Small businesses are less likely than larger businesses to offer zero hour contracts when hiring. In research carried out by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), it was found that employers within the small business sector tend to steer clear of non-guaranteed hour contracts. It was also found that small businesses were already paying the new National Living Wage (NLW) of £7.43 before it rose in April. This makes small business a good choice of employer.
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We’ve all heard the stories of companies that started in a garden shed to eventually be sold to Google for billions. So many founders and aspiring entrepreneurs share this dream. But building your start-up for a trade sale takes a lot of forward-planning. Where do you even start?
Gender pay gap in the workplace is an issue that has been high profile and has had extensive media coverage. It’s a problem that has been plagued and needs to be addressed. Although many big companies have been forced to make changes to their unequal and unfair pay policies, small businesses also need to take notice.
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As a manager, it is your responsibility to promote employee wellbeing in the team. If the workforce is demotivated, stressed and not building positive relationships, the team’s productivity and efficiency will suffer as a result.
As a business owner, wouldn’t it be great if the work you and your employees had to do was as engaging as playing video games? Or binge-watching a Netflix series? Or going on a blowout shopping trip? Imagine if a small business could capture the magic of play and inject it into their work. It would have a profound impact on their bottom line. Enter gamification.
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When it comes to hiring for any role, the main priority is getting the right candidate. You may need to look outside the UK if the applicants you are getting are not quite what you are looking for. There may be various reasons for wanting to employ people from overseas, however, whatever your reason you will need to adhere to certain rules and regulations.
HR is an important part of a business, whether you have an entire department looking after the HR of your business or just one person. It’s vital that a small business has an HR professional on board. However even when businesses have dedicated professionals to manage their HR, mistakes are still made that can be avoided. In the worst case scenario, HR mistakes can lead to a court case, with huge legal fines that can be detrimental to a business.
DBS (Disclosure and Barring Services) checks are sometimes a legal requirement when going through the hiring process. If you are a small business owner looking at recruiting for your business, you will need to familiarise yourself with DBS checks, if they are relevant. DBS checks, previously known as CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) checks, may be essential to working in certain places and positions.
In the latest research conducted by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), it was found that the self-employed are not very optimistic about the future. The self-employed in the UK are the largest business group, with there being an estimated of 4.8 million sole traders. The FSB are launching a ‘Think Self-Employed’ scheme to rescue the collapsing confidence of the self-employed in the UK.
Recruiting for a business is one of the most important milestones. It marks either the beginning (if you start with a team) or the growth of a business. There is no other predictor of success as prevalent as the team of people you employ to work for you. Having a good team, that moulds together and works hard, is essential to business success. Therefore, when it comes to recruiting for a small business, there are multiple factors that need to be considered.
Gus Bartholomew is the latest entrepreneur to feature in our success stories. Gus is the co-founder of SupplyCompass, a company that helps clients in the UK get in touch with manufacturers in India. In this success story, Gus discusses working with a partner and working in both the UK and India.
“I wear my heart on my sleeve” sang the Scottish seventies duo, Gallagher and Lyle. Is that level of transparency appropriate at work? What place do emotions have in business? Are they helpful or harmful? Wearing your heart on your sleeve is often misconstrued as your emotions being out of control. In truth, it means to openly show your emotions, to be transparent, to be true to yourself. The musical duo continued: “I’m not afraid to say what I mean, mean what I say”, advocating emotional honesty as the best policy.
No matter how careful you try to be, your business is sure to face at least some legal issues. Up to 53 percent of all small businesses are involved in at least one lawsuit or a legal issue in any given year, and those events can bring a company to a grinding halt. These four measures will help you protect your business from indictments and lawsuits. Ogborn Mihm highlights the ways in which you can protect your business.
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In a recent study conducted by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), it was found that the percentage of small businesses that have increased the wage for their employees is the highest it’s been in three and a half years.
Mental health issues can be damaging to the workplace and the business if not dealt with in the right way, so it is necessary to create a culture and environment in which your employees can talk about any issues they are having. It was reported by mentalhealth.org that around 14.7% of employees have mental health issues, and around 12.7% of sick leave can also be attributed to poor mental health.
If you are the owner of a business, you, of course, want it to have a welcoming reputation when it comes to customers. A business can offer the most fanciful product on the market, but unless it is marketed correctly, no one is going to buy it.
Boosting productivity in the workplace is a major goal for most business owners. Fortunately, there are many handy tools on the market to help you do just that. What’s more, lots of them are free or are available in free versions.
Companies are increasingly recognising the benefits of team building – the beginning of 2016 actually saw record spending on team building activities in the UK. In fact, on average companies now spend £305 on activities per employee to boost morale and keep their staff happy. Traditional team building activities such as assault courses are being replaced with more creative days out, with the most popular being cooking and baking. Adventure Connections highlight the many benefits of team building in the workplace that small businesses need to take advantage of.
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Staff sickness is something that cannot be avoided, whether you run a big firm or a small business. However, for small businesses that have small teams it can cause costly problems. Managing staff sickness effectively by implementing policies is essential. It will make sure that the disruption of the day-to-day activities within the business are minimised.
When you are running a business you will need to be organised, or at least attempt to be, in order to run it successfully. There are so many parts of the business that you will need to simultaneously take care of so you will need a system to ensure that you are managing all areas effectively. Whether you are focusing on tax or the your employees’ holidays, you need to have your small business in order.
