Today I’ve been preparing a presentation that I will be delivering tomorrow at The Womens Business Club in Bury St Edmunds.

As an HR Consultant I was asked to give an overview of the key areas of employment law most businesses need to know – and there’s a lot!  So, instead of trying to cover every piece of legislation (at least 100!), I’ve instead detailed the top 5 HR myths that I speak to clients about on a regular basis:

There's more than 5 HR myths

• People can make a claim against you – even if they do not work for you!  Under anti-discrimination laws, employers cannot pick and choose between job applicants on the basis of sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion or equivalent belief, or age – and if you do, you could find yourself in an employment tribunal having to explain your decisions!
• There legal requirement to provide a written contract – only required to provide certain information within 2 months.  This is referred to as a ‘Statement of Particulars’ and Business Link provides the basics of what you need to include.
• If someone is sick while on holiday, it can be treated as sick leave.  Working time laws entitle employees to 28 days paid leave in a year (including public holidays).  However, if an employee is sick while on holiday and he/she follows your sickness reporting procedure then this time off should be treated as sick leave.
• At certain disciplinary or grievance hearings, employees have a statutory right to be accompanied.  Your employees can be accompanied by another work colleague or a Trade Union representative, even if your do not have a formally recognised union.
• If you sell (or transfer) your business (or part of your business), and you employ people then your staff will transfer with that business.  Under the transfer of undertakings law (TUPE) the employees working in the business, or the part of the business that is transferring will move to the new owner on their existing contracts.

Employment rights at work are detailed and cover pre, during and post employment.  But don’t despair often good employment practices are common sense and there is plenty of help at hand for employers who want to do the right thing – you can get advice on-line at Business Link.  There is the ACAS helpline on 08457 47 47 47.  And then there’s always your local friendly HR Consultant!

All aboard

As an HR Consultant, often my work involves visiting client sites, so where I cover geographically is important as this can sometimes increase my client’s costs!  When asked, I usually say “follow the National Express Train line down from Ipswich to London Liverpool Street and I cover anything in between”.  However, I’m not sure if that’s the best analogy to use to relate to my business – but I can say with absolute confidence that we are far more reliable and dependable than the current train provider in East Anglia!

However, the analogy did start me thinking about similarities in HR to travel.  I’m sure many of you in the room are seasoned travellers – using train and air travel systems.  When these systems work well, they work really well!  Seamless processes without distraction; each member of staff owning their part of the process; ultimately getting you to your final destination with ease.

But when theses systems go wrong, they go monumentally wrong! Interruptions and delays; frustratingly poor service; distractions and your valuable time wasted.

Sometimes that’s what happens in the workplace – Your business and people are ticking along with no problems – and then suddenly you realise that something has upset the system!  Two members of staff have a fall-out; someone keeps taking frequent days off here and there; or you may have lost a valuable member of staff to a competitor.

You can start to see the resemblances to your disrupted travel – distractions, frustrations, upset and time spent away from doing what you do well.  Being realistic, you can’t guarantee that you will have a stress free workforce 100% of the time, but there are practices you can implement to ensure that your business is a first class operator rather than a standard operator in your sector:

1. Set the rules of your business – ‘this is how we work around here’ – at least have the basic policies in place that set out the key HR practices that will support your business objectives and culture.
2. Communication, Communication, Communication – just as Location is key in property, effective and relevant communication is paramount in dealing with staff – most staff problems I’ve dealt with at one point or another have featured a failure in communication – between staff, managers, leaders.  And remember, there’s more than one way to communication with your staff – it can be as simple as an up to date notice board; or as involved as a staff representative group.
3. Honesty, when dealing with the problem – avoid the ostrich syndrome!  Problems with staff don’t resolve themselves, they won’t go away if you get really busy, or move the problem to another area.  Face up to the difficult conversations and have an honest conversation with people – they usually appreciate your honest and will respect you for it!
4. Giving people the skills to do their job – what might be really easy to you, could be very difficult to others and vice versa.  So, don’t assume that everyone can do anything!  Let people know what you need or expect from them, check their understanding and then follow up – allowing them to ask questions, whilst giving them a chance to ask your questions.  Remember, just because you’ve told them once, it doesn’t mean you won’t have to tell them again!
5. And finally, in your own way, that’s reflective of your businesses individual culture, make your work place a positive place to be – people spend anything from 40-60% of their time in the workplace so why are they sometimes so miserable!  As a business leader, think of ways to get the best from your people, and you’ll get the best from your business.

This morning on Radio 5 Live, during a discussion on helping long term unemployed people get back to work, a caller described the entire recruitment process as ‘one huge dating exercise’ – I couldn’t have put it better myself!

Although, I do think that dating agencies have a more in-depth approach to establishing a relationship with prospective candidates than most employers bother to do during any recruitment process!

