A guide to people management
Tools & Resources
Key learnings
- Keeping staff morale high is one of your number one responsibilities as an employer.
- There is a direct correlation between effective people management and business profitability.
- Investing in the wellbeing of your staff can reduce attrition rates and improve productivity.
Effective people management is critical to the success of your business. Your staff are one of your most important assets and maintaining a happy workplace can boost their morale and productivity. There are also certain legal obligations to be aware of, particularly in respect of disciplinary and grievance procedures. Here, we discuss how the best ways to manage and motivate your employees.
If you’ve decided to invest in employing people to work in your business, you must also invest your time and energy in their wellbeing and development and fulfil numerous statutory obligations.
To help with this important work, many businesses choose to bring in human resources (HR) expertise or educate themselves on the fundamentals of HR management.
Remember that when it comes to HR, every employee is different and what motivates some might not motivate others.
It is normal to have some staff members that are more driven and who have higher work standards, while others will need more support.
Striking the right balance between being fair with an employee and firmly putting your points to them can be difficult, so it’s important that you always make your people feel valued and appreciated when you’re trying to improve their productivity.
You must also listen to the needs of your staff and make sure you are doing your bit as the employer. Flexibility is key because everyone has to juggle their professional and domestic responsibilities, and you have a duty to allow a good work-life balance for your staff.
1
Staff performance reviews
Performance reviews or staff appraisals are a good way to set out clear and achievable objectives for all your employees.
Having some facetime to talk about professional development gives you an opportunity to assess how staff are performing and suggest ways to improve.
You can support your employees by removing obstacles and making sure they have the resources they need to achieve the agreed goals and objectives.
Performance reviews also give employees a chance to provide feedback and talk about any problems they are having in their work or home life.
A review can be an annual occurrence, with quarterly and bi-annual catch-up meetings scheduled to make your employees are on track.
If you’re thinking about the best way to formalise your performance reviews, there are good staff appraisal templates for employers on the ACAS website.
2
Morale and motivation
Keeping your staff happy and motivated is one of your principal responsibilities as an employer, with most employees citing poor management as the biggest reason for poor morale.
Here are a few things to consider for improving staff morale:
- Communicate - speak to your employees and get to know them and allow them to get to know you, this will make you approachable.
- Ask for opinions and involve staff in important decisions – let people know their thoughts are being heard and you are taking their advice.
- Be consistent – make consistent decisions and do not chop and change those decisions.
- Reward good performances - these are always well received, especially if cash rewards are available.
- Provide work-life balance - creating a good work-life balance is proven to help maintain good levels of productivity in your staff, meaning the business benefits in the long term.
- Offer opportunities to do more – give employees the opportunity to step up and do more. This can be another way to reward hard work and good performance.
3
Employment disputes – grievance and disciplinary procedures
From time to time, disputes may arise between you and your employees and being able to deal with them quickly ensures you do not unsettle your workforce.
Having proper procedures in place will aid this process and limit any impact on business operations.
Disciplinary procedures are used to address an employee’s conduct or performance.
Grievance procedures are used by employees to deal with a problem or complaint that they have identified.
The arbitration service Acas have comprehensive step-by-step guides on how to carry out grievance and disciplinary proceedings legally, quickly and effectively.
For employers, we have also put together this article on giving constructive feedback to employees.
Next steps...
- Whether you have one employee or 200, making your people feel valued and appreciated will improve their productivity and make difficult conversations easier.
- Have a look at the different training services Acas could provide for your business.
- Get up to date on your legal obligations in grievance and disciplinary matters using these step-by-step guides.