Nobody likes having to fire an employee. However, sometimes this is a necessity. You could be wasting your company’s hard-earned money paying someone who doesn’t care about the position, or someone who undermines your management skills at every turn.

Many business leaders struggle to know when exactly it’s time to fire a worker, though – especially because they don’t want to be accused of wrongful dismissal. As such, we’re hoping to give our readers a little more clarification on this issue today. Read on to find out the different signs that indicate when it’s finally time to fire your worker.

Complaints from Customers/Clients

If you have started to receive complaints from your customers or clients about a certain employee, this is a big indicator that something is amiss. It’s particularly problematic because people rarely complain without reason.

You don’t know how many customers have had a problem with your employee before and just haven’t said anything. This leads us to the question; how much business have you lost because of that person?

Always Central to Office Drama

It’s no coincidence when one person is consistently at the centre of drama in the office. They might try to blame this on other people, but there must be something about them that attracts this kind of negative attention. Some characteristics of a toxic employee include gossiping, belittling other workers or management, and always involving themselves in conflict even when the issue didn’t arise with them.

Having a toxic person in your organisation can significantly impact the work environment, even leading to a high staff turnover if you don’t detect the problem soon enough.

Flouting the Company’s Policies

Sometimes, your staff might violate the company’s rules and regulations (which keep your business in line with the law) without realising it. This is perfectly okay, so long as they’re given a formal reminder and don’t do it again.

However, if one employee is consistently flouting the same legal policies, then you need to discipline them. In these circumstances, it’s worth talking with employment solicitors. They will consult you on what disciplinary action needs to be taken and help you to navigate any legal cases or conflict that might arise from this.

Tardiness and Absenteeism

As most business owners know, time is money. So, if employees are consistently turning up late to work, this will be costing your organisation money. Prolific absenteeism is also a massive indicator that you might need to fire a worker. When it feels like you can’t rely on them to actually turn up for their shifts and you find yourself frequently understaffed, there needs to be an intervention. If nothing changes – even after speaking to the employee in question – you will need to fire them.

These are some of the key indicators that it’s time to fire your employee. The main thing to focus on is whether they are willing to change. If the same issues keep arising despite your intervention, then you need to let them go.

While many people dream of owning their own home, there are responsibilities that come along with that. Most of the time, a landlord will need to know how to handle things like balancing tenant relations and ensuring the proper upkeep of the property.

Whether you’re venturing into being a landlord for the first time or are just looking for tips for better management, this article gives you a fast, comprehensive look at what to know about rental properties.

Think about hiring a property manager

You are a landlord for the first time and want to do your best by your tenants. You’re torn – should you ask a friend or family member to help you manage your investment? Or should you use a screening company and a professional property manager? With so much on the line, it can be both overwhelming and intimidating to tackle the process of becoming a landlord.

It can be hard to decide what to do – but it’s important that you do. If you are overwhelmed by any of this, hire a professional property manager. They don’t cost much, and they can save a lot of time, energy and money.

Having someone you trust to manage your properties can help ease some of that stress and give you more time to focus on what matters most – growing your business.

Treat your rental property as a business

There are many things to consider when becoming a landlord, but one of the most important is that you treat your rental property as you would a regular business. This means ensuring your offer the best experience you can and keeping on top of everything your ‘client’ aka the tenant, may need. After all, they are the one who pays your ‘wages’ through their rent.

Set up and apply a tenant screening process

The very important step in preparing for a high income from your property rental business is getting the right tenant into your home. By performing a thorough tenant screening process, you are able to weed out those people who may not be worth the rent they pay you.

When you’re trying to find a tenant for your rental property, the most effective way is always to do reference checks. Like we said before, your property is your like your business, so vet any potential tenant like you would a client.

Ensure the rental price is right

Setting the right price for rent is the most important part of being a landlord. It needs to be high enough to cover the costs of your mortgage and repairs, while also providing you with enough income to make it worthwhile.

