Member Blog

Working with air tightness and ventilation testing experts RJ Acoustics, Tudor Lodge Consultants are very pleased to announce the launch of a bespoke, fully functioning and up to date website (www.rjacoustics.com). RJ Acoustics offer a wide range of building tests that all new builds and developments must undertake before it becomes livable including water calculations, air tightness, ventilation testing, commissioning and more.

Project Specification

To design and build a fully mobile-responsive website to maximise user experience and rankings on Google.

What we Have Done

With their previous site becoming increasingly outdated, we undertook a total overhaul strategy. Working closely with a team of experienced developers, we planned and designed a site that had SEO (search engine optimisation) at its core. By ensuring that all content throughout the site is new as well as being up to date for SEO and online best practices, we have helped RJ Acoustics fly up Google; moving them up 3 pages in the space of just a couple of months.

Content needed to also be in line with current UK practices regarding the services offered by RJ Acoustics and this meant that we had to comply with a number of industry best practices too when writing the content.

We have improved their rankings on Google for keywords such as ‘air leakeage testing’ and ‘air tightness testing’ by producing new content, meta data, user journey, removing crawl errors and increasing the site speed. This has meant that the content and works on site are read as efficiently as possible by Google and other search engines, making sure RJ Acoustics are able to maximise their positions by being rewarded for the cleanest SEO practices.

What we are doing

We are making continuous tweaks and updates to site content and meta data to get it up to the highest standards, as well as building a clean backlink profile. 

Site speed and mobile responsiveness are becoming increasingly important in this day and age of ‘browsing on the go.’ Therefore, we continue to work towards fully optimising RJ Acoustics’ already impressive site speed and mobile features, with a variety of new pages, features and designs on site to come.

Ransomware is a very real threat; every day a business is singled out by the perpetrators of this all too common cyber extortion, costing organisations money, time and the loss of important data.

It’s happening right now and it’s happening within businesses close to you; along-with our partner Datto, we want to work together to ensure it doesn’t happen to you.

Ransomware doesn’t discrimate – it isn’t just the large multi-nationals that are on the minds of cyber criminals, targets are small to medium sized businesses with gaps in their IT security and data that is just ready for the taking.

What you’re up against are the many variations of malware that can infect your computer systems, ransomware encrypts files and data, leaving them inaccessible to the owner or permanently deleting them – they could even be posted on the internet.

Essentially ransomware locks your files and holds your business hostage until you pay the ‘ransom’ – and even then there is no guarantee you will recover your data.

96% of ransomware victims lose access to their data for more than a day, obviously resulting in a serious impact on productivity and profitability.

We partner with Datto, as they are actively doing something to stop ransomware targeting you:

Datto recommend 3 layers of protection:

– Education: make your company aware of the dangers of social engineering scams and phishing emails – if in doubt, don’t click on the link

– Antivirus: can prevent a full-blown infection, however new strains of ransomware are always being created – often at a higher rate than antivirus can protect against

– Total Data Protection: the ultimate failsafe in a layered defense strategy against ransomware.

Breakwater can secure your systems using the advanced technology from Datto:

– Datto SIRUS: protects physical, virtual and cloud infrastructures

– Backupify: the leading cloud-to-cloud backup and recovery solution for applications including Office 365 and Google Apps

– Datto Drive: enables you to easily roll to a backup created before the attack.

Take a look at our Dattosolutions to find out all the info on how they will keep your business protected, or get in touch and we can talk you through how we’ll keep your business and its data safe.

Lean: it really is all about common sense and learning to see waste. Every organisation should benefit from a bit of lean thinking, by focusing on what we’ll call value added activities.

Lean is a term coined by researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) back in the late 80s. They were trying to figure out why Toyota was so much more efficient at producing cars than, for example, Ford or GM. They chose the term ‘lean’ to try and describe what they’d discovered. With ‘lean’ they were describing a process without a lot of unnecessary work.

