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.

The post Key Documents for HR Professionals 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.

Low motivation is everywhere

And you’d be right to worry, with statistics on this topic making grim reading. Depending on the industry, up to 75% of staff report feeling low to average motivation at work in the UK.

Luckily, there are strategies you can put in place to ensure your people are feeling good about working for you. We’ve debunked these myths so you can learn from our experience.

Myth #1: Performance related bonus schemes are a useful tool for motivation

Unfortunately, the science on performance related bonus schemes indicates that the opposite might be true.听If people are feeling threatened by the risk of not earning their full bonus, this fear can hamper their engagement with work. Better to create a workplace and fulfilling roles that generate intrinsic motivation. When employees feel genuine intrinsic motivation for work, providing external rewards like increased pay can counter-intuitively decrease their motivation.

Support intrinsic motivation by focussing on three key areas:

• Constant communication and feedback, enabling personal growth and development for each team member;
• Meaningful recognition from their leader or manager, as well as their peers
• Work that is well defined, has clear goals that are well understood and that contribute to the mission of the business as a whole.听Find out more about managing performance here.

Myth #2:聽If people perform better than their peers, they should be paid more.

Its tempting to shell out extra cash to compensate outstanding performance.听But the jury is out even on the convention聽of paying聽sales commission for top sales people. 聽And in other roles, linking results to variable pay is a minefield. There will inevitably be losers in this equation. The factor that demotivates employees more than any other is a sense of inequity. While rewarding top performers might make them feel good, the unhappiness and injustice that the others feel will infect the whole business atmosphere.

For how do you control for the myriad of factors outside one individual employee’s control? It could be that other team members let them down, that they lack resources or training, or simply that the goals were unrealistic. If you have ever tried to set up a plan that is “fair” you will know the challenge of trying to compare paying for different results in different roles. You also have the tricky questions of how do you reward those whose jobs don’t have obvious “results”. The bookkeeper. The HR Advisor. The company secretary. Going back to the salesman and her commission, is it fair that all the team supporting her on customer service, delivering the product or even collecting the overdue invoices don’t receive anything on her sales wins?

Myth #3:聽If people aren’t motivated, the answer is to increase their pay.

You should absolutely always pay what people are worth. But pay isn’t a two way street. Its a hygiene, not a motivator factor; meaning you’ll see a drop in motivation if you don’t pay the market rate, but once that need is met, motivation won’t increase exponentially with increased reward.

The key to motivation is to understand your people first and foremost. Individuals have different needs, so structure their reward to suit their lives.

A sense of purpose

Once this is taken care of, address the structural factors in their jobs. Do they feel a sense of purpose and mission about the聽business and their role in it? Do they think that what they are doing matters? Do they understand how their efforts contribute to the team and to the business as a whole? How clear are they about their objectives? How much feedback do they get? Do they feel rewarded and recognised for their work?

Intrinsic motivation in the workplace grows when employees feel challenged, capable, valued and have a general enjoyment of their jobs. Find out more about creating a company culture that promotes this here.

The post Three myths about motivation appeared first on 海角社区.

As a psychology undergraduate we were taught the “magic number 7” theory on Day One of our course.

It’s the number of anything that the human brain has evolved to process comfortably. It can be seven numbers, letters, words, or chunks or information. Its been tested literally millions of times and holds true in all sorts of contexts.

It’s important because most of our social life is constructed to maximise our ability to comfortably process information in the way our brains can most easily handle. Otherwise, evolution would have taken care of us before Google and Uber does.

7 is cosy!

It also applies to social relationships. Seven is the number of close, seriously close, kinship bonds we can meaningfully invest in. That means going beyond casual friendships or distant family, Facebook friends and people you see in the pub now and again. It means the people that you would put everything on the line for – maybe even sacrifice your life for – and they would do the same for you.听That’s a nuclear family plus a couple of grandparents, for example. Or a small tribe or clan.

From the tribe to the company

Here is where it gets relevant to your business. Remember when you started your business and you could get everyone in the same room – the same kitchen even! You didn’t need policies, documents, internal protocols, intranets, professional management development consultants or any of that stuff. Your bonds were so close, you probably spent more time with each other than your own family. Not suggesting you’d die for them….but you get the picture.

When you grow, things start to get more complicated. This kicks in at different points for different businesses but the rule of thumb is, by the time you’ve got to three lots of “sevens” – i.e., 21 people, you will have lost that clan/tribe feel.

