At its core, GitLaw provides an open platform where contributors share and improve legal templates, creating a valuable resource that grows over time. The community of users up-rank documents based on their quality / usefulness. Many of the templates on GitLaw are existing market-standard templates published by a variety of teams across the word.听

The GitLaw team have published a specific collection of .听

The following are some example documents included:聽

1.

This document is the foundation of the employer-employee relationship, outlining job responsibilities, compensation, benefits, and the terms of employment. It鈥檚 a must-have for formalizing any new hire鈥檚 role and protecting both parties legally.

2.

The Job Offer Template formalizes the initial offer made to a candidate. This document outlines the key terms of employment, such as job title, start date, salary, benefits, and any special conditions. A well-structured job offer ensures clarity from the outset, preventing misunderstandings before the employment contract is signed.听

3.

A Settlement Agreement is used to amicably resolve disputes between an employer and an employee, typically related to the end of the employment relationship. This agreement sets out the terms under which the parties agree to settle potential claims, including compensation, confidentiality clauses, and the waiving of legal rights. It鈥檚 a critical tool for ensuring that both the employer and employee can part ways without lingering legal disputes, offering legal protection to both sides.

4.

When an employee leaves your company, it鈥檚 common for future employers to request a reference. The Reference Request Template streamlines this process, ensuring consistency in how references are provided. This template can help HR teams quickly respond to requests, offering standardized information about the employee鈥檚 role, performance, and tenure, while ensuring compliance with company policy and legal regulations related to references.

5.

When an employee submits their resignation, it’s important to formally acknowledge and accept it. The Resignation Acceptance Letter Template confirms receipt of the employee鈥檚 resignation and outlines any next steps, such as the final working day, the return of company property, and details about their final pay check. This letter ensures a professional and documented end to the employment relationship, setting clear expectations during the transition period.

6.

The Self Appraisal Form allows employees to reflect on their performance over a defined period, providing a structured format for them to evaluate their achievements, challenges, and areas for growth. This form is a valuable tool in performance reviews, encouraging employees to take ownership of their development and providing managers with insight into how employees view their own contributions. It鈥檚 also an effective way to foster open, two-way communication during appraisals.

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If you work for yourself or own a small business, you will know how exciting it is to employ your first member of staff. Having an extra pair of hands can be a huge help and allows you to concentrate on building your business further. But new employees sometimes create a headache when it comes to calculating holiday allowances and keeping track of days off.

We’ve put together this simple free holiday calculator spreadsheet聽to help you calculate holiday entitlements, which is something that can be a huge headache when you employ people for the first time.

Concentrating on what’s important – your people

Naturally, you will want to ensure your new employee works hard but its important to ensure they have enough time off to rest and recuperate! is an HR software platform that was created to help you manage your business easily, allowing you to focus on the things that really matter – like your people, and your customers! 聽Figuring out holiday calculations is the last thing you’ll want to do in the middle of a busy day and so we have created a free simple holiday calculator聽聽that will聽save time on the overhead of working out holiday day entitlements.

To setup this tool, simply insert the names of your employees in the space provided in January and they will copy down across the rest of the months. To record a holiday, simply put a P, a U or an S in the relevant square, for Paid, Unpaid or Sick days respectively.听 The cells will highlight automatically, and total up each employee”s holidays per month and cumulatively for the whole year.

Calculating part-time employees holiday days

But what if you also need to calculate part time employees holiday entitlement? Or track different types of leave like training days, sickness, maternity leave and more? Maybe you’ve got a large team spread over multiple locations and you”d like to see at a glance who is away at any given point. Then 聽is for you. Its 聽a simple, beautifully designed online HR software platform built for small and medium businesses. Its very聽simple to set up, easy for employees to use, and helps everyone stay connected with each other.

Try an HR software platform to make life easy

You can try 海角社区聽free for 14 days by signing up

We know聽what you’re up against – we’ve started businesses ourselves. That’s why we’re here to give you every little bit of help we聽can! We can’t run your business for you, but聽why make things harder than they should be? If you like this, why not check out our other tips on running a small business here?

The post Free Holiday Calculator Excel Spreadsheet appeared first on 海角社区.

We’re thrilled to be bringing you Lucy’s thoughts because they are so closely aligned with 海角社区’s core philosophy of putting people back at the centre of human resources. Anyone who has ever worked in the HR profession will recognise her honest and refreshing take on the issues!

