A Derbyshire creative agency founded and run by two sisters will represent the Midlands at a national awards ceremony where it hopes to be named the Best Small Rural Business in the UK. MacMartin, a full-service marketing agency based in Church Broughton, has been crowned a regional winner in the Rural Business Awards (RBAs) run in partnership with Amazon. Now the company, which is based in The Bartonfields Centre, a collection of beautifully converted farm buildings, will represent the Midlands at the national ceremony in February. MacMartin was founded by sisters Claire MacDonald and Anna Hutton, who both have professional marketing backgrounds with complementary skills. Nearly five years later, MacMartin is going strong and employs eight members of staff. It offers a wide range of services including website and graphic design, social media marketing strategies, copywriting and email marketing. Anna said: “We are so grateful to the Rural Business Awards for recognising our work and providing a platform for rural businesses like ours to showcase their services, and for their achievements to be celebrated. “It has been an incredibly exciting year for MacMartin and we are looking forward to the national finals next year. Wish us luck!” Claire said: “Since the pandemic more businesses have realised that you don’t have to be based in the city centre anymore, but we have been committed to a rural location for nearly five years. “It’s perfect for wellbeing, blue sky thinking, creativity, commuting and so much more. We were in a very tough category, against some very worthy nominees, so we were thrilled when our name was announced as the winner. It’s absolutely brilliant to be representing the Midlands, so we have everything crossed for next year.” Now in their seventh year, the Rural Business Awards are run in partnership with Amazon and celebrate the success of businesses across the UK’s rural economy. The Rural Business Awards aim to celebrate the best rural businesses in the UK, recognising a range of businesses, including farmers, food producers, manufacturers, business services and destinations. The brainchild of Leicestershire businesswomen Anna Price and Jemma Clifford, the pair wanted to showcase the wealth of entrepreneurial talent in the great British countryside. Jemma Clifford said: “We are very proud to be hosting the seventh annual Rural Business Awards in partnership with Amazon, especially after the past 18 months. On behalf of the Rural Business Awards team, I would like to say congratulations to MacMartin for this very well-deserved win and wish them all the best ahead of the national final.” The Rural Business Awards were set up in 2014. Along with their headline partner, Amazon, other organisations to lend their support have been Openreach, HSBC, DEFRA and Fisher German. There are also categories for start-ups, diversification projects, professional services, social enterprises, tourism, food and drink, and outdoor pursuits.

Manufacturing and distribution company managers are celebrating an important milestone in a Lincoln firm’s history – after becoming its new owners. The Greenstock Lamp Company’s Managing Director Stuart Raffles and newest directors – Lewis Keilty (Sales & Purchasing) and Cheryl Hutchins (Production) – are poised to grow the multimillion-pound business after completing a Management Buyout (MBO). The news follows the retirement of long-standing director Clifford Bulgin, who was the driving force behind Greenstock Lamp’s fortunes for a quarter-of-a-century. Managing Director Stuart Raffles said: “We are over the moon to have completed the MBO. This is something we had all been talking about for some time and it has come about by mutual agreement. The company is in good shape and we are expecting turnover to breach the £4 million mark during 2021/22.” Sales & purchasing director Lewis Keilty said: “Despite the challenges experienced over the past few months, we can clearly see the company going from strength to strength, with exciting developments in the pipeline.” The company, which is based off Whisby Road, employs nearly 50 people, including 20 outworkers. Staff are busy completing orders across its three divisions – OEM (original equipment manufacture) – in-connect; Greenstock lighting and Greenstock shatterproof. “It’s great to have an excellent workforce behind us and really low levels of staff turnover. Several employees have been with us for 15 years or more,” added Lewis. With directors keen to achieve a 20 per cent lift in sales, compared to the pre-Covid period, the OEM division is poised to lead the way. A specialist in cable harnesses, over-moulded products and pcb encapsulation, it already accounts for 80 per cent of company sales to the marine, automotive, construction, utility, metering and medical industries. Production director Cheryl Hutchins said: “We are really looking forward to growing our worldwide customer base and to investing funds back into the business. We have already made a start by ordering an extra over-moulding machine, for our busy OEM division, at a cost of £100,000. It is being in delivered in December.” “As a company our focus is firmly on ensuring our loyal workforce is happy and productive,” added Cheryl.

