Embrace HR Aylesbury adult at computer

People managers need to start considering how they will tackle this growing trend…

We often talk about developing careers and keeping employees engaged on our blog, but what do you do when alongside their career with your organisation, employees have a second job or small business?

Side hustle

It is a growing trend – with four in 10 working adults having some kind of ‘side hustle’ alongside their full-time job or career, according to Henley Business School’s white paper, The Side Hustle Economy.

And these side hustles form an important part of the economy too – their income adding up to a not-so-inconsiderable £72bn for the UK economy in 2017.

HR policy

Does your organisation have any policy in place for these kinds of activities? It won’t be surprising if not as, in a recent survey, around half of the companies asked had no such policies in place.

With the trend on the increase – figures are expected to double in the next 10 or so years – it is an issue that anyone involved in human resources should be seriously considering.

According to the School’s Dr Charmi Patel, associate professor in international human resource management: “A key issue is compliance; if staff are working flexible hours, from home or virtually, the control might not be there, on whether they are conducting their own business on company time and using company property, resources and data to do so,” she said.

Open for business

But while it is important to have these policies in place, organisations should otherwise be open to the idea of employees running a separate business or job on the side. Often these kinds of activities are creative and involve the employee’s passion – and perhaps one that cannot be fulfilled at work. Of course, there is the risk that they eventually may become so successful that they are able to leave to pursue their dream full-time but, in many cases, it is the key to your employee feeling fulfilled and successful, and becoming someone who will carry that success into their full-time job as well.

Organisations that seek to restrict or control side hustles are likely to see employee engagement slide – and in turn well-being and hence productivity dip.

Where human resources may need to keep a careful eye is on people burning the candles at both ends to keep up with both their career and their extra-curricular business. And of course, you will want to ensue that it is not going to conflict with your own business.

A life balance, which enables staff to manage their job and their side hustle, is the ideal, and maintaining that equilibrium is something that people managers need to focus on.

If you would like to discuss this subject further and how it may affect your business, please contact Cecily Lalloo at Embrace HR Limited.

T: 07767 308717 or contact us here.

Based in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, Embrace HR Limited supports business owners who do not have their own HR department or those that do but need help from time to time. We also work across the Home Counties of Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and also SMEs based in London.

Image credit: Career Employer

Embrace HR Aylesbury Manager and employee engagement

Managers need to understand how they can support employee engagement and well-being. And why…

Employee engagement and well-being is vital if you want to keep your people happy and productive – and retain valued members of your team. But this kind of culture must be supported from the top down – so to ensure it works properly, managers must be on board.

What the research says

And yet in recent CIPD research [CIPD Community: New tools to help you develop managers to support employee well-being and engagement, 22 Mar 2017], it appeared that less than half of the surveyed HR professionals believed that their company’s line managers had indeed bought into the importance of their staff’s well-being.

On the back of this research, the CIPD has teamed up with Affinity Health at Work and a number of research partners to come up with a selection of tools aimed at giving managers the tools and skills they need to ensure the well-being of their teams – called the Maturity Model [CIPD: Developing managers for engagement and well-being, 21 Feb 2017]

Being the best

Working on employee engagement and well-being is key to becoming a great company to work for. Every year, the Sunday Times Best Companies lists reveal which companies and not-for-profit-organisations are the best to work for.

And it’s not just for the blue chips and global giants – this accolade is something that all companies can work towards, whatever their size. It’s an aim that will reap its own rewards in terms of employee productivity and retention. There are eight specific segments to be considered – including leadership, how employees relate to their managers, and the level of engagement they have with their company. How staff feel about pressure at work and their life/work balance, their satisfaction with pay and benefits and how their growth within their job/career is managed are other vital criteria.

Here at Embrace HR we work with a number of SME’s to help them address these eight important areas as part of the ‘Best Companies’ programme. Take a look here to find out more: www.b.co.uk/factors/ [Best Companies: The 8 factors of workplace engagement]

Taking it from the top

These things need to start at the top though, so the maturity model, mentioned earlier, which can help those involved in people management identify where an organisation is at in terms of management development, is really useful in helping to bring you up to speed.

