Member Blog

We’re releasing our short courses into the wild!

So far, we’ve kept our short courses to be in-company. Since running them, we’ve had enquiries from people who only have one or two people in their teams and an in-company course isn’t required.

Now we’re opening them up to everyone!

Our short courses are in-person and will be mixed cohorts, which means that as well as learning from our tutor and the course, you have the opportunity to meet your peers.

All our courses are designed especially for Procurement professionals, so you can expect real life stories and examples from the public and private sectors.

Short Course Calendar12th February 2025 – Introduction to Procurement

Designed for people in operational or tactical roles and people who have elements of Procurement in their role, but where it may not be their full job or who are new to Procurement

9th April 2025 – Introduction to Negotiation

For people who have regular contact with suppliers or internal stakeholders and need to promote the objectives of the Procurement team. By the end of the course, delegates will be able to effectively plan for negotiations with suppliers and will know how to conduct a negotiation to best achieve their objectives.

18th June 2025 – Category Management

For anyone who has operational experience in Procurement and is looking to take a more strategic approach with their supply base. This course will enable learners to use tools and models to gain a deep understanding of their category of spend and build a sourcing strategy that eliminates costs and adds value.

24th September 2025 – Sustainable Procurement

This course is suitable for Procurement professionals who are looking to align their procurement processes with their organisation’s sustainability goals or influence their leadership team to adopt better Procurement practices.

What previous students have said

“A very engaging course”

“A good introduction to negotiation and how this can be applied in Procurement”

Details

All courses are run at our offices: Henderson Business Centre, Ivy Road, Norwich, NR5 8BF.

The timings will be 9:30am – 4:00pm.

The learning objectives and details of each course will be released in different blog posts through the year, so keep an eye out to find out more. Alternatively, send us an email and we will be glad to fill you in.

Next Steps

All courses are £195+VAT and spaces are limited to sign up whilst you can!

For more information or to sign up, please email or called 01603 251754

All our courses are still available in-company ask us for a copy of our brochure for full course details.

While Vdepot can carry out its fulfilment service without barcodes, there are many good reasons to adopt barcoding for your product range. Let’s talk through the advantages and then we’ll explain where to begin with getting your products barcoded.

Before we start, it’s worth highlighting that barcodes are referred to as GTINs (Global Trade Identification Numbers) in the world of ecommerce. A barcode is the machine-readable image version of a GTIN.

The benefits of barcoding your products

Better fulfilment

What do we mean by better fulfilment? We mean that barcodes make the fulfilment process faster, more accurate, and more cost-effective. Vdepot uses barcode scanners to check that the correct item has been picked before packing each order. In the absence of a barcode, we instead get a second team member to check the order is correct. This means that the picking/packing process takes more time per order, so we have to charge a slightly higher price for non-barcoded items. It also means that there is an increased likelihood of mis-picks which in turn take time and money to resolve.

Better discoverability online

GTINs are used by search engines and online marketplaces to recognise and represent your products correctly, making them more visible to consumers. If you’re planning to sell your products on Amazon, it’s mandatory that each product must have a GTIN. Without a barcode, your products are much less likely to show up in Google’s and Bing’s shopping results. If you have a Google Merchant Center account, and your product pages contain all the necessary information and their own unique GTIN, you are well on your way to succeeding on Google’s organic and paid shopping listings – according to GS1 UK, adding a GS1 barcode to your online product listings can increase your impressions by 40% and conversions by 20% on Google.

Increased trust in your brand

Because each number is unique, GTINs give your retailers and consumers trust in what’s on the physical and digital shelf. Anyone can look up your barcode in the GS1 database to get reassurance that you are in fact offering the exact product advertised. Likewise, if you’re a retailer ordering a new product or working with a new wholesaler for the first time, barcodes are another way to ensure that what you’ve ordered matches the stock you’ve received. Aside from the information a barcode provides, the mere presence of a barcode will increase confidence among your consumers and prospective stockists. It signals that you are a legitimate business, that you’re organised and that you’re not skipping any steps.

How to get barcodes for your products

There are lots of self-acclaimed barcode providers out there, but GS1 is the only authorised and globally-recognised provider of GTINs, so we strongly recommend that you register any new barcodes through this organisation. GS1 operates in 116 countries – if you’re a UK company looking to get a barcode, start here on the GS1 UK website. GTINs are not required for one-off items, such as vintage second-hand clothing or certain customised-to-order products.

