Tag Archives: pandemic

News

Laserfiche launches package to support post-pandemic Digital Reopening

Laserfiche — the leading SaaS provider of intelligent content management and business process automation — has today announced the introduction of a Digital Reopening package of prebuilt process templates aimed at supporting organisations’ efforts to restore, recover, reimagine, and rebuild work in a post-pandemic world.

The new package is an expansion to an existing collection of over 100 solution templates that allow Laserfiche users to download process diagrams, workflows, template fields and reports, all of which can be configured to fit an organisation’s specific operational requirements for rapid solution deployment.

Linda Ding, senior director of strategic marketing at Laserfiche said: “Laserfiche is committed to supporting organisations across industries in their quick response to recovery from the pandemic. We worked with innovative customers, industry leaders and technology partners to develop this package’s low-code workflow templates that can be deployed quickly, with the goal of increasing accessibility of services and visibility into safety procedures when employees, customers, students and constituents need them most; and reclaiming time for organisational leaders to focus on the well-being of their communities, and the future of their enterprise.”

The package includes three categories of process automation users can utilise for a variety of contexts: short-term emergency response, medium-term workflow modernisation, and long-term digital transformation. The first of these new solutions are available now, with additional releases planned for August and October 2021. The initial release includes the following solutions:

  • Daily employee symptom report enables faster pre-screening for employees and supports continued safety at work. The solution allows employees to submit a daily symptom report online before starting work for the day. A human resources representative is notified by email if an employee has an elevated temperature, reports any symptoms or has come in contact with anyone diagnosed with COVID-19. These employees are then notified via automated email to stay home and rest or are recommended to work remotely.
  • Work from home experience survey supports employers’ ongoing effort to monitor employee well-being while working remotely. Employers can use this survey solution to assess how well their employees are adjusting to working from home, what works well, and what could be improved. Survey questions can be easily tailored to organisational needs.
  • Inventory tracking and equipment request enables IT teams to track hardware provided to remote employees and manage equipment inventory. To track hardware originally used in-office, employees provide information associated with their hardware, like device ID number, via an electronic form. The form can also be used to request additional equipment. When a request is submitted for additional hardware, an IT representative is automatically designated to assign equipment to the employee.
  • Return to work questionnaire allows employers to collect needed information such as employee symptoms and intended return to work schedule to inform and support organisation’s reopening strategy. Based on employee answers, they can be assigned to a specific cohort or phase that aligns with guidance from local health officials, corresponds to your reopening strategy and enables your organisation to manage in-office capacity.
  • COVID-19 time-off request helps support compliance with the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to provide employees with paid sick leave or expanded medical and family leave for reasons related to COVID-19. An employee can submit a time-off request via an online form; it is then automatically assigned to a human resources representative for review and approval. An automated email notifies the employee whether the request is approved or denied.

In addition to enabling the rapid deployment of automated solutions, the Digital Reopening package gives organisations the tools to track requests and process data, allowing for continuous optimisation. Organisations around the world have leveraged Laserfiche throughout the pandemic, developing robust IT infrastructure and business continuity plans, and transforming the digital experience for employees and customers during major disruptions. To learn more about how organisations have used Laserfiche throughout the pandemic and in planning for the future, visit Laserfiche’s Digital Reopening Resource Page.

Hospitality, News

Hospitality sector set to reopen on a larger scale, but cautiously

Written by Kunal Sawhney, CEO Kalkine Group

With the relaxations provided by the government of the United Kingdom, the hospitality sector seems one of the major beneficiaries as the enterprises operating within the industry will be allowed to restart their respective operations after an extended stretch of 16 months.

There is a large section of businesses that have already been permitted to reopen, but the removal of social distancing guidelines and the upper limit on the number of large gatherings is likely to provide a substantial stimulus to the commerce.

The indoor, as well as outdoor settings that used to flourish with business at some point before the onset of pandemic are now desperately looking forward to a meaningful run on the commercial scale as minimised curbs on gatherings and social distancing will certainly allow them to accommodate more people.

Higher footfalls have a direct impact on the volume of sales. The healthcare authorities, the test and trace drive by the National Health Service (NHS), the genome sequencing conducted by the Public Health England (PHE), the expanding scale of immunisation programme and other preventive measures have collectively helped in facilitating a normal trading window for the enterprises after a long break of more than 16 months.

