Norfolk Chambers of Commerce are once again pleased to be supporting the Norfolk Skills & Careers Festival. Returning on Wednesday 4 and Thursday 5 March 2020 at Norfolk Showground, this interactive event is aimed at 14-24 year olds to help inspire them for their future career and to demonstrate the various options available. The event spearheaded by Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association provides an opportunity for your business to connect with Norfolk’s young people, support the future workforce and demonstrate and talk about the key skills involved in your industry. The Festival will be structured around thirteen sectors covering Energy, Advanced Manufacturing, ICT – Digital and Creative, Financial and Business Services, Leisure, Tourism and Culture, Food and Farming, Science and Innovation, Health and Social Care, Construction and Logistics, Education and Training, Public Services, Retail and Enterprise and Careers advice. The Festival is run on a not for profit basis and the organising partners include: Norfolk County Council, Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association, Archant, City College Norwich, Easton and Otley College, Beacon East, Norfolk Chambers of Commerce, New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership and Norwich School. For 2020 the Festival is looking for exciting new businesses to get involved to put on an interactive and engaging display of the career opportunities Norfolk has to offer. Both exhibition and sponsorship opportunities are available with prices starting at £350+VAT. If you book before the 31 December you’ll receive an early bird rate on your booking too! To find out more about supporting the Norfolk Skills and Careers Festival 2020, take a look at the documents below or get in touch with Cheryl Watson: E: [email protected] T: 01603 731971
Norfolk businesses are thriving, and the Norfolk Business Awards 2019 were a gleaming example of that last week at the Norfolk Showground Arena.
We were delighted to see two Norfolk Chambers of Commerce members amongst those being celebrated at the awards ceremony last Thursday.
Indigo Swan were once again, for the second year in a row, crowned Small & Medium Business of the year.
MHA Larking Gowen picked up the Best Employer Award, an excellent achievement following on from their BCC Regional Winners Award for Workplace Wellbeing in 2018.
A huge congratulations must go out to all of the excepitonal winners on the night:
Angling Direct – Outstanding Achievement Award
Holkham – Customer Care Award
Solder – Tech Innovator Award
East Anglian Air Ambulance – Large Business Award
Cornwall Insight – Knowledge Pioneer Award
Leaf Expression Systems – Breaking Boundaries Award
Richardsons Leisure – Investing in Future Growth Award
Carole Osborne, borne – Director of the Year Award
The percentage of UK firms facing recruitment difficulties has returned to previous highs, while one in four businesses expect to increase headcount according to the UK’s largest survey of employers.
Over half (54%) of British businesses recruited in the last three months, with nearly three quarters reporting recruitment difficulties, as skills shortages persist.
One in four (27%) British businesses plan to increase their headcount in the next quarter (Q4 2019), with two thirds believing their workforce will remain constant.
The latest Quarterly Recruitment Outlook from the British Chambers of Commerce, in partnership with Totaljobs, reveals that almost three-quarters (73 per cent) of businesses who attempted to recruit faced recruitment difficulties in Q3 2019, compared with 64 per cent in Q2.
Skills shortages were predominantly felt across skilled manual roles and professional roles, with 80 per cent of construction firms and 71 per cent of transport and distribution businesses facing difficulties recruiting the right staff. In the run up to Christmas, 70,000 transport and distribution roles were advertised on Totaljobs in Q3, receiving an average of 23 applications per vacancy.
Despite concerns over Brexit deadlock, labour market performance and expectations are holding up fairly well. Only 11 per cent of businesses have decreased their workforce in Q3, with one in four businesses increasing their total headcount. Headcount remained consistent at 62 per cent of responding businesses.
Looking forward, one in four businesses plan to increase their headcount in Q4 2019, and two in three expect to keep their workforce consistent. Just 8 per cent of UK firms expect to decrease their headcount in Q4 2019. Supporting signs of a buoyant recruitment market, over 740,000 job vacancies advertised on Totaljobs in Q3 2019, with over 13 million applications made on the platform.
