Managing your staff

Effective, intelligent employee management can have a very real effect on the productivity, the profitability and the reputation of a business.

Are you delegating correctly?

Delegation does not just mean passing on a job that you are unwilling to do yourself. Consider the following questions.

Effective time management

Optimising your work time begins with identifying the causes of wasted time and learning to avoid them. Here are some suggestions.

Make the most of staff appraisals

It is important to hold regular staff appraisals even if you have just one employee.

Overtime and your business

Businesses use overtime to help deal with sudden surges in work or unexpected shortfalls in staffing levels.

It's called 'The Peter Principle' in management-speak. You reward a star employee by promoting him to a managerial position and he proves to be an inept manager. Those over whom he was promoted and whom he now manages are irritated, and he is demoralised and discouraged.

Reducing a high turnover of staff

Excessive staff turnover means increased expenditure on recruitment and training. But that is not the only cost to your business.

Reducing the cost of stress

With millions of working days lost in the UK each year, stress costs British businesses billions annually. To make matters worse, a landmark court case recently ruled that employers can be held liable for the effects of workplace stress on employees' health.