What are ISOs?

ISOs are international standards that help organisations to consistently meet product and/or service requirements. They are published by the International Organization for Standardization. 

Good staff training – training that is relevant, in line with legislation and company goals and fit for purpose - is fundamental to business success. But the costs of undertaking and maintaining a training programme can seem prohibitive. 

However necessary training is, obviously cost is going to be a key consideration for your business. And it's important to remember that the cost isn't just made up of the price that you may pay to an individual training provider: you also need to add the hours that the employee is going to away from their work.
​
So how do you decide what training to put in place, and how best to approach it?
​

Use our straightforward, practical 4-step guide to help you make the most of your training budget.


1. Establish what training is needed

First of all you need to ask yourself what training is needed, and why.

Is the training in line with your company training objectives? Training should link back to the objectives that you’ve already set for the year. 

Are there recent or upcoming changes to standards? If you've identified that there has or is about to be a change in standard (for instance, OHSAS 18001 being replaced by ISO 45001) that logically suggests that there may be a training requirement for individual employees. You need to ensure that they understand the differences between the two standards, and are able to adapt your systems to meet the new requirements. Where necessary this may also mean up skilling your team of internal auditors.

Is there a legal requirement? Training requirements may be linked to legal requirements. For example, if you have first aiders, you may have trained them, but if the last time you did that was three years ago, it may well be that in order to stay legally compliant you need to provide ongoing or refresher training.


2. Be clear about the desired outcome

Ultimately you need to be considering the overall effect on your business. 

What is it that you’re expecting to get out of the training, as an output? It’s realistic to expect that your business will to be able to perform more effectively, and in a more legally compliant manner, as a result of the training. 


3. Consider the most effective way to deliver the training

Give some thought to how training will be provided. It's not always necessary to spend money on training. Think about how you can provide the necessary training in the most cost-effective way.

Can you use in-house trainers? You may find that you've got suitably skilled people within your team to be able to provide on-the-job training. 

Is online training appropriate? If your budget is small you may find that it’s more appropriate to source online or webinar based training. Most candidates tend to find that either a classroom based approach or a blended learning approach works best for them.

How many people need the training? Think about where the training is going to be carried out. The answer to this will depend partly on how many people need to be trained. If you've only got one or two individuals you may find it more cost effective to send them off to a public course, where they'll pay an individual delegate rate. If you've got lots of people to train you may find it considerably more cost effective to invite the training provider to deliver training at your own premises.


4. Decide what level of training is needed

Does the training need to be accredited, or does it just need to be delivered by a recognised provider? Certain accredited courses have a minimum number of guided learning hours that training providers will be unable to deviate from, whereas they can often be more flexible in delivering bespoke courses.

Christmas festivities and colder weather can spell worry for safety conscious companies... but how concerned do we really need to be about health and safety in the office, and what should we really be focusing on?


Seasonal office health and safety: True or false?

There is a minimum office temperature for employees set in law. This actually isn't true - though the temperature should be 'reasonable', there is no legal minimum below which employees must be sent home. However, as a guide, workers who are moving around should have a temperature of 13 degrees C or more - and for office workers (who tend to sit down more, so don't generate much warmth) it should be at least 16 degrees. 

You need to take reasonable steps to clear snow and ice from your premises. Yes, you could be at risk if someone has an accident entering or leaving your premises. This could include clearing snow from your entrance, or putting down grit or sand to prevent employees or customers from slipping and falling. In the case of an accident, you need to be able to show that you've taken some reasonable steps to prevent accidents from occurring. Read this advice from the Government on how to safely clear snow and ice.

You can't let staff put up Christmas decorations in the office. Bah, humbug! There's no reason to stop employees getting into the festive spirit. Just make sure they approach this sensibly (for example, not standing on chairs), and provide them with safety steps or a ladder if needed. Make sure cables from fairy lights are safely taped down to avoid trips and falls, that nothing flammable is put up near a source of ignition, and that decorative lights are switched off when staff leave for the day.

Employers are responsible for staff behaviour at the office Christmas party. Employers are legally responsible for the acts of their employees carried out as part of their duties. But the risk doesn't disappear when staff leave their place of work. This includes Christmas parties held off site and outside working hours. So make sure events are properly supervised, especially when alcohol is involved, and that you have a plan in place to ensure employees can get home safely afterwards.

