Monthly Archives: February 2021

News

Alcumus and Unseen Unite to Eradicate Modern Slavery from Supply Chains

Alcumus, a leading provider of technology-led risk management solutions, has formed a new partnership with UK-based anti-slavery charity, Unseen. The collaboration will see Alcumus share its expert knowledge on the importance of business accreditation and technology to demonstrate compliance to regulations, which will support the charity’s vision of working towards a world without modern slavery.

Founded in 2008, Unseen launched the Modern Slavery & Exploitation Helpline in 2016 and provides safehouses and services for survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking. The charity works closely with the police, health workers, government, businesses and organisations to help prevent modern slavery. In its 2020 release of Helpline insights highlighting the nature and scale of labour abuse in the UK, 49% of reports to Unseen concerned labour exploitation, with 1,812 cases of modern slavery raised through calls to the Helpline.

The partnership will help to increase awareness of the role of accreditation and digital solutions in demonstrating that an organisation is ethical, compliant and transparent. For over 20 years, Alcumus has helped businesses to strengthen controls over their supply chain and make sure suppliers are safe to partner with. Clients use its online contractor management platform to drive better standards and greater visibility throughout supply chains, as well as access support on modern slavery statements, policies and procedures.

“We’re delighted to be working with Unseen to significantly increase awareness of unacceptable human rights violations,” says Gemma Archibald, Chief Operating Officer, SME at Alcumus. “Unseen is a leader in the fight against forced labour and their work is hugely important in supporting victims and survivors and strengthening the laws around modern slavery in the supply chain.

“Businesses, large and small, need to take action to act responsibly and eradicate unethical practices and forced labour in their supply chain. A zero tolerance approach against modern slavery is vital so that any risks of exploitation don’t go undetected and to prevent slavery happening in the first place.”

Andrew Wallis, OBE, CEO of Unseen and Co-Chair of the Home Office Modern Slavery Strategy and Implementation Group – Transparency in Supply Chains said:

“We are delighted to be partnering with Alcumus. Their insights will help Unseen further our work to raise awareness and effectively tackle modern slavery in supply chains and business practices. Our collective experience and first-hand knowledge of forced labour will be invaluable to those organisations who want to act responsibly and combat the exploitation of innocent people.

“It’s essential we have a comprehensive approach to tackling forced labour in businesses and supply chains. That means a fundamental change in approach – addressing the root causes of modern slavery. The way businesses can do this is by demonstrating that they’re compliant, ethical, sustainable and managing the risks of vulnerability to exploitation.  With the power of technology, data and responsible business practices, we can enable worker voices to be heard much more easily. And this will only help us in our mission to end slavery for good.”

Since the Modern Slavery Act came into force in 2015, the number of victims identified has grown year on year as a greater focus is given to uncovering incidence of modern slavery. Because of its hidden nature, there is no definitive source of data to accurately quantify the number of victims of modern slavery in the UK. The International Labour Organization currently estimates that there are 24.9 million victims of modern-day slavery or forced labour globallyand the Walk Free Foundation has estimated the number of victims of modern slavery in the UK at 136,000

Customer Experience, Digital Skills, Marketing, PR and SEO, News

Experimenting – the best bet you’ll place this year

User experience expert highlights three types of business experiments to create growth opportunities in 2021.

Finding ‘hidden’ revenues is something all businesses could do with this year. And one way to achieve this can be through growth experimentation. So why is 2021 the year to become an ‘Experiment Business’?

Jess Sherratt, Head of User Experience at Digital Product studio Code Computerlove, explains: “In times of great change – experimenting within an ever-altering consumer landscape is more important than ever. Assumptions won’t cut it anymore. We can’t use the things we’ve known in the past; rely on stereotypes or even user behaviour findings from 12 months ago to shape strategies. Continual learning has always meant continual research, but today’s world is shifting at such a pace that it’s time to go beyond Conversion Optimisation (CRO) and look at addressing some big business questions through experimentation.

“Experimenting can also help businesses spend wisely – as a way to de-risk product development and without having to go into big build cycles in a world that we don’t have a clue about. Any research helps us reduce risk around our decisions, whether that be for marketing, product placement or a digital service. So even if you’ve got great insight from a survey or focus group – experimenting is a fail-safe way to validate assumptions, with real users in real time, and as a way to get real value out of insight by actually making change.