Unnecessary work is all work that does not add value to the customer. And, as with your body, a lean company is something to strive for. Having said that, not all fat is bad. It is all about a healthy balance. This goes for our bodies, but just as much for our processes and organisations.

Lean, to me, means ‘flow’. According to several dictionaries, flow can be defined as:

“to move in a continuous and smooth way”(Webster’s)

or

“to move in one direction, especially continuously and easily” (Cambridge).

As a word, Lean has become part of the business vocabulary. I use it because many people will have an idea of what I am talking about. However the term ‘Flow’ captures the goal much better.

Why does Lean thinking work?

Any process should be organised in such a way as to enable the movement of parts or information in a continuous and smooth way. There are many tools and methods that help to achieve this, but ultimately that is what I try to do. Asking simple common sense questions is often all we need to do to get a better flow state.

The results will invariably include less stress, less variation in the process, happier people, higher quality and, as a result of all of this, lower costs.

A brilliant book that describes the essence of what I am talking about is called’This is Lean’ by Niklas Modig. If you are interested in more detail about lean and flow, I can also recommend that you read material fromJim Womack.

In summary, lean is all about making things flow by applying common sense and by challenging the status quo. Simple as that.

We thought it might be useful to create this guide to the top 5 qualities you should look for in an SEO or digital marketing partner. We hope it assists.

1. Years of SEO Experience

Anyone can set-up an ‘SEO agency’ overnight and call themselves an ‘SEO expert’. This does not necessarily mean they know what they’re doing. There are hundreds of elements which go into the wider bigger picture of doing SEO and it takes many years of experiencing what works and what does not to truly do a good job.

Every website needs different SEO tactics to succeed. An SEO professional with many years of experience will be able to look at any website and know exactly what needs to be done for it to gain more search engine traffic, while someone new at SEO will try the same things on every site, which will only have a limited effect, if any. As we have mentioned many times before, this is about your competition. Understand this and your tactics will succeed.

2. An Understanding of All Three SEO Levels

Search engine optimisation involves three levels:

Technical (the structure of a site, which can determine how easy or difficult it is for search engines to crawl and index your content)

On-page optimisation (the use of such elements as keywords and HTML tags in ways that help increase search engine traffic to your site)

Off-page optimisation (such as link building).

“You don’t want a one-dimensional SEO,” says Taylor Pratt, vice president of product marketing for Raven Internet Marketing Tools. “You need someone who will approach their strategy from all three angles to maximise success.”

If search engines can’t access all the content on a website, or some content is buried too deeply in the site, then any other efforts made on the URL will be useless in terms of SEO success.. This means that all SEO consultants or companies should understand all technical limitations and issues that search engines may have, and they need to be able to articulate those to the developers of your website so that the issues can be minimised.

3. A Proven Track Record of SEO Success

It’s easy to talk a good game in SEO. There are tons of blog posts and articles that describe various SEO processes one can use. But it’s another thing to have happy clients. Anyone looking to hire an SEO consultant or company should definitely check at least three fairly current references to discuss how the SEO company helped them succeed. More than that, ask for the search positions ranked. In Google you can physically search on date ranges and see when the website ranked and for what, even after the project has finished. Also, if there was a contract and it was terminated early there is often the reason that the customer was ‘informed’ of ‘issues’ by a potential new supplier wanting business, or by reading outdated information concerning techniques. Not all relationships end well. Often this is the client’s ‘fault’ as much as that of the service provider.

4. Marketing Knowledge

Once you get beyond the technical issues of a website, SEO is a lot like traditional marketing. Content needs to be written in a way that outlines the benefit to the user while leading them to a sale. And it all has to be done in a way that also appeals to the people at the other end of a search engine who are looking for what your company has to offer. However, writing is carried out in conjunction with the search ranking competitive space for your URL on your key phrase.

