HR Hub People Ops Training: Back By Popular Demand
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Fun police – Can I ask my employees not to travel abroad this year?
We’ve all been desperately looking forward to our long awaited summer holidays: jumping on a plane, feeling the instant heat when you land, seeing the bluest of skies, seas and pools that are yours for a week or two… Ah… bliss!
However with the sudden turnaround on Portugal’s ‘green’ list status many of us are still wondering if we should play it safe in the UK or risk going abroad.
The UK’s vaccination programme seems to be on track but the government are still being very cautious in committing to any guarantees as the global pandemic continues. So what are your obligations as an employer? Can you stop employees from travelling? and would you even want to?
From an employment law perspective, each employee is entitled to a minimum of 28 days holiday a year including any public holidays, which will be pro-rated for those that work part-time. This annual leave should be taken every year, although some employers allow an element of this to roll over if necessary. There is no upwards limit on holiday that you can add to your employee package.
The law states that people must give reasonable notice to take holiday which is normally twice the length of the time requested, eg: 2 weeks notice for a weeks holiday. However you do have the right to refuse this if it is a busy period or others in the team are away, or you have allocated holiday times to work with the seasonality of your business.
Traveling abroad for holiday
Q: Can I stop employees from going abroad on holiday this year?
While an employer can normally dictate when people take holiday, lawfully you have no right to dictate where they can go on holiday. If you are worried about the consequences of planned quarantine or last minute changes to government policy that enforce last minute quarantine for those travelling abroad you may wish to implement a specific policy to discourage employees from going. For example, to make it clear that any quarantine advice must be followed but they would not be paid during this time, or home working provisions are to be agreed and put in place before leaving so they can be accessed if necessary on their return.
Q: Do my employees have to tell me whether they are going abroad on holiday this year?
During these uncertain times it would be worth encouraging communication between staff and line managers or HR to ensure that the return process is as smooth as possible in the event of a return to quarantine. If an employee has been allowed to work from home throughout the pandemic, and could continue to do so on their return then it may be an easy conversation to have. However, if your staff cannot work remotely this may cause a problem. So having a clear policy on whether you require employees to use additional holiday or unpaid leave in the event of quarantine then even those that don’t speak to you should be aware of the consequences should the situation arise. There is no legal requirement to pay employers during quarantine (and they are not entitled to sick pay), but for staff retention and goodwill you may decide to have a discretionary case by case approach to this.
Needing employees to travel again for work
You may be in a position where International business travel is essential to your company. With this you are subject to the same red, amber and green lists as travel. Although you would have to factor in paid quarantine, possible additional hotel costs and pay for any tests due to local restrictions at the destination.
Certain very specific professions have modified or relaxed requirements when travelling back into the UK, but they are quite limited and vary across the UK countries; most people will need to comply with the default rules around green, amber and red list countries, even if travelling for work.
As an employer you have a right to request reasonable instructions be followed by your team, but in the current circumstances that is likely to depend on the destination and what the employee is being asked to do there. There is also the matter of how COVID-safe it is. Asking someone to travel to a red list country is unlikely to be considered a reasonable request unless there is a very compelling reason. So your employee may have the right to refuse to travel if they feel you are being unreasonable. As always good communication between all parties is the best policy here, you want your staff to feel safe and valued especially after such trying times.
If you want to discuss any situations you may have, then drop us a line at hello@thehrhub.co.uk or call 0203 627 7048
It Takes All Sorts – Encouraging Diversity & Inclusivity in your Team
Stepping out of the North Sea on New Year’s Day after my short ‘dip’, I was grappling with changing back out of my wetsuit into dry clothes under an enormous (yet not quite big enough…) towel, when my family were greeted by some passers by on the beach shaking their heads and muttering “It takes all sorts” to each other. We smiled and nodded at them through chattering teeth with what I hoped conveyed a sense of more cheery New Year’s Day vigour than I felt at that particular moment (given both the temperature around us and the fact that due to misjudging the car parking vs beach entry point we were in for a ‘bit of a walk’ back to anything which resembled heating). And ignored the slight judginess that came with the phrase they’d just shared.
