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March 2016

News

Do you live in a UK fitness hotspot?

Ever wondered whether you live in a fitness capital or hotspot? Now you can find out thanks to a unique research study from health influencer Treated.com, and doctor Wayne Osborne, who have collaborated to reveal the top fitness regions of the UK.

Treated.com and Dr Wayne launched the research to calculate the area within the United Kingdom that has the highest concentration of regulated fitness facilities and amenities for adult men and women. In doing so, they unearthed a major string of results that also give the number of facilities per capita by type, such as the following:

–               Privately owned fitness facilities and amenities

Treated_Fitness_Hotspot__Table_1

–               Council run fitness facilities and amenities

Treated_Fitness_Hotspot__Table_2

–               Independent fitness facilities and amenities

Treated_Fitness_Hotspot__Table_3

The study piece looked into the total number of establishments and amenities classified as fully functional for accommodating the needs of fitness and physical activity within the major built-up areas of the United Kingdom. The figures were cross examined by the exact population of each major area in the UK to calculate the density per 10,000 people.

The results below demonstrate which areas came out on top:

Table 1 illustrates the density per capita for major gyms that have private ownership, such as Virgin Active and Fitness First. The overall leader is Edinburgh, not through sheer volume of facilities but their ratio to the number of people that live there. Second was Greater London, which on paper should re recognised as the fitness capital for its wealth of facilities, however its booming population drags down the capita. Bristol performs surprisingly well in third place considering the moderate amount of facilities within the area.

Table 2 recognises the council run facilities made up of establishments with sports halls and swimming pools, which have been in decline for the past decade owing to the rise of big name gyms. In tis context, Liverpool comes out on top for having a marginally higher concentration of facilities per capita than second place Cardiff, also chased by Teeside with the third highest density for fitness facilities. All three areas are known for working class culture and this may explain the strong prevalence of leisure centre amenities here favoured over the major franchises seen in Table 1.

In Table 3 the research exposes the number of independent fitness facilities and amenities to determine that Sheffield is a clear leader in this sector. The results highlight that Sheffield has more than twice the density of fitness facilities per capita than any other area in the UK, quite a feat considering it doesn’t even reach the top five in terms of its population. Edinburgh and Bristol were hard to separate in second and third spots, respectively. Bournemouth is the lowest performing region of all with a mere four facilities open to the public.

To view the full findings for the Fitness Capital of UK study visit the Treated.com blog, where Dr Wayne Osborne provides his analysis on the relationship between keeping an active lifestyle and living healthily.

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Business

The Technological Way to Tackle Crooked Employees

In every business organization, no matter what it does, there are always some bad apples waiting in the wings to pounce at the first opportunity to do what they have been waiting to do for quite some time, i.e. to dupe you in one way or another. Employee monitoring technology has been created exclusively for dealing with such employees, dishonest and rotten to the core. This revolutionary technology has conceived iOS spy apps and various other tools for different platforms to keep tabs on crooked employees. Let’s find out this technology plays its part in tackling crooked employees and the threats they pose.

The Digital Line of Defense

Whether you’re running a small business with 50 employees, or a multinational empire consisting of thousands of employees, you don’t have any real chance of success while your employees are trying to pull wool over your eyes. Therefore, investing in digital tools is definitely the way to go. Not only can they bring ease and simplicity to employee monitoring, but these nifty employee management tools can also help you keep track of employees’ digital activities and whereabouts. Let’s take a look at how they go about achieving that.

  • Helps you identify employees who abuse company-owned devices;
  • Enables you to keep an eye on the emails being sent and received by employees to make sure confidential data is not being leaked;
  • Allows you to view their internet browsing history to make sure that they are not visiting shady sites, like digital black markets for instance;
  • Keeps you updated on who employees talk to and what they talk about by logging calls and SMS;
  • Protects company from litigation by keeping record of everything employees do online;
  • Keeps employees from wasting time online, thus improving their performance.

The Satellite Solution

Employee management tools come equipped with a GPS tracker that utilize GPS technology to keep track of target devices. Installing the said tools on company hardware i.e. iPhones or any other web-connected mobile devices, can help employers in keeping an eye on their employees discreetly. Employers may also use the location tracking feature to make sure employees are where they should be and not slacking off or wasting time on leisure.

Seeing Beyond the Obvious

Digital monitoring tools give you access to pretty much everything that has got anything to do with mobile devices and the internet. Whether it is about tracking the location of your mobile workforce or keeping an eye on crooked employees to keep them from indulging in illegal and unethical activities, you need to be on your guard for making sure that your business is not their next victim. Crooked employees are a handful as it is. Even with the use of monitoring tools, it is quite hard to keep them from giving into their rotten tendencies. Therefore, you need to not only have access to their online activities, but also need to be able to connect the dots and put two and two together to stay one step ahead of them. This can be done by evaluating the reports generated by employee monitoring tools.