Once you have assessed where your company currently sits within the maturity model – at the lower end for instance (little or no competence) – you can work on the required processes to achieve the next level, and ultimately aim for the lofty heights of level 3 – competence.

So to use the maturity model, you would evaluate your company’s approach and current leadership development offering to work out what level you were starting at.

For instance, at level 2, your managers receive some support to develop their management skills, and the company culture and policies support effective management development.

You can start assessing your team and making plans to bring your managers to the next level in order to increase employee engagement and well-being by downloading the report and maturity model here [CIPD: Developing managers for engagement and well-being, 21 Feb 2017].

If you would like to discuss this subject further and learn how Embrace HR can help your business, please contact Cecily Lalloo at Embrace HR Limited.

T: 07767 308717 or contact us here.

Based in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, Embrace HR Limited supports business owners who do not have their own HR department or those that do but need help from time to time. We also work across the Home Counties of Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and also SMEs based in London.

Embrace HR Aylesbury Paperwork

The new regulations for protecting data are imminent but using specialist HR software can help you stick to the rules – as well as offering many benefits with other day-to-day HR tasks – as we highlight below…

No one with an email address can fail to have noticed the vast numbers of messages asking you to re-opt in to newsletters and marketing messages, which have been flooding in over the past couple of weeks.

It’s all related to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679 that is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union. This comes into effect on 25 May 2018.

These Regulations are aimed at protecting personal data as people become increasingly aware of, and concerned about, how their personal information is stored and shared online.

As well as affecting how you collect and store data from clients and potential clients there are also rules about the information you retain about your employees, what it’s used for and how long it should be kept. Find out more in our previous blog.

Keeping up with these kinds of initiatives can be hard work – especially if you don’t have a whole department of people to keep on top of things. It is a great idea to start automating some of the more transactional and repetitive tasks, freeing up your staff to deal with people-related matters, where they can use their skills and expertise to best effect.

Technology is making it easier to automate some mundane tasks – chatbots (a chatbot is a computer program which conducts a conversation via auditory or textual methods that can interact with potential candidates on your website, and collaboration tools such as Asana (a web and mobile application designed to help teams organise, track, and manage their work) can be used for communicating with potential candidates and staff.

Moreover, specially designed HR software – HR Software As a Service (SAS) – can really help streamline your administration and enable your organisation to keep on top of other developments, such as payroll requirements. HR Software makes all data accessible in one easy-to-find place – perfect when you have to keep track of it for GDPR.

But that’s not its only selling point…

Other benefits of HR software

  1. Automate the workload – Makes it easy for you to keep up with admin for holidays, absences and medical leave.
  2. Ditch the paperwork – Time-consuming tasks can be integrated using real-time data straight on to the system, so you don’t have to deal with mounds of paperwork.
  3. Compliancy – The HR Software can produce up-to-date legal documents for issues such as grievances, performance, disciplinarians and staff exits.
  4. Easy access – Because our HR software is based in the cloud, you can access it wherever you are, as long as you have internet access.
  5. Transparency – With information available for you, your staff and managers, people management can be open and transparent.

Just what you need? You can sign up for your free trial of HR software today at https://embracehr.co.uk/cloud-hr/.

If you would like to discuss this subject further and how it may affect your business, please contact Cecily Lalloo at Embrace HR Limited.

T: 01296 761 288 or contact us here.

Based in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, Embrace HR Limited supports business owners who do not have their own HR department or those that do but need help from time to time. We also work across the Home Counties of Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and also SMEs based in London.

Embrace HR Aylesbury legislation

April is a busy time for anyone responsible for the payroll, as the changes announced in November’s budget come into effect…

Keeping up with the changes in regulation can be mind-boggling sometimes, so here is our handy guide to the latest changes in wages and pension payments so you can keep on track.

First is the National Living Wage, which applies to employees over the age of 25. This increased from April 1 2018 by 33p an hour, taking the hourly rate from £7.50 to £7.83.