5. A Well-rounded Perspective and Knowledge

“For years, I thought I could ignore subjects outside the hyper-focused SEO arena,” says Rand Fishkin, CEO & co-founder of SEOMoz. “If it didn’t have to do with ranking web pages in search engines, bah humbug! That attitude was foolish and wrong. Today’s SEO needs to understand all of marketing at a deep level, the psychology of the human race, the specific culture to whom they’re marketing, the social media landscape, web analytics, web design and development, viral marketing, content, product, business models and more. When we disconnect SEO from these other critical practices, we make short-term decisions that can ultimately hurt more than they help.”

But on point 5 we have also seen (in recent months) Rand and Google disagree. So even with his knowledge, experience and understanding of the subject, opinion is still a factor in the process of SEO and ultimately digital marketing.

6. An Understanding of the Big Picture

Does theSEO consultantfocus on conversions (converting a visitor to your site into a customer), or are they more concerned with search engine rankings? Ideally, the focus of any digital marketing strategy should be to accomplish a goal (like increasing conversions), not to achieve a certain rank. This cannot always be the case however (see improvement piece below).

7. The Capability to Fit in With Your Company’s Culture

SEO professionals must interact with many areas of your business including IT, marketing, customer service, analytics, and sales. The ability for them to work well with members of these teams is essential. The personality, integrity and communication style of the SEO professional you employ should ideally fit with the organisation and its team or progress is likely to be not as positive.

8. Excellent communication skills.

Speaking of communication style, an SEO professional needs to be able to clearly communicate why a change must be made to your website in terms that everyone understands, not using jargon!

A typical SEO professional cannot do everything themselves. So, they need to be able to communicate why a certain change needs to be made in terms that everyone understands. Getting a point across clearly and concisely is vital. A general business knowledge, years of experience and life skills will add to the mix for you. We’re all learning – this is a ‘tech’ business. So, it is likely that the longer we’ve been learning the more knowledge and understanding we will be able to share.

9. A passion for execution.

SEO professionals love getting results for their clients. It’s what makes us tick. You will see whether you are the right fit for yours by looking into their eyes and gauging their passion. A great SEO consultant and digital marketing professional loves to carry out their work efficiently and methodically. If their spirit is broken by negativity or impatience or doubt it is typical that the project is doomed to failure.

10. Curiosity.

While knowledge is certainly important, curiosity is essential, too. Finding an SEO who can recite the IP addresses for all of Google’s crawlers is great, but one who’s deeply curious and constantly investigating how that crawler works is even better,” Fishkin says. “I’ve often met SEOs whose knowledge was fantastic, but at some point in their career, it ceased to grow. I’d rather have a fresh mind that’s hungry and growing than a grizzled vet whose thirst for new knowledge died in 2006.”

We concur with this. Our job is both analytical and forensic in its processes. It relies on many skill sets to succeed. We are not afraid to talk about experimentation. We have to be flexible in our approach. Now, more than ever before, the work we carry out in one month is not likely to be totally replicated in month 2 and so on. Likewise, we do not bind clients to long term contracts. We can only talk about improvement and planning. But, with this in focus we do succeed in any case, as our benchmark is defined from the onset of the project.

We concur with this. Our job is both analytical and forensic in its processes. It relies on many skill sets to succeed. We are not afraid to talk about experimentation. We have to be flexible in our approach. Now, more than ever before, the work we carry out in one month is not likely to be totally replicated in month 2 and so on. Likewise, we do not bind clients to long term contracts. We can only talk about improvement and planning. But, with this in focus we do succeed in any case, as our benchmark is defined from the onset of the project.

Our latest Health and Safety newsletter has just been published.

In this month’s newsletter we cover;

– Do You Have Trees on Your Property?

– Richard Mills has been carrying out Legionella Workshops for the CIEH

– IOSH Managing Safely; A New Health and Safety Course for RedCat

– Lorry Driver Killed 4 People Hours After Signing Mobile Phone Declaration

– The Clocks Go Back; Time To prepare for Winter Driving

– The Impact of the New Sentencing Guidelines for Courts

– H&S Legislation Highlights

– How Good is Your Occupational Health Knowledge?