Although over half (54 per cent) of UK businesses tried to recruit in Q3 2019, just one in four (28%) micro- businesses attempted to recruit. In contrast, 75% of small and mid-sized businesses (250+ employees) and 90% of large businesses (250+ employees) recruited in the same period.
BCC Director General Adam Marshall said:
“Jobseekers will welcome the fact that many businesses are continuing to hire staff, but policymakers should be alarmed that skills shortages continue to bedevil firms – particularly in the skilled roles that will be needed to drive healthy manufacturing and export performance following Brexit.
“The next government must swiftly translate election promises into action and deliver more generous investment in high-quality technical and vocational education at all levels, alongside a flexible, fast and affordable immigration system that provides access to a broad range of skills. It must radically reduce upfront business costs so firms have the confidence and cashflow to back this up with on-the-job training and apprenticeships.”
Patrick Wehrmann, CEO of Totaljobs said:
“The labour market remains one of the strongest pillars of the UK economy, and in the previous quarter, there were almost 750,000 vacancies advertised on Totaljobs, driving over 13 million applications from the UK workforce.
“Despite economic uncertainty, our latest research indicates that the labour market is buoyant, and with over a quarter of businesses looking to expand their workforce with an increased headcount in Q4, this looks set to continue.
“However, it’s notable that skills shortages continue to affect businesses UK-wide, and as such, regardless of wider economic concerns, employers should be mindful that they are doing what’s necessary to attract and retain the best talent on offer.
“Totaljobs research shows that workers are particularly driven by professional development and training, clear progression paths, and a healthy work-life balance. It’s vital that employers put these things front of mind and continue to drive investment in their people in order to keep staff engaged, and drive business output during a dip in the economy.”
A majority of UK manufacturing exporters are reporting a stark worsening in sales and orders, with indicators showing a substantial drop compared to 2017 and 2018 levels.
The Quarterly International Trade Outlook for Q3 2019, released by British Chambers of Commerce and DHL today, reveals that indicators for exporting manufacturers in Q3 2019 have undergone large declines, with several key indicators for orders and cashflow now in negative territory.
The percentage balance of exporting manufacturers reporting an increase in export orders fell to -1 per cent, down from +9 in the previous quarter. The balance of those reporting increased domestic orders fell to -4 per cent in Q3, down from +8 per cent in Q2.
The balance of exporting manufacturers reporting improved cash flow stood at -5 per cent in Q3, down from +6 per cent in Q2. In Q3 2018, one year ago, the balance stood at +13.
While exporting manufacturers saw large declines across the QITO indicators, the exporting services sector also saw indicators well below historical levels. In Q3 +8 per cent of exporting service sector firms reported an increase in domestic orders, down from +12 per cent in Q2. A balance of zero per cent reported an increase in export orders, down from +5.
BCC Director General Adam Marshall said:
“A strong and balanced economy needs healthy exporters at its core. But while there are some companies bucking the trend, future sales and orders are now well into negative territory, after a steady downward trend in export performance this year.
“On top of Brexit uncertainty and global trade tensions, election turbulence won’t be helping. The next administration will need to most fast to restore confidence, with action to upgrade infrastructure, boost skills and cut business costs.
“Without urgent clarity around our future trading relationship with the EU, firms across the UK will increasingly struggle to fill order books, and jobs and prosperity in many of our communities could be at risk.”
Vice President of Marketing at DHL Express, Shannon Diett said:
“This quarter’s report shows clearly that it continues to be a challenging environment for UK exporters.
“Whether expanding to new markets within the EU or elsewhere in the world, diversifying the portfolio of countries in which you operate will help stabilise your business in the coming months and provide a future engine for growth. In this regard a number of non-traditional markets present a significant opportunity for UK exporters.
“Working with logistics providers to ensure the transition to any new trade arrangement is as smooth as possible will be vital for exporters looking to mitigate the uncertainty and thrive into the future.
