Member Blog

Our job at Bigfork is to help our clients get more business from their websites, this article is aimed at businesses who want to convert their website visitors into customers. This doesn’t necessarily mean an immediate sale, as in many business to business markets, the website’s objective is to create leads.

Start tracking with Google Analytics First you need to know where your website visitors are coming from and what pages they are looking at. If your website doesn’t have Google Analytics I strongly recommend you sign up. Google Analytics can show you a huge range of data about your website but the key performance indicators are

• number of “new visitors” (not “all visitors” which can include returning traffic)
• where they are coming from (e.g. search engines, referral websites, social media etc)
• what key words they are using to find you from search engines
• what website pages visitors are looking at
• how many of your visitors are using mobile

One of the most useful features on Google Analytics is Goal tracking. Here you can measure real website performance such brochure downloads, enquiry form completions, online sales, etc. You can even link your Goals to traffic sources (e.g. Google) to see where the best visitors come from.

Develop an online marketing plan“If you fail to plan, then plan to fail” Harvey Mackay This sounds obvious but most SME’s don’t do this and it’s a big mistake. This article is not specifically about driving traffic to your website but about website conversion. However for good conversion rates you need to be driving relevant traffic to your website. Your online marketing plan doesn’t need to be huge but should cover the basics such as:

• who is your target audience?
• what do they want to see on your website?
• how will you drive them to your website? (e.g. high Google rankings, Adwords, social media)
• what do you want from the website? (sales, leads, enquiries)

You need to do this before you start designing and planning your website, otherwise you will find yourself changing it repeatedly afterwards, wasting time and money.

Improve your website’s content“Customers buy holes, not drills” Theodore Levitt Your customers go to your website for your content – products, services and useful information. Read through your website’s content as a customer would to see how relevant it is. Our experience shows that the most viewed pages on websites are product pages followed by the “Contact Us” page. Customers go to your website to see if what you sell will solve their problem, so your content needs to focus on benefits to the customer. Supporting content such as News, Articles, Company information is useful for credibility and search engine optimisation but is not viewed much by visitors, so don’t give it too much focus.

Use Google Analytics to see what the most popular content on your website is and then see how you can improve it.

Check your websites “user experience”.“Design is not just what it looks like. Design is how it works” Steve Jobs If your website visitors find it too hard to reach the content they want on your website then you will lose them. Improve your website by going through it to see where the customer journey can be improved. Set yourself tasks that visitors might want to do such as find the benefits of a specific product, who do I contact, how much can I save by using your product?

A good way of doing this is to ask your existing customers how easy they find your website to use and what they don’t like about it.

Improve your website copy Website copy is as important as design. So many websites talk nonsense and fill their pages with irrelevant copy. If your website pages are very wordy then work on cutting it down to the key benefits and messages. If you need to have a detailed technical document then have this as a separate download or page.

Make sure your copy focuses on the key benefits of your product in a language that your customers will understand. Does your website copy appeal, persuade and convert? If not then re-write it in a voice that fits your brand and appeals to customers.

Make sure your design works Design is always an emotive issue and everyone has a view on it. If you want your website to be effective then design for your target audience and for conversion. Too many websites have been designed to please the wrong people. The job of design is to look credible and appealing to your customers. Check to see if your website :

• is correctly branded with your company’s logo, colours, slogans etc and is consistent with all other marketing communications you produce
• has high quality images/video that presents your products, services and team in the best way as low quality will not appeal to your customers
• uses colour and fonts that will position your company correctly eg if you have a premium product make sure your website uses appropriate colours and fonts and not ones that cheapen it.
• includes your key messages/slogans within the design

First impressions count and if your website has poor images and looks unprofessional it’s unlikely you will get many quality leads from your site.

Calls To Action (CTA) A Call to Action is what you want your website visitors to do. Every website needs to have calls to action to be effective. To create good CTAs you need to think about what you want your customers to do and, importantly, what they want to do. Please remember that all customers are different, some will be happy to telephone, some will prefer a more cautious enquiry form. Include several CTAs and see what works best. Examples of Calls To Action include:

• Call us for a quote
• Book an appointment
• Sign Up for free trial
• Call me back
• Download our brochure
• Buy Now Online
• Take a Tour

Each CTA needs to draw attention through size, contrasting colours and use of graphics (e.g. buttons). They also need to be in prominent positions such as the top section of pages to increase conversions. Link your CTA’s to your Google Analytics to track the performance of them and how customers got there.

Data capture Many of your website visitors may not respond on their first visit. However you need to try and capture their details so that you can remind them of your products in the future through email marketing or direct mail. Unless your product is highly desirable just asking for an email address for newsletters is unlikely to persuade them to part with their email address. Try tempting your visitors by offering them something for free such as money off vouchers, ebooks, useful resources etc. This will increase your data capture rates significantly.

Many companies also like to capture email addresses when people request brochures etc online. Remember you need to gain their permission for ongoing marketing by adding an “I agree to ….” tick box.

