Karen Dolan, Author at Karen HRM Limited

15Dec

Balancing Cheer and Compliance – An Employers Guide To Christmas

Ah, the much-anticipated office Christmas party—a yearly highlight for many people. It’s a chance to unwind, dance, and enjoy some complimentary drinks, a well-deserved reward for a year of dedicated service.

However, for employers, these Christmas Parties come with their fair share of risks, and it falls on HR to comprehend and address them. From employees indulging a bit too much and making regrettable decisions to unauthorized plus ones and allegations of inappropriate behaviour between colleagues. the potential pitfalls can make HR departments and employers understandably uneasy. But don’t worry, with the right set of policies and some clear communication, managing these events can be a smoother experience.

Why Do You Need Christmas Party Policies?

Without a suitable set of policies in place, behaviour at the office Christmas party can have some pretty major repercussions. According to UK law, employers have responsibility for their employees’ actions and safety outside the usual working environment and hours. Essentially, any social event organised by the employer is considered an ‘extension of the workplace,’ treating it akin to a regular workday. Hence, having a clear policy framework becomes crucial.

What Your Employees Need To Know

Before the Christmas party starts, you need to ensure you’ve communicated your expectations with your employees. Even if you don’t have a formal policy to refer to, an email with the ground rules surrounding expected behaviour will go a long way. This communication should cover 5 key areas:

Christmas party

Employee Obligations: Employees are not obligated to attend your annual Christmas party, and you should make it known that their presence is completely voluntary. There will be people who don’t want to go, or who won’t participate for religious reasons. Those who choose to participate have a duty to take reasonable care of their own and others’ health and safety, especially in a festive setting where alcohol is involved.
Consumption of Alcohol: Speaking of alcohol, you should remind your employees and their guests that alcohol should be consumed in moderation. We all know that Christmas can be seen as a time of excess but make it clear that just because the company is providing alcohol, it is not a reason or license to drink excessively on company time.
Unacceptable Behaviour: We all hope our employees will be on their best behaviour during the work Christmas party, but sadly that won’t always be the case. So, you need to state specifically that any unacceptable behaviour or improper conduct will not be tolerated, and what the repercussions could be if anything should happen. Make it crystal clear that any issues arising during a Christmas party will be treated as a serious disciplinary matter, and this includes any actions towards co-workers, guests, or venue staff. A few examples of unacceptable behaviour we have helped businesses deal with in the past include:
- Excessive drunkenness
- The use of illegal drugs or substances
- Unlawful or inappropriate discrimination or harassment
- Violence, like fighting or aggressive behaviour, verbal abuse or inappropriate language.

Getting Home: Remind all employees that drink-driving will not be tolerated, so if they are planning to drink, they need to have a safe way to get home at the end of the event. If your party is being held at a hotel, you may opt to provide rooms for your team overnight or provide a discounted rate. If not, you might prefer organising group transport or giving out the details of the local taxi company.
The Day After: If your Christmas party happens to be on a weekday (some are), then you should remind your employees that they are expected to be in work the next day, in a condition to do their normal duties. Hangovers are not an acceptable reason to take a sick day, especially after a work event. Remind employees that all of the normal policies and procedures of the workplace still apply to the event, including absence procedures.

A Note To Employers

Finally, once the party itself is done, employers may have some aftermath to deal with. In an ideal World there would be none, but there is always the chance that someone, either an employee, a guest or even the venue, makes a complaint. If this does happen, you mustn’t ignore it. All complaints need to be taken seriously, and if you need to, seek advice from an HR professional who can support you. Luckily, at Karen HRM we do just that! So if you’re not sure where to turn, you can always give us a call.

But it’s important to remember to balance your approach. A lot of businesses who have never thrown a company Christmas Party before will go very ‘safe’ and try to control every single element and that can end up sucking the fun out of the party entirely. As an employer it is simply your job to remind employees of these rules and follow up with any issues – not to micro-manage each employee’s behaviour during the party. Finding the balance between relaxing and having fun, and ensuring you meet your obligations as an employer can take time, but it is doable. If you’re not sure where to start, or you just want some information and support planning your Christmas party communications, we would love to help. Just get in touch with the team at Karen HRM today for your free consultation.

