Monthly Archives: November 2020

News

Checkprint and Metro Bank Renew Significant Contract

Checkprint, part of the TALL Group of Companies, the UK leader in the provision of secure printed and electronic payment solutions, has signed a contract renewal with Metro Bank for cheque services. The decade-long partnership, which goes back to 2010 when Metro Bank was the first new high street bank to open its doors in the UK for over 100 years, has been extended for a further six years.

The contract enables Metro Bank to continue to instantly issue chequebooks to all new account holders, within minutes of them entering the store. Metro Bank is one of the only providers of instantly issued chequebooks on the high street and will look to Checkprint to continue to provide replenishment books for both personal and business customers, from the firm’s fully accredited site in Hinckley, Leicestershire.

Martin Ruda, Managing Director of Checkprint, said: “It’s a tremendously positive partnership and Metro Bank are a great team to work with. The dynamic between both companies is interactive on both sides, as we both adopt more strategic positions in our markets. Metro Bank is constantly looking to evolve, and likewise, we’re always focussed on innovation and bringing new products and services to market.”

Tamsin Byrne, Metro Bank’s Director of Distribution Delivery, said: “The contract renewal is testament to the trusted and successful relationship between Metro Bank and Checkprint. Metro Bank’s commitment to providing a stand-out customer experience is underpinned with a number of key deliverables, including the ability to instantly issue chequebooks to all new account holders if they would like one. Since 2010, Checkprint has worked with Metro Bank to help us provide this and other innovative services to our customers. It’s an exciting time for both companies, who have immense respect for each other’s expertise and processes, and long may that continue.”

Logistics, News

MariTrace Makes Data Available via Bloomberg Enterprise Access Point

Leading UK shipping data analyst, MariTrace has announced that its data is now available to Bloomberg Data License clients via Bloomberg Enterprise Access Point.

MariTrace, which provides data on the worldwide movements of over 50,000 commercial ships between 7,500 ports, provides industry and commodity intelligence. Receiving around 1.6 million messages per hour from vessels all over the world via satellite and terrestrial receivers, MartiTrace analyses this vast stream of data and delivers bespoke datasets to clients globally. Bloomberg Data License clients can now easily discover, access and integrate MariTrace data into their workflows, streamlining the process and reducing barriers to end users.

MariTrace Managing Director, Thomas Owen, comments: ‘We’ve spent years refining the work we do at MariTrace. Analysing such enormous data streams and creating a repository of information from our bespoke datasets requires a very specific skill set that we’ve worked hard to achieve. Bloomberg Enterprise Access Point allows us to make the data directly available to clients seamlessly and effectively.’

Launched in September 2018, Bloomberg Enterprise Access Point is the company’s web-based data marketplace that allows Data License clients to easily discover, access and immediately use high quality, market leading content from both Bloomberg and third party providers. In September 2020, Bloomberg announced the expansion of its alternative data offering through Bloomberg Enterprise Access Point. The expansion represents a three-fold increase in the number of third-party alternative data vendors available through Enterprise Access Point since the product’s introduction in February 2019. The move allows Bloomberg clients to access a much-expanded catalogue of curated alternative data, uniquely positioned to provide insights in today’s market environment.

News

Firefighters Warn that Fire & Rescue Cuts Means UK Could Not Even Handle Two National Emergencies At Once

Fire and rescue services won’t be ready for major threats to the UK without more firefighters, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has warned, as new figures show brigades have faced the Covid-19 pandemic with 11,237 fewer firefighters than in 2010.

The combined threats of climate change related events such as flooding and wildfires, pandemics, terrorism, and the post-Grenfell building safety crisis will require the immediate funding for at least 5,000 firefighters in the next year, the FBU says, to ensure the fire and rescue service can tackle “the risks of today and tomorrow”.

Without additional crews, the public face a “roll of the dice” every time a major incident occurs, with firefighters hoping that it won’t coincide with another serious emergency. If the pandemic had broken out during mass-flooding earlier this year, the FBU warns firefighters might not have been able to support the pandemic response.

It comes as new figures reveal the UK has lost more than 11,000 firefighters and control room staff since 2010, a 19% drop in numbers.

The staffing shortage has caused many fire and rescue services to send out fire engines with just three firefighters on board, fewer than the minimum five required to safety perform a rescue or tackle a fire.

Non-fire incidents have soared by 12% over the last decade. Firefighters responded to 162,251 non-fire incidents last year – more than the total number of fires. Surges in flooding and assisting other agencies drove a 6% increase from 2018-19 to 2019-20.

The FBU is today launching its #FundTheFrontline campaign, in which firefighters and members of the public will be asked to write to their MPs demanding urgent investment in the government’s one-year spending review.

