What Are Business Analytics – Why Are They Important?

A potent instrument in the market nowadays is business analytics.

A recent survey by MicroStrategy found that businesses all over the world use data to:

  • Improve process and financial efficiency (60%)
  • Promote change and strategy (57%)
  • Track financial performance and make it better (52%)

The study also reveals that 71 percent of multinational corporations expect their analytics spending to increase for the next four years and beyond.

Achieving a thorough appreciation of business analytics will help you progress in your work life and help you make wiser decisions at work in light of this trend.

Before exploring the data analysis benefits, it’s essential to understand the meaning of “business analytics.”

What Does Business Analytics Mean?

Business analytics involves using qualitative analysis methods to get meaningful data that can help make informed decisions essential to business growth. In other words, it involves gauging a business’s operational effectiveness. It helps assess both particular facets of a business and the broader organization.

There are mainly four approaches to conducting business analysis:

●      Diagnostic

Using historical information to evaluate past events and ascertain their causes

●      Descriptive

This is the process of analyzing past data to spot patterns and trends

●      Predictive

Using statistics to predict future results

●       Prescriptive

The use of tests to ascertain which solution will produce the best outcome in a particular scenario.

One must choose which approach to use depending on the current business environment.

Business Analytics Evolution

Business analytics has existed for a long time and has developed as more technology becomes available. Operations research, which was widely applied during World War II, is where it has its roots. An analytical approach to data analysis used in military operations was known as operations research.

Over time, this strategy began to be applied in business. Here, the study of operations developed into management science. Again, the data, decision-making models, and other foundations of management science were the same as those of operation research.

Management science changed into decision support systems and business intelligence. PC software began to expand as businesses grew more and more competitive.

The Importance of Business Analytics

1.   Making Smarter Decisions

Business analytics is a valuable tool when approaching a crucial strategic decision.

Uber, a ride-hailing organization, used prescriptive analytics to determine whether the product’s new version would be more efficient than its first version when it stepped up its COTA in 2018. COTA is a tool that makes use of natural processing language and machine learning to help agents enhance accuracy and speed when issuing responses to tickets’ support.

The company discovered that the upgraded product resulted in faster service, precise resolution recommendations, as well as greater customer satisfaction levels using A/B testing. This is a technique for comparing the results of two distinct choices. With the use of these insights, Uber was able to resolve tickets more quickly and at a fraction of the cost.

2.   Increased Revenue

Analytics and data-driven projects can have a huge financial impact on businesses.

According to McKinsey research, businesses that make big data investments see an average gain in earnings of 6%, which rises to 9% for five-year investments.

According to a recent BARC study, which supports this trend, companies that do data analysis report an 8% rise in sales on average and an 11% decrease in charges.

These results demonstrate the unmistakable financial benefits of a strong business analytics strategy. Many companies will enjoy these benefits as the data market and big analytics expand.

3.   Greater Operational Efficiency

Analytics is utilized to optimize corporate processes in addition to generating financial gains.

Many businesses and business management service providers like www.cbs-cbs.com/ now employ prediction analytics to foresee operational and maintenance concerns before they escalate into bigger problems.

An operator of mobile networks who participated in a study said it uses data to predict failures seven days in advance. With this knowledge, the company may better plan maintenance to avoid outages, reducing operational expenses while maintaining assets’ peak performance.

Conclusion

Business analytics has been around for a long time, and organizations have used it to make smarter business decisions, increase revenue, and obtain more operational efficiency. It’s never too late for you to start too.

 

 

Why Cash Management Is Key to Business Success

Have you ever struggled to satisfy your financial obligations because your business was cash-strapped?

Cash shortages may be a clue that something is wrong with your business. Because cash is the business’s lifeblood, running low on it prevents you from fulfilling your financial commitments.

If you cannot pay your debts, the business may close. One of the reasons 85% of businesses fail is a lack of cash.

Lack of money is a highly stressful and uncomfortable situation. Effective cash management has several advantages, including less stress, the assurance that you will be able to meet your financial responsibilities, and knowledge of the timing of client payments to your bank account. Establishing a cash management strategy reduces risk to your business, resulting in business success.

3 Reasons Why Cash Management Is Key to Business Success

1.   You Make Wiser, More Informed Decisions

Who likes being surprised by their business’s cash flow? No one. When you’re caught off guard, you frequently scramble for answers, which forces you to react and frequently settle for compromises you didn’t expect to make.

