Member Blog

Last night, I was sitting with my daughter whilst she ate the meal I had prepared for her when she turned to me suddenly and said, with great sincerity: ‘Thank you.’

Two tiny words, delivered in the faltering language of a toddler, but forceful enough to stop me in my tracks. The delightful praise entirely unexpected; after all, as her mother, I had just been doing my job.

It was a potent and personal reminder to me of the power of recognition and how vital it is to making us feel valued. And this is especially true in the workplace where it is essential for engagement, for building motivation and for delivering satisfaction.

When it comes to recognising our people, it needs to be consistent. It needs to not be just a ‘one off.’  It needs to be appropriate. It needs to be authentic. And it needs to be amplified; as humans, we notice the negative far more than the positive.

There are two routes for recognition – formal and informal. The formal routes are the schemes which an organisation operates, such as an annual employee excellence award, or a team member of the month reward. These schemes have real value as they allow an organisation to publicly recognise achievement, and to identify and share ‘best practice’ which can set a standard for others.  They contribute to continuous improvement and development, offering, as they do, a bar to aim for (and as such, clear ‘rules’ around the schemes must be communicated). They can also be aligned with an organisation’s strategic aims or values, a good way for a company to embed key principles within the culture. And they engage people in a positive and proactive way, allowing for company-wide celebration of successes.

And then there is the informal. The thank you, the appreciation, the gratitude, above all, from management. Leaders have a crucial role in recognising what their employees are doing, when they’re going above and beyond, when they’re exemplifying an organisation’s values, or when they are simply doing their job. This is the personal recognition which needs to happen in the moment – it shouldn’t wait until the next meeting. It needs to have integrity; it shouldn’t be done just for the sake of it otherwise the manager and the recognition will lose credibility. The manager should be as clear as possible about the reason for the recognition as this underlines to the individual the behaviours which are desired (in the same way that negative feedback reveals actions which are not desired). It should be personal, owned by the manager – often the impact of a leader showing gratitude cannot be underestimated. And it needs to be appropriate – it could be a personally signed card and a box of chocolates, or it could simply be the words: ‘thank you.’ Sometimes the biggest impact can come in the smallest ways.

But however it is delivered, recognition should be an integral part of an organisation’s culture. Because a company which recognises and celebrates achievement will benefit from engagement, motivation and ultimately, satisfaction amongst its people.

There is an addendum to this story. Buoyed by my daughter’s obvious gratitude, I happily got the ice-cream out as a treat for dessert, much to her glee. Which also goes to show that someone who is recognised, who feels appreciated, will deliver more.

Already a huge global market, the mobile app industry is booming.Netmatters Ltd.

Watch the video to see why Employee Engagement should be on your agenda and book the Masterclass to learn:

• What employee engagement means for your business and why it is so important to your bottom line.
• The four key drivers for employee engagement as indicated by David MacLeod and Nita Clarke in a report to the Government
• Practical tools to take away to enable you to build an engaged workforce
• The nine key drivers of motivation and give you practical solutions to reward each motivator.

In addition, we will give you the following tools to take away:

• An Employee Engagement Health Check – To be copleted prior to the Masterclass, so we can help you focus on your engagement priorities.
• A personal Motivational Map – To help you understand your own motivators in the workplace

To book https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/employee-engagement-masterclass-tickets-41561349114

We are delighted to be working with All The Lenders, a leading price comparison site in the UK. Founded in 2012, the company acknowledge the need for comparisons in short-term and high cost lending. With other online brokers offering forms, many users were suffering the effects of receiving unsolicited text messages, phone calls and emails. But All The Lenders seeked to do things differently, creating a simple list of lenders so that applicants could compare each lender effectively and find the most affordable and suitable product for them.

The website was given a real boost last year when a change in FCA regulation required all lenders in the UK to feature on at least one price comparison website and link to their website clearly. All The Lenders was able to be “the” price comparison site for short term lenders, featuring on over 40 websites in the loans industry.

What We Are Doing For Them

As SEO specialists, we are helping All The Lenders compete in the big bad world of the competitive loans industry. Notoriously known as the toughest SEO industry to crack, we have enjoyed working in the industry for several years, consulting for other companies that feature on All The Lenders, including Cashfloat. 

