Category: Leadership

Positive workforce

Why Employee Benefits Can Create a Positive Workforce

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair

Working within a positive work environment can be beneficial for both employees and also the business’ bottom line. When individuals are happy with the work and the environment, they are often more productive and less likely to make mistakes.

Employee benefits are more than extra perks for employees – they are an essential part of creating a workplace culture that supports the wellbeing of the staff.

The Perks of Employee Benefits

Offering employee benefits can help form a workplace that supports its employees, helping to make their lives a little bit easier and their time at work better. The reasons why all companies should be offering their employees benefits are endless. These are just some of the perks.

Help to Retain Talent – Finding a new employee can cost more than keeping a current one. Staff turnover can also cause disruption and loss of continuity for both employees and customers alike. After bringing on board great employees, the firm’s focus turns to how to ensure they stay with the company. Employees are no longer only comparing salaries when considering a new position. Instead, they review and offer in its entirety, weighing up its total values, including the benefits packages they offer. Employee benefits packages that go above-average ones will go a long way in keeping employees at a company.

Boost Company Appeal – The changing employment figures has meant that the recruitment market is starting to favour employees over employers. With a rising number of jobs available, partially due to the pandemic, candidates are being more selective about the company they choose to apply to and work with. For companies, this means they need to do more to make their business stand out amongst competitors if they want to secure highly skilled employees who will bring experience, dedication and strength to the company. With a strong employee benefits package on offer, candidates are more likely to be attracted to applying for a role in a company. It can also be the deciding factor for whether they decide to join the company if they were offered the position.

Increase Engagement, Productivity and Morale – Employee benefits can be highly emotive. When a company provides its staff with opportunities to enjoy activities that are important to them, or if it helps them to save money in their personal lives, it shows them how much they are valued in the business. Offering benefits to employees can help to make a real contribution towards leisure activities or lifestyle choices. These can help in creating a feel-good factor – that can lead to a boost in morale, engagement, productivity. When employees are unhappy, they are more unlikely to be productive or engaged with their work. In turn, this will have an impact on the prospects of a business.

Examples of Benefits to Offer

Having a positive working environment can do wonders for both employees and a business. It can eliminate stress and negativity, which leads to a rise in productivity from employees. With a highly energised workforce, that is happy and motivated – they will use this energy to ensure the best results are delivered. For a company, this dedicated, confident and loyal team of employees will help the business to reach its goals and have great success in the future.

Knowing the positive impact that offering employee benefits can have on a business, many employers are looking for what they can offer to their team to help boost morale. These are just a few examples of employee benefits that can help to retain talented, experienced employees.

Offering Health Benefits 

Providing your employees with company health insurance will provide access to excellent healthcare in private UK hospitals. It allows them to skip out on NHS waiting lists for eligible conditions. Therefore, they will get treated quicker and potentially be able to return to work sooner. Finding the best health insurance for your team is not as challenging as some might have initially thought. When looking for the best health insurance to offer your employees, it is worth reaching out to firms, such as Myhealthpal, which allows you to compare schemes on offer and helps you to find the best match for your company. Utilising services such as these to find the best health insurance to offer employees will help you save time searching for the right scheme.

Flexibility with Work

Before the pandemic, many businesses did not offer the option of working from home. After over a year of working from home, continuing to work from home or offering the choice for employees to continue working from home is becoming increasingly popular. Offering the choice to work remotely can help with boosting employee morale, but also help to reduce stress levels. In addition to remote working, allowing flexitime builds a level of trust and commitment, which can increase productivity.

Putting Employees First

A significant portion of a company’s success is thanks to the dedicated and talented team working behind the scenes. To ensure that this level of productivity can achieve the desired goals, employees want to feel as though they are being heard and cared for by employers. By offering an enticing employee benefits package, a firm will have the power to attract the best talent and retain it.

Complaints

Meet TieTa, The Company That Will Handle Your Complaints

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair

For businesses, one of the most stressful parts of the job is likely to be dealing with customer complaints. As companies grow, so do the number of complaints and enquiries- and this is inevitable. Plus, it can interfere with the daily running of the business and divert attention from staff members who need to be doing tasks elsewhere.

But help is at hand, thanks to a new startup that has just launched in Oxfordshire.

TieTa offers a fully white-labelled solution to the complaints your business receives. As soon as a complaint is received, TieTa’s team of highly skilled and friendly customer service agents act on your behalf by handling these complaints, logging them, and feeding back to your company. As well as complaints handling, TieTa can help your business with general customer services including text messages, telesales, live chat, and emails across industries such as finance, retail, and health.

TieTa was already ahead of the curve when the COVID-19 pandemic struck with staff members already set up remotely and ready to help firms who couldn’t access their premises.

They thrived during this time, helping businesses of all sizes and finding a real niche with clinics offering COVID-testing customer services by handling their text message alerts, appointment scheduling and delivery of test results.

Founder and CEO of TieTa, Caroline Walton, explained:

“For the last 8 years, we have operated as the customer service team for one of the UK’s largest lenders. Working in a highly regulated environment and dealing through thousands of enquiries daily, we gained some excellent hands-on experience and we are delighted to launch TieTa and be able to offer our customer service and complaints handling solution to businesses of all sizes.”

Caroline continued: “The onboarding process is fast and effective, with a training session with your brand and our advisors to perfectly understand your business, get the right tone and script so that we can answer any query that comes our way. We understand that customer service and staying on top of never-ending enquiries can be draining for businesses and it can sometimes feel like you are on a treadmill that you cannot get off. TieTa offers a very affordable and innovative solution – and we are here to help you get off the treadmill today.”