What type of barcode do I need?

In addition to ‘GTIN’, you may have come across ‘ISBN’, ‘EAN’, ‘UPC’ and more. These are all subcategories of GTIN – but which ones are required for your business? Vdepot can work with any barcode format, so this question will not affect your fulfilment process. However, factors such as what type of product you’re selling, what countries you’re selling into, and whether you need to log batch number/best before dates, all influence what type of barcode you need. GS1 UK explains the different types of barcodes on their website.

How do I get the barcodes onto my stock?

Once your barcodes have been registered, your next step is implementing them so that you can realise all of the benefits we covered earlier. To implement them on your ecommerce site, make sure you add your new GTIN number to the ‘GTIN’ or ‘barcode’ field on each product page, so that it can be read by search engines. Make sure your Google Merchant Center account is pulling this information through – if you’ve connected Merchant Center to your store using an API feed, it should automatically. You’ll also need to coordinate with your manufacturers and your fulfilment company. Your manufacturers should be able to incorporate adding the barcode into their process. If your manufacturer won’t do this, or if you want to retrospectively add barcodes onto your existing stock, Vdepot can help you – if you provide us with barcode stickers, we can apply these to your products as an additional service. Either way, you need to make your fulfilment partner aware of any new barcodes so that they can add them to their order management system, and make it faster to fulfil these products.

Are there any downsides to barcodes?

Most brands and retailers would agree that the benefits outweigh any negatives of barcoding, but let’s highlight them for balance nonetheless.

Cost

When you register a barcode for a product that does not yet have one assigned, you are effectively purchasing the licensing right for each new barcode. To do this, you will need to register as a member of GS1, and renew your membership annually to keep the barcodes in use. It’s also easy to underestimate how many barcodes you actually need, as each product variant needs its own GTIN. For example, if you sell 10 styles of t-shirt, but each style is available in 9 colours and 4 sizes – that’s 360 (10 x 9 x 4) GTINs required, not 10! Refer to GS1’s website for their GTIN calculator and pricing guides.

Facilitates competitive pricing

This is a good thing really as it benefits consumers, but still something you need to be aware of. If the barcoded items you are selling D2C are also available from other retailers, the presence of a barcode makes it easier than ever for shoppers to compare what different retailers are charging for the same product. This is because Google uses the barcode/GTIN to aggregate multiple retailer listings for every product in its shopping results, allowing shoppers to compare the product price, delivery price, returns policies and shop reviews all on one screen. We can’t really call this a downside because it makes information more transparent for consumers – it just means that retailers need to keep a closer eye on how their prices and delivery rates compare to their competitors.  Source: Google Shopping Results

Build your business on professional foundations

We recommend you check out the GS1 UK website for more detail on barcode registration and upkeep. If you’re looking to do things by the book and adopt a ‘right first time’ approach when launching your new ecommerce business, you may want to speak with a fulfilment company at the beginning so you can factor in the benefits, charges and processes involved in professional and scalable fulfilment.

About Vdepot

Vdepot provides expert B2C and wholesale fulfilment services for ambitious brands. We retrieve orders from your sales channels as they come in, and prepare each delivery using your preferred packaging and processes, ensuring every order arrives in pristine condition. We already work with several well-known brands in East Anglia, enabling them to fulfil customer orders across the UK, Europe and the rest of the world.

https://vdepot.co.uk/

“I am not the most confident person. Like a lot of people, I suffer from imposter syndrome & would rather be at the back of a room blending into the wall. I was promoted to Director of Barkers Photo Fun Ltd earlier this year and have gone from dealing with the admin side and running our photo booths to starting to go out and network & promote the business further. Which is daunting & exciting at the same time! First of all, my thanks to Caroline Ellis who heads up the Co.next programme for the Norfolk Chambers of Commerce. She had helped me, given me great advice and is a big supporter of personal development which is why she started the Co.next programme. The course I attended on Marketing hosted by Co.next and Yawn Marketing was amazing & I look forward to other courses she is putting on! I went along to Coastal Co.nnect at Great Yarmouth Town Hall and got into conversation with the Marketing Manager from Aston Shaw Accountants who also recently joined the Norfolk Chambers of Commerce. Within a few minutes Zain had asked me what we do and right time and right place, they have now booked our booth for their company’s summer party – we can’t wait 🎉 I was always a bit dubious about networking, but I guess as one of my colleagues says: you may not get any business when you go to a networking event, but you will never get the business if you don’t go! Oh – and a quick thank you to Beks Houston from Smash Marketing who did a talk about SEO and getting websites seen online. We will definitely be using some of the great tips!” Written by Tash, Director of Barkers Photo Fun Ltd

