If you missed the original article, you can catch up below:

Tell us a bit about yourself, your background and your current role

As co-founder and COO of Natural HR, my day-to-day role sees me overseeing operations within our 50-person business, as well as juggling my other full-time job as a wife and mum!

I first became an employer in the commercial cleaning industry at the age of 21, which ended up laying the foundations for what became Natural HR — more on that later. I hold a first-class honours degree in business studies and associate CIPD membership, and am incredibly passionate about HR and entrepreneurship.

Did you ever sit down and plan your career?

Not at all. I had a vision for how I wanted my career to pan out, but I didn’t know the detail of how I’d get from A to B – nor that I’d end up in HR software. When I was younger, I loved watching TV shows such as Dragon’s Den and The Apprentice and I wanted to be ‘living’ the business dream. A ‘future life’ started to form in my mind — university, marriage, children, business — but how I got here wasn’t the most conventional of routes.

Have you faced any challenges along the way?

Oh yes, plenty! When I was at university, I read the book ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’, which takes you through the journey from self-employment to business ownership – something which I (wrongly) thought I needed to do for my own growth. What I wish I’d realised sooner, is that I wanted something that was truly mine.

I was 21 when I bought my first company, a very small cleaning firm. One of the biggest challenges with that business was the sheer amount of paperwork I’d receive each week, which led to my husband, Jason (Natural co-founder) – who worked in tech – developing a digital tool for me to manage this wealth of data. It was so good, that we decided to put it online as a free resource to help similar businesses, and Natural HR – although in a very different guise – was born.

In hindsight, we should have made the software into a business when we first created it, but with that comes other challenges, which include spending too long chasing investment, and not finding the right hires – but these things are, often, par for the course.

What one thing do you believe has been a major factor in you achieving success?

Staying true to my original goals and remaining focused on the ‘long game’ without giving up or looking for a quick fix when things got tough.

How do you feel about mentoring? Have you mentored anyone or are you someone’s mentee?

While it’s not something I’ve done before, I’m incredibly passionate about supporting young female entrepreneurs as they embark on their own business journey. I’m actively looking to become more involved in mentorship, so if anyone reading this has any opportunities, please let me know!

If you could change one thing to accelerate the pace of change for gender parity, what would it be?

Affordable childcare that works for parents, particularly working mothers and childcare providers. I firmly believe that we need to support women who choose to return to the workplace after having a child, enabling them to continue to progress in their own careers. After all, there’s very little point in pushing for more women in the boardroom, if we aren’t utilising their talent or maintaining their employment.

If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?

To get started earlier. I thought you needed to do the usual thing of going to university and being self-employed if you wanted to start in business. But, from a chance meeting with Jason on Plenty of Fish, a seed of an idea has blossomed into a successful partnership, strong marriage with two children, and an HR Software company that has 250 customers – supported by £1.6m in investment and 50 colleagues.

What is your next challenge and what are you hoping to achieve in the future?

My next challenge is the same as it’s always been, really – to continue developing Natural HR. I’m really proud of our product and service, and we are continually refining what we offer, in order to remain a disruptor within the HR software space.

The post Inspirational Woman: Sarah Dowzell, COO & co-founder of Natural HR appeared first on Natural HR.

The post 6 tips for payroll success appeared first on Natural HR.

Staff costs are among the most expensive costs for businesses. As such, managing payroll effectively to ensure employees are paid correctly and on time is important in order to maintain morale and productivity.

Payroll can be confusing. From different tax bands and rates of pay to commission payments, bonuses, sick pay and maternity pay; it’s clear that the life of a payroll manager can become increasingly stressful as a business grows and employees more staff.

To boot, it becomes more complex with company growth, multiple locations and employees on different working hours and contracts. As a result, payroll teams will be spending more time handling information, making calculations, checking amounts and generating payslips which is where mistakes can be easily made.

It is worth noting that employers who routinely pay employees incorrectly can face fines and penalties, and could have employee retention issues due to constant payroll issues.