For those under 25, the National Minimum Wage applies – there’s a number of rates depending on age and whether employees are on an apprentice scheme:

  • Age 21-24 increased to £7.38 (was £7.05)
  • Age 18-20 Increased to £5.90 (was £5.60)
  • Under 18s increased to £4.20 (was 4.05)
  • Apprentices under 19 are entitled to £3.70 (was £3.50)

Your company may be interested in signing up to the Real Living Wage scheme, which aims to recognise the real cost of living. The level of the wage is set by the charity Living Wage Foundation, and more than 3,000 employers are already signed up to the scheme. The current Living Wage is £8.75 an hour (£10.20 in London). It applies to all over 18s and a new rate is calculated each November.

While committing to the Real Living Wage is voluntary, the minimum contributions set by the government for automatic enrolment contributions to workplace pensions are not.

There are two phases to the increase in these contributions – one started on 6 April 2018 and the next will take place from 6 April 2019.

The increase applies to all employers with staff in a pension scheme, and it is the employers’ responsibility to make sure the payments are made.

The amount you have to pay will depend on the type of scheme you have signed up for. Most schemes require a minimum 2% of earnings (increasing to 3% next April) and based on a specific earnings range (between £6,032 and £46,350 for 2018/2019). Calculations include salary, wages, commission, overtime, bonuses and statutory sick pay, as well as statutory adoption pay, statutory maternity pay and paternity pay.

Finally, another big requirement for companies is the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), which comes into effect on 25 May 2018. The requirements are being introduced in order to protect the data of Europe’s residents. A useful guide to this can be found at https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/Introduction.

There’s a lot to take in with all these changes, and any part of the HR process that can be automated has to help with the job. HR software takes a lot of the hassle out of the everyday management jobs in HR – keeping track of holidays, absences, performance and so on. Discover more about our Cloud software and read more about the importance of automating processes here.

If you would like to discuss this subject further, please contact Cecily Lalloo at Embrace HR Limited.

T: 07767 308717 or send an email.

Based in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, Embrace HR Limited supports business owners who do not have their own HR department or those that do but need help from time to time. We also work across the Home Counties of Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and also SMEs based in London.

Embrace HR Aylesbury People working

Do you value your staff above all else…?

Is your organisation a People Company? Does it put the success and well-being of its staff at the top of its dream board? And would your staff say this is true?

If so, congratulations, you truly have a People Company!

So what exactly is a People Company?

As we have already stated, it’s an organisation where the staff are highly valued, and where the management know that they need to help their people to develop in order to grow the company. Not only do the company’s leaders believe that, but their staff will know that they are important and valuable to the organisation. In return, these staff will value their place in the company and work to the best of their ability to help the organisation succeed.

One of the most vital factors is that employees actually believe that you, as an organisation, are people-oriented – which means the company’s actions must support this point of view.

The importance of the HR department

To keep and retain the best people, you must take on a proactive role, ensuring that staff are engaged, which in turn will increase levels of productivity. You need to be ahead of the game to succeed, to recruit the right people, to develop their skills, and to keep them on board.

To do this, HR must ensure that it is focusing on the people who work in the organisation. It means automating the processes it can, in order to let its HR team focus on what they are skilled at – getting the best out of the staff.

The importance of automating routine processes

Making it easy to do many HR tasks automatically and online makes sense. For instance, if your staff can book their own holidays using an online system, that’s a routine job that a member of the HR team doesn’t need to handle. If managers can book appraisals and other people-managing tasks online, yet again, it’s a job an HR person doesn’t have to be involved in.

And a new job title has emerged as this trend continues – Chief People Officers. They are likely to appear in the kind of forward-thinking organisations that always spring to mind, such as Google – but even the Cabinet Office has one in the shape of Rupert McNeil [GOV.UK Rupert McNeil] – providing “professional leadership on a range of people issues, including talent, capability, inclusion, capacity, pay and employee deal, performance, employee relations, culture and behaviours.”

