Member News

Pure’s first Charity Leaders Group of 2020 saw 34 senior leaders from charities across the Eastern region come together to discuss collaboration with other charitable organisations and with local businesses.

The Charity Leaders Group is organised by professional recruitment specialists Pure, in partnership with accountancy firm PEM, to provide a forum where local charity leaders can network and discuss issues related to the not-for-profit sector. To ensure the events are as valuable as possible, each session is based on a topic suggested by the charity leaders themselves. The chosen theme for the first event of 2020 was ‘collaboration’. The event provided the opportunity for charity leaders to share ideas on how local charities can benefit from working together and to explore the best ways to engage and collaborate with other businesses in the community. The guest speakers were Jonathan Martin, CEO of YMCA Trinity Group, Joanna Woolcock, Director of Finance for the Church Commissioners, and Mark Freeman, Interim Chief Executive Officer at CCVS.

Jonathan Martin has worked for the YMCA for nearly 30 years. Now CEO of YMCA Trinity Group, his responsibilities include the charity’s strategic direction and focus. He shared his own successful experiences of collaborative working and the mutual benefits that can be achieved, including saving money and resources, bringing people together, problem solving and increased learning opportunities. He described how collaboration can result in the collision of good ideas, which in turn sparks great ideas. 

Joanna Woolcock has over a decade of experience in senior finance roles within the charity sector. Her presentation was centred on the sharing of services, and the efficiency and effectiveness, which can be achieved through this form of collaboration. Based on the experience of putting shared services into practice across four separate National Church institutions, all of which support the Church of England, Joanna explored the benefits including greater cost effectiveness, improved service quality and business continuity. She also advised on potential issues to be considered, including managing conflicting priorities, maintaining control and direction, and fostering shared cultures and values.

Mark Freeman is interim Chief Executive at CCVS, a registered charity set up to champion and support community and voluntary groups, and to promote volunteering across Cambridge City, South Cambridgeshire and Fenland. He was able to share valuable insights from the ‘Making Connections’ research which CCVS has carried out in conjunction with Cambridge City Council. This explores the current and potential development of employer-supported skilled volunteering. Mark emphasised how relationship management is crucial to this form of collaboration, as skilled volunteering is most likely to arise from existing relationships. He encouraged a proactive approach to seeking collaborative opportunities and reminded that businesses also benefit from engaging in skilled volunteering as it develops staff leadership skills, builds community links, aids employee retention and supports employee health and wellbeing.

David Culley, Director at Pure and host of the event, said: “The Charity Leaders Group is a unique opportunity for chief executives and senior leaders to meet and share experiences with a specific focus on the characteristics of not-for-profit organisations and the particular opportunities and challenges facing this sector. We always aim to ensure the events are based on themes that prompt meaningful discussions and the suggested subject of collaboration proved to be extremely thought-provoking. Not only can collaboration be cathartic, with a problem shared being a problem halved, it can also bring a whole host of other benefits. When organisations and people successfully collaborate, they can broaden their networks, work together to resolve problems, share suggestions, spark new ideas, learn from each other, and ultimately achieve better outcomes as a result.”

The Charity Leaders Group was held at the Allia Future Business Centre in Cambridge. For more information about future events visit www.prs.uk.com/events.

To celebrate International Women’s Day 2020 on Sunday 8th March, NatWest joined forces with Norfolk Chambers of Commerce to bring you a unique and free annual event with inspiring guest speakers. 

Over eighty guests attended our event on Thursday 5th March at The International Aviation Academy ahead of International Women’s Day. It was a non-stop upbeat morning with positivity and empowerment running throughout!

Following Andy Gray’s introduction, we listened to our speakers; four incredibly talented and witty women from a mix of sectors.

Lauren Fuller, NatWest Customer Journey Developer and Young Banker of the Year Finalist spoke of NatWest’s Woman’s Worth Collective, part of their ongoing commitment to equality, and challenging stereotypes. She also spoke of the ways in which they are encouraging and enabling women to dream bigger with their entrepreneurial plans. 