Sometimes when a potential client first gets in touch with us, their main question for us is ‘what’s the price?’ While it’s an important question, using price as your main criterion does not guarantee you will find a solution that fits your needs, or give you the lowest costs. After all, you wouldn’t buy a car, home, holiday or insurance policy based on price alone. A cheaper car might cost more to run, a cheaper home might need lots of expensive repairs… there are a whole range of factors to consider when making your decision. Your fulfilment partner will be an extension of your business operation and will contribute to your brand’s reputation; their ability to make sure your orders arrive in a well-presented and timely manner will have a huge bearing on how your customers perceive you. Therefore, it’s crucial to work with a company you can trust, and not just go with the cheapest-sounding quote you receive. Here are some important questions to use as criteria when selecting a fulfilment partner to suit your business.

Ask: “How will my account be managed?”

Why ask this: While most fulfilment companies have a client service team, how you are able to contact them can vary. Several fulfilment providers have a ticketing system in place, so rather than contacting a team member directly, you have to ‘submit a support ticket’ before your query will be acknowledged. These systems are always set up with the best of intentions, but sometimes you just want to talk to somebody! Some of our clients have even reported that their previous fulfilment company imposed limits on how many times they’re allowed to contact their client service team per day. You may find this frustrating if you’re a new company with questions about the process, or if you’re trying to get an on a customer’s behalf. Having a dedicated contact or two is often the best indicator that your questions are going to be answered in a helpful – and human! – way. When evaluating different fulfilment providers, ask how they handle queries from their clients.

Ask: “What are your parcel size definitions?”

Why ask this: It might seem a strange question, but we’re aware of at least one of the UK’s leading fulfilment providers offering ‘competitive’ prices for small/medium/large parcels – but their size definitions are smaller than that of the couriers they work with.  This means that in some cases, a parcel defined by Royal Mail as ‘small’ could be labelled as ‘medium’ by the fulfilment company: they can send the parcel on a ‘small’ service while charging you a ‘medium’ price. This approach to pricing can leave businesses with a higher bill than they were expecting.

Ask: “What happens if I have a surge in orders?”

Why ask this: You want peace of mind that your fulfilment partner can maintain service levels through busier periods, so it’s worth asking what measures are in place to cope with varying demand. Being in communication with your fulfilment team before/throughout a busy period or promotion is essential to managing a successful sale. Make sure you will have a regular point of contact, or that you can easily get hold of someone from the company, so you can keep them updated on your plans.  We are aware of some fulfilment companies requesting as much as 28 days’ notice of a ‘Surge Event’, and imposing additional charges if less notice is provided. This would make it very difficult for their clients to adapt to fast changes in their market, such as reacting to a TikTok/Instagram trend.

Ask: “What happens if I have a slump in orders?”

Why ask this: Many of us have witnessed first-hand the impact of the pandemic, Brexit, and the cost of living crisis on online sales, and businesses’ ability to forecast demand. Despite this, some fulfilment companies still require quarterly sales forecasts, and maintain the right to increase your costs if your sales fall short of these forecasts. This measure puts unnecessary additional pressure on business owners, who are already trying to navigate a challenging set of circumstances.

Ask: “Do you offer any additional services beyond the basic pick/pack?”

Why ask this: It’s good to understand the range of services that your fulfilment partner can offer – can they carry out reworking, kitting and gift-wrapping services? Do they provide a wholesale fulfilment service?  Even if you don’t need these additional services at the moment, your requirements could evolve as your business grows. It’s much simpler in the long run to have a fulfilment partner whose service can evolve with you, rather than having to find a new company when your needs change beyond the standard pick/pack service.It’s worth considering what you would do if you ever encountered a problem with a stock delivery; for example if it needed reworking. Would your fulfilment partner be willing and able to help you fix it?