To read our latest newsletter click here

Are you looking to get yourself banned from Google? There are a number of thingswhichyou can do to make sure that Google thinks that your website as spam. If you don’t want to get banned, ensure that you don’tdo these things.

1: Create your content automatically

Don’t take the time to create original content. Usesoftware to create your web pages automatically. You’ll save loads of time and you will get a high bounce rate (single page view) because your website visitors likely won’t understand your web pages.

Automatically created content is targeted by Google’s Panda algorithm (mathematical score for ranking your site in the search engine) so this is a good way to get banned.

2: Use key phrase rich doorway pages & employcloaking

This is a (very) old method but it still works very well, especially if you combine it with the aforementioned automated content. Create pages that contain a lot of your key phrases for search engines. Subsequently redirect the real visitors of your website to other pages on your site.

Protip: Redirect your users to pages that are totally unrelated to the content of the doorway pages. Chances are that Google will ban your website even quicker then.

3: Hide text on your web pages or stuff it in!

Also a classic: Instead of using doorway pages, just enter the key phrase rich text on your regular pages. Then hide it so that your website visitors cannot see it. You can do this by using white-text on a white background, with stylesheets (CSS), or with a very small font size. Be creative. A cool way to hide links on your pages is to link dots at the end of a sentence.The other option to get a negative reaction is to add lots of key phrase led text for your anticipated phrases – visible on the page, and expect that the engine will exonerate the lack of landing page link!

The more text you hide on your pages, the more likely it is that Google things that these web pages are spam. The more spam-ridden text on the page, the same conclusion from the engine.

4: Get links in bulk

Getting real links is completely daft and unnecessary. It is much too much work if you want to get banned on Google. Real links will improve your rankings on Google and this is not what we’re trying to do here.

If you want to get banned, you should try to get links in bulk or pay for them: Automatically submit your website to thousands of forums, automatically create forum profile links, buy as many links as you can on as many websites as you can. Make sure that these links always contain the same anchor text.

Google’s latest Penguin algorithm has made it more difficult to get penalised by bad links. Fortunately, you will still get a manual penalty if you have enough of these backlinks.

If you want to get higher rankings on Google, avoid the things above at all costs! Use white-hat website optimisation methods, or ethical link building services to get high rankings. Be methodical and understand averages not actuals. A ‘top, middle, bottom’ approach to quality will be more likely to succeed than one which is all of one weight.

White-hat SEO methods are methods that play by the rules.

When your business grows it’s important to keep on top of your accounting and make running your business as easy as possible. Your accounting software is key to that, but although the popular Sage 50 is an excellent piece of accounting software, it can become quite limited.

The good news is that the upgrade to Sage 200 Extra is a natural migration and progression for Sage 50 customers who have outgrown the software.

Sage 200 offers you a lot more of everything: For example, Sage 50 can handle up to 1.5 million transactions whereas Sage 200 Extra is technically unlimited, having sites with over 9 million nominal transactions, 300,000 orders, 750,000 stock codes, or 15,000 projects.

There are also lots of extra tools and options that come with Sage 200 Extra. So let’s take a look at what they are:

1. Helpful and handy Add-ons

Sage 200 Extra comes full of tools that you can use straight away to help you run your business smartly and efficiently. Sage 200 Extra is modular, in other words you choose the elements you need when you need them and add others as your business develops. For example the CRM integration allows you to view the Sage 200 data in real time.

2. On the go and in the cloud

Sage 200 Extra can either be installed in your premises or accessed via the cloud. What does this mean? You will be able to access your accounts on the move on multiple devices, making it much more flexible. If your business wishes to reduce ongoing costs, such as server hardware, IT maintenance costs for server configuration, disaster recovery and backups – Sage 200 Online does all this for you.

