'Tis the season to be working?

Hang on I think I have that wrong - isn't it meant to be the season to be jolly or to rest? One of the challenges of working for yourself is that your boss can be a real *****!

So why do we do it to ourselves? One of the challenges is the level of uncertainty - where is the next dollar coming from?  No one knows the business as well or cares about it as you do. You can save money if you do it yourself.  But what are the risks with this approach? Well believe it or not we are not experts in everything and often take longer or have a more emotional view when making tough decisions.

It is critical that you work out your strengths and maximise your time in these areas of your business and seek assistance in all other areas. That does not mean that you ignore these areas; you should have oversight of them and still make critical decisions that impact your decision. That said, it is much quicker to brief, review and approve than to research, draft, learn, redraft, get pulled into something else for a couple of days,  implement and  measure and still not being quite sure whether you fully understand the nuances of the subject matter!

I challenge you to write down everything that you do at the moment over a week, yes everything and allocate a time to it. Once you have completed this, leave it be for a day or two and then come back to it; you will have discovered even more tasks that you had forgotten. How do you ever sleep, eat or play?! The next step is to group similar tasks into categories such as social media, finance, technology build or business development.

Now what can you outsource to free you up to focus on either your areas of strength or the critical areas of your business which you should not outsource? Please let me know you what you decide so that you can focus on what really matters - your business!

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

2013 bring it on!

So, as we have just recently said goodbye to 2012 and welcomed in 2013, I thought it was a good opportunity to reflect over the summer holiday on our first year and what we wanted from our second year of operation.

I suspect that many businesses do not take the time to reflect; they are so focused on the ‘doing’ that they miss the opportunity to change, redirect and enhance their businesses - thereby potentially missing opportunities to maximise productivity and profitability. Businesses are constantly evolving as a result of the economic environment, legal changes & the employee mix, to name just a few and I feel that those that lack the ability to evolve, to adapt and to change quickly, will struggle and many will fail. Some businesses may also develop a certain level of false comfort - think Kodak, Arthur Anderson and Goldman Sachs and this reticence can be lethal.

We started the New Year with a review of our business plan, originally finalised in Dec 2010. It was a fascinating and sometimes funny experience to review our original forecasts and assumptions. For example, we were 49% off our revenue forecast largely due to the delay in launching our website, although we have still been profitable just on a smaller scale. Let’s face it entrepreneurs are optimists by nature - otherwise we would never attempt a start up.

We reviewed and changed our Vision which was too long - so much so, that even I could not remember it. Imagine, if I can’t remember it, how can our team or our clients possibly do so? It was reaffirming to see that we had achieved a lot of our original goals but we needed to adjust our prices and focus on getting costs down.

We then set about developing our Business Plan for 2013; this was much easier with a year of experience under our belt. It was great for Mark and I to, in a sense, 'get on the same page’ - which assists with the day-to-day operations of the business when you are busy. So what are our three main goals in 2013?

1.       Systemisation

2.      Consolidation

3.      Growth

This will help us, in the flurry of activity, to stay focused on the bigger goals for Employee Matters this year. We wish you and your business every success in 2013! 
 

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

 

What a year it was!

So as 2012 draws to a close and Employee Matters celebrates its first year in business I thought that this is a great time to both reflect on the year and also thank our clients for their support.

We started our client-facing work in earnest in Feb 2012 with one client - TP3, but as the saying goes 'it only takes one'. Since then we have grown our client base to over 25 and they are in industries such as IT, medical, banking & finance, corporate travel, environmental & PR - but they all are SMEs who want to be confident that they are legally compliant and to get more out of their employees.

Our services have included recruitment, with one client saving $105k across four senior placements, using our recruitment service versus using a recruitment agency. We have helped our clients exit non-performing employees without being sued; we have worked on HR strategies to prepare a client's employee for exit; we have analysed employee cost impacts for a transfer of business. We have helped clients get the basics right such as position descriptions, employment contracts and visas, maximising productivity and engagement. We have mediated on employee conflicts and coached for performance improvement. We estimate we have saved our clients collectively over $250k in fines for breaches, legal fees and lost productivity.

So how have we managed to do this - well first and foremost we have a great team including a Recruitment Manager, 9 HR Partners and 2 Operations Assistants. Some of the team have worked for me before but many are new and they took a leap of faith in joining a start-up and sharing Mark's and my vision for Employee Matters and for our clients. This team are highly experienced practitioners, commercially savvy and practical when it comes to HR application for SMEs.

We have a great client base and many of them are coming back for more assistance. So, besides the offering we can provide, the great team and clients, why else are we growing? We believe that it is because of our values:

·        Authenticity in approach encouraging engagement and driving success internally and with our clients

·        Knowledgeable and client-focused. Experts in the field whose opinions are highly valued

·        Balancing Strategy and Commerciality for our clients and ourselves

·        Sustain the excitement through versatility and the variety and quality of work

·        Long term partnerships built upon trust, mutual respect and understanding

So to our clients - we thank you for being a very important part of getting Employee Matters started and wish you and your teams a very merry Christmas and a restful break with family and friends. We hope that you have a fantastic 2013, with an engaged team, growth and increased profitability. We look forward to helping you further in 2013 to achieve your business strategy.