Once your cash management plan has been developed, you can start making more strategic, intelligent business decisions to help your business grow.

Making a projected cash flow that allows you to track where your cash flow is today, and the growth plan you intend to adopt should be a part of a cash management strategy. Planning out prospective financial requirements and monitoring the cash flow for the upcoming month or year is quite beneficial.

When the cash flow is too low for comfort, look for danger zones and make modifications to keep the cash within a healthy range. Imagine being strategic and confident about how to increase your cash flow.

You make better decisions every day when you strategically invest in your company, whether that investment is in marketing, your staff, mentors, or overall expansion. You now have the luxury of considering and getting ready for both the positive and negative outcomes.

2.   Financial Stability and Confidence Are Attractive

Have you ever been in a situation when you were scrambling for a client and voiced your need for one when you approached the table?

You probably didn’t land the client. Or, even worse, you ended up with the customer and had the worst encounter imaginable. Imagine conducting the same client interview with the assurance to end the conversation early if it isn’t a good fit.

Having a cash management approach will cause you to become more financially stable and cause changes in your life.

  • Your body language.
  • Your approach to the discussion.
  • Your general sense of confidence

Financial stability and confidence are attractive and have the benefits of attracting and keeping teams and new customers. Every individual wants to be a part of a winning team because they desire the same stability and security that you do.

3.   You Become More Appealing To Potential Funding Sources

Greater business expansion necessitates cash to support it. It seems that finding such funding is a crucial ability. Many businesses management services like Corporate Business Solutions Reviews agree that a lack of sound cash management procedures makes you less appealing to financiers and funding.

An adage goes, “The ideal time to ask for money is when you don’t need it. “Unfortunately, people frequently forget to consider this in advance.

As a result, they will apply for loans and get turned down, which is demoralizing. You don’t want that for yourself; thus, you must start implementing cash management techniques for your business’s success.

Conclusion

With adequate cash management, you can have time to allow your plans to bear fruit. You don’t need prior knowledge of accounting or finance background to do proper cash management. You can always hire professionals or start learning the ropes yourself. Get your hands dirty and start looking for ways effective and easy to manage your cash today!

 

Do You Need A Control Account For Your Business?

If you have been exploring the world of business accounting services, you have come across control accounts and learned about the benefits that they offer. This can leave you wondering: is it worth having control accounts for small businesses? The answer differs for each business but, in general, you can benefit from asking your accountant to create control accounts in your general ledger.

What Is a Control Account?

Control accounts contain summary-level information in a general ledger. They are used to display the aggregated totals of the transactions that are listed in subsidiary accounts, which contain an extensive list of daily, monthly, or quarterly transactions. Control accounts are often utilized to summarize accounts payable and accounts receivable, although they can also be used for other types of accounts. It is important to note that the ending balance in control accounts should match the respective subsidiary ledger to ensure that your records are in good standing and that all your transactions for the day have been properly recorded. Learn more by checking out www.cbs-cbs.com.

The Benefits That Control Accounts Can Bring

The primary purpose of having control accounts is to ensure that your general ledger is not too cluttered with minute details. By creating control accounts, you can keep your general ledger clean, tidy, and easy to scan while ensuring that it contains accurate balances and can provide correct information for your business’s financial statements.

However, aside from keeping your general ledger neat and clutter-free, control accounts can also provide you with a way to check the accuracy of your subsidiary accounts. Since you will have to check that your control accounts’ ending balances accurately reflect those in the subsidiary accounts, you can easily detect if any transactions were not recorded. This, in turn, will help you make sure that your accounts are always in good order and prevent costly mistakes along the way.

 

Another benefit of having control accounts is that it can help you save time. If you are confident that your control account balances, you can use them to produce management accounts reports without having to go through each subsidiary account and wait for individual balances to be reconciled. If you are looking for ways to have general management and financial reports without any fuss, consider asking for control accounts when signing up for professional accounting services.

A lot of companies even use control accounts to prevent fraud. Since these accounts must be balanced with subsidiary accounts, they provide an additional barrier that fraudsters will have to overcome before they can successfully conduct their plans.

Should Small Businesses Have Control Accounts?

Many tax and accounting services providers recommend control accounts for large companies, which often have hundreds of daily transactions that will instantly clutter up the general ledger when recorded on it. Smaller organizations, on the other hand, have fewer transactions and will not need to create subsidiary accounts that are linked to control accounts.

