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

A recent thread on the Practice Index forum asks how many hours of overtime practice managers work. As of now, over 80 responses have been received. It seems nothing much has changed since I retired because GP employers still seem to ignore the number of hours their managers work and fail to recognise the time

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

As we’ve discussed before on Practice Index, appraisals are an essential part of your role, and are vital for the development of your team. But what about you? Who appraises the appraiser? Where can Practice Managers turn for help? After all, the NHS constitution requires organisations to provide staff with clear roles and responsibilities, opportunities for

For practice managers, one of the biggest headaches is staffing. Recruiting new staff, retaining existing people, managing salary (and pension) costs and generally ensuring a practice has the right balance of personnel is tough. Then there’s the CQC’s safe staffing agenda to worry about. According to the CQC, Safe, effective staffing is about “having enough

A summary of the HR and H&S updates issued in April 2019. HR Updates Amber alerts Keeping in touch with staff on maternity leave Immigration – Tier 2 threshold reduced to protect NHS Final written warning without investigation Unfair dismissal for misleading an employee during a re-structure Green alerts Leaving the EU and the impact

The forum has been awash recently with threads concerning the management of staff in their probationary period. Why do we have probationary periods? Because with employment you don’t really get to try before you buy! This is the best option you have in that respect. Many people are fantastic at interviews but when they start