Goho From Home: A Series for SMEs - HR & Recruitment
Goho From Home: A Series for SMEs - HR & Recruitment
On April 1st, we launched our brand webinar new series; Goho From Home, A Series for SMEs! The webinar was fast paced, high energy, hilarious (at times) and provided practical advice on managing recruitment, engaging your team and guidance on employment law during COVID-19.
Stacey-Rebekka Karlsson, our fabulous Managing Director led the discussion, with special guests; Simon Robinson, Employment Solicitor at Robinson Ralph and Caroline Nugent, HR Director at the Financial Ombudsman Service.
The recording of this will be up shortly, if you would like to be notified of this and future webinars please sign up to our newsletter using the form below.
You can register now for our next one in the series, which is about Technology, now.
In case you’re the reading type, we’ve captured the key takeaways from the session below:
Furlough, what does it actually mean?
““It’s an American term that effectively means paid layoff, whereby the Government pays 80% of your salary (up to £2.5k per month)””
Simon went onto warn employers, managers and employees to be mindful that while Furlough has become a common term throughout COVID-19, there’s still quite a lot of grey areas.
““It’s not clear when payments will be made, if there are delays in the process and if you acquire annual leave””
For organisations, the benefit is that it allows them to retain their employees without having to make redundancies. We also learnt that you should be able to get another job while on Furlough - providing the hours for the new job don’t conflict with your previous ones.
How to keep Furloughed employees engaged?
“It’s so important to keep Furloughed employees engaged and continue to have open conversations with them””
While employees are not allowed to work for the company while furloughed, Caroline stressed the importance of keeping them engaged and making sure the communication gates are always open.
Both Caroline & Simon then touched on ways that you can do this:
Check in with employees frequently- how are they doing?
Invite team members to participate in team get togethers e.g. pub quizzes, virtual pub sessions
Regular team Zoom sessions (other platforms are available!)
And no! This doesn't count as ‘work’ as it’s not making the business money.
Consider practical considerations!
Caroline Nugent reminded us that it’s important to think about the practical considerations of working from home.
““Due to the speed of us all having to implement working from home - practical measures may have been overlooked. Have your employees all got a safe and practical working environment? If they required a particular kit in the office, have they got that at home? Are they able to talk to someone if they feel their mental health is suffering as a result?””
Simon added that up to now the conversations we’ve all been having have been very transactional - we’ve focused on how the business will survive and predicts that these conversations about employees' mental health will now start to take place.
What happens when someone refuses to work from home?
Caroline suggests having an open conversation with the employee and identifying the reason behind the unwillingness to work from home. If it’s the hours, what hours can they work? If they have kids at home, would it be better for them to work shifts to manage it? They don’t have WiFi, can you deliver a dongle to them? Remember to be flexible in your approach.
Simon adds, if in doubt think about what’s reasonable as an employer and an employee.
New starters - how do we on-board them during social distancing?
Caroline says just do what you would normally do - but virtually!
Set up 1-2-1’s with different team members, get them acquainted with companies values, rules and processes. Send them e-learning packages (if you don’t have these, there are lots available online!). Set up team sessions to on-board them and get to know them on a personal level e.g. find out about them, their interests (all the basic stuff!).
For more in-depth information on the above topics, to find out about suitable WFH behaviour, how the law has changed, how to make sure staff are working and why you shouldn’t rely on this webinar for legal guidance - please drop us a line on the form below.
Thank you to everyone that tuned in. If you have any questions please email the team at hello@thisisgoho.com. And don’t forget to sign up for our webinar next week on Technology.