It’s all about the experience

However, there’s more to being a People Company though – you need to ensure that your staff are being offered engaging working experiences throughout their time with you. It starts with the recruitment process – companies now must market their own brand to would-be employees, to ensure they attract the best possible candidates.

Finding out about your new staff during the recruitment process is vital – understand them and you’ll get to understand what drives them and what will make them want to stay within your company and succeed.

If you would like to discuss this subject further and how it may affect your business, please contact Cecily Lalloo at Embrace HR Limited.

T: 07767 308717 or send an email.

Based in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, Embrace HR Limited supports business owners who do not have their own HR department or those that do but need help from time to time. We also work across the Home Counties of Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and also SMEs based in London.

Embrace HR Aylesbury Care Workers Image-courtesy-of-artur84-at-FreeDigitalPhotos

Specialised HR support and advice for those who employ care staff…

Having staff who work in your home can make for a delicate situation and one that requires some specialised knowledge. That’s why here at Embrace HR Limited, we have a special package to support independent case managers and their clients who employ care staff directly.

The unusual dynamics of having someone working in your home should not be underestimated – which is why we offer empathetic and expert advice for those who are managing staff who work in people’s homes.

It mustn’t be forgotten that the usual workplace issues of managing time-off, family-friendly leave, absence, performance and so on, need to be tackled just as they would be if you were employing someone to work in an office.

Our expertise in human resources can ensure that the usual employment requirements are not forgotten about just because these people are working in someone’s home.

“I am writing to acknowledge the services of Embrace HR and express my gratitude.

I would not hesitate to recommend your company to others following the service you have supplied in support of my business and my clients.

Working within the care sector brings an HR provider additional challenges. This does not just involve complex knowledge of the recruitment and employment issues for the staff engaged but also the complications of dealing with exceptionally vulnerable people and difficult family dynamics surrounding the employees.

Embrace HR has delivered an exceptionally personal and flexible service in this respect. Cecily and the Embrace HR team has been empathic and responsive to the unique customer needs. This has involved supporting highly bespoke organisation for a 24-hour care team in liaison with legal and professional partners, family members and care workers.

Each contact has required a specific approach and relevant support and information. I have found Embrace sensitive, receptive and highly professional to this at all times. The HR arrangement, support, communication and advice I have personally received has made my job a good deal easier, freeing me up to deal with my own professional priorities.

I have already recommended the service to others and look forward to working in partnership with Embrace HR into the future.

H.M. Independent Case Manager, Middlesex”

What we can do for you

  • Recruitment – getting the right staff is vital. We successfully recruit the right special needs nannies and support staff for our clients.
  • Advice – empathetic and expert advice on all employment-related issues. This might cover managing absence, maternity/paternity leave and pay, performance management, grievances and disciplinary hearings.
  • Guidance – helping case managers, team leaders, staff and parents learn how to manage staff well.
  • Employment documentation – not only will we provide all the relevant documents such as handbooks and contracts, but we will navigate through this minefield for you, explaining their importance.
  • Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) applications – leave all of that to us.
  • Liaison – we will ensure that the case manager, parents or family are all kept in the loop.

We understand that no two cases are the same, that no two families are the same, that no two support workers are the same and, as such, we strive to provide a high level of service. Our 20 years of experience in the human resources arena means that you can rely on our highly professional consultants to offer a knowledgeable service.

If you would like to discuss this subject further and find out how we could help you, please contact Cecily Lalloo at Embrace HR Limited.

Tel: 07767 308717 or send an email.

Based in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, Embrace HR Limited supports business owners who do not have their own HR department or those that do but need help from time to time. We also work across the Home Counties of Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and also SMEs based in London.

 

Why HR professionals need to ensure they are complying with the latest data protection regulations…

Time moves quickly, and now there is only three months until the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) deadline comes around on 25 May 2018. Guidance can be found here. [ICO website guide to the GDPR]

HR have always had to keep people’s personal data because of the nature of employing people and was regulated under the Data Protection Act. However, the issue of keeping people’s personal data has usually been something that the marketing department has had to deal with – hence all those tick boxes on competition entries and subscription forms.

