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.

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.

I nearly gave it all up!

I don’t need to tell you that running a business is hard, I know you get it!

The long days, trying to do all the things, nights with no sleep, worry that you won’t make the money you need... and the rest!

When I sacked my corporate job to work on my business full time, I had more than enough work to keep me busy but when those projects came to an end, I had a heart-stopping few weeks while I looked for my next clients.

And it kept happening again and again. I’d get so caught up with the work on my business that I forgot about working on my pipeline, I’d skip the networking events and neglect my social media.

I’m a certified introvert.

I love working with my clients but working on building my business wasn’t my strong point.

I found the whole sales and marketing process stressful and if I’m honest, I procrastinated.

So when a corporate client offered me a job (for the third time!) I engaged in the negotiation, I thought about how nice it would be to just have one job!

To focus on delivering the best to clients and having a team to deal with all the rest and provide cover when I took a break!

It was looking very appealing.

But I remembered what I’d be leaving behind.

My freedom, taking my girls to school, meeting hubby for lunch and taking on the projects that appeal to me, to name a few...

I decided it was time to build a team to take on the things I wasn’t so good at and so I hired a virtual assistant to tackle my marketing and systematise my sales process.

It changed my life.

My VA’s email folder is called ‘Lifesaver’.

Without feeling the need to constantly work on the sales and marketing elements of my business, I was able to focus on the stuff I liked, this has lead to me writing a book, being featured in publications and podcasts and still delivering bespoke HR solutions.

Are you ready to build a team that frees you up to take you business to the next level?

Grab our FREE guide to hiring your first or next team member.

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.

Are you ready to thrive ?

Towards the end of last year, I took some time out to rest and plan for 2021 but if I’m honest I found it hard to plan with some much uncertainty, especially with at least another 2 months of homeschooling in my future.

But as I reviewed last year using the Year Compass method, I realised that I’d achieved 90% of my 2020 objectives because I had full clarity on what I wanted to achieve and a vision board above my desk to remind me.

Do you make vision boards or mind-maps?

One of the first things that I have my clients complete is a personal objective plan, you thought it’d be a business plan or people plan, didn’t you? Well, I start with you because I believe that your business should work for you, not the other way around.

Last month I started working with an amazing business owner, who wanted to build a team to support his growing business in preparation for the birth of his second child. Before our meeting, he had completed our personal objective plan template, which detailed his short, medium and long-term goals for Faith, Money, Business, Relationships, Health and Fun. If you want a copy just click here.

Once he’d completed it, it made deciding what help he needed within his team much easier, as he could balance his skills and the time that he had available, with what was needed in his business.

It meant that we were able to structure his team for growth and create new, interesting roles to attract the very best candidates.

Here are five things that you need to do, as you plan for the year ahead:

1. Be clear about what you want, we start our businesses to have freedom as well as financial reward. If you want to work 3 days a week and take the whole of August off write it down

2. Plan your business in alignment with your personal short, medium and long term goals. To get to the place where you can take the whole of August off might take a year or three, what steps can you be taking in-between?

3. Details the resources you’ll need as you progress through your plan; staff, training/skills, office space, equipment etc

4. Plan in milestones and make sure you celebrate achieving every single one!

5. Write in pencil, things will change and deadlines shift but you will get to your ultimate goal

If you need help building or structuring your team for the year ahead, Schedule a FREE Team Strategy Call with us and come away with some actionable tips.

Do you dread managing staff?

There are two distinct types of business owners, those who strive to build a business large enough to support or team and those who never want to manage a team ever. Like EVER.

Sometimes it is down to a traumatic past management experience or other times it’s the belief that no one will be able to do it as well as you.

Can you relate …

It happens in the corporate world too.

Simon was an IT genius, so when his boss left and the role was opened up for internal candidates, we were all waiting in anticipation for his application to hit our inboxes, but when he hadn’t expressed an interest in the role 24 hours before deadline I thought I’d have a chat and check everything was ok. Simon told me he loved his role and had no interest in managing a team, taking on their issues and spending less time working on the systems he loved.

