The Top 5 Tips For Living With Carers – Tip #3 Ground Rules

Tip #3 – The importance of ground rules

This is very much linked to the points I mentioned in tip #1 about what you and your employees want from their employment. You need to have a set of common rules and processes you apply as soon as someone starts work, in order to get things off to a good start and make sure boundaries are established.  So what do I mean by boundaries?

Essentially, I mean the things each of you can and cannot do. For example, you can ask a PA if they are available to work an extra shift while somebody is off sick, but you can’t demand they do so. Equally, a PA can ask if they can ‘nip down the shop to get some lunch’, but they can’t demand you let them; they should have brought some with them. 

The best way to set initial ground rules is with a contract of employment. This is an essential because it protects both you and the employee legally and also sets out what you expect of each other. There is lots of legal stuff that should be in every contract covering things like holiday pay, sick leave and grievance procedures so it is definitely best to try and find a template or get someone in the know to help you write one.

One of the key parts of a contract you can do yourself is the job description. Make it as detailed as you like because the more you put in the more new recruits will know off the bat, provided they actually read it and don’t just sign it of course. One of the best ways to do it is just go through a typical day from start to finish, either in your head or on paper, and then transfer all the tasks a PA would have to do into the contract, preferably in a bulleted list. 

Another key contributor to the setting of ground rules is an employee’s first day. You will need to have some sort of induction training for them, so think about the kind of things you need to say. Try and approach it like you would if you were the employee of a regular company responsible for inducting new recruits. One thing they would do is introduce the ‘new guy’ to the organisation culture or in other words, ‘the way we do things around here’. Start sentences with phrases like “this is where we…” or “when we are…we do…” because this will keep the advice practical.

One of the best things you can do, providing you have at least one PA already, is get a current employee to help you with the induction and give some training. This is really useful because they have been in the same position as the ‘new guy’ and have a better appreciation of the things they might need help with than you will. Moreover, it means if they are disastrous to start with the other person can give tips or take over for a while so the ‘new guy’ can learn by watching.

Nowadays, I always ask an existing PA to come in when a new person starts so they can shadow them. Usually, this is only for their first day, occasionally a second day as well. The other benefit to shadowing is it gives new recruits a chance to ask questions about you and the way things are done, and then you can find out the existing PAs opinion of them, which is always useful.

Another trick I’ve learnt is never to let small irritations slide. The habits people pick up when they start will stick with them and it’s hard to change them later on, so make sure you tell someone as soon as they do something wrong. This takes quite a bit of tact, but is worth it and people usually respond well as they are eager to please when they first start.

Bye for now,

George

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