Category Archives: Recruitment

What Are The Latest Employment Law Updates?

Posted on by

What Are The Latest Employment Law Updates?

On 1 May 2014 we held our latest Employment Law Update workshop, when we looked at some of the recent changes that you need to know about, as an employer. Here is a summary of some of the changes.

  • Workers from overseas – from 1 January 2014, restrictions on working in EU states were lifted for Bulgarian and Romanian workers. Remember to check the right to work in the UK for all employees.
  • Employing illegal workers – from 6 April 2014, the maximum civil penalty for employing an adult subject to immigration control, who does not have the right to work in the UK, increased to £20,000 from £10,000. New guidance has been issued by the Home Office in the “Full guide for employers on preventing illegal working.”
  • Employment Allowance – from 6 April 2014 a £2000 reduction in the NIC bill for all businesses and charities has been introduced. HMRC has a calculator and information you can use here.
  • Employment tribunal fees – from 6 April 2014 some re-categorisation of claims has been done. As a reminder, Type A claims are £160 for the issue fee plus £230 for the hearing fee; Type B claims are £250 for the issue fee and £950 for the hearing fee. Type B claims include unfair dismissal. The Tribunal can order the employer to pay if the claim is successful.

These are just a few of the recent changes and we’ll cover more in future blogs. More changes will continue to be made throughout the year to Employment Law. To keep up to date, subscribe to our newsletter here, keep reading these blogs, or come to our next workshop, which will be held in the autumn.

Is Your HR Doing What it Should?

Posted on by

Is Your HR Doing What it Should?

All businesses that employ staff need a way of looking after them. It’s called HR, or Human Resources. Rather than waiting for a problem to arise and then dealing with it, good HR is proactive and preventative. Here’s how to make sure that yours is doing what it should, to protect you and your employees.

    • Have in place well designed policies and procedures that cover all your business needs and eventualities, which ensure every part of your business is operating like a well-oiled machine.
    • Prepare comprehensive job descriptions for every employee and evaluate them regularly.
    • Set objectives and targets to provide focus for all your staff on what you want them to achieve. Have short and long term goals and give your employees regular feedback on how they’re doing.
    • Give praise for work well done – in public, if necessary.
    • Deal with instances of poor performance before they become a major issue.
    • Keep up to date with the latest employment legislation. Always ensure you’re exercising your duty of care towards the welfare and development of your employees.
    • Talk to your employees and keep them informed, engaged and focussed on your strategic goals. Let them have their say and voice their concerns and ideas.
    • Provide opportunities for training and career progression wherever possible.

When you spend time looking after your staff, they will become more engaged and more productive. Use HR proactively and you can build a better workforce and a more profitable business.

Legal Updates? What You Need to Know Now

Posted on by

In November 2013 I ran a workshop to share some of the more recent employment law updates. Here are the details of just three of the issues we covered and what you need to know.

Flexible working. At present, parents and carers with at least 26 weeks employment can make one request for flexible working in 12 months and a statutory procedure applies to considering the request. From Spring 2014, all employees with at least 26 weeks continuous employment can make one request for flexible working in 12 months. Requests must be considered in a reasonable manner and within a reasonable period.

ACAS has produced a draft code for you to follow, when considering flexible working requests, which says:

  • Talk to your employee as soon as possible
  • Discuss the request in private but allow your employee to be accompanied
  • Approach requests from the presumption that they will be granted unless there is a business reason for not doing so
  • Inform your employee of your decision in writing as soon as possible
  • If your employee’s request is granted, or granted with modifications, discuss with them how and when the changes might best be implemented
  • If your employee’s request is rejected, ensure that the rejection is for one of the business reasons permitted by legislation and allow the employee to appeal it
  • Consider and decide on all requests, including any appeals, within a period of three months from initial receipt, unless an extension is agreed with the employee.