16Nov

The Kubler-Ross Change Model And How It Affects Your Business

You might not think so, but there’s a lot of theory that goes into HR. It’s the science of understanding and managing people and processes, which means we need a good understanding of psychology to be successful. Just one of the models we use is something called the Kubler-Ross model, which is all about change and transition. It’s essential knowledge when hiring new employees or when employees change roles or when your business is going through restructure or any type of change, and we want to share some of it with you today.

Dealing With Change

As people, we struggle with change. Even if you embrace it, deep down there’s a psychological drive to avoid change where possible. That’s the primitive part of your brain – the one that thinks you’re a caveman and wants to stop you from eating new berries in case they kill you.

That’s not really an issue in the modern world, but our brain has held onto those processes for thousands of years. Which means that when we go through a period of change, we go through a process to get past that primitive programming. Think about the last time you changed jobs, moved house, or even switched service provider. What were some of the thoughts and emotions you went through? You probably started by denying that there was a problem, putting off dealing with the issue until you absolutely had to. Then you might have been sad and regretted your decision, or even angry at the situation, or the solution to it. But after a while you start to accept it, and move forward with this new normal.

All of that is completely normal for anyone going through a change, and then a transition in their life. And what bigger transition is there than starting a new job? That’s where the Kubler-Ross Model comes in. Also known as the Transition Curve, it’s a model to help us understand the psychological journey undertaken at a time of change.

But why is all of this relevant? Well, it’s because when an employee starts a new job, it is a period of great change for both the employee and the employer. It might not be a business restructure or a drastic change for the business, but for a new employee it is a life-changing time, and they are going to go through this cycle with their new role.

What Is The Kubler-Ross Model?

In 1960, a woman called Elisabeth Kubler-Ross developed a theory to explain the grieving process. You might be familiar with it as ‘the stages of grief.’ Kubler-Ross’s 5 stages – denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance – have been adapted in many different ways over the years, and this general model has since been widely used as a method that can help us understand reactions to change.

In fact, in the 1980s the Change Curve (as it had become known) was a firm fixture in change management circles, despite being seldom implemented. The curve, and its associated emotions, can be used to predict how performance is likely to be affected by the announcement and subsequent implementation of a significant change. Every iteration is consistent in following the same core emotions, which are often grouped into 3 distinct transitional stages.

Stage 1 – Shock And Denial

The first reaction to change is often shock. This initial shock, while frequently short-lived, can result in a temporary slowdown and loss of productivity. Performance tends to dip, and individuals who are normally clear and decisive may seek more guidance and reassurance. This shock is often due to:

Lack of information
Fear of the unknown
Fear of looking stupid or doing something wrong

As a response to shock, it’s common for individuals to then experience denial. Here, the focus tends to remain firmly in the past and how things used to be. There is likely to be a sentiment of ‘everything was ok before’. This is also felt in response to reality not meeting expectations and/or a response to circumstances that fall short of what was expected. Other common feelings include:

A desire to return to the comfort of the prior status quo
Feeling threatened
Fear of failure

Individuals who have not experienced significant change before may be particularly affected at this stage, and it’s common for those affected in this way to convince themselves that the change won’t happen, or that if it does, it won’t affect them. Performance often returns to the levels seen before the dip experienced during the initial shock. They then tend to carry on as they always have, and may deny having received communication about the changes, or make excuses to avoid taking part in forward planning.

Stage 2 – Anger And Depression

After the feelings of shock and denial have been processed, the next stage is anger, and this can be difficult for a business manager to deal with. Focussing the blame on someone or something allows a continuation of the denial by providing another focus for the fears and anxieties that the change is causing. Common feelings include:

- - Suspicion
Scepticism
Frustration

The lowest point of the Change Curve comes when anger wears off, and the realisation that the change is genuine hits. This is when morale is at its lowest, when self-doubt is present and anxiety levels peak. Feelings during this stage can be hard to express. This period can also be associated with:

Apathy
Isolation
Remoteness

At this point, performance is at its lowest. Individuals may continue to perform tasks in the same way as before, even if this is no longer what’s required. Some people will be reassured that they are experiencing the same feelings as others, and this is when providing managers, teams and individuals with information about the Change Curve is valuable, as it underlines that the emotions are shared. From here they can help develop a more stable platform to move into the final stage.