It is very important to set the right rent price when you start as a landlord. There are many factors that go into determining how to price your rental property. It requires skill, knowledge and experience to determine the rent price that will generate the desired profit.

The process of becoming a landlord can be a complicated and stressful one. There are many factors that need to be considered before taking the leap. Knowing the best course of action at every step can make all the difference when it comes to keeping your tenants happy and your wallet full.

 

Seeing the business idea you’ve put into reality suddenly fail can be heartbreaking. The rate of business failure is getting high annually, with most having a 50/50 chance of hitting a five-year mark less than one-third of businesses make it to a decade.

We’ve been weathering Covid-19 for months now. Worldwide, people are grappling with the new normal we’re in. For businesses that started before or during the pandemic, the reality of operating in such a dynamic environment can be tricky. Some start-up businesses end up closing early or not proceeding with the planned opening. No one knows how the current situation will develop or what the outcome for many businesses is.

Treating business failure as a learning experiencecan be your stepping stone to success.FedEx released Zapmail in the mid-80s, offering electronic deliveries. It ended costing the company nearly $350 million after two years. As you know, FedEx didn’t fold and kept going. They had $35 billion in revenue just in 2010.

Here are a couple of ways you can bounce back through the lessons of “failure”.

Use this time to reflect and strategize. What happened? Where’s the issue? Is it your approach? Did you choose the wrong market? Did you choose the cheapest hosting instead of a reliable cloud hosting solution? Did you lack guidance or support from experts? Evaluate your learnings – this might be hard, but extremely necessary if you are to bounce back. Transparency is vital to your customers and sharing an honest account of the issue can paint your business in an authentic light with your customers.

Get feedback/reviews. Many start-ups fail due to a lack of feedback. Entrepreneurs sometimes take their ideas and make them unavailable to others. Reasons include fear of the idea being stolen by a competitor or striving for perfection with the hope of catching an investor’s attention. Now that your business is struggling or lost, it’s high time to ask your providers, partners, employees, and even your audience for feedback. Encourage them to be honest about how the business operated on your products.

Plan your next move into a new business.

After reflecting on what went wrong the first time, now it’s time to avoid the same issues. Consider these. If you run out of money, focus on your ROI. Studies revealed that over half of businesses collapse because they are under-capitalized or lack profit from the start.

If you have ineffective partners, try doing it alone in your next venture. A start-up needs its entire team’s commitment, from employees to partners to set it up for success.

And avoid “get rich quick” schemes. You might be carrying some debt, like a small business loan, and are looking to pay back quickly. However, placing on these schemes can backfire and cause greater pain to your business and goals. Your start-up is a seed that requires a lot of time and energy, so make it something that you’re excited about, and that solves a problem your audience care about too.

Don’t skimp on business essentials.Any business worth its salt requires the right foundation to get started. If you’re currently on the brink of losing your business due to a problematic hosting provider, then it’s a must to consult a reliable business website hosting that offers the combination of reliability, security, and flexibility.

Find a good web development company to help you create the right website and get a consultation. Use modern cloud hosting solutions, apply search engine optimization (SEO), create social media pages, focus on your product’s quality, and relate its value to your audience. All of these are the foundation of any successful business.

In the end, it will be your choice to make – whatever you do, don’t be compelled to rush in blind. Your motivation and passion should propel you forward naturally. Pace yourself, create a strategy, and focus on your calling. As with any worthwhile aspiration, yours may need time. The next business you start may just be the perfect one for you all along!

 

Anyone can start a business these days. The barriers to entry are incredibly low and you can go from idea to full-fledged company in a matter of hours. But there’s a difference between launching a business and growing one. If you want to achieve rapid growth, you must pay attention to the details.

