Well, my bags are packed… actually my files are boxed and my IT is getting transferred! I am moving my Company base to a new office, it’ll be a great advantage, now my clients will have plenty of parking if they drive and it’s within walking distance of the local train station. In the meeting rooms you can hear a pin drop which is fantastic for mediations - also the calm decor and welcoming enviroment.

Equally important to me is the building is set in lovely grounds, so I can look out the window on some greenery! It is a place that I personally WANT to go to work in, so many locations are drab and to be honest quite “down at heel”, it’s not the environment I would want to get up and go to nearly everyday.

The importance of a good working environment is missed by a lot of employers, if employees are happy, comfortable and content - they are more productive!

Twice this week I have had to explain to clients why texting is not the best way to communicate some messages. The important ones, the ones that effect their employment directly. Remember when that major UK company text all employees to inform of impending redundancies - bit of a PR disaster there.

Texting employees for every day stuff is great, quick, can be done on mass if you have the technology and there is a record. Advising of shifts, extra hours available, meeting reminders or general day to day for the job is all ok.

I do not advise using text messages for telling an employee that they need to attend a disciplianry meeting or investigation, that they are being made redundant or crucial information about changes to working practices which affect the contract of employment. Actually I usually advise that TWO other forms of communication are used - telling them and writing it down.

Telling the employee is usually avoided by managers because they don’t like giving hard messages, they are afraid of the reaction. However if you are in a position of responsibility for someone’s employment, one is paid to take that type of responsibility. It is not easy but practice the conversation beforehand, write down some notes to read from, don’t get drawn it giving inappropriate information or even inappropriate sympathy - stick to the message and to your guns! But allow the person to speak or vent if appropriate.

Writing can take two froms, email or letter - it depends on the usual method for the business you are in, if email is regularly picked up and it is common preactice to use it, you dont need to send a letter via snail mail.

We are in the mobile technology world now, but in my view, picking up the phone or speaking to an employee face to face are still the way to interact on the important stuff.

Picked up a copy of the Leeds Law Society Journal July 2010, issue 93 as I had been interviewed recently for an article on workplace mediation - I didnt realise I had been quoted so heavily!

“if you need a sword or a shield, go to the Law - if you’re willing to parlay, go to a mediator”

Get the online copy here

I made a visit to a construction site for an engineering company in South Wales to meet and greet the workers. They raised concern that I didn’t expect - why doesn’t the Company fund our sunscreen? I was rather surprised but it all made sense, the guys were out in all weathers and had protection against the usual rain, wind and hail but now, in a heat wave, they were spending their own money on Factor 30. I immediately authorised expenses for high factor, quality sunscreen, as an employer we had a duty of care to protect our employees health and safety at work - also a very quick win in the motivation stakes!

I was taking a brief from a client in London, a wonderful company specialising in “beautiful things” for the home (www.neishacrosland.com) I was with the business manager discussing provision of the first aid, when we heard a yelp of pain and clatter of falling objects. Just as we were moving to investigate, a young employee hobbled in with blood pouring from her big toe. She was unpacking a wrapped up chair with a Stanley knife when it slipped and sliced into her toe which was elegantly exposed in, I have to say, a rather delightful pair of sandals. The moral of this story is that although you might look wonderful, is appropriate attire for the job you are doing?

I spent yesterday afternoon with my fellow Trustees of a small but vital to the community advice charity, shortlisting candidates.

We are hiring a new Business Manager to run the Charity and help us keep up with our targets and keep the funding streams active and growing.

The process was very thorough; all personal details were removed prior to us seeing the application forms and the candidates had to give direct examples of experience related to the essential criteria of the person specification. Four of us scored the candidates and finally discussed the scoring, ranked the candidates and set the short list for interview.

However, two interesting things I observed during the task.

Firstly, without knowing the gender of the candidates, each shortlister would assign a gender to the candidate and this varied from application to application, do we atomatically assume gender from the types of experience, the manner of writing? It shows we make assumptions about information regardless of how much we anonymise the application or CV. Recruitment selection is always going to be a very human process all we can to is try to make it as fair as possible, however we are battling human nature.

My advice to clients is, you will make assumptions and your gut will tell you things - don’t ignore it, but test out those assumptions and feelings to gain facts which will either support or refute these feelings.

Secondly, I came across a wonderful phrase “Horizon watching”. I was confused at first and then was a tad derisive about the term. However, I came to appreciate it. It said that the candidate was always watching for the new idea, the next issue, the coming culture change and actually that is what you want in a Business Manager who is in charge of finding income and preparing Strategy for the Board. It’s different to “Blue sky” which can infer somewhat impractical ideas which are far fetched - nice if they were probable solutions and implementable but generally they aren’t.

So “Horizon watching” is a bit of jargon I like, although it does smack of someone in the birdsnest of a Tall Ship…

I am a happy to say that I attend Quaker Meetings on a regular basis. No I am not going to get all evangelical, but I want to pass on my observations on their business meeting practices.