Customer service agents are available on a day rate, based on their level of expertise and the complexity of the business. Clients have the option to use TieTa’s staff for as many or as little days as they wish, including out of hours support, overflow customer services, evenings and weekends.

“With TieTa you can scale us up or down as you wish, we are very flexible in this way,” Walton explains. “We want to learn about you and your business and truly help in anyway that we can.”

Restaurant interior with open plan kitchen

CEO Makes Headway in Hospitality

Posted on | by Magdalena Lew

Named as our CEO of the Year, Muhammad Asif is no stranger to success, and this accolade is but another example of the passion, dedication and integrity that Muhammad brings to his role as CEO of Main Course Associates. Today we find out what it is that makes Muhammad such an exceptional leader in hospitality, despite the difficulties the industry is currently facing.

Muhammad Asif is CEO of Main Course Associates, a specialist consultancy offering growth-focused business solutions to businesses across the hospitality landscape. After joining the firm in 2008, Muhammad became the company’s CEO in 2011 and has continued to drive MCA to success through its substantial client base with offices in the UK, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands.

The firm work with restaurants, chefs, restauranteurs and entrepreneurs to help them understand the world of business and offer financial reporting and accounting solutions, together with their expert consultancy services.

As CEO, Asif is dedicated to the hospitality industry and this is reflected by the company’s founding values of passion, honesty, hard work, integrity and value add. This cultural understanding is passed on to all MCA employees, and resonates and encourages them to be the best they can be. “Our staff are our most important asset; they are as dedicated to our success as I am”, Asif explains. MCA consider their employees as family and they celebrate special occasions together, enjoy activities outside of the office and consider each other as friends. This culture contributes greatly to the exceptional and socially conscious service that its clients receive, and actively drives the company’s growth and success. One of their recent success includes being awarded the accreditation for Investors in People.

Nothing is more important to Muhammad than ensuring he has the right people in his team, so rather than merely focusing on a candidate’s qualifications, he focuses more on attitude and aptitude and what unique qualities they can bring to MCA. After the initial, hiring staff receive constant re-evaluation of their skills which allows growth, progression and inevitably promotion within the company.

The majority of new clients come from referrals of existing clients and colleagues, and range from high profile entrepreneurs, businesses and owner managed operators. Through their bespoke and considerate approach, the company has a long history of repeat clients with a strong business relationship.

On their incredible journey, Muhammad and MCA have faced several challenges. As the company grew from its success Muhammad has had to adapt and loosen the reigns and allow his team to take on more decision making. With the company expanding into Europe they have also had to ensure that the culture they have worked hard to adopt has been maintained throughout its offices. The company has faced uncertainty over recent months as the coronavirus pandemic caused many hospitality businesses to close their doors. MCA is very proud to say that one hundred per cent of their existing clients have coped very well in 2020 and this is mainly due to the expertise and solutions MCA had helped them to put in place.

Looking ahead Muhammad will continue to focus on the growth of MCA with the ambition of opening further offices in the UK and multiple cities across the globe. He is looking to introduce more technology into the business which will reduce the time spent on admin and allow them to focus more on what they do best; providing exceptional service to its existing and future clients.

Muhammad is a true example of what it takes to be a successful CEO and 2021 is set to be an amazing year for him and his team. Through his tailored client approach and mix of talented and ambitious employees, Muhammad Asif will continue to be a pioneer across the hospitality landscape well into the future.

Visit their website at www.mcainternational.net for further details.

Management

MT Finance Announces New Board of Directors After Completing Management Buy-Out

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair

Specialist finance provider, MT Finance, has recently announced a new board of directors members, making 30% of the board consisting of female representation. This news follows the announcement of a management buy-out, consolidating full ownership of MT Finance to Tomer Aboody and Joshua Elash – the original founders of the business. 

Co-founder Joshua Elash commented the following on the buy-out: “This buyout is the start of a new and exciting chapter in the story of our company and will allow the management team to now push forward with our goal and vision of making the MT Finance Group the leading property finance provider in the U.K.”

“We wish to express our gratitude to the teams at Triple Point, EY, and Ashurst for their tireless assistance, day and night, in getting this done under the tightest of time constraints.”

 

MT Finance’s New Board of Directors

Included in the new board are head of underwriting Lenka Pajkošová, chief marketing officer Millie Dyson, operations director James Anderson and commercial director Gareth Lewis. New chief marketing officer Millie Dyson commented the following on the news:

“We are proud to promote an inclusive environment at MT Finance and strive to drive genuine change in the financial services sector. I am honoured to be one of the Group’s first female board members and will continue to ensure we remain focused in our efforts to maintain a diverse and equal workforce as we take the company forward.”

While co-founder Joshua Elash commented: “We are delighted to announce the appointment of several new directors to the board of the MT Finance Group. Lenka, Millie, James, and Gareth have been valuable members of the executive committee at MT Finance for some time. The appointments add real value to the company and reflect our desire to recognise, support, and empower the wonderfully talented people we are lucky enough to work with. The additions also re-emphasise our ESG principles and commitment to the Women in Finance Charter.”

 

About MT Finance

MT Finance was founded by Aboody and Elash in 2008, after the two entrepreneurs saw first-hand the impact of the financial crisis. Throughout this time, many companies faced heavy restrictions on the finance they could obtain from high street banks. MT Finance was created to provide finance alternatives, including auction finance and bridging loans, helping those in need to bridge the gap between selling one property and buying another.

MT Finance also offer other products, including landlord loans and second charge mortgages. So far, MT Finance has completed over £1 billion worth of lending.

