Does your company pension scheme meet auto enrolment requirements?
Caroline Castle, from Torquil Clark, provides monthly guidance on auto enrolment topics that employers should pay particular attention to. Your pension scheme for auto enrolment Your company may...
View ArticleAuto Enrolment “opt outs”– Are you being fair to all concerned?
Caroline Castle, from Torquil Clark, provides monthly guidance on auto enrolment topics that employers should pay particular attention to. Since auto enrolment was launched in October 2012 there has...
View ArticleThe vision that is Jaguar
What looked like a terminal decline in British car manufacturing started in the 1970s. Some may blame the trade unions, and some poor management. Either way, many wrote off the automotive industry in...
View ArticleSetting personal development goals as a director
I am always short of time. If my business is booming, it is spent looking after customers, staff and suppliers to make sure we do a good job. If business is quiet, I am trying to win work … and get...
View ArticleCelebrating Game Changers
Allister Heath, the deputy editor of the Daily Telegraph, recently gave a rather gloomy analysis of the UK’s prospects. “Britain’s problem,” he said, “is that our economy and society aren’t...
View ArticleSimon Walker on the Annual Convention: 1950-2014
The Annual Convention is a place for ideas. You’d expect nothing less from an event, now in its 64th year, where over 2,000 business leaders, entrepreneurs and politicians meet to set the business...
View ArticleThe EU reform agenda – What is Labour’s?
Over the past 18 months since David Cameron first outlined his broad vision for renegotiating the UK’s place in a reformed European Union, discussion over how this might play out has occupied much of...
View ArticleHow do your Zero Hours Staff fare with Auto Enrolment?
Caroline Castle, from Torquil Clark, provides monthly guidance on auto enrolment topics that employers should pay particular attention to. There has been a lot of news recently about “zero hours” staff...
View ArticleWhere Now for Retirement Income?
Malcolm Small, a Senior Advisor on Financial Services Policy at the IoD, reflects on the new pension rules. As the dust settles after the announcements in Budget 2014, it is becoming clear that the...
View ArticleHow do businesses founded during the recession differ from those that started...
The 2014 annual DNA of an Entrepreneur Report from Hiscox, providers of IoD Professional Indemnity Insurance and IoD Office Insurance, has uncovered some significant differences between the two sets of...
View ArticlePensionable Pay and Auto Enrolment
Caroline Castle, from Torquil Clark, provides monthly guidance on auto enrolment topics that employers should pay particular attention to. For those employers who have already been running a pension...
View ArticleEnergy Efficiency: The key to competitiveness in a changed energy environment
UK businesses must alter the way they work to keep up with the competition, writes Tony Slade, Head of I&C Energy Solutions at RWE npower In recent years the subject of energy efficiency has forced...
View ArticleTransfers from defined benefit pension schemes – the aspiration and the reality
Malcolm Small, a Senior Advisor on Financial Services Policy at the IoD, discusses the practicalities of transferring from a Defined Benefit pension scheme to a Defined Contribution scheme. The...
View ArticleThe importance of innovation
Ian Dormer, IoD Chairman, reflects on the central message of this year’s Annual Convention: innovation in business. When I told my 15 year old daughter that I had met Will Hayward of Buzzfeed at the...
View ArticleAutomatic Enrolment – the story so far
Automatic enrolment schemes are working but there still may be challenges to come, writes Malcolm Small, Senior Advisor on Financial Services Policy at the IoD. As we move towards the end of 2014, it’s...
View ArticleThe question of airport expansion
Addressing the UK airport capacity problem is crucial for the future success of the economy, writes IoD Chairman Ian Dormer. We all want the economy to grow, but sometimes we do not want it to grow too...
View ArticleThe future for business banking?
The banks may not be lending enough to business, but other sources are plugging the gap, writes Malcolm Small, Senior Advisor on Financial Services Policy at the IoD. It is almost possible to feel...
View ArticleIs employee ownership an option for your business?
Companies like John Lewis have shown employee ownership can boost staff engagement, and may even help profits. The government thinks a wide range of company models is good for the economy, and has...
View ArticleIs bank lending really holding up the growth of the SME?
In recent years, bank-bashing has taken many forms. One example is that the perceived unwillingness of banks to lend to SMEs was holding up their growth or recovery. But is this really true? Certainly,...
View ArticleThe guidance guarantee – a “second line of defence”?
The FCA has announced it will be bringing in new rules to protect pension savers from making poor decisions about their pension funds. But will it work, asks Malcolm Small. With just 10 weeks to go...
View Article