A Quaker is a listener, they like stillness and silence, they talk about discernment - a deep spiritual reflection on an issue or decision. They seek unity after “clearness”. My feeling and experience is that in our management meetings we could no better than employ these skills.

How often do we solely listen to another speaker? I mean really listen, not thinking about how we or others will respond, looking for the next thing we can say, looking at the next topic, dismissing their opinion because it doesn’t suit our needs or agenda? If we really listen we might hear something we need or a newness we have not considered.

Do we react immediately someone has finished talking? I have never heard a silence in a business meeting yet….

Sorry! A stunned silence yes but a reflective, thoughtful, absorbing silence?

Silence is one of the most effective tools in a HR practioners toolkit - once you know that the other person has actually said all they want to say and it gives time to consider a response rather than just jump in. Silence can be misunderstood, others thinking you don’t have anything to say or are being “slow” - we need to cultivate silence as a tool in meetings - it could fundamentally change your culture and decisions.

If you are in a meeting of listeners, you can be heard.

Business decisions are generally reactive and needs-based, if we take time out to “discern”, deeply think about, research and comtemplate decisions, will these not be better decisions? Decisions we fully know are right for our business and we are committed to? This clarity enables business leaders to truely engage with employees and clients more fully and believably.

Following listening, silence and discernment comes unity. The Board may not all agree on a course of action or decision, however everyone has been able to contribute fully to the process, has been given the space for opposing views and knows that fully consideration is being given. This means that hopefully the correct path has been chosen, no one person (even the CEO) has forced through an idea or direction. This leads to a unity and pulling together behind the course of action - a committment.

A key phrase there is “leads to a unity”, we all want Leaders in business not Dictators.

I hear you say - how long will that take?! Probably longer than usual, but in the long run that desicion will be right and will be followed through.

Quakers themselves might take a long while - years to come to a decision, but one thing you can say for them - they are committed once decided.

I have tweeted my final tweet, not that I tweeted much in any case! I am not saying I am going to go all “Tech-no” but I am looking at the value of my time and also the time of others.

I don’t think I will be missed, I might miss the constant stream of information - all those tinyurl’s but there are other more selective ways of being informed - do I really need the constant update? What exactly will I do with it? What is it going to distract me from? I get weekly news emails from journals and the like, I am sure it can wait just a little while!

There are many things a small business is encouraged to do and the social media experts and marketing bods are running a miriad of courses on getting the best from the social media internet. Get your message to your prospective clients? I am not entirely sure how they will see any message I give them amongst the 200 plus tweets about goodness knows what…

I am still on Facebook, but that it is for friends, real people I have met and spoken to, Linkedin for business networking and I am blogging still! I write a newsletter for my clients which keeps them up to date and hopefully interested with topical HR Tips on dealing with employees. Isn’t that enough? Admit it, we might just have better things to get on with.

And maybe I will have time to do something which I find rather enjoyable, calling up clients and soon to be clients, chatting about issues that are pertinent to them and their challenges - not focusing on a twitter which frankly is an egocentric way of telling people what you think they should know about you and yours - not focusing on them and theirs.

You may have seen the ads on TV for large retailers suggesting that possibly, just maybe, not all people are interested in the Football World Cup. I am not going to make the obvious and possibly sexist observation that this might mainly women.

Beware! I have heard the rumblings and grouches before:

Why should they get time off?
Preferential treatment for annual leave days?
Get to surf the web for scores and info?
Come into work slightly tiddly after watching the match in the local pub?
Call in sick with a hangover after match day?
Commandeer the rest area with a super-size TV?
Have the radio blasting out the commentary?
Hang on, I want to watch the Solvakia match, do I not get the same consideration?

Make sure you are clear and consistent with any policy you employ with workers for sports events and don’t let it be an excuse for poor performance or bad conduct.

And here are the match times…. FIFA.com Remember to click for your local time zone!

I had a great Thursday morning with a client who hired me to implement an appraisal scheme to their manufacturing organisation. In order to really hone in on what the actual needs of the business and the management I took the management team through a rather intense morning of facilitated exercises designed to dive into the issues, problems and possible solutions.

Ok, so by the end of 3 hours, everyone including me was a tad shell shocked and mentally tired but we all did some great work. Using guided brainstorming/exploration/prioritisation exercises we were able to define the scope of the appraisal, define effective measures for this organisation, identify the stakeholders, qualify the levels of engagement and overview a likely communication and learning strategy - suitable to the environment, types of employees and speed of change.

All this work will save time in the future and help the new scheme “stick”. One of the key points identified from the teams previous experience was that appraisals may have been done once and then forgotten about, or forgotten about until the next year (ring any bells readers??).

Most smaller organisations, even large organisations have a few generic forms for appraisal and do little to introduce an effective performance management program, which means that the whole scheme is a waste of management time and do nothing to improve productivity and performance, it actually de-motivates both employee and manager!

Little up front preparation, bespoking and communication could make all the difference.

Of course, management making a commitment to stick with it and be consistent in application will be the final test, but by thoroughly involving them in the design and implementation is a start!