Sleeping on the job

Have you ever seen someone in public who should have been working or wearing company uniform doing something they shouldn’t have? If you did, would you report this to their employer?

Well that is exactly what happened when a local business man snapped not one but two workers catching 40 winks when they should have been emptying Birmingham’s dustbins? The photographs were sent in to the employer, Birmingham City Council, who then took swift action to dismiss the workers.

Nowadays, it is worthwhile remembering that the world is a very small place thanks to the internet, social media, camera phones etc. Keeping the travel mugs topped up with coffee might have been a better idea than parking their boots on the dashboard and dozing off.

Bear in mind as well, falling asleep in the workplace can be a hazard…

Would you like feet with that burger?

We’ve warned both employers and employees on several occasions about how the misuse of social media can land you in hot water. Taking to facebook or twitter to have a moan about a colleague is unlikely to do you any favours when a colleague takes a screen print of the comments to the boss’ office.

But we wonder what an employee of fast food chain Burger King was thinking when he posted a photo on the internet of himself stepping in lettuce. The picture was captioned with ‘This is the lettuce you eat at Burger King’. As you can imagine there were some disgruntled customers that were appalled by the image! The GPS data was tracked so that the location of where the image had been taken could be pinpointed and subsequently emails and phone calls were directed to the Burger King in question.

©4Chan

Upon hearing the commotion, Burger King took action and dismissed three of its employees who were involved.

It goes to show the damage that can be done by clowning around at work and employees and employers take note: anything that is posted to the internet is public and can be seen by anyone, and used by anyone! Naturally, having a social media policy in place to work alongside a disciplinary policy will endeavour to combat this happening to you. Go to our website for more information: www.hrdept.co.uk

A dream job

We have found a delightful story of Jessica, aged 5, who has been employed as the ‘official toy tester’ by toy manufacturer Tomy, a dream job for any 5 year old. 

Secretly we suspect that there were a few adults who applied for this work experience role, as playing with toys all day would probably be in our top ten of any roles!

Work experience is a vital part of helping younger workers acclimatise to the realities of the working world outside of the classroom. Businesses can link up with a local school, college or university to offer work experience or internships which can be a rewarding experience for all concerned and help a younger person get the essential experience necessary for competing in the real employment market.

We’d like to hear from you! As an employer, what are the key things you look for in a potential new recruit? Leave a comment below or tweet us @thehrdept and check back soon for a feature blog post with your comments.

The gracious winner

What a wonderful lesson the outcome of the Wimbledon men’s singles final gave us on Sunday. Not only was Murray graceful in defeat (the sign of a true professional), but how gracious Federer was too. The champion did not crow and had such empathy for Murray’s disappointment. In business, too often when two good candidates go for the top job internally, the organisation ends up losing the one who is not selected and sometimes even more staff. This is either because the successful one fails to recognise that their lack of humility alienates those who would have preferred the other candidate or because the losing candidate becomes negative and sets out to undermine the other. 

Senior Managers need to handle these situations with sensitivity, as the workforce will know what is going on and have their own allegiances. When announcing the result to each one, stress the importance of the team being united and ensure public announcements do not in any way detract from the abilities of the other. Give honest and constructive feedback so they both can improve their areas of weakness, this way hopefully you can keep both members of the team

With the Olympics only weeks away it is a good time to reflect how good sporting behaviour can teach business a lot.

Can music bolster workplace productivity?

Research brought to our attention last week found that 65% of managers felt that having music on in the office boosted workplace productivity and encouraged a more creative atmosphere.

Some psychologists claim a completely silent work environment can lack stimulation, interest and for many people, a dynamic and creative source of energy, but it would depend on what is appropriate for different businesses. If it is a car garage, you would most likely find mechanics with the radio blaring and most customers would expect this. For workers in a telephone counselling office on the other hand, the person on the other end of the phone probably doesn’t want to hear Lady Gaga’s newest track in the background during their session.

Whatever is best for your business and your employee’s productivity, just beware that it comes at a price as businesses require a licence from the PRS (Performing Right Society).

So the next argument is: should it be Radio 1, 2, 3, 4 etc?