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Need an Organisational Psychologist? You might think not, but please read on…

At OPCoachUK we describe ourselves as organisational psychologists and coaches. We also have deep HR expertise. However, we know that doesn’t automatically describe our offering. Particularly with our focus on SMEs, we know that we need to outline what we do, and how it creates positive impact. We don’t expect any CEO to cry out, “Help! For the love of Mike, I need an Organisational Psychologist!”. However, experience tells us that we have a lot to offer any growing SME with ambitions to be a top employer. At the highest level, we enable organisations to give to and get the best from their people in a way that is fully tailored to business goals, culture and individuals. We have over 10 years of experience of being the oil that gets the engine into perfect performance and allows the leaders to drive the supercar. That still isn’t very descriptive, so in more detail, what we do depends on the size of business. In organisations that are pre-HR, we can set you on the road to building effective and efficient mechanisms that enable your team members to grow with you. We know how to accurately define an organisation’s culture so that the culture feeds the organisation’s success. All the best People/HR processes feed and refine that culture, while boosting the success of the business. We can also start from a point of enabling you to manage your team’s performance in a meaningful, but lightly engineered way. The words “performance management” can be very off-putting to a CEO who values their team already, but performance maximisation is quite a different thing. Light touch, heavy impact performance maximisation enables leaders, managers and their teams to stay firmly on a path of professional growth. In larger organisations that are more “M” and already have an HR/People team, we work to ensure that the nuts and bolts of people management are aligned to your business goals. We can provide training and upskill your managers in the smooth running of their team. If it will work in your business, we can introduce the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to smooth working. Alternatively, we can embed CliftonStrengths to help people to focus on their talents. We also offer straightforward, traditional coaching to leaders and managers. Your people come to sessions with something they want to work on professionally, and we enable and encourage them to succeed within your framework. Coaching is very powerful; it powers growth, reduces stress and drives up retention. In terms of duration, we can do short-order pieces of work, such as a culture diagnostic. We can do medium-term projects, such as setting up/refining people processes. We can even do long-term work, where your team gets to work with the same coach over a longer period. In these instances we become the oil that keeps the team growing and we vastly reduce the time a leadership team spends on negative People issues. Regardless of size of business, this begins with discussion around your business goals and your aspirations for your team. Tell us your ambitions and we will suggest how we can support you. If you are situated close to Norwich or Bristol, we’d love to come and meet you. Otherwise, we have traditionally performed most of our work remotely, so you’re more than welcome to speak to us through video call. We naturally won’t charge for the initial consultation or the resulting proposal. The first 10 leaders who respond to this post and decide to go ahead on the first project of any size will get a 10% discount on our usual prices for that project. For more information, please contact us through opcoach.uk and mention NCC August 2024.

Trust, but Verify: Tips to manage risk of employment theft and fraud from your business

Trust, but Verify. A phrase you may have heard from Ronald Regan during his time as president of the USA. Being an employer, you are the president and leader of your company. A company you may have started from scratch and poured everything into making it a success. You have a team of staff employed to support the business and help it grow and exceed your expectations. The staff have been chosen by you. You trust them and have a good working relationship to know the work will be completed. But how well do you really know them? We often hear leaders and directors tell us how they know their staff well and can tell us about family connections from the chat they had at the kettle last week while making a cup of tea. But do your employees really tell you everything? The answer I’m afraid is no. You could have a brilliant member of staff but for whatever reason a personal matter puts them into financial vulnerability. You may notice they are not as punctual with their time keeping. They may be slightly quieter than normal maybe. You know them though, right? They are continuing to manage your payroll on their own and keeping up with the workload during your own busy workload right? Then you realise money is unaccounted for. Verify. You notice this has been ongoing for over 12 months. Tens of thousands of pounds gone. No trace and it is all gone. That one employee who you knew well and trusted but didn’t verify, has taken thousands from the business. The money has gone. The employee used the money to keep afloat after that personal matter which made them financially vulnerable. Verify. This is the key. Former GP staff member pleads guilty to stealing £22k from surgery A former GP staff member who had taken over the sole banking of cash from payments for prescriptions and other items was not banking the money and keeping it for themselves. This went on from 2019 til 2022 before it was picked up by external accountants. Placing one employee as the sole responsibility for banking and cash transactions is where this GP practice went wrong. They did not evaluate their staff processes to ensure it went through 2 or 3 other employees to verify any transactions. It unfortunately went undetected for nearly 3 years. This employee is currently awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of fraud by abuse of position and acquiring, using, or possessing criminal property at North East Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court on 27 June 2024. Some tips to manage risk of employment theft and fraud from your business:

