Blog - Employee Engagement
Mental Health and Well-Being at Work
9th Nov 2018Absence Management, Employee Benefits, Employee Engagement, Employment Law, Human ResourcesTraining
Mental health problems are common, experienced by up to one in four of the population. Problems are often hidden, stigma is still widespread and many people do not receive adequate support from services. Mental health problems often start early in life and can be prevented through creating mentally healthy environments in schools, neighbourhoods and workplaces and in providing services to individuals and families that promote mental health, help identify signs...
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Giving Notice To Leave A Job is Not Always A Letter Of Resignation
22nd Oct 2018Employee Engagement, Employment LawHuman Resources
A letter that gives one month’s notice should not automatically be interpreted as a letter of resignation, an employment appeal tribunal judgment has confirmed. The Facts The claimant, Mrs Levy, was employed in the Records Department by East Kent Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust). Mrs Levy successfully applied for an internal position in the Trust's Radiology Department, subject to pre-appointment checks. After having been given the conditional offer,...
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Planning for Paternity
15th Aug 2018Employee Engagement, Employment LawHuman Resources
Why Less Men Are Taking Leave…And What Employers Need to Know When you’re male employee skips into work after the summer holidays and proudly proclaims he’s going to be a Daddy, do you: A – Leap across the office, shake his hand and offer to take him for a pint? B – Immediately start recalling the sleepless nights which you experienced when your own first-born landed several years ago? C...
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When The Temperatures Climb, The Responsibilities Soar
25th Jul 2018Employee Benefits, Employee Engagement, Human ResourcesLeadership
We can plan for all kinds of scenarios as HR advisors. We’re often waiting like a coiled spring for the next recruitment wave for one of our clients, or their sudden requirement on a tricky dismissal, or responding when a member of staff walks in the office and announces they’re seven months pregnant! Weather is such a tricky one. While many of us are, for the most part, delighted to...
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Lessons In Management From Southgate
16th Jul 2018Business, Employee Engagement, Human Resources, LeadershipTraining
One of our clients recently invited us to a celebration for an employee who’d been with them 20 years. Perhaps not a long time, when compared with the 35-plus years for which some staff used to pick up watches and clocks and tie-pins in generations gone by, but today, without a shadow of a doubt, two decades is a long time to stay on the same ‘team’. It doesn’t take...
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When Football Comes Home Does That Mean Your Staff Will Stay Home Too?
11th Jul 2018Employee Benefits, Employee Engagement, Employment LawHuman Resources
Absenteeism after World Cup matches is well known phenomenon and has historically cost British businesses millions. So what about this year? How has this affected you? Gareth Southgate has been turning us on with his snazzy waistcoats and ace management style but now that it's all over (bar the game for 3rd place) have hungover staff cost you business money in lost revenue? Have you been tackling employee absences in...
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Summertime and Retention Protection
9th Jul 2018Employee Engagement, Human Resources, LeadershipRecruitment
What’s more infectious than a common cold in the workplace? What’s likely to set the jungle-drums of workplace gossip on fire more so than when the guy from sales disappeared with the woman from finance at the Christmas party? Answer? A plague of summertime resignations. Okay, it’s not necessarily the case that scores of staff will go handing in their notice during the summer period, but as it’s likely to...
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What’s the Solution to Finding and Keeping the Best Talent?
10th Jun 2018Business, Change Management, Employee Benefits, Employee Engagement, Employment Law, Human Resources, Leadership, RecruitmentTraining
If I could name one question which gets asked of me most among new and existing clients, it’s along the lines of ‘how do I find and keep the best talent?’ As consultants in the HR world, there’s not a week goes by where we’re not asked to help a company who are losing a key member of staff, wanting to recruit that ‘Superstar Employee’, or once again battling their...
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Succession Planning & Talent Spotting are the Key to Diversity
5th Jun 2018Employee Engagement, Employment Law, Human Resources, Leadership, RecruitmentTraining
For our latest blog, MAD-HR founder Carole Burman discusses talent-spotting, board diversity, and succession planning. Last week saw reaction travel far and wide, over a new report which revealed major companies had some pretty dire excuses as to why they’re not appointing women to the board. The findings of the government-backed Hampton-Alexander Review were that CEOs at some FTSE 350 companies were still of the belief that women would not...