Hannah Wooller, Managing Director of Hudson Architects spoke of the strength and focus of her own Mother, and how her work ethic enabled her to leave the working parent guilt firmly at the door. Combining parenthood with a challenging career is achievable, but we have to challenge the unconscious bias that surrounds us. 

Minnie Moll, Chief Executive of Jarrold Retail asked, ‘What does leadership look like?’We are all aware of why we want to challenge the preconceptions, but what is important, is How? How do we do that? We have to want it; we have to support it and we have to look at the language Bias.

CJ Green, Co-Founder & Executive Director of Brave Goose asked us to feel the fear and run with it! If it’s not scary then it’s not challenging! Don’t seek permission and take the risks!

Fiona Ryder, TCD Media and President of The Norfolk Chambers of Commerce hosted our panel of speakers, and one of the areas they discussed was men only clubs and how do they fit into the new narrative?

With eighty guests attending it was a lively discussion, with many questions from the audience and sadly we were short on time, and it felt like we could have stayed all day!

The talented Rebecca Osbourne kindly did a visual recording of the morning. 

Let UEA’s Gateway to Growth Team simplify the hiring process and unlock UEA graduate potential for your business. Our bespoke recruitment support packages are designed to connect you with UEA graduate talent and enhance your ability to recruit.

Gateway to Growth is an innovative project designed to boost engagement between graduates and Norfolk’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

The University of East Anglia (UEA) led a successful bid to the Office for Students Challenge Competition with support from New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), Chamber of Commerce, Norfolk County Council, Norwich City Council, South Norfolk Council, UEA SU, Hethel Innovation Centre, Kings Lynn Innovation Centre, Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor and the St Georges Works.

The tailor-made project comprises three strands; dedicated recruitment support for Norfolk SMEs, access to flexible graduate resource for partners of the project and additional support for UEA graduates who want to stay in the region and need support finding a job.

Dedicated Recruitment Support for Norfolk’s SMEs

The Gateway to Growth Team will simplify the hiring process and connect you with UEA graduate talent. Our expert knowledge of the graduate labour market and cost effective recruitment support will increase your visibility and enhance your ability to recruit UEA graduate talent. Your bespoke package could include:

• Improved job postings on the UEA MyCareerCentral vacancy advertising platform that will specifically target UEA graduates
• Support to write your job description in a way that will appeal to UEA graduates
• Increased exposure for your organisation and vacancies through our social media channels, networks and events
• Access to an online application form system via our MyCareerCentral platform and support with UEA candidate administration
• Support to co-ordinate and facilitate an interview/assessment day

For more information please visit our Gateway to Growth website or contact the Gateway to Growth Team on 01603 597757 or info.gateway2growth@uea.ac.uk .

Daniel Wu has opened a new walk-in tax and accountancy practice on 132 Bellegrove Road in Welling.

Daniel Wu, who joined TaxAssist Accountants in October 2019, brings with him almost 10 years of experience in tax consulting with the Big Four firms. Having found the ideal location from which to operate his welcoming and accessible shop, he is relishing working for himself.

“It’s been a long-held dream to run my own practice in my home town,” said Daniel. “I was attracted to working with small business clients and am passionate about providing a first-class service, helping them with their businesses and directly impacting on my local community.

“I was fortunate to find the ideal shop so quickly and am pleased with the fit-out and look of the shop, which provides the perfect environment for clients to come in and discuss their tax and accounting requirements. I would encourage anyone to pop in for a chat over a cup of coffee for a free initial consultation to find out more about us.”

The TaxAssist Accountants network has been operating successfully for 25 years and has over 365 shops and offices right across the UK. It specialises in servicing the needs of small businesses and currently supports over 76,000 clients.

