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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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.

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