What does an HR Business Partner do? 

These people work alongside managers, teams and stakeholders to curate people and organisation capability whilst also designing people strategies and activities.  They ensure that the HR policies and procedures match the needs and goals of the organisation and those in leadership positions. Their job does not centre on administration or handling policy wording – instead they focus on the bigger picture, by directing the goals of the human resources team, and producing HR strategies. Most importantly, these HR strategies must fit the wider business strategy.

Most commonly, they are aligned to a specific area of the business and work alongside this area to execute a business strategy from a people perspective. To successfully work in this field, one must have sincere relationships with other people in their business area, as well as other teams in the company. Not only that, but they must have hard evidence to make accurate, well-informed decisions (such as data or metrics).

Common tasks that HR Business Partners carry out may include:

• Giving advice on people practices (for example, succession planning)
• Building relationships with and influencing those working in the business
• Meeting key stakeholders to address any people challenges they are facing
• Coaching key stakeholders to increase business efficiency and achieve business goals.

What is the definition of Business Partner? 

A business partner is a commercial entity with which another commercial entity has an alliance. These two parties could be individuals who chose to work alongside one another to create a business or may be separate teams/companies who have chosen to work together and cooperate for a shared goal.

What’s the difference between an HR Business Partner and an HR Manager? 

These are distinctly different roles and each specialises in different methods of running human resources within an organisation.

An HR Manager’s job in general, centres around developing policies and implementing procedures. They are also responsible for overseeing systems that include recruiting, hiring, processing payroll and system administration to name a few. They also manage the HR department.

Conversely, in general, an HR Business Partner does not take the same administrative tasks over a department, and instead focus their time on working alongside the organisation’s senior leadership team and department managers to optimise and guide company strategy. HR Business Partners are still heavily involved in the HR department, they just don’t take on the same administrative tasks that an HR manager may be involved in. Instead, they help to form HR strategies and initiatives which will have an impact on the entire organisation.

Submit an enquiry via our online form today to find out how we can help your business, or call 07771 642 182 to book a 30 minute consultation with Karen directly.

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Taking more responsibilities is the perfect way to grow your current skillset and even achieve goals that would usually be above your grade.  Meaning that when it’s time for promotions or bonuses you will be first in line.  After all, you will have the appropriate experience to take on a bigger role, unlike those who didn’t take up the offer of the extra responsibility at work.

How to be given increased responsibilities?

It’s all good and well knowing how beneficial additional responsibilities will aid your career, however you firstly need to be given them. It’s much easier than you may think – below we have outlined some easy tips to help get you started.

1. Don’t wait to be asked

Take the initiative!  Perhaps you can directly approach your boss and ask if there are any extra projects that you can be a part of.  Create an open dialogue and share how you’re feeling about your career, your progress, and your part in the company’s future.  More often than not, they will be happy to designate extra work to you if they feel as though you’re up for it.  Keep in mind the skills you already have that can be developed upon and ask to get more involved in those specific areas.

2. Always be reliable

Be a steady reliable figure in your team.  Create a relationship of trust – by being punctual and complete all your work to a high standard and be willing to help with extra.  If your peers are not able to keep up with their present workload you could even volunteer to help them out or offer some valuable input (without trying to take the credit for yourself!). These good deeds will show how dependable you are to everyone you work with, meaning that you’ll be a great candidate for promotion and additionally the team will respect your leadership once you reach your dream position.

3. Always be looking to learn more 

In your leisure time, select an area that nobody in your team has great expertise in, yet would be a valuable asset to the workplace.  By investing time into this topic, you will become more knowledgeable than your peers, meaning that the team will begin to rely on you for feedback or help in anything in that area, thus gaining yourself a new responsibility and making yourself an invaluable member.

4. Network! 

Having valuable connections will always lead to increased opportunities.  Every time you take on a new project you may end up working with a new, diverse array of people, all of whom will be able to contribute to your career with either new knowledge or information, or about roles that you may be able to apply for.  Having a vast professional network is crucial to going up the ranks in a company, and these new people may be able to designate extra responsibilities to you too.

But how can these responsibilities convert into opportunity? 

Having more responsibilities inevitably means spending more time with your boss, especially if you’re working on projects crucial to them. Being around them in meetings, briefings or consulting them about your progress will allow you to learn from their experience, making yourself even more capable, and build a better bond with them. When this happens, it should be no problem for you to ask for the promotion you want as you’ve adeptly proven how you can handle all your current tasks and are ready for more. Ultimately, you have nothing to lose!  It’s better to go for it than wallow in what-ifs and later regret that your career hasn’t developed the way that you wanted.

Submit an enquiry via our online form today to find out how we can help your business, or call 07771 642 182 to book a 30 minute consultation with Karen directly.