If you are interested in finding out more about joining TaxAssist Accountants, regular Discovery Days are held, where you meet with the Directors of the franchise and find out more about the technical and business development support on offer. Call 0800 0188297 to find out more.  

Chris Sargisson, Norfolk Chambers of Commerce CEO chats with Julie Hunt, Managing Director of Face to Face Finance, a Norwich company with a very novel approach to engaging new markets.

I asked Julie what prompted Face to Face Finance to create their financially savvy little bear, called Eddie Teddie.

Julie explained “Our clients’ needs are at the very heart of everything we do, and in creating this character we can encourage and engage with a younger audience in a positive and friendly way.” 

“The earlier someone puts plans in place, the more likely they are to reach their long-term financial goals. Through Eddie we are able to engage on a different level, and our aim is to promote financial awareness as early on in life as possible.”

“Eddie’s articles and his book are aimed at young children. But it’s usually only going to reach them via their parent or carer – often after their grandparent or an older relative has pointed them in that direction. Our hope is that by getting finance on the agenda, parents of young children will stop and give their own financial situation some thought.”

She tells me “It has become a fantastic platform for us to connect with our clients, whether through our blogs or his book. We’ve had some great feedback from our clients who do share Eddie’s antics with their children and grandchildren.”

“Eddie’s book has gone down particularly well. We’ve been giving copies to our clients. Several of them have come back and asked for more copies! We know the book has made it as far as America, Australia and Canada! It’s also in local book shops so is helping get the Face to Face name in front of new audiences.”

It is clear that this platform fills an important educational role for the next generation of customers, and Julie told me “whilst his presence enables us to talk about finance, we also get to share some of the other values which are important to us as a business – such as sustainability and kindness without sounding too worthy.”

With Eddie proving such a hit, I was interested to know what’s next on his agenda?

“Eddie will be getting involved in our chosen charity for 2020, Age UK, and coming along to one of their Chinwags. He’s also beavering away on this next book – keep an eye out for it this summer!”

Jarrold Training has been appointed a Gold Learning Partner by global qualification provider NEBOSH. The world-class training is available to Health and Safety professionals throughout the East of England.

NEBOSH inspectors judged Jarrold Training as ‘greatly exceeding the learning excellence principles.’  Recognition at this level further cements Jarrold Training as the leading learning provider for the East of England.

The NEBOSH courses Jarrold Training provide represent a great return on investment for employers. Being certified means workers can enjoy a safer workplace. They can also rest assured that their employer is committed to their health and safety.

Susie Jarrold, Managing Director of Jarrold Training, outlined what this achievement means, “To be identified as greatly exceeding expectations by such a well-established and globally respected organisation is huge recognition for us. It’s also validation of the hard work and dedication that our trainers and customer support team put in.

“As a company dedicated to helping others achieve brilliance and realise their potential, this is evidence we are achieving our goals.”

NEBOSH stands for The National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health. Its qualifications are highly respected by governments, organisations and professional bodies around the world. Around 50,000 candidates attend NEBOSH certified courses, with exams taken in over 110 countries.

Jarrold Training began delivering NEBOSH training and invigilating course exams in 2014. It offers a variety of course choices to help professionals build their own career path. These include awards and certificates in health, safety and environmental management and can be tailored for different environments, from offices to construction sites.

Jarrold Training has been a trusted and valued learning provider for over 30 years. It helps people from all industries to “Learn, Develop and Be Brilliant”. It provides relevant and up-to-date training that can be applied directly to the professional environment. Jarrold Training aims to help employees become “Brilliant professionals”.

Don’t miss the launch event for Best Employers Eastern Region 2020

Businesses across the Eastern region can book a place at the Best Employers Eastern Region 2020 launch event, which takes place in Newmarket on Wednesday 18 March.

Best Employers Eastern Region brings together organisations from across the East of England in the collective aim of increasing employee engagement and productivity. The 2020 launch conference looks set to be an extremely inspiring event which business leaders, HR professionals and anyone with a responsibility for employee engagement and leadership are encouraged to attend.