Its biological..

The drivers for this go very deep and are based in our biology. We’ve evolved to behave in ways that enable us to process information in the most efficient way. Our brains didn’t want to be struggling to work hard while we were foraging for food or running away from a predator. Once we’ve got to a unit of 7 people, it becomes a “chunk” – and can be treated by our brain – almost – as one piece of data. Combine complex pieces of data together however, and our efficiency starts to fade. And because a chunk of data of 7 people is actually pretty complex, it doesn’t scale up in quite the same way as 7 simple pieces of data – like a single letter or numeral.

How does this affect our brain?

We react to this by feeling stress and uncertainty. This is translated into our inability to form as close a bond with those outside the “magic number” as those within. Again and again, ethnographic studies have shown that these emotions start up聽once a group size hits about 21. It’s at this stage that we start to see strong identification with the group itself. That “in-group-outgroup” dynamic that anyone who’s ever been in a competitive team environment will know.

That’s why, as you grow your business you will find that hitting your 21st employee is a milestone. Its at that time that you are probably thinking about formalising the ways you do things,聽as your employees are no longer known deeply to you. You will probably need some dreaded policies. It’s time to talk to someone who has experience of this journey and can guide you well. A great software platform such as 海角社区 can really help at this point – enabling you to bring in the latest tools to build a fantastic company culture with motivated, productive employees.

Look to the future

It’s really important that you take a step back to congratulate yourself on coming this far and enabling 21 people to earn a living and support their families. And it’s important to look to the future to see what’s missing from the next stage of your successful growth. This is the time to put in place the essential foundations for the next stage of your growth journey. Let 海角社区 help you grow your business- we’ve been there and done the journey, now we want to help you.

Find a useful free HR policy template library for all those essential HR policies here, and read more of our best ideas for succesful growth here.

The post Why 21 is the “magic number” of employees in your business. appeared first on 海角社区.

Once you are successfully聽growing your business there comes a time when you will need expertise beyond your own skill set in HR. Maybe this is driven by a recruitment need if you are an investor backed business, or if growing organically, it can be when dealing with people is taking up time and money. Some estimate that small business owners can spend up to 40% of their time dealing with HR and people -related issues. This is time you simply don’t have.

Our advice gained through hard won experience is that a lot of pain can be saved by hiring someone to look after your people once you hit a critical stage. While there is strong that the ratio of employees to HR practitioner in UK businesses is falling, the truth is that the bare numbers are a poor guide to what you should do in your business聽 as there are other factors in the mix. So much depends on the following criteria:

Your growth trajectory.

If your investors are expecting exponential growth and rapid hiring, definitely hire someone who understands recruitment and can leverage the latest tools and platforms to deliver high quality hires. This will be critical to your growth and success, and recruitment agencies are rarely able to deliver in our experience. Hiring an excellent Head of Talent to create and refine your candidate brand, engagement and selection process will pay dividends.

Your skills needs.

Do you have vacancies in specialist, high demand or hard to find roles? Or is your requirement generic and easily filled?聽Are you located in a region where there are skills shortages or do you have candidates knocking your doors down? Finding a person to get under the skin of your potential candidates and recruit passively, without going out to market is vital in the first scenario.

Your business complexity.

A complex business with multiple processes will require higher skill sets and therefore there will be more complex HR requirements that go beyond recruiting, basic training, and pay review. Think about how you are going to develop the next level of managers beyond the senior team, how are you going to ensure you drive teamwork and innovation through the business, create a positive workplace culture and motivate your employees. All of this will require a skilled person who can translate the latest concepts and thinking from organisational science into your workplace.

Your personal beliefs and values.

Presumably you have started a business because at some level, you want to make the world a better place. For us at 海角社区, it was to put the latest and best tools for creating a fantastic company culture into the hands of the small start up entrepreneur. We call it democratising HR.

And for the vast majority of entrepreneurs and business leaders we know, their goes beyond making a profit. They want to build a great organisation that enhances the potential in employees. And in the long run, it is these entrepreneurs who are successful.听To articulate and translate your values into actions,聽you will need a skilled HR/people/talent team to translate your values into action.

Take a look at some of the resources on 海角社区 to help you and your HR team聽manage your HR challenges while you are growing. Use 海角社区’s beautifully designed, simple and intuitive platform to automate routine tasks, keep everyone updated with important information, and allow employees to manage their time off.

