Ann from Holt has terminal cancer but has hailed her local mobile cancer care unit as ‘transformational’ as she undergoes regular cancer treatment during the COVID pandemic. Ann needs to receive cancer treatment as part of her routine for the rest of her life and started using ‘Amara’ after being advised by an NHS nurse that it might improve her cancer experience. Ann told us “I have been shielding for over a year now and had to undertake a 50 mile journey each time I needed treatment. At the time of the COVID variant, and as an at-risk, clinically vulnerable person, it was frightening going into the hospital and seeing warning signs everywhere.”“This was a real ordeal for me as it took such a long time with travel, parking and waiting for my appointment. I would have to muster energy just to attend the appointment and it was terribly draining, along with the treatment itself.” Ann adds, “I am so glad that I found out about Hope for Tomorrow; it really has transformed my life. I am now actually elated to go for treatment as I can be back home within the hour because of the 7-mile journey. It’s made a huge difference to my day. Hope for Tomorrow really has changed my life and attitude to treatment because I now have no additional fatigue and no stress.”“I am living my best life, watching YouTube and history channels, and I also do voluntary work rehoming dogs. Despite the cancer and side effects, this is definitely my best decade.”
SEO is the most diverse, fast paced industry and it so important to keep up to date with the latest trends to ensure your strategies are still effective and relevant. Google constantly changes its algorithm, and each update brings new ways of working, transforming SEO. We will talk about how SEO is changing coming into next year and the new trends and updates to look out for.
Voice Search
Google Voice Search is a product that allows users to use Google Search by speaking on a mobile phone or computer initially released back in 2012 starting as a small project but is expected to rise and make a big comeback in 2022. We already use Alexa, google dot and Siri daily and they now play a crucial role in the day to day lie of many people, its only a question of when will the voice search be a main form of search.
This will change how marketing teams work, to focus on their vocabulary to translate written content to natural language and to understand what language the users will use to voice search, optimizing your website with that in mind. Google will be introducing LaMDA (Language Model For Dialogue Applications) which allows Google to talk back to you, designed for conversation.
Trained to read words and understand how those words elate and what they would possibly say next. There are any ways you can start optimizing your website to facilitate voice search including, using long-tail keywords which will help your website be the most relevant answer for the search as they are more specific and targeted, using keywords which are broad will decrease the chances of your site appearing during searches.
Most voice searches are used for local searches for example ‘Chinese takeaway near me’ so making sure your google my business profile is updated is very important as this will boost your traffic and rankings. Another simple feature you can add to your website is frequently asked questions (FAQs) where you can write out questions that are popular within your industry and write out responses that are in a conversational format to appear in voice searches. These people who are asking a question are looking specifically for that and by you fulfilling their needs, Google will reward you with higher rankings.
Shopping online in 2022
Voice based shopping is predicted to spike and Google are adding and updating many features to add searchers when online shopping. During covid-19 online shopping was huge as shops were closed and so many people spent time indoors on their technology as this was their only option, e-commerce stores experienced an influx in orders.
Google shopping has been around for a long time however has never really become popular, but they want this too change. They have recently announced the idea of ‘shopping graph’ which is a model created to understand products, sellers, brads and reviews. Therefore, making the users shopping experience much easier and provides them with the help they require as Google shows them listings from millions of merchants related to their search. This works in real-time meaning you can also see whether it’s in stock, so with this you must ensure your information on your site is correct such as showing the right stock levels, product information and prices, update this regularly. Also, ‘open cart tabs’ is another idea Google has introduced which is a feature which shows your current open carts when you open a new tab allowing customers to pick up where they left off.
Video Content
Video content is rising in popularity and will hugely impact SEO and the use of videos have major benefits. Individuals are becoming more visual with apps such as TikTok on the rise, people like to watch videos about businesses products or services to get more of an insight and may aid their decision whether to purchase. Having video content on your site allows you to be seen as an authoritative and a helpful source, as a result Google will place you higher up on search engines. To optimize your content, update your video channels descriptions by using keywords which are more user-friendly and to make sure it explains what the video/channel is about.