We begain by performing a full health check of the website, making sure there was full optimisation of every meta-title, description, heading, alt-text and no broken links, crawl errors or response codes.

We looked at where we could get some quick wins, such as ranking better for individual lenders such as Sunny Loans and Wizzcash Loans. Long term, we are looking at the big prizes of keywords such as payday loans and direct lenders which combined have over 200,000 searches on Google UK per month.

To achieve this, we need to look at a dedicated link building strategy, whilst helping them maintain a clean link profile free of spam. These are achieved by strong outreach from potential partner websites, specifically in the loans and finance industry. To maintain a clean backlink profile, we have already started reaching out to spammy or low quality websites that have featured their links and asked for these to be removed, whilst also performing regular link disavows through Google’s tool.

We have already see progress, jumping 8 positions for payday loans within the first month and whilst we are currently on page 3, we aim to be on page 1 by the 3 to 6 month mark.

Norwich based company Liquid11 continues investing heavily in the region with the ground work commencing on six new starter units in Oulton Broad, near Lowestoft. The new units are aimed at start-ups and small businesses and will offer a modern and safe place to work or store materials. Sally Harding, Liquid11’s Business Development officer said: ‘despite Brexit fears, we feel the UK is a nation of small businesses that constantly innovate, our units will appeal to new companies and existing small business. With good access to North Lowestoft and the train station, we think it’s an excellent location and are excited to see what new buiness we will meet over the coming months’.

Liquid11 also entered into a partnership with local construction company, Mattoms Builders to build 6 new executive homes in Gt Yarmouth which will represent around 2% of the new homes needed to support plans for the town. Pat Cullumbine the director for Mattoms builders said ‘our region is crying out for new homes and whilst there is a buoyant market in mass build homes by existing large scale developers, there is a gap in the market for traditionally built, high spec homes for management and executives moving to our region, our homes will help to fill this gap.

Local councils and planning authorities are supportive of smaller builders and have been helpful in making this and other smaller developments possible in the town.

The Liquid11 group employs around 50 people in the region and typically a further 15 contractors are employed at any given time. Their total investment  over the last 12 months in new projects has been circa £3,000,000. The technology focused company continues to grow despite the economic uncertainty.

With three new products launched in the last 12 months the outlook for 2018 is positive for the company.

You’ve taken the first steps to becoming GDPR compliant by clicking onto this article. But with the 25th May firmly etched in many business owners minds, what is GDPR and how can you become GDPR compliant?

Coming into effect from 25th May 2018, GDPR is set to strengthen how businesses and organisations collect, handle and store an individual’s data. As a GDPR compliant business, Netmatters are certified to provide the relevant services, training, and support to ensure you get onto the GDPR compliant path, and stay on it from May 2018.

With data breaches happening on a weekly basis, make sure your business doesn’t fall short.

We provide a comprehensive and tailored range of services to help guide you through the various stages of the GDPR compliance process;

Initial Audit

We will review your current privacy management and data protection practices through an on-site review, and identify areas that may need fining under GDPR.

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Data Protection Impact Assessments

Identifying the most effective way to comply with the GDPR, we will create a bespoke plan of action to ensure your business meets, and maintains individuals expectations when it comes to privacy.

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Implement

We will seamlessly introduce a pragmatic and tailored GDPR compliant framework into your business, including; how data is collected, processed, handled and stored.

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GDPR Training & Awareness

As a GDPR compliant business, we are qualified to provide the relevant training and resources both onsite and virtually to ensure your team understand how to handle personal data under GDPR.

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GDPR Management

We understand there are a lot of things to consider when running a business. That’s why we are able to manage and maintain your GDPR compliance moving forward, ensuring no breaches slip through the cracks – leaving you time to think about the important things.

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Data Protection Audit Support

If you ever do get called to supply evidence on how your collect, handle and store data by the Data Protection Commissioner, we can help you prepare through bespoke training, process audits and provide the relevant information and reports.

If you want to find out more about our GDPR services, view our bespoke guide to how we make sure you become GDPR complaint, and stay that way.

