Welcome
Hello and welcome to our July Newsletter…
It’s good to be back writing about what we’ve been up to. As last month, it’s been another busy one and we’re starting to think about summer holidays which is topical this month as we blog about annual leave, you can read it right here.
This month we meet Deidre Hattingh who joins the Team at DOHR as our HR Administrator and PA, she brings her impressive recruitment experience with as well as her all-important organisational skills. We also report back on last month’s Luton Best Business Expo where we exhibited and made lots of new introductions and saw some familiar faces too. As last month, we bring you some HR news headlines to keep you in the loop and we’d just like to mention our Facebook page which we’d like you to come and join.
We’d be delighted to hear your comments so feel free to email us at [email protected] or of course, you could let us know via Facebook or Twitter!
Donna
IN THIS ISSUE
- Dealing with Fraud
- Meet Deidre Hattingh, HR Administrator & PA
- We Report from Best Business Expo
- Latest HR News
- DOHR followers and fans
- Dates to remember
Fraud…Could it happen to you?
Without doubt, it’s important for us to take note about fraud and it’s possible devastating effects on business. As we’ve seen at the end of May this year, even the big boys get stung. Jessica Harper the now former Head of Fraud and Security for Digital Banking at Lloyds Bank appeared at Westminster Magistrate’s court charged with “Fraud by Abuse of Position. With this issue now at the forefront of our minds, it’s essential that small business owners take all reasonable and practical steps to ensure their business is protected properly.
Ironic that Ms Harper actually held this position of authority, but some might say that at least Lloyds had such a role, many small companies do not. However, it is vital that someone in these businesses takes responsibility for identifying possible fraudulent opportunities and policy is in place to ensure that the right measures are there to prevent fraud being committed by staff. We are well aware how fraud can have a crushing impact particularly for small companies. In current business times, the balance sheets are coming under increasing scrutiny and mind-set is “Every Penny Counts” therefore theft through fraud could lead to the collapse of a business.
Risk assessment for fraud is just as important as it is for disaster recovery, health and safety and operations. These risks need to be identified and rated for probability and impact, following this, mitigating actions must be put into place. Employees need to know what is acceptable and normal policy as well as the procedures and what would be considered to be fraud or theft. Companies need to document these policies, effectively communicate them to their employees, enforce the rules and have penalties issued for breach of policy.
Please remember, failing to manage the risk of fraud and / or theft is a failure to manage your business effectively.
For more information on fraud, setting up policy , implementing and dealing with issues please contact DOHR on [email protected].
We’d love to hear your views, so please email us on [email protected] with your comments.
Meet Deidré Hattingh
We are delighted to introduce you to Deidré, who joined us in June comes to us with a wealth of excellent experience and we’re thrilled to have her on board! Not only has she got excellent organisational skills which we know she’ll put to good use helping us in the office and keeping on top of the administration, she also has an outstanding background.
Deidré was born in South Africa and has been in the UK since 2005. Her experience is in both public and private sector clients working in business development, account management, head hunting, candidate management and interviewing. DOHR is very keen for Deidré to use her extensive knowledge of recruitment, building relationships with clients and candidates and help further develop our recruitment division. Coupled with her invaluable organisation skills and database knowledge we’re already wondering how we managed without her!
Deidré will be available to deal with day to day queries from DOHR clients, old and new, to contact her please call 01923 504102 or email her on [email protected]
Luton Best Business Expo – We Report Back
We’re reporting back from last month’s Best Business Expo held in Luton where we had a terrific opportunity to showcase DOHR. We were delighted to welcome to our stand, a steady trickle of people throughout the day, and this gave us a real chance to meet as many faces as possible and talk through the problems and pains that we at DOHR can solve. In our experience, people tend not to engage HR proactively as they might an Accountant for example. Being able to meet people on our stand helps us to stay in touch and reminds those that we are available and this means they know how to find us when they have a problem or require HR support for their own businesses.
As well as the longer established businesses, we made some excellent connections with new companies, and that’s what exhibiting is about for us, meeting up with our current customers and bringing new clients on board.