I could understand where he was coming from, I went through the same challenge with my first large scale senior HR role and so I was able to share that as a manager it is your responsibility to get things done but that doesn’t mean you have to do it. It is in your gift to develop others by delegating tasks and using your skills and knowledge to improve the department. I also promised to ensure he received the management training he needed should he be successful in obtaining the role.

After our talk Simon did apply for the role and was successful, he was recognised for his outstanding contribution and with coaching and an awesome mentor is now Head of Department.

Do you feel fearful that managing a team will dilute your fun and control?

The truth is, the power is in YOUR hands.

Management is a skill like any other, you have to learn the theory and then apply it practically to hone your skills. Everybody makes mistakes, you haven’t gotten to where you are with your business without making mistakes, so you have to accept that your team will make them too. The important thing is that you give them the feedback needed to improve.

If you are wary about adding to your team or delegating more responsibility, here are three tips to help you:

1. Be clear about the outcome, you need to clearly demonstrate what good looks like. Don’t get bogged down in the detail your team may well have a more efficient way to reach the goal

2. Allow extra time, give a deadline with some wriggle room so that if things need to be tweaked you have time to give feedback and get your team member to action rather than do it yourself.

3. Give positive feedback, everybody likes to hear ‘Well Done’ and it motivates them to continue striving for excellence

If you need some help with getting the Managment Fundamentals right, contact us here to see how we can assist you.

How a lack of sight gave me insight

Ever come to the sudden realisation of something that’s been creeping up on you?

On the last Sunday of December 2018, while driving my daughters to church, I realised that I couldn’t see properly out of my left eye. Now I’d been seeing weird lights out of the corner of my eye for a week, but I put it down to overwork and figured it would pass.

But that Sunday, I looked to my left to change lanes and realised that I had no peripheral vision! As soon as I caught up with my husband, I had him take me to the hospital and the next day I had emergency surgery to repair my detached retina.

Now the interesting thing about the surgery is that they put a gas bubble in your eye to help the repair set and that completely covers your pupil so you can’t see at all! I’m four weeks post-surgery and the gas bubble is still covering about 70% of my pupil.

They say that if you lose on of your senses your other senses become stronger, I’m not sure about that but I can say that I am having to be far more intentional in the things that I do and how I do them and that has caused me to look at things differently. For example, I have lost my depth perception, which means that things aren’t where I think they are. This means I have to touch the table before I put my glass down or it may hit the floor. My phone has not made it to the table several times (thank God for screen protectors)!

Sometimes in our rush to get things done, we only look at the surface and don’t look at the depth of an issue. We get carried away with what we assume an issue is and then wonder why the solution didn’t work.

I had a client come to me for assistance with staffing issues, but as the conversation continued and I delved into the situation. I could see how inconsistencies in behaviour and not addressing issues had led to some of the issues. So rather than starting a formal disciplinary process we reviewed the team job descriptions, set clear SMART Objectives and had meetings with staff to clearly communicate to new way forward for the business. Three months later the business is going from strength to strength, as boundaries have been set and reinforced where necessary. 

Disciplining a couple of members of the team wouldn’t have fixed the underlying issues and may even have made the atmosphere in the office worse.

Are you taking the time to really look and listen to assess the depth of the issue or challenge before you move forward?

Need some strategic HR support? Contact us to discuss your needs.

Preparing for Life's Dramas

I spend a lot of time talking to friends and clients about time management and pre-planning; because you never know what can happen and leaving things to last minute can lead to disaster.

Don’t get me wrong sometimes a last minute quick and dirty solution can work, but it’s never the highest quality of work. It’s never the thing you’re most proud of. It’s just a way to get out of a tough situation and this week I found out how important my own preplanning is!