Co-founded by professional recruitment specialists Pure, and psychometrics experts eras ltd, Best Employers Eastern Region is returning for the fifth time. Now sponsored by Archant and Birketts, the two-yearly initiative has become a force for change which business leaders across the region are using to develop their organisation’s culture and engagement levels. Best Employers 2018 was an outstanding year with over 140 organisations taking part, approximately 15,000 participants, eight award winners and 40 gold or platinum accreditations.

Guest speakers at the 2020 launch event include two engagement experts discussing how to cultivate innovative and engaging places to work. David Smith, author, consultant and business speaker, will talk about creating a highly productive, performance-based culture. He will draw on 35 years’ worth of experience in corporate change management, the last 15 years of which were spent in the turnaround of the Asda Retail Business. C-J Green, Co-founder and Executive Director of People and HR services firm BraveGoose, which focuses on the future of work, and on modern, progressive HR, will explore the tipping points for growth and engagement. Throughout the day, eight regional business leaders will also share their experiences of participating in Best Employers, including Jon Woolston, Managing Partner at MHA Larking Gowen (winners of the Best Employer category at the Norfolk Business Awards 2019) and Andy Wood, CEO at Adnams.

Lynn Walters, Executive Director at Pure and founder of Best Employers Eastern Region, said: “Creating the right culture in an environment where people can thrive is at the heart of any leader’s priorities. The Best Employers conference will bring people from like-minded organisations together to share ideas, solutions and best practice on achieving this. All of our guest speakers are passionate about employee engagement and understand how important it is in the quest to increase productivity, drive innovation and boost performance. They recognise the impact it has on achieving competitive success through enhanced employer brand and for the development of a culture which attracts, engages and retains top talent.”

The launch event will also mark the opening of the Best Employers free, ready to use and expertly designed employee engagement survey. This provides businesses with the information they need to understand their current levels of engagement, to track their progress and benchmark their organisation against some of the region’s top employers.

Lynn added: “The free employee survey, provided by eras ltd, helps organisations to understand and measure their employee engagement, and provides clarity on how and where to focus practical ideas. The more employees participate, the more reflective the feedback, and our guest speakers will share their experiences of delivering the survey and getting people involved. We are excited for Best Employers 2020. Each year the number of businesses taking part increases. It not only has a significant impact on each participating organisation, it has become an exceptional showcase of the great employers here in our region, supporting the region’s growth.”

For more information about Best Employers Eastern Region visit www.best-employers.co.uk or click here to book a place at the conference.

Hot on the heels of two wins at the Norfolk & Suffolk Tourism Awards, the Norwich Science Festival has opened up their sponsorship opportunities for the 2020 Festival.

The Festival, co-ordinated by The Forum in partnership with many organisations across the region, recently won both Family Event And Experience of the Year and Marketing Campaign Of The Year at the awards.

With over 137,000 visits in 2019, and an estimated economic value of over £2,716,000 to the local economy, sponsorship of Norwich Science Festival is a fantastic opportunity to reach new audiences, raise brand awareness, and increase knowledge of career opportunities in STEM sectors.

The Festival is made possible thanks to income generated by The Forum’s car park and the support of partners, but relies on sponsorship from businesses and organisations in the region to reach new audiences and bring in household names such as previous headline speakers Chris Packham, Dr Jane Goodall and Helen Sharman.

As well as raising brand awareness, sponsors can contribute to the Festival programme, incorporate into their Corporate Social Responsibility programme, engage with diverse audiences, and support the promotion of science and STEM education.

Joe Randlesome, Marketing Executive at ROARR! Dinosaur Adventure, said: “It was a privilege to sponsor the Zoology Day as part of Norwich Science Festival. We brought some of our animals, including ferrets, snakes and cockroaches, which allowed us to educate visitors about our Secret Animal Garden, the animals and their care. We would really recommend partnering with the Festival, we spoke to so many visitors about our park – many were really interested in dinosaurs and potentially visiting us. The Festival marketing was exceptional and it was impeccably organised on the day too.”

