Companies offer benefits to ensure a happy, motivated, and well-rested workforce. Still, more than half (52%) of American workers do not use all of their vacation days.

Today, we’re bombarded with so much tech based communication at work that we’re forgetting how to have effective ‘real life ‘conversations. This is having a huge impact on relationship building in the workplace.

Whether you’re looking to exit individuals on selling your business, downsizing a department or terminating an employment contract after a fair disciplinary hearing, at some point you will need to part ways with an employee.

No business owner should expect a completely smooth path to success – especially not when it comes to handling people on a daily basis.

It may not come as a surprise but nevertheless, it’s somewhat depressing to know that the level of trust people have for leadership remains low.

In this week’s guide, we look at how to manage your employees to ensure long term happiness and health, with performance management, sickness and absence management and incentive share schemes.

What people require from their employers, managers, and colleagues, is different to what it was in past years. The days of having one job for life are long gone. In the highly competitive tech industry, hiring is but the first challenge - retaining and growing a sustainable team for the future is the holy ground.

Once you have the paperwork in place and guidelines established, it’s time to start bringing staff on board. There are a huge range of different legal factors to consider when recruiting, not least the laws around equality and right to work, so this week, we look at recruitment, workers’ rights and business immigration.

With Conflict Resolution Day taking place on Thursday 17th October Louise Hebborn, Commercial Partner at Stephensons Solicitors LLP, discusses business disputes and shareholder’s legal rights.

Before you can begin to hire a team, it’s vital to have an understanding of the laws and principles around employment as a whole, and to have checked your business is ready to take on employees.

In today’s fast-paced world, standing still is no longer an option. As your business grows and develops, it’s more important than ever to help your people upgrade their skills and adapt to new ways of working.

Psychotherapist Noel McDermott is an expert on mental health in the workplace and runs Mental Health Works Ltd. He works alongside employers providing wellbeing in the workplace advice and solutions, teaching them tools to keep staff healthy.

Carlene Jackson, CEO of Brighton-based tech company Cloud9 Insight, is one of the UK's top 25 SME culture leaders for 2019, according to the recent report by Real Business magazine. Here, she shares her views on employee happiness and wellbeing.

Five years ago, I made the bold decision to leave the world of corporate business behind and launch my own startup. Make no mistake about it – this was not a decision taken lightly, as I was all too aware of the success rate – or, rather, the high failure rate – of startups during their formative years.

The demands, challenges and risks that come with running a small business can bring personal pressures and impact on health and wellbeing.

Companies are made up of individual people; even Apple, the world’s biggest brand, would mean nothing without its employees. Imagine if Apple was hiring random people and their board was changing all the time. The recent departure of Jony Ive led to a one percent reduction in Apple shares.