MT Finance Announces New Board of Directors After Completing Management Buy image
5G telecom tower with a cloudy sky background

Recruiting the Best Talent for the Telecom Industry

Posted on | by Magdalena Lew

At the helm of every successful and growth-focused business is a leader steadfast on driving the business forward. CEO Monthly caught up with Carrie Charles, Chief Executive Officer of forward-thinking staffing firm Broadstaff, LLC on the back of her recent success as CEO of the Year.

Founded in 2015 after the founders established that there was a great need for talent in the telecom sector with 5G on the horizon, Broadstaff was formed.  They felt that there was a gap in the market that could be filled with a great staffing firm dedicated to this innovative and ever-evolving industry. Within a few months of inception, Carrie Charles joined the business as President and her passion for people and drive to make a real difference has led to some amazing achievements for the business.

The dynamic staffing solutions provider delivers a unique service to the businesses and the candidates it works with. With a focus on telecom and tech specifically, the team at Broadstaff are able to provide high-quality candidates in well above industry average timeframe, saving valuable time and resources for their clients. The team consists of individuals with a great deal of experience and knowledge of telecom and IT talent as well as skilled recruitment specialists ensuring that all bases are covered when it comes to selecting the right candidates. Carrie comments, “Yes, we are good at what we do, but what drives us is our love for people. New careers change lives and top talent helps companies grow.”

When asked about the internal culture at Broadstaff, Carrie shares “The Broadstaff culture is summed up in one word – Empowerment. Everyone has a voice and their individuality is celebrated. We thrive on diversity of thought and the ideas of our team members. We expect extraordinary results and encourage greatness daily.” Autonomy and employee engagement are unquestionably very important to Carrie and to the business. Carrie has a genuine passion for people and a keen drive to make a difference, qualities which have fed throughout the team and inspired many team members to deliver great things for Broadstaff as well as for themselves personally. It is no easy feat inspiring a workforce, particularly within a business operating within a space that is so fast-paced and rarely stands still, however Carrie has proven that with client dedication, a thirst for growth and a passion to support great businesses and great individuals you can achieve anything.

Charles has achieved great success whilst leading Broadstaff and has secured a number of accolades for inspirational leadership skills including Tampa Businesswoman of the Year, the 2020 Inc 5000 list, 2 years as a Tampa Bay Fast 50 Company, and of course most recently as CEO of the Year, 2020 as awarded by CEO Monthly. We’re confident that readers will find inspiration in this piece. With a great deal of commitment, a great team around you and a thirst to inspire, everything is possible.

Visit Broadstaff, LLC at www.broadstaffglobal.com for more information.

CEO

The Challenges CEO’s Are Facing Right Now

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair

By Thom Dennis, CEO at Serenity in Leadership

 

The challenges facing CEO’s right now are mounting. Many businesses have had to stop, start, reassess and reconfigure in the last year as we went through lockdowns, Brexit and unprecedented global health instability, with countless employees having faced isolation, burnout and anxiety. In the UK we are beginning to endure a third wave of the pandemic which may have another huge impact on businesses and leadership strategy.  The challenges facing CEOs right now include: –

 

Constant Change

  • New, unfamiliar and unpredictable scenarios mean leaders are still having to diversify, or adapt their product or service quickly, ensure careful adherence to every changing regulation and to change at speed because of the unpredictability we all still face. Simply being reactive means there is little space for being proactive or for long term planning. Many businesses are facing the need to change their organisation’s culture.
  • Fear is often systemic and is felt collectively within the workplace especially when it results from national or global uncertainty. Employees are fearful of losing their jobs which keeps them vulnerable and easy to manipulate by fear-based managers who are obsessed with rules, punishments and structure, and use exclusion techniques to maintain control and cling to power. Bullying, harassment, power play and lack of inclusion need to be tackled head on more than ever, and denying there is such behaviour in your organisation is quite likely to be a kind of wilful blindness. There is much fear being generated today, not least in the media, and a calm and steady style of leadership is really called for.
  • Loss of resources. Some businesses have done well to keep their talent motivated, in the loop and on board with changes forced upon them; others failed abysmally, negatively affecting loyalty which is causing talented employees to move to competitors.  Keeping the team working well together from multiple locations is very difficult but many businesses are getting better at it as we go along.
  • Supply and demand. There has been a huge knock-on effect of both Brexit and the pandemic on the supply of materials for many businesses from cardboard to aluminium to finished goods. This has led to increased lead and delivery times, dreadful customer service and frustrated, disgruntled customers whose patience has run out.

 

 

Lack of personal development

  • CEOs have had little space or time for reflection during the last year but have had to show buckets of resilience. We all need time to reflect, and it is important to recognise errors that were made, listen to feedback and have an opportunity to learn and make amends, in order to grow and truly move on.
  • CEOs want to create a personal legacy and to make their mark on the company. Sadly not all legacies are positive with some intimidating or unhappy CEOs leaving a history of poor culture, whilst others leave a wonderful legacy of goals and objectives achieved whilst maximising talent, creating safe cultures and encouraging colleagues to bring their best self to work. The pandemic has made the difference between positive and negative leadership ever more obvious.
  • Administration, demanding project planning and meetings have increased since the start of the pandemic leaving CEOs overstretched and in need of time to reformulate their normal day. An understanding that multitasking creates poor performance and ways to honour a healthy work/life balance are still baffling many leaders.

