Watching Paper Giants over the past two evenings I was amazed at Kerry Packer's managerial style. Whilst he seemed to be a tyrant who flew off the handle in a manner that would be considered bullying nowadays and in Victoria might mean 10 years in jail, he was on the other hand very good at keeping his staff loyal.

The delicate balance between maintaining staff loyalty and getting the results you need as a manager is almost like a classical dance.  Many managers struggle to find their rhythmn as a people manager and find it so much easier to resort to a demonstrative approach. Then there are the new age managers who believe they can be their staff's friend. This usually doesn't work  (long term), as it can be super difficult when having to deal with performance issues.  Ita Buttrose as depicted on Paper Giants seem to get the mix right. She was well respected by her team of creative's and by senior management (the Packer's and the board).  She gave praise and encouragment readily and stood up for her staff when Kerry Packer seemed to be flying off the handle. This produced great loyalty from her team at Cleo.  Similarly, Kerry Packer's generosity to his staff certainly sweetened them up and seemed to help them cope with his antics.  Giving a personal loan to a young art director who wanted to buy a house was certainly a great 'reward' and when Kerry tore up the contract and said call it 'even' when the employee resigned in order to go to the UK, was a noble thing to do. However, managers should note, who did the employee call as soon as he returned to Australia - Kerry Packer!

So much time and talk is spent on rewarding staff and yet it can be a really simple thing to do. I thought Paper Giants was a great example of how excellent people managers (Ita Buttrose) can achieve wonderful things in business.

It's the most common problem around - when you are a busy soloist, entrepreneur, business owner -  how do you clone yourself to handle the demand during busy times without locking yourself into costly employment contracts, staff management headaches, and finding time to actually train the new staff member?

I was just at my Osteopath's clinic when she heralded the familiar cry, "I need to clone myself". With a waiting list of 10 people and booked out at two sites 6 weeks in advance, she really doesn't have any more stretch in her schedule to cope with the growing demand for her services.  Similarly I was speaking with an online marketing friend last week, who said exactly the same thing - she needs a clone.  She is using e-lance and other support services to her advantage, but finds by the time she scopes out the job for the outsourced worker, she might as well have done the work herself.  So, what is the answer?

Well it is super fabulous that these people are so busy, but would you call them business owners or business workers?  My thinking is that they have a job in their business. They aren't business owners who can take some time off and the business will run for them.  Michael Gerber, of the E-myth makes this distinction. He calls people who work in their business 'technicians'. He also says that technicians can be found as employees and that true business 'owners' will find other technicians to work for them and they will then run the higher level business activities.  This is all well and good if you think that way, but so many soloists don't.  Where should they start? It all seems to hard.

In the case of the Osteopath who requires a skilled technician to help her, I would recommend spending time writing down her core values and approach to her practice.  This will ensure that when she interviews applicants she can find someone who will deal with her clients in accordance with her own values. She should also put them on a 'casual' contract so there is flexibility when in hours (especially in the early phase of employment).

Time is the biggest issue. Training takes a lot of time and before you invest your precious time off into training a new employee, you need to be pretty certain they are in it for the right reasons and are a good fit with your organisation. This means making sure the position description is clear, your values and expectations of them are clear, and that you have conducted a really thorough interview to find the right person. Don't leave employment until the desperate stage - that's when you will employ someone out of need rather than based on good fit. 

Finally, if you think you might be adding employees (even outsourced ones) to your business, then start compiling a list of procedures to follow. This can be for basic tasks like opening up and handling emails and other correspondence. These little issues become annoying bigger issues if you don't make it really clear as to your expectations from the beginning. And it stops you having to repeat yourself over and over again. If they don't follow procedure, they better have a really good explanation!

Is it ok to discriminate against your relatives when hiring for your organisation?

Becareful when creating your HR policies around recruitment. Especially if you want to be able to discriminate against certain 'types' of people, like um, your relatives!

