Your employees, however, well you get on with them, are there to earn money. Never forget this. So many small business owners make the mistake of treating employees like family or buddies. This is all well and good when things are going smoothly. But what happens when a downturn in business means you have to … Read more
My dog Comet almost drowned last week. And while it was less dramatic than it sounds, it was still awful. We were walking along the towpath when we bumped into an old friend. I stopped to chat, but Comet didn’t fancy a chinwag, commencing his normal bouncing and barking that makes it clear that he … Read more
I was speaking to a company the other day and they asked a worrying question. “We’ve had an account manager on light duties since December last year because he has shoulder problems. When can we reduce his salary?” I almost fell off my chair. They had continued to pay full salary for someone only doing … Read more
Are Christmas decorations religious discrimination? No! Don’t worry, it’s not political correctness gone mad! Religious belief is protected by the Equality Act 2010. It doesn’t stop the display of Christmas decorations in the workplace. In fact, it doesn’t stop any traditional customs under religious discrimination. In any case, the vast majority of Christmas decorations, e.g. … Read more
Doing employees a favour doesn’t always work I was approached by a company to help with a situation that was baffling them. They had employed someone who wasn’t really as experienced as they would have liked, but they liked him and created a job for him. However what they also did was pay him less … Read more
Auto-enrolment? No! Auto-bankruptcy! The Government is really serious about auto-enrolment happening and you can tell because they are willing to make companies go bankrupt rather than avoid doing it! Well okay, that isn’t their stated intention, but look at the fines for not doing it. If you thought H&S fines of £20K for infringements were … Read more
Right to time off for antenatal appointments Under the new shared parental leave it is proposed to allow the husband, civil partner or partner of the pregnant women the right to unpaid time off to attend up to 2 ante-natal appointments. Action: don’t laugh when a man asks for time to go to an antenatal … Read more
Don’t do this! Recruit someone you find attractive (apparently most of us do!) Accept their word that they can do something – test them Reject them giving one of the protected characteristics as a reason (unlimited £££ tribunal claim)
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
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
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