The renewal of cross-functional activities, including supply chains, logistics, delivery, transportation and uptick in volume of food and beverages at the venues, are likely to provide a boost for the hospitality sector, effectively contributing to the national economic growth.

With more than 700 enterprises operating within the industry, all the businesses are expected to remain on a continuous lookout for more and more customers in order to resurrect the ‘going concern’ factor as soon as possible. The people who have been entirely dependent on the functioning of the hospitality industry will finally get partially relieved with the massive restart of the sector.

The operators are seeking to capitalise on all the possible monetary opportunities that can regenerate a steady stream of cash flows. The UK hospitality industry employs more than 3.2 million individuals across the widespread geography of four nations combined, potentially representing nearly 10% of the total workforce of the UK.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has recently reinstated to proceed with caution even with the Downing Street administration allowing the large-scale reopening, scrapping the social distancing guidelines to facilitate more consumers on the board.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to evolve with the emergence of variants of concerns and a spiralling number of Delta variant cases, the Prime Minister has said that it is absolutely vital to proceed with caution now. “We cannot simply revert instantly from Monday 19 July to life as it was before Covid,” the PM said at the coronavirus press meet on 12 July.

The government has recommended wearing a face-covering in crowded and enclosed spaces, a move intended to avert any possible outbreak of cases in the country. At a time when the nation is about to witness mass gatherings at various hospitality venues, a positive impact will be there on the national economic growth. All the hospitality businesses account for approximately 6% of the business settings, contributing nearly 5% to the national GDP.

All the hospitality businesses will now be able to move towards profitability for the first time in the last 16 months, in an attempt to overcome the Covid-related debts, said Kate Nicholls, CEO of UKHospitality.

Healthcare, News

What does the future of system recovery in healthcare look like?

Resilient services, collaborative working, and better support for staff, experts say

As system recovery planning sits at the centre of healthcare services post-COVID, experts look to create foundations of support to tackle the growing demand, including setting realistic targets, working within communities to utilise resources, and ensure staff wellbeing is at the forefront of initiatives.

In Connect Health’s latest Change webinar, leading healthcare experts explored the future of healthcare services, looking at how system recovery can support patients, staff, communities, and the wider system.

The event was chaired by Dr Graeme Wilkes, Chief Medical Officer at Connect Health. Providing opening remarks, Dr Wilkes said: “We have an expert panel, but in reality none of us are truly expert in how to come out from a pandemic. We’re using our past experiences to deal with a new situation of uncertainty. The key principles of uncertainty are, tell the truth and give people hope.”

He welcomed guest speaker, Ken Bremner MBE, Chief Executive at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, who explored supporting staff during system recovery.

He said: “Collaboration is the watchword for system recovery – and that’s collaboration at all levels. In the North East and North Cumbria (NENC) we have around 18,200 people waiting over 52 weeks for surgery and almost half of these fall into either Ophthalmology or Trauma and Orthopaedics. They are therefore a big focus for us along with those Priority(P)2 cases that have been waiting over a month for treatment. The total waiting list for the ICS is now around 260,000 but we are aiming to get back to a position as soon as possible where we have a sustainable and manageable waiting list.

“We’ll do this by extending some of the activity we introduced during the pandemic, including extending our weekend and evening working, looking at making better use of our operating capacity, and expanding rapidly where we can.”

Considering the impact the growing service demand is having on staff, Bremner continued: “You might say this is the most important thing we need to get right as an organisation. We need to make sure our staff are fit and on the road to recovery themselves.

“At one point, we had about 400 of our workforce shielding. They’ve been coming back to work since April and health and safety is never far from our minds. We’ve been doing all the dedicated risk assessments and taking appropriate occupational health advice. Things like trying to redeploy staff into lower risk areas and adapting their way of working, such as changes to their start and finish times to help them get back into routine.”

When asked about the immediate ‘quick wins’ planned to address the most pressing issues, Bremner said: “There isn’t a quick fix. Transparently sharing data across the region will hopefully help to find solutions to challenges that lead to wider recovery.”

Providing a patient viewpoint, discussing what support and resources would help patients with arthritis and musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions, was Jonathan Canty, Policy Officer at Versus Arthritis.

“We recognise that global health services face a whole range of different challenges when it comes to recovering services, including MSK and orthopaedic services. Towards the end of last year, we ran a survey to understand more about the experiences of people waiting for joint replacement surgery across the UK, which revealed worsening levels of mobility and independence, and a decline in physical and mental health.”

