The last few years have seen the trend for remote working really take off – ONS figures show that from September 2022 to January 2023, almost half (44%) of employees worked from home or did hybrid work.
But if you do spend some of your working week at home, are there any implications as far as insurance claims are concerned? And are we now all more at risk from insurers not paying out on home insurance claims?
If you’ve had to return to the office lately, you may have enjoyed the face-to-face interaction with work colleagues and the chance to leave the house after a couple of years of working from home. Those little things we took for granted before the pandemic.
But one thing you probably haven’t missed is the commute. Whether you walk, cycle, drive, or take public transport – here’s how to have a happier commute.
It’s been a glorious week across most of the UK, and temperatures in London are due to hit the 30s today – far from ideal conditions for spending your day in the office.
And if you work from home, the temptation to down tools can be even greater.
So to make sure you stay at your most productive as the temperature rises, here’s how to keep your cool whether you’re working from home or the office…
Every one of us has a winning business idea in us, but it takes a big leap of faith to make that move to turn that winning idea into a viable startup business.
Although thousands of businesses start up in the UK every year, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that more than half of all businesses (57.6%) don’t make it past the five-year mark – a good innings, but that’s a lot of work to eventually wind things up.
And while there’s loads of advice out there on why and how you should go all in for your own startup, there’s not much out there that offers up reasons why you shouldn’t.
But we’ve found some. First though, let’s take a look at how many businesses start up each year.
Handshakes are taken very seriously in the business world – too hard, and you’re a go-getting alpha-type who would sell their own granny to get to the top; too weak and you’re a simpering subservient, simply asking to be crushed, probably by someone whose handshake is way too hard.
But forget all that anyway, because the pandemic has all but killed off the handshake, leading to a confused system of fist bumps, elbow taps, and meek waves.
So, before we get into how to give a professional handshake (it will be back), let’s take a look at some alternatives…
Phishing is a type of online fraud in which cyber criminals send emails or instant messages pretending to be from a reputable company or person, in an attempt to access sensitive information, such as login credentials or account details.
Things have evolved since the days of emails promising jackpot payouts on the Nigerian lottery, and phishing emails generally come in the form of an official-looking correspondence from your bank or an organisation like PayPal.
And this increased level of sophistication brings with it an increased level of threat – even just clicking a link within an email can send a bug into your system that can access any sensitive data you have stored on your hard drive.
Social media is a monster. A hungry monster that is continuously being fed with everything from the funniest content on the web to searing vitriol and bear-faced lies. It’s at the stage where we can’t live with it and we can’t live without it – certainly in business,.
This means that, whether you like it or not, an active presence on social media is a must if you have any sort of a customer-facing business. The trouble is, it’s human nature to only shout about things when you’re unhappy with them – and that means you could be fielding a lot of complaints on social media. Here’s how to deal with them.
There are just two weeks to go until Christmas, which means 14 shopping days left, including Christmas Eve – even fewer if you’re you plan to shop online, as you’ll have to factor in extra time to process and deliver your order. Make sure you don’t miss the last postage dates.
If you’re shopping online, you’ll also have to factor in the added risk – although secure website and payment technology is always improving, hackers and fraudsters are always finding more devious ways to defraud people, and so online fraud is still a massive problem.
So, to help ensure you stay safe as you shop online at Christmas, Sainsbury’s Bank has produced this informative infographic…
If you’re in business and not using social media to promote your products you’re missing a trick – not only do platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram offer free, effective marketing tools, they also provide a great way to interact with customers in real time.
And, as anyone who knows social media knows, hashtags are a vital marketing tool – so here are the top 20 Twitter hashtags for business…
The coronavirus lockdown has meant more UK employees than ever before are working from home – here are latest figures on remote working from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