​To find out how Penarth Management Limited can help your business be safer, please contact us at info@penarth.co.uk or on 029 2070 3328. ​

Stay safe online this Christmas

Most of us will be online shopping more during the festive season - and seeing a lot more promotional and sales emails. As this time of year usually sees a spike in cyber crime, what steps can you take to keep yourself safe from spammers, phishing emails and cyber criminals?


The stats*

• Online shopping fraud increased by 24% during the Christmas period (October-February) between 2015 and 2018.
• Over 15,000 reports of online shopping fraud were made to Action Fraud during the Christmas period last year.
• Victims reported losing more than £11 million in total.

General online safety

Cyber security is for life, not just for Christmas, so you should have the following in place:

• Virus protection and firewall, including money security offered through your virus protection provider.
• A different password for every website you use - each one as complex as possible. You should never use the same password twice. If you struggle to remember all your passwords, use a password manager (there are free options available).

Online shopping

• Check the sites you're shopping on are secure. Official websites will have 'https' in front of the site name, rather than 'http' (the 's' stands for 'secure'). You will also see a padlock symbol to the left of the site name. If this isn't present, don't buy from the site.
• Be wary of clicking on sales links in emails. If unsure, Google the company and reach the website that way, rather than clicking the link. That way, if the link is from a phishing site you won't be caught out.
• If you do click a link, check the spelling on the site and the way the site name is written.There are some very clever copycat sites out there, designed to look just like the sites of well known brands.
• If you're buying event tickets as a gift, always buy from official sources.
• Remember, if a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is! Be wary of being drawn in by an apparently great offer, only to find you've inadvertently purchased a counterfeit item.
• Always read the small print when making a purchase.

Making payments

• Always use a secure connection - don't shop online using free coffee shop WiFi.
• Use a credit card rather than a debit card for transactions, as you will be covered by your credit card issuer if anything goes wrong. For added peace of mind, look for a credit card with an Internet guarantee.
• If a sale doesn't go through properly, never email your payment details. Always complete transactions via a secure website.
• Once you've completed a transaction, log out of the site - don't just close the browser window.

Tips for keeping your new gadgets safe

• We know you're excited to start using your new items - but before you do, make sure you install any  security and software updates straight away.
• Change default passwords on new devices right away.

*Figures from Action Fraud

Free data uploads in December with Mango compliance software

Our newest Mango client signed up this week - and they're now benefiting from free uploads of data throughout December. They'll be starting the New Year with a fabulous new management system that will make it easier for them to keep on top of all their compliance tasks.
​

What is Mango - and why do we recommend it?

Mango works by integrating your Quality, Health, Safety and Environmental Management systems in the cloud and on a mobile app - and gets everyone in your organisation involved and participating. You can use all four systems, or choose the ones you need.

'Mango' which stands for "management on the go" - because, being cloud based, it can be accessed from anywhere. It is ideal for multi-sited organisations and helps to do away with paper files and unresponsive spreadsheets.

Recovered from Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Well, if you're not a fan, today is Green Tuesday: an antidote to the excess consumerism of the weekend. Green Tuesday was brought about to encourage consumers and businesses to repair, reuse or recycle their old IT devices.

So if you've taken advantage of the offers over the weekend, do think twice before sending the items you've replaced or updated to landfill. Make sure you repair and reuse what you can, and if that's not possible, have your items recycled so that their components can be reused.
​

The Zokit Environmental Award 2019

What better day that Green Tuesday to announce that Penarth Management Limited are sponsoring the Zokit Environmental Award again in 2019!

The award is for 'businesses that value and contribute to the sustainability of our environment through innovative practices that run right through everything they do'. We were proud sponsors of the award this year (the 2018 winners were Skyhawk Global, announced on 17th May 2018 at Springconf, Cardiff City Stadium) and we look forward to hearing about the finalists for 2019.

Want to enter your business for the Zokit Environmental award? Click here.

After the flurry of activity leading up to the GDPR deadline earlier this year it might feel as things have now gone quiet - but GDPR hasn't gone away, and many organisations are still working towards compliance.

Prior to the deadline in April, businesses scrambled to get privacy policies in place, audit their data and purge email lists - and after the time and effort involved, and the barrage of permission emails received around that tine, many are probably happy to no longer hear the letters 'GDPR' on a daily basis.

But while we may not be getting such frequent reminders any longer, GDPR compliance should still be high on our agendas.

