Member News

Reflection PR is an ambitious PR consultancy in Norwich. We’re a small team making a big impact and our work includes PR and social media campaigns, videos, awards and website design.

We work with fantastic clients in the consumer, food, drink, leisure and tourism sectors.

We’re now looking for a Senior Account Manager or Account Director to join our team and help us to reach the next stage of growth.

More information about this role and how to apply ishere.

Closing date is 7th December- we look forward to hearing from any interested candidates.

Over 30 Health and Social Care, Childcare, Hospitality, Sports and Motor Vehicle students from City College Norwich stepped into a range of job roles on Friday 20th November as part of the national Takeover Challenge.

Several different groups of students came together to take part in a takeover at The Parkside School in Norwich. At the additional needs school, which has pupils aged 7 to 17, 14 level 3 Health and Social Care students provided classroom support to pupils. In addition Childcare level 3 students Katie Dade and Estee Anema shadowed the school’s headteacher and deputy head throughout the day.

Childcare Level 3 student, Estee Anema, 17, who spent the day working with the deputy headteacher, said: “It’s been amazing experiencing all of the sorts of different skills you need to deal with the things that happen in a school just in one day. It’s made me think more about the special needs aspect of childcare.”

Health and Social Care Level 3 student, Jordan Smith, 18, spent the day supporting pupils in the classroom in a teaching assistant role. Jordan commented: “It’s been really wonderful. I was nervous at first, but now I love it! I would like to come back and do my additional needs work placement here.”

Meanwhile 6 Sports students helped out with afternoon PE lessons at the school, and the school’s kitchens were staffed by 3 Food Studies students who prepared 132 school lunches for pupils. Three more Food Studies students worked at the school’s White Lion Café in Norwich city centre.

Elsewhere, at Heathersett Fire Station, 6 Motor Vehicle students worked alongside Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service staff. Following an induction the students worked in the ladder department (checking and servicing the equipment), with the critical equipment department, and off-shore fire equipment. As well as getting hands-on with equipment servicing, the students also joined a road test of one of the station’s fire engines.

Vehicle Maintenance and Repair Level 2 student, Harry Clayden, 17, said: “It’s been great. I thought all they did was just put fires out, but I’ve learnt there’s a lot more than that. They’ve got someone who looks after the ladders, people who service and repair the trucks, critical equipment people, a parts manager, electrician, and a control room who handle the 999 calls.”

The Children’s Commissioner’s Takeover Day is a national event involving 44,000 people across England. It is a day where organisations all across England invite children and young people into their organisations to “takeover” their roles and be involved in decision making. It promotes Article 12 of the UNCRC, which says all children should have a say in matters that affect them.

We are delighted to announce the launch of our ‘domination screen’enabling us to reach in excess of 350,000 people per week. The screen is situated at the main pedestrian entrance of the Riverside complex, viewable by all traffic on this major commuter link and bus route, as well as passing footfall and those accessing the Train Station or en route to Carrow Road football ground. The screen will also benefit from peak audiences due to events such as Norwich City FC home games,major Odeon cinema film releases, school holidays, rush hour etc.

With the launch of the third screen, we are now running two different advertising packages. We have our ‘Gym Circuit’ – comprising of two well-respected branded gyms, both with excellent membership numbers and footfalls. And our ‘Domination Circuit’ – comprising of both the gym screens and the domination screen located at Wherry Road, viewable to the public and switched on 24/7.

We are also happy to announce with a BIGwelcome tointu Chapelfieldthe latest Norfolk based business to our digital signage networks across Norfolk!The ad is displayed on our domination circuit and was designed byFOUR Agencycreating a fun and festive advertisement, aiming to entice consumers to the late night shopping hours the shopping centre has to offer throughout December. By using a combination of motion graphics and informative content, FOUR agency certainly created an advertisement we find indulging. Using bright vibrant colours and the implementation of some playful props the ad is certainly brought to life. We simply LOVE IT!!

TaxAssist Accountants is pleased to announce it has now reached the milestone figure of 200 franchises in the UK.

The franchise which is this year celebrating its 20th Anniversary, continues to successfully recruit new franchisees, and has finished off the year with a flourish, taking on 6 new franchisees on its last course of the year.

There are now over 250 modern, welcoming TaxAssist shops and offices around the UK, and 24 in Southern Ireland. TaxAssist has seen huge interest in its franchise model in Australia and is hopeful the first franchisee will sign up shortly.

Karl Sandall CEO of The TaxAssist Group comments “I am very pleased with the way the franchise network has grown. TaxAssist has a good track record and a solid, successful business model which means we have always outperformed many other franchises and accountancy networks in terms of growth. We already have a lot of interest in our next course in February 2016, and I would urge anyone interested in the franchise to get in contact to see if their preferred territory is currently available.”