Establish credibility A potential customer is always asking themselves “Why should I buy from this company?” especially when they land on your website. They will be looking for signs that you are a professional company who will deliver on service and solve any problems. Effective “credibility tactics” for your website can include: Customer testimonials

• Lists of clients
• Case Studies
• Trade association membership logos
• Guarantees and warranties
• Any relevant policies such as terms and conditions, customer charters etc.
• Address and telephone number of your business

Mobiles and Browsers People are increasingly using smartphones and tablets to look at websites so you need to see how important this is for your business. Google Analytics can show you how many new visitors are using mobile devices to gauge how important it is currently. If it is above 10% of your traffic then it’s important. Check to see how your website views on smartphones and tablets and what the customer experience is. If it’s not good then consider having a mobile version designed or a new “responsive design” website (this automatically sizes your website to fit the devices screen). For many businesses such as restaurants, hotels and estate agents mobile traffic is becoming their biggest source of website visitors.

Does your website work across all the major browsers i.e. Internet Explorer, Chrome and Firefox? Many websites are not cross browser compatible and lose sales because their website doesn’t work properly in a specific browser.

Hire a professional“If you think hiring a professional is expensive, try hiring an amateur.” Red Adair

Unless you can really do this yourself, please don’t try this stuff at home, hire a professional. We receive many calls from frustrated companies that have had websites badly designed, normally to save money. Your website is your company’s most important marketing tool, so treat it as an investment, not a cost.

Despite what many organisations may think, health and safety laws are not devised to make life as difficult as possible for struggling businesses.

Nobody has purposely introduced a law simply to drain an organisation of its valuable time and resources and every piece of legislation is designed to ensure employees’ working environments are as safe as possible. That said, there are certain rules that perhaps have not been fully thought out and then there are outdated regulations that are no longer effective in 2013.

Businesses in Britain have been particularly irked by some health and safety laws that have been enforced at European level, even if the UK government is not necessarily on board. This is obviously very topical at the moment, with David Cameron recently proposing a referendum for 2017, which will ultimately decide whether the UK remains as a member of the EU.

There are many pros and cons to weigh up when deciding if the UK is better off alone and the issue will inevitably divide society. The outcome of this referendum will obviously have a huge impact on the health and safety laws that are applied in this country, as there is every chance that the government will scrap any rules that it was under pressure to enforce, despite being none-too-keen at the time. Obviously, this works both ways and popular laws that the EU has insisted upon may also fall by the wayside.

Regardless of whether the UK decides to break free from the clutches of Brussels or not, it seems the government has already set about overhauling the nation’s health and safety laws. Earlier this month, the Department for Work & Pensions released a statement that highlighted the work that the authorities have put into ridding the UK of unnecessary red tape.

Professor Ragnar Lofstedt said he was very happy to see that the government has followed the recommendations made in his 2011 ‘Reclaiming Health and Safety for all’ report, which suggested that the application of safety regulations in the UK is somewhat over-zealous.

A separate report indicated that the government has already implemented 23 out of 35 suggestions made in Lord Young’s 2010 report ‘Commons Sense, Common Safety’. Lord Young was particularly keen to see an end to the growing compensation culture and the negative press surrounding health and safety laws.

“For too long businesses have been confused by health and safety regulations which cost them money and take up time when they should be focusing on growth,” commented minister for employment Mark Hoban.

“Health and safety is important, but its focus should be where risks are high. These reports show just how much progress we have made in restoring clarity to the system, and over the coming months I’ll be making sure common sense prevails.”

There are plenty of examples of the government making effective changes, but two that stand out in particular are the tweaking of accident reporting rules – which will save companies £5 million over ten years – and the simplification of electrical product safety laws, which can reduce business costs by a staggering £30 million.

Quite rightly, the government’s proactive approach has gone down very well with the Federation of Small Businesses, which said it is important that firms focus on “real risks”, rather than being bogged down with reams of paperwork.

Although it is refreshing to see the government championing common sense, it is still vital that enterprises do all they can to adhere to existing health and safety guidelines. Figures from the Health and Safety Executive show that 173 workers suffered fatal occupational injuries in 2011/12 and although this was 12 per cent lower than the five-year average, it is still far too many. Compensation by insurers to employees for injuries sustained at work in 2010/11 was estimated at £1billion, according to www.hse.gov.uk. “By not complying with health and safety regulations, businesses are opening themselves up to claims by their staff. In a situation where insufficient attention has been paid to health and safety precautions, insurers are often unable to defend claims.” States Peter Foster, Hugh J Boswell Managing Director. “Initial time and financial savings can be achieved by a business not dealing with health and safety matters appropriately, but the result is likely to be increased liability insurance premiums, additional costs such as increased employee absence and of course potential prosecution by the HSE. I would therefore urge businesses to fully consider their approach to health and safety in the workplace and the implications of not doing so”.

If you are an SMEkeen to save money through energy, water or waste efficiency measures or technologies then the Grants4Growth programme can help. A much wider range of interventions then you perhaps think can potentially be funded including;

• New heating systems • New lighting units • Building fabric improvement • Fenestration upgrades • Fleet and vehicle replacements • New plant and machinery, and much more…

If there is a more efficient alternative to what is currently in use then it is likely that funding can be made available to assist with the capital expenditure.

