Juliet Price

Harassed Helen – how would you handle a harassment case in your workplace?

As promised, in my last blog, today I'm focusing on ‘Harassed Helen’. Harassment is just one grievance that can affect any business – other common complaints include discrimination and bullying and I'll go into those in more detail next time. For now though, let's be clear about what exactly is classed as harassment.

Harassment is when a person is subject to any form of unwanted verbal non-verbal or physical conduct. That conduct could be an underlying atmosphere of hostility, intimidation, humiliation or degradation or it could be much more visible, such as bullying, banter, direct abuse, name calling or people making inappropriate jokes in the workplace. Whatever form the harassment takes, it's unwanted and unsolicited behaviour.

Being harassed is potentially a form of discrimination, for various reasons. If Harassed Helen for instance works in a male dominated environment, she could be vulnerable to sexual harassment. That could come in all forms, from calendars with topless women hanging on the walls or making sexual innuendo's, but we've even had to deal with cases on inappropriate physical behaviour and women being put under pressure to go for drinks at lunchtime or after work – her boss might be making suggestions as to how she might get her next promotion or she might be put in a compromising position in the office. Although it sounds like these instances belong in an episode of Life on Mars with DCI Gene Hunt as the starring role but forms of harassment do still occur and they could be occurring in your workplace without you even being aware.

That 's why it's particularly important for you to a) make yourself aware of what's going on in your organisation and b) have very clear policies and procedures in place to protect your staff – male and female!

Other ways that Harassed Helen might be being made to feel uncomfortable in the workplace could be if she works part time for instance. Her full time colleagues may feel that she's getting more favourable treatment, or Helen herself might feel that her full time colleagues are getting a better deal – it's why legislation like the 'flexible working regulations' have been put in place, to form a platform of regulations to avoid those misunderstandings. And in the news this week the Government have been saying they want Great Britain to be the most ‘Family Friendly’ Country in Europe….so I don’t doubt we can expect more regulation on this subject.

Of course, Harassed Helen might be seeing other forms of harassment too – on the grounds of race, religious beliefs, nationality, maybe she has certain days off work for religious beliefs that aren't in the Christian calendar and maybe she's being made to feel awkward or difficult for taking those important days off?

What about if Harassed Helen is in her 20's, let's imagine she's fully qualified to do her job and yet her colleagues are older than her and treat her as though she doesn't know what she's talking about? What if she's in a management position and her staff are all in their 40's and 50's? Alternatively, what if Harassed Helen is in her 50's or 60's and she feels pressured to let the 'youngsters' take over her role, people saying that they're quicker, faster, more 'up on technology'? She may even be being pressured to retire when she's not ready.

Harassment can also cover gay and lesbian issues and more recently, gender reassignment, to protect people who want to change their sex, which will include topics that surround that, such as how their work colleagues view them and which wash facilities they use.

Disability of course is another instance where employers have to be seen to be protecting their staff. Not only in terms of accessibility in and around the workplace, but how other staff treat someone with a disability.

So, given that there are so many forms of harassment potentially in the workplace, how do organisations protect themselves and their employees against these kinds of problems? This highlights just how wide an area the equal opportunities legislation has to cover and here are my top tips for employers;

• In the first instance, create an environment for staff where they are very aware of what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. This should be done formally through good quality and rigorously checked policies and procedures but also on the floor. It's about working boundaries and making sure that small issues are addressed immediately.

• Your Harassment Policy & Procedure should set out a clear definition of harassment, I.e. An example of formal wording could be;

'conduct by any individual in the organisation based on or directed towards someone else which is unwanted and or offence to the recipient'

• The policy should also be very clear about the steps that will be taken IF harassment does occur and a complaint is made. Everything from the meetings that will occur, to time lines in which action will be taken, details of what kinds of investigations will take place, what will happen if someone is proved right, what will happen if someone is proved wrong. There should be no surprises for staff about how a harassment case would be handled – it should all be very clearly written down and documented and made available to staff when they join your organisation.

