News

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent Lancaster-based hosting and web design agency, Nublue, have this month received the Living Wage Accreditation, demonstrating that they pay all of their staff above the country’s Living Wage.  The company have joined just a handful of local Living Wage businesses, and are among just a handful of technology companies in the North West to have received the accreditation. Championing the Living Wage and its benefits for both employees and their overall business model, Michael Ashworth,...

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  We are making a rather heavy dent in the digital age now and there seems to be no sign of this progression slowing. Recently, we've been caught in a whirlwind of smart watches, fitness trackers, mobile payments, super drones and robots.  These new and slightly disconcerting branches of technology are not purely restricted to our personal lives though. Turns out there is a plethora of technological advancements for the workplace too. Technology today has a...

By Jonathan O'Brien, CEO of Red Sheet 1. Decide exactly what you need beforehand It sounds obvious, but knowing what you want to get out of a negotiation before you start is imperative. Sometimes it is very clear, sometimes there could be several possible but acceptable outcomes. Without a clear end goal, we risk putting ourselves in a ‘decide on the spot’ situation, finding we have been talked into things in the heat of the moment. 2. Do your homework...

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  A new survey has revealed almost a third of British workers receive nothing from their bosses when they retire. The study of 2,000 retirees found 31 per cent of people were not given a leaving gift, with a leaving card as good as it gets for a further seven per cent. The average retirement gift was calculated to be just £2.17 for every year of work. Gift vouchers and flowers are the most common retirement gifts – while...

By Nick Joelson, Marketing Manager at Liberis Every small business owner knows it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to keep yourself afloat and ahead of the competition. According to recent research by Simply Business, there has been a 110% increase in the number of independent retailers launched in the last five years, suggesting it’s a great time for retailers to do business. However, research from The British Independent Retailers Association states there are more than 220,000 independent...

By Ron Delnevo, ATMIA Executive Director Europe Earlier this year figures were published by the Payments Council purporting to show the demise of coins and notes and the rise of the ‘cashless society’. The figures concluded that 48 per cent of payments were made in cash, with the remaining 52 per cent made up of non-cash payments. A ‘cashless society’ is one where we would forgo all cash and instead use electronic payment systems, like the much-hyped Apple Pay, to...

By Steve Taggart A recent report released by Green Park has revealed that the number of FTSE 100 executive directors of ethnic minority has dropped from six to four in the past year. Researchers carrying out the study from Green Park have identified this extreme imbalance as a so-called ‘diversity deficit’, which may come to some as a dramatic revelation after Business Secretary Vince Cable cautioned that companies must drive to deliver a diverse boardroom by the end of 2015....

By Ahmed Al-Ansari, property consultant at Morgan Pryce, London commercial property experts As rents have soared on the wings of rising demand and been boosted by the lack of supply, many businesses have, over the last few years, taken certain strategic decisions when it came to their headquarters. So what makes businesses want to move? It can be combined factors including staffing issues, older buildings not necessarily designed for today’s workplace methods or layout, offices being turned into profitable residential...

By Dr Robin George Andrews @SquigglyVolcano & Dr Alfredo Carpineti  @DrCarpineti    The opposition to genetically modified food is irrational, and when governments who should know better ban it without cause, scientists must speak up. Scotland’s rural secretary has just announced that the growing of genetically modified crops will be banned in the fields of England’s feisty northern neighbour. Unfortunately, like many people on gluten-free diets who aren’t coeliacs, many who approve of this move simply do not understand what they’re eschewing even...