Recent HR News
HR Problems Page
Companion at informal warning I recently called an employee into my office to give her an informal warning, but she insisted on being accompanied by a colleague. Was she within her rights? I allowed it on this occasion. Reply The right exists only if the employee is called to a formal meeting, which this apparently [...]
Latest HR News
Do you employ agency temps and understand their new rights? Do your Christmas presents to customers and from suppliers bring you into conflict with the new Bribery Act? Do you know how to deal lawfully with employees who reach the age of 65? If you are in any way responsible for other employees and have [...]
Getting Ready for the Olympics
If you are competing, our advice is simple – just keep practising, and don’t bother with the rest of this article. But otherwise read on because although there should be a good deal to enjoy and hopefully much to celebrate, nevertheless these Olympics are likely to bring unusual problems for employers. A bit of thought [...]
Dealing with Employees who Push their Luck
Advice about dealing with bad behaviour usually addresses clear issues such as lateness, absenteeism, theft or other topics that are reasonably clear and definable. However some employees are not quite that bad, are barely over the line, are not all that bad – or whatever phrase we choose to justify our not taking action against [...]
Monthly Brain Teaser and Januarys Answer
Last month you were left with this problem: The managing director rang the payroll department and told the trainee who answered the phone that he needed by lunchtime without fail the average salary of the ten people who made up the management group. He rang off before she was able to tell him that the [...]
Latest HR News
Another new year. The same old thing for the next twelve months? How do you feel about last year? Was it good? Do you feel satisfied? Well, this is a time for resolutions, so why not make some positive ones? Actually January is a month when resolutions are made and then fade away, but why [...]
Counselling – The Listening Skill
If an employee fails in some way to perform to a required standard you need to take prompt corrective action, and you will have a disciplinary process for doing so fairly and consistently. What you do depends upon whether you find the problem is one of the employee’s conduct or capability. In other words is [...]
HR Problems Page
Searching employees Are we entitled to search employees as they leave our premises? Reply If you wish to do this you must give prior warning to all employees and give a reason. Make clear that either you will search people at random and explain how they will be selected, or that you will search only [...]
Managing Health and Safety
Health and safety really has got a bad name. We seem so tied up with its strictures, some of which seem so ridiculous, that it is becoming a favourite topic of conversation, replacing the weather. Whose fault is this? Is it the Government or the European Union who pass the laws? Or is it the [...]
Monthly Brain Teaser and Decembers Answer
For Christmas you were given this problem: A baron builds a castle on a square island and surrounds the island with a moat that in turn forms a square. The moat is 10 metres wide. An enemy decides to attack the castle by crossing the moat on long strengthened planks. Unfortunately when they arrive they [...]
Dealing with the Spectre of Redundancy
Christmas is not a time for being miserable and we can be excused for putting aside negative issues until we are well into the New Year. But employers need to be realistic, and however anxious we are to shower our employees with goodwill over the festive season, nevertheless we need to recognise that we are [...]
Christmas Problems
Christmas may well be a season of great joy and bonhomie for employees, but for the employer it can be a time of great peril. Standards tend to drop the closer one gets to the last working day. Managers may be inclined to turn a blind eye to this situation, fearing unpopularity, but in so [...]
Monthly Brainteaser and November’s answer
Last month you were given this problem: A large army of infantry was marching along roads through a country at a steady 3mph. The column was 9 miles long. A despatch rider at the rear of the column was sent with an urgent message to the commander at the front of the column. He delivered [...]
HR Problems Page
Christmas premium We have decided to keep our helpline open over the Christmas weekend. What rate must we pay the affected employees for working on Christmas Day and Boxing Day? Reply Unless there are collective agreements determining these arrangements, you are free to pay whatever the two parties agree, provided that it satisfies the National [...]
The Disappearing Employee
A frustration for any employer is the employee who just disappears. Here one day, gone the next. You hear nothing, wonder if the employee is ill, then after a few days of hearing nothing, you cease to care. So what do you do, just write him or her off the books and be ready to [...]
Monthly Brainteaser and October’s answer
Last month you were asked what the following weird sentences have in common – and which is the odd one out? If you are deaf you should file your tax return before the rainy season begins. When the sailors’ mission inducted a young female pastor, quayside services at both ports were resumed. Edmund took pickled [...]
HR Problems Page
Moonlighting We have discovered that one of our full-time employees works an evening shift at a local company. Can we stop him? Reply You can take action against him in three circumstances. First does his job with the other company contravene his contract with you? It would do so if, for example, he was in [...]
Effective Time Management
You probably have read about or have been lectured on time management techniques. Keep a log of your activities, plan your work carefully, prioritise jobs, allow for interruptions but also give yourself periods when you will not allow interruptions, review your activities at the end of the day. All good stuff, but the problem is [...]
Latest HR News
Autumn and early winter are seasons notorious for accidents. More work time is spent during hours of darkness, people feel gloomy, whatever – accident rates go up, so this is a good time to review the safety of your workplace. You may well have an active safety committee with keen safety representatives and regular inspections, [...]
Monthly Brainteaser and September’s answer
Last month I asked you think up a word, a singular noun that, if you add one letter to the end, becomes plural and, if you add the same letter to the end again, becomes singular again. I came up with: Prince - princes - princess. How about you? Now, for this month, what do [...]
