MEMBERSNEWS
Give your employees an opportunity to enjoy REAL Socialising REAL Socialising was created after hearing a statistic that 26% of people now ‘sofalise’ instead of socialise. With the growth of home entertainment, and social media; fewer people enjoy real social activity.
It offers a new spin on the old ‘social club’ ethos for companies of any size. The encouragement of social interaction outside working hours is an important contributor in building better teams in the workplace. REAL Socialising can also add support to existing social committees and offers a service to plan or assist planning of your company/corporate events. Contact info@realsocialising.co.uk to register your company and receive a FREE monthly e-newsletter, sharing a range of day trips, short breaks and ticket only events all at great value prices. From Buckingham Palace to Brugge; Harry Potter to Hampton Court the possibilities are endless as members of REAL Socialising are also encouraged to put forward ideas for
Make sure your appraisal process is productive When did you last go through the appraisal process? Love them or hate them failing to have a performance appraisal system in place means that you are probably missing a trick. Appraisals are a useful tool not only for motivating staff, but they also allow you to monitor performance and set targets going forwards to progress your business. It is also relatively easy way of gauging staff (dis)satisfaction and spotting issues before they become major problems. For example, is the employee under stress or are there performance issues? An annual appraisal is a way of entering into dialogue with an employee to enable you to head off any concerns before they become major problems. It is essential that appraisals are conducted honestly. If you are in a situation where performance is an issue, before any performance-related dismissal it will be important to be able to show that enough time was given to the employee to improve. If you already have regular reviews as part of an appraisal system this paperwork will already be in place. Appraisal records directly from the employee and those managing them as opposed to reports put together from say sales reports, records of complaints or a fall-off in trade, will put you in a much stronger position when trying to show that performance was effectively managed.
For this reason, providing flattering feedback which does not reflect reality could cause you problems. First, in the short term because performance is unlikely to improve, and also in the long term because it could later be used by an underperforming employee to undermine your view that they are performing under par and to argue that more time should be given. Finally, the abolition of the default retirement age in 2011 has made it even more important to review future plans and address performance issues through regular appraisals. Employers may be accused of age discrimination if they become too preoccupied with managing the performance of older employees and fail to ask younger employees about their future plans. The best way to show evenhandedness is to incorporate these discussions within an annual appraisal. Gullands Solicitors is offering Gullands Sentinel to help local businesses minimise the potential for employment disputes and their consequences. For details contact Laura Claridge by email at l.claridge@gullands.com or phone 01622 678341.
new events.
REAL Socialising 122 Foord Road Folkestone, Kent CT19 5AB T: 0792 6939002 E: info@realsocialising.co.uk W: www.realsocialising.co.uk
June-July 2013 ThinkingBUSINESS
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