Every business has a bank account. Most businesses will also have a relationship manager who managing the bank’s relation with your business. Small businesses may not have a named relationship manager and may also find themselves dealing with a call centre.

If your business has a relationship manager – great! But how strong is that relationship? Like any worthwhile relationship, your banking relationship should be supportive and collaborative. Is your bank supportive of your business?

Check your bank’s pro-activity

Your bank manager should be acting as a guide to the bank’s products & services that could help solve your financial headaches or support your business growth.

Ask yourself the following questions to check your bank’s pro-activity:

• Do you have a named relationship manager?
• Does your relationship manager understand your business?
• Do you recall when your relationship manager last contacted you?

If you would answer “no” to any of the questions then your business is unlikely to be getting a sufficiently pro-active service from its bank

In that situation a business should consider seeking an improved banking relationship through:

• Requesting a change of bank manager or banking channel
• Moving to a more pro-active bank

Check your business’s pro-activity

Any good relationship should be two-way. We have looked at the bank’s side of that relationship equation. We shall now look at some practical steps a business itself can take to improve the banking relationship.

Ensure accurate financial forecasting

• Don’t ignore mid-month overdraft peaks – build in headroom. For example, what would be the consequences if your payroll were due on the 25th of the month but your biggest customer delayed paying you by a week from the 21st until the 28th?
• Don’t commit to onerous debt service obligations (interest payments & capital repayments) – that could risk leaving your cash flow too tight for normal trading

Maintain good control of cash

• Don’t rely too much on short term borrowing – it requires annual renewal and could leave you open to changes in pricing (likely to be upwards!) or, even, refusal to renew
• Don’t use cash to purchase capital assets if that could leave you short of day to day working capital
• Don’t lose focus on debtor control – a bad debt can seriously hurt your cash flow

Communicate with your bank

• Keep your bank informed
• Don’t hide bad news – Banks hate surprises

Keep your side of the bargain

• Don’t breach terms and conditions of loan agreements – if it says the provision of management accounts within 21 days of month end then ensure that happens
• Don’t give the bank any reason to question its level of support for your business

Be aware of your business vulnerabilities

Don’t be too dependent on one supplier – you leave yourself open to the risk of price hikes or reduced credit terms

Don’t be too dependent on one customer – you leave yourself open to the risk of delays in receiving large payments or, even, of the customer taking their business elsewhere without warning

How Ampios Can Help 

Here at Ampios, we have a team of dedicated specialists that can work with you and your bank. We can also help you find not only a more pro-active bank but also the most appropriate forms of finance for your business now and in the future. We have comprehensive links with banks and alternative finance providers. If you need to get in touch, we’d love to have a chat. Give us a call on T: +44 (0)333 987 4672 or send us a message via our contact form.

Financing Issues

In other words, the risk of running out of cash in your business.

This can be caused by a range of factors:

Poor financial forecasting

• Ignoring mid-month overdraft peaks leading to insufficient headroom in borrowing facilities
• Debt service commitment (the cash needed for interest payments & capital repayments) uses up too much of your cash flow
• Too much reliance on short term debt meaning annual renewal and exposure to changes in terms & conditions or refusal to renew

Poor cash control

• Purchasing capital assets from cash flow and leaving the business short of day to day working capital
• Inadequate debtor control (e.g. collecting debts too slowly)

In-built business vulnerability

• Allowing too long a period of credit – this may attract financially weak customers with the accompanying risk of bad debts
• One predominant creditor – financial impact of changes in terms of trade (e.g. reduced credit period)
• One predominant debtor – financial impact of delay in settling payment or taking business elsewhere
• Seasonal trading or fluctuations in taste or fashion
• Competitors are much larger – under-cutting on price and better able to ride out a squeeze on profit margins

Any financing issue will raise concerns with a business’s funders and, especially, its bank.

Banks’ Reaction to a Financing Issue

Supportive

If your bank offers additional support – great news!

However, that additional support may come at a price – additional fees and, possibly, an interest margin increase due to greater perceived risk.

Not Supportive

What happens if your bank doesn’t want to provide additional support?