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Why make someone redundant? 

Redundancy primarily occurs when a business is either closing (perhaps to relocate) or when the employees needed for a specific role are no longer needed or being reduced.  Cutting down on the number of employees can save costs and reduce overheads for employers if there are any financial issues.  After all employees are often one of the biggest expenses a company has. Secondly, the company may need to be restructured if it has outgrown its original design – perhaps people need to be moved around (redeployment) or some roles are just not needed at all (redundancy).

How does the process work? 

Redundancy should only happen once you are certain that there are no other options.

Have you…

• Done a cost review?
• Investigated as to whether reducing hours or pay would work?
• Considered if any extras can be cut, such as bonuses or benefits?

If even after this, there appears no viable solution then you’ll need to read the steps below on how to fairly and correctly execute a redundancy process.

1. What are your reasons? 

It’s vital to know why you have come to the decision to make roles redundant so that this can be communicated to staff.

2. Which roles are being made redundant?

Once you decide which jobs are no longer needed you will have created a group of people at risk of redundancy. This could include multiple people if many of your employees do similar tasks, or even just one person if they have a unique, standalone position. If you have a number of people who do the same or similar roles, they will need to be put into a selection pool.

3. Tell the people who are at risk of redundancy 

Depending on the numbers involved, this can sometimes be done in a group meeting – here, you must consult those affected about their job either being no longer required or changed. This gives the affected employees a chance to propose any changes that may influence your decision.

4. Create selection criteria

If you need less of a particular role you will need to design selection criteria.  This is a set of criteria where you set out the skills and behaviours needed in the roles that will remain. You will score individuals against each of the criteria set.  This will offer objective reasoning behind the decision on who will be kept and who will be let go.

5. Individual consultation meetings 

You must now hold one-on-one meetings with those whose jobs are at risk of redundancy.  These meetings are extremely sensitive and can be very emotional and difficult for an employee to take in what is happening.  It is essential to give sufficient time for an affected employee to provide feedback on the selection criteria, how they feel about the decision and to discuss alternative roles if appropriate.  Ultimately, you will provide an outcome letter which addresses any points made by the employee in their meeting and invite them to their next consultation.

6. Second consultation meetings

This is your opportunity to let your employee know how they scored (if they want to know) and if they have any comments on the decision to select their role for redundancy.  Whilst they may want to know how everyone else scored in their selection pool, you cannot disclose this information.  This consultation meeting must be formally followed up in writing, again answering any feedback and points raised and inviting them to a final consultation meeting.

7. Are there alternatives? 

Check if your company has any role vacancies that may be a suitable match for those being made redundant – this means that the skills required are similar to their current position.  Provide as much information as you can about these roles to your at risk staff.  Give them the opportunity to apply if they wish.  Some roles may be deemed “suitable alternative employment” and some may not be deemed suitable alternatives, i.e. seen to be more junior, require a lot of additional training, have different shifts or hours.

8. Final consultation

At this stage you can give your staff a notice of redundancy.  As all points raised should have been thoroughly talked through at the earlier stages, you should only need to briefly recap the previous discussions and reasoning before issuing a notice of redundancy.  This must be confirmed in writing, including any leaving arrangements, the redundancy terms, payment schedules and the right to appeal.

9. Right to appeal

This is a necessity to show that this has been a fair process throughout.  If an appeal is raised, a manager uninvolved in the process should hear the appeal to ensure objectivity.

Submit an enquiry via our online form today to find out how we can help your business, or call 07771 642 182 to book a 30 minute consultation with Karen directly.

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What does GROW even mean?

The acronym stands for:

• Goal
• Reality
• Options
• Way Forward

1. GOAL

Within this first stage of the model, the goal is the main focus, and everything in this stage is orientated around ensuring the client will get to where they want to be. It’s expected that a specific topic will be discussed between the mentor/coach and the mentee/client. From this, it’s vital that exact objectives and end results are set – these may be both long and short term. It’s also crucial for these goals to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely).

For example, in the context of weight loss, it would be useless to set a goal like “I want to look slim” or “I want to lose 15 kilos by next week”. Instead, something like “I want to lose 10 kilos in 3 months and retain that weight” provides a specific short and a long term goal, whilst being realistic and quantifiable. Most importantly positive and inspirational to the client, acting as an attainable challenge that will sensibly push them.

Within this goal setting stage, the coach may ask a variety of questions, such as

• ‘What are you aiming for?’
• ‘How would you feel once this goal is achieved?’
• ‘How will your life be different then from now?’

2. REALITY

Here, the mentor and client shall examine the present reality of the client, using specialist techniques. This could start by the client assessing their current situation by themselves, before the mentor steps in to provide more specific advice on the scenario at hand. The mentor should be looking to identify their client’s potential, rather than focusing on any personal problems.

