Tag Archives: resilience

Finance and Banking, News, Transport

‘Big Sister’ mentoring role for Clarion Wealth Planning’s Ella Davies

A chartered financial planner at Clarion Wealth Planning has begun a mentoring role as a ‘Big Sister’ to a teenage girl in a programme run by the award-winning social enterprise Girls Out Loud.

After undergoing training earlier in the summer, Ella Davies has teamed up with a Year Eight pupil for the year-long programme to help boost the youngster’s self-confidence and aspirations in a series of one-to-one sessions.

The programme was launched at the Co-op Academy Manchester, where Ella was introduced to her ‘Little Sister’.

Ella said: “I’m proud, excited and thrilled to be involved in the programme and to act as a role model to my ‘Little Sister’. It’s a privilege, and I am looking forward very much to spending time with her.

“She wants to be part of the programme to have someone to talk to, to be there just for her and someone to trust.

“It’s a big responsibility, but it is a great way of giving back and hopefully making a positive difference.

“She is super active and very bright but feels frustrated in school. She hopes to be a forensic scientist, so we spoke about how she can harness her energy and learn to enjoy her lessons, which will help her to meet her career aspirations.”

Ella added: “At Clarion we are committed to changing lives for the better through supporting our local communities and good causes in a variety of different ways, and this is another illustration of that commitment.”

Girls Out Loud, founded by Jane Kenyon, is dedicated to helping teenage girls to achieve their goals by boosting their confidence, emotional resilience, self-assurance and self-esteem.

The Big Sister programme sees role models from diverse backgrounds mentoring girls to embed a more empowering mindset in them.

Jane said: “Our teen girls are navigating a challenging landscape today and having someone to listen and talk to and can help them with a myriad of decisions and options they face on a daily basis.

“Our Big Sisters are smart female role models committed to being that guide. They create a very special relationship with no judgement or agenda, and become a young girl’s champion, encouraging and guiding her to find her voice, her self-belief, her gumption and her aspiration.

“Interestingly, after over a decade of leading this programme, I also see many of our Big Sisters go on the same journey of discovery, as the process of mentoring a teen girl is a self-reflective one and creates learning and development opportunities for both mentor and mentee.”

Clarion, which is based in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, provides lifelong financial planning to business owners and families across the north west and beyond.

Cybersecurity, News

Only a third of CIOs cite cyber-risk mitigation as a performance measure

London, United Kingdom, 23rd March 2022: While 94% of CIOs acknowledge some form of serious threat over the next 12 months, only 27% list business continuity and resilience as a top-three priority during the next 12 months and barely a third cite risk mitigation as a measure of performance. These findings come from the fourth and concluding section of the 2021 Global CIO Survey from Logicalis, a global provider of IT solutions.

The study which surveyed 1,000 CIOs from around the world, finds that nearly half of respondents (47%) see data breaches as the biggest risk to their organisation (an increase of 6% from last year). Following data breaches, CIOs state malware and ransomware (39%) as other key areas of concern.

The perceived risk of a data breach is likely to have risen due to the increase in borderless workforces as employees continue to work from home or adopt hybrid working practices. When they occur, data breaches can lead to a range of issues from loss of business-critical data and stalled business growth, and in the most serious cases – the complete shutdown of a business.

Less than a third of CIOs (30%) cite lack of staff awareness as a security issue, down from 50% last year. This perceived improvement in staff awareness is due in part to an emphasised investment in additional training and technology measures to mitigate security risks. In fact, over 50% of CIOs state their organisations invested in employee security training this year, likely to help prevent data breaches originating from employee activity.

Other areas of investment include:

  • Security technology – 66%
  • Business continuity planning – 40%
  • Third-party support through expert MSPs– 35%

However, CIOs still feel their organisations have a long way to go in investing in comprehensive security measures. Despite the rapidly increasing cybersecurity risks, more than half of businesses (55%) have yet to adopt a cyber-attack recovery plan.

Toby Alcock, CTO of Logicalis says: “Over the last 18 months, many businesses set up interim solutions to cope with remote working with security and disaster recovery very much experiencing a trial by fire. Some measures worked, but more action is needed to secure hybrid workers and enhance business resilience.”

