Good communication skills are essential in pretty much every aspect of life, none more so than in the workplace. Today’s workplace can be a tricky area for employees to navigate, as so many generations are now mixed together and each age group has specific ways they prefer to communicate.
[continue reading…]HR and Staff Management
In a recent study carried out by the Close Brother Asset Finance, it was found that small and medium-size businesses find diversity is good for business. However, they still struggled to achieve a diverse workforce. There are a number of benefits of having diversity in the workplace and SMEs may be missing out on these benefits.
[continue reading…]Your business needs happy, healthy employees who enjoy their work. They are your greatest business asset while for the individual their greatest asset is their health and mental wellbeing. A person who feels appreciated will ALWAYS do more than expected.
[continue reading…]The majority of schools will close on 20th December so from that Friday the pressure is on! With Christmas Day and New Year’s Day both being on a Wednesday, this holiday season may be proving a bit more complicated to plan than usual. What time off will you be giving your employees?
[continue reading…]Wired Magazine predicts that coding could become the next main blue-collar job which, if true, means that many small business owners will need increasing number of employees with programming skills in the near future. The problem affecting all businesses is that, without action, the UK could fall well behind other parts of the world in training for the future. This will affect our economy overall as well as our individual businesses.
Companies that are at the forefront of development prioritise the continuing education of their employees because it not only increases their comparative advantage, but it also stresses a continuous system of growth. A company’s trajectory for growth is based on its foundation, which is its people.
While many considerations are given to physical safety in the workplace, it is only recently that the focus has turned to mental health and the significant impact it can have on the workforce’s ability to conduct its duties effectively. Issues around mental health in the UK cost businesses £35 billion per year, and cultural issues around ‘presenteeism’ are seeing workers fail to admit to mental health issues, resulting in poor health and reduced productivity.
Showing your employees how much they mean to the company should not be expressed only through promotions and paychecks. To help them understand that they are a vital part of your business and that you plan on working with them in the long run, you should implement some work culture strategies that will illustrate how much you care about their wellbeing as well.
Businesses have enough to worry about; one of the major things being competition from outside sources, so fraud that takes place within a business can be viewed as an avoidable problem. Not only do employers have to be extremely vigilant to defend against external threats from their competitors, but they also must be constantly looking for indications that their employees may be stealing from the company from within for personal gain.
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Yes, you own a small-sized business. That doesn’t mean you want to hire people with small-sized talent. How do you draw the right candidates into your small business? How do you compete with Fortune 100 or even Fortune 500 companies that have staff entirely devoted to recruiting and hiring?
As an employer, managing maternity leave is an inevitable part of doing business. You will be understandably thrilled for your employee, whilst also wondering whether your team will be overstretched, or how this change might hurt productivity. On top of that, you have the financial commitments surrounding UK statutory maternity pay (SMP) to navigate. It can all end up feeling rather admin heavy.
These days, when we think about improving productivity there’s probably a good chance that we think about automation and process improvement.
Long hours, tight deadlines and increasing demands, among many other workplace stressors, can turn work into an emotional roller coaster that will inevitably affect performance and job satisfaction. Running the hamster wheel is a short-term gain.
Noel McDermott, a psychotherapist states that: “If you want to be a progressive business leader, now is the time to invest in the emotional and mental health of your team, they are after all your most valuable resource. Most organisations now understand fundamentally the link between a healthy workforce and increased productivity and most of us understand that health and wellness includes mental wellness.”
If you are running a small business, you might have some employees that work for you on a remote basis. This new generations of employees expect more from their work and employers. They expect their employer to care about their work-life balance and offer them flexibility through remote working. So if you are one of those employers, then it is essential that you regularly communicate with remote employees for several reasons.
Every company’s beginning is hard, which is why small business owners are tasked with perfectly balancing the budget, or risk unplanned bankruptcy and an abrupt end.
The success of a business is greatly dependent on the efficiency of the employees. The relationship of the people in an organisation will determine the kind of outcome that they will produce as a team. This is the reason why it is also very important for every business owner, manager and supervisor to examine the kind of atmosphere in the office. One has to be sensitive to the needs of the people he or she is managing. Teamwork is only possible if everyone is comfortable with the company of the other.
In business giving and receiving feedback, and knowing how to make this an effective process, is vital. When it is sincerely delivered, specific and supportive, feedback helps us to identify previously unseen areas for development, to introduce new ideas and to encourage people to embrace challenging goals. Conversely, feedback that is insincere or overly critical can demotivate and disenfranchise, which can damage and even destroy relationships.
An efficient business is usually a more profitable business, and taking steps to improve your company’s efficiency can make a huge difference in your revenue. These improvements can also save your employees and customers a lot of time and stress and will help make everyone happier.
Finding the right candidate for the job is crucial for an array of reasons. For one, recruitment is a timely and costly process that businesses do not want to have to repeat over and over after shaking hands with the wrong candidate. When the true cost of a bad hire can be in excess of thousands of pounds, businesses need candidates that are committed to a long-term career with the company and are driven to succeed.
