connected issue 101

The official magazine for Chamber members

Welcome ....

This month we focus on the latest QES results

show that four in 10 businesses believe

reduce over the next 12 months.

to page 16 for the full press release

we also announce the date of our AGM.

Advertising or contributing expert articles is

to ensuring we can continue to produce connected. Turn to page 6 to see how cost effective it is to promote your company through this publication.

a Chamber member

can also submit

news to appear on our Member News

pages. Send your article, as a word document, and photo as a jpeg file directly to me by email to be included in a future issue.

SADIE PARR

from the

EXECUTIVE

Chief Executive’s comments

It was a pleasure to visit Arthur Rank Hospice Charity recently and meet with Sharon Allen OBE, Chief Executive, who has recently joined our Cambridge & South Cambs Chamber committee. Sharon took me on a tour of the hospice and explained the care and support they provide in caring for people living in Cambridgeshire with an advanced serious illness or a life-limited condition, and those in need of end-of-life care.

Their challenge is to raise the funds to keep the hospice running; one way they do this is through their Education & Conference Centre. They offer fully accessible meeting room facilities with flexible space for 90 people theatre style, 60 cabaret or 30 boardroom style. The conference room divides into three sound-proofed meeting or break-out spaces customised to suit your requirements with audio visual facilities and WiFi with in-house hospitality provided. To utilise this space, email venuehire@arhc.org.uk or telephone 01223 675780.

Currently, they are running a campaign to sponsor a nurse. Without their nurses they cannot provide the care that patients in the community really need. Due to an ageing population there will be greater demand for hospice services in the future. Over the last year they have cared for 1,203 people living with cancer and supported 237 people with neurological conditions and 432 others with chronic disease such as heart disease. The complexity of patients needs is increasing and adding to the growing need for appropriate skills diversity within their nursing teams. If you can sponsor a nurse, please visit arhc.org.uk/nurses

• A gift of £5 a month would contribute to the cost of a nurse’s shift

• A gift of £7 a month could fund pain relieving medicine for one patient, carefully dispensed by a trained nurse

• A gift of £9 a month over a year could fund travel costs so nurses can be with 10 patients in their own homes, in the final days of life

• A gift of £11 a month over a year could help recruit a new nurse, with essential checks and uniform.

I would like to personally congratulate YKTO who are regional winners for the Problem Solver Award in the annual Chamber Awards.

Chamber Patron Members

This award is for a business that has transformed the market that they operate in, or their product or service, in order to gain a strong position in their market. YTKO is currently delivering the Growth Coaching service, part of the Growth Works programme. Their effective and innovative approach has successfully developed the region’s Growth Coaching market.

The Chamber Business Awards is one of the showpiece events in the business calendar, recognising and promoting the best of British business through a series of regional heats, culminating in a campaign to showcase our winning businesses on an international stage.

National winners were announced on Thursday 13 October. Finally, we have had some new additions to the Chamber team and Board. I would like to welcome Mariana Garcia who has joined us as Policy & Partnerships Executive. She will be attending Chamber events and committee meetings to meet our members so she can support and update them on policy related matters locally and nationally.

On the Board we welcome Steve Dighton, Andrew Silley and Mike Greene. Steve is Chair our Construction & Property Sector group, Andrew is Chair of our Fenland Chamber and Mike is Chair of our Peterborough & Stamford Chamber. I am delighted to see such great people giving up their time to help the Chambers become even stronger and more relevant to our businesses across Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and Stamford.

VIC ANNELLS Chief Executive

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Exclusive services for Chamber members

Chamber membership provides you with links to national companies providing services at exclusive rates for members. These include Chamber Roadside Assistance and Chamber Utilities.

EV transitioning: How to manage a staggered grey fleet take-up

Business grey fleets are likely to be experiencing something of a lag when it comes to EV transitioning, thanks in part to the levels of driver hesitancy we are seeing emerge.

The phenomenon known as grey fleet refers to fleets comprising employee-owned vehicles, rather than company cars. The pandemic has seen grey fleets surge in popularity, as businesses strive to cut costs. There are now around 14 million grey fleet vehicles on UK roads.

However, grey fleets present an environmental headache for managers striving to reach sustainability goals, thanks to the lack of control over the type of vehicles purchased and owned by employees. Indeed, a recent policy paper from the Urban Mobility Partnership found that a grey fleet reduction is critical to decarbonisation plans for both public and private sectors (May 2022).

New AA research shows that one in 10 used vehicle drivers are putting off updating their vehicle. Indeed, nine per cent of drivers with models aged more than four years old are holding off swapping their car for an EV until the ‘right time’. The most common reason drivers are choosing not to upgrade is that they don’t feel the need for a new one (63%). Meanwhile, younger drivers were significantly more likely to be waiting for finance or a loan to end before they upgrade their car (11% of 25-34-year olds) than older drivers.

Stuart Thomas, Director of Fleet and Accident Management Services at the AA – provider of Chamber Roadside Assistance.

To find out more about Chamber Roadside Assistance, please visit the member benefits page on the Chamber website.

CHAMBER UTILITIES

Enexus Energy – Excellence in Energy Purchasing, Efficiency and Carbon Reduction

Energy is a complex world with costs increasing relentlessly. Enexus Energy helps you make sense of business energy, empowering you to reduce your costs and helping your organisation become more green. This is achieved through:

Better Buying: Experienced energy procurement experts work on your behalf to leverage the best prices and contracts market has to offer

Smarter Strategies: We develop bespoke, innovative strategies to optimise the way your business purchases, generates and consumes energy

Superior Sustainability: Achieve environmental excellence and legislative compliance with a green, clean, sustainable approach to business energy.

All members of Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce are entitled to a free, comprehensive Energy Health Check

This audit includes:

• Desktop energy efficiency survey

• Contract structure review

• Price review

• Availability capacity review (most businesses pay too much for availability and by streamlining this, can save almost immediately)

• Green/Net Zero options

• On site generation proposals.

To access your exclusive Chamber member benefit please contact us at info@enexusenergy.co.uk

CHAMBER CONFERENCE ROOM AVAILABLE TO HIRE

We have a conference room available to hire for up to 10 people with free parking at our office in Oakington.

Costs: £200.00 (plus VAT) full day, £115.00 (plus VAT) half day. 10% discount for Chamber members. Tea, coffee and biscuits provided for £2.00 (plus VAT) per person.

If you’re interested in hiring the ‘John Bridge Conference Room’ please email enquiries@cambscci.co.uk or telephone

237414

What are the main challenges of having an international workforce and how to overcome it?

Top Tips from Iwona Lebiedowicz, founder of PAB Languages Centre

Bridging cultural gaps to enable relationships between people from different countries and cultures is our mission here at PAB Languages. Businesses today are more global than ever before and as valuable as this is, it presents its own unique challenges.

For example, PAB Languages is a centre of diversity, where it becomes natural to interact with colleagues who have a variety of cultural backgrounds and diverse personal styles, all of which present opportunities as well as challenges. We have wonderful professionals representing over 50 countries from different faiths, backgrounds, and ethnicities - bringing industry-specific knowledge, language expertise and cross-cultural consideration.

So, let’s look at some of the challenges of working across cultures:

• Approach towards a flat and clan organisational structure

A flat organisational structure means only a few levels of management between the staff and the highest-level executives with a clan culture element of cultivating strong employee engagement and an adaptable environment. This may be challenging for team members from East Asia, India, and the Middle East who are used to much more hierarchical relationships with high power distance and decisions made strictly on a top-down basis.

To overcome any challenges, provide clarity around roles, and ensure everyone has access to necessary information, folders, and documents to perform their work independently. Explain the business structure and what it means in practice.

• Company surveys and reporting an issue

In cultures with direct communication style, such as a western country, directness, and efficiency in communication are highly valued. An employee from a western country may be more inclined to speak up, or question when something doesn’t feel right. In contrast, an employee from an indirect culture may regard directly communicating negative information as impolite, even in a business setting. Furthermore, our colleagues from

an eastern culture may even have been taught to never question the boss.

To get over this, modify your internal comms strategy, including survey processes, as well as, where necessary, diversifying the channels used to gather feedback. This will enable effective cross-cultural collaboration.

• Asking and giving feedback

What will work in Germany in terms of tough, critical, to-thepoint feedback could be demotivating to employees from Asia, who are most likely used to a far gentler feedback style.

If cultural differences like these are not considered, it could cause a lack of cohesion and some team members can see it as an attack on their character, a loss of face.

Giving both positive and negative feedback is crucial for growth. Deliver it in ways that adjust to cultural expectations, protect dignity, and keep the receiver’s face in mind - especially negative feedback. Problems need to be handled with straight talk, clarity, tact, and discretion.

What may make sense to employees from eastern cultures may not make sense to those from western, and vice versa. I’m not a fan of stereotyping or drawing conclusions on the basis of generalisations. In our increasingly global world, most of us will be face-to-face with colleagues of different subcultures within each national culture that have their own distinct values and beliefs. Everyone is an individual and stereotypes can be misleading, let alone unfair and counterproductive.

However, learning how to navigate difficult conversations and to provide critique across cultures is certainly a challenge, and there are many important differences to consider. That’s why – drawing on our research and the input of a global community of senior professionals from PAB Languages and ilc Communications – we have developed an Intercultural Communications Training that help leaders and their teams to understand inclusion, biases, and cultural differences.

To download our brochure and learn more about our Intercultural Communications Training, and to find out how we can support your organisation go to https://www.pabtranslation.co.uk/ brochure-download/

Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) UK

Taking place from Monday 14 - Sunday 20 November, GEW celebrates entrepreneurship through events, activities and competitions taking place across the nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as countries around the world.

Shevaun Haviland, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce, will be a keynote speaker at the official launch, full day conference on Monday 14 November.

See more information and register here to attend virtually or in person at https://bit.ly/3RHFvGm

We’re your gateway to international trade, providing a unique combination of expert knowledge, essential documentation and the business connections needed to capitalise on new market opportunities overseas and succeed in a global marketplace.

your

Perception is reality – parity against the Dollar and Euro

In recent times, the unprecedented has become the norm, with lifetime events (war in Ukraine, a global pandemic and Brexit) providing no room to take a breath. It is hard to articulate ‘usual times’, a period of stability is a distant memory, and at present even harder to imagine for the future.

For over a decade, the institutions of the UK had a communication problem with financial markets, resulting in waning confidence for global investors. The comment ‘Sterling is behaving like an emerging market currency’, coined in 2020, became more prevalent this year. As I write in the final week of September, that perception became reality.