  1. Know your employee – Employees at risk of stealing from your business maybe suffering financially in their personal life. Before employment, we always advise using our background checks. We can verify references, build a picture of their personal life and carry out financial checks to ensure they are not vulnerable to committing theft to help a dire personal situation.
  2. Notice change in behaviour – Are they turning up to work late? Unusually stressed and short tempered? This may indicate personal problems which could lead to poor judgement. The welfare of employees should be paramount for an effective workforce and spotting any unusual behaviour first could prevent further problems.
  3. Track your finances – Always keep on top of your finances within the business. Once a month ensure your numbers match up. Doing so regularly can highlight any anomalies quickly. The sooner it is detected the quicker to tracing the culprit and preventing further loss of revenue. Also ensure you are completing the audit to ensure numbers aren’t presented as being tampered with.
  4. Staff sickness – When an employee is on long term sick that they are being paid for, you want to ensure this is the case. If you have any concerns your employee is fit for work we can carry out surveillance to gather any evidence of wrongdoing. Detecting this quickly again will ensure further loss of revenue.
  5. Security – Ensure you have well developed security equipment within your business. High quality CCTV systems are an effective deterrent to dishonest employees. This can also ensure employment safety from other staff and the public.

If you have any concerns around your employees or business partners, don’t hesitate to get in touch for a free consultation to discuss how our services can help. And remember, Trust, but Verify! If you need assistance for any of our employment or commercial services, get in touch!

  • Employment Investigations
  • Surveillance
  • Theft/Fraud in the workplace
  • Person Tracing
  • Asset Tracing

www.taylorinvestigations.co.uk | enquiries@taylorinvestigations.co.uk | 01603 904031

We’re looking for a volunteer with an interest in art!

The BUILD Wednesday Club is for adults with disabilities and meets on South Park Avenue in Norwich. Due to expansion of our programmes to meet demand we are looking to boost the team of volunteers who support art and craft activities. You’ll need to be available between 7pm and 9pm on a Wednesday evening (not all, but at least once a fortnight) and be prepared to go through some induction, safeguarding and disability awareness training to keep you safe, and our members safe, but also to help you share your skills and interests. If you are interested find out more through https://www.getinvolvednorfolk.org.uk/o/The-BUILD-Charity/opportunities/Art-programme-support-volunteer-Weds-evenings/63919.

September programme has something for everyone at the BUILD Charity

Our social, leisure and learning community activity programme for September includes Sunday lunch club visits to The Black Boys PH in Aylsham, and Supper Clubs visits to Cuba Revolution in Norwich. Two sessions of physical exercise take place at the Norwich Fitness Academy, whilst our regular ten pin Tuesday sessions happen at Hollywood Bowl (Norwich) and Strikes (Dereham). 69 separate activities over the 30 days of September are on offer to anyone, with any disability aged 18 or over in Norfolk, through our affordable membership scheme. Full details at https://www.buildcharity.co.uk/joining-in.

