Carolyne Wahlen I had the huge pleasure of meeting Ben Hunt-Davis (who is really tall, 6ft 6!). Ben is an Olympic gold medal winner from the Sydney 2000 games. He won, with his team, the gold medal for rowing in the men’s 8s. This is particularly relevant to me as I rowed in the Goring and Streatley … Read more
In the past few months we have been asked by 6 separate clients (different industries and locations) to help them deal with sickness absence. Before that, we hadn’t had to do any GP reports for almost a year. What is going on out there??!! The situation could be long-term sickness absences (are they ever coming … Read more
Just to let you know, that sometimes problem staff really do resign without us having to follow the long process to fire them! The employee in question was approaching the end of her maternity leave. As she normally worked at a third-party site, we informed them that she would be back on site in the … Read more
Many employers don’t like to have formal meetings, i.e. in private, with closed doors, with staff who are not performing. They feel that an informal comment at their desk or the coffee machine will be enough for the person to understand the feedback and act on it. But as this incident that we had to … Read more
I have had a great summer. It seems like the kids have been off for months! And one of the reasons that it has really felt like a holiday for me is that I have been to London to the theatre four times in the past 4 weeks! That might not seem much to you, … Read more
Over 76% of new businesses fail in the first 5 years of life. One of the major reasons for this is that once sole traders start employing staff, any number of mistakes can be made which hobble the business. These management mistakes stop it from growing and maybe even destroying it! From my 14 years … Read more
We all know that it is the others who are discriminating, we are obviously making rational decisions. However, after reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Blink – The Power of Thinking Without Thinking” on holiday, I am less convinced that it is only the others. So as someone who is in business to make money and not … Read more
Most employers think that they’re being clever by not issuing a contract of employment – what could the harm of that be? Is there even a penalty for not issuing a contract of employment? The answer is actually quite a lot of risk involved. Here is a short guide as to why you must issue … Read more
”I have been made redundant before and it is a terrible blow; redundant is a rotten word because it makes you think you are useless.” Billy Connelly Picture the scene. You’re about to make a redundancy announcement to a staff member. You are seated at your desk when there is a knock at the door. … Read more
This is a formula worked out by the CIPD to show companies that making “knee jerk” redundancies is not necessarily the easy and cheap way out of a financial bind. (n ×R) + (x ×H) + (x ×T) + ny(H + T) + Wz(P – n) Where: n = number of people made redundant R … Read more
Up your game and motivate others to a Triple Win Helen Liddar, business coach, gives us pointers on how to get the most out of our work relationships in the office. In a recent customer survey, a service was ranked ‘average’ for the routine work that it did, and ‘excellent’ whenever an urgent situation arose. … Read more
It’s an accepted “fact” of business life – women are more expensive to employ than men. But is it true? Few people like to go on the record about it – largely through fear of getting a knock on the door from politically correct vigilantes, waiting at any opportunity to strike them down for voicing … Read more