“And sometimes it’s the big bets – the unexpected results – that count the most. Challenging the most deep rooted assumptions about a business.

“Similarly, experimentation organisations have the potential to tap into the power of high-velocity incrementalism as well as find the big disruptive idea, and there are some key types of experiments that can help to achieve this.”

Three key business experiments beyond CRO

There’s a definite shift towards business experiments to drive innovation around business growth in 2021 and to validate fundamental business questions, challenge even big assumptions and long-standing processes through even the simplest of experiments.

“To approach this kind of experiment, we map out the entire business model before we identify where to focus and to set our hypotheses.

“In general, hypotheses – and types of experiments – then fall into three key categories: desirability, viability and feasibility, and running experiments across the entire customer journey – across business silos, with acquisition, conversation and retention all working together. In short Product Thinking applied to a business.”

Desirability experiments

“Within product thinking we consider desirability to be a product or service that meets a user’s needs, considering the factors for acquisition and retention. Experimenting with these can be carried out via many methods to test whether users are interested in what you are creating.

“A great example is a fake door test. A fake door test is where an advertisement or button on a website enables the user to interact with something ‘new’. This could be used for various pricing structures, value propositions or new features. The fake door bit is that it’s actually coming soon, but we can track an interested click through rate and even gather user information to update them when the product, feature or service is launched.

“Desirability experiments help businesses to identify key usps for their product as well as prioritise the different features and their level of importance to users. It can also help businesses to really understand what messaging works with which audience, which can help with targeted marketing.”

Feasibility experiments

“A feasibility experiment is carried out to address what is possible to do, whether this be a technical investigation into API’s or a data assessment to make sure we can actually pool information in the correct way, it is all about assessing can we do what we want to.

“Something we often do around the product lifecycle is conduct “Technical Spikes”. What these enable us to do is understand a piece of technology in detail and investigate how this might work within the ecosystem. The output of this could be a prototype demonstrating that the outcome we want to achieve is possible.

“Feasibility experiments help businesses to understand what effort is required to achieve a specific outcome as well as identifying whether it is actually possible. This type of activity can help to identify a tech north star and define an MVP.”

Viability experiments

“Viability experiments enable us to experiment with how the solution fits within our business model and ultimately tests whether there will be a return on the investment in the solution. Viability may be the hardest to test but it is the one that holds the biggest risk to the business.

“An example of this would be to run a pilot that doesn’t have to cost the full extent of the business operations but is a key indicator of how much it would actually cost. For example if a business was intending to run a manned live chat they could dedicate a person to answering the sessions and see how this performs from an operational perspective.

“Viability experiments help businesses to understand what would be required to invest in the solution in order to operationally deliver it. This also helps measure the ROI of this solution to explore whether it is something that a business could invest in.”

“A final point on experimentation is to create a balanced portfolio of experiments. Treat your experiments like you would a venture capital portfolio – the idea being that if you run 10 experiments there will likely be one or two that will deliver a big return, two or three that give a reasonable yield and some that won’t work.

“And be brave. Because if you’re only testing ideas that you know will work, you will probably miss out on finding that gem of a result.

“Or if you’re not feeling so brave – place small bets and focus on speed. 

“So place your bets – make 2021 the year to make and change things, by placing bets big and small, seeing what works and doesn’t – both front end and with technology.”

Finance and Banking, Investment News, Investor Advice, News

What are the key investment trends for 2021? New CAMRADATA whitepaper explores opportunities & risks for pension funds

CAMRADATA’s latest whitepaper, Trends for 2021 considers pension fund investment strategies and asks how schemes will refine their asset allocation to meet their funding and liquidity requirements in the current investment conditions.

The whitepaper includes insight from guests who attended a virtual roundtable hosted by CAMRADATA in December, including representatives from Newfleet Asset Management, Prestige Funds, State Street Global Advisors, Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, Russell Investments, XPS Pensions Group and Secor Asset Management.

The report highlights that with retirees living longer and the average age of pension scheme members getting older, some asset owners are finding it difficult to guarantee the cash flow required to meet payments to retirees.

In this uncertain economic climate, some sponsoring companies are also finding it challenging to meet their funding commitments and to fulfil their employers’ covenant.

