HR musings with added sparkle!
One of the things I get asked often, is how did I progress my career?
I started my working life as a Travel Agent and selling holidays on the high street, I made a move into HR as an HR administrator, and now I run my own multi-award winning business which is a dream come true.
The answer I give is – I did not achieve this dream alone!
Continue reading “How a mentor can help you progress your HR career”
Lockdown has brought a whole host of surprises, changes and challenges to employers the length and breadth of the country (and the world!), but the most prevalent has been the pivot to home working. Office-based businesses and employers have, in order to maintain their workforce operating at an acceptable level, largely allowed staff to work remotely – allowing them to continue working and earning whilst also staying safe, socially distanced, and, in many cases, caring for their children who are unable to attend school.
Of course, working from home is not a new practice; and most big brands already offer facilities and options around this for employees who are able to perform their role remotely. However, there has never been an event before that has sparked such mass change in typical work practices, and so many employers and employees are facing challenges around such rapid adaptation.
Continue reading “Working From Home Long Term, Post-Lockdown”
It’s clear as the country begins to ease COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and life begins to take on some semblance of what it was before the pandemic began, whatever the ‘new normal’ looks like, it will be in place for quite some time. Dependent on a workplace’s operating situation throughout lockdown and after, of course, arrangements for employees will vary hugely. But there are some things all employers should bear in mind when re-absorbing furloughed staff and making their best efforts to resume business-as-usual – and here’s my top pieces of advice.
Continue reading “Welcome to the ‘New Normal’ for Offices and Workplaces”
After a lot of reflection time and given all that we have been through in recent months, now more than ever, kindness is an essential element needed in our workplaces and our every day lives.
Kindness is the key component to a healthy, successful, and well-balanced life. These elements are all essential to our overall wellbeing and kindness is something that we do because we can, not because we should or are obligated to.
For many of you HR acts of kindness will be a new concept but it was actually founded in 2016 after the Brexit result brought so much divide and upset. Since then HR acts of kindness has appeared in Be Kind Magazine, has influenced behaviours at work all over the world and all through simple acts of kindness and there’s plenty of opportunity to get everyone involved!
Continue reading “Spread kindness like confetti – HR acts of kindness is back!”
With the dynamic of the business world shifting, with 60% of people employed by smaller businesses. The Festival of Work session “Leading Good Work in Practice” lead by Peter Cheese, Dame Helena Morrisey, Charlie Mayfield and Andy Briggs was a panel discussion about how we move through and out of the current crisis. The mean message from this is that we are all responsible for making change happen and we need to embrace the changes as we continue to see them.
The challenges we are currently facing are by no means small and they appear to be changing almost daily; we have a responsibility to appropriately respond and ensure that our organisation is working in a sustainable way. This includes creating more diverse workforces, embracing flexible working and creating positive cultures whether we are working together or apart.
Continue reading “It’s time to step up to the challenge”
Natalie Ellis HR 