Category Archives: Policies

Seven Steps for Dealing with Poor Performance in a Growing Business – Part Three

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Last month I wrote about steps four and five of a seven stage process that you need to follow, when you have to deal with issues of poor performance in your business. Click here to read that blog again. If you missed steps one, two and three, you can read them here.

When you’re trying to reach a higher level in your business, you’re only as strong as your weakest member. Dealing with somebody in your team who doesn’t live up to the standards you require is difficult, both legally and ethically. Before you show an employee the red card, be sure you have tried everything that is expected from you, the employer, to guide them and push their performance to a higher level. To deal with the matter correctly, here are the remaining steps to follow:

Step 6: Agree a performance improvement plan

Where you have issued a warning, agree a written performance improvement plan with your employee. This will help you to formally identify unsatisfactory aspects of performance, agree on where further training, coaching, or other support could improve the matter and set new objectives or reiterate existing ones. You can also agree the standards to be achieved, within clear and reasonable timescales.

Provide your employee with appropriate support to improve their performance, allowing them a sufficient and reasonable period to make progress and carefully monitor this.

Step 7: Follow-up meeting

At the end of the agreed review period, arrange a formal follow-up meeting to discuss your employee’s progress and repeat the procedure from Step 3 if necessary. Up to three performance review meetings should be held before dismissal is considered.

If your employee’s performance reaches a satisfactory standard within the review period and no further action is necessary, inform your employee in writing. If this is not the case then agree a further performance improvement plan and set a further period in which your employee must improve.

Finally, with any incidence of poor performance it is crucial that you follow the Acas Code of Practice on discipline and grievance and ensure that employees are treated fairly and consistently.

Deal with issues of poor performance as soon as you notice them and you’ll find it much easier to work them out, to get the best results for your employees and your business.

If you missed the first two parts of this process here, click here for Part One and click here for Part Two.

Are Your Staff Still Legal? Employment Law Update

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Employment law is updated regularly. To keep you up to speed and on the right side of the law, I?m running a workshop in Reading on 20 November 2013. Click here to book your place for just £10 +VAT.

In the meantime, here is a quick summary of some of the more recent updates that you need to know about, that have been made since the update blog I wrote in July 2013.

Employment tribunal fees introduced. Fees are now charged for issuing and hearing tribunal claims and for various applications made during tribunal proceedings. Fees were introduced on 29 July 2013 in respect of claims issued on or after that date. Claims already before the tribunal at that date are unaffected. Click here to read a leaflet that tells you more about the exact charges.

New employment tribunal rules in force. The new rules are intended to simplify and streamline the tribunal process and to cut costs. They came into force on 29 July 2013 and apply to all claims irrespective of when they were issued.

Settlement agreements. Also from 29 July 2013, the Government’s proposals for facilitating the use of settlement agreements came into force. As an employer you can now offer a settlement agreement at any time, irrespective of whether there is an existing dispute. Neither you nor your employee can later refer to the fact that an agreement has been offered in subsequent unfair dismissal proceedings, should an agreement not be reached.

Compensatory award cap. A cap on the compensatory award of one year’s pay has been introduced.  The previous statutory maximum will apply, if lower. The new cap applies where the effective date of termination is on or after 29 July 2013.

Employee shareholder contracts. Since September 2013 you are able to offer employee shareholder contracts to new and existing staff, although existing staff cannot be forced to agree. Under these contracts, employee shareholders must be given free shares worth at least £2,000. Shares issued up to £50,000 in value will qualify for capital gains tax relief. In return, employee shareholders are required to give up their rights to claim unfair dismissal, a redundancy payment and to request flexible working and time off for training.

National minimum wage increases. The national minimum wage increased on 1 October 2013. Click here to see all the numbers and how they’ve changed.

And as if that’s not enough, there are more changes coming in April 2014! Some will affect maternity and paternity leave, so come to my next workshop to find out more.

How to Give Great Feedback to Your Staff

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Motivating your employees is about more than your charisma and vision for your business. To help your employees perform their best, as their leader you need to provide feedback – the right kind, at the right time. Feedback is an essential tool for any manager, whether you run a small business or a large company.

Just as they need blood and oxygen, our brains need to receive comments about how they’re doing. Feedback works on the emotional system in the brain. It enables the brain to use higher-level thinking skills to decide how to continue doing good work, make the good work better, or make changes to get more positive responses and work harder toward company goals. Your leadership skills rely heavily on your ability to give and receive feedback.