My plan this week was to hit the ground running. I spent a lot of December making plans for all the great things I was going to do come January 2019 and already had a calendar full of meetings and pre-work for training and talks scheduled for the first quarter of the year.

Instead, I am lying in my bed recovering from eye surgery with strict instructions to move from side to side every hour and while I am VERY bored, I’m not panicking because I have a plan.

I set my yearly, quarterly and monthly outcomes, so while I’ve had to move things around a bit, I can still move forward with my business.

To ensure that life’s little challenges don’t put the breaks on your business, here are 5 tips to help you:

1. Set clear objectives for your day, week and month - with milestones dates for each element, so that you don’t leave things to the last minute.

2. Allow extra time to complete your tasks - It’s easy to commit to a quick turnaround, but giving yourself an extra day allows for interruptions (key for me in the HR space where urgencies often pop up).

3. Don’t try to complete tasks in one sitting - planning in time to sit and review your work can be the difference between an A and a C (or a repeat customer rather than a one off).

4. Build your team, it’s important not to be a single point of failure. Work with others so that they can take the reins if you are unable too.

5. Learn from things that don’t go well. It’s always good to review how a project went and work out how it could be done better the next time. I have templates and process flows for some tasks, to help things run smoothly and ensure my knowledge isn’t all contained in my mind.

Using the tips above, I've been able to have a couple of strategy calls today and activate voice recognition on my laptop to write some content, while sticking to my recovery instructions.

For more HR and Management tips and updates sign up for our newsletter here.

Are you Time Poor ?

I’ve been building my CEO skills, with a course to ensure that I know my business stuff as well as I know my HR stuff; and I’ve found that the biggest challenge that I and my fellow business owners have is time.

Time to create, deliver and do all the things that you need to make sure your business runs smoothly.

Can you relate?

It’s so easy to say I’ll do that when I get the time, but to be honest you don’t find time. You have to make time!

I worked with a Manager that was over-worked, he had the budget to hire some more people into his team, but he didn’t have the time to recruit. I’d find candidates and by the time he’d looked at their applications, and shortlisted, they’d have found other employment. He’d miss telephone interviews for client emergencies. In the end I had to block out time in his calendar and sit with him to shortlist and interview. He was able to get some highly skilled additions to his team and get his life back.

But first he needed to make the time investment!

How do you schedule your time to make sure you have time to be proactive, instead of just reacting? 

I use a weekly planner that I stick above my desk, so that I can schedule in what I’m doing and see my availability and to get my tasks done I use my version of the Pomodoro Technique (instead of 25 minute blocks, I do 90 minute blocks). 

Effectively managing time and resource isn’t exclusively an issue for small businesses owners; when I worked corporately, one of the main reasons we’d get a contractor in was because they could focus 100% on the task they were hired for without all of the distractions and it’s the reason why our clients work with us, we have the experience and knowledge to get the HR work done without added drama.

It’s time to make time for the things you want to do for your business, block out the time and turn off the distractions!

If you need to build or scale your team but are struggling to find the time to even THINK about it? Get our free guide to hiring and outsourcing for Small Business here

Are you always getting excuses?

“She always comes in with an excuse. Traffic, overslept, ran out of time, the client said …. It’s exhausting … I can’t rely on her and it’s costing me business”

It’s amazing the amount of business owners that struggle with getting some members of their team to take ownership and deliver what they need consistently.

Being able to trust your team to get on with things, while you get on with the CEO tasks that you have is vital. If you don’t have time to plan for growth, it won’t happen. And keeping track of what everybody is supposed to be working on, is time consuming and exhausting, not to mention the fact that most people don’t react well to micro management.

And then the next thing you know you are doing EVERYTHIING, despite having a team to support you. Have you experienced this? I know I have!

Its two sides of the same coin …

You need to trust your staff and your staff need to feel empowered and supported in their decision making and that happens over time, because you don’t want a renegade who just makes decisions without understanding the consequences.

