Heaven is a good outsource solution…

I have written posts in the past about outsourcing including legal considerations and other factors to keep in mind when going down this route

Some businesses might be put off because outsourcing can go well or it can go wrong. Luckily there are some easy ways to make sure that your outsourcing project is heavenly…

• Seventh heaven – The first step on the path to outsourcing is to identify exactly what it is you need to achieve to reach your goals. Some businesses will want to outsource their non-core processes so that more time can be spent on revenue-generating work or to give the business a more flexible framework. Some might outsource because they need more support in a particular area and they need their employee(s) to be focussing on high priority work, while the outsourced facility does the rest. Whatever the reason, make sure that it is clear in your mind to help you ascend to your final destination…
• A match made in heaven – The next step is finding people that are a good cultural fit and are in tune with your business. They need to understand your business goals and be able to tailor their services to suit your business needs if required.This is something that Reality HR takes very seriously when proving HR support to our clients. In our recent client survey, 100% of our clients who deal with us day to day were happy with the quality of our advice.You can find out more about our HR Outsource service here.

Here is my suggested checklist for you:

• Do you find the outsourced company easy to communicate with?
• Are they a good fit with your business?
• Do you like the people you have met?
• How much time do they plan to spend at your premises?
• Do they understand what you want to achieve?
• What support will there be for staff who need to talk to someone?

• Knocking on heaven’s door – Outsourcing should never be a quick fix. Depending on the nature of your outsource solution, it may take some time to get your team ready for the change. Try involving your existing staff as much as possible in the process, so that when the time comes you don’t meet any resistance or experience any potentially disastrous side effects…
• Heaven knows – It isn’t unusual for a business to outsource a function that they are not experienced in. If this is the case, it is extra important to take the time going through the above points. You can also do your homework and put in place a service level agreement or get something similar written into the contract. This will give you a way out should you start seeing a decline in your return on investment or be unhappy with their service.

Read our HR outsource case study

If you think outsourcing your HR is the way forward for your business, then give me a call on 01256 328 428 to have a chat or tell me the best time to call you.

Request a callback

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/heaven-good-outsource-solution/

Tips for TUPE: Who transfers?

When undergoing a TUPE or ‘Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981’, it is important to identify which group of employees will be undergoing the transfer.

As so many businesses use outsourcing, flexible working and other frameworks, it can become confusing as to who actually qualifies for a transfer or not. Issues can also be raised if employees are on leave for various reasons during the time of transfer and it is not always easy to ascertain whether an employee falls 100% within the part of the business that is moving.

So who exactly is transferred under TUPE?

Only employees on permanent or fixed term contracts are liable for transfer. Agency workers are not.

Sounds simple, right? If only…

If you happen to have employees who are temporarily assigned to work in a different office or department within the business or for another organisation, this can complicate the situation. That is because it depends on whether they were reassigned in or out of the business during the time of the transfer and on the length of the reassignment.

Hint: It is important to remember that employee liability information should be provided by the transferor to the transferee before the transfer takes place.

So what is the best method for finding out which permanent or fixed term employees qualify for transfer?

The percentage test has long been a rule of thumb in TUPE. This essentially means that you look at the percentage of working time an employee spends in the transferring business or service. If it is 50% or over then they transfer.

However this test has proved controversial and there are plenty of tribunals that back this up. That is because life isn’t always as simple as percentages. An employee may well spend over 50% of his or her time on a particular account or service that is being transferred, but on paper, they might be assigned to a specific department that is not transferring. It is important then to consider the job description of an employee in their employment contract.

You can read an example of this happening within a business here.

So what about Employees who are away at the time of transfer?

Employees on maternity leave, short-term absences or holiday will most likely be transferred. However, things get more complicated, of course, with those on sick leave and particularly those on permanent health insurance. In this instance, an assessment needs to take place as to whether these employees will return to work.

If your head is swimming at this point, don’t worry. Reality HR provides a TUPE service so that we can support you every step of the way.

To find out more, have a chat with me or we can meet up for a coffee! Just call 01256 328 428 or fill out the form below to organise a callback.

Request a callback

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/tips-tupe-transfers/

Bizpedia partner award!

Press Release

31 May 2016

Laura Awarded for Outstanding Contribution to Bizpedia

Laura Davis, Managing Director of Basingstoke-based HR Consultancy Reality HR, has recently won an award for her Outstanding Contribution as a Bizpedia Partner. Laura was presented with the award at a Gala Dinner held at Chewton Glen Hotel & Spa, attended by 110 business leaders and Bizpedia members from a number of high-profile firms.

Bizpedia is a fast-growing, exclusive business club for companies who want to be part of an ambitious, well-connected community and operates in Portsmouth, Southampton, Winchester, Poole, London and Bournemouth.

Laura has been involved with the club for just over 12 months and has been an active partner of the Winchester Group since November 2015. Louise Pack, Partnership Director at Bizpedia presented Laura with the award, commenting: “Laura has provided exceptional commitment to Bizpedia and her fellow partners over the last year. She is always easy to contact, is meticulous and professional with the leads provided to her and always strives to support the success of the Bizpedia community in any way she can; she truly deserves this award.”

Laura, who has built Reality HR from a standing start in 2004 to an HR Consultancy with 15 high calibre employees supporting 98 companies across the south, commented: “I was surprised and thrilled to receive this award as Bizpedia seems to attract a lot of high quality business professionals, so to be singled out for this award is a great honour. Since becoming involved with Bizpedia I have been fortunate to build some good working relationships with a variety of members and businesses and I look forward to this continuing throughout 2016.”