“Businesses should adopt a holistic security approach with the capabilities to detect and respond to threats before they even take place. Predictive outlooks will fully protect the hybrid workforce and empower them to deliver optimal results for customers. Adopting technology to mitigate risk will also help businesses adapt to future obstacles, whether cyberattack-related or further market disruption. With a comprehensive plan, created with advice from a trusted partner, companies can rest assured knowing they’re protected.”

For more information, and to explore additional key findings from the 2021 Logicalis Global CIO Survey, visit here: https://resources.logicalis.com/cio-priorities-business-continuity-resilience-and-mitigating-risk.

Business News, Finance and Banking, News

CFOs at Crossroad in Attempt to Build Post-Covid Business Resilience

Zellis research CFOs in UK and Ireland for large employers shows addressing continuity risks exposed by Covid sit at top of mind for CFOs and the board

Chief Finance Officers (CFOs) across the UK and Ireland have no clear plan as to where they should be focusing financial investment for 2022, according to research conducted by Zellis, the payroll and HR specialist. Despite overwhelming consensus that addressing business continuity risk has become a much more pressing concern, CFOs are divided as to where to build post-pandemic resilience.

The research, carried out this summer among the CFOs of 125 organisations with over 1000 employees, shows that 99% agree business continuity risks in back- office processes have become a bigger issue since February 2021, with 1 in 5 (20%) agreeing ‘completely.’ Similarly, 99% suggested that a ‘more robust approach’ to mitigating business continuity risks was important for their business in the next 12 months.

However, opinions were divided among CFOs on what was needed to support that resilience. Nearly half (49%) said ‘reviewing supplier relationships’ and pursing ‘operational efficiency’ (43%) had required more personal attention from them since the outset of the pandemic. As a return to normality became clearer over the summer of 2021, a focus on investing in increasing digitisation (26%) and improving remote working options (25%) were the areas CFOs were most keen to address, followed by talent management (18%), cost control (17%) and automation (14%).

“Whilst the past 18 months have been about keeping the business above water during the pandemic, the coming year will be about how to rebuild and improve operations,” said Alan Kinch, CFO Zellis. “The problem facing CFOs is that, after a year of exceptional constraints, there are now so many areas of the business which need urgent attention. The boardroom is turning to their CFO and asking: which area should we focus on first?”

The Resilience Factor

While nearly every CFO surveyed (99%) recognised the significance of business continuity risk planning, only 50% of all participants had updated their approach in the last 12 months. 25% were only still developing new mitigation strategies, while a further 25% had not made any changes at all.

CFOs who had adapted their strategies during the past 18 months were more likely to suggest addressing regulatory compliance (42%) and reducing inefficiency (30%) as their priorities for the months ahead. They were also notably more likely to consider analytics and the need to upgrade their technology as priorities than counterparts which had made few or no changes.

This opens a significant advantage where businesses are looking to avoid disruption emerging from staff changes, or talent shortages. Zellis’ previous study, conducted early in the pandemic in 2020 showed that nearly half (44%) of businesses were unsure of their ability to function if key staff members were to become incapacitated due to COVID-19. 27% of CFOs interviewed this year admitted that they would push for more automation across operations for this very reason.

“Finding the right area to focus on during a time where everything can change at the drop of a hat is no easy task,” concluded Alan Kinch. “CFOs are now facing all sorts of new pressures, not only from the boardroom but also from investors and customers. This means that, as well as looking after the finances of an organisation, they are also now firmly in the ‘hot seat’ for having the right tools and plans in place to eliminate risk.

“Seeking out a resilience-based approach often means improving access to the information, reporting and functionality necessary to withstand significant change; the quicker CFOs can get a handle on this, the sooner they will see the benefits across their entire organisation.”

Finance and Banking, News, Wellbeing

Transforming Financial Services through Mindfulness in the Middle of the Pandemic

There has been a significant spike in demand for mindfulness programming since the start of the pandemic – but can the financial services industry really bank on the benefits being real? A new white paper from the Mindful Finance Institute shows how mindfulness can strengthen mental health, risk management and a culture of innovation and collaboration in financial services.