In the early hours of 26 September, traders in Asian markets could not find buyers for their Sterling holdings. As a result, the Pound dropped below 1.03 an all-time low against the US Dollar. We witnessed a 10 per cent swing for the Pound on the day, something not uncommon for an emerging market currency. Sterling will post it’s six straight month of decline against the Dollar and since January has fallen over 25 per cent versus the greenback.

Duplicate Lists

By time of reading the Pound could have already fallen below parity against the US Dollar and Euro.

Sterling decline is not fully self-inflicted, the Euro against the Dollar has also fallen by 10 per cent since the summer. The war in Ukraine and the rhetoric escalation from the Russian President Vladimir Putin has seen the Dollar appreciate. That said the poor communication of the Bank of England and the conflicting policy of Trussenomics has knocked confidence, exacerbating the decline.

I’ve written before about the challenge for the Bank of England to control inflation to their two per cent target, considering so much has been driven by global energy prices. The perception that the Bank of England should be doing more prevails, hiking rates by 0.50 per cent midSeptember when peers went for 0.75 per cent increases was not well received. The reality is they will have to now raise rates faster and harder than they’d planned. The cautious wait and see is not going to be good enough, a base rate of four per cent in coming months and six per cent soon after are being forecasted.

History tells us there will be a correction, however that seems a long way down the road and further downside to hit the bottom should not be discounted.

Exporters are benefiting at these low levels, however for importers the cost of foreign exchange is adding to the other burdens of doing business. With such volatility reviewing the costs being incurred and the strategy of managing currency exposure becomes even more important. As such, specialist support as provided by companies like Ascendant, can fill a gap not provided by larger financial institutions.

For more information on how Ascendant can benchmark your current supplier and to hear about how we are reducing the cost of foreign exchange for local businesses, contact karen.benson@ascendant.world 52 week range for GBP (up to September 28th)

GBP v Euro – High 1.2190 - Low 1.0741

GBP v US Dollar – High 1.3913 - Low 1.0284

Since leaving the single market there have been many examples of businesses struggling to understand how to send material within passenger luggage where they are, for example, sending an engineer to carry out repairs.

A ‘Duplicate List’ can be used to avoid the need to pay Duty and VAT. The ‘owner’ of the goods must be travelling with the items and all of the goods must return to the country of original export. This avoids the need for customs declarations as the ‘Duplicate List’ replaces that requirement. It adds a degree of risk that can be avoided by the use of an ATA Carnet, as a border agent might not recognise this process as it is less well known than a Carnet. Most EU countries recognise this temporary form of import where all the goods passing through customs will be taken out of that country in the same state as they enter.

HMRC guidance can be found at https://www.gov.uk

Instructions for using a Duplicate List

• You must list all the goods being transported on company letterhead paper, descriptions and identifying serial numbers, if possible, on two lists. Form C&E 1246 should be completed.

• When passing through UK Customs you should present the form to customs, they may check the goods, but they

must stamp, date and sign the form. When entering the country of destination, you should go through the red channel and declare the goods to customs there, again check, stamp sign and date.

• When leaving the country, again declare and get a signature and stamp and the same when entering the UK. We would advise that care should be taken in planning the use of Duplicate Lists. The passenger carrying the goods should have clear instructions on what to do, should have two sets of duplicate lists carrying two for UK customs and two for the country of arrival and departure. If you are travelling to a third or fourth country, then carry duplicate lists for each regime. It would be good practice to carry a schedule of the dates of entry/exit and the names and addresses of the companies that will be visited.

An ATA Carnet remains the most recognised and reliable method for moving goods through multiple jurisdictions whether accompanied or not.

For any support with Duplicate Lists please contact the Chambers’ International Trade Team on 01223 237414 or email internationaltrade@cambscci.co.uk

chamber

TRAINING

Our regular training courses provide the knowledge to assist with your international trade activities. Currently, all courses will take place online via Zoom.

CHAMBER TRAINING Course Dates

UNDERSTANDING A CUSTOMS DECLARATION

3 November

This course will highlight what you need to know to complete customs declarations accurately for both the import and export of goods, including taking you through step-by-step guidance on completing the SAD C88 form.

LETTERS OF CREDIT

15 November

This workshop covers the five main types of payment for exports, from advance payment to open account, including Sight Documentary Collection, Term Documentary Collection and Documentary Letters of Credit. It includes the use of Bills of Exchange with and without documents.

IMPORT/ EXPORT DIAGNOSTICS WORKSHOP

24 November

This workshop shows companies how to look at their SOPS and compliance, going through key areas of procedures and compliance, preparing for trading internationally either by exporting or importing.

INWARD AND OUTWARD PROCESSING

1 December

The course will cover special procedures and the benefits of using IP and OP in your compliance.

UNDERSTANDING RULES OF ORIGIN

6 December

This course will explain all aspects of the Rules of Origin and Trade Agreements and how to understand and comply with them to help companies be more competitive in export markets.

UNDERSTANDING COMMODITY CODES

13 December

By attending this course we will ensure you are aware of what a commodity code is and what it is used for, understand the process of how to classify goods, successfully classify a range of goods and understand the importance of getting your commodity codes correct.

Full course details are available on our website www.cambridgeshirechamber.co.uk/training

TRAINING COURSES

Our training courses run from 9.30am-1.00pm.

Cost per course: £250.00 (plus VAT) Chamber members, £330.00 (plus VAT) non-Chamber members.

To register please visit our website, email j.mansfield@cambscci.co.uk or telephone 01223 237414.

LSIP Update

Local Skills Improvement Plan

An exciting new project has come to the region in the shape of the Local Skills Improvement Plan, which will run to July 2025. The project comes as part of a nationwide roll-out by the Department for Education, designed to help the post-16 education and training provision more suitable for meeting the needs of local employers. The Skills and Post-16 Act 2022 lays statute for this work across the country, and 32 of the 38 local skills improvement plans (LSIPs) are being led by Accredited Chambers of Commerce just like ours.

The Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce is delighted to have been designated the statutory provider of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough LSIP, and we’ve been focused on bringing together support from our friends at Make UK, the Institute of Directors, the Federation of Small Businesses, the Chartered Business Institute, Cambridge Ahead and many more to make sure we deliver in a collaborative and joined up way for the entire region.

Between us, we will bring together local businesses, training providers and a broad range of stakeholders to identify skills needed to increase opportunities and enable economic growth for the benefit of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough community.

Skills shortages are regularly highlighted by Cambridgeshire businesses in our economic surveys as a key challenge for growth and even survival, and the region’s LSIP aims to put the voice of local employers at the heart of the learning and skills system to build stronger, more dynamic partnerships between employers and further education providers.

Chamber Chief Executive, Vic Annells, commented: “We’ve had fantastic support and engagement so far from major post-16 education and training providers from across the region to help us to start to build on the fantastic work that has come before.

“With the help of providers, our fellow business representative organisations and the Cambridge and Peterborough Combined Authority, we’re helping employers to shape how their current and future workforce can access the right training and skills to thrive in the modern workplace.”

Supporting the decision for the Chamber to deliver the LSIP, Fliss Miller, Interim Associate Skills Director at the CPCA, said: “If we are to tackle the skills shortages that our businesses experience, it is imperative that businesses have a louder voice in the skills system. Our partners in the Chambers of Commerce are well placed to facilitate this.”

Building on the success of the eight Chamber-led trailblazers, which engaged more than 10,000 businesses, we’ll be taking an efficient, networkwide approach to enable businesses and training providers to work together to solve some of the region’s most pressing workforce challenges.

We’ll be offering plenty of ways for businesses to get involved over the course of the project and hope to hear from as many of you as possible. To hear more about this, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Laura Ruaux, LSIP Project Manager

l.ruaux@cambscci.co.uk

TRANSPORT DISRUPTION

Does an employer have to pay employees for working hours missed because of transport disruption?

Be aware that there may be various issues and it may not be as simple as employees not being able to get in to work. How does it effect a hybrid working model? Can employees take annual leave? What if there are childcare issues? What if your business had to close for the day.

Employers would be within their rights to refuse to pay an employee who does not get in to work, but that may not be the best course of action. The employer needs robust policies to cover all these eventualities

TRANSGENDER DISCRIMINATION

Do you know that you could be accused of transgender discrimination if you refuse to address a transgender person by their chosen pronoun?

You need to ensure you understand the current situation and ensure you have a well drafted policy in place that complies with current case law.

Failure to have correct policy in place and to ensure your staff understand correct behaviour can lead to claims of discrimination and unfair dismissal.

COST OF LIVING SUPPORT FOR EMPLOYEES

Does an employer have a duty of care to their employees to support them during the cost-of-living crisis?

Be aware that failure to support employees could open an employer to claims of negligence, failure to uphold employee health & safety or protection of employee’s mental health.

Employers should ensure they have appropriate policies in place and consider offering an employee assistance scheme.

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IT, SECURITY & DIGITAL SECTOR NEWS

CityFibre gets to work on Whittlesey’s £3m digital transformation

Work to bring full fibre connectivity within reach of almost every home and business in Whittlesey has started as CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent full fibre platform, breaks ground on a new infrastructure rollout that will future-proof the town’s digital needs for generations to come.

Construction of the £3m town-wide full fibre network has begun in Whittlesey and is being delivered by Granemore Group on behalf of CityFibre. The team will use a range of construction methods while working in close partnership with Cambridgeshire County Council, Fenland District Council and local communities to deliver a fast rollout while managing potential disruption.

Each area will usually take a few weeks to complete, however, construction teams will typically only be outside each home for two to three days and CityFibre will be in touch by post ahead of any work starting.

CityFibre has already invested £35m in nearby Peterborough, where more than 67,000 homes – about 85 per cent of the city’s residential properties - can access reliable full fibre internet services from a range of providers. The rollout is also underway in Yaxley and March.

The overall project in Whittlesey is expected to reach completion next year but the first services will go live for people to take advantage of much sooner. As the network is completed in each neighbourhood, CityFibre will designate the homes ‘ready for service’, which means residents can choose to connect to full fibre-enabled broadband services when they go live in their area. In Whittlesey, services will be available from an increasing range of broadband providers.

Across the UK, CityFibre is already working with launch partner Vodafone to supply full fibre infrastructure for customers on selected Vodafone Pro Broadband plans as well as TalkTalk, Giganet, IDNet, Zen and other providers. More are expected to join the network soon.

Speaking of the project, Rebecca Stephens, CityFibre’s Regional Partnership Director, said: “We’re so excited to see work getting started on our £3m digital transformation project in Whittlesey. Our full fibre network will equip the town with the capabilities needed to thrive in the digital age – it will see residents enjoy unbeatable streaming at home and unlock ample productivity and innovation benefits for local businesses.

“As our team of builders install the network in Whittlesey, we ask the local community to bear with us and we assure them that any short-term disruption will pay off tremendously in the long-term.”