Stage 3 – Acceptance And Integration

This phase brings a more optimistic and enthusiastic attitude. Individuals accept that change is inevitable and begin to work with the changes rather than against them. Now come thoughts of:

Exciting new opportunities
Relief that the change has been survived
Impatience for the change to be complete

The final steps involve integration. The focus is firmly on the future and there is a sense that real progress can be made. By the time everyone reaches this stage, the changed situation has firmly replaced the old and become the new status quo. This involves feelings of:

Acceptance
Hope
Trust

During the early part of this stage, energy and productivity may remain low. However, the new attitude will be one of discovery. It brings questions about possibilities and opportunities.

This theory has been generally accepted as the standard for workplace transition theory. We believe that theory can be further explored where other changes happen outside of the job transition process, for example, a new job can also create new travel arrangements, bring new people and it may include new childcare arrangements or a house move. All in all, it’s a lot to handle at once, and so you as an employer need to understand what your employees are going through.

As a people leader, if you understand how you feel when going through change it will help you recognise how your staff are feeling. If you’re facing some issues with new employees, or your business is going through a period of change and would like some guidance, please get in touch with the team today to book your free, no-obligation consultation.

22Oct

Bad Company Culture (And How To Fix It)

Welcome back for part 2 of our series on what company culture is, If you haven’t read part 1 yet, click here to catch up. Don’t worry, we’ll wait! In Part 2 we will talk about some of the most common warning signs you might see if you have a bad company culture, as well as some of the steps you can take to improve it.

The Warning Signs

One of the biggest issues faced by small businesses is being able to identify what their corporate culture is, and whether it’s contributing to the performance problems they are experiencing. After all, company culture isn’t always to blame for bad performance! So here are a few warning signs that you may be dealing with a negative company culture.

Unmotivated employees: If you suddenly find yourself constantly dealing with unmotivated employees, you should be taking a good look at the corporate culture of your business. Employees who are present but not engaged in their work, or who don’t see the point or benefit of their tasks is one of the clearest warning signs of bad corporate culture.

Workforce anxiety: Usually high-performing employees now delivering sub-par results, or asking a lot of questions and seeking reassurance can be a sign that something is amiss. Unclear vision, poor employee development programmes and miscommunication from management make this one of the factors in bad corporate culture, and results in unmotivated and uncertain employees.

High employee turnover: If you’re constantly losing employees and needing to hire replacements, this is the biggest red flag for negative company culture. While some larger corporations see high turnover as part of their business model, a smaller business is always having to hire for the same position then alarm bells should be ringing.

Being all things to all people: Having a few different types of tasks to do within your job role is perfectly normal. But having one person do the roles of several people can lead to a seriously bad feeling in your business. It causes burnout and frustration, and it shows you don’t recognise individual strengths, or know how to delegate.

Failing to meet deadlines: Every good business has goals, and good managers will set goals, tasks and deadlines for their team to meet. If your projects are always coming in late, then you have a serious problem. Often the root of the issue is poor communication and collaboration, both of which can be resolved by management taking a more accurate role in the process, and ensuring everyone is on the same page.

The signs of a bad company culture aren’t always complaining employees or KPIs not being met. As a business owner and manager, it’s your job to keep an eye out for the signs that something is wrong and address it before it has time to seep into your company culture and become a normal thing.

What to do About Company Culture Problems

Learn how to motivate your employees: Engaged and motivated employees are the lifeblood of any business, and the building blocks for your company culture. But it’s management’s job to motivate them effectively and create a positive environment, which often means more than just opening the company wallet. Here are 4 ways you can motivate your employees that have nothing to do with money.

Set SMART goals: Setting goals is a crucial part of any form of improvement or change. Setting SMART goals is a great way to stay on track and make sure you’re actually making progress. You can find out more about SMART goals and how to set them here.

Conduct effective performance reviews: It’s important to understand what the role of performance reviews actually is in your business to ensure management are conducting them effectively. This will make them a more productive experience for the managers and the employees, as well as provide realistic goals and feedback. For tips on how to improve your performance reviews, click here.

