Raising the Bar for HR

· by Emma Browning
Ready to raise the bar on HR?  Growing a business without HR expertise is challenging at best, and a constant uphill struggle at worst. If you’ve ever had to tackle a people issue on your own, you’ll know just how stressful it can be. Between trying to manage your legal obligations, and meeting your operational requirements, firefighting can become part of your everyday routine if you’re not careful. The last few months have shown us, how valuable it can be to have your HR Expert on speed dial. There is…

What needs to be on your People Agenda for 2021?

· by Emma Browning
HR’s role in Managing the Long-Term Impact of the Pandemic and Remote Working The Covid-19 pandemic has changed our way of working. But how will the big shift we are seeing within our clients to remote working, impact how we work in the future, and what role does HR have in managing the long-term impact on businesses? Remote Working Covid-19 forced many companies to switch to remote working literally overnight. Although some companies and employees alike have relished in their new working from home arrangements, to be successful in the…

Thrive with Meraki HR

· by Emma Browning
At Meraki HR, we have always been here to help and support clients with their immediate people problems. Being able to deal with these issues quickly and with the minimum of fuss and impact to your business, allowing you to get on with what you do best – running your business!  However, most of our work with clients has been around helping them create great places to work; where their people are happy, motivated, engaged and highly productive. We appreciate that there are a lot of immediate issues and problems…

Why Having a Female Non-Executive Director (NED) Is More Than Just a Diversity Move

· by Emma Browning
Now more than ever, ensuring your business’ Board of Directors is diverse and inclusive is vital to your success. So why are we still not seeing this in action? My latest post explores the reasons why we’re not seeing this happening quickly enough and what business owners/Directors can do about it! If there’s one thing my peers know about me, it’s that diversity is one of the favourite aspects of my work. No, I’m not just talking about diversity in my day-to-day (although that certainly plays a role too), but…

The importance of knowing your why to employee engagement

· by Emma Browning
What’s your why? People often talk about employee engagement and will say to me that they need to “improve their employee engagement” but they don’t really understand what employee engagement is or why it’s important! Let’s start with what it’s not first! Employee engagement isn’t employee happiness! Employee engagement is defined by Kevin Kruse as “the emotional commitment the employee has to the organisation and its goals.” Employee engagement is based on trust, integrity, two way commitment and communication between a business and its employees. It’s an approach that increases…

Who wants to understand and develop employee behaviour?

· by Emma Browning
Personality Profiling Meraki HR have a number of HR professionals and coaches in their team who are accredited Thomas Practitioners. We chose to work and train in Thomas pyschometrics as they are easy to use, and provide great reports that are both helpful to the manager and the employee. How was it developed? In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Dr. Thomas Hendrickson developed William Moulton Marston’s DISC theory to produce the Thomas Personal Profile Analysis (PPA) for the work place. The Thomas PPA determines how individuals respond to workplace…

Valentine’s Offer

· by Emma Browning
    Sssssshh … its a secret! Ready to raise the bar on HR?  Then you could save yourself 15% off our HR Oxygen Service Growing a business without HR expertise is challenging at best, and a constant uphill struggle at worst. If you’ve ever had to tackle a people issue on your own, you’ll know just how stressful it can be. Between trying to manage your legal obligations, and meeting your operational requirements, firefighting can become part of your everyday routine if you’re not careful. There is always the…

The Five things you should know about recruitment

· by Emma Browning
Before you even think about employing someone, make sure you write a clear job description outlining theKey Responsibility Area’s (KRA’s) of the role that also details the Key Competencies or Skills needed to perform in the role effectively. A good way to test whether the job description you have written makes sense, is to ask someone else to read it. If they can tell you what the person will be doing in their role and what skills they need, then you have written a good Job Description. If they can’t…

Are you ready to take the advice of Richard Branson?

· by Emma Browning
I talked about mentoring and coaching recently and for many of us, when you think of influential people from the world of business, Richard Branson is a name that’s likely to feature pretty high up on your list. He has talked many times about mentoring and recently quoted at an event hosted by Purple Cubed, ‘I am often asked what the link between a promising business person and a successful business person is, and mentoring always comes to mind. Giving people advice on how to achieve their goals is often…

Are you attracting the right people to your business?

· by Emma Browning
This week I am talking about recruitment. A 9-5 working week, 4 weeks holiday a year, and a corner desk were once considered perks to a job, creating satisfaction and loyalty. Not anymore. Today’s businesses need to be much savvier if they want to attract and retain key talent. These days prospective employees are searching for a better work/life balance, and a greater sense of fulfilment from their jobs. They are more discerning. The structure of work has broken down and shifted, and small business owners must take note of…