SBT People Management & Recruitment

ALL ABOARD BUT ALL CHANGE!

RETURNING TO WORK AFTER LOCKDOWN

SBT PEOPLE MANAGEMENT & RECRUITMENT SPONSORED BY:

All aboard but all change!

As the lockdown restrictions ease, you may be asking your teams to return to the workplace after a period of working from home or being on furlough.

However, as we all know the return is

HR going to be different to what you and they were used to. Teams may only be working with half the original team or they may be facing a wall! They may be working alone in offices or have big screens up between colleagues.

Individuals may not be able to make their colleagues their cup of tea anymore (crikey I’m going to be thirsty if I have to wait for me to make a tea – as many previous colleagues will tell you!).

It may be back to work, but it is more than likely to be ‘all change’. So how will you ensure you still get the best out of your team? Read on for our tips to keep your team working effectively whilst building their confidence in the new norm.

Health & safety

There are many things you have to consider surrounding H&S. The UK Government has published 8 working safely during coronavirus pandemic guides to help employers, employees and the self-employed – make sure you read these thoroughly.

Share your risk assessments and the changes you’ve implemented with your team. By being transparent and clear you will build confidence in your team that they know you care and are doing all that you can to protect them whilst ensuring your business can run effectively.

Communication

Now more than ever communication needs to be part of your HR strategy. Tell people what’s happened in the business over the past few months. What are the immediate priorities and challenges? What are the expectations on staff?

Set clear expectations around communication, work priorities, and success measures. Will everyone be expected to work the same hours? Will all the same projects and plans be moving forward? Don’t let people make assumptions about anything that’s unclear - answer those questions from the beginning.

Consider your team and how they work best. Adapt your style to fit the team member. If you know someone is anxious

Theresa Cooper

have more regular check ins with them than someone who is happy to be back.

If everyone is working different hours or locations, staggered shifts etc., be clear on how and when they can reach you.

Keep aligned with your culture and values

There’s no doubt the business will have been impacted over the past few months – this could be negatively or positively but either way changes will have happened but do whatever you can to keep things aligned with your company culture.

If you used to have ‘food Friday’ what does that look like on staggered shifts? If you used to have ‘meet up Monday’ how can you ensure the team keep relationships strong?

Things will be different but it’s important to ensure the factors that have made your business successful to date continue long into the future. Take some time to think about these things, make changes as appropriate and embed them into the business keeping them at the forefront of people’s minds.

Have purposeful meetings

I’m sure we’re all guilty – attending meetings that we don’t need to be at and/ or not getting anything from the meeting.

So stop! Change your meetings to make them purposeful and effective.

Firstly, set them for maximum 45 minutes. Most are an hour so people will ‘use’ that time – what a waste. Imagine the time you can save and get back if you took at least 15 minutes off of each meeting!

Secondly, set a purposeful agenda, i.e. ‘meeting today to discuss xyz’ or ‘at the meeting we will Identify the best way to deliver our new initiative’. People know exactly what the purpose is and it is clear whether or not they can add value.

It will depend on your business as to the amount and types of meetings you need and will have but make sure for each meeting – whether that be a one to one, a team meeting or a companywide meeting the agenda is clear, the attendees are appropriate and they don’t drag on for longer than they need to.

Recognise and reward

Accept some people are still juggling more than they’d ever had to juggle – with partners out of work, grandparents unavailable and kids at home.

Work with your team and understand their challenges to achieve a positive outcome for both of you and at the same time recognise those achievements.

On a one to one basis and/or company wide – shout about the great things people are achieving. Little acts like this encourage better performance from everyone else too which in turn will increase the business’ whole productivity

I hope you found this useful and it has given you some areas to think about. If you’re a business owner, finding yourself having to deal with some of these areas and you’d like some support, give us a call. We can work with you to enable you to do business, not HR; refocusing your time on the things you love and letting us take one thing off your to do list.

We speak to Parasma

Recruitment

Tell us about Recruitment Parasma Recruitment

I started Parasma in November 2018 after being in the construction industry across various different levels over an 18-year period. I worked with many recruitment companies over the years and invariably I felt unsatisfied. I knew recruitment could be conducted in a way that treated the candidates with respect and the client like a partner, rather than both like a potential commission. So, I decided to take up the challenge and prove my theory. As with all startups, there’s been a lot of blood, sweat and tears, especially at the start (as it coincided with the birth of my first child… anyone with kids will understand the strain here ha!) but my team’s passion and determination to deliver on our mission has carried us through. My knowledge of the industry has allowed me to put together a team who have a great understand of both recruitment and the construction industry. Yes, we do work long hours, but my team understands that in order to be successful in this industry delivering for our clients is paramount. Everything we do is done under the Parasma Recruitment Modus Opernadi of honesty, integrity, excellence and a passion to deliver on our promises.

How do you differentiate from other Recruitment agencies in your sector?

As I said, I believe what sets us apart from others is the construction recruitment sector is our extensive professional knowledge of the industry itself. We have a unique understanding of myriad roles generated from this everchanging sector. My belief and my experience is that the common opinion of recruitment companies in my industry is that they are really just sales people who have very little experience of the roles they are trying to fill and are very transactional focus… Parasma is the anthesis of this.

The only way we achieve my vision for Parasma is by building long lasting relationships. This is done through understanding the nuanced and specific needs of each of our clients across our diverse portfolio, ranging from small family owned businesses to large publicly traded companies. It sounds simple but ultimately, we ensure we place the very best candidates in each and every role.