Because of the greater perceived risk mentioned above, a business could still be faced with higher financing costs even if the bank isn’t supportive – a further strain on an already tight cash position.

Also, the business’s owners would still have the problem of finding another solution to the original financing problem.

Some Bank Reactions when Businesses have Financing Issues

• Higher pricing for borrowing facilities due to an increase in risk – interest margins, arrangement & monitoring fees
• Increased security requirements – request for personal guarantees from directors, possibly supported by personal assets
• Additional financial conditions – management accounts monthly instead of quarterly, weekly cash flow forecasts
• Additional and/or tightening of financial covenants – increased debtor cover
• Pressure to enter into costlier bank products  – interest rate hedging or switch from overdraft to invoice financing
• Risk of being moved to “intensive care” – with resultant monitoring fees levied by the bank
• Insistence on an independent business review – appointment of investigative accountants with the cost being picked up by the business

Overall Impact on your Business of Bank Reactions

• Higher costs at a time when cash flow is already tight – after all this was caused by a financing issue
• Valuable management time used up – responding to the bank rather than guiding the business through its current difficulties.

How Ampios Can Help

Here at Ampios, we have a team of dedicated specialists who can work with you and your bank. We can also introduce you to alternative finance providers. All that to ensure your business has the right forms of finance for its needs now and in the future. If you need to get in touch, we’d love to have a chat. Give us a call on T: +44 (0)333 987 4672 or send us a message via our contact form.

We are all well aware that Government, in all its guises, is a major creditor of any business (National Insurance Contributions, VAT, Corporation Tax & Business Rates).

However, on the other side of the balance sheet, Government is also a major provider of business support –  even more so in the current economic climate due to the pandemic.

Local Support

Some Government support is delivered locally or regionally. There has been locally delivered pandemic related support such as business rates relief and grants.

In January, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a further £4bn grants package – for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors – to be delivered through local authorities.

As well as locally delivered UK Government support, there is also direct business support from local government.

For example, in Lancashire there is the Business Growth Hub & Rosebud Business Finance scheme through the County Council & business growth support through the Local Enterprise Partnership.

Looking at the wider North West region, there is business support in the form of equity and debt financing available through the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF). The NPIF offers:

• Micro-financing (£25k to £100k)
• Debt financing (£100k to £750k)
• Equity financing (£50k to £2m) for early stage to late stage businesses

Ask yourself, is your business utilising all the local & regional business support that is available?

National Support

We have seen unprecedented levels of business support from the UK Government due to the pandemic.

There are two key programmes of pandemic related support from the UK Government:

• The Furlough Scheme – currently extended to 30^th April
• Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme – currently extended to 31^st March

Focusing on CBILS, this support is free of interest & fees for the first 12 months. As such, not only would a business get a cash injection from a CBILS facility but there would be no cost attached to that borrowing in the first year.

CBILS loans are repayable over a maximum of 6 years (likely to rise to 10 years) and overdrafts are repayable over a maximum of 3 years. SMEs up to £45m turnover are eligible. CBILs support can be accessed through 117 lenders across the UK from the big banks to specialist business finance providers. Consequently, CBILS support can be tailored to the needs of your business.

Other UK Government support is available through specific national bodies such as Innovate UK.

Finally, some UK Government support is tax related. It may be a surprise to some that there is support from HMRC but, in fact, there are 3 significant tax relief schemes:

• R&D tax credits
• Embedded Capital Allowances
• Patent Box

R&D Tax Credits

R&D tax credits are available to businesses developing new or improved products, processes, materials, services or devices.

That sounds “techy” and narrow in scope but, in practice, the application of the relief is broad. It can be relevant to almost any company – many you wouldn’t naturally associate with the term ‘R&D’.

Latest figures reveal £5.3bn of support was received by over 59,000 businesses who claimed R&D tax relief. That was an average of £90k of tax relief or tax refund per claimant- cash in their pocket not the taxman’s!

59,000 businesses is very small when compared to the total number of UK businesses. Consequently, there must be many businesses out there who are not availing themselves of R&D tax relief.

