This is my latest article featured in the Financial Mail section of the Mail on Sunday - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/

All the CVs I receive look great, but how can I tell if someone will be any good under pressure?

The best way to pre-screen employees is to use psychometric testing. This was the advice I was once given by Sir Philip Trousdell, whose army career included running the NATO operation in Bosnia and acting as Commandant at Sandhurst. 

He explained that the British Army had been using psychometric testing effectively since the 1940s, so I have spent the last ten years looking at the various different systems. My conclusion is that while all of them map onto each other in their general conclusions and none are absolutely perfect for every situation or candidate, they do have significant merit.

Psychometrics should always be used in conjunction with a rigorous interview process. Even if a candidate passes both of these with flying colours, there should also be a formal probationary period, to see whether they do actually deliver on mutually agreed and measurable performance criteria.

By far the most important output of psychometric testing is how people behave in a team environment. Sometimes the best candidates on paper can have poor 'emotional intelligence', defined as the ability to identify, assess, and control one's own and others' feelings.

For entrepreneurs adding new people to their initial group of close friends, psychometric testing is also vital for their own self-awareness. All successful entrepreneurs exhibit both the good and bad sides of their character simultaneously.

You need confidence to start a business, but success can lead to arrogance. Charismatic people can become tempted into manipulation. Hard work can easily lead to overwork and attention to detail can become obsessive behaviour.

Wise entrepreneurs complete all the psychometric tests they impose on others, read the outputs carefully and take advice from a trusted mentor about the negative sides of their character.

Once a business model is proven it is all about execution: hiring and managing the best people. Entrepreneurs are notoriously poor at people management, and while an absolute certainty of their own rectitude is essential when starting out, this can destroy the company later on.

Psychometric testing will help them not only find the best staff, but also to understand their own strengths and weaknesses.

I always recommend entrepreneurs to get a book-keeper sooner rather than later. They always pay for themselves, often many times over, particularly if you find yourself in the sights of the taxman. That's especially true today as the government is trying to claw back as much cash as it can, so HMRC isn't feeling particularly charitable.

This also holds true for personal bookkeeping - after all, for many freelance folk, the line between personal and business is very blurred indeed. The Local Bookkeeper, the nationwide bookkeeping firm providing bookkeepers and management accountants across the UK, have just launched some new research into our financial habits, and only 2% of people surveyed said that their accountant takes care of their personal finances. Since more than 2% of us are self-employed, that's an unwise state of affairs!

To tell us more, this week we have a guest poster: Alex King, CEO of The Local Bookkeeper.

With the UK Government admitting that the economy is going through a double dip recession, it's more important than ever to keep proper track of your money, understand where you are spending and thus understand where you could save.

Do you really know where your money is being spent? At The Local Bookkeeper, we wanted to explore how much people really know about their own finances. So, we decided to conduct a brief investigation; with a survey asking some basic financial management questions of the general public.

First, we asked which member of the household keeps track of the finances. 12% of people stated that their partner takes control of all household finances; with women being more likely to leave the man of the household to handle money issues. Curiously, Northern Ireland was the location with the highest percentage (25%) of people stating that their partner takes care of all financial issues. And if you thought that the division of labour was becoming blurred as generations progress, think again: the 18-34s were generally most likely to entirely abdicate responsibility to a partner (15% across the whole age group).

The rest of us share the burden, but two heads are not necessarily much better than one. Not having a firm grip on your own bills and spending will always make you susceptible to overspending or extra charges. So:

• Assess your spending at least quarterly - and use price comparison websites like USwitch to get the best deals. It's a rigmarole, but it's worth it.
• Watch out for bank charges and similar levies. In Britain, our culture is to penalise people for misdemeanour, rather than charge them for provision of a service; so if you find yourself paying exorbitant fees, alarm bells should be ringing.

VAT has been a challenge for both businesses and consumers in the past couple of years, so we then asked the public what they believed to be the current rate of VAT in the UK. The survey found that only 68% of people correctly answered with the current rate of 20%. Men achieved a higher number of correct answers than women. Northern Ireland redeemed itself with an absolutely clean slate: 100% of respondents there knew that the VAT rate was 20%. Scotland and the North were less canny than expected, bringing up the rear with 63%.