5 Things You Can Do to Scale Your Biz Like the Big Guys

While no two businesses are the same, the underlying principles of growth tend to be fairly consistent from one organization or industry to the next. And if you want to enjoy rapid growth, you should take a page out of the book of other fast scaling companies and implement the following principles and tactics:

• Pursue Radical Innovation

According to researcher Joe Glavin, high-growth companies are 39 percent more likely to develop new processes to improve their existing products and services. But it goes much further than this.

“High-growth companies are also 37 percent more likely to rely on radical innovations — the kinds of breakthroughs that give the world something it’s not seen before,” Galvin writes. “Risky? Maybe. Rewarding? Definitely: They are 50 percent more likely to provide new products and services, and 58 percent more likely to develop patentable technologies.”

It’s not always easy – and most new ideas will fail – but a long-term commitment to innovation will eventually yield fruit. And that fruit tends to be a whole lot juicer than the low-hanging type that most companies focus on.

• Invest in People

Products and services – no matter how innovative – will only get you so far. If you don’t have the right people on your team, you’ll never make it.

Most businesses start with an idea or product and then hire people to complement that product. But the better approach may be to invest in people and then pursue innovation. After all, people are the lifeblood of radical innovation and growth.

Start by getting very clear on who you want to work for your company. Create a shortlist of traits, skills, and values that you deem important. From there, you can begin the process of finding, vetting, and onboarding people who align with your growth-oriented vision.

• Invest in Link Building

It’s impossible to grow in today’s business world without emphasizing your digital presence or online brand. And link building is one of the best kept secrets for success.

Link building isn’t cheap, but it’s one of the primary driving factors in improving search rankings, scaling website traffic, and ultimately filling the top of your funnel so that you have more conversions at the bottom.

While you can technically do it on your own, companies like Link.Build make it easy by providing white glove, white label link building services that generate noteworthy results over time.

• Wow With Customer Service

The best companies in the world – or the fastest growing at least – emphasize customer service as part of their value proposition. They do more than just go through the motions – they blow people away.

Zappos is a classic example of this. Early on (and still today), the company would encourage people to contact them with anything they needed, and were known for following through. Former Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh was so proud of his company’s ability to wow people with customer service that he once dared a friend to call the Zappos customer service line and order pizza. The customer service was confused, but she obliged.

You don’t have to take things that far, but it shows how important it is to wow people with every interaction. Whether they’re approaching you with a problem, concern, or praise, it’s your job to make sure they walk away feeling like you care.

• Implement Data-Driven Decision Making

Businesses are swimming in data these days. And whether you realize it or not, you have access to rich information that can help you move the needle on growth. But to excel, you have to do more than collect data. You actually need to implement the insights that you uncover.

Develop a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) and tie them into specific elements of your strategy. As you notice significant changes in the data, you can adjust your strategy to reflect the new information that you’ve unearthed.

Push Your Business to the Next Level

Growth is something that all businesses want, but few are able to achieve (at least not at the pace that they would like). However, if you’re willing to implement the right building blocks, you can scale at a rate that’s much faster than the average. Using the tips outlined in this article, begin formulating your plan. It might not be perfect, but you can iterate as you go.

Smart cards are an incredibly useful form of technology, helping businesses from across the world to maximise their productivity. However, some organisations have yet to implement smart card systems into their operations, believing this technology is gimmicky as opposed to genuinely useful. This couldn’t be further from the truth. As such, we’ve written this article today to compile all the different reasons why smart cards are a worthwhile investment. Read on if you need convincing or would simply like to find out more about this innovative technology that is currently taking the world by storm.

1.) Access Control

Keeping your customers and colleagues safe should be a priority for business leaders. Smart card technology can help you do exactly that. These portable little devices can interact with readers which can be integrated with access control systems. Essentially, this means anyone who doesn’t have your company’s smart card/the proper authority won’t be able to use certain applications or enter the premises. This prevents both external and internal theft within your organisation, plus keeps everyone safe from any threatening persons.