After being sold off, QR National (Australia's biggest rail freight business) which made $4.6 billion for the Queensland government during the float, are proposing to offer 3500 employees redundancy packages.  That's alot of jobs lost and suggests either the organisation had a lot of padding, or the accountants are cost cutting to show they are worthy of their jobs.

Cost cutting might turn out to be a disaster for operational goals and service delivery and who's to say that QR National might not end up re-employing again?

Is it any wonder that it is difficult to get staff to trust in their workplace when mass cuts like this are just around every corner?  As we know 'a job for life' is well and truly a thing of the past, but one has to wonder if the new way of doing things is that cost effective.  If you layoff thousands of staff you are opening yourself up for a big and costly recruitment drive some time in the near future when business picks up. Surely technology cant take the place of 3500 workers?

I believe false savings are often made through costly redundancy packages. The confusion and uncertainty for the staff that stay effects productivity and their is a good chance that the organisation will need more staff in the future. As we are in a tight labour market it would make sense to hang on to those workers you've got, apprecitate and reward them and ride out the tight times together. Thats what builds trust and trust is responsible for the biggest winners in the workplace.

A recent survey carried out by Dun and Bradstreet showed employers were concerned with the state of the labour market. Companies are worried about increases in wages and the difficulties with finding and attracting new staff  in such a tight market. Recruitment agencies and HR specialists have been feeling the pinch on the labour market for many months. It has never been more important to construct a strong marketing strategy to attract new staff.  It's time to brain storm what your business really has to offer candidates and why they should want to work for you.  

If you are in small business and don't think you can compete with bigger firms on wages, you need to get really creative with your offering. Some pie sweeteners might be:

• work 46 weeks and get paid for 52 
• offer permanent employment rather than casual
• flexible working hours, including a component of 'work from home' hours
• invest in cutting edge training and show them a career plan up front

In the interests of happy Christmas shopping we have just launched our 7 Simple Steps for Preventing Customer Complaints free training program. It's a great customer service refresher for your staff and only takes 10 minutes (perfect for your next staff meeting!)

To view our AMAZING video on preventing customer complaints and a clear process for dealing with complaints:

http://www.incitehr.com.au/Comphand.php

Feel free to pass this video on to all your friends and colleagues and let's see wonderful customer service in action this Xmas season.

A client called the other day regarding employment of a smoker.  This sounds discriminatory already doesn't it?  He has a very small office and no one in it smokes. His concern was that the candidate he wanted to offer the job to was obviously a heavy smoker.  My client could smell it in the interview.  There were two concerns: Number 1: the constant smell in the small office. Number 2: the number of 'smoko's' that would be had.

So, what can you do in this situation?

You can insert into your employment agreement a reference to the smoking policy of your organisation and attach a copy of the policy.  If you don't have one, download one from the HR Shed to make sure you have it all covered.

You will need to check the award to make sure there aren't any additional rest breaks written into your award other than the one that needs to be given 5 hours after start time.  Then you can limit smoking breaks to meal break time. This will deal with the regular need for smoko's. If you put this condition up front in your offer of employment then the new employee can decide whether this is the right workplace for them or not.

By limiting the number of breaks then there are less times throughout the day when you will have the waft of smoke filled clothes throughout your workplace.

If the employee takes the position and then deviates from the requirements laid out in the policy you will need to bring it to their attention and deal with the issue.

I'm on a run with position descriptions lately as I have been asked to write PDs for four different clients in the last week. This is fabulous, because PDs really transform and professionalise your business.  Perhaps this is an early new years resolution to get their business sorted out going into 2011? Whatever the reason, I love it. Why? Because you all know I am a policy and procedure nut and PDs come a close second in my great passions - scary I know!

The reason I value position descriptions so highly is that they really spell out what is expected of the employee.  The process of spelling this out (when managed well), can be transformative for the boss.  I often hear "no wonder they're not performing, I haven't got the PD clear and its not even clear in my head" from said boss.