Equally if you are a Low Carbon and Environmental Products and Services SME company then a small revenue grants fund is available to assist with marketing and promotional activities.

Both ERDF funding streams are subject to eligibility criteria and approval of a Grants Panel. Grants of up to 28% for capital expenditure and up to 30% revenue expenditure are available. Typical grants range from £1,000 to anything up to £20,000 depending on the total cost and whether jobs are secured and created as result.

Specialist Business Brokers are employed by the programme to assist SME’s with checking their eligibility and suitability, and completing the application forms required.

Within the first 8 weeks of the programme businesses have already benefited and many others are in the process of applying for grants. The programme runs until 31st March 2015.

If you are not sure whether your proposed investment qualifies or just want to know what we can fund then please get in touch for an informal chat. If suitable then one of our Busines Brokers can come and see you and talk you through the simple application process.

The latest workplace absence figures published in 2012 show that musculoskeletal problems such as back, neck, shoulder and knee pain are still proving to be a huge issue for people across the UK, blighting the lives of millions.

The level of pain caused by musculoskeletal disorders can range from mild to severe and can be extremely debilitating, often preventing people from going to work and limiting their everyday activities.

And, although there has been a downward trend in work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) over the last 10 years*, they still accounted for the greatest number of working days lost to ill health in 2012 according to the Office for National Statistics.

Conditions including back pain, neck and upper limb problems were responsible for more than a quarter of all work days lost – the equivalent of 35 million days.

Back pain alone affects more than 1.1 million people in the UK, with 95 per cent of patients suffering from lower back problems. It can affect anyone at any age and most people will suffer from it at some point in their lives

So, how can staff keep on top of musculoskeletal problems to make sure MSDs don’t leave the workforce feeling less than sunny this season?

The general advice for people who suffer back pain[2] is to stay active, try simple pain relief and seek medical help if necessary.

The Health and Safety Executive recommends that employers help staff to identify the cause of an MSD, allowing the employer to review their risk assessment and attempt to rectify the problem.

It is also recommended that staff with back pain and other injuries should be encouraged to come back to work where possible and to keep regular communication between the employee and employer.

Westfield Health’s Chamber Primary Health Plan, which is available to all members of Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, offers a range of benefits to help staff manage MSDs, including physiotherapy, chiropractic treatment, osteopathy and acupuncture.

By using their Westfield Health cover, staff can return to work sooner by avoiding lengthy waiting times and getting aches and pains treated quickly at an appointment time and place convenient to them – minimising disruption to the working day.

And for serious conditions such as hip and knee problems that could require surgery, employees can also be covered by Westfield Health’s new Hospital Treatment Insurance (HTI).

HTI is available to all members of Norfolk Chamber with five or more employees, either as a standalone product or, for more comprehensive cover, it can be used in conjunction with Westfield’s Chamber Plan.

For more information about the Chamber Plan, visit www.westfieldhealth.com/chamber or call 0845 602 1629, available 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday.

If the never-ending ‘To Do’ list at work seems unachievable and lunchtime means another hurried sandwich eaten ‘al desko’ in the office, then you’re not alone.

According to research, 40 per cent of office workers are under ‘dangerously high’ levels of stress due to a combination of unpaid overtime, unachievable expectations and taking on additional duties for colleagues.*

‘Staff burnout’ is becoming a common problem for nearly a third (30 per cent) of companies, according to the study of HR directors, with 67 per cent of respondents believing workload to be to blame. Long working hours and unachievable expectations were also piling on the pressure for stressed workforces.

Phil Sheridan of recruitment firm Robert Half UK, which commissioned the research, said: “Employee burnout can affect almost any professional, from top boss to rank and file employee.

“Many employees who have been tackling increased workloads while putting in long hours are beginning to lose their motivation at work.”

Symptoms of employee burnout include emotional outbursts, becoming withdrawn and more frequent sickness absence.

Stress is even affecting mealtimes and breaks for some of us, with another recent survey finding half of respondents putting in so much overtime they eat both breakfast and lunch at work – or ‘al desko’ – while ten per cent eat all three of their daily meals in the workplace.

There is some good news, however, with half of the directors surveyed saying they were trying to tackle stress and prevent employee burnout with methods including promoting a teamwork-based environment, reviewing job functions and flexible working options.

There are also proactive steps employees can also take to help themselves when times are tough.

Westfield Health’s Chamber Primary Health Plan, which is available to all members of Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, includes a 24 hour counselling and advice line.

Policyholders can call the 24/7 line and speak to counsellors day or night to access help and support with issues including work-related stress and anxiety, as well as any personal issues affecting them.

The plan also offers access to up to six face to face counselling sessions, including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), a form of therapy which focuses on thoughts, images, beliefs and attitudes and how they relate to the way we behave.

For more information about the Chamber Plan, visit www.westfieldhealth.com/chamber or call 0845 602 1629, available 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday.

The quashing of an Inspector’s decision to grant planning permission for a wind farm development has highlighted the special status given by the law to the need to preserve listed buildings and their settings.

Listed buildings have had special protection in the planning system since 1990, when section 66(1) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act introduced a requirement that when considering a planning application for development that affects a listed building or its setting the decision maker, “shall have special regard to the desirability of preserving the building or its setting or any features of special architectural or historic interest which it possess”.