The survey also concluded that consumers with higher incomes were generally more likely to know the VAT rate. We think this is an interesting result, as it was lower income workers recently fought against the recent rise in "pasty tax". If this VAT charge comes into place, it is said to be likely to cost the economy millions and force many jobs losses.

What do we need to know here? Well:

• A number of goods are VAT-exempt, including betting, gambling, bingo and lottery games; admission charges to cultural events & visits i.e. museum, zoo, art galleries etc.; antiques and works of art, charity shops selling donated goods; medical care from a hospital or doctor; water supplied to households and sewerage services; parking; postage stamps and postal services supplied via the Royal Mail; Books, newspapers and magazines; baby wear; and protective equipment such as cycle helmets.
• Secondly, VAT is not fixed (indeed it causes a real headache for businesses when it changes). The 20% rate is likely to be with us for a while, but it has been pegged at 15% and 17.5% at different times in the past five years. VAT rates also vary in different countries of Europe and even between states in the US. Then, there are a small number of goods which (for politically expedient purposes) attract an artificially reduced rate of VAT - loft insulation, which the government wants you to buy in order to save energy, is a good example.

Keeping up to date and staying informed about these issues, new tax laws, and the general state of the economy is one way of protecting yourself in this double dip recession and keeping your personal bookkeeping in order. Rest assured, it's just as important as your professional finances.

Here are a few quick snaps, taken on our mobile phones, from the Beermat Monday networking event that took place last night.

75 people came along in total.

A thank you to everyone who came along and supported the event.

Our next free networking event is on Monday 11th June.

This will be our last event until September (there will be no networking events in July and August for the summer holidays).

You can register for the next events here:
www.mikesouthon.com/events-gigs/business-networking-event.aspx

One of the most enjoyable parts of my job is appearing at events involving an 'elevator pitch' competition, where hopeful entrepreneurs extol the virtues of their business idea.

These events are both joyous and frustrating at the same time; there is nothing more joyous than listening to entrepreneurs explaining how they are going to change the world. What is frustrating is that few people have worked out how to pitch their ideas in a simple form. 

Organisers are always at pain to explain that their event is not supposed to be like the television programme Dragon's Den, a combination of entrepreneur humiliation and the hubris of the panel, 'as much to do with real entrepreneurship as The X-Factor has to do with the Beatles' as I said in a previous column.

The events I appear at are all about providing useful input to the people pitching. Everybody needs a good 'elevator pitch' for themselves and their business, if only to be more interesting at social and business networking events. The first thing I explain is that that the elevator does not get stuck for several hours; you have to keep your pitch short and concise.

The worst culprits are inventors, engineers and technologists who feel that they have to cram as many features as possible into their three minutes. In sales, too, there is the well-known concept of 'golden nuggets', as many as fifty amazing features of your product which have been lovingly crafted into product literature by your marketing team.

The problem is that most customers have very short attention spans and can only remember three things about your product. As soon as you mention the fourth 'golden nugget' the first and probably most important one drops out of their active memory. By the time you get to nugget number fifty, all the most compelling ones have long since gone, and the prospective customer has also lost the will to live. 

It is important to realise that the objective in delivering an elevator pitch is not to secure an order there and then; the best you can hope for is to stimulate enough interest for them to give you another fifteen minutes and to hand over their business card.

The methodology for a good elevator pitch is very simple, and centres around five Ps: pain, premise, people, proof and purpose.

The most important question for any would-be entrepreneur is "where's the pain?" What pain or problem do you plan to solve? The larger the pain, the more likely people are to give you money to take it away. Pain can come in many forms, but if your product or service saves time and money that is a very good start.

Next you have to explain in simple terms the premise of your business, exactly what you do. For this, you need to be literal and not descend into sloganeering. "We transform people's lives" is laudable but impossibly vague. "We are an excellent training company, specialising in communication skills" is much more to the point.

If you feel that this is too obvious, then I suggest you visit a trade show and try and work out what each company does, just from the text on their display stands. The worst culprits are being deliberately vague in the hope that your curiosity will be aroused, encouraging you to approach someone on their stand to find out what they do. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people will not bother.