• You might also like to develop a Code of Conduct among your staff. Something that says how we expect to behave in this organisation, something that sets out your values and the respect we have for one another when we go about our business.

Did you know that according to ACAS, on average, it takes 9 days of management time to deal with a staff grievance complaint? That's an average of £1,400 in management time alone, without interruptions in work flow from the accused and the accuser.

The hidden costs of getting this procedure wrong are significant and it's vital to understand this process.

If you need to talk to us about your policies and procedures, it's what we do, we're here to help you get it right first time.

Our next short bite seminar might also be useful to you, it's 'Motivating without money', on 8^th September. If your staff are important to you, you need to be there, click here to book.

Park City contact details
Telephone: 01206 752100  consulting@parkcity.co.uk
www.parkcity.co.uk

Job Hopper Jason – what are his motives?

This week we're focusing on Job Hopper Jason in our winning cards series. Job Hopper Jason can be extremely costly, both financially and in terms of time and patience. With a reputation for serially moving from one job to another, he's never quite satisfied in a job, he's always looking out for a better opportunity and is generally not going to be one of your most reliable staff. We all dread recruiting Job Hopper Jason, but in this article, we'd like to consider the possible motives behind his job hops.

While you can guarantee that some Job Hopper Jason's will never settle...we think there's a large majority who want to settle in a job...one that suits them and their families. Might it be that those who move from company to company are actually searching for a flexible role, where they can share child care with their partner, where they can be a present and active member of their family as well as being a valued member of a team at work?

The government are taking this prospect very seriously. The traditional role of mums staying at home and dads being the main wage earners is quickly going out of fashion. Dad's want a say in their children's day to day activities too, they want to be there for them, they want to pick them up from school and see school plays and our workforce could potentially be structured to not only cope with that – but thrive on it. One could argue that it's high time both parents had the opportunity to have careers and bring up their families together.

If this is indeed one of the main reasons that Job Hopper Jason disrupts businesses by moving so quickly from role to role, you could influence his decision to stay in your company. You know only too well the cost of recruiting someone, agency fees, months of advertising, interviewing, making job offers, inductions, training. Even if Job Hopper Jason stays a year, you've got to replace him and go through those costs again. As always, we have some tips to guide you through so you'll be a) less likely to end up with an unreliable member of staff and b) much more likely to retain the undeniable talent that Job Hopper Jason really does have;

Consider these areas;

1. If you find that staff leave regularly, make sure you hold an exit interview. It's good standard practice anyway but it's important to identify the real reason someone is leaving. There might be problems in your organisation, at ground level, that you didn't know about and you might be able to avoid future staff leaving for similar reasons.

2. Carry out anonymous staff surveys asking for information about people and their jobs. Employers often put off surveys like these for fear of hearing problems that could be expensive or time consuming to deal with. Ask the obvious questions though, delve a little, find out what people really think and you'll be doing yourself the very biggest favour. This is an opportunity to make your staff feel heard, to bring to the surface problems that everyone knows about but no-one talks about. You have an opportunity here to change things. Use these surveys to inspire your board to create better working environments, teams, structures and services. It's exactly the right way to motivate talented, clever staff and avoid them leaving to go to your opposition.

3. Take a detailed look at your recruitment and induction procedures. How exactly are you recruiting? How do you identify that a vacancy in your company exists? Try looking at flexible working hours for that role. Could it be appropriate for the role to be job shared between two staff? Looking really carefully at job design, what skills or competencies are required and how you're attracting candidates could all lead you to streamline costs.

4. Manage employee expectations. Are you over promising? Another reason for Job Hopper Jason to leave could be that he was promised one thing and you failed to deliver, for instance are you promising a friendly open plan environment when in reality, the atmosphere is stressed and closed? What are the expectations on the role you've just filled? Does your new member of staff know exactly what's expected of him and what his role entails? If he fails to deliver or his team begin to quietly resent his inefficiency – it could be because you haven't been specific enough and he isn't aware of your expectations.