TaxAssist has franchise opportunities available all over the country, and has recently opened up new territories in Central London. Anyone interested in finding out more should contact Jody Fiveash on 0800 0188297 for a confidential chat, before booking onto a discovery day.

November 2015

We always enjoy being asked to judge the Best Employer category at the Eastern Daily Press Business awards. It always proves to be extremely inspiring and it’s a fantastic way to find out more about the exceptional examples of employee engagement being implemented by businesses in our region.

Here at Pure we are real supporters of employee engagement. It doesn’t just add to the bottom line, it also creates a great place for people to work, helping organisations to attract and retain the best talent. The Best Employer award is all about celebrating the businesses which have demonstrated a clear vision and understanding of what keeps teams motivated and engaged.

Our congratulations go to Norwich’s online wine retailer, Naked Wines, which was presented with the 2015 award earlier this month. As judges for the award we were looking for demonstrable evidence of employee engagement tactics including: personal development opportunities for staff; strong communication; innovative ways of recognising, rewarding and thanking staff; empowering teams to make a difference for charity or their local community; flexible working and staff wellbeing; diversity and openness to feedback; and truly living their values.

Naked Wines was able to demonstrate exceptional examples of all these criteria and proved to be extremely inspiring winners, here’s three of the top reasons why:

1. A motivating office space

It was clear that having fun while working hard was a core part of the company ethos. They have incorporated some fabulous ideas to make the office a fantastic place for their staff, including a slide linking the first and ground floor, office pool tables and a coffee/beer bar which becomes a social hub at 5pm on a Friday. Our physical working environment affects our ability to work, so spending time and effort on creating a great office space is a worthwhile investment. Anyone looking for additional inspiration can find some more ideas in our previous blog post on office space.

2. Empowered employees

Creating an effective culture for employee engagement requires empowering leadership, strong values and shared vision. It was clear that the leadership team at Naked Wines is completely committed to empowering its people to deliver exceptional customer service. Their employees are given the freedom and flexibility to be able to tailor solutions to individual customers. They are also encouraged to come up with new ideas and projects to improve the business.

3. Commitment to values

Over the past year Naked Wines has undergone a change of ownership but it has stayed true to its values. It has continuously sought innovative ways to keep staff motivated and rewarded. This includes quarterly incentive schemes and free food Fridays. It also has strong links to charities which, as we’ve previously highlighted in another blog, can also help to make a great place to work.

We would also like to congratulate Lintott Control Systems and Selesti, who were both incredibly worthy finalists in this category. Both organisations should be exceptionally proud to have been shortlisted from over 300 businesses which entered the awards this year.

Achieving these types of Best Employer accolades really helps to raise your employee brand, which will inevitably help to attract future talent to your organisation. If you’ve been inspired by these awards you can discover more about employee engagement by visiting our Best Employers Eastern Region section of the website, which also explains how you could win one of our Best Employer awards in 2016!

TaxAssist nominated for Best Franchise Award

TaxAssist is pleased to announce that it has been shortlisted for the 2015 Best Franchise Awards, sponsored by the Royal Bank of Scotland, in the Best Franchise £75k+ Investment category.

The awards are based on feedback from thousands of franchisees that have completed the Franchise Satisfaction Benchmark. The survey asks franchisees to anonymously rate their franchisor on everything from training and support to shared goals and how it has compared with their expectations.

The finalists will be invited to present to a judging panel on 17th November. The winners will be based 50% on the judges’ feedback and 50% on franchisees’ feedback.

The award winners will be announced at the Best Franchise Conference on 26th November. During the conference, TaxAssist Accountants will be presented with Continuous Improvement and 5 Star Franchisee Satisfaction awards as we are part of a select group of franchisors which received outstanding feedback.

Bring a bag to work for EACH

Clear out your good quality, unwanted items and help your local children’s hospice at the same time!

We always need items to sell in our shops

Please help us by bringing a bag to work anddonating things like…

• Clothes …great if you have good quality clothes to donate • Books …any quality, but modern paperbacks are great • Bric-a-brac …good quality and preferably clean • Toys …of good saleable quality • Cosmetics (sealed/not used) • DVDs/CDs.

