Anita Baldwin’s Post

Here’s an easy one for a (patchy) sunny Friday afternoon. I’m constantly gobsmacked by how many people I speak to who NEVER have these.

Here are 5 things companies do that hold their staff (and ultimately their profits) back....... 1. Believe that as all staff have a job title, they know exactly what to do in their job. 2. Buy the excuse that Managers are too busy doing their jobs to have regular meetings with every member of their teams. If there's a problem, the team member will speak up right? 3. Don't provide an opportunity to praise individuals and recognise good work - they get pay, they don't need a pat on the back too do they??? 4. Assume that as you've sent an all staff email about something important, it's officially out there, understood and being acted on. 5. Put new initiatives in place and leave Managers to follow through. You've given them the instructions - it's not your job to implement. You need to move onto the next project. If you are doing any of these things in your business and would like to find out how easy it is to change it, message me. At RPO Global we have proof that NOT doing these things and doing it a bit differently, impacts the bottom line faster than you think. What else would you add to this list that you've seen in places you've worked?

What was your first ever job? I worked in the cafe of a garden centre as a Saturday job from the age of 14. I worked from 9am until 6pm and at the end of the day I got a brown packet with £15 in it. It was hard work but we got unlimited cake (not sure this was an actual policy!) and had a great laugh. Even though I don’t drink coffee, the smell of filter coffee is one I love and I think it’s because it reminds me of The Bunnery. What did you do?

Some things I’ve learned about small businesses and why I’ll never go back to working for a large corporate again. 1. Working for a small business allows you to be more entrepreneurial - you aren’t pidgeon holed into one box. 2. Small businesses are more agile - at RPO Global we are able to make changes or add development that truly suits our clients. Particularly as we have an in house tech team. Where Corporates would still be reviewing the slide deck and use case, we’ve scoped, developed, delivered and delighted our clients! 3. You have to be lean. We literally don’t have swathes of people to do things which makes us lean and ultimately better in my humble opinion…. 4. Relationships. I once worked for a bank who got taken over by a larger bank. One of the first things they did was disband the customer complaints team because they genuinely didn’t care! Our clients are all important to us because we’re not big enough not to care. That means they become like colleagues and often friends which suits me much better. 5. Being a small business (and based all around the world) we have to have a high level of trust in each other. Any one of us falling could cause serious problems so we are there to support each other. In fact, I have never worked with such supportive colleagues than at RPO Global! 6. Last but not least, FUN! We work hard, we genuinely care about what we do, we support each other and we have a good laugh. We go out for ice cream, we put silly filters on our zoom meetings and we share stories. It’s never dull! Work is about so much more than earning money and at my age, I’ve had good jobs, bad jobs (mainly bad bosses actually) and a lot in between. All of the above is important to me and I feel lucky to have found it. Whats important to you at work? Marsha Quailey Cherie Concannon Alex Luckett Kye Wright

How much of your time do you spend at work or thinking about work? As a percentage? I’d say mine is about 75% which is fine because we’re small, we’re growing at an amazing rate and we are completely empowered by Cherie Concannon. It’s the dreaming up new ways to be better that I enjoy! This is also one of the questions we ask all of our clients when we take them through our Growth POPs. We also make sure they ask all their teams too or sometimes we run a workshop to deliver this. This and the other questions we take teams through is usually a revelation to them. It’s actually pure senior coaching delivered to front line staff who have never been asked to think like this before. And guess what? They all love it. It helps them to see why they do what they do, for who they do it for and how important they are as individuals and as a team. Part of empowering all your workers is talking. And listening. If you’d like some help creating self directed, empowered and motivated workers at the front line, message me and we can have a chat. It’s not as hard as you think and it feels great to make people happier! Tell me in the comments, what percentage of your time you spend at or thinking about work.

Feedback is a gift….. Do you feel this way? Sometimes it can be hard to take because it can make you feel like you’re not doing the right thing or being appreciated. But none of us are the finished article so imagine if you could tap into a way to find out what you’re doing well and what bits you could do with working on? Not just your manager’s opinion either. But your peers and juniors. Believe me when I tell you, it’s so valuable. Have you ever completed a 360 review? Happy to tell you more about ours if you are interested. It’s probably most useful when a whole team do it which is what happened in the one below. Told you I loved feedback…..!! RPO Global

If you could improve ONE thing about how you communicate, what would it be? This is the question Cherie Concannon is kicking off with today and the answers are interesting. What would your answer be? #ExpertsInPeoplePerformance RPO Global Kye Wright Marsha Quailey

Tell me…… Do you have an annual engagement survey and appraisal in your business? What are the completion levels? How hard is it to ‘get them done?’ What kind of quality do you get? As an HR Professional, do you and your team spend way too long chasing them (there’s always one department right??!!). Would you be impressed if we told you that 100% of our clients get a completion rate of 90% or higher? Or would it be more impressive if we told you we do ALL the running round and chasing for you so you and your team can get on with more strategic HR work. Oh, and the depth of data we get is off the scale too. If you’re interested in having a look, drop me a dm.

I’ve had some great ones and some stinkers on my time (including one who sat me down when I burst into tears in his office trying to tell him my Nana had died and I’d need a couple of days off, and made me redundant!!!). I had to learn how to be a good manager though and if I’m honest, it took a while. How about you?

I read a stat the other day that blew my mind……… What percentage of HR Leaders are unhappy with traditional performance reviews? 95% 😮🤯 As an employee, I never found them useful but it was something HR ‘made’ us do. But it seems they hate them too! Do you do one at your work and how do you rate it?