We’ve all been living with some sort of pandemic-induced restrictions for the best part of two years now. One of the positives to come out of it all (depending upon your situation and conditions) was how work from home culture was quickly adopted.
Many businesses now offer work from home – or at least hybrid working – as standard. But the guidance on whether we all need to work from home or get back to the office is about to change. Here’s all you need to know.
The government has cut the length of time that people with Covid-19 have to spend in self-isolation from seven days to five days. The changes will take effect from Monday.
This means that if you or any of your employees get hit by Covid, you’ll not need to spend as long in self-isolation. Although the advice remains to work from home wherever possible.
We asked several business owners what they made of the the relaxed rules. Here’s what they had to say.
Although we’re slowly but surely creeping out of lockdown, it seems that some restrictions and changes to how we do things will be hanging around longer than others.
Many office-based workplaces are adopting new work from home policies that will see staff working remotely for at least part of the working week. And the winter months could even see a drive to have everyone working from home again, wherever possible, in a bid to keep virus infection rates down.
We could also see a return to face masks.
2020 was a tough year for all of us. And even though things are now looking like they’re getting back to some sort of normality, 2021 has been hard going too – especially for business owners.
Here we take a look at the thoughts of six small business owners, to see how they think things are shaping up as we enter the second quarter of the year.
The last 12 months have been bad for businesses in all industries. The pandemic has seen countless businesses suffer financially, with many having to cease trading completely. The situation wasn’t helped by business insurance companies failing to pay out on legitimate business interruption insurance claims.
But it seems the pandemic has also taken its toll on some of the world’s biggest insurance brands, which have lost nearly $30 billion in brand value.
The government has announced a plan to get the UK out of lockdown by late June this year. Heralded as the ‘roadmap out of lockdown’, the four-step plan is set to begin on March 8 and will see restrictions gradually relaxed until a full return to ‘normal’ on June 21.
Becoming the victim of online fraud or a cyber attack is the last thing any business owner needs, not least in the middle of a global crisis that has taken its toll both personally and professionally.
But that’s exactly what’s happened, as a new study has found that nearly half (41%) of UK business owners say the level of cyber threats their business faces has increased since the pandemic.
The findings also give us an insight into the common types of cyber attack that you should look out for as we move through 2021.
As expected, the UK’s coronavirus lockdown rules have changed once more, as England joins Scotland and Wales in national lockdown. The new rules will run until at least the middle of February. Here’s how different businesses will be affected.
The government has announced that it will be extending the application dates on the financial support packages for businesses affected by coronavirus. This means the furlough scheme will be extended until April 2021, along with the Bounce Back, CBILS and CLBILS loan schemes.
2020 has been a turbulent year for business owners, especially those who have had business insurance claims turned down because their business interruption policies didn’t cover them for the pandemic.
And it looks like 2021 will be just as turbulent, as the pandemic could lead to policy price hikes of as much as 800%.