HR in 90 Seconds - August 2019

This month's HR in 90 Seconds takes on a new approach…I am bringing you this article for the first time as a writer for Legal Island! I have taken off my Legal Island hat and have started a new role as aN HR Manager, I thought I would bring you the best bits from the Legal Island hub with a quickfire round up of the things that I have learned this month.

3 top things to read and learn this month from Legal Island:

1. Key benefits of corporate wellness;
2. Worklife balance is the responsibility of both employer and employee; and
3. The importance of the paper trail in the absence management process.

Key Benefits of Corporate Wellness

Mairead Reagan from Clarendon Executive this month talks about the concept of corporate wellness and the recent shift towards an employer’s part in a person’s overall health and wellbeing.

Despite the evolution of the corporate wellness activities the reasons for organisations in taking part in this comes into the employer branding. Mairead identifies that for an organisation there are a number of key benefits:

• Increased productivity and profit;
• Decreased absenteeism;
• Better engagement and staff retention;
• Talent attraction and
• Improved morale.

The full article on The Business of Corporate Wellness links to the key point that for a progressive employer, employee wellness will form a key component of a robust business strategy. As a standalone agenda, a wellness programme will be devoid of other essential ingredients, such as trust and a coaching culture, and therefore risk turning into yet another management fad.

Mairead also teams up with her colleague from Clarendon Executive Hugh McPoland in the next HR Bitesize Podcast on the importance of promoting a culture of work life balance in an organisation. This podcast leads on from a previous conversation around employer brand and its importance in today's war on talent. They discuss who is responsible for work-life balance, the role that managers have, how to encourage it and engaging with staff on the matter. The key things that I took away from this podcast were:

1. Worklife balance is the responsibility of both employer and employee;
2. Senior Managers and Supervisors need to lead by example; and
3. Consider ‘what am I doing?’ – am I living the policies of the organisation?

I recently received an article from a contact who asked me ‘are you responsible for the employer brand?’ and that got me thinking. This subject that we now discuss all the time as part of HR day to day life has emerged as a whole new discipline for those in HR. We are working to seek to attract and retain talent by telling our companies’ story. We are using job adverts, social media, review sites etc. to proactively communicate the story of what it’s like to work for ‘our organisation’. Today’s job seekers require transparency and insight into a company’s culture before even applying. What happened to the days of newspaper ads with a few sentences telling you the key parts of the role? An insight into company reputation is important for 95% of job seekers these days.

As I am currently embarking on a new recruitment strategy for a growing business I was interested to read this article to see what are the 5 most important considerations are when a candidate is researching a company before submitting an application.

1. Stability of the company was a clear winner (47%);
2. Insights around benefits and perks, flexibility and salary ranges for relevant roles (45%);
3. Information about growth opportunities (41%);
4. company management (34%) and;
5. The company’s mission and vision (31%).

I think that we can say for certain it has never been more important to build on your employer brand! Read the full blog post: http://blog.indeed.com/2018/05/15/jobseeker-transparency-report/

If you have time other items of interest include:

If anyone regularly attends Legal Island events they will know that Caroline McEnery from the HR Suite is always talking about the importance of the paper trail. Caroline’s most recent article for Legal Island which discusses recent lessons from absence management cases reminds us of 3 general principles to remember including the importance of the paper trail:

• At all times the employee must be given a full opportunity to participate at each level, the employee must be given a full opportunity to present relevant medical evidence and submissions;
• Ensure you consult with the employee and confirm their job is at risk if it is; and
• A paper trail at each step is key.

Caroline is speaking at this year's Annual Review of Employment Law Conference 2019, the early bird offer is still available, so secure your place today. Caroline will be covering  ‘What a Good Investigation Report Looks Like’ and will set out how to write a good, robust investigation report and set out findings. Caroline will be covering:

• Key challenges that occur during investigations (minutes, witnesses, representation);
• Risk Management;
• Top Tips for proactive Investigations; and
• Relevant Case Law.

Every three months the team at Legal Island update you with some of the key developments in employment law and practice in Ireland. You’ll find many more learning points on the Irish Employment Law Hub but, if you don’t have time to research every item, here are 15 useful pearls of wisdom in the latest 15 Things We Learned This Quarter article. 

The next webinar details are as follows:

[Free Webinar] Fostering a Dignity and Respect Culture & Potential Risks of Not Achieving Same

Wednesday 25th September 2019, 2pm - 2:30pm

Caroline McEnery discusses fostering a dignity & respect culture in the workplace and the potential risks of not achieving it. In this 30-minute webinar, Caroline will cover the importance of having a company policy on dignity and respect, early interventions, the definition of bullying, the importance of a grievance procedure, the key principles applied to the disciplinary and investigation procedure, what creates a negative workplace and building a collaborative team.

Register Now: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6102748430372905229