This week the annual Data Protection World Forum conference and expo in London brought data protection back onto our radar. Bringing together leading data protection experts and practitioners, the event offered information stands, panel discussions and Q&A sessions, and covered a range of aspects of data protection, including GDPR's impact on B2B digital marketing, sustainable GDPR, individual rights under GDPR and an 'Ask the ICO' session.

The event was a timely reminder of the importance of keeping up to date with current data protection laws  - and that compliance isn't just about keeping within the law, but means we are safeguarding our businesses, staff and customers.

Keeping Your Organisation Compliant

There are three main steps to achieving legal compliance with Health and Safety and Environmental legislation (such as OHSAS18001 and ISO14001):


1. Know what legislation applies to your organisation
An initial on-site review of your processes to determine what legislation applies (which may be combined with an initial Evaluation of Legal compliance)
The production of a Legal Register for your organisation


2. Keep up to date with changes to legislation
To ensure a full understanding of your organisation’s legal obligations, and that only legislation that is relevant to your organisation is identified, legal compliance updating should be carried out by a dedicated consultant. 

What to expect:

• A quarterly update of the Legal Register and a summary letter explaining the changes
• Discussion of any relevant legislation changes, how they impact on your organisation, and how  changes will be managed
• Written confirmation if updated legislation is not relevant

3. Be able to demonstrate that your organisation is compliant
To retain certification, it is important that an organisation doesn't just know what legislation applies, but can demonstrate that it is compliant. Depending on the requirements of your organisation, this can include:​

• An annual on site evaluation of your legal compliance
• Introduction of compliance software systems 
• Ongoing monitoring and reminders 

​If you thought that GDPR had gone away, think again.

Key sections in some tender documents now require evidence of GDPR compliance, so if you haven't got the right systems in place you could find your company is at a disadvantage when it comes to answering tender questions around data protection.

We recently had a request from a company that we previously assisted with their initial GDPR training and privacy policies. They hadn’t yet acted upon our further recommendation to implement a structured management system, and therefore found it difficult to answer the questions in a tender they were completing.  

We’re now helping them to put together the required documents to enable them to fulfil the data protection criteria and improve their ability to win new business.


How you can demonstrate GDPR compliance

Typically, we’re finding that organisations with a structured management system will normally be able to answer ‘yes’ to all key questions, including those relating to GDPR.

The ideal framework to help your organisation put this in place is the Data Protection Standard, BS 10012:2017. ​Updated in 2017 in response to GDPR, the Standard is designed to fit neatly alongside any other systems that you already have in place.

Look after yourself, your family and your neighbours at Halloween (while still enjoying the fun) with our spooky health and safety tips... 

The dangers of 'fancy dress'
Children's costumes are sold as toys in the UK and making them fire resistant is voluntary for manufacturers. The voluntary test was set up following an incident in 2014 when the daughter of TV presenter Claudia Winkleman suffered serious burns while wearing an unsafe costume, and many leading stores now test their costumes in this way.

However, a recent Which? test found that some costumes currently on sale that meet UK legal requirements did not pass the voluntary standard. So it's important to check labelling on costumes and packaging, and always take care with costumes around naked flames.

The video below, from Greater Manchester Police, shows the dangers of  Halloween costumes and fire.

Make the switch to fairy lights
Carving spooky faces on pumpkins and using them as candlelit lanterns is a firm Halloween tradition... just take care!  Limit risk of injury by using a serrated knife for carving, rather than a cooks' knife.

Once your creation is finished, make your lantern safer by using fairy lights inside instead of candles. If you are using lit candles, make sure they are firmly fixed in place and (as with all candles) never leave a lantern unattended when lit. 
​

Trick-or-treat?
Not perhaps such a major Halloween activity here as it is in the US, nevertheless it's good to know the less obvious dangers. A lot of sweets contain ingredients that can cause fatal allergic reactions. With food allergies and autoimmune diseases such as coeliac disease on the rise, it's a good idea to keep non-food related items (such as stickers or glow sticks) in the house as well as sweets if you plan to indulge the local children.

To find out how Penarth Management Limited can help your business gain health and safety accreditation and compliance, please contact us at info@penarth.co.uk or on 029 2070 3328. ​

Does your organisation provide access to complementary therapies for employees? Companies across the UK are steadily beginning to offer their workers complementary therapies in a bid to improve employee health and wellbeing - and decrease the number of days lost to sickness related absence.