The Bottom Line

Crooked is what crooked does. Therefore, no matter how hard you try, if you have a crooked employee working for you, your business will always face a huge risk of suffering at their hands. This is why it is very important to stay vigilant and invest in technology that makes it possible for you to keep a close eye on them, lest they’re secretly making your business bleed and getting away with it.

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Law

Motor Vehicle Injury Claim Offers that Don’t Exceed the Threshold

In Western Australia the Government operated third-party motor vehicle accident injury insurer is the Insurance Commission of Western Australia. If you were injured in a motor vehicle accident, and the at fault driver was driving a vehicle with Western Australian car registration then the Insurance Commission of Western Australia will most likely be the insurer involved.

If the insurance commission of Western Australia agree that their insured has been negligent they will usually admit liability for a claim. What this means in practical terms is that to make a claim for motor vehicle accident compensation a person needs to show negligence of another person driving a motor vehicle other than themselves.

Stabilisation of injuries

Personal injury claims after the fairly drawnout process, this is because of the amount of time that it takes to give medical treatment a chance to be effective following a motor vehicle accident. Injured people will often be referred for treatments such as physiotherapy and hydrotherapy together with specialist referral and analgesic medication.

When medical treatment will no longer make a material difference to a person’s physical condition, their condition is said to have “stabilised”. In many cases stabilisation can be said to occur around  one year post accident but this will differ from case to case depending on the type of accident and the severity of the accident.

The manner in which the Insurance Commission of Western Australia determines whether a person’s condition has stabilised is usually through medical reports from the treating general practitioner and other doctors the Insurance Commission doctor referrals.

Offers of Settlement below the threshold

In motor vehicle accident claims there is a “threshold” for “non-pecuniary loss” or general damages. These are damages that cannot directly be compensated with money such as pain and suffering and money for any disability caused to the injured person.

Once the condition has stabilised the Insurance Commission of Western Australia will ordinarily make an offer to the injured person. If the insurance commission perceives that the injured person is suffering from mild whiplash, or that they have made a complete recovery, they may make an offer on the basis that the injured person will not exceed the threshold for general damages. In these cases the total offer by the insurance commission of Western Australia is typically quite small, in the vicinity of $1000 to $2000. It is common for injured people to think this amount is insufficient given the extent of the injuries as they perceive them and the pain and suffering that they have endured.

What can I do if the insurance commission of Western Australia makes an offer with no allowance for general damages?

If the Insurance Commission of Western Australia makes an offer on the basis that there is no allowance for general damages it is first and foremost important that the injured person receives appropriate legal advice as to the probability that this offer is correct. In some situations the view of the Insurance Commssion will be correct and there will be little that the injured person can do to change the view of the Insurance Commission of Western Australia. In other situations the view of the Insurance Commission of Western Australia maybe influenced by medical evidence that is not favourable to the injured person. In this case is a personal injury lawyer can assist the injured person with a medico-legal referral which in turn will assist in convincing the Insurance Commission of Western Australia to make a higher offer of settlement.

Will I be able to achieve a higher offer by commencing legal proceedings through the District court of Western Australia?

Advantages

In many cases issuing legal proceeding through the District Court of Western Australia can assist injured people to obtain a higher offer from the Insurance Commission of Western Australia. The reasoning behind this is that in defending a personal injury action, the Insurance Commission of Western Australia will incur legal and investigative costs and they are therefore under more pressure to put their best offer forward to avoid incurring unnecessary costs through legal proceedings. Effectively any settlement of a personal injury case is a commercial decision and the fact that there are ongoing legal proceedings is a factor that can convince the Insurance Commission of Western Australia to make a higher offer.

Disadvantages

In any litigation there are risks and these are potentially significant.

In the event that the Insurance Commission of Western Australia has not made an offer in respect of general damages, the biggest risk is that the injured person will commence legal proceedings, and the Insurance Commission of Western Australia will see their case as being worth nothing and will make no offer.

The injured person may proceed to a trial of the action where there may be a finding that the insurance commission of Western Australia is correct and the injured person does not exceed the threshold for general damages. It is possible that the injured person could be awarded nothing and have to pay the costs of the Insurance Commission of Western Australia.

The above comments regarding litigation in the district court of Western Australia highlights the need for appropriate legal advice before taking any action in a personal injury compensation case.

The above information is provided for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for legal advice appropriate to the circumstances of a specific case. This information should not be interpreted as specific legal advice. Should you require specific legal advice you should seek the services of a trained personal injury lawyer.

