#187 - Reframing the new Right to Disconnect rules, with Paula Maidens

 
 
 
 
 

As business owners, we often find ourselves navigating a constantly evolving landscape of rules and regulations. 

But what if we could transform what seems like yet another layer of complexity into a unique opportunity for growth? 

I had the opportunity to sit down with the amazing Paula Maidens, a business owner I deeply respect and admire, to unpack the new Right to Disconnect rules. Paula runs a consultancy that specialises in helping business owners hire, build and transform high-performing teams. Her approach to business is as authentic as it is refreshing, making her the perfect guest to delve into the nuances of these new regulations.

For so many business owners that I talk to, there's a lot of fear and uncertainty around these new rules relating to when they can contact their employees, and the expectations around when employees should respond. 

In this conversation, we discuss how there doesn't need to be a negative Nancy-type approach to these new Right to Disconnect Rules. Rather, there’s an opportunity to reframe this change and motivate us to review our systems and processes, as well as our interactions with those we work with. 

Building a Culture of Communication

Paula highlights the critical role culture plays in how these rules are perceived and implemented within a business. If you're finding it hard to navigate these changes, perhaps it's time to evaluate the culture you’ve established. Have you created an environment where urgent matters are expected to be dealt with immediately, irrespective of the time or day? 

Paula suggests that lax organisational habits might be to blame for the pressure to respond instantly. The crux of the Right to Disconnect is not about restricting communication but rather about establishing clear boundaries and expectations. It's about protecting employees from unreasonable demands while fostering a healthy work-life balance.

Strategic Approach: From Fear to Opportunity

The transition from panic to progress begins with open communication and a strategic approach. Here are a few steps to consider:

1. Revisit Your Processes: Start by listing out what's currently not working. Address those persistent pain points that keep you up at night. Sometimes, anxiety stems simply from not knowing whether you're in compliance or not.

2. Evaluate the ‘Why’: If urgent communications happen too frequently, investigate the roots. Understanding why things must be done immediately can help in strategising more effectively.

3. Set Clear Expectations: Both with your clients and your team, clarity is key. Paula illustrated this with her own experience running a yoga studio, where clear communication protocols prevented chaos when an instructor was suddenly unavailable.

4. Create Robust Systems: Develop systems that work for both your business and your employees. Ensure everyone knows what to do in unexpected situations, reducing dependency on you as the owner.

5. Training and Communication: Equip your team with the necessary knowledge and skills to understand and effectively navigate new regulations. 

Embrace the Change

While they can be seen as putting extra pressure on business owners, the Right to Disconnect rules can instead be a catalyst to cultivate a sustainable and respectful workplace culture. This is a prime opportunity to reassess and align your business operations with your core values and long-term goals.

If you're uncertain about where to start, remember that conversation, communication and accessible resources like Paula's consultancy can be invaluable allies in this journey.

  • Tracey: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Rise Up in Business podcast, everyone. Thank you for joining me. Today's episode is something special where I'm joined by a lovely guest, Paula Maidens, who is a business owner who I respect immensely. Paula has such an authentic, refreshing way of doing business. Paula supports business owners to hire, build and transform high performing teams. She's all about the people. So Paula is the perfect guest to have on, to join me in this conversation where we're going to dive in and talk about the Right to Disconnect rules. For so many business owners that I talk [00:01:00] to, there's a lot of fear around this and uncertainty and worry. But what I'm hoping you'll take away from this fabulous conversation with Paula is that it doesn't have to be. So first of all, the closing loopholes legislation that the Right to Disconnect rules relate to essentially mean that small business employers, so less than 15 employees, don't have to worry about this until August next year. All other employers, the time's now. But like all things, my approach is don't wait, do it now.

    And what Paula and I are going to share in this conversation is that this really doesn't need to be a negative Nancy type of fear based approach to these new rules around the right to disconnect. There's something much more holistic and positive that can be taken away from this. And I won't say any more than that now, other than I think you're going to love this uplifting conversation with Paula.

    She is incredible. There is so many nuggets of gold that you will be able to take away from this episode. There is honestly something here for [00:02:00] everybody who is a small business owner. So I will dive into the episode with Paula now, and I will join you afterwards. I hope you love this one as much as I loved recording it.

     Hello, Paula, welcome to the podcast.

    Paula: Hello. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to chat today. 

    Tracey: Ah, this is so important, this conversation. And I'm so grateful that you made the time to join me. We were just talking before we hit record and we were talking about the level of fear and uncertainty and worry that's around for small business owners, not just as a result of these rules, but all the rules, because this landscape's constantly changing.

