Operating your business in severe weather events

Operating your business in severe weather events

by | Jan 31, 2023 | Disaster Management, Health & Safety

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Contents

Operating your business in severe weather events

We hope employers in affected areas are managing to prevail given the recent and continuing severe weather events. Before even considering the interests of the business, during and after an emergency or disaster, the health, safety and security of your team, yourself and customers/clients should be the main concern. In these stressful times there are a lot of issues for you to consider speedily, including health and safety, employee emotional wellbeing and payment options.

Payment Options

There are several reasons why an employee may not be able to work in severe weather events such as our current situation including:

  • An employer may be unable to provide work for employees who are willing and able to carry out their agreed hours of work;
  • An employer may be unable to provide a suitable and safe workplace for employees who are willing and able to carry out their agreed hours of work;
  • Employees can’t access the workplace because of restrictions not directly related to their own workplace and out of their employer’s control (e.g., road closures, safety issues relating to adjoining buildings, evacuation due to flooding or tsunami risk);
  • An employee (or their dependant) is sick or injured and unable to work;
  • An employee has to care for a dependant because usual care is unavailable – such as current school closures;
  • An employee is willing and able to work but their usual mode of transport is unavailable.

In relation to payment, in general, employers must compensate those on their payroll who are ready, willing and able to be work – even if you are unable to assign work to them. Depending on what is stipulated in the employment agreement, employers may be released from their contractual obligations, such as having to pay workers or continue their employment, if the agreement contains a ‘force majeure’ clause. That is, when an extrinsic event such as weather “renders the employment agreement impossible to perform.” This would be a situation where you are unable to operate for a lengthy period.

For shorter periods, there are a range of mutually agreed arrangements that could be implemented such as:

  • Annual leave;
  • Anticipated annual leave or additional annual holidays;
  • Using an entitled alternative holiday;
  • Special leave, either as provided for in employment agreements or workplace policies or by agreement between the employer and employee;
  • Leave without pay;
  • Employees can take sick leave if their partner or dependents are injured or sick and they have sick leave available or the employer agrees to extra sick leave;
  • Other paid or unpaid leave either as provided for in employment agreements or workplace policies or by agreement between the employer and employee; and
  • Advance on wages.

Whichever option you and your employee agree on may depend upon the circumstances, including the nature and extent of the emergency or disaster and how long it lasts for. Once all leave entitlements under the Holidays Act 2003 and any negotiated additional leave or any anticipated leave entitlements run out, employees and their employers will need to consider further options in good faith (and consider the impact these options will have on your business’s recovery later).

Remember, if there are any changes to employee’s terms and conditions as an outcome of mutually agreed arrangements, make sure you get these documented and signed off by both parties.

Other things for employers to think about

  • Staff communication and support are very important. Before, during and after an emergency or disaster, contact staff as soon as possible to advise them of the workplace situation and your expectations of them. Give them updates even if they are not required to be at work so that they know what is going on. Use texts and social media where possible to minimise overload of the telecommunications network. Remember staff may be under additional stress, provide them with support and help and show your concern. This could include access to an employee assistance programme for counselling, having a team debrief, daily blog or email;
  • Ensure your employees know about Work and Income’s Civil Defence Payment – this is available for people who are affected by the current flooding, and can assist with payments for emergency food, clothing and bedding, costs if you have to leave your home, and other expenses such as loss of income because you are unable to work. Find out more on Work and Income site – North Island floods – Work and Income;
  • Insurance – check what your insurance cover provides;
  • Flexible work arrangements – working remotely where possible;
  • Transport options for employees – e.g., carpooling.

Act in good faith and be honest with your team about the situation. If an employee has a concern about the workplace being unsafe or anything else ask them the specifics of their concern so that you can investigate.

If you have any concerns or specific queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business.

