1. 5 Top HR tips for SMEs
Know who’s working with you and who’s pulling in the opposite direction - Engage your staff,
know what they’re thinking.
Gallup research found that engagement levels can be predictors of sickness absence, with more highly engaged employees
taking an average of 2.7 days per year, compared with disengaged employees taking an average of 6.2 days per year. With the
CBI reporting that sickness absence costs the UK economy £13.4bn a year can you afford not to be engaging your staff? Engaged
employees are also more likely to be flexible through tough economic times when your business needs to change quickly to
satisfy customer demands.
Manage, manage, manage – if you never measure performance how do you know who your best
employees are?
A simple performance management system in place allows you to set clear performance objectives and measure against them,
highlighting who’s going the extra mile to make your business a success and who’s shirking responsibility. Performance
management isn’t just about rolling out the appraisal forms every year, it’s about having regular conversations/meetings with
your team. Talking to your employees should be an integrated part of day to day management.
Recruit for personality, train for skills – recruit the right person in the first place and drive
down your HR nightmares.
Recruiting the right person into your business is key to business success. You can recruit the world’s best person but if they
don’t fit with personalities or the team dynamics then the relationship won’t work. If the relationship isn’t working you’re likely
to have miscommunication, elevated sickness and problems after problems but ultimately higher staff turnover. It is still
important to identify who has the right skills for the role and to select applicants on a fair and equitable basis but remember
recruitment starts long before placing an advert.
They say men are from Mars and women from Venus but should this be Managers are from
Mercury and employees are from Pluto.
Most businesses think they communicate effectively but do they really? How often have you sat in a meeting where one
employee goes away thinking one thing and another employee something totally different? So the question must be ‘do you
communicate effectively and take personal responsibility for checking employees are listening and understand?’ With some
theories saying up to 93% of communication is non-verbal it’s not always what you say but how you say it.
Know where your journey starts – measure the basics: unplanned absence, staff turnover,
number of grievances & engagement levels.
There is no way you would run a business without looking at the profit and loss account or the balance sheet so why do
businesses not know who their worst sickness offenders are? Before you can start on a journey to improve your employees’
performance you need to know where you’re starting from, so if you want to drive down sickness in your business you need to
know exactly who the worst offenders are and not just guess. Putting simple straightforward KPIs in place gives you key
information to make informed decisions and know where you’re heading. Without simple key measures in place processes like
redundancies or capability can be complicated and lead to legal nightmares.
Let’s talk….If you’d like an informal chat for general HR pointers or if you’re looking for a confidential
conversation about some HR issues contact me on 07714 218915 or email at mat@blackinkhr.com
© Black Ink HR 2012