On the 9th day of Christmas Your HR Lawyer gave to me a guide for an HR Spring clean

Ok, so thinking ahead to spring may be a little too much to ask but see this as a heads up for the New Year, New Year, new culture, new start.

How to Spring clean your HR

Check your policies
Check your absence levels for 2017
Performance
Pay
Holidays
Culture
Health
People
Leadership
HR support

Policies

Do you have a staff handbook?
Is it up to date with current legislation?
As a business you need to have certain policies in place such as grievance and disciplinary but it is helpful to have an employee handbook that contains, for example, information on maternity/adoption/parental leave, annual leave, sickness, dependency and compassionate leave.
Dust your policies off, check what you have, check when it was last updated and, if you haven’t had your policies updated in the last year it is advised that you get them updated so that you remain on the right side of employment law.
Remember policies are not about tying you up in red tape, they are to set and manage employees expectations and provide guidelines.

Absence

Do you know your current absence percentage?
Do you know how much of it is sickness related?
Do you know how it compares to the industry standard?
Do you know how much it is costing you?
If you don’t it is well worth you having a look and making a plan to tackle high absence levels in the New Year. If you need some support with this, get in touch.
There are so many things we can do to improve attendance and manage poor attendance.

Performance

Do your employees know what is expected of them on a daily, monthly or yearly basis?
Have you set targets?
Have you monitored those targets and communicated with your employees on how they are doing?
Have you provided support to those who may be struggling to meet targets?
Have you started formal proceedings with those employees who, despite support are consistently failing to meet targets?
The New Year is a great opportunity to revisit any targets you have set and, in line with your new or improved culture (see day 7), manage performance.

Pay

Have you reviewed your pay policy?
Have your employees received any increase?
Have you got a clear bonus scheme in place?
Are you in line with Minimum Wage https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates and/or Living Wage https://www.livingwage.gov.uk

Holidays

Have you got a clear annual leave policy?
Have you got 2017 covered in terms of the right number of people in the right place at the right time? Avoid employees bunching up their annual leave and taking it all at the same time.
Do you want your employees to request leave early so you can best manage your workforce according to business needs?

Culture

After reading day 7 of this series, have you made plans to discuss culture change with the relevant people?
How are you going to engage your employees?
Have you asked for feedback so that you know what’s working and what isn’t?
Have you thought about getting someone in to benchmark your employee engagement score and provide advice on how to turn things around?

Health

On day 8 we gave you ideas for a healthier workforce, what, if any, are you going to consider for the New Year?
Have you got something in place to monitor the impact?
Do you need external support in creating a health benefits package or healthier workforce plan?

People

Do you have the right people in place?
Are they committed?
Are they productive?
Do you have skills shortages?
Do you have problems recruiting?
Have you got a people strategy in place that works alongside your business plan?
Have a plan to support and promote those that have the ability.
Make sure you are following the relevant formal procedures for those employees that are not adding value to your business either through poor performance or poor attendance. Get advice first though!!

Leadership

Are you modeling the behavior and performance you expect from your employees?
Are you a hands-on leader, willing to pitch in and help when needed?
Are you focused on encouraging your employees for better performance and managing negative aspects of others?
Are you someone that people voluntarily follow and look up to or do you rule by fear?
Are you legally compliant?
Are you prepared to ask for that feedback I suggested in day 7?
Lead by example.
Be fair and consistent.
Be inspirational.

HR Support

Do you have HR support in place?
Is it doing what you need it to do or is it just doing your wages?
Is your accountant your HR person or your Company Secretary?
Why not look at having an HR Consultant (me) on hand to support you with HR so that you can focus on your business. Check out my prices on the website and give us a call.
Are HR issues raining on your Christmas parade? Let us be your umbrella! Call us on 0115 870 0150 or email nickie@yourhrlawyer.co.uk.