Find out more about the benefits of sponsoring #NorwichSciFest at https://bit.ly/SponsorNSF or contact Festival Producer Natalie Bailey on natalie.bailey@theforumnorwich.co.uk.  

The Tudor Lodge Consultants SEO team is very happy to announce a new partnership this month, this time with Griggs Homes. The family-owned construction and property development company operating in North London and the home counties wants to boost its online presence in the property sector, and through a white hat SEO strategy, this will be achieved via the expertise of our highly skilled team.

About Griggs Homes

Griggs Homes is completely dedicated to creating the home of their clients’ dreams and is passionate about providing inspirational, innovative design alongside its wealth of experience in the field.

The family-owned firm specialises in new luxury property developments in premier locations across the home counties, as well as in the commercial sector in areas of London.

How Tudor Lodge Consultants is helping Griggs Homes

Landing pages: informative, concise landing pages that have relevant keywords are integral to being ranked and indexed properly by Google. These factors both have a huge impact on how a particular page will rank. Consequently, the SEO team at Tudor Lodge Consultants has made sure that the luxury property construction firm landing pages are promoting key terms such as bespoke builders, and luxury property developers.

Building links: another important aspect of a white-hat SEO strategy is building trustworthy links within the relevant domain. In this case, with Griggs Homes, it’s making sure that the company is building backlinks with reputable websites and companies in the homes and property sector.

This is incredibly important because establishing a website as trustworthy through multiple backlinks leads to higher search engine rankings, which is the ultimate goal. This is because Google will tend to rank websites with a higher number of good quality links more positively, as they are deemed as more relevant and authoritative than others in results pages for a query.

Here at The Enterprise Centre we’re really excited about the launch of our new 3D virtual tour, courtesy of local business, Vortex Visual. The tour is now live on our website and beautifully showcases the building to anyone who hasn’t had the opportunity to visit in person. You can see more for yourself here.

Covering all commercial areas of the building, Vortex Visual’s Will Wooster and Max Giddings kindly came to The Enterprise Centre early on a Sunday morning in December to ensure the spaces could be filmed when completely empty of people. It was also an ideal opportunity to get some shots of the sunrise from the stunning roof terrace.

Given the high end architectural design of the building, the option to show potential clients the tour has great implications for The Enterprise Centre. From the early days of opening in June 2015, the team were quickly aware that once people had visited the building they would be keen either to base their business there or hold a future event. Fearn Ainsworth, Commercial Manager, said ‘We’re delighted with the new 3D tour of the building. It truly is a stunning space and now people can see that for themselves even if they don’t have the opportunity to visit in person.’

The Norfolk Chamber are in part to thank for bringing the 3D tour to fruition as Angela Macdonald, Tenancy and Business Development Manager for The Enterprise Centre, first met Will and Max when visiting the Vortex Visual stand at the October Chamber B2B event at Norfolk Showground. Following a couple of meetings on location and the subsequent filming, start-up Vortex Visual have also signed up for one of the tenancy packages with The Enterprise Centre. It just goes to show how productive business events can be!

More information available from:

www.uea.ac.uk/adapt/the-enterprise-centre 01603 591366, theenterprisecentre.reception@uea.ac.uk