    And I don't know about you, but I'm finding that it's a challenge in itself to stay up to date with all the changes and what it means. So being a small business owner and wearing all the hats and then trying to work out, huh, there's more changes. And how does that apply to me? It's hard. So we're going to have this conversation, which I think is going to help so many people [00:03:00] understand what this is about and what they need to do, if anything. Can I just say my thoughts initially on this? This all stems from Closing the Loopholes rules, and we're talking about the Right to Disconnect. And I've seen so many LinkedIn posts over the last month when these new rules came into effect for larger employers. So the rules say for non small business employers, so businesses with more than 15 employees, it's already in place. Small business owners, less than 15 employees, you've got another year. It's August next year. But I saw so many LinkedIn articles on the 26th of August this year saying, huh, I've now sent a lovely email to my staff telling them they don't have to respond to me anymore after hours. And I thought, gosh, I think you've missed the point. I really don't think, first of all, doesn't apply to you.

    You're a small business, but secondly, really? Is that what we're doing? Is that what we're doing now? We're sending emails saying, Oh, you don't have to respond to me. You have a right to [00:04:00] disconnect. What are your thoughts, Paula? Let's dive in. We've talked about this before, but really?

    Paula: Gosh. So much. And I think for me, it's so, it comes back to like, what is the culture that you've set up in the first place that has you emailing somebody late at night that you felt the need to send that email clarifying, Oh, now the law says I can still email you, but you don't need to write back to me because you know, if we take a helicopter view, what is the business we're trying to create? What is the environment we're trying to create? Yes. it needs to be profitable. Yes, it needs to be functional and all the things that makes it an effective, sustainable business. But what's the framework that we have in place that actually supports our team to be able to rest, to be able to know that when they get home, they can spend time with their kids.

    They don't have to check, you know, their phones over dinner, let alone at 10 o'clock at night, et cetera, et cetera. And if your environment is such whereby you feel the need to do that, then let's look at that and let's fix that problem, as opposed to the fact that there's now [00:05:00] legislation saying, well, you can't do that. Or if you do message them, they're protected.

    Tracey: Yes. I love that. It's the culture. You're absolutely right. What is the culture you've created? So just for listeners, what we're talking about in the context of the Right to Disconnect is the rules that have come into place to say that it's now not unreasonable for employees to choose not to respond to you in certain circumstances.

    So we still need to take into account the business and the nature of the employee employer relationship and the role. For example, if it's a hospitality business and you're texting somebody to see whether they can fill a shift tomorrow morning because someone just contacted you and they're unwell, It's okay for you to do that.

    You're not going to go to jail. One of my clients did actually reach out to me to say, gosh, Tracey, I'm thinking about closing my business. I don't want to go to jail. If someone contacts my team. No, we're not going to jail. We're not going to do that. Let's not talk about that. But it's not unreasonable for an employer to reach out to an employer to say, Hey, someone's unwell. Can you fill a shift tomorrow? That's absolutely not unreasonable. [00:06:00] We need to look at this holistically. From my understanding, my research from the diving in that I've done down this rabbit hole, this legislation and these rules are designed to protect employees from unreasonable requests from employers to be on call or available all the time and to risk disciplinary action or worse, being fired, if you're not that person who's available around the clock, that's really where it started. That's really what it was all about, but filtering that down into small business, if you are a business, if you're a business owner and now that these rules are being floated around in front of you, and you're saying, Oh, you've got to make changes because you're going to be in trouble next year.

    And you're worried because you do routinely contact your staff after hours, you expect things on an urgent basis to be done after hours when really, does it need to be done after hours? If that's [00:07:00] you. You've got a bigger problem, 

    Paula: Hundred percent. 100 percent because, you know, is it urgent? But also why is it a surprise? What's coming up that's making it a surprise? 

    Tracey: Yeah. Do you think that we were living in a society now where culturally some businesses have created this environment where everything's urgent and everything's important and it all has to be done immediately? Do you think that's the bigger problem?

    Paula: Well, I think that we have definitely gotten into a pattern as a society whereby we expect an instant response. And I think that that has allowed, when we take that into the workplace, that has allowed us to be potentially less organized, less structured, less disciplined. And small business owners, you know, often are still operating in a very entrepreneurial way, and as one myself, I know that it is impossible to be completely organized, completely predicting everything, of course, but you need to be trying to, you need to be looking ahead over the horizon, what's coming up, what do we need to do? What should we be planning? And if [00:08:00] that's not your forte, we need somebody else in your business doing that because you know, it's not a good way to operate for anybody, including you when you're operating in that last minute way.