So how can you better manage your payroll process?

Keep track of your employees

While it sounds straightforward, it is imperative to keep track of your employees and their current status: whether on long term sick, in receipt of sick pay, are new parents taking maternity or paternity leave or even if they’re entitled to performance related bonuses or commission payments.

Keeping tabs on your employees can help to minimise any under or overpayment of your employees. This may be a fairly simple task for companies with a relatively small workforce but for those with over 150 employees, it can be a monumental task (particularly if your HR and payroll systems aren’t integrated).

To better manage this, software is the obvious solution. This allows you to record any changes to an employee’s working hours, add sick or maternity/paternity pay entitlement, along with any bonuses or commission payments with ease.

Effective payroll projections

Planning your budget can make all the difference in the management of your payroll. Granted, no business has a crystal ball to see into the future but a solid forecast can ease the strain on your team. Payroll budgets allow you to see what your employee’s cost, including what they earn on a monthly basis regarding their salary, but also when it comes to insurance and tax.

This can help you to make a more informed decision about whether you can afford to hire a new worker or see where you could be making some significant savings.

Effective payroll budgeting considers trends in business, sales peaks and troughs, recruitment initiatives, contractual agreements, compensation plans and much more to provide a rounded idea of how much is being paid, to whom and when.

This will aid your payroll team to prepare for any changes in workload in order to ensure all employees are paid correctly, and free from errors. With this information you can manage and analyse the labour costs across your business, by department or location.

Modernise T&A

If you have employees that regularly complete and submit paper timesheets, use punch cards or shift schedules for their working time; you’ll know just how tenuous calculating payroll can be for these individuals. In any paper-based time-tracking, you place a huge amount of trust in your employees to accurately log their time.

When you consider that 19% of employees have admitted to some form of time theft, the cost impact of erroneous timesheets can be catastrophic.

Modern time and attendance systems can ensure fraudulent submissions or mistakes in the hours worked become less likely. Employees clock in and out via their smartphone, QR code or swipe card and the calculations are handled automatically. Not only will this minimise the risk of any mistakes in pay, but it also saves your employees a whole lot of timesheet admin at the end of the week.

Classify employees correctly

One of the most common causes of errors in pay is the mis-classification of staff. Whether classed as an employee, self-employed worker, contractor or temporary worker that is employed by an agency; making mistakes in the way you classify these in your payroll department can lead to costly mistakes. What’s more, there are significant punishments if you’re found to be classifying your employees incorrectly.

How an employee is categorised usually means there is a difference in pay. Contractors may work 2 days a week on an agreed day rate, whereas an employee is salaried and paid monthly. Furthermore, the way in which employees are classified determines the employments rights that an individual is entitled to receive by law and whether they should be paid through PAYE or by other means.

The HMRC’s online service should always be your first port of call if you are unsure of the manner in which to classify your employees for payroll.

Use payroll software

The very nature of payroll software helps you manage paying your employees more effective. From ensuing your compliance to making sure employee pay is calculate accurately, payroll software helps you to automate tax calculations and submit the required statements to HMRC on time, every time.

What’s more, you can manage your payroll operation from anywhere at any time and your employees will automatically receive payslips, P60s and other relevant documentation. Most good providers offer integrated HR and payroll software so any new starters, leavers or changes in working hours or rates of pay can be actioned by HR and your payroll team will be notified and records updated – all in one simple, easy to use system.

The post 5 ways to better manage payroll in your business appeared first on Natural HR.

In short, outplacement is a way for employers to support employees that are leaving. Often provided to employees that have been affected by redundancy, outplacement services can also support those that are retiring, starting their own business or simply moving on to pastures new.

While there is no legal obligation to provide outplacement, many employers offer employees a range of support that will help them to navigate the job market and find a new role as quickly as possible.

