Author Archives: Simon Jones

15 years – Always Innovating, Never Standing Still

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Welcome to the new look Ariadne Associates website. If this is your first visit, please have a look round to find out what we offer. This is the first blog post on the new site – other posts are archived from our old site, and include a range of HR tips for SME such as this one, ones that caused some discussion among the HR community like this and a few miscellaneous work-related musings like this

As June 2014 sees the 15th Anniversary of Ariadne Associates (yes, we were founded in the last century) this post is more reflective and self referential than usual. But looking back over the last 15 years it’s worth recording that we’ve

  • Worked with over 100 companies and charities (more if you include work done as an associate)
  • Kept a core base of clients for over 10 years (in fact, we still work with our first ever client)
  • Issued over 1000 invoices (and got paid for virtually all of them!)
  • Worked in highly regulated environments – an airline, childcare, and social care
  • Worked in arts and media – 2 TV production companies, a theatre, and a video editing company
  • Worked in manufacturing – industrial glass production, metal fabrication and vehicle production, for example
  • Worked with professional services – marketing, venture capital, surveyors and accountants
  • Supported companies at the cutting edge of technology and those who work in a more traditional way
  • Worked with charities, family run firms, joint ventures between pubic and private sectors, partnerships, social enterprises and private limited companies.
  • Helped organisations of widely differing size – our biggest client employed 375 staff while the smallest is just recruiting their first employee.

And what do they all have in common? – people. It doesn’t matter what the organisation actually does, or its environment – their success is determined by having the right people (whether your business defines that as productive, efficient, entrepreneurial or technically competent) and failure by not having the right people (again, whether your business defines that as obstructive, incapable, or simply too many of them). Whatever the sector, people adapt to the culture and rules and the advice we give is tailored to that.

So if you’re looking for support for your business, we’d be more than happy to help – just contact us. And since self-praise is no recommendation, have a look at our Testimonials.

One Bad Apple

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Originally posted May 2014

I’m currently the approved HR adviser for Knowsley Council’s Business Growth scheme, and recently that’s involved me working with a couple of entrepreneurs who are considering taking on their first members of staff.

What’s struck me on meeting them are 3 things

  • They want to be “good” employers – do things legally correctly and behave fairly to their staff
  • They have a perception that employment law is designed to stop them doing things
  • This perception is often based on the fact that they’ve  heard stories of other small businesses that have had problems with an employee and which ended “badly” for the employer (“He was doing X, Y and Z, they couldn’t get rid of him and when they did he took them to a tribunal which cost them ££”)

If you employ 5 or 6 people then having 1 problematic member of staff can be a major management headache – especially if that individual starts quoting apparent “rights” at you.  While it’s often quoted that you should base your management approach on the 95% of staff who work well rather than the 5% who are a problem, it can be difficult to remember this when your time is being taken up by one troublesome person.

So here are some tips to tackle these situations

  • Don’t let things fester – tackle a problem when it first appears. The longer you allow unacceptable behaviour to continue, the more the individual will assume it is ok. This applies whether it’s performance, attitude, time-keeping or any other work area
  • If someone quotes “rights” at you – check it out before responding. Unless they are employment experts, the chances are that they are no more knowledgeable than you, and are twisting something to their own advantage.  Remember that many employment rights are the right to request something without being disadvantaged (e.g. flexible working), not an absolute right in themselves.
  • The law does allow you to dismiss someone provided you have a fair reason (which covers 5 very broad categories) and have followed a fair process (which essentially means giving the individual the chance to give their side of the story before making your decision).

And if you do part company, analyse why things went wrong

  • Did you recruit the person because they were a “friend” of an existing employee, or because you needed someone quickly and the individual “looked ok”. Recruitment shortcuts are one of the commonest causes of problematic employees
  • Did you spend time with them when they started work, ensuring they knew what was expected of them and they understood how your business operated. The time you’d spend doing this will be significantly less than the time you’ll spend managing them when things go wrong

Successful entrepreneurs have things go wrong and learn from their failure. But when it comes to employment too many use one failure as an excuse for not trying again. Remember that one bad apple shouldn’t – and doesn’t have to – impact on the long term success of your business. (As those 70s business gurus The Osmonds put it here)

 

 

Not Just there for the Nasty Things in Life

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Originally posted April 2014

When I arrived at a client recently, the receptionist greeted me cheerily with “hello Simon, nice to see you. I suppose this means we’ve got a staff problem!”