“Along with broadening exposure to more markets, taking simple actions like ensuring you are electronically transmitting your customs documentation or sharing your EORI number with your shipper is advisable regardless the ultimate outcome.”
67 per cent of exporting manufacturers cite exchange rates as a factor of concern to their business, up from 63 per cent in Q2. This remains the top factor of concern for exporting manufacturers.
Walking up to the doors of The Boathouse delegates were treated to the sight of not only a motorbike from Norfolk Blood Bikes but also their car, both of which are used to quickly get blood products, samples, and other super important supplies from one hospital to another. The beautiful setting outweighed the drizzly weather and there was a lovely buzz as delegates got to know one another before the main event.
Once seated delegates networked on their tables, coming up with ideas of their business plans for 2020 ahead of Rachel Blackburn from US2U Consulting‘s presentation on building a robust business plan. The breakfast was absolutely delicious and so generous that some were even defeated by it! After breakfast Rachel was up, skilfully trimming her 2 hour presentation into 15 minutes to give delegates the key areas to consider when building their business plans. The main areas she encouraged delegates to consider were: identify clear goals; understand your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (and not to be afraid of the threats), compile competitor analysis so you can really understand what they do and how you can be different and better, and practice saying your elevator pitch out loud so you sound confident.
Delegates left full and feeling confident with their business plans and how to make 2020 their year!
Big thanks to the lovely guys from Norfolk Blood Bikes for being our featured charity, bringing their fabulous bike and car, and talking to delegates about the super important work they do across the county. Massive thanks to Rachel Blackburn from US2U Consulting for being our presenter and to The Boathouse for being our excellent venue as always.
If you’d like to get some of Rachel’s tips you can find all her slides here.
Shared Asset Model unveiled at 20th annual CoMoUK Collaborative Mobility Conference
Enterprise Car Club and sharing economy pioneers, Liftshare, have today announced a partnership that will see the two collaborate on a new mobility model that will dramatically improve access to shared vehicles for both Car Club members and business users. The ground-breaking partnership was unveiled at the CoMoUK conference in Birmingham. The partnership will be the first real-world application of an innovative concept dubbed the “Shared Asset Model” (SAM) that means people can share a low emission Enterprise Car Club vehicle, reducing dependency on older, often higher polluting vehicles, and making better use of the 36 million ’empty’ car seats on the daily commute. Liftshare and Enterprise are already speaking to a number of private and public sector organisations about introducing the Shared Asset Model. SAM works on the principle that a car club vehicle is driven to work, shared with a colleague (or colleagues). During the day the car is then available for use either by employees for company travel, removing the need for them to use their own vehicle, or by the general public. To further increase utilisation, the vehicle is available as an Enterprise Car Club vehicle on a simple pay as you go tariff at weekends and evenings. The introduction of a supplementary commuter mode (in this instance a brand-new car club vehicle) is a benefit to staff and communities alike where public transport is unable to fill the gaps identified by Liftshare and their Scoping Smart Mobility technology. This means that vehicles which would have spent the majority of each day parked-up are replaced by fewer, more intensively used alternatives, delivering greater value for clients who use the scheme. A further client incentive is the option of a revenue share derived from commuter journeys in addition to the gains associated with taking single occupancy vehicles off an already congested road network. The partnership will utilise Liftshare’s Trip Authentication and Smart Parking technologies to ensure the people parking in allocated sharing bays are genuine sharers, allowing easy management of the car park by an organisation’s facilities team. Speaking at the CoMoUK Conference Oz Choudhri, Head of MaaS, Enterprise Rent-A-Car UK Ltd said: “Enabling people to share vehicles for their daily commute will play a big role in improving air quality and reducing congestion. By combining the strength of our growing national Car Club fleet with the exciting technology of Liftshare and working with progressive organisations, we can make this ambition a reality.” CEO and Founder of Liftshare, Ali Clabburn, said “We’re delighted to be working with fellow forward-thinking global mobility leaders, Enterprise. Their Car Club offering aims to make it the best use of resources, and our collaboration makes it much easier for those assets to be shared, thus increasing the efficiency further. Our focus on improving the commute and reducing the amount of single occupancy vehicles can be accelerated when we work with partners like Enterprise and the milestone of saving one billion miles becomes even more achievable.”