Considering what resources would be beneficial for patients waiting for treatment, Canty said: “The survey highlighted to us that better support is needed for patients on waiting lists and it gave us a strong sense that the priorities should be clear communication, self-management support, access to physical activity programmes, mental health support and signposting to financial support and advice.”

Posed with the idea of working collaboratively with other organisations across the country, Canty said: “Versus Arthritis has recently published a report calling on Integrated Care Systems and other local health bodies to take a number of actions to support people waiting for joint replacement surgery.”

Emma Challans, Executive Director of Culture and Improvement at Sherwood Forest Hospitals FT, and Founder of Proud2bOps, addressed the backlog and opportunities to restore services.

Exploring the hot topics of discussion within planning sessions, Challans said: “There has been quite a lot of discussion around resilience and what resilience means for the healthcare professional, for a team, and for patients. There’s also then the element of restoration, but with a very clear line of sight of what the future might look like. We’re thinking about collaborative working and what the future asks are around system shaping, planning, and delivering.

“Much has been socialised from a personal leadership perspective in terms of your own values and morals, the process of asking colleagues to keep going above and beyond. The title of this discussion is ‘Now the hard work begins’, but many colleagues will probably say ‘what have we been doing for the past 12-15 months?’ Is that not hard work?”

Discussing the need for increased activity, Challans considered the safety of staff, saying: “We’re having to recover services and get activity levels back up to a threshold similar to the previous year before COVID, but we’re learning how to do that in a safe, supported and transparent way. Some of the conversations we’re having, and particularly in Sherwood, are open and honest about being realistic in terms of what we can achieve and what we can’t.”

Questioned on what roles are essential within a team to help recover systems, Challans said: “I would certainly have key specialists in welfare and well-being at the centre of conversations around responding, planning, and delivery – and couple that with psychological support. Before COVID, would we have gone straight for welfare and well-being? Maybe, maybe not. These are some really key things to think about.”

Agreeing with the idea of changes to the way teams work, discussion-lead Dr Wilkes said: “It’s interesting how nature has a way of resetting things and to hear these points around welfare and support for patients from a holistic point of view.”

Discussing integrating services within the community was Mo Taylor, Director of Business Development and Communities at Northumberland Council.

Taylor said: “Local authorities take a significant role in emergency planning and responses, so when the health system at the very beginning of the pandemic needed to limit attendance and protect its systems, social care, community services, and home care had to continue with that community provision under immense pressure. We needed to support residents to make sure we could keep people out of the hospital system, which was protecting those that desperately needed medical support.”

Addressing the challenges within the county, Taylor said: “We developed some significant new relationships within our community. There is an enormous amount of support in the voluntary sector and communities that we hadn’t harnessed on this scale before. We have more than 300 community groups across the County that have energy and innovation – we captured these and pulled them together to mobilise that kind of support. We started to understand what social prescribing and support planning actually meant in practice.”

When asked about the role of local authorities in system recovery and capacity to support, Taylor said: “It’s about being more aware of what a local authority can do when it puts its mind to it and being a bit more aware of where the local authority sits in the system. It’s not just about emptying bins, maintaining parks, and managing social care, its so much more than that. It’s about harnessing what’s available in the communities and putting that to really good productive use.”

Chris Lyon, Head of Operations at Cross Counties and North Blaby Primary Care Networks, and Director of East Leicestershire & Rutland (ELR) GP Federation, provided the primary care perspective on managing demand.

“There are concerns about resilience with small and large practices. You would perhaps expect these concerns from small practices, but some of the larger ones have also struggled. We’ve seen a real increase in mental health contact, with some GPs reporting 70% of their daily workload is low level mental health support.”

Considering some of the positive things to come from changes to services, Lyon said: “The shift towards the technological solutions that we’ve implemented has been really rapid, and in most cases really very effective. Primary care now has to work out what ‘normal’ is. That could be a return to what normal was, but I think everyone can recognise that this is a golden opportunity for primary care to change what it is – I think it will be a mix of face-to-face and virtual appointments.

“We need to work on pathways that allow primary care to keep patients away from secondary care. For the future, I think local collaboration and working within the community and with voluntary sectors, is key to getting ourselves out of this and getting ourselves back on an even keel.”

