Tag Archives: staff

Your Essential Employment Law Updates

Posted on by

Keeping yourself knowledgeable and up to date about the latest in employment law isn’t easy when you’re running a business. Instead, you can rely on me to help you remain legally compliant. So here is my summary of a few of the topics we discussed at last month’s Employment Law Workshop:

Zero Hours Contracts

A zero hours contract is helpful for new businesses as they become established, and small businesses. However, it’s important to remember that employees under a zero hours contract are also entitled to the same statutory rights as any other employee, such as annual leave, sickness, termination, and so on. Even if they don’t work many hours.

Despite the fact that an employer is not obliged to provide work under a zero hours contract, the employee is required to accept it when it is offered and, arguably, this is sufficient to amount to mutuality of obligation.

ICO Fees from May 2018

Since GDPR was introduced, it is a legal requirement for all organisations to pay an annual data protection fee to the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office).

There are three tiers of fee payments that are dependent on your organisation’s size and turnover. Some organisations, such as charities and small occupational pension schemes, only need to pay £40 regardless of size and turnover. The tiers are as follows:

  • Tier one – £40 annual fee
    • Organisations with a maximum turnover of £632,000, or ten or fewer staff
    • Charities
    • Small occupational pension schemes
  • Tier two – £60 annual fee
    • Organisations that do not fall into tier one and have a maximum turnover of £36 million, or 250 or fewer staff
  • Tier three – £2,900 annual fee
    • Organisations that do not fall into tiers one or two, and that have a turnover of over £36 million, and more than 250 staff

To register with the ICO, find out more and pay your fee, click here.

No Right to Work in the UK

When recruiting, it’s essential to thoroughly check the candidate’s right to work in the UK. This involves checking and taking copies of documents such as passports, proof of address, proof of residence, etc. It’s important that you see the original documents and that they are valid. Throughout this process, be careful not to discriminate against anyone based solely on their race.

Gov.uk says to check that:

  • The documents are genuine, original and unchanged, and belong to the person who gave them to you
  • The dates for the applicant’s right to work in the UK have not expired
  • Photos are the same across all documents and look like the applicant
  • Dates of birth are the same across all documents
  • The applicant has permission to do the type of work you’re offering (including any limit on the number of hours they can work)
  • For students, you see evidence of their study and vacation times
  • If two documents give different names, the applicant has supporting documents showing why they’re different, such as a marriage certificate or divorce decree.

Remember that the original permission to work in the UK can expire, so it’s important to make regular checks on your current employees – you could face civil or criminal penalties if you’re found to be employing people who do not have the right to work in the UK.

The Gov.uk website provides some useful guides to help employers do this.

Christmas Parties – Preventing Problems whilst Having Fun!

It’s always good to have work parties, both for the fun and to celebrate the season, and also to help keep morale high whilst rewarding staff for a good year. But parties are not always without their problems. Costing on average around £50 per head, I always recommend that an Office Party policy should be drawn up to set expectations on behaviour. Key points should be:

  • Christmas celebrations should be viewed as an extension of the workplace
  • Celebrate responsibly
  • Expect high standards of conduct while still having fun
  • Let your hair down, but not yourself or your employers
  • Employees should not post photographs or videos of themselves, colleagues or other attendees and third parties (e.g. venue staff) at the event on the Internet or any social media websites.

If you have any queries on current employment law legislation and how it affects your business, or any other staff issues, do call me on 0118 940 3032 or click here to email me.

Dismissal for Some Other Substantial Reason: Demystified – Part Two

Posted on by

In a recent blog post, I set out the reasons that an employer could dismiss an employee under the ‘dismissal for some other substantial reason’ (SOSR) clause. There, I went into detail about how to manage an awkward situation where a third party – usually an important client – states that they no longer want one of your employees on their site. Click here to read it again, or if you missed it.

In this month’s blog, I’m focusing on the problem of when employees refuse to work with colleagues.

Refusal to Work with Colleagues

In most walks of life, we’re free to choose our friends. But at work, we have little influence on who we work with. Often, there’s no issue – even when employees don’t like each other, they usually tolerate one another. But when a group of employees refuse to continue working with one of their colleagues, what can you do?

Reasons why employees might refuse to work with a colleague include:

  • Serious personality clashes
  • Discovering their colleague is HIV positive
  • An employee becoming ‘socially unacceptable’, e.g. by having objectionable behaviour, or criminal convictions or charges, e.g. child pornography or sexual offences

Initial Action

As soon as you’re informed of a situation, don’t delay! Act early to stop a minor problem escalating into a situation where dismissal is demanded. Investigate what is behind the breakdown in relationships by interviewing and taking statements from all the relevant parties. From that, try to persuade the employees to patch up their differences, taking whatever constructive measures necessary to alleviate the situation. Depending on the breakdown reason, measures may involve allaying concerns or fears, and even arranging an education programme, for example where the objections centre around an employee being HIV positive.

