In the current economic climate, many organisations will be trying to hold off  creditors while trying to collect cash themselves – it’s one of the oldest tricks in the business.

But if managing cash consistently causes you headaches, have you considered other issues that may come into play, such as the efficiency of your finance processes, the quality of your management information and even the quality of your customer service?

During uncertain times cash flow holds the key to your company’s survival. Being proactive and taking control of your debtors is the first rule of managing cash successfully. You need to identify who is holding out and why. If some of your clients are struggling financially, you need to know. But perhaps if you haven’t provided the best possible service, some of them will have grounds for withholding payment. You need to find out if and where such issues exist and defuse them.

Accuracy is the second watchword. If you have good control over what you deliver to customers and when – in terms of goods, services and invoices – your cash position will benefit.

No more Monday blues: Most Brits are happy at work 

Almost three-quarters (72%) of UK workers feel motivated and up for work on a Monday. Out of these, well over a quarter (28%) feel positively motivated while 44% feel reluctant but ready, according to a recent YouGov survey of UK workers commissioned by economic development company, Opportunity Peterborough. 

Only a minority (14%) admit to feeling tired and de-motivated at the start of the working week, and just 6% actually resent going in to the office or feel disinterested. 

In fact, the majority of British workers are happy with where they work. 80% are satisfied with the quality of their workplace. 

The main complaint British workers do have is the distance between home and where they work: over a quarter (26%) would most like to work somewhere closer to where they live. 

Approximately a fifth of workers (22%) also highlighted the quality of their office building and lunch time amenities as aspects of their office that could be improved. 

Neil Darwin, Director of Economic Development at Opportunity Peterborough, commented:

“The recession meant long hours and pay cuts for many employees in the UK but now many workers are feeling more optimistic about the future and glad to have a job to go to. 

“Uncertainty remains for many, particularly public sector workers, as reports of job cuts and austerity continue to dominate the headlines. So it is encouraging to see so many of the UK working population enthusiastic about the week ahead when they wake up on a Monday. 

“But Britain’s workplaces are far from perfect and employers shouldn’t rest on their laurels. To capitalise on this positive outlook, employers should listen to their employees’ concerns and invest in their workplaces where possible, to create an office environment that all workers find comfortable and stimulating”. 

According to the research the key ingredients of a great workplace are: 

One in five (22%) British workers would like a nicer office/building;

22% would like a better canteen or lunch amenities;

17% would like better transport links;

16% would prefer to work from home;

12% would prefer more green spaces;

Four in 10 public-sector employers have begun to make workers redundant, new data will reveal today, just a month after the Government spelled out its plans for cuts in the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR). 

The figures from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) will alarm labour- market analysts, who had expected the public sector to phase in job cuts more slowly. However, the CIPD, which earlier this month gave warning that the CSR could result in 1.5 million job losses in the next five years, said it believed that during the next few months at least, the private sector would be able to take up the strain of these initial public-sector losses. 

The CIPD’s quarterly survey of the employment market, conducted in association with the accountancy firm KPMG, shows a net positive balance of 11, which suggests more employers are planning to hire staff than to shed them. This is the third quarter in a row in which the survey has produced a positive balance, with the latest balance up nine points on three months ago.

Unemployed people who refuse to take up offers of work will lose their jobless benefits for three years under tough new sanctions to be announced today.

 The penalty will be triggered automatically on the third occasion that claimants on jobseekers allowance (JSA) turn down a job offer without good reason; fail to apply for a suitable post; or do not agree to do community work.  

The move will be included in a White Paper that will be hailed by the Coalition Government as the biggest shake up of the welfare system since its creation after the Second World War.  

Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, will outline plans for a universal credit aimed at ensuring that nobody is better off on benefits than in work. It will replace the patchwork of benefits and tax credits for people of working age.  

He will insist that about 2.5 million of the poorest people will see their income rise under the shake-up, and that the number of workless households will fall by 300,000. But critics will ask whether enough new jobs will be available for the 1.5 million unemployed as Britain emerges slowly from recession.  

Mr Duncan Smith will announce a new “claimant contract” under which the Government promises more intensive, tailor-made support for the jobless.  

In return, greater obligations will be placed on them to seek work.  

On their first “offence”, JSA claimants will lose the benefit for three months. After a second refusal of work, they will lose it for six months, with the penalty escalating to three years on the third time they are deemed to be refusing to co-operate with efforts to get them off the dole.  

Ministers aim to bring in what would be Britain’s toughest-ever regime for the jobless by 2012 ahead of the phased introduction of the universal credit.  

At present, jobseekers can lose their JSA payments-currently £64.45 a week for most people – for up to 26 weeks.  

But they still receive “hardship payments” of about £40-£45 a week instead.  

Government sources said the current penalty was at the discretion of jobs advisers and was rarely enforced.  

In future, a mandatory system of sanctions would leave previous claimants without any jobless benefits. “We are not going to take away with one hand and give with the other,” said one official.  

There would be no right of appeal against the loss of jobless benefits.

Over the past two years, as Financial Director’s latest salary survey finds, the pay gap between male and female finance directors has widened. Women are now earning 68 percent of the average remuneration package of their male counter-parts – that is two percent less than the last time we checked in 2008.

Employment lawyers suggest that the root cause could be the result of women being more likely to take reduced working hours, a sabbatical or even a pay cut in order to contribute to the cost-reduction strategies of their employer.

It is difficult to make an exact comparison on pay data because there are simply too few women FDs – just four percent of those in the FTSE-100 and FTSE-250, a more or less constant figure in the last few years – to compare remuneration in a like-for-like way. For this reason our comparison is more of a guide. But the lessons from it stand. The average remuneration for a male FD over the last 12 months is £717,769, while for a woman the figure drops significantly to £479,593.

Today sees the launch of the latest Equality Act which has several implications for recruitment and the workplace.

While broadly being welcomed, the Act has also attracted its critics for being too sensitive.

For example, while it is still illegal to make someone on maternity leave redundant, it has made it more difficult for an employer to argue its corner, even if the need to continue employing that person is financially unviable.

It is also possible to bring legal proceedings against someone in the workplace who has offended you, even if you are not the target of the comments.

“The new provisions cover dual discrimination, direct discrimination and various forms of harassment,” said Dawn Cherry, Employment Lawyer from Oxley and Coward. “There will also be restrictions on things like employers asking about health and disability issues before deciding whether to offer employment. For some this could mean adjustments to the standard application process to avoid falling foul of the new law.”

As well as having implications for business, the new Act will also ultimately affect everyone, including the public sector, voluntary sector and the public.
As well as implications for employees, businesses who deal with the public will also have to ensure they do not discriminate in terms of sex or age. Dawn believes while a lead in period is helpful, there is no time like the present for getting to grips with the key changes.

“It will take all of us some time to adjust to a new range of both rights and responsibilities,” concluded Dawn. “The initial introduction of the Act may pass un-noticed by many, but as employees and the public more generally become more aware of their rights under the Act, business will ignore the changes and thrust of the new provisions at their peril.”