Take the final click, and be on route to becoming GDPR compliant by booking your consultation today. 

Originally published on Netmatters Ltd.

Where is the first place you’ll go to if you want to reaffirm your decision to buy a product or a service? Most likely Google, or any search engine for that matter. And what are you likely to see when you type in the company name? The company’s profile and the reviews people have left for it. Among the top results will most likely be a couple of review sites where comments have been posted about the given business or product.

Consumers take online reviews seriously

But let’s first ask ourselves what motivates consumers to check product reviews in the first place? It doesn’t take much to figure that people need reassurance before they decide to part with their hard-earned money. It’s those who have already experienced the positives and the negatives of the product that are trusted to provide more information about their first-hand experience.

Various studies have been performed and although all of them present slightly different figures, they all unite around the undeniable fact that online reviews affect consumers’ purchasing behaviour to a considerable degree. Most of the research conducted, calculated that around 80 to 90% of people have been influenced by online reviews they have read about a certain product. What is more, Forbes revealed that 88% of consumers find online reviews trustworthy. Those figures are not surprising at all but they reiterate the significance of the feedback you get on the Internet.

Online reviews are cherished by potential users because they are supposed to involve a succinct summary of the pros and cons of a product. The customer is interested in feeding their expectations about something they want to buy, and want to learn the details from those who have already passed the stage of getting to know the product in question. But that’s not everything. Consumers tend to acquire their knowledge by visiting multiple sites. It’s not just Google – they could go to platforms like Yelp, Trustpilot or specialised industry-websites to do their exhaustive research. This comes to tell us that people invest quite a lot of time to learn more about their prospective purchase, and take the feedback they see seriously.

Seek reviews from your customers

What is key to understand is that companies should encourage their users to review them. It would be a positive step for them to invite their current users to leave a rating on their website or on some other platform. People are more than willing to assess anything numerically – be it a book, a movie, a plumber, or a lawnmower, they will happily express their opinion by giving 1 to 5 stars, or whatever scale different sites provide. By generating a good number of reviews, you offer your potential clients a bigger and clearer picture of your services, as they will normally trust you if they find out that many people have already commented on what you are doing, and how well you are doing it.

If you have been wondering whether you should worry about your overall score, the answer is no. People generally give positive marks and it is unlikely that you will get a destructively-low rating. The more reviews you receive, the higher your result will be, as occasional negative comments will be drowned in the sea of approvals.

A large number of reviews can help you get some easy traffic to your website, too. A study from 2015 showed that consumer reviews contributed 8.4% to what Google and other search engines use when ranking search results. This is not a figure to ignore as it gives you a respectable amount of extra visitors for the little effort you need to make to promote product reviewing.

Conclusion

All in all, any business’ reputation is built on customer satisfaction. If your product is usable and of high quality, you are certain to gain recognition. Nevertheless, it does not require much to help yourself further by asking your clients to review your business.

Whether you’re already testing or considering starting the right test kits will make all the difference.

15 years ago drug and alcohol testing was only available through a select number of specialist laboratories, and the only options available to companies needing screening was to enter expensive and slow contracted services, with long delays between testing and obtaining results. Jump forward to 2018 and the biotechnology has made massive leaps forward, enabling instant on-site screening, with positive or negative (clear) results in 5-10 minutes after sample collection. The enables businesses to get a workforce back in business fast and with minimum disruption. Drug screening has also moved out of the clinic setting and onto the work floor, with saliva options for almost all drug screens. Looking for the right drugs is essential and this includes testing for some drug groups which you may not consider in the classic “drugs of abuse” including some prescription drugs and the new psychoactive substances NPS or legal highs which have not been included on traditional older drug screens.

Remember you can test the environment as well as the people.

We have all probably watched Gordon Ramsay’s TV series on drugs and seen the findings when he tested changing rooms and toilets in some restaurants for Cocaine residues, but it is worth mentioning that wipe test and compound test kits are now available which will screen for up to 10 drug group residues. Only minute amounts of the drug have to be left for the test to detect its presence, and they can also be used on powders, tablets and vegetative product suspected of containing cannabinoids or synthetic cannabis. 

Most Companies choose saliva oral fluid test kits.