However, just because your business is on the smaller side does not mean that you cannot benefit from having control accounts! If your business has started to boom and you find yourself dealing with more transactions per day than usual, consider asking your accountant to create control accounts and subsidiary accounts so you can easily track these transactions. This will also make it easier for you to grow your business into a mid-size or even large company since your general ledger is already ready to manage numerous transactions and you are used to balancing control accounts and their subsidiaries.

5 Reasons To Pay For Outsource Accounting Services For Your Business

Owning a business puts you in a position where you must wear different hats. Most entrepreneurs hone different skills that serve them well in the business world, but the reality of the matter is that not one man can do everything alone. This is especially true when it comes to skills that take time to learn and master. One of those skills is accounting.

Having an in-office accountant can be unnecessarily expensive, and if your business is expanding, you just might not have the resources to add another accountant to manage all the paperwork. Fortunately, there is one thing that can help you out: outsourcing accounting services. Here are five reasons why outsourcing accounting services is better for your business. 

1. Save time by skipping the hiring process

Hiring takes time and money and you might not have all of that now. Going through the steps of posting a job online or in the weekend newsletter, to then scanning resumes and inviting people over to your offices to interview them in person, can be daunting of a task. When you outsource accounting to online professionals, the only thing you have to do is find a good third-party provider.  However, you want to make sure that whichever provider you choose, they will integrate well with the management reports you need to run the business.  Corporate Business Solutions can help design a fully integrated dashboard that incorporates both the operational and financial reports needed to run a business, including those which would be provided from any accounting function which may be outsourced. 

2. Focus on continuing your business as usual

Managing a business is hard. That is just the reality of it. Handling employees, while delivering on orders, and other responsibilities you must take care of can leave you extraordinarily little to no time at all by the end of the day. Things get even harder during the holiday season, and you need to worry more about finding someone who will fill in the job of an employee who is on a leave than dealing with your financial paperwork. Outsource your accounting tasks and make sure that business is running smoothly while your financials are being kept in check.

3. Guarantee accurate services every time

When you outsource to professionals, you know you are getting the worth of what you are paying for, and you do not have to double-check and see if work is being done right. Whether it is about getting your taxes done, managing your day-to-day finances, or preparing a full-blown financial report for your business, when you outsource to a professional third-party provider, you are guaranteed there will be no time wasted, and no loss of productivity within your business. 

4. Have full control over the service

It can be something as simple as tracking expenses or something as complicated as balancing your books. When you outsource, every time you get as much work done as you need. Say you have a small business and there is not much work needed to be done from your accountant. With an in-office accountant, you can lose money while paying them just for showing up when no work is required from them for the moment. When you outsource you hire based on your current need, and you pay only for the work that you need to be done now. 

5. Control how much you should pay

There are no leaves, no holidays, or no calling-in sick when you deal with an outsourced accounting service provider. This means that you agree to the work that will get done at the start of the month, you agree on the payment plan and amount, and you avoid any unpleasant extra fees when it comes to paying them.

The Real Reason Why You Need Business Consultants

When it comes to running a business and making sure that everything is on an even keel, there are many things that you can do for yourself. However, there is one thing that truly stands out as the single most effective means of giving your company the best chance of success in the future – engaging a professional business consultant to help you with your business.

Well-Versed Expertise

Why should you hire an expert business consultant? That is a great question. The answer is that experts can help your company improve your business operations to make them more productive, more efficient, easier to manage, reduce costs, drive sales…and most importantly, they will deliver results.

There are a lot of myths out there when it comes to running a company, but the biggest myth of all is that you can get everything done yourself. Hiring the services of professional business consultants means that you will not have to try and solve every problem on your own or deal with aspects of the business which may be beyond your scope of expertise.

Business consultants offer a unique combination of skills and experience. Some of the senior-level consultants spend their entire careers working for large corporations where they have learned how a business with the right methods, systems and controls can maximize results. Other business consultants have successfully run other businesses themselves and now want to share their knowledge and expertise with other entrepreneurs. What is more, every single one of these experts has the expertise that can benefit business owners who need a new pair of eyes to help them see what needs to be done to maximize their success. This can serve as a great foundation for you to build upon your company’s success. And you can witness that mirrored in what people say, just as you can see it for yourself in these Corporate Business Solutions Reviews

Building Unique Business Models

If your business is growing, then you should be able to see a great increase in profits over the next couple of years. The problem is that as your company grows, it is also easier for certain expenses to creep up without you even noticing them. Hiring an expert business consultant can help you put the proper methods, systems and controls in place, so that you not only know what your true costs are but can effectively control your costs.  A lack of cost controls in your business can quickly result in a narrowing of your margins to lower your bottom line.