For more information pleasecontact James Bacon – NorfolkCorporate Fundraiser – james.bacon@each.org.uk / 01953 666768

Five Local Action Groups across Norfolk and north Suffolk (Brecks, Broads, Waveney Valley, Wensum & Coast and West Norfolk) are pleased to announce that they are open for business, and invite applications for their funding scheme. The funding is to achieve jobs and growth in the rural economy, anddelivered under the Rural Development Progromme for England under six priorities:

• Increase farm productivity
• support micro and small businesses and farm diversification
• boost rural tourism
• provide rural services
• provide cultural and heritage activities, and
• increase forestry productivity

The emphasis is that projects create jobs and economic growth in the rural economy.Applicants are advised to check the handbook to see if proposed activities are eligibile, and to reviewaction group funding priorities which are unique to their area. these can be found at www.norfolklags.co.uk, by clicking of the relevant local action group tab.

The fund is open until 2020, or until budgets have been assigned to projects.

Alice Henderson, who recently completed her Swarm Enterprise Apprenticeship with Free Bridge Housing was nominated for The Enterprise Learner of the Year Award held at the House of Lords on the 4th of November.

The award nominations was for recognition of an individual who has both embraced their learning programme with passion, and also shown a commitment to applying their newly acquired skills to pursue an enterprising activity.

The annual event was hosted by the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs (IOEE) and the Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative (SFEDI). It brought together educators, entrepreneurs and other key figures from the UK’s small business, enterprise and skills sector.

Alice Henderson, an Swarm Apprentice at Freebridge Community Housing in West Norfolk, has proven herself to be hard-working, meticulous, professional and able to use criticism constructively to improve her skills. At the end of her programme, Alice impressed senior members of staff by delivering a comprehensive presentation detailing the work she had put into a project designed to both attract revenue and support the local community. Freebridge Community Housing’s managers believe Alice to be a very strong young woman who will prove a great asset to the business.

Nic Preston, Chief Executive of SFEDI Awards, said:

“Freebridge Community Housing has been extremely fortunate to have Alice Henderson as an Enterprise Apprentice. This is a young person who has shown herself to have an innate talent for enterprise, on both a strategic and a practical level. Alice is someone whose future will be studded with success.”

Chris Perry, Managing Director of Swarm, comments

“I am especially proud of Alice as I took a personal interest in her journey through the training to become a very commercially savvy young business professional. Alice has and will continue to make a big impact at Freebridge and I look forward to watching her career blossom”

Alicewas appointed as a SwarmApprentice working for Robert Clarke – Director of Housing for Freebridge Community Housing a year ago, as part of her traning she had to come up with a new projectthat would add real value to the organisation and then pitch that project to her employers.Herprojectwas focused around raising tenant engagement to boost community social return. Her well communicated pitch, included a clear vision to increase tenant engagement through a new approach to marketing and promoting community events. The pitch was excellently supported by a detailed breakdown of the social return they could expect from this community investment and a clear costing model outlining initial investment, profit margins and how profit would be re-invested in local community projects.

Chris Perry goes on to say “Not only is this a fantastic example of what investing in a young person can bring to an organisation but also how growing the enterprising mindset is so important in developing and effectivefuture workforce.With the right support in teaching both the hands on skills and busineses attitude,apprentices can and will deliver impact to an organisation”

Ends

Initiative aims to tackle skills shortage and boost local economy

A brand new pilot that will match military leavers with future employers is to be trialled in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.

VETS East is the first regional hub for the Veterans Employment Transition Support Programme* VETS – a national partnership pilot launched this month – which provides registration, mentoring, ready to work and in-work support services for former members of the armed forces.

Research commissioned by the VETS programme** with nearly 800 former veterans, shows that many employers do not value military experience as highly as they should so the region’s businesses are missing out on a wealth of expertise and talent, such as leadership, strategic planning and problem solving. In the East of England only a quarter of former veterans feel their current employer fully recognises their skills and experience.

The national programme brings together the MOD and the Career Transition Partnership, which helps veterans gain civilian employment, with a coalition of corporate companies such as, Barclays, Deloitte and Jaguar Landrover, and service charities, such as Help for Heroes and Walking with the Wounded. Working with the existing landscape of transition support VETS provides end to end assistance to veterans and offers employers advice on how to recruit, support and get the best from veterans in their workforce.

VETS East, will focus on matching service leavers with the region’s businesses – in particular, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) – so employers will have direct access to this under-utilised future workforce as well as benefiting from savings in recruitment fees.

The regional programme is led by Andy Wood, CEO of Adnams, in his capacity as The Prince’s Ambassador for the East of England – an appointment made by Business in the Community (BITC)*** on behalf of HRH The Prince of Wales to promote responsible business in the region.

Last year at BITC’s Responsible Business Awards, The Prince of Wales said: “It is enormously encouraging to find companies not just tackling unemployment amongst young people generally, but making a real and targeted effort to support our troops as they return to civilian life.The extent of their commitment to providing practical training and job offers is remarkable and I hope many other companies will follow their lead.”