    And I think society's definitely changed now, whereby we are expecting people to respond quickly. But just because they can, just because the technology's there, should they? Is that the right thing for our business? You know, I'm a little bit older, I've been in the workplace for a long time, so I remember when there was no way to contact me other than my mobile phone or even my home phone. So, you know, I think back to the way those businesses functioned and the jobs that I had, and they worked very well and they were very profitable businesses. So there is always a way to do it without this instantaneous response or expectation around that.

    Tracey: You're right. And that just took me back a moment. One of the first jobs that I had, which about 22 years ago, Oh my gosh. One of my supervising partners refused to check email. So his then [00:09:00] secretary had to print out his emails and put them into his intray and he just dealt with them in the order that they arrived along with faxes and mail, but you're right, because no one would phone us on our landline back then to say, Oh, Hey Paula, we need to do this for this client. It just didn't happen. It was expectations. It wasn't something that happened. 

    Paula: Well, that's right. I mean, absolutely. My very first job was at McDonald's when I was 14 years old and 10 months or whatever the minimum legal age was. I raced in and got a job at McDonald's. And, you know, for them to call me in for a shift because I was a casual, they had to ring my mum. They had to ring, you know, they had to ring the landline at home and talk to my mum and then get her permission, etc.

    So if we think from a practical perspective, their mode of operandi could not be someone's call in sick. Let's text everybody and have an expectation that they're available and waiting to be able to respond to us. They just couldn't function like that. So now, that the technology allows businesses to do that, is there just a little bit of lack of discipline, lack of organization, a little bit of laziness that's [00:10:00] sitting there thinking, well, I'm not going to worry about the effect that this has on people and their lives and their families and their mental health and all those other things, because we can operate this way. And it's the easiest way. 

    Tracey: I love that and you mentioned a moment ago being lazy. So sometimes it is lazy. Sometimes it's really confronting too, in my experience talking with business owners. And I'm interested in your view. It's really confronting for a business owner.. Well, I should say it can be really confronting for a small business owner to say, Oh my gosh, I'm wearing all these hats.

    I'm doing my best and I'm on borderline burnout. And now I've got more rules and I can't deal with this. Let's strip it back. Let's strip it back. Where would you start? If someone reached out to you, because this is the work that you do supporting business owners, get these things right. Work towards that better culture. What do you want to create? I know that this is some of this is the work that you do. So what would you say to someone who was to reach out to you? Like they go, Oh my gosh, Paula, I can't do this. There's [00:11:00] too much. I don't even know where to start. Where would you start? So for listeners following along and that's you, where to start? Where do we start focusing?

    Paula: Great question. And to clarify, it's only lazy if we choose not to change it. You will face a million situations that are brand new. And I've started three businesses in the last 14 years. And so I have definitely been in a situation, I used to own a yoga studio where we had 6 a. m. classes where a teacher called in sick, you know, at midnight the night before, and I was ringing people at, you know, 5 a. m. and wondering if anybody would answer the phone. However, the laziness would have been if I didn't look at the fact that that is now a situation I knew could possibly happen and didn't look to put a process in place to improve it.

     And I mean, you know, lazy is a bit of a harsh word. So I'm sort of, I almost want to bite that one back because I do understand that the overwhelm and everything that everybody feels, but we have to look at what is the most efficient way that we can run our businesses? And when we say efficient, that's profitable, but [00:12:00] it's also systemized.

    And it's a one that gives you the ability to sleep well so that you don't need to wake up and check your phone and hope that the person hasn't called in sick, for example, but also allows your team and the people in your business to live well, to enjoy working for you, but it's just to live well. So, if you're sitting there and you're thinking, Oh my goodness, there are all these things, you know, and I don't know where to start, then it's a matter of listing out all the things, you know, what's currently breaking, what doesn't feel great, what doesn't feel great to you. Let's start with those. What are the things that are keeping you up at night? And let's look at that. Sometimes the fear and the stuff that sits there is just because it's unknown.

    And you might actually be doing something that's perfectly fine, but you're worrying about it because you don't have the knowledge or you're concerned that maybe you're breaking a law, but actually, you know, maybe it's a conversation with you, Tracey to just be like, actually, no, that's totally fine. You don't need to stay up at night or worry about that one in your sleep.