Full fibre networks, unlike many of the copper-based ‘fibre broadband’ services available today, use 100 per cent fibre optic cables to carry data at light speed all the way from the home to the point of connection.

This gives users speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps for upload and download, near limitless bandwidth and connectivity users can depend on.

A full fibre connection also goes far beyond simply enabling access to the latest entertainment at lightning speed.

As an essential digital utility, full fibre boosts households and businesses alike, with experts saying it will drive a range of economic benefits.

Cllr Chris Boden, Leader of Fenland District Council and Town, District and County Councillor for Whittlesey, said: “I’m delighted that CityFibre is investing £3million in Whittlesey, on the back of a successful £5million full fibre investment in March earlier this year. Access to high quality broadband is essential for residents and businesses in this digital age, and a crucial part of stimulating growth and innovation in Fenland, at a time when our district is benefitting from new developments as a result of government investment.”

Steve Barclay, MP for North East Cambridgeshire, added: “I’m delighted that CityFibre is extending its footprint in Fenland and investing another £3million to bring its gigabit-speed full fibre network to Whittlesey.

Access to good broadband connectivity plays a major role in boosting local economies, stimulating growth and supporting new services, and will give residents and businesses confidence in the town’s digital capabilities for decades to come.”

CityFibre is bringing full fibre connectivity within reach of up to eight million homes in towns and cities across the UK as part of its nationwide full fibre rollout. Find out more at www.cityfibre.com

Residents interested in giving their home broadband a boost can find out more about the build and register their interest at www.cityfibre.com/residential.

Bridging the recruitment gap – Cambridge Network’s latest research into the broken recruitment market

Cambridge Network’s Claire Angus, Head of Recruitment Gateway, in partnership with local Business Psychologist, Kelly Drewery, from Talent Glue and recruitment expert, Katherine Wiid, from Recrion, set out to explore what’s currently happening in the local Cambridge recruitment market.

Latest research shows Talent Acquisition teams and candidates alike, are reporting of ghosting and gazumping by ‘the other side’. A break in human contact that hasn’t fully improved since the lows of the pandemic. Even after accepting a job offer, some employers report of a sudden loss of contact with the candidate. For an employment market where success comes easiest for those with relationships and connections, how did this happen?

Key findings from the recently published report:

‘Keep it human’ by maintaining contact with candidates: human contact matters at various points in the hiring and onboarding process.

‘Keep it social’ by involving colleagues in the whole process: previous opportunities to involve a broader spectrum of colleagues may have been lost as many have shifted to hybrid recruitment.

‘Keep it lean’ by developing and maintaining an efficient hybrid process: for those organisations that hadn’t taken the time to streamline and refine their online recruitment activities, they are missing out on candidates who are snapped up by other faster recruiters.

To read the full report, visit www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk/news/ bridging-recruitment-gap-our-latestresearch-local-employment-market

Chamber membership provides access to key information, expert advice and legal protection, enabling you to stay informed, legally compliant and free to focus on what you do best – building your business.

Restoring customer faith after a breach

Cyber security has quickly developed into one of the most essential parts of an organisation’s operations. According to a Software Advice report, 62 percent of UK businesses have experienced an increase in attacks since 2020.

Organisations that cannot demonstrate adequate security controls run the risk of data breaches, reputational damage and customer churn, as well as regulatory action.

For organisations at risk – with banks and financial services especially affected – how can trust be restored quickly and effectively? With both existing and prospective customers potentially impacted, this is a long-term issue that must be prioritised.

The solution lies in the creation of a cyber incident response plan, which can help them plan for security incidents and react quickly.

Here are our Five Top Tips to successfully restore customer faith using a cyber incident response plan.

1. Inform: Ensure that all relevant third parties have been informed and kept up to date about the cyber security incident.

2. Investigate: Act quickly to remediate any compromises by conducting a post-incident review.

3. Communicate: Be honest and responsive to customers – communication is key, and organisations should share their experiences and lessons learned rather than hiding them.

4. Reinforce: Develop or update existing security measures (physical, technical and procedural) to reduce the risk of a similar incident recurring.

5. Review: Conduct regular tests of your cyber incident response capabilities. You should ensure that

key stakeholders understand their roles and responsibilities in the event of a cyber security incident.

It’s crucial that organisations receive prompt, expert advice in the initial stages of an incident so that they can respond to and recover from it.

IT Governance’s sister company GRCI Law’s Emergency Cyber Incident Response Service provides 24/7 support every day of the year to help organisations throughout the incident response process.

www.itgovernance.co.uk

3 IT Problems and how to solve them

IT has a strange way of just stopping, or sometimes breaking altogether. Here’s three common IT problems we see and what to do when it happens.

1 | THE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH

Has your screen ever turned blue, and you can’t access anything? This is called the blue screen of death. If the restart button doesn’t appear, then use the physical shut down button on your device. A reboot of the system is normally an effective fix of this issue. If you use Windows 11, the blue screen has been changed to black.

2 | LOGGING IN PROBLEMS

Not being able to login can be frustrating. But don’t worry it can be fixed. Here are some possible reasons for being unable to login.

• Misspelling your username or password

• Did you leave caps lock on?

• If you have tried several attempts to logging in, you’ll be locked out for security purposes

• Your password may have expired

• Your account may have been disabled or removed

• Your authorization could have been removed

If you still cannot regain access to your account, we would suggest contacting you IT support team or give Cambridge Support a call.

3 | UNEXPECTED COMPUTER SHUTDOWN

A sudden shutdown is normally because fan vents became blocked and caused the computer to overheat. It could alternatively be a virus. In any of the situations listed above, we suggest giving us a call on 01223 901 900, email us at ask@cambridgesupport.com or visit www.cambridgesupport.com

AGM NOTICE

Notice is hereby given that the nineteenth Annual General Meeting of the Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce and Industry will be held at Clifford House, 2 Station Yard, Oakington, Cambridge CB24 3AH on Thursday 24 November 2022 at 9.30am for transaction of the following business:

Ordinary Resolutions:

• Approval of the report of the Directors and the financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2022

• Election of Directors; Stephen Dighton, Michael Greene and Andrew Silley who were co-opted to the Board of Directors in September 2022 offer themselves for election as Directors for an initial three year period until the November 2025 Annual General Meeting

• Re-appointment of Azets Audit Services Limited as auditors of the company

• Authorising the Directors to determine the auditors’ remuneration.

Special Resolution; THAT revised Articles of Association of the Company be adopted.

The Directors Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022 and the revised Articles of Association are available on the members’ section of the Chamber website.

A proxy form can be downloaded from the members’ section of the website; this must be returned by email or post to the registered office, 48 hours before the meeting.

By order of the Board Michael Tolond Company Secretary September 2022

Registered office: Clifford House, 2 Station Yard, Oakington, Cambridge CB24 3AH

Business confidence declines significantly

The BCC’s Quarterly Economic Survey (QES) for Q3 2022 shows a significant decline of key economic indicators, with weakening structural business conditions and confidence a cause for concern.

The QES is the UK’s largest independent survey of business sentiment and a leading indicator of UK GDP growth. The survey took place between 22 August and 16 September, prior to the Government’s energy support package for firms and the mini-budget announcement.

The survey of over 5,200 firms – 92 per cent of whom are SMEs – reveals there have been significant declines for indicators of business sales, cashflow, and profit expectations.

All indicators of business conditions and confidence have fallen significantly from Q2

More businesses are now seeing their cashflow decreasing, instead of increasing. One in three (32%) firms reported reduced cashflow over the last three months, while 23 per cent reported an increase. Indicators for business confidence have plummeted; less than half (44%) of firms expect their turnover to increase over the next 12 months, while 25 per cent expect a decrease. Those expecting an increase are down 10 percentage points from 54 per cent in Q2.

Business activity is taking a hit, with fewer firms reporting increased sales

Only 33 per cent of firms reported an increase in domestic sales over the past three months, a sharp decline from the Q2 level of 41 per cent. 24 per cent of firms reported a decrease in sales.

The outlook is particularly bleak for the retail and wholesale sector. The sector is now in its second quarter of negative territory; with far more businesses reporting a decrease in sales rather than an increase. 25 per cent of retail/wholesale firms reported an increase in domestic sales, while 39 per cent reported a decrease. Alongside the retail and wholesale sector, other sectors are also struggling; almost three-quarters (71%) of hospitality businesses reported they are operating below capacity.

Profitability confidence has dropped to an even lower level; only one in three (33%) businesses believe their profits will increase over the coming year, while 39 per cent now expect a decrease. This is the lowest level since Q4 2020 at the height of the Covid crisis. Unsurprisingly, firms are not upping investment in their business. Only 22 per cent reported an increase to plant/equipment investment in the past three months, while 57 per cent reported no change, and 22 per cent reported a decrease.

Inflationary pressures are showing no signs of letting up The percentage of firms expecting their prices to rise over the coming months (62%) remains close to last quarter’s record high. 84 per cent of firms also cite inflation as a growing concern to their business – by far the highest level on record. A rising proportion (37%) are also worried about interest rates.

David Bharier, Head of Research at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said: “This quarter’s results point to a significant decline in business confidence, with a clear shift downwards in many of the key indicators we track. Every sector has seen a falling proportion of firms reporting increased domestic sales, with the retail and wholesale sector particularly affected.

“Diminishing sales coupled with soaring inflation is a toxic mix, and many firms are no longer looking to the future with optimism.

As a Chamber member you have the power to influence key decision makers and play a leading role in tackling the issues that are preventing your business from reaching its potential, while an experienced team of lobbyists represents your interests in Whitehall.

39% of businesses believe their profitability will reduce over the next 12 months

Fewer businesses are reporting increased sales; only 33% of firms reported increased domestic sales, down from 41% last quarter

the power to

Profitability and turnover confidence for the next year have dipped significantly since last quarter. Both measures are heading towards levels not seen since the onset of the Covid crisis.

“While the subsequent energy announcement will have alleviated immediate pressure on firms’ energy bills, confidence will have taken a further hit following the market reaction to the mini-budget.

“Many firms are caught in the pincer movement of soaring inflation and rising interest rates. The devaluation of the pound has also added a huge cost base for businesses reliant on imports.

“Businesses now desperately need to see economic stability in order to rebuild the confidence to invest.”

Measures for inflation remain at record highs as more than four in five (84%) firms say it is a growing concern for them

Responding to the findings, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce, Shevaun Haviland, said: “This survey was concluded before the Government’s energy price package for businesses and the mini-budget. However, our findings paint a worrying picture of the state of affairs at many UK firms. Almost every key business indicator is trending downwards – sounding alarm bells across all sectors and regions.