Questioned on staff morale and job retention within primary care, Lyon said: “There isn’t a consistent picture across the region. Morale is patchy in some practices, others are struggling with staff leaving, whilst some seem to be doing ok. The issues are magnified in the city, but we’re looking at system recovery as a whole.”

During a panel discussion led by Dr Wilkes, all participants were asked to consider one thought or action that is really important to assisting in recovery.

Ken Bremner MBE, Chief Executive at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust:
“Let me turn it around and tell you the one question I’m asking every single member of our team at the moment: Why has it taken a pandemic for us to fundamentally change the way we work?”

Jonathan Canty, Policy Officer at Versus Arthritis:
“We recognise that it’s going to be a long road to tackling the backlog of surgeries, so please work with patient groups like us to support patients to ‘wait well’ over the coming months and years.”

Emma Challans, Executive Director of Culture and Improvement at Sherwood Forest Hospitals FT, and Founder of Proud2bOps:
“Changing the way that we performance manage systems in relation to the ask of delivery.”

Mo Taylor, Director of Business Development and Communities at Northumberland Council:
“We need to share what we now know. I think there are some blind spots for different organisations and we should share what we know now about residents, resident behaviours, patient behaviours, and workforce issues. We need to have a huge collective understanding of those pressures.”

Chris Lyon, Head of Operations at Cross Counties and North Blaby Primary Care Networks, and Director of East Leicestershire & Rutland (ELR) GP Federation:
“I think Primary Care needs to work through networks, federations, and other similar bodies to play an active role in the health economy as a whole. The advent of ICS’s will help that. Primary care needs to stop seeing itself as just a GP practice – it’s much more than that.”

Visit the Connect Health website to replay the webinar.

News

Government sets out a new round of funding as it eyes innovation across the UK

The monetary support from the government to back the under-aided projects and initiatives has been significant over the years. The new rounds of funding announced for industries and businesses become more vital, especially at a time when most of the enterprises are battling to re-establish themselves, overcoming the Covid-led troubles and the unforeseen disruption caused due to national lockdowns and restrictive operating environment.

Building back green in a more innovative manner has been one of the main agendas of the UK government as the Downing Street administration moves ahead cautiously with the planned easements across the country. After periodic review of the Covid-19 activity and the status of the ongoing vaccination programme at distinctive intervals, the government has allowed reopening in three stages so far.

The businesses and regional enterprises, not allowed to operate during the national lockdowns and the erstwhile tier system, have been given the go-ahead as per the phased reopening plan. Given the present status of immunisation in the United Kingdom, the government has arrived at a position to offer a series of relaxations for the hospitality venues, international holidays, and people visiting large gatherings, including the football stadiums.

Alongside all these, the respective departments have been periodically assigning definite monetary resources that can be utilised for the greater good of the industries, paving the way for more and more innovative products. Very recently, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy launched a second round of funding in order to bolster the innovation across various parts of the UK.

The monetary aid, Regulators’ Pioneer Fund, has been designed to support the initiatives that have been instituted to keep the UK ahead of its peers in areas of experimentation and regulatory thinking. Under the second round of funding, a monetary allocation to the tune of £3 million has been set aside to support the innovative projects, effectively catalysing the innovation by resonating with the forthcoming technological advancements in the near future.

The fund has been desperately configured to help the under-supported initiatives to develop new innovative products and services for domestic as well as international usage. The fund is likely to ensure that all out-of-the-box thinkers, innovators and disruptors don’t feel the pain of conventional and old regulations.

The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy backed funding will remain open for application from 20 May to 15 July 2021. All the individuals or group of innovators who are willing to participate in the competition can apply for a monetary grant of up to £200,000.

The projects and the prospective ideas must be innovative in nature, depicting an adequate approach to learning, experimentation and research under the regulatory framework.

The duration of the project must last for at least six months, and all the operations should finish by the end of 31 March 2022. After the completion of the application, the applicants who have been allotted monetary aid by the awarding panel will be notified by August 2021. The government has expanded the umbrella of funding, including the local authorities, for the first time, following which the regulatory innovations can be tested at national as well as local jurisdictional levels.

The funding has been a prompt attempt to provide the businesses with innovative ideas as enterprises face several unnecessary obstacles while they come up with new disruptive technologies due to the old-fashioned regulatory approach. These monetary aids ultimately support the government’s wider approach to updating the regulatory environment.

