6th February, London British Prime Minister, Theresa May, addressed dignitaries at The World Economic Forum at Davos in January stating, “companies simply cannot stand by while their platforms are used to facilitate child abuse, modern slavery or the spreading of terrorist and extremist content”. Speaking on wider issues of economic importance, the PM highlights corporate social responsibility amongst issues at the forefront for businesses worldwide. Care International and King's College London amongst others commended The Modern Slavery Act (2015), in structuring a framework for companies to evaluate risk within supply chains and tackle problems. However, NGO Anti-Slavery International recently said, “the act doesn’t legally guarantee the kind of support the victims receive. The result is that the care victims receive is inconsistent.” According to the proposer of The Modern Slavery (Victim Support) Bill — Lord McColl; the legislation attempts to bridge the gap ...

Associate #ORBMembers, Eventure Media Ltd, are running the following event in just a few days time, which if you are a cleantech company or offer sustainable solutions may prove very interesting for you: RUSHLIGHT SHOW - LONDON, 25 JANUARY 2018 The 9th Rushlight Show, kindly sponsored by Innovate UK, BEIS, Flanders Investment & Trade,  Carbon Limiting Technologies, Sage, Granted Consultancy, Venner Shipley and Smith & Williamson, is taking place on Thursday 25 January 2018 at the Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, London.  It is the leading event for cleantech companies and sustainable solutions to meet investors and financiers, corporate customers, government departments, advisers and intermediaries in the heart of London. The event highlights are: The Innovation Showcase of the Cleantech Conference, opened by Claire Perry, Minister of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, with 40 companies presenting their latest cleantech and ...

Slavery is a subject that one might be forgiven for thinking is just another horrible example of how badly humans can behave towards one another that has been resigned to the past, or at the very least is something that only goes on elsewhere in the world – certainly not in our so-called civilised and modern country. Well, unfortunately you'd be wrong. Only the other week there was a successful police prosecution of a particularly nasty slave gang who were using slaves in manicure and pedicure nail bars, causing nationwide headlines and radio features! So, this is a real issue, and one that we're happy to help bring to our members attention as part of our focus around ethics in the workplace and supply chain. To this end, ORB has signed up to be one of many media partners for the forthcoming Modern ...

A guest-blog by Diana Collins of #ORBMember DLC Engage HR: As 2018 commences, we are all focussing on what key things we should be doing through the year and hopefully, you will have GDPR, the new data protection regulation, firmly etched on your calendar for 25th May 2018…… right? As background, EU GDPR is the new General Data Protection Regulation, a European Union (EU) privacy regulation that was signed into law back in April 2016. Since 1998 the Data Protection Act has served the role of safeguarding personal data however, some 20 years on and the world has changed - significantly.  We have seen huge technological advancement with collection and use of data dominating almost every process you can think of.  Worldwide.  HR Data, Client Data, Suppliers Data and Customer Data.  Data on us, personal data, personal sensitive data, our name, address, date ...

What is your opinion on zero-hour contracts? Does your business use them? Do you feel strongly for them or against them? Well you should find what Jonathan Key from #ORBMember Labour Xchange Ltd has to say really very interesting and insightful. Do leave us a comment to let us know what you think: Are zero-hour contracts a symptom or cause of a dysfunctional economy? When discussing any issue regarding business conduct it is important to outline, at the forefront, that I personally believe businesses are fundamentally a force for good and although they can occasionally act in way that is detrimental to society it can often be traced back to a failing in the structural economy. With this pro-business pre-disposition in mind; why is it that it seems there is a new negative media story every day, highlighting how another large business is ...