“Sales and cashflow are down, firms are operating below capacity, and the number of businesses expecting to see their profits increase is falling.

“Unsurprisingly, inflation remains the top external factor of concern for businesses. Some firms are telling us that they have been forced to cancel otherwise viable projects, due to soaring costs.

“In addition to the long-term structural challenges facing businesses, events over the last few weeks will have added to firms’ worries. The current volatility in the financial and currency markets must be speedily addressed to return stability to the economy and give business some certainty to plan.

“We have welcomed the move from Government to reverse the National Insurance Contributions (NICs) increase, which will put money back into people’s pockets immediately; and the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) now permanently set at £1m to help incentivise growth.

“The six months energy package for businesses is a step in the right direction, but we need a longer-term plan if the government is serious about helping businesses during this energy crisis. Time is of the essence.

“The Government must now rapidly present more detail on its fiscal policies and supply side reforms, particularly at a time when businesses are faced with rising interest rates and high inflation.

“Businesses understand the economy will not fix itself overnight, but they do expect a long-term plan. We urge the Government to provide more certainty by bringing forward the publication of their Fiscal Plan. The sooner they do this, the sooner markets and businesses will understand what the long journey to stability will look like.”

5-point plan secured wins for business

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) proposed a comprehensive five-point plan to provide vital support to UK businesses including:

1. Ofgem to be given more power to strengthen regulation of the energy market for businesses

2. Temporary cut in VAT to five per cent to reduce energy costs for businesses

3. Covid-style support by introducing Government Emergency Energy Grant for SMEs

4. Temporarily reverse NICs and put money back into the pockets of businesses and workers

5. Government to immediately review and reform the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) to help bring down wage pressures and fill staffing vacancies

We asked for…

A temporary reverse to NICs and put money back into the pockets of businesses and workers. This would not only ease the immediate pressure on companies’ balance sheets, but it would also put money back into people’s pockets and increase consumer confidence.

What was the government’s response?

From 6 November 2022, the temporary 1.25 per cent increase in National

Insurance rates is being reversed for the rest of the financial year.

The announcement to reverse the increase to National Insurance Contributions (NIC) is a big win for the British Chambers of Commerce and the business community. This is much needed support for companies during these difficult times.

would also provide some support at this time of uncertainty.

What was the government’s response?

A new Energy Bill Relief Scheme will provide help with the cost of gas and electricity for all non-domestic customers, including all UK businesses and voluntary and public sector organisations. The scheme will apply to fixed contracts agreed on or after 1 April 2022, as well as to deemed, variable and flexible tariffs for energy usage from 1 October to 31 March.

We asked for…

• Ofgem to be given more power to strengthen regulation of the energy market for businesses

• A temporary cut in VAT to five per cent to reduce energy costs for businesses

• Covid-style support by introducing Government Emergency Energy Grant for SMEs.

It was proposed that Ofgem ensure energy suppliers offer fixed-rate contracts to business customers, as they currently do to households, a VAT reduction would help give breathing space to all businesses and business grants administered through local authorities

For months The Chamber has been calling for Government intervention to help businesses with eye watering energy bills. This support package is significant and will ease the cost pressures that have been piling up on businesses.

We are currently (at the time of writing) awaiting a response to item 5 on our plan regarding the review and reform of the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) to help bring down wage pressures and fill staffing vacancies.

As a Chamber member you have the power to influence key decision makers and play a leading role in tackling the issues that are preventing your business from reaching its potential, while an experienced team of lobbyists represents your interests in Whitehall.

Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik

Chamber members can register for events via the Chamber website www.cambridgeshirechamber.co.uk or please contact Zoe McCabe Brennan, Events Executive on 01223 237414 or email z.mccabebrennan@cambscci.co.uk

SAFARI NETWORKING BREAKFASTS

Take the opportunity to meet new business connections through safari networking. This relaxed but structured format offers guests the chance to move around the room and form connections with new business contacts from a wide range of industry sectors.

Tuesday 22 November, 7.45-10.00am

The Haycock Manor Hotel, Wansford, Peterborough, PE8 6JA Build connections over a full English breakfast and hear from our guest speaker Stephanie Creasey, Partner at Taylor Rose.

Stephanie’s presentation will cover terms and conditions, the importance of having a decent set in place and correctly drawn up, and highlighting some of the key provisions that businesses should have in place – particularly around late payment interest being charged and price increases in the current economic climate.

Cost: £20.00 (plus VAT) Chamber members, £30.00 (plus VAT) non-Chamber members.

Informal Networking Evenings

Take this free opportunity to catch up with familiar acquaintances you haven’t seen in ages, mingle with new business contacts and share knowledge and skills with like-minded professionals.

Old Bridge Hotel, Huntingdon

Wednesday 9 November, 5.00-6.30pm

Savills, Peterborough Tuesday 15 November, 5.00-6.30pm

Graduate Hotel, Cambridge Thursday 17 November, 5.00-6.30pm

Poets House, Ely Monday 28 November, 6.00-7.00pm

Workforce Planning Campaign: How to attract and retain impactful leadership talent for your business

Thursday 17 November, 10.00am-12.00pm Madingley Hall, Cambridge, CB23 8AQ

We are delighted to be joined by Toby Young and Andrew Moore, co-owners and managing partners of international executive search and recruitment firm, Bailey Fisher.

Today’s business environment is global and interconnected, making leadership more complex than ever. Attracting outstanding leadership talent is essential for any business to expand, scale and ultimately succeed – but there is a premium on talent for today’s business environment which prioritises agility, emotional intelligence, diversity, cultural acumen and comfort with uncertainty.

With over 20 years’ experience each in executive search and recruitment, Toby and Andrew will be guiding us through the challenges of hiring and retaining the most impactful talent to lead your business and will lead discussion on the value diverse leadership plays in driving innovation and business results. This session will be hosted by Faye Holland, Chair of the Cambridge & South Cambs Chamber Committee. FREE to attend. Please register via the Chamber website. Organised by the Cambridge & South Cambs Chamber committee

Chamber

www.cambridgeshirechamber.co.uk

Chile: Open For Business

Tuesday 22 November, 4.00-5.00pm

Zoe McCabe Brennan,

z.mccabebrennan@cambscci.co.uk

Have you ever considered Chile as the next country you export to? The opportunities are vast and Chile is definitely Open for Business!

We are delighted to be working with the British Chilean Chamber of Commerce and Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce to bring you this informative online session.

Why Chile:

• Stable Economy

• East of Doing Business

• Sustained Growth

• Optimal Business Environment

• Solid Banking System.

Just some of the sectors of interest to Chile are:

• Food & Drink

• Agri-tech

• Cyber Security

• Green/Renewable Energy

• Construction.

This webinar is FREE of charge. Why not take an hour out of your day to see if Chile, is a market that you’ve been missing out on? Register your place via the Chamber website.

Construction & Property Networking Breakfast

Friday 11 November, 8.00-10.00am

Brampton Park Golf Club, Buckden Road, Brampton, PE28 4NF

Network with other construction and property-related companies at this specialist informal event.

Our event sponsor and speaker for this event is Lorna Carter, Construction Lawyer and Partner at Greenwoods. Cost: £15.00 (plus VAT) Chamber members, £22.50 (plus VAT) non-Chamber members.

Now Taking Bookings For Our Festive Lunch Events

Inspiring Women’s Christmas Lunch

Thursday 1 December, 12.00-2.30pm

Orton Hall Hotel and Spa, Peterborough, PE2 7DN

Join us for a very special start to the festive season with the return of our Inspiring Women’s Christmas Lunch.

A festive two-course dinner, glass of wine, inspirational speaker and excellent company are all wrapped up in the ticket price.

This is a great opportunity to make new connections and share knowledge in a fun and relaxed environment.

This event is organised by our Inspiring Women Sector Group. Anyone is welcome to attend!

Tickets will be available to book shortly.

Sponsored by Savills

Christmas Lunch

Thursday 8 December, 12.00-3.00pm

Homerton College, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 8PH

Enjoy reception drinks of mulled wine and non-alcoholic punch in the Great Hall whilst mingling with other guests, before feasting on a fabulous traditional three course meal with wine. You will then enjoy tea, coffee and mince pies. This event will give you the opportunity to make those final 2022 connections through networking with local businesses. Keep an eye on our social media channels for the announcement of our guest speaker!

Cost: £50.00 (plus VAT) Chamber members, £60.00 (plus VAT) non-Chamber members.

Sponsored by Alan Boswell Group

Hegarty Solicitors advises homebuyers what the SDLT cuts mean for them

The cost of moving home has been cut with Prime Minister Liz Truss and chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget announcement of a cut to Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT).

The mini-budget or fiscal statement as it is officially known has been announced as part of the government’s “growth plans”, at a time when Britain faces the prospect of a year-long recession, raised inflation and a cost-of-living crisis.

The cut to SDLT aims to boost the property market and help more first-time buyers buy their first home. Sarah Martin, Acting Head of Residential Property at Hegarty Solicitors, advises what the announcements mean for homebuyers.

What is Stamp Duty Land Tax?

Stamp duty is paid by buyers of land or property in England and Northern Ireland, with different rates depending on the value of the land or property. Separate land taxes apply in Scotland and Wales.

What are the cuts to Stamp Duty?

Before the SDLT cuts, first-time buyers paid no SDLT up to £300,000 on their first house purchase. For other buyers of residential properties, there was no SDLT to pay on the first £125,000. Between £125,001 and £250,000, a two per cent tax was applied; five per cent between £250,001 and £925,000; 10 per cent between £925,001 and £1.5 million; and 12 per cent on the value of a property above £1.5 million.

The proposed cuts reduce Stamp Duty Land Tax by raising the threshold of how much a property has to cost before stamp duty is paid to £250,000. The threshold for first time buyers paying SDLT has also risen to £425,000.

In addition, chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng added: “We’re going to increase the value of the property on which first-time buyers can claim relief, from £500,000 to £625,000. The steps we’ve taken today mean 200,000 more people will be taken out of paying stamp duty altogether.

This is a permanent cut to stamp duty, effective from today.”

I am in the process of buying a house, will the cuts apply to my purchase?

The reduced rates of SDLT will apply to property purchases that complete from now. Your conveyancer will be able to offer advice about what the cuts mean for your purchase, and advise whether you are able to take advantage of the SDLT cuts for your transaction.

How will this affect the housing market?

In recent months the demand for housing in Britain has not been met with supply, causing rapid house price inflation with UK average house prices increasing by 15.5 per cent in the year to July, the highest annual inflation rate since May 2003, according to official figures.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), have predicted that 2023 is likely to be a challenging year for the UK housing sector. With steep rises in mortgage rates and cost of living pressures for households, UK house prices are expected to fall by 4.5 per cent on average next year.

