What is keeping you up at night?

I don’t’ know about you, but if I haven't had a good nights sleep, it affects my whole day!

Especially at the moment while I’m training for next months London Marathon.

Not being rested affects my speed and endurance

And my mood

For the entire day!

How much worse is it when your business is keeping you awake and then you have to spend the day dealing with business challenges whilst exhausted?

Like my client Claire who was drowning under the weight of trying to do ALL THE THINGS.

She had a never-ending list of tasks that were required to take her business to the next level, however, they never got touched because she only had the capacity to focus on delivering to her current clients.

Every time that she sat down to relax (or sleep), all she could think about was the list of things that she hadn’t achieved.

And so her business started to feel like an anchor, rather than a sailboat.

Have you ever felt like that?

When that legacy-building, freedom-giving business you dreamt of feels so very far away.

After taking Claire through our unique systems and processes, we were able to establish achievable objectives and goals for her business growth. We hired a team member and a contractor to increase her capacity and give her peace of mind so that she could sleep peacefully and have the energy need to build her business.

She was able to make small steps every day to move forward and within a month, was able to launch a new service to her customers.

The first step was having fierce clarity on her business and personal objectives, so that she knew what to focus on, but more importantly what to say 'No' to.

I share more on getting unstuck in this LinkedIn live.

One bad apple will spoil the whole bunch

Last week I was asked about the signs of a toxic employee and it made me think about all the clients and managers that have come to me over the years with concerns about members of staff.

I think that generally when I started getting the history, there were always concerns at the outset but they overlooked them and didn’t address them during the probation period.

When I started my first proper HR job, I was in charge of graduate recruitment and we had selection days with graduates, where they would go through a series of tests and interviews, at the end of the day we would decide who to offer a position to. It was a group decision, we made sure that at least 6 people interacted with each candidate to get a balanced decision.

I had concerns about a candidate, they were super smart, really articulate but I could see that they were not a team player and that their directness would rub colleagues and clients up the wrong way.

Don’t get me wrong being challenging isn’t a bad thing, it just needs to be tempered with the ability to negotiate and be accepting of another person's point of view.

I shared my concerns but my boss disagreed with me and so the person was offered a position. Less than 2 months later my boss and I were in a room telling this individual that their contract was going to be terminated and having a really difficult conversation as their inability to self reflect made the feedback difficult to hear.

I want to help you avoid making poor hiring or promotion choices, so here are the points to look out for:

An inability to self reflect.

Ask questions on what went wrong and what they have learnt. Are they blaming others?

A preference to work alone (unless the role requires it).

No man/woman is an island. You want to hear about collaboration, influence and negotiation

A lack of Emotional intelligence.

Do they pick up nuances in tone and body language?

Are they problem multipliers, rather than problem solvers?

Do they come to you with issues that they should be solving themselves? Do they always respond with negativity to change or challenge?

Are they self serving?

Do they help others? Are they willing to share their time and knowledge?

Let us know which tip’s you’ll be implementing with your team in the comments and grab our FREE guide to Hiring to make sure you hire the right person

Is it weak to ask for help?

When you have a business challenge is your first thought, ‘How can I fix it?’ or ‘Who can help me fix it?’

I’ll bet you generally go into the solve-it mode, I used to do that too…and being totally transparent sometimes I still do!

As an entrepreneur, it can be difficult to release the reins and allow others to work on your ‘business baby’. You’ve put so much into building up your business you want everything to be perfect.

Both in my corporate and entrepreneurial life, I have struggled with delegating the time consuming administrative and technical tasks to others, as I was SURE they couldn’t do it as well and/or as quickly as me, and if I was going to have to teach them and then check it afterwards, I may as well have done it myself!

But I wasn’t doing myself any favours, I was busy being busy, my business wasn’t growing as quickly as it should have been because I was trying to do ALL THE THINGS, and my team wasn’t learning or developing.

The whole idea of recruiting and building a team is to free you up to do the high-value stuff, like speaking with potential clients and delivering excellence to your paying clients, it should also mean that you can go on holiday WITHOUT your laptop, iPad and iPhone, take the afternoon off to relax in the spa, or go to your children’s school play without worrying about what’s happening in the office.

