Maia HR Solutions

Come and see Irene Liddle of Maia HR Solutions in person at the North East Contractors Training Group meeting, Chester Le Street Cricket Club from 3pm until 5pm on Thursday 27th January 2011.

Irene will be sharing with you the 4 steps to ACHIEVING BETTER BUSINESS RESULTS – through the people you employ.

This insight into the work we do is a MUST for you if:

• You employ people (either directly or indirectly), or have any managerial responsibility for people
• The business results are NOT as you would like them to be right now?
• Your business would not survive another year like the one (or two) you’ve just had?
• You would like to reduce the headaches that come with being responsible for “staff”
• You want to inspire great performance from the people you employ?

For over 20 years, Irene Liddle has been working with construction related companies, helping them to IMPROVE THEIR BUSINESS results.

Come along and see what tips you can pick up and take back to work to make a positive difference to the business that employs you.

To book a place – please contact Dawn Wilkinson  - Training Co-ordinator, Contractors Training Group (NE).  Tel/Fax: 01207 233484 (NEW NUMBER), Mobile: 07860 549243

www.ctgne.org.uk

This is important if you want to bid for work with the local authorities and fire and rescue services.

On Friday I attended a session, attended by over 200 north east people linked to construction related businesses.  At the presentation we were told The North East Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (NEIEP), along with the 12 local authorities and the 4 Fire and Rescue Services in the region have announced the launch of a number of Frameworks to procure a significant range of diverse construction projects. OJEU notices will shortly be published for the following frameworks

• Construction Works
• Construction Consultancy
• Repairs and Maintenance

The Frameworks will be available to all public organisations within the North East region and will make available a range of construction contractors and consultants who will have been procured via an EU compliant procedure. The frameworks will be led by individual authorities and managed by the new strategic North East Purchasing Organisation (NEPO).

You can register for FREE on the NEPO website to be notified more about the frameworks when the notices will be issued.  www.qtegov.com

Specialising in Construction, Irene Liddle helps contractors win work, increase profits and reduce the headaches associated with being an employer.  Contact us now to arrange a FREE telephone consultation and discover how you could win work, increase profits and reduce those headaches.  Telephone  0191 551 6817, 07595 161 546 or email info@maiahrsolutions.com

When thinking about reflection, it is more common for people to think about what went wrong for us and our business.  Although this does have its place so that we can learn what we would do differently, I believe it is more beneficial to spend more time thinking about what went well.

So – 2 exercises that will serve you well for 2011.  Allow yourself some you time (perhaps over the holidays), sit down in a quiet space, with your favourite drink and:

1. Write a letter to a friend or family member that you have not seen all year (it’s okay you don’t have to send it), tell them what has gone well for you this year in both business (or work) and/or personally in 2010.

2.  imagine it is December 2011 and you are writing a letter to a friend or family member that you have not seen all year, what will have happened during that time.  As you think about what you will have achieved, what will be seeing, hearing, thinking and feeling.  Really focus on the feelings that come up, are you excited, joyous, happy, content, in love, passionate, optimistic, positive.

Please feel free to email me your letters if you want to share.

Here are mine to give you an idea how I do it.

Wishing all my clients and website visitors, past present and future a wonderful time over the holidays and a happy, healthy and wealthy 2011.

With love, Irene

December 2010

Dear Aunty

I expect that you are fit and well. We are all well here.  As usual here is an update on where I am at:

Business

I am still working with business owners and directors.  Business is going well, turnover and profits increased from the previous year and I worked with 100% of the clients I had the previous year (that must say something about the work that I do, and the difference I help my clients make).

I have invested heavily in a high level mentoring programme for business and self development and it has been amazing the knock on effect this continued investment has on my clients.

I have helped clients achieved some impressive results in business, supported business owners and directors through some challenging situations and I was very excited to mentor business owners through strategy development, often the first time they had taken time out to do this.  I love doing this type of work

On a personal note, I am very proud that my son was able this year to buy his own house – 2 years ahead of schedule.  He too has learned the power of goal setting and having positive intentions.

With love, Irene

December 2011

Dear Aunty

I expect that you are fit and well. We are all well here.  As usual here is an update on where I am at:

Business

I am still working with business owners and directors.  Business is going well, turnover and profits have increased again from the previous year.