 

Pressures of business development

  • There is increased pressure to improve the leadership skills of senior staff so they can relieve the executive team from some of their challenges by promoting those who are ready and providing mentorship for those who need it. Having the right resources and timing are crucial for this to fall into place.
  • Getting to know the new needs of your team and customers is vital because most of us have made some significant changes in our lives in the last 18 months. There is a need for systems whereby top leaders can ask for feedback from senior level staff to gain front-line insights. Boosting social media presence may also help to get to know your clients and consumers better.
  • Pushing for growth at a time when budgets may still be frozen means businesses are having to stay ahead of the competition by thinking outside the box, collaborating more with other like-minded companies and measuring their progress so they can refine their approach as 2021 progresses. This is all for the greater good but creates substantial pressure to do better despite ongoing difficult circumstances.
  • Effective two-way communication between the C-Suite and employees is vital, especially because of the unpredictability of the pandemic. Transparency, integrity, honesty, a well-structured board communication strategy, clearly defined roles and documentation, and excellent communication are all must-haves. Leaders need to ask questions; not assume they know the answers.
  • Increased emphasis on employee wellness at first glance may feel like a drain on the business but a strong emphasis on prioritising good health is not only good for the individual, but the business and company culture.

 

Employee unrest

  • Concerns over trust during the pandemic means leaders need to be honest, supportive and consistent, actively listening to employees whilst managing expectations positively and respectfully. Trust takes time to be earnt and more to be re-earnt. Leaders must work with honesty, integrity and transparency towards a common goal which suits both parties.
  • Employees want a different work-life balance now and have different priorities, since the onset of the pandemic. Understanding the different needs of your employees and creating individual hybrid models that suit both them and the company will take a lot of clear, and flexible, thinking to establish and maintain an excellent working and wellness solution for all.
  • We need to tackle burnout head on. In order for employees and business to thrive, promote an open working culture so that employees feel comfortable sharing feelings of being overwhelmed with their supervisors. Vulnerability must be honoured; dismissing it will kill trust effectively and immediately. Ensure roles are definitive and be clear about welcoming good work/ life boundaries, ensuring that over-working is neither expected nor encouraged.

 

D&I issues

  • Solving D&I issues has never been more important and merely hoping for diversity isn’t going to work. Hire diverse talent even if they don’t automatically fit the corporate mould because diversity makes us smarter and changes the way we think. Consider removing ‘must have’ criteria on your job advertisements as this naturally limits your talent pool, avoid group think, ask for commitment not compliance and give minorities support and engagement.
  • We need to break the mould to build responsible workplaces. Whilst some leaders are given budgets to support inclusion, this will simply never be enough to create real change. Leaders need to prioritise training on inclusion and set an example by personally attending themselves and requesting that all senior staff members attend as well. Sadly, those who live in denial are the most destructive.
CEO Jude Gomes of Union Assurance

Turnaround Insurance Player in Sri Lanka

Posted on | by Magdalena Lew

Union Assurance is a leading Life Insurance solutions provider of Sri Lanka that has been empowering people and offering peace of mind in dealing with their financial plans and the future for more than thirty years. Operating across more than seventy branches throughout Sri Lanka, Union Assurance’s team of dynamic professionals who share a customer-centric mentality are leading the way in innovating the country’s growing life insurance industry. We take a closer look at the firm and its award-winning CEO, Mr Jude Gomes.

Established in 1987, Union Assurance is one of the largest providers of life insurance solutions for Sri Lanka, committed to providing protection, financial security, and creating wealth for their clients, whilst also adding values to its employees, field staff, business partners, shareholders, and community. Offering a comprehensive range of solutions that encompass investment, protection, retirement, education, health, and employment, Union Assurance seeks to support the dreams of Sri Lankan people by providing them customized solutions to meet the uncertainties of life.

Since its inception, Union Assurance ethos has evolved to become the protector of the Sri Lankan dream under the brand’s philosophy, ‘Your Life, Our Strength’. The Company has positioned itself to protect the lifestyles, relationships, and ambitions of its clients, regardless of the inevitable complications that arise throughout a lifetime. Caring remains an integral value of Union Assurance, alongside Trust, Excellence, Ethics and Integrity, Innovation, and a customer-centric mentality that encompasses all of these values.

As consumers around the world become more digitally aware and attuned to the rapid evolution of economic and social landscapes, Union Assurance’s customers are also becoming more aspirational, with clearly defined goals of what they want for themselves and their families, now and in the future. A key part of Sri Lankan culture is the creation of inheritances, and the firm’s diverse clientele across the country and socio-economic backgrounds are becoming more aware of life insurance as an alternative investment opportunity to achieve their financial ambitions.

While Sri Lanka has trailed behind in innovating its products, servicing capabilities, and distribution in this market, it is clear that the potential for growing and innovating the financial services sector is ready to be maximised. Union Assurance is stepping out of the norm in its market and driving forward innovation, making it its mission to bridge the gap between its tech-savvy customers and the less advanced industry. By transforming itself to become a more digitally enhanced, customer-centric life insurer with better, tech-enabled products, services, and platforms, Union Assurance is leading the way for the Sri Lankan market in helping its customers to achieve their financial goals and live comfortable, protected lives.

However, as an industry that requires long term commitments in a developing market, this is largely viewed as an impediment. Moreover, the concept of mitigating ‘pure risk’ is also misunderstood, with many consumers demanding immediate returns on premiums they have paid, making the whole concept a significantly more expensive proposition. All of this is compounded by the aggravation caused by issues in transparency, complexity, and tedious processes, as well as uncertainties in the stock market caused by over-dependence on stock market-related products and short term, fly-by-night operators. Dealing with such problems has been somewhat impeded in latter months as a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, which has not only created challenges in operating in this environment, but also had significant impact on the livelihoods, and therefore the paying capacities, of consumers.