Outplacement can be delivered internally by the departing employee’s organisation, by an external organisation or a combination of both. For many businesses, outplacement is a crucial part of an employee’s lifecycle and ensures any employee that is leaving feels well supported as they progress to the next stage in their career.

As part of outplacement, employees will benefit from a vast range of support from their employer that will help them to navigate the job market and find a new role as quickly as possible.

The format of outplacement can involve one-to-one coaching or group sessions that cover a variety of topics to help outgoing employees in their job search. Topics might include career guidance, job searching skills, CV writing, interview preparation, networking and how to negotiate as a candidate.

So why should you, as an employer, look to provide outplacement as part of your employee lifecycle?

Protect your employer brand and reputation

The advent of sites like LinkedIn and Glassdoor means your employer brand and how you’re perceived externally is more important than ever. Making employees redundant, particularly if it is unexpected, is never easy.

But handling it with the due care, empathy and compassion it deserves and offering outplacement support to your employees makes the chances of you parting ways on good terms a lot more achievable. It also means past employees are more likely to recommend you as a potential employer to their peers, making it easier (and cheaper) for you to attract new talent, when the time comes.

Outplacement can help to protect your brand and reputation as an employer. It can help to externally demonstrate that you care about your employees and will support them during the most difficult of times. Simply put, outplacement sends a very clear message to your remaining employees and the wider general public about how you treat your people, even when you’re letting people go.

Reassures remaining employees and maintains productivity

During times of change within your business, and particularly during periods of redundancy; productivity can be hit hard. Employees may have their own fears about their future and as such, attention is diverted away from their roles.

Our friends over at COLLABZ reported that a 1% downsizing of your workforce can lead to a 40% drop in employee engagement while increasing the voluntary turnover by 31% in the following fiscal year.

Demonstrating that you have an outplacement programme in place and that you’ll support employees that are being made redundant (and those that leave of their own accord), can help to allay these fears and allow them to concentrate on their role.

Reduces risk of litigation

In lieu of a settlement agreement, the risk of legal proceedings being brought against an employer can be significant in times of redundancy. Employers will offer a settlement or compromise agreement when they want to terminate a contract on terms agreed with the employee. This is so that there is a clean break with no opportunity for court proceedings or a tribunal for more money.

A holistic outplacement process can help to reduce a business’ exposure to legal cases as a result of redundancies being made.

Outplacement support can encourage employees to look ahead and channel their heightened emotions into something positive like their job search. Left unaddressed, these emotions could spill out as anger, contempt and unhappiness with the manner in which their employment was terminated. This in itself could lead to a legal case being brought against your company for unfair dismissal.

Encourages smoother handovers

Providing meaningful outplacement support will ensure that departing employees remain engaged with your business, and their job responsibilities until their last day with you.

If workers are treated fairly and are well supported throughout their redundancy, this will likely lend itself to a smoother handover process, more engagement in transferring projects and tasks and sharing knowledge with the remaining members of their team.

The post What is outplacement and why should employers consider it? appeared first on Natural HR.

Long gone are the days when HR was considered to be little more than an administrative function; HR teams are now being recognised as a department that is critical to success.

Here at Natural HR, we are lucky enough to work with some of the very best and brightest people in the profession: from our fantastic customers at the coalface of human resources to the inspiring guests that join us for our monthly HR expert webinars.

What constitutes success for HR teams can vary widely from business to business and from industry to industry. But it is clear for every business that without a successful HR team, your best talent will quickly become unengaged and move on to pastures new. And without a talented workforce of people who are dedicated to the company, there will be no business.

Recently, we took to social media to ask our friends in the industry to share their best advice for succeeding in HR.

So, without further ado, here are 14 of the best pieces of advice from experts across the profession.

“If I could offer one piece of advice it would be: get out into the business. If you can speak to as many people as you can and learn what the people you support do, your advice and in turn, your credibility will be positively impacted.”

– Sam Cahill

Business Partner, People and Culture at Peel L&P

“Engage with staff at all levels to listen, understand, and support the business/industry you work in! The better you know the business, the more credibility you have with staff and you will become a valuable, sought after voice who can affect real change in an organisation.”