For SMEs, R&D tax relief has an additional benefit in that they can claim an extra 130% of qualifying costs giving total tax relief of 230% of R&D spend.

The principal industry sectors that have accounted for the greatest level of R&D tax credits are:

• Manufacturing
• Information & Communication
• Professional, Scientific & Technical
• Wholesale & Retail
• Support Services
• Construction & Mining
• Arts & Entertainment

Ask yourself, has your business claimed R&D tax relief?

Embedded Capital Allowances (ECA)

ECAs could be available if you have bought or improved commercial property.

Property acquisition costs can be split into embedded fixtures & fittings (qualifying for capital allowances) & “bricks and mortar”.

On average, 25% of a property purchase cost may be embedded fixtures & fittings. That percentage varies with property type & use, with industrial sheds having lower percentages and buildings such as care homes having higher percentages.

Some of the fixtures and fittings that qualify for ECA are:

• Lifts, escalators & moving walkways
• Space and water heating systems
• Air-conditioning & air cooling systems
• Hot & cold water systems (but not toilet and kitchen facilities)
• Electrical systems, including lighting systems
• External solar shading

Ask yourself, has your business acquired or improved premises and, if so, have you claimed Embedded Capital Allowances?

Patent Box

Finally, Patent Box is designed to encourage businesses to keep and commercialise intellectual property in the UK. A lower rate of Corporation Tax of 10% applies to profits earned from patents in a Patent Box.

How Ampios Can Help 

Here at Ampios, we have a team of dedicated specialists that can help point you in the right direction or work with your business on an ongoing basis. We have comprehensive links with a range of lenders and can also introduce you to accountants and other specialists who are expert in liaising with HMRC. If you need to get in touch, we’d love to have a chat. Give us a call on T: +44 (0)333 987 4672 or send us a message via our contact form. 

About the scheme

The CBILS was launched by the UK Government last year to provide financial support to SMEs that were losing revenue or having their cashflow disrupted as a result of the pandemic.

Since its launch, CBILS has been expanded meaning that more businesses can now access CBILS. One of the key changes to the scheme is that SMEs who would have previously met the requirements for a commercial facility can now access CBILS.

CBILs has also been extended due to the continuing economic impact of the pandemic. Currently, CBILs availability expires on 31^st March 2021 but a further extension is likely.

Accessing CBILS

There are currently 117 lenders across the UK involved in the scheme. These include:

• High-street banks
• Challenger banks
• Asset-based lenders
• Specialist local lenders

The first port of call for most businesses would be their existing bank. A refusal from that bank does not preclude a business from approaching other CBILS lenders.

What is available through CBILS?

SMEs can access finance in many forms:

• Term loans
• Overdrafts
• Invoice finance
• Asset finance

As such, the CBILS support can be tailored to suit the specific needs of the business. It is not just the case of having to take on a term loan.

Key features of CBILS

• Finance of up to £5 million
• Government guarantee to the lender to encourage them to lend
• The borrower remains fully liable for the borrowing
• Government pays the interest and fees on the CBILS facility for the first 12 months – so cost-free to the SME in the first year
• Term loans and asset finance facilities can be repaid over a maximum of six years (but may possibly be extended to 10 years)
• Overdrafts and invoice finance facilities can be repaid over a maximum of three years
• No personal guarantees for facilities under £250,000
• For facilities above £250,000, personal guarantees may be required by the CBILS loan provider but exclude the guarantor’s Principal Private Residence and any recoveries under personal guarantees are capped at a maximum of 20% of the outstanding balance of the CBILS facility (after the proceeds of business assets have been applied)

Eligibility

A business must:

• Be UK-based in its business activity
• Have an annual turnover of no more than £45 million

• Self-certify that it has been adversely impacted by the COVID-19

• Not have been classed as a “business in difficulty”, if applying to borrow £30,000 or more

Businesses from any sector can apply, except:

• Banks, insurers and reinsurers (but not insurance brokers)
• Public-sector bodies
• State-funded primary and secondary schools

What lenders will need from you

• An indication of the business uses of the funds requested

• Management accounts
• Cash flow forecast
• Business plan
• Historic accounts
• A breakdown of your business assets

How Ampios Can Help

Here at Ampios, we have a team of dedicated specialists. We can help you with your business planning. We can also work with you to make the right approach for the most suitable CBILS funding for your business. If you need to get in touch, we’d love to have a chat. Give us a call on T: +44 (0)333 987 4672 or send us a message via our contact form.