The best thing you can do for your business is to hire an expert business consultant for one simple reason: nobody in business has all the answers to the complex problems facing entrepreneurs today!

Business Oriented Focus

A business consultant goes through every aspect of your company and develops a custom business plan just for you designed specifically for your needs. This process ensures that the plan is not a cookie-cutter approach or one size fits all.  Rather, hiring a business consultant ensures you are going to get the best advice possible on how to grow your business and increase profits while also protecting your assets – all at the same time!

Remember this:  Whatever challenge you are facing, some other business owner has faced that same challenge and figured out how to successfully solve the problem.  Instead of you taking the risk with your own trial and error, hiring a business consultant with a proven track record of success will allow you to see what other business owners have done when confronted with the same challenge.  Now you can work with your business consultant to model your business after a proven path of success to substantially reduce your risk of failure.

It’s just simply the right thing to do.

How To Get the Most Out of Your Business Tax Returns

Here is a trick that not a lot of business owners know about. Tax returns. As a business owner, it is well known that you must play distinct roles to keep your profits coming in. However, it is impossible to be a free-kicker and a goalie at the same time. You must complete different tasks, on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. But some of these tasks must be completed for you, usually by a third-party provider who knows what is best for your business. An expert strategic tax planning company can help you out. Here’s how it goes and why you should work with a third-party provider like Corporate Business Solutions Inc. to get the most out of your business tax returns.

Tax Expertise

The most crucial factor why you should be working with a third-party provider is their expertise. There are tax professionals out there that simply know the ins and outs and all the loops of business tax returns. They can easily represent you to the IRS concerning taxes, as they stay updated with all the new state and federal tax laws and policy changes. The policies change every year, and as busy as a business owner is, it is time-consuming to keep updated.

When you work with a well-versed strategic tax planning provider you always stay on top of your game, as you are also making sure you come clean through every audit, and you do not miss any tax opportunities. An expert will help you get the most out of your business tax returns while also assuring that you do not pay more than you should be paying.

Business Credits and Deductions

Your local CPA is focused on tax preparation and by nature is looking at past transactions to keep you right with the IRS.  However, there are often opportunities for tax savings by working with a firm that utilizes attorneys who specialize in tax matters who bring an entirely different level of expertise than the CPA who prepares your returns.  These specialized attorneys can prepare a strategic tax plan that can take advantage of certain tax credits and deductions for future returns by making changes to the operation of the business.  Sometimes this may involve creating multiple entities that can provide both asset protection and tax savings that result from the re-organization. Business owners may also find tax savings in changing the way they compensate themselves from a simple paycheck.  Tax attorneys can provide a level of expertise that is now available to small business owners which heretofore were only available to large corporations.

Donations

Donations to any charitable organization that qualify under the law are usually deductible. So, consider developing a list of charitable organizations the business would like to support to contribute to the social good of the community. Receipts are mandatory for all the donations that you make for cash or goods, as evidence of the value of the cost of the materials that you have donated.

Tax Returns

Keeping track is a must if you are to get the most out of your business tax returns.

Every business owner should consider getting a strategic tax plan done by a firm that specializes in tax planning for small and medium-size businesses by tax attorneys.  The IRS is not going to tell you what credits and deductions you may be missing!

What you Need to Know About Starting a Business Partnership

Going into a business partnership is like going into a marriage but without any of the “fringe benefits’’.

You could argue that you should know more about your future business partner than you need to know about your future spouse!

Before the partnership begins

You need to know if your partner has any skeletons in their background, as well as why they want to get into this business with you, and what their vision is for it.

You will almost certainly vet any employees you hire, so vetting your business partner is even more crucial.

If there are issues, make sure you are fully aware of them and discuss each one fully. If you and your partner cannot get on the same page over each of the issues, walk away.

Make sure you both understand all the paperwork you are signing and use different lawyers.

If any business partner is married, or they get married, ensure their spouse also signs all partnership and operating agreements. This is to protect both partners and the business in the event of a divorce.

The partnership agreement

Make sure all parties clearly understand who is responsible for what, and what each can and cannot do on behalf of the business. These duties and responsibilities need to be written down and agreed to.