We talked to Rachael Stuckey of WorkWell Therapy to find out more about this growing trend - and discuss what the future might look like for complementary therapies at work.


The benefits of promoting wellbeing at work

Wellbeing at work, and the role of complementary therapies, has been in the minds of researchers for some time now. With an estimated 49% of the adult population suffering lower back pain, and many of today's workers feeling the adverse effects of spending long periods sitting at computers, and doing repetitive actions such as using a mouse, we are becoming increasingly aware of staying well at work.

Rachael Stuckey told us, "Many employers are currently looking for ways to increase their performance and retain employees. This is leading to more structured and thought out wellbeing programmes being put into place."

These programmes include:

Practical education on topics such as back care, exercise and nutrition, as well as mindfulness programmes and seminars.
Treatments, for example onsite massage, yoga, counselling and coaching. 
Training and assessment  including DSE, mental health first aid training and health assessments. 

A 2008 report by Pricewaterhousecoopers highlighted the financial benefits of promoting wellbeing at work, referencing a study in which workers at a call centre received discounted physiotherapy treatments - resulting in a benefit-cost ratio of 34:1 over six months.

The CIPD (the professional body for HR) reported in May 2018 that over 8% of employee absence is attributed to musculoskeletal injuries and conditions - and so far only 2% of companies routinely provide staff with access to therapies such as reflexology and massage.

Does your company handle dangerous substances?

If so, it's time to get involved in next week's European Health and Safety Week. The annual event, running from 22 to 28 October, inspires hundreds of activities all over Europe, such as film screenings, social media events, conferences, exhibitions, competitions and training sessions.

This year, the aim is to encourage active participation around improving safety management of dangerous substances.


Why is improving safety around dangerous substances so important?

Many workers across the UK and Europe are affected by exposure to dangerous substances. According to research from the European Agency for Health and Safety at Work (EU-OSA), 38% of enterprises report that
"chemical or biological substances in the form of liquids, fumes or dust" are present in their workplaces.

Ensuring effective, active and participatory health and safety risk management in your organisation will benefit everyone, as well as reducing sickness absence and increasing productivity, making your business more competitive.


How your company can get involved

• Access tailored support and advice using a free e-tool
• Download free resources 
• Organise activities and events in your organisation - such as training courses, conferences and competitions
• Get involved in the event during the week on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
• Attend the free seminar, 'Managing dangerous substances in the workplace', in Bradford on Tuesday 23 October

Are you certified to the latest version of ISO 50001?

For many organisations that have implemented a formal Environmental Management System, energy is a significant part of this, both environmentally and financially. Legislation is changing all the time and is placing greater pressure on organisations. In addition, the cost of using high levels of energy can seriously impact the profitability of organisations.

If your organisation uses a lot of energy, or is obligated under the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS), you can benefit from certification to ISO 50001:18.


What are the benefits of certification?

The Standard specifies requirements for an Energy Management System to identify significant areas of energy consumption and to target energy reductions. It provides a framework that will support you and your organisation to:

Develop a policy for more efficient energy use
Fix targets and objectives to enable you to work in line with the policy
Use data to help you to understand your energy use and to inform your decisions
Measure the results of your targets, objectives and data use
Review how well your policy is working
Continually improve your energy management

You can purchase a copy of the latest version of the Standard here.

Last week was FSC Friday - the Forest Stewardship Council's annual celebration of responsible forestry.

This is a great yearly reminder for businesses of the need to take responsibility for knowing where the materials we use come from - and how we can buy sustainably sourced products.


Why it's important to buy FSC certified 
With the world's forests under threat and public concern for the environment growing, we all need to ensure that we aren't contributing to deforestation. We need to be confident that the products and materials we are buying come from sustainable or managed sources. As the FSC states, "If you don't know where your timber and paper comes from, you could be part of the problem".


Are you buying sustainable wood materials and products?
To ensure you're buying from sustainable or managed sources, make sure you're using FSC certified suppliers. The FSC provides Forest Management Certification (awarded to forest managers or owners) and Chain of Custody Certification (awarded to manufacturers, processors and traders of FSC certified forest products).


Certification
Why become FSC certified?

