Skype to ensure comprehensive advice is delivered in the most cost effective way possible for the client.
Quality advice that clients can trust is paramount and the dedicated team is led by Shaun Coleman, a Chartered Financial Planner with 25 years of advice experience.
“Alan Bowell and Company has seen the increasing difficulty people have when they want to access high quality financial advice at a reasonable cost. This is of particular concern given the ever increasing array of options available and the sometimes significant impact a wrong decision by a person, who doesn’t have access to advice, can make. Alan Boswell’s decision to set up a specialist team to aim to address this growing issue is good news for those who need advice they can trust, at a price they can afford. As a Chartered Financial Planner, I am very pleased to have been appointed as head of this team and we are looking forward to addressing the gaps in the availability of advice that Alan Boswell’s has identified.”
What does the Core Advice Team charge?
There is no charge for the initial one hour consultation. Subsequently, the team typically charges a minimum initial advice fee of £750. The minimum advice fee will often be significantly lower than fees charged by other financial advisers who may charge £1,500 or more on a £30,000 investment and possibly up to £3,000 on a £100,000 investment.
A higher fee may of course be chargeable for more complex or involved work, or for advice on multiple products but all fees would be fully discussed and agreed at the outset before any work is undertaken.
If you’d like to arrange your free, no-obligation consultation, call Alan Boswell Financial Planners on 01603 967967.
Graham Casbourne Appointed Business Development & Sales Director at KLM UK Engineering Limited
Paris, Amstelveen, November 2019 – Graham Casbourne has been appointed as Business Development & Sales Director at KLM UK Engineering Limited as of 11th November.
KLM UK Engineering is a wholly-owned AFI KLM E&M subsidiary specialising in maintenance & training solutions for regional and narrow-body aircraft fleets.
Graham started his aviation career at KLM UK Engineering 30 years ago and has held various positions in operations and sales. In 2012 Graham joined the Sales & Marketing department as Sales Manager and has an extensive network in the business.
On learning of his appointment, Graham Casbourne said: “I am very proud to have been appointed as Business Development & Sales Director. With my experience and network I look forward to supporting the Sales & Marketing team to deliver year on year growth for the business.
A new pilot wayfinding scheme has launched in the city centre comprising of 12 newly designed and branded City of Stories totems.
Delivered by Norwich Business Improvement District in partnership with Norwich City Council the pre-existing infrastructure has been redesigned to fit a new image for the city centre.
The 12 newly designed directional totems are located across the city centre, from outside St Peter Mancroft and The Assembly House, to Dragon Hall on King street.
Each totem is colour co-ordinated to match city centre districts and features directional content, immediate location information, 3D buildings and icons, accessible fonts and designs, as well as heritage information on the surrounding district.
As a creative and leading tech city, it’s no surprise that the new totems are piloting QR and Near File Communication (NFC) technology, supplied by local company, Thyngs. The technology will link through to the newly-launched VisitNorwich website (visitnorwich.co.uk), which will showcase more content on the surrounding area, including events, businesses and attractions.
Two years in the making, the scheme has worked extensively with the local businesses, specific interest groups and the wider community to ensure the scheme meets DDA compliance and learns the lessons from some of the national best examples of wayfinding.
To compliment the new wayfinding initiative, the Norwich BID have also doubled the area of the open guest free wi-fi network in the city centre. Available 24/7 the network is live throughout the main city centre, from Chapelfield Gardens to Norwich Castle, London Street and the Lanes and covering St Andrew’s, Surrey Street and Prince of Wales Road. The free city centre wi-fi makes it easy for visitors to surf with ease and stay connected. The free network offers speeds of up to 5Mbps, bringing a truly connected experience to city centre users.
It’s easy to get connected, in Wi-Fi settings select ‘Free-Wifi-NorwichBID‘. Registration is available through two options (Facebook and registration form). Registration is only required once; afterwards the device will automatically connect to the free Wi-Fi whenever it is in range (if set up on the phone).
Stefan Gurney, Executive Director at the BID said, “We are proud to unveil the amazing new look totems with integrated NFC technology. The new look ties in with our recent City of Stories rebrand and unifies the city with its clear colour coded districts in the city.”
“We are also pleased to offer extended wi-fi coverage across the city centre, increasing and enhancing the visitor and user experience whilst in the city”.
