Articles

Grant Thornton's Chief Economist, Andrew Webb, dissects Belfast City Centre's challenges and unveils the Future City Centre Programme for revitalisation.

Towards the end of 2023, the UK Government set out its mandate requiring all new cars and vans sold in the UK to be ‘zero emission’ by 2035 with stringent electric vehicle (EV) quotas on car manufacturers in the run-up to 2025. The pathway, which came into effect from the start of this month, is intended to provide certainty to car manufacturers, confidence to investors putting their money into charging infrastructure, and time for families to begin making the switch to EVs.

Organisational design challenges are some of the most frequent issues presented to us by our clients. When done well, good organisational design can be a key enabler for successful delivery of strategic goals and business plans, but when done badly (or neglected), it can be one of the worst hindrances to strong business performance.

‘Sure it’s Christmas’ will no doubt be a frequently heard phrase over the next couple of weeks as the traditional season for over-indulgence ramps up. As we know, people have faced a massive cost of living crisis over the past 18 months so the question is what shape the consumer is in and will the tills ring?

There are at least five generations among today’s workforce, the silent generation, baby boomers, generation-x, millennials and generation-z, each bringing different perspectives and expectations to the workplace. The current challenge is for organisations to create a work environment that appeals to all five generations.

Growing up in Belfast in the 1970s and 80s, I was convinced that by the year 2020, we’d all be travelling around by flying cars or hoverboards and have a host of robot servants looking after us.

Healthy Place To Work supports organisations to deliver sustainable high performance, through a dedication to the health of a workforce and within the workplace

Ahead of this year’s Autumn Statement, the Chancellor noted that tax cuts will be ‘virtually impossible’ given the current state of the UK economy and the country’s current debt levels.

The Trader Support Service, an initiative established by HMRC to aid and counsel businesses engaged in the transportation of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, has been prolonged until December 2024.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) describes performance management simply as “the attempt to maximise the value that employees create”, helping to maintain and improve the performance of staff to align with organisational objectives.

With the headline rate of CT in the UK now double that of our neighbours in the Republic, HMRC’s risk profiling is likely to result in increasing focus on NI businesses operating across the border and further afield.

Generation Z, colloquially known as zoomers, is the demographic cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1990s as the starting birth years and the early 2010s as ending birth years.

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.