www.vortexvisual.co.uk 01603 733187, hello@vortexvisual.co.uk  

Greater Anglia has been named Train Operator of the Year in the Rail Business Awards 2020 – after judges praised the company for continuing to innovate and improve while also preparing for the arrival of new trains. Last year, Greater Anglia delivered a number of customer-focused improvements, including introducing the Norwich in 90 service, improving its delay repay compensation scheme (to include all delays of 15 minutes and over) and starting to introduce brand new trains. At the same time, the company made real progress in improving punctuality, which resulted in over 35,000 more trains arriving on time in 2019 (compared to 2018). This sustained punctuality drive led to some months of record-breaking performance, especially on the Great Eastern Main Line and Southend line, which saw four successive months of over 94.5 per cent of trains on time from March to June – some of the best-ever performance seen on these routes. The company also continued to invest in stations, car parks and new services and saw passenger numbers increase. Car park improvements included extending Manningtree and Shenfield car parks and installing Automatic Number Plate Recognition at 20 car parks across the network. A new station, Meridian Water, opened in June, with additional services between Stratford and Meridian Water starting in September. Meanwhile, Greater Anglia launched further ticketing initiatives to make it easier for customers to buy season tickets on Smart Cards, including developing the Greater Anglia app so season ticket holders can upload their season tickets onto their Smart Cards using their mobile phones. Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director, said: “To be named train operator of the year is a tremendous accolade and a credit to the hard work and determination of everyone in our team, across the whole of Greater Anglia, to make our service much better for our customers. We have seen our improvements in punctuality recognised across the industry and have been named most improved London and the South East operator for punctuality on our commuter lines in Essex and Hertfordshire. Customer satisfaction has also increased by 8% to 81%. We’ve replaced all the trains on our rural routes with high quality, state-of-the-art new trains, with more seats and a much better travelling environment which, as they bed in, are starting to improve our reliability, as well as our customers’ on-board experiences. We have also begun to bring in new intercity trains on the main line between Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester and London. We recognise, of course, that last year ended on a difficult note on our rural lines due to signalling issues and that punctuality is not consistently where we want it to be so far this year. We’re sorry for those occasions when we have let people down and we are determined to get performance back on track as soon as possible. We fully intend to live up to our new title of train operator of the year, to continue to improve our service to our customers, raising standards further and continuing the roll out of a complete fleet of new trains.” The citation for Greater Anglia’s award at the Rail Business Awards, which are organised by the Railway Gazette, said : “Greater Anglia had an excellent year in 2018-19, continuing to innovate while preparing for the arrival of its new trains. The judges commended it for launching the Norwich in 90 service with existing stock, whilst also improving regional and commuter services.” Last year, the Stansted Express Liverpool Street to Stansted Airport service, which is managed by Greater Anglia, was named international operator of the year in the Global Air Rail Awards.

The annual celebration of science and curiosity, Norwich Science Festival, won big at last night’s Norfolk & Suffolk Tourism Awards, with two awards.

The Festival, co-ordinated by The Forum in partnership with many organisations across the region, including UEA and the wider Norwich Research Park, won both Family Event And Experience Of The Year and Marketing Campaign Of The Year at the awards ceremony held at Milsons Kesgrave Hall in Suffolk last night.

Natalie Bailey, Norwich Science Festival Producer, said: “We’re thrilled to have won the best Family Event for Norwich Science Festival. This is a brilliant recognition of how far the Festival has come its first few years, and it’s all thanks to our wonderful partners, funders, sponsors, contributors and the wider Forum team, who all come together to make it such a success.”

Jan Robertson, Norwich Science Festival Marketing Manager, said: “We’re delighted to win best Marketing Campaign for our 2018 Festival. We worked with the wider Forum team and our partners to raise awareness of this engaging and fun Festival, and with DesignPod to create exciting family friendly graphics. It’s fantastic win this award, and to acknowledge the collaborative, multi-channel marketing campaign which has helped grow the Festival immensely and reach new audiences.”

The 2020 Norwich Science Festival will take place during October half-term, with plenty of activities, talks, workshops and shows for all. Last year, over 137,000 visits were made to Science Festival events across the nine days, and generated an estimated economic value of over £2,716,000 to the local economy.

To keep up-to-date with announcements, follow @NorwichSciFest on Twitter, or Norwich Science Festival on Facebook and Instagram, and keep an eye on norwichsciencefestival.co.uk for headline announcements in July and the full programme at the start of September.