The Business Exchange Bath & Somerset Issue 11: Spring 2019 | Page 24

Helping people excel at what they do naturally Behavioural profiling to help you, your team or organisation harness natural talent and build long-term success. C-me is a profiling tool with a difference – it focuses on getting to grips with our own preferred behaviour (not personality) and communication style, before looking at how we can choose to adapt to improve our relationships with those we work with. We know that time is of the essence, so the online questionnaire takes only minutes to complete, but the report is rich with insights that will help you achieve tangible results, fast. C-me uses the language of colour to bring the data to life in a highly visual and memorable way – making it easy to apply. We understand that many of us work at a fast pace and tackle the pressure of a competitive marketplace on a daily basis – so C-me also provides the tools to explore the triggers that may lead to stress, identify our default behaviours under pressure and create an environment where individuals can recover and learn from set-backs quickly. As Simon mentions (right) – it’s about openly embracing both our strengths and weaknesses. At C-me we continue to work with businesses to build a culture where both individuals and businesses thrive; where key talent wants to stay, where innovation is encouraged, relationships with suppliers and partners are strengthened and where we can leverage diversity of thought and approach. Attend our Free C-me Taster Brunch on May 8th in Bath or book a Discovery Meeting with one of our team to receive your own free High Performance Profile Report (RRP£99). To find out more, contact [email protected] or visit the website: www.colour-profiling.com Also, come and see us at the Bath Business Expo 21st March, (www.bathexpo.co.uk) Assembly Rooms, Bath. “We were incredibly proud to rank Sunday Times number one place to work in the South West 2018. One of the main reasons for our high levels of staff engagement, we think, is the importance we place on personal development. C-me has become an indispensable tool for Forrest Brown’s professional development framework. It helps staff get on and quickly learn how to collaborate with one another. The leadership team also get a better understanding of what motivates and what drains their direct reports. We have taken C-me right into the heart of what we do. Everybody’s different. People interact better with one another when they know their colleagues’ communication preferences. That has become the foundation of managing and supporting individuals within our teams. Increasingly it’s becoming something we use to also structure team-building and out-of-office development initiatives. Celebrating our differences, openly embracing strengths and weaknesses. Not only is it the right thing to do, it just works.” Simon Brown, Managing Director, Forrest Brown www.forrestbrown.co.uk Should you be embracing tech to manage your employees? by Jo Kangurs, Keystone HR Are you still using a spreadsheet to record information about your employees? Are you storing everything in a filing cabinet? Can you access information about your employees on the move? Having worked in businesses without any form of HR management software I know it can make carrying out administrative processes much longer and more complicated than they need to be; time which could be much better spent on growing the business and developing the people who work in it. With advances in technology making HR software more user friendly and, importantly affordable, many businesses, large and small, are now seeing the benefits of using these types of platforms to help them more effectively manage their people. What does HR Software do? Essentially, it is a technology that compiles all HR management systems into one centralised location. These typically include: 24 THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2019 • Employee directory - detailing all personal and employment data e.g. address, salary information, shift patterns, job history. • Absence management - to monitor sickness absence levels and annual leave. Many platforms offer a ‘self-service’ function allowing employees to request holiday and update personal information electronically. • Training and development – to record training undertaken by employees and identify any development needs. • Reporting – to identify trends and e.g. patterns sickness absence. By combining the different aspects of HR and recruitment admin into one place, it enables businesses to see a complete overview of the business, improving decision making and streamlining previously long-winded processes. So, if you still haven’t invested in HR software for your business here is why I think you should start considering it. 1. It saves time HR software will automate the time- consuming tasks that you hate doing e.g. calculating holiday allowances, meaning you have more time to focus on what you do best, running your business. 2. Everything is available, at a glance and wherever you are. Having relevant data immediately available whenever you want or need it makes decision-making easy. On the flip side, poor decision-making can happen when the information you are looking at is out of date or inadequate. 3. Helps develop your staff HR software can help you keep track of the training courses your employees have attended as well as recording development needs, appraisals and agreed objectives. 4. Provides secure document management For too long businesses have kept all their sensitive employee data in a filing cabinet but how secure is that filing cabinet? Who has access to it? With modern HR software, all the information you store is extremely secure and you can set permissions on who can access what information. Although HR software alone cannot guarantee your compliance with GDPR, it can certainly help you undertake the tasks you need to in order to remain compliant, removing a lot of the margin for error and reducing the admin burden. The other added benefit to storing all your documents within cloud-based HR software is the knowledge that all your data is safe from any disasters such as a flood or fire. As long as you have a computer (or mobile device) you can still access your data. 5. Supports leave and sickness monitoring Properly managing absence is essential when running a small business. Having a problem with sickness absences or a rush of annual leave can be crushing to a small team. With HR software you can implement more careful holiday planning and know the data behind absence. Even more than being a glorified calendar, good HR software will also calculate pro-rata entitlements, keep track of remaining leave and manage all holiday requests. If you are considering investing in HR software for your business and would like to discuss the benefits and options available in more detail, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Email: [email protected] For more info: www.keystonehr.co.uk