– Cody Henderson

HR Generalist at CRH Americas

“Have a sense of humour, connect and network with other likeminded HR professionals but mostly, enjoy meeting, managing and developing a wide variety of people and recognising you will never, ever be bored!”

– Sarah Clements, Chartered MCIPD

Head of HR at Winchester Cathedral

“My door (real or otherwise) is always open; if you can’t come and show me pictures of your cat or tell me about what you did at the weekend, you won’t come and see me when you are having real problems.”

– Charlotte Fordyce

HR Manager at Triptease

“Always remember to be human with your advice. Not everyone fits into a box, don’t forget that everyone is different so the solution might not be the same for everyone.”

– Vicky McLean

Employee Relations Partner

“I find myself saying ‘trust the process’ a LOT. But in doing so, the best advice is really to use common sense. It always prevails. Do the RIGHT thing and don’t be afraid to challenge policy / process to enable that to happen. That is the biggest leap for me from an ‘Advisor’ into being a true ‘Business Partner’ – you need to be able to step back and be confident in making decisions, even the difficult ones!”

– Lisa Jelly

Found of The Career Connection

“Spend loads of time with Finance, they have a wealth of knowledge and I’ve found they can teach you a lot and vice versa, they should be one of your closest connections in the workplace as are operations.”

– Amanda Parsons, Assoc CIPD

HR Services Director for BestHR

“Treat others as you would like to be treated. Easy.”

Joanne Grant, Assoc CIPD

HR Manager at Ensafe Consultants

“Genuinely care and lead from the heart. Make yourself as human as possible and really consider all challenges in line with the values that yourself and the wider team believe in.”

– Annette Reid

Head of People at Mary’s Meals

“Your work is not about what HR problem you need to solve for the business, it’s about what business problem you can solve using your HR skills and expertise. The best HR business partners know how to translate their skills, knowledge, and wisdom into terms that make sense and ‘connect’ to the business unit. Talk in their language, speak to their pain, and have confidence in your ability to provide a strong solution.”

– Jordan George

Head of Leadership & Talent Development at Addition Financial

“I think to succeed in HR you need as many of these things as possible (in no particular order, and perhaps not an exhaustive list either):

– a supportive employer who will give you opportunities

– continual learning and professional development

– curiosity about people and your business

– a passion for your business

– willingness to do non-HR things often

– an understanding of how people behave and are motivated to perform

– an understanding of group dynamics

– facilitation skills

– the ability to see the organisation as a system and act accordingly

– compassion and humanity

– ability to learn from mistakes

– abs of steel”

– Gary Cookson

Director of EPICHR

“Be human and defy all assumptions and expectations.”

– Hannah Holmes

HR Business Partner at Essar Oil UK

“In order to be successful in HR, I have advocated that a capacity-centric workplace is the core of what HR can and should be focused on. It requires HR to think more deeply about its role in sustaining the longevity of the company, with full understanding that the new order of the day is different. In essence, HR leaders must adopt a fresh approach that is nothing less than being the voice of transformation inside every business. It requires a shift in how HR perceives itself; from being an adjunct to the business, to thinking, acting and displaying the capabilities of a business. It involves us all learning new skills, acquiring fresh perspectives and challenging existing habits and ways of doing things.”

– Rita Trehan

CEO of transformation consultancy, Dare Worldwide.

“We need to understand and respect that we’re living and operating in unique and challenging times. This means that what we’ve always done when it comes to engaging our people may not work now. We need to question; we need to challenge and we need to act differently to connect and protect our people and our businesses.”

– Debra Corey

Chief Pay It Forward Officer at DebCo HR

From all of us at Natural HR, thank you to our amazing contributors.

The post 14 experts share their best advice for HR success appeared first on Natural HR.

It is worth noting that BCP differs from Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) in that DRP is more concerned with restoring normal business operations after a disaster has taken place.

