The field of economic sanctions has been growing increasingly complicated in recent years and was thrust into the spotlight when Western nations launched an unprecedented line of sanctions against Russia in February 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine. Many businesses were caught off guard by the sudden changes.
While countries use sanctions as a diplomatic tool to apply economic pressure on threatening regimes, their implementation is often not well understood by the workers in charge of applying them.
VinciWorks’ new, updated suite of sanctions courses provides your staff with the tools to understand and comply with sanctions requirements during volatile times. The suite of courses teaches users how sanctions are applied and how to comply with sanctions requirements. There are two versions of the course: An short, introductory overview for general staff (five minute course), and an in-depth detailed course that provides an in-depth explanation of how to conduct sanctions compliance in the UK, US, EU and UN countries (20 minute course).
As companies look to develop and implement their ESG programmes, there are a number of issues that commonly come up. As we deliver our webinars and guides on ESG, VinciWorks receives many questions about the subject. Many are addressed in articles on our blog.
In this post, we will explore how to do an ESG gap analysis. An ESG gap analysis from VinciWorks looks at an organisation’s achievements in ESG, as well as suggesting potential initiatives and metrics to track those.
ESG rating agencies and reporting frameworks use training as a measure of ESG effectiveness. But there is no one-size-fits-all training solution. A core part of any ESG initiative is employee training.
Our new course, ESG: The Basics, is the ultimate introduction to ESG that covers the core concepts of ESG and speaks to employees’ moral responsibilities and their organisation’s commitments. Over the coming weeks we will also be releasing a Fundamentals course that goes into further depth on areas such as the supply chain, ratings, your company’s ESG policy and more.
External Users: Manage suppliers and clients in Omnitrack
Important Omnitrack features such as reminders and automations require users to sign in to the system when filling out your form. This is complicated for use cases such as Supplier Assessments and Client Onboarding as it’s difficult to manage both internal people (employees) and external people (suppliers or clients) who need access to forms. This can lead to problems such as external people having no way to log in, thus resorting to using anonymous forms (which do not require sign in), at the expense of losing powerful tracking and follow up features. With Omnitrack’s new feature, admins can easily manage form access when there are both internal and external people trying to access them.
Here’s how it works:
Step 1 – Navigate to the Users page and upload your existing list of suppliers to the new External Users tab. The system will now use a smart login mechanism to direct internal users to Single Sign-On (if enabled) and your external users to the standard login page.
Whistleblowers are a vital part of society, working to expose wrongdoing at the highest levels and often at great personal risk to themselves. That’s why the European Union passed legislation in 2019 to give whistleblowers more protection against retaliation. Every country in the 27-member bloc was expected to implement this directive into their national laws by Friday, 17 December 2021.
Our new course, Whistleblowing: Understand Your Rights, provides a comprehensive overview of whistleblower rights in the EU, including real-life scenarios and practical guidance.
If you already license our whistleblowing training this course can be added to your system free of charge upon request.
Course Features
Real-life examples of when whistleblowing could have helped prevent disaster
Real-life examples of when whistleblowing has helped to prevent disasters
Practical guidance on how to blow the whistle correctly
Omnitrack has released a powerful new feature: customisable buttons. This new feature takes flexibility for your workflows to the next level. Custom buttons allow you to add your own action buttons, with your own wording and colours, at each stage. Instead of just the generic ‘Submit’ or ‘Save’ buttons, you can now add buttons to look, say and do whatever you want them to.
This new feature gives the admin a lot more choices in terms of what they can do as a next step for the submission. With this no-code software, you can build the workflow exactly the way you want.
When you use this feature, you can customise any workflow with action buttons.
How does it work?
Once a custom button has been created, instead of the regular “submit” button users see at the bottom of most forms, they’ll see the customisable button instead.
As the administrator, you can decide how the button will look, what it will say on it, and what will happen when a user clicks the button.
How do custom buttons work?
For any form, go into edit form
Click on automations
Click on “custom buttons”. When you do that, you’ll see a list of existing buttons plus any custom buttons that you’ve already created. There you’ll also find all the information about the buttons; i.e, their name, what they looks like, which forms they displays on, which statuses they display in, and any automations that are associated with the button. You’ll also see whether the button is “system” or “custom”.