Just this week I scheduled a mentoring/coaching session with an employee after going through the reconstructive phase of a PD with the business owner.  This is quite advanced as we have been called in not only to put the PD together but to identify the gaps in the employees skills and knowledge and then provide training in those areas, or source appropriate external training for the areas that aren't our fortay.  The position we are working on is one in which we are very familiar and should be able to provide a great mentoring program for the candidate.

So, this business owner (which is only a small business, less than 5 staff) is seeing the value in outsourcing Training Needs Analysis, Gap Analysis, Position Description Construction and Mentoring to a specialised HR firm that work specifically with small business. This is a great step forward and we look forward to significantly reducing the staff management headaches for them.

Position descriptions, job descriptions, job specifications, whatever you want to call them, are really important management tools.  HR professionals have long relied on solid position descriptions in order to recruit the right person for the job.  Job descriptions should cover the key responsibility of the role, their key tasks, what the selection criteria is for the role and basic housekeeping information such as; term, type of employment, location, company, and of course job title. 

 The HR Shed has templates for many common positions which is a great place to start if you are new to pulling together a position description.  At the HR Shed there are PDs for ;

• Receptionist
• Accounts Officer
• Accounts Manager
• Business Development Manager
• Office Manager
• General Manager

It is important to check position descriptions for currency at least annually and certainly when you undertake a performance review or when you are recruiting for the position.

Position descriptions provide a road map for the employee as they set expectations of what they should be doing in order to do their role well.

Some multi-task positions require sub-headings in their position description to break up the tasks into manageable areas.

Probationary periods are largely a thing of the past. When writing your probationary period policy you need to be aware of the changes in legislation under the Fair Work Act.  Whereas we previously were able to use a three month probationary period without fear of unfair dismissal claims, and either party could terminate with one weeks notice, this is no longer the case.

You can still use a probationary period in your employment contracts but there are different conditions now.  Firstly, the standard notice periods for termination apply, rather than the one week's notice of old.  That means an employee will need to be given two weeks notice of termination (assuming they have been with the organisation for less than 12 months).

Under the Fair Work Act there is a window in which unfair dismissal claims cannot be brought. For employers with less than 15 employees, this window is the first twelve months of employment. That essentially means you have 12 months to decide if the fit is right between the employee and the company.  For employers with more than 15 employees, you have 6 months in which to decide on fit, without having an unfair dismissal claim brought against you upon termination. 

Many larger employers who still want to maintain a probationary period in their employment contracts, have opted to align the probationary period with this window of opportunity and made it 6 months.  However, this might have an impact on your recruitment, as some smarter candidates might not want to sign a contract with such a large probationary period. 

Given that the probationary period doesn't really serve any purpose other than to flag to management that it is time to meet with the new employee and assess their progress and fit, is it really worth putting in a reference to probationary period anyway?

What are the critical parts of an employee manual? Should the manual be paperbased or online? How do we make sure that employees read the manual?  These are typical questions that we get asked at Incite about constructing an employee manual.

The answer is that there is no right or wrong set up for a manual as long as the outcome you are wanting is achieved.  So, what is the outcome you're looking for? Some organisations use the manual as a training tool, others simply provide the manual to tick boxes for the HR department.  If you are implementing an employee manual you want to make sure that it is read and doesn't just become scrap paper. It is also important to make sure the policies and procedures are kept up to date in the manual and that's why I'm a big fan of the online variety.

Employee manuals checklist:

• policies and procedures (as referred to in your employment agreements and some more..)
• forms such as personnel form, incident report form, leave request form etc
• safety policies and procedures
• organisational chart
• site rules
• induction info such as; where to park, how to use the photocopier, what the login is for the printer, who to contact about IT issues etc
• fire evacuation plan
• company contacts

Essentially an employee manual is aimed at getting a new employee up and running quickly. It should be an easy to use reference point for seeking information about their role, the company and how to do particular basic tasks.