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/4138/

Are 4 day weeks an insane idea?

It’s no secret that I am a fan of flexible working, but it seems that the 4 day week method is picking up in popularity.

It is already in use in the Netherlands and seems to be hugely successful.

I said my piece in the HR Grapevine last month, about whether or not this method could work in the UK, which you can read here.

My main points were that I am a great believer in saying, “you only have one life, so don’t spend it all at work”. We must learn to work smarter, not harder, and as a society, we really need to make time to spend with our families.

To be honest it feels like we just aren’t keeping up with the times. There are so many advancements in technology that allow more flexible working than we ever dreamed possible, and a lot of it is free!

Some might feel that it is simply impossible because of the nature of their business, for example a call center or warehouse. Surely you can’t just shut for one day a week? But who says that everyone needs to take the same day off?

Some might feel that if people are only working 4 days a week, surely their employees won’t be producing as much work? Well, I’m sorry to tell you but the UKs productivity is the worst it has ever been. Osborne fails to come up with a solution and the forecasts were grim in the recent 2016 budget. Read my post about that here.

The fact is that France could easily do a four day week and still out do us on productivity…

We need to wake up and make the connection between employees happiness and employees productivity and a day off to spend with their families or to do what they enjoy would definitely make them happy and come back to work refreshed.

Trying to achieve high levels of productivity all the time leads to what I call employee burnout.

Stephanie Vozza wrote in her Fastcompany article that, “According to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management, 43% of companies offer four-day workweeks to some employees, and 10% make it available to all or most employees. The reason? It positively impacts the bottomline. “Since we implemented flexible workweeks in 2008, all the metrics a CEO cares about have gone in the right direction,” says Delta Emerson, president of global shared services for the tax services firm Ryan. The company turnover rate dropped from 30% to 11%, revenue and profits almost doubled, client satisfaction scores reached an all-time high, and the firm has received multiple “best place to work” awards.”

Read the full article here.

Managing the performance of remote workers doesn’t have to be any harder than those individuals who are office based.

To find out how Reality HR could support you in creating a flexible working culture or your performance management, give us a call on 01256 328 428 or tell us when to call you:

Request a callback

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/4-day-weeks-insane-idea/

Microsoft and Dell ditch performance reviews

Several big companies have scrapped performance reviews, which are openly despised by many managers.

The trouble is, they are not necessarily despised because they are not useful, but because they take time, effort and can be awkward. In other words, not everyone has the skills necessary to use performance reviews efficiently.

Is it right to scrap a tool that could potentially be helping businesses to succeed in the long run, just because the users can’t use it?

You can find our more about performance reviews here.

Geof Colvin wrote in his Fortune article, “The theme is consistent: Hallelujah, performance ratings are dead. And I’d be cheering too, except for one problem. Performance ratings in their multiple forms are tools, and at many companies they’re despised not because the tools are bad, but because the users of the tools are inept. The danger is that leaders may conclude they can improve their organization’s performance by changing the tool when the real issue, a much tougher one, is improving the skills of those who use any tool for helping employees get better.”

You can read the full article here.

So if everyone is scraping performance reviews, what are they replacing them with?

Geoff Colvin asked Dave Calhoun, a former GE executive and CEO of Nielsen what he thought about performance reviews. He said the whole point of performance management “is to force a conversation”.  Not all managers enjoy having these conversations or execute them effectively.

I wrote a bit more about this in an older post, where I suggested making candid conversations about performance part of company culture. You can read more here.

You may be inclined to agree with Microsoft or Dell. Things seem to be working well for them. But I think although business success doesn’t only come down to the performance of the employees, some of the other factors may well be influenced by it. For example business goals and business culture are important for any business to succeed, and without good, strong conversations happening between managers and employees, cultures can decline and goals can become skewed.

One of our clients, Caspian one said, “We are delighted with the progress that has been made in the last 12 months. Reality HR’s contribution to improving the way we are now managing performance has been terrific. Laura and her team have also helped us with a number of absence, disciplinary and capability problems. These have all been dealt with in a calm and professional manner, without any comebacks. This is a testament to the robustness of the procedures we now have in place.”

To find out how Reality HR could help train your managers, support your performance management, and support your performance reviews, give us a call on 01256 328 428 or tell us a good time to call you:

Request a callback

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/microsoft-dell-ditch-performance-reviews/

61% of UK workers believe they aren’t rewarded enough

Incentives go a long way to encouraging employees to perform at their best.

But does it shock you to hear that in a study of 750 UK workers, 61% felt that they don’t receive enough rewards at work?

The Institute of Leadership and Management surveyed 2000 people and found that 17% were planning to leave their current jobs because they felt under-appreciated.

So how far should we go to show our appreciation?

Google offers places for employees to catch a few zs during the day. Netflix offers unlimited holidays. These are all pretty extreme aren’t they? Not entirely plausible for all businesses and not all that necessary.

Ask yourself, would your employees even want these kinds of perks? Probably…

But seriously, everyone would love to use the giant Barclays waterslide to get to and from the office, but I am sure there are much easier, doable and practical employee incentives that could actually improve their work-life balance.

The truth is that you should just ask them what they want. They may decide they would prefer flexible working, which I talked about last week here. We often help clients organise childcare vouchers as another example. You can read more about pay and benefits here.

Read my other post about employee incentives:

Personalising employee motivation

The Motivation of Money

Are you rewarding your staff?

A gift or a bribe?

