< Previous30 Business Link www.blmforum.net HEALTH AND SAFETY eventually cause gears to seize and machinery to become worn and tired. The same goes for employees, except that in many cases they can be harder to replace than a computer that’s running slow. In a factory, there is often a manager in charge of making sure the machinery is up-to-date and running properly, and there should be similar for staff in a business. This is what HR is supposed to be, but HR Departments instead end up being used as tools against employees in many cases, focusing not on helping employees deal with stress so they can be efficient and productive, but on monitoring and reporting on underperforming staff. As one might expect, this only increases stress, giving staff yet more incentive to burn out and abandon a company. Human resources is supposed to be about supporting and looking after staff so that they can work harder and make a company more money, and the best way to do this is to treat them as one would an invaluable piece of equipment – with respect and care. The HSE lists six causes of stress in work, which include the inability to cope with a job’s demands, being overworked, but also a lack of control over how the work is done and a lack of appropriate information. The last is a hostile work environment and relationships. Many of these factors can be managed by a business, and the HSE makes no effort to suggest that businesses need to treat their staff with soft mittens as a lot of © stock.adobe.com/sirichaiwww.blmforum.net Business Link 31 HEALTH AND SAFETY commentators accuse. Instead, focus should be on discussing with staff and seeing what they feel they are lacking. Some of these factors may not be in the control of the company to change, especially given the state of the economy, but if staff feel they are being forced to handle work in an inefficient manner that forces them to do more on a task they could do easier, then discussing with a team about that can not only ease their stress, but explore that option. Similarly, if employees feel that they are not being given enough information to do their jobs effectively, then that is a fault in business practice that should be rectified. In its studies, the HSE also found that the results of high stress among workforces were both subtle and dangerous. High turnover is the most obvious and noticeable change, but other results like increased sickness absence and lower rates of punctuality can be harder to spot. Worse yet, results in testing showed that productivity and worker efficiency dropped significantly, and this can be a death knell for many companies in difficult situations. Losing staff is tricky but having a best earner for the company suddenly start performing at 50% efficiency can be a huge problem, and if the same result is spread out over multiple staff it can mark the beginning of the end for a company. Mental wellbeing is not about coddling staff and wrapping them in bubble-wrap. It’s about understanding that, like a production line, the more worn your team is, the less effective it’s going to be. Businesses that complain about it and do their best to pretend it doesn’t exist are simply sticking their heads in the ground, because it’s an issue that is not going to go away. © stock.adobe.com/DOC RABE Media32 Business Link www.blmforum.net MEET THE EXPERTS Everyone claims to be an expert when, in truth, they’re often making use of local experts in our region. T he word “expert” is thrown around by every business under the sun, all of whom claim to be experts in their fields or to have untold expertise in every part of the process they work in, but the truth of the matter is that it’s too expensive and too difficult to be an expert in every facet of an industry. That’s why businesses make use of suppliers in various fields, all of whom work together to create something whole. Take for instance a construction company. They may well claim they can take an empty plot of land and make a warehouse on it, and that may well be what the customer sees them doing. However, a construction company is only an expert in building. They may use independent architects to help them plan it, rely on designers and modellers to help them decide how much material they have to order, and they may also bring in an ecological analysis agency to look at how the construction will impact the local ecology and what they can do to mitigate that impact so they don’t face any fines. There’s a whole lot more that goes into a project than the one company who completes it and usually claims all the credit. Those companies have a host of experts behind them that are necessary to making it all go to plan. The obvious benefits of outsourcing difficult questions to other companies is that they can be specialists in their field, investing their money into being at the forefront of business law, artificial intelligence, ecology, or data analysis. To have those teams in-house means not only investing in new members of staff but balancing cost against benefit, which can lead to cost-cutting measures, which, in turn, inevitably means that the expertise of these in-house teams falls behind that of outside agencies who make it their whole business. It’s more cost effective, then, to use these outside companies, which is why even giant multinationals continue to use local business experts when they certainly have the financial backing to invest in whatever additional departments they may need. This reliance on outside experts not only creates an ecosystem but allows for experts in specific fields to thrive by taking investment from numerous different companies at once to further their own knowledge. The old adage that “practice makes perfect” applies when a company can focus all its effort and attention on one specific practice. Conversely, those that seek to skip out on experts often face failure. For instance, the high-profile case of Boeing’s repeated issues across the world have been said to be in no small part due to measures taken by the company’s CEO at Expert knowledge Expert knowledge www.blmforum.net Business Link 33 MEET THE EXPERTS Company Profile: Since 1983, Frontier Software has been in the business of providing secure, reliable, compliant, and user- friendly Payroll/HR software and