Ask: ​​“Will your fulfilment software give me the information I need?”

Why ask this: Outsourcing your fulfilment shouldn’t have to mean losing sight of your inventory. While all fulfilment providers will tell you that they have a state-of-the-art system that keeps their warehouse running, that means nothing if you can’t work with it. It needs to be transparent and easy for you to use, without bombarding you with too much data at once.

Ask: “Are there any hidden fees?”

Why ask this: As well as reviewing any fulfilment quote thoroughly, you should ask the company to clarify if there are charges not included in your proposal that your business could be subjected to. In addition, we strongly recommend reading through their Terms and Conditions of service before making your final decision – this may reference fees not mentioned anywhere else. Some fulfilment companies omit the courier fees from their quote, so on first glance it will look significantly less expensive! We’d also recommend checking the financial health of any organisation you’ll be partnering with. Do a credit check, and check Companies House – if the business has cash reserves that are growing, it could be heading for trouble. While this is the worst-case scenario, your fulfilment partner going into administration would be a nightmare for your business – it could take weeks or months for the administrators to release your stock back to you. If a fulfilment house’s quote seems too good to be true, then these points are particularly important – check for hidden fees, and that their aggressive pricing model hasn’t put them in a risky financial position.  Comparing quotes from different fulfilment companies can be really difficult, as there is a lot of variation in how they all structure their pricing.

Identify a few common examples of orders and what it would cost to despatch each type, for example:

• A gift-wrapped order with 2 products
• A standard order with 1 product
• A wholesale order with 30 products

Then, estimate how many of each type of order you expect to despatch in a year and multiply the charges. Next, work out your storage costs for the year, and factor in any additional annual costs in your proposal. This should help give a clear picture as to what you would pay each fulfilment partner, as opposed to trying to compare apples with oranges.

Ask: “What’s your onboarding process?”

Why ask this: Whether you’re looking to outsource your in-house fulfilment, change to a new fulfilment partner, or plan ahead for your start-up business, your new fulfilment company should be able to outline its lead times and process for setting up your new account.  You obviously want as little disruption to your online orders as possible, and for your new fulfilment partner to set clear expectations so you can make the necessary preparations.

Ask: “What questions do you have for me?”

Did the fulfilment company take the time to understand your requirements before sharing their fees? If the fulfilment house has not asked about what you’re selling; your product characteristics, delivery preferences, whether you have certain requirements for fulfilling orders… that’s a red flag. The time and processes involved in fulfilling an order can vary hugely from one business to the next. Yet some fulfilment providers are still handing out the same generic price list, whether it’s to sellers of bicycles, gold watches, food hampers, smartphones or sofas! Fulfilment companies that share standardised prices do so because they know that, for most sellers, that’s their most important question and they want to know prices before starting a conversation. But these sellers run the risk of being lured in with low costs and then having their fees adjusted once they’ve already moved all their stock over and integrated their systems – simply because the fulfilment company didn’t accurately calculate the resource involved before you signed with them. When evaluating different fulfilment companies, make sure you get satisfactory answers to all these questions. It’s always best to speak to a team member over the phone if you can.

What are Vdepot’s answers to these questions?

“How will my account be managed?”

We don’t use a ticketing system at Vdepot, instead inviting our clients to call/email us whenever they need anything. We allocate a team of people to each client. This means you’ll have one main client service contact, consistency of goods in & warehouse management, as well as consistency on the technical side of things. Your business will be looked after by a dependable group of people who will become familiar with your products and processes.

“What are your parcel size definitions?”

The box size definitions available to you will be clearly stated in your proposal from us. You have the option to use your own packing materials, in which case they will be the same size definitions as the courier services we use. If you would like to use Vdepot’s packing materials – we try and match box definitions as closely to the couriers’ as possible.

“What happens if I have a surge in orders?”

While we ask that our clients try to give as much notice as they can of upcoming sales and promotions, we would never discourage the businesses we work with from running a sale, or reacting to what’s happening in their market or on social media.  We take several measures to ensure we maintain service levels in very busy times, including training seasonal staff in September so they have the necessary knowledge and experience to work through the demanding festive season, and reviewing client order volumes vs team member allocation on a daily basis.

