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 […]
As a business owner do you ever think about how good your team are? Would you consider them to be : Excellent at what they do. An asset to your business. Consistently meeting or exceeding goals and targets. Providing excellent customer service. Good timekeepers – always on time for work or meetings. Great team players. […]
There may well come a time in your business life when you REALLY need a member of staff to walk the plank (leave). There are many reasons why this may be the case, but you must be aware of the ‘legal’ reasons for dismissal which are limited to: capability, behaviour, redundancy or some other substantial […]
There are three main reasons why staff don’t stay in a business… The first is to do with not actually having the right person doing the role that needs doing. This normally comes down to the recruitment process where the job either wasn’t properly defined, or the criteria weren’t properly set, or the person being […]
Would you allow a GP to carry out brain surgery on you? Would you want your accountant giving you a manicure? The answer to both, I suspect, is NO! So why do people listen to family and friends when they need advice on their staff? The answer we are sometimes given is “because they have […]
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. […]
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 […]
This time of year, we find many of our clients want to take the opportunity to appraise staff. Of course there is no hard and fast rule as to when to do this and some companies will link appraisals to the financial year end, the end of the calendar year or the employee’s anniversary with […]
Is your business a “Yes you can” or do you suffer from “No you can’t”? As an HR support specialist, I never know what is going to happen when I pick up the phone. In the past week, we have had three potential clients contact us for support with HR issues: Employee in probation period, not […]
I have had several calls recently from potential clients looking for help managing poor performers. One of my first questions is always “Do you have a documented policy”? “Have you ever told the person they are not performing to the standards you expect”? In most cases, managers deal with poor performance in one of two […]
