To suspend or not to suspend…
"new advice on the suspension of employees, emphasising the importance of careful consideration and mental health implications before making suspension decisions." (2022 article)
Read moreHR Insights & Resources
Practical advice, latest trends, and actionable insights to help you navigate the world of HR with confidence. No jargon, just straight-talking guidance for real business challenges.
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The Real Cost of Conflict
Many employers accept that from time to time (or in some cases, frequently) conflict in the workplace will arise. How they go about it usually depends on the culture of the organisation.
Read moreRedundancy: 5 good reasons to consider Outplacement Support
“Outplacement” is used to support employees facing a job loss with the transition to the next phase of their career. It is usually facilitated by an external provider and funded by the employer.
Read moreThe future of employment: the end of the (working) world as we know it?
Mustard HR has been trading for a full year now. It is fair to say in that short period, the world of work (actually, the world full stop) has changed significantly and further changes look set to continue.
Read moreNavigating a career and family life: Guest Blog
Way back at the end of March, when the Corona virus pandemic was only just starting to unfold in the UK and we all found ourselves in a very strange and unknown predicament, I had been asked to write a guest blog post on navigating a career and family life for Claire Brown Coaching, who runs the ‘The Career Hub for Mums’. Given the sudden changes, this ended up focusing somewhat on working from home and adapting to change.
Read moreFlexible Working Requests: 5 Top Tips
Mustard HR recently wrote a guest blog post on flexible working for the parenting website and blog ‘The Resilient Mama’. This was pre COVID-19 restrictions in the UK and as we now know, the flexible working landscape seems to have changed somewhat (in terms of working from home anyway). However, the blog post focused on requesting flexibility (and the many variations of flexible working) not, as we are now experiencing, it being forced on people unexpectedly.
Read moreCareer life lessons
Career’s aren’t just about success and progression, the seemingly ‘bad’ experiences we have at work can teach us a lot about what we want and where we are going. I’ve had times during my working life where I’ve felt frustrated, stuck and unappreciated. However, reflecting on this (mainly from my pre-HR days) I can see now just how much I’ve learned along the way…
Read more(No) Blame Culture
I’m writing this following a friend, a fellow HR professional, being instructed to apologise as an outcome to a grievance. I couldn’t help feeling how utterly horrid and inhumane this course of action was.
Read moreNetwork Network Network! Part 2
In the first of my networking blogs I explained how I’d come to realise the [import]ance of networking when starting up your new business. I was surprised by the choice and diversity of groups out there and decided to try a few out to ‘find my tribe’.
Read more“All things Flexible Working”: Q&A with HR Puzzle
Earlier this month I caught up with Anna Ives, a fellow HR Independent.
Read moreNetwork Network Network! Part 1
Take the pain out of networking with my two-part round up of some local groups…
Read moreArchive: Making redundancy the best thing that happened!
Once I realised that others believed in me, I decided it was now or never and so threw myself into looking at all aspects of self-employment... Lucy's story: An interview from the early days of Mustard
Read moreManaging performance issues – a step by step guide
Following on from a general overview of managing performance issues in the workplace and the crucial role of management, here are my practical tips for line managers dealing with a performance issue.
Read morePerformance issue? It’s an HR problem, right? Wrong!
"The management of a poorly performing member of staff is something that anyone with supervisory or management responsibilities should be fully au fait with."
Read moreHow Flexible are You?
You employ “working mums” on a part-time basis…tick! You have a flexi-time arrangement…tick! You even allow working from home on occasion. But how open is your business to true flexibility for your people, allowing them a life around work?
Read moreHR Jargon
Drawing on many years working as an in-house HR professional as well as sitting on Employment Tribunals, it is clear that ‘HR speak’ (the various acronyms, jargon etc. that we HR professionals seem to love) is on the rise.
Read moreWhat would you do if you received a claim?
The number of Employment Tribunal (ET) claims is on the rise after the abolition of fees in July 2017 (claims in 2018 almost trebled compared to the previous year), meaning less barriers for the average employee.
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