Let Your HR Consultant partner your business
I briefly mentioned Probation in my May blog in reference to Induction and I thought it was worth revisiting this topic in more detail.
Having recently worked with a client who although had a three month probation for new employees, did not have procedures in place which lead to probation reviews being missed and employees passing their probation by default. This is a problem I have seen happen in both small and larger companies.
I read with interest an article in People Management which reported 43% of employees surveyed (CV-Library poll) were in favour of outlawing interviews in favour of skills-based assessments. Why – because they believe the way organisations recruit and promote people is unfair. I have witnessed the arguments for making decisions on gut instinct or technical ability alone but in my experience bringing competencies into the mix makes for a much more effective interview process.
I had a conversation recently with a small business owner who had just hired their first employee. He was excited to tell me that he had successfully recruited an excellent candidate for his company and wanted to ensure his new employee felt welcomed from his first day. I was delighted that he recognised the importance of taking the time to think about his new employee’s integration into his company.
It is that time of year again when we see changes to statutory payments. So what should you look out for this April – here are a few of the main ones which should be of interest:
National Minimum and Living Wage
From 1st April 2016 the National Living Wage for workers age 25 and over was introduced and in November 2016 the government announced new rates for all categories of worker will take effect from April 2017.
With all the recent publicity around employment status, I would ask you the question – do you know whether those working for you are employees, workers or self-employed contractors in terms of their employment status? If you are in the happy position that all those working for you are employees, then the relationship is quite clear cut.
According to Making Money Magazine (Jan 17 issue) one of the key issues facing small and medium-sized companies is having the right people for their business. “The bottom line is, the right people can make you money, but the wrong people can cost you your business.” It makes sense therefore that consideration needs to be given to your recruitment process to give you the best opportunity to successfully hire that right person for your business. “a friendly and capable sales… assistant can get you repeat business, while an incompetent and bad mannered one can not only lose you customers, but also damage your reputation.”