The Way We Do Things Around Here

Increasingly in recent years, ‘the way we do things around here’, has become the preferred definition used to describe the culture of an organisation. Do you subscribe to this definition?

It has a lot to recommend it. The definition is simple and concise and there is something quite unifying about it. But it also appeals to a sense of togetherness that we like to feel about our lives and our work. So what does this definition tell us about culture?  Is this definition helpful when considering culture with a view to ‘culture change’?

Firstly, ‘the way we do things around here’ suggests that there is a way of doing things that we all agree with and support. It suggests that an organisation’s culture is something uniform and consistent, a defining characteristic perhaps. Do you think an organisation’s culture is as constant as this implies?

Culture In Victorian England

Try this … think about how you would describe the culture in Victorian England. Take some time to think about this. What would you say?

Many would say something like … Victorians were ruled by a detailed code of manners and etiquette, that they were straight-laced and prudish. They would say that Victorians prized propriety and reputation and that the lives of Victorian children were very formal and often lacked outward expressions of affection.

Whilst this may have been true, increasingly so perhaps over the course of Queen Victoria’s reign, it was never universally true of course. It was just true enough, often enough that it came to define the Victorian era.

How Do We Define Culture?

Cultures vary from country to country and from region to region, even in a country as small as England. In an organisation, whatever the size, culture can vary from site to site and from team to team. And it might even be true to say that the culture of a particular team can vary from time to time.

So, to define culture as if it were something uniform and constant (or that it could be), is neither accurate, nor is it particularly helpful when it comes to deciding how to improve it.

A prevailing wind in a particular place is a wind from the direction that is predominant or most usual. Occasionally however, the wind blows from another direction.

Influencing Culture

We believe that culture describes the prevailing personality or character, the feelings and beliefs of a group of people. As such, when thinking about influencing and achieving the culture you aspire to have for your organisation, the goal should be to have the work place environement that you want, more present in more groups of people for more of the time.

How Ampios Can Help?

And here’s a thought … you probably have the culture you want already, but it might not be present enough, often enough for it to be defining.

And that might be just the key you need to unlock your cultural potential and develop the culture you long for.

Like us, you may have been reading about the issues and subsequent legal exchanges around the demise of Patisserie Valerie. The popular chain collapsed in 2019 following the emergence of a major accounting scandal. The Directors of the company are now suing the Auditors for negligence and for failing to spot an alleged manipulation of its books. This has now resulted in the board “being unaware that the group has insufficient funds to continue to trade”.

We can’t guess which way the case will go, but it may prove to be another example of how things can go catastrophically wrong if the directors don’t follow the rules. If it can happen to a large chain, it could happen to anyone.

The bottom line

The bottom line is that the ultimate responsibility for the success or failure of any business lies with its Directors. In businesses, directors have certain fiduciary duties which are part of the Companies Act 2006 and are therefore statutory.

Legal Responsibilities 

The Companies Act 2006 details the legal responsibilities you carry when becoming a director as follows:

1. To act within powers in accordance with the company’s constitution and to use those powers only for the purposes for which they were conferred.
   

   As a director, it is important to be familiar with the articles of association for your business. These articles are likely to restrict your individual decision-making powers.

2. To promote the success of the company for the benefits of its members.
   

   You should act in good faith to promote success for the company and its shareholders. You need to consider the outcomes of your decisions for everybody involved in the business. It is also important to consider the impact your decisions will have on the environment, the reputation of your company and your business’ success.

   All decisions should be made within the best interests of the company, not to benefit any individuals. However, be broad-minded when evaluating those interests, keeping in mind other stakeholders. The financial aspect is not the only perspective to consider.

