Fleet Safety can play a part in accident reduction

According to the Department of Transport, 1,770 people were killed in road traffic accidents in 2018, with 165,100 casualties of with injuries all levels of severity. Although road safety is improving, with vehicle technology and advances in road engineering being contributing factors, poor driving behaviour still causes accidents and shatters lives. What role does fleet safety need to play in reducing this further?

For organisations whose workforce drive to business appointments, whether in a company vehicle or private car, poor road safety can have huge financial and reputational implications not to mention, costly legal fees. Driving during the working day is possibly one of the riskiest activities an employee will undertake.

So, how can you protect your drivers and your organisation’s motoring budget?

As employers, you have a legal, moral and social responsibility to improve driver safety, hence improving the safety of your employees and the general public.  Managing road risk can also have positive financial benefits.  For example, road traffic accidents can cost your organisation increased insurance premiums, lost productivity and revenue, damaged stock and possible sick leave.  Reducing accidents by raising awareness can thus, improve your business’ motoring budget.

Implementing a straightforward Driving Policy is paramount.  Your policy should be produced in consultation with managers and your health and safety officer. Furthermore, your company policy must include your organisation’s health and safety statement.

It should be communicated to and agreed by your workforce. When rolling out your policy to employees, it is important to ensure that you have a robust audit trail of who has read and agreed with the policy. It is also important to show that employees have understood the policy. WorkWize from Vinciworks can fully automate this process, pushing the policy out to employees to sign off using a digital signature. WorkWize also includes a test on the policy to prove understanding. This is all reported back in a comprehensive Compliance dashboard.

Procedures and guidance should be available in an employee’s handbook, providing information on vehicle safety and maintenance, journey planning, a mobile phone policy, an alcohol and drugs policy and advice on the use of satellite navigation devices. Additionally, procedures on what to do in the event of an accident should be included with all relevant reporting forms and line manager contact details.

Rolling out a system of driver assessment and training is an effective way of demonstrating the importance of road safety and highlights how different behaviours can contribute to road accidents.

VinciWorks offer an Online Driver Safety Training course designed to highlight how driver behaviour can impact road safety, for themselves and for other drivers. The online course explains how accidents can be caused by how the driver behaves, including failing to observe rules of the road, not paying enough attention or being distracted. It details the responsibilities each driver has each time they use a public highway and covers the legal requirements within the UK for ensuring that vehicles are roadworthy.

The course can be fully customised to meet the needs of your organisation. A designated course administrator can edit the text and images within the course, and link to organisation-specific documentation, all at no extra cost.

Looking for in-depth and engaging health and safety training? Explore our comprehensive eLearning library and try any of our courses for free. 

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force on 25 May 2018. If you are unprepared, this regulation could have a drastic impact on your business and how you collect data. The regulation creates significantly more rights and protections for data subjects, and imposes heavy fines on businesses that fail to comply.

The changes you may have to make to comply with GDPR include:

  • Assessing and justifying all of your data collection
  • Revising your privacy, data protection and cyber security policies
  • Designing systems for new data rights including the right to be forgotten and the right to data portability
  • Appointing a Data Protection Officer and implementing a “privacy by design” process

The webinar guides you through the first steps you need to take to become compliant. It will help you understand how the changes under GDPR will affect your organisation and how you should begin planning.
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Money Laundering

One of the first orders of business for the new government, whatever its colour, is to pass the Money Laundering Regulations 2017. According to EU rules, the Fourth Money Laundering Directive must be transposed into UK law by 26 June. While the consultation phase has been completed, there is still room for a new government to make some movement on the new regulations if it wishes. The Directive still leaves some rules open to national interpretation, so while the core of the changes are set, a new government will have just weeks following the election to decide what to do.

However, for the main themes of the legislation we do know what will be changing. Accountants need to be aware of some of the key changes coming in the Fourth Directive.