In times of crisis, many businesses will be challenged to safeguard and support employees while continuing to deliver the services needed to keep the business operational and revenue flowing.

During periods of uncertainty, HR is often the first port of call for many employees. From seeking advice on working practices to finding out what policies are being enforced; it is often the case that HR departments are overrun with queries from concerned employees.

So, what can HR departments do to support business continuity planning during what can be an incredibly testing time for a business?

Have a business continuity plan already in place

While not a task for HR in isolation, it is clear that HR teams have a key role to play in Business Continuity Planning to ensure staff are supported throughout any changes to normal working practice.

Don’t wait until you’re in the throes of disaster to create a plan for ensuring your business continues to operate as normally as possible. All departments should work collaboratively to understand their processes, risks and business impact should the worst happen.

From an HR perspective, employees must be clear on what they should do in case of your business continuity plan is enforced.

Think about where your employees will be working, how they will get paid, what hours they are expected to work and how they can communicate with colleagues and management during this time.

Secure your HR records

It is important for HR to ensure all employee records are kept safe and secure during any times of crisis. An employee’s personal file will contain sensitive information such as bank details, emergency contacts, NI numbers and much more, so these must be kept secure and away from prying eyes. Unexpected flooding, storms or disasters could potentially destroy paper-based records so look to HR software providers that can safely host your employees’ records in cloud-based, secure environments to prevent a loss of confidential data.

Reassure employees after any unexpected event 

Implementing your business continuity plan will often be accompanied by a period of uncertainty for your employees. Depending on the type of event you have experienced, employees may need help in coping with the aftermath.

It is essential that you keep employees well-informed of the ongoing situation and what is or will be expected of them both now and in the future.

Keep an eye out for any signs of stress or burnout among your staff. If you have one, remind them of your Employee Assistance Program or any in-house counselling support your business may offer. Crises can often affect morale and thus, productivity may be impacted.

Unexpected events or disasters can sometimes mean changes to business’ budgets and procedures. As such, staff may need to be retrained or reassigned to new roles to support the continuity of the business.

Use available technology to support employees

In your continuity planning, technology can help you to prepare for and make it through any event that directly affects your team’s ability to work as ‘normal’.

Using cloud-based software can help massively when it comes to surviving and recovering from any kind of disaster. Where landlines, infrastructure and internal communication networks can be destroyed; cloud software is hosted away from your business and is remotely accessible from any internet-enabled device.

As an HR manager, keeping your employees informed throughout the situation is key. From sending SMS notifications to your staff to provide updates to using tools like Slack, Zoom or Skype to continue collaborating on projects, using technology to communicate with your team is a major part of any good business continuity plan.

With technology, your HR department will be able to continue to support employees (even if they have been displaced or are working remotely) and provide core services during times of crisis. This is even more pertinent if you have multiple sites and only one is affected by disaster. A good business continuity plan will ensure that all staff, whether they have been affected or not, have access to the tools and key business personnel without disruption.

Take a people-first approach

During any times of uncertainty, it is imperative that HR departments lead the way in spearheading a ‘people-first’ approach to your business’ continuity. Your most valuable asset should be treated as such and addressing the ‘human’ side of your business continuity plan is critical.

Think about how an unexpected event might impact your HR policies and procedures? Will employees have to be retrained or relocated? What support mechanisms will you need to put in place? Do staff have the correct tools to work remotely for a prolonged period of time?

Of course, there will be other considerations that are unique to your business but mapping these out before disaster strikes will help it, and your people, to recover after the worst is over

The UK government has produced a helpful guide on business continuity plans entitled ‘Expect the Unexpected: Business continuity in an uncertain world’.

The post What is a business continuity plan and how can HR support it? appeared first on Natural HR.

The negative impact of all this labour-intensive administration is most obvious in the amount of time and effort involved in people doing these tasks. This translates into higher costs and missed opportunities i.e. preventing teams from working on more impactful HR initiatives.