However, new data has predicted that this fall in house prices is still unlikely to make property more affordable for buyers, with house price growth consistently outpacing earnings. So, the announcement of a cut to SDLT could give a boost to the market at a time when household finances are being squeezed.

It is hoped the cuts to Stamp Duty may echo a previous boost similar to the ‘stamp duty holiday’ in 2020 which was introduced to stimulate the housing market during the pandemic. The SDLT ‘holiday’ resulted in transactions in the year to June 2021 increasing by 19 per cent compared to the previous 12 months. However, it remains to be seen if the SDLT cuts announced will offer the same boost in the face of rising interest rates on mortgages and higher cost-of-living.

How much will it cost to move house?

Buyers who are able to take advantage of the cuts to SDLT are set to find the costs of moving house have reduced.

However, if you are thinking of moving house there are a number of costs to consider, including Legal Fees, Stamp Duty Land Tax, Valuation Fees and Surveyor’ fees. You can find out exactly how much SDLT you are likely to pay using the HMRC calculator.

How much you will have to pay for your legal fees depends on whether you are buying or selling property (or both), the value of the property you are selling / purchasing, and whether the property is leasehold or freehold. Hegarty Solicitors has an online calculator that will show you how much you can expect to pay based on your individual circumstances, with no hidden extras.

To speak to a conveyancer at Hegarty Solicitors about how the SDLT cuts will affect buying your new home, contact us today using by calling 01733 346333 or visit www.hegarty.co.uk/quote for an online conveyancing quote.

Making Meetings More Sustainable

3. CONSIDER DELEGATE TRAVEL

Choose venues that are located close to railway stations or on bus routes to make it easy to use public transport. Other options in Cambridge include hiring cycles or using scooters within the city centre. For those driving, encourage car-sharing and look for venues with EV charging points. Why not consider rewarding those who choose a sustainable method of transport.

4. GO PAPERLESS

With sustainability top of the agenda for those organising events, what should you consider when planning your meeting, conference or dinner? Judith Sloane, Head of Meet Cambridge which has more than 50 venues in its portfolio, gives 10 top tips to help you achieve your objectives.

1. CHOOSE YOUR VENUE

When you’re looking for a space for your event, consider what’s on offer in terms of sustainable features and practices. Some venues have officially recognised environmental accreditations such as Green Meetings.

2. IN-PERSON OR HYBRID

Face-to-face meetings might be your preferred choice but it’s worth considering a hybrid event format to avoid the impact of travel. Explore what a venue can offer in terms of linking up with specialist providers to deliver a streamlined and professional event that will appeal to both audiences but remember that technology will also add to the event’s carbon footprint.

Gone are the days of hard-copy conference packs which have been specially produced for just one event. Today’s delegates look for ways to have all the information they need in digital format, so they can go paperless and travel light. Not only should the paperless approach be for the day itself but also for organisers in the run up to the event.

5. FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Choose fresh, seasonal produce that’s locally sourced with plenty of plantbased options. Calculate food miles and provide the details on menus to encourage delegates to choose the most sustainable options. Opt for venues that can demonstrate a commitment to local produce and food waste reduction.

6. REMOVE, REDUCE, RECYCLE

Consider previous events, which elements could you remove altogether; goody bags, note pads and pens for example. Then think about ways to reduce the environmental impact of your event – a meat-free menu using locally sourced products would certainly help. Once you are clear on what can be removed and reduced, choose products

you could recycle – pop up banners for example, can you find a supplier that uses materials that can be recycled?

7. OFF-SETTING

When you are confident that you have done everything you can to remove, reduce and recycle and after having measured the carbon footprint of the event, it may be time to consider offsetting but be sure to choose a reputable company so you can be sure that your off-setting goes to the right project.

8. PLUG INTO RESOURCES TO HELP

Look for Sustainability Toolkits to guide you or training courses which will provide the information you need to create more sustainable events. It’s also worth networking to hear about other organisers’ experiences and advice so you can share tips.

9. CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Social sustainability is also important, look for ways in which your event could contribute to the local area, use a charitable venue or seek out volunteering opportunities that would allow your group to participate in a project whilst attending the event.

10. MONITOR YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS

You can learn from experience and by using measurement tools, you can track your progress in creating events that are not only innovative and memorable but sustainable too.

To find a suitable venue for your event, that will help meet your sustainable objectives, contact Meet Cambridge on 01223 768740 www.meet-cambridge.com

Whitco offer full kitchen solutions for all sizes of operations. Our products make working life

creative, food taste better and cleaning up less time consuming. Make sure you say Hello at your next meeting!

Would

become a Chamber member?

Whitco

Exquisite Home Estate Agents

gavinhuman@exquisitehome.co.uk

Gavin Human, Partner Agent at Exquisite Home Estate Agents is proud to join and support the Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce. Being a local estate agent Gavin is keen to support other local businesses in and around Cambridgeshire and would welcome the opportunity to forge new working partnerships. Gavin firmly believes that every house is someone’s castles irrespective of price and every castle has a story to tell. By offering bespoke and tailored marketing, Gavin is committed to ensuring he finds his clients the best buyer at the highest price possible. If you are thinking of moving and would like a free valuation, you can call, text or WhatsApp him on 07388 057789

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www.papworthtrust.org.uk

Papworth Trust is a leading disability charity that support thousands of people, their families and carers every year.

Our vision is for a world where disabled people are seen for who they are.

Our mission is to support disabled people to have equality, choice and independence

Rapid Solutions

www.rapid-solutions.net

Established in 1996, Rapid Solutions has grown over the years is a global provider of electrical, instrumentation, hydraulic, mechanical, telecommunication services and associated technical training.

Rapid Solutions provide services to the Oil & Gas, Petrochemical, Hospitality, Agricultural, Construction, Marine and Telecommunications industries. Over the past two decades, they have successfully completed numerous large and small-scale projects in many regions of the world that includes the Caspian region and Central Asia (Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey), Europe (UK, Norway and Spain), Middle East (UAE), Africa (South Africa), the Far East (South Korea, China, and Vietnam).

www.resourcefulpeoplegroup.com

The Resourceful People Group is an agile, business focused HR consultancy with a primary purpose to work with organisations, and their teams, to help them grow and transform, ready for their next phase in their journey. Our belief is that we should focus on how we can ‘enable, support and protect’ both your organisation and teams. We are excited and looking forward to working with the Cambridgeshire Chamber Members.

The British Chamber of Commerce Azerbaijan is a non-profit making organisation to assist and encourage the development of economic ties, bilateral trade, joint ventures and investment between the United Kingdom and Azerbaijan, and to promote business interests of its members. The Chamber is bilateral in structure with the head office in Cambridge, UK and a branch in Baku, Azerbaijan. BCCA represents both the British business interests in Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani ones in the United Kingdom and works closely with commercial departments of Azerbaijani and British embassies and other trade and economy related governmental bodies of both countries.

EACH wins a Third Sector Award for its vibrant Style with EACH brand

A leading children’s charity has won a prestigious industry award for the innovative way it uses social media to generate income.

East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) scooped the Third Sector Award during a ceremony at The Brewery, in London. It prevailed in the ‘best use of social media’ category for its highly-acclaimed ‘Style with EACH’ initiative.

The vibrant brand is an online boutique carrying the strapline ‘fashion that doesn’t cost the earth’, referring to fashion that is costeffective and promotes recycling.

EACH created new standalone Style with EACH brand accounts on Instagram and TikTok and, collaborating with social media influencers, has seen its followers rocket by 68 per cent, its store views increase by 63 per cent and sales shoot up by 50 per cent.

Over the last six months its Instagram channel has seen a massive 173 per cent increase in followers and Reels reach increase by 135 per cent.

Lois Livoti, EACH Social Media and Digital Communications Coordinator, attended the ceremony and received the award along with Style with EACH Manager Yasmin Bata.

Lois said: “Style with EACH was initially set up to support our retail operation during the pandemic, but has now continued to build an additional revenue stream.

“Social media has been key to the success and allowed us to communicate with, and attract, supporters of a different demographic to our usual customer base. “Rather than using our existing social media platforms and profiles, we created new standalone Style with EACH accounts on Instagram and TikTok.

“What we’ve achieved is incredibly innovative and a type of content few charities have ventured into. Our new channels have been used to promote high-quality, high-value items listed on our boutique, along with using it to engage with our audience by filming fun and light-hearted Reels and TikTok trends.

“It’s kept our content fresh and current, gained thousands upon thousands of views and resulted in vastly growing levels of engagement.”

EACH, which supports families and cares for children and young people with life-threatening conditions, lost £100,000 of income per week when its 44 shops were forced to close because of Covid. It resulted in a large amount of donated stock to sell, without being able to access its target audience.

“In addition to using our already successful eBay store, we identified a gap in the market for a younger online audience,” added Yasmin.

“These are people with a high demand for vintage fashion and the passion to reduce environmental impact, especially around fast fashion. They’re looking for alternative ways to purchase and our challenge was finding the best way to communicate with them effectively. Since then, we’ve started reaching a new, younger audience - our donors of the future - and created a successful, sustainable income stream.

“We’ll be expanding to high-end fashion, including children’s clothing, and on other specialised selling platforms – a very different, positive venture born out of the adversity of the pandemic.”

The Third Sector Awards were held on Friday 30 September. They are an opportunity for voluntary organisations of all sizes, and the people who work for them, to celebrate their work and the difference they make to society.

Negotiating the return-to-work minefield

Cancer treatment can often be a hugely emotionally challenging experience. At Maggie’s our visitors often report feeling out of control, a loss of a sense of identity and a sense of disconnection when having to undergo treatments for cancer such as surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. As a psychologist I am often witness to a wide range of emotions ranging from a sense of apprehension, loss of confidence to low mood and anxiety. Whilst some are able to continue work during treatment on reduced hours others often have to temporarily leave work due to the side effects of treatment.

With the right support and guidance returning to work can be a hugely rewarding experience, not just for the clear benefits of alleviating financial pressures but also to help significantly increase feeling of self-esteem and to re-gain much needed confidence. Unfortunately, if returning to work is not managed successfully it can have huge emotional repercussions for the person affected by cancer and can result in an employer losing a competent employee.

At Maggie’s’ we have a strong emphasis on helping people return to work and providing support for challenges that feel insurmountable. These include managing the effects of cancer reacted fatigue, and psychological support for depression, anticipatory anxiety regarding returning to work and using evidence based strategies to help with a loss of confidence. There is also a legal obligation for employers to make reasonable adjustment to help support a return to work for someone who has

been diagnosed with cancer. A recent poll conducted by Maggie’s and Unum found that many employers are not providing the right support for people with cancer. Often this is because employers are worried they may say or do the wrong thing. The Maggie’s cancer in the workplace course is provided to companies in order to help them understand the emotional, physical and psychological needs of employees with cancer and to help create the right framework to manage employees with cancer.