UBO is changing

The ultimate beneficial owner of a corporate client will need to be determined and due diligence checks performed. A UBO is anyone who owns or controls 25% or greater percentage in a corporation. If you don’t know who the UBO of a client is, you must take “all reasonable steps” to determine this. If no beneficial owners can be identified, then the details of senior managers must be recorded.
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Number 10 Downing Street

What business needs to prepare for no matter who walks into Number 10

Theresa May called a general election expecting, we all assume, that she would have an easy ride back into 10 Downing Street. While she still enjoys a commanding lead over the Labour party, this has narrowed in recent weeks. The Tories are still odds-on favourite to win, although elections can often throw up surprises.

Now the manifestos of all the major parties have been published, we can glean some idea of what will be changing in the compliance landscape no matter who the Prime Minister will be after the election. Of course, should the election result in a hung parliament, manifesto pledges can be traded and bartered away, and promises made before an election can often be forgotten in the glow of victory.

Nevertheless, it’s always a good idea to consider the potential risks of an election outcome, and start to prepare accordingly.
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Cybercrime: The growing menace

Over the last few decades crime has changed.  Traditional crimes such as theft and burglary have declined and criminal gangs have taken a digital road, exploring and exploiting new opportunities, those offered by the Internet, the ever-expanding world of e-commerce and online banking.

Nobody really knows how big Cybercrime is but, there were an estimated 3.6 million cases of fraud and two million computer misuse offences in a year, according to an official UK survey.

Anyone can be a target.  Criminal gangs attack individuals, small businesses and large corporates, in equal measure, seeking to profit from compromised data.

News coverage in the last few days has reported the severity of a recent global coordinated ransomware attack which, caused widespread chaos across the National Health Service and hit hundreds of thousands of computers in 150 countries from Russia to Australia. Affected NHS trusts have been criticised for not updating their Cybersecurity, despite warnings from NHS Digital a month ago that they were vulnerable to a possible attack.

Are you aware of the threat of Cybercrime and is your business appropriately protected?

Increasing your knowledge of Cybercrime, maintaining security measures and implementing good security practices, will go a long way to defend malware (malicious software) and reduce the risk of attack. Almost every business relies on the confidentiality, integrity and availability of its data. Protecting information, whether it is held electronically or by other means, should be at the heart of an organisation’s security planning.

There are 5  things you should be doing right now to protect your business:

  1. Ensure staff have been trained on how to identify suspicious emails and understand what to do if they receive one.
  2. Have every PC in your organisation checked that it has had anti-virus / anti-malware software installed.
  3. Check your anti-virus software is up to date with the latest database.
  4. Check that updates have been applied to the operating system of all computers in your network.
  5. Ensure you have a Cyber Security policy in place and check all staff have read, understood and signed off the policy.

By training your workforce and raising awareness you will reduce the risk of being a victim of cybercrime.

The VinciWorks Cyber Security Training Course has been designed to explain the importance of digital information and also discusses the necessary steps we can all take to reduce the risk of Cybercrime.

Different types of Cybercrime are highlighted and explained within the course, including various forms of viruses, worms, adware, spyware, and malware. Being aware of Social Engineering and the tactics criminals use to trick users into providing access or personal information will help employees understand that basic safety checks, safe use of the web and of mobile phones are fundamental in staying safe online.  Users will understand the importance of Virus checks, secure passwords, user accounts and browser safety.  Additionally, the safe use of devices in public areas is also discussed.

As with all VinciWorks eLearning courses, this Cyber Security Training Course can be customised to meet your individual needs.  A designated course administrator can use our integrated authoring tool to edit the text and images within this course and link to your organisation’s specific documentation, all at no extra cost.

Looking for in-depth and engaging business protection training? Explore our comprehensive eLearning library and try any of our courses for free.

Disciplinary Procedures:

‘Misconduct’ in the workplace refers to unacceptable or improper behavior.  This includes failing to reach performance goals and business expectations, persistent lateness or unauthorized absence from work.  Misconduct is classed as ‘gross’ when the behavior is more serious, for example, physical violence, insubordination, theft and gross negligence.