Back to our previous example of weight loss, questions that the mentor may ask could be, “What did you do differently when you’ve successfully lost weight in the past?”, “between the times when you’ve kept weight off versus putting it back on again, what was different?”

More broad questions should be able to identify any hurdles that may occur on their path to improvement and accurately determine how far they are from the end goal.

3.OPTIONS

At this point both the mentor and mentee need to figure out how to make this plan achievable. There will naturally be an array of options available as to how the client will be able to conquer any of the current issues laid out in the Reality section. The mentor should endeavour to initially have the client dominate the conversation, and invite them to make a range of suggestions, which can then be discussed. It is vital for the mentor to be cautious and sensitive when offering their own ideas, and ensure that it is aligned with the client’s own capabilities.

4. WAY FORWARD

We have arrived at the final stage! The Options discussed now need to be converted into actionable steps and strategies which will deliver the client to their goal. A plan will be drawn up by the mentor, which should include specific guidelines and times in order to increase the manageability of this plan, making it more likely for the client to succeed. With any personal plan retaining flexibility is vital, if the client experiences any negative events, the plan should not make them feel defeated or disheartened.

An example question that a coach may ask could include, “what actions will you take to achieve your goals?”. Drawing us back to our weight loss scenario, those actions could include making a daily diet plan or shopping list, remembering to include celebration on achievement at certain points.

Submit an enquiry via our online form today to find out how we can help your business, or call 07771 642 182 to book a 30 minute consultation with Karen directly.

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Redundancy is a special form of dismissal where an employer needs to reduce the size of its workforce.  In the UK an employee is dismissed for redundancy if the employer has ceased, or intends to cease, continuing the business, or the requirements for employees to perform work of a specific type, or to conduct it at the location in which they are employed, has ceased or diminished, or are expected to do so. If there’s a genuine redundancy, employers must follow a correct procedure and make redundancy and notice period payments. ¹(extract from the CIPD factsheet Redundancy: an introduction, 29 Sept 2020).

Redundancy legislation is complex.  As a small business owner, you must understand your obligations, your employee’s rights, and the correct procedures to follow.  Failure to follow the correct procedure can result in a claim for Unfair Dismissal.

Making redundancies should be a last resort.  Before deciding to make redundancies, you need to consider if you can avoid them.

• Furlough – can you utilise the new furlough scheme?
• Redeployment – could staff be retrained and carry out other duties.
• Flexible working – would staff consider job shares, or part time hours, or compressed hours.
• Reduced hours for a short period of time – staff may consider this as an alternative.
• Temporary layoff – do you have a clause in the employment contract that allows this?
• Limit or stopping overtime.
• Letting go of temporary or contract staff.
• Don’t hire any new staff.

When redundancy is the only option, Make A Plan.  Remember that for an employee being made redundant it is an emotional and sensitive time.

Whether it’s a downturn in business, business model change, new machinery, new ways of working, restructure, or office move/closure, whatever the reason it’s a tough call to be made.

My top 5 DO’s.

1. Do take ownership and responsibility for the decisions you make.
2. Do communicate clearly.
3. Do be objective with your selection criteria.
4. Do treat those selected with respect.
5. Do support your redundant staff as much as you can.

My top 5 DON’Ts

1. Don’t blame someone else for the decision to make redundancies.
2. Don’t keep information to yourself.
3. Don’t hide your selection criteria.
4. Don’t change your mind.
5. Don’t forget the staff left behind.

Above all, Make A Plan.

Some things to include in the Plan; a written communication detailing the need and reason for redundancies; the budget showing the savings needed and the impact on costs; the number of staff affected; the selection pools (if appropriate); a budget (for notice periods and redundancy payments), scripts to use for the consultation meetings, a timeline for consultation, proposed termination dates, internal vacancy list (if applicable).

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS²) has a wealth of information, template documents and guidance available for employers to use.

Some Business groups such as the Institute of Directors and the local Chamber of Commerce have Member helplines that provide help and advice on employment matters.

If your business is facing redundancies make sure that you take advice.  Redundancy is complex and can lead to claims for Unfair Dismissal.  Unfair dismissal claims are costly, time consuming and bad for business.

If you don’t have access to a helpline or an inhouse HR expert, external HR Consultants are a great source of expertise.  Experienced HR Consultants can work with the small business owner to produce the right Plan for their particular situation.

¹CIPD – The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development – The professional body for HR and people development.

²ACAS – gives employees and employers free, impartial advice on workplace rights, rules, and best practice.

Submit an enquiry via our online form today to find out how we can help your business, or call 07771 642 182 to book a 30 minute consultation with Karen directly.

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