For employers some basic adjustments can make a significant difference include offering light duties or alternative work on a temporary, reduced hours basis, allowing flexible working, allowing the individual to work from home for part of the week and allowing extra breaks to help cope with fatigue and allowing time off to attend medical appointments. Whilst some employers provide exemplary support others are still struggling to provide an adequate framework with miscommunication often being reported as a major barrier to returning to work. As many as 63,000 people living with cancer today want to work, but are encountering barriers that prevent them because the right support isn’t in place for them or their employers. By 2030, there will be almost 1 million people with cancer in the UK workforce. The imperative is for both employees are employers to be given the right support so returning to work can be a rewarding and fulfilling experience post treatment.

Do

Get in touch. Tel:

email: s.parr@cambscci.co.uk

Recruitment career comes full circle for Lucy

As a university graduate, Lucy Whitwell started her first job with Anne Corder Recruitment – having previously enjoyed a temporary working position with the agency whilst studying.

Fast forward 10 years, two children and the need for a new challenge while meeting a work/life balance, and Lucy is back at the Peterborough-based business as it moves into its own new chapter!

newly formed recruitment agency in the area, Lucy’s desire for a new challenge recently led her back to Anne Corder Recruitment.

As operations and resourcing specialist, Lucy now enjoys the best of both worlds – working within an evolving business she loves while enjoying a better work/ life balance.

Professional life has come full circle for a recruiter who has returned to her first place of employment a decade after she left!

Lucy first joined Anne Corder Recruitment in 2008, working on reception at the business’ former offices in the city’s Park Road and in other areas of recruitment administration. With an understanding and empathy of school leavers looking to find employment, Lucy was appointed as candidate specialist before moving on to the position of recruitment co-ordinator. Lucy said: “I was lucky enough to be involved in all aspects of the business and gained so much knowledge from the team.”

After leaving to have her children in 2012, and then working as an office manager for a

Beacon race to raise vital charity funds

She added: “I am thrilled to be back working with members of the team who were there during my first years with Anne Corder Recruitment, while getting to know new colleagues and re-joining the business at exciting times.

“The role allows me to give the focus and attention it needs but within part time hours, offering me flexibility with home life and the school run.”

Managing Director Nel Woolcott said: “We are absolutely delighted to have Lucy back in the team. Her experience, knowledge and work ethic are second to none and she has slotted back into the business like she has never been away!”

Two members of the Beacon Wealth Management Team took part in the Bedford Running Festival to raise vital funds for Sue Ryder Hospice – their chosen Charity of the Year.

Investment Manager, Rachel Martiello, completed the twilight 10km on 3 September and Marketing Executive,

Natasha Oliver, completed the Half Marathon on 4 September.

Sue Ryder’s Senior Community Fundraiser, Joanne Landucci, said: “The girls absolutely smashed it both with the times they completed their run’s in and their fundraising target. Massive thank you to Natasha and Rachel for fundraising the incredible amount

of £527 for Sue Ryder St John’s Hospice. This amount could pay for a hospice nurse for nearly four days which will make a huge difference so we can keep caring.”

Beacon’s Managing Director, Tony Larkins added: “We are so proud of the girls, they have worked hard to fundraise for this event and they both did brilliantly in their individual events. Sue Ryder’s Moggerhanger Hospice is close to many of the hearts of the staff and family that work at Beacon and we will continue to raise vital funds throughout the year. You can follow our efforts on our social media pages and, of course, on our website.”

Local Charity Celebrates Staff Success

the Trusts’ three Core Values of Commitment, Collaboration and Positive Interactions.

Each of the 10 awards; Individual and Team awards for each of the three core values, Volunteer of the Year, Team and Employee of the Year and a special award voted by the People they Support, were all sponsored by local businesses. The ceremony was attended by 140 members of staff and volunteers, and consisted of a three course meal, before the presentations started. This was followed by a heart-warming video from the people that are supported, giving their thanks and appreciation to all the staff. There was also a disco and photo booth, all paid for by the generosity of the sponsors; Skat Recruitment, The Office Finding Experts, Giffords Hall Farm, Hastee, G Cook & Sons, Weston FM Group, World of Computers and Activa Contracts.

Cambridgeshire based not-for-profit Charity, The Edmund Trust, celebrated its staff with an Awards Ceremony at Cambridge University Arms where their Patron, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Mayor, Dr Nik Johnson was in attendance to hand out an award for Volunteer of the Year to winner Sue Jordan. The ceremony was put together to celebrate the staff of the Trust, who have worked tirelessly over the last 12 months, and was an opportunity to award those who deserved recognition for all the hard work and determination they have shown; working towards

John Ellis, CEO of the Trust said this about the event: “Every year we come together for our Annual Awards Evening. We want everyone that works with us to know how much we value want they do. Families of the people we support nominate the people they think have made the biggest contributions and have best met our three principal values of Commitment Collaboration and Positive Interactions and then colleagues from Cambridgeshire County Council will select the winners. The night is a celebration of what is good about The Edmund Trust. We just want to show everyone what they mean to us and how much we love and appreciate what they do”

Moving forward: CleanCube Mobile Cleanrooms embrace the changing landscape

Guardtech’s award-winning portable controlled environments set to offer solutions for range of new applications

CleanCube Mobile Cleanrooms are expanding their range of portable controlled environments with three new standard models – CleanCube Pharma, CleanCube Equip and CleanCube Bio.

The business, part of the Guardtech Group, is introducing the solutions to cater for specific industries that tend to require a relatively standard blueprint in terms of their cleanroom or laboratory needs.

“It’s an exciting time for CleanCube – and the Group as a whole,” said Mark Wheeler, Guardtech’s Commercial Director. “Due to the level of interest from specific industries and their applications, we’ve noticed trends in requirement. That led us toward standardised designs that reduce lead time and improve cost efficiencies, providing clients with tried and tested solutions that exist in the field.”

CleanCube Pharma and Bio utilise the base specification of the Midi 40ft container, while the Equip is housed in the Maxi (double container), with the Pharma configured to produce the best utilisation of production space whilst also accommodating the demands of a primary and secondary personnel airlock.

Allowing for a one or two-process room configuration and supporting either positive or negative pressurisation, CleanCube

Pharma will be ideal for applications in the fields of Pharmaceutical compounding and Cell & Gene Therapy, especially where segregation and containment is required.

CleanCube Equip has been configured to maximise processing space to accommodate large tools and equipment used as part of any controlled manufacturing process, while the Bio range is a revamp of Guardtech’s award-winning biosafety labs conducting COVID-19 PCR testing all over the country.

Photography

credit: Dexter Bowles

Do you have some exciting news to shout about that could be featured on this page?

Get in touch. Tel: 01223 237424 email: s.parr@cambscci.co.uk

The Cambridge joins Pay.UK’s Confirmation of Payee service

The Cambridge Building Society has become one of the first building societies to join Pay. UK’s Confirmation of Payee (CoP) service.

CoP is a name-checking service that helps banks and building societies protect their customers against fraud and accidentally misdirected payments by checking the name of the recipient account.

The Cambridge has implemented CoP after the service was augmented earlier this year to support participant accounts that rely on sort code and account information plus additional data, such as a building society account number.

The Cambridge awarded the implementation of the service to

Bottomline, who won its competitive tender. Bottomline’s solution recently received honours from Aite-Novarica for best digital identity verification innovation.

Nick Warner, Programme Manager at The Cambridge, said: “Once the CoP service enabled SRD to be checked, we knew it was something we should be a part of.

“At our core, we offer a safe place for savings and help people buy their homes. A payment is a key part of both of those experiences, so being part of CoP is a natural fit for what we offer to our members. Working with Bottomline enabled us to draw on external expertise in completing this work.”

Ely becomes first Greater Anglia rail station to have Changing Places accessible toilet facility

Changing Places toilets are larger than other accessible toilets and have equipment, including a changing bench and hoist, designed to support disabled people who need extra assistance. In addition to accessibility improvements, the entire station has been redecorated, the front of the station building has been cleaned and restored and new signage has been installed thanks to a grant from the Railway Heritage Trust. New ticket gates have also been installed.

Funding for the project was also provided by Govia Thameslink Railway.

Greater Anglia’s Asset Management Director, Simone Bailey, said: “This work has transformed Ely station and we’re pleased that the new facilities are now open.

“Passengers will notice a huge difference with a bigger, brighter booking hall, a new waiting room and a much-improved layout with easier access for everyone.

Ely rail station is now more accessible following the completion of redevelopment work.

Greater Anglia has spent £1.7 million to reconfigure and upgrade the station buildings on platform 1 to create an improved layout and better facilities for passengers.

Work started in the spring to relocate the ticket office and create a new waiting room and booking hall, which opened in September. In addition, a number of accessibility improvements have been carried out including the installation of a Changing Places toilet facility – the first on Greater Anglia’s network – seven disabled parking spaces near to the entrance, new automatic doors, levelling and resurfacing at the front of the station to create step-free access, and a new safer zebra crossing from the car park to the entrance.

“Investing in upgrades to stations across the network is extremely important to Greater Anglia, demonstrating our commitment to providing excellent facilities and service to our customers.”

Rebecca Richardson, Greater Anglia’s Accessibility Manager, said: “I’m delighted that we have been able to include our first Changing Places facility within this redevelopment. We want to make sure that everyone can have a good journey with us, so this is a really positive step at a busy interchange station that sees a lot of passengers from all over the country.

“Many of our stations date from Victorian times and don’t often afford enough space for improvements like this, but as Ely was being completely redeveloped it presented an excellent opportunity. This is certainly something we will consider during future station upgrades elsewhere on our network, where possible.”

Innovation influencers to host definitive ‘Cambridge tech’ podcast

An authoritative new podcast dedicated to ‘all things Cambridge Tech’ aims to become the definitive ‘tech talk show’ for Cambridge’s exciting innovation ecosystem.

The weekly Cambridge Tech Podcast will be hosted every Sunday by James Parton and Faye Holland – and the inspired pairing of these two key influencers from within the Cambridge ecosystem will ensure a slew of high-profile guests, lively debate, and exclusive news.

As Managing Director of Cambridge’s premier tech hub, The Bradfield Centre, James Parton is well placed to talk tech in the fastpaced world of startups. His 25-year experience in tech has been in both corporates (BT, O2, Telefonica) and startups, highlighted by building Twilio’s EMEA business from scratch to their IPO on the NYSE in 2016.