An organization’s Code of Conduct should outline important information and guidance on the expected levels of behavior, responsibility and practices within the workplace.  This set of rules is a means by which an organization or party can communicate appropriate standards of conduct between colleagues, service users and clients.  Furthermore, it sets out ethical and legal requirements.

Recruiting and retaining the right staff for your business can be a difficult task.  Having a clear and achievable staff performance plan, outlining goals and expectations is essential. This plan should be effectively communicated and agreed with all your employees.  With management support and training, your employees will have the opportunity to be a positive and productive part of your organization.

All businesses over time, will encounter poor performance and misconduct issues.   

Making sure discipline is maintained is very important but, how can it be fair and transparent?

The level of discipline required will be depend on the seriousness of the misconduct. Dealing with misconduct, in an appropriate manner and following company procedures, will ensure your workers are treated fairly.  

How do you arrive at fair Disciplinary Procedures?

All businesses should have a Disciplinary policy and Code of Conduct in place.  As with all policies, this should be available to all employees, clearly defining company expectations.  With workplace and regulatory compliance becoming more and more important, ensuring that staff have read and understood your organization’s policies and procedures is fundamental.

A Disciplinary policy should be in line with ACAS guidelines. It must state what type of performance and behavior may lead to disciplinary action and what action your employer might take. It should include what constitutes misconduct, gross misconduct and grounds for dismissal. Additionally, it should specify the name of someone an employee can speak to if they don’t agree with their employer’s disciplinary decision. The policy should state different stages of a disciplinary procedure, rights of your workforce both for representation and to raise an appeal if action is taken.

Employers often spend a large amount of time drafting a fair disciplinary policy, but fail to give the same attention to training their staff to put it into practice.

Managing poor conduct or performance can be a challenging task. Making sure your managers are adequately trained will help your business maintain discipline and provide an acceptable and transparent disciplinary process.

The VinciWorks Disciplinary Procedures eLearning course provides guidance on disciplinary procedures that are required within a workplace to ensure the fair treatment for those whose conduct or job performance does not meet acceptable levels. This course allows your organization to communicate your disciplinary procedures to all employees.

As with all our online courses, this VinciWorks Disciplinary Procedures eLearning course is SCORM Compliant and can be customized to meet your needs. This means that it will cover your specific policy, rather than deal in generalities. Your designated course administrator can edit the text and images within the course using our integrated authoring tool and link to organization-specific documentation, policies and procedures, all at no extra cost.

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Example of ransomware

Ransomware attacks computers in 150 countries

On Friday hundreds of thousands of computers were held to digital ransom as a cyber security attack spread around the world. The cyber weapon, allegedly stolen from the US National Security Agency (NSA), even locked NHS staff out of their systems, forcing hundreds of critical operations to be cancelled and staff having to turn away sick patients at the door. The attack spread quickly and installed malware onto over 200,000 computers, demanding payments of up to $600 in return for the data. With cyber security experts expecting more attacks imminently, this latest attack shows everyone needs to understand cyber security and make it a top priority.

The cyber attack that began with spam emails

The attack began with targeted phishing emails appearing to contain job offers, security warnings and invoices, as well as people’s own personal files. Once the files were unassumingly downloaded, the ransomware was able to spread across large networks. This makes understanding how to protect against cyber attacks more important than ever, with the opening of phishing emails often having the ability to affect computers across a whole network.
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Theresa May“These crimes must be stopped and the victims of modern slavery must go free. This is the great human rights issue of our time, and as Prime Minister I am determined that we will make it a national and international mission to rid our world of this barbaric evil.” Prime Minister Theresa May

“Human trafficking is one of the world’s most heinous and profitable criminal enterprises. It is unconscionable that each year, thousands of vulnerable children and adults are forced into labor and prostitution. Those who buy trafficked labor must also be held accountable for their outrageous crimes.” US Senator Kamala Harris
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Modern Day Slavery

Slavery is a term most people associate with events long consigned to the annals of history. However even today, millions of men, women and children around the world are forced to work in indentured servitude as slaves in the modern era.

