​Diversity is an important topic in today’s workplace. Having diversity in your company is important from a social, financial and creative aspect, as having a diverse workforce opens employees experiences, through understanding and acceptance. A diverse workplace can be described as a team with a wide range of distinctive characteristics and experiences, all bringing something to the company.

More Opportunity        
By hiring employees within a diverse age range from many cultures and countries, your business will be open to a bigger choice of ideas and skills. This will give you an increased opportunity for business growth with better solutions to potential problems that may occur. Your company will be more interesting to prospective clients and customers, people will learn more from your team and you will attract attention from top talent around the globe.

Helps Employees Grow
Diversity is good for your business and also your workers, as your employees should be using their work experiences to learn and grow as a professional. Working in a diverse environment benefits staff members through gaining insight from different perspectives. Most candidates will be more inclined to go for your diverse company where they will learn more, than companies that have the same type of employees, all talking the same and thinking the same.
 
Reduce Prejudice
Engagement with individuals from around the world will help reduce employee discrimination. Making sure to celebrate holidays from all backgrounds will be appreciated, resulting in increased productivity. This will also create opportunity for team bonding which is an important aspect to get right within companies.
 
Competitive Edge
Having a diverse workforce will help you keep up with competitors and give you an advantage over those companies who don’t choose diversity. The main advantage being that hiring a wide range of employees allows for customers and clients from different backgrounds to relate to your staff members.

Kit out your Workplace
Don’t think of diversity as just a buzzword, take action and reap the benefits of it. Before hiring employees, you need to take the steps required. Your workplace should be designed to suit workers from all ages and backgrounds, whilst ensuring there is a comfortable atmosphere for each employee to be their most productive selves. By all means get a ping pong table for those after work drinks on a Friday but consider more important changes, such as catering to employees who need ease of movement through the use of accessible doorways for example.
 
Look around your office, what do you see? Do you see staff members who act like you and think like you? Or do you see employees who are from diverse backgrounds, all bringing a unique element to your business? Always aim for a varied team, it increases brand awareness, brings more experience and ideas to your company while building up positive working relationships: a win-win for your business and your employees.

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Meetings are a daily occurrence in a workplace and are important to get right. Running an effective meeting is more than just organising a time and place for a quick chat with your employees, they need to have structure, rules and an outcome. Without these elements, the meeting may steer off course and go on longer than expected with the only result being wasted time.

As all employers know, time is a valuable resource and should be used wisely. Meetings are a time-consuming part of any job and should be streamlined as much as possible. So when arranging a meeting, make it clear what time all employees should arrive and suggest they come five minutes before the arranged time to get set up.

To arrange and have a meeting can be expensive when you consider the time attendees have to take out from a working day. If critical employees can’t attend, postpone the meeting rather than going on ahead. Having all team members there at the same time is important to bounce ideas off each other and have everyone’s input.

Before the meeting, send an email to all people attending, with a list including everything that must be prepared beforehand and what will be discussed. It’s essential to highlight a goal that needs to be achieved, making the meeting worthwhile. If the point of the meeting is to find a solution to a problem, ask all attendees to arrive with three solutions. If the purpose of the meeting is to discuss a project, ask everyone to bring a summary of their work so far and have all progress open to discussion. Distributing material to be discussed before the meeting helps make your time more productive and will ensure results. Whether it be articles, graphs or reading material, send it to staff 48 hours before the meeting, as the more time you give to employees the better prepared they will be.  

As the leader, you must ensure effective meeting facilitation, meaning that you must set a positive and productive tone for interaction among your employees. This starts with an overall review of the goals needing to be achieved, a list of possible outcomes and how you plan to achieve these results. Having a positive tone builds enthusiasm for the project and listening to employees’ ideas will make them feel appreciated and increase their commitment.

It’s important to be aware that all employees have different working styles and others are more extrovert than others. As the leader you need to involve all participants, asking the quieter people their opinion to ensure every employee is invested in the meeting topic. Asking everyone their thoughts will lead to better results rather than allowing one dominant employee to take over.    

Arrange an action plan that must be completed within 24 hours. People are more likely to contribute results effectively if they are given actions to get started on straight away. Establish a deadline during the meeting and after the meeting send attendees a follow-up email to reinforce this. Delegating separate tasks to employees will help work to be completed faster make it clear that once they are given the task in the meeting, it is up to them how they complete it.  

Debriefing is an effective way of making continuous improvements to meetings. Have employees discuss what they thought was beneficial and what wasn’t. Ask successful teams to debrief their work structure as well as the process they took to achieve results. Incorporate this structure into future projects and meetings as this will be an effective way to create better results every time.   

Meetings are important and when organised correctly, can be a fantastic tool in delivering the best results for each task and project. Following these tips will ensure you are using meeting time effectively to produce positive and constructive outcomes every time.

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​Do you have an employee who seems to be taking more days off than average? Or are some out of the workplace more frequently during holiday time? If you can relate to this, your workers may be taking advantage of ’sick leave’ in your company, something that has been increasing more in companies. Employees are entitled to take time off when they are too sick to work, but action needs to be taken sooner rather than later when a pattern begins to emerge.  Here are some tips on how to deal with employees who like to play the sick card a little too often.

Create a Policy for Sick Leave
Hold a meeting with all employees and inform any new recruits that the policy for sick leave is taken seriously in the workplace. If employees are off on a Friday and Monday then they must produce a medical letter and this is the same for taking “sick days” straight before or after annual leave. Let them know that the consequence for breaching this policy is that potential sick days will be treated as unpaid leave. Employees will be less likely to take time off when there is the chance that they won’t get paid because of it.  

