Natalie Lewis, Author at Dynamic HR Services

The businesses winning in uncertain times

Over the last 12 months, I’ve noticed a shift in the conversations I’m having with business owners.A few years ago, people wanted to talk about growth. They wanted to recruit faster, expand their teams and create a great culture. Those conversations still happen, but lately there seems to be a different concern sitting underneath almost every discussion.Risk!Not dramatic, end of the world risk, just the growing awareness that mistakes are becoming more expensive:· Employment costs have increased· Legislation continues [...]

By Natalie Lewis Dynamic HR Blog

How can you help your employees through the cost of living crisis?

Cost of Living Crisis – with inflation at a 40-year high and household bills continuing to rise, many employees are worried about their finances and are looking to you, their employers, for support. There may be some members of your team who will be forced to choose between eating and heating this coming winter. It may be hard to imagine this, but it is becoming a reality with the huge increases in heating and fuel costs. Undernourished and stressed people [...]

By Natalie Lewis Dynamic HR Blog

Managing a summer of sports

It’s all about Flexibility during a Summer of Sports With major sporting events such as the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 final, and the Commonwealth Games, this summer is set to be dominated by sport. With sporting fever sweeping the nation, it is inevitable that employees will want to join in and watch some of the action. So, how are you going to manage this to win hearts and minds and use it to your advantage for employee engagement? The challenges The main [...]

By Natalie Lewis Dynamic HR Blog

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The Unlimited Holiday Policy is simply HR click-bait

Is this trend of the ‘Unlimited Holiday Policy’ simply click-bait for businesses? “But surely an unlimited holiday policy is the company-benefit dream for employees?” I hear you ask! No, in my experience and opinion, absolutely not! Why? Presenteeism culture Because the UK has a terrible presenteeism culture which makes employees feel guilty for taking time off. If employees are not given a specific number of days to take off in the year, they tend not to take much at all. The concept of unlimited holiday [...]

By Natalie Lewis Dynamic HR Blog

Rebels in my business – should I hire or fire them?

Rebels, are they good for your business? Here’s a controversial thought …. HR should actively look for rebels and nurture rebellious employees rather than try to control them. I’ve been saying this for years; the old school ‘command and control‘ way of managing is sooooo last century and really isn’t fit for purpose in our modern society. Are companies with rebellious cultures more successful? If you look around, the companies that are succeeding most are those that have an open, rebellious culture where [...]

By Natalie Lewis Dynamic HR Blog

Managing teams remotely in lockdown 3.0

Are you fearful of your staff working from home and taking the p*ss? I’ve had several chats since the lockdown was announced with leaders and managers who are worried that their team members have lost motivation and won’t perform as required during this next period of lockdown. I totally understand your fears as we did see a drop in performance and productivity in some businesses during the first and to some extent, the second lockdown. However, in other businesses, we saw [...]

By Natalie Lewis Dynamic HR Blog

Covid Office Christmas Party

Can we have an office Christmas Party this year? This question has been haunting me for the last few weeks with my clients and other business owners contacting me, eager to reward their staff for what has been a challenging year. I’m a big believer in rarely saying no. To me there’s a solution to every problem. So in light of that, I’ve been helping clients plan their celebrations. The office Christmas party is often something that is planned well in advance, [...]

By Natalie Lewis Dynamic HR Blog

showing how to onboard remotely for new employees

How to onboard remotely (in a pandemic)

How to onboard remotely so that your teams hit the ground running … Many organisations were only just moving from the archaic practice of the (dreaded) ‘induction’ to the far more comprehensive and supportive notion of ‘onboarding’ before the pandemic hit. And now, we have to figure out how to carry out a decent onboarding process remotely! The COVID pandemic has forced most businesses (some kicking and screaming) to embrace new technology overnight. Outdated working practices were unburied and had to [...]

By Natalie Lewis Dynamic HR Blog

The Best Way to Make Redundancies – a compassionate redundancy process

The redundancy process is a horrible thing for everyone. They are filled with emotions, hurt, frustration and overwhelm for all parties. Over the years I’ve dealt with employees who were glad to have been made redundant, others who have cried and I’ve even had a chair thrown at me during a consultation meeting! I’ve also dealt with employers who have cried on me, shouted at me, wanted to give up and one case where the director was so low, he attempted [...]

By Natalie Lewis Dynamic HR Blog compassion, leadership, redundancy, restructure

Advice for Job Seekers – find a job using these tips

Struggling to find a job? Through no fault of your own, you’ve found yourself out of work. You have bills to pay and yourself/family to feed. You’re panicking about the future. Whether or not you’ve been through a traumatic redundancy process, you are most likely in a state of grieving and shock. This is really common and perfectly natural. However, you need to act now and get on top of things. I wanted to provide some advice to anyone currently [...]

By Natalie Lewis Dynamic HR Blog