The end of lockdown presents an opportunity for many more businesses to open their doors again and start trading, but it also presents significant challenges in terms of managing staff. Sarah Loates, owner of Loates HR Consultancy who works closely with Leicestershire’s Business Gateway growth hub, predicts some difficult times ahead.
“We’re finding that many small businesses are experiencing a lot of what we call ‘HR pain’ as they emerge from lockdown” says Sarah, “staff who’ve been working throughout the lockdown are suffering from burn-out. Staff returning from furlough and taking their accrued annual leave create a feeling of unfairness for those employees who continued working. So managers need to manage team dynamics pro-actively and empathetically.”
The pressure of maintaining performance levels is also a challenge. The performance of some staff has deteriorated during Covid either due lack of motivation, poor wellbeing or because they have started to re-evaluate their priorities. When managers who are not adequately trained in HR attempt to performance manage these employees, problems can arise. When a manager attempts to performance manage an underperforming employee, this can lead to allegations of bullying. This situation is not helped when reviews are held remotely rather than face to face.
There are other challenges too: how to manage a hybrid team with a mix of office or factory-based working and home working. On top of this there is the end of furlough in September when employers will be expected to pay the full cost of their staff or manage the redundancies of employees they no longer need nor can afford. “A key aspect of redundancy is planning” says Sarah Loates; “companies should be planning any restructure or redundancies now and consulting with their workforce. There is a lot of employment law that will trip up employers if they’re not ready and the earlier the action, the increased likelihood redundancies can be avoided.”
Any SME that is planning to grow, because of the pent up demand, also faces challenges – remotivating workers who have re-evaluated what’s important to them, and recruiting new staff. “Recruitment is horrendous at the moment, to be honest. We’re in what we call a tight labour market so there’s overdemand and lack of supply particularly in hospitality but also finance, IT, web design and creative” adds Sarah Loates, “employers really have to stand out now to attract that top talent.”
To address these issues and support SMEs throughout the recovery after Covid, the Business Gateway has commissioned Loates HR Consultancy to deliver a two-part course entitled ‘HR Essentials for SMEs’ starting this week and concluding on 18 August.
Many of Leicestershire’s SMEs do not have HR professionals in their management teams and so the responsibility for people usually rests with a finance manager or office manager as an extra duty. “This is the reality for a small business and we understand that,” says Loates, “the course is aimed at those people to help them avoid some of the pitfalls because an inability to address HR issues affects a business’ ability to deliver.”
Like all Business Gateway courses, HR Essentials for SMEs is delivered at no cost to businesses in Leicestershire. Part 1 is on 11 August 10.00am-13.00pm and part 2 is on 18 August 14.00pm-17.00pm. Book your place here: https://bit.ly/3gZ5wS7