Give Reality HR a call on 01256 328 428 to find out more about how we could help you with your incentives and improve your employee motivation, or tell us a convenient time to call you:

Request a callback

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/61-uk-workers-believe-arent-rewarded-enough/

Research finds remote working improves productivity

In last week’s post we looked at the effects of poor management on productivity. You can recap here.

This week I want to explore a different approach to tackling poor productivity. Flexible working.

I am an advocate of this approach as it works so well within my own business. I believe in a good work-life balance. Work hard, play hard.

There is plenty of research out there to back this claim up, including Stanford researchers who found that remote workers were happier and less likely to quit. You can read more about their study here.

But with anything, things can easily go in the opposite direction. Remote working needs to be well implemented. When it is done right, it can help decrease the commuting time for employees, allow them to spend time with their families, and have more control over their working lives. For example, I employ a lot of working mums who manage their time around young children.

 So here are some of my top tips:

• Don’t be afraid to use technology – there are lots of tools out there that can ensure your employees are communicating efficiently in and out of the office. Google, for example, offers a lot of free products that are built around collaboration, real time communication and sharing.
• Team meets – Even if the team is spread out, you can still arrange to all meet either for social events or for team meetings. At Reality HR we have a quarterly team meeting and will do summer events with the children for example.
• Encourage initiative – Happy employees are productive employees. If that means that they need to go to their local Costa when they remote work or listen to music, then they should do it. Not only will this help them to be productive but it will also boost their morale. Happy, engaged employees will ultimately lead to happy customers.

You can read some more of my tips in older posts about remote working here.

Find out more about our performance management service here and read our case study here.

To find out how Reality HR could help your business improve productivity, performance management or efficiently implement remote working in your, give us a call on 01256 328 428 or tell us a convenient time to call you:

Request a callback

 

 

 

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/research-finds-remote-working-improves-productivity/

George Osborne’s productivity blunder

Osborne’s 2016 budget painted a pretty grim picture back in March when it came to the UK’s productivity puzzle.

It has become so bad he all but threw in the towel when he officially downgraded the already weak forecasts for productivity growth.

You can read his full speech here.

But is Osborne right to give up so soon?

We already produce less than 30% per hour than workers in the US, Germany and France. Or put a different way, they could take every Friday off and still achieve more in the working week than we do!

That is shocking, right?

So who or what are the culprits for this poor productivity? The answer is many whose and whats, but there is one thing that we can easily fix. Poor management.

The numbers show that poor management accounts for as much as a quarter of the productivity gap between us and other countries. You can read more here.

So what can we do?

George may have thrown in the towel but that does not mean we have to! We seem to have already achieved higher levels of employment and we already work some of the longest hours in Europe. So logically we need to be focusing on other areas. Of course, one of the most logical steps is to train your managers, and to look at your organisation design, which we can explore a bit more:

• Adjust your structure – Take a step back and look at your organisational structure. You might find that you have a flat structure which sees employees with more personal responsibility and less (or no) levels of management in between. This can cause confusion among employees and managers alike as employees have no one to report to and managers have less upper-level support. Read more about organisation design here
• Managers need the power to be leaders – Give them more responsibility for delivering results and ensure they have a good understanding of what it means to be a great leader. Tell them how their behaviour impacts the business. Read more about management training here 
• Align your business goals – If we’re employing more people to work longer hours but still producing less, we’re either incredibly inefficient or perhaps it’s our goals that are at fault. If the goals set by managers for employees do not align with the overall strategic objectives of the business, then any work they are doing could potentially be counterproductive. Therefore, top teams need to set meaningful objectives that flow appropriately down through the levels of the business.

We have helped many of our clients to train their managers and improve their organisation design. To find out how you could improve your business with Reality HR on your side, give us a call on 01256 328 428 or arrange a convenient time for us to call you back:

Request a Callback

 

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/george-osbornes-productivity-blunder/

Psychometric testing – pros and cons

Psychometric testing is on the rise and so is confidence in them, fuelled by growth in developing markets.

The Global Assessment Barometer asked 2,776 HR, recruitment and talent practitioners from 14 different countries for their input in 2016.

You can download the full report here.

To give you an idea, out of the companies that used psychometric testing they found that:

• 81% expected to make reliable and less risky decisions (67% in 2010)
• 57% believed that testing can predict future performance (49% in 2010)
• 94% use psychometric testing during the hiring stage (77% in 2010)
• 63% use them for employee development activities (43% in 2010)

You’re probably thinking what is the catch?

Well, if you are going to use this tool as part of your recruitment process you should consider it as just that, one part. Use various tests if possible and then combine the results with interviews, on-site tests, references and other tools. It is never wise to put all your eggs in one basket.

The bottom line is that they work best when they are used to help build the bigger picture and not necessarily used to build the whole picture.

One of our clients, Esdevium Games, said:

“I found the psychometric testing process very enlightening, including holding up the mirror with my own results! It was very illuminating to understand the dynamics of how personalities work together, and the kind of individual we should be looking for when filling our vacancies, to both fulfil the role and play to the strengths of the team.”

Find out more about our psychometric testing service here.