You’ll be well on the way to creating a聽workplace people will fall in love with.

The post When should you make your first HR hire? appeared first on 海角社区.

Why? Because people want to work for that are aligned with their personal values and beliefs. If yours isn’t, they will take their talents elsewhere, leaving you with critical skills gaps. Don’t forget, your failings are out there for all to see on sites such as Glassdoor.

First, assess where you are

If you are already aware that your company’s culture doesn’t attract new talent or motivate existing employees, then you are one step ahead. We’ve seen so many leaders聽fall into the trap of believing everything is great, because no-one has told them to their face that there is a problem! Even leaders who pride themselves on being open to feedback and learning, and may well be truly great leaders, need to go beyond day to day anecdotal evidence to measure their company’s culture.

Changing culture

So, how to go about changing culture? First, diagnose the problem with a simple employee survey. Don’t overcomplicate it, focus on the key questions you think are important to your employees, or the type of issues you have picked up from your regular feedback chats. Once you are armed with knowledge, you can start to take action.

Using the data, you can analyse what the key issues are. Don’t feel downhearted if your employees criticise or are negative about ideas or working practises close to your heart. If you have used anonymous feedback (which we recommend, to get a true picture of your employee’s feelings), it can leave you wondering who said what and why. Our advice is not to dwell on the negatives, but to address them constructively.

Fixing your culture

For example, say you have found out that people don’t have clear objectives and are not clear what they need to do to get a pay rise or get promoted. In that case, look at introducing development objectives into the performance review process. Find out more about setting up a performance management system that engages people聽here.

Spend time talking to your people. Make sure you communicate why you have done the engagement survey and what you hope to get out of it. More importantly, walk the walk. You can’t expect to do a couple of surveys and “fix” the problem. Nor can you “delegate” culture to your HR person, even if they have “culture” in their job title. (Although a good HR Director should be able to lead much of the communication and planning). You can use a beautiful and simple tool such as 海角社区 to automate many of the routine HR tasks聽connected with employee surveys and other administration, to help your HR lead focus on adding value.

If you as a leader don’t buy into the culture change you want, forget it. Nothing will change. If you want change, you need to change yourself first. Start by asking yourself why you are in business. , what do you really want to achieve in your life. From this all else will follow.

It takes time

A word of warning. One employee survey does not a fantastic culture make. It takes months, sometimes years, to change things that are the root cause of recurring issues. And very often, YOU will need to change first! This is hard, and you will need to be patient.

We have lots more fantastic ideas on our blog for easily introducing state of the art culture engagement practises from the top rated culture companies into your business, without the big company budget!

Find out more about our best ideas on building a fantastic company culture here.

The post Help. I need to change my company’s culture. appeared first on 海角社区.

Its tempting these days when Facebook and other social media channels are the ubiquitous ways we communicate to include your employees in all the doings of your daily life. And this might be great for team spirit, and injecting fun into the workplace. After all, few employers now think its possible or even desirable to prevent employees going on Facebook during working hours, within reason. (To help you navigate this, a free email and internet usage policy is available here)

It鈥檚 often said as well, that the youngest generation in the workforce, the so-called 鈥渕illennials鈥� expect Facebook to be part of their working as well as social life.

The downsides聽of social media in the workplace

But before you reach for that 鈥渁dd friend鈥� icon, pause to consider what would happen if you need to discipline or fire an employee?

You might get on really well in the office, and spend time together outside of work, having drinks, lunches and socializing. But if you are managing a team, chances are at some point you will have to discipline someone and in the worst case scenario, terminate their employment. How would you feel if after sharing every detail of your lives, you have to have that difficult conversation on a Monday morning in the office?

We鈥檝e often seen managers who are very close or even friends with their employees struggle to manage them professionally. After all, if a manager happens to know a lot about an employee鈥檚 personal situation, it鈥檚 so easy to come up with all sorts of mitigating excuses for poor performance at work. While we are not suggesting that a manager should not be sympathetic to an employee鈥檚 home life, there is a balance to be struck. It can also be incredibly unfair, not to mention potentially illegal, to other employees who are not 鈥渇riends鈥� with you, if you are treating them more stringently than your Facebook friends.

Alternative ways to bond the team

There are other options to support a team聽that likes to work hard and have fun. For example 海角社区’s beautiful team directory and company calendar allows all your team to find out a bit more about each other and keep track of birthdays, anniversaries and other important company dates.