So how to get your staff to take ownership, so you have freedom to focus on the things you need to do:

Lead by example

You have to demonstrate the behaviour that you want to see in your team. Let them shadow you when you deal with client issues. Let them see how you prioritise and sacrifice to get things done.

Give them the outcome not the blueprint

Let you team know the end goal and let them find their own path, you never know they might find a quicker, cheaper alternative path.

Ask for the solution to the problem / Issue

When your team come to you with an issue or problem, try asking them for solutions, rather than offering the answer.

Allow them to fail

This is a hard one, but failures teach goo lessons. Sometimes you have to let things slip and observe how an individual fixes the issue without you being there as a safety net.

The only way to stop receiving excuses, is to refuse to accept them. This means that there will be difficult conversations and there may be individuals that are unable to withstand the pressure or additional responsibility. However if you set the standard and demonstrate the behaviours you expect, you will have a responsible, motivated team; which will enable you to take your business to higher heights.

If you need help developing the right behaviours in your team our Management Essentials Training course is available for online self-study or we can tailor it to your policies and procedures and deliver it in-house, contact us to discuss your needs here

Why you need a Critical Friend

When I worked corporately, we would always talk to potential clients about being their critical friend as well as their strategic partner. We wanted them to know that while we might highlight any issues within their organisation, we were there to help find a solution. It wasn’t about fault, it was about improvement.

A critical friend is defined as:

“someone who is encouraging  and supportive, but who also provides honest and often candid feedback that may be uncomfortable or difficult to hear. In short, a critical friend is someone who agrees to speak truthfully, but constructively, about weaknesses, problems, and emotionally charged issues”

Do you have anyone like that?

A lot of business owners talk about having a “Business buddy”, they can work in the same way as a critical friend, they are someone to bounce ideas off and share your business woes, it a bit of peer coaching – problem is if this person just comforts you and says that all your ideas are wonderful, ESPECIALLY if they aren’t your ideal client!

You need feedback or input that is based on facts rather than just feelings. A true critical friend should have the knowledge to help you with your business, perhaps you both work with similar client groups, e.g. A Wedding Photographer and a Florist or they work with other clients that provide the type of products or services that you do.

Having critical friendships within peer groups of your organisation is also key, we call them peer coaching groups, for example you could have all your managers as a group (no more than 8) and they can share their learning and challenges with one another, it helps individual fell supported, even if they are normally in another building with their team.

Often the nature of HR work means we end up being critical friends with our clients, because we know the secrets and the strategy. It’s a great compliment to be asked your opinion, but also a great responsibility.

Do you have a critical friend? If not I’d suggest finding one, they could make all the difference to your business and personal growth (and mental health).

Why I’ll never quit

I have a confession to make, over the years of running my business, I’ve been tempted by the idea of going back into the corporate world. I loved working in HR, seeing the world and getting to grips with the nuances of various industries, being part of a wider team and knowing that I could always get help with the hard stuff. 

Do you remember those days?

Don’t get me wrong I remember why I left the corporate world too, I knew that there was more to life than helping multi-nationals make more money, while reducing staff numbers. My desire was to use my skills to help others achieve their aspirations but building and scaling their businesses and nowhere is that needed more than for small business. 

But I also know first-hand that running a business is hard work, I know lots of people talk about the laptop life style and working 4 hours a week, and while I have a laptop that certainly isn’t my reality. Until this year, I’d never taken a holiday without taking my laptop along – I remember getting up early in the morning while in Barbados to video conference with a client in crises and working frantically while my hubby took the girls out for fun in the sun! 

So, when I get approached by agencies or well-meaning friends as role pop up that I’d be ‘perfect’ for and I’ve a hard day, week or month, I do entertain the idea of going back to being an employee. Like last week when our boiler exploded and I couldn’t work properly for three days, while the repairs were happening and I got a call with a really interesting proposal, then … 

I received two calls, one was from a client who needed to get my opinion on an ongoing issue with an employee, at the end of the conversation she said “I feel so much clearer on the way forward, I just needed to bounce the idea off someone else and get another view point”

The other was from a young lady that I’ve been helping to prepare to open her business, telling me she’d just gotten the approval from the regulator that she needs to launch!