Loneliness and a lack of face-to-face contact are key psychological issues facing people working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, research by Nottingham Trent University shows. A study led by Professor Amin Al-Habaibeh found that office workers miss having informal meetings with colleagues, such as quick conversations by the water cooler, while they continue to work from home. A survey of UK workers aged 25 to 65 showed that a lack of physical exercise was also seen as a key issue for people while they continued to use their homes as makeshift workspaces. Advantages of working from home, though, included reduced travel time and costs, a perceived reduction in CO2 emissions and the ability to continue working while looking after children that are unable to attend school or nursery. “The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to examine the potential for enhanced remote working, as well as distance learning and teaching,” said Professor Al-Habaibeh, of the School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment. “It also shows us that there is a far greater potential for international collaboration and cross-border employment in the future, in ways which we might not have envisaged before. “But as human beings we are social animals, and it will be difficult for people to continue working from home without an in-person social element during or after working hours. “Many people were able to quickly adapt to online tools, such as video conferencing and collaboration platforms software, and have combined their working hours with daily routines and family commitments. “But our results show that nearly half of our respondents – 43 per cent – thought that the main challenges of working from home were the lack of offline face-to-face meetings and reduced eye contact with their colleagues.” The survey – which received more than 200 responses – showed that 31 per cent of people felt isolated working from home either ‘often’ or ‘all of the time’, with a further 31 per cent feeling isolated ‘sometimes’. More than 10 per cent of people felt concerned about redundancy. However, 83 per cent of respondents felt that working from home achieved the same working outcomes as being in the office. Professor Al-Habaibeh added: “Many employers are giving serious consideration to allowing employees to continue working from home on a permanent basis, or as mixture of part-home, part-office working, in order to reduce operating costs and improve efficiencies. “This study shows that serious consideration should be given to the overall wellbeing of an employee’s mental health, and the potential implications of many people feeling isolated during their working hours, and how this might affect them in the medium to longer-term.” Dr Kafel Waried, a visiting scholar at Nottingham Trent University who worked on the project, stated: “It was an important project in order to understand the challenges people are facing in the COVID-19 pandemic to raise the awareness level of the factors that will help enhancing the efficiency and productivity of people working from home.” Professor Al-Habaibeh added: “By understanding the challenges and factors that influence people during their daily work from home, we will have a better-informed research to support the design and innovation of enhanced products and technologies that would help people to effectively overcome some of the challenges.” The study was published yesterday (23 November) by Global Transitions.

StaffCircle, the cloud-based HR platform that combines performance management and employee engagement, has partnered with management consulting company, Innovate Enterprise Solutions Ltd (IES), to improve employee retention rates and create irresistible company cultures for UK organisations. At a time where almost a quarter of workers are actively planning to change employers in the next few months, the partnership with IES will support companies with combating workplace issues related to the recent phenomenon of what some economists have termed as ‘The Great Resignation’. The IES solution, which is bespoke to each organisation’s needs, can successfully aid customers with their strategy, mission and goals, while the StaffCircle platform can truly bring these to life. This includes identifying core competencies, values, objectives and behaviours required to drive employee engagement and retention. StaffCircle’s technology provides a combination of performance management, employee engagement & culture and HR software tools to create a collaborative and motivated workforce. The partnership therefore offers the perfect solution and support needed to curate high performing cultures. By embracing IES’s solution, StaffCircle can offer existing and potential clients the expertise to identify and refine components of their culture which are crucial to creating excellent employee experiences. This is conducted by a free one-hour exploratory workshop given to StaffCircle customers who recognise the need for strategic work around their culture. Mark Seemann, founder and CEO of StaffCircle, commented: “With many employees experiencing burnout and looking to leave their jobs in droves as a result, the combination of having a solid software and strategy foundation is now crucial to employee engagement. If companies want to retain their employees, they must first find a way to create a people-first company culture. Our partnership with IES enables us to offer our customers an unparalleled culture-first solution, and ensure they enjoy the full benefits of our technology. ” Danielle Heath, Director of IES Culture adds: “Culture impacts everything about your organisation, from retention, morale to productivity. With ‘The Great Resignation’ highlighting how fragile employee engagement can be, now is the time to invest, in order to create the kind of place people want to be a part of. StaffCircle’s performance management and employee engagement software is the final ingredient our customers need when executing a successful workplace culture.” StaffCircle and IES Culture will hold a virtual roundtable event on the 2nd December where Mark Seemann will be joined by IES directors, Danielle Heath and Stephanie Grainger, alongside Michelle Brown, Business Leader and People Experience at Believe Housing and Kevin Lockhart, Managing Director of Couno. The roundtable will  discuss how to drive engagement, better employee experiences and talent retention with digital and performance management tools.

