Articles

The main goal of successful workforce planning is having the right talent in the right roles at the right time. However, many organisations fail to pay enough attention to their talent pipelines and succession practices, which can lead to excessive turnover and loss of knowledge, affecting the performance and success of the organisation.

What will be hot in L&D going into the future? – This is the one obligatory question posed every year by Donald H. Taylor in the annual L&D Global Sentiment Survey. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the survey and it also appears to mark a transitional year for learning and development worldwide.

The UK Government have introduced new transfer pricing rules, coming in to effect for accounting periods commencing on or after 1 April 2023.

Northern Ireland has hosted some high profile visitors in recent weeks as it pauses to reflect on 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement. What struck me the most about the media of our US visitors was the distinct absence of Northern Irish politicians at the various events that took place.

In modern, fast-paced and hybrid workplace cultures, leadership is more important than ever before. We have all observed varying approaches towards leadership, and the different styles of various successful CEOs. It is clear that there is no roadmap to be a successful CEO, rather, it takes certain mind-sets that effectively drive organisational performance.

Economy watchers were reaching for the popcorn over the past week as estimates of 50% growth in our economic fortunes over the next decade were cited as the potential prize from the Windsor Framework. Understandably, such an upbeat prediction was given significant airtime, which sparked reaction and challenge by some in the academic community.

It seems we have been talking about Northern Ireland taking control of its own Corporation Tax regime for years - if not decades. The view is so often espoused that lowering the rate alone could represent the ‘golden ticket’ that would unlock the potential of this place as a destination for international investment.

The year 2022 ended on a low note, a long way from the hopes of a post-pandemic upturn we had at the start of the year. Prospects for 2023, by contrast, look gloomy to say the least, with concerns about another difficult year for the UK economy in which growth is at a standstill, while inflation has reached new heights.

The economy has rolled from punch to punch over the last number of years, prompting a necessarily reactionary approach. 2023 has started with a similarly uncertain outlook.

For many people in organisations the opening months of the year will coincide with objective setting – an opportunity to plan our development goals over the next 12-months and explore what support is available to us at work to help achieve them. As employees set out to complete this process, organisations will also consider their direction within what is still very much an uncertain operating environment.

As we approach the end of the 2022/23 tax year, employers and payroll software providers will be hoping for fewer changes from Government and some stability for 2023/24.

One of the key challenges facing many Irish and UK companies is capturing sufficient D&I insights to inform real change in their organisation. Most of them have good intentions to make changes in D&I, but they face challenges due to a lack of rich data, actionable insights, and the necessary metrics to determine and prove progress.

Northern Ireland’s commercial property market continued at pace in 2022, with £330 million of investment across 36 transactions, according to CBRE NI. Therefore, the importance of getting the VAT treatment on the sale of commercial property correct cannot be overstated.

As we enter a New Year and the memories of our celebrations begin to fade, we will inevitably look to the 12 months ahead to understand how 2023 shapes in terms of work, holidays and finances. To that end Economists are like everyone else, except we will look ahead to what potential challenges and opportunities await the economy. While we will admit this is probably a dull exercise to many, we find this is quite a useful task, which will allow us to confidently advise our clients on how to ‘navigate’ the year ahead.

TEA is a measure of all entrepreneurial activity that is taking place in an economy at any given time. It is calculated by taking the sum of all entrepreneurship-related activities, such as starting a new business, expanding an existing business, and innovating within an existing business. TEA is an important metric for understanding the overall health of an economy, as it provides insight into the level of risk-taking and innovation taking place. High levels of TEA are generally seen as a sign of economic health and prosperity.

We are now well into 2023 and with the corporate world now very much back to business, we can begin to see a picture of what this year might look like from a mergers and acquisitions (M&A) perspective.