    And maybe it's something like, actually, let's look at the process that sits behind that. And let's look for ways to make it [00:13:00] better so that you're less involved so that people know what's coming, et cetera, et cetera. And coming back to my very practical example of when I had the yoga studio, we looked at that situation and thought, well, I don't ever want to be in a situation again where I wake up at 4am, because I think I was breastfeeding at the time, so I probably woke up at three or four, did a feed, checked my phone and saw that the teacher couldn't make the 6am class. And then probably was in panic mode for the next three hours, knowing that I couldn't go into the studio to fix that because I had a small person attached.

    So what you need to do, and what we did, was sit down and go, okay, so let's face it, maybe the situation is going to come up again. What are our options? So what do we need to tell the person in the situation, the poor person who's sick, what do we need to tell them to do to support them?

    And how can we as a business support ourselves? So our students aren't left there standing at the door without a teacher. And in our instance, what we did was we actually came up with a covers list. So we would talk to every single person who taught in the [00:14:00] studio, the teachers, and ask them who is potentially available for a last minute call up for a 6am class?

    And obviously the people who lived an hour from the studio were much less interested in that than the people who lived five minutes away. Some people are all early morning people. Some people are evening people, et cetera, et cetera. So then we narrowed our list down. We're like, okay, how do I feel about the fact that there's only two people who may be okay with this?

    And I then did a risk assessment and I was like, okay, that doesn't make me feel very good. Let's go find some more. So what we did was we built out a process that included bolting in some more people who are available at the last minute, who didn't need loads of notice, who lived near the studio, and who were early birds and up anyway, so that on that side, but on the other side, we also built in a process internally so that if you take a 6am class, know that these are the steps you need to follow. If you find yourself in a situation where you know less than 12 hours before the class, you fall ill, This is what you need to do. And included in that really specific process was do not reach out to Paula, the owner and [00:15:00] pass the problem to her because I wasn't able to solve it.

    It was like, actually, here's a list of every person who said that potentially available, reach out to them, et cetera, et cetera. So we came up with a process and I guess the big thing for me in my work is really supporting the business owners, supporting everybody listening to be able to sleep better. You know, and that's looking at what are the things that you're most worried about and how do we put a process around it that supports you not being the answer in that situation because that's what's keeping you up at night. Because when you're in business for more than a couple of years, you know that you can't operate in that way for long.

    So we're looking at a sustainable business, well what are the things you're going to worry about? So in my case, we came up with this, we plugged more people in, we came up with an internal process and I looked at it and I thought, well, it's not perfect. Something could still go wrong, but am I okay with that?

    And I thought, yes, I am. And the five years I owned that business, there was only three times in five years that students turned [00:16:00] up, including that first situation where we're all in panic mode and a teacher wasn't there. And I'm like, I'm okay with that. 

    Tracey: Oh, Paula, that's incredible and that's incredibly helpful. And thank you for sharing that example, because we can all relate to that. So even I'm just listening to that in the context of my business and thinking, Oh yes, okay. Oh, and I can take that little nugget of gold and that little nugget of gold, but you know what?

    What you've just described, that process is entirely compliant with what's expected now under the Right to Disconnect rules. How about that? And this was a long time ago. These rules are new. And look at that, you were complying already way back then because you were focusing on the culture you're building and you're focusing on your processes.

    And systems and, oh my gosh, I think every single person listening to this can take something from that and going, oh my gosh, I've got work to do. Is that how I tackle it? So thank you for answering that [00:17:00] question. That is how you tackle it. If you're not sure, if you're in a situation like the client that actually reached out to me, concerned that she would be breaching these rules, where her clients would reach out to her team members at all hours, because that's when they worked.

    That's when they send their emails. Nobody is saying you can't send the emails at whatever time suits you. I send emails at all hours to everybody, but I say in my email footer, suits me now to send it, but I don't expect to hear from you until it's your normal working hours. So many business owners do that. So we can send them, but we haven't created a culture or an expectation where we expect our people to respond.

    And so if we're business owners and you have multiple team members and you're concerned because you have several clients and they may be reaching out to those team members at all hours, to take Paula's point, what's the culture we've created? What's the culture you've created? Is there a culture of expectation?

    Is your [00:18:00] employee, who's a new mum or a new dad, expected to drop everything at Saturday morning sport and respond? Is that the culture? If it is, you've got some work to do, my friend.