In East Northamptonshire District Council v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government the Council, together with English Heritage and the National Trust, challenged an Inspector’s decision to grant planning permission on appeal for a wind farm development located in the vicinity of a number of listed buildings and Lyveden New Bield, a Grade 1 listed Elizabethan garden.

While the Inspector recognised the statutory test set out in section 66(1) and found that the proposal would cause harm to the setting of a range of designated heritage assets, his view was that, “At its worst, that harm would not reach the level of substantial”.

The judge quashed the decision on a number of heritage related grounds but was especially critical of the failure by the Inspector to recognise that the effect of section 66(1) was that any detrimental impact on listed buildings or their setting should be given “special weight”. Her criticism was that the Inspector had treated the harm to the setting of the listed buildings and the benefits of the proposed wind farm as if they were equal factors and in doing so ignored the special importance that Parliament has placed on the protection of listed buildings by passing section 66(1).

Comment: This case is a helpful reminder that not all material considerations should be treated the same. In the same way as the Development Plan has a special legal significance, so to do those material considerations that have a statutory underpinning. At a time when material considerations such as the strong Government policy support for renewable energy and the National Planning Policy Framework can appear to be sweeping all other material considerations before them, it is important that decisions take proper account of all material considerations in order to avoid possible legal challenge.

Changes to employment law in April

News

This Newsflash summarises the changes to employment law which are due to come into force in April and over the next few months.

Implications

Employers should ensure that their line managers and Human Resources Departments are aware of the changes to employment law which are taking place in April. In addition, payroll departments, or those employees responsible for administering pay, will need to be made aware of the increase in statutory payments which also takes place in early April.

However we are still awaiting confirmation from the Government on the exact date that various other changes to employment law are going to come into force. Therefore employers need to be aware that, unlike in previous years, some changes to employment law could take effect in May, June, July or August.

We will send out further Newsflashes as soon as we have information on exactly when these further changes to employment law will come into force.

Details

Changes to be introduced on 6 April 2013

Reduction in Collective Redundancy Consultation Period

The current minimum period of consultation where an employer is proposing to dismiss 100 or more employees is 90 days.

When the proposal to make 100 or more employees redundant occurs on or after 6 April 2013, the minimum period of consultation will be reduced to 45 days.

However the existing minimum period of 30 days consultation for proposals to make between 20 to 99 employees redundant will remain the same.

Furthermore, employees whose fixed-term contracts are expiring (on a particular date or on completion of a particular task) will no longer need to be taken into account when calculating the numbers of proposed dismissals for collective redundancy consultation purposes. Such employees will still count towards the numbers of dismissals if the fixed term is being brought to an end early.

During April ACAS will issue new guidance on collective redundancies.

Increase in Statutory Sick Pay

The rate of statutory sick pay will increase from £85.85 per week to £86.70 per week.

Changes to Codes of Practice for skilled migrant workers

New Codes of Practice for skilled migrant workers from outside the European Economic Area will apply from 6 April 2013. These codes set out which occupations are sufficiently skilled to qualify for tier 2 of the points-based system, minimum rates of pay for each occupation and how employers should carry out a resident labour market test and to determine whether there are existing workers within the UK who could do the job.

Changes to be introduced on 7 April 2013

Increase in Statutory ‘family leave’ payments

The standard rate of statutory maternity pay, statutory paternity pay (including additional pay) and statutory adoption pay will all increase from £135.45 per week to £136.78 per week.

The weekly earning threshold will increase from £107.00 to £109.00.

Changes expected to come into force by the end of April

Consolidation of National Minimum Wage Regulations

There are currently 17 sets of Regulations dealing with the National Minimum Wage. The Government intends to simplify the rules by producing a single set of National Minimum Wage Regulations by the end of April 2013.

Changes expected over the summer

There are a number of other changes to employment law which we anticipate will be made over the summer, although at time of writing we do not have the exact dates these changes will become law. Howes Percival will send out further Newsflashes with more details as soon as we have this information.

• No qualifying period for unfair dismissal where the reason for dismissal is, or relates to, the employees political opinion or affiliation (see Howes Percival Newsflash 19 February 2013).

• The Compensatory Award for unfair dismissal to be capped at 12 months pay or £74,200 – whichever is the lower.

• The introduction of fees for bringing a claim in the Employment Tribunal or appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (see Howes Percival Newsflash 18 July 2012).

• Making pre-termination settlement negotiations between an employer and an employee inadmissible in any subsequent unfair dismissal claim (see Howes Percival Newsflash 25 January 2013). A new Statutory Code of Practice about this will also be introduced.

• Changes to whistleblowing legislation. The definition of a qualifying disclosure for the purposes of a whistleblowing claim will be amended so that the disclosure must, in the reasonable belief of the worker making it, be made ‘in the public interest’. In addition the good faith requirement for a protected disclosure will be removed. However, Employment Tribunals will be able to reduce compensation by up to 25% if the disclosure was not made in good faith. In addition employers will be held vicariously liable for their employees if they victimise their co-workers because they have made a protected disclosure (i.e. blowing the whistle), unless the employer can show they took reasonable practicable steps to prevent such action by their employees.

