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Energy management is quickly becoming a business necessity. Growing environmental concerns and rising energy prices are substantially increasing cost pressures on businesses – and it’s only going to get worse. Finding ways to reduce your energy consumption and go a little greener is becoming ever more important.

Making changes

Energy management can be time-consuming, but there are several positive changes businesses can make without devoting excessive resource to the process.

• Green energy tariffs.Switching to a green tariff doesn’t mean that the electricity coming out of your sockets will be directly from renewable sources. Instead, your supplier will buy the volume of electricity that matches your energy use from a renewable generator. In theory, more businesses signing up to green energy tariffs will increase the amount of power from renewable sourcing circulating through the National Grid. Signing up to a green tariff could mean that your Climate Change Levy is reduced – or even removed entirely.
• Smart meters.If you haven’t already invested in a smart meter, now is the time to do it. Smart meters transmit regular meter readings directly to your energy supplier, eliminating estimated bills. Your smart meter can also provide you with a wealth of information about your business energy use – providing you have access to a data reporting platform. The true value of a smart meter lies in its data reporting capabilities, and you need access to that data in order to make the most of it.
• Switch things off.Switching equipment off will reduce your energy consumption, and probably your bills – but remembering to switch off the lights and the kettle at the end of each day is only half the battle. Many businesses turn on all of their equipment every morning purely out of habit, even when it’s not necessary. Improving your operational efficiency could mean big energy savings.
• Outsource. Outsourcing your energy management is a great way to increase your energy efficiency without devoting excessive staff time to the problem. Your energy management consultant will be able to assess your business energy use and draw up a step by step plan for improvement. They’ll be able to help you identify energy saving technology that will benefit your business, and help you access financing schemes like the Non-Domestic Green Deal and the Energy Efficiency Financing Scheme operated by Siemens Financial Services and the Carbon Trust.

Control consumption and reduce environmental impact

Energy costs and the environment are often pitched as two disparate and incompatible concerns for business, but the truth is they go hand in hand. Reducing your energy consumption by implementing green energy strategies will reduce your business’ impact on the environment and should reduce your energy costs.

81% of smartphone uses access the internet on their mobile devices.Google know this is so big that they and others are well into the mobile market big time.

Any household company that you can think of will have their own custom mobile app designed to attract and engage the customers they want to continue serving.

Communication is no longer one way. Your customer both wants and needs to hear from you and about you. And they want to be able to talk back, and share that with others.

So an app, tailored to your company, is the perfect way for you to introduce yourself, interest your customer, entice them to buy and facilitate sharing.

Businesses who don’t, who continue to stay with a static website will miss out on our innate need for regular social contact by communicating with others.

It’s here, it’s big and you need to be part of it.

Look at the number of apps in the Apple and Android market. It’s in the millions. All designed in that commercial effort to fulfil the basic business function of serving customers.

Without customers you have no business. Growing your business through an app is an exciting extra benefit, but the first rule of thumb must be to keep giving your customers what they need to maintain a loyal following.

A fully functioning business app, designed to your business, will fill this communication gap. And it will fill it so well that you’ll go way beyond just keeping the custom you already have.

It has the powerful potential to put you leagues ahead of your competition. So far in front that you can expect a considerable change in your business fortunes.

Isn’t it time you dived in and follow the likes of Google and Apple?

Aviva shares a common aim with its fleet customers to reduce risk and consequent claims spend. Research, including Aviva’s own statistics, consistently confirms that the lowest accident rates are displayed by companies with clear driving standards and unambiguous driving rules, including effective driver vetting procedures.

Why Carry Out Driver Vetting? • On the UK’s road network, 10 people are killed and around 1,000 others are injured every day • Nearly 33% of all fatalities involve the use of a company vehicle, whether it is a car, motor bike, van or commercial vehicle • 33% of all large motor vehicle insurance claims involve drivers who have been employed for less than 12 months, regardless of age or driving experience • Over 65% of all company vehicles will be involved in a road accident in the next 12 months

The above facts make for gruesome reading but sadly, are very true.There are both human and financial costs to road accidents for businesses. Medical treatment, compensation, business interruption and ‘bent metal’ costs must all be paid for. If the root causes of accidents are left unchecked, the result will be higher operating costs for the business.

As employers you have a legal and moral obligation to ensure the safety of your employees and others, who may be affected by their driving at work activities. This is in addition to existing legal obligations under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974.

Companies running commercial vehicles under the terms of an ‘Operators Licence’ must also comply with any other specific requirements imposed by their individual ‘Operators Licence’. Employers are also “vicariously liable” for harm caused through the negligence of employees / operatives in the course of their driving duties.

“If they are doing something for you and about their duties (including driving a company vehicle), you are responsible – even if they are behaving totally improperly and against your orders” (Greville Janner. Q.C.)