2.) Cashless Vending

Thanks to the pandemic, there has been a surge in demand for cashless vending. People now want transactions to be quick, easy and contactless. Smart cards like the HID Prox provide exactly that. Organisations are now able to develop systems which allow their customers or employees to load credit onto an account paired with their smart card. This credit can then be used to purchase items without exchanging cash or touching anything. Cashless vending also prevents money from being lost or stolen from the tills.

3.) Loyalty Schemes

Every successful businessperson knows that the key to success is building a good relationship with customers. Believe it or not, smart card systems can help you with this. Hundreds of companies across the world are now integrating smart cards into their loyalty schemes. These devices can store information on how much a person has spent in the shop, then translate amount this into store credit or special perks. As such, smart cards can help to ensure that customers return to your business.

4.) Identification

On top of everything else, smart cards are also perfect for identification. Using specialist printers, companies can produce cards with high-quality photographs of those within the organisation. This is particularly useful for larger businesses or educational institutions like universities. For instance, you can confirm the identity of a student with their ID card before allowing them access to the premises.

5.) Quick Ticketing

Smart cards are brilliant when it comes to ticketing for organisations like transport stations and events stadiums. People can use their smart card to pay for trips or tickets in advance so they can swiftly enter the premises, preventing queues from forming. Take the example of the Glasgow Subway Smartcard or Oyster Card for the London Underground.

We have only touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the potential of smart card systems. Invest in some today and see how they could revolutionise your organisation.

If there’s something every business needs in our 21st century, it’s power. If you’re plugged in, you’re getting it from the power point, and when that fails, switch on the generator. For everything else, we’re rapidly becoming reliant on batteries.

In the past decade, battery demand and production has surged, leading to an almost 90% drop in battery prices. Beyond your mobile, your flashlight and your starter motor, the next generation of batteries will power your electric vehicles and even store your energy as we race away from fossil fuels. And with greater battery use comes greater battery testing.

And for businesses that depend on batteries for efficiency, productivity, mobility, sustainability and a raft of other essential benefits, battery testing is in fact nothing short of crucial.

What are battery testers?

“What are battery testers” is a little like the question “What are sports?” In other words, as the list of battery technologies grows, so too does the list of battery tester types. Some batteries last a week; others years. Some require a lot of power to charge; others much less. Some store a lot of energy; others an awful lot more than that. Some are big; some are small. Some are lithium; others lead-acid. You get the picture.

So while it’s tempting to just say battery testers test the health and energy-storage capacities of batteries, it’s more complex than that as we head into the future. Sophisticated battery testing routines might be looking into energy capacity at various charging or discharging rates, others will investigate internal resistance or impedance, while cycle life, battery robustness, heat generation and more are also relevant.

Therefore, a more pertinent question to pose is: Why does your business need to get the right battery testers up and running and part of your daily operations?

1. Continuity

Have you ever showed up for work, pressed the on-button on the computer or turned the key on the forklift … and nothing happens? With battery testing as part of normal maintenance operations, it means you’re keeping an eye on one of the key metrics that keeps the heart of your business beating. Get it wrong, and fail to see a failing battery in the works before it actually runs out of juice, and the word ‘downtime’ simply means ‘lost dollars’. Get it right, and even looming battery failures won’t stop your production or profits for even a minute, because routine battery maintenance is simply a part of the plan.

2. Troubleshooting

But as suggested earlier, battery testing does more than just give an early warning about a looming flat. There are now modern, digital and fully affordable battery testers on the market that as well as testing voltage and current also monitor things like internal resistance, strap resistance and even installation problems. These testers can give a visual representation of a range of battery performance metrics that make equipment troubleshooting easy, especially as these metrics can be stored and tracked over time in a database that can be shared.