We don’t trust our managers

You know you鈥檙e in trouble when the thinking behind your latest initiative is that 鈥渋f HR doesn鈥檛 manage it, THEY won鈥檛 do it properly鈥�. The 鈥淭HEY鈥� in question is, of course, your managers; the people we trust enough to lead the business but not enough to lead our people.

I struggle to think of a time when a new strategy or tactic I introduced as an HR Director wasn鈥檛 shaped by a desire to compensate for poor leaders.

• THEY won鈥檛 have conversations with their team members? Let鈥檚 introduce a system that makes them sit down once a year to do it.
• THEY won鈥檛 tackle poor performance? Let鈥檚 make them allocate their performance ratings on the basis of a pre-determined distribution curve that forces them to put 10% at the bottom.
• THEY won鈥檛 reward their people fairly? Let鈥檚 design a bonus formula that has a number of different measures so they won鈥檛 have much room for manoeuvre.
• THEY won鈥檛 tell their people what鈥檚 happening in the organisation? Let鈥檚 produce a script and insist they cascade this through their teams by a certain date.
• THEY won鈥檛 onboard their people properly? Let鈥檚 take their new starters off them for a week and put them through a programme.
• THEY will hold onto their talented people? Let鈥檚 produce a 9 Box Grid so we know who they are and then make sure we鈥檙e tracking what happens to them.
• THEY won鈥檛 be able to recruit people without being discriminatory? Let鈥檚 have an HR person in every interview to stop it.

We’re often making things worse

Whilst our desire to compensate often stems from a positive intent 鈥� to protect and help employees or the organisation 鈥� the impact, I believe, is corrosive and damaging for three key reasons:

1. We often make things worse

Instead of achieving our aims of great conversations, fair rewards, effective communication and so on 鈥� the processes we make 鈥淭HEM鈥� carry out often deliver just the opposite.

“Sometimes doing nothing would be the better option”

Instead of great conversations we have produced cumbersome performance systems with complicated ratings and distribution curves that often make it impossible for managers to simply have a great conversation. Instead of rewards that surprise, delight and motivate our people, we have created bonus structures that dissatisfy and confuse. Instead of effective communication, managers end up parroting sterile scripts that they don鈥檛 own. Instead of allowing for differentiation based on personal style, the needs of that particular area of the business or the simple common sense requirement to use discretion, we push one-size-fits all processes that managers often box tick or try and find ways of ignoring. Occasionally my HR colleagues will tell me that 鈥渨e know it isn鈥檛 working very well, but it鈥檚 better than nothing鈥�. I think sometimes 鈥渘othing鈥� would be better than the things we make them do.

2. We create a culture of co-dependency

By continuing to compensate for poor managers we create a co-dependency with HR that is both unhealthy and dangerous. Whilst we might enjoy the sense of being needed, by failing to address the doubts about their abilities to lead and manage their people, we remain necessary and fail to help them develop the judgement and skills they need to do it on their own.

“By remaining necessary we fail to help managers develop judgement”

In a world of pace and ambiguity, where the ability of managers to make the right decisions quickly is paramount, we keep them childlike and limit their potential.

3. It stops HR from doing what it needs to

Compensating for poor managers places HR in a kind of hybrid role of Chief Super-Nanny/Police/Monitor. Not only does this little for our credibility with the business, it also means that we devote hours to measuring who鈥檚 done what or doing it for them. If I had diverted just 50% of the time I invested in thinking up new ways to make managers do things into creating the conditions where they would do it themselves, I would have been a much better HR leader.

So how can we begin to change the focus for HR?

How do we聽support better managers?

Sadly, there are a lot of poor managers, but maybe fewer than we think if we changed our approach? I believe there are four ways in which we can begin to do this.

1. Don鈥檛 design around the lowest common denominator

If our starting point in HR is about how 鈥淭HEY鈥� won鈥檛 or can鈥檛 then our focus will remain on making them or doing it for them. An alternative approach is to use 鈥渁ppreciative inquiry鈥� and to look at what鈥檚 working well and re-focusing our energies on how it could be even better. Here鈥檚 a nice short video that explains the method in the abstract. In terms of our managers, this can involve looking at what your great managers are already doing and seeing what it is that makes them behave the way they do.

2. Play to their strengths

The leadership competency framework is beginning to look dated and lose its credibility. Instead of producing a list of behaviours that we expect managers to model, it can be helpful to focus on the unique strengths each manager has and helping them understand how they can lead, engage and develop their people in a way that works for them and feels authentic.