Here are some ways in which you can feed your employees’ brains and give great feedback:

Be specific and timely. Comment while the task is still in the mind of your employee. This is especially important if you’re working toward a specific goal and you want to keep the momentum going. Specific feedback corrects or reinforces certain behaviours, enabling the brain to focus on something concrete, which it doesn’t do from a simple “Thank you.” If you decide to congratulate employees as a group, be sure to talk to each one personally as well.

Fit the feedback to the person. Now and then you may need to provide a pat on the back to one of your employees, or a nudge in the right direction, in a subtle yet supportive way. For such feedback to be really motivational, provide it in a way that’s best suited to the recipient.

Connect your feedback to company goals. Goals help the brain focus. Make your employees feel that their contributions are valued and create a positive emotion with the feedback. Some employers want to encourage competition, so they make sure that the entire company or department sees how everyone is doing.

Set up a schedule for follow-up conversations. A quick memo or email can easily be misinterpreted, so continued face-to-face feedback is best. Studies have shown that negative feedback may be less stressful to the brain than no feedback at all; for this reason, follow-ups are especially important for employees who need improvement. Put your message in writing as well as delivering it verbally.

Build on employees’ strengths when giving negative feedback. By beginning with the strengths, you involve the prefrontal cortex right away. If you begin with negativity, the information may never reach the frontal lobe; it may get stuck in the primitive emotional areas and put the employee in survival mode. Always give suggestions for improvement.

See if you can work all these points into your appraisals, or any time when you’re giving feedback and you’ll find it much easier to deliver, as well as much more effective in creating improvements in your employees’ performance.

With thanks to Marilee B. Sprenger, author of The Leadership Brain For Dummies

Getting Started with Performance Appraisals Part 2

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Here are some things to think about, before you carry out your annual staff appraisals, to make them less daunting and more effective. We’ll go into more details on these tips and what to actually in the appraisal meeting, at our forthcoming workshop on 11 September 2013.

Prepare. A good appraisal form will provide a natural order for proceedings, so use one. If you don’t have a standard appraisal form then find one online – there are plenty of templates available. Organize your paperwork to reflect the order of the appraisal and write down the sequence of items to be covered. If the appraisal form includes a self assessment section and/or feedback section, make sure you give this to each member of staff in plenty of time, allowing them to complete it before the meeting.

Part of your preparation should also consider ‘whole-person’ development, beyond and outside the job skill-set. Many people are not particularly interested in job skills training, but will be interested and motivated by other learning and development experiences. Get to know what your people are good at outside of their work. Appraisals are not just about job performance and job skills training. Appraisals should focus on helping the ‘whole person’ to grow and attain fulfilment.

Inform. Let your staff know when and where their appraisal will be held. Give them the chance to assemble any data and relevant performance and achievement records they need.

Venue. Plan a suitable venue that’s private and free from interruptions. Privacy is absolutely essential.

Layout.  Room layout and seating are important elements as they have huge influence on atmosphere and mood. Irrespective of content, the atmosphere and mood must be relaxed and informal. Remove barriers – don’t sit across the desk from your staff member; use a meeting table or easy chairs and sit at an angle to each other.

Introduction. Relax your member of staff by opening with a positive statement. Smile, be warm and friendly to create a calm and non-threatening atmosphere. Set the scene by explaining what will happen and encourage a discussion and as much input as possible from them

When you spend some time thinking about how you’ll carry out your annual appraisals, they’ll be much more effective for both you and your members of staff.

For more information, come to our workshop on 11 September 2013 for just  £12 +VAT. Click here for the details and online booking.

Getting Started with Performance Appraisals

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Here are some things to think about, before you carry out your annual staff appraisals, to make them less daunting and more effective. We’ll go into more details on these tips and what to actually in the appraisal meeting, at our forthcoming workshop on 11 September 2013.

Prepare. A good appraisal form will provide a natural order for proceedings, so use one. If you don’t have a standard appraisal form then find one online – there are plenty of templates available. Organize your paperwork to reflect the order of the appraisal and write down the sequence of items to be covered. If the appraisal form includes a self assessment section and/or feedback section, make sure you give this to each member of staff in plenty of time, allowing them to complete it before the meeting.

Part of your preparation should also consider ‘whole-person’ development, beyond and outside the job skill-set. Many people are not particularly interested in job skills training, but will be interested and motivated by other learning and development experiences. Get to know what your people are good at outside of their work. Appraisals are not just about job performance and job skills training. Appraisals should focus on helping the ‘whole person’ to grow and attain fulfilment.

