New LMS feature: manage activity requests without leaving your desk

Users can now easily request to take on a new learning activity, without leaving the office or writing an email. This new automated feature means administrators can easily authorise and track their staff’s learning activities.

With this new feature, users simply click on the “submit activity request form” option on the top right of their LMS and enter the details of the activity they are requesting. Once the user has completed their request, their line manager will receive the request via email. Once the request is approved by the line manager, the activity will be appear under the user’s list of learning activities.
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Six principles of GDPR that you need to know about

Computer with a GDPR padlock on it
GDPR will come into full force in May 2018

The six principles of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) are similar in many ways to the eight principles of the Data Protection Act. While the six principles of GDPR do not include individuals’ rights or overseas transfers, these are included elsewhere in GDPR.

One key difference is that under GDPR, you must show how you comply with the principles, not just that you do. This is a separate requirement known as the accountability principle which is integrated across GDPR.

Free mini course on the six principles of GDPR

VinciWorks has recently released a new mini course on the six principles of GDPR. The five minute course tests users’ knowledge on the six principles of GDPR and is part of VinciWorks’ course Data Protection: Privacy at Work. You can take the short course here.

What are the 6 GDPR Principles?

The six principles of data protection in GDPR are that data must be treated in a way that is:

1. Lawful, fair and transparent

There has to be legitimate grounds for collecting the data and it must not have a negative effect on the person or be used in a way they wouldn’t expect.

2. Limited for its purpose

Data should be collected for specified and explicit purposes and not used in a way someone wouldn’t expect.
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VinciWorks survey reveals staff at 1 in 4 companies unaware of financial crime policies

Hundreds of thousands of workers in both regulated and nonregulated sector at risk of facilitating tax evasion

With the Criminal Finances Act now in full force, VinciWorks has been helping businesses prepare with their new course, Tax Evasion: Failure to Prevent. The new law doesn’t just affect the regulated sector; any business that doesn’t have reasonable procedures in place to prevent facilitation of tax evasion could find themselves prosecuted.

So just how prepared are we for the Criminal Finances Act? VinciWorks surveyed over 250 UK companies with a combined workforce of around 430,000 people to find out just how much tax evasion risk companies are exposing themselves to, and if they have started to take action to mitigate those risks.
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Treating Customers Fairly (TCF)

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is the conduct regulator for 56,000 financial services firms and financial markets in the UK and the prudential regulator for over 24,000 of those firms. The FCA plays a critical role in the UK economy ensuring that financial markets are honest, Treats Customers Fairly (TCF), small and large businesses and the UK economy as a whole

What is TCF?

Treating Customers Fairly is an outcomes-based regulatory and supervisory approach. It was implemented to ensure that specific fairness outcomes are delivered by regulated financial firms to their consumers.

The FCA has articulated the essential business principles and appropriate professional culture, it expects from regulated organisations.

1. Integrity – A firm must conduct its business with integrity.
2.Skill, care and diligence – A firm must conduct its business with due skill, care and diligence.
3. Management and control – A firm must take reasonable care to organise and control its affairs responsibly and effectively, with adequate risk management systems.
4.Financial prudence – A firm must maintain adequate financial resources.
5. Market conduct – A firm must observe proper standards of market conduct.
6.Customers’ interests – A firm must pay due regard to the interests of its customers and treat them fairly.
7. Communications with clients – A firm must pay due regard to the information needs of its clients, and communicate information to them in a way which is clear, fair and not misleading.
8. Conflicts of interest – A firm must manage conflicts of interest fairly, both between itself and its customers and between a customer and another client.
9. Customers: relationships of trust – A firm must take reasonable care to ensure the suitability of its advice and discretionary decisions for any customer who is entitled to rely upon its judgment.
10. Clients’ assets – A firm must arrange adequate protection for clients’ assets when it is responsible for them.
11. Relations with regulators – A firm must deal with its regulators in an open and cooperative way, and must disclose to the appropriate regulator appropriately anything relating to the firm of which that regulator would reasonably expect notice.

If your firm is regulated, then your senior management team is required to deliver fair outcomes by recruiting competent staff, providing ongoing training, monitoring employees performance and supplying records of compliance. If a regulated organisation fails to uphold any or more of the above principles, the FCA can investigate, fine and prosecute accordingly.