3. Accurate and up to the minute finances

You can be even more precise with your business finances. Track budgets, drill down into data and deal with all your VAT submissions. Sage 200 offers suggested payments in the purchase ledger, multiple contacts on customer and supplier accounts and another level of analysis using the transaction analysis codes.

With interactive dashboards for sales, purchases, sales orders and financials, this can give you an even greater view of the health of your business.

You can also gain greater control over your accounting periods, with up to 20 accounting periods, which can be open, closed and re-opened as needed. Then you can control the length of period and set up period structures in advance for future years.

Setting up cost centres and departments as well as profit & loss, balance sheet and cash flow reporting with the option to group accounts for reporting purposes are all very useful features. As well as being able to make adjustments to previous year journals and roll changes forward to ensure your accounts are accurate and up to date.

4. Business intelligence

Sage 200 comes with its Business Intelligence module, a tool that helps you identify key trends and patterns and gives you greater control over your business. You can effectively analyse critical business information for agile decision-making and improved visibility across your organisation with powerful analytical tools.

5. Better reporting

It’s important to have the right tools and functions to hand, to make finding and interpreting information about your business easy. Sage 200 Extra now uses Excel™ to offer a customisable reporting tool that allows you to take data and filter, format and formulate within the familiar environment of Excel.

6. Commercials & managing stock

Sage 200 Extra is designed to help you manage every element of your supply chain with a sophisticated stock management system that’s linked to your financial data. This will allow you to manage your stock from multiple locations, and from multiple bins within the locations, giving you full control of your inventory in multiple warehouses or on the road.

Sage 200 Extra also allows full serial and batch traceability, which enables the management of stock by ‘sell by,’ ‘use by,’ and stock group. Up to 20 analysis codes can be allocated to stock transactions so that you can monitor all movements and trace back the order for product recalls. You can get a complete inventory and warehouse management solution to help you optimise stock levels, keep costs down and deliver what your customers want.

7. Manage your sales orders

From raising a quotation or order to checking stock, delivering goods and raising invoices, Sage 200 Extra gives you complete control of your entire sales order process. When you enter a sales order for an item that’s not normally held in stock, it can automatically raise a purchase order to the item’s supplier. Or you may choose to use stock that’s on-hand first, making sure you efficiently manage and control your stock. Automatically produce all the documents you need including order acknowledgements, picking lists, delivery notes and invoices as part of the sales process. Deliver items to a number of delivery addresses, including your premises, customers and suppliers.

8. Managing your manufacturing and production processes.

With the Bill of Materials and Manufacturing modules this provides you with the flexibility to choose what’s right for your business, whether you have light or more complex manufacturing requirements. Unlimited components, operations and assembly levels on the bills of materials give you greater flexibility in matching the software to what you actually do. The manufacturing planning module recommends what to make and buy to meet your customers’ needs, ensuring the stock is on hand when it’s needed and the finished goods are ready when they.The graphical planner can produce a finite capacity plan so that you know the resources will be available when they are needed.

9. Making the switch from Sage 50 is simple

Fortunately, making the switch to Sage 200 from Sage 50 is straight forward. Using Sage’s migration tool, we can convert all your Sage 50 data to Sage 200 Extra in no time at all.Alternatively, you may wish to take the opportunity to review your current data and start with a clean sheet in Sage 200 to take advantage of the many features in the software.

This post was written by Alan Becker of the Price Bailey Business Systems & Software team, who are a specialist Sage 200 Business Partner and experts in business accounting software solutions.

What often happens is that out of a fear of over-claiming, owing to a lack of specialist knowledge, some commpanies are advised their activities aren’t eligible.

1 – You can’t claim for a project if it has failed. FALSE

Companies often believe – mistakenly – that if their development work hasn’t been successful or has failed to achieve its originally intended goal then the money spent cannot be reclaimed. In fact, failure is often a strong indicator of R&D tax relief Scheme eligibility. Technical difficulty, waste and the use of groundbreaking techniques are all signs of eligibility under the scheme and can form a significant part of an R&D claim.

