The UK Home Office recently updated its Employer’s guide to right-to-work checks and there are a few clarifications to be aware of. What is a ‘right-to-work’ check? Employers must do pre-employment checks on potential new staff to make sure they have a right to live and work in the UK. If an employer doesn’t, and…
Rising global energy prices and the predicted impending winter price spike is rarely out of the daily news. The impact on consumers will be considerable and for many individuals and families is extremely worrying as the cost of living crisis continues. But, what about businesses? Have you reviewed your current and projected business energy usage…
This quarterly update summarises any changes to legal compliance that may affect your organisations legal obligations. The main legal texts published between the 1st May and 31st July 2022 are listed below categorised by Quality, Health &Safety, Environmental and Information Security. The legal texts identified in this article do not represent all the legislation published in relation to these four topics, we…
As temperatures in the UK soar this week, its important employers are aware of their responsibilities to help protect their workers particularly those working outdoors from symptoms of heat stress. The HSE suggest that the following controls are put in place by employers or managers for outdoor workers in hot environments: Reschedule work to cooler…
All businesses need to plan for health and safety and allocate resources to putting in place controls to the risks identified in their workplace as part of the risk assessment process. Many businesses do this part well, however when it comes to monitoring the effectiveness of the measures they put in place to control those…
How to reduce your companies Plastic use: It’s estimated that the UK uses 500 million tonnes of plastic every year with the business community being responsible for a large proportion of this figure. New legislation introduced in April this year around plastic packaging tax is driving a reduction in this number and affected businesses are…
Whether you are newly certified or have held your certifications for some time, capitalising on your UKAS certified status should be a key component of your marketing strategy. With your marketing team incorporate your certification into your marketing strategy and start with the basics: Add the UKAS logo to your website (available to download from…
UKAS has introduced an online central database of certificates to recognise certified status This will be used by potential purchasers for pre-qualification checks, tender evaluations and quality control, and you can refer your customers to the database to verify your certification. This will set your organisation apart from those companies that do not have ISO…
This Thursday 16th June is #cleanairday. To help you understand more about air pollution, it’s causes and effects we’ve put together a free training lesson including some of the tips and ideas @cleanairdayuk have shared to help make a difference and links to useful resources for businesses to take action. #cleanairday Free lesson If your…
Is Business Continuity Planning applicable for all businesses? There are numerous threats your business can face be it I.T outage, personnel or data breach incident, terrorism, inclement weather or pandemic. The ‘unexpected’ really can happen – Pre-2020 a global pandemic seemed an impossibility, three years on though, COVID-19 has impacted every single business worldwide. Coming…
Brief Development and Implementation of an Integrated Management System to ISO 9001, ISO 45001 and ISO 14001 for this start-up with a mission to spearhead the response to Electric vehicle growth in the UK, by providing innovative, scalable electric vehicle charging infrastructure and software to all sectors for free. Overview EV Chargers were looking to…
We’re looking for an enthusiastic Trainee Compliance / Client Account Manager To find out more, please visit our careers at functio page. Please share with anyone you feel maybe a suitable candidate. We look forward to hearing from you or them! (Applications close 31.05.2022)
Business leaders and employees can sometimes be daunted by their first ISO audit or a surveillance/recertification audit happening soon. Maybe you have new staff unfamiliar with the preparation process? To help, we’ve put together a quick training lesson to explain how to prepare for an audit and what to expect. Follow this button to view…
Almost daily reports of data breaches are published in our national press. Just this week US Health start- up myNurse is to shut down after a data breach exposed personal health records. In April 2022 IT governance UK reported 14.3 million records breached globally. This figure included UK entities ‘The Works’ being forced to close…
We’ve just published our Q2 Newsletter – In this newsletter, we’ve focussed on ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems and our consultants have considered some of the areas of ISO 9001 that can cause stumbling blocks for some businesses and ways these can be approached and improved on to streamline processes and improve performance. Follow this…
Non-Conformance Reporting – Just for ISO or something we should all be adopting within our business? For most business owners and managers, we see the value in reporting, investigating, and closing out customer complaints to ensure we maintain customer satisfaction and more importantly customer retention. For those that work within the ISO framework Non-Conformance Reporting…
EFFECTIVE SUPPLIER / SUBCONTRACTOR MANAGEMENT Most businesses will use Suppliers and Sub-Contractors to: – Provide additional capacity within their workforce Fill gaps and supplement their business with additional expertise Enable them to meet the ongoing needs of their client base Provide Consumables and Equipment for use and installation They both provide essential products and services…
Legal Compliance – Q1 2022 update As part of our Quarterly newsletter, we will provide our clients with quarterly updates of any changes to legal compliance that may affect their companies legal obligations. The main legal texts published between the 1st January and 31st April 2022 are listed below categorised by Quality, Health & Safety,…
This earth day, we’ve been thinking about the small steps we can make in the workplace to make a change to our energy consumption and sustainability. We’ve prepared a quick lesson & quiz you can share with your colleagues and employees to help them be more mindful of their energy use to reduce emissions and…
Earth day 2022 is a little over a week away. The theme this year is #investinourplanet We all want to play our part to live more sustainably both at home and work, so to help you spread the message in your organisation and encourage mindful energy use, we’ve created a series of sign-posting for you…