Businesses do need to think about the reasons why Job Hopper Jason might get his reputation and family friendly working is an issue which isn't going away. For more information on where the government is intending to take the flexible working strategy, click here.

If you're an Employer and want to check you are up to date with Employment Law and HR then click here and claim your FREE HR Health Check.

Next week, we'll be talking about ‘Harassed Helen’. Harassment is just one grievance that can affect any business – other common complaints include discrimination and bullying. Do you have the skills and legal knowledge to deal with them? We're hosting a training & networking event on 8^th July on the topic of ‘Bullying, Harassment and Grievance’...find out more by clicking here

Spectacular crash at Le Mans! World class safety or pure luck?

Like us, you might well have been glued to your screens as Allan McNish's Audi spectacularly spun out of control in this years 24-hour Le Mans race last weekend. Viewers and spectators the world over held their breath in horror as Audi's top car literally smashed to pieces with every crushing blow as it skated into the barrier at top speed. Technically, this should have been a fatal accident, instead, McNish got out of his car and coolly walked away with nothing but a minor surface scratch. If you didn't see this, check out the You tube video, it is absolutely incredible.

It wasn't just luck though that McNish survived this incredible crash. The real reason why this incident wasn't fatal was because of the great lengths the designers went to to ensure driver safety. Health & Safety around motor sport is considered the very top priority. This is a shining example of world class safety design. Every single element of Le Mans has been painstakingly developed with health & safety at the fore. Everything from the organisation, the designers of the cars, the track, where the spectators are placed, how the pit lane is designed and run, where the engineers need to be, this is what it's all about – ultimate safety, designed to do its job.

Formula 1 is dangerous. We all know it's dangerous, you can't get away from that. Instead, what you can do is put in place every single element you can, in order to assess the risk and minimise it.

So how does that work in your business? This week we're focusing on Hapless Harriet, the next in our winning cards series. Hapless Harriet will always be the one person in your organisation who's likely to have an accident! Accidents do happen, they cannot be eliminated entirely but your responsible for the safety of your staff. It's your responsibility to assess the risks of an accident happening and comply with health & safety legislation to minimise that risk – otherwise you're potentially gambling with the safety of your staff.

The Le Mans race is a perfect example of health & safety rules and regulations being tested to the full. They worked – how would your organisation stack up?

We have 3 top tips to get you thinking about your health & safety policy today:

• Have you had your yearly Health & Safety audit yet? This is when a qualified health & safety auditor visits your premises and reviews your business practices and property in order to highlight areas of risk and non compliance. In a busy working environment, with pressure from customers, this can seem easy to overlook, but it's so important you keep these checks up.
• Next, make sure you have a risk assessment. This is different from your yearly audit. A risk assessment inspects an individual task, activity or practice. A health & safety inspector can assist you to grade the severity of any potential risk and most importantly, assist you in controlling that risk – nothing is risk free but we can review it, rate the severity of risk and control that risk accordingly.
• Do make sure that your staff understand their part to play in health & safety. While as a company, you can do everything possible to prevent an accident, when staff leave files on the floor beside the desk or stack boxes up high, accidents will happen, Hapless Harriet will no doubt find it, trip over it or have something fall on her! Make sure that you've given your staff every opportunity to be involved with health & safety at ground level and ensure they understand their personal responsibility.

Take your health & safety as seriously as Audi do and you're up there with the very best! Our Health & Safety courses are fortunately very popular, and sell out quickly. We're currently taking bookings for our next course on 12^th July. We're IOSH (Institute of Occupational Safety) registered and are one of the very few accredited bodies delivering professionally accredited courses. To secure your place, book now to make sure you're covering every eventuality.

