Remote working has flung open the doors to flexibility, including staff requests for working overseas. Letting staff work overseas when they have decided to relocate, while they go travelling around the world or when on an extended ‘holiday’ will open a whole can of...
Santa’s Workshop Needs More Than Christmas Magic – HR at Christmas
From an HR perspective, Santa’s workshop would be a proper headache. So we thought we’d have a bit of festive fun and imagine what Santa’s HR at Christmas challenges might look like – and what any sensible employer (magical or otherwise) should be thinking about at...
Sick Days, Sniffles and Staying Home: A Sensible Employer’s Guide to Managing Sickness Absence
Let’s talk about something that makes every employer wince – the sound of a colleague heroically struggling through a meeting whilst clearly ‘dying’ from the lurgy. Yes, that’s them, coughing into a sleeve, tissues piling up, insisting with a croaky voice that they’re...
Back-to-School Season: How Autumn Affects Your Workplace Strategy
The school bells are ringing, the uniforms are ironed, the sports kit has been located and parents everywhere are breathing a collective sigh of relief as their little darlings (or little horrors?) are safely back in the classroom. But as children are settling back...
Munch Bunch Mayhem – Navigating the Minefield of Food at Work and Office Eating Etiquette
Let’s be honest – office kitchens can be absolute war zones. From mysterious cheese lurking in the fridge since who-knows-when to the colleague who microwaves fish curry at 9am, food at work and eating in the workplace can test even the most patient team members. As...
Why No One is Reading Your Employee Handbook … and How to Fix It
Are your policies even being read? Often company documents and employee handbooks get forgotten about, ignored or don’t even get read in the first place … but they really should be! They are full of essential information for your team, especially policies which, if...
Cultivating a Green Office Culture: HR’s Toolkit for a Sustainable Workplace
We’d all like to have a more sustainable workplace but, as business owners, it can feel overwhelming looking at the big picture. Sometimes it’s difficult to know where to start. In this blog we will discuss some simple ways to begin building a more sustainable...
The Employee Lifecycle: From First Day to Farewell
The Employee Lifecycle is much more than just hiring and hoping for the best – it’s a strategic process that, done right, creates a workplace where people actually want to stay (and thrive)! From recruitment to onboarding, development and even the not-so-fun parts...
A Workspace That Works: Balancing Individuality and Respect in Office Spaces
Your workspace is more than just desks and chairs – it’s a reflection of your company culture. The way your workspace is designed and maintained can influence employee morale, productivity and how your business is perceived by visitors. A well-thought-out workspace...
Streamline Your Recruitment Process
Recruiting the right talent isn’t just about placing ads and conducting interviews – it’s a process that starts with creating a clear job advert and extends all the way to onboarding. A streamlined recruitment process not only helps fill positions faster but also...
Creating Joy at Work: Fun Holidays From Doughnuts to Diwali
As you know if you follow our social media, here at vivoHR we’re all for celebrating ‘fun holidays’ (May the 4th be with you … and the like) and they can be a fantastic way to bring a team together and add some joy to the workplace. However, beyond the light-hearted...
Stop Burnout Before It Starts: Preventing Excessive Stress for a Happier and More Productive Team
Burnout is more than just stress — it’s a state of emotional, physical and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged and excessive pressure. Short-term stress can sometimes be a motivator but, long-term, unrelenting stress can lead individuals to feel overwhelmed,...
How SMART Goals Create Real Change in the Workplace
SMART goals can be extremely helpful in fostering that sense of ‘the bigger picture’ and connecting an individual’s purpose with the shared vision. Have you heard about the time John F. Kennedy visited NASA and spoke to a man who was carrying a broom down the hallway?...
Employee Retention – How to Build a Workplace that Retains Talent
In any business employee retention is crucial. Some staff turnover is expected – people retire, move away, personal circumstances change, or they may be looking to progress into a role that you just don’t have available. That’s okay! Turnover can even be helpful when...
How to Address Workplace Bullying and Harassment
Workplace bullying or harassment is extremely serious and needs to be treated so by employers, who have a duty of care to provide a safe and stress-free workplace. No one wants their staff to be treated badly at work. So how do you stop this happening? Let’s start...
Induction and onboarding
A good induction and onboarding process will be key to integrating new starters with your business and setting them up to succeed. The aim of both is to lay the foundation of a strong relationship between the employee and the organisation, but the two things do serve...
How to keep your staff happy during the summer of sport
So begins a summer of sport! The Euros are upon us! Football fans will be over the moon, non-fans less than impressed with what seems like hundreds of matches on TV over the next few weeks. And even if you aren’t a football fan there’s plenty more choice during the...
How Good Employee Benefits Drive Loyalty
Strategic employee benefits can significantly impact team satisfaction, engagement, loyalty and retention ... and have a positive effect on the standard of their work and effort. In today’s competitive job market, employers need to differentiate themselves...
Engagement and Job Satisfaction
Putting the focus on retaining your team with engagement and job satisfaction. Gallup’s 2023 State of the Global Workplace Report found that the majority of the world’s employees are “quiet quitting”, meaning that they are slowly disengaging from...
Why Having A Redundancy Process Is So Important
Redundancy can be one of the most stressful workplace situations for everyone involved. For employees, it presents a world of uncertainty about their future and next career move. For the employer, it often feels like a failure, means following a strict legal...
The Mental Health Minefield
No business can survive without its employees. Whether you’re a sole trader and the only employee is you, or you run a big corporation with hundreds of employees, they are the lifeblood of your business. They are the people who keep your business running, your...
Ramadan 2022
You may not be aware that, Ramadan this year began on 2nd April and ends on 1st May. Those who honor of the holy month, lasting 30 days, will be fasting and taking part in religious practices. Muslims who take part in Ramadan will fast from sunrise to sunset every...
Can an employee be fairly dismissed for not wearing a face covering at work?
In the first case of its type the answer was yes. The Employment Tribunal has ruled it was fair to dismiss an employee who refused to wear a face covering at work. Over the course of the last 12 months, workplaces have introduced many new safety measures to ensure...
Are you over communicating?
Over communicating, you can have too much of a good thing! Can you remember a time before endless video calls? Ahhhhhh the heady days of February 2020! Family quizzes, pub quizzes, kitchen parties and virtual music festivals in the garden were the things that got me...
Horrible bosses or lacking in leadership skills?
We all have stories about our own experiences with horrible bosses, but what is it that makes them bad leaders? Horrible bosses aren’t horrible people, most of the time, they just lack certain skills themselves. BambooHR asked 1,000 UK-based employees what traits...
Is redundancy the only way?
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has helped many businesses since March but we now know that it will be coming to an end in October and unfortunately that means that we are starting to talk about redundancy more often as business are starting to think about what...
Grievance and complaints managment made easy
Have you ever had an employee raise a grievance or complaint? It can be very overwhelming for managers who don't know how deal with these types of situations. The ideal situation and the way to get the very best from your employees is of course to have a happy,...