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Remote wellness – How to help employees feel valued

Remote wellness – How to help employees feel valued

By Sinead Connolly|2022-08-31T17:28:14+01:00August 29th, 2022|HR, HR Tips, HR Trends, Leadership, Remote Working, Tips for employers|

In a world where hybrid or 100% remote working is become “The Norm” we all face times where it can affect our personal health and wellbeing. We are aware that social exclusion, loneliness, and poor mental health are strongly correlated. Employees who struggle to communicate effectively at work may feel excluded or alone. According to statistics pulled from numerous mental health surveys, only one in five employees stated that their employer has provided additional mental health services since the start of the pandemic, down from 35 percent 2019 (Pre-Covid). Stigma in the workplace continues to be a significant problem, and employees are having difficulty accessing mental health care. So, how can organisations support mental health? Creating a positive workplace Consider the type of workplace culture you wish to establish. By embracing people from various backgrounds and valuing their differences, you can foster a positive, inclusive workplace atmosphere. Work becomes a positive experience rather than one that is anxious when leaders foster an environment of empathy, optimism, trust, and compassion. Routine check-ins Leads and managers need to increase engagement and build a trusting and open environment where staff feel they can be open and honest about their issues and make them fee “heard”. People have the opportunity to be more open and it lessens stress. This can also give managers the ability to look for stress or deteriorating employee mental health. The manager and other team members' relationship is strengthened by these open chat sessions. Health and wellbeing programmes HR should make sure that mental health therapies [...]

Is your hiring process HOT or NOT?

Is your hiring process HOT or NOT?

By Niamh Kennelly|2018-04-09T09:26:48+01:00August 24th, 2017|HR, Tips for employers|

You’ve advertised a role and have been inundated with applications, great! Surely, you’ll get strong candidates and can pick and choose who you want…right? In an interview process, often we find that it can be the employer who feel they are in charge and leading the interview process. After all, as an employer you are giving a candidate a great opportunity…?Unfortunately, that really isn’t the case, in an increasingly growing and buoyant candidate driven market it is easy to forget that candidates often have several different interviews in a week. These candidates who are in hot demand are being asked to sell whilst simultaneously being sold to. Whilst the interviewer can sell the perks and benefits on why your company is the best company in all the land, is your company and the people you work with selling the benefits? Recently, we had a candidate interviewing for a role within a large, well known company. The interview process involved several stages. All had gone well and the candidate was progressing. However, at the last stage when our candidate was waiting in reception, her initial interviewer passed her, and was not only not recognised but ignored (3 interviews later!). In addition, she was asked at each stage for identifying documents despite providing the required documents on day one. For the candidate, these were deciding factors. She turned down the offer and accepted one from a much smaller company with a shorter contract, but who had a more positive, personal and friendly atmosphere. Take a look at your company. What sort [...]

7 Ways To Foster Your Emotional Intelligence

7 Ways To Foster Your Emotional Intelligence

By Niamh Kennelly|2018-04-09T09:44:40+01:00May 17th, 2017|HR, HR Tips, Leadership, Tips for employers|

According to Emotional Intelligence (EI) expert and author Harvey Deutschendorf, “the realization that E.I. has become an important predictor of job success, even surpassing technical ability, has been growing over the past number of years". Companies are placing a high value on E.I. in new hires for many important reasons. People with high E.I. understand and cooperate with others, they are exceptional listeners, open to feedback, have more empathy, and make thoughtful and thorough decisions. In work, we all regret a time when we have all reacted too quickly to a situation or person and not given ourselves enough time to breathe, think and work out the best possible response. The good news is that we can all work on our level of EI – we can all become more emotionally intelligent and less volatile in the workplace (and in life generally) Here are a few simple tricks to help you on your way 1. Pause. Acknowledge your thoughts and feelings. Clear your mind. After pausing and acknowledging your emotions, your mind will already feel much clearer. Nehad Tadros 2. Breathe Set aside two minutes - relax and breathe deeply. Then write down a couple of potential solutions to your problem. 3. Focus on what you can change When you hit a setback, separate the parts of the situation you can control or influence from the parts you cannot. Focus on what you can influence, and notice how much more confident you feel about overcoming the setback. Dawn Cook 4. Be Friendly and open and smile Chat to people, smile, ask them how [...]

HR Professionals "pining" for Part-Time

HR Professionals "pining" for Part-Time

By Niamh Kennelly|2018-04-30T09:03:04+01:00October 12th, 2016|HR, HR Trends, Tips for employers|

Lately I advertised a role for a part-time HR Business Partner and was inundated with applications from highly qualified, highly credible, highly personable and highly paid HR professionals. The choice of people applying for this role was amazing and completely outstripped the number of quality applicants that I would typically get for a full-time role. Every enquiry in relation to this role started with…."it is so rare to see a part-time role in HR at Business Partner level and above”. Most people I spoke with were comfortable to take a pay cut for the “privilege of part-time work”. In fact, one lady was happy to take a pay-cut of up to 55% for the luxury of a part-time role. The majority of the people I spoke to wanted to continue working in their chosen profession of HR but they also wanted some flexibility and work/life balance. You would think that in this day and age, this would not be too much to ask! .....WRONG And the moral of the story…? To all you employers out there who are planning on hiring a HR professional for your business but have a limited budget? Why not make the role part-time?Hire someone who is more than capable, comfortable and content in this role – and to make the budget work offer it three days a week – not five! People working part-time are often more focused and productive and have also been known to answer the occasional email on their days off! It is a WIN: WIN situation not be overlooked Would [...]

Leadership & Gender – Navigating the Labyrinth

Leadership & Gender – Navigating the Labyrinth

By Niamh Kennelly|2018-04-30T09:05:21+01:00October 12th, 2016|HR, Tips for employers|

This morning I attended a really interesting talk by Dr Melrona Kirrane on the invitation of Hannah Carney (Carney & Associates) and Mount Anville Past Pupil’s Association (MAPPA) MAPPA’s 2016 Network breakfast was on the very interesting topic of "Leadership & Gender - Navigating the Labyrinth". What is abundantly clear is that in Ireland we still have such a long way to go to ensure that women are more fairly represented at senior management levels and above within organisations. While Dr Kirrane provided some very interesting research into the why, she also gave us some great insights into what we, as women, can do in the short term to help the situation and take more control of our careers at both an organisational and personal level. At an organisational level: • Get rid of long hours’ culture • Use hard data for managing performance • Have less reliance on informal networks and referrals to fill roles • Ensure that your organisation has a critical mass of women in executive positions Remember “You can’t be what you can’t see” At a personal level: • Acquire 3 sponsors with influence and clout: have a genuine relationship based on trust and communication • Get networking across three types of networks: operational, personal and strategic • Be politically astute and take credit for the work you are doing • Have presence, Be confident. Believe in yourself • Make your partner a real partner – share the load properly • Don’t leave before you leave • Proceed to be BOLD Thanks so much for [...]