Under the competitions, the local authorities, as well as the small-scale developers, will be able to test and pilot some of the ambitious projects that will constructively benefit the innovators.

Earlier, in the first round of funding, a sum totalling £700,000 was allocated to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to help develop synthetic datasets that can support the development of pioneering medical tools and technologies. The datasets were further utilised to deduce innovative apparatus to bolster the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and cardiovascular diseases.

By Kunal Sawhney, CEO, Kalkine Group

News

How the Fintech Sector in The UK Is Grappling with New Challenges?

The UK is one of the leading global hubs for the fintech sector, reinforced by its access to an international talent pool, solid investment, and growth, thus leading to a thriving ecosystem. UK-based fintech companies raised about US$ 4.1 billion in funding in 2020 and were one of the prominent sub-sectors driving growth in the broader financial sector in the UK.

The traditional financial sector in the UK is currently facing a dual pressure of tackling the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit. In addition to these headwinds, traditional legacy banks and financial institutions have also been grappling with rising operating costs, changing customer behavior, regulatory challenges, and new technology.

Future of fintech

Despite the challenges faced by the broader economy due to the onset of the pandemic and Brexit, the use of innovation and technology helped startups in the fintech sector weather the storm.

And for the sector to continue to be a key driver of growth for the UK economy, it should focus on innovation in RegTech, which can target the ever-changing and evolving regulatory landscape and identifying new business models such as partnerships for developing the ecosystem further.

RegTech

As new players join the financial sector and provide users with greater access to banking services, there has been a rising need for financial services companies to tackle a very large amount of data and in ensuring compliance in a seamless manner. Building robust backend processes to address regulatory technology is the next big frontier for fintech firms.

Recently, the UK government has also made significant headway in terms of shaping a new regulatory framework for the financial sector due to Brexit. The Financial Services Bill received Royal Assent on 29 April and was converted into the Financial Services Act 2021. This act aims to develop a regulatory environment that allows for the advancement of technology and innovation.

Partnerships

There has been a small but growing number of legacy financial services companies and banks collaborating with nimbler fintech startups to identify ways to better adapt to the constantly changing business environment. According to consultancy firm Mckinsey, fintech companies with B2B offerings and services increased by 16 percent from 2011 to 2016, thus indicating a rise in partnerships.

The collaborative partnership model between fintech companies and traditional financial services organizations is mutually beneficial as the traditional banks and firms can develop useful tools such as financial money management tools and apps for depositing money for customers. On the other hand, startups benefit by being able to provide services to a larger client base and network. Moreover, partnerships have the ability to be more adaptable to customer behavior and can be scaled up or down depending on their response.

What’s next?

As the pandemic continues into the second year and is expected to persist for few more months, senior management and leaders in the financial sector are increasingly seeking flexible and responsive technology that can be deployed and adjusted to an everchanging business climate in the face of uncertainty. Thus, the next generation of fintech firms will have an even more focus on automation and streamlining processes, which can adapt quickly and effectively while primarily focusing on regulatory and compliance challenges and new business models.

Written by Kunal Sawhney, CEO, Kalkine Group

News

Lockdown Norms and Staff Crunch: UK Hospitality Sector Faces Fresh Challenges

After struggling with three national lockdowns since the pandemic broke out, the UK has gradually opened the economy. Bars and restaurants began welcoming customers from 12 April onwards, and indoor dining is expected to open from 17 May. The Covid-19 pandemic ravaged businesses, especially the ones in the hospitality and aviation sectors. Global travel restrictions and social distancing norms crippled both sectors.

The hospitality sector is expecting that the pent-up demand and a UK-oriented holiday season would help the sector to revive with a profitable summer season.

But as the industry is gearing up for recovery of the businesses, staff crunch is the biggest challenge the sector is facing. Job losses in the sector during the lockdown forced workers to leave their jobs and look for jobs in other sectors. The crisis is so pressing that most establishments are struggling to hire enough workers, due to which, plans to fully operationalize by May might fall apart.

Restaurants and pubs have said that as many as a quarter of those who were employed before the Covid-19 pandemic may not return owing to the uncertainties. Besides post-Brexit, the challenge pertains mainly to the lack of availability of skilled labor from the EU, which is causing hiring issues, specifically in the kitchen.

UK workforce in the hospitality sector before the Brexit comprised mainly overseas workers, including those from the EU. But a major chunk of them have left England last year, and there is no clarity on whether they would be back any time soon.

