C2E: Case study: Business Link Surrey
 

September 2006

Business Link Surrey provides the information, advice and support needed to start, maintain and grow a business as part of the Local, Regional and National network.

The Regional Business Links support businesses from The Isle of Wight to Oxfordshire and all around London. There are over 250,000 businesses in the South East of England; it is home to 8 million residents, 14% of the UK population.

In 2006 SEEDA (South East England Development Agency) asked all the Business Links to confirm their commitment to equality and diversity by achieving the c2e accreditation.

Business Link Surrey has picked up the Gold Award for the equality standard for businesses through C2E. The whole C2E process took 6 weeks from start to finish.

Sue Adams, HR manager for Surrey said “Stuart Gunn of c2e conducted this project in an extremely professional and effective manner. Stuart has a very good style which guides his clients through the process without it being ‘hard work’ I was very impressed.”

Business Link Surrey has a positive approach to diversity: Sue said “I have recently been invited to sit on a local committee which is devoted to improving diversity in the workplace. In addition, through my contacts at ACAS I have set up an arrangement whereby when a vacancy arises, the ACAS Diversity contact will take me into the various ethnic group meetings, etc to promote recruitment from a wider perspective and hopefully be able to fill some of our vacancies by using this system.”

The Business Link service is available locally and exists to help anyone who is thinking of starting a business, to help small and medium-sized businesses to grow, and to help businesses deal with problems, challenges and opportunities.

If you would like more information about Business Link or Business Link Surrey log onto:

www.businesslinksurrey.co.uk