Skills v Loyalty...you decide

Companies all over the UK and abroad are doing what it takes to keep their companies afloat, some are unfortunately having to face big decisions. One of the biggest is the decision whether or not to go down the route of announcing redundancies in order to keep the business moving forwards. If you're an employee with the threat of redundancy hanging over you it's stressful, if you're the employer, it's equally as stressful having to face making that decision. Discussing the need to make cuts and who that may affect can be an agonising process and we're often asked to help manage those situations. With that in mind, we're taking this opportunity to profile another in our series of winning cards, Loyal Lennie. The question is, do you choose loyalty over skill set when considering redundancies?

When there's a downturn in business or a restructure, redundancies might be the only way to secure a company's future and our clients talk to us about the right way to choose who stays and who goes. The reality is that both skill set and loyalty may be considered. After all, as an employer you may have spent a lot of time, money and energy ensuring that your staff are well trained, with excellent skill sets to carry out their jobs. Do you really want those talented staff walking out of your company? On the other hand, Loyal Lennie is a huge asset to you. He'll turn up on time, he can always be relied upon, he's trustworthy, he puts time and effort into his job. Loyal Lennie is your eyes and ears in the business.

In actual fact though, legislation says that a transparent and well thought through set of criteria should be in place long before you need to start considering which positions to make redundant. Having this in place will aid this process and make it a little less stressful for everyone concerned. The EAT (Employment Appeal Tribunal) have recently made a very good decision for companies about such criteria. In the case of Dabson v David Cover & Sons, the claimant (Dabson) felt that the selection criteria he'd been put though was faulty. Apparently he hadn't rated as highly as one of his colleagues and the company chose to make Dabson redundant. Dabson claimed the process had been unfair but the EAT stated that when they look at cases of fairness in redundancies, they won't be looking at the way the company scores those decisions. Instead, they say that selection process is down to each company to decide its own rules, unless there is a clear case of bias, they won't judge those rules and they won't ask for justification after the event. This is great news for businesses and they're being given autonomy in dealing with this part of the process.

It's all based on the fact that we should all know our businesses inside and out, that only we are best placed to be able to make those decisions. That we're responsible. Just think what might have happened if that decision had gone the other way? Every time an employer made redundancies they'd be checked, they'd have to justify their choices, but it seems that if you have a fair selection process in place that can demonstration there's no room for discrimination, the EAT are satisfied..

For that selection criteria, you might like to look at your employee skills, their job content and how competent they are at performing those functions. You might like to look at attitude or performance on the job, productivity over a set period of time or customer service. You might choose to rate your employees on how they manage their external and internal relationships, on how they communicate, their willingness to take on other work. However, you select though, think about these 3 tips;

1. Look initially for natural wastage. Those who already might be considering going part time or moving on. You should be transparent in your approach and ask for volunteers for shorter working hours for instance – by doing that you might save yourself the job of making redundancies and keep morale as high as possible in the process.

2. Be honest. Share the redundancy process with staff. It's not a secret, make sure that the management team have valid and unbiased input and make sure your processes follow minimum statutory process

3. Keep staff involved. Ask for suggestions, put formal consultation processes in place to make sure that people know not only what's happening but why it's happening. Encourage staff forums where ideas can be generated, where everyone has a valid opinion and an idea to share. Keep everyone inclusive and your staff may well come up with a workable solution to avoid people losing their jobs.

For a free health check on your company's redundancy process, go to our website and book some time with us….for free. We'll listen to you, look at your processes and advise you where you may have gaps. Look after this part of the process initially and you'll know exactly what to do if you need to consider restructuring your company.

'Absent' Angela - Do you have one of these in your organisation? Dealing with absence in the workplace

 

If you've been keeping an eye on the business press over the last few days, you'll be very aware that the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and the Institute of Directors (IoD) have been at odds over the level of business legislation in this country. The IoD regularly surveys their 55,000 members and the general theme of those surveys indicates that people worry that the sheer level of legislation, employment law and healthy & safety initiatives is potentially making companies in this country less competitive than our counterparts in the rest of the world.

