People

It is becoming more and more common for businesses to be faced with a team scattered around the country, or even the world. Team Leaders and Managers can often be faced with many problems thrown up by the physical distance between the members.

Amy Foster, operations manager at RWA Solutions, explores the challenges that working effectively with a remote team can present.

So after a bit of analysis, Lloyd's of London has introduced a nine-to-five ban on the consumption of alcohol, making it a gross misconduct offence which could get a transgressor fired.

We frequently see restrictive covenants that look impressive, but when they are analysed they offer little or no protection, generally because they have not been constructed specifically for the role they relate to.  Unfortunately, this often doesn’t become apparent until an employee leaves the company.

We all have sympathy for employees who are genuinely unwell and the majority of clients that I work with are a particularly sympathetic bunch, who sometimes get taken for a bit of a ride because of it.

When it comes to recruitment and building a team, how often do you spend time looking at an individual’s strengths and skills for the role?

Culture and conduct reflect the underlying values and mind set of a firm, and as such, have a great influence on the behaviour of individuals within the firm. An effective culture is one that supports a business model, behaviours, and practices, that have fair treatment of consumers at their core. But it is senior managers who are ultimately responsible and accountable for the decisions that they not only make, but also oversee.

We are all guilty of it – working through lunch hours, working late, not taking breaks – and there is often an underlying culture in firms that if you do take breaks, you’re not ‘pulling your weight’. Following a recent Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) ruling, you might want to reconsider the way you treat employees taking breaks.

‘T&C’ - formally known as training and competence - is not a new idea. The General Insurance Standard’s Council launched their own rules and elements of these can still be seen today under the current FCA T&C rules. 

For many firms, the appraisal system (or performance review) is often just another form filling exercise. The most frequent complaint (from employees) is that although they ‘go through the motions’ annually, nothing ever comes of their appraisal.