Many business owners are taking this time to work on their business. To get on with all the things they just don’t have time for during normal trading circumstances and big on the list is HR. For many SMEs, HR is a constant worry that they never seem to get to grips with. As soon as they start to get things sorted, employment law changes and they struggle to keep up. Many of the decisions business owners are having to make right now are HR-related. From furlough leave, to possible restructures and/or redundancies. Many will be finding that their contracts of employment are not robust enough to give them the flexibly they would like, or they don’t have access to up-to-date information and guidance at this critical time. Many don’t know what options (apart from redundancies) are available to them when furlough leave comes to an end, or how to implement the potential changes they may need to make. Quite simply, it has never been so important to have a solid HR foundation.
Paula Fisher started her career in HR over 30 years ago and has a First-class Honours degree in Law and a Master’s in Law and Employment Relations. Her expertise and ability to uncomplicate HR is what has made her business, Practical HR and her unique online portal, YourHR.space so successful. Paula is dedicated to making HR easier for clients and continues to innovate with products like YourHR.space to achieve this. She has written a book “HR for SMEs – A Practical Guide” which is an amazon ‘best seller’ and has just released a second edition which is now available on Amazon for Kindle and as a Paperback
In ‘HR for SMEs’, Paula Fisher explains three steps to creating a HR foundation that will put the business owner back in control and support the commercial needs of a SME business. She demonstrates how to prevent HR issues from arising in the first place, while also improving productivity and wellbeing amongst employees, allowing the business owner to move their business forward with confidence. Paula deals with many aspects of human resources (and employment law), in a down to earth and straightforward manner. She explains complex issues in simple language giving many examples and case studies along the way. Although written before COVID-19 made an appearance, the book is still wholly relevant to what businesses are experiencing right now in particularly in respect of:
Redundancies and Restructures
Businesses may not be the same after COVID-19. It may be a case of a fall in revenue that will return over a period of time, or businesses may decide to change how they deliver products or services in the future. Home working may now be a viable option that businesses had not considered (or thought would work) before. This situation may even have made businesses rethink their entire business, or parts of their business and their financial model. Whatever decisions businesses make, they will need to align their employees to any changes. A restructure will allow them to do this. This will include many strategies, and these may be applied differently to different areas of the business, depending on what they need to achieve for their business. The book HR for SMEs gives further guidance and information on areas to consider around restructure.
Contracts of Employment
It is in difficult times that the contracts of employment will either support the business organisation or let it down. For example, those businesses that have contracts that include a clause on short-time working and layoff, were in a better position with furlough leave and will have easier options available to them when furlough leave ends, with regards to temporarily reducing their salary bill. In HR for SMEs, Paula Fisher explains why contracts are so important and recommends clauses that will help provide businesses with protection and flexibility – something every business needs at this current time and moving forward.
Flexible Working
Almost overnight we have seen millions of people move to homeworking. The speed at which this happened and how quickly people have adapted has been quite phenomenal. Necessity really is the mother of all invention and of change. While we were given no option in the matter, when the world starts to return to some kind of normality (whatever that may be), it is inevitable that we will see a continuation of homeworking as business leaders make the most of the positives that have come out of this homeworking revolution. HR for SMEs shows businesses how they can manage their team effectively and efficiently in this ‘new norm’, reducing disruption and disputes whilst improving focus, performance and standards.
Getting your HR in order
HR for SMEs takes you through a 3 step plan to help you implement a solid HR foundation. It advocates proving flexibly and protection for the business, while also providing clarity to employees regarding ‘rules’ and expectations, and providing clear boundaries. At its heart, HR is about communication.
The book officially launched on 21 May 2020 and we are confident it will be another Amazon ‘best seller’, as right now if businesses want to continue to grow and flourish out of the current crisis, they need to have a solid HR Foundation.