Blogs

Guest contributors Gemma and David Sole, Partners at School for CEOs, speak on their recent research into the impact of Covid-19 on business leaders. In April 2020, at the beginning of lockdown, School for CEOs invited our Faculty of over 100 CEOs and Non-Executive leaders to share their insights on leadership through a crisis. Above all, the prevailing piece of advice was the one thing that leaders forget in the melee – to look after themselves. 

Guest contributor Donald Moore, Chair at Rowlinson Knitwear, discusses a recent decision to introduce lateral flow testing in the workplace. We were lucky to have the chance to establish lateral flow testing in our workplace, and are very grateful to Stockport Council for providing this for us. In fact, we are the first manufacturing organisation to do this in Stockport with the help of the council.

Guest contributor Annalise Lewis, Chair of GM B Local and Co-Founder of Pentameter, speaks on B Corp certifications. 2020 was relentless, ferocious and polarising, and strangely - came with the emergence of real opportunity for hope. This hope does not see a future empty of crisis but a deep and meaningful opportunity that includes compassion, community and renewal.

Guest contributor Joanne Holland, Employer Engagement Manager at Transition to Teach, discusses this funded programme delivered by Cognition Education. It offers free support to businesses and their employees in order to raise awareness of teaching as a credible alternative to those who may be facing redundancy, coming to the end of their contract or taking early retirement.

Guest contributor Alice Kinder, Solicitor at Anthony Collins Solicitors, discusses social mobility in our latest blog. As the world seeks to overcome the economic effects of the pandemic, many organisations are recognising the need to become more innovative and creative in their strategies. An important ingredient in this is diversity of thought, drawn from encouraging a diverse pool of talent. How can this be achieved?

Guest contributor Alexia Rhodes details a snippet of good practice from the Business Growth Hub. Like many firms over the last 9 months, all Business Growth Hub employees have been working from home since the outbreak of the pandemic. We had a wonderful office environment and many of us missed seeing familiar faces and having informal catch-ups and chats over a coffee. Our office space had no fixed desks for staff which meant that you could be sat next to someone new each day, which allowed staff to get to know people from other areas of the business and not just their team.

Since February 2020, the Greater Manchester Autism Consortium has been running a campaign called the Greater Manchester Enabling Employment Campaign. This campaign has a single aim, to raise awareness of the strengths and gifts of autistic and learning disabled people within the workplace. The strengths are not only corporate social responsibility, or filling equality and diversity policies, but your business and organisation benefitting greatly from employing autistic and learning disabled people.

For those of you who might not know us, we’re one of Manchester’s longest standing local charities and were founded in 1977 to work with adults who are going through a process of recovery or rehabilitation. We have a learning centre in Ancoats where we provide training and support to over 700 people each year who experience problems with homelessness, drug and alcohol use, offending, and mental health.

The Covid-19 pandemic has not only presented huge health challenges that will continue to ebb and flow over the coming months, but it has also brought economic shocks that are truly unprecedented. These have already led to structural change and the need for greater adaptation and further innovation in many aspects of our lives, not least employment standards.