“Do you offer any additional services beyond the basic pick/pack?”

We are one of the few fulfilment companies that can bespoke the fulfilment service to whatever you may require, including expert fulfilment for B2C, B2B, online and offline channels, reworking, kitting and gift wrapping.

“Will your fulfilment software give me the information I need?”

With Vdepot’s custom-built order management system, you can easily monitor the status of your orders and inventory levels, and specify exactly what other information you want to view each day. This can include the live status of all new orders, order numbers by location, channel and SKU, and any custom reports you might request. We actively compile reports and insights for our clients that help them evaluate their business performance and inform decision-making about their products, prices and more.

“Are there any hidden fees?”

Our bespoke proposal for you will list all charges you should be aware of, with no surprises. We don’t hide any extra service charges in our Terms & Conditions, which you can read here. Your service charges would only change if your chosen couriers increased their charges, if they were adjusted for inflation, or if your fulfilment requirements evolved to be substantially different from those referenced in your first proposal.

“What’s your onboarding process?”

At Vdepot, we can get your new fulfilment process up and running in a matter of days from your enquiry. Our average set-up time is 3 working days, but in some cases this can be as little as 1 day. We include an estimated lead time in our proposal for you, based on your inventory and order volumes. For companies with thousands of SKUs or who are switching away from a different fulfilment partner, we can offer the option of phased implementation.

“What questions do you have for me?”

At Vdepot we prefer to have a chat with you to give you a tailored, fair and accurate proposal. We will run through a few questions with you – on a call or via email, depending on your preference – about your products, and your needs around packing/shipping/returns. From there, we will create a bespoke proposal and run through this on a call with you.

To start a conversation with Vdepot, give us a call on +44 (0)1603 881700 or visit https://vdepot.co.uk

With Gen Z now entering the workforce, how do you go about navigating the massive cultural divide that might now exist in your office and create a balanced workplace culture? Typically, Gen-Z are no wallflowers; strong minded, often politically active and not afraid to call out inappropriate ‘banter’. They are moving into workspaces with Gen-X, millennials and even boomers, who have not had to deal with such a big cultural leap in the generational divide for some time. How you operate on a day-to-day basis may start to look different, not necessarily for better or worse, just different. Mark and Becky troubleshoot what leaders could face and how they would handle different opinions and create a safe culture and boundaries for everyone. GET IN TOUCH! We would love to hear your thoughts on today’s episode, email us at podcasts@larking-gowen.co.uk We would also love it if you could rate us 5 STARS on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, this really helps people find us! You can now watch us on YouTube! Click here Show Notes Teen depression statistics Twitter post Listen here!

HMRC ‘nudge letters’ – what are they, why do HMRC issue them, and what should you do if you receive one? Tax experts Gilly McGill and Dominic Carter discuss what the term covers – commonly known as ‘one-to-many letters’ and how HMRC identify recipients through data submitted to them or issues common to a sector. They discuss how the decline in human resourcing to investigate impacts this process. They provide recent examples of problems HMRC have faced and the potential penalties that may come from ignoring these letters, and how your adviser can help. For further information on today’s topic, and how we can help support you and your business on all tax related matters, click here. You can get in touch with our presenters directly through the Our People section of our website here. GET IN TOUCH! If you have any questions on today’s episode, and would like us to get in touch, email us at podcasts@larking-gowen.co.uk. We would also love it if you could rate us 5 STARS on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, this really helps people find us! You can find more episodes from this series on our website here Listen here!

This week’s episode is based around a quote from the business icon that is, Dolly Parton “Find out who you are, and do it on purpose”. Becky makes the argument that attaching your personal values to your work, makes for clearer messaging within your business, from your reputation through to recruitment. Her and Mark debate the idea of not leaving business to chance, and how living and working consciously is important, and not having your core values as part of your business plan can be detrimental to its success. GET IN TOUCH! We would love to hear your thoughts on today’s episode, email us at podcasts@larking-gowen.co.uk We would also love it if you could rate us 5 STARS on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, this really helps people find us! You can now watch us on YouTube! Click here Show notes Simon Sinek – Start with Why Listen here! Thank you to our sponsors Larking Gowen, Chartered Accountants and Business Advisors – check out their website to see how they could help your business www.larking-gowen.co.uk © Larking Gowen LLP