2 – Configuring an existing IT package constitutes R&D. FALSE

Unfortunately, bolting together systems that can already be found on the market, however intricate and tailored they may be, doesn’t qualify as R&D under the legislation. Only IT projects that break new ground or truly advance the science of computing are eligible under the scheme. HMRC legislation in this area can be quite involved, so again it pays to talk to specialists in the field.

3 – You can’t claim for R&D work undertaken by a subcontractor. FALSE Under the current legislation, product development that’s outsourced to subcontractors or partners can be claimed for within your own R&D tax claim, but only depending on your company size. This can be of particular interest to smaller companies for whom partnering and pooling resources is crucial. Subcontracting is a very complicated area, best talk to an expert to maximise potential returns…

4 – R&D tax relief only applies to the work done by people in white lab coats. FALSE Qualifying R&D activity goes way beyond that. In addition to pure science-based research and development costs (scientists’ salaries, laboratory costs etc), supporting activity such as engineering or IT improvements are sometimes also eligible.

5 – Making a claim is resource and time intensive. FALSE The fact-finding part of the process can be surprisingly quick. R&D tax relief specialists who know what they’re looking for can be in and out of an organisation in a matter of hours.

Jumpstartprovide R&D tax relief assistance for UK businesses. Jumpstart has a proven track record in making successful R&D tax relief claims. They know what to claim, how to claim and, perhaps most importantly of all, the many pitfalls to avoid.

If you think you may be eligible, contact Lee Williams your local Client Engagment Manager on 07794201990safe in the knowledge that if you don’t ultimately qualify for R&D tax relief you won’t owe anyone a penny.

If you’re not going forwards, you’re going backwards Virtually no one is standing still online. The world of Google means that if you’re not paying attention to your online marketing there is a good chance you are being passed in the rankings, by more vibrant, forward-thinking businesses looking to gain your chunk of the marketplace.

Protect your reputation Unlike printed marketing, the Web allows all sorts of forums for comments, reviews and articles about your business. Online marketing allows you to keep a track of the mentions ensuring they are a fair reflection of your business and not harmful to your reputation. With links being a key factor in influencing search results, earninglinks from reputable, trusted websites is highly beneficial.

Initial perception First impressions of a business used to be handing over a business card. Now it is quite likely that someone’s first impression of your business will be through your social media presence or website. Have you ever visited a website andnoticed that the last post is outdated? If this is the case with your own website, customers may think you have lost interest or worse still, are no longer operating. Keep that news feed relatively up to date, and make sure something regularly goes out on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Ever changing goalposts Google’s algorithm is constantly updatedand the scores, parameters and recommended actions are continually changing. An expert will stay ahead of the game with regards to the best practices andaprofessional SEO consultant tends to be a more time and cost effective option, rather than doing it yourself or employing a full time multi-skilled online marketer.

Competitors can influence your presence Printed marketing, such as an advert, will be placed in a position of a magazine which is pre-agreed. The audience is also largely guaranteed due to regular readership figures. Online marketing is different. You can’t launch your website, track it’s progress for the first few weeks then lose interest. As competitors come along they have the power to effectively push your site out of the way, by overtaking you in the rankings, as a result of their own optimization and attention to their website. Monitoring competitors is a very important part of search engine optimisation, and you can be sure, someone is doing it to you.

Google views backlinks as a testimonial If you are switched on to online marketing in any way you will have heard someone preaching the benefits of backlinks. But why are they so important? Google tracks backlinks to see who is being recommended by others. If someone else is talking about a service, then linking to you as the go-to expert, then that is seen as a testimonial. Every link carries a number of different values, so don’t waste your time collecting low value directories that could be considered spam.

Are you interesting in getting started with online marketing?

Nu Image are a design agency specialising in Online Marketingand Web Designin Norwich. We pride ourselves in friendly, honest advice and cost effective marketing. Give us a call on 01603 715671 today to find out how we can help your business.