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Offboarding software: automatic checklists & processes

Offboarding software: automatic checklists & processes

by | Jan 23, 2023 | HR Software

Offboarding Software: Automatic Checklists & Processes

Contents

How offboarding software saves you time – and minimises organisational risk

Let’s be honest: employee resignations are nearly always a headache, because it means there’s so much extra admin to do, on top of all your other duties. Let’s take a look at all the tasks that need to be done as part of an effective offboarding process – and then explore a tool that can help you manage it all: offboarding software.

What to do when an employee resigns

There are a number of things you need to do when an employee hands their notice in:

  • Documentation: Letters need to be created and distributed that outline the finish date, final pay, and any contractual agreements – such as confidentiality and restraint of trade.
  • Equipment: Items need to be returned, such as the company vehicle, company phone, security access logins, keys, swipe cards, ID cards, and the return of any PPE or uniforms.
  • Handovers: The employee’s work load and clients need to be handed over to another staff member, including client communications, files, documentation, processes, and any other knowledge. The sooner this process is initiated, the better, so that the person taking over the role has the opportunity to ask questions while the previous employee is still available.
  • Exit interviews and surveys: Get valuable feedback that can help ensure the success of new hires.

How to find the time for all these offboarding tasks?

As soon as an employee resigns, the clock starts ticking for you to accomplish the offboarding process. And by initiating the offboarding process promptly, you have the maximum possible time to capture knowledge and information from the departing employee.

Yet the reality is, in most businesses, that the offboarding process is rarely thorough, efficient, or timely.

This can actually create significant areas of risk for your organisation, especially around:

  • Restraints of trade issues.
  • Customer dissatisfaction due to poorly managed handovers.
  • Financial loss due to company equipment not being returned.
  • Data loss due to access logins not being revoked.
  • The employee having a poor offboarding experience and spreading negative comments about your organisation in the industry.

That’s why it makes sense to take the offboarding process seriously, and implement it in a thorough and consistent way. Though this may be challenging to do manually, there’s a tool that can help you with the process: it’s called offboarding software.

How can employee offboarding software help you?

Offboarding software helps you in a number of ways:

  • Automatically generate letters using templates: All the necessary documents are created automatically in a few clicks, based on the employee’s job description and pay rates. No more having to work this out manually or retype the information– the offboarding software takes care of it.
  • Easy offboarding checklists: The checklists in the offboarding software are super handy when it comes to tracking the return of company equipment, for handover tasks, and also for exit interviews.
  • Delegate and monitor progress: The offboarding tasks can be delegated to others – and you can quickly run reports on the completion status of the offboarding tasks, so you know exactly where things are at.
  • Automatically send exit surveys: The built-in survey functionality in our offboarding software means you can capture important information from departing employees. You can then run reports to analyse reasons for leaving, and evaluate survey responses, providing important feedback to HR and the management team.
  • Save time: Because the offboarding software takes care of the process almost automatically, you’ll save on valuable time and be able to keep focused on your role where you add the most value to your organisation.
  • Maximising the employment notice period: As the offboarding software should be initiated as soon as an employee resigns, you have the maximum amount of time possible to capture knowledge from your departing employee, so that high quality handover documentation can be created.
  • Minimise risk: By having a thorough and consistent offboarding process, you minimise organisational risk around restraints of trade, customer dissatisfaction, financial loss, data loss, and negative word of mouth.

Introducing the Offboarding module in EMS Hub

EMS-hubThe tool we’ve developed and use for employee offboarding is the Offboarding module within EMS Hub, which is a powerful suite of HR software.

Find out more about our Offboarding software – or book a demo of the software to see what it could do for you.

Book a Demo
PS. When you’re ready to recruit again, the EMS Hub software also has a Recruitment module that automates much of the hiring process, to save you time and create consistency.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business.

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How to reward and recognise employee performance

How to reward and recognise employee performance

by | Jan 10, 2023 | ConsultingHQ Blog, Performance Management, Reward & Recognition

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How to reward and recognise employee performance

Contents

Inspire employee motivation with annual performance reviews

Everyone likes to feel valued, and that their work is recognised – and that’s why employee performance reviews are so important. To this end, each person in your team should be very clear about his or her individual performance goals, so they know what’s expected of them.