Employers, from the driver’s supervisor right up to directors of the company, can be liable for charges of ‘Corporate Manslaughter’ if an accident results in loss of life. In order for this charge to apply, it must be proved that the accident resulted from a lack of ‘duty of care’ or a failure to comply with any of the legislation listed. Fines imposed on the guilty parties can be unlimited, with prison sentences of up to 10 years.

Ashley, Director of Hugh J Boswell, states “We like to be proactive with clients in terms of vehicle risk management, from providing advice on policy excess levels to supplying accident management kits for their vehicles. This activity assists the client in reaping the rewards in the form of a better claims frequency and subsequently reduced insurance premiums. Setting a clear and concise driver vetting policy is recognised as a useful tool in the management of a companies vehicles and helps identify increased risk to the business.”

Unfortunately many conferences begin to go downhill from the moment the first speaker utters those all-too familiar words, “We have a lot to go through today, so we’ll press on and try to get through it all as swiftly as possible.”

The easiest and most productive conferences stick to accurately-timed and well-rehearsed agendas and have good supporting-content prepared in advance. For instance, embedding video sequences into your presentations can significantly raise the level of interest and engagement in the room – it’s actually very simple to include video clips in PowerPoint slides. And of course, today your presentation can be made even more seamless by streaming it wirelessly from your iPad or other tablet – no more awkwardly standing within reach of your laptop’s spacebar.

More importantly, video can convey a crucial point very clearly in just a few seconds – something that even the most eloquent speaker might stumble with on the big day. A video can of course also be approved and perfected in advance, so it’s one less thing to worry about. Purely from a sympathetic onlooker’s point of view, we’ve put together some other suggestions that will also help make your event go with a swing:

1. Consider arranging overnight accommodation near (or at) the venue for key guests and speakers. We’ve all heard of conferences where the senior management team and main presenters were held up on the motorway for the most obscure of reasons – but, cows on the carriageway? Always be there ahead of your delegates!

2. Get your room and its acoustics correct in advance. Even for a modest event a dedicated conference-staging company can resolve a lot of potential issues at your venue ahead of time. Starting your day with a room that’s freezing-cold, missing the crucial cable to get the pictures on the screen, or a lack of batteries for your microphones isn’t just a hassle for you, it doesn’t present a very polished image to your guests!

3. Never put yourself in the position of wasting the pre-conference coffee and networking time to kneel by the podium shifting your slides or attempting to reinvent your talk with last-minute details. You’ll risk look scatterbrained when you reach a slide you weren’t expecting to see.

4. Avoid vague and rambling introductions about yourself or your business, think ‘elevator-pitch’, taking less than a minute to explain why you’re the authority on your subject is often plenty – and hopefully you are the speaker everyone has already been anticipating hearing!

5. Use slides only to further reinforce or enhance what you’re saying. The audience doesn’t need you to read word-for-word from slides they can see for themselves. Otherwise, why are you up there talking? If you’re adding nothing by being there you could have just emailed your PowerPoint!

6. Don’t cover old ground and use the back-arrow to return to previous slides. Know when you’ve made your point then move on – skipping around your presentation will only serve to trip you up.

7. Unless you actually have a successful sideline in stand-up comedy be wary of using jokes. Few things kill a presentation quicker than polite laughter to a mediocre gag, or an inside-joke which half the audience aren’t in on. Strive to be interesting and relevant, not to attain the biggest laugh for a corporate anecdote.

8. Decide how you’ll end your piece, go out with a bang – not a whimper! Winding-down to a vague close with “Thank you for listening” or by asking “Any questions?” more often than not gets a lacklustre response whilst the audience considers whether or not it would be polite to leave for lunch. If you’re hoping for feedback, have a couple of pertinent questions in mind to ask your audience. If you’re intending to do a Q&A with a large audience make sure your AV company will provide a wireless microphone for the room – it helps when both you and the rest of the room can actually hear the questions that are being asked!

9. Always compare presentations with other speakers in advance to avoid duplication, or unknowingly preempt something that will be happening later on.

We heard, via a conference organiser, of an AGM where the final profit for the year was to be revealed at the end of the morning session, complete with a rousing video build-up, drum-rolls, and pyrotechnics on the stage. At the very beginning of the day the Chief Executive took his place at the podium, welcomed everyone to the conference… and proudly announced that year’s profit. The production team stifled a yell and sat down, head in hands. If there is a planned dramatic cue in the running order for the day make sure all the speakers are aware of it, there’s no need to duplicate information – or worse, jump the gun!

10. Lastly, would your wider organisation benefit from being able to watch either the whole conference, or selected highlights? Don’t miss the opportunity to make more of your investment in the day, or your guest speakers, by recording it for further syndication.