Also, you must optimize the featured snippets especially for question-based videos to capture the attention of the user at the top of the search informing them straight away what they will benefit from watching the video. This will allow you to stand out from competitors as you will become a leader on answering questions users ae interested about.
Overall, the updates and changes to Google will affect SEO and it may feel overwhelming staying up to date but its crucial to know what’s happening so that you can alter your practises and implement changes to your site so your campaigns are effective. Here at MR SEO we can assist you on how to optimize your site in the most effective way and take your business to the next level.
It would be very easy, and not at all surprising to witness, to get oneself in to a panic and high state of fear relating to the risks of cyber crime to your own business, or your employer, especially if you are in a position of responsibility relating to data, information or security. With the UK governments latest Cyber Security Breaches Survey reporting that “Four in ten businesses and a quarter of charities report having cyber security breaches or attacks in the last 12 months”, we should not be overlooking that to be forewarned is to be forearmed when it comes to your cyber security strategy.
Any cyber security strategy, to be as strong as it can be, should involve a combination of technical, people and process elements.
Cyber criminals are always looking at ways to overcome technical solutions, which will never be 100% infallible, and they have the time to dedicate towards finding ways to bypass them. Phishing campaigns are becoming more sophisticated and harder to spot and even target companies at times they consider peoples guard will be down the most. Add to this that we see more and more that the technology side of an organisation is people dependent, as alerts need to be responded to, updates need to be made and the right questions need to be asked if people are unsure of something.
Although not glamorous at first thought, security processes and policies are arguably the bedrock of your cyber security strategy. They outline the organisational standards for the controls you put around the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data, and can also help employees know what to do under certain situations to further minimise risk. This element of your strategy is also ultimately about people and how they understand, implement, follow and respond to any security related process or policy requirements.
Now above I said “arguably” as we often hear that people are seen as a key problem when it comes to cyber security. At CyberScale, we prefer to see people as a potential strength and central to any robust cyber security strategy. So, what is the bedrock?…Educating staff about what to look out for, why they should/shouldn’t do something, and what to do if something does happen is paramount to a company’s defence against cybercrime.
Whatever your organisation is handling in terms of data or sensitive information, the importance of awareness across the organisation cannot be underestimated as this can and will ensure a more vigilant workforce. One simple error can lead to catastrophic effects for the smallest or largest of organisation. The sooner a mistake can be identified the better the chance of the company recovering quickly and minimizing the damage. Without awareness and emotional investment from employees, security will be forever seen as that mundane or intimidating topic that people will generally avoid.
Having your cyber security strategy clearly defined and accessible will also ensure that you are able to increase customer confidence and compliance with their (and your) supply chain requirements.
So what are we really talking about here? We are talking about building a culture of security within your organisation, a key element of which is investing in cyber security training for your staff. Depending on where you are on your cyber maturity journey cyber security training will often begin as non-technical, tailored to the teams and their needs, and will always be developed to be made understandable and accessible.
Mistakes made by people can lead to cyber security breaches so placing staff training at the centre will go some way to mitigating this. Greater awareness can lead to overall improvements in defences especially against the most commonly used tactics such as phishing. Building a culture where security is easy to talk about will reap rewards in terms of not only what is prevented but also how your organisation reacts as and when any cyber-attack happens.
By personalising your cyber security training, making it mandatory and part of staff onboarding, keeping it updated and on repeat to ensure everyone is kept abreast of the ever-changing landscape, all goes towards keeping the topic alive within the business. As change involves asking people to do something, they need to feel supported in this.
We believe that with face-to-face training, we can provide context and that human perspective on why security not only matters at a business level, but at a personal level in this changing landscape. People should be at the front and centre of security, they can spot a suspicious email, they can report if something doesn’t seem normal about their computer, they are the first line of defence and that should never be overlooked. We can also deliver remote sessions providing the same quality and value which are more accessible for people who can’t travel or are not comfortable with in person training.
