Podcasts

Marc Shoffman focuses on the ongoing issue of tax avoidance after it was revealed that the Church of England is investing in Google. The 2015 annual report from the Church Commissioners, which is the investment arm of the Church of England, revealed Alphabet Inc, parent company of the search engine, was among its top 20 holdings. Edward Mason, Head of Responsible Investment for the Church Commissioners, Toby Quantrill, Principal Adviser for Economic Justice at Christian Aid, and Mark Harper, Adviser for Trinity Wealth Management, join Marc to discuss this issue.

On this week's Shop Floor, in partnership with the Inspirational Development Group, Ken Cowen, founder of the charity The School of Hard Knocks, explains how young men and women who have been neglected by society are given a chance to regain esteem and drive, to help them get a job. Nick Peters discusses the importance of Inclusive Leadership, a new Inspirational Development Group workshop, with Senior IDG Consultant, Johanne Malin. Paul Harris, Co-Founder of Bright HR, explains why many HR policies are not beneficial to employees; and Katie Jacobs, Editor of HR Magazine, looks back at the evolution of HR and the publication in the last 25 years.

French company Evaneos started in 2009 and are the first online platform to connect travellers directly to local experts, namely 650 local travel agents in 150 destinations. The company creates tailor-made travel itineraries and operate in a number of European countries, including the UK where they launched last year. Linda Lewis speaks to founder Eric La Bonnardière to find out more about the company’s history and development.

Commuting to work is getting easier! Active Commuting manufacture purpose-built portable pods, which combine changing rooms, showers and bike storage. Linda Lewis speaks to founder Andrew Rechten about the company’s growth, how they started and how they encourage workers to maintain a healthy lifestyle by cycling or running to work.

How well are marketing and advertising companies responding to calls for them to become more engaged with consumers? Nick Peters discusses the 'age of the consumer' with Chris Daly, Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He also looks at the merging of Marketing Magazine and Campaign under the one brand, 'Campaign', with Maisie McCabe and Gemma Charles, Joint Deputy Editors at Campaign.

Kate Andrews, from Republicans Overseas, joins Colin Bloom to discuss the current situation with the US Elections. Kate explains how Hilary Clinton is likely to be the Democratic candidate against the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump. She also discusses the competition between Bernie Sanders and Clinton ahead of the campaign.

Italian-born entrepreneur, Paola Diana, talks about her life in Italy before founding Nanny & Butler, Sigillus and A.M.O.R.E– a portfolio of companies that offers invaluable services, ranging from quality child care and household help to luxury experiences and curated matchmaking events. Paola also lists her favourite tracks and talks about her new book which was recently published in Italy.

This week Sarah Pennells explores the issues revolving automatic enrolment pensions, the government's programme to encourage more people to save for their retirement through a workplace pension. While millions of people are being placed into their workplace pension, new research from pensions provider Aviva shows that one and a half million don't know what their money is invested in. Sarah is joined by Chris Daems, from Cervello Financial Planning, Ranila Ravi Burslem, from NEST, and Malcolm Goodwin from Aviva to discuss the topic.

As a nation, we have something of a love affair with property, but investing in property doesn’t necessarily have to involve buying a house or flat. In fact, it doesn’t have to mean you put your money into houses at all – you could invest in office blocks or shopping centres through investment funds. Sarah Pennells and her guests, Mark Weedon, Head of Institutional Development at Property Partner, and Guy Glover, Manager of the F&C Property Fund, discuss what to think about when it comes to investing in property and how to do this using funds and crowdfunding.

Sarah Pennells looks at how to create the perfect work/life balance with guests Neil Shah, Chief De-Stressing Officer at the Stress Management Society, and life coach Karen Perkins, who discuss other factors that can increase stress, and Sarah Evans, an Employment Lawyer with Slater and Gordon, who looks at whether people should have the right to work flexibility and what employers should take into account.