The mentoring programme I told you about last time has certainly been worth the investment, which I don’t mind saying now was more than I could afford at the time.  Still I now know, it is worth continuing to investing in your business and yourself.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.

This year I exceed the results I helped clients achieve last year.  In January I changed the structure of what I offered and now have more people that I have worked with during the year.  The Emergency Action Plan approach to sort out my clients “people issues” has gone down extremetly well.  I am also doing much more strategic work with clients, setting the strategy and then assisting in the implementation phase.

I have also gone “online” with training in things like; having difficult conversations, absence management, delegation etc.

On a personal note, I am delighted to say that we had our first cruise this year.  We visited the Fjords in Norway and to say it was spectacular would be an understatement.  Also, you remember how cold it was last December, well I vowed we would spend more time in the warm, so I am writing this year from Florida.  I structured my year so that we could spend at least 4 weeks away from the UK this winter.  I love it when plan comes together.

With love, Irene

ONLY 2 REMAINING

We are offering the first 5 North East employers who take fast action a HR Review (worth £247) – FOC

In this complimentary review, Maia HR Solutions will look at how you currently manage being an employer.

You will discover:

• where you may not be legally compliant with employment law
• where to introduce some simple but powerful ways to increase your peace of mind as an employer
• how you can improve the results you are getting and make more profit – each and every year

We provide outsourced HR support and consultancy.  Helping companies achieve more success through the people they employ, our clients have saved over £100K in the past year alone.

If you want any of these things below for your business, then give us a call now.

• Improved business results
• Support in managing the day to day responsibilities there are being an employer –making life easier
• Help with recruitment to redundancy or retirement and anything in between
• Up to date employment contracts, policies and procedures to protect your business
• Someone to draft up your HR letters and documents when needed
• Assistance in managing people problems
• Someone who knows your business to translate employment law into advice for what you can do, not what you can’t
• Training to understand your legal duties and ensure you get the best from people
• An experienced team to bounce off any questions you have regarding your employees

Why do you need HR Support? Not having this support in place could cost you.  To protect the innocent let us pretend this is fictional……

• an employer is told 3 times by the client that some of their employees are not following H & S rules on site.  Nothing is said to the employees concerned and therefore no corrective action is taken.  The employer looses the contract for breeches of safety rules.  This cost the business £120K in lost turnover, 20% of that year’s sales forecast, not easy to replace this year.  In addition, an extra £5K had to be paid in redundancy payments.

Even if you already have something in place, it will still be worth exploring if we can offer something different to help you.

Contact Irene on 0191 551 6817 or email info@maiahrsolutions.com to arrange your FREE HR REVIEW or to discuss any HR issues you are having.

For those who know my work, you will have heard me say that more often than not, that your business can’t be successful – unless it is through the people you employ.

Research shows that your employees want to ‘connect their efforts to the mission and purpose of your business’.  In short, I guess, they want an answer to the question – why am I working here?

I see business owners and managers making the assumption that this is only for “BIG” business, or that the answer to that question is obvious. Well maybe it should be obvious, but often it just isn’t.

Where to start…….

Have you defined your reason for being in business (mission)

What are you aiming to achieve (goals)

How you are going to get there (this is where your people plan or HR strategy come in very handy)

What part do employees play (as part of a team and/or individually)

It’s all about helping the employee see the importance of their work to the success of the business – to answer the question ‘why am I working here?’

I’m not able to recite word for word but I love the story about US President Kennedy visiting the space centre, asking a cleaner who was sweeping up “and what do you do” and the cleaner replying “I am helping put a man on the moon”

What will your employees be saying to clients, past, present and future when asked “and what do you do”?

Irene Liddle created Maia HR Solutions to help business owners and managers be more successful through the people they employ.  For further help in understanding how HR outsourcing could help your business, contact Maia HR Solutions on 0191 551 6817 (office) 07595 161546 (mobile) or email info@maiahrsolutions.com

A North East HR company is helping local construction businesses save thousands of pounds thanks to its new ‘human resources’ package.

