Here, we’ve put together a list of some of the most important pieces of information to provide your employees with, no matter the size of your SME.

Who To Report To

Understanding the hierarchy in the workplace is extremely important, particularly when it comes to an SME, as generally, you’re going to be building this up from scratch. Ensuring that your employees know who to turn to for what, i.e. who they’re reporting to, who the owner of the business is and other members of the team can be important when it comes to helping your employees to feel part of the community within the workplace.

A hierarchy can sometimes be difficult to build in smaller companies, as many people may feel on the same level as their peers and be opposed to their colleagues managing them despite a promotion or job title change. It is important to have this set in place, or at least a structural idea in place to help provide your potential employees in the future with something to fall back on in the future.

Advice & Guidelines

If a person is unable to turn to their managers or the person that they report to when they need to discuss an issue, then having information available about people from outside of the workforce.

These can be external businesses that help deal with things like accidents at work, such as the Accident Advice Helpline, or bodies like the Samaritans and Citizen’s Advice.

While it is important to deal with any such issues, before they become an issue in the first place, within the company in order to prevent any repercussions, having this information available can help to show your employees that you care.

Training & Instruction In Line With Personal Protective Equipment

If you are working in an industry where your employees are required to wear personal protective equipment, then you’re going to need to provide this free of charge.

In addition to this, you will need to provide all of your employees the training and instruction that is needed for them to carry out their job properly.

Training and instruction is an important part of the process, no matter how small or large your company, and gives you the grounds to discipline anybody who doesn’t use their PPE properly, but only after the initial training and instruction.

Keeping your employees safe should be your number one priority, particularly in hazardous working environments.