Today even small businesses consisting of no more than a few employees, are required to observe a variety of employment laws and regulations.

Once things go wrong, putting them right can often prove expensive; both in terms of the financial costs involved, and just as importantly, due to the overall negative affect on the workforce.

Legal Requirements

There are numerous laws and regulations that place requirements on employers to treat employees and job candidates reasonably and without discriminating between and/or against them. Ignorance of, or deliberate breach of these laws can be costly.

Direct Financial Risks

Failure to manage the people aspects of a business effectively therefore exposes the organisation to unnecessary financial costs through fines and/or legal fees.  In some areas of employment law; sex and race discrimination for example, there are no limits to the fines that the law can impose.

Indirect Financial Risks

More difficult to manage and control are the indirect costs associated with managing an alienated workforce. These include increased management time and effort, rising absenteeism, and declining employee performance.

We can help you manage these risks effectively and efficiently.

Managing the Risks: the Defensive Approach

One approach to managing these risks is to ensure that your business has all the necessary policies and procedures in place and that your managers and supervisors are fully trained to implement them.

This approach of ensuring your defences are sound and robust will certainly reduce your level of risk and therefore the amount of costly fire-fighting you have to engage in.

Managing the Risks: the Strategic Approach

However, your organisation may also benefit from a more strategic approach; one that places the positive development of your people at the centre of your approach to managing people  risks and developing your business.

Establishing an organisational culture, supported by appropriate people strategies that focus on: people development; recognition; the provision of feedback and rewarding success; will not only help you grow your business, but will significantly reduce the need for defensive action and the costs associated with it.

Our track record

The other pages in this series, taken together provide an overview of our work in this area. Most recently and specifically we are advising a new start-up business on establishing appropriate HR procedures in order to minimise their HR risks as cost effectively as possible manner.