Pop on your positive HR sunglasses! Part 1 

Pop on your positive HR sunglasses Part 1 

HR is given a bad name, it is always perceived as a negative but actually you need to put your positive HR sunglasses on and select the pair that is going to make you look and feel fantastic.

I want to share with you the good HR practices that you should be doing and if you do these well you wont need the black sunglasses of doom very often. So lets get our shades on with my tips to positive HR – Part 1.

• Weekly one to one meetings – this is where you spend 15 minutes with every team member once a week, so they get your undivided attention. An autoclave or corridor chat is not positive HR.

• A set open door policy – I recommend that you have an open door policy at lunch times between 12pm and 2pm. The team need to know that you around at this time if they would like to speak with you. The rest of the day should be your own to manager the practice and should be undisturbed.

• Back to work interviews. Have a strong emphasis on welfare in these meetings. Remember team members need to be fit for work, an ill staff member can not only infect others, but they can also damage your brand if they are not able to give you 100%. Support staff with booking doctors appointments and using occupational health intervention if required, as supportive guidance can save you time/money and disciplinary meetings in the longer term.

• Meetings. Meetings are so important to communicate changes, provide training and to discuss vision goals of the business to the team. Morning huddles, weekly team meetings, peer review sessions, training/workshop meetings and management meetings are all required to keep practices moving forward. The good HR discipline is to have these meetings booked out in advance and make them protected time.

• Set your cultures. Every team I have observed have developed a set of bad habits and I recommend that you reset your practice cultures. There are 4 areas for you to set cultures in these are, surgery, reception, team and patients. To have these cultures laid out is a fantastic HR positive and it allows you start a conversation with a team member easily and get it resolved. Cultures also set out clear parameters of how patients are to behave in your practice to protect and support the team and good cultures avoid most grievances from happening.

• Avoiding grievances. Be fair and consistent with everyone, if you sanction one person to leave early then you need to be able to do that for all. If you are unable to do this then don’t as this is when grievances start. Every decision you make has a ripple effect so make sure you can say yes to every person, be wise and think first before acting.

In part 2 we will covering appraisals, recruitment, capability systems, inductions and contracts.

If you have gaps in your HR knowledge, we can definitely help you on our Practice Management Course, were we will teach you, in detail, how to provide positive HR for your practice. The course starts in September 2017.