The 6 Outcomes expected of regulated firms are:

    1. Customers need to be confident that they are dealing with an organisation which places importance on the
    2. principles of TCF.
    3. Product and services meet the needs of consumers and are targeted appropriately.
    4. Consumers are given clear information during and after the point of sale.
    5. Any advice given to the consumer is suitable and relevant.
    6. Consumers are provided with items/services that meet an acceptable standard.
    7. Consumers do not experience any post sale barriers for example, change of product, service provider or poor complaints handling.

Training your staff is a great first step in ensuring you are complying with your TCF obligations. The Treating Customers Fairly online training course by VinciWorks is a course designed to introduce employees who work in the financial sector to the principle of treating customers fairly, so as to raise standards in ways that benefit.

Fourth Directive ready anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing policy template

Anti-money laundering banner

In light of the new Money Laundering Regulations having come into full effect in June, VinciWorks has made available a free anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing policy template. The policy can easily be edited to suite your law firm or organisation, your industry and staff.

Download template

Anti Money Laundering (AML) Procedures

The European Union’s Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive came into force on 26th June 2017.

The new directive included some fundamental changes to the anti-money laundering procedures, including changes to CDD, a central register for beneficial owners and a focus on risk assessments.

What Should be Included in AML Policy Document?

Here are some guidelines for what should be included in an anti-money laundering policy:

    • Introduction and an explanation of what money laundering and terrorist financing is
    • How does money get laundered?
    • Guidelines on differentiating between money laundering and terror financing

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Fire Safety in the Workplace – Employer Responsibilities

Fires can break out at any time, and have the potential to cause significant damage, both to property and to human life. Many businesses fail to continue trading following a severe fire. Fire safety is everyone’s responsibility.

Given these risks, it is vital that your workforce know what the common fire hazards are and what to do if a fire was to start.

Main Causes of fire hazards 

  • Faulty electrics. Antiquated or faulty electrical equipment including loose wires are a common cause of a fire.  All electrical equipment must be used correctly, maintained and tested.  Portable Appliances must be PAT tested regularly.
  • Flammable/combustible materials.   A business using flammable and combustible materials must adequately risk assess, store and correctly dispose of potentially hazardous substances. All staff using such materials must attend a fire safety course.
  • Human Error.  Incorrect use of equipment, burning food, leaving machines unattended and ignorance when using inflammable materials, can all lead to a fire risk.
  • Negligence.  Similar to human error, staff through negligence can cause fire risks by not following rules. For example, by blocking vents, not disposing of cigarette ends correctly or overloading electrical sockets.
  • Arson.  Businesses in areas with public access may be prone to vandalism and arson.  If appropriate, businesses can install fire shutters and sprinkler equipment to protect property.

What are your legal duties and responsibilities around fire safety?

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 covers general fire safety in England and Wales.  In Scotland, requirements on general fire safety are covered in Part 3 of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005, supported by the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006.

In the majority of premises, local fire and rescue authorities are responsible for enforcing this fire safety legislation. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has enforcement responsibility on construction sites, for nuclear premises, and on ships under construction or undergoing repair.

Employers must ensure they have carried out fire risk assessments to help prevent or reduce the impact of fire, identify significant findings and details on any individual who might be at risk in case of a fire. The findings of the risk assessment must be recorded if your organisation has 5 or more employees. Employers are responsible for providing and maintaining fire precautions to safeguard staff and visitors to their premises.  Additionally, the provision of information and training about fire precautions must be met by the employer.

VinciWorks Fire Safety Essentials eLearning course provides essential information about what to do if a fire breaks out, including how to raise the alarm, who to contact and how and where to evacuate. The online course describes the fire triangle – the chemical reaction between heat, fuel and an oxidising agent (usually oxygen) that cause fires – and explores how fires start, how they develop, and how they spread. It explains what to look out for in relation to potential fire hazards in the workplace, particularly focusing on carelessness and the misuse of electrical appliances.
An important part of the course describes fire signage and the ways it communicates messages relating to fire safety. Fire evacuation forms a central element, and the course explains correct procedures for evacuation, including assembly and safe return to the building.
The online course outlines the different classifications of fires and explains which type of fire extinguisher to use in different situations. Basic first aid advice is also included.

This Fire Safety Essentials eLearning course can be customised to meet your needs, enabling your workforce to understand the specific policies and procedures you have developed for your organisation, including specified fire evacuation routes and assembly points. A designated course administrator can use our integrated authoring tool to edit the text and images of the course, and link to organisation-specific documentation, all at no extra cost.