Enterprise Car Club and sharing economy pioneers, Liftshare, have today announced a partnership that will see the two collaborate on a new mobility model that will dramatically improve access to shared vehicles for both Car Club members and business users. The ground-breaking partnership was unveiled at the CoMoUK conference in Birmingham. The partnership will be the first real-world application of an innovative concept dubbed the “Shared Asset Model” (SAM) that means people can share a low emission Enterprise Car Club vehicle, reducing dependency on older, often higher polluting vehicles, and making better use of the 36 million ’empty’ car seats on the daily commute. Liftshare and Enterprise are already speaking to a number of private and public sector organisations about introducing the Shared Asset Model. SAM works on the principle that a car club vehicle is driven to work, shared with a colleague (or colleagues). During the day the car is then available for use either by employees for company travel, removing the need for them to use their own vehicle, or by the general public. To further increase utilisation, the vehicle is available as an Enterprise Car Club vehicle on a simple pay as you go tariff at weekends and evenings. The introduction of a supplementary commuter mode (in this instance a brand-new car club vehicle) is a benefit to staff and communities alike where public transport is unable to fill the gaps identified by Liftshare and their Scoping Smart Mobility technology. This means that vehicles which would have spent the majority of each day parked-up are replaced by fewer, more intensively used alternatives, delivering greater value for clients who use the scheme. A further client incentive is the option of a revenue share derived from commuter journeys in addition to the gains associated with taking single occupancy vehicles off an already congested road network. The partnership will utilise Liftshare’s Trip Authentication and Smart Parking technologies to ensure the people parking in allocated sharing bays are genuine sharers, allowing easy management of the car park by an organisation’s facilities team. Speaking at the CoMoUK Conference Oz Choudhri, Head of MaaS, Enterprise Rent-A-Car UK Ltd said: “Enabling people to share vehicles for their daily commute will play a big role in improving air quality and reducing congestion. By combining the strength of our growing national Car Club fleet with the exciting technology of Liftshare and working with progressive organisations, we can make this ambition a reality.” CEO and Founder of Liftshare, Ali Clabburn, said “We’re delighted to be working with fellow forward-thinking global mobility leaders, Enterprise. Their Car Club offering aims to make it the best use of resources, and our collaboration makes it much easier for those assets to be shared, thus increasing the efficiency further. Our focus on improving the commute and reducing the amount of single occupancy vehicles can be accelerated when we work with partners like Enterprise and the milestone of saving one billion miles becomes even more achievable.”
King’s Lynn town centre has the opportunity to potentially secure millions of pounds of transformational funding through the Future High Streets Fund – and your views are needed to help to shape the submission.
King’s Lynn is through to the next phase of the Future High Streets Fund and the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk and its partners are working on the plans for the submission.
To support the submission, consultation is being carried out to understand how people use the town centre and how they feel about it. And, you can get involved in a number of ways:
Survey cards: these will be available for completion at shops, cafes and attractions around the town.
Two consultation events: these will take place in the Tuesday Market Place. People will be able to come along for a face-to-face chat about how they use the town, how they feel about the town, and what would improve their experience.
Saturday 16 November 2019 from 2pm to 5pm
Sunday 24 November 2019 from noon to 2pm
Feedback from the consultation will go forward to the Consultative Board overseeing the submission. The survey is open to everyone, even if you only rarely or never visit King’s Lynn.
This survey builds on the original consultation in February 2019 which asked people for their views on King’s Lynn town centre. More than 750 people had their say and their feedback helped to inform the successful expression of interest to the Future High Streets Fund.