• New Tribunal rules will come into force (see Howes Percival Newsflash 20 March).

Should you require further assistance, please contactNicola Butterworth.

Contact Us The Guildyard 51 Colegate Norwich NR3 1DD

Tel: 01603 762103

Email : nicola.butterworth@howespercival.com

There’s no denying it’s a difficult economic climate, but there are things you can do to increase your chances of success in the job market.Your CVis the first chance to sell yourself to your prospective employer, andyou have seconds to make AN IMPACT.With our adviceyou will immediately improve your chances of securing that all-important interview.

First, Put your unique profile at the top – a hard-hitting summary of your experience and achievements. It has to be relevant to the job and show how you make an impact. Hook your recruiter in to read more. You may find it best to write it last.

Summarise your education and qualifications – most recent qualifications first. If you have a degree, list this before ‘A’ levels. Include grades and dates. If you are older, there’s no need to list every course you’ve been on. And list your employment/work experience – dates, location and industry sector. Note any breaks in employment and say what you did e.g. travelling/raising a family.

Demonstrate the role and responsibility you had for each position. But don’t use your precious space to summarise your job descriptions! Review the job specification you’re applying for and ensure you give more space to the most relevant roles.

Concentrate on your achievements and describe them with positive language such as ‘improved, initiated, established, and developed’.

Recruiters also love numbers, so state the impact you had and demonstrate it in actual numbers if possible. Again, select achievements which are relevant – CVs which are constructed with a specific job in mind are much more successful.

Make it easy to skim read. Recruiters have to scan numerous CVs and you need your key points to stand out to even get through a first sift. Use bullet points rather than paragraphs. But keep it factual and accurate Recruiters are experienced in spotting lies and you’ll only come unstuck in the interview.

Don’t use more than 2 pages – do a long draft and then cut, and try not to use jargon – avoid the dreaded A.C.R.O.N.Y.M.s where possible.

Don’t list a range of irrelevant hobbies. Put them last and keep it brief, and certainly not ‘clubbing’ or going down the pub, unless you’re applying for DJ-ing or something in the off-licence or entertainment business!

Don’t forget to spell check and check grammar. You look careless and unprofessional and are likely to be out in the first sifting just by having a couple of silly mistakes. A fresh pair of eyes does help

Don’t over complicate your layout by using different typefaces, decorative fonts and graphics (unless you’re applying for a creative job, we’ll leave that to your creative eye!). The whole piece needs to look simple and professional. Use good quality paper if handing it out.

And lastly – make sure you include your contact details on your CV including home address, home and mobile telephone number and email address. You’ll want to make sure that the recruiters know how to beat a path to your door!

Some people leap at the chance to be the face of an internal training video, or to be the spokesperson for the company in a marketing video or TV interview. But others accept the request to be in front of the camera more reluctantly.

But take heart! Production companies and journalists have got a lot of experience in putting those in front of the camera at ease. For the past thirty years we’ve been preparing our clients for their appearances in videos, so we’ve put together a list of tips to help you breeze through your moment of fame.

Tips for being a direct-to-camera presenter are similar to those for being an interviewee, although you’ll often be under greater time and pressure constraints in an interview situation, but they are all relevant to anyone with a camera pointing at them.

Being interviewed:

1) Decide in advance the top three or four crucial points you have to get across, and don’t get distracted from delivering them. Filling silence with superfluous ‘and also…’ items as your mind wanders can muddy the message you intended to convey.

2) Make your answers short, precise and relevant – don’t be afraid to stop when you’ve made your point. There is a tendency for people to feel they need to keep talking for as long as the camera is pointing at them.

3) Usually the interviewer won’t be there to grill you, but to make sure all of the pertinent responses have been gathered for their piece. Their side of the conversation will often be edited out to leave them with your soundbites. You’ll likely be asked to respond with closed sentences that will make sense when edited out of the context of the question. For instance, the answer “Yes, it’s going to exceed all expectations” won’t mean a thing without its preceding question – whereas “This year’s figures are going to exceed all expectations” will make a lot more sense when placed on its own.

4) Where should you look? If you’re being interviewed, look at the interviewer and keep your gaze on them – wandering eyes can make you look shifty. Those may sound obvious directions, but we have had interviewees who’ve been asked a question, and then turned directly to camera to deliver the answer.

5) Maintain your interviewer’s gaze at the end of your answers – don’t spoil a great response by glancing to a colleague for a thumbs-up at the very last moment.

6) If you’re being interviewed in an office, make sure you are standing or using an open chair or sofa. Talking from behind a desk puts up a barrier between you and the viewer, making you seem unapproachable.

7) If you need a moment to gather an answer to a question don’t glance upwards, or look to someone off-camera. Instead, look downwards for a second as it gives the impression that deeper thought is going into your response.

Presenting:

1) Where should you look? Unlike an interview situation, when you’re presenting – look directly at the camera! No need to stare or rigidly deliver a monologue – just talk to the lens as you would a person stood in its place.

2) If the production company offers you a prompter take them up on it! If you’ve got to deliver something lengthy or technical directly to the camera, and it really has to be word-perfect, a prompter really will help you get the piece done more swiftly and with fewer hesitations – and zero chance of inadvertently saying the wrong thing!