The listed restaurant operator, Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) lost 9,000 of its 39,000 staff in the last year. The restaurant owner D&D is looking to hire as many as 400 new hands to add to its total workforce of 1,300. Pizza Express laid off thousands of its employees in the last year and is now looking to hire 1,000 staff.

A report by Fitch Ratings has said that restaurants, pubs, hotels, and restaurants would have to bear additional costs of both hiring and training new employees, which would impact margins in the short term. According to the report, prior to the Brexit, EU nationals comprised 12 percent of the UK’s hospitality workforce.

The report pointed out that the staff crunch was not even across the sector. Establishments like Whitbread that employ directly, would likely have more employees returning to work than those who hire part-time or through staff agencies. It said that the crunch would be felt more in London and other big cities, as they hired more foreign workers than remote joints, which depend on local communities would remain less affected.

Though venue owners expect huge demand after a year but if opening hours are limited due to staff shortage and therefore, it might impact revenues. A recruitment website highlighted that vacancies on its website were up by over 85 percent in the last couple of weeks. About 22,000 roles are now being advertised. Data from the Office for National Statistics suggest that the hospitality sector has 355,000 vacancies compared to a year ago. About 3.2 million were employed in the sector before the pandemic.

UK businesses were severely impacted by the pandemic. The easing of lockdown norms was supposed to help businesses get back on their feet. The hospitality sector is one of the biggest employment generators. If the staffing crisis is not resolved soon, it would not only defeat the purpose of easing norms, it would also impact revenues in a big way.

Written by Kunal Sawhney, CEO, Kalkine Group. For more information: https://kalkinemedia.com/uk

News

Commuters tripled COVID-19 cases in UK before lockdown

Commuters moving between different counties increased COVID cases in the UK significantly before lockdown was imposed, according to new research by Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU).

The study, conducted by Professor Thomas Plümper, looked into spatial contagion between local counties in England and found that cross district spatial contagion adds a very important amplifier to an already infectious disease.

As a result of the cross district spatial contagion, such as commuting, one additional individual per 100,000 is infected in other districts. This was shown to raise infections by a staggering total of 241 newly infected individuals per 100,000 people on average after seven weeks in the pre-lockdown period.

In contrast, if working from home was implemented earlier, the absence of spatial contagion would have meant that one additionally newly infected person, would only result in 72 newly infected individuals per 100,000 people by week seven.

“In other words, the high degree of spatial contagion during the pre-lockdown period roughly triples the number of cases. This is because in modern times, there is a faster and stronger spatial contagion than, for example, during the times of the plague. Mankind is more mobile and people travel longer distances at much higher speeds,” says Professor Plümper from the Department of Socioeconomics at WU.

However, the results also show that measures of social distancing not only managed to break the exponential growth of new infections within a region, but also drastically reduce the spread of the disease across local boarders.

For this reason, the researchers support a shift to local policies aimed at controlling the pandemic, which was successful in countries like Germany when the pandemic first hit.

They add that governments should move to decentralised control policies once the worst is over and weekly new infections have declined to low two-digit numbers per 100,000 people.

“We expect that decentralised, federal countries will find it easier to organise local control strategies, but one could hope that more centralised nation-states will eventually overcome the institutional disadvantages they face and also manage to successfully employ local strategies to keep the pandemic at bay,” says Professor Plumper.

The study was published in the journal Social Science and Medicine.

For more information please visit: https://www.wu.ac.at/en/

News

Half of Brits dream of going it alone but financial fears block them from starting their business

Sage, the market leader in cloud business management solutions, today unveils research showing that 1 in 2 (52%) UK adults dream about starting their own business. However, over half (53%) of those feel that money worries are stopping them from turning the idea into a reality – a fear that has been exacerbated by the stresses of Covid-19.

In reality, only 17% of current business owners said that a lack of finance turned out to be a barrier when setting up their business – highlighting a significant gap between the perception and reality of entrepreneurship.

Small business creation and growth is crucial to a successful post-Covid economy. The UK economy is driven by SMBs, with 99.3% of GDP generated by companies with under 50 employees.

Sage research shows 43% of working people have had their careers impacted by the pandemic, through furlough, redundancy and reduced hours. This has created a groundswell of people that have the time, the headspace and the motivation to innovate and launch their small business dreams.