Sean Thompson, Managing Director, CAMRADATA said, “Confronted by a weak dividend outlook through 2020 and into 2021, some pension funds are increasing their allocations to investment grade, and sometimes high-yield, corporate debt to meet their cashflow needs. But they need to be watchful of a spike in default rates in corporate bond markets as governments wind down emergency support measures.

“Traditional areas of fixed income are likely to return very little in the short to medium term. Consequently, pension funds need to assume greater investment risk to generate a similar level of return that, 10 or 15 years ago, they could generate from their core bond holdings.

“More broadly, the Covid-19 pandemic has also forced the industry to re-examine its goals and ways of working. It has forced pension funds, and the asset managers and custodian banks they appoint, to move to remote working and to apply technology in new ways to deliver business continuity.

“Our panel considered which trends will shape this year for investors. High on the list of considerations were ESG, the economic recovery from Covid and inflation.”

The panel also discussed the biggest concerns for Defined Benefit pension schemes, including responsible investment strategies; long-term funding; the deterioration of scheme covenants’ impact on net cashflows; recovery from Covid; climate change; inflation and technology.

Another key concern is that US-China tensions will not go away simply because America has a new president. The panel discussed these concerns and the impact they may have on investment strategies, before moving on to examine the effects of Covid from the perspective of employers and their pension schemes and finishing with a discussion on gold.

Key takeaways points were:

  • A guest suggested that asset allocations were going to change in 2021, but predicted disinvestment from all risk assets, including some alternatives. The cause of this switch will be stagnant equity markets starting to reflect the underlying malaise in the economy. They also suggested that institutional investors will seek greater safety in gold.
  • Another guest gave more bullish predictions. They believe that equities will be one of the best-performing asset classes. The underlying rationale is that both households and corporates are sitting on huge amounts of cash.
  • The panel discussed overconfidence that was overflowing in financial markets. The FTSE (at the time of the roundtable) was up 20% up since October’s announcement regarding a likely Covid vaccine.
  • One guest questioned whether the news justified the increase, and warned that investors had to keep their eyes wide open on what is happening at a local level versus the markets.
  • Another said the economy is in a mess while spread levels and equity levels are back where they were before Covid struck. A natural conclusion is that markets offer less value now than they did then.
  • The panel warned that the next 24 months will expose those companies that have not grown earnings.
  • The panel ended by discussing gold, with one guest highlighting it would form a greater part of institutional investors’ portfolios as 2021 proves to be another year of disappointments.
  • Another said that “Gold is an insurance; you don’t buy insurance after an accident. You buy it because you don’t know the future. You buy it because you don’t know the future. That’s why you always keep a small portion”.
  • The conversation came back full circle to the economic outlook for the year ahead, with a final point from a guest, “I hope the optimists are correct but in the USA I am very worried about COVID. My big concern colours my whole outlook.”

To download the ‘Trends for 2021’ whitepaper click here

For more information on CAMRADATA visit www.camradata.com

Diversity, Farming, News

Oxford Farming Conference makes history with new Co-Chairs

A diverse, female team has been announced to jointly chair the Oxford Farming Conference (OFC) – the first time in the event’s 76-year history.

Agri-food industry experts Barbara Bray and Sarah Mukherjee were appointed to the voluntary position at the end of the annual conference in January 2021, and will lead the OFC’s charitable and industry work including the delivery of the 2022 conference.

Both Barbara, who is Black British, and Sarah, who is British Asian, said they want to bring their combined experience to help shape the focus of the next conference, which will be a hybrid digital and physical event following the success of the online event last month.

“We are delighted that the Directors of the OFC are unanimous – we must do more to ensure that food and farming better reflects the modern communities of the UK. Organisations that are more diverse are more resilient, a quality that everyone in business will need in the coming years to survive these very turbulent times.

“As Co-Chairs, our plan is to continue to draw on the conference’s rich history for debating the agri-food sector’s biggest challenges and opportunities. We are proud that the entire Council of Directors is determined to encourage diversity and inclusion in UK agriculture and the food sector.”

Based in Manchester, Barbara Bray, MBE is a food safety consultant and registered nutritionist driving and delivering food safety in food supply chains and developing nutrition strategy for businesses.

With a passion for educating people about food and nutrition, Barbara became an OFC Director in 2020 and is a trustee for International Affairs with the Nutrition Society and sits on the food and nutrition committee for the Institute of Food Science and Technology.

“I was initially drawn to the role by the excitement of being able to create events that bring people together to network, hear from a range of thought leaders, and provide an opportunity to set the scene for the year ahead.