3. Differentiation

When a vital piece of business equipment does fail suddenly, that’s bad news. But even worse news is when you’re not sure why. It’s never a given that when that forklift won’t turn over, it’s definitely the battery that has let you down. For other systems that run through battery usage at a greater rate, it can be even more tempting to throw away a perfectly good set of batteries even though the problem was caused by something completely different. By the time you’ve figured it out, you haven’t just wasted perfectly good money, you’ve thrown away a lot of productive time, too.

Routine and regular battery testing is also a wise business operation for worker safety (in the event of dangerous failures), liability (if those failures lead to injury or damage), and just common-sense diligence and cost efficiency (because emergency repairs are always more expensive and disruptive than routine ones). Healthy batteries are also simply better and more efficient for your expensive and productive equipment, which when all put together means that a suite of battery testers is in fact just as important as the batteries, tools and machines that make your operations happen.

When you first get started investing, you rely on a broker to teach you about trading and guide you through the process. Though they can be helpful, you don’t need a stockbroker to help you navigate the market and make your trades. Keep reading to learn more about why you don’t need a stockbroker, how to create an online trading account, and how you can make trades broker-free.

Why Don’t I Need a Stockbroker?

Technology has developed so much that you no longer need a broker to gain access to the financial markets. Because of this, if you’re familiar with the markets and trading, it is completely possible to ditch your stockbroker and handle your trades yourself. In fact, there are even some benefits for going broker-free, including:

• It allows you to develop your investment skills and expand your knowledge of the market.
• You can be more responsive to your trades since you are able to remain aware and up-to-date on developments with your stocks and in the market.
• By avoiding having to pay a broker’s commission, you can lower the costs associated with each trade and increase your profits.

How Do I Create an Account? 

There are a ton of apps and online sources that are designed to facilitate your trades. To set up an account, you need to:

1. Shop for an online broker by comparing the costs and policies associated with each one.
2. Choose a firm that meets your needs in regards to the required minimum balance and additional fees.
3. Visit the firm’s site to open an account and complete the application.
4. Go over the application as well as the restrictions associated with the account before you submit.

How Do I Make Trades?

Brokers are wonderful resources, but you don’t need them to make trades. To start trading on your own, you should follow these simple steps:

1. Choose a broker-free plan. Companies that want to sell shares without the need for a stockbroker use certain plans. There are a few options, but the most popular are Direct Stock Purchase Plans (DSPP) and Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRIP). They each operate a little differently, but you can earn a profit with either.
2. Research companies before investing. It’s always important that you spend time looking into companies and stocks to make sure that you are confident in investing in them. Review the company’s growth history, what trends drove these increases in value, and the potential future of the industry and market.
3. Ensure your account maintains enough of a balance. DSPP accounts use a checking account for you to pay your deposits, while DRIP accounts have specific accounts you have to start through a financial institution. Either way, you’ll need to make sure that your account’s balance is maintained so that you can pay your monthly deposit without an issue.
4. Buy stocks. After you have researched prospects and figured out which stocks seem promising, you can start making your first purchase. Which broker-free investment plan you go with alters the process of purchasing stocks slightly.

Though it’s possible, broker-free trading does require a bit more of your time and attention. Before you decide to trade without a broker, make sure you consider the advantages and disadvantages.

Medic is one of the most important fields that require a lot of attention. This one includes the staff and the people who are doing their jobs in this kind of field. This is also one of those reasons why there are a lot of medical staffs that are looking for the job because of the good salary. Even though, this is not something that you can fully apply for the temporary medical staff. It is not that easy to find the temporary medical staff sometimes. That is why you might need to consider getting the help that you need from the temporary medical staffing agencies that you can find around your area. If you want to keep it simple, you can easily contact Scion for help. They are one of the best staffing agencies that you can find in United States. As an addition to that, there are some reasons why they are considered as the best on the field.

Professional with A Lot of Experiences

The first one is because they are one professional that you can rely on. This is one simple thing that you can check. They have been serving a lot of companies for their staffing needs for the last 25 years. For your information, an agency is not a simple thing to handle. That is why if there is an agency that has been running for many years, you can be sure that they are one professional agency that you can rely on.