The other 'Ps' are very straightforward. You need to talk about your people, as entrepreneurship is a team game. Every investor says they look for a credible team rather than a good idea, and every customer says they buy from people not companies.

Proof is the hardest to provide: why anyone should buy from you and not your competitors. Even if you have the best team and products in the world, customers can still be sceptical, and the best proof is examples of your happy customers, in the form of relevant case studies and testimonials.

The final P is purpose, and the most important purpose of any business is to make money. Potential investors will be looking for a return on their investment, and prospective customers will want to know that you run a sensible and profitable business, to ensure reliable and consistent delivery of your products and services.

This should provide the basics for delivering a good elevator pitch. For more detail, Chris O'Leary has written an excellent book, Elevator Pitch Essentials, which can be found here: http://www.elevatorpitchessentials.com

This week's e-zine is focused on mentoring. I make no apology for returning to this subject; I have always felt that the most important success factor in entrepreneurship is finding and retaining the right mentor.

When we were developing our entrepreneurship model, my co-author Chris West put together the three items to go on the 'original Beermat':

After developing your elevator pitch, we recommended finding a mentor, long before you spent much time and effort in preparing complex business plans or investing any money in your business. This mentor would give invaluable personal and business advice, and might even help you in the next crucial stage, finding your first paying customer.

Since The Beermat Entrepreneur was released ten years ago, I must have provided face-to-face mentoring to over 1,000 people, ranging from very early stage people with, frankly, too many good ideas; through to highly experienced entrepreneurs agonising over whether to sell their companies.

I have never charged for mentoring, and continue to believe that what differentiates mentoring from paid advice, such as coaching and consultancy, is the fact that the advice is given without any thought of commercial gain, and is therefore more likely to be impartial and given with the best of intentions.

My advice for finding a mentor centres on preparation. You should first be able to state in simple terms where you are and where you want to get to. If you are struggling with this, you should employ a business coach to help you with this process, including putting rough timescales on your ambitions. This advice should not be expensive, and should not take long. Beware snake-oil salesmen who claim to offer advice but leave you without any clarity or obvious path forward. Certainly, if you're paying for advice, get recommendations from everyone you can.

Having thus answered two key questions 'what?' and 'when?' your focus should now be on the next key questions: 'who?' and 'how?' To find the right mentor, you need to have done your research into who the right mentor might be and how they might be able to help you. You might be looking for specialist advice in your chosen market sector, or simply someone who has "been there, done that and got the T-shirt".

In the first instance, you should look for a first mentor in your own personal network. If you are young, it might be a schoolteacher or lecturer you liked. If you are older, it may be someone you met in a business environment, whose opinion and skills you admire.

This personal touch is very important. At its most basic level, an ongoing mentoring relationship works if both parties like each other and thus are willing to spend an hour in each other's company.

You can also visit mentorsme.co.uk, the government's new national web portal that provides a single point of access to mentoring services offered by other businesses, NGOs, charities and government delivery agencies.

Incidentally, if you would like to become a mentor, head to the www.getmentoring.org site. Get Mentoring, led by the Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative (SFEDI), is recruiting and training thousands of business mentors in the UK from the small, medium and micro business community. 

The mentoring process itself is very straightforward: the mentor gives the best, impartial advice they can, based on the facts laid before them. Effective mentors should have specific skills and a good general business grounding to give confidence to early stage entrepreneurs taking their first steps.

The mentee should listen carefully and note any particular actions that need to be undertaken before the next meeting. These actions should be simple, easily delivered and mutually agreed; the skill of a good mentor is to find 'tiny steps' that are within the mentee's ability, thus building their confidence.

We say at the beginning of The Beermat Entrepreneur that 'business is simple'. It  does involve long hours and hard work, but the process itself is very straightforward: simple things done well. Finding the right mentor is an invaluable part of taking the first steps in this very exciting journey.

Here at Ph. Creative we're big fans of Pinterest, and we also love our Infographics. They go together like designers and developers! So we thought we'd look at compiling the Pinterest Top 100 Digital Marketing Boards to follow. 

We looked at boards with a wealth of Infographic pins on everything from SEO and Social Media to PPC and Inbound Marketing. It was a lot of fun to put together, but there is also some really fantastic and useful content in there. Click on the image below to see for yourself and join us on the countdown... 