What it means

Failure to comply with the GDPR regulations will result in large fines being levied on offending organisations, so it’s important that you get it right.  Additionally, breaches must be reported to the ICO (Information Commissioners Office) within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach.

The regulations require that when you collect data, you make the person aware of under what legal basis you are doing so, how long it will be kept for and whether it will be stored outside of the country. Where this is the case you must detail how the data will be safeguarded. You also need to let them know how they can ask for access to the files you hold and the process for requesting that they be deleted.

It’s worth remembering that the regulations apply to data however it is held – it may be on a main server, it might be in a filing cabinet in the corner of a basement office – the same rules will apply.

Although all regulation implementations involve extra work, the benefit of this work will be that it will help your HR teams to look at the way they process personal data, sort out any gaps in their compliance, and help them to build a healthier relationship with employees. In the process you may also be able to work out where training is needed or identify previously unknown skills within your team.

Data retention

The regulations are aimed at protecting personal data as people become increasingly aware of, and concerned about, how their personal information is stored and shared online. Employers will have more obligations to their staff when it comes to data storage and there will be stricter rules on how long you can keep information for – for instance details that have been gleaned during a recruitment process.

When it comes to former employees there may well be some changes and they will have a right to be ‘forgotten’. That means that while a former employer might want to keep data in case of any backdated employment claims, the employee will have more rights for their details to not be kept by you.

HR departments have been dealing with large volumes of personal date for some time, so it makes sense that this team will become the go-to place for other departments to come to for advice on what information to keep and share.

If you would like to discuss this subject further and how it may affect your business, please contact Cecily Lalloo at Embrace HR Limited.

T: 07767 308717 or contact us here.

 

Based in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, Embrace HR Limited supports business owners who do not have their own HR department or those that do but need help from time to time. We also work across the Home Counties of Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and also SMEs based in London.

 

 

 

Embrace HR Aylesbury Tech and Trends 2018

Here we look ahead to what’s coming up for the world of HR in the coming year…

People management never keeps still – there are always developments to keep on top of –  like the changes from last month’s budget that we mentioned in our November blog. Read it here.

Artificial Intelligence

AI (or Artificial Intelligence) is making great strides at the moment – and chatbots and other automated re-creations of HR ‘people’ are starting to appear. It’s not quite as weird as you may first think, though! Don’t worry that chatbots will replace you – but what they can do is help to automate some of the time-consuming tasks that you don’t have time for, or speed up certain processes.

For instance, they allow employees to connect with the HR department via their mobile devices and they can also respond really quickly to employee questions that need instant answers. You can’t be in two places at once, so it makes sense to let them deal with these things.

Chatbots also offer a really efficient way to collect employee data – then you can do the clever stuff by analysing what that data tells you.

See! Nothing to be afraid of – it’s like having another assistant.

Job Seeking

In the old days (well, not that old really!) the newspaper was the only place to look for jobs.

Social media is where it’s all happening nowadays – LinkedIn has long been identified as one of the best job sites around – and Facebook has recently introduced its new job posting feature. You’ll know from your own experience with Facebook that it is very clever at targeting its ads to the right people – and the job postings are proving popular already with local companies. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to be picked up by the bigger corporations – one to watch.

Recruitment

Another interesting development around recruiting is collaborative hiring. One of the best ways to recruit new people is to enlist your staff – they are the best ambassadors for your company, they are in your workplace, are (hopefully) happy there, and will be keen to let people they want to work with have the opportunity to join them.

There’s a number of ways in which you can encourage them to help you recruit new staff – for instance employee referral programs are a good idea, teamed with incentives.

You can also take advantage of content such as employee testimonials, which can be shared to prospective candidates, and use communication tools for the team – you could collaborate using an online project tool such as Slack or Asana.

Finally, you could look at the Interactive rating and ranking of candidates with an ATS (applicant tracking system see www.recruitee.com).