Pros:

• Every candidate dreads the question, “what are you not so good at?” – The most common response might be, “I am too much of a perfectionist!” At this point, the recruiter does an internal eye roll! A psychometric test can highlight areas of concern and give the recruiter an opportunity to explore these issues before hiring.
  As you already have an idea of areas in which they need support, you can put a development strategy in place.
• As well as highlighting top performers they show good cultural fits – You can find out more about cultural fits here
• Interview performance and job performance do not always match up – A psychometric test can give deeper insights at that initial stage of hiring, minimising the costly risk of employing someone who won’t be a good performer
• They can provide accurate insights of a candidate’s suitability for a role – for example, some roles work best with an extroverted personality type. You can find out more about personality types here

Cons

• The tests may not always be accurate – The candidate may go out of their way to explore the ideal candidate for a role and then answer questions dishonestly
• Test anxiety can create a false negative – Results might be skewed and not representative if the candidate is a bad tester
• The tests may put certain individuals at a disadvantage – If they have a different cultural background or a language barrier, they might not test as well as others and not necessarily because they are not a good fit for the role
• The tests need a trained individual to deliver and interpret – It may be more effective to pay for third party support and save the expense for higher level positions requiring more specialist skills

Reality HR has trained and experienced consultants who regularly recommend and implement psychometric tests with our clients. Find our more about our service here.

If you need advice or want to explore psychometric testing within your business, they call us for a chat on 01256 328 428 or arrange a call back below.

Request a callback

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/psychometric-testing-pros-cons/

Are you being too nice?

 Managing performance is tricky…and giving feedback can be daunting. It is an especially sticky point for new joiners.

It isn’t surprising that most employers want to encourage and support new joiners and give them time to settle in. You don’t want them to feel downhearted straight off the bat.  But are you being too nice?

We shared a post recently about new starters not getting feedback early enough which you can read here.

They say that you catch more bees with honey than vinegar. That is certainly true, but I’m sure that overfeeding bees can’t be good either…

I had no idea what happens when you overfeed bees so I Googled it! It was pretty obvious actually. If you over feed bees the colony outgrows the hive and they end up abandoning it in search of a bigger one.

In this instance this is a pretty poor choice of analogy…it would be better if the excess honey made the bees get stuck in the hive, making them unable to move on.

You’re probably wondering what I am going on about…

If you give new recruits too much time to settle in before they get any feedback and focus solely on encouragement, they can end up stuck with damaged relationships and undermined credibility if they are actually making significant mistakes from the get go.

The longer this period is allowed to continue, the more likely reputational damage is done and that will stick with them.

The obvious answer to this is to give new recruits feedback as soon as possible, but there is a fine line between giving good, constructive feedback and making someone feel singled out and like they aren’t doing a good job.

So how early is too early?

The 60-day mark is roughly the right time to start giving feedback. The new recruit has had enough time to become familiar with the business and their colleagues but it is still early enough to catch any early indications of issues they might have.

The process doesn’t need to be excessive; it can be bespoke for your business requirements

We shared a post recently about how to give good feedback with some hints and tips, which you can recap on here.

We always recommend 360 feedback, which we talked about here.

Find out how we used 360 feedback for our clients

To find out how Reality HR can support your business growth and help you with managing performance, give us a call on 01256 328 428 or fill out the form below to organise a callback.

 

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/4025/

What to do about poor performance

 The best tip I can give you about dealing with a poorly performing workforce is to spot the signs early on and act upon them as soon as possible.

You’re probably thinking that this is both obvious and easier said than done!

Well actually, there are a few easy steps you can take to make sure that you can do a pre-emptive strike against poor performance.

• Assess and Act – One of the best courses of action to find out why your employees are experiencing poor performance is through appraisals. By making it clear that you aren’t blaming anyone but rather want to help improve the situation, you can reassure employees and convince them to be candid, helping you to discover the root cause and build trust in the process.From this point, you can organise further meetings with individual employees and work towards a resolution.

• Poor objectives – Sometimes poor performance can be down to simply not having any solid objectives, meaning that the work employees are performing holds no relation to where they are going.By clearly setting out a set of objectives and aligning them with the work that employees are doing, along with the usual motivations and rewards, you can get your team on track and organised.

See how we resolved this for another business

• Missing skills – Sometimes a workforce is unable to work more effectively because they are being held back by missing skills. A workforce that isn’t appropriately trained will not perform at its best. A good personal development plan can help to identify where skills might be missing and what training they need.

• The office – We have talked recently about how it can be difficult to get work done in the office. This can be down to a number of reasons, which you can read in the link above, but it can also be something as simple as employees being too hot or too cold. Ask your employees if they find the office a comfortable place to work.

• Unrealistic goals or expectations – If unrealistic goals or expectations are set, this can really demotivate your team and also cause an undeserved reputation for under performance.

• A hidden Darth Vader – Sometimes one bad employee can impact a whole team. This can be a bit trickier to address and may require a good exit strategy.If you have regular performance appraisals, you can easily keep track of all of the above and nip the big issues in the bud before they bloom into a much bigger issue.

To find out how Reality HR could support your business growth and help you with performance appraisals, call 01256 328 428 or fill out the form below to organise a callback:

 

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/what-to-do-about-poor-performance/

What to do when you’re over paying

 You might find yourself in the unfortunate position of paying your workforce more compared to the current market.

This can happen for a number of reasons, including COLA. The 3% increase from Cost of Living Adjustments can put your business at risk of overspending if you don’t pay attention to market trends, especially if you have good staff retention.

But even if you are diligent with aligning your increases based on merit, if your managers are not calibrated properly with their performance appraisals, you might end up with a team of top performers paid well outside the market.

It is important to find out the causes and adjust your pay and benefits accordingly so that you don’t end up with a short-term solution, that doesn’t address the underlying problems.

