The Hiblog

The father trap: How nearly all businesses fail

This is a guest post from David Willans, one of the two speakers at 'What to Expect When They're Expecting' on 22nd June 2017.  A brief story Two years ago, at 10:30 pm I was on my way back from London City airport after a big client meeting in Zurich. My cabby was John. He’s a proper East-Ender, late 40’s. Born and bred in the East End. He would have made pro for West Ham until an injury ruined it. We talked about our kids and what it means to…

Diversity costs but so does failure to take action

Don't get left behind in creating an inclusive culture   What does gender diversity mean to your business? There’s an easy way to measure this. How much have you currently invested to tackle it? If the answer is zero or the amount is nominal than I think we can safely say that diversity still falls under the “nice-to-have” bracket.   What if we reframe the question, instead of looking at what you’re not spending to tackle gender diversity, let’s look at what it's costing you to fail at it? If…

Show me the money

How gender pay gap regulations can be good for your business What would you do if you knew - without question - that you were working alongside a colleague of equal or lesser competency who was earning significantly more than you? That you knew your skills and qualifications stacked up equally, and your ambition and commitment to the business were also on par? That this disparity wasn’t even a secret and had already been acknowledged by management to be unfair with a verbal promise to rectify at the next round…

Startups & Pensions Auto-Enrolment: What you need to know

If you are one of the 500,000 plus people in the UK who started a new business in the last year, pensions are probably not uppermost in your mind. Nevertheless, if you are employing anyone apart from yourself, it’s a mistake to ignore them as you could face fines of up to £500 a day (or sometimes more for larger businesses) if you ignore the requirement to complete documents that are sent to you or to adhere to deadlines. Start-ups have specific issues Tech start-ups are affected by the auto-enrolment…

10 mistakes not to make with pensions auto-enrolment

All employers have to provide a workplace pension for their eligible staff by 2018. This process is called ‘automatic enrolment', and is often referred to as ‘auto-enrolment’. Avoiding the topic is not an option, so it’s important to be aware of what is required and by when. Otherwise, you may make mistakes which could lead to a hefty fine of up to £500 per day. "Avoiding the topic of pensions auto-enrolment is not an option" As a business owner, there is initially a lot to contend with for pensions auto-enrolment,…

Making Tax Digital: are you in the know?

This is a guest post from our friends at 1Tap. The new expenses management app from Receipt Bank. Self-assessment is ending. So why does the new Making Tax Digital initiative seem to be one of HMRCs best kept secrets? As an employer, there will be people in your business who need to complete self-assessment tax returns. With the completion deadline fast approaching on 31 January, many of them will be preparing to submit their return on time, or risk facing a penalty. Perhaps unsurprisingly, not everyone is a fan of…

5 ways to win this Christmas

As employees all over the country start to look forward to the Christmas break and related festivities, there’s one group of people who aren’t usually as excited about the whole thing. Although the bah-humbug isn’t inevitable... HRs and office managers are normally the ones who have to organise all the fun stuff for everyone else and usually have to do a bunch of additional work as a result. However, it doesn’t have to be that way! Here’s my five tips to make sure you can win (and enjoy) this Christmas:…