Many managers view the return-to-work interview as a five-minute chat to tick a box and say they’ve “supported” their staff member. But these meetings can be so much more than that. When should I have the meeting? As soon as possible after the employee has returned to work. Obviously some staff are part-time, you might…

Whatever the cost – and it varies hugely around the UK – it’s set to increase by 5.5% in April 2020. As you will be aware, in April 2019, the NHS employer contribution rose from 14.3% to 20.6% although implementation, for the NHS, was deferred until April 2020. Now the implementation date is looming.  As…

This is the third article in a series of three looking at grading practice staff salaries. View part one and part two.  Much is being written on the Practice Index forum about the plight of practice managers and their deputies. The discussion often centres around grading, working hours and workload. Principally, the size of a…

Quite a few forum posts have appeared recently questioning what to do if you overpay a member of staff. Can I recover the money? Is there a time limit on reclaiming it? What do I do if the employee doesn’t give it back? Let’s shed some light on this topic. Hopefully we’ve all got a…

Life in general practice can be demanding. Workloads, difficult patients, bureaucracy, long hours…the list of stresses goes on, meaning it’s better if a practice’s staff all get along. While it’s good to be friendly and get along, is there such a thing as being too friendly? For one practice, the answer is most definitely yes!…

This is the first article in a series of three looking at grading practice staff salaries.  What’s a job worth? I tend to adopt a simple approach to judging what salary a job is worth. My approach is partly based on knowledge of NHS grades and salaries, and partly based on common sense. The NHS…

There’s always one. They’re contracted to start work at 12:30pm sharp, but at 12:30 on the dot you see them strolling across the car park before they come in, dump their bag on their chair, say hi to everyone, make themselves a cuppa, go to the loo, and finally start work at 12:45. This is…