• Comply with environmental standards
• Meet your CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) targets
• Protect your brand's reputation and increase your credibility
• Work with companies and organisations that value environmental responsibility

FSC certification is a five step process and certificates are valid for five years. Click here to find out more.

​For more information about how the FSC works with businesses, please click here.

To find out how Penarth Management Limited can help your business become more sustainable and gain accreditation to support this, please contact us at info@penarth.co.uk or on 029 2070 3328. ​

Have you updated your privacy policy in 2018?

(If not, you definitely need to put that on your 'to do' list with some urgency!)

​Cardiff based estate agents James Douglas did - and they came to us to help with putting a watertight, legal policy in place.

When GDPR became a legal requirement earlier this year we saw a flurry of companies hurrying to get updated privacy policies in place on their websites before the deadline. And a lot of people went down the route of using a free template - or purchasing one, often with a hefty price tag.

But using a template (free or otherwise) simply doesn't work when it comes to GDPR.

Because without understanding the process (defining the context, interested parties and process mapping the activities) you won’t be able to identify how the privacy policy should be applied within your own business. 
​
That’s what we did for James Douglas. Marketing Manager Celyn Evans says, "GDPR felt like a daunting task to begin with; however, once we spoke to Jodie Read from Penarth and put a plan in place, it became manageable and achievable. Jodie was brilliant at engaging staff and teasing information out of the managers, so that we understood our business model better. After this, revising the privacy policy was pain-free." 

We helped their team to understand the process so that they could develop privacy policies for each of the businesses within the Seraph Group, using James Douglas' policy as a worked example.

"Jodie came to our office for a full day of data-mapping exercises and she made the entire process fun. We were able to explore how GDPR fitted into our company and what areas we needed to address to remain compliant," Celyn explains.

"It was a great opportunity to look at the business from a different perspective, whilst combating the more serious changes in legislation of GDPR."


If you'd like to find out more about how Penarth Management Limited can help your organisation to become GDPR compliant, please contact us at info@penarth.co.uk or on 029 2070 3328. ​

How effective is your supply chain management?

Feedback from initial assessments to ISO 45001 shows that assessors are picking up on Clause 8.1.4, which deals with procurement and effective management of the supply chain. So how effective is yours - and what could you be doing to improve?
​

How to ensure effective supply chain management 

​Have processes in place to ensure effective evaluation and ongoing monitoring.

Obtain evidence of any relevant qualifications, insurances and risk assessments before you start work.

Have a system set up to ensure you supply up to date copies of relevant documents as they become due.

Consider arranging a supplier event to communicate why health and safety is important to you, and to make sure your suppliers understand what you require of them.

Consider asking your suppliers and subcontractors to achieve certification to ISO 45001 to show their level of commitment to health and safety, taking care to ensure that they only use UKAS accredited Certification Bodies.


To find out how Penarth Management Limited can support your organisation to achieve certification to ISO 45001, or to discuss ideas for engaging with your supply chain, please contact us at info@penarth.co.uk or on 029 2070 3328. 

British Airways faced a serious data breach last week in which 380,000 passenger transactions were affected. Hackers stole the customers' names, email addresses and credit card details.

​
What action is being taken?
The airline posted on social media and began sending emails to affected customers within hours.  Customers were advised to contact their bank or credit card provider and cancel the credit cards they had used to make bookings during the window of time affected.

Alex Cruz, British Airways' CEO, has said that any customers who have been financially affected by the breach will be fully compensated. Of equal (or greater) concern though is what might have happened to the stolen data that is in the hands of the hackers - as this could now be used by other criminals.


Reputational damage
Cyber security firm RiskIQ has suggested that malicious code in the British Airways website could be the cause of the breach. This is the first time the airline's website has been hacked since it launched over twenty years ago, but it has been suggested that BA could have done more to make the site secure and ensure any weaknesses were identified. 

The airline's Twitter feed shows a large number of unhappy customers, some of whom were stranded abroad without access to funds. Many were disappointed by the airline's slow response in sending out emails, and by the apparent lack of helpful information given.


How you can help to prevent a data breach in your organisation
ISO27001 Information Security Management is an internationally recognised Standard and takes into account the differing needs of businesses. An organisation that processes third party information will need to ensure information is not accessed by the wrong people while in their hands or while being transferred electronically to others. ISO27001 provides the framework for this and the means of obtaining independent verification of systems by internationally recognised accredited assessors.