Does your organisation comply with the Modern Slavery Act?

Today is Anti-Slavery Day

Did you know that on any given day in 2016, 40 million people were victims of modern slavery? 71% of victims were female and 1 in 4 were children. Modern slavery is a global problem, affecting every country in the world. In fact, in the UK, you could be coming into contact with victims of modern slavery every day and not even know it. The National Crime Agency estimates that there are tens of thousands of people in modern slavery right now in the UK.

The 18th of October represents a chance to raise awareness about modern slavery and human trafficking, and also gives us an opportunity to consider what we can do to help victims of modern slavery and stop the people that exploit and abuse them.

Someone is in slavery if they are:

  • forced to work – through coercion, or mental, financial, or physical threat;
  • owned or controlled by an ’employer’, through mental or physical abuse or the threat of abuse;
  • dehumanised, treated as a commodity or bought and sold as ‘property’;
  • physically constrained or have restrictions placed on their freedom of movement (e.g. have their passport taken from them).

Forms of modern slavery range from forced labour, forced marriage, and forced organ removal to prostitution, human trafficking, and debt bondage. Many modern slaves endure more than one form of slavery throughout their lifetime, and many are trafficked from country to country, often hiding in plain sight.

At DeltaNet International we believe that awareness is key when it comes to the fight against modern slavery. By empowering your employees to be able to spot the red flags of slavery and educating them about its prevalence and the areas it’s more likely to take place, we can leave criminal networks of traffickers and slavers nowhere to hide.

Our modern slavery training is delivered in three engaging courses:

Identifying Modern Slavery in the Supply Chain will teach employees how to remain vigilant about modern slavery. Companies risk a great deal of reputational damage should instances of modern slavery be discovered in their supply chain. Therefore prevention is key and this course will help employees gather relevant information about your suppliers and allow you to assess whether they are high, medium or low risk.

Modern Slavery and Transparency Statements documents the necessary steps and legislation behind Section 54 of the UK Modern Slavery Act, which requires larger organisations to release an annual statement detailing the steps they have taken to prevent modern slavery in their operations.

What is Modern Slavery? is an introductory microlearning course, designed to give a short, sharp overview of what modern slavery is, what it means for your organisation and how your organisation can ensure compliance. Microlearning is an effective way of delivering modern slavery training as it is recognised to improve learner engagement, as the microlearning courses typically last for 5 minutes so even the least attentive learner can focus for the duration of the course. Microlearning is highly engaging, concise, specifically focused learning which maximises the level of knowledge that learners retain.

Anti-Slavery Day – what is your business doing?

Anti-Slavery Day

Quick start guide to compliance with the Modern Slavery Act

Tomorrow, 18th October, marks UK Anti-Slavery Day. Created by an Act of Parliament to raise awareness of the millions of men, women and children held in slavery and deprived of their basic human freedom, it can also shine a light into the slivers of progress being made to tackle modern-day slavery.

“Modern slavery is like terrorism,” said International Development Secretary Priti Patel. “If we don’t tackle the root causes, the victims will come to Europe via Libya and Italy, and those problems will manifest themselves on the streets of London.”
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What have we learnt from cyber security breaches?

Threats to cyber security

Cybersecurity Lessons (Updated 2022)

The past year has seen the highest number of cyber security breaches on record. Large reputable companies such as Tesco, Yahoo and TalkTalk have all been exposed for such breaches, with the companies facing large fines and a lack of confidence from consumers. What does this mean for us and how we keep our personal data, identity and money safe? Does this mean we are never safe? Not necessarily, but knowing how to keep your personal data and your business safe has never been more important.

5 Lessons Learned from Cybercrime & Tips to Prevent Them

We have studied some of the largest data breaches and have the following tips for preventing cyber crime.

Your favourite colour is not a safe password

Although they didn’t realise it until 2016, the Yahoo data hack actually took place in 2013. This means that for three years users were continuing to use their accounts without knowing they were at risk. So what could have prevented one billion user accounts being hacked? For a start, make sure your password is not something that can easily be guessed, such as your favourite colour or your child’s name. Further, it is best practice to change your password at least once a year. This means that if any of your accounts have been hacked you have a much higher chance of protecting your personal information. Some businesses require some of their staff to change their passwords each year for this reason.
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