TaxAssist holds bespoke event to engage and support the staff of franchisees
Knowing that happy staff who feel engaged and supported are key to the success of a practice, TaxAssist Accountants recently held its first staff regional meeting at Hampton Manor Hotel in Solihull. This event was delivered by Senior Managers Richard Washington, Richard Chatten-Hague and Jo Nockels on the back of the recent franchisee regional meetings with similar content but tailored specifically for staff.
Richard Chatten-Hague, Senior Business Development Manager, said: “It was great to be a part of this productive and enjoyable, inaugural event.
“We know how vital a role staff play in the running of a practice, and so we felt it was important to hold a bespoke meeting to showcase the vast support on offer, keep them up to date with technical and business development initiatives and to provide them with a platform for views and ideas.
“We are hopeful that holding events such as these will help with staff engagement, development and retention. We received excellent feedback from all who attended, and we will be looking to hold this event again next year.”
TaxAssist takes its commitment to staff development very seriously and runs a two-year diploma course for senior practice staff designed to nurture management and leadership skills. It also produces regular webinars and business development, technical and software training days for staff to attend.
Many franchisees in the network are also recognised as ICAEW accredited trainers, helping to attract and retain talented individuals by offering the ACA qualification.
A list of current staff vacancies can be found here.
East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) is very excited to invite you to the inaugural EACH Gala Dinner at the Natural History Museum on Wednesday, 30th November 2016.
The dinner will be hosted by EACH and Sir Martyn Lewis and will take place in the beautiful setting of the Hintze Hall at the heart of the Natural History Museum. It will be attended by more than 350 guests from East Anglia, London and around the world, including many of our supporters, a number of our ambassadors and patrons, and a host of celebrity guests and will include a surprise performance Ed Sheeran and will attract global press coverage.
EACH supports families and cares for children and young people with life-threatening conditions across Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk. Our family centred approach includes specialist nursing care, symptom management support, short breaks, wellbeing activities, therapies and counselling; all meeting the individual needs of the child, young person and family. Due to high demand and restricted facilities in Norfolk, we have launched a fundraising appeal to deliver a new purpose-built hospice, called .
Since its launch in November 2014, supported by our Royal Patron, HRH The Duchess of Cambridge, has secured £3.5 million with a further £6.5 million needed to make this much-needed facility a reality. We hope the Gala Dinner will bring in £500,000 for . We rely on donations for the majority of income, with your help we can transform the lives of children, young people and families. Your support is vital.
We have a variety of sponsorship, advertisement and table packages that can be tailored to what you need including using the your logo and advert in the EACH Gala Dinner brochure and on our website.
If you are interested please contact [email protected] or call 01953 666768.
On Friday 20 June, Fendercare Marine opened the doors of its Great Yarmouth base to showcase its expansion of lifting products and services over the last two years.
The Fendercare Marine Equipment and Lifting Services Open Day was attended by a wide array of existing and new customers, as well as members of the local Great Yarmouth community. The guests were treated to displays of marine equipment products, lifting equipment, rope splicing demonstrations, working at height equipment and load monitoring. During the day, Fendercare Marine MD, Eric Plane, presented a donation cheque to the RNLI which was followed by a rescue demonstration from the Gorleston RNLI team.
Fendercare Marine Equipment and Lifting Services, based on Breydon Road, Great Yarmouth first opened in July 2012 to provide shoreside support to the wind farm vessels. Since then it has doubled its warehouse capability to offer onshore crane inspection and testing; mechanical and electrical lifting equipment; hydraulic equipment and winches; lifting tackle and load/stress monitoring equipment with many products available for sale or hire. These products and services are available to the renewable industry, the offshore oil and gas sector together with onshore industrial sectors, creating a truly unique and versatile energy and lifting support base. As part of the expansion, Fendercare Marine also sublet new office space and provided a specially made Inspection Warehouse for their technician teams to Viking Life-Saving Equipment Ltd – a market leader in maritime and fire safety.
Fendercare Marine Equipment and Lifting Services Sales Manager, Richard Howes commented “We are delighted to have welcomed so many people to our Open Day. Our guests were surprised by the sheer volume and scope of products and services we can offer and it has been a great opportunity to showcase everything we can do. We are proud to have an extremely knowledgeable team of technical experts and today was also about sharing this professional expertise with our customers.”