Psychometric testing is now a mature industry with many suppliers and ample evidence to prove its efficacy. Yet only 3% of small and growing businesses use any form of psychometric assessment in their management processes. Why?

Martin Reed, CEO and Chairman of Thomas International, says firstly there is some unjustified apprehension surrounding the tests. "People hear the word 'psychometric' and assume it means something bad. But we have all been assessed since birth - in school exams, for example. In fact, adding a behavioural dimension to a selection process can uncover latent talent and skills which would otherwise not have an opportunity to shine through"

Second, smaller companies often don't realise the value of psychometrics to the recruitment process. "Many SMEs make costly mistakes when hiring", says Reed. "Managers in smaller companies often recruit for a role - 'salesperson', for example, rather than also considering what sort of person will best fit the business or team. Most managers want a new employee who will hit the ground running and gel with their colleagues: you won't get that from a job description alone.

Another common mistake among owners of smaller businesses is to employ someone exactly like themselves. Reed says entrepreneurs "tend to have a high-dominance and high-influence profile shape" on Thomas International's analysis landscape, which paints a picture of someone who is assertive, direct and determined. These are laudable traits - and ones that every business needs - but for a team to reach its potential, it needs a balance of different skill sets and behavioural styles; not more of what it already has. "We're naturally attracted to people like us," says Reed, "but that can be a dangerous thing. The extrovert entrepreneur probably needs someone calm and focused to act as the voice of reason or do the books; but instead ends up recruiting a facsimile of himself." Psychometric analysis provides a reliable practical framework to solve these problems.

Whilst large companies with mature HR departments are the greatest users of psychometric testing, it is growing enterprises which probably have the most to gain. In a smaller business, where roles are often shared and everyone has to help out, making the wrong recruitment decision is a mistake which is amplified in comparison with larger operations. Losing a member of staff leaves a bigger hole. More functions are left unfulfilled. The impact on operations is greater. Indeed, the cost of a recruitment mistake is typically 2.5 times the employee's salary, whereas the price of a single test can be as little as £35; so the idea that psychometric assessment should only be the preserve of large organisations deserves to be consigned to the bin.

There is also a perception that psychometrics are used exclusively in the recruitment process, and then only to assess applicants. Neither of these is true: the discipline should be applied across the employee lifecycle.

In fact, it should come into play long before a prospective employee has even made contact. "Smart managers are creating more effective teams by identifying what the ideal group looks like, recognising what it's currently like, and then conducting a gap analysis," says Reed. "It means you can recruit a whole range of complementary skills, strengths and compatibilities. Oil giant KBR, for example, recruited an entire territory management team based on this sort of scientific approach to recruitment."

Also, job specifications and adverts written without a particular type of candidate in mind either attract a frustratingly broad range of applicants, or, worse still, candidates skewed to appeal to the author of the specification. Applying psychometrics to a team and then the vacancy definition helps create more focused job specs and adverts, which in turn delivers more relevant candidates and a faster recruitment process.

How about keeping the team together? In a world where typical tenure can be as little as 18 months, there's little incentive for most businesses to invest in training or wellbeing, even though the cost of replacing staff is astronomical. Reed offers the following simple axiom: "People leave managers, not companies". Yet, the UK spends a disproportionately small amount on training managers and C-suite executives than it does training other employees further down the pay-scales. Reed adds that what little management training is done at this level tends to be "box ticking", "one-size fits all" and "purely competency based". Instead, using a combination of assessments, a manager can gain an acute awareness of how their own behaviour might be interpreted by their team and, furthermore, what modes of engagement will yield the best results in productivity, employee relations and longevity. "By giving your line-manager an insight into themselves and their people, you stand a much better chance of developing a productive team."

Of course, growing businesses don't necessarily have a full-time HR manager to handle the implementation of psychometrics-led recruitment and team-building. But thanks to the internet, integrating psychometrics into the HR practices of even micro-businesses is now little burden in time or money. Thomas International's eRecruit service, for example, offers a one-stop shop recruitment process for just £200 per placement. This includes everything from creating and releasing the job specification to candidate assessment, candidate communication and the ultimate hiring decision. For any manager, increasing headcount always involves an acceptance of a degree of risk. Psychometric assessment is a reliable way to mitigate that risk and extend the value and longevity of each new recruit; integrated properly into the recruitment process, it can be a time-saver, too.

