The Business Exchange Swindon & Wiltshire Edition 35: Feb/March 2018 | Page 17

South West SME owners consider their own
management team prevent growth
More than two in five (41%) business owners in the South West fear
their own management team will prevent them growing.
Their concerns are legitimate as more than half
(57%) of local management teams have never
helped grow a business in their previous roles.
Business owners and their teams have
to work hard to put the planning and
communication in place to overcome these
challenges.
Mike Lloyd, managing partner of Haines
Watts Swindon, said:“Many management
teams aren’t unified behind a strategic plan
and they often don’t possess the complete
trust of the business owner. This means the
knowledge essential to the future success
of the business is locked up in the heads
of just one or two people. This can leave
management teams uninformed and restricted
when it comes to stepping up. Business
owners therefore have to think operationally
and so have less time to plan and think
strategically.”
According to national research by Haines
Watts conducted among 500 UK SMEs there
are several obstacles to overcome:
Poor planning - more than nine in ten
South West business owners (91%) are only
able to spend a fraction of their working week
planning for the future.
Business owners who are able to step back
and focus predominantly on planning are
more than twice as likely to run fast growth
businesses (annual growth greater than 15%).
Failure to communicate - despite almost
half of business owners lacking in trust in their
management teams, the teams don’t realise
trust isn’t there.
Almost nine in ten (86%) of south west
senior managers believe they fully understand
the business owner’s goals and the same
number (86%) hold the, often false, belief
they would be trusted to run the business
even in the owner’s absence.
Lack of support - even among business
owners across the UK with a full formal
management team, only just over half (60%)
believe they have the full support of that team.
The perceived lack of support is so stark
that over a third (37%) of south west SME
owners believe their business couldn’t survive
more than a single week without them at the
helm.
The study is based on interviews with 500
owners of UK businesses, which are at least
two years old, have a turnover of between
£1 million and £50 million with ten to 249
employees. The study was conducted in 2017.
Companies operate in the following sectors:
construction; real estate; manufacturing;
professional, scientific and technical; service
industries; hospitality and leisure; wholesale
and retail; technology; transport and storage;
and creative industries.
Haines Watts Swindon is a firm of
chartered accountants and business
advisors based in Old Town, Swindon.
They offer a variety of accountancy and
tax planning services to owner-managed
businesses, charities and not-for-profit
organisations across the south west. For
further details visit:
www.haineswatts-swindon.co.uk
Mike Lloyd, Haines Watts
[e-mail]
01793 533838
www.haineswatts-swindon.co.uk
CHANGES IN LAW WHEN HIRING IN 2018
By Dan Barfoot, Operations Manager at CMD Recruitment
There are many new responsibilities that employers need to be aware of in
the 2018 calendar. If you are hiring this year, then you need to look at issues
from closing gender pay differences to ensuring your data on employees is in
line with new rules. Failure to do so may lead to being penalised.
Here’s some key changes that will affect recruitment:
Gender pay gap reporting Increases in Minimum Wage
Significant differences in pay between men
and women for doing the same job is a
country-wide phenomenon. The Office
of National Statistics released data in
2016 illustrating a gender pay gap for full
time employees of 9.4%. Consequently,
in 2018, companies with more than
250 employees must publish a report
to show any gender pay disparities by 4
April 2018, or 30 March 2018 for public
sector employers. This report must be
published on the company’s own website
and a government web site. It means that
when recruiting in the future, where there
is a pay gap, it will be transparent and
potentially could dissuade gifted women
from applying for jobs if they see a clear
problem. If you are a large company and
you identify these gender pay gap issues,
you should look to address this and soon,
or it could affect your recruitment. For employees, the Minimum Wage will
increase from 1 April 2018.
Hourly rates will increase…
£7.50 to £7.83 for workers aged 25 and
over.
from £7.05 to £7.38 for 21-24 year olds.
from £5.60 to £5.90 for 18-20 year olds.
from £4.05 to £4.20 for 16-17 year olds.
from £3.50 to £3.70 for apprentices
aged under 19 or in the first year of an
apprenticeship.
Auto Enrolment
The Pensions Act 2008 states that UK
employers must facilitate a workplace
pension for certain staff and contribute to
it. In 2018 there are changes that you need
to be aware of. On 6 April 2018, there
will be a minimum employer contribution
of 2% and a total contribution of 5%,
including a 3% staff contribution.
General Data Protection
Regulation
No doubt, as an employer, you would
have received the leaflet on GDPR already,
the one with the owl on the cover. It’s
the biggest new change for businesses
to prepare for. A You Gov survey in May
2017 found that out of 2,000 businesses
surveyed, 71% were unaware of the stiff
fines they could face for non-compliance.
This is all about setting a strict structure
around data protection – so if you have
data on your employees, get your head
around this new law before the deadline
of 25 May 2018. The fines for those who
ignore it are large. A company could stand
to lose up to £20 million or 4% of annual
turnover if caught out and it’s widely
expected some businesses could be ruined
as a direct result of fines. It might be high
time you recruited a data protection officer
if you don’t have one.
For any advice on recruitment, or if
you’ll be looking for staff in 2018,
please contact one of the friendly
Consultants at CMD Recruitment Ltd.
We have three offices in Wiltshire,
based in Calne, Melksham and Devises
and we serve an area inclusive of
Bath, Swindon, Salisbury and all of
Wiltshire. We have had a long and
successful track record in recruiting for
Commercial and Industrial placements,
so give us a call and tell us about the
kind of people you need to grow your
company.
For more info:
www.cmdrecruitment.com
01225 805080
THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2018
17