3. To exercise independent judgment.

As a director, you are legally obliged to exercise judgment independently and be prepared to question the decisions of others. If the existing board make decisions, it is important to question why that’s the best thing for the company. But if you have a different approach in mind, you should voice it.

4. To exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence.
   

   In your position as director, you are expected to make decisions based on diligence, knowledge, skill and experience. If you have specific professional training, you will be held to a higher level of accountability than less-qualified members of the board.

5. To avoid conflicts of interest.
   

   A conflict of interest could arise if you have a close, personal interest in the business of competitors or other third parties. Alternatively, if you are responsible for a decision regarding an employee or potential employee with whom you have a close relationship, this would also constitute a conflict of interest. If you find that you have a conflict of interest, you must declare this to the board. However, it is important to ensure that your non-financial interests do not take precedence over your duties as a director.

6. Not to accept benefits from third parties.

You must not accept benefits with the expectation of you doing, or not doing, something within your power to influence a decision.

7. To declare an interest in a proposed transaction or arrangement.

If you have an interest in a deal or transaction, you must make it known. If a close friend or family member will benefit from you doing business with a specific supplier, you must declare this to your board members.

By following these simple legal requirements your business is much less likely to suffer the fate of Patisserie Valerie.

How Ampios Can Help

If you have any concerns about how your board currently operates or are uncertain about how to make your board even more effective, get in touch to discuss how we can help you.

While vaccine development and its impressive rate of rollout is to be celebrated, the economic fallout caused by Coronavirus has been great and is set to continue.

It is likely you have already responded with widespread change in your business. Over the past 9 months, you’ve found new ways to serve your customers and protect cash flow. But what challenges await and how well prepared are you?

The CBI reports that manufacturers expect a sharp fall in new orders and output in the months ahead. With widespread coronavirus-related disruption, knock-on from overproduction ahead of our departure from the EU, border challenges and delays arising from Brexit.

You can sit tight and hope for the best, but it makes sense to understand the impact this could have on your cash position.

Identify your pinch points and plan how you can avoid and reduce expenditure. What cash needs to be raised from new sources? You must ensure that you are communicating with suppliers, customers and your bank.

Remember, the Chancellor and your local Council are very unlikely to offer the same level of support that you have benefitted from since the start of the pandemic.

As Captain Tom would say, “Tomorrow will be a good day”. But maybe a solid plan today will help deliver his promise.

Why Do Businesses Struggle ? 

Having a Struggling Business on your hands is no fun, it’s not what you signed up for. We get it, running and growing a business is hard. There’s plenty of risks involved, one of which being cash flow. Unsurprisingly this is the leading cause of business failure.

Other reasons you might come across are: starting with too little money, lacking a well developed business plan, incorrectly pricing your assets and probably most importantly, most small to medium sized business owners can’t recognise their own faults and don’t seek external help. 

If you’ve identified a problem within your business and feel there’s a few areas that need improving then we’ll be helping you to pre-empt these. The key thing to remember is don’t throw the towel in. It can be all too easy to give up once things start to get tough but trust us on this, please persevere. 

How To Get Your Business Back Up And Running

There are a number of things you can do to turn things around and get your struggling business back on its feet. 

More often than not, encountering some challenges is a natural part of running a business. When you’re just first starting out, you’re definitely going to hit a few hurdles. But like anything, once you power through, you’ll have that knowledge and experience to not make the same mistakes again. 

It’s only when you’re continuously experiencing hurdles and problems, then this could spark your downfall.  If you’re feeling overwhelmed, then take a step back. Take a critical approach and root out any problems within your business. Sometimes you can be too involved that you fail to see any issues. If you and your team can research and analyse what’s going wrong, then hope is in sight. 

So before we go any further, here are a few reasons why your business might be struggling. 

You don’t understand your market and customer

Before you even open your business you’ll have needed to research the market place. You’ll have already picked out your product and service, but where does it sit? Who is likely to buy what you’re offering? You should have carefully planned out your target audience and buyer persona. This will allow you to market your product in the right way. If you launch without conducting this research, without knowing who your ideal customer is, you’re likely to fail. 

