Chamber News

Chamber CEO Sharon Smith and Strategic Account Manager Adriana Geary receiving the ERS Silver award

The Herefordshire & Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce, along with fifty other employers from the West Midlands region, received their Ministry of Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) Silver Award from West Midland Reserve Forces & Cadets Association (West Midland RFCA). The ERS was launched in 2014 to recognise employer support for the wider principles of the Armed Forces Covenant. The scheme encompasses bronze, silver and gold awards for employers that pledge, demonstrate or advocate support to Defence and the Armed Forces community. Sharon Smith, CEO at the Herefordshire & Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce, commented: “We are delighted to have achieved the Silver Award through the Employers Recognition Scheme in recognition of our support for the Armed Forces community. “We are proud to support the fantastic talent that the forces bring to the business world and it’s a great honour for us to not only participate in the scheme ourselves, but to promote it to the whole of the two Counties business community.” The lunch time event was held in Aspects at the iconic National Memorial Arboretum, a fitting place for such awards to be presented. Guests were welcomed to the event by Watchman, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, who is a military mascot for the now disbanded Staffordshire Regiment, but continues his duties as part of the Staffordshire Regimental Association. If you’re interested in finding out more about the Employer Recognition Scheme please contact Philip Sinclair on wm-reed2@rfca.mod.uk or 0121 274 2226.

December saw the return of the ISO Quality Services Bingo Box Challenge, helping to feed families this Christmas. The Bingo Box challenge aims to spread the word on the crisis the Foodbank is facing and encourages organisations and individuals to donate items to their local Foodbanks. The task was simple, a bingo style challenge where each member of staff were given the responsibility of donating one item off the bingo box sheet. This year the Chamber have chosen to donate the items to Hereford Food Bank. All staff have contributed to this effort and they even have duplicates of most items so had to increase the size of the box! In the past five years, the need for foodbanks in the Trussell Trust’s UK network has increased by 128% and last year, they distributed a record breaking 2.5 million emergency food parcels to people in crisis, a 33% increase on the previous year. Nearly 1 million of these went to children. It was fantastic to see not only the Chamber, but a number of businesses across the region taking part in the challenge and donating much needed items to foodbanks across the two counties.

Blue Print Working Safely attendees with their certificates

The Chamber of Commerce have helped local direct mail service Blue Print Direct Mail gain accreditations for a number of their staff. Blue Print recently sent a number of their workers on the Chamber’s IOSH Working Safely training course with all members passing the course. On their staff passing the course, Blue Print Direct Mail, said: “Massive congratulations to our staff at Blue Print for gaining their IOSH Certifications. IOSH is a Working Safely course, provided by Herefordshire & Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce. Many thanks to H&W Chamber for delivering this course to our employees, it is great to improve our Health and Safety within the workplace with an internationally recognised certification.” Working safely is for people at any level, in any sector, needing a grounding in the essentials of health and safety. Working safely meets the government’s guidelines for introductory health and safety training and is a 100 per cent match to the Health and Safety Executive’s ‘passport’ syllabus. To find out more information on how the Chamber can help your staff or for details on further training courses please visit