1. The red ring of death – No, I don’t mean the dreaded circle of red lights that indicates your XBox 360 has just kicked the bucket. Red circled employees are ones who are being paid outside of the maximum range for their job. As such, the most used strategy for overpayment is to simply freeze the base pay of red-circled employees.But before you do that, you should really evaluate those employees to try and identify some trends that might indicate why this is happening. Are they on the same team? Were they hired around the same time? Freezing base pay is best reserved when overpayment is happening across the business.
2. Fortune favours the brave – A good strategy for when you do need to freeze base pay is to move onto performance-based incentives. Communicate that base pay will be frozen but then align a good pay and benefits scheme to your business goals and achievable objectives. This will keep your top performers performing without compounding your compensation problem.If you are in the fortunate position of having a whole team of top performers but they are all above market, why not target higher in the market for base pay and try and reduce the amount of red-circled employees?
3. Consider some alternatives – If freezing base pay doesn’t fit your business style you can make some smaller adjustments, like how you give out increases or put more of your budget towards low market employees. You are probably thinking “Why would I want to do that!?” Well, it simply means you will have less budget for those in a high market. Although you will still have red-circled employees, you are slowing down wage growth and overspending.
   
   You can also consider decreasing base pay, evaluating your current career paths, assessing your current policies, and training your managers.

To find out how Reality HR could support your business growth and help you develop a pay and benefits scheme that suits your business gives us a call on 01256 328 428 or fill out the form below to organise a callback

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/youre-paying-2/

Improve your emotional intelligence

We shared a post recently that looked at emotional intelligence and IQ, which pretty much showed that EQ is far more desirable in the workplace.

There is a huge amount of research out there that backs this up and shows how powerful emotional intelligence can be for success in work and life.

Cary Cherniss published a paper called “The Business Case for Emotional Intelligence” which you can view here.

Here are a few of the findings:

• Out of 515 senior executives, those with high emotional intelligence were more successful than those with relevant previous experience or high IQ.
• Sales reps at a computer company were 90% more likely to finish their training if they were hired based on high emotional intelligence than other criteria.
• At L’Oreal, sales people with high emotional intelligence sold $91,370 more than other salespeople.

So what are few qualities that emotionally intelligent people have?

• Confidence – There is a fine line between being ‘The Man’ and just being a smarty pants. Emotionally intelligent people tend to tread this line with swag! They are confident in their decisions minus arrogance, which can affect their team negatively.
• Compassion – Leaders with compassion care about their employees and are always willing to provide a helping hand.
• Authenticity – Authentic leaders are good at communicating and stick to their guns. This means they have a clear idea of what they want to achieve with their team and inspire the motivation and loyalty in others to reach those goals.
• Respect – Respectful leaders treat everyone the same and respect themselves and others.

The best thing about emotional intelligence is that it can easily be improved through training and experience.

Read our Management Training case study

How?

The key is self-awareness, which we talked about in our previous blog here.

But there are also a few quick tips you can try:

1. Be positive – Motivation is vital to emotional intelligence. One thing you can do to improve your motivation is to not let work life get you down. Always think, “how can I do better next time”, instead of focussing on negative emotions and try to keep on smiling. Eventually, your brain will start to do this automatically. I have a little book on my desk titled, “You are doing a freaking great job”. Every now and then I will pick it up and read some of the funny and inspiring quotes to turn my frown upside down in the face of a challenge.
2. Take note – You don’t need to turn into Bridget Jones, but taking a quick note of how you are feeling throughout the week and associating those feelings with situations will give you a better understanding of yourself and improve your self-awareness.
3. Praise others – This is part of having good social skills. It is a fine art but praising others can really help improve emotions all round and will make everyone including you feel good and inspire loyalty.
4. Copy someone else – Don’t be afraid to look at someone who is better at handling their emotions than you and try to emulate their behaviour. A role model is great for improving empathy.
5. Hold your hands up – When you make a mistake, just admit it. It is not easy but you will find that you will earn a lot more respect from others by being honest than by making excuses. This is a core element of self-regulation.

To see how Reality HR could support your business growth and help your team develop their emotional intelligence, give us a call on 01256 328 428 or fill out the form below to organise a call back:

 

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/improve-emotional-intelligence/

85% of your financial success is due to personality

We post about emotional intelligence all the time. It is an HR buzzword and that’s because it is so important in the world of business.

The good thing is, with some good management training and coaching, anyone can improve their emotional intelligence.

So what is emotional intelligence?

It didn’t become popular until Daniel Goleman wrote his book Emotional Intelligence back in 1995, but the original definition comes from Peter Salovey and John Mayer:

Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the collection of abilities used to identify, understand, control and assess the emotions of the self and others.

What is the difference between EQ and IQ?

Well IQ, or intelligence quotient, is a score based on a standardised test that looks at a range of skills including abstract reasoning, spatial reasoning, arithmetic, vocabulary, or general knowledge.

In the business world, you might be thinking that this is surely more important than understanding the touchy feely emotions of others?

Wrong!

Take a look around you, at all the people you work with. Chances are they are all as smart as you. Also, consider that some of the skills measured in IQ tests may not even be relevant in the workplace!

Emotional intelligence, however, is something that sets people apart from the rest and if you have a team of emotionally intelligent individuals, well you are laughing.

You don’t have to take my word for it; there are plenty of numbers to back up my claims. Research performed by the Carnegie Institute of Technology found that 85% of financial success is due to skills in “human engineering,” personality and ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead. The other 15% is due to technical knowledge.

Bet you didn’t expect that!

So what exactly constitutes emotional intelligence?

In Goleman’s book, he talks about five specific components of emotional intelligence associated with different abilities to do with managing emotions.