However, Union Assurance’s strong foundations, innovative mindset, and digital preparedness meant the firm was able to proactively adapt to the pandemic, not only surviving as a business but thriving and growing. Over the past year, Union Assurance has been recruiting more than ever, welcoming Financial Advisors and Insurance Officers in large numbers, as well as talents across other industries who are able to provide fresh perspectives and ideas for growth. Insurance is fundamentally a sector that centres around people and as such, a defining feature of an exceptional insurance provider as opposed to a good one is the quality of its people.

For Union Assurance, its people are its greatest asset. CEO Mr Jude Gomes states that it is his job to empower them, giving them the platform and resources to develop and maximise their potential. Only in an environment where each member of the team feels safe and trusted can the innovation that is vital to Union Assurance’s success flourish, even in the face of adversity or complications. The result is an internal culture that gives individuals the space to make their mistakes and learn from them, giving them the drive to outperform their key deliverables and exceed expectations of their clients. “The remarkable results are a tribute to our winning team, which I am proud to be part of,” says Mr Gomes.

Mr Gomes himself joined Union Assurance in December 2019, bringing with him nearly thirty years of rich experience in financial services accrued working across key Asian markets. Prior to his role at Union Assurance, Mr Gomes led Manulife China Bank Life Assurance Co. Philippines as CEO and President, having been with Manulife Group since 2012, pioneering Bancassurance in Vietnam as Corporate Vice-President and Head of Partnership Distribution. He was also a founder member of Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance Co. as Senior Vice-President and Head of Channel, and was subsequently seconded to Hong Kong at HSBC Insurance (Asia-Pacific) Regional Business Development, working across APAC markets.

In addition to this, Mr Gomes was among the pioneers at India’s first privatised life insurer, HDFC Standard Life, and also headed Wealth Management for Centurion Bank of Punjab. He has a sizeable list of accreditations and awards to his name, including the Manulife’s Global Star of Excellence Award in 2013 and 2015 and Standard Chartered Bank’s Regional Award in 1999.

Just like its CEO, Union Assurance is also the proud recipient of numerous awards and accolades, having been recognised for the eighth consecutive year as a Great Place to Work by GPTW, Domestic Life Insurer by Asia Insurance Awards, and Best Brand, Best Employer Brand and Sustainable Marketing Excellence by CMO Global/ CMO Asia and the World HRD Congress. Union Assurance was also a finalist at the 5th Trusted Asia Life Agents & Advisors Awards for Best IRO and Best Bancassurance Partnership and is the Most Awarded Brand – #1 in the Insurance category by LMD.

In its mission to lead Sri Lanka into the next generation of Life Insurance and Financial Services, Union Assurance recently launched its new brand identity, complete with a logo and payoff line that represented the firm’s new beginning. At the heart of this repositioning strategy is the evolved consumer, and Union Assurance places itself as the Trusted Protector of the Sri Lankan dream, charged with showing people that they can dream bigger if they plan better, that their children can aim higher if their future is stronger, and that their lives can be richer if they think smarter.

Union Assurance’s new logo depicts the Circle of Life, which goes hand-in-hand with its slogan, Your Life, Our Strength. The rebranding of the firm marks an exciting journey that has been built on the teamwork of dynamic professionals who have successfully nurtured relationships amidst its strong financial foundations. As Union Assurance enters this next, exciting phase of its evolution, there is no doubt that the shape of Sri Lanka’s life insurance industry is set to be changed for the better.

For business enquires contact Lucille Diaz at Union Assurance PLC via www.unionassurance.com or email at [email protected]

Four people working together at a whiteboard with post-its

The Next Generation

Posted on | by Magdalena Lew

As the UK Government looks to level up the country, people around the nation are exploring the potential of social mobility. The team at Leadership Through Sport & Business know the field better than most. Under the capable leadership of Paul Evans, the charity has reached new and impressive heights. This success is why he has been named CEO of the Year, 2020 – the United Kingdom. We take a closer look to find out more. 

A desire to improve one’s position is at the heart of social mobility. Based on the movement of an individual’s social status from one place to another, this allows people from disadvantaged backgrounds to move forward into a new and better life. Of course, creating a society where social mobility is possible is not easy. A wealth of institutional change must be made to bring it truly into place. 

The team at Leadership Through Sport & Business are helping young people to make their first steps into a brave new world, however. Their hard work prepares and supports bright young people to find meaningful roles with major firms. Many people from disadvantaged backgrounds struggle to find positions that are equal to their ambition, with several struggling to find jobs at all. Assistance from the team at Leadership Through Sport & Business is pitched perfectly to provide people with the skills they need to get into these positions and contribute from their first days on the job. 

The guiding light of Leadership Through Sport & Business for the last year has been Paul Evans. Mr. Evans came to Leadership Through Sport & Business from his position as CEO of UFA, an education and youth charity, with a role as Managing Director of Street League before that. At Street League, Mr. Evans was responsible for the charity’s expansion to 14 locations across the UK. 

When considering his ten-year term as chair of trustees at ISAS and his current role as trustee as the Nottinghamshire learning disability charity REACH, his passion and knowledge of the charity sector cannot be questioned. It can be of little surprise, therefore, that even during these unprecedented times, he has quickly made an impact on the way that Leadership Through Sport & Business operates. 

When considering what Mr. Evans brings to the table at Leadership Through Sport & Business, it’s worth considering how well his passion for social mobility, inclusion and creating real, lasting change in society are already embedded in the large organisation. With his contacts from previous positions on hand, Mr. Evans and his team have been able to create new relationships and enhance existing ones that can benefit young people the length and breadth of the UK. 

It’s little wonder, therefore, that Leadership Through Sport & Business has become such a well-known name within the charity sector. They work together with many different organisations, including Premier League football club foundations and education delivery partners. Close cooperation allows the team to provide young people with personal and professional development that makes them ready for the world of work. One of the key aspects of Leadership Through Sport & Business is the charity’s ability to place people with leading employers from across the UK. 