Increased Engagement

Interestingly, the use of technology will enable HR to engage more with candidates. In the past, with so many people applying for each position, it has often been impossible to respond to each one, unless you are inviting them for interview. Using mail templates, you can now create personalised responses to candidates – adding in feedback and so on.

One of the great things about the technological advances being made is that the routine, admin-type tasks can now be handled by specific software, freeing the HR professional up to work on the more complex jobs, such as ensuring staff are happy and offering development opportunities.

HR Software

There are many HR software solutions which enable you to automate many of those admin tasks – such as employee personnel details, managing time off like holidays, sickness absence and family friendly leave among others. They enable workflows that offer best practice for jobs such as recruitment, training and induction.

 

If you would like to discuss this subject further and find out how we can help you embrace the latest developments in managing people, please contact Cecily Lalloo at Embrace HR Limited.

T: 07767 308717 or contact us via our website.

Based in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, Embrace HR Limited supports business owners who do not have their own HR department or those that do but need help from time to time. We also work across the Home Counties of Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and also SMEs based in London.

Embrace-HR-Aylesbury-Blog-November-2017

What will the latest Autumn Budget statement mean for HR, plus an update on changes in employment law in the past year…

While much of the budget statement from 22 November tackled the housing crisis in the UK, there were a number of changes that will be useful for HR folk.

First, Chancellor Philip Hammond declared that the National Living Wage was to increase – rising to £7.83 for employees aged 25 plus from next year. Also, the tax-free personal allowance will rise to £11,850 in April 2018, while the higher-rate tax threshold will also increase to £46,350.

Good news for HR and training departments was the announcement of an investment in skills development – more specifically digital learning – with the launch of a partnership between the Government, CBI and TUC. It is estimated that poorly performing managers cost the UK £84 billion in lost productivity, so an investment in professional skills can only be a good thing – it can also help to tackle the skills gap.

In terms of employment, the Chancellor also committed to future jobs, with a budget of £500m for projects covering fibre broadband, AI and 5G. The future of work for HR professionals is to ensure that skills in the digital arena are updated and we continue to train in soft and transferrable skills. Who knows what is the future of jobs! Ten years ago we did not have social media professionals, nor drone operatives! Read one of our previous blogs on the subject here. [Skills Crisis Ahead dated September 2017]

Updates in employment law

It’s important to keep up to date with employment law – there are always changes being implemented – and while we usually catch the major alterations, sometimes those ‘tweaks’ slip through without us noticing.

One set of changes that did receive a lot of press were the reforms to tackle the gender pay gap.

The Government introduced a new requirement, which means large organisations must reveal their gender pay gap by publishing key wage information. This will include the difference in hourly earnings as well as gaps in bonus pay.

Other reforms made in 2017 included:

Union action: The Trade Unions Act underwent a number of reforms relating to trade union ballots, including the necessity for a 50% turnout for ballots to be valid; 40% of members to support industrial action and a four-month time limit for a ballot remaining valid to authorise industrial action.

Apprenticeship Levy: Employers paying more than £3 million a year in wages will have to pay a new apprenticeship levy to help meet the cost of apprenticeship schemes across the country. More on the subject here. [See ACAS Apprentices]

The Immigration Skills Charge Regulations 2017: Employers who sponsor skilled workers under tier 2 of the points-based system now must pay £1,000 per certificate. A paper trail should be in place to show that the employer has checked that this employee has the right to work in the UK. [See The Immigration Skills Charge Regulations 2017 on the legislation.gov website]

General Data Protection Regulations: From May 2018 employers will have to carry out audits of employee personal data that they collect and process  – see the ICO booklet: ‘Preparing for the General Data Protection Regulations – 12 steps to take‘ [See the ICO website/Request for Publications].

If you would like to discuss this subject further and find out how we can help you manage your HR requirements, please contact Cecily Lalloo at Embrace HR Limited on telephone: 07767 308717 or contact us via our website. 

Based in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, Embrace HR Limited supports business owners who do not have their own HR department or those that do but need help from time to time. We also work across the Home Counties of Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and also SMEs based in London.