Serene Safety has joined the Norfolk Chambers of Commerce to raise the profile of the business in and around East Anglia and our home county of Norfolk. Norfolk Chambers offers a range of benefits that will help and promote the Serene Safety brand and allow us to share our ethos on safety and health obligations that Norfolk businesses have. Jonathan Reynolds, Serene Safety’s Principal Consultant and Tutor said ‘Joining the Norfolk Chambers was our next step in promoting our brand and affiliating with a group that has a long heritage and allows the voice of small business to be heard and considered. Serene Safety has sustainable plans for growth and equally wants our clients to grow with us on this journey – We are confident that the mutual help and support we will provide each other will benefit businesses in Norfolk.’

‘Target Zero’, ‘Club Zero’ or just ‘Zero’…… The premise takes many names but ultimately drives the concept of a workplace which has no adverse events that result in an injury, loss of life or damage to assets. I can absolutely get behind the goal and it is the driving force behind many safety and health professionals the world over. But is it achievable or simply a utopian phrase where the meaning isn’t truly realised? As with most of our blogs we pose a number of questions to allow our readers an opportunity of reflection and thought provocation with this topic generally being both emotive and analytical. Benchmarking In my opinion, the ‘zero’ concept is noble, just and right – Everyone can get behind it, can’t they but is it realistic? That depends on a number of factors. These factors can be, but are no means exhaustive:

• Current incident performance – No incidents, a few minor first aid cases, a lost-time injury or reportable injury, permanent disability or multiple fatalities – We need an initial baseline on which to identify the standard we want to set.
• Current safety climate – Are standards high, low, indifferent? Is the business pristine all of the time or just when it counts?
• Current safety culture within the organisation – How are things done within the organisation, how does it tick and, more importantly, what do the workforce perceive to be the goals of the business and expectations on how they are achieved?

Flemings Safety Culture Maturity Model

• Cultural maturity of the organisation – What stage is the organisation at when we look at it’s cultural maturity. There are many models out there as organisational culture has been debated over many years.
• Reporting history and maturity – How do the organisation report incidents? Are they encourage, discouraged, expected, avoided.
• Leadership – Where does the leadership team cast their shadow? Are their teams health, wellbeing and safety on their agenda? Is it considered, an afterthought or non-existent.
• Investment into safety and health – Do safety and health related improvements feature within the development plans of the organisation, does it receive any capital expenditure, is safety and the health of employees considered during the capital allocation of monies to projects to ensure steps are taken to ensure people are safe and risk has been designed out or is it an afterthought? 
• Industry – Is the organisation operating within an industry that has high expectations on it’s safety and health record and performance or is it a sector norm that standards are historically low.
• Legislative environment – Does the organisation operate in a highly regulated environment or operating in parts of the world where safety legislation is still developing?

and many more but this all factors into the organisations ability and credibility in whether or not zero incidents and injuries is realistically achievable. With the above reviewed, analysed and a certain degree of understaning of where an organisation is ‘today’ we can begin to look at how realistic the ‘zero’ concept is. Knowing Where You Are Going by Where You Have Been The next stage is very much time to look at where we want to be. Not only ‘what does good look like?’ but ‘what does ‘our’ good look like?’ or ‘what does ‘our’ good need to look like?’ to grow towards the target of ‘zero’. What good looks like needs to come from the organisation. Once ‘good’ has been established in the horizon, you need to get there. Factoring in all the measures, metrics and outputs from the reflection of ‘where we have been’. This may well be a three, five or ten year plan however it will be each to their own and depend, largely, on the factors discussed above that dictates how much pace is behind the plan – Now, you could change that, however, that’s an entirely different blog discussion. Target Zero or Not With all that said and done. With all (or as much as you can muster) the information available to you, is ‘zero’ viable? is it achievable? Is it the right thing to do for the organisation? Let me pose some questions:

• Is having a zero target meaningful to an organisation of 10 people with a poor safety performance?
• Is having a zero target meaningful to an organisation of 100 people with a poor safety performance who have had a fatal incident?
• Is having a zero target meaningful to an organisation of 1000 people with a poor safety performance who have had 10 fatal incidents?
• Is having a target to reduce fatal incidents by 3 each year meaningful to an organisation of 1000 people with an improving safety performance who have had 10 fatal incidents previously?