This has showcased the next generation of new businesses that are leading the recovery. Of the 34% of business owners that started their business in the last year, 61% were aged between 18- 34, highlighting the entrepreneurial spirit is alive in and kicking amongst Generation A and Millennials.

However, 37% of people who dream about being their own boss mistakenly believe that business owners are rich, privileged or received financial help to get started, and therefore fail to get over the starting line if they do not get the support they need. But, in reality, 40% of current business owners shared the same concerns when starting out.

Jen Walker, Founder of Split Screen Coffee, a Sage customer and entrepreneur, said: “There are so many myths to break through when you are starting out in business, which can be a real stumbling block. What budding entrepreneurs need, and certainly I did, is real clarity around what was required to start a business: the facts, insight and access to mentorship. Having a network of support around me enabled me to sense check with likeminded people and gave me the reassurance and confidence I needed that I could do it. Once you demystify the start-up worries the business road becomes a much easier one to travel on.”

Paul Struthers, Managing Director, UK and Ireland, Sage, said: “People who dream of creating a business have misconceptions around how much knowledge of accounting, tax and compliance they need to have before getting started. Sadly, a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs give up their dreams of becoming their own boss, either because they don’t know where to start or they overestimate the amount of money and time required to run a business.

“Preparation is key. Before you launch your company, spend time researching your market and potential buyers, and the financial support options open to you. Test out your products or services in your local community or on social media. Ask for feedback from your friends and family, or social media followers. Getting your finances under control is a key attribute in success businesses, but this is also the biggest hurdle for most start-ups.”

Find out more about how Sage is helping aspiring business owners here – https://www.sage.com/en-gb/blog/six-steps-to-start-a-small-business/

 

News

A Year On, How Pandemic Still Creating Havoc for The UK And Europe

It has been exactly a year since the world was hit by a deadly health disaster which affected everything around us. The Covid-19 pandemic ravaged lives and livelihoods and restricted the world to be indoors. The UK had to go through three national lockdowns to contain the spread of the virus, and the restrictions crippled public-facing industries.

A recent study has found that the restrictions during the three lockdowns have cost the economy a whopping £251 billion. The study conducted by the Centre for Economics and Business Research found that gross value added (GVA), which is an estimation of all the goods and services created in an economy, without including the raw materials and input costs required for the delivery of the same, was less by over £250 billion than what was estimated in the pre-pandemic times.

Some of the poorer parts of the UK were the worst affected, however, London managed to safeguard itself. London’s contribution to the UK’s GVA was only a little less than a quarter of the country’s GVA, but it suffered 20.5 per cent of the losses. This was possible because sectors like insurance and finance and communication and information – London’s mainstays – managed to work out of homes smoothly. A separate study has found Britain’s economic recovery could get compromised because of a lack of digital skills as the number of young people taking IT courses declined sharply in the last one year.

The third wave:
And it is not just the UK that is struggling with the pandemic. Europe is staring at a probable third wave, and to contain its spread, authorities in various countries have begun reimposing lockdowns and restrictions.

France Prime Minister Jean Castex imposed a lockdown for a month in Paris and other areas where cases were going up. It has allowed essential businesses and schools to function. Italy, which was one of the worst affected countries last year, has brought out fresh restrictions as cases increased. All areas with over 250 cases per 100,000 people would be declared red zones and are under strict restrictions. The whole country would be in lockdown at the Easter weekend. Italy’s weekly average of new cases has been on the rise since March and has been reporting over 360 deaths each week.

Germany has also announced an extension of lockdown till 28 March. Bars, sports and leisure venues, restaurants have remained shut since November. The government has begun easing restrictions since 8 March. Areas with a smaller number of cases would be allowed to reopen non-essential services.

Vaccination rollout:
Europe’s Covid crisis has been exacerbated by complications over the vaccination drive. Several countries have discontinued using the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine as fears spread over blood clots among recipients. However, France, Spain, Italy, and Germany have since then said they would resume its use; the vaccination rate in Europe is not yet on the level as that of the US.

PM Boris Johnson has warned that a similar third wave as is being seen in Europe could soon strike the UK. He said that past experiences have taught us that when neighboring countries get affected by a sudden wave of infection, it does not spare the UK either and may affect it even severely. He said that he has been in touch with the European nations.
He added that the UK is committed to a quick and fast vaccination programme but highlighted that vaccination drives are essentially international programmes and do require cooperation on an international level.