Regular communication during the year should reduce or eliminate misunderstandings on expectations.  Rewarding employees is key to their future motivation, engagement and performance.  Most people try hard to achieve. How you go about evaluating employee performance will have a major impact on how engaged in your business employees will be for the remainder of the year – often to a greater degree than any monetary reward.

Universal common factors in setting you and your staff up for success through performance appraisals are

:

  • People you employee need to feel valued, which means you must focus on the positives.
  • Communication must be crystal clear on what measures the achievement.
  • Where improvement is required, feedback must be positive and constructive.

The Performance Review is the time to celebrate successes, evaluate blocks & obstacles encountered and build training programmes to elevate future successes to a new level.  

Your employees should know exactly what to expect from you in terms of the employment review process. They will have a view on how much progress they made toward their goal and will need the opportunity to express this.

The three most important things you should include in a Performance Review

  • Achievements for the employee during the year need to be discussed and credit given for all achievements. Always start with positives and remember your employee may be feeling anxious. Positive feedback at the outset will help relax him or her.
  • Areas where full achievement was not reached but progress was made – review any restricting factors or blocks that the employee encountered. It is your job as the business owner to remove all roadblocks hindering success. Sometimes constructive feedback may be required in terms of results but often additional support is also required for the employee.
  • Future training and development plans. All employees must have a training and development plan resultant from the Performance Review.

A lot of an employee’s performance relies on you or Managers in your business performing their jobs well in providing resources and removing road blocks.

It is important you are open to all aspects of performance hindrance and look for positive solutions. The most common reason behind lack of performance tends to be lack of training or confidence.

Moving forward from the conducting of the Performance Review itself, remember the goal is to have a working plan for the year ahead that both you and your employee are engaged in and committed to.

Writing clear and specific goals with defined outcomes is your goal, inclusive of improvement in areas where performance was less than expected plus a training and development programme to overcome any confidence or skill based restrictions on performance.

The Employee that you invest time and training in will be the employee who stays with your business and adds increasing value year after year. Performance Reviews when conducted with a positive spirit and an open mind will result in engaged employees who know where their immediate and long term focus lies – and that you value them as part of your business vision for the future.

Are there any tools that can help with employee performance reviews?

One of the major challenges around employee performance reviews is that it’s all too easy to forget about them, or keep pushing them out, because there’s something more urgent going on in your business.

However, if you keep postponing, your staff are likely to feel that they’re not valued, and over time their performance could slide – or they may seek employment elsewhere. So getting performance (and pay) reviews completed on time is critical.

EMS-hubThat’s where the People Management Toolkit in EMS Hub, our HRIS software, can help you. It has everything you need for performance evaluations:The People Management Toolkit is an all-in-one solution for employee performance reviews, including:

  • Annual performance reviews
  • Employee self reviews
  • Manager reviews
  • End of year scoring
  • Goal setting
  • KPIs
  • Action plans.

Tasks can be automated and delegated, with reminders set for HR, managers, and employees, so that the reviews are timely. Plus built-in reporting tools let you check on the completion rate of your employee performance reviews. What’s more, you can run departmental and organisational rating reports, giving you solid data for decision making like never before.

That’s just a small snapshot of what the People Management Toolkit can do…

The People Management Toolkit can also help you with staff training records, learning management, skills matrix development, managing 90-day trials, employee pulse checks, and more.

Next step

If you need hands-on help with employee performance reviews – or would like a software demo – please book a time with us to meet online to see how we can help you.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business.