3. Focus on the impact

Instead of driving and measuring inputs (numbers of appraisal forms completed, numbers of people trained etc) we can set expectations about and measure what we want their people to feel and experience (ie: we want you to help your people perform at their best, we want you to help your people grow and learn, etc). If we focus on the impact we want them to have as managers but allow them the freedom to deliver it in ways that work for their people, their authentic leadership style, their business context, etc, then we both challenge them to develop and use their particular strengths.

4. Allow judgement

I remember introducing a discretionary 鈥渟pot reward鈥� scheme at the BBC to respond to managers鈥� complaints that the removal of bonuses had left them no ability to thank and recognise discretionary effort. We deliberately withheld creating complex rules for the scheme and said instead that there were only two 鈥� stay in budget and don鈥檛 give one person more than the top amount in any one year. The results were fascinating. The bulk of managers loved the autonomy and used it wisely. A few however, were very anxious about the lack of rules 鈥� primarily because it meant they would have to potentially explain the rationale for giving to one person and not another. (One manager even wrote his own 鈥渞ules鈥� for the scheme to help him manage it!)

We must avoid the urge to create more rules and learn to back off

We must avoid the urge to create more and more rules and instead learn to back-off. Whilst it can be tempting and reassuring to have everything nailed down so there鈥檚 no room for error, it also doesn鈥檛 allow for managers to use and build their judgement and so we are stuck in this cycle of co-dependency.

The sad truth is that HR cannot really compensate for poor leaders and managers. At best, we paper over the cracks and at worst, we can create conditions where the better managers struggle to do it well. If we spent more time making sure we chose better leaders in the first place and less time compensating we鈥檇 do everyone a favour.

You can find out more about Lucy .

If you’d like to read more of our blogs on the latest thinking in HR, why not take a look

The post HR Can’t Compensate For Poor Managers: Guest Blog Post from Lucy Adams, Expert Author appeared first on 海角社区.

A successful year relies not only on growing revenue but looking for simpler, smarter and cheaper ways of doing cumbersome processes. Take a look at your HR management. If you employ more than a handful of staff chances are you are spending far too much time鈥娾�斺�妏ossibly up to 6 weeks鈥娾�斺�妎n HR admin.

It used to be that HR software was designed and built for large corporates. And small and medium business entrepreneurs had to muddle through with spreadsheets, forms and documents.

Things have changed, and cloud based software exists to make life much easier.

If you鈥檙e not sure how an HR platform can save you time and money, we鈥檝e put together this round up for you.

Save time.

Keeping records of holidays, sickness and other types of time off manually is time consuming and error prone. If you are responsible for recording, approving and checking each and every time off request, this can mushroom into a big job when the number of people you employ grows. With a simple self 鈥搒ervice software platform, employees can see how much holiday they have taken and have remaining, view their team-mates time off, and request time off themselves. All you have to do is approve the requests.

Making sure key people are working when you need them to.

Most businesses have key members of any team that cannot all be away at any one time. Or, there are critical projects that need more people to be at work to deliver them. Planning your people resources is a laborious task without a smart software solution in place that draws everything together into a calendar in real time. And you risk losing out on lucrative opportunities if you can鈥檛 guarantee your key people are there to deliver for clients.

Looking after the wellbeing of your people.

As an employer, it鈥檚 your responsibility to look after the wellbeing of your team. If you give them a set number of holiday days, it鈥檚 vital they actually take them. Do you allow unlimited holidays? This is something that is becoming much more popular, but the risk with this policy is that employees fail to take adequate time off to rest and the risk of burnout and stress becomes very high. A simple HR platform can track how much time your people have taken鈥娾�斺�奱nd you can step in and insist they take a break when they need to鈥娾�斺�奾elping them stay fresh and motivated!

Save money and hassle on a multitude of solutions.

Many companies realize they need a software solution when it comes to processing payroll, expenses, employee surveys and other management tasks. But problems arise when several solutions are needed just in one small or medium business. Each HR platform has its own costs to consider, and that鈥檚 before you鈥檝e considered integration between these workflows, set up, and ongoing support from each provider. Far better to look for one platform that can do everything you need, with an easy, seamless integration. The last thing you want to be doing is paying hefty consultancy and support fees when you just need to get on with running your business.

Reduce mistakes and errors.