Shared parental leave. The law currently says that mothers can take 52 weeks maternity leave (39 paid weeks and 13 unpaid weeks) and that fathers or partners can take 2 weeks ordinary paternity leave, with the right to take up to 26 weeks additional paternity leave. From Spring 2015 you will need to consider shared paternity leave. This gives new parents the possibility of sharing the untaken balance of maternity leave and receiving pay for ‘flexible parental leave’. This is where parents can share 50 weeks leave and the 37 weeks pay due to the mother. Flexible parental leave can be taken in one week blocks interspersed with work and parents can take leave at the same time.

Unpaid parental leave. Currently, an employee with one year’s service and a child under 5 can take 18 weeks unpaid parental leave. This applies to each child and to each parent, with a maximum of 4 weeks unpaid leave allowed in any year. From 2015, the age of the child will increase from 5 to 18 years.

Does all this sound too confusing? If it does or you’re worried about how any of these changes will affect your business, please do get in touch and we can talk about it.

I’ll be running another employment law update in May 2014, after the next round of changes happen in April next year. Keep an eye on this blog for the date and details.

Human Resources for Small Businesses

Posted on by

What are the basics that you need to know about, when you’re running a small business and taking on staff? Here are a few of the issues you need to consider.

Employment contracts – The contract of employment is the most important HR document you’ll have in your business. You’re legally obliged to provide every employee with a written statement of their terms and conditions of employment within two months of starting.

National Minimum Wage – Almost all workers in the UK aged 16 or over are legally entitled to be paid a minimum amount per hour. The rate is reviewed every year and the next increase takes place in October 2013. Click here for the full details.

Holiday entitlement – All employees are entitled to a minimum amount of time off per year. For full time employees this is capped at 28 days. You can find all the calculations you need to work out your employee’s holiday entitlement by clicking here. Some companies like to give their staff an extra day off on their birthday, if it falls on a working day.

Equality Act – In 2010, existing discrimination legislation was brought together into one Equality Act. All employers must comply with this not doing so can lead to unlimited fines at tribunal. Click here to read the guidelines.

Maternity law – This provides protection for pregnant and adopting women and those on maternity leave. You need to find out how these rules can help employers plan ahead and manage leave and pay, and how to claim back pay.

Pensions – Due to changes, from July 2012 you will need to provide eligible employees with a qualifying pension scheme and make minimum levels of contributions to it. Talk to pension providers to find out when you need to set up a scheme.

Statutory Sick Pay – When an employee is absent from work due to sickness for more than three continuous working days, they become entitled by law to receive Statutory Sick Pay.

Discipline and grievance process – When dealing with disciplinary and grievance situations in the workplace, you should follow the Acas Code of Practice.

Dismissal procedure and tribunals – Dismissing an employee is fraught with risks for employers, so you should make sure that you follow the correct procedure and take advice.

If you need more advice on any of these specific topics, please get in touch. Don’t leave it until a small issue becomes a big problem!

How Do You Find the Best New Recruits for Your Business?

Posted on by

So you’ve decided to expand and take on new members of staff; or perhaps you’re replacing someone who is leaving. You’ve written a great job description and a person specification and you know how much you’re going to pay your new member of staff and when you need them to start. Now all you need is a flood of candidates, but how do you attract them?

Advertising. Look at your local press as well as national publications. Depending on the job and your industry you may also want to consider specific trade magazines. The key is to think about which publications your ideal candidates will read, in their search for their perfect job. Remember that you can also advertise online – there are numerous ‘job boards’ that specialise in advertising jobs, so find the ones that your potential candidates visit.

Word of mouth. Talk to your clients, contacts and suppliers to let them know that you’re recruiting. They may know the perfect person for your business and a personal recommendation is always useful.

Internal candidates. Are any of your existing members of staff ready for promotion? They might not put themselves forward for the job, but if you think they’re ready, invite them to apply.

Company website. Use your website to advertise the position. A potential client looking for your services may actually be your next member of staff. Other people searching for particular jobs may find your job and your site if you use popular and relevant key words.

Agencies. There are many recruitment agencies who can help you find the right person. They can handle the whole process, even carrying out interviews if you don’t have the time or skills. Look for agencies that specialise in your industry or the type of position you’re looking to fill.