Is it unjust or immoral as it would appear an organisation is happy to sustain 7 fatalities however pat themselves on the back because they reduced it by 3? Would the families of those theoretical 7 people take comfort that 3 other families still have their loved one home each night whereas they still retain the empty void of where that loved one once was? What about the 4 the year after or the 1 the year after that? Alternatively if we looked through another lens:

• Is having a zero target meaningful to an organisation of 10 people with a good to excellent safety performance? – I’d say so.
• Is having a zero target meaningful to an organisation of 100 people with a good to excellent safety performance? – I’d say so.
• Is having a zero target meaningful to an organisation of 1000 people with a good to excellent safety performance? – I’d say so.

Would you? – We have another blog in development to counteract this looking into leading indicators and positively focused indicators to prevent the lagging ones altogether. We’ve discussed a lot there and it’s given me a lot to reflect on to which I hope it has had the same impact on you and I’d love to keep the conversation going – Our social networks are a great place to debate this topic and others. We have facilitated a number of benchmarking, mapping and profiling sessions with clients across a range of topics and we would love the opportunity to support you on your journey be it developing your culture, risk profile or strategic and tactical direction. Images provided by Serene Safety

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have recently released their provisional figures for work-related fatalities in the year 2021/2022 – We will have to wait for the final figures to be published in July 2023. Based on these provisional figures 123 workers were killed during this time – Let that just sink in for a moment. 123. That is the equivalent to all of the 6 nations starting 15 and 5 of the 6 teams’ replacements. That sounds horrific! Rugby analogies aside when we look at the numbers more closely we see the industries that have been impacted and find it equally as eye watering. Fatall Injuries o Workers by Main Industry, 2021/22 Construction has seen the highest, followed by agriculture, forestry and farming, followed by manufacturing. It was interesting to see that the waste and recycling industry has sustained one of the lowest and considering the high risk nature of the industry it looks like those folk are doing something different over the last few years. Our Principal Consultant, Jonathan, has spent 16-years in the waste and recycling industry with differing sizes of organisations and had this to say ‘Over the years I have had in the waste and recycling industry I have seen massive changes not only to standards and working practices – Those who remember foot plates on bin lorries or the fine art of ‘totting’ at your local tip are prime examples of where the industry have evolved. There appears to be a culture shift in peoples awareness of risk and what it means to them – An awareness of the consequence on themselves should they be involved in an incident or not be in a fit state to work or enjoy the pleasures of life.’. It may have something to do with the Waste Industry Safety & Health (WISH) Forum and their strategy to support the industry Where Risk Lies As with the industries that have sustained fatal incidents what caused them was equally interesting to see. HSE’s top 5 provisionally tells us that working at height, vehicle, plant and pedestrian segregation, falling or projectile objects, machinery risks or becoming trapped still remain high on the list. We, at Serene Safety at least, call these the basic, tangible safety risks that are well known and have a plethora of control measures and support in place to prevent so why do they still remain? Main Kinds of Fatal Accidents for Workers, 2021/22 Treat Health Like Safety What we do not see, because it is not as clear cut as the more physical side of fatal injuries’ are those more related to Psycho-social risks such as stress, anxiety, depression within the workplace or occupational health conditions that have a long latency period such as silicosis or mesothelioma. These ‘silent killers’ do not feature in these figures from what we can see however should not be discounted as a job well done. We need to remain cognizant of health so when we say ‘treat health like safety’ what we mean is placing as much emphasis on health risks in the workplace as we do with the ‘physical’ aspects of safety. Only Part of the Puzzle Arbitrary raw data such as the figures quoted above are only part of the puzzle and, whilst shocking to see, do not give a true representation of industry as a whole – It’s a blunt instrument and very much rear view mirror stuff. We can’t do much about the events that have already taken place. Forward looking indicators allow industry to horizon scan and, dare I say it, predict where their potential incidents are likely to be. The concept of leading and lagging indicators is not a new concept and there are far more involving posts and papers than this blog that do well to break it down for the discerning readers out there. In conclusion, whilst there have been gains within industry as a whole there is still a long road ahead to get this figure below 100, 50, 10 and the ultimate goal of 0. Look out for our upcoming blog on ‘Target Zero – Achievable or setting up to fail?’ Images provided by Serene Safety