    Paula: Absolutely. And I think expectations and clarity upfront is everything when it comes to engaging with your clients, but also when you're engaging with your team. I had a client who was a bookkeeping business and she was worried about the mixed messages that were going out to her clients when her team members were working outside of hours, because she was concerned that that might create a habit or a thought process whereby the client could reach out to them at any time, Sunday afternoon, Sunday evening, and get a response.

    So what we did was we created a charter, which represented the way she wanted her brand represented. And so when we think of processes and systems, they're not those boring books that nobody reads from the old days. It's the, it's the hardcore specific practicality of, you know, do you have [00:19:00] strong feelings about when people work and when people send emails?

    And if it's you're offering flexibility in, you know, for example, you're offering flexibility to your team, flexing on any time you want to work in the evenings. That's fine. Okay. Is that fine if the client receives it at any time, or do you want to set up a rule that says, you know, send the email at any time, but schedule it.

    So they receive it on Monday morning. But in your case, what you've just said, Tracey is your brand, you're okay with sending it at any time because you know, you've got that thing in your footer saying, don't feel the need to respond. So we can also look at it and go, well, when we want standardization of the way our team is operating and therefore standardization of the service that our clients receive, we need to think about these things.

    And we need to think about, well, how do we want everybody operating? And once we're clear, then we can set the expectation with the client. You won't hear from us on the weekends, or you might hear from us on the weekends, but please don't ever feel the need to respond. That's not what we expect. And then we can set the expectation with the team member.

    I [00:20:00] don't ever expect you to do this. Or if you ever to receive an email from a client, I don't expect you to do this. Or if you receive an email from me, I don't expect you to do this. And that's actually one of the things that I do with my team is when I hire somebody because like you, if I've got a thought in my brain, I need to get it out.

    I need to let everybody know about it. If it's on the weekend, it might be 4am when I'm walking or got some peace and you know, thoughts come through. But at the time of hiring anybody to work with me, I say to them, it's really important that you hold your boundaries. Because I will email you, I might voxer you at any time of the day or night, but I do not expect a response.

    My way of working is I need to get that out, but I expect you to not answer, not receive, not check that until it's time for you to work and you're all in the right situation to actually be able to receive that. And again, this was well before this legislation came in place, because I'm saying, this is what I know about me, and this is how I need you to protect yourself. 

    Tracey: This is such a [00:21:00] rich conversation, Paula. And what I'm loving about this is that this conversation we're having has stemmed from the Right to Disconnect rules. But it's a conversation that everybody should be having anyway, regardless of these rules. And so I'm loving that. Personally, my view of the Right to Disconnect rules are that it doesn't go far enough to achieve what they want it to achieve.

    I think there's a lot more work to be done, but I genuinely hand on heart think it starts with communication, outlining the expectations. And this could be a beautiful opportunity. Let's reframe it. I love a good reframe, but let's reframe it. Instead of this is another rule, oh my gosh, I need to get my head around.

    Let's reframe it to, this is a really fabulous opportunity to now come back and have a look at the culture that I've built so far in my business, the culture I want to build, what's important to me and have a look at what our processes and systems are, and if there aren't any, well, it's not something that you're expected to do on your own.

    You can reach out to Paula and have a conversation with her and, and get her [00:22:00] brilliance to help you with this. But this is a unique opportunity that you now have to uplevel in your business, to set your business up for success, to set your team members up for success, and to respect the life that they're wanting to live and just work as part of it.

    Work is a beautiful part of it, but there's more to it. And that's a good thing.

    Paula: Absolutely. And looking at, well, maybe if you took the last month or you took the last six months, well, how often have we had to reach out to someone in the last moment and ask for something? Hmm. What drove that need? Is that likely to come up again? How would we handle it? Could we handle it differently? And if it's like, well, no, we couldn't have handled that differently or we couldn't have expected et cetera.

    Okay. So then how do we have a conversation about that? There may be occasional times when you are contacted, et cetera, et cetera. How does that sit with you? Knowing that they have the right to not respond, of course, but you know, as far as actually troubleshooting the problem or the thing that's driving than it to happen in the first place. [00:23:00] And looking at that, as you've said, an opportunity to get operationally more efficient, because we all know that these efficiencies are what drive profit. 

    Tracey: Absolutely. Absolutely. And this is a gift. Let's be honest. This is a gift that we're having this conversation, business owners are listening, reframing now. Get rid of the fear. There's no need for that. Get rid of the uncertainty. You've got two people here that you can have a conversation with and we've shared with you the best way to tackle it just to defuse some of the concerns around the contact that I've fielded this with some clients, and there's been more than one that have reached out and said, Oh gosh, when is it okay? All I want to say here in relation to the dry topic of the actual legislation is look, as I mentioned at the beginning, the law does require this to be looked at holistically.