Make sure that all contributions of capital are noted and updated, who receives the profits, distributions, compensation, and losses from the business, and under what circumstances might a vote on some issue occur.

Exit strategies and buy-sell agreements are prepared and fully understood. Don’t forget to utilize the various insurances developed to protect small to medium-sized businesses.

Be aware of what situations might trigger expulsion from the business, and if a partner does leave, will a non-competing provision be put in place, and how will that work.

Successful partnerships

Businesses that do operate successfully are usually set up as limited liability companies as this provides many protections for all parties concerned with the business.

Other common features of successful partnerships include accurate recording of all communications and retention of all documentation. It sounds boring, but it can be a real business saver when things might seem to be turning sour.

Ensure all tax information and bookkeeping duties are handled professionally and legally. Don’t ignore this. Too many businesses have run into problems because of a trusted employees taking 100% responsibility for all the money transactions and secretly pocketing a small fortune for themselves.

This leads to the most important factor in achieving a successful business partnership.

Do not think that the business will ever get to a point where it practically runs itself. Once you take your eye off the ball of running the business something unexpected will almost certainly crop up and you will be unprepared for it.

Checks and balances must be maintained, each partner must keep an eye on the other partners to ensure they are still pulling their weight and taking their business responsibilities seriously.

For professional advice to make sure your business will always stay on the right track, you can always talk to Corporate Business Solutions Inc. for assistance.

 

Choosing References for your Resume

If an employer is contacting your references, then they are already convinced you can do the job but want to hear from someone who has personal experience of seeing you at work.

They want to hear only positive things from your references, so selecting the right people is crucial to a successful job application.

Where do you Start?

Your references should be someone you have worked with in your current or a recent job (or during an internship), preferably in a more senior position than yourself (e.g., your Manager/Supervisor), or a tutor from a University level course you recently completed.

The longer and more recently they have known you, the better.

Do not use personal friends or family as references, unless there is nobody else.

You should always ask these people if they would be a reference for you before you put their details on any job application.

What will your Reference Say About You?

The first and most important aspect of choosing a reference is to choose someone who is only going to say good things about you.

If it is a boss, you did not get on well with, then that is not the person to put on your CV. Even if you feel the response from that person was unfair.

If there is somebody you know who has a strong reputation in your industry, their name alone can be extremely influential.

Having someone as your reference that the employer or recruiter immediately recognizes makes them think, that if this person is prepared to give you a good reference, then this candidate must be well suited to the job.

A quality reference can make a big difference to any Job Application

Don’t be afraid to coach your references when you ask them to be your reference

How do you Coach your references?

You phone them or speak face to face if you can, or maybe email them, and ask them if they will be your reference

If you are about to apply for a specific job, tell them a little about the position and the skills that are required. You might then suggest to the references that these are among your strongest skills!

Let them know that they may be contacted soon. This ensures they keep you in their thoughts and are not surprised when they do get contacted.

When the reference gets contacted by the employer, they are now more likely to speak positively about you concerning those skills.

If you had some areas of weakness in the past and you have now made improvements, then you can also let the reference know what you have been doing recently to improve your skills in those areas.

Again, the references might mention when they are contacted that you have upskilled recently in areas that had not previously been your strongest.

You might have a great resume and crush the interview, but a conversation with a reference that raises questions rather than confirms your abilities can be the end of the road. Choose your references wisely and make sure they are aware of being contacted. Then you will have satisfied businesses like those at http://www.cbs-cbs.com/.

Employee Incentives: Professional Development

Employee incentive programs are highly effective methods of boosting employee morale and driving engagement. This leads to higher rates of retention and increases in productivity.

Worldwide, this is a $100 billion industry, with $46 billion being non-cash incentives.

The value of employee incentive programs

These programs work because they leverage human behavior. Employees who get rewarded regularly are more motivated to complete associated tasks. Organizations using employee incentive programs have a 79% success rate in achieving their established goals because of offering rewards to their employees.

Your organization needs to embed employee incentive programs into your everyday culture and move away from simply recognizing workers for years of service.

Incentive programs have been shown to increase employee performance by as much as 44% and can motivate up to 66%of employees to remain with their company. In professional careers, those employees satisfied with their benefits are more than twice as likely to also be satisfied with their work.

Professional Development

One of the top incentives employees in knowledge careers seek is the opportunity for continuing professional development. Those organizations that do not invest in this, are not seen to be valuing their employees.