It comes as the new figures show some of the UK’s most at-risk regions have faced the worst cuts to firefighter numbers since 2010:

  • Greater Manchester, now facing Tier 3 Covid-19 restrictions, has lost 629 firefighters, a 32% cut. The city region also has the second-highest concentration of buildings with Grenfell-style flammable cladding in the country, faced three weeks of wildfires covering more than 11 square kilometres in 2018, and has suffered two bouts of major flooding in the last year.
  • West Yorkshire, which today moved into Tier 3, has lost 609 firefighters, a 35% cut. Calder Valley has seen six major floods hit in five year. The brigade has responded to persistent wildfires, including a 3,700-acre wildfire on Marsden Moor last year. Leeds, the biggest city in the county, has 13 buildings deemed unsafe due to major fire safety defects.
  • South Yorkshire, now in Tier 3, has lost 293 firefighters, a 31% cut. The county faced some of the worst flooding in UK history last summer and a major 10-day long wildfire in Hatfield Moors.
  • Buckinghamshire, where the council has warned cases are rising “steeply”, has lost 266 firefighters, or 43% – the worst cuts in the country. The UK’s largest privately-owned nuclear power station is under construction in the county and residents faced flood warnings earlier this month.

Firefighters took on fourteen new activities to respond to the first wave of the pandemic, including moving dead bodies, driving ambulances, and delivering Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The peak of Covid-19 response operations fell after firefighters were stretched by mass flooding and before they were called out to wildfires.

Firefighters are major frontline responders to 11 of the 12 risks in the UK government’s national risk register, which includes pandemics; severe weather; coastal and inland flooding; major industrial accidents; as well as attacks on transport; crowded places and critical national infrastructure; and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) attacks.

The government’s Building Safety and Fire Safety Bills, intended to tackle the building safety crisis exposed by Grenfell, represent enormous increases in firefighters’ inspection, prevention, and enforcement work, without providing funding to hire more personnel.

Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said:

“Be it mass flooding and wildfires caused by climate change, huge post-Grenfell building safety challenges, terrorist attacks; or pandemics, firefighters are an all hazards emergency service on the frontline protecting the UK from the vast majority of major threats.

“But a decade of devastating cuts means that we can only effectively handle one of these crises at a time. The brutal reality is that, if and when mass-flooding or another major emergency hits this winter, it could impact firefighters’ ability to aid the pandemic response, or respond to another major incident.

”Increasingly, each time one of these major emergencies break out, the public face a roll of the dice, hoping that more than one won’t come at once – and it’s only a matter of time until we lose that gamble.

“Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak need to recognise the scale of risk faced by the public and fund the frontline firefighters who keep people safe. We need at least 5,000 new firefighters immediately to repair some of the damage austerity has done to our service and prepare for the risks of today and tomorrow.”

News, Productivity, Wellbeing at Work

Employees twice as motivated and productive if they’re resilient, according to new Aon research

 Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions, has released new research that shows the impact on employee motivation and productivity if they are resilient. The data, gained across five European countries, including the UK, showed that employees are nearly twice as likely to be motivated and therefore productive, if they are resilient. Eighty-six percent of resilient employees say they’re highly motivated while just 44% of employees who aren’t resilient say they are highly motivated. The research also showed that only 30% of employees are currently resilient, highlighting the fragility of organisations.

Aon collected the report’s data during March 2020 amidst the backdrop of the global novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, from 2,500 survey participants in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom.

The report also showed that resilience at work increases employees’ enthusiasm by 45%, energy by 39% and concentration by 27%. Resilience also impacts their confidence and satisfaction levels – these increase by 32% and 44%, respectively. UK figures differ only slightly, showing enthusiasm increases by 47% if employees are resilient, energy by 46%, concentration by 31%, confidence by 33% and satisfaction by 47%.

Aon’s report, The Rising Resilient, finds that despite health and wellbeing initiatives being well-established with employers, with 80% agreeing that they are beneficial for their organisations, the programmes do not result in creating resilient workforces. According to Aon, employees are resilient based on three core indicators – their sense of security, sense of belonging and ability to reach their potential. Resilience in a work environment means people can better adapt to adverse situations, manage stress and retain motivation, enabling organisations to better manage change.

Employers say the top reasons they invest in employee health and wellbeing is to support productivity (37%), motivation (37%) and job performance (35%).

Helping increase resilience is in an employer’s power – the research’s data shows a tripling of results when employers adopt a well-rounded health and wellbeing programme supporting employees’ physical, social, emotional, financial and professional needs. In fact, just 15% of employees are resilient within organisations that don’t offer health and wellbeing initiatives, 29% are resilient if a partial health and wellbeing initiative is offered and 45% of employees are resilient if they work for an employer that offers a broad health and wellbeing programme.

Geoffrey Kuhn, senior vice president and actuary, Health Solutions, Aon, said:

“Developing resilient employees is complex. It requires balancing many different factors, and the recipe for how to do it well is evolving just as employees do. Yet smart, strategic investment is more than good housekeeping; it is part of what makes a business thrive.

“As the World Health Organisation sets out in its Health 2020(1) policy framework, resilience ‘is shaped by the availability of supportive environments,’ which ‘are essential for people to increase control over the determinants of their health.’ At work, businesses need to step up and create an environment for resilience to thrive. This means understanding the context and content for delivering effective health and wellbeing programmes and initiatives, along with the 10 factors – among them encouraging positive health behaviours, supporting mental health, sharing responsibility and control as well as developing financial security – that are currently affecting and influencing workforces today.”