Statistics released by the National Crime Agency (NCA) show there were 3,805 people referred for help in 2016 – up from 1,745 people in 2013. Home Office estimates suggest there are between 10,000 and 13,000 victims of modern slavery in the UK. This does not include anyone affected further down the supply chain in other countries.

It’s easy to think that slavery doesn’t happen where you live or work.  It might be your organisation could encounter or even employ a victim of slavery without even realising it…

UK Sectors most at risk from Modern Slavery

In 2016 the government launched “Operation Magnify” a cross-government initiative aimed at clamping down on illegal workers by targeting specific “Risk Industries” these included; Construction, The Care Sector, Catering and also Taxis and Private Hire.

Slaves are working in restaurants, nail bars, car washes and as domestic help, and can be invisible to those who think “slavery doesn’t happen where I work and live”.  If you operate in these sectors it is now even more important that your organisation understands the legislation and employees are trained to spot the telltale signs of modern slavery.

Modern Slavery Act 2015

With penalties that can include prison and fines that have exceeded £20,000 per illegal worker, there is much more than a simple moral imperative to ensure that your business knows who it is employing and can prove they are working legally and not under duress from a third party.

The provision in the Modern Slavery Act for transparency in supply chains takes the obligations beyond direct employees and is clear that it is not acceptable for an organisation to say that “they did not know” or to ignore and supply chain issues because they were too complex or difficult to uncover. A complex supply chain spread over different countries and with various suppliers contributing to the final product or service can make it difficult to detect slavery beyond the first tier of suppliers. A recent example of this is the shrimp in supermarkets traced back to suppliers using forced labour in Thailand. This can mean additional training demands that extend to backroom functions like Purchasing and Procurement as well as those in HR, Payroll or on the front line.

Training Staff to spot Modern Slavery

As part of its Business Protection Pack, VinciWorks have now introduced a course to specifically address modern slavery. Enterprise customers can have this SCORM compliant, fully editable course added to their Learning Management System or deployed using the WorkWize LMS from VinciWorks.
Looking for in-depth and engaging business protection training? Explore our comprehensive eLearning library and try any of our courses for free.

CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation.  CPR is an emergency procedure that combines chest compression often with artificial ventilation.  It is used to provide oxygenated blood to reach the brain, heart and other organs in someone whose heart and breathing have stopped and until emergency services arrive.

Coronary Heart Disease remains the number 1 killer in the UK.  Every 7 minutes someone in the UK will have a heart attack. 25,000 new cases of heart failure are diagnosed every year and 1 million men and nearly 500,000 women are living with the after-effects of a heart attack. According to the British Heart Foundation, every year 30,000 people in the UK have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, but the survival rate is less than 1 in 10.   These UK statistics send a powerful message about the importance of knowing what to do in an emergency and being able to perform CPR.

CPR by itself will not restart the heart, but CPR Training can ‘buy time’ for the emergency medical services to reach the scene. Effective CPR more than doubles the chance of someone surviving a cardiac arrest.

Would you recognise the signs of someone having a heart attack or cardiac arrest?  And, more importantly, would you know what to do? Without some CPR Training, the chances are you won’t.

Cardiac arrest can strike anyone, young or old, at any time. Imagine a situation where a work colleague is taken ill.  Acting quickly and correctly could mean the difference between life and death.  Any working environment should have adequately trained individuals who are able to perform this life-saving technique.

So, what do your staff need to know and where can you find quality information?

The VinciWorks CPR Essentials eLearning course, effectively delivers the information needed to ensure your employees can recognize the key signs in an emergency situation.  

Using animated demonstrations, the course explains how to check for signs of breathing, perform chest compressions and the correct use of a defibrillator. Additionally, it covers the separate recommended techniques to use on infants and children and how to place a casualty in the recovery position. This course has been designed to be performed alongside a practical, hands -on assessment.  

Like all our courses, this VinciWorks CPR Essentials eLearning course can be tailored to meet the needs of your organization. A designated course administrator can edit the text and images within the course, and link to organization-specific documentation, all at no extra cost.

Looking for in-depth and engaging health and safety training? Explore our comprehensive eLearning library and try any of our courses for free.