Natalie Lewis, Author at

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

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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 Outdated working practices were unburied and had to [...]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

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Should we be working towards an Empathetic Culture?

Empathetic Culture – is this the new future? The way we work has been turned on its head by the Covid-19 pandemic, leaving many companies to question their purpose, values and culture. Even just moving from working in an office to having all your team working from home is enough to send most business leaders into a spin! The way you work has changed, the way you communicate has changed, the way your pets and children get involved with online meetings [...]

By Natalie Lewis Dynamic HR Blog business, culture, empathy, fears, growth, growth mindset, how to, leaders, pandemic, profitability, success, workplace

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Work Place Changes you can expect following the Pandemic

This pandemic will change the face of the work place forever… As our lives have become an endless schedule of Zoom calls with friends, colleagues and family, hurried and frantic trips to the supermarket and a weird undercurrent of fear, I’m guessing that many of you will be wondering what the future holds? As a business owner, director or leader, you are going to need to pull your big girl pants on and prepare yourself for a new beginning. How will the [...]

By Natalie Lewis Dynamic HR Blog culture, fears, leaders, pandemic, workplace

UPDATED: Managing Holiday Leave during COVID-19

Managing holiday leave during COVID-19 is going to be tricky here is my guide to navigating through the situation. You should talk to your staff and explain to them the situation around taking holiday leave this year and how their support would be appreciated. What is normal holiday leave entitlement? Statutory Annual Leave is 28 days (5.6 weeks) in the UK. Some employers choose to provide more. In most situations, employees and workers should use their statutory paid holiday in that [...]

By Natalie Lewis Dynamic HR Blog

Coronavirus Crisis Options for Employers

Do you know your coronavirus options as an employer? At the time of writing this, we are just completing our first working week in lockdown. I’m frazzled! I’ve been fielding calls on a minute by minute basis – mostly from companies wanting to furlough their staff. Furlough – a new word that we have encountered and a new set of guidelines which have been rather lacking in detail and clarity. Us HR consultants feel like we’re wading through treacle with goal [...]

By Natalie Lewis Dynamic HR Blog

What is Furlough Leave? (Updated 17/04/2020)

What is Furlough Leave? Furlough basically just means “leave” or “a sabbatical”. To be classed as being on Furlough, the employee must be sent home and must not work. It is not available to employers where the employee continues to work. Which employers can claim it? Any employer whether you are a sole trader, partnership, Ltd Company or LLP can claim. The only criteria are that you have employees and that you send them home and they do not work. Can an employer insist [...]

By Natalie Lewis Dynamic HR Blog