What’s next after Facebook?

Bear in mind too that Facebook, like any other technology may wane in popularity. Other channels are already evolving, and will continue in future. Right now we are seeing the emergence of an 鈥渦nconnected鈥� generation coming to the workplace, who spurn social media altogether in favour of simply hanging out together. Your Facebook group may be a small, or declining segment of your overall workforce.

Social media聽for team building

Assuming you think you can navigate successfully through this minefield, what are the arguments FOR friending your team? We鈥檝e listened to strong proponents of this approach, who say it helps to build team cohesion and enables people to bring their whole selves to the office. And this undoubtedly works very well in some workplaces with an open culture. Employees can easily build relationships in the team if they know just a little about someone from their Facebook updates. And its easy to reach out to employees to update them about company team building or social events, or even, urgent messages such as office closures due to bad weather for example.

Keeping it private

Interestingly enough, at a recent workshop on this very topic, we took a straw poll of a group of younger workers which revealed subtly different attitudes. In some ways, this generation are much more traditional than the media sometimes allows. In fact, there is a trend towards keeping life away from work separate.听聽As Tara, 22, who works in a large bank told me, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want my managers seeing me let my hair down on a Saturday night. And I certainly don鈥檛 want them seeing me as anything other than a professional. I fear they may judge me on things that are nothing to do with how I perform in my job鈥�. And Helena, 23 added, 鈥淚 may friend my peers or people at the same level as me, or who I know in my team. But I would never friend people more senior or junior to me. I just don鈥檛 want to bring my personal life to work in that way. If I am having a tough time outside of work, it鈥檚 a relief to come to work where everyone expects you to be business like. I don鈥檛 want misplaced sympathy or emotion getting in the way of me focusing on my job鈥�.

Maybe the generations aren’t so different after all

It looks as though there isn鈥檛 that much difference between generations in the workplace. 聽In fact, attitudes to this are influenced more by your company culture than the age of the people. We know of plenty of 23 year olds who never go on Facebook and by contrast, many over 60s who are avid users!

Whatever approach you have to Facebook, and other social media trends, remember that your employees are bound by the same rules of confidentiality and privacy and these should be clearly outlined in your contract of employment, employee handbook, and internet and email policy. Find a library of free HR policy templates here.

The post To friend or not to friend鈥�.your employees on Facebook appeared first on 海角社区.

Research shows that the critical period determining whether a new hire will stay with your business is in the first few weeks. So much hard work and cash goes into finding, attracting and selecting your star employees. So why risk letting them slip through your fingers because you haven鈥檛 managed their induction period properly?

A properly planned and well-managed induction process will massively boost your employee鈥檚 productivity from a slow start to turbo charged. You will leapfrog the inevitable settling in period and enable them to start contributing from Day One.

When creating an induction process, here are the key points you should address. If you follow these tips, you will see your new starters power through their first few days and weeks.

Induction starts before they join

What can you do to ensure tedious聽paperwork,聽necessary information and documents are completed before the employee joins? 海角社区 automates employee onboarding for you seamlessly, helping you set up and automate the essential tasks. Download a free onboarding checklist here.听聽The more you can help your new boy or girl feel part of the team before they have even walked through the door the more motivated and less anxious they will feel about starting.听Its聽easy to forget when you鈥檝e been with a business for a while how hard it is to navigate the basics. Like, where do I sit, where is the best place for lunch, what time should I be there, what do I wear, what do my colleagues like to do to relax?

People are always anxious about starting a new job. And it doesn鈥檛 help that their first contact with the company is in the form of government forms, official letters and the like. What people really want to know is, what is it actually like to work there? What are my colleagues like? What is the聽ongoing聽banter? Will I look stupid if I come in a suit?

There can also be vast amounts of wasted time getting set up on computers, the internet, emails and the like. Even just issuing door passes and entry codes. We鈥檝e seen new hires come into businesses and literally sit there doing nothing for a whole day or more because of some basic glitch. Make sure you put someone in charge of sorting all of this stuff out, or do it yourself if your business is small.

The first day

Getting this right is so聽key. Imagine the difference between a new hire walking in, being greeted by someone who was expecting them, making them a drink and then showing them how to make their own drinks for the rest of the day, and settling them into their tidy and well equipped desk, compared to the same person coming in, sitting in reception, being asked to wait for hour on hour while the staff are phoning around trying to find out who is supposed to be looking after the poor person. That new hire is nervous, probably didn鈥檛 sleep well the night before, is keen to make a new impression and such a welcome only increases anxiety. We鈥檝e seen both scenarios and only one聽results聽in a happy first day!