Be proactive: One of the main reasons so many businesses find themselves in HR trouble is that they wait until problems happen before they act. In this case, the focus is on maintaining the status quo, rather than making any meaningful improvements. A proactive HR approach means you can prioritise employee development and foster a positive company culture. To read more about that, click here.

And if you need support at any point during the process, we are here to help.

At Karen HRM, we help business owners and managers just like you to understand your unique company culture, as well as how to fix any underlying problems and create a positive, thriving company for the future. If you aren’t sure if your employees are happy, we’d love to help. Contact one of our team today, and book in your free consultation to help improve your company culture.

11Oct

What Is Company Culture, And Why Does It Matter?

What separates the mediocre businesses from the great businesses? What makes a customer actively choose your business over competitors time and time again?

The answer is simple – it’s a combination of engaged employees and fantastic company culture. Out of everything you can do, those two things can truly define your business performance and commercial success – both good and bad.

But why is that? What does the culture of a company mean, and does it really make such a huge difference? As outsourced HR managers who help business owners with all of their HR needs, we wanted to share our thoughts on its importance.

What Is Company Culture?

Company Culture is essentially the way an organisation does things. But this isn’t about policies and procedures, or any of the technical know-how. It is more about the values, behaviours, attitudes, and approaches that make each workplace unique. It’s rooted in the organisational goals, strategies and structures, customers, and involvement in the greater community. So, while two companies could provide the same products or services, no two would ever have the same company culture.

It’s also how it feels to work in the business and can be the difference between a good job and a bad one for candidates in the recruitment process. Put simply, it’s the glue that pulls all employees in the organisation together in search of one common goal, and it can have a huge impact on employee retention and recruitment, as well as performance. Most businesses try to summarise their company culture in a few words. A few examples could be:

Transparent
Inclusive
Collaborative
Nurturing
Progressive
Connected

But of course, each company is different! What do you think your company culture could be summed up as? If you’re not sure, you can always contact us here to find out more on how we can help you improve your company culture.

How Does Company Culture Impact Performance?

Research has shown time and time again that employee engagement rates are very closely linked to the culture within a company. Beyond that, businesses with good company cultures tend to have more engaged and satisfied employees, which in turn means an improvement in overall performance.

This doesn’t just form overnight. It usually starts with the business founders, who impose their beliefs, values, and assumptions onto the fledgling business, and onto their employees. As the company grows, those cultural elements become shared, and form the continuing culture of the organisation. This is one of the reasons no two companies are the same, and why many candidates will cite ‘I just didn’t fit in’ when they leave a job – because the company’s culture and values don’t tally with their own.

Workplace culture very much sets the tone for employee engagement and retention within your business. Once they have become part of the business, good company culture is what encourages those ‘best of class’ employees to stay with the business, decreasing turnover and improving profitability. Your company culture also has an impact on your ability to innovate as a business, how efficiently you work and how productive your employees are. It also creates a better customer experience, with happy and productive employees providing better service and building that sense of community that both customers and employees enjoy.

The interesting thing is that larger companies may end up with multiple cultures. A study into the organisational culture of the NHS done by Russell Mannion (Professor of Health Systems) found that the culture was far from uniform or coherent. Instead, working groups looked for and developed commonalities, with some only being prominent in some areas of the organisation. This meant that subtly different cultures could emerge with different occupational or professional groups within the same organisation. Moving away from the NHS, we often see this with businesses that have one head office and regional satellite offices. Each office tends to develop its own unique way of operating, which may be slightly different to other offices in the same group. This isn’t a bad thing! In fact, it actually allows each office to be productive and enhance performance in its own way.

Need Some HR Support?

That’s all we have time for in this post, but stay tuned for part 2, where we examine the warning signs of a bad company culture, and what you can do to improve it. And if you need any support to understand and manage your own company culture, we’re here to help.

20Sep

What To Include in Your Employee Handbook For 2024

What Is An Employee Handbook, And Why Is It Important?

