First day back and only 4% of Senior Execs think HR is highly effective? WHAT?

Having worked in the HR software field for some time now, I was very disappointed to see the findings of a recent global survey sponsored by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The study found only 4% of the senior business executives surveyed thought their HR function was 'highly effective' in addressing the needs of the business. 

60% of respondents described HR’s capabilities as “adequate but needing improvement,” and another 30% said “significant improvement” is required.

I wonder how busy those senior executives will be today, on the first day back after a Christmas break.  Their HR colleagues will be flat out, trying to simultaneously compile last year’s End of Year Staff Holiday Report whilst already juggling the first holiday requests for 2017.

What the senior execs fail to appreciate, as they glance through the HR reports, is all the hassle that the HR team endured in order to deliver a seemingly smooth performance, and all the challenges HR dealt with that went unnoticed, not in the report because potential problems were averted.

Staff holiday planning is a good example.  If there has been no leave crisis in that senior exec's team that year, it's probably because someone in HR spent time treading a delicate balance to keep everyone happy, motivated and most importantly ensured adequate leave cover.   What seems insignificant took time and effort.

These battles are no better illustrated than on the first day back to work, as staff argue, race and cajole in order to secure the best holiday dates.  HR will be the judge, peace-keeper and will have to regulate the in-house arguments over who placed their request first, who deserves the best dates and why as the excuses mount up.  

The admin burden is just as tiresome - and it seems, wholly unappreciated.  According to data from top auditors, 80% of HR Managers have to use paper forms, spreadsheets or an office wall planner, even though leave planning software has existed for years now (Activ Absence is in its 10th year).  

Note to senior colleagues: HR cannot perform miracles on a shoestring without the tools to do the job.  

Paper is messy, important data is often lost and reporting is time consuming and disjointed. Spreadsheets often result in lost data due to human error, PC crashes and confusion.

Change is overdue and most HR practitioners are calling for it, indeed Activ Absence saw a huge rise of enquiries from HR Managers in December.  Our customers range from employing 5 staff to 5000, and we are used to working with HR professionals across all types of organisations, including charities, SME's, blue chips and start ups.  

We have the utmost respect for HR professionals because we see first hand the difference their contribution makes to the workplace.  In fact, we take pride in being able to help most of them - and if we can’t help or meet their needs, we’ll tell them that honestly. 

However, the main challenge for HR is not in finding a software provider like us, but in persuading senior execs that the profession makes a massive difference to the business, and is worthy of investment in software.  

It doesn't inspire confidence when HR reads their colleagues 'don’t think HR supports the business well enough’.   

Perhaps senior execs, in their technology rich specialities, could take a walk in HR shoes for a day and see exactly what it's like to be managing as best you can without the aid of technology and it seems without the support of your colleagues.

My New Year message to the unsung heroes of HR, is we’re among the 4% who appreciate the huge difference you make, and we will strive to keep supporting you.  

Have a fantastic 2017 everyone.

Could double ‘Black Fridays’ impact staff productivity in Welsh SMEs?

In Wales, Black Friday is the last Friday before Christmas, and the most popular night for office parties.

It’s thus called because historically, miners coming out of the pits covered in coal (and therefore black) would hit the town for a drink after work. As time has passed, the tradition is endemic in many Welsh industries, but spare a thought for the emergency services who find it incredibly hard.

This year is looking particularly challenging – with double the usual challenges.  That’s because many business owners are unwilling to hit the town on the Friday before Christmas Eve, so many of the parties have been booked the week before – however, most of the staff seem so far to be regarding this as an ‘extra night’ of partying and have made their own plans for the following week.

Trying to make plans for our own team meal was challenging – everywhere on both days was full, and that was before the end of October.  A friend who owns a bar in Cardiff is rubbing his hands with glee!

Whilst it’s indeed, great for hospitality, as an HR Software specialist, I see the other side of workplace Christmas parties.

On the day itself, HR sees increased holiday requests to get ready early, and hit the beer before the rest.  It’s easier if you have HR software with a built in leave planner, like Activ Absence, because you can restrict leave during busy periods using the system.  However, that’s not a common scenario in Wales.

Doing it over the phone or with a wall planner, faced with 10 leave requests all at once, lots of pleading faces, and 10 sob stories, managers can easily feel overwhelmed and just give in, leaving the office short staffed, or say no to some, leading to accusations of nepotism and a bad atmosphere when everyone is supposed to be socialising.

Then, after the party, there’s almost always fallout.  The faux pas, the post-party photos on social media, the well-intentioned teasing that got out of hand, incidents, allegations and alcohol fuelled arguments - the scenarios that mean HR rarely relax at staff parties.