When I’ve broken down the reason why most business owners lack trust in their team, it’s because they fear they’ll get things wrong, that they’ll change the winning formula that has gotten them this far.

Like my client Alice, who was struggling to focus on building her business because she was caught up trying to get the day-to-day things completed.

Her company mobile phone would not stop ringing, as her managers referred any difficult customers to her rather than dealing with them themselves.

This meant that the majority of her customers had her number and would just call, rather than talk to the manager for the relevant store (even though they’d be seeing them face to face regularly). The head office line hardly rang, so Alice’s assistant wasn’t inundated with calls. Alice felt trapped.

After spending some time with Alice it became apparent that her caring and maternal nature had meant that her managers didn’t even attempt to solve tricky problems, they just called Alice for the answer.

My first suggestion was to change her mobile number and remove it from all the business literature. Each store and store manager had a telephone number and there was a number for head office too.

We delivered our signature management training programme to the managers and their deputies, created a peer coaching group and created a crib sheet for the managers to be sure they understood the policies and processes so that they took ownership for managing issues and didn’t need to disrupt Alice, except for emergencies.

A month after the phone was disconnected Alice said “I feel like a weight has been lifted, I don’t know why I didn’t do that sooner, thank you”

Delegating is always a major subject in our Management and Leadership Coaching Programmes, so I thought I’d share a few tips to help:

Play to your strengths

Know what you are good at and stick to it. When you started your business you were a team of one and had to get everything done (sales, products, accounts, marketing, logistics). Now you can buy in support, either through outsourced providers (accountants, VA, social media, contractors) or employees.

Get the right support in and give them the autonomy to deliver. Getting support doesn’t mean that you have to lock yourself into a full-time permanent contract. If you are concerned that your business might experience a downturn (or you know the support you need is seasonal), you can hire casual staff or offer a contract on a fixed-term and/or part-time basis.

Take the time to train your team

Have you ever said, “By the time I teach them how to do it, I could have done it myself!” Ten years ago this would have definitely been me, but by the time I’d had to complete that task three or four times, I was wishing that I had trained someone, ANYONE else in my team to do it.

As annoying as it sounds, you have to invest time to free up time, whether it is setting up a system, process or training an individual and this is the same thing I say to clients who are too busy to find time the hire the staff they need – it’s chicken and egg! A fully trained and empowered employee means more freedom for you.

Train your team and have them document the process and keep it up to date, then whenever you have a new joiner or promote a team member you have a process manual ready!

Block out your time

It is really easy to get distracted by the admin needed to run a business even with an administrator or VA on staff, so block your time for specific tasks.

I do write down my Must-Dos for each day and the time that I am dedicating to them. Then at the allocated time I close down my emails and put my phone on airplane mode so that I keep focused.

I use a variation of the Pomodoro method. Instead of working for 25-minute sprints with a 5-minute break, I work for an hour or 90 minutes and then take a longer break.

This helps me to focus on a particular project as I find that it can take a while to get into the zone and once I get there it can be difficult to stop (and I like to complete tasks in one hit if I can).

Change your location

When I first started my business, I worked from home and would spend the first couple of hours in the day, cleaning and tidying before I started working and then would be carrying out other chores too. Have you ever popped into the supermarket to come out two hours later?

It didn’t take long to realise that being at home wasn’t helping my focus and so I found a co-working space to work from. The change of location was just what I needed, there were no dirty dishes or laundry to distract me but lots of businesses to connect with.

Once you have a team (working alongside you or remotely) it can be easy to be constantly distracted with their tasks and challenges. I used to struggle when I overheard a conversation that I wanted to chip in on; my ears would switch on and the focus on my task would go flying out of the window.

If you are constantly being interrupted by your team asking for your help (for outcomes that they are capable of delivering) or you can’t resist ‘offering’ assistance and keeping all the real decision making for yourself, it’s time for you to find somewhere else to work from at least one day a week, to give you and your team some space to be great.