So what now? Don’t sit on what you now know, make sure you talk to the relevant people in your organisation or reach out to us if that’s you and start building your cyber security strategy.
Regardless of whether you’re new to business or leadership, or you have been in business for a while, when you first start to take your cyber security approach seriously, you may well discover that your first challenge is where to start.
There are many different elements to cyber security, and lots of different ways to approach it once you start looking at the detail of all of the things you need to do, but in terms of your starting point there are really two fundamental approaches that you can choose to take.
The first approach is to pick a framework or a set of standards and work towards that.
A bit of research will show you that there are a number of frameworks that you could pick from. Standards like Cyber Essentials, CIS controls, or ISO standards (27001 for example). All vary somewhat, and have a slightly different focus, but there are certainly some common themes running through most of these standards or frameworks.
The nature of frameworks however is that they are trying to be all things to all people; it is extremely difficult to create a framework which is equally applicable to all types of businesses or organisation. So how do you know which one is most applicable to you, and which one to pick if that’s the cyber security approach you are going to take? That’s not an easy question to answer.
Following a framework is one valid approach to cyber security. It gives you something to work towards. But how applicable is it to your organisation? Answering this question is not something that you need to be considering alone and from within the walls of your organisation.
Not only can we support you in gaining ISO 27001 accreditation or Cyber Essentials Certification, training and awareness are something we strongly believe in and to this end we have built a number of training courses and workshops. These will not only inform and educate but will also empower the right people in the right roles to be able to ask and answer the most relevant questions for your business.
Rather than focusing on frameworks, you may decide to instead take a risk-based cyber security approach. This is an approach that is more tailored towards your specific business or organisation. It considers the specific data that you have, the systems you use, the people you have in your organisation and their level of understanding of all things security, the processes that you have in place, and how all of these combine to create risk specific to you.
How this happens depends on who you partner with. Our approach is to come in to your business and run discovery workshops on site with your teams. This enables a depth of understanding which allows for the development of the most relevant and workable cyber security roadmap to you – a roadmap that will get you to a position where your risks are being proactively managed.
Different organisations, different security requirements – What sort of differences are we talking about though? Let’s look at three key differences.
Firstly there is data. Some organisations are heavily reliant on data, some not so much. Some organisations collect and process particularly confidential or sensitive data, such as health data for instance. Whatever data or sensitive information your business handles, it is of paramount importance to ensure you fully understand the implications of a data breach for you, your customers and those whose data you hold.
Some organisations have only employed staff, where elements of security policy can be made part of their employment contract and ongoing training, whereas other organisations have a heavy reliance on freelancers or subcontract staff where this is not so easy. Management of systems used by these groups also differs in its level of practicality; managing and controlling devices which are company supplied is one thing, but devices owned by a freelancer or subcontractor present a particular challenge.
And third we have technology and technical infrastructure. Every single business is unique in this aspect, so to this end there is no “out of the box” solution to understanding what risks your specific solutions and set-up pose. Whilst it is a key part of understanding your business, we would also advocate that increasing awareness amongst your staff should be front of mind when choosing how you approach cyber security.
Security is all about risk – appreciating it, understanding it, and reducing, mitigating or sometimes accepting it. Building confidence in your organisation and across all teams and departments is not something that should be left as a nice to have part of your cyber security approach. Investing in your people as well as technology and advice, will go a long way to ensuring you are as best protected as you can be from cyber threats.
Welcome to our new team member – Kate – a Diversity, Inclusion and belonging Specialist
Diversity refers to the characteristics that make people unique. Inclusion refers to the behaviours and cultural norms that make people feel welcome. Belonging refers to an individual sense of acceptance.
We now have information on how to do a right to work check.