Even if managers get through all that unscathed, Black Friday almost always heralds the start of a winding down at work that can escalate into further sickies, poor performance and a general lack of care among those who have to work up until Christmas Eve.

Normally, we are only talking a day or two, but with most Welsh businesses hitting the town a week earlier than normal, there’s a full week of potential low productivity followed by, in many cases, more partying at the end of it – I doubt there will be many minds focused on work in the week in between – and then, on the next party Friday, it starts all over again.

For managers, it doesn’t end there.

After the Christmas break, there’s more people-challenges because it’s a new Annual Leave Year.

Tech can really help here, but there are only a few SMEs who have invested in absence management software in Wales (it’s a different story over the border).

While all the other staff are chatting about what they had for Christmas, HR will therefore have the annual joy of merging spreadsheets and manually calculating the end of year leave report, deciding who can carry what over to the next year, who did and didn’t use all their holiday and what next year’s leave allowances are for every member of staff.  These annual leave calculations can be complex for part time workers, and it typically takes 4 or 5 days in organisations with 100 staff or more.

Of course, not everyone has an HR Manager – small business owners are often left to figure it out themselves.  They, too, would really benefit from a system like Activ Absence which takes some of the pressure off at this challenging time of year. A new appraisals system is also probably on their wish list, so that when appraisals meetings start, usually at the end of January, they aren’t passing bits of paper to and fro and are actually delivering performance reviews that deliver improved performance!

There are lots of new rules expected for 2017, especially about contractors, pay rates etc. expected over the next 12 months and a looming Brexit, so without an easy way of communicating staff policy handbooks using software, managers could also be facing a long wait at the Photocopier.

For those managers who don’t get Santa’s software wishlist, this December is  harder than most – so we hope that staff will not judge them too harshly if they aren’t celebrating quite so loudly as everyone else.

As for those who are reading this thinking “I will do better next year”, it is still possible to get cloud based HR software in place by 1st January – and it costs less than you may think.

Either way, I wish the people who keep welsh businesses running a very Merry Christmas, and hope you escape the double Black Friday unscathed.

Here’s to a prosperous 2017 (and a Six Nations win) for Wales!

Adrian Lewis

HR in October - the calm before the perfect storm

My colleague came into work this morning telling me that her car’s warning light for ice had come on during her journey to work, as the temperatures outside hit below 4 degrees.

Looking out of the window you’d never believe it, it’s a beautifully sunny day – but winter is fast approaching, along with the end of the annual leave year. It’s usually the time of year when software providers see an influx of enquiries from businesses keen to get new staff holiday planning and performance review software in place for the new leave year.

 I absolutely recommend anyone thinking about putting in a cloud based leave planner for January 2017 book a demo now, because getting everyone in the business on board can take longer than you think, and we know from experience that the end of year is a stressful time for HR Managers. October and early November represents the calm before the storm.

Come mid November, in companies where leave can’t be carried forward, staff get the heebie jeebies because they haven’t used all their holiday entitlement. It’s often only absent mindedness rather than deliberate, but nobody wants to lose their annual leave if they can’t carry it over.

They obviously can’t all take time off at the same time, so its a leave request race – and where clashes follow, particularly when there is a ‘no carryover’ policy, the HR Manager is like Solomon, stepping in to try and make as fair a decision as possible without leaving the business short staffed.

It’s a challenging time anyway, for other reasons. HR are often busy dealing with the seasonal fallout that follows a flurry of office parties – workplace scandals, disagreements that get fuelled by alcohol, social media challenges, staff turning up hungover and staff not turning up at all – and trying to find replacement cover at short notice.

As if they already don’t have enough to deal with, ‘flu season kicks in.  You’ll usually find the HR Manager sniffling their way through the day, unable to take time off when they are themselves unwell, because they simply have too much to do!

When they finally settle down in front of their Christmas Dinner, HR managers will have justified every penny of their whole year’s salary in one month, but those who don’t have a system in place will face a bigger horror when they return – the end of year annual leave report.

 All of this adds up to a very stressful period, and one that will be made worse if you’ve left it until December to start booking absence management software demonstrations.

We are here to help, and here to advise our customers – if you want new software for the next annual leave year, contact us before the storm starts to bite, and we’ll do what we can to help make next winter a little less painful.

Exciting news - Activ People HR plans to attend the first All Wales CIPD Conference

The Activ People HR Team are very excited to be invited to attend the very first All Wales CIPD conference this Friday and Saturday in Cardiff, at which the CIPD Chief Executive, Peter Cheese, will be speaking.