True, it might be slightly at odds to submerge yourself in near freezing water when you could have joined the masses on ‘a perfectly good walk’ to get you out in the fresh air and keep healthy, without the risk of pneumonia or (worse still) ‘hat hair’ for the rest of the day. And there was nothing particularly accomplished about our trip to the beach: no fitness records broken, no significant calories burnt (I did mention it was a ‘dip’ didn’t I??). But who’s to say with the many health benefits cold water swimming gives, that my version isn’t better for you? I just have a different view of what’s fun…
And it’s the same in any business to a degree. You need to have different points of view to see the options available to you: diverse perspectives and experiences which don’t mirror your own.
Over the past few years, it’s become clear that a key way to accelerate your business performance is to become more diverse and inclusive. Gartner found that the difference in performance between diverse teams was 12% more positive than non-diverse teams and Fast Company reported that those companies with higher gender diversity and engagement experience up to 48 – 56% stronger financial performance than others.
Yet ‘Diversity’ as a word in my experience has tended to anaesthetise or polarise many in SMEs. Either they zone out on the basis that it’s not something they need to concern themselves about (I’m not sexist/ racist/ ageist/ ableist so we’re doing good, right?), they associate it with something that only ‘big’ companies’ need to get their head around or that it’s just too hard.
And I understand that to a degree. Because taking action on diversity and inclusivity isn’t passive and takes energy. Energy to sit and listen to other’s experiences who do not mirror your own view of the world, a growth mindset that is open to the fact that there is more you can learn on a regular basis and then take action to change what needs to. And who has any energy left after such a bumper year?!
But with increased data on the impact of diversity (from the positive it brings to the negative when it’s not present) and key world events such as the killing of George Floyd sparking candid conversations in the workplace, it’s not something anyone can ignore.
And there are many things you can do whether your team is made up of 5 or 500 people.
- Re-think your strategy and be as intentional with planning diversity & inclusion as you are with planning out your sales.
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It all starts at the beginning… So get real in your advertising and think about the words you are using to describe the candidates you are looking for. Make sure any job adverts are inclusive by checking for the sentiment they convey and don’t include a wish list which doesn’t actually describe what you are looking for. Is it really essential that this person has over ten years experience in a specific type of environment at a senior level? Because if it is, then you might have unwittingly just ruled out anyone who’s ever had a career break. Surely you want someone who’s delivered the best results and in which case, change your criteria (and your questions later).
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Shortlist a blend of candidates: The next time you go to hire, ask the person helping you with your hiring to provide a representative group of candidates in the mix. It’ll be tough in some industries, but challenge yourself (and them) to do so.
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Highlight the unconscious bias that sits in all of us: Make everyone who is interviewing candidates watch at least 3 of the videos in Facebook’s series of unconscious bias training. They take about 15 minutes each, can be watched over lunch and I guarantee will have people thinking more about their own unconscious biases and the impact of them. This isn’t a male or female ‘thing’. We’re all in this one together.
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Promote those people who are underrepresented in your business. And I don’t mean promote them to a new role all the time. But promote and recognise their accomplishments, encourage them to showcase their work internally and externally and act as a champion for them.
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Find role models to mentor these team members: if you can’t find any internal mentors then provide external help or encourage them to join networking groups in your industry where they can find support.
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Offer greater flexibility. More so than ever people have opened up to the idea of flexible working, historically something which has helped women progress their careers.
It really does take all sorts to build a business. Well, a successful one at least.
If you want to chat about how you can encourage diversity & inclusivity in your team, then drop us a line at hello@thehrhub.co.uk or call 0203 627 7048
Image: Canva
What To Do When A Team Member Won’t Go Quietly
Rejection is tricky. Whatever the circumstances.
We tend to think of rejection when it comes to matters of the heart, but there are many situations at work – promotions, restructures, redundancies, probations not working out – where it all boils down to the same emotions. And whilst most people don’t go ‘nuclear’ when told that they are not going to get what they want at work, sometimes people surprise you and they find all manner of ways of making their disagreement with your decision known….