Try not to be easily swayed by employee pressure, particularly if the allegations are based on groundless prejudice, are unreasonable or are a complete overreaction. You may even have to consider disciplining the protesters if their actions amount to bullying or harassment of the employee in question. This may not feel like a palatable option as this could lead to even further disruption of the workforce, but you need to protect your business interests, and widespread disruption is bound to be a threat to profitability and customer relations.

Where employees’ objections are well founded, it may be appropriate for the employee with whom the problem has arisen to be disciplined if the issue is misconduct or offensive behaviour. The fact that you are tackling the issue may be sufficient to calm the situation down and appease your staff.

Employee Pressure to Dismiss

Dismissal from employee pressure should always be a last resort. If all the steps taken to alleviate the situation and improve work relations hasn’t worked, and the breakdown is clearly irreversible, then it may be possible to dismiss the employee on SOSR grounds.

Remember that the reason for dismissal must be substantial. So if disruption amongst the employees is seriously harming your business, then you have no choice but to dismiss. A tribunal will want to see evidence pointing to an ultimatum having been served on the employer by the employees. Often, employees will use the ‘It’s him or us’ pressure tactic, which should be sufficient if the relationship breakdown can be reasonably assessed as irremediable. However, this conclusion can only be reached after you have taken all reasonable steps, short of dismissal, to improve the situation.

If the relationship breakdown only affects two employees, it’s much more difficult to successfully plead SOSR as fair reason for dismissal as this situation is unlikely to be deemed ‘substantial’.

If all your attempts to improve relations are unsuccessful and the reason for dismissal is indeed substantial, an employment tribunal will explore whether the dismissal of the employee was reasonable in all circumstances. The tribunal will consider whether the objections of the workforce were reasonable, or whether they were motivated by malice or blind prejudice, making the dismissal an injustice to the employee. Unfairness to the employee is an essential part of the equation.

The tribunal will also explore your conduct and the procedure you went through to reach the decision to dismiss. Part of that procedure is considering whether the employee can be given alternative work, or be relocated to another workplace, with his or her agreement.

HIV

If your staff are pressurising to dismiss an employee who is HIV positive, usually because of fear of infection, you will need to take the necessary action to counteract what is unwarranted prejudice, and to protect the employee from bullying and harassment. Allay groundless fears by educating staff about the transmission of HIV and the fact that it imposes no risk to others from normal work or social contact. Remember that an HIV positive person is automatically deemed to have a disability under the Equality Act 2010. Therefore, you risk a disability discrimination claim and a claim for unfair dismissal if you dismiss an HIV-positive employee from staff pressure. As HIV disproportionately affects gay and bisexual men, you also risk a sexual orientation discrimination claim. It’s essential that you protect the employee from harassment by colleagues, which may involve taking disciplinary action against the employee’s colleagues.

If efforts to consult with staff to allay their fears fail, it may be appropriate to transfer the employee to alternative employment, with his or her agreement, rather than considering dismissal.

Employment Law Update Workshop

Join us at our next Employment Law Update Workshop on 25 October 2018 for just £20 +VAT. Click here to book your place online. Come along and ask all your HR questions!

How Should Employers Deal with Employees Who Follow Sporting Events on the Internet at Work?

Posted on by

Different employers take differing approaches to internet usage that is not work related. Some employers prohibit personal use of their internet facilities, while others allow employees to access the internet at work for personal use provided that usage is kept to a minimum, or only used during breaks.

It’s been found that allowing a reasonable amount of internet usage helps to improve staff wellbeing, especially during times of major sporting events. By allowing the viewing of sporting events, such as the World Cup or the Olympics, not only do you lessen the chances of absenteeism, but you also gain a huge amount of goodwill from your employees. Morale is improved, and because of that, productivity is, too.

Flexible Approach

Allowing a flexible timetable to accommodate both the production needs of your business and the viewing times of the matches or games is a good starting point. Having clear boundaries put in place from the start helps everyone know what they should be doing, which may well mean working outside of their normal hours in order to achieve their work targets.

Steps for a successful sporting season without any adverse effects to business could include:

• Providing a television in a separate room for sporting events, especially if personal use of the internet is usually prohibited
• Allowing the use of radios while working, but check that they will not disrupt others who are not keen sports fans, and that they are not intrusive or disruptive in your customer facing areas
• Allowing staff with internet access to watch or follow events online at specific times. To help, ensure you have a clear Internet Policy that is regularly communicated to everyone
• Flexibility with employees’ working hours – allow them to start or finish earlier or later, and consider flexitime
• If many people are asking to take annual leave, manage this carefully so that you don’t have too many people off at once, which could affect productivity
• If you have a diverse workforce, it’s important to allow people to support their nationality
• And finally, make sure that employers who are not interested in sport do not end up doing more work than those who are taking time off to watch the events.

