Category Archives: UK

News, Recruitment, UK, USA

SmartRecruiters Q3 Release supercharges reach to candidates globally

SmartRecruiters, an All-in-One Hiring Platform, today is introducing the latest expansion of talent acquisition updates designed to broaden global reach and productivity. The new release includes over 27 product enhancements and 15 new partner integrations offering smarter workflows, seamless integrations and bulk actions that empower global talent leaders to achieve more with less.

“I’m excited about the remarkable progress we’ve made in the past few months,“ said Rebecca Carr, Chief Product Officer of SmartRecruiters. “We’ve been listening to customer feedback and responding with investments that address their largest challenges. In a market undergoing significant change, enabling our users to find quality candidates with fewer resources is top of mind.”

Key features and benefits:

  • Expand job posting reach and visibility with access to over 2700+ job boards, including popular platforms like Indeed and SEEK.
  • Efficiently reach candidates via text and WhatsApp through SmartMessage’s advanced features, including templates, bulk messaging, and expanded geographic reach.
  • Upgraded discovery capabilities, with customizable filters for skills, experience, location, and last active date, to identify premium candidates quickly.
  • Simplifying the process of generating multiple job offers simultaneously, speeding up communication and improving acceptance rates while reducing time-to-offer.

For more information on the Q3 product release visit our What’s New page.

About SmartRecruiters

SmartRecruiters is dedicated to reshaping the future of talent acquisition. Through innovative products and services, we empower businesses of all sizes to attract, select and hire the best talent. SmartRecruiters’ next-generation platform serves as the hiring operating system for 4,000 customers like Bosch, LinkedIn, Skechers, and Visa. Companies with business-critical hiring needs turn to SmartRecruiters for best-of-breed functionality, world-class support, and a robust ecosystem of third-party applications and service providers.

For more information visit www.smartrecruiters.com/news or follow us on LinkedIn.

Data, News, Technology, UK

Yorkshire Water accelerates data innovation

Yorkshire Water has teamed up with The Oakland Group to ensure customers benefits from data innovation and new technology.

The Leeds-based data consultancy will work closely with Yorkshire Water’s team to use data to enable smarter network and customer operations while delivering the right foundations and capabilities for the future.

The multi-year contract will see data used across critical elements of the organisation, including customer engagement, leakage management, operational improvement, and internal facing departments.

It builds on an existing relationship that has seen the two organisations develop a new Cloud Telemetry platform, which ingests millions of data points from multiple in-house and third-party operational technology systems at speed and introduces common data models.

Yorkshire Water and The Oakland Group also worked together to develop a new bio-resource model (BRM), which reduced costs around the bio-resource management process. The data was used to simulate a wide range of variables over a 40-year timeframe. It was determining potential scenarios for the future that allowed longer-term opportunities to be identified for a more efficient and effective service.

Lee Harris, head of technology change at Yorkshire Water, said: “Data has become increasingly important to how we operate as an organisation. It’s at the heart of everything we do, but there’s more we can achieve with it, so we are taking a more strategic approach to how it’s captured, managed, shared and used to help everyone do things better. We are working with the team at Oakland Group to develop this ambition and seek to build long-lasting data capabilities that will form the bedrock of how we operate for many years to come.”

The partnership will develop and improve data across all aspects, including architecture, governance and management. With a wide, complex operation, data can be a key enabler in driving efficiency and improving the customer experience.

Yorkshire Water aims to improve the use of data within the whole organisation by the end of Asset Management Period (AMP). With greater expectations from OFWAT heading into the next AMP period, it is preparing for a data-enabled future.

Andy Crossley, technical director at The Oakland Group, said: “This is a programme of significant importance to one of the largest water companies in the UK. We are pleased to be going on this journey with Yorkshire Water, and as a resident of Yorkshire, I can personally see the impact it will have. Whilst the programme seeks to develop a company-wide data-centric approach, and we are working with the internal teams to create real outputs that can be used to improve the customer experience and operational efficiency today.”

—

Pictured: Andrew Crossley.

Awards, Fintech, News, UK

WCKD RZR selected for inaugural AWS FinTech accelerator

London-based data enablement software startup, WCKD RZR, has been selected to take part in the inaugural Amazon Web Services (AWS) FinTech Accelerator programme.

Hundreds of European startups applied to be part of the highly prestigious first intake and WCKD RZR is among the 50 successful applicants.

 

Chuck Teixeira, founder and CEO of WCKD RZR, said: “We are proud and privileged to be among the cool and eclectic intake of fintech startups across Europe chosen for the 2022 cohort of the AWS FinTech Accelerator programme.