To find out how Penarth Management Limited can support your organisation to achieve satisfactory certification to ISO27001, please contact us at info@penarth.co.uk or on 029 2070 3328.

How environmentally conscious is your business?

This week we talked to Sophie Rae of ripple, Cardiff's first zero waste store, about low impact living - and what businesses can do to be more sustainable.

At Penarth Management we're passionate about the environment and minimising our impact. It's why we help companies with their ISO 14001 environmental management systems... and it's why we backed ripple's Kickstarter campaign this summer.

Due to open this autumn, ripple promises to deliver refillable wholefoods, natural beauty products and ethical fashion. Following her very successful Kickstarter campaign, Sophie is now busy working behind the scenes to make her dream a reality.

​What advice would you give to companies who are looking to manage their environmental impact better?

"Conscious consumers are smart and they can see through green washing. If you have an impact, I believe you have a responsibility to ensure it's a positive one. It's no good telling your customers you care about the planet but not acting on that statement.

Whether it's been business as usual over the summer, or you've taken your foot off the gas and had some time off, September tends to feel like a fresh start - the summer is over and we focus on our work with renewed zeal. It's the business equivalent of going 'back to school' and having a brand new exercise book on your desk ready to be filled: a time for target setting, action and development.
​

So what positive change are you planning for your business this September?

At Penarth Management we'll be helping our clients to make positive changes in their businesses, identifying strategies to streamline and simplify their systems.

We've recently seen an increase in the number of clients looking for internal auditor courses, especially ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 (quality for medical devices). When we delivered this training to Gwalia Healthcare, it highlighted the fact that there was a better way for them to manage things. We introduced them to Mango compliance software and they haven’t looked back! Watch the video to hear Graeme Olsen, Senior Quality Manager, talk about why Mango has been the perfect choice for Gwalia.

Implementing Mango is a great way of simplifying quality, environmental and health and safety management in an organisation. It's beautifully simple, and as it's cloud based it can be accessed from anywhere, making it ideal for all sorts of organisations, including multi-site.


For more information about how we can help your business become more efficient this autumn by using Mango compliance software, please contact us at info@penarth.co.uk or on 029 2070 3328 - or request a demo.

Image: Rob Fahey

Gatwick Airport had to implement manual contingency plans this week when their flight information screens went down. Their improvised whiteboard-and-walkietalkie method worked - but hundreds of passenger posts and comments on social media show they could done better.

The important thing now is for them to learn from the experience and update their contingency plans, perhaps putting a backup system in place so they are better able to function in the event of a technical fault.


How healthy are your business continuity plans?

Do you have robust plans in place to cover possible threats and risks?
When was the last time your plans were updated?
Are they regularly reviewed?

Your continuity plans should be designed to help ensure the continuation of your services by minimising the impact of unexpected events on staff, customers, premises, equipment or records.


Make your organisation more resilient 

To find out how Penarth Management Limited can support your organisation to put an effective and robust  Business Continuity Plan in place, please contact us at info@penarth.co.uk or on 029 2070 3328.

​From time to time we come across companies who think they've achieved ISO certification - or that they've found an organisation that can help them achieve it for a bargain price - but they haven't. Not really. They've gone down the 'Mickey Mouse' route: doing it themselves, using less experienced consultants, or using an organisation that's not a recognised Accredited Body.

​
Why it's not worth cutting corners when it comes to ISO accreditation:

1. The organisation you're working with might include an assessment, but this won't lead to any recognised certification.
2. The organisation will spend very little time working with your company, and therefore won't have time to learn enough about you to develop the bespoke solution you need.
3. With only a cursory brief visit, you're likely to end up with some very generic documents (where an edit and replace function slots in your name).
4. You may well fail to achieve recommendation for certification, thereby having to bring an accredited organisation in anyway, and get the assessor back out at a later stage - meaning additional costs and wasted time.
5. It may then prove more difficult to get buy-in from your staff, who have already seen one attempt at implementation fail.

You'll find it's a false economy: the process will end up costing you more in the long term.