1-7th April is Global Asbestos Awareness week. Did you know that Functio also offers Asbestos Consultancy Services? Along with asbestos consultancy, advice and asbestos management procedure/plan development, we offer a range of training courses which can be delivered in person or remotely via our mobile training app which is ideally suited to awareness and refresher…
Brief: Development, Implementation and ongoing maintenance of an Integrated Management System to ISO 9001, ISO 27001 and ISO 14001 for this leading UK based multi-disciplinary company specialising in parking enforcement and parking software solutions. Overview: Functio began supporting the Agena Group in 2018 when the organisation needed to implement ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 to…
US intelligence suggests Russia maybe planning cyber-attacks. The UK’s cyber-authorities are supporting the White House’s calls for ‘Increased cyber-security precautions.’ Everyone can play a part in protecting both themselves personally and their organisations by following some simple rules. We’ve put together a quick short training lesson with our ‘Top tips to prevent cyberattacks’. Follow the…
Functio are proud to have been awarded The Corporate Livewire Prestige Awards: ‘Business Development Consultancy of the Year – Sussex’ The Corporate Livewire Prestige Awards recognise small and medium-sized businesses that have proven to be the best in their market over the past 12 months. All shortlisted companies put forward in the prestige awards are asked to support…
On February 15th 2022 the revised ISO 27002 standard used to determine and implement controls for information security management systems to ISO 27001 was published. We have prepared a presentation for you to help explain exactly what’s changed and answer any questions you might have around the changes. Please click the button below to view the…
‘Carbon Neutral, Net Zero, Climate+’ Globally we are all becoming more environmentally aware and across the world governments are setting out their climate change objectives. We are now seeing the requirement for the business community to establish its own plans for reducing and eliminating carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. This may be a moral, cultural,…
Here’s an overview of all the known legal changes that will (or may) affect small businesses in 2022. Employment: Changes to ‘right to work’ checks From 6th April, if you offer work to anyone who holds a Biometric Residence Card, Biometric Residence Permit or Frontier Worker Permit, you’ll need to use the Home Office’s online…
Covid-19 round-up: Sick-pay changes and new tribunal rulings These employment related changes have been made in response to the Omicron variant: Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme returns The scheme, which ended on 30th September 2021 bas been re-introduced. You can claim back up to two weeks statutory sick pay (SSP) paid to eligible workers…
Legal Compliance – Q4 2021 update As part of our new Quarterly newsletter, we will provide our clients with quarterly updates of any changes to legal compliance that may affect their companies legal obligations. The main legal texts published between the 1st September and 31st December 2021 are listed below categorised by Quality, Health &…
Throughout 2021 and into 2022 we are seeing a substantial increase in the number of software development and testing companies requiring ISO 27001 and ISO 9001. There are a number of reasons for this, but the primary drivers are as follows: – As businesses change their business model to working from home there is increased…
At Functio we offer a comprehensive Accreditation Management Service, developing, implementing and maintaining your accredited management system and we’ve recently added to the core standards we offer: ISO 9001 – Quality Management Systems ISO 14001 – Environmental Management Systems *ISO 50001 – Energy Management Systems ISO 27001 – Information Security Management Systems *ISO 27701 –…
It’s time to update your Digital UKAS logos You may be aware that UKAS have rebranded their logo to a new national accreditation symbol in January last year. To facilitate this in the best way a transition period has been agreed to allow customers to make the required changes without incurring undue costs or administrative…
All of us at Functio would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy and healthy New Year!
On 30th November 2021 the UK Government introduced new COVID-19 restrictions. We’ve updated our COVID-19 resources to help you manage your businesses risk.
If your staff must drive as part of their role, have you thought about an Adverse Weather Policy or Training to help keep them safe on the roads?
How well is your businesses Cyber security protected? Could your staff benefit from Cyber Awareness training to protect against attacks? Are your competitors able to offer Information security that you currently are not?
This #Antibullyingweek at Functio we are supporting #onekindword by sharing with you a FREE training course to help recognise and prevent Workplace Bullying and Harassment.
ISO 9001 is a quick and easy way for potential consumers to see if your company has put the time and effort into making sure your product or service is the best it can possibly be. View our guide to the Benefits for your business.
COP26 ends this week – but what does it all actually mean for your business? COP26 – The 26th annual ‘conference of parties’ is believed to be by many the worlds’ last best chance to get runaway climate change under control. 190 world leaders, tens of thousands of negotiators, government representatives, businesses and citizens have…
Due to the current situation with COVID-19 and Social Distancing Measures in place a number of changes have been implemented by UKAS and the Certifications Bodies on how your Surveillance or Re-Certification Audits will be conducted and here at Functio we have made a number of changes to support our clients with Remote Audits. Remote…
The COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic is affecting every business in the UK and is likely to do so for months – the chances are you’ve already taken action to respond, but if you haven’t you would like to review what you are doing or you are looking at staff returning to work after the lock down,…
Written Statement of Terms of Employment There are a number of new laws that came into force on 6th April 2020. They affect employers in Great Britain, but not (currently) Northern Ireland. Sometimes referred to as a ‘section 1 statement’, this is a document containing certain information that, currently, you must give to your employees…
So you have OHSAS 18001 Certification and you need to Migrate to the new ISO 45001 standard, here are some facts on OHSAS 18001 to ISO 45001 Migration: – How long do I have to migrate to ISO 45001? ISO 45001:2018 was released in March 2018 after much anticipation and organisations who currently hold OHSAS…