“We’ll be using the opportunity to take on board the best advice on growing and scaling WCKD RZR, networking, partnering and learning from an impressive list of companies and individuals involved, each of whom has had phenomenal business success. We can’t wait to get started.”

 

WCKD RZR’s Data Enablement software, Data Watchdog, unlocks the potential of any multinational organisation’s data by allowing them to find, govern and access data in each country, in real time, fully compliant with relevant data sharing, privacy and governance rules.

The software is easily installed onto an organisation’s internal network allowing seamless access to data. It begins to work within minutes, spidering and mapping all identified databases, using proprietary machine learning technology, auto-labelling the data so that it can be easily accessed by users.

 

AWS Fintech Accelerator is an online and equity-free programme bringing the best of Amazon’s infrastructure and partners network to support early-stage fintech startups developing their projects in world-leading fintech centres.

The initiative is powered by Vestbee, the biggest online matchmaking platform for startups and scaleups in Central and Eastern Europe.

 

The programme is supported by a global community of corporates, VC funds and business angels, and includes, HSBC, Visa, Onfido, Sequoia Capital, Anthemis, Breega, Blackfin Capital Partners, Finch Capital, Burda Principal Investments and EBRD Venture Capital.

News, Travel, UK

Tourism Visitor Data shows Airport Chaos & Heatwaves is Attracting Millions More Tourists To UK Seaside Towns

Place Informatics, the leading provider of footfall and location visitor behaviour data monitoring in the UK, believes that visitor behaviour insights are the key to managing and regenerating many tourist hotspots, town centres and high streets across the UK.

New Visitor data from the leading firm has shown that the top ten seaside towns in the UK are seeing a huge increase in popularity over the last 12 months with some attracting millions more visitors than the previous year. The popular southern seaside town of Brighton has seen an increase of 6.7 million more visitors in the last 12 months (June 21 – May 22) compared to the previous (June 20 – May 21). Blackpool saw an increase of 5.2 million and Bournemouth 3.5 million as staycations and the increasingly warm weather is driving a surge of visitors to the popular beaches and towns.

 

Seaside Town Visitors –June 20- May 21 Visitors- June 21 – May 22 Increase
Brighton 11.5 18.2m 6.7m
Blackpool 6.3m 11.5m 5.2m
Bournemouth 8.2m 11.7m 3.5m
Scarborough 5.4m 7.3m 1.9m
Torquay 3.1m 4.8m 1.7m
Isle of Wight 3.9m 4.7m 1.2m
Weston-super-Mare 4.5m 5.7m 1.2m
Newquay 1.9m 3.0m 1.1m
Llandudno 5.8m 6.8m 1m
Ilfracombe 720,000 1.1m 380,000

 

The data also shows these popular seaside towns, their beaches, high streets, green spaces, facilities and particular businesses are being utilised and this information gives local councils vital insights to help manage these huge increases in visitors. Parking, resourcing and also increasing local facilities, services and popular businesses for tourists are key to ensuring the towns can manage and understand their visitors.

The insights also show what catchment areas tourists are visiting from and seasonal and daily, weekly and monthly variations, so councils can plan in advance to ensure the towns can cope with their increased popularity. This data is also vital to retailers, hospitality and other local businesses so they can plan for peak periods to ensure that they have the right staff and infrastructure in place.

Clive Hall, CEO of Place Informatics, commented, “It is great to see these popular seaside towns attracting so many more visitors over the last 12 months, but these huge increases can impact local businesses, services and infrastructure if not managed correctly. Our data helps these seaside towns understand their visitors and helps them plan to minimise any negative impact of this increased popularity and ensure these additional visitors are a positive for the towns and their businesses.

We offer local councils and businesses detailed insights to show how visitors are behaving when visiting town centres on a daily basis and also for regular or special events for the public. We can also provide details of the postcode area that visitors have travelled from, giving town centre managers and retailers the information needed to make informed choices and maximise the return from these.” 

For more information on location visitor data and insights visit placeinformatics.com.

Absence Management, News, UK, Wellbeing at Work

Managing Absence – How Do You Handle Extra Annual Leave Requests as the Temperatures Rise?

BrightHR has seen a 59% increase in the number of leave requests submitted for this Monday (18th July)

Last Monday saw close to a 70% (68) increase in requests so it seems everyone is making the best of the weather.

But how do you manage absence rates when everyone wants to be off?

Alan Price, CEO at Bright HR, says: “Annual leave requests always pile up once the weather gets better. The beautiful weather we’ve seen recently has put everyone in the holiday mood, and with it predicted to be even hotter this coming week, many are wanting to make the most of it.