By contrast, the CIPD have bitten back. On 23.5.11, Personnel Today magazine quote Dr John Philpott, Chief Economic Advisor at the CIPD as explaining that it was time UK businesses stopped “seeing red” over employment regulation and adopted a more unbiased evidence based perspective. From our standpoint, as a company whose purpose is to support businesses implement legislation correctly and properly, it's harder and harder for those businesses at the coal face to comply with these procedures without expert HR help. 

Take the next in our series of winning cards for instance and lets look at an example. Take 'Absent' Angela. Most companies have an employee who fits this bill. She's very difficult to work around. By her very nature, 'Absent' Angela takes time off without a second glance. Her colleagues and bosses can't rely on her. One day she's in work, the next she's missing. One day she'll be present for a meeting with a list of objectives and actions, but it could be several weeks before she's done just 3 hours work due to the level of time she takes off. Her department can't plan, they get frustrated at not delivering department objectives and her team feel anxious that they're constantly one man down. This situation can go on for months and months!

Complying with legislation on how to deal with 'Absent' Angela isn't easy either. Following appropriate procedure means lots of letters being drafted, lots of meetings being organised to try to get to the bottom of her absenteeism, it means booking meeting after meeting and knowing full well, that she may not turn up for them, if they fall on one of her absent days! So they're rescheduled again and again. When they do happen, she is absolutely entitled to have one of her colleagues sit in the meeting with her, but that of course means her colleague has to take time out of her schedule too – that means that her emails are piling up, her phone messages are backing up and she's not able to focus on her own tasks and commitments. The whole department is affected. The amount of energy expended on filing in forms correctly, making sure that everyone is informed at each step of the process has to be painfully regulated – get it wrong and she'll take her employer to court in a tribunal and they'll lose on the grounds of not following procedure!

Get it right and even when she turns up to those meetings, they could prove a complete waste of time. Under Angela's human rights, and privacy laws, she doesn't actually have to tell you what's wrong with her. Not only does this mean that you can't plan for long term leave (because you don't know if that's what you're going to be faced with) but the worst case scenario is that she might be lying and you can't even find out!

So...as an employer – how on earth do you tackle your 'Absent' Angela correctly and properly? Here's our 4 tips;

1. Build good relationships with your employees in the first place. If you do that bit right from the start, it's your biggest hurdle covered. Good employee relations means excellent communication – it's the golden card to seeing you through any management situation. Your staff will talk to you, trust you and confide in you.

2. Make sure that your HR policies are up-to-date and robust. You must have a 'how to' practical guide on managing absenteeism. A step by step guide will pull you through situations like these. Make sure that they're completely transparent that staff and colleagues understand the procedures you've set down.

3. Follow the policy! You've gone to the trouble of putting together formal policies, so do follow them. Follow them by keeping good records of absenteeism (not only will this housekeeping serve you well if a problem goes to tribunal but you could easily spot patterns of absenteeism which might help you solve the issue), keep communication up throughout the time your employee is off, talk to them regularly and be involved with their progress.

4. You should also be training your managers in how to follow and the policies you've implemented. It's your very best plan to keep the company running smoothly.  To learn more about how to deal with staff issues like this one, talk to us about which one of our workshops would be most appropriate, we look forward to seeing you soon.

Ever thought about using coaching skills to deal with staff issues more effectively before they get to 'Absent' Angela stage? Come on our training course to find out more, it's a really effective way of saving time and money.

Under performing Patrick!

For the next seven weeks, we're going to be dealing with a different issue from our Winning Cards series. This week, it's Under performing Patrick we're concentrating on.

Dealing with staff who are under performing forms an important part of performance management and we often hear from our clients that this area of the business is one of their biggest stressors. When just one person in the team isn't performing as highly as the rest, issues can manifest very quickly. Staff morale can dip if others are taking up the slack of a colleague, customer complaints can hinder every area of your business and projects can quickly be put under time/resource pressure.

