Our word of the month for October is Value. As we focus on HR management throughout this month, we believe having a team who know and feel appreciated can have a huge positive impact in many areas of your company. So make sure you show your staff that you value their work.
Claudia Crab’s October Focus
“If you are taken to a Tribunal and don’t have policies in place to cover such things as grievances and disciplinary matters – it’s too late and all you can do is damage limitation.” Robert Briggs – Compliance Director Crimson Crab
Make sure you deal with your greatest asset, the people who work for you, through appropriate Human Resources policies and procedures. Our sister organisation HR Wise provides a suite of documents which create a framework to facilitate good management including:
an employment contract (statement of particulars)
a staff handbook with a full set of procedures
access to an email support line
Top tip – Visit the HR Wise website for more information
The positive relationships any business has with its clients will help it thrive and survive – but there are things you must do to protect the bond between you and your customers…
That’s why PROTECT is our word of the month!
Don’t forget Crimson Crab is always on your side, ready to help you rise to the challenge.
Stay safe.
Claudia Crab’s August Focus
“If you deal with consumers respect their rights and comply with the standards of trading.”
If you deal with retail sales and have consumers as your customer there are a plethora of rules and regulations that apply, including:
The Consumer Rights Act 2015
The Consumer Protection from Unfair Commercial Practices Regulations 2008 – control unfair practices and create criminal offences for traders that breach the regulations.
The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013
The Provision of Services Regulations 2009
The law covers:
What you sell:
Goods
Digital content
Services
Where you sell it:
On-premises sales
Off-premises sales
Sales made at a distance
How you sell it:
Consumer contracts
Good practice
Pricing and payment
Other key areas to consider:
Underage sales
Food & Drink
Product Safety
Animals & Agricultural Products
Weights & Measures
Whatever you do you need to respect consumers rights and comply with certain minimum standards of trading.
To fail to do this can lead to serious consequences including being prosecuted by a regulator such as Trading Standards or Environmental Health.
Top tip – A great starting point to find out where you are, is our Business MOT
What has been your biggest learning in recent weeks, and how will this change the way you present yourself to people?
Our word of the month for July is PROFILE, it’s all about how youwill present yourself so as to stand out from the crowd in a digital-focused world?
Crimson Crab is on your side and ready to help you meet the challenges ahead.
Stay safe.
Claudia Crab’s July Focus
“A website is a shop window to the world – it is also a great way to showcase breaches of the law”
If you have a website you need to make sure that you comply with the law in the following areas:
Disclosure
You should identify yourself correctly and give an address at which you can be contacted, there are specific requirements for a registered business, (e.g. Ltd, PLC, LLP).
Copyright
It’s imperative that you protect your copyright effectively and make sure that you do not breach other peoples copyright. It makes sense to also have a document setting out the terms of use of the website.
Disability Discrimination
Businesses have an obligation to make reasonable adjustments to help disabled individuals access their goods, facilities and services. The Equalities Act 2010 requires that websites are accessible to disabled people including Blind people. One way of meeting this responsibility is for website owners to comply with the WCAG 2.0 standard at Level AA the UK Governments recommended best practice for accessibility.
Data Protection
You need to make sure that you comply with the Data Protection laws (including the GDPR) for all contact forms and any personal data collection. You also need to make sure that you have an appropriate Cookies policy detailing the cookies used and their purpose (and for example use a pop-up or other means to obtain ‘consent’).
Provision of Services
If you provide any services on or offline you have to make sure you comply with the Provision of Service Regulations. They require service providers to make available contact details where information requests and complaints can be sent, together with other specified information. One way of complying is to include the required information on a web page and proactively provide the link to clients when discussing your services.
E-commerce
When using a website for e-commerce purposes then you still need to comply with the law that relates to a bricks and mortar outlet along with some special rules for an online business.
So there must be for example no unfair commercial practices and suitable control of sales of age-sensitive products (e.g. alcohol, tobacco, fireworks, knives, solvents, videos & games). If any products are sold to which safety legislation applies, for example, toys, bicycles, electrical goods the rules have to be followed, as they do when food of any type is sold.
The Consumer Contracts Regulations require that you provide certain information when selling online, and also require you to tell the customer about their right to cancel the purchase within 14 days (not 7 any more). Failure in this respect can mean that the customer can enjoy a much longer cancellation period (up to 12 months)!
You also have to be careful to comply with the requirements of Card Providers and you cannot make additional charges for using such payment methods.
There are also rules around the way that complaints are dealt with and the provision of access to Alternative Dispute Resolution and the European Commissions Online Dispute Resolution Platform.