Ask for their Workplace Abilities
Employers have the right to details on each employee’s abilities and limitations before granting them any time off due to an illness or disability. Employers can ask for this information during the hiring process so they can modify work or office set-up for potential workers with an illness or a disability. Employees are less likely to take time off if you have tailored the workplace to their needs and will feel more valued within the company, increasing their work motivation. When hiring new recruits, make sure to find out their medical requirements as well as their work experience.    

Double check for Clarification
Some employees may exaggerate their condition to get more days off. If you feel an employee might be doing this, obtain a list of the restrictions they claim to have and write to their doctor for clarification. If the doctor confirms the employee to be medically sound and able to perform the tasks in question, inform the staff member that they must complete these from now on. Hold a meeting to give the worker a warning and enforce that any days off they have will be closely monitored.

Make any Necessary Changes
If an employee continually takes the same day off every week, say a Friday, call a private meeting to  establish if there is any reason in particular for the absences. If the employee is honest and explains that it’s because of a personal problem, for example a hospital appointment, try and work around this. Make arrangements to help your employee take the necessary time off while still getting work done.  Options include altering the employee's working hours slightly or offering a day to work from home if company policy allows. 
Dealing with the abuse of sick leave can be tricky to sort out but is important to tackle the issue, as it will disrupt your business in the long run. Assess employees absences on a regular basis to try and combat issues before they get out of hand.  

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Whether it’s a snowstorm, hurricane or downpour of rain, mother nature can strike at any time or place. No matter what form it comes in, severe weather brings challenges to all companies. Even though it can be difficult to balance the safety of your employees with the needs of your company, it’s important to be prepared when faced with weather-related issues.
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With the country grinding to a standstill as the Beast from the East hits, it’s important that you start preparations to ensure employee safety. You may not be able to control the weather but there are steps that can be taken during severe conditions to manage your workforce and avoid a work-related tornado from happening in your office.

Implement a weather policy
Making all employees aware of the effects that dangerous weather has on your company before it happens is a good way to manage your workforce. It’s important to have a weather policy in place to make employees aware of the company procedures before severe weather conditions happen and will avoid any possible confusion they may have. ‘A stitch in time saves nine’ is the mantra here.

Out of office communication
How can you let your employees know if you’re open or closed? It’s quick and easy to send out a mass email informing the workforce what’s happening or you can inform them through social media. Whether it be a tweet or a website update, make sure to let your workforce know what is happening as soon as possible. Don’t forget about clients either, for example, if you have a client who is expecting work on the day the company is closed, don’t leave them out in the cold - literally, message or phone them to keep them updated.

If possible, in your line of work, ask employees to work from home. This is an option increasingly being used by businesses as many employees can access work from their laptop. Solutions such as Google Drive,  Microsoft 365, Slack and Zoom make this option easier than ever. To ensure employees are completing the work they must send you an email when they start their tasks and include a list of what they are working on. You should implement this into your company policy so that workers are already aware that they are not to take advantage of the chance to work out of the office. Employees working from home will keep your company running smoothly while making sure that they remain safe.

Consider health and safety rules
As a leader you must take the right steps to ensure the safety of your employees, for example, if an employee drives or takes a long commute into work, the weather may prevent them from doing so safely.

Payment to staff
When it comes to wages, employees should never be left feeling uncertainty about their rights. If an employee makes it to work and has to leave early as the weather worsens, they should still be paid a full day’s work. If you decide to close your office or if the employee can’t get to work at all due to hazardous conditions, they should still be paid. Make it clear that all workers must work from home. Using Tracking Time or Google Calendar are good ways for you to keep track of what your employee is working on at the exact time they start and finish each task.
There are very few working contracts that state employees who cannot get into work because of the weather will lose a day's pay. Employees have statutory protection against an unauthorised deduction being made from their wages without their consent and deducting pay could potentially be challenged as unlawful under these provisions (the employer could argue that there was no entitlement to pay as no work was done, this can be resolved with the working from home option.)

Even though these circumstances may be costly, the benefits of still paying your workers outweigh the benefits of not paying them. This is because staff will feel more appreciated, increasing their overall productivity.

School closures
Be understanding of your employees who have parental duties, they may need to seek alternative childcare methods if nurseries and schools are closed. Allow them the time off to sort out the problem. They will appreciate your understanding and will be more motivated when returning to work.
If the school closure is announced first thing in the morning and alternative childcare arrangements cannot be made, this could be seen as constituting an emergency situation and employees may have to take the day off. As an employer, you have the right to not pay your employee but you should treat this in the same way as when the employee can’t travel in and still pay them, as they will appreciate this and be more motivated.

Acknowledging employees who make it into the office  
Employees who have battled into work, against the odds, may resent the fact that others made less effort. Ideally, the employees' efforts should not go unnoticed, although days off in lieu or other financial rewards are unlikely.
Acknowledging their efforts by organising a staff lunch to show your appreciation can go a long way to making them feel appreciated. However, it's important that all employers carefully observe weather warnings and let employees leave when appropriate to avoid any treacherous travel conditions on the way home. You must never ask staff to disregard official weather and travel advice.
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The unpredictable nature of weather conditions will impact a business differently depending on the location and nature of the company. By taking a consistent approach and using digital methods to your advantage, you can ensure that your business is not massively affected by the freezing ‘Beast from the East’
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