3) If you’re working without a prompter then conventional wisdom says that ‘practise makes perfect’, but unless you’re a professional presenter recalling someone else’s script you can sometimes inadvertently trip yourself up by over-rehearsing your own words. We’ve all met someone who can talk off-the-cuff about their business with enormous passion, yet give wooden performances when they’ve spent the night before making cue-cards for themselves. A piece to camera doesn’t need to be a speech – a relaxed and natural delivery sounds far more genuine.

4) Trust us, you’ll begin to feel more comfortable as you go along, so it’s a good idea, once you have completed your piece, to go back and record your opening deliveries again. Second-time around they’re often more succinct and flow more naturally as you’ve warmed up.

Remember your mic:

1) Whether your contribution is an interview or a piece to camera you’ll almost certainly have a radio-microphone attached to you. The sound recordist’s day will be much easier if you’re wearing a jacket with an inside pocket, or trousers with a back pocket – they’ll have places to discreetly clip the mic and hide the transmitter pack.

2) Radio-microphones typically have a range of about 100-metres… politicians have something of a poor track-record for forgetting that their off-camera conversations in the room next door can still be heard. The same is true of leaving your microphone on when you take advantage of a recording break to pop to the bathroom.

3) Lastly, don’t get up and leave until the recordist has removed your microphone – countless people have wandered off after we’ve finished shooting with a wire trailing after them, or got in their car to leave with a radio-mic still in their pocket. I know that one of our recordists would also like me to point out that radio-mic transmitters are expensive… from experience dropping them in a toilet is not advisable.

Q: When is a fall back not a fall back?

A: Almost never!

A High Court challenge to the grant of planning permission for a new out-of-town retail development has offered some judicial explanation of when a planning authority can take a fall back position into account when deciding whether to grant permission for a new development.

One of the material considerations that a planning authority should take into account when deciding whether to grant planning permission for a development proposal is what the alternative is for the site in question. When the development is not welcomed or is contrary to policy, the question of what can be done with the land without the need for planning permission can be particularly relevant.

An existing planning permission, permitted development rights and the existing use of a site are all examples of possible fall back options that developers may ask a local planning authority to take into account when deciding whether or not to grant planning permission. Often, especially when the planning authority is seeking to refuse permission, the question arises as to whether the fall back position that is being put forward is a genuine fall back that qualifies as a material planning consideration.

The case of Zurich Assurance v North Lincolnshire Council involved a challenge by Zurich, the owners of much of the retail centre of Scunthorpe, to a decision by North Lincolnshire to grant planning permission for an out-of-town retail development on an existing garden centre site. One of the grounds of Zurich’s challenge was that the Council had wrongly taken into account the potential for a fall back open retail scheme. This fall back was claimed to arise because the garden centre had, for many years, sold a wider range of goods than was permitted by the conditions imposed on its planning permission.

While Zurich sought to argue that the committee should have been advised that they could only take a fall back into account if it were a realistic possibility, the Court rejected this; finding that the fall back does not have to be probable or even have a high chance of occurring. Instead the Court held that, in order to be a material consideration, a fall back only has to have “more than a merely theoretical prospect”. While the likelihood of the fall back occurring may affect the weight to be attached to it, the Court did not feel it affected its status as a material planning consideration.

Comment: Fall back options occur frequently and not just in retail planning. Residential development proposals, for example, often involve a consideration of a fall back option as part of their justification for approval. This case sets the threshold for a fall back option very low indeed, although it leaves open the question of how much weight can be attached to something that has only an outside chance of ever happening. Local planning authorities need to be alive to the possibility of a fall back option when determining planning applications and developers should never overlook the potential for a fall back position to support their application.

Government relaxes law on amending planning obligations in viability push

Following on from a consultation last year, the Government has published new regulations that will give developers the right to seek to vary a planning obligation more quickly.

At present a planning obligation that is less than five years old can only be varied with the agreement of the local planning authority. This means that if an authority refuses to renegotiate there is little that a developer can do to force the issue during the first five years. The only option open to a developer is to submit a new planning application and, if necessary, appeal a refusal of the application on viability grounds. This is time-consuming and expensive and so unattractive, not to mention also having a further adverse impact on a scheme’s viability.

The situation is different for planning obligations that are more than five years old. For such agreements a developer has a legal right to require an authority to reconsider its terms and a right of appeal if agreement cannot be reached.

In a further attempt to kick-start development of stalled sites, the Government is extending the legal right to have the terms of planning obligations reconsidered to any obligation entered into before 7 April 2010. The intention is to enable developers to renegotiate planning obligations that are making development unviable more quickly if an authority is refusing to renegotiate.

The Town and Country Planning (Modification and Discharge of Planning Obligations) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2013 come into force on 28 February and enable an application under section 106A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (and a subsequent appeal under section 106B) for modification or discharge of a planning obligation dated before 7 April 2010.

Any application under the new regulations cannot be made before 28 March 2013 and the changes will not affect any planning obligations where the five year period has already expired (which can already be the subject of an application for modification or discharge) or any planning obligations entered into after 6 April 2010 (which will still not be able to be modified or discharged other than by agreement with the local planning authority for a period of five years from the date of the obligation).