Updates about the Future High Streets Fund submission, and other funding for the town centre, will be shared across the Vision King’s Lynn social media channels Facebook @visionkingslynn, Twitter @vision_lynn and Instagram visionkingslynn.
They put it down to their tremendous staff who always go the extra mile on a daily basis, and of course to their customers for their continued loyalty and support!
Is your business prepared for Brexit? Do you a contingency plan to mitigate the impact of possible changes? Are you a customs agent? Or does your company use customs agents and intermediaries to help you trade with the EU?
If so, you need to know how to meet customs requirements fast and efficiently after the UK leaves the EU. There will be new processes to follow and new forms to complete. We can help. Our training will highlight what you need to know to be able to accurately complete a simple customs declaration. Norfolk Chambers of Commerce have launched new dates for training courses on Customs Declaration to help businesses understand the procedure ahead of Brexit. Take action to be prepared for any possible scenario. Who should attend? Anyone who needs an understanding of Customs regimes and how to complete a Customs declaration form. There are no pre-requisites for this course. Dates:
Time: 09:00 to 16:30 Venue: Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, 9 Norwich Business Park, Whiting Road, Norwich, NR4 6DJ Prices Member Rate: £280 + VAT Non-Member Rate: £350 + VAT
You may be eligible to claim up to 100% of the training course cost back from HMRC. You can find out more if your business is eligible, how to register and submit an application at www.customsintermediarygrant.co.uk
To book your place on either course click on dates linked above.
For any further information please contact Julie Austin on 01603 729706 or email [email protected]
We have a wide range of exciting and interesting training courses coming up before the end of November. They will be perfect if you are looking to further your knowledge or up-skill a member of your team.
A non-technical half day training workshop delivered by Holly Stibbon, 101 designed for people with limited experience in email marketing who wish to improve their knowledge and get better results. More info
Would you like to be an even better communicator – brush up your skills and learn some new ones? You may be looking to lead your team more effectively, build strong relationships with colleagues, be influential during that important meeting or simply feel more confident in different situations. More info
We’re all aware of the impact technology is having on our private lives, most people now have a smartphones and a large proportion have tablets and laptops too. There is an increasing buzz around screen time and how we manage our relationship with technology, at our recent HR Forum the experts from Birketts took delegates through how technology is impacting on the workplace and what you as employers can do about it.
We had three Senior Associates with us, Laura Brown, Jenny Leeder, and Kitty Rosser guiding delegates through a number of case studies involving the fictional character Sam Sung. Laura started by outlining the positives technology has on our lives such as computational accuracy and flexibility as well as risks such as data protection and working time issues. The majority of businesses in the room gave employees work phones and Laura highlighted that these pose an interesting question around working times as they give employees the flexibility to work from anywhere but also have the potential to encourage a blurring of lines between work and home life.
The case studies covered social media use both personally and professionally, mobile phone use, emails and data protection, and employee surveillance. It was suggested to delegates that even personal social media use can have a professional impact and that in order to protect themselves they should have a clear policy in place. Many delegates said that they would consider looking at a potential candidate’s social media channels prior to interviewing them, it was suggested that actually the best time to do this is after the first interview and that all staff should be trained on the relevant policies. On the subject of employee surveillance delegates were given a number of ways to protect themselves and things to consider including ensuring surveillance isn’t excessive and that clear boundaries are set. Finally delegates were given some examples of emerging technologies such as HR chatbots that could have an impact on their businesses.
Delegates left with a number of action points such as reviewing current policies to ensure that they cover all technology and are fair and reasonable, providing training to staff which was a clear theme throughout the afternoon, the importance of consistency when enforcing policies, and making sure they’re aware of potential vicarious liability risks. Overall it was a really informative afternoon that raised some issues that you would not necessarily consider when discussing technology and the workplace.
Big thanks to Laura Brown, Jenny Leeder, and Kitty Rosser for leading the afternoon and Birketts for sponsoring. All slides from the HR Forum can be found here.