The saying that, what you don’t know can’t hurt you, was definitely true in this circumstance. If there is truly an emergency your team will get in touch, don’t worry it will be fine.

Try these tips and you’ll get the help you need to take your business to the next level.

Need help hiring the help you need or developing the leadership skills you or your team need, schedule a call to see how we can help you.

Do you want an overhead or an investment

One of the biggest myths that hold businesses back is seeing staff as a cost rather than an investment.

While we must wait until we have the income needed to cover staff costs, hiring the cheapest is very rarely the answer.

Like Julie, an amazing creative who built her business by working with interns and trainees; she came to me because she felt like she was constantly retraining her team.

The interns were great for projects and the trainees would stay for a year and then leave to take a ‘proper job’ that paid them a ‘proper salary’.

This meant that the business that Juile had run for over 10 years was beginning to feel like a burden.

She couldn’t go away on holiday without shutting her shop. She had to keep a watchful eye at all times.

It started affecting her turnover too, so wasn’t creating new items. Her loyal regulars were coming in and recommending friends but that was it, hardly any walk-ins.

Julie didn’t have time to be creative, she was focused on keeping things ticking over and making sure the quality of the finished items was high.

Using our unique systems and processes, we identified the roles and structure that Julie needed to build her business and make it less reliant on her constant presence.

We hired an Operations Manager to oversee the store, interns and trainees. Julie was able to focus on her love of designing and training the trainees. 

Once she was free from the red tape, Julie felt her creative juices start to flow again and she was able to find the time to design new innovative items.

A part-time Marketing Executive was also hired to oversee a website refresh, create and implement the social media strategy.

Even though the pandemic, the online store kept Julie and her team busy – creating items, making repairs and even creating some bespoke designs.

Getting a qualified manager made all the difference to Julies peace of mind and bottom line.

If you hire RIGHT your team should pay for themselves (and then some) through increased sales and efficiencies.

When I look at my balance sheet I think that staff costs should be under the direct product/service cost as it makes it easier the see the correlation between a growing business and an amazing team, with the right skills.

If you are ready to make your first hire or your next hire, my calendar is open for the next two weeks, click this link to book a FREE 20 Team Strategy Call, where you’ll come away with some actionable advice and tips.

What's on your bucket list?

Last week I turned 45 and inspired by a fellow entrepreneur, I wrote a list of 50 things that I want to do before I turn 50!

Do you have a bucket list?

On it are things like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and perfecting my French but top of my list was running the Iconic London Marathon and yesterday I found out that I got a spot for this year!

Which is Fab!

But SCARY

26.2 miles IN.ONE.GO!

I’m still slightly in disbelief

But i’m fully aware of the work that is ahead of me - the runs, strength work, yoga and nutrition. Because I’ve already been preparing; I ran a half marathon on January 1st and have two more booked in the Spring.

This reminds me of the work that I do with my clients to start or build their team. 

We form the strategy, the structure, the job descriptions, adverts, interview questions and tests - then we finally select the perfect team member and after the excitement of securing the candidate…

My client gets nervous, they start thinking of all the things that they need to get set up to give the person the very best chance of success - how to get them to hit the ground running.

But then they remember that we planned for this, that they’ve already started and they have a plan. That by using our proven methodologies they are sorted.

Like my client Catherine who is a super busy creative, needing more time to be creative and less doing the administrative stuff. So we used our hiring framework to find her the best Operations Assistant and we had a strategy session to help her to step into her true CEO role, so that she could set her new team member up for success. Now she’s been able to focus on creating new lines and building her brand.

If you are planning to build or grow your team, schedule a FREE 20 minute call to discuss how we can help you, using our the Team Strategy Call

Recruit in haste, repent at leisure

Sue was in a major rush to find a replacement for her finance manager who was about to start maternity leave.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t had 5 months to prepare, it was just that time went by so fast with the business expansion that suddenly she went from not wanting to hire too early, to needing a replacement to start in four weeks.

Sue interviewed several candidates, she had a clear favourite but they could only start in 8 weeks, so she went with her second choice.

