Thursday 26th April 2018 marked the inaugural client workshop, where we welcomed some of our hospitality clients to join us for the day at Shield Safety HQ. Some of our guests included Wright Brothers, Empire Cinemas, Star Pubs and Bars and our longest standing client Living Ventures to name a few.
The workshop was hosted in conjunction with our friends at Crowe Clark Whitehill as part of work we are doing together to develop a Counter Fraud Toolkit. Senior Manager for Forensic and Counter Fraud Services, Eoghan Daly, kicked off the day with an insightful session on fraud and cybercrime – which is now the No.1 crime in the UK. Fraud in the food and drink industry costs £12bn per year. Fraudulent activities affecting the food service sector include stock theft, POS fraud, ghost employees and illicit supply chains (to name a few). The toolkit will contain practical guidance on how to combat this and we look forward to sharing this with clients when it’s ready.
The first of the sessions from our Strategic Advisors was delivered by John Barnes, providing an update on Regulating our Future and FHRS. Whilst there has been some criticism of both schemes, the statistics show that the current system is leading to an increase in compliance levels across the country – with 94% of food businesses in the UK now achieving 3 or above. Regulation as it stands now is unsustainable though, so change is on the horizon – read more in our latest whitepaper.
Next up from the Strategic Advisors was Sterling Crew (after lunch), who emphasised the importance of embedding a safety culture within organisations to ensure food safety is managed effectively. Leadership setting an example, clear communications and employee engagement are all key. What is also crucial is that your company values embed a positive attitude towards manage safety ‘If performance comes first, performance will follow.’ Look out for a video blog with more on this coming next month.
We were keen to gather feedback from clients whilst they were with us, so not only did our Compliance Centre Focus Group give us a chance to demo some of the new features due for imminent release, we were also able to hear how users really feel about the software. The team were flattered by the good feedback, and also excited to look into some of the improvements suggested.
We rounded off the day with the ‘Shield Safety Surgery’, giving our clients a chance to put faces to names meeting different members of the team, before we toasted the day with some networking drinks. A busy but successful day.
Shield Safety would like to thank the clients who attended the first ever client workshop, and all our presenters, who helped us test the format! We were thrilled with the 100% positive feedback, which cemented that more of these need to come… so watch this space Shield Safety Family members.
Are you a Shield Safety client interested in attending future events like this? Please register your interest below to be first to hear about them.
Not yet a Shield Safety client? Get in touch today on 020 3740 3744 or email sales@shieldsafety.co.uk to find out how we can make safety simple for you – and how you can get invites to great free events like this.
The information contained in this blog article has been created for marketing purposes and is not official guidance and should not be used as a substitute for official Food Safety, Fire Safety and Health & Safety advice. Shield Safety take no responsibility if the information in the blog article is used to form part of a safety management system or used to form part of any legal or regulatory compliance for your business. For official guidance and to engage with Shield Safety services please do call our team on 020 3740 3744 or email hello@shieldsafety.co.uk.