    So it's not a hard, your team must not be contacted. It is a, what's reasonable? What's expected, and we've talked about expectations [00:24:00] so much. It's the method of contact. It's the frequency of the contact. It's the reason for the contact. It's the individual circumstances of your team members also come into play.

    So all of those things need to be considered, but rather than just listen to what I've said and tick it off and go, yeah, that's not me. It doesn't apply to me. I don't do that anyway. I don't have to worry about it. Let's treat this as a platform to revisit the processes and systems, revisit the culture and have a look at the forward trajectory.

    What do you want to create? And let's work together to create that rather than coming from this place of fear and oh my gosh, does it apply to me? Well, now, you know, a little more about it, but let's look at it as an opportunity that everyone can take to look forward and go forward and just create the business they've always wanted to create.

    I love that. Thank you so much, Paula, for joining me. I appreciate this so much. How can people find you if this really is something [00:25:00] resonating I need a hand here. I really think that we need to dive in and unpack this. How can people find you?

    Paula: You can jump over to my website, paulamaidens.Com and book in a sort of free dream team discovery call there. Or if you're on Instagram, I tend to hang out there a little bit. I'm at Paula Maidens Consulting. 

    Tracey: Amazing. And we'll put those links in the show notes as well. Paula, thank you so much.

    Paula: Thanks for having me. 

    Tracey: Hi everyone. As you can see, there is such possibility to reframe more rules and what can be seen as an another layer of burden on small business owners. And turn it into a really wonderful, fabulous opportunity to uplevel in business. And I'm all about that. And as you can see, so is Paula. So you've picked up from the conversation we had that I don't think the Right to Disconnect rules go far enough in achieving all the things that it is said to achieve. So I'm not saying I think it's a good thing. I'm not saying I think it's a bad thing either. I think it's a good [00:26:00] start. I think it's been poorly communicated. I don't think that it has achieved its intention at this point.

    I think there's a lot more work to do. But for us as small business owners, let's not get too caught up on another piece of legislation designed to impose even more obligation on business owners. Let's not get caught up on that. Let's reframe it and let's look at it as a really fabulous opportunity to look at the culture we're creating, to look at the communication that we have in place with our team and let's up level.

    Let's do that. That's the way I like to look at it. So you've, you've heard the conversation. You know that it's not a hard line in the sand that, Oh my gosh, no one can contact an employee or I'm going to be in trouble as the small business owner. You know, now that that's not it. So we've talked about the holistic approach and we've talked about how it needs to be nuanced.

    And these rules will apply on a case by case basis and take into account the individual and unique circumstances of a business and the relationships they have with their employees. But if this is something that [00:27:00] you have more questions on, if this is something that you think you might need to work on in terms of the legalities, reach out, let's have the conversation.

    If this is a broader, beautiful conversation that you want to start having and you need some support in terms of the culture you've created and how to up level and where to go from here, Paula is your woman. So her details are in the show notes, but if you're wondering, well, Tracey what do I do now after listening to this practically and legally, what do I do?

    My answer to you is, once you have thought about the things that Paula and I talked about, once you have spoken to your team members and you have crystal clear communication flowing freely around expectations and steps to take, if things arise, my absolute first tip to you is review your employment contracts.

    Make sure they reflect where you're at now with your team. Then either update, or if you don't have them introduce compliant policies, Paula talked about it. What's to happen [00:28:00] if this happens? What do we do if this happens? Update your policies or introduce new policies that reflect what it is that you've discussed.

    And the third thing that I say is training. Absolutely. Let's make sure that everybody in the team, not only is included in the conversation and knows what to do, but knows how to do it. So if we need to provide training, let's provide training. Let's make sure we're all on the same page and that we're all equipped to move forward with absolute confidence in a way that really aligns with the business.

    As always, thank you so much for joining me. I'm so happy to bring this episode to you. I hope you have found it helpful and I'll catch you next week. 

 

LINKS:

Connect with Paula: 

Website: https://paulamaidens.com/ 

Instagram: @paulmaidensconsulting

Discover the Masterclass Series here

Check Your Legals with the Essential Legal Checklist here

Book a Free 20-minute Initial Consult with me here

Join me on Instagram here

 
 
 

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Tracey Mylecharane