Two weeks into handover period, she discovered that her chosen candidate didn’t have as much experience as they’d said and they couldn’t use the accounts software. Sue tried to get her previous first choice back for the role but they’d already secured something else.

We work with clients who are terrified that they’ll recruit the wrong person, especially if it’s one of their first hirers or they are building a new team.

It’s not rocket science but it does take preparation, so that you can be confident in the decision that you make.

Three tips to help you recruit the right candidate:

1. Be super specific about the key skills, experience and behaviours that you need - Then make sure your interview questions and assessments are aligned to them.

2. Do more than interview, test for the skills that you need - whether it’s a presentation, case study or trial day.

3. If you are in doubt, don’t hire

Want more hiring and team management tips, get access to our FREE HR Knowledge Hub

You know it’s time, right?

“So I need to send out 20 creative kits but I haven’t made up my stock yet, I should have 100 kits ready to go, I should promote my workshop and I should be sorting out my social media, I have funding applications to complete, there is so much to do.”

There were so many ‘shoulds’ in the conversation.

One of the things that I learnt early in my career is that the ‘ To Do’ list never ends. We have to prioritise what needs doing and focus on one thing at a time. I knew that the conversation that I had with a potential client was a true sign that she needed some help, she’d reached critical mass and needed someone to delegate to so that she could focus on her clients and creative pursuits, not to mention her children and family.

The call had started because this lovely lady wanted to get an apprentice to develop and help her out, but as the ‘shoulds’ came out, we discussed all of the different options for her:

·       Intern

·       Apprentice

·       Contractor

·       Virtual Assistant

·       Employee

It’s important to decide what you want to delegate or outsource, and if it is a short or long term need. Your budget will also play a part but remember that you don’t have to commit to a full-time resource.

Interns – Are great for a short to mid-term projects. Generally, you’d have them for 3-6 months at minimum wage and sometimes you just cover expenses.

Apprentices – Are studying while gaining work experience. Apprenticeships last between 12- 24 months. Generally, apprentices either work 4 days per week and go to college one day a week or they may study in 1-week blocks every 5/6 weeks. The work that you give them to do, should be aligned to their course. There is assistance from the government for apprentices if your annual pay bill is less than £3 million. You can offer your apprentice permanent role at the end of their traineeship.

Contractor – They come with the skills that you need to hit the ground running, great for delivering a project but will have a higher day or hourly rate.

Virtual Assistant – Great for getting your admin/accounts/social media/etc sorted. Generally, pay based on an hourly or project basis. A safe pair of hands for mid-long term

Employee – This should be a long term addition to your team, but if you are a business that relies on funding then a fixed-term contract that is aligned to the funding would be advisable. You are responsible for training, pension contributions, etc but you have someone to grow with your business.

If you are ready to build or grow your team and what to discuss your options, schedule a FREE Team strategy Call

My Management Story

About 10 years ago I was travelling across the whole of the UK, I was doing lots of great HR innovation; working with different teams looking at change management.

The organisation I worked for would win lots of work. Then we had new staff coming on board that we would have to integrate into our organisation and so I loved it. It was great fun. I was working on different projects with different people, learning loads of really great stuff.

One day I had a sales guy come to me saying he was trying to win some HR work with one of our current clients and that they had submitted a proposal that hadn't been accepted because it was a bit too technical. So, they asked for someone who understood the client to help write it. I read what the previous person had written (I had no bid writing experience) and I went to the department and spoke to some staff to get an understanding of what was happening there and we completely rewrote it. It was submitted and we won!

Then a month later my manager came to me and told me that the sales guy thought that I was amazing for how I had written the bid and how I had dealt with the client and the stakeholders. He told me that they needed someone who's going to manage the team once they come across and asked me if I would be down for that. I thought great, it's a new opportunity. It's an opportunity for me to manage a larger team.

The department was 60 people, they weren't all directly reporting to me, but they were all ultimately my responsibility.

I was so naïve!

 I’d never managed a huge team and I'd never managed a big team and at the same time had to manage making the changes that we had agreed with the client.

We agreed on a whole raft of changes to the systems and the way the team was structured.

