Archive for December, 2008


VAT and the change explained

Filed Under: Uncategorized by Kirsty — Leave a comment
December 22, 2008

VAT is value added tax; basically pretty much every item you purchase has VAT added to the cost price of the item. For example a chocolate bar costs the shopkeeper 49p for the consumer the cost of the same bar of chocolate is 52p at the old rate of VAT. Before 1st December 2008 the rate 0f VAT was 17.5%; the current rate is 15%.

The reason for the decrease in the VAT rate was an attempt to resolve the country’s economic crisis by encouraging people to start spending again although I should point out that it is temporary and the reduction will apply only for a short time which given the changes listed below will ultimately mean even greater expense for the companies. Unfortunately when the government decided to introduce this reduction they forgot to consider the sheer cost involved in amending the prices of every item. Not only do you have to ammend the prices on the actual item but you also have to reprogramme the software used to
process the sale (tills or software on online sales), another problem is that the brochures for next year have already been printed thus with the reduction they are now useless therefore it increases the cost to the company. It also generates a further problem because retailers have 1 of 2 options either they can pass the saving on to their customers and make a loss themselves as the wholesale price does not change, alternatively they can basically pocket the difference unfortunately there is no way to prove who is doing what.

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Bespoke Training

Filed Under: Training & Development by Kirsty — Leave a comment
December 22, 2008

There seems to be a growing problem in the current economic climate with employers denying employees study leave to attend courses, it seems that the trusts do not have the funds to be able to afford to cover it. This can cause problems as it can cause a decrease in motivation as they are not being allowed to develop in a professional capacity. It can also be costly to the staff as in many cases some companies charge a cancellation fee or do not offer refunds on fees already paid. However, there is good news in the times of doom and gloom there are bespoke courses which involve bringing the training to the employees. It is also known as in-house training.

There are a number of training companies that offer bespoke training, one such company is Medicology Ltd who have provided bespoke training to many trusts across the UK. The advantages of bespoke training include relatively low overall costs as you are bringing the training in-house thus either no or very little travel or accommodation expenses. A further advantage is that with bespoke training employers have the ability to work with provider to tailor the training to their unique specification.

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How morale levels affect the workplace

Filed Under: Training & Development by Kirsty — Leave a comment
December 22, 2008

Morale is a way of measuring how happy a person is in the workplace. This can be done using various methods which include questionaires or interviews. Medicology has launched a morale testing instrument, for more details see Morale Testing Instrument.

Things that can affect morale levels include:

  • Job Security
  • Levels of Pay
  • The Working Environment
  • Chance to Progress (Professionl Development)
  • The Management

Basically morale has two levels it can be high or low; if morale is high then it means that the staff are happy and productivity will be high but if it is low then staff are unhappy thus having a negative impact on productivity which can be potentially dangerous for example if a doctor has low morale then tey are more likely to make mistakes. It can also cause companies to have high rates of absence as low morale can have a detrimental effect on health as there are links between low morale and mental health problems such as depression. Please be aware that not illness is caused by low morale.

If you find morale is low first you need to identify what is causing the low morale once this has been identified there are a number of options which can applied to rectify this although everyone needs to appreciate that change will not neccessarily occur overnight although if change takes too long staff may assume that management is stalling and morale may further deteriorate therefore communication is key to improving the situation. There are lots of options which may help to rectify the failing morale these include attending training courses such as those provided by Medicology others include open negotiations with staff.

To maintain high morale it is important to recognise staff’s achievements, and offer support when you notice that they are struggling. Although it sounds obvious but most people fail to acknowledge their staff’s achievements I’m not saying that you have to spend lots of money to show your staff that they are appreciated you can use bonuses but there is nothing easier than simply saying: “well done”.

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The Credit Crunch

Filed Under: Uncategorized by Kirsty — Leave a comment
December 22, 2008

The “Credit Crunch” is the term used to describe the economic status which 1st became a problem in 2008. Basically the problem is that the banks are refusing to lend because they can’t afford it. This is causing a domino effect throughout the country.I should point out that it is not just the UK that are in the middle of this economic crisis. One problem which keeps cropping up is that public spending has been reduced this is creating problems for businesses as they are unable to borrow from the bank the next logical move would be to rely on public spending but as this had declined businesses are unable to get the cash that they
need from this source which can affect their long term cash flow. This in turn means that businesses have had to make some staff redundant but this is not without consequences; as if you make staff redundant it will not improve public spending as if you don’t have a job any money you do have goes on paying bills so you have no disposable income.

In some cases this is not enough and the business goes into liquidation as we have seen with Woolworths. This ultimately makes the problem worse as unemployment figures rise, thus decreasing the number of people with disposable income and increases the number of people relying on government schemes such as the dole just to make ends meet. Which is not without problems as the government does not have an infinite amount of cash, they are attempting to fix the economy with a number of things such as reducing the rate of VAT but this is not really ideal as demonstrated in the article about VAT changes. Another thing that you may not be aware of is that the government is borrowing money from other areas such as the NHS in an attempt to fix the banking crisis.

This creates even more problems such as the NHS having to make cut backs on some of the services that they offer which can impact on the public when they need treatment and waiting times are increased as they like everywhere else are having to make some staff redundant. The only plus side I am aware of is those lucky enough to have disposable income are able to purchase things fairly cheaply due to cuts in VAT and also businesses are so desperate to stay solvent that they are having massive sales which basically means that for the duration of the sale they have a fairly good cash flow unfortunately it is not good for business to have a permanent sale. So as you can see there are good points in between all the doom and gloom but when you look at the bigger picture the good points don’t seem quite so great.

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