Inform. Let your staff know when and where their appraisal will be held. Give them the chance to assemble any data and relevant performance and achievement records they need.

Venue. Plan a suitable venue that’s private and free from interruptions. Privacy is absolutely essential.

Layout.  Room layout and seating are important elements as they have huge influence on atmosphere and mood. Irrespective of content, the atmosphere and mood must be relaxed and informal. Remove barriers – don’t sit across the desk from your staff member; use a meeting table or easy chairs and sit at an angle to each other.

Introduction. Relax your member of staff by opening with a positive statement. Smile, be warm and friendly to create a calm and non-threatening atmosphere. Set the scene by explaining what will happen and encourage a discussion and as much input as possible from them

When you spend some time thinking about how you’ll carry out your annual appraisals, they’ll be much more effective for both you and your members of staff.

For more information, come to our workshop on 11 September 2013 for just  £12 +VAT. Click here for the details and online booking.

Human Resources for Small Businesses

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What are the basics that you need to know about, when you’re running a small business and taking on staff? Here are a few of the issues you need to consider.

Employment contracts – The contract of employment is the most important HR document you’ll have in your business. You’re legally obliged to provide every employee with a written statement of their terms and conditions of employment within two months of starting.

National Minimum Wage – Almost all workers in the UK aged 16 or over are legally entitled to be paid a minimum amount per hour. The rate is reviewed every year and the next increase takes place in October 2013. Click here for the full details.

Holiday entitlement – All employees are entitled to a minimum amount of time off per year. For full time employees this is capped at 28 days. You can find all the calculations you need to work out your employee’s holiday entitlement by clicking here. Some companies like to give their staff an extra day off on their birthday, if it falls on a working day.

Equality Act – In 2010, existing discrimination legislation was brought together into one Equality Act. All employers must comply with this not doing so can lead to unlimited fines at tribunal. Click here to read the guidelines.

Maternity law – This provides protection for pregnant and adopting women and those on maternity leave. You need to find out how these rules can help employers plan ahead and manage leave and pay, and how to claim back pay.

Pensions – Due to changes, from July 2012 you will need to provide eligible employees with a qualifying pension scheme and make minimum levels of contributions to it. Talk to pension providers to find out when you need to set up a scheme.

Statutory Sick Pay – When an employee is absent from work due to sickness for more than three continuous working days, they become entitled by law to receive Statutory Sick Pay.

Discipline and grievance process – When dealing with disciplinary and grievance situations in the workplace, you should follow the Acas Code of Practice.

Dismissal procedure and tribunals – Dismissing an employee is fraught with risks for employers, so you should make sure that you follow the correct procedure and take advice.

If you need more advice on any of these specific topics, please get in touch. Don’t leave it until a small issue becomes a big problem!

Should You Bother with Appraisals

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Should You Bother with Appraisals

Why should you bother with appraisals? Because you don’t know if you don’t ask.

Essentially a conversation, appraisals are a very useful conversation when you want to get the best out of your employees and see your business grow. Useful for finding out information and giving feedback, appraisals are also a great opportunity for employees to reflect on their goals, objectives and contributions. Well conducted appraisals result in a better understanding of your team, allow positive changes and increase morale.

What you can find out from an appraisal:

  • There may be expertise or knowledge within your team that you didn’t know about
  • Some employees may feel dissatisfied with their role or may be struggling with their work
  • You may find some gaps in the knowledge of your employees
  • Maybe they are really happy and performing well!

What do you do with this information?

This knowledge allows you to sort out problems and make sure individual employees are the right people for the right roles. If someone is more suited to a different role, re-structuring will make a more effective use of the people you have.

You can organise training that is required to increase efficiency and encourage staff to share expertise with their colleagues.

When misunderstandings and communication problems surface, you can organise regular team meetings to keep everyone in the loop.

Getting your employees’ views allows you to find out what they need and gives them a sense of being in control of their job. Without talking to the people you work with you remain oblivious to problems that may be hindering productivity, motivation and ultimately the success of your business.

What can you tell your employees?

An appraisal is your chance to say “well done” or ask the questions to find out why an individual is not be performing at their best. Money is not always the best way to reward people for good work; recognition is extremely motivational. Appreciation and praise encourages loyalty and focus. Individuals who have received positive feedback about their work are more likely to give 110%.

So why bother?

Because regular appraisals make sure your team remains highly motivated and satisfied at work which ultimately increases productivity, reduces absenteeism and staff turnover. Carried out professionally and sensitively, they are an essential component of success in business.