On Saturday, a total of 844,285 first or second doses were given to people, which was up from 711,157 given last Friday. Over 27.6 million people, which is more than half of UK’s adult population, have been vaccinated with at least one dose.

The UK’s health ministry recently announced that it was working to come up with a new testing technology. The new technology would be able to identify whether positive samples have any of the more dangerous variants and could help in getting faster results.

Known as the genotype assay test, it could reduce the detection time by half and used along with normal testing procedures to identify cases rapidly.
As part of lockdown easing norms, the UK government is also now focused on reigning in new variants. As part of its plans, once a strain gets identified, increased contact tracing and testing could be deployed to contain the spread.

Both Europe and the UK are struggling with the pandemic and currently the new strains. Not only the health infrastructure is strained, but the pandemic is draining the economic resources of countries. But the biggest challenge for the UK and Europe is getting enough vaccine jabs. Europe has threatened to withhold vaccine shots for the UK by rejecting AstraZeneca’s export authorization to the UK till the company fulfils its delivery commitments to the EU. This bitter war over vaccination rollout could make relations between the two countries acrimonious.

By Kunal Sawhney, CEO, Kalkine Group

News

Eviction Ban Extension to Help Unemployed & Businesses as Britain Prepares to Reopen

To further buttress the temporarily unemployed section of people and business owners who have seen minimal to no sales in the recent past in various jurisdictions across the United Kingdom, the government has extended the ban on commercial as well as residential evictions. The extension of the eviction ban is likely to support the people who have encountered unforeseen reduction in the earnings due to the pandemic-led lockdown and related restrictions.

As the UK prepares to reopen in accordance with the exit roadmap laid out by the government, the eviction ban alongside the extension of the furlough scheme and several other programmes announced earlier last month are expected to provide the much-needed backing.
The support has been announced at a time when there are no clear signs of a complete reversal in the earnings of unemployed people and the uptick in commercial activities of the businesses that were hit due to Covid-9 restrictions.

Extension of eviction ban

According to the latest directive issued by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, the ban on residential evictions has been extended until May 31, while the commercial evictions have been suspended till June 30, 2021. The businesses have been provided with seemingly adequate monetary support to ensure that the commercial functioning is well supported when they reopen.

However, the government has made it clear that the businesses which are able to make the rent payments fully or partly should oblige. Later this year, the government is likely to launch a review of commercial landlord and tenant legislation.

A wide range of issues pertaining to Landlord & Tenant Act 1954 Part 2 is expected to be discussed under the comprehensive review. Further, the government will be gauging the potential impacts of coronavirus pandemic on the market, besides evaluating the scope of introduction of different models of rent payments.

On the other hand, the tenants of residential properties will be supported under the ban on evictions, in the most serious circumstances, including the incidents of domestic abuse or fraud. Additionally, the landlords will continue to follow the six-month notice periods framework before asking the tenants to leave until the end of May this year.

The beneficiaries

The decision to extend the ban on commercial evictions has been primarily taken to support business owners who were mandatorily required to shut their entire operations during the recently imposed lockdown and the tier-system from October to December 2020. The government has noted that some of the businesses have had to cease operations completely during the lockdown.

The worst-hit businesses, including bars, restaurants, regional dine-in outlets, pubs and other eateries, operating on rented properties are highly likely to benefit from the eviction ban extension as they prepare to resume their commercial activities from May this year.

Meanwhile, the residential tenants can get away with the difficulties of eviction as there will be adequate time to search for alternative accommodation. The residential tenants belonging to private as well as the social sector may stay in their homes without immediately worrying about the next support or accommodation as the people who were momentarily removed from the jobs will be getting back to their respective workplaces as employers reopen under the planned exit roadmap.

The decision to extend the eviction ban on residential accommodation has been taken with due care as according to the Labour Force Survey of April 2020, approximately 36 per cent of the retail workers and 49 per cent of the people working with the hospitality sector are residing at rented habitations. As per the government, the new measures and eviction ban is likely to protect jobs as many more renters will be returning to work with the reopening of workplaces and businesses.

During the still-running course of Covid-19 pandemic, the government has set aside a massive sum, £280 billion, to bolster the prospects of businesses. The package, designated to support the operations of the businesses and the people employed by them, has aptly reinforced business practices across the UK.
geography of the UK.

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