An integral part of any company drug and alcohol policy has to be the choice of testing kit. More and more companies are opting for the saliva route of sample collection for initial instant screening. It’s easy to see why, with an ever-growing catalogue of saliva test membrane options available, saliva test can now offer up to 13 screens in a single test. Sample collection is straightforward and can be directly observed with little or no ability for the sample to be tampered with, substituted, diluted or adulterated. 

Correct procedure, correct records, correct confirmation.

Most centres safely rely on instant screens to exclude all the negative results but it is essential to follow through with UKAS accredited confirmation testing of any non-negative findings. non-negative includes any screens with indeterminate results including invalids and will also include positive results where declared medications may be masking abuse or causing drug interactions. Fast track laboratory services can provide certificates results in 72 hours. Expect between 4 and 6 percent of tests to require a confirmation test.

Access Diagnostic Tests UK Ltd

Based in Aylsham Norfolk Access Diagnostics is the UK distributor of ALLTEST and InstAlert Brands of Drug and Alcohol testing kits. Directly or via our national network of re-sellers and suppliers we can assist in all matters which come up when your company introduces drug screening. Whether you’re looking to test 1 person or 500, we can guide you through the legalities, responsibilities and options to ensure your decisions stay legal, enforceable and above all improve the productivity and health of your workforce.

To find out more visit https://www.ukdrugtesting.co.uk or call us on 01263 731 168 Monday to Friday 8.30-4.30pm

Today is Time to Talk day, a day which aims to get people talking about mental health. And employers have a crucial role to play in destigmatising mental health issues.

But they can only do this by creating workplaces, where it is ‘safe’ to talk. Where it’s ok to not be ok.

There are some fundamental building blocks needed to create this environment and perhaps first of all is leadership. Leaders set the tone for an organisation so they need to be talking about mental health and setting the standards for the organisation. They need to normalise mental health through their leadership and provide the strategic direction for the delivery of activities to support mental wellbeing.

The manager is key too and I have written about the role of managers in supporting mental health in the workplace. Managers are in a great position to be able to identify signs and offer support but to do this, they need to have clarity about their role in supporting mental health in the workplace, understand the signs and symptoms to look out for, and feel confident to have conversations about mental health.

Communications are vital too and the employer needs to proactively share what is available and use language which normalises mental health. This, however, can be undermined by the dialogue which is taking place in the workplace – whilst a company may offer counselling, an individual’s willingness to access such support will be minimised if derogatory language is tolerated in the working environment. This needs to be challenged, but also, employees need to have access to mental health awareness training which gives them the insight and understanding needed.

Employers also need to consider their policies and procedures – are they giving opportunity for conversation or are they too directive? By having HR processes – such as 121s – which give equal opportunity for manager and employee to speak will help to build an ongoing conversation.

The organisation can also demonstrate that this is a safe place to talk by making commitments – to Mindful Employer, or to Time to Change, or indeed through their own organisational values. This is a loud and clear sign that the employer supports its people talking about their mental health.

And companies also need to think about what else they can offer – where they can signpost and guide an employee for support, to occupational health or talking therapies, for example. Because once an employee starts to talk, an employer needs to be ready.

People need to feel empowered to talk about their mental health. And employers have a great opportunity to support them to do this.

In today’s workplace, the transactional employee/employer relationship is – rightly – becoming a thing of the past. Companies are recognising that they cannot expect motivation and satisfaction through financial incentives alone. People need to feel engaged, connected, empowered – and in doing so, be motivated to deliver – more, often, – for an employer.

To increase motivation and satisfaction, employers need to develop and deliver targeted and relevant activities that engage and thus motivate and satisfy, including at key employment points, such as during recruitment, onboarding, and development. These engagement activities are absolutely essential for companies to deliver their business objectives – it is through involved and satisfied people that organisations will thrive.

And as well as employee engagement, companies also have an opportunity to connect with potential and past employees – and bring business benefits in doing so.

