People management

Creating a positive working environment with happy, motivated staff is not easy. Personalities can clash so people management skills are essential.

People management can be challenging for small firms that don’t have a dedicated HR department; here’s how to tackle some common personnel issues

Workplace policies covering areas like homeworking, holidays and sickness pay can save you a lot of time and effort and can help avoid misunderstandings or more serious employee disputes.

Performance appraisals help employees take responsibility for their performance by setting agreed objectives. Read our guide to effective appraisals.

How you put together and lead work teams is critical if you want everyone to work together and produce results. Our guide to effective teambuilding.

Employees can spend less than half their time at work being productive - and ironically the employer is usually at fault. Learn to motivate employees.

Incentive pay can be a good way to encourage employees, motivating them to work better for your business. Here's how to introduce a scheme.

Training can turn an employee from mediocre to good, and make a good person excellent. How to get the best return from workplace training.

Personal development plans are a useful way to help employees develop based on their long-term aspirations. Our guides to PDPs in the workplace.

A guide to NVQs and how to get your employees NVQ-qualified, looking at the benefits, costs and requirements of NVQ work-based qualifications.

Badly planned and run meetings can be a real waste of company time. Read our tips on using your valuable meeting time efficiently.

It's not possible to do everything yourself - and it isn't good for employee satisfaction either. Here's how to delegate tasks successfully.

Good communication is key if you want to help your staff feel fulfilled and do the best job possible. Read our list of points to consider.

This checklist will help you to set up, organise, motivate and support successful teams within your business.

Not sure how to support your employees' development with regular performance reviews? Our checklist tells you how to carry out an appraisal.

Staff being away with illness can cost your company dearly in missed working time. Here are our tips for minimising absences.

A code of conduct should spell out acceptable behaviour in your workplace, as well as giving you a reference should problems arise in the future.

Following the Investors in People standard helps you show how committed you are to developing your staff. Here’s how to get started.

Read our checklist on creating a workplace email policy, establishing security procedures and letting your employees know what's expected of them.

It’s not always financially feasible to invest in external training for all your staff. Read our tips on how to train staff without a huge layout.

Read our tips on keeping your staff trained so they can carry out their jobs effectively and with a minimum of stress.

Setting clear objectives and supporting learning in the workplace is a valuable investment. Here are our hints on planning for staff development.

For small firms, the loss of a key staff member can be devastating - so what can you do to keep employees happy and loyal?

Motivating staff is essential to the success of any small firm. But how do you motivate staff when money is tight and is money the biggest motivator?

They say that people don't leave the job, they leave the boss, which is true in many cases. So what do employers do to become known as a bad boss?

When egos clash in the workplace, owners and managers cannot afford to do nothing, because the business is likely to be the ultimate loser.