There's something about meeting people at conference that always makes attending very special - Adrian Lewis explained:

"Conference for us is about networking, meeting people, forging alliances and friendships, and above all else, understanding the HR profession so we can best meet their needs. For the first time, we can do all of that without needing to travel outside our region - amazing!"

National pride? A little, and rightly so - we're proud of our heritage, our Rugby, and now our HR! We'll look forward to seeing you all on Friday.

Flexible working boosts staff performance – so why aren’t we promoting it?

Activ Commercial Director Adrian Lewis has written the following guest blog for HR News:

Flexible working boosts performance – so why aren’t we promoting it?

As the summer holidays start, is your leave planner up to scratch?

As the little ones break up and staff with families are set to head for warmer climates, there's a lot of tension in the air.   Employers have probably noticed their staff eyeing currency movements with anxious eyes, keen to get the best deal as the pound bounces up and down in line with the latest dire post-brexit predictions.

You could be forgiven for thinking that fears about business performance and the need to make a profit have been replaced by bigger fears about economic concerns as the UK sits in a post-brexit shock.

That said, despite the extra concerns, the usual staff leave planning issues still exist for both businesses and staff.

Your staff will also still need to plan their holiday spending, make sure they have passports and visas, and make sure they pack enough sunscreen -a lesson one of our staff members learned the hard way earlier this year!  The world may be more uncertain, but the basics haven't changed.

It's the same for businesses - the issues that were affecting UK businesses before the brexit decision and recent terror attacks have not gone anywhere and UK businesses still need to tackle them, if anything the new period of economic uncertainty makes tackling them even more critical.

Having an adequate leave planner is still a massive issue for the UK, with even huge businesses relying on spreadsheets, wall planners and paper forms to manage annual leave.

This inevitably leads to staff holiday clashes, frustration, syintetressed co-workers and often a big agency bill to cover the leave.

The HR Manager overseeing the process often finds themselves asked to make judgement calls on who can take annual leave, when, often with the wisdom of solomon.  They can find themselves constantly interrupted with annual leave queries and berated by angry staff if they feel a decision is unfair.

It doesn't have to be like that.  Simply changing the staff holiday management process to one using the latest online technology saves businesses time and money, and staff are often enthusiastic about the technology because they can request leave anywhere, even at weekends, on their smartphones.

One leading provider, Activ Absence, also uses the same technology to manage sick leave, enabling managers to plan staff holiday, tackle absenteeism and improve staff engagement all at the same time with one handy online application.

Adrian Lewis, Commercial Director explained how it works:

“With our online system, staff see their own leave entitlement and can request leave in 2 clicks from any device, even a smartphone, and their line manager, who can see who else is off at that time in the email, approves or rejects an annual leave request in one click. Staff love it, and it's visibly fair.

"We use the same module to manage sickness absence, with a return to work process built in, and users have the option to add on an appraisals and training system, automated staff handbook and document management system.   Staff love how easy it is to use and managers enjoy the simplicity.

"Finance managers, on the other hand, are mostly impressed with the cost savings against a manual system, which are an unexpected side-benefit for most businesses."

Users of the system include one of the UK's largest travel businesses, creative teams, recruitment agencies, NHS teams, charities, schools, local councils, engineering companies and financial institutions.  Users seem full of praise:

“Activ Absence has transformed the way we manage holiday & sickness absence.  It has freed up my time dramatically and is a very welcome addition to our company."

Heather Turner, HR Manager, William Turner & Son

Lewis says the system will work for any organisation:

"We recommend the system for organisations with 40-4000 staff, although in practice we have organisations ranging from 3-5000 staff using the system, in over 30 countries worldwide, with different leave allowances calculated for each country."

In a post-brexit climate, fraught with economic concerns, whilst we are far from business as usual, Europe or not, there is never a bad time to look at improving business processes.

Staff holiday planning sounds a good place to start - why not start here?

‘Tackling absence? It’s all about reporting!’ say absence management experts.

There is much to celebrate for absence management software experts Codel, who this week celebrate 10 years of helping UK and international businesses tackle absence challenges with their software, Activ Absence.

It’s been a massive year for the team, whose 10th anniversary coincides with their best ever year which has seen turnover double and the company’s welsh workforce triple. They now have thousands of users in 33 countries – and growing.


Absence management expert and Commercial Director Adrian Lewis explained why the company has proved so successful:    Keep Reading

Nerves of Steel for HR in Wales

Adrian Lewis, Commercial Director for Welsh HR software company Activ Absence, shares his thoughts on the steel industry crisis affecting South Wales:

As a South Wales businessman, living in Neath, I have many friends working both directly and indirectly for the steel plants in Port Talbot and Trostre in Llanelli – so like many others in the region, I have everything crossed and am hoping that the current bidders are able to save as many South Wales jobs as possible.