Comment: These changes only affect planning obligations entered into in the five years before 7 April 2010 and, if the local planning authority is willing to negotiate, a formal application may not be necessary. But, for those planning agreements entered into at the top of the market that are now holding back development by making it unviable, these changes enable a developer to force a reluctant local authority to reconsider the level of planning obligatiions, backed-up by an appeal to the Secretary of State if necessary.

For many the new legislation introducing compulsory employer pension contributions has come at a bad time but in this article Chartered Financial Planner Richard Ross considers a more holistic approach that could see the legislation used as a catalyst for creating value

The latest raft of workplace pension reforms came into being in 2012, and saw the introduction of compulsory employer pension contributions for the first time. Although it will be well into 2015 before the majority of smaller firms are required to do anything and not until late 2018 before the changes take full effect, its worth starting to plan a strategy now. Being well prepared can help you turn a cost into an investment.

Times are tough and likely to get tougher. Businesses are rightly focussing on controlling costs but it is important to resist the temptation to simply cut ever more deeply and risk going beyond rooting out waste to causing lasting damage. Reducing costs produces short-term and once-only gains. The more hard-won but valuable objective is to create sustainable competitive advantage that will contribute to true underlying profit growth on a continuing basis. Often this requires changing the cultural web – the unique shorthand combination of practices, protocols and ethos that makes an organisation ‘who’ they are. It can be summed up as ‘the way things are done around here.’.

At a time when managers are responding to the tension between their employees’ experience of inflation and their own inability to pass on increased wage costs, care must be taken to protect and positively influence the cultural web to ensure it aligns with the firm’s objectives. In this article I use a real-life example to consider benefit provision holistically and explore ways that an appropriate reward structure can best support the firm’s strategic objectives. Viewed from this perspective the new legislation becomes an opportunity to create value rather than simply a cost.

A Case Study

A company’s value does not sit with its equipment, its outlets or its people. These are all resources that only become valuable when they are combined to create capabilities – for example, the capability to attract customers, persuade them to stay until they have maximised their spend and encourage them to return. Thus the company’s value is vested in its ability to successfully apply its resources. Competitive advantage is gained when a firm can apply a resource that is rare and valuable.

We have a couple of clients in the Adult Gaming Centre industry – what used to be called amusement arcades are now big business run by very professional operators with multi-million pound turnovers. The AGC industry is essentially an entertainment industry. Customers will typically be looking to spend a specific amount of money on being entertained for an expected period of time. They will return if they feel there is a chance their entertainment time will be extended (e.g. better payout rates), be heightened (e.g. bigger wins, more exciting machines) or if they feel the environment is particularly welcoming and conducive to their overall feeling of well-being. In this mix it can be seen that the attitude of unit staff is crucial in defining and delivering the firm’s proposition.

Of the three areas high-lighted only one is truly capable of being developed to create a rare and valuable resource. Payout rates are simply price competition and it is open to any competitor to offer better rates. Maximum prizes are restricted by legislation and apply equally to all in the industry, so while there may be some competitive advantage delivered to those more financially able to benefit from any legislative changes this will be limited, as will the effect of new machines. By adopting more efficient funding methods the company increases its ability to benefit from these changes but they remain available to the market generally. The area where the company can significantly differentiate itself by developing a rare and valuable resource is in its customer service and its means of delivery – the front-line shop-floor staff.

If the shop-floor staff are a key resource it follows that staff turnover is a key factor in determining the operational efficiency of the firm. Short-term staff have a direct cost in terms of increased supervision and training and represent a general drag on efficiency as, being less committed, they are, for example, more likely to be absent and less likely to take the initiative when issues arise. Equally importantly, high staff turnover represents a leakage of a valuable resource that has a direct effect on the customer experience.

Managers need to develop a clear understanding of the cultural web they wish to support. What are the core values the firm wishes to encourage? Is the company focussed on cost or value? Professionalism and a focus on customer service are both hallmarks of a progressive management style. Comparing a firm’s performance in these areas against direct competitors will give an indication of how well it is delivering and highlight areas for improvement but for more meaningful gains it is useful to look beyond the core industry to examples of excellence in a particular field.

So, in terms of customer service, it could be useful to look at a firm like John Lewis who appear to perform at a consistently high level. Setting John Lewis as a benchmark rather than a direct competitor would force the firm to raise its game by more than would otherwise be the case. It is interesting to consider how important the cultural web, ‘how we do things around here’, is in creating the overall customer proposition at John Lewis. For example, while there are doubtless basic rules, the attitudes and actions of the staff are overwhelmingly driven by an unspoken but widely understood expectation – the cultural web in action.

In a similar way, when it comes to staff retention if the firm Is operating in an industry where high staff turnover is endemic it should look across to firms in other industries that are able to employ lower-paid staff without the same high levels of turnover. Basing employment conditions on these best performers is more likely to result in improvements in staff retention than simply extending historical precedents that apply to the firm and its direct competitors. A well designed and applied employee benefits package can be seen as supportive to the creation of a professional, customer focussed cultural web by offering a reciprocal best practice employer response.