It’s important that you don’t leave yourself understaffed so check your annual leave caps prior to accepting any requests.

“People in Essex have booked the most annual leave during this heatwave. Try to be flexible where possible to keep everyone happy but remind staff that can always enjoy the sunshine before and after work and during breaks.

“There was also a 15% increase in the average number of sickness last week with Kent having the highest rates across the country.

“When an employee calls in sick when the weather is good it can be easy to jump to conclusion, but don’t assume that every absence is fake.

“The average number of sicknesses also rose by 15% last week and while there will be genuine cases of illness – especially with rising Covid rates – it can be tempting for staff to use sick leave to enjoy the heat.

“Continue your usual absence management procedures as normal and if you have some concerns consider asking employees to call in rather than text or email.

“Make sure that all absences are recorded. That way you can look for patterns in case some employees have a habit of calling in sick whenever the weather heats up.”

News, Travel, UK

Can strategy like ‘flightpath to the future’ help overcome the travel chaos?

Written by Kunal Sawhney, CEO, Kalkine

Airlines are suddenly in the news after various flights were cancelled, affecting the half-term getaway for many. First, it was the low-cost carrier EasyJet, which announced to cancel over 200 flights over the next 24 days, followed by the travel company Tui which announced cancelling multiple flights over the weekend.

At a time when the UK is bracing up for an extended bank holiday weekend, flight cancellations and delays have washed out plans of many. Also, traditionally, the summer tourist season is considered to be starting with the June half-term. It is going to be the busiest tourist season after the restrictions of the covid-19 pandemic.

Soon after the cancellation announcement, both the companies, blamed a number of issues for it and added that it was required to provide reliable services over this busy period.  The reasons given by the airlines include air traffic restrictions and runway works, and handling delays by the airports, while it was a software failure that had forced easyJet to cancel around 200 flights.

The chaos is not something that has erupted abruptly; since the removal of the restrictions, there has been a sudden rebound in travel demand, and the airlines were finding it hard to handle the situation amid their inability to recruit enough ground staff. EasyJet even had to take the extreme step of removing six seats from some A319 aircraft, which could help it fly with one lesser crew member.

The latest chaos saw many travellers stuck in hour-long queues at several airports, with families waiting for clarity on the flight and alternatives offered in case of cancellation. It is not in the sky but on the roads as well. Motoring organisation the RAC has warned of heavy congestion on roads, and people are being urged to check the latest advice before travelling. Thousands of flights have been cancelled ahead of Memorial Day. The sudden spike in traffic volumes is undoubtedly the reason, but airlines and airports were not fully prepared, putting plans of travellers holiday celebrators in disarray.

Government’s 10-point strategy

Recently, the government came up with its 10-point strategy ‘Flightpath to the future, a strategy to deliver an innovative and sustainable aviation sector over the next 10 years. The plan has been envisaged to deliver a successful aviation sector of the future with the government and the industry working together.

While launching the strategy, the government had stated that consumers, jobs and innovation would be at the heart of it. Pandemic resulted in an existential crisis for the aviation sector, so the new strategy has been targeted to rebuild consumer confidence after the pandemic. It was said that the government will work closely with industry and consumer groups to support the sector deliver the best service possible for consumers.

The government had also targeted to deliver benefits for communities across the whole country with the ‘flightpath to the future’ strategy, and the focus was to be on attracting and retaining the skills to accommodate new technologies by the sector.

Final thoughts

The government’s strategic framework over the next 10 years through ‘flightpath to the future’ may deliver results in the coming future, but the chaos that the aviation sector is going through at present needs urgent attention. Airlines, going by the rulebook, are compensating the aggrieved passengers facing a chaotic situation. However, everyone was aware that this half-term period would be the busiest travel period, still, proper preparation was not done either by the government or the airlines, which resulted in the disruption of travel plans for a score of passengers.

News, UK

Iskratel expands into the UK market to deliver FTTH connectivity to underserved regions

Continuing its expansion across Western Europe, Iskratel has opened a branch in the UK

Liverpool, UK, and Kranj, Slovenia, 22 March 2022 – Iskratel, a Slovenia-headquartered ICT provider, is intensifying its activities in Western Europe and is now offering its innovative Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) solutions from a newly opened branch in the UK.

As one of the major ICT players in the EU, Iskratel is already present in Western European countries such as Germany, Spain, France and Belgium. Alongside the UK, these countries have considerable potential for fibre-based broadband expansion and are expected to experience a 3- to 4-digit growth of FTTH deployments, especially in rural areas.

