Staff training and development are a crucial investment for any business. Here’s ten reasons why well trained staff can save you money and grow your business.

1. Increase Productivity and Efficiency – By training staff to do their jobs, less wastage occurs due to errors and lost time.

Businesses across Merseyside are invited to take part in Liverpool Chamber’s survey on Work / Life Balance in the workplace. This survey looks at what working hours, leave entitlements, flexible working options and staff benefits are offered to employees.

Flexible working and the home/life balance is becoming more important, both to employees and employers. Allowing staff to work in ways that more suit them increases productivity and aides staff retention. We need your input to tell us how this issue affects your business.

The following companies joined the chamber last month. They’ll be networking at the new members’ meeting on 21 March 2007 and also at some of our forthcoming events. We’ve included their phone numbers and websites so you can find out more about them and get in touch if there's anyone you’d like to meet.

A quick survey of our renewing members is showing that growing their business and having employees with the right skills are their key business concerns at the moment.

Scoring 30% and 15% of the votes respectively, these issues are currently way ahead of ‘traditional’ business worries of taxation, energy costs and cash flow.We’re keen to know about your worries, if your business concerns are different from those listed, we’d like to hear from you.

Liverpool Chamber has a regular slot on BBC Radio Merseyside each Thursday evening at 5.35 pm. Regular Chamber speakers on Linda McDermot’s Drivetime programme give an overview of the local business scene and respond to the city’s topical news stories and the national and international economic news.

Recent speakers have include Vice Chairman, Ed Oliver who spoke about the closure of Lewis's department store and looked at the context of this with new retail developments in the city centre.

Working Links has been named as one of the best companies to work for in The Sunday Times Top 100. They are specialists in meeting the needs of employers. Providing the high quality recruits they need, free of charge.

Working Links Consultant, Dominic Stockton said: “We’re keen to work with chamber members, as we are working closely with employers to develop vacancies we’d like to be able to let as many employers know about the services and support we offer to them at an event on 23rd March."

The Mexican economy is booming. As the 15th largest economy in the world with a population of almost 100 million, and a growing middle class, Mexico offers an increasing array of business opportunities.

UK companies can take advantage of these favourable conditions by participating in the UK pavilion at Alimentaria Tradeshow in Mexico 5-7 June 2007.