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HRIS HR management – The future of HR

HRIS HR management – The future of HR

by | Jan 10, 2023 | ConsultingHQ Blog, HR Software, HRIS

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Why HRIS is the future of HR management

Contents

The global pandemic, and the related lockdowns and work-from-home culture, have all contributed to some major shifts in how we work and approach business:

  • Pivoting and flexibility: The importance of being flexible in the ‘how’ – but not necessarily in the ‘what’. For example, many retailers invested in ecommerce capabilities to take advantage of the huge demand for online shopping.
  • Location independence: The definition of how and where work gets completed has been changed forever. This has created a whole new paradigm in HR processes.
  • Technological shifts: The move to online everything, especially meetings and cloud-based collaboration tools.

These changes have demanded a new way of working. In turn, this has created a new reality where businesses continually need to review and rethink how they manage various processes – including HR functions and processes. Automation and online collaboration are a crucial part of that equation.

HR is one of the last functions to take advantage of automated processes and technology

To date, the HR sector has been slow to embrace technological shifts such as the automation of HR and recruitment processes. Yet this is arguably one of the greatest time saving and risk reduction tools available for business owners.

Just how well businesses are organised to use digital technologies is a fundamental source of competitive advantage. After all, automating certain HR functions and processes can help free up huge amounts of time, allowing managers to focus on more important and value-adding priorities.

Yet currently, many businesses still coordinate their HR functions and tasks through the use of spreadsheets and other time-consuming, data-heavy, and manual processes. But the faithful spreadsheet is no longer the best choice when it comes to workforce management – the biggest risk being that they are error prone, and also do not allow for automations and integrations.

So how can HR processes be automated?

HR processes can be automated through Human Resource Information Systems – known as HRIS. This is centralised, cloud-based software that’s been created and developed exclusively to meet the needs of HR managers and business owners. It doesn’t just store information; it can automate tasks and workflows, is interactive, and provides powerful reporting capabilities for decision making. It’s powerful stuff.

HRIS reduces HR documentation errors and improves compliance

Another important aspect of HRIS is that it can improve compliance with employment and other legislation. Not only will the Human Resources Information System standardise contracts and agreements (and make you aware when documentation is missing or incomplete) – it will also warn you when certifications and licences are due to lapse.

The need to move towards electronic HR management is now greater than ever. Businesses that automate administrative and highly repetitive tasks can free up resources to focus on longer term ‘macro’ activities such as shaping organisational culture, building the workforce of the future, and addressing the needs of its people – particularly in critical areas such as diversity and inclusion.

Which HR functions and processes can be automated using HRIS?

EMS-hubThe automation functions vary between HRIS solutions; here are some of the things you can do with the various modules of our EMS Hub HRIS software:

Recruitment

  • Automate recruitment requests and approvals, and easily create position descriptions and job ads – and our HRIS software integrates with your favourite job boards.
  • You can also automate the application process and filter the best candidates, plus there’s a built-in applicant tracker and rating scale.
  • Reference checking functionality makes it easy to locate referees for each applicant and then keep track of the results.

Discover how the recruitment software module in EMS Hub can help you work more efficiently.

Documentation and Compliance

  • Stop using valuable management time on minor tasks such as chasing people to return forms and then processing them.
  • Consistent online onboarding processes ensure a well organised, faster induction process that can have a positive and lasting impact on new employees.
  • Induction tasks can not only be automated, but also delegated.
  • Manage regular pay review processes in a timely and effective way with important information, such as job evaluation data. Our HRIS software can also keep track of temporary and permanent variations to salary, and integrate with payroll systems.
  • Reporting capabilities let you undertake salary benchmarking, so you know how competitive your organisation is in the marketplace, and also compare roles, departments, and levels.

Find out how to automate your documentation compliance.

Employee Record Management

  • Produce fast and accurate attendance metrics when dealing with attendance issues – this helps managers ensure compliance, and be aware of any issues early on.
  • Allowing employees to update their own personal details can drastically improve the employee experience by having a sense of autonomy and of ownership over their personal information.
  • A portal for leave management means that employees can easily request leave online, and check on the progress of their requests. What’s more, online leave management minimises queries and eliminates double handling and errors.
  • The leave management functionality in our HRIS software integrates with payroll systems for a seamless connection between payroll, people, and processes.
  • Emergency contact details are immediately at hand, should they be needed.

