Category Archives: Policies

How to Boost Profitability in Your Business

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Here are 10 ideas to help you improve the profitability of your business through your people.

  1. Build a stimulating and vibrant working environment. A diverse workplace is a profitable workplace. Embrace the many different skills, backgrounds, experiences and attitudes of your staff and direct these to best effect
  2. Focus on training and personal improvement. Make sure every member of you team is given the opportunity to reach their full potential by offering them the training and development they need, in technical and soft skills.
  3. Reward and recognise. By recognising and incentivising staff that reach targets or produce a consistently high quality of work, you will encourage them to strive even harder.
  4. Handle difficult situations quickly. Do not let disciplinary or incapability issues turn into problems. Deal with them in a responsive and positive way to reduce the chances of them happening again.
  5. Have a good recruitment and induction process. Make sure that you always recruit the best person for the job and that they perform to the level you require from day one.
  6. Keep up to date with legislation. This is a key aspect in treating your employees fairly and also a way to constantly building best practice into your people management procedures.
  7. Communicate, communicate, communicate.   Keep your staff informed about how the business is doing. What can they do to help? How does their job fit into the bigger picture of the organisation? This will ensure your employees feel valued, engaged and focussed on the success of the company.
  8. Carry out succession planning. Don’t just rely on the skills and experience of long-standing members of staff but put time and effort into training and mentoring programmes that develop the skills and abilities of younger members of the team. This way you ensure success for the long term and continuity of service for your customers.
  9. Look closely at team dynamics. What teams are working well and how can this be replicated across the business? Look for gaps in team dynamics and skills sets that can affect morale development and work to actively improve them.
  10. Be a good boss. Your behaviour sets the tone for how you expect others to behave. Invest time in working on your own management style and take a top-down approach to improving performance rather than relying on the skills of those around you.

We’ll talk more about how to be a great boss in this blog in a couple of week’s time.

In the meantime, what do you do to improve profitability of your business through your people? Leave a comment here to share your tips.

When Can You Use Feedback in Your Business?

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Giving regular feedback to your employees is essential if you want them to stay focused and motivated and if you want to prevent small issues turning into something bigger. If you leave it until the annual appraisal, you may find that your staff aren’t as happy or committed as you thought they might be.

Here are some ideas on how to give regular feedback.

Day to day praise. At the end of each day, think of a way of thanking your members of staff as they leave.

Making it personal. Treat each person as an individual and give them their own feedback, even if they are part of a team.

Do it as soon as possible. Feedback has a much greater effect if you can deliver it just after the event, whether you are giving positive or negative feedback.

Negative reactions.  Be prepared for them if you’re giving negative feedback about something that needs to be improved.

Formal feedback. Avoid giving formal, negative feedback in public; take the person aside and speak to them personally. Positive feedback in public can be highly motivating.

Feedback from your employees. Always listen to what they have to say. It’s not just about you giving feedback to them, as they may have something really useful to contribute.

Regular feedback is essential as it maintains dialogue between the boss and your staff. Used well, it can boost performance of individuals, teams and businesses.

How do you give feedback? Leave a reply to share your tips.

How Do You Get More From Your Staff?

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The key to getting the best, and more, from your staff is through performance management. What is this and how can it benefit your business?

Performance management is a strategic and integrated approach to increasing the effectiveness of your business by improving the performance of the people who work for you. Put simply, the better the people you employ and the better the investment you make in them, the easier it will be get the best from them and to ask more from them, when you need it.

Research shows that a high proportion of businesses struggle with underperforming members of staff. They spend too much time dealing with issues of absence, sickness, poor attitudes and behaviour, failure to meet objectives and poor standards of work. Then they look to solve them through formal disciplinary procedures. Reacting to issues can be time consuming and costly, as well as very negative. Managing performance focuses on the more positive, preventative aspects of working with people.

Good performance management is about regularly assessing the performance of every individual in your team, providing regular feedback, guidance and support to reinforce good performance and highlight areas for improvement before they become a major issue.

You should also make sure that you have proper disciplinary procedures in place to deal with poor performance. In next week’s blog we’ll share some tips which, if you follow, you will only need disciplinary procedures as a last resort, when informal and positive measures have not worked.

Learn how to get more from your people at our next workshop, in November 2012 at Hennerton Golf Club, in Wargrave, near Henley. This is your chance to really get to grips with improving performance, ask all the questions you have and get some professional support. Places are free but limited. Click here to book online.

Why Bother with HR?