To add a new custom button, press “add custom button” in the top right.
Select if you want the button to display on the end user form, or admin form.
Choose what you want to display this button for, write a label for the button, and choose a color for the button, and whether you want the button to be filled or outlined.
You’ll be able to see a preview of the button on the left.
That’s it! When you go back to the form, you’ll see your custom button appearing at the end of the form.
Say goodbye to fragmented processes and manage all your filing obligations with Omnitrack
Omnitrack is a powerful yet flexible data collection and reporting tool. Its established use cases include an AML client onboarding workflow, a gift and hospitality register, and a GDPR compliance suite. VinciWorks has also recently launched the Omnitrack Filing Calendar, which means you can now use one system to track all filing obligations, send reminder notifications and upload documents evidencing compliance.
Before we take a closer look at the Omnitrack Filing Calendar and one of its template workflows, this blog will outline some of the key challenges compliance staff face when managing filing obligations.
Brave, engaging films for inclusion, leadership and teamwork
We are excited to announce that Skill Boosters, the leading e-learning filmmaker, has been acquired by Marlowe PLC and will continue to grow under the VinciWorks brand.
Founded by Bryan De’Ath, an accomplished filmmaker with over 30 years of experience, Skill Boosters brings film and television production values to the world of e-learning. Its cinematic courses embed learners in relatable workplace situations with commentary from industry experts. The acquisition also allows VinciWorks to benefit from the expertise of Skill Boosters’ Senior Account Director Peter Thorpe, who has over 20 years of experience in the Learning & Development industry.
A recent report estimated that 27.7m UK adults could be considered to be living in vulnerable circumstances, an increase of 15% in just a few months, with 2021 expected to show a further increase. This equates to 53% of the UK adult population – i.e., more than half.
Who are the vulnerable customers?
A vulnerable customer is someone who, due to their personal circumstances, is especially susceptible to harm, particularly when a firm is not acting with appropriate levels of care.
The FCA expects firms to demonstrate how they are ensuring vulnerable customers are treated fairly. This includes recording and monitoring to ensure the service provided to vulnerable customers is as good as those provided to other customers.
What is a vulnerable customer example?
Being vulnerable is not necessarily a life-long state: it can be long term, short term, or permanent. Vulnerability drivers could include the following examples:
Health – health conditions or illnesses that affect ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.
Life events – life events such as bereavement, job loss or relationship breakdown.
Resilience –low ability to withstand financial or emotional shocks.
Capability – low knowledge of financial matters or low confidence in managing money
Who do the FCA consider to be particularly vulnerable?
Certain life events can trigger additional or increasing vulnerabilities. Consumers who already have lower financial literacy or capacity may be even harder hit and unable to manage their finances.
How do you assist vulnerable customers?
You need to understand your customer base and target market so you can correctly identify potentially vulnerable consumers and those who are more likely to require support.
For example, if you advise on pensions or life insurance, your customer base is likely to be older. You must be more alert to signs of illness or disability.
You must also be aware of how your actions or inactions could increase vulnerability and cause harm. For example, not offering a customer who loses their source of income appropriate forbearance measures could lead to greater stress and anxiety, which in turn leads to the customer taking actions which are more harmful such as borrowing more to cover shortfalls.
The FCA expects your firm to have procedures in place to identify vulnerable customers, including if they access your services digitally, and to know how to respond appropriately.
VinciWorks new course: Vulnerable customers in financial services
Our new course, Vulnerable Clients in Financial Services, teaches users what makes people vulnerable, what the signs and characteristics of vulnerability are in specific target markets and customer bases, and how to provide an appropriate level of care to vulnerable customers.
As we approach the end of 2021, many organisations will be thinking about appraisals. Whilst employees and management alike may not always look forward to them, appraisals can significantly contribute to success, when done correctly.
But why stop at reviewing employee performance? Why not consider overhauling your entire appraisal process too? VinciWorks has recently launched the new Omnitrack HR Suite, which includes an employee appraisal solution. The customisable workflow encourages employees to evaluate their performance against company values and goals. Its structure also guides in-person meetings and can be used to record areas for improvement.
Before looking closer at the Omnitrack appraisal tool features, this blog will outline some objectives of the appraisal process and explain why static forms or spreadsheets are not the answer.