Since then, James has been focused on supporting the UK’s start-up community via his work at The Bradfield Centre and as a co-founder of The Triple Chasm, a company which provides tools and training to help startups successfully scale. He additionally runs his own advisory business helping companies figure out their Developer Relations strategies and had his first Developer Relations book published by Apress in 2021.

Entrepreneur Faye Holland is a similarly well-known protagonist on the Cambridge tech circuit - as creator of the #21toWatch innovation awards, which spotlights and promotes the outstanding startup innovators, innovations and companies from the east of England, and as founder of multi-award-winning PR and strategic communications consultancy, cofinitive, which specialises in promoting disruptive early-stage tech startups and scaleups.

After cutting her teeth at the UK’s first ISP, PIPEX on the Cambridge Science Park, Faye’s career in the tech space has spanned nearly three decades and includes working at IBM on numerous emerging technology projects and running the Europe and Asia Operations of a global media company. She has been quoted widely in the tech media, was recently featured in Forbes and appears regularly in the annual Computer Weekly ‘Most Influential Women in Tech’ listing.

Spinning out of the ‘Inside the Bradfield Centre’ podcast, Cambridge Tech Podcast picks up an established audience of UK, US and overseas listeners. The show will be published every Sunday on all the major podcasting platforms and via cambridgetechpodcast.com.

James said: “Cambridge is a hive of innovation and entrepreneurial activity radiating from a world-class University. There are so many stories to tell and inspirational people to meet, the possibilities of the show are almost endless. We have a great formula - but, ultimately, we’ll be led by the listeners and find our own way to share the stories in an accessible way. I can’t wait to get started!”

Faye added: “Both James and I are immersed in Cambridge’s science and technology scene, from the earliest ventures to the largest companies – and we are delighted to be sharing their news and stories. As well as interacting with an audience from the larger Cambridge ecosystem, we are looking to use the podcast to attract potential entrants to the Cambridge market, promoting our city and its technological triumphs locally, nationally and internationally.”

A huge cohort of interviews has already been scheduled –including special editions for entrepreneurial competitions and events. Mantle Spaces, Growth Works, Cambridge TV and Business Weekly are already signed up as launch partners, with more podcast supporter announcements in the pipeline.

Hannah Jarman, Plant Operator of the year

Earlier this month Hannah Jarman was recognised as the best construction plant operator in the UK. She won the award at the UK Plant Operators Magazine’s competition held in Hertfordshire.

She was up against 37 other competitors including her Dad Mark, who finished second and her Brother Lewis. The competition involved various skills tests whilst controlling a 21 tonne excavator designed to test the limits of the skills of the competitors. Hannah started out as a

Receptionist at East Anglian Civil Engineering Contractors, Breheny Civil Engineering seven years ago, before realising she wanted to work out on sites as an excavator driver..

Hannah was quick to praise her family: “As they say, when you get one Jarman you get all three, so in my eyes all three of us are winners, as without the two supporting me so much I don’t think I would have ever gone through with being a machine driver. They have taught me everything I know and I will forever be grateful to the both of them.”

email: s.parr@cambscci.co.uk

Stone King partners with Tutors United

Cambridge law firm Stone King has teamed up with Tutors United this academic year to support its work and help boost the employability of the charity’s tutors.

Tutors United (TU) is a social enterprise that hires, trains and supports undergraduate students to deliver small group tuition to primary aged school children from low-income and migrant backgrounds. The charity works with housing associations and primary schools and their tutors deliver attainment-raising tutorials after school across London, Cambridge, the Midlands, and the North East.

Over the academic year, Stone King will provide careers support and work placement opportunities to the tutor cohort as part of the charity’s employability programme. Volunteers from Stone King will assist in the tutor recruitment process and provide training sessions to give tutors insight into particular professions as well as ‘soft skills’, such as presenting, teamwork, time management, leadership, and communication. These sessions aim to support TU tutors’ transferable skills and career progression opportunities for once they graduate. The firm hosted an induction session for the new tutor cohort at one of its offices in September and will also reserve places on its annual Insight Scheme for tutors with an interest in law to get an insight into the legal world.

Steven Greenwood, Managing Partner at Stone King, says: “We’re excited about this partnership and the opportunity to support these dedicated tutors who are making such a difference to their tutor groups. Their work and that of Tutors United is so important and resonates with our commitment to being a socially responsible firm that supports the community around us wherever we can.”

Many TU tutors are law students and the majority are from low-income households and almost 80 per cent are from Asian and Black backgrounds. The charity also runs a Family Learning Programme which includes small group tuition with sessions for parents and carers.

Sam Speer, Tutor Recruitment & Development Officer at Tutors United says: “We are delighted to be partnering with Stone King for this academic year. As a leading law firm in the charity and education sectors, our tutors will gain invaluable experience in the legal field through this partnership. We’d like to extend a huge thank you to Stone King for their commitment to boosting diversity and accessibility in their sector and we can’t wait for our wonderful tutors to benefit from this opportunity.”

deal for Allison Group

spearheading the real estate aspects of the transaction.

The funding consists of a £20 million five-year loan from HSBC and a five-year £100 million Revolving Credit Facility with HSBC and NatWest. This is the second deal Roythornes has helped the group secure, most recently being the acquisition of Larkfleet Homes – previously part of the Allison Group.

Bhavesh Amlani, national head of real estate at Roythornes, said: “We are delighted to have assisted the Allison Group with this important refinancing deal, which will see them move to the next phase of their development plan.

“We pride ourselves on building longstanding relationships with clients, so we’re pleased to once again be a trusted provider for the group and look forward to seeing their successes.”

Leading law firm Roythornes Solicitors has played a major part in helping the Allison Group secure a groundbreaking £120 million refinancing deal,

In this latest secured deal, the £120 million in funds will be used by the Allison Group to implement its strategic growth plans to build 2,000 homes annually within the next five years across Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Rutland, East Midlands, East Anglia and the South West.

John Anderson, CEO of Allison Group, said: “This deal will put the company in a stronger position to reach our projected targets and we want to thank Bhavesh and his team, who have all been a great support during the process and helped us to complete the deal within our set time frame. We’re excited to see what the future holds for us.”

#Room2Grow: Wyboston Lakes Resort’s award-winning sustainability initiative exceeds ambitious targets

Thousands of eco-conscious guests staying at Wyboston Lakes Resort have chosen to have a tree planted instead of having their room cleaned under Room2Grow, the new initiative offered to those staying more than one night. As a result, the Resorts Green Team is already nearing its tree-planting target for 2022.

The project, which aims to reduce energy usage and ultimately the carbon footprint of the resort, launched only four months ago with an ambitious target to plant 5,000 trees on the Resort’s 380 acres in 2022. With more than three months to go until the end of the year, Wyboston Lakes Resort will by far exceed its target as the total number of trees to be planted already stands at 4,681. The Resort is now on track for the Room2Grow total to reach around 8,000 trees this year. What’s more, Room2Grow has become an award-winning sustainability initiative

picking up the innovation award from the IACC (International Association of Conference Centres) at their ‘IACC Europe Knowledge Festival’ held in conference in Holland recently.

Room2Grow is just one part of Wyboston Lakes Resort’s approach to sustainability that makes the most of the resort’s extensive natural resources. The resort has also launched several more environmental and wildlife enhancements. For example, with the decline in the bee population, the site welcomed four bee colonies in August. These are being managed in an eco-friendly way by a keen beekeeper.

The Resort is also home to a nature reserve with all kinds of wildlife, fauna, and mammals, and this is now being enhanced with the addition of a large wildflower meadow.

Louisa Watson, Director of Marketing at Wyboston Lakes Resort, says: “We are delighted and a little overwhelmed with the success of our Room2Grow initiative. It’s a wonderful testament to the support we have received from our conference and training venue guests and really shows that consumers want businesses to do the right thing. We have many more plans for our sustainability journey, so watch this space!”

Howes Percival recommended for 23 different legal specialisms in The Legal 500

• Dispute Resolution - Debt Recovery

• Finance - Insolvency and Corporate Recovery

• Human Resources - Employment

• Private Client - Tax, Trusts and Probate

• Real Estate - Commercial Property

• Real Estate - Environment & Planning

• Real Estate - Property litigation

• Intellectual Property

The 2023 edition of The Legal 500 - the authoritative guide to the UK’s leading law firms - has recommended Howes Percival for 23 different legal specialisms and awarded the firm top tier ranking for 10.

The guide, which is based on independent research, interviews and feedback from clients about the service they receive from firms and lawyers, also recognises the UK’s leading lawyers - 77 Howes Percival lawyers received specific mentions in this year’s directory. Howes Percival has achieved top tier rankings for:

• Corporate and Commercial

• Dispute Resolution - Commercial Litigation

12 further Howes Percival specialisms are recommended in the guide; Agriculture and Estates, Banking and Finance, Charities and Not for Profit, Construction, Contentious Trusts and Probate, Family, Licensing, Public Sector, IT and Telecoms, Media and Entertainment, Health and Safety, and Social Housing.

The Legal 500 highlights individuals who have received constant praise from their clients for continued excellence. 23 Howes Percival lawyers are recognised by the legal directory as ‘leading individuals’, with nine Partners achieving ‘Hall of Fame’ status - Paula Bailey (Employment), Steven Beach (Commercial Property), Geraint Davies (Litigation and Insolvency), Gerald Couldrake (Corporate and Commercial),

Tessa Haskey (Commercial Property), Michaela Henson (Commercial Property), Graham Irons (Employment), Catherine Scott (Agriculture and Estates) and Matthew Talbot (Intellectual Property).

Howes Percival’s clients range from individuals and families to global businesses and government departments. Over the last 12 months the firm has seen its market share increase across all of its UK offices and has invested in a nationwide expansion programme, with close to 100 new recruits appointed in that period.

Commenting on the firm’s rankings Howes Percival’s Chairman, Geraint Davies said; “I’m delighted with this set of rankings and recommendations, which recognise our core strengths and reflect the ongoing investment we’ve made in our people and their development in recent years. We have expanded our expertise across all of our service lines and are committed to growing and investing in each of our locations. Howes Percival’s culture and the calibre of work we undertake allow us to attract top talent which, alongside our commitment to our training programme creates an unbeatable team.”

Three simple rules for an effective B2B website

In this world, we often wish we could break down life into simple dos and don’ts – and marketing is no different.

Whatever the focus of your company or organisation, we often look for little nuggets of knowledge which could help us get more from our marketing resources and spend – and websites are no exception.

Website design may be an area where it’s harder to see the differences between serving businesses and serving consumers – but they’re definitely there and the best B2B (business-to-business) websites follow a few simple traits which make them the best.

Sarah West, of expert B2B agency Full Mix Marketing, explores the three simple rules for an effective B2B website.