Fortunately ransacking the office isn’t something I’ve ever seen after communicating that someone’s role has changed or ended and most tend to understand that situations change and ultimately accept a decision has been made (even if they disagree). But in some extreme cases – an employee refusing to accept the notice being given, threatening the people in the room, being physically aggressive and even contacting clients and other employees after the event with the intent to cause mayhem are all situations I’ve witnessed – there are always those outliers who just won’t take ‘no’ for an answer.
You can’t predict how someone is going to react to the news that you either don’t want them in the position or feel they are not right to be taking on certain things. However there are things you can to prevent or stop the situation escalating:
- Avoid emailing the ‘news’: If someone is up for a promotion or put a tremendous amount of effort into preparing for a presentation they want to give to a client, reflect that in the way you let them know it’s not going to happen & make sure you share this in a human way & not via text/ email. Ideally this would be face to face, but well, you know……
- Be clear on the reasons for any changes: always explain the rationale for your decision and how you came to it. Even if someone doesn’t seem like they’re listening to it, they may well recall it after when they’ve calmed down and are more capable of rationale thought.
- Prepare yourself for emotion: Someone’s ability to process any news at the time will depend on their own situation, wellbeing and resilience at that moment in time and so it helps to be prepared for all sorts. Sometimes this means having an actual ‘script’ that you can lean on to help out with key questions they might have or just being prepared to say to someone: “I understand that you don’t agree with our decision and I’m happy to speak to you about this in a couple of days, but for now, I suggest you take some time out to process what I’ve just shared”.
- Be respectful: just because the person doesn’t agree with your decision, you can respectfully listen to their views on this. Sometimes it helps them to process the ‘result’ and it is enough for them that you’ve acknowledged this.
- If all else fails… If someone really won’t take any transition well and you’ve spoken to them already, then the good news is that – unlike the US situation – you don’t need Twitter to suspend them for you. You can cut them off from all company systems straight away and remind them of the terms and conditions they signed which they are potentially breaching. Be specific about the terms they are breaching and what your next legal steps may be. They may threaten legal action themselves – it is their right to explore whatever options they see fit – but they don’t have to be on your company’s systems to do so.
If you want to chat through any potentially challenging situations, drop us a line at hello@thehrhub.co.uk or by calling 0203 627 7048 to have a chat.
Image: Flickr
Kermit and Star Charts: How Borrowing From the Classroom Helps Focus Your Team 🐸
I like to think that I am a pretty good planner. But particularly in the early stages of lockdown, I would find myself getting distracted on some days from the one I had laid out in my head. Not by the obvious and expected things (unplanned client work or reactive calls which are core to our business and always to be expected) or those that are different to a typical working environment ( kids, dogs, TV, chores etc), but by pretty much anything else…..
I’d want to spend the day focussed on a particular strategic goal, but then I would naturally point myself in the other direction and end up creating a new template for something ( clearly not critical but could at some point be of use). Need to create that series of blogs for our marketing? In no time at all I’d start gravitating towards messing around with a new piece of video software.
As someone who likes to be focussed and derives a strong sense of achievement from ‘getting the ‘right’ sh*t done’, this was not sitting so well with me. And if this is ringing bells and either you or one of your team are struggling to prioritise your time and energy on the goals which matter, let me introduce you to Kermit.
Whilst discussing this topic with a friend of mine who was having the same challenge but fresh from reading ‘Eat That Frog!’ by Brian Tracey, she shared some of the wisdom from the book. The title is derived from the Mark Twain quote: “ If it’s your job to eat the frog, it’s best to do it early in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first”. It refers to the tasks that we seem to keep procrastinating over: the ones which we defer and push back, telling ourselves that ‘we’ll get to them later’. Often however, these are the things which are most likely to move us towards our goals (or certainly block us from achieving them) and when we defer them to the back of the day/ following day (and yes, we know you can find all sorts of excuses which we tell ourselves why we can’t do them…) they sit over our shoulder, metaphorically wagging their finger at us, causing us to dread them even more.