Including data from the first study of mindfulness in finance, over 400 financial services employees in the UK and Germany took part in the mindfulness-based workingMIND training that led to significant improvements in well-being, stress, focus and agility.

Friedhelm Boschert, Co-founder of the Mindful Finance Institute said: “Mindfulness unlocks human potential – even in the middle of a pandemic. Our White Paper connects the dots: It shows how and why mindset-change creates and sustains the much needed and upcoming transformation of the finance sector for our shared future.”

Including a HSBC Case Study: mindfulness in the time of Covid-19

Demand for HSBC’s mindfulness-based programming has grown steadily over the past years, with a significant spike in employee interest at the beginning of the first lockdown.
Using a blended model of internal Leader Champions and external partner trainers, they were able to quickly scale up the reach of their Mindfulness Foundations programme by five-fold, with more than 450 employees participating in the six-week training in April through May.

During a time when mental health levels plummeted in the general population4, a survey of participants found that resilience to stress and flourishing improved by 27 and 22 percent respectively.

John Hinshaw, Group Chief Operating Officer and global excecutive sponsor of HSBC’s Mindfulness Employee Resource Group, said: “I am heartened HSBC was able to respond so quickly to the COVID pandemic by scaling and mobilising the mindfulness programme begun by our employees. Ensuring everyone is able to be at their best at home and at work is a key part of our ambition to build a bank fit for the future. HSBC’s mindfulness practise clearly supports our colleagues wellbeing by enabling crucial skills such as resilience and creativity.“

HSBC’s Mindfulness employee network, first established in 2014, is an award-winning, employee-led initiative and community offering mindfulness services, resources and training to all HSBC employees. Since 2018, over 10,000 HSBC employees have participated in the bank’s mindfulness programmes, training and events.

Key findings: how to integrate mindfulness into corporate culture

Case studies by HSBC and NASPA, a Top-10 German savings bank, share recommendations about integrating mindfulness into their corporate culture in the white paper.

The core attention and emotion regulation skills that are associated with mindfulness training have a broad applicability for the financial sector:

• Banking cannot prosper within a culture of fear and stress. Reducing stress translates into increasing innovation.
• Employee wellbeing drives culture change. Employee wellbeing leads to better customer relations and is a characteristic of a resilient business (HSBC Navigator Report 2020).
• Effectiveness starts with paying attention. Increasing concentration while reducing multitasking is key to economic results.
• Psychologically safe collaboration and a new kind of risk culture can increase collective intelligence.

Chris Tamdjidi, co-founder of the Mindful Finance Institute, said: “The inner changes that are supported by practices like mindfulness can lead to insights into the kind of changes that we need to see in the financial sectors. Mindfulness starts by developing wellbeing and resilience but doesn’t stop there. The study results and research shows that the skills acquired can be applied to create a more sustainable future in finance.”

References

1. Full MFI white paper, MINDSET-CHANGE FOR TRANSFORMATION IN FINANCE, available here: https://www.mindful-finance.org/wp-content/uploads/White_Paper_-_Mindset-Change_for_Transformation_in_Finance.pdf

2. Infographic about white paper results: https://www.mindful-finance.org/wp-content/uploads/EN_Mindset-Change-Infographic-3.pdf

3. workingMIND study / 400 people in UK and Germany: Fully Minded – The Potential of Mindfulness in Financial Services. Awaris, 2020, available here: https://awaris.com/study-the-potential-of-mindfulness-in-financial-services/

4. Etheridge B, Spantig L. The Gender Gap in Mental Well-Being during the Covid-19 Outbreak: Evidence from the UK. Institute for Social and Economic Research; 2020, available here: https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/research/publications/working-papers/iser/2020-08

5. HSBC UK Case study, MINDSET-CHANGE FOR TRANSFORMATION IN FINANCE, Mindful Finance Institute, page 19
About the Mindful Finance Institute (MIFI)

The Mindful Finance Institute (MIFI) promotes the application of mindfulness in leadership, business and work in financial services. Founded in 2018, the Mindful Finance Institute’s mission is to unlock human potential in finance for the greater good.