Scion Has Some Different Hiring Options

The second thing that made them big is the fact that they have two options for the staff hiring method. As you might have known, the temporary staff is not the kind of job or position that many people are looking for. Most of them want to have a permanent position as a staff, especially on the medical field. Fortunately, Scion is able to help you with that kind of problem. It is because they have a list of potential candidates that you can hire for your medical needs. Some of them are available even for the temporary needs while some others have their own preferences for the permanent work. So, you will not need to worry that much if you need some new staffs for the temporary works.

Different Level of Staffs to Choose From

The third reason why they should be the one that you choose is because they have some different level options that you can choose from. You need to realize that not all of those staffing agencies are able to attract the attention from some of the best staffs in United States. You can take an executive position for example. There are not many staffing agencies that have the list of executive candidates to fill the high positions in a company. Most of them only have the staff for the mediocre position. On the other hand, Scion is not something like that since you can choose any kind of position that you want. If you only need some nurses, they can help you with as many as you want. Or else, if you need a new supervisor or something like that, they can surely provide you with a list that you can choose on your own. Is not that something that you are looking for?

Medical Staff for Many Different Positions

The next reason why you need to consider using their help is because of the number of medical staffs that they have. They have a large number of candidates on their database that you can choose. As an addition to that, the positions are also varied based on your personal need. it means you can also get any kind of staff to fit the vacant position that you have. This one is something worthy to consider when you are looking for a specialist to help you with. For example, if you need a psychiatrist or physician, Scion is able to help you with that. You only have to tell them the vacant position where the staff will be placed. After that, you will get the possible candidates that you can choose from.

High Quality Candidates to Choose From

The next reason might be one of those most important reasons. It is the quality of the candidates that they give to their clients. Many people agree that this is the most important factor that made this kind of business runs smoothly. It is because if you just give some random names with the average quality, then you can be sure that you will lose the clients sooner or later. However, that is not a problem for Scion. They have no worry at all with this point because they have the thorough sorting and selection to make sure that the applicants are placed on the right place. Of course, they have some average staffs with minimum working experience. It is because Scion wants to make sure that they can reach the broader market by supplying the staffs based on the need of their clients. You need to understand that there are some hospitals or some other health facilities that need average staffs to do the works on the back. This is the time when those average staffs got their chance to be listed.

Fast Delivery for Their Clients

The last thing is the fast delivery. The meaning of fast delivery is not that they will deliver the staff into your front door directly. The meaning of fast delivery is that they will pay a good attention to all of your request and give you the list of the possible candidates as soon as possible. You only have to send them the kind of staff that you need with all of the qualifications. They will sort and filter all of the staffs that they have on their database so that only the matched candidates will be delivered to you. Once you have read the data, you only have to choose the candidates that you think will work best with you for your temporary medical staff.

If you’re considering what career is the best one for you to go into, the choices can be stifling. Knowing the right path for you can come down to all sorts of factors. For many people, a career in real estate is the best choice that they could have ever made.

If you’re ready for a profession that promises all sorts of perks, then take a look at some of the reasons why you should consider real estate as a career.

You’ll Gain Valuable Skills

When you become a real estate agent, you will learn skills beyond just negotiating contracts and memorizing home features. Your clients will ask all sorts of things of you, from finding a property manager, to dressing their home. Because of this wide variety of responsibilities that can vary from each contract to the next, you’ll take on a wide array of roles. A real estate career provides real-life skills that can be transferred onto just about every other area of your life.

You’ll learn sales skills, marketing skills, and even interpersonal skills. Real estate is a unique career that can require you to wear all sorts of different hats at any moment. You can learn all sorts of proficiencies that apply to any other career that you may choose to take on in your life.