Avneet Kaur, principal, Health Solutions, EMEA, Aon, explained:

“Shining a spotlight on the differences between the UK and mainland Europe is interesting. UK employees have lower perceived health status compared to the wider EMEA group regardless of whether they are resilient or non-resilient; in fact 57% of non-resilient employees in EMEA believe they are healthy, compared to 49% of UK employees. Non-resilient employees in the UK also record 7% lower energy levels and 5% lower enthusiasm for work compared to the wider EMEA group.

“To varying degrees, organisations are compelled to invest in, and care about, the health and wellbeing of their staff. At the most basic level, health initiatives are prescribed by proxy through government legislation. However, sometimes the attitudes of the workforce, the competition for talent, and visionary leadership drive businesses to go beyond what is simply required and think creatively about what their people need, what they want, and what will help.”

To access the full Rising Resilient report, click here.

1 Health 2020: a European policy framework supporting action across government and society for health and wellbeing.

COVID-19, Employment Law, News, Redundancy

Employers advised about ‘pandemic effect’ of tribunal risk after redundancies

• Tribunals can take place three months after redundancies are complete
• Increasing numbers of tribunal claims according to the Ministry of Justice
• Risk potentially increases in poor job market says experts

According to the Ministry of Justice, single employment tribunal claims have risen by 18% during the pandemic (April to June 2020) compared to the same period last year. Figures also show the outstanding tribunal caseload is higher than the previous peak in 2009/2010. An expert from Renovo, the UK’s leading specialist provider of outplacement support, says that the ‘pandemic effect’ on the job market has a double whammy for employers – not only having to make roles redundant in the first place, but a potential risk of increased tribunals if former employees aren’t able to find a new role.

Chris Parker, Managing Director of Renovo, explained:

“A claim to an employment tribunal must usually be made within 3 months less 1 day of being made redundant. However, a very sad impact of the pandemic is that is even fewer job opportunities are available for departing employees to replace their income. This means those that are made redundant who can’t find new roles may focus their frustration on their previous employer, especially if the end of their employment wasn’t handled sensitively.

“Simply put, it has never been so important for employers to manage redundancies extremely carefully to protect their operational and reputational risks now and in the future. We’d recommend giving departing employees the opportunity to focus on practical next steps, so they feel supported. Not only is this a positive step for an employer brand, it also means they are less likely to seek redress against the organisation if they feel they’ve been looked after.”

Renovo recommends employers:

1. Clearly and Consistently Communicate. It is critical to build a clear and simple message to help explain the rationale for the changes and ensure that all stakeholders are delivering the message consistently.

2. Know their Audience. It can be easy to overlook the fact that redundancy will affect each individual in very different ways. Try to look beyond the basic information you will have such length of service, age, salary and benefits to more personal details such as relationship status, number of dependents or health and financial issues. The greater your knowledge of the audience the more likely it will be to build trust and anticipate potential issues.

3. Get the timing right. There is no such thing as a good time to announce a redundancy consultation, but there is certainly a bad time. Careful consideration on timing can help limit the risk of the organisation appearing insensitive and avoid any long-term damage to the employer brand.

4. Hold follow up Meetings. Don’t underestimate the value of the follow up meetings during consultation as a means to help people come to terms with the potential impact of the situation.

5. Rehearse. Regardless of whether it’s a group or individual consultation, it is important to carefully plan what to say. Prepare a script and practice delivery – rehearsals will help to become comfortable and confident with the message which is what the affected employees need.

6. Consider the Environment. This is a very difficult message to hear, so it is important that any individual consultation is carried out in a private location, without the risk of interruptions. Creating an environment where the employee feels comfortable and secure will play a vital role in helping them come to terms with the news.

7. Show Compassion and Listen. It’s important to follow due process, remain professional, and be focused in the approach but this doesn’t mean that compassion can’t be showed. This is an emotional experience for both the employee and for the person delivering the message so don’t be worried about showing empathy, and give time to listen and understand their issues.

8. Be Visible, Supportive and United. It is usual for those delivering news of redundancy to feel a sense of guilt and responsibility for the situation, sometimes resulting in avoiding further discussion. To limit any negative impact on the remaining workforce it is critical that senior managers, business leaders and HR remain visible, supportive and united throughout the process.

9. Manage Expectations. When delivering the message of potential redundancy it might be tempting to try and soften the blow with more positive or hopeful messages. Be as clear and transparent as possible on the situation. Set clear expectations in terms of the timeframes and process involved and help them to understand what they need to do and consider as next steps.

10. Communicate Available Support. The process of redundancy can feel like a lonely journey for an individual even when it forms part of a large-scale restructure. The communication of available support can help soften the blow and demonstrate that employees are not facing their next steps alone.

Chris Parker added:

“Managing redundancies is never easy but being able to communicate and deliver effective support to employees can help manage a smooth transition through consultation periods and beyond. Once the redundancy decision has been made, quickly mobilising the best support to help the company and employees can help manage employer costs and risks”.