To find out about how to carry out effective appraisals, book you place on the workshop I’m running in Henley on Thames on 11 September 2013. Click here to book your place online for just £12 +VAT.

What Do Employees Want from Appraisals?

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Many people have had bad experiences of appraisals, so many employers don’t enjoy carrying them out. However, for your business and your staff to progress, some form of regular appraisal is essential.

If you put yourself in the shoes of your members of staff, you can both get more from your time together. There are five things that your employees need to know at their appraisal:

  • Tell me what’s expected of me – talk to me about goals and expectations so that I can work towards them.
  • Give me the opportunity to perform – give me the chance to take responsibility and let me show you how good I am.
  • Tell me how I’m getting on – if you like what I’m doing, tell me; if you’re concerned about my progress, I need to know that too.
  • Give me support guidance and development – help me to grow and develop by giving me what I need to reach my goals.
  • Recognise my contribution – say thank you to show that you’re grateful for all the hard work I put in.

When you can meet these five needs, you’ll be able to carry out a much more effective appraisal, both for you and your employees. On 11 September I’m running a short workshop to help you carry them out even more smoothly. To book your place online, click here.

Legal HR Update July 2013

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In June 2013 a number of changes were made to employment law. Here’s a summary of what you need to know.

1. Qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims over political opinions removed

From 25 June 2013, the two year qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims does not apply where the alleged reason for dismissal is, or relates to, the employee’s political opinions or affiliations.

This means that any member of staff who thinks they have been unfairly dismissed due to their political beliefs does not have to have worked for you for at least two years before they can make such a claim.

2. Public interest disclosures no longer required to be in good faith

From 25 June 2013, a disclosure is not protected unless it is, in the reasonable belief of the worker making the disclosure, ‘in the public interest’. Accordingly, an employee who ‘blows the whistle’ about breaches to his or her own employment contract will not normally be protected. The requirement that a protected disclosure must be made in good faith was removed on the same date.

3. Update Service launched by Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)

From 17 June 2013, the DBS Update Service allows employers to check the status of criminal record checks online.

This means that you can look up the records of potential employees and current employees too.

If you need to talk about any of these changes in more detail, if you think they affect you, give me a call on 0118 940 3032.

Dealing with Gross Misconduct – How do You do it?

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Gross misconduct is behaviour so bad that it destroys the relationship between you and your employee and it usually results in dismissal. But what exactly can be considered gross misconduct? It’s important to know, so that you can avoid unfair dismissal claims.

Here’s how to identify and manage gross misconduct.

What is gross misconduct?

Gross misconduct is a serious breach of contract and includes any misconduct which, in your opinion, causes serious damage to your business, or irreparably breaks down trust and relationships.

There is no exhaustive list, but it can include theft, physical violence, bullying, damage to property, accessing pornographic sites, damaging your firm’s reputation, inability to work due to alcohol or drugs, breaching health and safety rules, failing to obey instructions, or serious neglect of duty. Repeated minor misconduct, such as being late to work, is not gross misconduct, although it can lead to dismissal after previous unexpired warnings.

Should my staff handbook include examples of gross misconduct?
Include a list of examples of what usually counts as gross misconduct, but state that it is non-exhaustive as you cannot provide for every eventuality. Each case should be looked at individually and consideration should be given to all the circumstances.

What procedure should I go through if someone has committed gross misconduct? When disciplining an employee you should follow your own disciplinary procedure and the Acas Code of Practice. If you don’t follow the Code it may render a dismissal unfair and could increase the amount of compensation an employment tribunal awards against you.

If you believe an employee has committed gross misconduct, you may need to suspend them to allow a full investigation to take place. This won’t be necessary in all cases, but it will usually be appropriate in cases of serious misconduct. If an employee is suspended it should be on full pay.

Carry out a fair and balanced investigation. At the end of it you may decide that no further action is necessary. However, if matters are to be taken further the employee should be invited to a disciplinary hearing where they will be given the opportunity to state their case and respond to the allegations against them. The hearing should then be adjourned for you to make your decision. You should notify the employee of your decision in writing and inform them of their right of appeal.

How can I decide if something counts as gross misconduct or not?  
If you’re unsure, get legal advice. In any case, if an incident is not obviously gross misconduct, it’s always better to go for the lesser sanction than to dismiss someone as such a dismissal may be held unfair. The current maximum compensation for unfair dismissal is £74,200.

If you need any more advice about identifying or dealing with gross misconduct, please do get in touch, to make sure you can avoid and tricky situations.