If there is just one piece of advice all small business owners should follow, it’s this…
Record everything! If its a spreadsheet, an employee notebook or a word file, take note of your conversations, issues and processes! It can save you months in the long-run.
The classic example we experience is an underperforming employee – they’ve been underperforming for a long time but you wanted to give them a chance, and you did. In fact you gave them many chances to improve until the time comes that the rest of the team are frustrated and resentful. You feel you’ve done as much as you can and now you’re ready for a termination conversation.
Maybe at this point, you engage with your HR specialist – the first question we will always ask…
What have you done so far and what evidence do you have to show this?
You may be able to tell us about a lot of conversations you had with your employee, but you’re not sure when they happened or exactly what you said. Unfortunately this often means having to start your performance improvement process all over again and that means the timeline starts over too. Now you’re frustrated, your employee is unhappy and the team might think you’re not managing the situation.
The same issue can happen with disciplinary issues, grievance management, flexible working requests, recruitment and just about any people management process you can think of.
For effective, timely people management taking accurate notes is the foundation you need to hold your business up, not to mention if you ever have to defend your actions in a tribunal setting.
For an easy, integrated solution, speak to us today about our HR system, which not only manages all your employee data but also has the functionality to record meeting minutes and notes in one location.
Busi People Partners 