Yet this is just the tip of the iceberg, as there are a host of unseen costs related to manual HR administration that may be sucking up resources and causing problems without you even realising it.

Here are seven of the most common hidden costs of manual HR administration:

Human error

No matter how efficient they may be, people will always make mistakes – it’s human nature. And this can be very costly for your company, especially when it leads to non-compliance. Even relatively minor mistakes can result in harsh penalties and fines – such as the Californian events-planning company fined over $600,000 simply because an employee failed to complete a form properly. The fall-out from this type of human error can also lead to expensive remediation work, increased audit costs, and the untold damage that reputational harm can do – e.g. in the event of a GDPR breach.

Productivity problems

If processes are slow and difficult, then employees across the organisation are going to spend much more time than is necessary for carrying them out. Relatively simple HR-related tasks – such as booking a holiday, requesting leave, organising training etc. – can take an age when done manually. And this has a direct effect on your productivity, as employees could spend this time far more usefully and profitably, doing what they are actually paid for.

Inflated reporting costs

Often with manual HR, things take place on a fragmented basis – with different systems for different tasks. So, when a report is needed that takes data from multiple systems – it is time-consuming and costly to produce.

Payroll errors

Relying on HR to manually provide employee data to payroll can lead to serious and costly mistakes. According to a report by accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young, payroll errors cost UK firms over £700million each year through overpayments to HMRC. As well as tax implications, there is also the hidden cost of unreported over-payments. While many employees will report an obviously inflated wage bill, some won’t – and if it’s not spotted elsewhere then the money is lost.

Fraudulent activity

Unscrupulous employees may also cost you through fraudulent activity. Figures uncovered by accountancy firm RSM show that employee fraud costs UK businesses more than £40m in the 2016/17 tax year alone. And manual HR processes make fraud easier to carry out. For example, a manager could pay salaries to twenty people, when only nineteen real people exist on the payroll, and pocket the difference. Without a system to reliably control financial transactions, this kind of fraud would be relatively straightforward to carry out.

Quality of work

When people are overwhelmed, the quality of their work suffers – and too much manual admin can be overwhelming. This is particularly likely when you have an HR team using manual systems in an expanding company – as they are often expected to cope with growing staff numbers without extra help. And if the HR team is also responsible for a key strategic initiative – such as integrating new staff from a merged or acquired company – this critical programme may not get the attention it truly needs.

High HR team turnover – Inefficient manual processes could leave a bad impression on your key HR talent – the very people you are most anxious to keep, but are most likely to be ambitious and looking elsewhere. In fact, according to a recent survey by HR magazine, a 1/3 of HR professionals are considering quitting their jobs due to spending too much time on administration. This can leave a big and costly hole in your team and leave you at the expense of a new recruitment process. Also, losing an employee means existing workers must increase their own workload to cover the gaps.

High HR team turnover

 Inefficient manual processes could leave a bad impression on your key HR talent – the very people you are most anxious to keep, but are most likely to be ambitious and looking elsewhere. In fact, according to a recent survey by HR magazine, a 1/3 of HR professionals are considering quitting their jobs due to spending too much time on administration. This can leave a big and costly hole in your team and leave you with the expense of a new recruitment process. Also, losing an employee means existing workers must increase their own workload to cover the gaps.

In summary

Although manual HR processes are becoming increasingly outdated, they are still operated by many small and medium-sized businesses.

Struggling with spreadsheets, juggling paper forms and rooting through endless files for documents is not only costly but unnecessary. The new breed of HR software packages can automate and simplify these processes – and save you from all the hidden costs that eat into your both budget and productivity levels.

Introducing digital HR systems is not about cutting overheads – it’s more about alleviating the tedious burden of manual processes. And this leaves your HR team to get on with useful tasks that actually boost your business performance, rather than hurting it.   

The post Revealed – the hidden costs of manual HR administration appeared first on Natural HR.