Steve Clarke, one of the leading experts on grassroots sales and marketing strategies, was one of the keynote speakers and as usual was inspirational and highly practical. Without doubt, his passion for sales and marketing really shines through and drives others to want to take their business to the next level – his motivational approach to speaking helps listeners to believe that anything is possible. Another keynote speaker of the day, was Billy Schwer who gave us an insightful and interesting talk on the world of a boxer, and also someone who started in his first career at such a young age. Mr Schwer is someone who (literally) had to fight very hard to achieve his goals and he really inspires his listeners to do the same through seven key messages. For more information why not visit the website http://www.bestbusinessexpo.co.uk/riverside-centre-luton/
Latest HR News
Good People Management – crucial for growth in SME’s
CIPD Research (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development)
This is what research from CIPD shows, good people management is an important ingredient for growth in SME’s. Says the research, HR is vital whatever stage of growth an organisation is at, whether or not there is a dedicated HR function. The research has identified six key insights for those in the HR role in SME’s or who look after people management at their place of business. Here are the insights courtesy of CIPD:
1) Anticipation is key: readiness and relevance will determine success – HR must have a deep understanding of the organisation’s context, strategy, vision and values in order to anticipate key stages of growth and transition that may require a shift in HR strategy and practices.
2) Organisation values and purpose need to be the constant bedrock of the business – HR must work hard to preserve the owner/leader’s founding vision and values by making them vibrantly part of how the organisation and its people work on a day to day basis, as well as ingrained in the organisation’s people management processes.
3) Skilful alignment of people management insight with leaders’ aspirations is a critical HR challenge – while leadership appetite for the more intangible HR issues may be limited in the early days of the business, HR must be confident in using its insight into current people management issues and future challenges to ensure its potential to influence long term performance is not overlooked.
4) Simplicity of structure and purity of process preserves innovation and entrepreneurship – although more processes and structure will be needed as a business grows, it’s important to find the right balance between structure and fluidity so that agility and entrepreneurial spirit are not stifled or undermined by bureaucracy.
5) Sustainable growth involves striking a balance between preservation and evolution – rather than being sentimental about what has always been, it is often necessary to let go of processes or aspects of the organisation’s culture that no longer support its vision and priorities.
6) Look beyond immediate operational issues and take the opportunity to lay the organisation’s cultural foundations for the future – process driven responses to challenges as a business grows may only provide short term solutions and miss a golden opportunity to support the longer-term goals of the organisation. particular
Dr Jill Miller (research adviser at the CIPD) has stressed that SME’s are vital for the UK economy but as material and financial resources are limited in today’s times, strong people management is of paramount importance to encourage long term performance and growth.
This research will result in the CIPD producing a report with activities, checklist and further case studies to support HR professionals in SME’s –we’ll be sure to keep you updated as and when the information comes through. DOHR is pleased that this research has been published as we already offer this support and advice to our clients. It has always been our belief that a good approach to managing employees encourages motivation and performance therefore growing business. For more information please call us on 01923 504100 or email [email protected]
DOHR, Friends, Followers & Fans
June sees the re-launch of our DOHR Facebook page. We’ll be using this as a great social tool to interact with our Clients and Followers. Look out for our HR Facebook Clinic which we will launch shortly, an opportunity for you to ask those burning HR questions which Donna will answer. We’ll also be posting our blog, news, reviews and interesting HR information onto our page as and when it happens. To find us on Facebook simply follow the link and don’t forget we Tweet too, so please join us for all the latest, breaking HR news.
Our blogs include the coming Olympics, Employer’s obligations to members of the TA and we are blogging about Annual Leave as Summer Holidays are looming. Let’s hope for those of you going away you manage to escape to MUCH warmer climates!
Dates to remember
20th July Start of Ramadam
27th July Olympics
30th July World Friendship Day
6th August Bank Holiday (Scot & ROI)
12th August Olympics closing ceremony
18th August Ramadam ends
27th August Bank Holiday (Eng & Wales)
