by Sophie-May Cooper, Intern HR Consultant NationalToday.com say “June is Pride month and a time for everyone to embrace who they are and let the world know – in style!” [1] And here at Grounded HR we agree. It is important that all staff feel like they can be themselves at work and feel comfortable in their working environment with their colleagues. The Equality Act 2010 [2] means that LGBTQ+ employment is protected from discrimination, but are you aware of smaller prejudices that may be happening in your workspace? In 2022, The Chartered Management Institute found that less than half of t ..read more

Posted by Caroline Chapman on 3rd July 2020 As COVID 19 is continuing to have a significant effect on the economy and businesses are changing their working practices, some redundancies are going to be inevitable. What it can feel like to be made redundant Redundancies don’t have to be a negative experience. I want to share my personal experience of redundancy. A few years ago, I was made redundant. It has happened twice in my 20 year+ HR career. The first time it was easy to swallow and was a positive transition, the office was closing it was relocating and I didn’t want to move. There was no ..read more

by Julia Beeby, Lead HR Consultant Start with your values When looking to recruit new members to your team, it’s important that you find someone who will fit in well with your culture, so you continue to work in line with your vision and deliver the same aspirations. Value based recruitment works on the principle of you prioritising specific values resulting in you being more likely to achieve a good fit for your organisation. This in turn creates a positive working environment, improves staff morale, increases employee engagement, reduces employee turnover and increases productivity ..read more

Posted by Caroline Chapman on 20th July 2020 Have you ever worried about needing to speak to a staff member about their poor performance or their bad behaviour? Have you ever wondered if you were doing it ‘right’? Speaking to a staff member about poor performance or bad behaviour can feel uncomfortable. It’s the main reason it’s called a ‘difficult’ conversation. As a business owner it is unavoidable: at some point, you’re going to need to speak to a staff member about something that you’re not happy about.     1. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Make bullet points of the issues that you w ..read more

Posted by Caroline Chapman on 17th May 2020 Now that the furlough scheme has been extended until October 2020, in some form or other, I wanted to remind everyone about the importance of staying in touch with your furloughed employees. I was speaking to some friends this week, one of them who had been furloughed straight away said she hadn’t heard from her boss at all, she was starting to think that perhaps they didn’t want her back. Another friend said but that’s because employers aren’t allowed to contact you when you are furloughed, as you are not allowed to work. This is not true, employee ..read more