The Home Office has published their guidance on right to work checks for employers that apply from 1 July 2021.
Retrospective checks are not required for EU, EEA and Swiss citizens who commenced work before 1 July 2021. You should ensure that your right to work procedures are updated in line with the revised guidance.
Business owners and leaders are constantly learning new things and as a relatively recent business owner I am no exception. I am always seeking advice, and trying to find the best people to help me make the business a success.
A great example is marketing. Coming from a technical and consulting background, this is not really my area of strength. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve picked up a lot over the years, and I’ve managed, through luck or judgement or some combination of both to do enough to get the business into a pretty good place in our first three years. But when it came to the point where we decided to put some real focus on our marketing, I wasn’t really too sure where to start.
Clearly there are many aspects to marketing a business, whether you’re new or established. I knew I needed some help, but to whom should I turn? Should I employ someone, or use an agency? Should I look for a generalist, or a specialist (or a number of different specialists)? I know that I prefer working with specialists, but if I pick a specialist in one area, am I neglecting other important areas?
The problem, for me, was that not having sufficient experience or knowledge of the area that I needed help with, I wasn’t sure how to articulate exactly what help I was looking for.
I didn’t know what I didn’t know.
Fortunately, I managed to find my way through this with some advice from friends in the field, and some trial and error, and I’m confident that we’re now on the right track. However, if there had been a course or workshop that I had come across that would have helped me figure out the key areas that I needed to consider, key questions to ask myself and guide me towards some priorities, I would definitely have jumped at that. I’m sure they exist; I just didn’t find them.
When it comes to Cyber Security and managing the risks to a business, I frequently see exactly the same scenario. Business owners, and senior management teams know that their business is at significant risk from Cyber Attacks, ransomware, email-based fraud and similar, and many know they need help. Their IT department, or external IT provider looks after some of the technical aspects of security but they’re often not specialists in security – they’re typically more focused on keeping the lights on and implementing new technology to help the business stay ahead. Rightly so. The owner, or leadership team, however, has this nagging feeling that they should definitely be doing more. They know they need some help.
The point of the one-day training workshop is not to make you a security expert. It’s not designed to scare you into buying services from us (although it might scare you a bit). It’s purpose is to help you understand what you don’t know – what’s important, what to look at and prioritise when it comes to security, and where to go for help that you can trust. But it’s more than just telling you.
Yes, we provide you with lots of information, all geared towards owners and senior management teams, but it’s a bit of a whirlwind “voyage of discovery”. Through carefully designed exercises and discussions, we’ll help YOU discover how to determine what is important to your business, how to assess risks and impacts in a security context, and how to build a strategy and plan to improve security and reduce business risk.
Want to find out more? You can contact us to talk through your needs or alternatively go online and book yourself on to the next available course.
We are a team of highly experienced and qualified HR Consultants and our mission is to help your business realise its full potential by supporting you in managing your people and ensuring they’re the best they can be!
Ignite will get to know you and your business and will tailor HR solutions to support your business needs.
“Your people are your biggest weakness when it comes to security”. You’ve probably heard this statement more than once.
We believe that this can, and should be a fallacy in all businesses when it comes to cyber security. We want to help you grow your people in to your biggest strength and asset.
So how do we get there? Well, Security is all about risk – appreciating it, understanding it, and reducing, mitigating or sometimes accepting it.
Beginning with a desire to create a culture of security within your business will set you off on the right path, and from here we’d suggest making this your guiding principle. You can read in detail about this here, where we will expand and share more about how your approach to cyber security feeds in to building this culture.
At CyberScale we talk a lot about taking a risk-based approach to Cyber Security. This is an approach that is tailored towards your specific business or organisation. It takes into account the specific data that you have, the way you use systems, the people you have in your organisation and their level of understanding of all things security, the processes that you have in place, and how all of these combine to create risks specific to you.