Whoever buys the plants, one thing is clear, a reported £1 million a day loss (i) is not sustainable and the new business owners will be scrutinising every single area of the business to look for new ways to save money, both hi-tech and old fashioned.  The new owners will face some tough decisions and if it saves money, it will be up for discussion.

The good news for the region is that even saving some jobs is better than than none at all, and a buyer will secure the plants’ future, at least for now.

Whilst the financial pressures on home grown steel are especially challenging, the pressure to cut costs and improve productivity and profitability are universal.

SMEs and PLCs across the UK face similar challenges, and it appears our organisations are not equipped to meet them.  Research this April (ii) revealed a UK workforce hindered by complexity, unnecessary administration and poor performing technology.  In fact, 82 percent of respondents claimed to be struggling to complete their daily tasks due to unnecessary complexity.

The report concluded that out of date tech and unnecessary admin is costing the UK £60 billion every year - putting Tata’s alleged losses into perspective.  They also noted that employees were disengaged and viewed as commodities rather than valuable assets and called for a need to create people-centric environments, investment in technology and a reduction in unnecessary admin in order to solve the current crisis.

It’s certainly a report that rang true with me – just using spreadsheets in HR instead of software can cost a business with 200 staff £5,900 a year – it’s a silent cost, because the wages get paid no matter what staff do.  It’s only when managers analyse how much time is being spent on sickness and holiday administration and unchecked absence that managers get a nasty wake up call.

Managers also often don’t consider the cost of sick days, which are often higher when there is less visibility.  Some reports even estimate the true cost of sickness absence to be as high as 30% of payroll. (iii)

Whilst we are experts at reducing HR admin costs, imagine that level of wasted time and effort across the business as a whole.  That may explain why the UK has among the lowest rates of productivity in Europe.

As the report shows, the problem isn’t people, it’s processes, poor technology support, internal politics, and unrealistic workloads, all of which also has an impact on customer service, which some plcs then seek to resolve by outsourcing telephone support to India (in many cases leaving their customers even more unhappy).

Interestingly, whilst the total cost was £60 Billion, the report found that if the UK reduced time wasting at work by one hour, per week, per UK employee – the UK could save £21.4 billion almost instantly.  That makes sobering reading.

It also concluded that improving employee engagement was vital, both to combat a climate of high employment and to meet the UK’s productivity challenge.  The report claimed that investing in technology would in most cases reduce admin and improve engagement in one fell swoop.

It’s great to see research backing up what we’ve been saying for years, that cumbersome manual admin leads to mistakes and disengaged staff.  Improved technology in our experience improves efficiency, employee engagement and communication.  UK plc simply must leave its comfort zone of out of date folders, paper forms, unnecessary admin, wall planners and spreadsheets and invest in technology that saves money in both the short and long term.

Of course, the steel industry has far bigger challenges and like everyone else in the region, I’m nervously holding my breath and praying for a good outcome for my home town.

In the face of huge global instability, EU uncertainty and a global steel crisis, an extra £60 billion in the UK economy would be a welcome boost.

(i) https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/mar/30/tata-steels-british-plants-must-be-sold-within-weeks
(ii) http://hrnews.co.uk/uk-businesses-wasting-60-billion-year-unnecessary-admin/
(iii) http://www.kronos.com/ads/absence/38/Kronos_absence_out_sick.pdf

10 Years of Being a People-Person in the world of Cloud Based HR software

10 Years of Being a People-Person

Old age is good, and whilst I won’t tell you how many birthdays I’ve had, our company is ten this year.  I’m proud to be here and to have a great team of people who work for us.  In fact, life in general is good, the first major holiday of the season kicked us into Spring last weekend – and we finally have the sunny weather in Wales to match (which I can assure you has been a long time coming!)

As the individual who manages staff holiday planning in our business, I can testify that a little bit of sunshine does wonders for increasing leave requests.  I’m luckier than most – as Commercial Director of a software business that offers cloud based leave planning and absence management software, I’m able to approve or reject leave requests with a single click.

I haven’t forgotten the old days of spreadsheets though, and I’m always impressed by HR Managers who still juggle spreadsheets and paper forms.  They somehow manage the intrusive phone calls and resolve the annual leave disputes without dropping any balls!  In a digital age with online calendars, where even birthdays are managed with Facebook reminders, its a little concerning that many of our largest businesses use spreadsheets and paper to manage holiday, leaving HR Managers stressed and with little or no analytics. Read More...