Find out more about Thomas International at: www.thomasinternational.net

This is my latest article featured in the Financial Mail section of the Mail on Sunday. You can see the original article on the Mail on Sunday website here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/experts/article-2130146/Should-I-reduce-prices-win-business.html

Should I reduce my prices to win more business?

Absolutely not - reducing your prices is often the last step before insolvency. If you are coming under price pressure, it is because you are perceived by your customers as a commodity - a product rather than a service.

No small company can ever compete on price alone, there is always someone cheaper on the internet or a competitor with deeper pockets better resourced to fight a pricing war. 

Despite what your customers might tell you, very few will make a buying decision based purely on price. Rather, they will select the supplier they perceive to be better value for money, or the one they like the most.

The key attributes for any small business are to be local, reliable and nice. It is more convenient to source products and services locally, and while quality and reliability are fundamentally important, the true test of the value of any supplier relationship is what happens when things go wrong - how swiftly and cheerfully the supplier rectifies any problems.

A much better approach is to reposition your small business as a service, rather than a product company. 

Even if you do supply a commodity product, your service elements include speed and timeliness of delivery, flexibility in commercial terms and the value of any add-on products, such as training, support and maintenance. 

Once your company has developed a true service mentality, a useful exercise would be to discuss with your favourite customers how theoretically you could double your prices while providing even better value for money. 

What additional services could you provide? How could your technical expertise be transferred to the client, reducing unnecessary support calls later on? 

My final recommendation is always for small businesses to promote their modest size as a benefit rather than an obstacle. Customers always prefer to buy from local, trusted sources they know personally.

This week the e-zine is written by "Mike's Mentor" - Juliet Price. Juliet Price, is the founder and Managing Director of the award-winning Human Resources, Health & Safety and Training and Development business, Park City Consulting.

Dealing with staff problems is a drain on the patience and resources of any manager. With so much legislation protecting employee rights, it sometimes feels as though the employer gets the rough end of the stick. The reality is that these measures aren't there to trip employers up; they exist to ensure a level playing field for all involved. But if you are experiencing employee problems, how do you strike the right balance of looking after your company's interests with maintaining the rights of the employee? And how do you stay out of tribunal? Here is a primer on typical employee problems businesses face, and the most effective ways to deal with them:

Under-Performing Patrick

After a lengthy and difficult recruitment process you've found the right person for the job. Or so you thought. He shone in the interview, but after a strong start his energy levels have dropped, his enthusiasm has waned and his quality of work has been below par. What's more, the rest of the team have already identified him as the weak link.

Patrick will most likely be capable of doing the job well. If there wasn't some sign of talent, you wouldn't have hired him. Whether the underperformance stems from a lack of knowledge, insufficient skills or poor attitude, things can't carry on as they are. An underperforming team member will have a detrimental effect on your business - on your bottom line, team morale, and customers to name but three. Should you persevere with Patrick or cut your losses and go through the recruitment process again?

Above all, act now. Do not allow underperformance to continue. Speak to the individual and make explicitly clear the areas in which they're not up to scratch. This doesn't mean you should severely rebuke them - bear in mind that they're still new. Instead, calmly explain where the gaps are between their current performance and your expectations of them . With poor performance underlined, you then need to find out the reason for the underachievement. This could be practically anything from a lack of confidence to a personal problem. But only by finding out the underlying causes of underperformance will you be able to do something about it. Then, offer your help and support in reaching a satisfactory solution.

Remember, too, to examine your own processes. Perhaps your recruitment activities are in part responsible, and there may be something you can learn for the future. Was the role clearly set out in the job advert and at interview? Was the job specification understood, was the employee given enough support through induction and have you been clear in setting our your expectations?

Before the end of your meeting, both you and the person concerned need to be crystal clear on what is expected of the individual - agreeing both an action plan and dates for review. Only if the employee hasn't made progress by the next review may it be time to consider rehiring.