Manually entering records in spreadsheets puts the workload onto you or your employees to check that people鈥檚 holiday, sickness and other time off records are kept up to date. Making holiday balance calculations is complex as soon as you have people working part time, shifts, or hourly work patterns. Your employees won鈥檛 thank you if you miscalculate their holiday entitlement, monthly pay, or pension contributions. Not only does it suck up time processing these and putting them right, you could be liable for fees, interest charges, and other costs, not to mention the effect on the employee who feels let down and mistreated. Doing the basics right is essential.

Underpin a great employee experience and retain your best people.

When your employees come to work they expect you to use the best tools to enhance their productivity. At home, they are comfortable with using Amazon, Facebook, Netflix and Uber for their daily needs and leisure hours. So when they come to work why should they be expected to fill out bits of paper to request holidays, when this doesn鈥檛 happen in any other sphere of their lives? If you drag your feet here it sends a strong negative message to your employees about your mindset. Your best talent will soon look elsewhere for a forward thinking employer who values personal development and puts a premium on helping their people be productive.

Enable employees to input their own data.

Who knows more about your people鈥娾�斺�妝ou or them? A smart HR platform will allow your people to take ownership of their own data. They are in charge of updating their records (with your approval) if they move house, change their name or job role. This saves hours of your time, plus ensures people engage with the HR system and get the full benefit of its time saving power.

Allow you to do HR while out and about.

Most people now expect to be able to work productively and achieve just as much from their day whether they are in front of their office desktop, or in a train or coffee shop. And with the latest HR software you can鈥娾�斺�奵hoose a HR platform that鈥檚 fully mobile compatible and both you and your employees can use up dead bits of time while travelling completing essential HR admin, leaving you all free to focus on what matters.

Be future proof.

We all know that the world changes in the blink of an eye and that just as we have got used to one technology another comes along and sweeps the old ways away. Your business needs to adapt and change or you risk becoming obsolete. HR software is here to stay. Your employees expect and demand it and will regard you as a dinosaur if you don鈥檛 provide it. Choose a future proof platform, and expect to pay a monthly fee鈥娾�斺�妕his way the software company will have a sustainable future and can continue to invest in the product and keep it up to date鈥娾�斺�妏rotecting your investment and your people鈥檚 data.

Find out if 海角社区 is for you at . Happy New Year!

The post A 2017 New Years resolution that is simply achievable appeared first on 海角社区.

But, the cost of sickness takes a toll on your business. According to the 聽the average worker is absent from work for 6.5 days a year. This figure varies from one workplace to another but the cost to the UK economy is 拢16 billion annually. It鈥檚 not surprising that some businesses struggle to know where to start managing this issue.

Fortunately, there is lots you can do to help your employees stay well, and create a workplace they will fall in love with.

Practical steps to avoid excessive sickness absence

1. Monitoring sickness absence. Get your data in good shape so that you know where likely problems and absences are likely to crop up. Find out more about聽sickness absence monitoring procedures.
2. Policies. Review your disciplinary procedures (download a free policy template聽here) and ensure you have made it clear to employees what the consequences of excessive sickness absence are. Frequent communication, consistent application of a fair policy such as 海角社区’s free聽short term and long term sickness absence policies,聽and an expectation that return to work interviews will always be carried out is vital. The last thing you want is managers in one team letting things slide while the neighbouring department is run with more rigour.
3. Flexible working. Allowing a degree of flexibility in normal working hours is another strategy that can help. Click here for more information about flexible working including a free flexible working/working from home policy template) If employees know they can take a day off at short notice to deal with family, childcare or other caring responsibilities, the need for them to call in sick for non-genuine reasons is mitigated. Its give and take 鈥� building flexibility in as far as reasonably possible will pay dividends in terms of asking people to work extra hours from time to time if a key project is looming.
4. Tracking absence patterns and looking for “hotspots”. You鈥檒l need a good tool to keep track of people鈥檚 absence and see any patterns. Early action is essential and can head off problems down the track. 海角社区 includes free holiday and absence tracking, a company calendar, and a real time HR dashboard that鈥檚 ideal for busy managers.
5. Consider other ways of rewarding good attendance. Sometimes organisations use incentive payments, time banking systems, buying and selling leave. Find out more about incentives and rewards that actually work to increase聽employee engagement here.
6. Understand what you can do to support wellbeing and mental health, the hidden epidemic affecting one in six UK workers.

Find more great ideas on our blog on聽聽driving 聽up employee engagement and creating a happy workplace. Engaged employees who love coming to work don’t take sick leave!

The post Building a happy and healthy workforce appeared first on 海角社区.