As an employer, you have a lot of things to keep on top of. There are so many obligations to keep, and things to make your employees aware. That’s why your employee handbook is one of the most essential tools you have at your disposal. If it’s well put together, this little booklet can save you a lot of time answering the same questions over and over again and provide you with some protection should things start to go wrong. It’s your opportunity to put all your company policies, practices, procedures, and employee benefits in one place. This is the best way for you to effectively communicate what your employees should expect from you, and what you in turn should expect from them.

But if you’ve never done it, you might not know how to write an employee handbook. Or what to include in it. While it might be tempting to go to one of those free sites and download an employee handbook template, the reality is your handbook needs to be tailored to your business and your approach. So where do you start?

In this blog, we’re going to cover what to include in your employee handbook, and how to write one.

General Employment Information

This is the first section and it’s all about covering the basics. Remember that your employee handbook is generic- which means everyone will get one – so here you should include any of the policies that apply to all employees equally. Save specifics for the contracts. Make sure you lay out the basic policies around:

Employment eligibility
Job classifications
Employee referrals
Records
Job postings
Termination and resignation procedures
Transfers
Relocation
Union information (if you have one)
Grievance processes

If your policies are too long, you can write a detailed summary for the handbook with a link to where they can find the full policy.

Standards of Conduct

This is an incredibly important element to include, and it’s probably the one you will refer back to most often. It covers all aspects of how you expect employees to behave. At work, to their superiors, around colleagues, and even while wearing their uniform. Any situation in which your employees are representing your business. This should include:

Dress codes
Telephone and computer user rules
Remote working standards
Smoking policies (e.g. staff must cover all company logos whilst smoking)
General behavioural expectations

Working Schedules

This one confuses some people because each employee will have their own individual working schedule. But within this employee handbook section, you’re merely highlighting policies around those schedules. For example, details on how overtime works at your company, including how it’s allocated and paid. Any options you offer for flexible or remote working (more important now than ever), and what the policies around it are. You should also lay out your policies regarding attendance, punctuality, and reporting absences – along with any consequences there may be for going against those policies.

Leave Policies

Leave and leaving policies for your employees should be carefully documented. There are some types of leave you are required to provide by law, and you are required to give details of these here. On top of that, there are other leave policies you might want to implement, for example, extended maternity or paternity leave. So, make sure you include your policies on:

Statutory holiday
Bereavement leave
Emergency leave
Sick leave
Maternity and paternity leave
Jury duty
Military leave

Details should include timescales available, what pay is offered (if any), and any requirements that employees might need to meet for them. For example, to claim sick leave you might require a sick note from a doctor.

Termination Policies

Alongside temporary leave policies (above), you need to detail the process and policies around when employees wish to leave, or if you need to terminate them. Here you should let employees know how much notice they are required to give you if they want to leave the company, what format that notice should take and who it should be given to. It should also explain what the termination policies are for your company, and how much notice you need to give employees in each scenario. You may have touched on this in the general employment information section, but you can expand on it here.

Here’s a guide to help with ‘Dealing with Disciplinaries’.

Anti-Discrimination Policies

One of your legal obligations as an employer is to comply with anti-discrimination regulations. Here, explain what your obligations are, what they mean, and what you’re doing to meet them. You should also be explaining what you expect from your employees, and how they should behave while employed by your company. This is also the place you should explain what the consequences are of breaking these rules, and how employees can report something they see. It’s also a good place to talk about specific anti-discrimination policies, including:

Sexual harassment
Affirmative action
Diversity and inclusion

And any other policies you may wish to include.

Benefits

If your business provides any company-wide benefits, this is also a great place to include them. For example, if you provide insurance, private medical care, pensions, commission-based bonuses, gym memberships or anything else, include details on what it is and how to access it here.

This can be particularly useful for companies who offer a ‘pick and choose’ style of benefits, which can be confusing to use, and this gives employees a reference point. If you have specific benefits that are only for certain employees, those should not be included here, but in their individual contracts.

How Can We Help?

Does all of that sound a bit overwhelming? Don’t worry – we understand that! At Karen HRM we specialise in helping employers understand their obligations and making it easy to get them right. We provide expert advice and support in creating employee resources, including employee handbooks, that protect your company, your reputation, and your employees.

If you have any questions or want to see some employee handbook examples, just get in touch with the team today.