1. MAKE YOUR WEBSITE ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMER

The most successful B2B websites talk a little less about themselves and a little more about their visitors’ needs.

It’s a good idea to start using the word ‘You’ more frequently on your website. In describing your products, services and years of experience, start telling the visitor to your B2B website what they will receive and experience - ‘You will get…’

Explain what you do and why it’s great but don’t leave the visitor to translate it into the benefits they’ll receive – tell them!

You can also invite the customer in with some level of interactivity. Allow the visitor to share something about who they are and what they’re looking to do, and then find a way in which to show interest in them and tailor their experience.

One of the simplest ways to do this on a B2B website is to include sector or user-specific pages within the main navigation.

Visitors can then quickly reach the information they need and view it from their perspective – making them feel more valued and better served.

When creating content for your B2B website, think carefully about how your customers define themselves and the language they use.

Use the pronouns they would choose and relatable language –without lapsing too far into jargon!

Essentially, making your B2B website about your customers is key to its success.

2. EMPHASIZE YOUR CUSTOMERS’ OUTCOMES

Once you’ve invited the customer in, you need to direct them towards the outcome they desire – not just the qualities or capabilities of your business that you wish to communicate!

Take time to consider and define the specific business objectives visitors to your B2B website might have and how to satisfy them.

In B2B marketing, the business buying process is typically slower, more logical and often involves more people than consumer buying behaviour.

As such, visitors may be in an early research phase, looking for in-depth information to inform a decision, seeking final reassurance to support a buying decision or be fully ready to contact you and buy.

Fortunately, your B2B website doesn’t need to be reengineered for each outcome. It simply needs to be communicative and navigable in a way that helps the visitor achieve each of the outcomes in turn.

Trying to force every visitor to contact you - or make an instantaneous purchase - may be self-defeating when what the visitor craves is a little more information and reassurance before they engage with your company.

You should use language which focuses on the outcome the visitor hopes to achieve. If you believe they are looking for reassurance, talk about trust. If you believe they are seeking a product to solve a challenge, talk about solutions. That way, customers don’t have to translate your B2B website themselves!

3. HELP CUSTOMERS ACHIEVE THESE OUTCOMES

Ultimately, your B2B website’s purpose is to create customers. A successful website must facilitate the specific tasks the customer has come to your website to complete.

How this is resolved will depend on your product, service or sector.

If you provide a product range, it’s likely your visitor will eventually be looking to buy – or at least establish a supply relationship so they can begin placing orders.

When you’re dealing with a significant number of potential transactions, seemingly tiny hurdles or shortfalls can have dramatic implications.

If you provide a service, it’s likely the visitor will want to understand the options, explore their needs and either initiate the service or make contact with you. This could include a cost-calculator, downloadable content or online chat function.

It’s a good idea to make your website easy and effective to navigate, ensuring customers find the right answers and achieve their outcomes.

THE TAKEAWAYS

When it comes to building a better B2B website, it’s all about showing interest in your visitors, communicating your solutions in language they understand and making it easy for them to achieve what they want to achieve.

For more help, visit www.fullmixmarketing.co.uk

How can we be greener with our use of IT?

Since the pandemic, 40 per cent of working adults are engaged in hybrid working, splitting their working hours between their home and office. This has transferred many daily work activities online and intensified the nation’s digital carbon footprint. This digital shift has brought with it many benefits such as a better work-life balance, reduced travel, and fewer sick days. This does however come with an environmental cost through increased demand for devices, manufacture, materials, electricity, the internet, cloud use and e-waste all adding up to more CO2 emissions. A recent study suggests information communication technology (ICT) accounts for just under four per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and between eight-10 per cent of global energy consumption, and those figures are set to grow.

If unchecked, the greenhouse gas emissions from the ICT sectors growth could account for 14 percent of global emissions by 2040.

Reducing your digital footprint will save energy, cut costs, reduce carbon emissions and protect the environment through reduced raw materials extraction and harmful disposal at end-of-life processing.

TOP TIPS

• Avoid sending large attachments in emails and other web-based services (such as WhatsApp) unless absolutely necessary; compress attachments or send links when possible via file sharing, WeTransfer, Dropbox or similar. A 50 per cent reduction of emails with an attachment could reduce CO₂ emissions equal to 10 million cars driving in one year

• Clear out and delete redundant files in storage and email accounts and unsubscribe from unnecessary sites and emails; each saved email emits on average 10g of CO₂ per year; small amounts which add up when you consider how many emails you have stored. By reducing the emails, you receive and save, the less energy data centres will use to send and store the files

• Turn down the brightness of your screen; dimming from 100 per cent to 70 per cent can save up to 20 per cent of your monitor’s energy use. If you have a dark mode switch to that;

a study found that switching over to dark mode at 100 per cent screen brightness reduced a phone’s battery usage by 42 per cent on average. Switching computer screens to dark mode also saves energy

• Power down when not in use; unplug or use a smart power strip, be mindful that even in sleep mode your computer continues to use energy. If you are not able to turn off your CPU, switch off your monitor which can reduce energy use by up to 40 per cent

• Switch to a renewable energy supplier; all ICT uses electricity, so make the power source as low carbon as possible

• Utilise Wifi instead of an internet connection via 3/4/5G. As an example, 4G uses 20 times more energy, consuming far more battery power. Airplane mode should be used if your smartphone is out of range for wi-fi or 3/4/5G since the continual searching your device undertakes in the background drains the battery most.

This article was adapted from a members-only iiE resource as part of our e-Learning Homeworking module.

If you would like to find out more about improving the sustainability of our digital footprint, iiE are running a webinar on ‘Reducing the Carbon Impact of Internet Use’. This session is members-only but we have reserved tickets for connected readers. Sign up for your place here or visit our website www.iie.uk.com/events

Anxiety and peri/menopause in the workplace

Today, we are encouraged to bring our whole selves to work. This should be the standard of course but to do this, we need to make sure we are armed with information, are ready to listen to what is needed, learn how to have difficult conversations and be ready to act. Menopause affects everybody in one way or another, either because you are going through this yourself, or you may be living or working with somebody who is living through this phase of life.

Let’s look at this from a work perspective.

EMPLOYEE PERSPECTIVE

Anxiety is listed as one of the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause. (For clarity, one is considered menopausal when one has not had a period for a year or more).

Anxiety is classified as a heightened state of nervousness with very marked physical cognitive and behavioral attributes which range from mild to debilitating and can be experienced by anybody at any stage of life.

What is important when we look at Anxiety is to understand that it is a natural process to have levels of anxiety, some of which will be hormonal rather than environmental, especially when we are looking at menopause as a direct cause of anxiety. It is also important to recognise that the human body and psyche are complicated and therefore different for every unique person. Some of the signs and symptoms of anxiety are:

• Feeling nervous, restless, or tense

• Having a sense of impending danger, panic, or doom

• Having an increased heart rate

• Palpitations

• Breathing rapidly (hyperventilation)

• Sweating

• Trembling

• Feeling weak or tired.

The person who is living with anxiety may also experience behavioral / cognitive symptoms such as

Racing thoughts

Feeling irritated

Twitchy movements, nail biting, rapid speech

Heightened alertness

Uncontrollable over-thinking

Trouble concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry.

As you can see, these symptoms could cause incredibly significant issues when one is working. Not only is there the worry about what is happening in the body as well as all the physical symptoms of peri/menopause, there is also the added worry about how others perceive the individual.

HERE ARE SOME TIPS TO THINK ABOUT WHEN NAVIGATING ANXIETY AT WORK

1. Anxiety is part of you right now, but you are not in any danger, even though it feels like you are

The workplace can help you manage your anxieties by providing space and opportunities for time outs and safe processes, such as going out for a walk or having a quiet space in the office

3. Talk to a trusted colleague about your anxiety and let them know when you are having difficulties.

If your anxiety is causing marked difficulties, reach out to your care provider, doctor, specialist and seek advice. There are lots of things that you can explore that will help you navigate this challenging time.

The main thing is to take care of yourself and be kind. Your body is doing something amazing in the big scheme of things and it is important to recognise the process. Acceptance is key to processing.

EMPLOYER ESSENTIALS

An employer has a legal responsibility to make sure that staff are kept safe at work, and this includes mental health under the Health and Safety Act of 1974. It is important however to look at the individual and their needs before legislation, which can sometimes be complicated. EG, Anxiety could also be listed as a disability under the Disability Act 2010.

Here are the essentials that all organisations need to be aware of when providing support for individuals in the workplace.

• You have a duty of care towards staff which means that employers must do all they can to support employees’ health, safety, and wellbeing

• You cannot discriminate against somebody with a mental health difficulty

under the Equality Act and the law is specific therefore research and understanding of the responsibilities that need to be undertaken

• You must make reasonable adjustments for your employee, and this means that a close relationship and dialogue needs to be maintained. Always from a position of compassion and empathy please!

• Get trained! This should not be an HR thing. It is important that the place of work is supportive and empathetic. This means that although training should not be forced, it certainly should be offered and communicated.

There is a lot of information out there that can help you understand your responsibilities in this subject and remember, it’s all about helping to create an open and supportive environment for staff to work in.

Danielle Bridge, CEO, ABC Life Support CIC

SMART ENERGY

Top tips to help your business use less energy this Autumn

With energy bills in the news, businesses of all sizes are keeping a close eye on how much they’re using day to day.

We know that small business owners are working flat out to keep their business running and might not think they have the time - or brain space - to start thinking about this. However, there are some simple hacks out there which can help businesses limit their energy usage.

For instance, did you know that in a single three bedroom house, turning the thermostat down by one degree can save 10% annually, according to the Energy Saving Trust (citation) So, imagine what dialing down the temperature by one degree in your offices could do for your business.

Here are five more simple and effective ways for SMEs to reduce their energy consumption this autumn:

• Let’s start with a straightforward one! Don’t forget to switch off electrical equipment overnight

• Identify and defeat draughts and install wall insulation to stop heat disappearing

• Keep radiators, heaters and air vents clean to help them work more efficiently

• Make sure your thermostat is working correctly to make sure your boiler isn’t generating more heat than it needs to

• And consider a smart meter, which could help your business avoid spending more on energy than it needs to, by providing insights on how you’re using it.

Smart meters offer SMEs a range of benefits which could come in helpful at the moment.

They could help make your budgeting and forecasting more accurate as you only get a bill for what you’ve used, and they could give you valuable insights into how your business uses energy, day, and night. Plus, they automatically send readings to your energy supplier – so you shouldn’t have to.

Firms with 10 employees or less could be eligible for a smart meter. To find out more please click here https://bit.ly/3rIqv09 You can also contact your energy supplier or broker.

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