Job centres. You can advertise your job for free in your local job centre and it will be promoted by the staff, who will be able to recommend the right candidates.

Previous applicants. Someone who wasn?t successful in a previous application may be just the person you’re looking for this time around. Send them the details of the job and find out if they’re still interested in working with you.

Use some of all of these routes and you’ll find it easy to generate a healthy amount of interest in your position, helping you find the best person for your business.

How do you recruit? What’s worked for you in the past – or not worked? Leave a reply in the comment box below.

How Do You Get More From Your Staff?

Posted on by

The key to getting the best, and more, from your staff is through performance management. What is this and how can it benefit your business?

Performance management is a strategic and integrated approach to increasing the effectiveness of your business by improving the performance of the people who work for you. Put simply, the better the people you employ and the better the investment you make in them, the easier it will be get the best from them and to ask more from them, when you need it.

Research shows that a high proportion of businesses struggle with underperforming members of staff. They spend too much time dealing with issues of absence, sickness, poor attitudes and behaviour, failure to meet objectives and poor standards of work. Then they look to solve them through formal disciplinary procedures. Reacting to issues can be time consuming and costly, as well as very negative. Managing performance focuses on the more positive, preventative aspects of working with people.

Good performance management is about regularly assessing the performance of every individual in your team, providing regular feedback, guidance and support to reinforce good performance and highlight areas for improvement before they become a major issue.

You should also make sure that you have proper disciplinary procedures in place to deal with poor performance. In next week’s blog we’ll share some tips which, if you follow, you will only need disciplinary procedures as a last resort, when informal and positive measures have not worked.

Learn how to get more from your people at our next workshop, in November 2012 at Hennerton Golf Club, in Wargrave, near Henley. This is your chance to really get to grips with improving performance, ask all the questions you have and get some professional support. Places are free but limited. Click here to book online.

How thorough is your recruitment process? Here are our top tips:

Posted on by

Step 1 Preparation:

The key is to put together a comprehensive Job analysis, job description and personality specification – why is the role needed what skills, knowledge and experience does your new employee need to have?  In addition, conduct salary benchmarking, in the market and internally, to ensure you are attracting the right caliber of candidate.

Step 2: Attracting and selecting the right candidate:

There are many tools at your disposal in this regard – advertising, social media, word of mouth, recruitment agencies, websites, job centre etc.  Select the right one/combination to ensure you reach your target audience.   Once you have collected CV’s use these to put together a shortlist for interview, this will give a you full picture of the individual and whether or not they are a match for your organisation and the role you are recruiting for.  Additionally, you can utilise tools such as psychometric testing and practical exercises to see how the individual performs outside of the formal interview process.  Once you have selected the right candidate make them an offer in writing.

Step 3: Legal Compliance

Once you have selected the best candidate for the role there are certain legal requirements you must undertake including discrimination profiling, a medical questionnaire, eligibility to work in the UK and proof of adequate references.  In addition dependent on the role you are recruiting for you may also need to ensure you are paying minimum wage, conduct a CRB check and gather the required documentation to confirm that the candidate is eligible to work in the UK.

For more information on how to get the most out of your recruitment process please contact me at sueferguson@optionshr.co.uk .  The Options HR team have a vast amount of experience in:

  • Personality profiling
  • Helping you to shortlist and interview candidates
  • Guiding you through the selection process
  • Preparing, reviewing and amending offer letters and contracts of employment
  • Developing induction procedures.

Preventative HR Seminar 14 June

Posted on by

In today’s challenging business environment, your people are your biggest asset therefore it essential that you recruit and retain the right team.

In terms of recruitment diligence is vital in ensuring that you identify and appoint the best candidates from the high number of applicants you have for each role.  Recruiting the wrong person costs time and money whereas recruiting the right person will deliver an instant return on investment.

Once an employee is in place you must nurture their development, monitor their performance and output effectively and help them achieve their true potential in order to retain them for the long term.

When performance issues come into play it is important to take proactive action to quickly remedy the situation whilst balancing your responsibilities in terms of employee statutory rights.

