INDUSTRY UPDATE THE BMA COLUMN
BiKBBI Conference round-up B
BMA – Master the four crucial services
T
he old saying, time is money, has a particular resonance during these times of economic uncertainty as businesses grapple with streamlining their objectives to support the bottom line.
However, the need to grow successful businesses can often overshadow the equally critical areas of protecting them via the four essential services: HR, health and safety (H&S), legal, and tax. It makes sense to free up time spent on these aspects by using business support wherever possible, leaving you free for other growth activities. The BMA provides its members with these essential business support services through its partner, Quest, providing unlimited 365-day access to experienced specialist HR and legal advisors. There is also access to H&S advice and documents via the website, advice on tax and VAT matters and legal documents. In addition, the Quest website has almost 800 free downloadable template documents covering employment, H&S and legal services.
One of the benefits of this service is that it can save time by having an experienced team dedicated to handling all of these tasks. And it can also save you money as it’s a free service as part of the BMA membership package. Rather than hiring in-house staff, you won’t have to pay the overhead costs associated with having additional employees on the payroll. Another benefit is that it gives you access to experts in their field who know exactly what needs to be done when dealing with employment law or filing taxes properly. Having this expertise will ensure that everything is taken care of so there are no issues down the line.
Whether our members have untrained staff managing these services or have dedicated in-house teams, the benefit from Quest still means it can be used for support to free up internal resources for more important tasks within the business itself. In addition, each member is entitled to a free one- to-one review with one of Quest’s business managers to discuss how best to manage HR and H&S matters.
I urge our members to maximise the potential of Quest’s services, whether for improved employee retention rates, increased recruitment or even revenue generation. In short, you will ensure that everything is managed correctly while saving time & money. It just makes sense! Quest will run a free webinar for members on 28 March from 14:00-15:00.
Tom Reynolds Chief Executive of the Bathroom Manufacturers Association
For more information contact BMA on 01782 631619 or email
info@bathroom-association.org.uk
40 BKU MARCH 2023
iKBBI held its annual conference, uniting business leaders from across the KBB sector, at The QEII Centre, Westminster on 7 February, with more than 150 delegates coming together to discuss the challenges that the industry continues to face, and the opportunities to overcome the impending issues and drive positive change for the wider KBB sector. Keynote speeches were delivered by BiKBBI’s Patron Stephen Metcalfe MP, Fergus Harradence, Deputy Director of the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and Mark Farmer, author of the Farmer Review. Farmer revisited his 2016 government-sanctioned report, The Farmer Review: Modernise or Die, revealing the stark realities for the UK construction labour market. His presentation addressed the impact of the unprecedent accumulation of circumstances we have experienced in the last 12-18 months, namely the post pandemic recovery, the biggest conflict in Europe for 70 years, political dramas closer to home and the geopolitics of Brexit, which combined are going to test the UK and global construction markets like never before.
He explained how, historically, the construction market has been resilient, a cyclical process that tracks against economic peaks and troughs, but peak employment in the UK construction labour market from the 2008 global financial crisis to pre-Covid did not increase, which it has done in every other cycle – the first sign of a major structural issue in our workforce. CITB research shows that, in order to meet demand, an additional 225,000 construction workers will need to come into the UK construction sector by 2027 – with growth expected following a short decline in 2023. Fergus Harradence addressed the delegation reporting that construction activity from November 2022 to February 2023 remained broadly static, with slight decreases and increases month on month and despite the lack of growth in recent months, the level of construction vacancies continues to sit a record high of 45,000 compared to an historic average of circa 23,000. Harradence outlined the government’s predictions for 2023-24, forecasting the most challenging time for the UK 2008, predicting that construction will contract by 1.7% in 2023, however, the Construction Products Association (CPA) forecasts a decline of 4.7% in 2023, with a slow recovery in 2024.
The CPA predicts a contraction of activity in 2023 for the UK construction sector will most likely fall on domestic RMI (-9%), commercial new build and the new house building sector (-11%), driven by wider concerns on inflation and the cost of living, demonstrated by the GfK Consumer Confidence Index falling to 45% in January 2023 – a record low. The outlook for 2023 is bleak – the facts speak for themselves. BiKBBI’s conference was about delivering knowledge, expertise and insight to the KBB sector, on the topics that will not only help our members and stakeholders to navigate the choppy waters that 2023 will bring, but also to highlight the significant challenges that face our sector in the medium to long term, and the dire impact they will have if we don’t work to solve them now.
The next twelve months will be tough on us all, but all the data shows that 2024 will see us back on the road to recovery in terms of economic confidence and consumer demand – great news for everyone right? In part, yes, however, both of those factors will only serve to add further stress to the skills gap crisis we are facing, and failure to act now is a failure to protect the future of our industry.
Damian Walters BiKBBI Chief Executive Officer
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