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29Aug

Top Tips for Effective Employee Onboarding

Onboarding employees is an important part of the hiring process. When you’re hiring a new employee for your business, you might think that finding the right person is the hardest part. But in reality, recruitment is half the battle. Once you’ve found that person and got them on board, your biggest challenge is going to be keeping them there.

According to researchers, half of all workers will leave a new job within the first 120 days, and half of all external senior position hires will leave within the first 18 months.

Hiring new employees is expensive, and the time and energy you spend training them is wasted if they leave after a few months. So, how do you make sure your new employees stay with you for the long term? The trick is an effective onboarding process.

What Is Employee Onboarding?

Onboarding is the process of bringing a new employee into the workplace. It covers getting them settled in on their first day, training them and integrating them into the daily routine of your business.

Many business owners look at this and think that employee onboarding can be done in a day – get them set up and started, job done. But that’s not the case. The onboarding process is more than just new hire orientation. It covers how you welcome your new hires, the support network you put in place for them, how you train them, management, and mentorship in those crucial 100 first days, how you communicate and measure performance, and how you engage them in the values of your business and their work.

In other words, effective employee onboarding is an ongoing process and something that needs your care and attention at every stage. The average onboarding process is between 3 and 6 months, and at the end, your new employee will be completely settled and working as part of the well-oiled machine of your business. At this point, you can transition them seamlessly into the performance management cycle.

Why Is New Starter Onboarding Important?

In a word? Retention. Employers who engage in onboarding and develop a process for not only bringing new employees into the business but supporting them as they settle in as well will see:

53% of their new hires will stay with them for at least 3 years.
Significantly reducing employee turnover.
An effective onboarding process also results in happier employees who feel more secure in their role, understand what is expected of them quickly and perform better than those who aren’t onboarded properly.

So if you want better performing, happier employees who stay with you for longer, you need to be looking at your onboarding system, or creating it if you don’t have one.

Our Top Employee Onboarding Best Practices

Get The Basics Ready Before They Start. No one likes walking into a brand-new job and finding that nothing is ready for them. It gives a bad impression of the business and makes them feel like a spare part as people rush around to try and get things together, or worse just ignore them entirely.

Once you know you’ve hired someone, get everything they will need for their role ready for them. Have a workspace ready to use, emails and any other equipment they will need set up, and if you can, an employee packet with all the important information they will need (HR policies and procedures, an employee handbook, training schedule etc.). You can get creative with this if you want, but it’s important to make sure the basics are ready for their first day.

Assign A Mentor. Starting in a new company can be daunting. As a manager, you might not be able to dedicate 100% of your time to taking care of your new hire. This is where a buddy or mentor can help. This is someone on the same level or slightly senior to the new hire who can show them the ropes, answer questions and generally keep an eye on them to make sure they’re settling in okay. This buddy or mentor should actively support your new hire through the first 12 weeks of their employment as needed.

Have Regular Check-Ins. Don’t leave your new hire with no direction. Even if you’re busy, try and have regular check-ins to answer questions, address concerns and see how they are settling in. These might be as often as once a day at first, then move down to once a week and then eventually once a month, as your new hire’s confidence and skills increase.

Don’t Make Them Learn ‘The Hard Way’. We mean this in every sense of the phrase. Every workplace comes with its own set of rules and regulations, benefits, and bonuses, nuances, and traditions. Don’t make your new employees learn these new things the hard way. If your company observes a ‘casual Friday’ rule, make sure all new employees know about this before they turn up at the office on their first Friday in a pressed suit.

Have A Defined HR Approved Process. Onboarding shouldn’t be something you cobble together as you go. Businesses who work with experienced HR professionals can develop a consistent onboarding plan and checklist for their business, that details each step, what needs to be done and who handles it.

That way, you can repeat it across all new hires. And if that isn’t enough reason, remember that with a structured onboarding process, employees are 58% more likely to remain with your business for over 3 years.

If you would like to find out more about how to onboard your new employees more effectively or want to chat about your own processes, we would be happy to help.

We even have a free onboarding checklist, which you can request by emailing us here. Or if you just have a question about how to improve the onboarding process, just drop us a line to book your free, no-obligation consultation.

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