Costa Coffee and Premier Inn parent Whitbread plans to raise prices to mitigate “substantial” National Living Wage costs September 8, 2015 Picked up a coffee on your way into work this morning? You might find it starts costing a little bit more in future. Costa Coffee and Premier Inn parent group Whitbread has warned that it will be forced to introduce "some selective price increases" across the business as part of measures to tackle rising [...]
Winners and losers of Living Wage campaign – The City View September 7, 2015 The problem with nuance and complexity is that they get in the way of simple government announcements. Take, as a prime example, the debate around the national minimum wage (NMW). The Low Pay Commission (LPC) was created in 1998 to offer independent advice on the NMW – precisely because politicians were deemed incapable of resisting [...]
How Britain’s booming startup scene can be supercharged by empowering smaller investors September 7, 2015 Many congratulations to City A.M. on its tenth birthday. It has been a remarkably successful decade for the adventurous upstart. But the anniversary reminds me of a rather less happy fact. By the time it is ten years old, there is only a one in 100 chance that a UK firm will have reached [...]
Executive pay: FTSE 100 bosses miss out on bonus boost September 6, 2015 More than a third of FTSE 100 chief executives missed out on pay rises this year, according to a PwC report out today. This is up from a quarter of bosses whose pay did not get a lift in 2014. Of those who received a boost, the average increase was three per cent, taking [...]
Scandi offices: What British firms can learn from their Nordic counterparts September 6, 2015 Swedish companies are well-known as excellent places to work. This is partly a result of a unique Scandinavian business culture, characterised by collaboration, respect and personal responsibility. There is much that UK firms can learn from Swedish business customs. Here are a few examples that could help improve team spirit and make for happier employees. [...]
Back to work: Pause before doing away with your annual appraisals September 4, 2015 As the new term kicks off one rather large organisation, Accenture, won’t be carrying out any more annual appraisals. Managers and junior employees alike must have extra springs in their steps as they, gleefully, head through the revolving doors and into work. The case against is strong. The annual appraisal system is time-consuming, regimented (often [...]
Skills gap is bigger threat than Brexit: Talent shortages to hit UK economic growth, warn finance chiefs September 4, 2015 Top UK finance chiefs are more unnerved by their lack of access to talented labour than they are by the threat of Britain leaving the EU, the Bank of England hiking borrowing costs or even the abrupt slowdown in China that has sent shockwaves throughout global financial markets. Fear over dwindling access to skilled [...]
Blame lack of reform for Eurozone unemployment remaining so high September 3, 2015 We received good news on European unemployment this week. The total number unemployed in the Eurozone and across the EU has continued to fall. The Eurozone unemployment rate has dropped below 11 per cent for the first time since early 2012. And the overall EU jobless rate is down to 9.5 per cent, its [...]
The UK’s skills shortage is getting worse: It’s time for a shake up in the classroom and the boardroom September 3, 2015 There’s an elephant in the boardroom. According to a survey of the finance directors of many of the UK’s largest companies, it casts a greater shadow than China or Brexit or the hacking horrors of cyber attacks. It’s the new number one at the top of Britain's risk registers – the difficulty of recruiting [...]
Pizza Express bows to pressure on tips September 3, 2015 Pizza Express has bowed to growing pressure over its tipping system and agreed to remove the eight per cent administration fee it charges for customers paying their bill with card. The move, which workers and unions have been calling for over the last few months, means staff will receive the full amount left for [...]