It got me thinking that there must be a better way for employers to approach recruitment – CV’s, with today’s technology will eventually become a thing of the past – especially with the growth of online media such as Linkedin and Twitter.  And laborious standardised application forms are no better!

I think we’ve missed the point somewhere along the line that we are recruiting people!  I’m as much to blame as any HR practitioner, encouraging my clients to introduce ‘fair and non-discriminatory selection criteria!’

It reminded me of a mass recruitment exercise I ran a few years ago, in the early days of my HR career.  I worked for a national retailer and we were opening large out of town stores and we needed on average 80-100 people per opening.  With the help of my then HR Manager we introduced to the store management team the concept of‘hire the smile – train the skill’.  Their traditional approach to recruitment was to only select the CV’s of those applicants who had competitor experience/retail experience.

We encouraged (insisted on) managers holding group interviews – where we could meet all applicants regardless of their background, to assess their personal impact and ability to engage with and talk to strangers (a key skill in retail sales).

Guess what – we didn’t recruit anyone from a retail back ground – what we did recruit were great people with life skills, various backgrounds including a machinist who had recently been made redundant from local clothes factory; and a roofer who had been looking for a job for 18 months – I could go on but I’m sure you get the point.

More recently I’ve helped a manger recruit staff for a new pub opening – and the one piece of advice I’ve given her? – hire the smile because we can train them to take an order from a menu and use a till!  She was inundated applications.  A couple of hours spent ringing each of candidate helped her establish who was the chatty, lively and engaging – as opposed to those who just wanted ‘a job’.

So when you need to find great people to work in your business think about my top three tips on how to recruit effectively:

1. Aim to attract the best people – advertise as widely as possible and try to set aside a budget for this process.  Think about where your target candidates are going to be looking for jobs.
2. Hire the smile, train the skill – remember personality and personal impact is important; you can train skills but you can’t train attitudes – so bear this in mind when making your decision to on whom to recruit.
3. Know and understand your legal obligations – don’t discriminate. People can make a claim against you even if you do not employ them so you must treat everyone equally and be careful about the questions you ask. You may be discriminating without realising.

Happy dating!

What a great red tie

As a HR professional my background is working in large corporate organisation, undertaking a variety of roles in the HR department. Human Resources is the department that deal with people – the strategies, policies and procedures that affect the employees of any company. Now as a freelance HR consultant, I spend my days working with business managers helping them to best manage their employees in line with the law and best practice.

Occasionally since going it alone I think about how different my working life is now that I am not an employee. Because there are actually some benefits to being an employee – let me explain. Being an employee gives you:

1. Security – employment law is heavily in favour of employees. Legislation has developed over the past 40 years so employees can enjoy equality in the workplace, protection of employment and guaranteed Maternity, Paternity, Parental leave and sick pay.
2. Structure – finance pay your invoices, IT finds and then fixes your laptop, marketing gets your message out there and payroll make sure you get paid, and on time!
3. Health and Safety – employers are duty bound to ensure your working environment is safe. The working time regulations protect you from working excessive hours and your rights to paid annual leave.
4. Ongoing development – You can keep up to date with current best thinking and best practice. One of my favourite sayings is ‘the minute you stand still you go backwards’.

Finally, and the most importantly, being an employee gives you a sense of belonging. This is a basic human need. To work as part of a group of people with a common goal. To work with like minded people, someone to share your frustrations, recognise your achievements and celebrate your successes. There’s the company of working in an office. A desk is often a little home away from home. People refer to their work colleagues as friends – even extended families. I’m sure we can all cite one good friend whom we met through work.

This is all good stuff, but before you go rushing down to the local job centre or recruitment agency, take a few seconds to remind yourself why you have chosen a form of work independence. Then spend a bit more time thinking about what you need to do to ensure you are a ‘model employee’ of your company. Here’s what I think!

• Look after yourself – Take regular time off, learn to switch off from the office. Don’t aim for a work life balance, instead aim for a balanced life of which work is only one aspect.

• Keep up to date – Trade journals, representative bodies, the press, google alerts, online forums and resources; Networks – invest time in these. Not just potential clients or customers, but also those associates who work in your field doing what you do.

• Get some structure and security – Who can help you with your IT? Do you need help with paperwork or promotion? And a good accountant goes without saying! See these services not as a cost, but as your business resources that free you up to do what you are good at.

Finally, develop your team – think about how you need to be managed – Do you need a coach or mentor to help you stay focused or business advisor to help you develop your strategy? This external support is not just about fixing a problem, or overcoming an immediate barrier – its ongoing, little and often. Professional footballers, golfers, athletes all have coaches, mentors and experts working with them when they are at their peak – so why don’t we?

The cliché ‘our employees are our most valuable asset’ holds very true when you work for yourself – your employee is you and you are your business.

Here at Your Potential we are pleased to announce the launch of our new website which has been developed with Elsey Adcock Associates.

Take a look and let us know what you think – we look forward to hearing from you.

Regards

The Your Potential Team