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HR Tips
Handling Violence at Work
Wednesday, June 12th, 2013Hopefully you will never need this article because, in reality, physical violence rarely occurs in the workplace, but, if it does, you need to deal with it promptly and effectively. So read on, absorb and remember. If there is an outbreak of violence of any kind in your workplace, then your first priority is the [...]
Keeping Stress under Control
Wednesday, June 12th, 2013Do you have stress? Yes? Good! Stress is a function of most animals, including humans, that keeps us safe. It causes us to jump back onto the pavement if we realise that a car is about to hit us, it makes us pull our hand away from a hot pipe, and it enables us to [...]
Risk Assessments
Thursday, May 16th, 2013In some areas of life we make risk assessments instinctively. Can we cross the road before that lorry gets here? Can I slip into the chemist before the traffic warden appears? Shall I just buy a parking ticket for one hour although the hairdresser may keep me a bit longer? By and large we are [...]
The Reluctant Witness
Thursday, May 16th, 2013Have you ever had someone come to you to report that they have witnessed a misdemeanour such as a theft only to say “but I don’t want to be involved”? The situation may demand that you take action yet, without the assistance of that witness, you may have no presentable evidence. Or you hear that [...]
Growing an Attendance Culture
Tuesday, April 9th, 2013Nobody can deny that the UK has an absenteeism problem. Regrettably any comparison with other European Union countries shows us in a bad light. But despite what anyone thinks, and regardless of what other employers may be doing, we certainly have the ability to reduce absenteeism in our own organisations to an acceptable level. But [...]
Any Idea?
Tuesday, April 9th, 2013Children can be really annoying. You have a complex problem to think through, you mention it in your child’s presence and he or she comes back with a stupidly simple suggestion for resolving it. What is so irritating is that the answer they give sometimes really is a good solution. This is all wrong, of [...]
Holiday Problems
Tuesday, March 26th, 2013A delegate on one of our recent courses told us that she needed a holiday to get away from holiday problems. What a pity that such a delightful experience as a holiday can cause so much grief, but it can, so let’s see if we can make life a bit easier for managers. Usually the [...]
Protecting Personal Data
Tuesday, March 26th, 2013The concept of personal data protection sometimes appears to be abused by authorities who use it as an excuse for refusing to reveal information that could embarrass them or cause them extra work, but regrettably many organisations fail to protect their employees’ data sufficiently. Every employer therefore needs to understand its responsibilities in this area [...]
Personal Career Development
Friday, February 15th, 2013Do you manage your own career? If not, does anyone? Perhaps you feel that career development is for other people, those who want to become chief executives. But this really is not so because everyone needs to be aware of where their job is going. In this rapidly changing world one thing is certain – [...]
Accident Prone Employees
Friday, February 15th, 2013We had an interesting query from a client on one of our courses who said that they had an accident-prone employee, and what should they do about him. Surprisingly, a few other people in the room said they had a similar problem, so we thought we had better explain how to handle the situation. Have [...]
The Value of Informal Warnings
Thursday, January 24th, 2013The informal warning is a most valuable management tool and also the most efficient way to give a warning to an employee. Most matters requiring discipline are resolved in this way and it has the advantage of not causing enmity between the giver and the recipient of the warning. To understand this requires us to [...]
Perking Up your Management Skills
Thursday, January 24th, 2013Do you remember the days before mobile phones, when you had to find a call box to ring home? And before e-mail when everything went by post and took at least a day to arrive? Ah, the good old days! Or were they the bad old days? Well, it really doesn’t matter because things have changed for [...]
Setting Up New Employees
Thursday, December 13th, 2012If you do not set up your new computer and printer properly, for example you just push the cables into what you hope are the right places, chances are the machine will fail to work properly and will produce rubbish. Much the same goes for new employees. If you do not set them up properly [...]
Zero Base Structuring
Thursday, December 13th, 2012Organisations are a bit like the kitchen cupboard. You start to fill the empty cupboard with stuff from the shops, all arranged neatly, but over time things get mixed up, new items are dropped at the front instead of with similar items whilst others at the back get crowded in and overlooked and passed their [...]
Christmas Presents – thank you or please?
Thursday, November 15th, 2012Not long now to Christmas. Time to think of those presents. Where’s last year’s list? We sent Aunt Mabel a present last year but did she send us one, so should we send her one this time? Difficult questions indeed, but quite superficial when compared with the issues surrounding gifts between companies. Actually these gifts, [...]
Consultants – what good are they?
Monday, October 8th, 2012OK – this article is written by a consultant, so let’s get it out of the way – “A consultant is a man who borrows your watch to tell you the time”. Now we can carry on. But hang on – that description, intended as a put down, and that consultants themselves find quite funny [...]
Leave of Absence – the here and not here
Monday, October 8th, 2012Obviously we prefer to have our employees busying away at work, and indeed if they absent themselves without good reason we take appropriate disciplinary action against them. Nevertheless people have rights to time off from work in certain circumstances, and even so we may choose to allow then more time off than this. In the [...]
Fixed Term Contracts – what use are they?
Thursday, September 13th, 2012There is a mystique about fixed term contracts – that they suggest the importance of the employee, they allow the employer to remove individuals’ employment rights, they tie employees down and so on. Well, not so. Traditionally they were used commonly to give senior staff guaranteed periods of employment, sometimes to deprive employees of their [...]
Social Responsibility – what does it mean in practice?
Thursday, September 13th, 2012We all believe in it without question, but what does it mean, and what if anything should we be doing about it? Broadly speaking it is a duty owed by a person or an organisation to another person or group of people. It defines the way we, as human beings, have to behave and inter-react [...]
Planning for the Worst
Thursday, August 2nd, 2012It may never happen of course. In all probability it won’t. But what if it does? And anyway, what is “it”? Well, therein lies the problem. Disasters do occur. We do not know what may strike us – but that should not prevent us from trying to identify possibilities and taking steps to deal with [...]