Advantages of working with a recognised Accredited Body:

Within the UK, the only recognisable certification is from United Kingdom Accreditation Services (UKAS) approved Certification Bodies (see https://www.ukas.com/services/other-services/directory-of-accredited-organisations/ or our own website: https://www.penarth.co.uk/certification-bodies.html for details of such organisations). Essentially, you are looking for the UKAS Crown and Tick. 
​

1. Your company will gain recognition from a UKAS accredited Certification Body.
2. The organisation will work with your company over several months, constantly making changes and refining things to ensure that they are tailored to you.
3. A reputable organisation will appreciate the need to visit all your site locations, not just head office.
4. You'll see genuine improvements in your business operations.
5. Companies often find it easier to implement changes that have been identified by outsiders. For this to be effective though, your staff need to see and trust the team (which cannot be achieved purely through a brief visit).

To find out about how we can help your organisation with ISO certification, please contact us at info@penarth.co.uk or on 029 2070 3328.

As a company you want to hit the right note when posting and interacting on social media. These online interactions are part of your customer focus and should form part of your quality management, the same as any other customer contact or conversation.

The power of social media is huge - as we discovered this week when we posted this video (made with Matt James of Hammerspace Video) on LinkedIn and it received over 1,000 views in less than two days! But how much thought have you given to the tone of your interactions on social media? Is everything you post in line with your company's ethos, values and mission statement?

We spoke to Miranda Bishop, social media trainer and owner of Talking Social Media, to find out more about why this is so important - and to pick up some tips. 

Miranda says, "Social Media is the window into the day to day running of your business. It's essential that your tone reflects the values of your company, but also attracts the right sort of people."

Although your tone should be consistent and in line with your values, there are differences in the way you should project yourself on the different platforms.

Here's Miranda's quick guide to the four main players:

Facebook: "Here you're targeting people in their personal time, so be human and approachable."

LinkedIn: "Be conversational, but LinkedIn is more structured and formal than Facebook. Be engaging, but talk to people as you might in a professional setting."

Twitter: "Tweeting is a bit of a free for all, but a general rule of thumb is never speak how you wouldn't in front of your Grandma, or in a room full of people you don't know!"

Instagram: "Instagram is much more about beautiful, engaging visuals. Your text matters much less, so instead think about hashtags (or even emoji) that say a lot about you and your business."


Contact us for more information about how process mapping can help your organisation identify the pressure points, understand your operational processes and make changes that save time and money.

How efficient is your company or organisation?

​You may be aware that improvements could be made, but you're not clear on where you should be making changes - or what they should be.

Process mapping is a useful tool that can help companies identify where their pressure points are and what could be done better. It helps business understand their operational processes and how they might be able to become more efficient - saving time and money in the process.

At Penarth Management we use Process Mapping to help our clients' companies become more efficient. We recently used it to streamline our own processes, implementing changes that have allowed us to improve our training delivery. 

Use process mapping to make your company more efficient

​Contact us for more information about how we can help your organisation identify the pressure points, understand your operational processes and make changes that save time and money.


Process mapping and GDPR compliance

A key step in being able to demonstrate compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) is be the ability to show that you understand how information flows throughout your organisation. We offer half day workshops that will help you to define and document the sequence and interaction of the processes that exist within your organisation. Click here for more information.

Electricians: did you know that the 17th edition for wiring has been superseded by BS7671:2018 - the 18th Edition?
​
BS 7671 is the national standard that all electrical installations should conform to. The new edition went live on the 2nd July 2018 and contains important new information to enable all electrical installers and engineers to ensure they are fully up to date with the latest industry standards.


What you need to know:

• BS 7671:2018 is intended to come into effect on 1st January 2019.
• The changes are not retrospective, but are aimed at new installations.
• Installations designed after 31st December 2018 are to comply with BS 7671:2018. 

 
Need a copy of BS 7671:2018? You can buy a copy here or give us a call on 029 2070 3328 to save 15% on a hard copy.

If your role is managing compliance for your organisation, how easy is it for you to hand things over when you go on annual leave?
​
Compliance is a complex area - and can involve a lot of different systems and procedures. You may find you need to leave parts of the role in the hands of various different colleagues - or that you spend your holidays with just a little background worry that things are not running as smoothly as when you're at your desk.

At Penarth Management Limited we recommend that our clients use a cloud based compliance software called Mango.  We were thrilled when we discovered Mango (which stands for 'management on the go'), a brilliantly simple piece of software that allows compliance managers to go on holiday, knowing that the system is taking care of things for them.


For more information about how we can help your business become more efficient by using Mango compliance software, please contact us at info@penarth.co.uk or on 029 2070 3328 - or request a demo.