It was a timely reminder for me about the impact great bespoke HR support can make to a business, both from a reactive and proactive point of view, which is all I ever wanted to.

So, Hi, I’m Melanie, CEO of Eden Mayers HR Consulting and I’m here to stay!

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

Why you need diversity in your business

I really want this job but, what if they don’t like me?

What if don’t fit in the culture?

Should I wear a tie to the interview?

Amazingly qualified and experienced friends and clients often come to me, concerned about whether the role that they really wanted on paper is the one for them; and mainly the concern is around cultural fit.

My response is always “Be yourself. Don’t make yourself uncomfortable. It’s easy to see if someone’s faking and you want them to like and appreciate the real you, otherwise you’ll get the role and be unhappy and so will they”.

Cultural fit is definitely important, but cultural fit is very different to continually recruiting a particular type of candidate.

Cultural fit is about an individual’s alignment to the mission, vision and values of your organisation. If transparency is important then a candidate that would hide hard facts from the client won’t be a good fit,

Having a diverse workforce is about having individuals from different backgrounds, places of education and industries to add flavor, innovation and insight to your organisation. Our experiences shape the person we become and gives us experience and resilience. That is invaluable for any organisation.

I remember when I decided I’d never wear a suit again! I was fed up feeling buttoned up and hated wearing them, so I opted for other smart options and I really don’t think anyone noticed the change. But when I interviewed for my next role, I worried that I wouldn’t be viewed as professional. Until I turned up and my pop of colour and style differentiated me from the sea of black and grey suited wonderfulness. I still needed to know my HR stuff but they also got a bit of my personality too.

Try to leave your preconceptions at the door when you are recruiting and when you are deciding who to promote or who to delegate to. Focus on the skills, the potential, the values and drive that will build your business. Remember we all change over time, so what used to be a challenge, could now be a strength.

Diversity is the key to building your business. People who come from the same background may have the same outlooks, you need to embrace diversity in your team to be able to engage with your ideal clients and to keep ahead of the competition. Getting new blood into your business and listening to the opinions of you existing staff will bring innovation, as well as bandwidth.

Remember that you need to focus on:

-       The Skills you NEED

-       The Experience you NEED

-       The Potential for GROWTH

-       The Values of YOUR Business

If you are planning to add to your team make sure you get our free recruitment cheat sheet.

This FREE document provides you with all the information you need to ensure your interview is carried out in a manner which is both professional and legislatively correct.

Once upon a time ...

Once upon a time there were Three siblings and they all woke up and fancied pancakes for breakfast.

They ran down to their respective kitchens and found that they had no flour, milk or maple syrup to pour!
 
They all rushed to get dressed and pulled open their front doors …

And it was snowing HARD!!
 

The First Sibling said “I HATE Snow!” Closed their front door and had toast and jam for breakfast instead.
 
The Second Sibling said “I HATE Snow!” thought of the taste of those fluffy pancakes, sighed and stepped out, closed the door behind them and started walking to the corner shop. Halfway down the road he slipped on a patch of ice and landed on his bottom! He struggled up looked around see if anyone had witnesses his humiliation and headed back home dejected. He had porridge (with no maple syrup) for breakfast instead.
 
The Third Sibling said “I HATE Snow!” thought of the taste of those fluffy pancakes. Went into her cupboard, got her snow boots out, put them on and headed to the corner shop. She took the walk slowly and nearly fell a couple of times, but made it to the corner shop. Got her provisions and came home to make lovely fluffy pancakes, with maple syrup.
 
What do you think is the difference between there three siblings?
 
They all wanted pancakes and all hated the snow, but the desire for the fluffy pancakes was stronger for some than others.
 