Businesses of all sizes have varying obligations around keeping themselves and their staff, customers and supply chain safe. But what does that really mean in simple terms? Keep it Simple and Proportionate Managing health and safety is something that, over the fourteen years I’ve had in the trade, is best kept simple and proportionate. I have worked in organisations and businesses where the systems in place have, for various reasons, been over cumbersome, overly complex, disproportionate to the business or plainly put – Irrelevant to what the business does. So What? Now, does this really matter? I would say absolutely it does. If any of the above rings true of your business or is within your sphere of control I would simply ask “what value is it adding to you or your business?”. I am a big believer in putting things to the ‘So What’ test. The ‘so what’ test has been good to me when I am looking at system issues such as those discussed above and identifying the ‘so what’ helps to pin-point the ‘why’. Once you have circled around the ‘why’ of the system we begin to identify the reasoning behind it’s existence and apply the system in the spirit in which it was intended. Lets look at an example; Company ABC started with 2 personnel. They grew over the years to a small business of 10 people. Since growing to a size greater than 5 people the business has an obligation to formalise their health and safety arrangements (policies, risk assessments etc…). Company ABC use some of the free resources on the HSE website and pretty soon they have some basic policies and risk assessments – Great! Company ABC expands into new markets, requiring some different skill sets and procures the services of a consultant (XYZ Safety) to ‘sort this compliance stuff out, we don’t want to get sued’ [Ed. I do cringe when I hear that sort of thing]. Company ABC now have a shiny new policy, a few more risk assessments and so forth. Business is booming and Company ABC have the opportunity to buy a smaller business, LMN Engineering. They do so and are faced with a new business with it’s own systems and processes. LMN Engineering used a similar safety consultant (123 Compliance) and have a vastly different set of policies and procedures, vastly disproportionate to their size however they believed they would just ‘grow into them’ – Not the other way around….. So, we are faced with one business with two sets of arrangements varying in quality, consistency, content and proportionality. What is this bringing to the table? Is it, coining a corporate buzz phrase, making the boat row faster? What value does this add, sat in a folder, never to be seen again? Bringing it all together So what? Our example company have a management system they are working with that potentially adds little value to them or is inefficient versus what it could be doing for them – So what?

• It may not be suitable and sufficient.
• It may not meet the legal obligations of the business
• It may create additional work that someone has to complete or maintain that could otherwise be streamlined.
• It may not meet the requirements of supply chain accreditations or recognized standards resulting in a potential loss in new custom.
• It may not be providing the tools and instructions to the people within the business that should be following it to work safely and efficiently.

So what? Do the above characteristics, such as, unsuitable, insufficient, inefficient, non-compliant or missed sales opportunities, sound like characteristics you would like in your business? – I know I wouldn’t. ABC Company, XYZ Safety, LMN Engineering and 123 Compliance are all fictitious companies however, do any parts of the example explained above resonate with you or have you seen elements of this in your experiences? We would love to hear your thoughts on this or share any previous experiences you may of had so we can continue the discussion further. At Serene Safety we offer a retained services offering – What does this mean? We don’t just work with our clients, we partner with them to make sure they can be the best they can be at what they do best. Our retainer service provides our clients with a named competent person to meet their obligations under the Management of Health and Safety Regulations, regulation 7. Our scalable packages start from a simple set-up fee and monthly subscription of £70 per month, rising based on the size and complexity of the client. One of our values is ‘being simple to do business’ with and we do this with our retained services by:

• Providing flexible payment options through monthly or annual subscriptions.
• Security through our 12-month rolling agreements.
• A 15% discount on packages purchased up front
• 30-Day payment terms to qualifying clients
• Arranging site visits in advance at a time convenient to the client
• Communicating with our clients by whatever means necessary – Face-to-face, Teams, Zoom, telephone, SMS, Whats App, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc…

Our ”off-the-shelf’ packages can suit most organisations however we also have the option to mix and match certain elements across our 5 tier packages. Get in touch with us to discuss these options or arrange a no obligation health check on your business. Images provided by Serene Safety