Iskratel’s UK Key Account Manager Simon Higgins, a sales professional with extensive experience and in-depth knowledge of the UK market will head up the regional branch and oversee operations. Higgins said: “We are excited to bring our complete end-to-end fibre access solutions to the UK, and the recent expansion in the city of Liverpool will bring added flexibility and regional support for operators to efficiently roll-out ultra-fast connectivity in underserved areas of the UK.”

In the UK, heavy investment in FTTH connectivity is promoted by its national high-speed broadband plan accompanied by financial support from the Government, local authorities, cooperatives and private sources. According to the UK Parliament, approximately 95% of UK premises have a superfast broadband connection available.

Well positioned to address the needs of the UK market with highly scalable XGS-PON/GPON OLTs and a range of ONTs, Iskratel has extensive expertise and experience in deploying open-access FTTH networks in rural and underserved areas. This includes successfully delivering GPON/XGS-PON connectivity as part of the Slovenian-Croatian RUNE (Rural Network) Project, and deploying a 10-gigabit fibre-optic network to thousands of households in Belgium in collaboration with the Ulysse Group.

Last year, Iskratel began its network expansion programme with Ukrtelecom, which aimed to connect more than one million people across Ukraine with fibre connectivity. Additionally, Iskratel also achieved the world’s highest GPON deployment, totalling more than 4,000 metres above sea level in Bolivia.

Higgins added: “As a leading European provider, Iskratel’s solutions are the perfect fit to meet the needs of Tier-2 operators with our expansive and customisable range of FTTH technology that includes OLTs, ONTs and passive equipment. With our Research and Development and manufacturing centres across Europe, Iskratel will help unlock future growth for operators across the UK.”

UK Key Account Manager Simon Higgins will be available for further insight and discussion on the opportunities the expansion will bring at Channel Live 2022, the UK’s largest ICT Channel exhibition and conference, taking place on 30th to 31st March 2022 in Birmingham, England. Contact Simon at simon.higgins@iskratel.com directly to arrange a meeting.

Find out more about Iskratel’s innovative FTTH offering here: https://www.iskratel.com/en/solutions/broadband.

Europe, HR News, News, Recruitment, Recruitment News, Talent Management, UK

FinancialForce partners with Talent Works to enhance employer brand and grow engineering talent

  • Data-led approach allows FinancialForce the agility to hire in competitive landscape
  • Partnership sees FinancialForce deploy global hiring campaign to entice technical expertise

Manchester, UK; 7th February 2022: FinancialForce, the leading provider of customer-centric business applications across finance, services, and customer success teams have announced its 2022 hiring programme with Talent Works, a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) partner. Together they will develop FinancialForce’s people brand and UK recruitment engine, hiring for innovation roles in Engineering, Product, Sales and Research and Development (R&D).

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, with EMEA headquarters in Harrogate, England, the cloud Salesforce platform company chose Talent Works to support its growth. Following unprecedented demand for roles in technology and R&D, the business is hiring at least 70 roles within its Engineering, Product and Sales teams.

With hiring globally now a candidate’s market, FinancialForce was aware that its offering to prospective hires had to go above and beyond the norm. Leveraging Talent Works’ data-led approach allowed them the agility and flexibility to understand the desires of candidates and removed points in the recruitment process that might have seen offers rejected. It also enables FinancialForce to see location demands in the new remote working environment.

Talent Works was able to offer on-the-ground support for FinancialForce’s US talent acquisition team when hiring for roles in the UK. Supported by Talent Works’ SVP, Jody Robie offered senior insights and strategy to improve engagement and understanding of the candidates in the market. The Talent Works team then built a digital recruitment marketing campaign targeted specifically to Software Developer candidates communicating innovation messages to technical applicants, and helping FinancialForce to differentiate the roles from others out there on the market.

Kathy Erickson, Head of Global Talent Acquisition at FinancialForce, said: “The recruitment landscape has changed in the last two years, and I’ve never lived through such a busy market, with businesses struggling to fill the gaps in their teams. At FinancialForce we recognised the need to outsource our efforts to ensure we were able to reach the right talent. Being based in the US while searching for talent in the UK has been a hurdle that we have only been able to overcome with the help of Talent Works acting as an extension of our team. The consultative approach of Talent Works has been invaluable, working with us to produce the best outcome for our team in the UK.”

Neil Purcell, CEO of Talent Works, added: “We don’t anticipate hiring to slow down anytime soon, and because of this businesses need to continue to evaluate their hiring and recruitment processes. Even with brands as recognisable as FinancialForce, businesses still need to understand that candidates are looking for so much more than just stability and salary. Understanding what exactly these differentiators are for talent is crucial in hiring success, and without data at the heart of recruitment then many will fall foul to rejections and competitors getting the upper-hand.”