Goodbye 2012 and bring on 2013!!!

 

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

School holidays - pleasure or pain?

For many of us, these times of the year are not relaxing - what on earth do we do with the children during the school holidays? The stress and expense of child care or organising activities to keep our young ones amused. We still have to work full-time and that deadline is still looming...

So what can employers do to support their employees during this stressful time? 'Nothing!' You may say but there are a number of possible answers; remember you are a small business you have the ability to be flexible and innovative:

·         Talk to your impacted employees to ask how they are managing and if you can be of help. Position this as a ‘win win’ situation with increased flexibility aimed at maximum productivity

·         Can they work shorter hours, to coincide with holiday care programs start and finish times? Another option might be allowing employees to work from home, where possible, work a shorter year with pro rata pay. Maybe you can utilise a time in lieu program to trade off hours during school holidays

·         Build consensus and agreement about what might be possible and look to document your agreement and implement a tracking system to record any hours owing. Check your Modern Award to confirm that your initiative is legal

The reality is that society and the workplace both need to recognise that enabling working parents to work successfully has huge mutual benefits at their place of work. What are these likely benefits?

Retention- retaining valued employees

Attracting talent - winning the war for talent, people will want to work for you and you can have a better choice of applicants.  This will improve your brand, becoming an employer of choice

Increasing engagement- the organisations with higher levels of engagement have higher levels of profit and productivity and reducing stress – your ‘duty of care’ as employer now covers managing the stress levels of your employees to a reasonable level

Reduction in absenteeism – this approach is likely to reduce unplanned absenteeism and enable you to plan for the ebb and flow of your workforce

It is worth noting that in businesses across Australia, other than those in hospitality and tourism, experience a reduction in productivity across the school holidays with large numbers of employees taking annual leave at this time. I have found that those employers who provide more flexible working conditions have very grateful, engaged and very hard working employees.

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

Ho, Ho, Ho! Five ways to protect against a Sexual Harassment complaint!

We have hit the ‘silly season’ and there is a very good reason that it is called just that. We typically eat, drink and party more enthusiastically than at any other time of the year. I had a friend, that you would describe as having ‘hollow legs’ when it came to alcohol consumption; he said it was his least favourite time to drink, as people who shouldn’t - do!  There is much to be said for this, as most of us have done or said something that they wished they hadn’t, after ‘one too many’. Remember too; it is often paid for by the company, so people see it as even more a reason to over indulge. 

Whilst I am well aware that times have changed drastically, still many people are not; I can clearly remember working for a stockbroker very early in my career, being asked at the interview “are you offended by rude jokes or foul language?” I answered “no” and got the job and after working there for a couple of years, saw it all and more!  It was like that then - it isn't now.

The main issue here is that the office Christmas party, regardless of being held out of the normal place of work, is still considered an extension of the workplace: - that’s right, this is work, real work and it needs to be treated that way.

Here are five actions to ensure that your employees behave at their office Christmas party and that everyone is happy to see each other the next day at work:

Communicate to employees prior to the Christmas party event - via email and in person, about your expectations around behaviour; specifically what is acceptable and what is unacceptable.

Develop & uphold a Sexual Harassment Policy that all employees are aware of. All organisations should have a Sexual Harassment Policy to be compliant with FWA legislation.  But beware: - if you have a policy you need to follow it consistently. There is no defence to having a policy and not adhering to it completely.

Undertake Sexual Harassment training annually and, most importantly, have your employees confirm and sign that they have attended and understood the content of that training. If your organisation is taken to court regarding a complaint and you can show that you had done your utmost to appropriately educate your employees, you will reduce your risk & the possible amount of compensation.

Encourage intervention – where appropriate at the Christmas party from fellow employees, if events are getting out of hand. Encourage your team members to look out for one another and not stand by ineffectively. If someone should be assisted into a cab a little early to avoid embarrassment or to avoid an escalation of inappropriate behaviour, so be it. 

Quickly conduct a proper investigation if there is an informal or formal complaint and resolve the situation as quickly as possible. If there has been an incident, it can often be dealt with quickly & quietly to the satisfaction of all parties internally. There are very specific rules around complaints and complaint handling you should be across.

I have seen, in my career, many examples of companies losing quality employees who chose to resign quietly, rather than raise a complaint because they felt that they would not be taken seriously or that the culture of the company actively condoned or acquiesced to inappropriate behaviour, innuendo, inappropriate jokes, and unwanted advances or touching.

These simple steps will help you ‘navigate’ the silly season and help to have all of your employees feel that they ‘matter’ to you.

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd a HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more profitable. Their offering includes Recruitment, Training, Coaching, HR Management & Exit Management - find them at www.employeematters.com.au

Damage Control

There has been so much in the press about it recently, think Google, Qantas, Rupert Murdoch and GoDaddy; however it seems that businesses are still willing to take the risk. What am I talking about? Social Media -the benefits can be immense, in particular for small businesses who know that, in the words of James Tuckerman, ‘it has never been easier to own the eyeballs’.  Social Media is a very cost effective way to advertise your business and engage and interact with both your current and prospective clients.