See how you could automate your employee record management and save valuable admin time.

People Management

  • Employee surveys, pulse checks, engagement surveys, and satisfaction surveys have the potential to enhance staff motivation and productivity – as well as provide valuable insights to management. Our HRIS software has a wide variety of surveys and templates ready for you to use, and can easily be customised. Read more about employee surveys.
  • Performance evaluations have never been easier, with everything you need for goal setting, KPIs, action plans, annual performance reviews, and end of year scoring. Complete with the ability to set reminders plus collaboration tools. Read our best tips on managing employee performance.
  • An online performance review system has the ability to improve employee productivity and engagement by facilitating continuous feedback. It enables employers to align individual and team goals with organisational strategies and streamlines the employee appraisal process by offering a range of pre-built goals and development objectives.
  • Manage learning and training easily: develop a skills matrix that identifies gaps, create development plans, and manage it easily with an online approval system so you can manage your budget.
  • Get notifications when certifications expire, and send reminders before training certificates lapse.
  • 90-day trial processes just got easier, as 90-day check ins are automatically generated, making it easy to manage your new hires.

Read more about the automation capabilities in the people management toolkit.

Offboarding

  • As soon as an employee resigns, the offboarding process is initiated. Our HRIS software can automatically generate letters that outline contractual obligations and restraint of trade.
  • Offboarding tasks and checklists are automatically generated and can be delegated.
  • Exit interviews and surveys can be automatically generated.
  • By initiating the offboarding process promptly, it gives you maximum time to ensure all the knowledge from your employee is captured, thereby maximising the employment notice period.

Discover how you could automate your employee offboarding processes, and make the most of any staff resignations.

Employee Issue Management

  • Easily check the history of any employee conduct issues.
  • Develop employee performance improvement plans to encourage staff to step up.
  • Guidance on how to manage unsuccessful 90-day trials.

Find out how employee issue management can be automated in our EMS Hub software.

Next step

Find out more about how our HRIS software can help you – or book a demo of the software to see what it could do for you.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business.

Contact us

Contact us to find out how we can help your business.

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How regular employee surveys can improve business performance

How regular employee surveys can improve business performance

by | Jan 9, 2023 | ConsultingHQ Blog, Employee Surveys, Workplace Wellbeing

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Is it a good idea to do frequent employee surveys?

Contents

Short, regular employee surveys are called Pulse Checks, and are one of the different types of employee surveys an organisation can undertake.

What is a pulse survey?

An employee pulse check or survey is a fast and frequent survey system, that does away with complex questions and is intentionally designed to be undertaken more frequently than the commonly used employee engagement survey.

Pulse surveys can be held monthly or quarterly (even weekly) and provide employers with a quick insight into the health of a company, hence the name ‘pulse’.

Regular Employee Surveys – what is involved?

Pulse surveys are typically made up of only 5-15 targeted questions, and are very quick easy for people to respond to. They are useful because the feedback your employees give can help you decide which areas need improvement and form the basis of a regular measure of changes in employee engagement and satisfaction levels within your business.

Regular employee surveys can improve employee performance

  • Employee engagement increases – by asking your team regularly for their feedback, you are encouraging positive engagement which also provides benefits such as:
    • Employee satisfaction. as employees become more engaged with their organisation, their job satisfaction levels rise, and they become more invested in the success of their organisation;
    • Employee Productivity: employees that are more engaged are found to be the top performers in an organisation. With higher motivation, they are driven to succeed;
    • Employee Retention: employees are far more likely to stay with an organisation when they are engaged and satisfied with their current job; and
    • Profitability: when employees are more engaged, they tend to have higher profitability rates as they are more productive and motivated to be successful.