“During my time as Director, the UK Agricultural industry has undergone unprecedented upheaval with the dual disruptions of the coronavirus pandemic and Brexit. But the OFC continues to inspire farmers to think differently and meet challenges head-on, something I’m keen to champion during my time as Co-Chair,” says Barbara Bray.

Sarah Mukherjee, based in Hertfordshire, is Chief Executive of IEMA, the membership organisation for environment and sustainability professionals.

Sarah read law at Oxford University and worked in PR and consultancy at the House of Commons before becoming a BBC Environment correspondent for BBC TV, radio and online. More recently she was Director of Environment at Water UK and Chief Executive of the Crop Protection Association, joining the OFC as a Director in 2020.

“I’ve been attending the OFC since 1995 and, over that time, I’ve witnessed the evolution of the event, and was proud to be a part of the first-ever digital conference held this year.

“By utilising digital tools, we were able to provide a rich experience bringing together old friends, international speakers and, most importantly, some new faces by making Oxford more accessible, fulfilling our charitable mission to inform, challenge and inspire.

“We know how important networking is to the experience of Oxford and I am very much looking forward to returning to the exam halls in January 2022. The event sells-out every year so, by offering a hybrid event with some online sessions live streamed, we will be able to reach even more people than before,” said Sarah Mukherjee.

Find out more about the conference and watch the sessions from January 2021, at www.ofc.org.uk

 

News

iCOquit®: The innovation aiding remote Stop Smoking Services during COVID-19

The new Bluetooth® CO monitor from Bedfont® Scientific Ltd. has helped Stop Smoking Clinics to continue giving essential advice to its patients through remote CO monitoring.

Medical device manufacturer, Bedfont®, has launched its new iCOquit® – a portable, personal Bluetooth® Carbon Monoxide (CO) monitor to help people quit smoking, which is helping Stop Smoking Services to support their patients remotely during the Coronavirus pandemic.

According to the NHS, “Smoking is one of the biggest causes of death and illness in the UK”, responsible for around 78,000 deaths each year, in addition to even more suffering from “debilitating smoking-related illnesses”. Carbon monoxide monitoring is a very effective tool in smoking cessation; it can validate a person’s smoking status and acts as a great motivational tool for the patient, showing them visible proof of harm caused by tobacco smoking, plus, studies show that smokers who use CO monitoring during their quit attempt are more likely to be successful.

Despite face-to-face smoking cessation consultations being postponed due to the pandemic, now thanks to the iCOquit®, patients can quickly and easily monitor their CO levels at home to receive instant results on their smartphone or tablet, and share them directly with their Stop Smoking Advisor. This means they can receive instant CO validation of smoking status, and Advisors can better maintain provision of stop smoking medication in addition to providing remote behavioural support.

Jason Smith, Managing Director at Bedfont Scientific Ltd, explains, “The Smokerlyzer range of CO monitors has been helping people quit smoking in clinics for over 40 years. With the evolving healthcare markets and improvements in personal healthcare technology, we wanted to put all those years of experience into creating a device for people to use anytime, anywhere, so they could really invest in their quit smoking attempts in-between their Stop Smoking consultations. We are now working alongside several Key Opinion Leaders to put together educational resources to help people adapt to remote CO monitoring, and with the iCOquit®, it couldn’t be easier.”

AI, News, News for HRDs, Talent Management

Andrew Conway: How AI is helping talent teams navigate the pandemic

Written by Andrew Conway, CTO, Proteus developed by Xergy

It’s no secret that the pandemic has ripped up the rulebook when it comes to working. For almost a year, companies have been forced to find new ways of conducting business and remaining competitive in a world of uncertainty and strained margins. This has placed huge pressure on teams, especially on those trying to engage and manage talent. And they’re turning to AI to help.

The coronavirus outbreak has meant there’s been a great uptick in talent movement and people looking for work. The rate of redundancies has accelerated and subsequently so have job applications: last summer, over 4,000 people applied for a single entry-level role. This sharp rise in job applicants has been combined with a revolution in the way talent is engaged. With the move towards the gig economy, businesses are increasingly turning to gig workers, over permanent staff to deliver projects. Engaging gig workers not only allows companies to reduce overheads in this difficult economic climate, but it takes time to find the perfect person for a project. In both cases, teams face an uphill battle sifting through CVs and a loss of time they can’t afford.