We need to recognise that it’s only human to have things that we shy away from and particularly during this odd period, to lose your mojo once in a while (from the 1.6 m copies sold to date of this book I’d say this was a pretty universal problem), but it’s vital for anyone that they can motivate themselves to complete the things which are going to move them forward, if they’re being held back from it. Taking action first of all and ‘just doing it’ is key to eating the frog before it consumes you, but don’t let the ‘morning’ part of this theory defer you further as it isn’t just for early risers. Whenever your ‘morning’ starts, is when you need to start eating. By getting these things out of the way first, the theory is that you’ll feel a sense of satisfaction of having progressed something early in your work, which can carry other activities and outcomes further throughout the day.
But it doesn’t just have to be frogs that can help you and your team prioritise working on the ‘right stuff’ as opposed to just working on ‘stuff’. Some people swear by having their ‘One Thing’ to focus on: the ‘one thing’ being what they need to do today/ this week which is going to move their business/ goals forward the most and which regardless of what else would have been done during that time period, will show progress and achievement.
I’ve tried using this method and whilst I understand the concept of laser focus, I find that particularly during lockdown with multiple hats on, this doesn’t work so well for me. My go-to method of prioritising these days therefore is a bit of a hybrid of these which I’ve adapted from our How To HR…. priorities we coach others on to work with a daily routine. Here I plan out each day with my:
- Musts: things that even if I have to stay up until midnight, I must do due to their importance in moving me forward towards my goals. These might include ‘frogs’ and they definitely include ‘one thing’ but there are often 2-3 things in this section.
- Shoulds: things which will really help me get the outcomes I want if I can get to actioning them, but which are not so critical for that day. These ones may move to a Must if I’m nearing a deadline.
- Coulds: things which might progress towards my end goal in a small way or is necessary but not critical to my role, but which won’t impact significantly if I bump to another day
There’s no one ‘correct’ way in overcoming procrastination or kick starting yourself or your team, but coaching your team is all about helping them find a way forward towards their goals. So talk to them about what you’ve observed in their progress towards them, discuss what styles might be right for them to try so they can work out which will help them achieve their goals.
All options require a little bit of forming habits, something Gretchin Rubin calls “ the invisible architecture of everyday life and a significant element of happiness”. And although creating healthy habits is a sizeable topic on it’s own, I can summarise one aspect here by saying that habits are more easily adopted the easier you make them to do. And that one way of doing this is to break down some of the bigger goals and tasks you face into smaller chunks. You’re more likely to be able to do these when they’re smaller and seeing yourself tick these off your to-do list, will help build you up and have a sense of progress. It’s why your FitBit/ My Fitness Pal (or any other app) works to help your motivation by visually reminding you of your progress. And as a girl who gets a kick out of seeing the ticks on my to-do list, I’m advocating the return of Star Charts for us all.
Now Etsy might make them prettier than they were when we were at school/ potty training our children, however the structure is the same: list out what you want to achieve and reward yourself with a star for all those things you complete. It’s visual and present as a mental jogger and helps to show what Teresa Amabile describes as the ‘progress principle’, the theory that we are motivated by seeing our own progress. And once you get past the initial emptiness and start seeing the stars mount up, I challenge anyone not to feel a sense of satisfaction.
Traditionally in school days, once you’d filled your star char, you may get a trip to see the Head Teacher to tell you how great you’ve been doing (I like to see positive reinforcement early doors…) but the nice thing about being an adult is that you get to choose what will reward you most. And with your team, that means speaking to them to see what niceties they would put on their ‘wish list’. Someone I know rewarded herself last month for hitting her goals with a onesie for knocking around lockdown in comfort and style. Another is a specialist gin lover. Both of which are achievable through the powers of Amazon.
But it doesn’t just have to be a financial reward that you provide: my reward to myself last week for finishing something I’d been meaning to do for weeks was an hour in the hammock reading my book. I could have done that regardless of what I’d achieved of course, but it was truly restful to do with the satisfaction of having achieved what I’d set out to do. Made even more so without Kermit tapping on my shoulder…
Fancy a chat about how to get the focus back in your team? Give us a bell on 0203 627 7048 or email on hello@thehrhub.co.uk and we’ll get right back to you.
Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash
School’s Out: Supporting Working Parents During Lockdown
School’s out for (what seems like..) forever right now. It shouldn’t be that time of year again… This calendar month is not the one where we are supposed to be winding down into the Summer holidays: a time when ‘juggling’ skills become paramount as parents across the land dread balancing their work deliverables with the fact that their kids have 6 weeks plus holiday stretching out in front of them. But yet here we are. In May. Finding ourselves weaving in our work and home life on a scale never seen before.
For many in your teams, initially working from home may have been a joy to remove from the commute and a time to show how productive one can be without the daily “ do you want another coffee?”. Yet for 7.9 million households where workers have dependent children (and particularly those with under tens who will remember this time as a very ‘special’ time indeed….), the challenges presented by working from home when your kids are off school/ nursery can test even those with the patience of Job.
Indeed many years ago when mine were much younger, I experienced my first very own ‘BBC’ moment when a newly acquired client called up to discuss a very sensitive situation with their team. Thinking both sons were napping, I took the call, put on my most professional voice, only for my son to start hollering about his nappy activities. He’s always been articulate (and did I mention loud?), so there was no doubt whatsoever about the cause of his complaint, although said client did his best to be British in the situation and completely ignore that this was happening …..
It’s been a few years since then and between us at TheHRhub now, we now have a bevvy of children aged between 1 and 15. But whilst the experience of working flexibly over time has given us some insight into how to do this, managing your work and your children 24/7 without external childcare, presents even greater challenges than we’ve seen before. So we’ve pulled together our own tips about managing to keep on top of things, without losing your cool:
- Plan to Fail: Turn ordinary planning on it’s head and assume that whatever you plan for will not stick. Instead, plan for alternatives. Yes, you may have your day mapped out on a visual planner, colour coded and brimming with unicorns so that all know what is going on and the kids can look forward to the fun times as well as see when you have your less ‘fun’ (i.e work!) plans too. But it’s 100% guaranteed that your kids will have other plans about how they want to spend the day…. So plan what alternatives you have when the ‘schedule’ backfires: activities, doing the more thought intensive work with them on your lap or in front of the telly ( yes, we all have those things we can do with one eye on things). I’m also a big fan of bribery at these times & would propose the liberal use of star charts to nudge along.
- Be elastic with your team: There’s not a person on Zoom/ Skype/ Hangouts who hasn’t been interrupted at some point by a chatty/ screaming child or voices in the background. This is life at the moment and unless you have the unlikely scenario of a fleet of nannies waiting in your cupboard, there isn’t a damn thing anyone can do about it. So not only tell your team you are relaxed but show them too, by inviting in your own family to come and say Hi if they’re about.
- Show trust and reasonableness in timings: If there’s a hard deadline for something then make someone aware of this in advance ( and not on the day). But make sure that your team knows you are not going to be checking in every five minutes and are comfortable in trusting all to manage themselves and their time: this way if they need to take the kids out to the park before frustration and fight levels reach DEFCON Five, then they can do so as they feel the need to feel guilt about it because it’s in ‘work time’.
- Working Time Extended: Not in an effort to make people work for longer each day. But to give people the opportunity to start later, intersperse their days with breaks to focus on their kids and manage all that they need to do in the best way possible. In the words of my own teenager: 9-5 is sooooo dead….
- One Size (Doesn’t) Fit All: It’s unlikely what’s going to work for someone with a two and three year old is going to be the same for a twelve year old at home, so recognise that there’s no one-size fits all approach and talk to your team about what might work best for them.
- Be prepared to offer/ take ‘holiday’: we may not be able to escape at the moment to that gorgeous villa in the sun or the yearned for city break in Barcelona, but by taking some of our annual leave and not focussing on work, could help many out by reducing stress levels in order to focus on just one area.
Fancy a chat? We don’t need to Zoom ( yes, we’re getting sick of it now too!!). Give us a bell on 0203 627 7048 or email on hello@thehrhub.co.uk and we’ll get right back to you.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