When it comes to what specifically is available to young people, Leadership Through Sport & Business focuses on ways of deploying their programme of employability, education and employment. Each aspect feeds into the others, generating a cycle of social mobility within the community at large. For example, young people receive interview coaching, CV training, and workshops and events with leading companies and business professionals. They gain transferable skills through sports leadership coaching. In short, they are prepared to thrive in the modern workplace at the highest levels. 

To support this business-based approach, the team also partner with top class education providers who provide expert tutoring and accredited qualifications. This puts young people in the right place to flourish as they take up high quality, career-focussed apprenticeship placements in major firms. Key to their success is the support that Leadership Through Sport & Business provides before and during these placements. This pastoral assistance is in place for the first twelve months and ensures satisfaction from all parties concerned. 

Social mobility only works if it is available to all, which is why Leadership Through Sport & Business is designed to address all forms of disadvantage whether it is personal, socio-economic or practical. Employers know that a diverse workforce creates a better company. When more ideas are at play, a business can react more effectively to crises that arise. Leadership Through Sport & Business is the ideal venue to find the best and brightest young individuals, affording them a chance to take on entry-level positions and develop into the leading businesspeople of tomorrow. As such, the team has a long history of success with 90% of employers find that recruiting through Leadership Through Sport & Business is an effective way of finding diverse, capable young people for entry-level positions, and 83% of employers agree that apprentices have been a positive influence on the workplace. 

In a world where there are so many potential barriers to employment, where young people can come from families with generations of unemployment behind them, social mobility is not a certainty. It’s something that must be nurtured by professionals, kindled until they become solid reality. We celebrate the success of Leadership Through Sport & Business and its astonishing CEO, Paul Evans – we can’t wait to see what they do next!

Contact Paul Evans at Leadership Through Sport & Business at www.leadershipthroughsport.org for more information.

Capitalism

Business Leaders Back Reforms to Make UK a home for Compassionate Capitalism

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair
  • Major business leaders, including CEO of Schroders Group and founders of Timpson and Octopus, support new report by research group, ReGenerate. 
  • Recommendations include:
    1. Reforms to help consumers spot companies benefiting society from those who are misleading the public. 
    2. Government to create a clear, obvious legal framework for purpose-driven companies.
    3. Government to provide global leadership on impact measurement to make it easier for companies to report and stakeholders to understand a company’s social and environmental impact.
  • If accepted, the reforms would unlock the power of business to help us recover from Covid-19, reach net zero and level up the UK, making the UK a great home for compassionate capitalism. 


A new report published by research group, ReGenerate, sets out how the UK government could harness the power of business to tackle some of the biggest environmental and social challenges, including recovering from the impacts of Covid-19, reaching net zero by 2050 and levelling up. 

The reforms are ultimately designed to free business leaders to benefit society and builds on YouGov polling conducted last year that revealed half of UK business leaders think the role of business is to be purpose-driven, rather than pursuing the maximisation of profit.

The report has four main asks: 

  1. Make it easier for consumers to identify and support purpose-driven business, such as by creating a traffic light labelling system. 
  2. Government to provide global leadership on impact measurement at G7 and COP26 to make it easy for all companies to understand and report how they impact society, such as by creating a clear policy goal to make the UK a centre of excellence for impact reporting.
  3. The UK Government to create a clear, obvious legal framework for purpose-driven companies, to make sure they are legally protected to operate in a way that benefits society. 
  4. Turbo-charge support for companies that intend to profitably tackle the challenges we face, such as recovering from Covid-19, reaching net zero and leveling up the UK, both through grants from Innovate UK and also greater collaboration from existing support organisations.

 

The paper’s reforms would ultimately bring to life ReGenerate’s vision statement for the future of business where purpose-driven business will become the new normal. A purpose-driven business exists to benefit society and sees profit as one of its vital outcomes of its business activity, rather than the sole reason it exists. 

The vision statement is gaining significant attention and has now been signed by over 70 business leaders to date, including Julian Richer (Founder of Richer Sounds), Nick Jenkins (Founder of Moonpig.com and former Dragon’s Den investor), Fabienne Michaux (Director of SDG Impact, UNDP), Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones (Founder, The Black Farmer), Paul Dickinson (Founder, CDP), Sarah Gordon (Chief Executive, Impact Investing Institute), Stephen Muers (CEO, Big Society Capital), and Paula Fallowfield (Chief HR Officer, Natura & Co).

The report builds on ReGenerate’s research published last year, which  revealed the majority of the UK public (53%) think that capitalism is the best ‘way to manage society’, but that it ‘needs to be fixed.’ Another survey by Zeno Group showed that consumers are four times more likely to purchase, champion and trust a brand with a strong purpose, while a survey by McKinsey showed that 72% of employees think that purpose should receive greater weight than profit. 

 

Commenting on the report launch, Ed Boyd, Co-founder and Executive Director of ReGenerate said: “We are at a moment in history where the challenges we face are significant, but so are the available resources to tackle them. Much of this resource is held in the innovative power of businesses. They are keen to play a bigger role in helping tackle the world’s woes. It would be crazy to not enable them to do so.”

Numerous business leaders have also backed the report:

Chris Hulatt, Co-founder, Octopus, said: “If you look at the scale of problems the world faces, whether it’s climate change or the widening inequalities in society, it is clear that more is needed from business. Businesses have such a huge power to innovate and deliver at scale, and we need this power focused on the big challenges we face. This excellent report from ReGenerate contains some great ideas on how to re-shape the economy to unlock the power of business to do more good.”