Different organisations will have different security requirements, that’s a given. But, what sort of differences are we talking about? Well firstly there is data. Some organisations are heavily reliant on data, some not so much. Some organisations collect and process particularly confidential or sensitive data, such as health data for instance.
Some organisations have employed staff only, where elements of security policy can be made part of their employment contract and ongoing training, whereas other organisations have a heavy reliance on freelancers or subcontract staff where this is not so easy. This will inevitably raise issues around building and embedding a culture of security. Management of systems used by these groups also differs in its level of practicality; managing and controlling devices which are company supplied is one thing, but devices owned by a freelancer or subcontractor present a particular challenge.
Going back to the beginning here will ensure that even though you’ve recognised these challenges you will be able to view them through the goal you have, which is to create a culture of security across all staff whether permanent or not. Having your guiding principles embedded in those who hire, onboard and work with all types of staff is going to be ever more important.
So how do we do this? Training. The answer seems simple, but it really isn’t at all. A culture of security will come from having a set of agreed and embedded values across the workforce which determines how everyone thinks about and approaches cybersecurity.
Training can have many aims, here it is to help you understand what you don’t know – what’s important, what to look at and prioritise when it comes to cyber security, and where to go for help that you can trust, both inside and outside of the business.
But it’s more than just telling you.
Through carefully designed exercises and discussions, we’ll help YOU discover how to determine what is important to your business, how to assess risks and impacts in a security context, and how to build a strategy and plan to improve security and reduce business risk. This is an ongoing commitment and when invested in regularly will move you towards building the security culture you seek.
With a combination of public courses where attendees will be from a range of organisations, and bespoke solutions for your business, we are experienced in ensuring that what we deliver suits the needs of your business.
We are focused on providing cyber security training that also brings personal benefits to individual attendees in their broader lives and not just in the workplace. We do not deliver a standard CBT session or something general, which might feel like a tick box exercise for the business and attendee, we ensure that we are linking the training with your specific process and policies.
Are you looking for a tailored, individual Diversity and Inclusion initiative to support your business strategy and objectives?
Do you want build and enhance your employee experience and create a platform for growth?
Please get in touch to arrange FREE consultation over a virtual coffee to explore your diversity and inclusion agenda and how we can support you on this essential journey: sarah@ignitepeoplesolutions.co.uk
Starting a new business in this day and age can be a truly troublesome venture. There is just so much competition for new businesses out there now, and that’s even without mentioning the fact that there is oftentimes a lot of one’s own capital at stake if said business fails.
On the other hand, starting a business now is easier than it has ever been, and it really is within the grasp of anyone who has the determination and drive to make it happen.
Start a Blog
Perhaps one of the best ways businesses can grow and increase their outreach is simply by starting and running a consistent blog. The topic of the blog doesn’t have to be any too fancy – just make sure it’s something related to your business and something in which you have some level of expertise.
For example, a betting site could write a post about the newest betting portals or the best sports to bet on. On the other hand, a company that primarily focuses on buying and selling real-estate could make a post about the best locations for people to find their perfect home or tips and tricks that people could use in order to get an advantage when looking to buy a property.
Blogging can be one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways for businesses to connect with their customers, as well as draw new ones in.
Nowadays, everyone has a social media account, and that’s even including businesses and corporations. By creating an account for your business on one of the several popular social media sites, you can not only increase public perception, but you can also get access to a vast number of potential customers that you otherwise wouldn’t have been able to. There are a variety of ways business leaders can get involved with social media, and if you want to keep up with your competition, getting on social media sites is a must.
Don’t be Scared to Stand Out
New business owners are so frightened to take risks or do anything differently, and this ends up being a huge detriment to both business and the people. In reality, there is now so much competition out there that doing something new and standing out is really the only chance new businesses have of becoming successful.
Don’t be afraid to stray from the beaten path
Starting and running a successful business can be a headache, there is no debating that. Although by putting the tips we have given you through this article into practice you can get ahead of the competition and have a much better chance at succeeding.