 The risks however are just as great and there are a couple of reasons for this:

1.       Education -employees don’t fully understand how it works or how to protect themselves

2.      Speed - the speed and geographic spread at which a blunder spreads virally

3.      Ease of access – employees can access it 24/7 from phone, iPad, desktop

4.      Lack of surveillance – no ability to review and monitor employee activity

5.      Legislation - is still catching up with the technological advances of social media

So I thought that we might try something different with the blog this week to see how great the risk is to the SME market? Please take a second to complete this checklist to find out what your Social Media risk is and how to protect your business!

http://employeematters.wufoo.com/forms/z7x3p9/

Next week, I will let you know how your business compares with others in your industry segment and more importantly how to protect your business and reputation.

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management. – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

 

 

 

The Ten Commandments for a successful HR People Strategy

 

People often ask me, if I could get one thing right around my people strategy, what would it be? Unfortunately, there is not one strategy that fixes everything. For example, I had a client that I initially went in to one day a week, to help with the HR for a period of six months; this business has eleven permanent employees and six contractors. We were still there two years later and the reason for this is that the Managing Director believes his business was running more efficiently and productively with this proactive focus on the people aspect. So what are the keys to success?

1.       Focus on the People - People are critical to the success of your business and you should never underestimate how much having the best team working with you can impact your results. Ensure that your people know both the Vision, Mission & Core Values of the business and that you regularly celebrate their successes. Communicate, communicate, communicate and invest time in managing your team

2.      Adverse Action - This is where an employee can bring an Adverse Action claim where a workplace right has been breached or is threatened to be breached. Adverse action is the ‘sleeping assassin’ and it is critical that you understand this legislation and the potential implications for your business so that you can protect against such claims. The onus of proof is reversed, that is, it is deemed that you are guilty until you prove you and your company innocent. Claims could be brought around discrimination, refusing to offer employment or injuring an employee.  Claims can be brought within 6 years and payouts are uncapped

3.      Policy Manuals - The benefits are that everyone knows the rules and there is a consistency of application however, the risk is compliance; that if you have a Policy you must follow the policy at all times. If an employee was to bring a complaint to the Fair Work Ombudsman you would need to show that you have followed your policy correctly.

4.      Employment Contracts - You need to ensure that your employment contracts are reviewed and updated every two years, especially if there is a change in legislation. I would encourage you to ensure that you are protected around intellectual property, confidentiality and client and employee-poaching. Remember that any new employee must be sent a copy of the Fair Work Information Statement when they start otherwise you are in breach of the Fair Work Act

5.      Engagement -In the Australian workplace at the moment 63% of employees are Not Engaged, that is not happy and they just do their job; 20% are disengaged which means not sufficiently challenged - funnily enough these are usually the really smart people.  The sad thing is that only 17% of employees are engaged; these people are happy and love their job!  These employees have much fewer health risks and possibly take lower levels of personal leave. The trick here is to survey your people regularly to understand your team’s Engagement Factor and then develop an action plan to improve Engagement. Just an increase of a couple of percentage points can have an incrementally positive effect to your bottom line

6.      Accountability - It is very important that your team are accountable for their work and that you manage their performance both informally and formally. From a formal Performance Appraisal perspective, this does not have to be a complicated or convoluted process. It can be as simple as meeting twice a year to discuss three things; What they do well? What they need to focus on?; Where do they want to go? Never forget the power of a simple ‘Well done George your work on that project was superb’. This is hugely motivating to team members

7.      Terminations - This is an area that managers typically avoid; they know who their poor performers are but are reticent to actively manage performance, let alone terminate someone who is a long term non-performer. This also has a detrimental effect on other team members who end up carrying the load. By all means seek advice about how to terminate appropriately but small businesses, or any business for that matter, cannot afford to retain non-performers

8.      Recruitment - In Australia, the current unemployment rate is 5.2% - thus it is a tight applicant market and you need to be targeting the passive candidate who is not actively looking for a job. You need a very proactive recruiter who knows your business and can tap into social media such as LinkedIn to find the perfect new employee

9.     Coaching for Performance - Investing in a coach to increase employee performance and ultimately create high performing teams is a cost-effective way to increase productivity. In the example I mentioned at the beginning of the article, coaching was the main tool used to improve teamwork, customer service and individual performance

10.  Business Plan - What are your 1 year and 5 year business plans and are you reviewing and actively working to these goals? Or are they documents that you wrote years ago and haven’t looked at since. Or, for that matter, you have not written as yet. I have heard it said that the difference between a millionaire and a billionaire is that the millionaire reviews their goals once a day and the billionaire reviews them twice a day.  You need to remain focused on the goals of the business

So make improving your HR People Strategy one of your Top 5 goals for FY 2012 and see the results flow on from this. Exceed your expectations; excite and engage your employees so they help your business to excel!

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au