HR goes a long way beyond hiring and firing. Its major strength is to enable people to work together in productive and fruitful relationships. People are central to the running of your business and every so often things may not go quite as planned. Conflict often results in poor working environments, inefficient performance, increased sickness absence and ultimately has a negative effect on results leading to bad customer service. Well help you get to the bottom of the issue and get things back on track by supporting you to identify any required change and steer people to a productive resolution which will better serve your business and your customers.

Together we can effectively manage:

• Poor timekeeping, repeated lateness or simply not being where they are meant to be!
• Frequent, short term sickness absence or long term illness
• Stress related absence and stress risk assessments
• Negative attitudes, laziness and simply not seeming to care about their job
• Frequent or silly mistakes being made or poor job performance
• Increased customer complaints or poor customer service
• Allegations of bulling, harassment or discrimination
• Difficulties recruiting or keeping staff
• Managers lacking confidence or people management skills
• Team members not doing what you need them to
• Negative behaviours and disciplinary issues
• Difficult relationships, minimal team working or personality clashes
• Poor communication or difficult conversations
• Concerns and grievances
• Workplace investigations
• Formal meetings, hearings, dismissals and appeals

Working relationships can be complicated, but they dont need to be. Experience over the years has taught us that many managers and business owners are excellent in their technical areas but may not have been trained or may lack confidence to work or communicate effectively with people. We will help you get the best from your team and ensure your team are motivated to do the best for your business.

• Exploring how you reward and say thank you for a job well done
• Refreshing your performance appraisal scheme
• Implementing regular team meetings or 121 supervision
• Improving communication and feedback
• Facilitating management skills & team building workshops
• Encouraging teams to contribute ideas and help deliver a great customer
  service
• Reviewing training and personal development or promotional opportunities
• Ensuring your workplace is a friendly, fun, safe and pleasant place to be
• Proactively resolve problems or respond to concerns
• Learning from customer feedback or when things have gone wrong
• Reviewing your employment terms and conditions
• Updating your policies and procedures

Is your business being held back by people problems? Perhaps you have to many or not enough or you simply need to do things differently. We can help you plan for the future and prepare for expected change or indeed react and deal with the unexpected. Together we can make change happen, do it in a way that maintains your working relationships, enhances your reputation and ensures you make the right decisions for the right reasons.

• Implementing or updating terms and conditions or policies and procedures
• Introducing new technology or ways of working
• Growing your team and creating new roles
• Changing how you would like your existing team to deliver your business
• Culture change the how and why we do things around here mentality
• Restructures, which may include new locations and office moves
• Outsourcing, secondments & TUPE (business transfers)
• Introducing shared services and partnership arrangements
• Compulsory or voluntary redundancy situations
• Making difficult decisions which affect people but which are right for your business
• Using the right procedure for the right reason (and not taking the perceived easy option which may lead to later problems!)
• Ensuring you follow the right process, including communication, consultation, notice periods and written confirmations which meet your legal requirements

Being an employer can be daunting at times and trying to operate your business day to day within the perceived constraints of employment law can be confusing and, if we are honest, often frustrating! We will demystify your legal obligations, help you understand what you have to do, what you might like to do, and what you dont have to do! Together, we can make employment law work in practice for your business and avoid the often unnecessary cost of an employment solicitor when all you need is a simple answer to what feels like a complicated question. Our goal is to keep you out of a tribunal by getting it right in the first place!

• Drafting and updating contracts of employment, offer letters or other imp ortant records
• Drafting and updating your Employee Handbook
• Understanding working hours, breaks and rest periods
• Managing maternity, paternity, shared parental leave, adoption leave or other family friendly leave entitlements
• Calculating statutory entitlements and pay such as holiday or redundancy
• Responding to flexible working requests
• Managing your teams fairly, equitably and creating a culture of trust and transparency
• Ensuring your policies and procedures are legally compliant
• Implement change effectively and fairly
• Understanding how the term
• reasonable employer applies for you
• Helping you manage risk and make informed decisions
• Avoiding breaches of contract or unfair dismissal situations
• Saying goodbye when things arent quite right or policies dont fit!
• And IF you receive a Tribunal Claim help you prepare your response and work
  alongside your solicitor as applicable

Helping you to decide what roles you need, what your ideal employee might look like and how to find and keep the right people in your team to help your business be the best it can be.

• Choosing the right type of employment contract
• Agreeing your terms and conditions and discretionary benefits
• Designing job descriptions and person specifications
• Creating interview questions and assessment methods to help you make a good decision
• Providing offer letters, issuing contracts and employee handbooks
• Delivering great induction training and support
• Making good use of probation periods
• Growing a great team for your future
• Saying goodbye to those who are not right for your business