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If you want the job, prove you can do it!
How many times have you taken on a new member of staff, only to find they are not capable of doing the job? As a practice we are frequently helping clients to manage poor performers out of the business. People who came across really well in interview, but when it came to it, their ability…
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Try Before You Buy?
When taking on new staff, employers have a choice as to whether to give a probation period or not. And if they do put a probation period into the contract of employment, they can (within reason) choose how long to make the probation period. As advisors we generally recommend a 6 month probation period, but…
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Business Continuity – Plan for the Unplanned
Business continuity, disaster recovery, whatever you call it, it has to happen. 2011 saw many disruptions to businesses both here in the UK and abroad. How prepared were the businesses, how did they recover and could you do the same? Do you take the view that it will never happen to us and then bury…
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Bribery – Have you protected your business?
I was in a room with 20 different employers this week and asked a simple question…. How many of you have a policy on bribery and have trained your staff in the application of that policy? Despite the Bribery Act 2010 having come into force in July 2011, 90% of the businesses represented did not…
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Recruiting Blind
Would you? Could you? Over 100 UK businesses have pledged to recruit blind as a way of increasing social mobility and reducing the risk of discrimination candidates with submit their applications on standard company from without a name or school. As an HR professional, I’m not sure how I feel about this. 15 years ago…
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I can’t afford to give pay increases!!
As I speak to my clients, I pick up on general trends. Sometimes it is based on stuff they have heard in the news, sometimes it is the fear of forthcoming legislation; but recently there is one trend which is repeated by almost all of my clients – pay increases! Staff are asking for them…
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Strike Day – Business Continuity
As business owners we should all have a business continuity plan, but talking to my small business clients, I wonder how many of us do? What happens if we are ill? What happens to our business when we go away? What happens if our Internet access goes down? What happens if our staff can’t get…