We were implementing a brand new HR system and other systems that were going to integrate with it.

I was full of energy to implement the changes but I forgot that while the organisation that I worked for had agreed to do the work and while the client had also agreed, nobody had really spoken to the team about it.

So while I was there working with them trying to get this new stuff in place, they were still trying to run the day to day and so whenever I was trying to get them to do work they were saying well, “look I've got this backlog of this, a backlog of that…”, “I've got no time to think about the new stuff because right now…”

So I found myself coming in early and staying late trying to do all the additional things that we promised the client, rather than getting my team to do it because it just felt like a struggle. It really felt like I was pushing water up a hill.

I had to take a step back and think what am I gonna do? I have committed to doing this and when I commit to doing something it needs to get done.

How am I gonna make this work?

I took a step back to assess this. My thoughts were that if a manager came to me and said I'm talking to my staff and I can't get them to do what I need them to do I would need to understand where the problems lay. Is it with the team or with the manager of the team. I soon realised that I hadn't approached it in the right way.

I had taken this team and I hadn't taken the time to get to know them or for them to get to know me and so I changed the structure of my team meetings. Instead of only looking at the KPI's (key performance indicators) that we agreed with the stakeholders we talked about what their frustrations were? What were the challenges? What is causing the issues and then I could start to look at how the new system and efficiencies we put in place would help to solve that. This was how I was able to get their buy-in and their time.

One of the biggest challenges is when you tell someone to do something and they have no understanding of why. You need to explain what you need to be really clear on the reason why we're making this change, e.g. The reason why we're doing this thing is so that when we have 20,000 clients instead of 5,000 clients we can still manage to fulfil the orders

Once people understand what you're doing you’ll get them on board and they will come with you.

The other thing that I was I did was, get some quick wins to address some of the challenges they had. There were some people who had only have one screen and I needed to have a dual-screen. The whole office space needed a bit of refreshing. This actually made a huge difference.

 As you go forward in working with your team, take the time to get to know them, take the time to understand, their frustrations. the struggles of the people on the ground with your clients.

They will have a really great insight into what the clients need and their struggles as well

Making the right offer, the right way

Once you've selected the ideal candidate for your amazing business, you’ll need to make sure that the legal stuff is squared away.

You'll want to give the successful candidate a call and make them a verbal offer, which you’ll then confirm in writing. During the call tell them why you think they’ll be a good match for your team. Your new team member will want to know the details of their employment; salary, hours, potential start date.

Once you’ve made a verbal offer to your candidate, you’ll want to send them some official documentation, so that they can make an educated decision to join you on your business journey. You’ll need to send an:

Offer letter

State the terms of the offer:

• Role

• Salary (Annual or hourly)

• Hours

• Benefits

• Potential start date

• Any prerequisites, e.g. eligibility to work, references, DBS etc

• Date offer expires

Contract of Employment

From the 6th April 2020, you have to provide your employee with their Terms and Conditions / Contract of Employment before their start date. PLEASE make sure that your document is legally sound, don’t just find a template on google, they can be missing vital elements that will protect you as an employer, less isn’t always more!

Your contract should include:

Role Name -

Be clear on what you want to call the role, look in the marketplace and see if it fits with your competitors

Reports to -

The role name should be stated, rather than the person.

Remuneration -

Detail the Gross Salary (or hourly rate, if paid by timesheet), also detail any commission or bonus detail.

Pay Date -

Everybody wants to know when they’ll be paid and what period it will cover (weekly/fortnightly/monthly).

Probation period -

How long the probation lasts and the notice period during that time.

Notice Period -

Once the probation period has completed, how long would the successful candidate need to give notice to end their contract. REMEMBER that the notice period would be the same for both employer and employee, so be reasonable.

Pension contributions -

Government legislation requires all employers to have a pension scheme in place. Ensure you have one arranged and decide if you are contributing the minimum percentage or providing an enhanced scheme.

Benefits -

Decide if you are going to offer any benefits at this stage, e.g. childcare vouchers, private healthcare, season ticket loans, retail discounts, etc.

