Posts tagged “human resources”

 
Research by Bupa has revealed that almost two thirds of British workers are too busy to take the twenty-minute lunch break that is required by law when they’re working shifts of six hours or more. 
 
In fact, a whopping 28% are not taking any breaks at all during their working day. 
 
Take a second to think about how this applies to your business. Is there a culture of employees or you, being chained to their desks until the end of their shift?  
 
It's worth taking the time to consider what the impact could be? 
 
Well actually no it isn't really. 
 
Experts have declared ‘sitting is the new smoking’ and whilst you may think this is a bit extreme, there is now science behind the truth that prolonged sitting is dangerous to our health. 
 
The average Brit spends 8.9 hours a day sitting down. More of us are working in jobs which see us spending our entire work days sitting down, even those of us who have our own businesses – but sedentary behaviour is often linked to obesity, Type 2 diabetes, some types of cancer and even premature death. 
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One thing I’ve learned during my time in HR is that things don’t always go how you’d hope, despite your best efforts. 
 
Obviously very few people try and get it wrong, but the reality is that the skills you need to run a business and those needed for and managing your staff are often very different. 
 
The clue is in the name really – Human Resources. It’s dealing with one of the least predictable beings on earth…humans. 
 
It is one of the reasons that it is so important to have the right documents, policies and procedures in place. That’s way if you do need to have a “conversation” with one of your team there, it can be factual and crucially un-emotional. And based on something “tangible” rather than a “implicit” agreement that some many businesses rely on. 
 
There's a question. It's a bit like driving a car I reckon. You learn the knowledge and do the basics to get through the qualification and then you learn HOW to do it. 
 
Great ...and that really works IF you are in a large organisation with a tiered management structure of HR professionals but what if you are in a smaller business and there is just you? 
 
What actually if you have never 'learnt HR' and are just 'given it' as part of your job? 
 
So you have decided that the way forward is to employ your first person. 
 
Congratulations! 
 
It may feel really scary but actually take a moment to think of the achievement this signifies in your business. It is likely that you started your business doing your thing and all those other things we as business owners have to do, as there is no one else and cash flow doesn't allow us to outsource or employ anyone. We then get a point where we can outsource and then BOOM we have to make the decision to take someone on ... like a proper business.  
 
Of course I am not for one minute suggesting your business has not been 'proper' but that's how it feels right? 
You know those days when you just wished you knew the answer. 
Well it’s Ok isn’t it, because you can just type the question (or whatever you are looking for) into Google. Can’t you? 
 
Well yes but sometimes you also need to have the confidence that the answer you get is the right one. 
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