I'm super excited about an interview I have just conducted with Mark Bunn of Healthspeaker.com.au on how to reduce your stress, get more work/life balance as a manager and increase both yours and your staff's wellbeing. With his 7 Wisdoms that are easy to follow and based on the Eastern approach to life, Mark provides answers to those tricky questions in life - like 'when's it ok to eat cheesecake?' and 'is a lunch break really that important?

The interview is available at

http://www.mevio.com/episode/248801/low-stress-better-work-life-balance-isn

So check it out - it will change your health and wellbeing!  HR has never been this much fun. Immediately after doing this interview I sat down and worked out my priorities in life and developed a personal plan for increasing my health and wellbeing.

I'm now looking forward to writing a policy procedure for my clients called 'Taking Lunch Breaks'!

Human Resource Intranets have the ability to change the way small businesses manage their people.  InciteHR is holding a teleseminar on constructing your own HR intranet next Thursday 9th September 2010. 

Taimi Clinch will present a detailed overview of using Sharepoint to create your own HR Intranet. 

The benefits of an HR Intranet are:

• Controlled documentation - everyone is using the right forms, refering to the right procedures and looking in the one central location for HR and safety information
• Multiple sites have one centralised location for accessing information
• Support for HR and OHS can easily provided no matter where your HR Consultant/Officer sits
• Registers make recording and reporting on important information easy

Whilst many would consider an HR Intranet overkill in a small business it is incredible how quickly most staff embrace it.  Recently, due to change of business ownership one of my clients had their HR Intranet down for a week.  When I emailed one of the site managers with the news that it would be back up shortly, he responded with "That is great news; I can get back onto the hazard register." (taken directly from his email to me).

Employers that empower their staff with access to information and supporting tools to be able to do their job efficiently certainly benefit from high performing staff.

To register for our informative teleseminar where you can find out how to create your own HR Intranet click here. Places are limited on the teleseminar so get in quick!

Human Resources Intranets are a unique way of organising people management information.  At best they can provide a streamlined, time efficient staff management system, with self service HR functionality, and at worst they can sit on the organisations server, unused, unopened and unloved!

Human resources intranets have been used in big business and inparticular universities for many years.  Now the technology exists for the smaller organisation who seeks a professional approach to people management, to secure their own user friendly, customisable HR intranet.  Technology is a truly wonderful thing, when it suits your business.  It is important when research HR intranet products to ensure they are flexible, will provide a self service function, and have clear password protection with different levels of permission for different groups of people.

Other add ons you should be looking for include;

• policies, procedures and forms that come preset (and can be customised for your business) as this will get your HR department up and running in an instant
• training register to record all your training competencies and certifications including when renewals are due
• online performance review to manage performance appraisals in a streamlined manner
• online induction to get your new employees up and running quickly and have them blown away by the professionalism of the organisation upon commencement

Human resource intranets are a healthy tool for most small to medium businesses.  They can truly add value and reduce administration time when you select the best one for your organisation.

Writing workplace policies can be a chore at the best of times but they are truly necessary to minimise pain in your organisation. Policies are fabulous tools to guide decision making and ensure people follow a clear process when handling difficult issues in the workplace.  There are many types of policies but we recommend getting the essential ones written first. 

Essential workplace policies - to get started:

• Annual leave
• Compassionate leave
• Personal leave

These policies not only describe the regulations as reflected in the National Employment Standards (NES) but they should include how people should go about registering for leave.  Recently we had a client who wanted to make sure their staff knew that letting their manager know they wouldn't be in due to illness wasn't to be done via text.  He was tired of people being slack and taking the easy option.  We wrote into the policy that 'staff must ring their manager or another manager if they weren't available' to let them know they were going to be away sick.

Other policies you might like to start with include:

• Mobile phones
• Telephone calls
• Company cars
• Purchasing
• Drug and alcohol
• Smoking

The list goes on and on.  It is best to get a good strong package of workplace policies together before releasing policies as you don't want your staff to think you are taking a bandaid approach to policy creation (that is only writing them when a particular issue is annoying you).