 

Volunteers sought for bar work raising funds for two Norfolk charities

In the absence of a full Norwich Beer Festival this autumn, BUILD Charity Volunteer, and local Beer Sommelier, Cheryl Cade, is organising the World Pop-up Beer Bar at the end of October in the Castle Social area of Castle Quarter shopping centre. The BUILD Charity and Headway Norfolk & Waveney are two Norfolk charities set to benefit from any profits made at the 4-day event, but ahead of its full launch volunteers are being recruited to serve behind bars, wash glasses, load fridges or assist with other aspects of the event. In return they will get to sample the alcoholic and alcohol-free goods and attend a staff party on the Saturday night. Full details of how to get involved at  Bar server volunteers | The BUILD Charity.

Camping weekend for people with disabilities teaches new living skills

The BUILD Charity has hosted a camping weekend for 12 of its members at the Kearns Foundation’s Log Cabin and Campsite at Trimingham in North Norfolk. Many of the BUILD members live in residential care or supported living, or with family carers, so the chance to be outside and learn open fire cooking skills, teamwork, self-management, as well as tent pitching takes them very much out of their usual comfort zone but according to CEO and event organiser James Kearns the benefits are wider. “These weekends build self-confidence, time management, budgeting and social skills in a fast, but fun environment showing our members that they are often capable of being more independent than they, or sometimes their carers, might think”. To find out more about BUILD’s GetAways programme visit GetAways and the BUILD Travel Service.

Student night returns to Chantry Place this October

On Thursday 3rd October 2024, Chantry Place will host a student night event from 4pm until 8pm.

Brands confirmed as taking part include Lush, JD, Rosa’s Thai, GBK, The Real Greek, Levi’s, Lisa Angel and many more with discounts of up to 50 per cent on the night exclusively for students. Join the Chantry Place team on the dining terrace for spin the wheel and be in the chance to win hundreds of prizes, including vouchers, prizes and a £200 Urban Outfitters voucher. Other highlights include a DJ at JD, a spin the wheel at Schuh, buy one get one free at Bubble CiTea, the first 100 purchasing anything at Lush get a free goody bag, plus (at a cost) face mask making and bubble bar making, free goody bag at Lisa Angel with purchase for the first 100 students and Lisa Angel have a Edmunds Cocktail pop up to attend for tasters while they shop (over age of 18), plus free prawn crackers at Rosa’s Thai and 50% off. Paul McCarthy, general manager at Chantry Place, said: “All students are welcome to join us for our student event and enjoy late night shopping and exclusive discounts and offers. Chantry Place offers so much for students and we can’t wait to welcome new and current students to see what we have to offer and enjoy browsing the discounts and offers available.” For more information about Chantry Place and to see the list of who is taking part, please visit www.chantryplace.co.uk or follow their social media @chantryplacenorwich. Chantry Place is home to stores including Apple, Flannels, Frasers, H&M and Zara, and restaurants including Ask Italian, Wagamamas, YO! and more. All offers and discounts are correct at time of writing but may be changed or withdrawn by the retailer. For more information on Chantry Place, visit www.chantryplace.co.uk/news

Funding for marketing strategy support available in Norfolk

Want to get a marketing strategy in place for your biz but need help funding it?

You may be eligible for funding that can provide financial assistance for marketing consultancy support.

Here at Nurture Marketing, we offer a half-day marketing strategy session where we create a bespoke marketing strategy for your business with you in our boardroom at Blofield Business Centre for £500 + VAT. You’ll come away with an Excel spreadsheet to cover off your marketing plan for the next 12 months and bags of fresh ideas.

Find out more here

MD Rechenda in Norfolk Director magazine

Our esteemed Managing Director Rechenda has graced the front cover of Norfolk Director magazine.

The theme of the magazine was aptly ‘Nurture’ and Rechenda explained her career history, how she set up Nurture Marketing and her plans for the future

She said: “To appear in this prestigious magazine is a career highlight to date. We have achieved so much in the last year and a half but there is still much more to be done.”

Read the article in full here: https://ukdirectormagazines.co.uk/lead-interview-rechenda-smith/