The time has come for you to invest in a new office, or to refurbish your existing space. Before starting your office fit out, what should you take into consideration?

What is the intended scope of your refurbishment?

What are you looking to gain from your refit? Before contacting an office designer, it is good to have a clear idea of what you are hoping to achieve. Do you need the space to work more effectively for your staff, a change of layout or a new break out area? Maybe the décor simply needs refreshing?

Reflect your branding within your office space

Think about your company brand guidelines, and how they can be introduced into your office space. Using your company colours in your office refurbishment is a good place to start, but signage and wall graphics could also reflect your brand’s font or styling.

Take time to talk to your staff

As the holder of the budget, you’re likely to have the final say in what changes take place, but involving you staff at the planning stages of an office refit is usually a good idea. They will feel valued, that you have taken the time to ask for an opinion – and you will have the opportunity to iron out any existing issues your workforce currently experience, giving you a happier team in the long run.

Don’t underestimate the value of good lighting

Make sure that furniture and storage is placed sympathetically, to ensure your office space benefits from as much natural light as possible. It will not only help to avoid the space feeling smaller, but more sunshine can lead to a brighter state of mind. If natural light is not easy to come by, talk to your office design company about the best lighting options for your space.

Allow room for growth

If you have the spare space available, it is worth considering adding a few additional work stations. It allows you to set up the office quickly, with minimal disruption to the rest of your team, if you choose to expand in the near future.

Whether you have an exact idea of what you are hoping to achieve from your office design, or still need some help and inspiration, the office design team at Bluespace Ltd can help. From the early planning stages all the way through to a complete office fit out, we will be with you every step of the way. Call us on 01603 722123 to start your exciting project today.

In 2016, Norfolk Community Foundation joins other community foundations across the network by taking part in Vital Signs – an annual report designed to measure social trends and the vitality of our communities to build a picture of life and social need in our county.

Norfolk is generally perceived as a prosperous part of the UK, with the majority of residents enjoying a high quality of life. However, for many people, life in the county presents challenges compounded by isolation, low income and other life limiting factors. Whilst Vital Signs explores the county’s strengths, it helps us to understand the scale and nature of inequality that affects some of our most vulnerable residents. Combining statistical research with a community consultation, Vital Signs provides a digestible, well rounded picture of what life is like in Norfolk focusing on five themes:

• Education
• Employment and skills
• Health and wellbeing
• Safer and stronger communities
• Rural living
• Fairness

Taking Vital Action

Community Foundations are increasingly being looked to, not only as philanthropy advisors but to take a community leadership role and to drive and influence positive social change on a local level. In taking part in Vital Signs, our main priorities are to:

• Ensure that our donors and strategic partners are equipped with the knowledge they need to enable them to direct their grant making to the most critical areas
• Start new conversations with those who can support community philanthropy, ensuring they are informed about issues and opportunities for action so that their philanthropy makes a true difference
• Enable us to help to influence the work of community leaders, residents, organisations, policy makers, public bodies and the private sector to enact social change

If you would like to know more about Vital Signs, please visit www.norfolkfoundation.com/vital-signs/ orcontact Jenny Bevan, Grants Manager or Anna Douglas, Director of Marketing and Development on 01603 623958.

To tackle the issue, the Government has introduced the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the Act) which, among other things, requires organisations meeting certain criteria to publish an annual statement setting out the steps they have taken to eradicate slavery not only within their own business but also through their supply chain.

With the publication of an anti-slavery statement, large businesses are expected to be more transparent about their operations in the hope that this will drive up standards throughout supply chains. It is envisaged that the legislation will have a cascading effect on smaller businesses to ensure that their own organisation and supply chains are slavery-free.

The Act has also encouraged many businesses to address their commitment to corporate social responsibility and brand protection, both in their workplace and supply chains. With this commonly landing upon the desks of HR professionals to tackle, what are the some of the key issues to be mindful of?