This is where AI comes in. AI has been used in talent engagement for a while but its value has rapidly increased during the pandemic. Rather than an individual spending countless work hours reading through job applications, AI-driven data will instantly scan through CVs to pick those with the most suited skills, or run analysis on video interviews. This not only saves businesses precious time and resources, it leads to a fairer, more effective process as every application is considered. No more need for desperate time-saving tactics where only the first 50 submissions are reviewed and the rest are ignored. Businesses can now gain back time and make sure they’re choosing the right people for the role.

This ability to filter through candidates at speed is a game-changer during a pandemic and beyond. Using skills-matching tools empowers business to spread their nets wider and start engaging with talent overseas. It doesn’t matter that expanding the talent search abroad will increase the number of applications: AI absorbs the extra work which means businesses can reach the very best, most skilled and relevant international talent. It’s this edge that sets a company apart, allowing them to not only weather the global crisis but come out stronger on the other side.

Using AI to find team members can also help talent engagement address its bias problem. By partly removing humans from the equation, AI can go some way in removing the unconscious bias that a human assessor brings, for example in the judgement of a particular ethnicity of gender. However, it’s important to remember that AI is a tool, not a panacea, and won’t eradicate systemic discrimination on its own. It’s still coded by biased humans and can also be biased by its data set: as CVs are experience-based, they are inherently biased towards certain groups. This has led some companies to explore other options and look towards test-based models for engaging talent. As with all technology, AI needs to be approached with proper thought and care.

But it’s not just in engaging talent that AI helps teams adjust to the effects of the pandemic. There’s also a role for it to play in refining remote working. One of the biggest losses arising from remote working is the loss of in-office human interaction; interaction which is extremely valuable in sparking creativity and managing the health and wellbeing of teams. Whilst addressing this loss might initially appear beyond the scope of AI, there’s real capacity for creative applications of AI techniques to start bringing back this lost office dimension. If AI can be used in conjunction with cloud-based work management and collaboration systems, it can start to learn about a team, their work and the interactions between colleagues. This knowledge can then be used to flag when team members might be feeling stressed and help create solutions that recapture in-office creativity. Companies that can do this will be able to work more efficiently and productively, and stand head and shoulders above the rest.

Moments of crisis can also be moments of opportunity. The pandemic has shown us what’s possible and the ways AI can transform talent engagement. But the possibility of AI is also a necessity. Its ability to dramatically boost efficiencies and source the best talent is the difference between companies surviving the pandemic and falling away. If businesses want to remain competitive, there’s really only one option. And it doesn’t take an AI engineer to work it out.

 

 

Charity & CSR, News, News from Wales, Sport

100kForHobbsy challenge to support local hospice charity

A community fundraising challenge featuring over two hundred and fifty members of Rhiwbina Rugby Club, together with the support of many from Tetbury RFC and Whitchurch RFC, will support City Hospice in February.

The 100kForHobbsy challenge was launched in support of Dai Hobbs, the vice-chair of Rhiwbina RFC, following his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer at the end of 2020.

Widely regarded as a pillar of the rugby club and wider community, Dai has worked tirelessly over many years to ensure that the people of Rhiwbina have the chance to participate in sport and reap the benefits of coming together in social gatherings.

To show their support for Dai following his diagnosis, the 100kForHobbsy challenge was created with over 250 past and present rugby players running 100km in January, raising funds for Cardiff Mind and School of Hard Knocks.

The challenge has grown in February as participants aim to collectively run around the world, a distance of 40,075km, while supporting City Hospice and Velindre Cancer Centre.

Dai Hobbs said: “I was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in December. At the end of last year, a couple of players got together from Rhiwbina Rugby Club and decided to try and raise some money for charities of my choice.

“We have now moved into a second phase of the challenge and this is our around the world challenge where the minis, juniors and senior team are aiming to complete 40,075km by any means they can. We have chosen City Hospice as one of our charities for the amazing work they do within the community.”

City Hospice is Cardiff’s local hospice, providing care to people with terminal or life limiting illnesses such as cancer, dementia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and motor neurone disease (MND).

The charity is offering fundraising assistance to 100kForHobbsy supporters and has dedicated the window display of its Rhiwbina shop to the challenge.