Motivating and Retaining Staff

Particularly at the lowest level, it is easy to think of the shop-floor staff as an homogenous commodity resource with effectively unlimited availability of a broadly standard quality. However this view is at odds with the principle that the customer-facing staff are a potentially valuable resource. Developing the resource is expensive in terms of time, training and management resource. High levels of staff turnover, especially at this level, mean that too often this initial investment is wasted or not used effectively. The nature of the work, the level of remuneration and the basic skills required mean that it will tend to attract recruits with irregular employment patterns and following disorganised lifestyles. This has led to high levels of turnover in the first few months being viewed as inevitable. However, it is the contention here that by challenging this view the firm has the potential to significantly increase its operational efficiency and therefore its profitability.

Most value lies in the longer-serving staff. Those that are still with the company after a year are well vested in, and broadly supportive of, the cultural web. In terms of their skills and ongoing training needs they require little more than routine maintenance. They are a profitable, relatively stable constituent of the human resource. Measures targeted at increasing the population and reducing the attrition rate of this cadre are likely to add most value.

Applying differential pay rates to reflect length of service is problematic where the duties undertaken are not similarly differentiated, but there is scope for offering an improved overall package that recognises the increased value of these staff over a new recruit and the opportunity gain of retaining them.

Factors influencing employee behaviour can be divided into two specific categories – Hygiene factors, the provision of which will help avoid dissatisfaction; and Motivators that will lead to satisfaction. The semantics are important – lack of dissatisfaction is not the same as satisfaction. Hygiene factors are extrinsic to the job and include company policy and administration, supervision, interpersonal relationships, working conditions, salary, status, and security; while Motivators are intrinsic and include achievement, recognition for achievement, the work itself, responsibility, and growth or advancement. Hygiene factors are responsible for most unhappiness at work. Unhappy people will be more likely to leave so it is important to ensure appropriate hygiene factors are in place as a first step towards reducing staff turnover.

Hygiene factors are not consistent throughout the organisation. A senior manager would have a greater number of hygiene factors, or basic expectations, than an hourly paid unit operative.

Although many of the hygiene factors can be seen as necessary costs their value can be increased by considering their motivational utility and aligning it with the cultural web so this aspect is leveraged. This article is considering pension provision so we can look at that as an example. Taking the view that any provision represents solely a cost becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy – it results in a cost producing little or no added value.

Taking a more holistic approach from within a cultural web that says that this is a paternal employer who values long-serving employees, an appropriately structured pension scheme can become both a hygiene factor and, as recognition and a reward for preferred behaviour (i.e. not leaving), a motivator. Given the likely cost of staff turnover – the tangible cost of recruitment, training etc and the less tangible impact of loss of experience, knowledge, consistent customer experience etc – a benefits package that can straddle the divide between hygiene and motivating factors has the potential to be cost effective.

Does it work?

We are fortunate to have been able to observe closely the attitudes towards benefits at all levels of many businesses over several years.

When we analyse membership data we find there is a strong correlation at all levels between membership of the pension scheme and commitment to the company. It is not possible to demonstrate from data analysis that this is a causal relationship from either direction (i.e. do people join the scheme because they are committed to the company or does the pension scheme increase their commitment?). What can be reasonably concluded is that the presence of an employer contribution increases pension scheme take-up significantly and that this forms part of an active decision process undertaken by the employees. This has important implications from the perspective of developing an appropriate corporate web – this is a strong indication that the value of an employer contribution is both understood and appreciated.

Conclusion

Employers are faced with a fundamental choice between cost and value. In the short term a lowest cost strategy will reduce overheads and increase profits. This would involve delaying the introduction of a pension to the last possible moment and making the minimum employer contributions. However, in the longer term a more strategic approach that seeks to treat the cost of benefits as an investment to support an appropriate cultural web is likely to lead to increased value via improved staff retention rates and, consequently, a better customer experience. An obvious dilemma facing the management is that the costs are a known figure and are incurred now, whereas the value is difficult or even impossible to calculate and will be seen some time in the future.

NEST – the facts

• NEST (the National Employee Savings Trust) is a simple, low cost pension any employer can use to meet their new automatic enrolment duties. NEST is run by the NEST Corporation, a not-for-profit organisation set up with funding from the Government, which it is expected to repay.

• Starting in 2012 all employers will be required to automatically enrol all eligible employees over 22 in either NEST or a qualifying alternative

• Roll-out will be phased through a series of staging dates with most smaller employers not being required to comply until well into 2015 or later.

• Check your staging date herehttps://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/employers/staging-date-timeline.aspx

• Once enrolled, employees will have an option of opting out. If they do not take that option their employer is required to make a pension contribution.

• The minimum level of contributions will be phased-in so that between an employer’s staging date and September 2017 there will be a requirement for the employer to pay 1% of qualifying earnings, with employee contributions and tax relief taking this total to 2%. This will then increase to 2% from the employer with a total of 5% starting from October 2017, and 3% from the employer with a total of 8% from October 2018.

• Private sector alternatives to NEST could offer significant advantages and advice should be sought before deciding.