Wearside-based Maia HR Solutions is offering start up businesses and established SMEs an Employer HR Starter pack which helps companies ensure they are meeting HR laws and regulations.

Sunderland-based McNally and Thompson have already taken advantage of the package, which will help to save the business over £75,000.

Fred Hood, Managing Director at McNally & Thompson said:  “When we first heard about the starter and support packages our initial thoughts were, can we afford this and do we actually need it?  After starting with introducing Contracts of Employment, and working with Maia for nearly 2 years now, the answer to both questions is a resounding yes.

“We have received business advice which will save us at least £75,000 this year alone and has helped us to become an even better business.  Like most companies in construction we have been through a tough time lately and Maia’s help and support has been invaluable.

“It is a real benefit for SME’s to be able to tap into the wealth of experience that Maia HR Solutions can offer on an outsourced basis for a fraction of the price it would cost to employ or train a HR Manager.”

The Employer HR Starter pack includes setting up or revising a company’s HR policies, contracts and handbooks with additional support packages providing regular contact regarding changes in legislation, review meetings and a telephone and email advisory service.

Irene Liddle, Owner and Managing Director of Maia HR Solutions, said: “Often small businesses and SMEs don’t have the time or budget to employ a dedicated HR officer, which can sometimes – not intentionally – lead to this particular aspect of the business being neglected.

“By reviewing a company’s HR policy we can help improve efficiencies and reduce costs.  In this current climate it is important that both the employer and employee are aware of the terms and obligations of employment.”

For more information about the Employer HR Starter pack and the support packages available please visit www.maiahrsolutions.com or call Tel: 0191 551 6817.

Main Contractors in Construction in particular win work by going through a process of Pre Qualification and then Quality Submissions.  Many Main Contractors are then replicating this when appointing their Sub Contractors.

We are working for a large construction company in the North East in relation to an important bid they are submitting to win a place on a long term framework agreement worth £m’s to their turnover.

The questions we were asked to contribute to were around PEOPLE.  How were people recruited, selected and retained? How will the contractor ensure the workforce is representative of the local area?  How will training and employment targets be met and exceeded? How do you assess and develop skills and training needs? HOW DO YOU DIFFERENTIATE YOUR ORGANISATION FROM THAT OF YOUR COMPETITORS?

For this construction client, using what information we knew about them, we gave them our thoughts on what a perfect answer might look like.  Highlighting areas where they could improve their current people practices, which were already in a good starting place.

This brought home to me that your employees are ambassadors for your business, how they interact with your customers is likely to directly relate to your chance of repeat business. Can the level of repeat business you are getting be higher?

Are you clear regarding what your customers expect from you? Are these expectations clearly translated into the behaviours you expect from your employees? Do your employees know what these are and do you provide the appropriate training and development where needed?

If your customers, like the one above, require a PQQ or submission document as part of the tendering process, what stories are you going to tell to ensure they know your team have the knowledge, skills and competence to successfully deliver their contract?

If work is awarded on price alone, are you sure that work is carried out in the most efficient way, thereby keeping overheads and cost of sales as low as possible?

Which HR activities are you going to invest in to turn your employees into ambassadors?

Irene Liddle created Maia HR Solutions to help business owners and managers be more successful through the people they employ.  For further help in understanding how HR outsourcing could help your business, contact Maia HR Solutions on 0191 551 6817 email info@maiahrsolutions.com or visit www.maiahrsolutions.com

As there is no legal definition, it’s no surprise that businesses who use what is commonly known as “Self Employed or Labour Only Sub Contractors” find themselves between a rock and a hard place.

They know there is a risk that HMRC can come along and claim backdated PAYE and Employers National Insurance contributions if they find that the sub contractor should have in fact have been classed as a worker.  They balance this up with historic industry practices of the easy come, easy go approach of using Self Employed Sub Contractors.

This post is not to outline the complicated area but to highlight some key points I personally took from a meeting I attended at the North East Contractors Training Group where a Status Officer with HMRC was giving us the benefit of his experience.

Enquires by the HMRC into the “status” of a person come from Compliance Visits.  This is where HMRC examine your company accounts for all things revenue related.  During these visits they come across figures that don’t add up.  An example which would leave me asking questions into the true status of the sub contractors – A small company whose accounts showed a payroll of £20K and a Sub Contractor bill of £250K!