No College Required

Although it’s beneficial to get a college degree, it’s not required of you. If you want to work right out of school, you can dive straight into the world of real estate. Not only can you start working whenever you want, but you also don’t have to wait around for someone to give you an opportunity.

Once you complete your real estate course and take the exam, you can start working as soon as you want. If you’re an ambitious person who’s ready to start working as fast as possible, then this can be an amazing opportunity.

There is a Potential To Make a Lot Of Money

If you get the right client and listings, you can find yourself with a significant amount of money. A lot of people may feel unsure about real estate as a career since there can be a lot of fear surrounding a commission-based salary. However, although you may go long periods without making money, it can be worth the wait when you make thousands in one sale.

There are few other careers that can promise so much money with such little education requirements.

Potential For Growth

Real estate is a networking career that involves meeting with all sorts of people. Each connection and client that you make can lead to another. As you close the door with one satisfied client, you may find that they know someone who needs help with a sale.

The chain of clients can continue on and on until you find yourself with a tremendous network. If you apply yourself and take opportunities that present themselves, you’ll find that you’ll have a long and successful career ahead of you.

Hospitality establishments are doing their best to adhere to new guidelines, but the consequences of this remain up for debate

Cybersecurity experts across the UK are raising concerns over the potential risks of adhering to Government Track and Trace guidelines in pubs and restaurants. The new plan, calling for establishments to keep a register of all visitors, has already been met words of caution and an encouragement for businesses to take care when processing large volumes of personal data.

These new rules state that all hospitality venues must maintain a record of contact details from customers for 21 days, in order to help track coronavirus infections.

Although a specific method for collecting data has not yet been determined, the government has recommended using a booking system similar to those found in certain restaurants and hairdressers.

Are you more at risk of data theft now?

For hospitality businesses, data collection is already a large part of day-to-day service. When a customer pays using a credit or debit card; when IDs are scanned at the door; when purchasing food for delivery – all of these instances require the passing on of information.

However, a formal register of guest details marks a new data point for businesses, one which understandably leads to concerns about exploitation as it provides hackers with a fresh target.

These kinds of ledgers are commonly seen in hairdressers and other establishments, but on paper. However, the use of paper and pen is unlikely in this instance as customers could provide false details which would lead to problems with infection tracing.

As such, the likelihood is that iPads and spreadsheets will be used for simplicity and accuracy. But experts are concerned that these systems will be offered with little or no authentication. By combining multiple data breaches, and collecting information of visitors to various businesses, cybercriminals could effectively build a record of their movements.

How to adhere to new guidelines and comply with data protection law

Despite these concerns, there are measures businesses can take to ensure that their data is as protected as possible whilst adhering to the Government’s guidelines.

Establishments should aim to collect the minimum amount of data possible, which is likely to be a name, contact telephone number of email address, and the date and time of their visit. The inclusion of other details only increases the fallout of any potential breach. You should also keep the data for as short a period as possible, i.e. 21 days. Any longer, and you are only increasing the risk of theft.

Once this period has passed, the data should be deleted entirely and securely. Any paper copies should be completely destroyed, rather than simply being thrown in the wastepaper bin. And while holding the data, ensure that it is not used for any purpose other than Track and Trace. Details gathered for adherence to Government ruling should not be free to use for marketing and other purposes.

Keep your customers informed and keep the process as simple as possible. Let your visitors know that these are measures required by the Government. And if you’re asking them to fill in a form, make sure it can’t be viewed or photographed by others.

By sticking to these standards, hospitality businesses can reduce the risk of data theft to their establishment, while also doing their part for public health.

Speak to experts

Data protection can feel like a minefield, which is why the best course of action is often to seek help from experienced GDPR consultants who can help you get to grips with your requirement while keep your business and customer data safe. While this may feel like an unnecessary cost at an already uncertain time for organisations, it is always important to bear in mind that the potential damage of failing to adhere to data protection laws is significantly greater than the outlay on doing things right in the first place.