HR Circle

08/03/2022

Today is International Women's Day 👩‍🔬👩‍⚖️👩‍🔧👩‍💻🕵️‍♀️

HR has traditionally been a female-dominated profession, even though we have moved a long way from the 'tea & tissues' of personnel. Successful HR requires empathy, technical knowledge and professionalism to support employees and businesses - none of which are skills only possessed by women!

We asked Nicola Orr, director at HR Circle for her thoughts on the role gender has played in her career so far 👇

"As a female business owner, I have never felt at a disadvantage because of my gender - maybe because I was brought up by parents who didn't restrict my opportunities, a message reinforced by the all-girls school I attended. It is great to have built our HR company, from the early days in 2007 when I worked from a tiny office in the under-stairs cupboard. The HR work we do promotes equality and celebrates diversity, making work better for everyone - from gender pay reporting to anti-bias training. I've had help from some fantastic people and networks like the Women In Business Network (WIBN) and want to make sure I do what I can to support the next generation of HR professionals. It is a privilege to lead a growing team - including two female HR apprentices."

Happy International Women's Day!

07/03/2022

Great products; lucrative backing and investment; innovative marketing all contribute towards a business's success.

However, the single most important advantage that any business can benefit from is great people.

Well managed, adequately supported and strongly motivated people deliver results.

The beauty about people is that they're all different. Key motivators for one person might be completely different from another. However, generally speaking the most motivated employees benefit from:

👉 Competitive rates of pay
👉 Flexible working arrangements
👉 Clear and fair leave policies
👉 Investment in learning & development
👉 A positive company culture
👉 A mapped out path of progression.. and much more

With employee motivation being one of the largest contributors to your organisation's success, now is a great time for you to explore how you might be able to achieve the most from your people. Contact us by following the link below:

https://lnkd.in/ddd8MDRn

28/02/2022

Having access to a trained HR professional is very important for most businesses, however, not every business is in a position to recruit a full-time member of staff.

At HR Circle, we offer two main options for ongoing HR support:

1️⃣ HR Helpline
2️⃣ Managed HR service

Focusing on our HR Helpline, this unique service not only means that HR support is only a phone call away, we also provide access to our ever-expanding HR Toolbox, which contains documents and guides for your usage.

We understand just how important it is to be able to pick up the phone, but also to build up the confidence to make your own informed decisions.

You can browse our knowledge base here: https://knowledge.hrcircleuk.com/

04/01/2022

The human resources function plays an important role in supporting hybrid working, which is particularly prudent at the moment. Some of the ways in which an HR professional can support hybrid working are below:

1️⃣ Setting clear expectations between the company & employee(s) around: working hours, communication channels, the balance of office/remote working, the flexibility of time/days in office

2️⃣ HR can support the development of an appropriate Hybrid Work / Agile Working policy for the business (depending on size, sector, location, type of work) & communication with the employees

3️⃣ 'Duty of care' for remote workers & those in the office - making workplaces covid-secure, ensuring remote workers have a safe set-up at home

4️⃣ Wellbeing check-ins & support for line managers (training & managing a remote workforce); helping people adjust to the change

How have you found adapting to remote/hybrid working in your business? Have you faced any challenges? Please let us know in the comments! 👇

14/12/2021

With the recent reintroduction of the guidance to work from home if possible, many workplaces have flipped to predominantly remote working again.

However, some employees cannot work from home and are naturally worried about the implications around this.

Others do not wish to work from home, and find the prospect quite isolating and demotivating.

Irrespective of the specific implications on your business, employee wellbeing should be at the forefront of all decisions made over the days, weeks and months ahead. Adequate employee wellbeing support isn't just a legal requirement - it's a moral duty.

To find out more about how HR Circle is helping organisations to properly support the wellbeing of their entire workforce, click the link here and get in touch for a free no-obligation chat: https://lnkd.in/gYgJ-dyD

HR Circle offers proactive wellbeing support solution for workplaces. To get the services, you can call @01462511100

08/12/2021

It’s not too soon to say it: Christmas is coming! Random celebrities are releasing Christmas albums, we're being bombarded with advertisements for new fragrances that will make us smell like Hollywood stars… ice and snow will be upon us.

The thought of snowball fights and building snowmen may be at the top of this list, however, people forget (seemingly annually in the UK!) about the implications the weather has for them commuting into their workplaces. Whether you’re travelling by car, train or even bus the weather has an impact. The snow on the tracks can disrupt trains and as the ice is particularly dangerous for those travelling on the roads. This can affect you getting into work and put an obvious hamper on productivity, however, with almost a year of WFH under our belts, workplaces certainly have a backup plan this year. Don’t wait for the adverse weather to put those backup plans in place.

Having laptops, if available, for each employee to work from home will be incredibly handy in making sure they can still get on with their job, even if they can’t make it into the office. Keeping on top of work is super important; sadly, working from home doesn’t mean snowball fights and putting your feet up all day, unlike a snow day at school.

Now’s the time to put contingency plans in place for the colder months, especially if your employees are now largely back in the office and with news around possible work from home orders.

If you need any help or advice around employees working from home, feel free to get in touch through our website below:

https://lnkd.in/dKuN9itT

Get effective HR consultation services. HR Circle provides HR consultancy in Hertfordshire, UK, and Human Resources Outsourced in Hertfordshire, UK to improve HR functions. Talk to our HR experts now.