Now it’s true that for many smaller businesses, an “HR issue” means a problem with an employee – whether it’s sickness, disciplinary, work performance or something else. And it’s also true that in a small business these individual issues take on a much greater significance than in the large corporate world. Making sure they are handled correctly is important.

But it’s worth remembering that HR is “not just there for the nasty things in life”. Taking positive HR initiatives can help your business to grow and be more successful. For example in recent months I’ve worked with organisations to:

  • Support new first line managers to understand and develop their managerial roles
  • Integrate their HR systems into their quality management, allowing them to tender against much larger competitors
  • Review recruitment processes, enabling them to attract better quality candidates
  • Review their pay and benefits package, helping them to retain key staff.
  • Run team building sessions for work teams that weren’t gelling

So while I’m always happy to troubleshoot for a client, it’s very satisfying to help a business succeed by developing the people it employs.

If you’d like more information, please don’t hesitate to drop me an email or give me a ring. And as Ariadne Associates are accredited with both Growth Vouchers and Big Assist, as well as being Knowsley Council’s approved HR provider for its Business Growth programme, you may be able to get support with the costs

 

 

The Balance of Power

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Originally posted March 2014

The sudden death of union leader Bob Crow this week has thrust industrial relations back into the business and political spotlight. Both political allies and foes immediately began the process of mythologising him (as an aside, the way in which we continue to elevate the recently dead to saints and gods in the manner of the ancient Greeks and mediaeval Catholic church would make an interesting blog post, but this isn’t it)

The general consensus is that Bob Crow was a successful union leader because he took his personal principles into his professional life and refused to compromise them.  I never met Mr Crow – though I have in the past dealt with his union, the RMT – but the most frequently cited evidence for his success is the position of his members working on London Underground. That to me suggests that the key to his achievements was not his personal values (though I’ve no doubt he had them) but his understanding of power relationships in work.

London Underground is a closed rail network (or rather a series of them) which operates separately from the rest of the UK’s railways. It is relied on by millions of Londoners to carry them to and from work. Consequently, a withdrawal of labour can cause massive inconvenience, and brings media and political pressure onto the organisation. The unions representing the workers in that business are therefore in a very strong position to maintain and improve conditions for their members because they have power on their side.

Contrast this with last year’s Grangemouth dispute (about which I blogged here). In that scenario, all the power was with the management who could and did threaten to close the plant if their demands weren’t agreed to. Interestingly, the resolution of the dispute – which involves £130m of investment in the plant – has arguably pushed the power back towards the workforce.

There are also historical examples – the success of the miner’s strikes in the early 1970s, compared with their failure in the mid 1980s, is simply that power had shifted from worker to employer.

Power relationships don’t always have to involve unions. An individual employee with key technical, managerial or other skills can always extract a better deal from a company because the consequences of losing that individual have a damaging effect on the business overall. And in some areas of professional services, it’s not uncommon for an entire team to move from Company A to company B.

There’s a tendency these days for HR people to assume that all the power is with the employer, and that their task is to “align” employees with the employer’s objectives. But effective HR people need to understand where the power lies within the organisation – and plan and manage accordingly. Bob Crow is a good example of how to do that.

 

The Two Kinds of HR

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Originally posted February 2014

It was legendary jazz musician Duke Ellington who famously said “There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind”. I think that’s pretty much true of HR as well.

All very well you might say – but what do we mean by “good HR”? It’s worth looking at the second (and much less quoted) part of what Duke Ellington said: “… the only yardstick by which the result should be judged is simply that of how it sounds. If it sounds good it’s successful; if it doesn’t it has failed”

HR is – whether some like it or not – a management function. It’s not some internal mini-ACAS trying to look after employees within a corporate structure (there are organisations that do that – they are called trade unions). So ultimately good HR is making a significant and identifiable contribution to the success of the organisation it is located in – however that organisation defines “success”.

The way in which good HR does this is to create the conditions for the employees of an organisation to achieve. That can mean ensuring that talented employees are recruited; that they are remunerated adequately; and they are given opportunities to maximise their own potential. Importantly good HR works to create these conditions not because it’s morally a “good thing” (though many would argue it is) but because time and again studies in behavioural psychology and neuro-science show that it is the most effective way to manage. Good HR is not about clinging to the ideas of defunct management theorists.

Good HR recognises that it cannot make employees motivated, enthusiastic or empowered. But it can do things which encourage this behaviour, even when all around are sceptical or negative. Just like Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, good HR believes that “if you build it, they will come”.

So when I see HR giving itself “tags” like Commercial HR, Social HR or Brave HR I ask why? There are only two kinds of HR – Good HR and the other kind.

Which do you practise?