How to Give Your Business Corporate Social Responsibility
Which organisation wouldn't like to have a more confident, more productive and more loyal workforce? Employee volunteering, and especially as career speakers to young people, may be the answer as it has tangible benefits to the bottom-line. Corporate Social Responsibility is about developing corporate citizenship - being more than just an employer and making a positive difference to the immediate locality and the world at large. CSR is not just about 'green' issues but about Community Involvement, too. Volunteering in the community is a cheap and effective staff development tool. Where else can you quickly build confidence and develop interpersonal skills?
The Season of Smokescreens and Manipulation
Here we come into the season of smokescreens and manipulation, otherwise known as the presidential election year. With each passing election, the question turns increasingly away from which candidate would make the best president and which policies would be best for the nation, and toward which campaign can do a better job manipulating public opinion in order to get their person elected. It's the season of guilt by innuendo or association, of character assassination, and of the absolute flouting of every principle of logic since Aristotle. Prepare to be snowed, buffaloed and bamboozled. You're not a citizen, you're not even a voter, you're a demographic: a 'target audience' of a set of sophisticated mass-marketing techniques.
The Importance of Ethical Marketing
If you want to sell a product successfully you have to use powerful words to describe it and to convey each and every little benefit it has to offer your customer. As a result, it's not uncommon to see and hear words like "unbelievable" and "phenomenal" in advertising. There are some marketers, however, who intentionally use hyped-up descriptions to sell their products. These marketers mislead customers into thinking that their products offer benefits that they really do not. Beware of individuals or promotions that promise you "everything you have ever wanted" just by purchasing an e-book and executing whatever is inside. Anyone can stand in front of a Mercedez Benz, luxurious mansion or yacht and self-promote.
Business Ethics - Making it Big the Right Way!
Most businesses have a mission statement, centered round qualities and values they swear to uphold. How many manage to observe the protocol is questionable, however. Do business ethics matter? Is it sensible to hold on to values when you can have an upper hand in business by casually ignoring them? Contrary to popular assumptions about corporate setups, many businesses today are coming around to stressing on the importance of ethical practices at work. The reasons are obvious. Take for instance the rising charges of fraud against employees by employers. Management cannot expect employees to be champions of ethics but not practice them as a firm. There is immense value in adhering to business ethics in every undertaking.
Online Fraud a New Banking Virus?
The advent of the internet has resulted in a whole new set of fraud related problems for the banking industry. In the past the issues resolved around, cash machines, credit cards and bounced cheques. The result, the cheque clearing process became longer. The new 2-4-6 cheque clearing rules reflect the fact that the problem with banking fraud has switched from cheques to online. The banks in the UK have quietly passed an amendment to the online banking code that could result in less protection for their online customers. The subtle change is the incorporation of a new clause 12.13. This clause states that "Unless you have acted fraudulently or without reasonable care (for example, by not following the advice of 12.
The Good Assistant Knows - It's All About Business
In utmost sincerity, it has nothing to do with how much you like (or dislike) your boss; how much money you get paid (or don't get paid); how much praise you receive (or don't receive). The good assistant knows it's all about business. Whether you're the assistant to the neighborhood drycleaner, an intern at a media factory, or the executive assistant to the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, the good assistance knows it's all about the business. Period. In fact, the "job" isn't to appease the employer, rally behind the team or make sure there're donuts on Friday mornings. The "job" is always to consider, "Is it good for the company?" If you ask yourself that question each time you hear idle gossip, each time your employer asks you for your honest opinion, or even if you're answering calls, you'll never go wrong by keeping that thought in the forefront of your mind.
How Good is Your Word?
Do you follow through with what you tell people you will do? When you say " I'll call you next week", do you? When you say "Let's get together soon", do you mean it or are you just saying it to be CORDIAL? In business, when you tell a salesperson "Let's do some business down the road", are you sincere. Perhaps is it an easy blow off to get the salesperson out of your hair? If you say "Let's go out Friday night", do you follow through or is it all fluff? A few weeks back I had a discussion with a related cousin who I knew, but not overly well. The discussion was about if he wanted to go on a golf trip with the boys. Now, I've run my share of golf trips over the years.
If You End Up With Too Much Money in Your Pay Cheque Do You Know What Your Rights Are?
Overpayments In businesses operating computerised payroll systems, it is not unusual for an occasional error to arise resulting in a mistaken overpayment to an employee. This might take the form of an overpayment of basic rate pay or overtime pay or commission/bonus. The payslip is often fairly complex and employees sometimes fail to thoroughly check its contents. It can sometimes be a matter of weeks or even months before the employee or the business realise that an overpayment has taken place. In this situation, the legal question is whether the company are entitled to recover the overpayment and, if so, by what means. In order to show that an overpayment is not recoverable, then the employee must demonstrate three things.
Personal and Professional Values in Decision Making
The purposeful choice to pursue creative thought as we seek greater understanding of ourselves, our associations, and our world is foundational to the development and ultimately, the establishment of our personal values and ethics. Judicious, strategic thought processes enable individuals to realize the qualities within themselves as well as areas that need eradication or improvement. "A person's attitude toward himself has a profound influence on his attitudes toward God, his family, his friends, his future, and many significant areas of his life." (Institute, 1986) God tells us in II Corinthians that we are "epistles... known and read by all men." It is through clear understanding of the facts, principles, and concepts presented in God's Word that one can manifest the person God declares him to be.
So What Are the Rules For Dismissing Incompetent Employees?
As Solicitors we have organised a series of employment law seminars over the past few years and the normal attendance has been around 60-70 general managers and human resource managers. However, the latest course about dismissal for poor performance attracted around 140 bookings! It seems clear from the popularity of this seminar that this issue really matters to local businesses. The main risk involved in dismissing an incompetent employees is losing a claim for unfair dismissal and having to pay an award of compensation for loss of earnings of up to 53, 500. This is generally only a risk where employees have been employed for at least 12 months. In order to justify the dismissal of an under performing employee, the business will need to show that they honestly and reasonably believed that the employee was failing to meet established standards.