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The Elephant in the Room: The Smelly Employee – Body Odour
Ouch! The ultimate of difficult conversations and one we have had to support a lot of employers through over the years. Unlike most of our previous smelly employee* blogs, where the employee usually has a measure of control over the smell, body odour is one which many people have little or no control over. In…
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Your Company Values Matter More Now, Than Ever Before
What are company values? It is relatively rare that small and medium sized businesses have clearly written and well communicated values. However, with an increasingly geographically spread workforce, company values, ‘the way things are done around here’, are more important than ever before. To quote Gino Wickman in his book Traction, Company values are ‘a…
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121 Review meetings
These can be held as frequently as the manager and employee feel necessary, often weekly or bi-weekly. They can all be formal, or a mixture of formal (structured with forms and notes) and informal (verbal, no notes). At some points notes should be kept on file reflecting discussions, concerns, action plans, commitments and support required.…
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Probation Period
This is a trial period at the start of someone’s employment. A 6 month probation period is ideal as it gives the employee time to learn the role and the employer time to assess performance and to provide feedback, making corrections to performance or attitude if required. If the new member of staff does not…
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Family Friendly Policies
A full set of policies around maternity, paternity and adoption leave and pay need to be developed so that employees feel valued and their skills are not lost from the business, but so that they business is able to function effectively with short and long term absences as a result of the prospective and actual…
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Annual Leave
Many of us look forward to a summer holiday and a well-earned break. We’re just about to come into that time of year when employers will start to see the ebb and flow of their workforce as staff start to take their main holiday. It’s important to remember that annual leave is much more than…
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Is there an alternative to redundancies?
Recession and redundancies, two big ‘R’ words on many people’s lips. But when times get tough and employers have to tighten their belts, is redundancy the only options, or indeed the best option……. Thinking about one of my clients, things were financially bad, very bad – so bad that if immediate action was not taken…