How do you motivate that difficult staff member? What's really the best way to support him or her through a difficult time or enhance their performance? How should you critique them, so you inspire and avoid crushing their confidence? It's critical to get these approaches right first time, there are often no second chances where employer/employee relations are concerned.

One of our clients (we'll call her Jane) managed this so effectively that she turned one of her poorest performing employees into one of her best. How? She came on one of our management courses and then followed up with some coaching for herself. By using a coaching centred approach rather than a traditional directional approach, within the month, she was able to use this in the workplace. Here's what Jane concentrated on and what we recommend, to help you tackle difficult staff members just like 'under performing Patrick';

• Use far more open questions. Open questions of course are those questions which encourage information and avoid yes/no answers. For staff who are under performing, you're going to want to engage them in conversation to really get to the bottom of their behaviour. Asking questions that start 'How' & ''What' for instance get people talking and means you'll learn much more about their situation. Questions that begin with 'Are' and 'Do' are closed questions and can only really give rise to yes/no answers. Start listening to the questions you naturally want to ask and rephrase closed questions into open ones.

• Learn to listen more. It sounds obvious, but making sure you listen to your staff can make the world of difference very quickly. Eye contact is really important when you're talking to a disruptive member of staff, when you ask a question, wait for their answer – even if there's silence for a few seconds. Resist the temptation to jump in and re-phrase the question or butt-in half way through their answer. Listening also means being genuinely interested in them and having an open mind about the solution. Put aside your annoyances over their performance for a few minutes and listen to their opinion or point of view, you'll get much further, much quicker.

• Ask yourself if you're giving autonomy to your staff? A coaching approach is based on the fact that each individual understands exactly what they need to do differently in order to make change. Too much micro-managing and too many rules are likely to inhibit someone's natural performance flow. Agree what you want them to do and by when and then find out how they'd prefer to get the job done.

• Do you really know what gives your staff positive job satisfaction? Making sure you know what motivates each individual staff member is key to shaping them into a valued member of the team. Finding out is as simple as asking them. To follow up, make sure whatever promises you make, you keep and make sure you remember what motivates them and can use that strength every day going forward.

More and more managers are adopting a coaching centred approach to manage their staff issues as well as their business. Click the links for further information on coaching at work and join us on 3^rd June for our ½ day Managing Performance programme to be held at our offices.

Employee wins tribunal, but is it really fair?

Is it really fair that an employee wins a tribunal case purely on the basis that his employer forgot to file some paperwork? Well actually that happens and in a recent case, we'll never really know who should have won. The employer concerned neglected to follow strict procedures and guidelines, meaning that before they were even able to state their case, the employee won! It makes you wonder how this happened, how this employer fell into the trap of allowing an employee to walk away with a successful unfair dismissal claim and the employers money, just because they hadn't followed the rules correctly. What actually happened in that business for the employer to neglect part of this critical procedure?

Well, it's easier than you might expect for SME's to find themselves in a state of flux over the rules and regulations they must follow and this is why. When employers carry out investigations of wrong doing within their companies, they actually need a big team around them, for instance they need, an independent figure carrying out the investigation itself, they need witnesses, a separate person to conduct the hearing and another independent person to conduct the appeal – UK law deems this necessary in order to protect everyone involved. None of these key people must of course be linked to the accused or the accuser in any way. The point is, to be able to construct a case where every fact has been taken into consideration, where emotion is taken out of the equation, so a fair conclusion can be brought about.

Within a small company of say, just 5 employees, how is that even possible? The accuser might be the line manager as well as the business owner, so when the business owner might be deemed the appropriate person to undertake the investigation in a larger company, what is a small employer meant to do? It brings me to the question, is employment law now discriminating against small businesses?

This situation is all too common, but there is help available for SME's and it's vital that they understand not only the basics, but they know how to deal with these complicated and very important matters, in a way that means they can bring their claims to court appropriately.