Contributor

Article contributed by Foyle Legal and they practices in the area of personal injury and motor vehicle accident claimsand acts in personal injury matters no win no fee basis. At Foyle Legal your first consultation is free and obligation free if you do not proceed.

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Business

How to Simplify Your HR Department

In today’s world, businesses are spending increasingly more time on human resources. With compliance being more essential than ever before, many business owners and management staff are finding themselves needing to dedicate more time to HR and paperwork, leaving them with less time to concentrate on business development and marketing. If you run a business, it’s a good idea to give some consideration to the different methods which you can use to both simplify and automate your human resources department, givingyou more free time togrow and develop your company.

Outsourcing

Depending on the size of your business, it may be a wise idea to outsource your HR department to a talent management company or third-party human resources company. As a general rule, if your business has less than one hundred employees, it is highly unlikely that you will have the resources and manpower needed to run a successful human resources department in-house. Outsourcing your human resources department and payroll system can make things simpler for you and relieve the pressure of compliance.

Automated and Self Service Systems

If you decide to go ahead and run an in-house human resources department, setting up an employee self service system can help things to run smoothly and reduce the workload of your human resources staff. These self service systems work by allowing employees to access their own records and make changes accordingly to details such as addresses, telephone numbers, next of kin and financial information. Allowing employees access to their details through a web based system means that they can make changes as and when they need providing that they have internet access. This leaves your human resources department with less menial tasks to do, allowing them to focus more time and energy on the larger projects.

Retain Top Talent

Hiring and firing staff is one of the main things that the human resources department is tasked with. The higher turnover of staff, the more work your HR department will need to do. Retaining as many employees as possible, especially those who are the top performers, will simplify your human resources department. Boosting your employee morale is one of the most important things that you can do which will have a direct effect on the level of staff turnover in your company. There are many things you can do in order to increase levels of employee satisfaction. This includes providing training and development opportunities, incentives and bonuses to keep employees motivated and productive.

Simplify Communication

The average employee spends over one-third of their typical work day reading and responding to emails. For human resources departments, the time spent on email could be even longer. Encouraging your human resources employees to make use of instant messaging and other alternative forms of communication to email could help to cut their time spent on essential communication and leave them with more time to complete other tasks.

With the right strategies, you can reduce the amount of time your company spends on HR, leaving more time for development and growth.

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Business

Child Sponsorship Makes a Difference, One Child at a Time

We New Zealanders are very lucky to live in the country that we do. New Zealand’s clean air, thriving economy and gorgeous local culture attract migrants and tourists from around the world, and it’s a rare Kiwi that doesn’t know how fortunate we are to live here. Our children have access to great education, nutritious food and a world of opportunity thanks to our position in the British Commonwealth, but there are millions of children worldwide who don’t have these opportunities. In less fortunate countries, there are children who can’t go to school, who have no access to medicine when they fall ill and even some who have no clean water to drink. The cycle of poverty is brutal and destroys lives worldwide, but it can end with you.

Child Sponsorship

Child Sponsorship

Giving to charity is all good and well, but single donations don’t make a much of a dent in the issue of global poverty. To end the poverty cycle, many of these kids need ongoing support from benefactors, which is where child sponsorship steps in. While raising your own kids in New Zealand is hardly an inexpensive exercise, the shattered economies in which many sponsor children live mean that your Kiwi dollars go much further in their communities than they do at home. If you choose to sponsor a child, offering ongoing payments, your money will be invested in such a way as to bring that child’s entire community out of poverty by means of self-actualisation. For example, many children in Central America have no agricultural skills despite living in communities that need them to know how to farm. Your sponsorship money would be invested in building schools that teach kids the skills they need to get work, or in buying livestock and building farms that will allow the children to eat nutritious meals and contribute to a self-sustaining community. Alternatively, the biggest problem facing disadvantaged children might be a lack of access to clean water. Some of your sponsorship money might be allocated to digging a well so the community can have clean water to drink and wash in, improving their health and drastically reducing the incidence of illness throughout their area.

Child Sponsorship

Getting to Self-Sustenance

The model for child sponsorship spans several years and aims for the sponsored community to become self-reliant to the point where they no longer depend on sponsorship for support. If you sponsor children, the monthly payments that make a minor dent in your pocket add up and become a massive investment in that community’s ability to sustain itself. By the end of your sponsorship of that particular child, their community could have schools, clean water and opportunities for their children to escape the cycle of poverty that trapped so many of their peers and relatives. A few simple, ongoing payments can make a world of difference to an afflicted community in a developing nation. Sponsorship provides the investment capital necessary for impoverished towns and villages to join New Zealanders in the twenty-first century, as we step boldly forward into the future arm in arm as an international community, working together to make the planet a better place.

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