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What’s the point of HR?  Do you really need someone to spend time (and money) looking at the people in your business? Surely it’s quite simple and something you can do for yourself?

Here are a few ideas to help you decide whether or not to bother with HR.

The cost of getting it wrong.  Without the right HR systems in place, you could end up on the wrong side of the law, with a hefty bill to pay. A majority of employers believe that claims to Employment Tribunals will increase following the increase in the qualifying period of service to claim unfair dismissal from 1 year to 2 years. Part of the reason for the anticipated increase is that there is no system to prevent spurious claims being made to a tribunal. There is no potential downside for a claimant and potential for a financial windfall.  No win no fee solicitors support the disgruntled employee to have a go on the basis that the business will make a settlement to avoid legal costs. The figures of employment tribunal awards in the year 2011/12 have now been released and show that the median of all wards was £4560, the average award was £9133 and the maximum award was £173408. Keeping up to date with the legal issues is vital if you want to avoid unnecessary problems and payments.

The benefits of getting it right.  In order to avoid further claims businesses are making changes to their policies and procedures and making sure their managers are well trained in these procedures because a majority of employers believe that the most important factor behind a decision going against them at tribunal has been the role played by the line manager. In most cases the decision concerns the managers failure to follow their own company’s procedure!  On a far more positive note, good HR can really help to boost the profitability of your business. By putting HR management practices into your organisation, studies have shown that you can reduce employee turnover by 7%, increase sales per employee by 5.2% and increase overall financial performance by 6%.

Do you bother with HR? Do you do it yourself, or bring someone in to help with HR issues? Is it worth it, or just another business expense? Leave a reply below and let us know what you think.

Dealing with retirement

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In last week’s blog we looked at retirement and your responsibilities as an employer to adapt to meet the changing needs of your workforce as they work for longer.  Performance management is the key.

As an example we looked at the case of Robin, an employee approaching 65 years of age with 10 years of service for John’s company under his belt.  Robing is no longer performing as well as he used to and doesn’t seem to be as motivated.  John thinks ordinarily Robin should have been retiring but retirement is no longer a fair reason for dismissal.

How should John deal with Robin’s under performance at this stage? Bearing in mind that the Default Retirement Age (DRA was removed by the Employment Equality Regulations in 2011).

  • John should hold regular discussions with Robin to make him aware of the underperformance issues.  It is important that John understands the situation from Robin’s point of view but also that Robin understands the impact his underperformance is having on the business.  These discussions must be an honest two-way flow of information not unfavourable treatment as a result of Robin’s age
  • John should consider and discuss flexible working options with Robin to help him reach his targets in a way that suits him and his changing situation
  • John must ensure that he has in place and instigates a performance management programme that makes provision for older members of staff such as Robin.  It could include for example training options, flexible working, consideration of alternative employment options, as well as regular informal and formal reviews
  • Dismissal as a result of lack of capability is an option if the situation does not improve but John must bear in mind that if he gets this wrong Robin could have a case for unfair dismissal or disability discrimination.

Dealing with retirement

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The removal of the default retirement age (DRA) means that older, longer-serving employees can now remain in the workforce for longer.   For some employers this may not be good news, they would prefer to provide opportunities for new younger employees but for others retirement can mean a loss of difficult to replace talents, skill sets, and knowledge and therefore hanging on to these valuable employees for as long as possible is important.

Whatever your view as an employer you need to be adaptable and flexible to meet the changing needs of your workforce and refine your performance management processes accordingly.

Consider for example John’s employee, Robin.  Robin is approaching 65 years of age and has worked for the John’s company for 10 years.  The company has had a relaxed and informal working atmosphere; however Robin who is in a customer facing sales role is no longer performing as well as he used to and doesn’t seem to be as motivated.  John thinks ordinarily Robin should have been retiring but retirement is no longer a fair reason for dismissal.

How should John deal with Robin?s under performance at this stage?  Catch next week’s blog to find out!

Top tips for dealing with difficult people in the workplace

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How can you effectively deal with difficult people and ensure that you are getting the best out of every employee and in turn increase productivity? Here are my top tips:

  • Don’t Delay: as with almost every HR issue ignoring or procrastinating on a situation does not work. Where difficult people are concerned it can actually get worse with time. Deal with the situation immediately to ensure the difficult behaviour does not escalate
  •  Be objective: do not let personal opinion or emotion cloud your judgement
  • Investigate: does a pattern exist? Are there any trigger factors that cause the individual behave badly? There may be underlying reasons for the behaviour and identifying them can be the key to resolving the situation
  • Speak to the ‘difficult person’ informally: this will also help diffuse the situation quickly. It is easy to look at the bad but give the employee the benefit of the doubt and ask them what the issues are from their point of view as well as pointing out tactfully that there is a problem
  • Conduct regular follow up: this ensures that the problem does not recur
  • Focus on the actionable: look at decisive steps that you can take to correct the situation e.g. re-distribution of work, addressing the team dynamic etc.