1. Self-awareness – This is essentially the ability to identify and understand your own emotions and how they affect the people around you. Leaders with good self-awareness are capable of identifying their own strengths and weaknesses and behave with humility.
2. Self-Regulation – This is the ability to think before you act and also manage negative mentalities. According to Goleman, this covers a leader’s flexibility and commitment to personal accountability as well. They rarely clash with others, make rash decisions, and stick to their values.
3. Internal Motivation – Self-motivated leaders work consistently toward their goals and have extremely high work standards. Best of all, they do it with a positive, chipper attitude.
4. Empathy – This is the ability to recognise the feelings of others and how they affect their behaviour. Leaders with empathy can put themselves in someone else’s shoes meaning they can help develop and challenge their team, give constructive feedback, and are good listeners.
5. Social skills – These skills are your day-to-day things like working in teams, managing difficult people and situations, and forming relationships. Leaders with good social skills are great communicators, open to good and bad feedback, and are great at motivating their team and gaining support from them. They are good at diplomacy and tend to set an example with their own behaviour.

Having read all the above it is obvious that these skills are incredibly desirable and you want these kinds of people in your team.

Read our Management Training case study

The good thing is that emotional intelligence isn’t necessarily innate. You can upskill the team you have and develop their emotional intelligence, through some good management training.

To find out how Reality HR could support your business growth and help your team develop the skills they need, give us a call on 01256 328 428 or fill out the form below to organise a call back:

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/emotional-intelligence/

Is the office the best place to get work done?

It may or may not surprise you that a number of people find it difficult to actually get work done in the office.

Managing performance can be tricky to get right. Given the amount of time and money that businesses spend on their office environments these days (Google being the most extreme example), you can easily find yourself in the red.

Jason Fried, a software entrepreneur, gave a TED talk called “Why work doesn’t happen at work”, which you can watch below:

The key culprits for poor productivity are not necessarily things that you might expect, like people sneaking onto facebook or twitter, or taking a cheeky cigarette break. It can actually be down to something as simple as the communal working spaces.

The government has focussed on flexible working a lot in recent years which can be a good solution for managing performance, but most employers still prefer the whole team working together in a communal office. The trouble is it is very easy to interrupt your colleagues in this kind of environment.

Read our Managing Performance case study

Jason Freid talks about interruptions from the dreaded M&Ms. No, he doesn’t mean that your employees have a secret addiction to chocolate covered peanuts that prevents them getting any work done. He actually means Managers and Meetings.

We shared a post about meetings with some tips which you can recap here, which also includes some tips.

Another time waster is Emails. The trouble is emails are the best way to communicate to your team to avoid physically disturbing them from their tasks, so it is really important to appropriately manage your inbox. We shared a post about this with some tips that you can read here.

So the three key culprits to managing performance are interruptions from managers, meetings, and overloaded inboxes; so simply put, all the little things that prevent people from getting ‘in-the-zone’. When your day is broken up by so many interruptions, you end up with only small bursts of time to try and really get stuck in and work. Jason Freid explains that you can’t expect someone to get creative in fifteen minutes, and that is definitely correct.

As well as the tips in the links above, you can also get a bit more creative.

Jason Freid’s suggests for example, “No Talk Thursdays”. Essentially, actually designating time in the office in which no one talks to each other.

You might think this a little extreme, but wasted time costs businesses a lot of money, and that is no joke.

Flexible working could also be a good approach to take. Read more about managing remote working and creating a flexible working culture.

You may even find that simply getting some management training could help your managers to more effectively work with their team and improve productivity.

These are all things that Reality HR can support you with. To find out what we can do to support your business growth give us a call on 01256 328 428 or fill out the form below to organise a callback

 

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/flexible-working-managing-performance/

Pay and benefits: Only 21% of employers used COLA for pay raises in 2015

COLA has been commonplace practice for a while now, but the title really sums it up.

No, I do not mean that 21% of employers used a sugary beverage to help them calculate their employee pay raises last year. I mean Cost of Living Adjustments of course…

You can download a report by PayScale on compensation best practices to find out more.

The adjustments to employee pay are based on the everyday costs of living such as housing, transportation and utilities that have gone up over the years.

The problem is that these costs do not consider the external value of the job in the market or the internal value that an employee brings to a business. And that is not all.

• In hindsight, the cost of living increases are simply too little too late – By that, I mean that by measuring and awarding COLA at the end of the year (which is when it is typically done) it is always a year behind. With prices upping and lowering more commonly than the sun, waiting for the cost of living to be calculated and then the COLA pay increase to come out is simply a waste of time.

• Everyone is rewarded the same – While this is an unintended outcome, it doesn’t change the simple fact that everyone in the business gets the same pay rise regardless of their actual performance. Performance related pay can be a much better practise for a businesses pay and benefits scheme.

• Cost of Labour – COLA does not take into account the cost of labour, which essentially means that even if the cost of living is low in a particular area, there may be a particularly high demand for a specific role, increasing the job roles market value. In other words, the cost of living is not aligned with the cost of labour.

So what is the answer?

Because the cost of living is calculated after the fact and it does not include the cost of labour or other “goods”, it is not the best pay and benefits scheme. A market-based pay structure and performance based pay increase could be a much better option for your business as a whole.

At Reality HR, we always take a bespoke approach to our HR advice, which includes our pay and benefits toolkit. In other words, we tailor a pay and benefits scheme to suit what your business needs.