This free employee onboarding checklist is ready for you to download and customise to your business. All you have to do is ensure that you tick off each item that is relevant to your company.

Start early: prepare well ahead of the new joiner’s first day so that they hit the ground running.听

Have a smooth and seamless employee onboarding process when you follow these steps! Don’t forget, 海角社区 can handle this for you simply聽in聽employee onboarding.

Before joining; “Preboarding”

• Set up log on details for company email address for the new employee. Encourage colleagues to start sharing key projects and knowledge by email, without overloading them, of course.
• Log in details for any other business systems or tools including laptops, shared drives and servers, software systems and social media accounts. 聽Include chat groups, collaboration tools, and any purely social and fun things like Facebook groups. Don鈥檛 forget that some of these have a lead time to add new users.
• Dress code; and advance warning of any 鈥渄ress down鈥� or 鈥渄ress up鈥� days!
• Passwords or signing in details such as time and attendance log ins, door codes.
• Whether a key, fob or card is required.
• Car parking details if any.
• Provide details for first day 鈥� start time, travel information, office and person to report to, anything they need to bring.
• Request employment contract. You can do this in 海角社区.
• Request proof of eligibility to work in the UK.
• Request 听诲辞肠耻尘别苍迟补迟颈辞苍.
• Request banking details for payroll.
• Ensure they are fully briefed on hours of work and any breaks.
• Company uniform, any sizes to be provided in advance.
• Any other equipment that needs to be provided or specified prior to start date.
• Make sure they have a desk, drawers, storage, and essential equipment such as basic stationery supplies and pens.
• Check if any adjustments need to be made in case the person has a disability.
• Allow them to ask questions! Provide your mobile phone number and email address to make this easy.
• If you have any other specific needs for your company, you can set these up in 海角社区 in the onboarding task flow.
• Set them up on 海角社区, so they can meet their colleagues!

On Day One

• Assign a buddy or mentor – not always the line manager!
• Fire drill procedure, fire marshalls and exit routes.
• Layout of office, location of desk, location of toilets and kitchen. Housekeeping rules, including rubbish, recycling, where they are allowed to eat.
• Inform the rest of the company about the new starter, with full contact details, job role and location. Its a nice touch to include a little bit of personal information too! Use 海角社区鈥檚 team directory to input and share these details simply.
• Make sure you’ve recorded their birthday so you can send them a card. 海角社区’s calendar can streamline this for you.
• Introduce them to key colleagues on the team. Make sure you don鈥檛 overload them with lots of new names, maybe do a few each day. Ensure you include anyone working off site or part time.
• Go through the details of the induction program and training schedule you鈥檝e put together for the new hire.
• Encourage them to ask questions.
• Don’t expect the person to work late on the first day! They will be exhausted, and need a good night’s sleep.
• Ensure they have a decent lunch break, even better if you can eat lunch with them.

In the first week

• Talk about your company culture, mission and values. If possible, have the CEO, founder or leader meet the new hire if they haven’t already, and tell the story of how the business got started.
• Explain what the company culture means and anything special that you do to celebrate it.
• Communicate your health and safety policy and carry out any essential training. For manual or shop floor roles ensure you take advice.
• Talk through your basic company policies and confirm that the employee has read and understood them. As a minimum, go through how to聽book holiday, what to do if they are sick, and how to raise a grievance. Legally you need to explain your disciplinary policy too 鈥� or tell people where they can find the details.听You can find a free disciplinary policy template here聽and other free HR policy templates here.听Show the new hire聽where to find additional information and who to contact should they have questions.
• Provide details of the pension scheme 鈥� and don鈥檛 forget with this will be compulsory for all businesses when they reach their staging date.
• Complete any introductions, revisit key ones – people forget names!
• Tell the person about the performance management system and what they can expect. When will their first review be. What probation period are they on and how will this be assessed?
• Details for company car, mobile phone or any other business tools.
• What employee benefits do you offer? Many companies spend heaps of cash on fancy benefits but their people never use them because they are too complex or they weren鈥檛 aware they existed. Invest in explaining this and you will find take-up and employee engagement rockets.
• If you offer generous perks like childcare schemes, pet friendly workplaces, vouchers, or even a workplace nursery make sure these are well communicated and understood. This is make or break for working parents!
• Encourage them to ask questions.
• Be available and give plenty of support. Say good morning and good night. Make them a cup of tea, and don’t be “too busy” to check in regularly. Remember, this is a really important week.