Leave -

Details of paid leave and statutory leave

Employee Handbook / Policies and Processes -

To ensure that you start your professional relationship on the right foot, you should share your policies and processes, things to ensure you cover:

• Working hours

• Flexible working

• Expense Policy

• Sickness Absence Policy

• Grievance Policy

• Disciplinary Policy

• Whistleblowing Policy

• Equal Opportunities Policy

• Health and Safety Policy and Procedures

• IT Security and Data Protection Policy

*This isn’t an exhaustive list, your policies are dependent on the needs of your business.

You should also have a new joiner form to capture all the essential details for your new employee, e.g. Bank Details, Next of Kin,

Getting your offer process right is an important part of your candidate experience you want to make sure that they are fully aware of all of the benefits and stipulations that are linked to their new role.

Interview, Assessments and Scoring

Ever been really excited about a job, only to interview and decide that you wouldn’t work there if they doubled the salary? I definitely have, the culture detailed on the advert and the reality was so different (and not in a good way!)

The interview process should be two-way. It's just like the relationship that you build with your clients, each party wants to see if there is the possibility of building a reciprocal relationship. Both you and the candidate need to be getting what they need otherwise it won't be successful.

I want to take you through some do’s and don'ts as you meet your candidates face to face and start building that relationship.

First things first ...

There are a few things that you need to decide before your candidate’s rock up for their interview:

1.       What do you want to assess?

What are the key skills, knowledge and experience you want to cover in an interview? An interview lasts for an hour on average, you should aim to ask 6-8 questions, plus follow up.

2.       How do you want to assess?

Dependent on the role you may want to do more than just interview; do want them to complete a case study, presentation, psychometric, numeracy, logic or literacy test or a trial day?

3.       Who do you want to assess them?

You should never interview alone, you need to include some members of your team (or potentially clients) in the panel. Who will you put on your interview and assessment panel? You ought to make sure that at least two people other than you who meet the candidate

Now to your interview questions:

Once you have decided what the critical skills, knowledge and evidence you want to ask about, it’s time to formulate your questions. As you draw up your questions, remember the following:

·       Ask open questions

·       Ask for examples

·       Don’t ask for multiple responses at once

To ensure that every candidate interviewed goes through the same process, I would suggest having an interview matrix. A document that details the questions, model answer, score and weighting; this allows you to focus on gaining the evidence you need to make a balanced decision. If you need some examples of the types of questions that you need to ask then sign up for our knowledge hub here 

Here are THREE things that you should NEVER as an interviewer:

i. Don’t make it all about the candidate’s skills

Remember that interviews are a two-way sales process, don’t just throw out “Why do you want to work for us?” and “Why are you the best person for this role?” questions. Tell the candidate about your company, why it’s a great place to work, who’ll they’ll be working with and most importantly how you see the role developing.

ii. Don’t be a scary interviewer

Interviews are stressful enough without adding to the situation. We’ve all been in that sweaty palm, heart racing situation (sometimes as an interviewer!). To get the best out of a candidate, you want them to be at ease. Make them feel comfortable and indulge in a little small talk to develop a rapport. You’ll get more genuine responses and better insight into what they’d be like to work with.

iii. Give feedback

Even if a candidate isn’t right for you right now, they may be later on, or be able to recommend someone to you. They’ll only do that if they’ve had a great candidate experience and a big frustration for job hunters is a lack of feedback; after all, how can they improve if no one tells them what needs improving! 

Spend 5-10 minutes on the phone or writing an email with specific feedback, give 2/3 positives and 2/3 areas for development.

If you are ready to up-level your leadership and management skills the doors are open for our Business Owner to CEO Management Intensive Programme, a 6 week 1-2-1 programme designed to give you the skills, knowledge and confidence to manage your team in a legislatively compliant way while being your authentic self - to find out more and sign up click here.

I’m NEVER Managing staff again

I meet a lot of people and I can guarantee that someone will always tell me about a terrible experience they had with managing a team, which is why they’ll never do it again. Then they’ll tell me about their aspirations for their business or their career and I’ll just know that they’ll need to manage people in one shape or another to reach their target.