To see the improvements you could make to your business with Reality HR on your side, give us a call on 01256 328 428 or fill out the form below to arrange a callback at your convenience.

 

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/pay-and-benefits-only-21-of-employers-used-cola-when-considering-pay-raises-in-2015/

Recruitment technology – do we need HR people anymore?

The recurring worry of “technology will replace humans in the workplace” has been rearing its ugly head for quite some time, and recruitment is its most recent victim.

You can even find calculators now that will tell you how likely it is that your job will be replaced by technology, including one created by NPR, based on a study by the University of Oxford. Give it a try here!

A study, by the National Bureau of Economic Research, looked at the employment records of 300,000 low-skill workers in the service sector, across 15 companies. They found that workers chosen by a computer algorithm stayed in their role 15% longer than those chosen by human employees…The question is could this same algorithm be applied to recruitment agents or any other workforce?

This report didn’t go unnoticed. You can read more about it here.

My verdict? It is just as likely that my name is Sarah Connor and I am being pursued by a time travelling, homicidal, robot that looks like Arnold Swarzennegger…I know you’re thinking that I would think that. HR is my bag after all!

But it is more than that. Like with any statistical report, it is difficult to apply this one selection to an entire workforce. This report specifically looked at jobs with low retention rates for a start, where the average employee only stayed for 99 days.

Furthermore, they only looked at low-skill jobs and so the same cannot be said about whether computers can be used to recruit for more specialised roles. There is also nothing to suggest that computers are capable of considering a candidates happiness, motivation, productivity and overall cultural fit. In some roles, a cultural fit is more important than their years of experience for example.

Not to mention that there is no accounting for qualitative data which only a human can consider, for example, a personal recommendation or referral.

There are however some more basic but incredibly time-consuming jobs that can be done confidently by technology quicker and more efficiently than us mere humans, for example trawling through the talent pool or searching through CV’s and professional or social networks for candidates.

There is a lot of recruitment technology out there that can support humans in their attempts to find their perfect cultural fit. We use one such platform in our recruitment project management service, which you can read more about here.

You can read about it in more depth in our case study here.

For now, I can confidently say that although there are elements of recruitment that can be assisted with technology, recruiters and HR consultants alike are safe for now. Any company that relies on technology alone is taking a big risk.

If you want to find out what you could be achieving with Reality HR supporting your recruitment, give us a call on 01256 328 428 or fill out the form below to organise a callback at your convenience:

 

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/recruitment-technology/

BV Dairy hits the magic 100!

24 February 2016

The management team at Dorset-based BV Dairy can now boast that their business employs 100 people following the support it has received over the last eight years from HR Consultancy, Reality HR.

Back in 2008 BV Dairy employed 60 staff, with the HR function being one of the director’s jobs.

However, to enable the firm to grow, it soon became obvious that the business needed a greater level of HR support. An internal resource was discussed, but was considered too expensive for the level of expertise required. BV Dairy therefore researched the HR consultancy market, looking for a partner who would see them as a significant customer ……Reality HR fitted the bill perfectly.

A Reality HR director carried out a full audit of BV Dairy’s general HR processes and HR administration, covering employment contracts, job specifications, terms and conditions of employment and the employee handbook.

Reality HR then helped to restructure the team leader function to support the higher throughput needed for business growth. It also trained staff in management and supervisory leadership skills, including motivation, recruitment, disciplinary action and appraisals.

And the results are that BV Dairy has retained a flat structure by training and developing its own talent and this has created a culture of loyalty and smart working. The whole operation of the dairy is running more efficiently and effectively with more structure, as well as defined processes and procedures in place.

Reality HR has become an integral part of the BV Dairy team with a director advising the board as and when required.

Jim Highnam, Managing Director at BV Dairy, commented: “When selecting an HR Consultancy, the last thing we wanted was someone who said ‘you can’t do this and you can’t do that’, which is what we had been accustomed to hearing from employment solicitors.  We were delighted to find in Reality HR a whole team of HR professionals who always respond with, ‘we can find a way of doing that’, and whose people are focused on commercially sound outcomes.”

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/bv-dairy-hits-magic-100/

Tips and examples for giving feedback

Giving feedback is something we do all the time, even if we don’t realise it.

Sometimes it might be more obvious, in a formal setting like a 121 meeting. Other times we might not be aware that we are giving feedback at all through the way we approach and talk to people.

It should be seen and approached as a positive experience and learning opportunity so it’s very important to be mindful of how we go about giving feedback, whether consciously or unconsciously.

So how can you make sure feedback is effective?

• Feedback doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom – Make sure to highlight positives as well and recognise work that has been done well. Focussing on just the negatives will disengage and demotivate your team.
• Even though the above is important do not fall into the Feedback Sandwich trap – Starting and ending on a high with all the tricky stuff in the middle is confusing and can make people feel patronised. Being honest and straight forward with clear non-evasive comments. It will be received much better and will build trust.
• Don’t leave employees hanging – if you give them specific criticisms set some specific goals as well and then review it again in your next 121.

So it’s pretty simple, right?

Well no. If it was that simple, I wouldn’t be sitting here writing a blog about it! Even keeping the points above in mind, you still need to apply these effectively to real situations. Like they say, it is easier said than done.

So here are a few practical examples for you:

1. If an employee is struggling with their time management

Time management is difficult for most of us but sometimes it can become enough of an issue that you need to discuss it with an employee.

• A good way to approach it is to explain why it has become an issue – like what impacts their time management has had on other employees work for example.
• Then you can offer some useful tips – make it more relaxed by talking about how you personally deal with time management.

