All People Matter(s)

Small business is often covered by different legislation than businesses with 15 or greater employees.

Some areas that small businesses differ are:
- not required to pay redundancy pay (in most cases)
- the Probationary Period for a new employee is 12 months instead of 6 months for larger businesses

If you're a small business you probably don't have a dedicated HR employee and that's where I can assist as a fully outsourced HR Consultant.

I'd love to speak with you about how I can support the HR needs of your business.

With HR being an everchanging landscape it's vital that businesses have robust Policies and Procedures in place to ensure compliance, understanding of expectations and processes for dealing with underperformance, inappropriate behaviour and much more. In the HR space, the minimum needed are: - Code of Conduct - Recruitment Policy - Complaint Management Policy and Procedure - Discrimination, Bullying and Harassment Management Policy and Procedure - Leave Policy - Privacy Policy - Social Media Policy - Induction Policy and Procedure I am experienced in developing and reviewing Policies and Procedures to ensure they are up to date with current legislation. I can also assist with implementing your organisational policies and procedures to ensure all employees are aware and understand them. Policies are often used as a source to support Performance Management and Complaints so it's vital that they're in place.

Every role in your business needs a Position Description (PD) to ensure an understanding of the requirements of the role, KPI's to measure performance and expectations of the level of the role ie entry, mid, senior, executive etc. Without a PD employees can be left uncertain of the expectations of their role and it is impossible to manage performance if an employee is underperforming. The PD should clearly state (among other things): - Employment type - full time, part time, fixed term, casual - Position level - if being banding in line with an Award or Award free tied to salary - Skills and Qualifications of the position - Key responsibilities of the role I am experienced in ensuring that consistent language is used across all PD's in the business and that language is tied to the appropriate level of responsibility. Please speak with me about how I can assist your business in this area.

Recruiting and selecting the most appropriate person for a position can be a complex task. There are a plethora of antidiscrimination laws and guidelines to adhere to while ensuring you hire "right fit" for your team. The basic steps are: - developing or reviewing the Position Description, including selection criteria - advertising - reviewing applications and short listing - interviewing - referee reports - offer of the role My services can walk you through the entire process. I have experience a variety of industries and will work with you to ensure the right candidate is appointed.

A robust Staff Performance Appraisal/Review process is one that identifies Career Goals and appropriate training for your employees. This is then best used in conjunction with Training and Development Plans and Succession Planning. Having identified career paths for your employees assists with staff morale and increased staff retention. We all know the scenario, you invest time into the development of staff only to have them leave with all the training you have provided for them. Some things to ask yourself are: - was the training provided in line with an identified Succession Plan for the Organisation? - was the training in line with the staff members’ identified career goals? - have you actually conducted a Performance Appraisal with your staff to identify their career goals? Performance Appraisals aren’t about dealing with poor performance. They are an important tool to motivate employees to work towards advancement and promotion. Therefore any training provided should be in line with the identified career path for each staff member. If this is carried out correctly, you will have valuable staff remaining on your business team for many happy and productive years into the future.

Employees sometimes underperform and your business needs a robust method of addressing this. Unfortunately, leaders often lack the skills in this area and will let underperformance continue, ultimately making it even more difficult to address. I can assist your business by providing processes to ensure a correct Performance Management process is in place to support these times and coach leaders on how to have Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) discussions. The sooner a PIP can be implemented, the greater the chance of improved performance and return to full function in a role. I'm available to speak with you about how I can support your business throughout this process.

Wouldn’t it be great if, when conflict arose at work (or home), we could just ignore it, and it would get better all by itself? It has been proven time and time again that the best way to deal with conflict is quickly, before it escalates. Workplace relationships can be very complex. They involve friendship and respect, mixed with competition for advancement. Quite a contrast when you think about it. It is to be expected that there will be waves in the still waters from time to time. This is why businesses need to have a process in place for your employees to make a formal complaint. I don’t mean “well they know they can come to me if there is any trouble”, I mean a formal complaint and report. Having a Policy in place regarding the mutual treatment of work colleagues and acceptable behaviour (a Code of Conduct for example), together with the correct Procedure in place will help keep any issues that arise on a clear path to investigation and resolution. The delicate nature of these matters is precisely why it can be beneficial to have a third party independent person (such as a HR Consultant) to address these issues as and when they arise. Speak with me today about how I can support your business with this and other HR matters.

You can't put a price on the value held with departing and/or retiring employees. Some shoes are just really hard to fill! Succession planning strategies ensure that employees are constantly developed and reskilled to become more versatile and suited to upcoming roles. How would it help your business to know that you are able to fill mid and senior level employee vacancies with competent and qualified individuals from within your business? These are people who already KNOW your business and can develop into those roles much more smoothly than if you brought someone completely unfamiliar in? I can work with you to ensure succession planning is in place so that you retain your skilled workforce by giving them a career path which brings the best overall results for your business. Please also see "Performance Reviews/Appraisals" on how they support Succussion Planning.

I can assist with a variety of training to improve the strength and cohesion of your business, as well as the productivity of your employees. Some of the training I provide is: - Bullying and Harassment - Communication - Leadership Skills - Time Management and Productivity I also provide Career Coaching to individuals in your business who want to advance and/or gain confidence in their current role. It's not uncommon that a business sees an advancement for a particular employee but they just can't nail the interview - I can help develop their interview skills and grow their confidence to get the promotion they deserve.