Something unbelievable happened when I placed this advert
I placed an advert the other day.
It was in my local newsletter, and the idea was that we’d make the local community around our office a little bit more aware of who we are and what we do.
So I emailed the guys at the local newsletter, explained that I did HR and employment law and asked what space they had in the next issue.
They replied saying, “No problem”, but they had a quick question first:
“Carolyne, what is HR, and what is employment law? What do you actually do?”
I’m serious. This isn’t a thinly-veiled made-up story so that I could tell you what I do (although I am going to do that, get ready). A business owner, a person who employs staff, didn’t have a clue what HR – and even employment law – was.
Let’s hope he never has a problem with staff or any issue with anything to do with employment because if so, he’s almost certainly toast.
You see, if you employ even ONE member of staff, you’re bound by employment law.
“Employment law” basically refers to all the rules regarding sickness, holidays, dismissal, disciplinary procedures, discrimination, etc., that you HAVE to adhere to if you don’t want to end up in a tribunal.
So you can kind of see why it’s madness for ANY business that employs ANY staff members not to know what it is.
But loads don’t.
When I started Gap HR in 2003, I discovered that A LOT of businesses were like this. They just didn’t have a clue. It was almost like the letters “H” and “R” weren’t part of their vocabulary.
Thankfully, over the years, we’ve been able to help more and more organisations to engage with HR and employment law, and these days we work with over 250 businesses and private member golf clubs.
So that’s what I do! It certainly was an eye-opener for the guys at my newsletter, but hopefully not quite so much for you!
