HR Management

HR strategy, HR management, people management

THAT WAS A SHORT ONE

| Carolyn

I had a telephone interview for 4 mins 39 secs and no offer for temporary work, minimum pay. Cartoon like graphic of a woman in black outline with red lips. Purple spots on top. Pleated skirt. Quirky scribbly drawing. Words read - what the f*@k This is about candidate care and people management.

Listen to this.  Candidate gets ready for telephone interview.  It was for a bit of minimum pay work in an office for a few weeks.  Woman from the business gets on the phone asks whether candidate can get to the office and then says job was about this and that (insert just a little bit of detail here).  Simple job, candidate thought the chat was a formality.  But no.  The company spoke to someone else and the candidate did not get given the work.

So what was that all about.  Talk about confusion.  No delving into detail, obviously CV had been seen.

So was that unconscious bias or what?  Whatever it was, I think I can do better for you.

If you want me to look after your candidates a bit better than this please get in touch to discuss.

Walsall, West Midlands and remote.

THINGS START COOKING UP EARLY

Egg frying in a pan image.

Reputation wise, people will be talking.  That’s clients, staff, associates and pretty much anyone else who may have an interest.  This will all impact HR and marketing and employer brand starts early.  There’s job boards and social media and reviews for people to see so how staff are treated will filter out quite easily.  That will then be something that will have an impact on recruitment.  Of course, if we have an organisation that looks like a nice employer, that’s the one for most of us.

So what can a business do to try and protect its reputation and how is this relating to HR management?  Maybe when recruiting for people speak to current staff, make the role available to them and if this isn’t possible speak to people and prepare them for a new member of staff.  This will help reduce any upset that could be experienced if current staff are interested in the new role.  If there are people who are interested in the role and the business feels that the time is not right, speak to the people to explain reasons for recruiting externally and look at staff development plans.

Looking at how a job is advertised is important.  What words are used in the advertisement, is it clearly understood and is a business asking for what is required.  Making salary clear is important so that applicants are not disappointed down the line and researching benefits that are being offered to people, especially by competitors is worthwhile.  Think about policies that are in place, such as flexible working and family friendly policies so that the role will attract more applicants if it is possible to work flexibly or part time.

Prepare a job description and person specification for the role.  The job description looks at the tasks and the person specification lists the experience and attributes that is required of a person.  This can be sent to applicants and will help with interviewing and selection too.

The impact that a business  makes in society is something that people look at too.  Not only employees either, this stuff is something that is considered when bidding for work.  How much time has a business spent on training hours over a year, how are they keeping their staff safe (wellbeing at work, mental health awareness, harassment and bullying policies and training) and what is the staff turnover looking like.  Does a business do anything in the community, are they working with care leavers, people who are trying to rebuild their lives etc.  All this can come into the mix.

Please get in touch if I can work with you.

WHAT’S COOKING IN HR?

| Carolyn
Image of boots with text above that reads Can;t I just boot them out? Under the boots reads Well, not really, no. Human resources services www.shrewdmove.net

For ages people have had to have two years’ service with a company before being able to bring a claim of unfair dismissal.  This is now changing and from 1st January 2027 people will only need six months’ service with a business in order to bring a case to tribunal.  So is this good or bad, what are the implications of this change and how will it roll out over time?

WHAT ABOUT THE EMPLOYEE?

Of course, it is good as they may start to feel that they have more employment rights.  However, rights can be difficult to exercise and sometimes the work environment can be intimidating, ran on fear and unhealthy. 

The reality is that the reduced period of time really doesn’t make a difference.  A good business will have fair processes (CLICK HERE) in place anyway and if people are having to bring claims for unfair dismissal then something is going wrong.  It’s entirely possible that someone is not performing well in their role and that’s fine.  It’s how the situation is managed that matters.

SO WHAT CAN A BUSINESS DO?

Being clear from the offset will help to establish the employment relationship and vagueness in advertising and recruitment should really be avoided.  A business may want to get a person for the least amount that they feel they need to pay, but what impression is this throwing out there?  Huge salary ranges can be confusing to applicants so why not name the salary so that things are clear from the beginning.  Applicants earning above and below the salary will still apply and there may be scope for discussion but at least it doesn’t make a business look underhanded and as if they are playing games.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO EMPLOYERS?

Anyone employed from July 2026 will now have the right to bring a claim of unfair dismissal in January 2027.  But you know what, you shouldn’t really be worrying.  If you recruit well and look after people then this really shouldn’t present any greater a risk.  What do I mean by that?  Be fair and transparent in your recruitment, that really will help.  Don’t mislead candidates with false promises of development and opportunities as when this doesn’t roll out the employment relationship can break down from the early stages. 

The cap has been lifted on awards with tribunals too, so it will be interesting to see what awards are going to be made.

WHAT TYPE OF THINGS MAY RESULT IN AWARDS BEING MADE TO PEOPLE?

Bullying and harassment seems to be involved in lots of cases and although many businesses have policies in place, the cases keep coming.  Training and policies are pretty standard but what is a business doing to ensure that they have processes in place to protect people at work and reduce the risk of a claim being made.  Looking at how managers delegate work and how performance is measured is recommended.  Are people being treated fairly and do managers have the ability to delegate?  Low trust, high blame cultures seem to be a breeding ground for fear and it is only human nature that people want to protect their own positions.  Although understandable, a manager should be getting the best out of everyone and that means developing them and trusting thing.  So are businesses being fair to their managers too and making them feel confident that they can lead with impact?

SO WILL BUSINESSES STOP RECRUITING?

Employers may think that they will prefer not to employ people or they can offer fixed term contracts, but then what impact will that have on a business? At the end of the day, people need people and AI can only do so much.

Please get in touch if I can help you with your processes for managing your people from pre-recruitment to when a person leaves.

MODERN CONTENT TO HELP A BUSINESS CLEAN UP

| Carolyn
Vintage stand up vacuum photographed in garden. Star graphic drawn on the image to the side of the upright vacuum bag. Words lower down the image read - Modern content to help a business clean up

So what is modern content?

Now that’s a question, isn’t it?  Trends come and go, there’s apps out there to edit videos for social media and people follow sounds and whatnot, but what else is there?  There’s connecting with people and that doesn’t change over time.  If we want people to come and look at what we do, it has to mean something to them.

So how can we get people’s interest?  Maybe you solve problems for people, you may have unique products, you may be part of conversations online and get followers that way.

What can I do for you?

  • Photography – original and the use of stock photography
  • Captions – captions and catch phrases
  • Campaigns – create content to use in different ways
  • Social media
  • Website content
  • Design for print
  • Videos for reels and posts
  • Digital art work
  • Hand painted art work
  • Using props and ornaments and AI
  • Poetry
  • Scriptwriting

You can see some of my digital design on my Redbubble account shrewdmovenet and if you have a look around here you can see my original art work.

Please get in touch if you have something to discuss.

Thanks,

Carolyn

07949 777462

HR, COMMS AND ART WORK

| Carolyn

You may have a business or oganisation where you are looking to get messages out there.  I can help you with this.  My work includes creating characters, please have a look for Ska d’cat and Moog doog on here and you should be able to work it out.  

I can create characters for you, something that can be used for your communications, to accompany policies and procedures and to drive employee engagement.

Captions and campaigns, design and messages.  That’s just a bit of what I can do.  Please get in touch to discuss.  Whatsapp me or call 07949 777462.

Thanks,

Carolyn