1. While HR can assist with the preparation of the slavery and human trafficking statement, ultimate responsibility lies with senior management. It is therefore important to identify which senior individual(s) within the business are responsible for compliance and for taking responsibility for the organisation’s commitment to anti-slavery and ethical matters.

2. HR should familiarise themselves with the requirements of the Act. The statement may include details about: the organisation’s structure; its policies; due diligence processes and risk assessments; its effectiveness in ensuring slavery is not taking place; and the training the organisation has delivered.

3. It is recommended that the appropriate people within the business are made aware of the Act and what impact this has on their roles. For example, procurement managers should review tender documentation and contracts and consider including provisions regarding compliance with the spirit of the Act. Customers further up the chain are equally likely to require this from their own suppliers.

4. Organisations are advised to know their business and to map out their supply chains to understand where labour is sourced. Particular consideration should be given to any risky areas to the business – such as contracting with businesses in geographical areas with a statistical high level of slavery; sectors where there is much low-paid unskilled labour; and where there is a high use of unfamiliar agency providers.

5. It is essential to understand the warning signs of slavery occurring in the business and its supply chain and educate your workforce on what modern slavery means in practice. Most slavery is well hidden with many affected individuals being unaware that they are actually victims.

6. It is advisable to develop your policies on anti-slavery which should contain action plans setting out the steps staff and suppliers must take in the event that they suspect or uncover slavery or forced labour. Staff should be trained in how to report modern slavery particularly as there is a real risk that police enquiries could be hampered if internal company investigations are not carried out correctly.

Forced and slave labour is an unfortunate reality within businesses and the global supply chain. As such, it is essential to take action now if you are a business which falls within the scope of the Act. Prime Minister, Theresa May, in the guidance to accompany the Act, states: “it is simply not acceptable for an organisation to say, in the twentyfirst century, that they did not know [about modern slavery]”.1

Even if your own organisation is not required to publish an anti-slavery statement, it would be wise to consider the cascading effect of the Act on your business as well as the significant risk to your reputation if any of your labour supply is found to be affected. Loosening the chains of modern slavery.. Source: 1. Slavery and human trafficking in supply chains: a practical guide (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ transparency-in-supply-chains-a-practical-guide)

Employee Incentives

Implemented effectively, employee incentive schemes can be used to recruit, retain, motivate employees and improve performance. They can also be tax-efficient and therefore help reduce the overall cost of a remuneration package. Furthermore, if an employee incentive scheme uses shares or share value, it can effectively align the interests of participants with those of shareholders and assist private companies with succession or exit planning.

Before implementing a scheme the following questions should be considered:

What is the purpose of the scheme? Is it to reward participants for future or past efforts? Should any value be “ring-fenced”? Considering the purpose of the scheme will give some indication of whether the participant should be gifted the incentive or if there should be a payment equivalent to market value at the point of acquisition. Ring-fencing value by the creation of a “growth share” or “hurdle share” may be appropriate.

Will all employees benefit from the scheme or a select group? Some types of tax-favoured schemes have to be made available to all qualifying employees (all-employee schemes), whilst under others, the board of directors can select the employees to be invited to participate (discretionary schemes).

Is the business comfortable with participants being shareholders or should there be a degree of separation? If employee shareholders are not desirable, options can be used to deliver an upfront incentive with without any immediate shareholding. “Exit only” options mean that employees are only shareholders for a moment immediately before sale which avoids employee shareholders getting involved in shareholder affairs beforehand.

What should happen if the participants cease to be employed? Should a distinction be made between “good” and “bad” leavers? It is not uncommon for an incentive scheme to make provision for differing treatment depending on the circumstances which lead to an employee leaving.

Should the incentive be subject to any performance conditions e.g. meeting a personal or corporate performance target? In order to align the interests of participants with those of shareholders careful consideration should be given to the conditions under which the incentive vests and becomes exercisable. It is not uncommon for such conditions to be linked to the passage of time and the achievement of business plan objectives whether corporate or personal.