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Managing the World Cup 2018 and potential disruption
17th May 2018Absence Management, Employee EngagementHuman Resources
The FIFA World Cup is due to start on 14th June, with 60 matches being played in Russia over the course of a four weeks before the final on 15th July. With some matches taking place during or close to many employees’ normal working hours, we look at ways to support you in managing any disruption that may be arising. 1. Deal fairly with competing requests for time off Employers may...
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How To Get The Best Out of Your Appraisal Process
21st Nov 2017Business, Employee EngagementHuman Resources
Appraisals are like marmite: employees and employers alike either love them or hate them. But like Marmite, performance appraisals are here to stay. If managed in the correct way they can be a fantastic tool to motivate your team, maximise the return on training and development, build robust succession plans, retain talent, and open up communication. So what is the best way to approach your appraisal process to maximise the...
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How To Create a Great Culture and How Can You Measure It
31st Oct 2017Business, Employee Engagement, Human ResourcesLeadership
If you can create a great culture in your organisation, everything else will fall into place. Great culture results in a happy and stable workforce, reliable teamwork, high productivity, increased profits and the realisation of business plans. So how to achieve it…… Listen and Respond to your team. Your employees are your most important asset and when they feel valued, they will be loyal, perform at their very best and...
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Growing Your Business with a Winning Team
16th Oct 2017Business, Employee Engagement, Human ResourcesLeadership
Your business will only be as successful as your team. A simple fact and possibly the biggest challenge facing entrepreneurs. The market can be open, your product or service optimally priced and of the desired quality, yet you will only reach your growth potential if you have the right team working with you. You want a team who cares; who are committed and are skilled in performing the tasks needed...
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Why Should Every Employer Care About The Culture of Their Business?
26th Sep 2017Employee Engagement, Employment LawHuman Resources
Culture can be hard to define. It can be considered how organisation’s conduct their business – “how we do things around here”. It is the system of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs, which have a strong influence on the people in the organisation and dictate how they act and perform their roles. So why be concerned with your culture? Because very simply, the organisation’s culture is the foundation of its success. A...
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What is the first thing you should do when your star performer resigns?
20th Sep 2017Employee Engagement, Employment Law, Human ResourcesRecruitment
There is no longer an expectation of a job for life with the average Briton having six different employers during their career. It can be an upheaval in the largest of organisations, but for an SME, having your star performer resign can leave you feeling overwhelmed and concerned with the future of your organisation. It can be difficult to process and initial reactions often include wondering if you have done...
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Leading by Example – Maintaining Your Edge
4th Aug 2017Change Management, Employee Engagement, Human Resources, LeadershipTraining
A growing, forward thinking company will have strong leadership to drive the organisation’s strategic programme forward and ensure their team have the skills and abilities to meet their challenges. You can read more about leadership skills here. To continue to grow and be successful it is vital that your leadership team maintains their edge through continual development. The business world is constantly evolving and the leadership team needs to evolve...
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The Christmas Party – How to Keep it Professional
4th Aug 2017Employee EngagementHuman Resources
Whilst you may be thinking about staff scheduling to cover the peak summer holiday period, or dreaming of your own week away on the beach, August is the busiest month for the hospitality industry in relation to Christmas bookings. If you haven’t confirmed your Christmas celebration by August Bank Holiday weekend you may miss out on the location or date that you want. Ridiculous when we are (hopefully) enjoying the...
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How to attract millennials to your business
12th Jul 2017Change Management, Employee Engagement, RecruitmentTraining
After the Baby Boomers came Generation X, and now it’s the Millennials who will soon be making up at least half the workforce and are inevitably the future of employment. With a wealth of talent and high education standards, how do you ensure you attract millennials to your business? A Millennial is deemed to be roughly 20 – mid 30 years old (definitions tend to count birth years from early...
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5 ways to improve value you get from your meetings
12th Jul 2017Employee EngagementLeadership
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, meetings form a major part of work communication and management strategies. Google currently reports results from recent surveys citing that on average 16 hours a week can be spent in meetings... Furthermore, it's with the view that four of those hours are wasted. Others report that during your career you may attend 6240 meetings and that 70% of attendees in those meetings will zone out,...
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How to be a trusted and authentic leader
15th Jun 2017Change Management, Employee Engagement, Human ResourcesLeadership
Being a competent manager or having a senior position does not automatically make a leader. A leader connects with those they seek to lead. They inspire, encourage and empower their team. Whilst there is certainly an overlap in skills needed for a senior manager and leader, it can be considered that true leaders are successful due to their characteristics, not just their skills. Authentic leadership is about the being, not...
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