How long will the induction period last

Induction doesn鈥檛 have to be the same as the probation period, but make it clear how long each will last. It鈥檚 a great idea to give your employee an outline schedule of where they have to go and when. If they are travelling around different office locations ensure this is clearly communicated. The length of the induction period is variable depending on the role, and your business. There are no set rules, but obviously use your common sense and allow enough time for training and handovers from departing employees. But do not drag it out聽unnecessarily,聽if someone is already demonstrating they can perform or take on full responsibility let them get on with it.

How will you get over all the information you need?

There is a lot of information to be communicated in most businesses. Policies, handbooks, operating procedures, layouts, organisation history and structure, specific role related information, the social and cultural side. Don鈥檛 just dump a spiral bound handbook or operating manual on their desk and get them to read it. You can use 海角社区 to set up and communicate all your HR policies, including the employee handbook, essential files and important tools.聽Think about how you want to tell the story of your business. What is important to you? Why did you start the business? What do you hope to achieve? What do you want them to get out of working for the business?聽Its up to you to engage them with your vision and purpose.听Let them feel part of the mission and they will go the extra mile for you.听聽Time invested at the outset with the employee, particularly if you don鈥檛 have聽day to day聽interaction with them yourself, will pay dividends. They will feel special and as if they have heard the story of the business 鈥渇rom the horse鈥檚 mouth鈥�. This is a powerful tool 鈥� so use it well.

If all you have is the dreaded spiral bound handbook, maybe now is the time to get rid of it. You can find a free employee handbook template here聽that you can download and customise to your organisation. Or find some great ideas here聽for some innovative ideas on how to harness technology to communicate your culture and values minus the bureaucracy.

Provide a mentor

If possible, allocate a mentor to look after the person. This might be you if it鈥檚 a small business, or it may be the person鈥檚 manager or the person they are taking over from if this is the case. There should be one person who takes them under their wing. They should be sensitive enough to notice if the person is wilting a bit under the strain of smiling and trying to remember masses of new names. That should be the time they step in and make a cup of tea or take them out for a quick lunch. Don鈥檛 forget that most of us are programmed to perform in a social situation. We don鈥檛 want to make ourselves look stupid or embarrassed by admitting we didn鈥檛 understand how to access the company intranet, or we have forgotten the name of the business鈥� most important client. We might need to ask these things several times and we might forget the answers.听Its exhausting taking in information.听Make provision for that, and go easy on the long hours for the first few days. We usually recommend that people start a little later than first thing 鈥� around 10am is ideal in most workplaces, and then leave at around 4. This also gives the people who are looking after them a bit of a break from their training and allows them to catch up with their own urgent stuff. Read more about onboarding new employees here.

Who will be involved?

Think about which teams are involved, who needs to interact with the person.听You might not think that getting an overview of all departments is relevant, but it really helps people build up the big picture of what your business is doing and breaks down silos. Try to build in as much聽cross functional聽involvement as possible. And also insist that people from outside the immediate team get involved. We鈥檝e seen times when this is resisted as it cuts into business as usual. But you should lead by example and insist this happens if you are serious about true teamwork in your business.听Involving everyone means everyone has a stake in the new recruit working out and if they have forged a personal relationship they are much more likely to help out when the new recruit requests their help in future.

Your company culture

We鈥檝e touched on this above, but聽its聽absolutely vital to integrating and engaging the new person. Try to involve them from the outset into your favourite rituals and jokes. There is nothing worse than hearing the in 鈥搄okes and wondering if you are the butt of them. The quicker they feel in the in-group the happier they will be 鈥� and the more likely they are to want to come to work. That鈥檚 a win for you and for them! Go out of your way to schedule a fun or social event to co-incide聽with when they join. We鈥檝e even seen some businesses have elaborate initiation rites for new starters. Of course these have to be true to your values and culture, and not scary, embarrassing or alarming for the person involved, but there is no limit to what you can do, so get your team involved and use your imagination. The sooner they can make friends at work the better.

We love to hear about how your business involves new people from day one, or perhaps you have a story of when you started at a new workplace?聽Let us know!

Find out more about onboarding here, and read more about creating a fantastic place to work here.

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