Do you have one of those nightmare stories?

Don’t get me wrong, I totally get it. There was a time when I literally cried every morning at the thought of going into work, I couldn’t even put the frustration that I felt into words, because I couldn’t trust that things would be completed in the way I needed them to and so I was working all the hours and doing EVERYTHING myself!

But I found a way through because, I wasn’t about to let anyone ruin my opportunity to achieve greatness and that’s what I do for my clients, help them to realise their aspirations.

Like Sandy who previously hired a deputy manager who had misappropriated funds; and so while she had grown her business and hired other staff, she could not bear to delegate any of the people management or financial elements of her business and so was stuck doing accounts and chasing invoices, when she should have been creating value for her clients and opening up new opportunities.

Sandy wasn’t loving her business, because she never got to do the fun stuff anymore and was working long hours and weekends. We worked on a programme to train and empower her managers, and delegated all of the people management activities to the managers (as it should be!); hired administrative staff and recruited a deputy. This meant that Sandy had more time to focus on growing and scaling her business, her customers were happier because they no longer had one stressed individual as their point of contact. Also, a new automated system for invoicing and chasing was implemented. This has meant that Sandy has been able to build her team

All this was possible because Sandy got the right systems, policies and processes in place for her business, so that she could ensure she wouldn’t be burnt again and that any employees issues could be nipped in bud.

If fear is the thing that’s holding you back from starting or building your team, you can start building your confidence, with our FREE comprehensive hiring guide and join our FREE Facebook group, for business owners who have staff or are planning to hire staff, where you can ask questions and seek advice – Let’s make your dream a reality.

Why you need to be flexible with your work space options

I have spent a big chunk of my career working for clients based all over the UK and Ireland. Traveling with my life on my back – Laptop, Mobile Phone, Tablet and Docs!

My office is wherever I can find Wi-Fi or have reception on my mobile – I’ve never had pictures of my family on my desk and can’t remember the last time I had a desk drawer filled with spare shoes, tights and emergency snacks! I’ve gotten used to making myself comfortable wherever I am. Which is pretty useful in my line of business and to be honest, I really love it!

Interestingly for me, it was losing that flexibility in my last corporate role that partially led to me deciding to make Eden Mayers HR Consulting a full-time business, rather than a part-time side hustle!

Flexible working as a way of saving space, creating efficiencies and reducing overheads are being implemented in the majority of companies at the moment. The issue in many organisations is that they haven’t been flexible in the past and so some staff don’t want to work from home and some managers don’t have the skills to manage a workforce they can’t physically see.

On the other hand when I speak with small business owners, often the cost of office space needed to add to their team, can put them off of expanding and I have to remind them that they don’t have to have office space to have staff and they can also consider outsourcing work, too!

Did you know you can have employees who work from their own homes?

You have an obligation to ensure that they have the correct equipment, including a proper chair and workstation. You have to be clear about their objectives and how you monitor success, but with the right framework in place, it is possible and cheaper than expanding your office space.

If you need some help to grow and scale your business, without the cost or commitment of an additional work-space; here are some things to think about:

Does the role require expert knowledge or qualifications?

The cost of employing a full time Accountant, HR Manager, Legal Counsel etc; can be very high. It may well be better to look to outsource these types of skills until you are of the size that can bear the costs of the overheads (including training and development).

Is this a long term or short term need?

Work that is short term, may be able to be packaged as a project and outsourced or advertised as a fixed term contract. If it is a long term need then looking for an individual to employ or a contractor may be a better option.

Is it a full time or part time role?

Often we believe that all roles need to be full time and permanent. There are a lot of highly qualified individuals that wish to use their skills but cannot commit to a full time role. If you can be flexible to open yourself up to a wider skills pool, who may well be open to working from their own homes.

Can the work be carried outside traditional working hours?

Work that isn’t time bound can generally be delivered from anywhere in the world. This opens you up to work with night workers or skilled individual in other countries.

If you need some assistance getting the right policies and procedures in place for a home based worker, book a risk free call and let’s discuss how we can help you to grow your business