Liz Andrews, Chief Executive at City Hospice, said: “We enjoy a fantastic relationship with Rhiwbina RFC and are delighted to have been chosen as one of the great charities to be supported by 100kForHobbsy. It’s incredible to see so many 100kForHobbsy t-shirts pounding the streets of North Cardiff, from little ones achieving their 1k a day to others really racking up the miles.

“The support means so much to us. I’d like to thank everyone involved and wish Dai all the very best with his treatment.”

For further information or to donate, please visit: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-display/showROFundraiserPage?userUrl=100KforHobbsy&pageUrl=1

Appointments, Marketing, PR and SEO, News

Momentum appoints key executives to drive global strategy

Momentum, the growth consultancy and leader in account-based marketing, has announced two major executive appointments as the business pursues growth in North America and EMEA.

Robert Bell (above) joins the company as Group Chief Financial Officer, while Will Nicholls becomes UK Managing Director.

Bell, whose appointment follows his sale of private equity-backed company Cawood Scientific, has a track record of leading organisations through periods of high growth and international expansion and will guide the group’s M&A strategy – with a particular focus on North America.

He said: “I am excited to be joining the team at Momentum during such a significant time in the company’s development and growth and look forward to leveraging my experience as we drive the business forward.”

Will Nicholls

Nicholls becomes MD after a year with the company – having previously held positions as MD at Alpha Century and Managing Partner at both BBH and Saatchi & Saatchi – and will drive business strategy and operations, with a focus on developing Momentum’s consulting capabilities and client base in EMEA.

He said: “It’s an honour to take on the role of MD and I’m excited to lead the continued success of the business here in the European market.

“During my time in the business I’ve seen huge demand from clients to solve their biggest challenge – how to bring teams together to drive growth.

“Our clients are looking for partners with real depth of expertise to drive business outcomes and flawless delivery. We have phenomenal track record in delivering both and enter 2021 in a strong position.”

Above (L-R) Lenore Scanlon, James Mollard, Diane Borska

To further support the strategy, Momentum’s founder and CEO Alisha Lyndon has also bolstered regional management teams – including the appointments of James Mollard to Business Development Director and Jacqueline Gummer to Consulting Director.

The group has also recently appointed competitive intelligence experts Diane Borska and Lenore Scanlon to the roles of SVP Consulting and Principal, Financial Services, US, respectively.

Lyndon said: “It’s a real privilege to have Robert and Will take on key positions for the group and following on from our recent private equity backing, I’m thrilled to have fantastic talent joining our business.

“An important part of Momentum is our collective strength – our programs have never been bolder and our collaboration has never been better.

“We’ve continued to leverage our ten-year heritage in account-based marketing to drive growth for our clients. Today that’s more important than ever before.”

News, Recruitment, Talent Management

skeeled offers employers six tips for online recruiting during the pandemic

Business looking for a competitive advantage when it comes to attracting top talent need to start thinking about the challenges ahead post Covid-19 and start adapting their recruitment processes says, Nicolas Speeckaert, Managing Partner at skeeled.

This comes as research from XpertHR[i] in the USA reveals that recruiting and hiring are HR professionals’ top concerns for 2021; and a global survey by jobs site, Monster[ii] highlights that the top recruiting challenges this year include the skills gap, virtual recruitment and the recruitment process.

Nicolas Speeckaert says, “HR departments have played a key role in building an innovative and proactive culture to help businesses respond to COVID-19. We’re still navigating uncertain times, so HR leaders and recruitment teams need to have strategies in place to attract talent with the right skills to help their business recover and for many, this will require a fresh approach to talent acquisition.”

Six tips to help HR leaders set up a new talent acquisition strategy & ensure hiring success:

  1. Identify New Hiring Goals – Many organisations have digitised their businesses, creating new roles that didn’t exist before. What was once the ideal candidate, may not suit the current needs of the business. Companies need to identify the roles needed, the skills required to succeed in those roles and the ideal candidate profile, taking into consideration possible changes in the company culture since the start of the pandemic.
  2. Review Recruitment Process – Running a recruitment audit will fine-tune the hiring process and highlight changes needed, making sure they are aligned with the new recruitment goals. This should include evaluating everything, from how easy it is for people to apply for a role, to how candidates are being screened and assessed. HR should update communication protocols and improve the selection process to attract and hire the best candidates.
  3. Improve Job Diffusion – Recruitment marketing is key to attracting the right talent. HR leaders should make sure they are using a talent acquisition tool that allows them to easily create and run efficient job campaigns, reaching and engaging with the ideal candidates through the most effective sourcing channels for their business.
  4. Boost the Candidate Experience – Unfortunately, some organisations still don’t give the candidate experience the importance it deserves, however, providing a seamless experience and creating meaningful connections with candidates is even more essential now. Companies must deliver a clear message to candidates that promotes trust in them as a future employer. This may require fine-tuning the current recruitment process, giving recruiters the chance to develop a more thoughtful, engaging, empathic and transparent process, which will remain valuable even after the pandemic is over.
  5. Leverage Technology in the Interview Process – Technology can improve the interview process in many ways. Online video interviews allow the recruitment process to progress even if recruiters and candidates cannot meet face-to-face. A talent acquisition suite also gives recruiters additional tools to improve the process, such as interview scorecards so they can conduct structured interviews and evaluate candidates with the same criteria. The one-way video interviews also offer the chance to see the candidates before meeting them, so recruiters can assess basic skills and company fit – making it a great screening tool.
  6. Use Predictive Assessments – Predictive pre-hire assessments allow companies to be more strategic and run an efficient selection process, by moving from traditional experience-based assessments to selecting candidates with the right attitude and potential. Soft skills are in high demand, and recruiters can now make great use of AI-based assessment technology that uses algorithms to predict desirable traits and future performance, to discover a candidates’ true potential and identify the perfect fit for a given role.

[i] https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/recruiting-is-top-hr-concern-2021.aspx

[ii] https://www2.staffingindustry.com/site/Editorial/Daily-News/Top-global-recruiting-challenges-for-2021-Monster-report-56276#:~:text=The%20top%20recruiting%20challenges%20of,job%20board%20operator%20Monster%20Worldwide.

News, Sustainability

Green Bell Packaging Calls For More Transparency Around Sustainable Product Marketing

Sustainable packaging provider Green Bell Packaging is on a mission to encourage businesses to join their plight to reduce plastic pollution in 2021, with plastic packaging waste generation amounting to around 2.2million metric tons in the UK every year.

The company aims to educate consumers on recognising misleading marketing information to make the most informed choice when it comes to switching to plastic-free packaging.

Green Bell Packaging uses pioneering technology to create completely home compostable, plastic-free products.

Founder of Green Bell Packaging M Vahid Nagori said: “Our company was established with aims to create real global change, and educate both organisations and individuals on the plastic-free alternatives that exist following research and development. Shockingly, only 9% of plastic is recycled and 79% is sent to landfills or ends up in our oceans. We hope that this will serve as a wake up call for businesses to take responsibility and explore more environmentally friendly options such as our BioBags.”

Green Bell Packaging’s signature product – its BioBags – provide added benefits such as increased strength and durability as well as the capability to break down naturally in a matter of weeks, without any industrial equipment, unlike many other sustainable options on the market that require industrial facilities. This product in particular uses new technology to create a material that is similar to plastic in its look and feel with zero plastic content. Unlike regular plastic bags that can take hundreds of years to break down, this will disintegrate naturally at home in a matter of weeks.

Vahid added: “As part of our mission, we’re also calling for more transparency from sustainable packaging providers across the UK and the rest of the world to allow companies to make informed and educated decisions about the products that they’re using.

“There’s certainly a demand for products that contain less or no plastic however, the vast range of options on the market can be overwhelming and descriptions are often misleading. That’s why we’re championing complete clarity across the sustainable packaging industry. This is where our BioBag technology differs from many other degradable products available in the UK, which although are marketed as being compostable often require industrial facilities not accessible by the general public. A lot of research goes into our BioBag development to enable customers to simply discard their bag after use and be safe in the knowledge that it will return to soil by itself.”

Green Bell Packaging works with researchers from across the globe to provide the most cutting-edge options in plastic-free packaging. Its BioBag is certified SNI Ekolabel (71887:2016) for degradable bioplastic shopping bags and has also passed the acute oral toxicity test (by WIL Research, Netherlands). It has also been tested by the Low Carbon Eco-Innovatory of Liverpool John Moores University to confirm that there is no plastic present in the finished product.

Packaging solutions by Green Bell Packaging have been used by a number of industries including e-commerce and retail, pharmaceutical, charities and hospitality.