Employee short surveys give employers better HR information

  • More relevant feedback – as pulse surveys are sent out regularly, you are getting a better look at how things are going ‘right now’ in the business rather than waiting each year to gain insights.
  • Culture – a happier, more positive culture is created in an organisation that is focused on listening to their people and actively working on initiatives to improve engagement.
  • Motivation – based on the responses you get from ongoing, regular pulse surveys you will have a better understanding of what motivates your people throughout the year.
  • Quick and easy to complete – because they are short and sweet, these surveys are not time consuming and allow for employees to give their honest input in a timely matter. This means that participation rates are higher on pulse surveys than the less frequent alternatives.
  • Supports open communication – the ability to express your thoughts, concerns, and motivations is important in an organisation. By showing your people that you care to listen, they will feel more comfortable giving their honest feedback.

However frequent employee surveys do have some disadvantages

  • Employee surveys with high frequency can become less effective, as people begin to get ‘survey fatigue’.
  • Surveys should not be more frequent than fortnightly at most.
  • Poor communication and no follow-up – by running Pulse surveys employers are setting up expectations that ‘things will be done’. Therefore, because employees are putting in the effort to give their honest feedback, proper action must be taken after evaluating the feedback. If you do not do anything in response to what they say, they will be discouraged to providing their feedback in the future. Hence you need to ensure you have appropriate resources available to communicate with employees and act on their feedback (which is the expectation you are setting).

Inclusions for a good employee survey:

  • Select topics and questions you want to get feedback on e.g. choose 5-15 questions that you would like your employees to answer that will add value and insight to your business. These questions can cover a variety of topics, such as motivations, happiness, feelings about management, recognition, workload, job role, etc.
  • Develop a solid employee communication plan to run before, during and after the survey and ensure you stick to the plan.
  • Analyse the responses upon completion – look at areas that feedback has shown need to be improved, as well as reflecting on the positive areas.
  • Analyse trend data, showing how results in each key area is changing over time.
    In accordance with your communication plan, share the results with employees in a timely manner.
  • Take action – this is the most important step! Develop an action plan that includes key dates and who the person is who is responsible for delivering each item.
  • Review and repeat – repeat pulse surveys regularly. Continue to review responses and see if progress is being made with the changes you implemented.

Benefits of high employee engagement

  • Fully engaged teams perform significantly better than less engaged teams.
  • Statistics show that 87% of employees worldwide are not engaged at work. Businesses with highly engaged employees have been proven to outperform those who do not significantly in earnings per share.
  • Teams that are highly engaged have cultures that are safe and empowering, which is reflected in increased wellness and wellbeing.
  • Given everything that our people have been through with Covid-19 over the last year or so, now is definitely a good time to do a pulse check with your team to see how they are currently feeling about their roles, communication, relationships, the work environment, and their general satisfaction.

Are there any tools that can help with employee surveys and pulse checks?

Although free tools such as Google Forms and SurveyMonkey are popular, they lend themselves to an ad-hoc approach to surveys rather than an integrated system that’s aligned with your organisational goals and needs. What’s more, with these generic tools you’re starting with a blank page and you need to devise the survey questions yourself.

Introducing the People Management Toolkit in EMS Hub

EMS-hubThe tool we’ve developed and use for all types of employee surveys is the People Management Toolkit within EMS Hub, which is a powerful suite of HR software.

To help you get started with surveys, there are over 20 survey types to choose from in the People Management Toolkit, including:

  • Employee pulse checks
  • Longer employee surveys
  • Employee engagement surveys
  • Employee satisfaction surveys
  • Change management reviews
  • Exit interview surveys
  • HR audits
  • Annual performance reviews
  • Employee self reviews
  • Manager reviews.

Best of all, there are best-practice HR templates you can use and adapt. These will help you hit the ground running and save valuable time.

Plus there are reporting tools in the software, so you can check on the completion rate of surveys, and also run departmental and organisational rating reports. The results from your surveys will give you clear information for your decision making.

Find out more about the People Management Toolkit – or book a demo of the software to see what it could do for you.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business.

Contact us

Contact us to find out how we can help your business.

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