Business update

Procurement

A new government website has been launched to encourage small businesses to access smaller government contracts.

The www.supply2.gov.uk portal contains more than 7000 public sector contracts from central and local government departments across the UK. It has been developed to open up the market to small businesses by giving them access to contact opportunities for projects typically under £100,000 in value. Each tender has a fixed timetable and set of deadlines.

The site is divided into UK locations. On registration, a supplier will be given access to contract opportunities in the location of their choice. For an additional fee, suppliers can expand their access to include other UK locations. The portal also gives access to higher value contracts covered by the Official Journal of the European Union, OJEC.

In addition, for a fee of £180, suppliers can gain access to the Small Business Research Initiative, a scheme managed by the government’s Small Business Service (SBS) to help SMEs gain greater access to publicly funded research and development contracts (See www.sbri.org.uk).

Principle public sector bodies who let contracts include: principal government departments; non departmental public bodies; English hospital trusts; strategic health authorities; NHS foundation trusts; PCTs; UK universities; state & independent primary schools; secondary schools; police authorities; ambulance service; fire brigades; registered social landlords; local authority purchasing departments.

Legal

UK engineering firms are being urged to tighten their policy on workplace bullying following a law lords ruling which will mean employers can be held liable for workplace bullying by their employees.

Martin Edwards, head of employment law at law firm Mace & Jones and spokesman for business pressure group Forum of Private Business warns that the decision opens a new channel for claims: “The judgement enables people to sue the employers of bullies under the Protection of Harassment Act”.

The decision exposes employers to claims by third parties who are bullied at work, even if there is no apparent element of race or sex discrimination. Edwards says that as a result of the judgement, employers should update their anti-bullying policies and ensure they are implemented effectively.

The law lords’ decision follows on from the case of William Majrowski, an audit co-ordinator at Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Trust, who was harassed at work by his line manager. He made an internal complaint and then sued his employers under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. The case was struck out by the County Court but then went to the Court of Appeal. The House of Lords upheld the Court’s decision.

Edwards warns that if claims are pursued under the Act, employees will have a six year window in which they can bring a case.

Work smart

How do you increase your productivity and improve your work-life balance? According to not-for-profit organisation Work Wise UK (www.workwiseuk.org), the solution is simple: all you need to do is adopt working practices such as flexible working and home working practices.

Flexible working would allow staff to come and leave a different times, which, if adopted by enough people, would stagger the rush hour and reduce congestion and overcrowding on public transport to make the daily commute a less stressful part of the day.

Work Wise, which is an initiative promoted by the IT Forum Foundation, claims the UK boasts the highest commuter times in Europe. On average, workers spend seven hours a week commuting or, put another way, the equivalent of 47 additional working days a year – double the time spent by Swedish workers.

Better than commuting at all, Work Wise wants to encourage staff to work from home or from satellite offices to reduce travelling time and improve quality of life. The organisation says that 11% of the UK’s total workforce work from home, but aims to raise this figure to 50% of the workforce with this initiative.

Increase your presence on the Web

The internet is an increasingly important business tool for attracting customer or potential employees, so attracting people to your website is ever more vital.

According to government website www.businesslink.gov.uk there are three main ways people arrive at websites: direct navigation, web referrals and search engines. Here are BSJ’s five tips to promoting your website:

1. Include your web address on all your business material.
2. Chose a simple web address (URL) that people will remember and which avoids tricky punctuation. If you operate exclusively in one country consider a country-specific address, for example .co.uk. If you work internationally, .com or .eu might be more appropriate.
3. To get web referrals, find sites with complementary content and agree to have links to each other’s sites. Alternatively you could consider paying for a banner or pop-up advert
4. Get the most from search engines to ensure your website is on the first page of someone’s search by including the right metadata (the keywords that describe the page, but which are not visible on the page) when you build your website.
5. Join a discussion forum, or set up your own, and point people to your website