Don’t forget our forthcoming Dealing with Difficult People and Conversations Workshop.

If you have ever been in a difficult situation or feel you would like to be well prepared should a situation arise in the future then you cannot afford to miss this workshop. We will outline the dangers of ignoring the issue, the importance of acting promptly and will give you five key tips to help you prepare for difficult conversations. In addition, we invite you to bring your ‘difficult conversations’ with you for us all to discuss in our open forum.

This event is taking place on 13th September at the Hennerton Golf Club. For more information and to book your place please contact me at sueferguson@optionshr.com

Dealing with Gross Misconduct

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What do you do when a trusted employee acts in such a way as to fundamentally breach the contractual relationship you have in place between you?

No easy task and always a worse nightmare situation for any employer, acts of gross misconduct are unfortunately all too often a reality we have to face.  So what tools do you have in your armour to help you deal with the situation quickly, efficiently and with the minimum of damage to your business?

Where gross misconduct is concerned you have the right to implement a summary dismissal procedure, an immediate dismissal without notice or payment in lieu of notice, as long as you can demonstrate that you have a solid reason, have conducted a thorough investigation and have followed proper procedure.  However, it is advisable in all except the most extreme cases to conduct a full disciplinary process first including two to three warnings (written and verbal) and provision for the employee to appeal.

Dismissal is always a last resort but armour up and ensure you have the right procedures in places to deal with this if you have to.

Causes of Lack of Capability: Stress

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We have looked a lot at capability issues over the last few weeks.  As mentioned previously capability refers to an employee’s skills, ability, aptitude and knowledge in relation to the job that he or she is employed to do.  The key feature of lack of capability is that it is not the employee’s fault and is generally outside the employee’s control.  With this in mind in this week’s blog we are looking at stress as a cause of lack of capability in the workplace.

The HSC define stress as an adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them.  Whilst there is no specific legislation as to how to handle stress in the workplace, as an employer you have a duty of care to take reasonable measures to manage stress under the Health and Safety at Work Act.  This is not only for the benefit of your employees but also for the benefit and long term success of your business.

Stress has a significant impact on your bottom line! It is estimated that on average in the UK 10.8 million working days are lost each year as a result of stress, and the cost of sickness absence resulting from work-related mental health problems, of which stress is undoubtedly the primary cause, costs on average £120 per day.

Whilst it is impossible to eliminate all pressures from the workplace you must do everything in your power to reduce the risk of harm and be aware of the early warning signs before it is too late.  These can include past history of stress, increases in absence, physical manifestation such as rashes, changes to behaviour e.g. irritability and complaints from peers.

When you suspect an employee is suffering from the early signs of stress act immediately.  Consider the amount and type of work the employee undertakes and what changes can be made; provide extra supervision and support and offer counselling.  Getting it wrong or not dealing with this issue effectively can result in damaging, in terms of cost and reputation, negligence and personal injury claims.

Capability vs Disciplinary – Case Study 2 – Suggestions to Combat Underperformance

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Last week we introduced you to Karen, she has been underperforming for the last eight years with your company.  She is unsociable, intimidating, rude and fails to take responsibility for her actions.  This has led to numerous complaints from her peers, supervisors and managers, with one colleague threatening to resign as a result of Karen’s behaviour.

What action should you take to deal with Karen? What procedures should you invoke? Here are a few suggestions:

  • Conduct an informal interview with Karen in the first instance with the aim of getting to the root of the problem.  Ask her to explain why she is behaving the way she is – what are the underlying problems from her point of view
  • Gather evidence from other people – her colleagues, supervisors and managers.  In particular talk to the person that has threatened to leave, find out what has been going on and persuade them to stay by reassuring them that you are dealing with the problem
  • Get input from your HR department and consultants.  It can be very valuable to get input from someone who can look at the overall situation and be impartial.  The line manager cannot do the investigation and  decision making
  • Don’t let it go on too long – Karen’s manager may need help with performance reviews / dealing with staff issues
  • If all else fails invoke a formal disciplinary procedure including informal and written warning and dismissal if appropriate.