2. Tension between employees

It is not uncommon for there to be some tension between employees and the occasional rude comment to slip out. This is something that you need to address quickly before it becomes a bigger issue.

• Don’t finger point but ask for their version of events – This is really important because there are always two sides to every story but mainly because you are speaking to them and not the other person/ people involved. This needs to be explained clearly without assigning blame.
• After finding out what happened from their perspective – Explain how they could have handled it differently and more appropriately.
• Offer some advice for how they can resolve the issue by talking to the other employee and maybe suggest they go for coffee together for example.

3. A missed deadline

Don’t let it get to you, these things happen. But the key is making sure that you provide the correct support and advice so that it doesn’t happen again.

• Make sure they understand why deadlines are important – Explain why projects need to be delivered on time and find out what the specific reasons were for them not achieving the deadline.
• Go through how it will be better next time – Explain that you will ensure they have the tools they need to achieve the next deadline.
• Then you can offer your own ideas – Share how you make sure you achieve your own deadlines.

4. An employee seems disengaged

It’s important to make sure that all employees are engaged and happy at work, so if you spot some signs that this isn’t the case, you need to figure out what is wrong.

• Explain that you are concerned for them – You want to resolve the issue so just be honest and tell them how if makes you feel.
• Offer them some help – Think of a way to provide more support, for example by offering them a weekly 1-1 meeting.

Read our case study to see how we helped our client with their feedback here.

To find out about the improvements you could make to your business with Reality HR on your side then give us a call on 01256 328 428 for a free 15-minute phone consultation or fill out the form below to request a callback.

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/tips-and-examples-for-giving-feedback/

Managing performance: Are your managers getting the feedback they need?

We shared a post not long ago about new joiners not getting appraisals in their first year of employment and its effects on managing performance.

Well, senior people need some love and honesty too, even if the thought is a little scary. For the sake of managing performance, it needs to become common place.

In many businesses, it is still considered taboo to tell managers exactly what we think but it is vital for managing performance. The last thing you want is people discussing managers behind their backs instead of providing direct constructive criticism as this will make them less emotionally intelligent and they may start to see themselves very differently to how they are actually perceived. You could end up with a Darth Vader in your business!

Ultimately, what all great leaders have in common is trust, and much of that trust is created through transparency. That’s a two-way process – you sharing with your people, and in return them sharing with you. You can find more tips about transparency here.

You may be familiar with something called 360 feedback. We tend to use this for clients that need help with managing performance. You can read a case study about this here.

Getting into the habit of using 360 feedback for your managers may involve some cultural changes but ultimately, it will benefit your business as a whole.

So what can you do to get honest 360 feedback?

• Remove the stigma – Make feedback part of your everyday company culture for both teams and their leaders. Discuss openly in a group setting to normalise the process
• Be prepared to hear feedback and act on it – Even if it comes from someone less experienced, all feedback is relevant. That might not be easy for your leaders, so provide a balanced assessment that highlights positives as well as rooms for improvements
• Ask for advice rather than feedback – other members of the team might find it easier to offer actionable advice rather than providing constructive criticisms
• Get someone else to gather the feedback for you – by outsourcing to a consultancy you can feel safe in the hands of someone with expertise in gathering 360 feedback and members of the team will also find it easier to open up and be honest with an independent third party

To find out the improvements you could make to your business with Reality HR on your side, give us a call on 01256 328 428 now or fill out the form below to organise a callback at your convenience:

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/do-your-senior-people-get-the-feedback-they-need-to-improve-their-leadership/

Pay and Benefits: How employee perceptions of pay can affect company culture

Sometimes an employee may approach you and say that they feel underpaid.

The knee-jerk reaction might be to simply increase their salary but this is not always the best option.

Employee’s perceptions of pay are not always accurate and the truth of it is that although they might feel underpaid, there is a chance that they are not.

A survey from PayScale of 71,000 people found that:

• 64% of employees thought they were paid below market value when they were not
• 35% of employees paid above market value thought they are paid below

 

But even if employees only feel underpaid, it will still impact their job satisfaction, their engagement and can also lead to employees wanting to leave your business.

They might also have some strong feelings about overpay. On Twitter recently there was a trending hashtag called #FatCatTuesday. It quickly spread the message that by the first Tuesday of 2016, Britain’s top bosses would have made more money than an average worker can make in an entire year. This kind of topic hits a real nerve, especially after the 2008 economic crisis.

A CIPD survey performed in 2015, found that 71% of employees thought that the CEO of the business was paid too much and 59% were demotivated at work because of high-level CEO pay.

So what can you do?

Talk to them…It can be that simple! It may also be time to review your pay and benefits scheme. There are a few things you need to consider:

• Transparency needs to be planned out carefully – Make sure that the businesses are clearly aligned with your pay and benefits scheme
• Paying people more may not necessarily increase their performance – you need to consider a pay and benefits scheme that goes beyond financial rewards and considers the non-financial aspects as well
• Make sure that you craft your own unique approach – your pay and benefits scheme needs to fit with your company culture, values and aims
• Get support – if you don’t have your own in-house HR team that can help you develop a pay and benefits scheme to fit your needs, consider outsourcing. Find out more here.

To find out what improvements you could be making to your business with Reality HR on your side, give us a call right away on 01256 328 428 for a free fifteen-minute phone consultation. Or you can fill out the form below and organise a callback at your convenience.

 

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from Reality HR Limited http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/pay-and-benefits-how-employee-perceptions-of-pay-can-affect-company-culture/