You don’t have a clearly defined pricing strategy

Again, this point requires research. You need to look to your competitors who are selling a similar product. What does it cost? Is it ever on offer? If you set your price too high or too low, this is going to affect your profit. 

Have you calculated how much money you need?

Please conduct a thorough review on how much money you’ll need. Some months you might need more, others not as much. If you’re a business that’s growing, you need the right funds behind you. So create a proper calculation of the correct type of financing you and your business needs. 

You don’t react to change

Nobody wants to be left behind, we’ve seen what that does to businesses. We live in a world that’s constantly changing and adapting to new technologies and ways that we work. You need to keep a close eye on your competitors, the market and industry trends. 

You don’t have to be alone

We get it. You’ve grown your business and you’re proud of it. But you need to loosen the reigns from time to time. You can dish out some responsibility to others and rely on them to get the job done. If you’re unwilling to let go and seek help from others, this could lead to failure. 

Seeking External Help 

Dependent on your budget there are many avenues you can take. Just know there is no shame in asking for help. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in the business, at some point we all need help. That’s where we come in.

How Ampios Can Help 

A few days ago, Ryanair forecasted that there would be a strong return for beach holidays this summer.

After a truly challenging year, airline companies would be happy to welcome back travellers. So could this be the return of the summer holiday for summer 2021? Well, we won’t know just yet. This is all reliant on the success of the government vaccination program. So would any of you risk going on a summer holiday this year, we’d love to know. Pop you answer in the comments down below.

What happens to your employees holiday entitlement during coronavirus?

Everybody that works, including those on zero hour contracts are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday per year. The statutory 5.6 weeks entitlement is split into 4 weeks an additional 1.6 weeks from UK law. Dependent on your contract with your employer, you could have additional paid holiday entitlement. You will have the same holiday entitlement even if you’re on statutory leave.

Can I Accrue Holidays Whilst On Furlough?

If you have been placed on furlough, you can still continue to accrue statutory holiday entitlements. Please see the governments holiday entitlement calculator to work out your statutory holiday entitlement.

Those on furlough can take holidays without disrupting their furlough payments. In this instance, an employer can require a worker to take leave. If an employer requires a worker to take holiday whilst on furlough, they should consider whether the employee can rest, relax and enjoy their ‘holiday’.

If a bank holiday falls inside a workers period of furlough and the worker would have usually worked the bank holiday, their furlough will be unaffected. However if the employee would have usually had the holiday as annual leave then there’s two options you can take.

• The Bank Holiday is taken as annual leave. If the employee tales the bank holiday as annual leave, then the employer must pay the correct holiday pay for the worker.
• The Bank Holiday Is Deferred. If the bank holiday isn’t taken as annual leave, the employee must receive the day of annual leave that they would have received under normal circumstances.

If the employer and the worker agree that the bank holiday will not be taken as annual leave at that time, the worker must still receive the day of annual leave that they would have received.

What Will I Get Paid?

An employer should not automatically pay a worker on holiday the rate of pay that they are receiving while on furlough. If a worker on furlough takes annual leave, an employer must calculate and pay the correct holiday pay in accordance with current legislation.

Carrying holidays into the future

The 5.6 weeks of holiday are split into 4 weeks and 1.6 weeks. The 1.6 weeks can be carried forward into the following leave year if a written agreement exists between the worker and the employer. Generally, the 4 weeks cannot be carried into future leave years. The employers must facilitate these weeks being taken within the relevant leave year

However, due to the current situation, employers must allow the 4 weeks to be carried into future leave years. If a worker cannot take annual leave due to them being on maternity leave or sick, employers must still allow workers to carry their annual leave forwards.

Under the new government legislation, workers can carry forward their holiday due to the effects of the coronavirus. If it has not been reasonably practicable for the worker to take some or all of the 4 weeks’ holiday due to the effects of coronavirus, the untaken amount may be carried forward into the following 2 leave years.

How Ampios Can Help?

