Dear Member, 

Welcome to the this edition of the SFA e-zine. 

We are only two days away from Business Connect 2020 at Aviva Stadium - it will be a great day of networking and development, and be sure to check out the full programme to see who you will be hearing from on the day.  

We have added three new Member-Only offers to our website, from deals on various training courses to trials on payment terminals.  

As we approach polling day, we urge members to engage with parties and candidates about the challenges faced by small firms in the communities they hope to represent.  You can also read about the SFA’s meeting with European Commission Negotiator Michel Barnier on the next phase of Brexit negotiations. 

Last week, the IE Domain Registry (IEDR) published its 2019 .ie Domain Profile Report with a comprehensive review of its .ie database.  

Ensure you are following fair procedures when it comes to common misconceptions on probation periods, and check out our recommended three step process when an employee is not working out.  

Finally, members will have noticed that our colleagues in Ibec are currently conducting the Ibec Pay Survey 2020 – results of which allow the SFA and IBEC to track key pay trends. I would encourage members to take part in this survey an if you haven’t received the survey please contact research@ibec.ie before the end of February.  We also give an overview of our coverage in the media.

As always, we’d love to hear from you about any queries you may have, issues you wish to have raised with Government or other stakeholders and your ideas on how we can improve the business

environment for us all. Please contact me on tel: 01 605 1602 or e-mail: sven@sfa.ie or tweet: @SFA_Irl or visit our website.

Kind regards, 

Sven Spollen-Behrens

SFA Director