Dom Littlewood emphasises the importance of Ts & Cs

I watched a programme on BBC1 – Don’t Get Done, Get Dom  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01113t7.

Dom helps people by getting to the bottom of the matter – it seems that he takes on a wide range of issues.  In this episode (series 5 episode 9) he looks at an insurance policy taken out initially with a branch of Nationwide which was acquired by Legal & General.  Dom points out the importance of reading terms and conditions and he talks about contract law.

Subject close to my heart

Now with my HR hat on, anyone who knows me will know that terms and conditions in whatever form (employment contracts, contracts with associates, subcontractors, freelancers, etc.) is a subject close to my heart.  Yes, we are all human, we all get carried away in the moment.  Most of us are very trusting especially if we are dealing with someone we know, or someone we like.  We often by-pass the small print, or we don’t bother at all about forming agreements.

Unfortunately, it is when things go wrong, when memories fade, when “you said, she said, he said” starts that you may look back at terms and conditions, contracts and such.  Sometimes we are amazed at what we signed up to, or what we didn’t sign up to.

In employment and business

In the employment and business arena, a written contract or terms and conditions with employees, associates, suppliers or customers is important.  Do you know of a relationship where there are no issues arising, no matter how small?  How are they resolved?  Communication is usually the key and if there is a benchmark from which to work – some form of contract or terms and conditions – then this serves as a starting point.  This is how Dom managed to solve the situation.

I have heard of many instances of people working together with friends, relatives, acquaintances and when there is a disagreement, these relationships are damaged, sometimes beyond repair.

I certainly know that a written contract is not the “be all and end all” of the matter, but it can be the start of sorting out a problem if necessary.

If you need help with employment or associate contracts then contact Embrace HR.

E: hr.support@embracehr.co.uk

T: 07767 308 717

Embrace HR supports business without their own HR support in Buckinghamshire. Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire and north London.

Internal communications

What is one of the most common problems in many organisations?  Surveys that I have seen point to Communication!

For just over a year I have been associated with DotFuture, a group interested in using social media for our businesses.  Social media can be a very effective communication tool and we found many organisations who set up their accounts on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, and then did nothing more about it. So, we decided to communicate what we had learnt and to date have run 3 successful workshops for the public and one private workshop for accountants.  The workshop is titled “How to Get Social Media Working for Your Business”.

With my HR hat on I was keen to show organisations how social media can be used WITHIN a business.  I was aware that organisations prefer that their employees do not use social media during working time as it is associated with ‘being social’.  But do managers and business owners realise how effective a tool social media can be in their business?

Last week at the DotFuture workshop at Kents Hill, Milton Keynes, I was delighted to introduce Yammer to a federation of accountants.  David Sacks, Yammer’s CEO first described Yammer as “Twitter for enterprise”, but it has grown rapidly and offers much more.  Yammer is great because it allows colloboration, engagement, knowledge share, COMMUNICATION …. and all the other descriptive words that go with “good people management”.  For people who use Facebook, Yammer is easy to use because it looks like Facebook but, in my view, is much easier to navigate.

Yammer has confidentiality and security built in for internal use that organisations look for.  You can also invite people outside your organisation to join you so you can collaborate, engage, educate these communities which could be your clients or your suppliers.  Yammer has lots to offer and in my view is a fantastic replacement for those difficult to navigate intranets, in fact I believe it is what intranets were supposed to look like! A word of caution – any change in an organisation must be planned, and introducing a social media platform such as this is no exception.
Watch this video which simply tells why you should use Yammer.

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