Business and Economics

A third of Brits have had a relationship with a colleague at some point in their career – equating to some 8.85 million "cubicle courtships". With UK employees clocking in more hours at the office than ever before, the workplace has become a common environment for love to blossom, with 17 per cent of workplace couplings resulting in marriages or civil partnerships. However, cubicle courtships ended in tears for one in seven workers who have had to leave their jobs largely...

Staff at two TopShop sites are set to stage a walk-out after shamed BHS boss and head of Arcadia group Sir Philip Green denied them a living wage. Spectrum for Arcadia staff in Leeds and Solihull will walk out on strike for two days on Friday February 24 and Sunday February 26. The industrial action will throw Arcadia’s deliveries from Topshop, Miss Selfridge and Burton Menswear into chaos. The knight of the realm recently faced calls from MPs to seize his...

In a digital age when all consumer decisions start with a search query and all transactions are reliant on trusted familiarity, having a brand awareness strategy that transcends channels is crucial. Today, businesses have to fight tooth and nail to cover all bases in order to remain relevant. Gone are the days when brand awareness rested with the marketing and PR teams. Now companies must ensure that they spread themselves across numerous touchpoints in order to keep people ‘aware’ of...

Unless you have been living in a ‘content free’ cave (maybe those avoiding Brexit or Trump), it’ll come as no surprise that search significantly drives the buying decision making process. Search marketing, in the context of online searching via sites like Google, is a dominant touchpoint for researching and reviewing everything from cars to cats. According to ‘Search Engine Land’, Google handles at least 2 trillion searches annually. As search is so accessible (with rise to mobile) in providing a...

With the referendum resulting in the UK leaving the EU, businesses in the UK and internationally held their breath for its effects.  With plummeting exchange rates, even industries that were booming in 2016 pre-Brexit are feeling the effects. The office of National Statistics declared that 2.20 million people are choosing E cigarettes with 59% of them identifying themselves as smokers. A total of 8.7 million Brits has used and/or sampled vaping, proof that the vaping industry is on the rise....

Britain's SMEs are been strangled by red tape and regulations, according to a new study, with HR compliance, health and safety demands and pension admin stopping owners from growing their enterprise. SMEs account for over 99 per cent of all businesses in the UK, but they are been hindered by distractions and other admin tasks that eat up an average of 10 hours of the working week. One in ten business owners has less than an hour a week earmarked for business...

Britain is teetering on the edge of a silent crisis as people are been overworked to dangerous levels. A new study has found millions of employees are so tired at work they are unable to do their job safely, with pressure to meet demanding targets, work being too intense and a shortage of proper breaks are among the key reasons for workers being so shattered. David Carter, from Accident Advice Helpline, who commissioned the study, described the statistics as "really worrying",...

Service with a smile could increase UK consumer spending by an astronomical £64.6 billion a year, new research has revealed. On average, people spend a £142.91 each week in shops and restaurants, but they would be willing to spend an additional £19.08 every week if they were to receive more attentive service. Despite this, just 11 per cent of Brits said they usually receive friendly service when shopping or eating out. Nils Christy, Chief Operating Offer at Monarch, said: “We...

You've heard about flogging wood to a forest and selling ice to Eskimos, but this must take the biscuit. A British firm has started exporting palm trees to the desert because there's a growing demand for disease-free trees. Date Palm Developments exports more than 140,000 plants a year to some of the hottest parts of the world, including Dubai, Egypt, Thailand and the Caribbean. The company has already sent over two million palm trees to 35 countries such as Australia, Peru, South Africa, Nigeria and...