When you say this is your year and you are going to make steps towards your aspirations, is the desire stronger than the obstacles you’ll face, the fear of failure or what other people think?
 
Be honest in the main which sibling are you? If you aren’t sibling 3 what’s holding you back?

I was speaking with a director last week, I’d been working with some of his managers to formulate a plan for some changes within their teams. He and I started discussing the finer details of the plan and I suggested some changes to the plan that I’d also suggested to his managers – but they had not gone for as they assumed that he wouldn’t agree. Funny thing is … he could see the pros and cons and wanted to look into it!
 
I’ve made these types of assumptions before, I’ve spoken to candidates that I assumed weren’t interested in a role, from looking at their CV or prepared for a fight with a union official, who totally understood the business needs!
 
Are you letting your assumptions stop you from moving forward in your business?
 
I hear so many entrepreneurs worry about building, growing or changing their team. If this is you schedule a call with us to discuss your HR needs here, and see how we can help you to move forward.

Meet my Inspiration

Today, I am beyond excited and proud as my bold, beautiful, confident, empathetic, energetic, friendly first born turns FIVE!

I know that most parents say that having a child gave their life new meaning, clearer focus and the realisation that they needed to leave a legacy and Eden was the reason why we started the HR Consultancy and gave it her name, but there’s more.

This year on the day of her birth (and for the last week or so) has brought back so many emotions and revealed to me how far I’ve come both personally and professionally.

This is SO not the blog post that I had planned for today!

You see it took five years for my husband and I to have a pregnancy that ended successfully. Five years of waiting, and hoping, and excitement, then disappointment. We very nearly gave up trying.

For a while I couldn’t keep the faith and stopped seeing all the great things around me. My family, friends, career success … I could only focus on the one thing we didn’t have and I didn’t really share our struggle. To be honest I was not fun to be around.

So one day, when I was asked “How are you?” instead of my standard “fine”, I shared my pain and frustration with a wonderful wise woman, who arranged for a group of very wise women to listen and share with me.

I learnt about resilience. The importance of keeping positive, counting my blessings and not my letting disappointment stop me in my tracks. I learnt that either we can let the things that happen to us make or break us, or we can take life’s lessons, both negative and positive, and realise that it’s not the things that happen to us that makes the difference, but how we deal with them that determines our success.

And once, I started seeing things differently and stopped putting my life on hold, while waiting for the results of some fertility tests, we found out that we were pregnant with Eden.

I’m grateful for the lessons that I learnt through that period of my life because I wouldn’t have taken the step to start the business or overcome hurdles and persevered with building the business, had I not learnt to be resilient. Timing is everything!

So today, my first born is 5 and I am so grateful for the 10 years of lessons that she has taught me.

Is your team engaged?

My friends used to call me a party planner! I was always arranging staff events and refreshments were always part of the deal!

You see, in a former life, I used to spend a lot of time trying to find the magic formula for retaining great staff. Improved communication and employee engagement has always been in the top 5 list of staff initiatives for our clients, regardless of size or industry.

The major question that employers ask is how to engage with staff at the most efficient price point. Often the biggest expense is the staff Christmas (and/or summer) party; but not everyone likes to party or to drink, so what other things can you do?

Most recently a client of mine held sessions with staff and asked what interested them most, the variety on the list was astounding:

• Business briefings
• Employee/team of the month
• Volunteering opportunities 
• Mentoring
• Lunch time learning sessions
• Parties
• Pay day Friday drinks
• Charity events (coffee mornings, Christmas jumper day, etc)
• Charity activities (running, 3 peaks, etc)

The interesting thing was diggings down into how staff like their hard work to be recognised otherwise all your efforts go completely over their heads and they feel unappreciated even though you are putting in all that hard work.

I’ll be taking about employee engagement activities in the next few weeks and how to monitor their effectiveness.

But first things first, what motivates you and your team? How do you like to be appreciated (on top of your renumeration)? 

