The Business Exchange Swindon & Wiltshire Edition 40: Dec/Jan 2018/19 | Page 14

BUSINESS REVIEW OF THE YEAR
Business Review of the Year 2018
From GDPR to Brexit, 2018/19 is certainly producing its fair share of challenges in the business
world. But happily, it’s also been a time of successes in the South West. We spoke to businesses
across a range of sectors to find out how 2018 went for them… and what they are (and aren’t)
looking forward to in 2019.
Recruitment: Rory Young, sales director,
White Horse Employment
“GDPR actually
had a positive
impact for us as
this has given us
the opportunity
to engage more
effectively with
our customers”
How was 2018?
Tough market conditions and candidate shortages have
taken their toll in 2018 but in the second half of the year,
there were a number of highs, including the appointment
of a new sales director to focus on growth, staff motivation
and increasing our market share through opening doors
into new specialist markets.
We introduced a new candidate engagement strategy
and invested in future proofing our business through new
technologies and methodologies, as well as setting up
a new specialist accountancy and finance recruitment
division across the South West.
GDPR actually had a positive impact for us as this has
given us the opportunity to engage more effectively with
our customers
Looking ahead to 2019...
We’re incredibly optimistic. We have a renewed focus
on building a stronger culture of accountability and a
market-leading service. Investment into new markets will
aid business growth and staff retention will be improved
through greater career choices and flexible working
arrangements. There will also be new branding and a
fresh new look for the business. And we intend to reduce
our exposure by diversifying and specialising in niche
staffing sectors.
We are still unclear on how Brexit will affect our
customers as we work with many international
businesses. Many local businesses rely on the free flow
of European workers so are naturally concerned if any
barriers are put in place that could jeopardise this.
But overall, many SMEs are adopting a ‘business as usual’
approach and some are seeing this as a great opportunity
to forge new trade deals with other international
customers.
Finance: Mike Ingram, chief market strategist at
WHIreland Wealth Management
How was 2018?
We certainly came into 2018 on a
high. Economic momentum was very
positive pretty much everywhere and
earnings momentum was following.
We were under no illusions that
we would see a repeat of the 2017
‘melt up’ but it seemed that further
modest gains in risk markets were
quite possible during the course of
2018. Although companies have
largely delivered thus far, markets
have clearly repriced, spurred by a
more aggressive US Federal Reserve,
crystallising political risk and the
prospective knock-on into economic
activity. October was a horrible month
for equity markets, with the biggest
decline in over six years. Much of
this was indiscriminate. We would
certainly hope that marks the low for
the year.
Looking ahead to 2019...
We believe it’s going to remain choppy.
Central banks are set to continue
tightening monetary policy and
political risk is real and, in Europe
at least, appears to be growing.
That’s a challenging combination.
Closer to home we still have Brexit
to deal with. That all said, both
company earnings and economic
growth remains reasonably robust,
so valuation support should continue
building. Perhaps one of the biggest
unknowns is how this sometimes
noisy environment will impact
consumer sentiment, investment and
employment. It’s not actually that
difficult to talk yourself into a real
downturn.
One issue which we suspect has
not been given sufficient airtime by
investors is inflation. Despite the odd
scare, it has remained a dog that
hasn’t barked. Should we start to see
a meaningful pickup on that front –
and US Federal Reserve is clearly
leading the charge here - then this
could potentially introduce another
destabilising element into the market
landscape.
Human Resources:
Sue Tumelty, managing director at The HR Dept
“Brexit, of
course, hangs
over everything
but we need
to see it as an
opportunity”
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How was 2018? Looking ahead to 2019...
On a positive front, the big news has been the Taylor Review
into employment statuses and the ongoing Government
consultation. We welcome a potential end to the confusion
over definitions of workers and the self-employed, to make
life easier for all businesses and particularly SMEs.
Our culture is changing – high profile court cases like those
of Pimlico Plumbers and the Uber drivers will have major
implications for all businesses in terms of the rights of
their employees.
Recently, the Budget spelled good news for SMEs with
improved policies on apprenticeships, Entrepreneur’s
Relief, delays to the private sector roll-out of IR35 and a
reduction in business rates. Brexit, of course, hangs over everything but we need to
see it as an opportunity. Even in a no deal situation, those
companies which cope best will be the ones which are
ready to take up opportunities which present themselves.
We are already looking into up-skilling our advisors on
the details of visa requirements, for example, and we have
business development strategies on hand so we can make
the most of whatever happens.
We also expect 2019 to be a year in which employers
will need to continue to adapt to changing times. Shared
Parental Leave has not seen the take-up which was
expected but further requests for flexible working may
come with the introduction of Grandparent Leave.
THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2018
“We believe
it’s going to
remain choppy”