Being Menopause savvy is a vital part of HR, diversity, wellbeing, inclusion and belonging in any company. Women are working longer and later into life and in increasingly senior roles. In fact, a study released by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) shows that the average retirement age for women is 64. Therefore, there is no doubt that menopause is a topic that requires careful and quality awareness, training, and support. Seeing as menopause is a natural phenomenon, all women deserve as much information about it as they receive about puberty and pregnancy. Even though not all women end…
Author: sme-admin
How can SMEs stay one step ahead of increasingly intelligent, coordinated, and contemporary criminals? Is to your business at risk and how affordable is it to upgrade to a better solution? Are SMEs behind the curve of protection against savvy criminals? Is there an increasing risk to SMEs from contemporary criminals? It may not be an existential threat, but yes, however, businesses who have not completed a security review may not realise the level of risk to them. SMEs grow at a significant rate, increasing their value of assets whilst never considering the impact this can have on the risk…
Claire Watson – Managing Director at Airmatic, gives us her thoughts and insights after this years International Women In Engineering Day There are more women in engineering roles: Recent data shows that around 16.5% of engineers are women, a 2% growth since the INWED Impact Report 2021 was published. Whether it is an administrative, managerial or technical focus, statistics show that jobs in the engineering sector can often be overlooked by school leavers and women looking for a career change. My name is Claire Watson and I’m the Director of Bury-based ductwork and fabrications company, Airmatic. After this years International Women…
UK micro-businesses and small to medium sized businesses (SMEs) who provide their employees with work phones are losing out on over one hour of working time per employee, per week, on average, as poor connectivity means that staff cannot get online or complete work effectively. For medium sized businesses, this equates to up to 250 hours of working time per week. The research, conducted by Three UK in partnership with YouGov and Development Economics, found that: Loss of business revenue has a significant impact on the British economy – an estimated loss of economic output (GVA) amounting to £7.7bn every…
Alex Tupman, CEO at Mode Solutions discusses the importance of cyber hygiene and stopping the spread of Covid cybercrime: Moving an entire business online isn’t an easy task, so it’s no surprise that mistakes were made in March 2020. Many organisations are only now discovering their rapid deployment of remote working infrastructure, tools and software may have succeeded in supporting staff working from home during the pandemic, but failed to create a ‘cyber safe’ environment. The acceleration of digital transformation often resulted in gaps, weak spots and lowered cyber defences. While companies were distracted with the logistics of keeping business…
Amazon announces the launch of Small Business, Big Dreams: an interactive, virtual livestream aimed at helping up-and-coming entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. The livestreamed discussion will explore the future of young entrepreneurship and how to successfully market a business in the ever-changing social media age of 2022. To tune in for free, head to Amazon UK’s Instagram channel, at 7pm on Thursday 30th June 2022 to take part and submit questions for the panel. Last year, Prime Day saw customers spend over $1.9bn globally on more than 70 million small business products during the promotional period, but with a constantly…
Today’s world is digital, data is king, and for many long-established SMEs, who have successfully operated for 20 or more years, digital transformation is no easy feat – especially given the rate of technological development and changes in customer behaviour (and society in general) due to the pandemic. It can however, mean the very difference between growth and decline, which is why we set out on a simple but crucial transformation journey of our own: building a one-stop shop solution and portal for all of our services, in house. SMEToday spoke to Steve Hoban, CEO of Suresite around the topic…
Cloud firm bridges the chasm between ecommerce platforms and accounting OVERWHELMED ecommerce web developers who are struggling to cope with a pandemic boom in demand have been offered a lifeline, by UK fintech experts who help beat integration headaches. Devs who specialise in ecommerce platforms like Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce – as well as those who offer bespoke systems – are in greater demand than ever as Covid accelerates the retail exodus to online. However, they are also coping with increased pushback from demanding clients, who expect their new ecommerce sites to integrate with accounting software like Sage or Xero, or…
Louise Lawrence, an employment lawyer at Winckworth Sherwood LLP, shares her ten top tips for employees to look out for in their new contract of employment when they are changing jobs: Probationary period A probationary period can have benefits for both parties as if you end up not liking your new role you can move on quickly. However it can also be disenchanting to see that your employment can be terminated on very short notice e.g. one week during the probationary period after it has taken a number of rounds of interviews for you to secure your new role and…
For the first time ever, it’s been reported there are more job vacancies in the UK than there are people to fill them. Thanks to the rise in home working brought about by Covid-19, the candidate pool from which employers are competing to fill them is bigger than ever too. For SMEs operating on a regional or national basis, or within niche sectors this is good news, as the often specialist skill sets they require to continue thriving are within closer reach than ever before. On the flip side, employers of all sizes are more exposed to the possibility of…