Why I’m so process driven (and you should be too!)

I am a very detailed person, I like to ask questions to ensure that I’m giving the appropriate advice and guidance. I also don’t like not delivering, so the more I know, the more I can be certain of success.

When I started my business, the lack of tangible data scared me, sure I’d done my market research and had a few ‘unofficial’ clients but this was different.

So I put processes and timelines in place for the things that I needed to get done and made sure I was capturing and analysing data, so I’d know what was and was not successful.

Once I’d got established and could see how the business was scaling and growing. The processes meant that I didn’t forget the things that I needed to do, when I got busy. 

It also meant when I needed to hand things over in an emergency, I didn’t need to download my brain as it was already detailed.

Often as entrepreneurs we hold all the cards close to our chest (and in our mental notebook!). This makes it harder to handover work when we reach critical mass. Also, keeping employee and client details in your head is dangerous from a compliance and legislative point of view. Often I have clients that end up spending money to fix an employee issues because they have not documented that they have followed a process.

I keep two journals a business and personal one. They keep my notes, thoughts, ideas and aspirations. Then they become my outcomes, milestones and plans.

Having a process will free you up both mentally and time wise.

Implement a little process in your life and you soon see the benefits.

If you need help with your HR process and planning, contact us for a FREE 30 consultation call here.

Do you know when to quit?

I’ve been fighting a cold this week, trying not to let it take hold!

I’m a runner and my first concern when I feel unwell is always will it stop me from running. The general rule is that if the cold is limited to your neck and above (and you don’t have a fever) you can exercise, but if goes down to your chest, you should rest!

This go/no go reminded me of a lot of the projects that I work on with my clients, often with there are defined progress meetings that while reviewing the progress that have been made, also reassesses the viability of a project and whether the parameters have changed. Sometimes this means that projects are paused temporarily or shelved completely.

This is how we work with our advertising; we test different adverts, assess their success and then decide whether to continue, pause or stop.

Establishing these 'go/no go' meetings, prevents us from wasting valuable resources that could be better utilised elsewhere.

Do you know when to quit? Are you assessing the progress that your business is making and directing your resources in the right direction? Are you skilling yourself and your team to be able to be the most effective?

Take some time out to assess your companies progress in 2017 and see what needs to change and stop in 2018!

Why Mentors Matter

There has been a lot of press about bringing the US model of having mentors to help with career development in the news lately, I found that interesting, because I can remember organising mentoring programmes in 2005. However, in speaking with some of my colleagues who work in HR, I found that while some Graduates and Interns are often matched with mentors, those with some work experience are not.

My years of experience working alongside senior managers, employees and entrepreneurs, I’ve found one thing to be true ‘No man (or woman) is an island’. Everyone needs support and a listening ear at some point. In order to have a successful business or build a successful team within your business you need to mentor and be mentored.

As an entrepreneur it’s important to have a mentor, sometime more than one! Entrepreneur’s are often driving their business forward, focussed 100% on the tasks in hand.  Focus is a good thing but sometimes this can mean that you focus on the things that you are good at to the detriment of other things that you should be doing or reviewing.

You need someone you respect who can cast a critical eye, keep you accountable and teach you the lessons that they have learnt so that you don’t have to learn the hard way! Mentors can also open doors, introduce to you to their network and potential clients.

A great mentor will help you set your targets and keep you accountable, remind you to invest in yourself, and tell you the truth when others might not.

Within your organisation having a mentoring programme that is outside the traditional line management structure, gives your employees an opportunity to have a relationship that is focussed on developing their career, rather than their immediate objectives and gives them a safe space to explore their aspirations. Employees who are mentored tend to progress quicker, be more motivated and more loyal to the organisation.

Being a mentor is also enriching, you don’t realised how much you know until you start imparting your knowledge to others. So invest some time and reap the benefits of a more motivated, driven workforce and a more balanced you!