Building a winning team is not as onerous as it sounds once you have the right procedures and policies in place.  Join us for our forthcoming free preventative HR seminar to find out the best ways to manage recruitment and induction, appraisals and performance feedback, managing poor performance, managing sickness, statutory rights and communication.

Taking place on 14th June at The Arab British Chamber of Commerce from 9.30-11.30 am this event is a must for all employers and managers who want to invest in their people and reap the business rewards that follow.

To reserve your place for this event please contact Sue Ferguson on 0118 940 3032 or email sueferguson@optionshr.co.uk.

 

 

Key steps to great recruitment

Posted on by

Recruiting the right people and retaining them for the long term is the goal for every business, big or small, no matter what sector of industry you operate in.  If you recruit the wrong people you could pay the price not only in terms of business success but also in costly and often difficult employment disputes.  So ask yourself “How thorough is our recruitment process?”

Here are some key steps to great recruitment that can help:

  1. Preparation, Preparation, Preparation.  Conduct a job analysis to establish what roles you need to fill.  Put together a job description detailing exactly what each candidate needs to be able to do in conjunction with a person specification listing both essential and desirable attributes.  Finally, ensure you benchmark the salary for each role correctly, both in terms of the market and internally to ensure you attract the right calibre of individual.
  2. Attracting the Right Candidate.  There are many options available to you including advertising (internally and externally), word of mouth, web, agencies and head hunters, job centres, graduate programmes, review of previous applicants etc.  Ensure you are using the right method or combination of methods for each job and for the specification of candidate you wish to attract.
  3. CV vs Application form.  Both are great tools for ensuring you select the right candidates for interview but both only paint part of the picture.  A CV tells you what the individual wishes you to know, but an application form asks information you wish to know.  Use them in combination to get the most out of your early selection process.
  4. Selection Process.  Once you have narrowed down your candidates there are a number of further activities you can undertake to ensure you choose the right one, these include psychometric testing, and practical exercises to identify key skills sets and personality traits
  5. Legal Compliance.  Once you have selected the right person you must ensure you are meeting your legal requirements before any offer of a job can be made.  As a guide you must pay attention to discrimination, medical needs, references, eligibility to work in the UK and data protection
  6. Making the Offer.  You have ticked all the boxes, dotted the I’s and crossed the T’s and now you are in a position to make an offer.  Ensure that any offer in subject to satisfactory completion of the following:  reference, CRB checks, medical screening, right to work in UK confirmation and completion of a suitable probationary period.

Happy recruiting!!

HR Policies Procedure

Posted on by

With unemployment rates depressingly high, a double-dip recession looming and competition in every area in industry more fierce than ever, now is the time to fine tune your HR policies and procedures.  Working in a preventative rather than reactive way will enable you to recruit and retain the best talent, increase productivity and protect your company brand.

Your business needs operate like a well-oiled machine.  Each working part should be fit for purpose and maintained for optimum performance, rather than simply fixing individual problems when they occur.  This way it will be less likely to breakdown.  This is the essence of Preventative HR!

Do you have a thorough recruitment process in place?  To be working in a preventative way you must have comprehensive job descriptions and clear views about what skills new employees must have and what you need them to do.  Likewise, when people join your business you need to ensure you induct them properly.  Even skilled and highly experienced employees need to understand the unique ways in which you conduct business in order to prevent mistakes.

Performance management plays a key role in Preventative HR.  Include a probation period in every contract of employment to set the foundation of your relationship and a benchmark for future performance.  Set on-going objectives for each employee and get into the habit of giving feedback regularly both informally as part of your appraisal process, this will give you the chance to give praise for work well done and identify instances of poor performance before they become major issues.

Communication, communication, communication.  Keep your staff informed about how the business is doing, what can they do to help and how their job fits into the bigger picture this will ensure they feel valued, engaged and focussed on the success of the company.  Similarly listen to their needs and aspirations and encourage training and development opportunities that help employees reach their full potential.  In return turn they will perform better and make a bigger contribution to the overall success of the business.

Finally, be a good boss!  When your employees leave they will tell everyone what a great company you were to work for. There is no better advertising than that!