VETS East is the local business response. The project is also supported locally by Business in the Community, Barclays and New Anglia LEP.

Andy Wood, who is also Chair of New Anglia LEP’s Skills Board, said the region had a proud history of supporting the UK’s armed forces and called on SMEs to do what they can to help with employment opportunities. “We know that several hundred service leavers are looking for work across our three counties at any one time and we also know that many of our SMEs and larger companies are struggling with a real skills gap. VETS East aims to tackle both these issues bringing long term benefits to the veterans, new talent to our companies and a boost to the local economy.

Enterprises across Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex are packed full of talent and expertise, we are looking for them to share that experience by offering mentoring, interview coaching and work placements, and to consider ex-service men and women when they are looking to recruit new team members.”

Mark Pendlington, chairman of New Anglia LEP and a Group Director at Anglian Water, said: “My company is one of many that has signed the military covenant because we know how important it is to support our armed forces and recognise the excellent skills they can bring into the business world. As an organisation tasked with boosting economic growth and tackling the skills gap, The LEP is extremely supportive of this initiative and I would encourage enterprises across Norfolk and Suffolk and Essex to get involved and offer practical support and help.”

As the nation remembers those who have sacrificed their lives, in wars across the world, VETS East will be launched at a special business breakfast at Ipswich Town Football Club on Friday November 20 – with over 100 business leaders as well as former members of the armed forces who are now running or working in companies across our region. Businesses can still register for the event at https://www.bitc.org.uk/news-events/events/vets-launch

Attendees will hear how local companies have successfully employed service leavers to the benefit of both business and the individual and how more can benefit from the VETS East programme.

Businesses will be asked to pledge their support by offering mentoring, work placements and advertising job vacancies on the VETS East website, which is currently being developed.

Tim Seeley, Head of Corporate & Business Banking East Anglia, said: “Barclays is proud to have supported thousands of servicemen and women through our AFTER programme, which helps with the transition into civilian employment and highlights the economic value those from the military can bring to the corporate world. We are delighted to be working in partnership with such a broad range of businesses, charities and employment agencies, to take this support to the next stage.”back into civilian life and a rewarding career, as I did.”

Breakwater IT, a leading IT support and technology solutions company, and Swains Plc, one of the UK’s premier business telecoms providers recently hosted a morning of cars and communications at Lotus Cars, Hethel.

Businesses from around the region gathered in the Club Lounge at Lotus, overlooking their impressive test track, to engage in demonstrations from TalkTalk Business and Datto. TalkTalk focused on making a connectivity choice to match the needs of your business, highlighting the high performance capabilities of the Ethernet. Datto also focused on the rapidity of their technology – a business continuity solution that safeguards data and enables your business to be up and running again within minutes.

Speed had a continued presence in the morning as attendees received a first-hand experience of the inner workings of the Lotus factory, the facility in which all of their sports cars are individually hand-built.

The Lotus Exige was then given a spin on the test track, as 3 attendees had the chance to get behind the wheel of this remarkable car, swiftly followed by a hot lap with one of the Lotus Driving Academy’s experienced instructors (a chance for the acceleration of the car to really come into its own – as heard by those attendees watching from the Club Lounge). We hope that Tom Thornley, Director of The Original Cottage Company, Alton Nutile, Commercial Manager of Dardan Security and James Howells, Managing Director of Turning Factor all enjoyed feeling the power and sheer speed of the Exige.

Breakwater IT and Swains Plc are working together to ensure both IT and business telecoms can be dealt with as one. This event enabled businesses to get a taste of the benefits of an aligned approach to communications, as clients receive the latest technologies combined with an exemplary customer service.

Join us on Wednesday 25 November for a special evening compered by Stewart White of BBC Norfolk and auctioneered by Elizabeth Talbot of TW Gaze to raise vital funds for the Theatre.

We are thrilled to have received over 60 puppets from – amongst others – Michael Rosen, Maureen Lipman, Tom Conti, Toya Wilcox, Colin Self, Jenny Eclair, Geoffrey Palmer, Graham Linehan, Dame Cleo Laine and Ella Goodwin. You can take a little bit of puppet magic home by purchasing your favourite creation at the auction. View the gallery of puppets you can get your hands on! https://www.puppettheatre.co.uk/whats-on/puppetry/celebrity-puppet-auction-gallery

As a registered charity the funds raised will help make sure we can continue our work to benefit the local community, families and children. The 2010 auction raised over £7,000, with your help we hope to exceed that this year! Book now. to be sure of your specatcular souvenir programme a welcome drink and a whole lot of fun!https://www.puppettheatre.co.uk/whats-on/puppetry/celebrity-puppet-auction