Find out more about great onboarding here. And remember the process of belonging doesn’t end after week one. The next stage is induction, which can be make or break.

The post Free Employee Onboarding Checklist appeared first on 海角社区.

Being fair to everyone

The nightmare comes when everyone wants to go away at the same time. In a small business, this is absolutely critical. How on earth do you manage a busy Dad’s request to have his holiday during his kid’s half term, with the music fanatic聽who absolutely has to go to her favourite festival聽then? Is it fair to always make the non-parents give way to the working mums? What about the workers with caring responsibilities outside of work? Or your altruistic workers who would like to work with refugees for two weeks? Sometimes it seems like you need the wisdom of Solomon to decide who has first dibs to take their leave when.

With decades of managing these tricky dilemmas, we at 海角社区 believe that setting up some basic rules and guidelines can help eliminate most of these problems. It might even mean that YOU can have a break too! If you run a business, chances are this is the last thing on your mind – but its even more essential!

What to think about when creating a holiday policy.

Start by deciding how many people can be off at one time in each part of the business. Are there certain teams or groups where you always need at least one or two people there? Don’t set this up if it isn’t really necessary. In customer facing roles of course it is. But be creative with other roles, there might be ways you can schedule work to be more flexible.

Then decide how much notice you need. You might be OK with people going off at short notice…most of the time. But its sensible to set up a rule of between 10 days and two weeks notice. This will allow you to manage issues further down the line that you don’t expect when you are a small team. Always let it be at your discretion however, to give you flexibility. BUT – be aware of creating what we like to call “hostages to fortune”. If Ben was allowed to take a couple of days off without any notice that might have been OK when you were quiet. 聽But then when Tanya wants to have next Monday off, but you need her to work on a project that’s due for Tuesday, she would be pretty disgruntled if you apply a different set of rules to her.

A well thought out holiday policy can really help you manage the practical difficulties. And there are useful tools such as 海角社区’s beautiful and simple holiday calendar聽to help you keep track of who is off when. You can download a free holiday policy template from 海角社区 that you can customize in a matter of minutes to suit your business.

What the law says

The most basic decision is how much holiday to give. You must offer your full time workers 28 days holiday, this is known as statutory leave and normally includes the 8 UK bank holidays. Of course, you are free to offer more, and many companies do. Sometimes this is added as an incentive for long service and workers will accrue additional days over time. Some companies give more days off from the get go, and there may be the option of sabbaticals. You also need to decide what period is OK. Are you OK with people having four weeks off at once for example?

For part time workers, their leave is calculated on a pro-rata basis. You can offer additional days holiday if you choose to do so. Make sure you set up a simple system, such as 海角社区’s time off聽calendar, to record and monitor holidays in your team. This way you will avoid the dreaded clash, or the horrible shock of finding out two of your team are away on the very day you need to pitch to your biggest client.

Practicalities

Be sure that you have guidance on carrying over leave, buying and selling leave, and any additional entitlements. It鈥檚 a really good idea to have guidance too on other authorized leave such as that required for jury or military service or bereavement. You can find template policies for all of this in 海角社区, and you can also easily create different types of time off to suit your business. If you allow flexible working, we have guidelines for this too.

Whatever you decide to offer your employees, take care that the guidance is implemented fairly for everyone. We鈥檝e seen businesses where individual managers were allowing paid leave for incidental childcare days and other one-off needs in one particular department of the business, but the manager in another area refused this. Obviously it created resentment amongst employees!

Communicate clearly

Then, make sure that you tell all your people what the rules are. Set up and share your holiday policy, make sure you explain this when you onboard new hires, and you are off to a flying start. Use a system like 海角社区’s shared company files which instantly updates and informs your staff, when you make changes. This way, no-one has any excuses if you had to change the rules for business reasons.

Finally, the issue of holiday calculation can cause headaches. Never lose track of people’s holidays again with 海角社区’s 聽real-time HR dashboard, it does all the hard work for you, and shows you at a glance who is off and when, and how much leave is still to take.

Unlimited vacation

All of this is relatively straightforward. Holidays can become more complicated if you decide that a different type of holiday policy is right for you, say, unlimited holiday. Find out more about unlimited holiday policies here.

Now that you’ve sorted this out, we think you should plan a break yourself!

To make your life easier, we’ve created a comprehensive library of free HR policy templates covering all the main policies you’ll need in your business here.

The post Its my holiday and I’ll cry if I want to…how to manage everyone’s precious time off without tears appeared first on 海角社区.