Here are just a few tips to keeping this process legitimately on track;

• Understand the procedure. Ignorance is absolutely no excuse in an employment tribunal.

• Be completely open minded about who might be to blame in any given situation. In a small company, gossip spreads quickly and assumptions are easily mistaken for truth. Think 'facts only' and collate evidence around those facts for a completely impartial case

• Bear in mind that tribunals are extremely stressful, not only to the employee, but the employer too, not to mention costly. Time line events and stick to them to avoid wasting money and resources.

• Find a way to ensure your company is handling the matter with complete impartiality. There are experts available to do just this, to support you and make sure you don't fall into a trap before you even get to tribunal.

Whether it's fair or not, every day, companies are damaging their reputations and suffering severe financial blows as a result. Here at Park City, we see this more than we'd like.

If you find yourself dealing with a similar situation, need some advice or just want to ensure you understand your obligations, join us on Friday 13^th May at our practical seminar called 'Carrying out investigations'. Click here to find out more

 

Have your say on needless laws and government red tape

My company, Park City, continues to strive, on behalf of the ‘employer’, to reduce the burden of employment law that may in some cases hold businesses back. Particularly at a time when business leaders actually need to be free to concentrate on developing their businesses, in order to emerge strongly from the difficult economic situation in which we currently find ourselves.

Therefore, I would urge you to join with Park City and take advantage of the new government’s invitation to nominate unnecessary laws and regulations online. For your convenience, the government’s online nomination form can be accessed here. By lobbying the government together, we can influence and affect positive change for business.

On a slightly different note, Park City were recently proud and honoured to Sponsor the prestigious Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales (ICAEW) Accountancy and Business Awards and in particular the prizes for ‘Training Firm of the Year’, which was awarded to Bird Luckin and ‘Best Staff Development Scheme’, awarded to Seymour House Partnership. I was privileged to judge and present the awards to these winners with whom we share values for continuous improvement and ongoing staff development. Further details and photos from the event can be found here.

In sponsoring these awards, Park City have demonstrated that we are at the forefront when it comes to supporting local businesses and we will endeavour, on behalf of our clients and local firms, to pursue an agenda of regulatory reform and a reduction in time-consuming red-tape, even in a difficult economic climate.

Let me know which laws and regulations you think should be done away with. I look forward to seeing your responses.

Confidential helplines must be exactly that

I am sure that many of you will have seen the allegations of bullying made against Gordon Brown in the news last week. Whether or not this is found to be the case,  bullying, discrimination and harassment in the workplace is completely unacceptable. My company, Park City, have produced this free guide for employers on managing bullying in the workplace. I hope you find it useful.

Confidentiality is paramount when trying to tackle bullying in the workplace. These employees, who felt moved to call the 'so called' -  'confidential' helpline, did so in good faith and have been betrayed by that organisation and now find themselves on the front of every national newspaper. This behaviour potentially damages the reputation of other helpline charities who exist to help individuals who feel that they have nowhere else to turn.

What's more, the Prime Minister's office should have been allowed to manage these accusations 'in-house' but instead they are having to deal with allegations that they may have not even been aware of. The charges made by these employees might even be unfounded or malicious in nature.

I hope that the relevant authorities review this case thoroughly and that confidential helplines should be, just that.

Beware Staff Christmas Parties

I was interviewed this morning on BBC Essex on the subject of Staff Christmas Parties. As Christmas is nearly upon us, BBC Essex were talking about festive cheer and how this can normally be found at the office party but there is also the possibility of it all going horribly wrong. They were asking me what can go wrong and what are Park City's top tips for businesses thinking of having one.

I commented on how important it is to plan and prepare these events well in advance, thinking about the time of day of the party and helping staff to plan their journey to and from. This is important from a safety perspective and when thinking about whether or not alcohol will be served and in planning for adverse weather conditions.

Click here for Park City's top tips for Managers and Businesses

Click here for Park City's free Winter Season Policy