MD, Marisa Firkins, CMIOSH, of Safety Forward Ltd., which offers a UK wide service, is the winner of the Midlands IoD, Director of the Year Agility & Resilience Award, after capitalising on the challenges she faced in March ’20 as Covid struck. The company has moved to new offices in Penkridge, built a state-of-the-art virtual training facility, migrating larger clients to *T100 Business Safety Systems. It is one of the few preferred suppliers in the area, and can now manage support and training remotely, which has been extremely well received by clients. The IoD comments: “The business was heavily impacted by Covid-19 but Marisa took full accountability, reviewed the values and culture of Safety Forward Ltd., building a business case for a new wellbeing service. Flexibility and an ethical approach to the needs of clients during the crisis highlighted how the business’s slogan of “Putting People First” is more than just words.” Marisa says: “I can’t describe how much this award means to me after such a challenging 12 months. There have been times when I have doubted myself, but have had the undying support of family, friends and the team. I am truly grateful to them. I was once told I was a “housewife who got lucky” which has spurred me out of my comfort zone for the last 10 years to do what I truly believe in.” Utilising grant funds from Staffordshire Business Skills Hub, Staffordshire Innovation and the Government  it has upskilled, including SMAS (Safety Management Advisory Service). Marisa Firkins says: “I was so thrilled to find a young man locally via the Govt. Kickstart Programme which we are using again. My best talent has a limited skillset but passion and drive. I will provide technical, qualifications and mentoring.” It is also recruiting qualified, experienced consultants locally, in the Midlands and the UK.” The company offers free PDF Covid-19 Health and Safety Guides available to download from its website, including a business continuity plan, business impact analysis, developing a return-to-work plan, pandemic contingency plan, Covid-19 Tool Box Talk, free health & safety health check. Introductory webinars and podcasts for local businesses. Independent, practical health and safety consultancy, fully qualified and certified, providing bespoke training available online, is key. Addressing a gap in the market for hands on cost effective, accurate health and safety advice demonstrates real business benefits, moral, social and financial. From helping local companies gain industry accreditations to tender for new contracts such as CHAS, Constructionline, Safe Contractor, HSE, Altius etc. to unique hands-on bespoke health and safety consultancy across a variety of business sectors including the likes of recently floated Brickability Group. From manufacturing, engineering, construction, aerospace, warehouse & logistics, charities, retail, food, to universities and more. It is CDM (Construction Design & Management Specialist) accredited. Marisa believes: “The pandemic and supporting clients through Covid-19 has reinforced just how important people are within businesses as assets requiring care and consideration. Effectively managing remote workers attracts the best talent.” Contracts are negotiable, flexible and ethical. “Traditional health and safety methods will need to change and adapt in light of the greatest overhaul our economy has seen.” Marisa concludes. Safety Forward took part in and invited clients to The Lighthouse Charity Golf Day on 20^th October, in support of the emotional, physical and financial wellbeing of construction workers and their families, if ill or injured, (now covers mental health). Men working in construction have one of the highest suicide rates compared to other industries. Marisa worked for the National Crime Agency UK for over 22 years moving into health & safety, setting up Safety Forward 8 years ago. Every client is treated individually, with a bespoke, people focused service, including laws and regulations governing health and safety at work. *T100 Business Safety Systems is a class-leading solution for the management of compliance in any organisation, from SME’s to large corporations.