Is there such a thing as a bad employee? People do bad things in the workplace, we’re only human. But with every bad choice we make, this is what helps us to grow and allows us to navigate ourselves out of heated situations. With negative experience, comes knowledge and knowledge is power. We know not to make the same mistakes again because we’ve learnt from them. Permitted that doesn’t always happen, some employees will unfortunately fall down the same rabbit hole.

The majority of us aspire to please someone, we knuckle down and try to produce results in the hope of praise, acknowledgement or even a promotion. But what happens when things don’t go according to plan? Who’s at fault? The employee or the management team? Whose been tarnished the ‘bad employee’?

Employees would say management and vice versa. It works both ways. People are always quick to point the blame and save their own skin.

We know bad managers exit and we know bad employees exit. You know the type, power mad managers who bark orders out to everyone who is lower down. But equally, there’s the bad employee, who bunks off, wastes time and really doesn’t care about what they put in. But like most actions, there’s a cause. By identifying the root of the problem could help you discover why your employee is behaving in such a way. If it’s coming from the top down, then it’s probably a management issue that’s caused them to behave like this in the first place.

Here are a few scenarios

The Problem: The employee constantly misses deadlines

Time management is key. It’s something we all have to be aware of not just in our careers but our personal lives too. However this can become incredibly frustrating for a manager and their team. If this becomes a habit, all of that employees work could be holding the team behind, which is far from productive.

The Solution

We’ve all been there. Forgotten a deadline, prioritised something else or perhaps have seriously procrastinated that much that we no longer feel up the task. Instead of going 0 to 100 and blaming or punishing the employee, you might want to think about why they’ve missed the deadline.

Perhaps the employee isn’t confident with the workload, they’re unsure of what they’re doing and if they’re doing it right. Some people find it hard to communicate their feelings, especially if they’re struggling and will often go without saying anything until it’s too late. To prevent this kind of scenario, consider implementing checkpoints that lead up to deadline day.  As a manager, it’s up to you to make sure your employee is feeling supported every step of the way and should make time to check in with them.

By being clear and concise. If you’re setting an employee a piece of work, assign them work in the same format. Either via email, video call, or face to face. Make sure your employee has all the tools and resources so they can get the work done.

The Problem: The employee doesn’t get on with anyone

They say you can’t pick your family and you can’t pick who you work with either. In an ideal world everybody would get on however this isn’t the case. Not everyone is going to get on or like the next person, it’s a part of life.

The Solution

As a manager, you’ve probably spent years gathering like-minded individuals to create your team. That’s why carefully vetting candidates during your recruitment process is vital.  A manager wants harmony amongst their team not animosity. When everyone’s on the same page, that’s when the best work is produced.

If there’s a fault in the team, then you’ll want to find the root of the problem. Without singling them out as a problem, you’ll want to know why this person is behaving in a disruptive way. Perhaps they’re an introvert and find it hard to socialise and work with others. Have an open and honest conversation where you can listen to your employee and find out what makes them tick. Together you can establish a working style that suits both parties.

The Problem: They’re always late

Nobody likes an employee that takes the p**s. It’s your job as a manager to pull them aside and ask them why they’re late. They could be struggling with childcare, relying on public transport. Two issues that are out of most people’s control.

The Solution

But it comes down to this, ‘Find the best solution for you and your employee’. It might be your employee needs to start work slightly later or on different days. Once you’ve done your part and tried to accommodate their needs, it’s then in the employees hands.

The Problem: The work isn’t cutting the mustard

If your employee is a new starter, chances are it might take them a little while to settle into the role. They’ll need to learn about new processes and procedures so managers should expect that. It’s only when 6 months have gone by and your employee is still struggling and their work hasn’t improved.

The Solution 

Two possible reasons are this. You as a manager aren’t providing feedback or support or the employee isn’t taking it. You should give regular feedback sessions or appraisals, and give your employee the chance to tell you what they’re struggling with. But on the other side of the coin, your employee simply might not like criticism and will fall back into the old ways.

How Ampios Can Help 

So with these three scenarios in mind, it comes down to this. Managers must take responsibility for their ‘bad’ employees and address any issues they have. It’s only then, you can categorise them as a ‘ bad employee’.