AI, Appointments, Business, Business News, Europe, European News, FInance, Finance News, Health, Health Tech, Healthcare, Healthcare News, Healthcare Tech, International News, Investment News, News, News from England, NHS News, UK

UK Scaleup Navenio Hires New CEO To Drive US Expansion Following 153% Growth in 2021

  • Navenio strengthens senior team with the appointment of a new CEO to build out its global offering, after securing first two sites in the US
  • Follows December’s £9.5m series A top-up, £1.5m NHSX AI in Health and Care Award and new partnerships with platforms such as HERE Technologies

Oxford, UK; 3rd February 2022: Navenio, the UK health & location tech scale up, today announced plans for its next chapter of growth and expansion into the US, following a £9.5 million investment awarded last month. The company has appointed Connie Moser as CEO, who joins Navenio with more than 30 years of experience in healthcare strategy, sales and operations, including building large-scale businesses across global markets.

Navenio, which saw a 153% increase in revenue in 2021, has also appointed geospatial expert Andrew Loveless to drive innovation outside of healthcare in his role as VP of Business Development. The appointment comes after Navenio recently partnered with HERE Technologies, to power the Indoor Positioning element of its Indoor Map as a service: a one-stop shop for indoor mapping solutions.

As part of its plans for growth, Navenio’s US-based leadership will lead the charge from the largest health economy in the world, bringing the benefits of indoor location services to everyone, everywhere. Connie Moser, new CEO of Navenio, added: “I am joining at a pivotal time for Navenio and am delighted to drive our expansion in the US and beyond. I look forward to building strong global partnerships and believe passionately in the vast potential that Navenio can bring by ensuring ‘right person, right place, right time’ in healthcare settings. Artificial intelligence is one of many technologies making a real world impact in the healthcare sector, and I’m proud to lead a company spearheading digital transformation.”

Navenio is tackling the rising cost of healthcare with a tool that can increase workplace productivity by up to 100%, freeing up clinical resources for other high value tasks. The company’s mission is to get teams back to capacity post-pandemic by maximising patient flow in key departments such as imaging and logistics, a key issue limiting the ability of hospitals to improve both clinician and staff productivity, and patient throughput.

Martin Moran, Chairman at Navenio commented: “I’m delighted to announce our plans for growth and welcome both Connie and Andrew to the Navenio team. The possibility of indoor location technology is vast and we’re excited to be expanding into the US, providing the benefits of our technology to everyone, everywhere.”

Following recent funding from NHSX, as part of an AI in Health and Care Award, Navenio is also currently developing a proven and nationally scalable evidence based solution to further support improved patient flow across the NHS. The first live sites, as part of the 13 hospital Award programme, have already delivered a positive impact to Trusts, staff and patients, with the full results due to be published later in 2022.

Appointments, Business, Business News, Electronics, Europe, European News, Industry News, Manufacturing, News, UK

Codasip appoints Functional Safety VP

Dave Higham’s expertise in ISO 26262 and security drives Codasip’s custom processor opportunities

Munich, Germany – 2 February 2022 – Codasip, the leading supplier of customizable processor IP, has appointed Dave Higham as the company’s Vice President of Functional Safety. His in-depth expertise in standards for functional safety and security will accelerate the application of Codasip’s RISC-V processor IP and Studio custom processor designer tools in the automotive and industrial sectors.

Higham will directly support customers looking to develop groundbreaking innovations using Codasip’s tools and development platform, particularly within areas such as Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. His expertise in the development of key industry specification ISO 26262 is of paramount importance, but his role is broader than that, reflecting how functional safety and security (such as ISO 21434) are key in many areas of technology.

Karel Masarík, Codasip’s Founder & President commented, “With his decades of experience at Delphi, one of the automotive industry’s Tier One technology suppliers, plus years of experience in multiple global semiconductor vendors, Dave brings to Codasip an unparalleled understanding of FuSa. I have no doubts that he will help Codasip customers maximize the opportunities of innovating in these markets, and to guide them intelligently through the safety requirements.”

Dave Higham, added, “Automotive is an obvious growth market for Codasip’s processor IP and Studio tools. But functional safety and security go hand in hand in many market areas too, where our customers expect these to be covered in any design conversation. Codasip has a unique ability to support customization and there are a number of architectural features we can enable to ensure safety and security are better by design, from the tools and methodology as well as in our standard products.”