outsourced payroll services. With a wide range of fully integrated software modules, experienced staff, and offices in your region, we can deliver the right Payroll and/or HR solution for your organisation. Product Profile: Frontier Software offers a cloud based, modular solution to streamline and support Payroll and HR processes. Proven software delivers an integrated, functionally rich, and configurable approach to managing the entire employee lifecycle. In addition, outsourced payroll services deliver all the accessibility, flexibility, and control of running payroll in-house, without the headache of maintaining infrastructure and allocating resources. Frontier Software solutions ensure your employees are paid on time and in line with legislation, whilst saving you time and money. With 24/7 access to real time data and a choice of deployment methods, rest assured there’s a solution for your specific requirements. www.frontiersoftware.com 01276 456902 | sales@frontiersoftware.com HR AND PAYROLL SOFTWARE/SERVICES Company Profile: Ask questions, get results. Sim Consultants are experts in CFD analysis, supporting businesses by answering the important questions on fluid flow behaviours, whether those be exerted on a commercial property, jet engine or wind turbine. Sim Consultants brings together experienced analysts and leading software to provide the answers their clients need. Service Profile: Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Analysis is integral to predicting the flow of liquid and gas based on governing equations of conservation of mass, energy and momentum – the Navier-Stokes equations. This is essential in any project where air pressure will constantly flow over a product, be that through an engine, or the blades of a wind turbine, or even on a large commercial property project. A failure to consider the flow of air and the pressures associated with it can lead to costly mistakes. Sim Consultants provides predictions and analysis using extensive software systems and can create cloud-accessed models and charts to accurately show where fluids flow on and around an object, allowing clients to identify inefficiencies ahead of time, potentially saving tens of millions on projects. www.sim-consultants.co.uk quotes@sim-consultants.co.uk COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS (CFD) ANALYSIS ask questions, get results. the time. The CEO was elevated from a financial background and accounting position to lead an engineering company, and many have suggested that it was the lack of experience in engineering principals that led to disaster. Obviously, taking someone from an expert in finance and placing them in charge of a company is not a bad move, especially where the bottom line is concerned, but there must be checks and balances at every stage to make sure the opinion of one expert does not outweigh that of another. No matter how good someone is at finance, they cannot hope to understand why every measure in engineering must be taken, and it’s understandable that, when faced with so many expensive checks and balances, one might think that a lot of it is wasted money. A finance manager’s first instincts will be to try and cut costs, perhaps not understanding holistically why that money is being spent in the first place. Experts are necessary not only for checks and balances to avoid mistakes, however. Proactive use of experts can help identify areas of inefficiency before a project (be that manufacturing, property or more) goes ahead, allowing businesses to make changes ahead of time to either save money, increase efficiency or, in some cases, avert disaster entirely. The important part is understanding that bringing people on before a project begins will always be better than after it’s completed, as expert advice is only as valuable as a company’s ability to implement it on the project. © stock.adobe.com/Gorodenkoff34 Business Link www.blmforum.net CORPORATE HOSPITALITY taxed taxed Tis the season to be Tis the season to be www.blmforum.net Business Link 35 CORPORATE HOSPITALITY © stock.adobe.com/DC Studio As always, it’s important to preface these kinds of discussions with the ubiquitous “if in doubt, seek advice” commentary, as we can only speak for generalist examples and not all rules will apply the same. Typically, there are two different types of gifts that businesses give out. The first is gifts to their employees, usually to show they care and (more realistically) to make employees happier so they won’t think about quitting over the Christmas holiday. The other is gifts given to clients and/or potential customers, and the rules differ. Gifting Employees When it comes to gifting employees there are a couple of things to remember. Firstly, the gifts can be tax deductible if they are less than £50 and it’s not in cash. This is part of HMRC’s “trivial benefits scheme” which sounds rather dystopian, but the exception exists both to allow some generosity but also to not force the HMRC to have to chase a business every time they buy so much as an ice-cream for a member of staff. Gifts to staff must also be non-contractual and cannot be given out as a reward for service – important to note if you were thinking of gifting a particularly good employee more, as others could argue they are being rewarded greater for their service. Technically speaking, the Christmas party can also be tax deductible but, again, it has a number of rules set against it. Firstly, the cost of the event cannot exceed more than £150 per person (inclusive of VAT or transport costs, etc), the event must be to reward staff only, and it must be open to all members of staff. A directors-only party will not count and can land a company in quite a bit of trouble. Keep in mind that the £150 limit for the party is now like an allowance such as income tax. Should the costs increase to even £151 per person, the entire event becomes taxable, regardless of whether that extra £1 came from having to hire a bus to take drunk guests from the event or not. Gifting Clients It’s not quite as common to give gifts to clients but sometimes it does happen to very important customers that you want to show some appreciation for, or those who have been with you for a long time. When it comes to these, they’re almost always fully