Loyal Lenny

Business hasn't been booming of late and you no longer need so many people in your team. If it's one person's specific role that's no longer required, then that member of staff will be made redundant. If on the other hand, you employ a number of people in the role at risk, you're going to have to make some difficult decisions: which members of your team keep their jobs and which face redundancy?

Lenny, for instance, is a member of the old-guard, part of the company furniture. He makes avoidable mistakes and finds it difficult to adjust to change, but he's been with the business through thick and thin. Surely Lenny's loyalty and service should count for something when making these tough decisions?

While Lenny's hard work over the years shouldn't be undervalued, when making redundancies you must be absolutely fair. You should take into account criteria which are of demonstrable impact to the business; such as skills, knowledge, performance and attendance. More emotional considerations such as 'likeability' or popularity are not acceptable grounds on which to make redundancy decisions.

You must be completely transparent throughout the redundancy selection process and strictly follow the proper procedures. Inform and consult with your team about the business and the reasons for the proposed redundancies, the numbers of staff involved, the proposed timing, how you plan to calculate redundancy payments. Importantly, identify with employees all the possible alternatives to this course of action as redundancies should always be the last resort. It may surprise you how innovative staff can be in these situations, working with their employer to achieve the required reduction in staff costs and while retaining their employment, particularly in the current economic climate. Redundancies are never easy: there is emotional turmoil for the employee and the employer. The only thing you can do is be fair to all those involved, follow current recommended process and ensure you retain the best individuals for the business.

Job-Hopper Jason

He had the experience and credentials, and seemed like a perfect fit; but before you'd learned his kids' names, Jason had packed up and moved on to pastures new.

It's frustrating, time consuming, and above all expensive to work through a complete recruitment process only to find your candidate leaves after three months. So how do you avoid habitual job hoppers? Furthermore, how do you make sure your business isn't one that people want to leave?

If a recruit hands in their notice, you need to find out as much about their reasons for leaving as you can. Some are unavoidable and no reflection on you at all - perhaps their family's moving abroad or they're going back into education. But by holding exit interviews as a standard, you stand a much better of chance of finding out if there are problems endemic to your organisation. Carry out regular staff surveys - the results of these will help you spot shortcomings in your workplace before they turn into problems which result in resignations.

Furthermore, ensuring that you have up-to-date signed copies of your terms and conditions of employment for each of your employees is critical in these circumstances if you are to protect your intellectual property, client confidential and commercially sensitive information. This is particularly relevant in the case of sales staff. Remember, best practice is to receive back from your employees their signed terms and conditions of employment within four weeks of their start date.

You can proactively avoid job hoppers simply by being diligent in your recruitment process. If a strong candidate has a history of jumping from company to company, ask them about the scenarios that led to them moving on. If you're still unsure after their explanation, tell the candidate so they have the chance to allay your concerns. If you still believe you may have a job hopper on your hands, go with your gut instinct and give them a wide berth.

Doctor's Note Derek

Derek has a wealth of experience, gets on well with his team and is great at his job. Unfortunately Derek hasn't done his job for quite some time, as he has been signed off by his doctor as unfit for work for months.

Long-term sick leave is a tricky situation to deal with. The causes will undoubtedly be serious. But while you should always be empathic with your employees, you need to be able to rely on them to carry out their responsibilities; and while Derek's away, you're still paying for a job that isn't being done - and that could affect everyone's livelihoods. How do you strike the right balance between sympathy for the employee and looking after the company's interests?

First, assess the position. Stay in contact with the absent member of staff to remain informed of their health problems and gauge the likely recovery period. If it looks as though the individual will be signed off as unfit for work for the foreseeable future, you may even have to consider dismissal. This may sound harsh, but if an employee is unable to perform the job they're paid to do, this is a fair and legal reason for letting them go. You should always be sympathetic and do your best to assist an employee in returning to work, but you're not running a charity and you're not expected to maintain someone who isn't capable of doing their job.

You don't want to fall foul of the Disability Discrimination Act either, as the financial penalties are unlimited so always seek advice at the first sign of a problem.

Hapless Harriet

If there's a floor to be slipped on or a cable to be tripped over, you can count on Harriet to fall foul of it. Because no matter what lengths you take to ensure your company is a safe working environment, accidents can and do happen.