Peter Harrison, Group Chief Executive, Schroders: “This report by ReGenerate offers constructive proposals on how to further help purpose-driven companies thrive, and is a welcome addition to the debate.”

Kresse Wesling MBE, Co-founder, Elvis & Kresse: “This report is very welcome. Businesses need to step up and help tackle the climate emergency. We’ve been doing this for 16 years; we rescue and transform wastes, donate 50% of our profits to charity, and run on renewables. Is this easy? No. If the reforms in this paper are implemented it will be easier for businesses to operate in a way that benefits society, and will increase transparency around those that don’t.”

James Timpson, Chief Executive, Timpson, said: “There is a common misconception that business leaders just think about profits. In my experience, this simply isn’t true. Timpson was set up to benefit society, as I know so many other companies were. ReGenerate’s report is as timely as it is needed. The reforms it contains – to create a clear legal form for purpose-driven businesses, to make sure they are well supported and to turbo-charge efforts to understand the impact a business has on the world – will help ensure businesses make their full contribution towards the big social and environmental challenges we face.”

Sir Ronald Cohen, Chair, Global Steering Group for Impact Investment and Author of Impact, said: “There is now no doubt: we need the innovative power of business to help us recover from Covid‘s social challenges and to tackle climate change. This ReGenerate paper is a welcome contribution and its reforms would help make the impacts of businesses far more transparent and drive support of businesses that seek to have a more positive effect on society.”

Covid recession

COVID-19 Crisis Will Lead to a New Period of Transformative Growth: 10 Key Insights for Business Leaders

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair
  • Transformative change: Environmental, social and technological trends are converging, leading to rapid, disruptive and transformative change. Leaders need to be ready to act  
  • COVID legacy: Organisations can harness innovative approaches taken during the pandemic to meet the challenges ahead, from experimentation in working practices to shifts in mindset
  • Tipping point: Society has reached a tipping point on an appetite for environmental sustainability, while new technologies are also supercharging the pace of change.

As we recover from the COVID pandemic, environmental, social and technological trends are converging, leading to rapid, disruptive and transformative change, the likes of which we have not experienced for more than a generation, argues Simon Sear, CEO and founder of Studio 44. Leaders need to ensure that they and their organisation are ready to innovate and transform.

Sear said: “The COVID crisis will lead to a new period of rapid, transformative growth and prosperity just like the First World War led to the roaring twenties, the Second World War to the golden age of capitalism and the recession of the late 1970s to the expansive growth of the 1980s. Spring always follows winter.”

Combining with this natural economic cycle are major tailwinds, such as society’s demand for more progress on racial and gender equality, social mobility and mental wellbeing, Studio 44 argues. Governments and wider society have reached a tipping point on progress with environmental sustainability, while technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), hyper-automation and the Internet of Things (IoT) are supercharging change.

These converging trends will result in rapid, disruptive and transformative change, the likes of which we have not experienced for more than a generation.

Sear added: “Economists are predicting record growth and leaders need to ensure that their organisations are bold, more agile and quicker to change than at any time in history in order to deliver competitive performance in terms of cost efficiency, revenues and return on capital”

Studio 44 has identified ten key insights by working with leaders during the challenging times of COVID, ranging from experimentation to mindset, technology to organisational culture.

Sear concluded: “The crisis has highlighted many insights into how leaders can prepare for this next phase of growth and the journey ahead. They are at a once in a generation inflection point, opportunity is coming, and they need to ensure that they and their organisation are ready to innovate and transform.”

Here is a summary of Studio 44’s top ten insights:

 

1. Create a common mission: Often, in non-crisis times, organisations pay lip service to their mission. It’s written down, but no one really buys it. If the crisis did one thing very well, it was to provide a focus.

 

2. The need for speed: The pace of change had been increasing, but the crisis supercharged this. Leaders need to focus their organisation on being able to respond quicker and with more agility than ever before. 

 

3. Change the corporate mindset: Many companies have long-held beliefs that limited their ability to respond and transform assumptions that need to be put in the bin. 

 

4. Make bold investments: The successful businesses of the last 12 months were the ones that had historically invested in new ways of working and bold new propositions.

 

5. Experiment: In a decade that will be defined by rapid change and transformation, inexpensive, fast experimentation needs to be in the DNA of an organisation.

 

6. Allocate your best people to your best opportunities: The pace of change is becoming ever faster and the war for talent continues to heat up. Leaders need to balance the need for transparency and fairness with quickly getting the right people in the right roles to optimise the chances of an organisation’s success.

 

7. Teach more than new digital skills: In building on the successes of working from home and a period of change and disruption, it’s crucial to teach employees new cognitive strategies and behaviours to enable them to adapt. 

 

8. Break the silos: During the COVID crisis innovative leaders gathered a multi-skilled team, incentivised them all for success in the same way and gave them the space to make it happen. Many leaders are now thinking about how they can maintain this kind of operating model and not return to older ways of working and the inefficiencies they create.

 

9. Keep communicating

The pace of disruption and uncertainty in the next decade means that people will often feel unsettled and will seek reassurance. These are the same needs team members faced during the COVID crisis. 

 

10. Practice stakeholder capitalism

Leaders need to take a cooperative model into the next period of transformation. They need to take a long-term view, to have a strategy that not only ensures financial performance in the short term, but invests, and is seen to invest, in longer-term positive outcomes for all stakeholders.