Subbies who have been very happy trading as self employed until …….. the work has dried up.  A huge number of the enquires to the HMRC are now coming from people who have worked self employed and now, when they find out they can’t claim redundancy pay or benefits are reporting their “employer” to the Revenue.

Although not drawn into giving specifics, the presenter did confirm that HMRC are very much target driven for results of increased revenue and do follow up these enquiries.

The presenter did recommend the use of the Employer Status Indicator.  The Employment Status Indicator (ESI) tool enables you to check the employment status of an individual or group of workers – that is, whether they are employed or self-employed for tax, National Insurance contributions (NICs) or VAT purposes.    www.hmrc.gov.uk/calcs/esi.htm

If the answer from the ESI is YES – print off the screens and providing you can evidence your answers, HMRC are bound to abide by the decision.

If the answer comes out as NO from the Employment Status Indicator – have you considered using fixed term or temporary contacts for those who are not “true” self employed sub contractors.  These can be incorporated into your business.

Someone I know estimated that a recent visit could end up costing him nearly £100K in legal fees and fines.

Irene Liddle created Maia HR Solutions to help business owners and managers be more successful through the people they employ.  For further help in understanding how HR outsourcing could help your business, contact Maia HR Solutions on 0191 551 6817 emailinfo@maiahrsolutions.com or visit www.maiahrsolutions.com

We think most business owners or managers at some point have said “our people are our greatest asset”.  That statement has truth for many businesses and especially the smaller businesses where every penny counts – but how does a company with no dedicated HR team manage its HR?

In small organisations HR duties can fall to the managing director, a middle manager, or any one that shows an interest. And for whoever picks up the baton, the task can seem overwhelming.

UK and European employment law changes, and there are the challenges with managing our employee relationships.  But if you break down the role into key areas it needn’t take up all your waking hours.

Firstly be familiar with where the legislation relates.  Minimum pay entitlements and holiday entitlements and pay, notice periods and leave for certain public duties, time off in a redundancy situation are all subject to employment laws. Equality legislation is also far-reaching – preventing discrimination on many grounds.  Due to be extended further with the Equality Act 2010.

You should also understand that human resources management is not just about complying with the employment law. Supportive HR that does more than the bare minimum for new staff coming in and ensuring the p45’s are sent out, adds the real value to a organisation, helping it to get the most out of its employees.

So where can you start adding value? Recruitment can be the first thing that springs to mind when thinking about HR. It is an expensive process, so it’s important that the decision is right. Standard questions ensure interviews are fair, but train your interviewers so they are skilled enough to know when to follow up on interesting points to generate a flowing conversation and a more productive interview. Great for both parties to find out more about each other than if solely relying on set responses.

Before you recruit, you need to know what you’re recruiting for. By taking a strategic approach and aligning recruitment with the overall business goals companies can make sure they have the right people in place to deliver the long-term business plans.

Having recruited the right people, managers should look at how to retain them by ensuring a proper induction process is in place and maintaining good employee relations. Communication is key. Even small companies can benefit from newsletters, bulletins or notice boards to keep staff informed, but managers should also consider how they communicate: certain information is always better presented face-to-face.

Another key area is employee rewards. Pay and benefits form a large part of most organisations’ costs and are one of the main attractions for job-seekers. However, benefits do not remain static, and pay reviews should be a regular HR task – for long-serving and new employees.  And it’s not just about money: there are less costly but creative, one-off ways of thanking staff for good work and commitment.

Finally, companies should consider employee development and managing the talent they have. To ensure continued success firms must recognise high flyers and source, train and mentor them appropriately.  This may mean different things to different sized businesses.

We can’t get away from the fact that there are hard and fast rules in HR – employment law has made it so, but where value is undoubtedly added is in plenty of good practice. But companies that adopt and adapt the basic steps to fit their own circumstances will be on the right track to making the most from their staff.

For further help in understanding how outsourced HR could help your business, contact Maia HR Solutions  on 0191 551 6817 email info@maiahrsolutions.com or visit www.maiahrsolutions.com