What we wish we had known

At 海角社区 we are always learning and thought it would be fun to have a round up of聽the things we and others wish we had known when it comes to looking after people.

• You are probably a bad manager. Unfortunately. Because, most people generally are. Its not something that comes naturally. It is a skill just like computer programming, engineering, speaking a language. Being good at your job or starting companies doesn’t automatically translate into management excellence. It can be taught – and you should seek support when you start employing people. We have loads of useful tried and tested real world advice here if you haven’t managed anyone before.

• People don’t expect you to know the answer to everything or to be always right. Its OK (good, in fact) to admit you have messed up, or don’t know the answer. What is bad, is to pretend to know, lie, or retreat into a hole when you don’t know what to do (this is tempting sometimes, we know)

• People don’t listen to everything you say or understand what you are telling them. What? You’ve told them 5 times? And they still don’t get it? What’s wrong with these people? There is nothing wrong with them, but there is something wrong with your communication. You聽have not followed the number one rule – people need to know “WIIFM” (“what’s in it for me”). If they don’t hear or see聽this, they switch off, no matter how much noise you make.

• People don’t work harder just because you increase their salary. They really don’t! You need to articulate the mission, provide interesting jobs, give them control over their work and ensure they understand how what they are doing fits into the big picture, and give them regular feedback. Oh, and say thank you for their efforts. Read more here on performance management.

• The thing that matters most out of recognition聽(a simple “thank you” or “well done”) OR a financial bonus, is the recognition. So why wouldn’t you do it? It doesn’t cost you anything!

• Kindness is very important in business. We’d go to so far as to say the number one thing you should do as a leader. Understand . People are humans. They didn’t leave their emotions or feelings at the office door. Being considerate is one of the most powerful things you can do. We talked to a friend recently聽who is leaving a very well paid job at a large organisation simply because in the year she has worked there, her manager never once said good morning to her when she arrived for work, and ignored the greeting she gave him. Imagine! How simply this could have been avoided!

• Your employees notice everything you do. Yes, everything. And they take their cue and model themselves on you. In this world, you are MUCH more important than you think. Everything you say or do sends a powerful message about the way that people should behave. Even the things you don’t notice or think are important. Think it didn’t matter that you didn’t make your colleagues a cup of tea? Or that you didn’t send them a Christmas or birthday card? That you didn’t wash up your dirty coffee cup and left it in the sink yet you just sent an ranty聽email reminding everyone to keep the kitchen clean? That that you helped yourself first to the office pizza?聽聽Think again. Here’s our guide to very simple and inexpensive ways to improve your company culture.

• People don’t always tell you how they really feel, no matter how friendly you are with them or how long you have worked with them. We have talked to countless CEOs who tell me that all their people are very happy working at their company. How do they know? They “asked” them. Now, just think for a moment. You are a junior employee, and your boss or boss’s boss says, “do you enjoy working here?” Hmm….great to be asked, but are you really going to reveal that you think your co-workers are lazy, you are fed up that you did not get asked to contribute to the new project, or that you think you deserved the promotion not your colleague? And just before she stopped by your desk you were updating your LinkedIn profile? I wonder. Read our guide for more effective ways to take the temperature in your workplace and get real, actionable employee feedback.

• People understand that starting companies is incredibly hard and that sometimes things don’t work out. They are adults and they can handle bad news. The worst thing you can do is to try to sugar coat it. They will see through you instantly.

• People don’t leave your company for better pay. They leave because YOU were a bad manager.

If you are starting on your management journey we’re here for you. Take your pick of our favourite reads which will inspire and inform.

The post If only I’d known that! (the keys to how people tick) appeared first on 海角社区.

We like free stuff!

Let us know if you have any other resources that you think we should add to this list.

. Bookmark this site or better still follow them on twitter and be informed of changes to UK employment law as it happens. This site also contains tips and advice on how to comply with UK employment law and how to develop legally compliant HR policies. It also include free templates and forms which you can download.

. This is a much less user friendly version of ACAS, and doesn鈥檛 include documents and forms, but it does have very comprehensive information about UK employment law and employee rights. It鈥檚 also worth bookmarking.

will have a website with a number of resources available to everyone. Here in Birmingham, we can find ours Of course,聽for in depth help you’ll need to join, this could be useful in the future.