01/12/2021

If you haven’t noticed already, apart from the radio stations starting to play Mariah Carey in early November, it’s the festive season! The tinsel and baubles might even be up in your workplace - with the kind of year we’ve had, surely we deserve to celebrate a bit and enjoy this season?!

However, all the celebrating may have to be put on hold for just a few more weeks as there’s still work to be done - you can let out your collective groans now! It can be difficult striking the right balance in terms of staff productivity and output in December, with BAU activity to be completed before any break and project-based deadlines looming.

Getting swamped with all these different tasks with a relatively shorter timeframe for completion than other months may lead to sub-optimum performance, and it can affect employee mental health detrimentally too.

Making sure that your employees feel good (or, at the very least, comfortable) about the amount of work they have to do is really important, as is making sure they feel confident in asking for some assistance with their workload if it’s needed.

For more info on helping your happy little elves this festive season, or with any other queries you may have, get in touch below:

https://www.hrcircleuk.com/contact

18/11/2021

A business’ most important asset is its people. They are pivotal operationally, and integral to business success.

But, are they engaged?

Without engagement they may not deliver the best results they can, leading to inefficiencies and underperformance for your business. You want to keep everyone happy, motivated and engaged but it’s not as simple as waving a wand and wishing on it (as much as that would be helpful!)

You’ve got to talk to your team; make sure they feel valued in the business; ensure they are confident in the tasks they do; have faith and trust in yourself and their leadership team. It’s not just down to the business owners - the right values have to be instilled and lived by everyone in the business, from board level to the newest hire.

Communicating with your employees can always help in finding out how they feel. At scale, this is a lot more difficult, which is why organisations utilise engagement and pulse surveys. However, at HR Circle we apply more innovative methods to understand employee sentiment, and even their overall wellbeing through our tech-enabled solutions.

If you need any help or advice around employee engagement, employee wellbeing or anything else people-related, feel free to get in touch via our website below:

https://www.hrcircleuk.com/

Get effective HR consultation services. HR Circle provides HR consultancy in Hertfordshire, UK, and Human Resources Outsourced in Hertfordshire, UK to improve HR functions. Talk to our HR experts now.

17/11/2021

HR project support 💼

Many businesses we work with require support on HR projects, a lot of which are a legal requirement. We specifically assist with things such as TUPE & business integrations, salary benchmarking, equal pay and more. Whilst for many, it is a legal obligation, for others it is simply the morally correct thing to do. If you need any support with HR projects, contact the team at HR Circle today for no-obligation advice.

https://lnkd.in/dDucENAf

11/11/2021

To some, returning back to the workplace is a huge positive, after over a year of working from home. Juggling video calls with childcare certainly isn’t easy; work-life balance has been blurred for a number of months and the general mentality has been ‘let’s get back at it’. There are plenty of employees who can foster a productive working environment from home, but a significant number have found it difficult - it’s for these individuals that productivity and positivity have increased as a direct result of returning to an office environment.

That said, for most of us, our home is our safe and happy place. Whilst we were distracted by the TV; our children; the umpteenth parcel we’ve ordered this week, at least we felt a sense of calm and the ability to set our own schedules, without being watched. Any change can be stressful - changing from a slight semblance of what may feel like ‘being your own boss’ to moving back into the physical workplace structure and hierarchy can and did cause heightened stress.

A prolonged period of work-related stress is known to have a negative impact on mental and even physical health, which was highlighted in the recent National Stress Awareness Day. When you pair that with the arrival of Seasonal Affective Disorder, which is when people are low (partly due to a lack of sunlight and vitamin D, hence the recommendation to purchase a SAD lamp), it’s all the more important for businesses to put support mechanisms in place for employees over the coming weeks and months.

If you’re unsure of where you stand legally, or simply require some advice on how you can ensure employees are properly supported, please get in touch via our website today:

https://www.hrcircleuk.com/

02/11/2021

With business very much returning to 'usual' levels across various industries, many organisations are increasing their headcount. For smaller and indeed medium businesses, there is a requirement for HR advice and support, but no desire or requirement to employ full-time HR professionals.

At HR Circle, we have devised a competitive HR helpline package; it's not quite as intense as our outsourced HR provision, but enables business leaders to make HR-related decisions with confidence.

We also provide a very handy HR toolkit, meaning you can simply fill out the necessary forms, while picking up the phone should you have any questions or need any advice. Find out more here:

HR Circle provides a professional Human Resources Helpline Hertfordshire UK available when you need it. It offers HR advice from our experienced team. Talk with our experts now.

20/10/2021

How can HR support employees post-pandemic? 💡

The last couple of years have been perhaps the strangest of our generation. The anticipation and excitement around the start of a new decade soon died when fears surrounding the pandemic grew. Understandably, the government and businesses took decisive action, locking down and shifting the structure of the modern workplace, arguably permanently.

As we move towards a clearer, more long-term view on the modern workplace, HR-related challenges have evolved; is a more holistic approach needed for people management in the new hybrid workforce? We explore this and more in our latest blog post.

https://lnkd.in/dA5VJJfp

2020/2021 have been perhaps the strangest years of our generation. The anticipation and excitement around the start of a new decade soon died when fears surrounding the pandemic grew. Understandably, the government and businesses took decisive action, locking down and shifting the structure of the m...