There is so much health and safety legislation these days, it's unsurprising that many businesses often trip over the red tape. Legislation is constantly changing, and if you don't remain up-to-date and compliant, you could fall face-first onto a law suit or hefty fine.

Regular health and safety audits will reveal where your business isn't compliant, giving you the chance to remedy the situation. Your staff also need to be aware of safety issues in the workplace. They may not like the idea of health and safety training, particularly as they'll no doubt have to sit through a cheesy '80s awareness video; but whatever your method of delivery, your staff do need to be aware of their health and safety responsibilities. It's non-negotiable, and the only way to stay the right side of the law. As with so much health and safety best practice, preparation, positive risk management and staff training are the best defence.

Harassed Helen

Harassment can take many forms: sexual harassment, discrimination or bullying. And it can impact anyone: men or women and people of all backgrounds, races or religions.

Harassment isn't always obvious. It can be subtle and insidious. It's often one person's word against the other. So how do you deal with harassment quickly and effectively, with as little disruption to the team as possible?

If you don't have an anti-bullying and harassment policy in place, draw one up. This should include an explanation of what constitutes harassment, examples of unacceptable behaviour, the procedures that will be taken in the case of a complaint, and assurances of fairness. If a complaint is made, it should be taken seriously from the start. Follow the correct (and clearly defined) procedures to avoid any legal claims against you. If need be, use an impartial, trained investigator to look into the matter. If the accused is found to be guilty of harassment, you will then need to take appropriate action; this could be anything from training to dismissal. The plaintiff will also expect support. Whatever your decision, both parties also have a right to appeal.

Absent Angela

It's 9:30 and Angela still hasn't arrived. Unfortunately it's far from the first time and probably won't be the last. Perhaps she rings in sick; perhaps she doesn't even bother phoning with an excuse. Either way, you still have the same amount of work to get through and you're a person down.

What Angela might not understand is that there are consequences to her job not being done. Other cogs in the business might not turn without her in the team. The frustrating thing is that Angela may be good at her job when she's there; but unexplained absences can really hurt productivity. So what should you do?

Make sure you have a policy in place to manage absence. You're well within your legal rights to stipulate standards of attendance, which, if not met result in warnings and eventually dismissal. However, an employee cannot be given a warning or sacked without a defined process being followed including a formal hearing. The employee has the right to be accompanied at the hearing and a right to appeal the decision. Before things go that far, always interview your staff on their return to work to find out the underlying problems causing their absence , remind them of the procedure to follow when they are unable to attend work and ensure all staff follow it.

And above all...

Whatever your concern, the following advice applies to all staffing issues:

1) Treat everyone scrupulously the same, and be seen to do so.
2) Get advice from a professional as soon as you see trouble on the horizon.
3) Establish policies and procedures for solving disputes in line with legal minimums. Share them with staff and stick to them.
4) Act now - human resources issues don't go away by themselves.
5) Never assume that the law is on the side of a business: if you haven't followed procedure it will lean in favour of the employee.

What makes a great business? Here are my thoughts in ten 'tweetable' points of less than 140 characters!

1. Vision

Vision is the key driver of business success. Great leaders think big and imagine the real and the ideal side by side. 

2. Strategy

Only a clearly defined strategy delivers the realistic means for a business to achieve its vision over time.

3. Planning

Good business planning stimulates, encapsulates and articulates, providing focus and direction for measurable business success.

4. Leadership

Leadership is about doing the right things. Management is about doing things right. 

5. Management Team

Recruiting and empowering a capable and committed management team is the biggest entrepreneurial challenge. 

6. Money

Businesses talk about turnover and profit, but it's cash in the bank that speaks loudest. 

7. Culture

Purpose and values lie at the heart of every great business. Value 'meaning' as well as 'money' to make your business fly.

8. Marketing

Marketing is the art and science of making customers want to do business with you. Think engagement, not broadcast.

9. Collaboration

Collaborate to accumulate. The road to growth is paved with partnerships; successful businesses rarely operate alone.

10. International

Think international. It's not just for large businesses - technology and logistics mean that everyone can play. 

For more information on growing a world-class business, get a copy of my book, 'From Vision to Exit, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Building and Selling a Business', available on Amazon and in all good bookshops now.