There is huge scope for employers to connect with potential employees through their external communications and engagement activities – and this may be long before a potential employee even considers a role with the organisation. The way that companies present themselves, through their external communications activities, through their charitable and community support, will have a significant impact on how they are perceived. As well as considering what external engagement activities they should deliver – be it media relations, social media, sponsorship, for example – companies also need to be mindful of the key messages they are sharing across their communications. Employers need to put their very ethos, their purpose, and above all, their values at the heart of their communications and engagement activities in an open and consistent way. Because these messages are what people will connect with – and which will ultimately attract applicants who share similar beliefs.

It is these activities – combined with the advocacy of existing motivated and satisfied employees who are benefiting from positive and proactive internal engagement and communications – which will help a company to become an employer of choice. And which will create that pull to a company which is perceived as a ‘great place to work.’

There is also opportunity to engage those who have left the organisation positively. The way that companies manage the ‘ending’ with those who are moving on is vital because these ex-employees also become advocates – or otherwise –  for the organisation. And so, companies need to make an employee feel valued throughout the leaving process – with recognition and appreciation, and engagement through, for example, truly effective and two-way exit interviews (the name of which, in itself, is rather disengaging). How a resigning or retiring employee is treated at this key time is crucial as it can colour their whole view of the organisation – and how they speak about the employer afterwards.

And once an individual is no longer an employee, a company can still keep them engaged through an ‘alumni’ scheme. This could include keeping them updated on progress through sharing the company newsletter, or through an annual Christmas or birthday card. This approach will help an ex-employee to feel valued for the contribution that they made, and still feel connected to the company – ‘part of the family’. A company which takes this approach will benefit from hugely powerful advocates within the community who will be in a position to influence others to want to work for that organisation. And, it may also encourage the ex-employee to return should an appropriate opportunity arise.

Employee engagement is crucial to business success as it is through people that objectives and performance are delivered. And more far-reaching engagement can also bring enormous benefits, not least around who wants to work with and for an organisation. A company which looks at these wider engagement activities can truly become an employer of choice.

​To discover more about engagement, engage with us hello@engaging-people.co.uk

Our in-house Google Adwords training courses allow you to train your team to successfully set up and run your own Google Adwords campaigns. The training course is designed to teach you to set up and manage your own AdWords campaigns.

The half day course includes:

• Why use Google Adwords?
• How to set up and structure Adwords account
• Using the dashboard
• Setting up campaigns and ad groups
• The three building blocks of AdWords – keywords, ads and landing pages
• Managing and measuring your AdWords campaigns

We can train up to 8 people at your offices and courses can be tailor made to your requirements. 

To find out more or book training call 01603 513080 or visit our website   Bigfork 01603 513080 www.bigfork.co.uk hello@bigfork.co.uk

We recently conducted a Twitter poll asking people why they use (or why they would use) a telephone answering service and the results surprised us! We fully expected the top reason to be to save money – but it was actually near the bottom of the result table.

Top reasons to use a telephone answering service

Not only did we learn the answers to our question but we also learnt the value of market research! And here’s how the results polled:

41% human contact:

Never underestimate the value of speaking to a ‘real’ person. Customers who call your company want to speak to a person. They don’t want to hear the engaged tone or hear an automated message – they’ll simply move on if they do.

25% save time:

It’s great to have a busy telephone line – it can show your business is a great success! But how long is the average sales call? How many calls do you take that are nuisance calls? Filtering your calls means that you can pick out the important ones and call the customer back at an allotted time.

18% save money:

Do you employ a receptionist and incur all associated costs (wages, NI, sickness, holiday etc) or do you pay a small monthly fee to have a call-answering service deal with your calls?

16% not missing a sales call:

If you’re with a customer or client or in a meeting you’re probably not going to want to interrupt to take a call. That missed call could be a sales order and nobody can afford to throw business away.

  We also think the following a consideration too Giving a big business feel

You might not want your customers to realise you are dealing with them from your dining room or your bedroom. ‘Pretending’ to have a receptionist can give your business a professional front.

Professional call handling

What if dealing with people over the telephone is not your strong point? Or you can only take calls during anti-social hours? Experienced professionals can take calls on your behalf.

We can offer many reasons to use a telephone answering service. But why not think how you and your business could benefit? Reap the benefits and guarantee your customers always talk to a real person!

Try for yourself and sign up for a 7-day free trial with Pocket Receptionist