taxed with no opportunity to deduct costs, but there are some ways around it if you’re careful. Gifts as part of an advertisement scheme or campaign are one such way – if you gift branded goods like pens, mugs, etc, then that can be argued as a business expense via advertising. However, it’s liable that such gifts won’t particularly please the recipient anyway, as they’ll come across as advertisements (not exactly a fun gift). Also, these must be no more than £50 per person, placing a hard limit on what can be given. A better way around it is if your company produces a product that could serve well as a gift – such as clothing or alcohol. You can gift products as advertisement gifts if they’re framed as samples, but it’s important not to only do samples at Christmas and only to existing clients. The HMRC will see through that quite easily. If a company regularly gives out samples, however, then gifting some to preferred clients at Christmas can be seen as a business expense. The real problem is going to come from the clients, however. Except in rare circumstances where you manufacture whiskey and the client loves whiskey, most people will more appreciate a gift at Christmas that is not work-related. By trying to make a corporate gift tax- deductible, you can run the risk of giving a gift the client will see in a negative light. When the main purpose is to show a client you care so they stick with you, branded gifts can make it seem the opposite, so it might be best to stomach the cost and pay full tax on a better present that will keep them happy and working with you. It’s not always worth it to try and cheat the taxman out his money. Giving gifts may be in the Christmas spirit but HMRC aren’t known for their good cheer. How much is tax deductible and how does it work? 36 Business Link www.blmforum.net AUTOLINK Excitement on the road All we want for Christmas is new cars, new technology and new advancements. These cars all bring it in spades. Excitement on the road www.blmforum.net Business Link 37 AUTOLINK Suzuki e VITARA The e VITARA is based on the concept model eVX,which was showcased at the Auto Expo held in India in January 2023, and at the JAPAN MOBILITY SHOW in October of the same year. It marks Suzuki’s first global strategic BEV model. With the concept of Emotional Versatile Cruiser, the e VITARA features a design that combines a sense of advanced technology and strength, a BEV powertrain that delivers a nimble and sharp driving experience, an electric 4WD system ALLGRIP-e that provides not only off-road capability but also powerful performance, and a newly developed platform HEARTECT-e specifically for BEVs. The design theme is High-Tech & Adventure, embodying the advanced feel of a BEV and the robust nature of an SUV, inspiring a sense of adventure. The exterior features a striking design characterized by large-diameter tires and a long wheelbase, while the interior incorporates an integrated display with advanced equipment and tough-looking panels and center console, reflecting the High- Tech & Adventure theme.38 Business Link www.blmforum.net AUTOLINK Renault Emblème (demo car) Responding to the challenges raised by climate change and the conservation of resources, the automotive industry is engaged in a major transformation. The Emblème is based on specifications implementing the principles of eco-design. Engineers and designers worked together to find the best solutions in terms of aerodynamics and efficiency. The result is stunning: an elegant shooting brake 4.80 metres long, placing equal emphasis on styling and interior space. With a 70% reduction in the carbon footprint of its components, 50% recycled materials and almost all of the materials used which can be recycled at the end of their life, Renault Emblème demonstrates the capacity of Ampere and its partners to innovate in order to maximise vehicle decarbonisation in the future. Audi A6 e-tron The state-of-the-art foundations of the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) enable the A6 e-tron to reap the benefits of the most advanced electrification technology. The new entry-level model, simply called A6 e- tron, combines a single electric motor delivering up to 326PS (with launch control) to the rear wheels with an 83kWh battery (75.8 kWh net) developed specifically for the PPE. Aided by exceptionally streamlined bodies, particularly in the case of the Sportback which is notable as the most aerodynamic production Audi to date, this combination can deliver a maximum driving range of up to 382 miles in the A6 Sportback e- tron and up to 361 miles in the A6 Avant e-tron, depending on specification. Combining a maximum charging capacity of 225 kW with a powerful 800- volt electrical system, the new entry-level A6 Sportback e-tron and A6 Avant e-tron achieve an impressive compromise between range and charging performance. Using an AC charging station or home charger delivering up to 11 kW, they can be fully charged from flat in eight hours. Using an HPC fast-charger, they can recharge from 10-80% in just 21 minutes. Renault Emblème (demo car) Skywell Q www.blmforum.net Business Link 39 AUTOLINK Skywell Q Skywell, the trailblazing EV brand that combines strong build quality with advanced technology, has unveiled its upcoming ‘Q’ hatchback at the 2024 Paris Motor Show. The agile and athletic new model is Skywell’s first car to make its global debut in Europe; demonstrating the brand’s market aspirations. In true Skywell fashion, the Skywell Q is underpinned by its durability, extensive warranty and generous equipment levels, which includes the large opening ‘Skyroof’, a large 15.6” touchscreen display and a 360° panoramic parking camera. The Q’s ergonomic and surprisingly spacious interior places a firm emphasis on practicality, without compromising on character thanks to the large Skyroof, composite fibre panelling, 128-colour ambient lighting and orange accents on the upholstery and dashboard. Through Skywell’s consumer electronics heritage, the Q boasts a superior infotainment system which, in addition to the large 15.6” touchscreen display, consists of the premium German-engineered Metz sound system with 8 speakers, wireless smartphone connectivity and touchscreen displays for rear seat occupants. Audi A6 e-tronNext >