Corporate leaders

Habits of Today’s Corporate Leaders to Take Note Of

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair

Those habits books that were all the rage a couple of decades ago are sorely outdated. Nowadays, CEO’s and other business leaders need fresh skills that get the job done in a highly technological, fast-paced environment. Sure, some of the old standbys still apply, like setting priorities, listening to others, planning, and more. Today’s high-level operatives need more than the basic tool box. They need the right set of specialized talents to be competitive in a global economy that relies more and more on machine input, like AI, and other non-human components. Here’s a short list of habits you should consider developing if you wish to remain at the top of your field.

 

Adaptability

Never before has there been a demand for managers who can adapt to changing conditions. Look at any of the newer markets, like cryptocurrency, financial tech, advanced pharmaceuticals, alt-fuel vehicles, and others. It’s a long list, and all the sectors and niches on it call for massive amounts of adaptability for managers.

 

Valuing Credentials

If you didn’t finish college, now is the time, no matter what your age. Unless you’re nearing retirement, having a relevant credential is a necessity in the digital workplace. This is especially true for leaders and managers, to whom other workers look for patterning and examples. If you feel the need for a graduate degree, like and MBA or a technical specialty, arrange for financing and begin the coursework. Fortunately, you can take out a student loan from a private lender and get competitive rates and reasonable terms. It’s a wise way to take education to the next level and get a degree that adds to your list of accomplishments. Plus, mid-career degrees aren’t just for show. They can add vast amounts of knowledge to your growing repertoire within your chosen field.

 

Patience

Are you a patient person? If not, take one of the tailor-made online courses that can teach just about anyone to cultivate this personal quality. Why is patience so vital in a lightning-fast commercial universe? Company leaders and supervisors at high levels need to deal with workers who don’t stay in entry jobs as long as they used to. Being patient is an essential part of training and working with new people who might not have the background and dedication to a career path that was common just a decade ago.

 

The Ability to Delegate

In the 2020’s, teamwork is not just a goal, it’s a fact of life. The vast majority of lower and mid-level corporate decisions are made by teams rather than individuals. Not long ago, companies that used the team approach for all kinds of projects were rare. Now, solo decision making is uncommon. That means even managers and CEO’s need to delegate more than ever. If you feel squeamish giving away some of your authority, work on delegation skills and attitudes one project at a time. Eventually, you want to get to a place where you feel fully comfortable turning over large pieces of major projects to others, even when you know you could do the task better and faster.

Creative Team

Empower and Engage: The Key to Developing Your Team in Innovative Companies

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair

When employers are looking to build up a team for an innovative project, they can often fall into the trap of looking for someone new rather than realising the potential of their current workforce. It is often the case that the person who shouts the loudest is assumed to have the most creative ideas. But what if you’ve got some hidden gems amongst your workforce that are going unnoticed? According to Greg Satell, and international keynote speaker and author of Mapping Innovation, to build a successful, innovative team, “you need to start by empowering the people already in your organisation. But to do that, you need to take responsibility for creating an environment in which your people can thrive.”

Empowerment and engagement are the fundamentals of successful team development. So, let’s find out how you can help your team to feel inspired and get creative.

 

Communication is key

In order to come up with some exciting ideas, your employees need to feel confident and comfortable in expressing their thoughts. Regular communication will keep employees in the loop and encourage them to speak up, knowing that their voices will be heard. Who knows, you might already have dozens of creative and innovative ideas bubbling in the minds of your employees. Without establishing clear and regular communication, however, these ideas could be lost.

 

Value individual skill sets

Any well-oiled creative team will be made up of people with a variety of skillsets. How will your team grow if everyone thinks in the same way, after all? In successful innovative companies, differences make a team stronger. What’s more, people are normally far more creative and engaged when they’re working on something that they’re interested in. As a leader, it’s important to listen to your employees, find out more about their skillsets, hobbies, and passions. This way, you’ll be able to match your employees to the projects that they’re most interested in, and their performance is sure to impress you!

 

Establish a creative environment

While some people may seem creative at face-value, others might need a little encouragement. Often, how creative and innovative you feel can come down to your environment. Of course, if your company is currently operating remotely, this is easier said than done!

Send around some pointers to your team to help them keep creative in their own home. One idea is allowing some flexibility in your work schedule. This way, your team members can get out on walks or take breaks if they’re feeling particularly stagnant. Taking a step away from the laptop and enjoying a breath of fresh air is a great way to help you feel more creative.

If you’re working from the office, there are plenty of ways in which you can construct a more creative atmosphere. Simple things like decorating your office with creative colours, having some uplifting music on in the background, and getting the lighting just right can all contribute to creating a comfortable work environment. This is essential for successful innovative projects.

 

Try some team-building

There’s nothing like a spot of team-building to bring your workforce closer together and help empower them. Often, the office can become uninspiring, no matter how much of a creative space it is. Employees can feel stuck in a rut of nine-to-five days and need something fun to break up the monotony and hit the refresh button. Off-site meetings and activities are a great solution for this. They will help your team to see things in a different light and perhaps look at a project from a new perspective.

If your workforce is currently remote, this may seem more difficult. However, online team-building activities such as quizzes or a games night are still great for lightening the mood and reducing stress amongst your workforce.

 

Set goals and show appreciation

To establish an innovative team, it is essential that your workforce feels motivated and appreciated. Setting goals and holding regular reviews and meetings are both key parts in this. Through goal-setting, your employees will feel appreciated on an individual level. They will also always have something inspiring to work towards. What’s more, members of your team may have some great ideas about how to improve the business, but they might not think to voice them unless you go to them. A regular catch-up with your team members allows for productive one-to-one discussions. For some people, this might spark creativity more effectively than a group meeting.

Innovation can come from the most unexpected places – it just sometimes needs a bit of friendly encouragement! Try out some of these tips and watch the creativity in your team flourish.