Career professionals who are not continuing to learn and stay up to date in their profession will stagnate and become less employable in their career field. Employers who want to grow, and retain top talent, will help their employees with the opportunity to gain experience and progress.

There are many ways you can run a Professional Development Incentive.

Training Budget

Some organizations assign a specific amount each year for each employee to use towards the costs of undertaking some form of professional development that they source themselves. This could be attending a professional conference or completing specific training courses, etc.

However, too often most employees fail to take advantage of this

Because it is budgeted for, don’t make it difficult to be approved, though it should add value to the employee’s knowledge within their career, or the organization. To ensure the budget is used by most employees, including a professional development plan in their annual performance review.

Financial Support for Earning Certificates

An alternative to the training budget, or to run alongside it, is where the employee is financially rewarded for completing courses that are relevant to their career or the organization’s goals.

Again, if you have included this in your budget, it is money you expect to spend each year and each employee only gets rewarded up to their budgeted amount.

Make it easy for your employees by giving them access to training platforms like LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, Coursera, etc.

Targeted Internal Training

Supply courses you develop yourself on subjects relevant to your organization and all employees. Utilize the skills and knowledge of existing employees to run these courses

These could be on subjects like:

  • Health and safety in the workplace
  • Health and well-being
  • How to develop a professional development plan
  • Learn the basics of a language the organization regularly encounters
  • How to remain motivated at work
  • How our employee incentive program works

Professional Development is not only for those employees in ‘professional’ careers. Some of your best employees in the future may start as employees with few skills and education. However, they might be some of your most promising workers, and with the right guidance and opportunities to gain experience, they could move into leadership roles.

Corporate Business Solutions can help you with advice about how to develop a professional development plan that is a good fit for your organization.

Employee Incentives: Gym Memberships

Running a profitable business is usually dependent on a stable workforce. If you have high staff turnover or lose key staff from time to time, you need to consider what you can do to retain these staff.

Disengagement stems from over-exhaustion, ineffective management, or misalignment throughout an organization. Low morale leads to high turnover rates, low productivity, and ultimately, disengagement. Unhappy workers cost the U.S. up to $550 billion per year.

When this happens, you need to find a solution, fast!

The most obvious incentive is to pay more to your employees. But as soon as competitors match your pay rates, or offer to pay more, the value of your incentive vanishes.

Employee Incentive Programs

These programs can be introduced to attract, engage, and retain talent. The rewards and benefits included can be used to motivate positive behaviors in your workforce.

Perhaps the most important thing they can do to keep employees engaged is to effectively incentivize them. Incentives give employees something to strive for and provide tangible acknowledgment of their splendid work. When an incentive is offered, 85% of workers feel more motivated to do their best.

Gym Memberships Work as an Employee Incentive

In April 2021, the health and well-being app Engage recorded a 32% rise in demand for gym membership discounts.

The app found that employers were prioritizing health as a result of the impact of the covid pandemic. They reported that regular exercise reduced the risk of dying from infectious diseases like covid by more than a third and that a majority of adults want to be fitter and healthier.

Gym Memberships are now the most demanded benefit as part of an employee incentive scheme.

Workers are now looking beyond purely financial rewards in the workplace. They are actively seeking a better work/life balance and are increasingly expecting their employer to support this.

This is making health and well-being benefits something workers feel their job must-have, not something that would be nice to offer.

The increase in demand specifically for gym memberships does seem surprising as these are places people were unable to access during lockdowns.

With the negative impact on mental health caused by the pandemic, it may have been expected that more leisurely health and well-being options might have been more popular. Counselling, mindfulness, yoga, and gym equipment for the home would have seemed to be more relevant.

Employers are increasingly being seen as having a duty of care to ensure their workers are healthy. They are expecting employers to facilitate opportunities for employees to exercise and seek any physical and mental health support they may need.

Working from home during and following lockdown has increased rates of presenteeism and working longer hours. The World Health Organization has stated that working more than 55 hours a week leads to a 35% higher risk of stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease, than working 30 – 40 hours a week.

Despite this increasing popularity of gym memberships, it makes good sense for any employee incentive scheme to be flexible enough to consider similar spending for alternative health and well-being options, rather than only offering a gym membership.

Corporate Business Solutions Inc. can help guide you towards making the best decisions for your business around gym memberships and employee incentive schemes.