聽聽are a brilliant source of information. Once you’ve joined, members gladly share resources they’ve used in their businesses. Try joining groups specific to your industry, profession or sector. You can also join groups for HR managers and professionals.听

Although much of their content is behind a paywall for members only, you can get answers to key basic points here. And you have the assurance that as the UK’s professional body for HR professionals, everything is completely up to date and accurate, as well as being in line with the latest best practise.

6. Blogs are a great source of tips and advice. Take a look at 海角社区’s blog, its written by a seasoned HR professional with over 20 years experience in all aspects of HR and people management, and updated regularly with current topics that most business owners will need help with.听We also like one from leading online employment law advice expert XpertHR. You have to pay to use their advice services and access much of the resource, but the blog is completely free, relevant and regularly updated.

has a great selection of free articles on HR, leadership and management. The content is from leading HR and business professionals, and is updated regularly. Take out a subscription for more in depth information.听

. This is a great little management handbook from ACAS giving you tips and advice on how to manage people in a small business in compliance with UK employment law.

9. Free HR Forms and Templates from 海角社区,聽relating to hiring, managing and disciplining staff. This site includes job description templates, induction checklists, employee handbook templates, sickness and holiday policy templates, health and safety information, and ideas for creating a great company culture.听

groups are a fantastic resource for all types of information sharing. People are usually supportive, with an entrepreneurial mindset and a tech background. Try the group to get going. Don’t forget to answer questions yourself and add to the group – that way you’ll get more out of it.

11. TED talks. If you love learning by watching, these are a great resource. Find our top recommendations here.

12. Podcasts. A great way to combine exercise, dog walking or commuting with learning. We are great podcast fans. Get started with the list of tracks.

13. Looking to create a fantastic, cool new employee handbook and unleash your team’s creativity? Get ideas . Be sure to check out Netflix’s culture slides. They’re pretty groundbreaking.

We hope this list of free HR resources helps! Let us know if you have any other resources that you think we should add to this list.

And if you need free HR policy templates, 海角社区 has helpfully produced a library of the ones that we know most small business owners will need. You’re welcome!

The post The 13 Best Free Business and HR Resources appeared first on 海角社区.

Think you鈥檝e got your salary structure sorted? Do you believe that your performance related pay and bonus system is producing better performance?

Recent insights from neuroscience suggest that most of us have been getting this wrong for decades.

It鈥檚 been accepted wisdom for some time that incentive structures be they commissions, bonuses or performance related pay schemes drive workers to go the extra mile for the business. If people are just paid for turning up, the logic goes, well, that鈥檚 what they will do. They will go through the motions and when it comes to achieving results, they won鈥檛 care enough about them to put in the graft.

Death by spreadsheet

Many businesses are operating complicated spreadsheets with individual, team, or company bonus schemes, based on hitting targets. Often, these are created by the Finance Director based on what will make a difference to the bottom line.

But the surprising truth is that far from incentivizing the performance you want, schemes like this could be having the opposite effect.

We don’t know what we’ve got ’til its gone

To understand why, we need to know some basic neuroscience. We are hard wired as a species to seek rewards and avoid threats. This makes sense 鈥� and helped keep us alive when we ran away from predators and hunted our prey. It explains the foundations of how our society is organized. Trouble is, once we have the reward, we no longer value it. Think about the many, many times someone close to you or even yourself has suffered a serious or terminal illness. I鈥檒l bet that you鈥檝e said or thought that you only appreciated your fortune to enjoy good health when you risked losing it.

We take for granted those things we have recently acquired, and quickly look for the next 鈥渉it鈥�. It鈥檚 the same for our employees. Once we have rewarded them for doing something extra, they expect that to be part of 鈥渂usiness as usual鈥�.

On the other hand, the threat of losing something we already have (like our good health) causes us immense stress and anxiety, to an extent that outweighs any positive emotion associated with potentially gaining the same thing!

Planning pay reviews

For example, say that you are looking at the annual pay review. You can鈥檛 decide whether to increase salaries by 3% or 4%. Someone leaks that the pay rise this year is likely to be 4% and rumours fly around. However, the business can only afford 3% and that鈥檚 what the employees end up getting. Do you think they are happy with a 3% rise in their pay? Getting more pay should make people happy shouldn鈥檛 it? In fact no, in your employee鈥檚 eyes this represents a potential loss of 1% that they thought they were getting!

So think again about how you reward your employees. We recommend building intrinsic reward into your business, to create a truly high performing business.听Start by creating an engaging company culture, where your staff love to work – and the rest will follow!

Read more of our best ideas on managing performance, motivating your staff and building a great business on our blog.听

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