Internet Policy

It is advisable to adopt an Internet policy that clarifies your approach to employees’ personal use of the internet, and to specify what is permitted in terms of time spent and the types of site that may be visited. For instance, you may not want certain social media sites such as Facebook to be accessed, or dating sites, and so on. In the run-up to major sporting events, remind employees of your rules in relation to internet use.

It is also worth considering clarifying your rules on the use of personal mobile devices for watching matches during working hours. This should be incorporated into your Internet Policy and regularly communicated, especially in advance of any major sporting events.

Breaching the Rules

It is fair to say that most loyal, happy employees do not abuse internet use. However, there can be a small percentage that do.

Where an employee breaches your rules by accessing the internet to follow sporting events where personal use is not permitted, or where he or she spends an excessive amount of work time following the events, you should address the matter as soon as it comes to light. If the offence is minor (for example, a one-off breach of the internet policy), it may be sufficient to raise the matter informally with the employee. However, serious or persistent offenders should be dealt with under your disciplinary procedure.

In fact, any form of excessive internet use at work ¬– whether reading sports coverage, researching holiday destinations or visiting shopping sites – should be dealt with in a consistent way, to help avoid allegations of unfair or discriminatory treatment.

You may benefit from some further tips on allowing employees to watch live sporting events at work from this enjoyable article published by HR Magazine.

If you would like some specific guidance on allowing your employees to watch live sporting events, or creating an Internet policy, do call me on 0118 940 3032 or click here to email me.

How Do You Find the Best People to Join Your Team?

Posted on by

Recruiting new staff is a great way to grow your team and build a stronger business, but what’s the best way to find the people you need? How do you avoid the pitfalls of making expensive recruitment mistakes that you might later regret?

The first mistake that many people make when starting a recruitment process is not putting enough time and effort into compiling a job advert. When you’re doing this, you should look at the advert from the perspective of potential employees. Whether they are searching online or looking at printed job adverts, people looking for a job typically start with two elements in a job search: job title and location.

Job Title – the title of a job advert could be the only information that a potential employee reads about your vacancy. This means that you need to use multiple words in the title of the job posting, so that there are more opportunities for candidates to find the advert when searching online job sites. If you’re using printed adverts, you should still make the job title as long and descriptive as you can. 

Location – you need to show the country, region, county and city or town of the location of the position you’re looking to fill. Many people looking for a new job look within a 30-minute commute of where they live, whether they’re searching online or looking at printed adverts.

Once you’ve written a clear job title and location, here are the next elements of the advert to consider:

Summary of the job – the first paragraph of the advert should encourage people to apply for the job. Make it compelling and interesting rather than just a list of tasks. 

Job description – this should set out the responsibilities of the job, along with the qualifications and competencies required for the role. It should outline the essential and the desirable skills and the competencies, as bulleted lists. This will make it easier for suitable applicants to recognise the match between their own attributes and the requirements for the role.

Job specifics – you need to include important information about whether or not the vacancy is full or part time, the provisional start date, the salary range, company benefits, the formats in which you will accept CVs and the application deadline. 

Contact information – it is good practice to include as many contact details as possible. Include your company website, email address (with a real contact name, rather than info@) and the direct phone number and postal address for a member of the recruitment team. 

Unique job code – every job advert, whether online or in print media, should have a unique reference number to allow you to track the activity generated by it and see which advertising is most effective.

A Word on Layout for Job Adverts 

The content of any job advert should flow in a logical order and contain line breaks to help people to find the relevant information quickly and easily. You should place general information about the company at the end of the advert to avoid confusing the search engines (for online adverts) and so that the critical content for which candidates are looking can be found easily and quickly.

Where Should You Advertise? 

  1. Printed Recruitment Adverts

The growth of online commercial job boards led to predictions about the demise of job advertising in traditional print media, such as national and local newspapers, trade journals and the specialist press. Many national newspapers have either launched their own online job listings or purchased a job board, while local print media often advertise vacancies on aggregated advertising provider sites. The job-board sector has taken over a significant proportion of recruitment advertising revenue and print media no longer dominates as most recruiters’ preferred job advertising channel.

However, depending on the role you are looking to fill, advertising your vacancies in traditional print media has some advantages over online job advertising:

  • A printed job advert has the potential for a longer shelf-life than an online one as it can remain visible to a prospective applicant for as long as they keep the publication. For specialist magazines, this can be weeks or months.
  • Print advertising offers scope for you to be more creative with your campaigns in comparison with most online advertising, which often consists of little more than blocks of text with logos or limited use of images.
  • A positive perception of newspaper job advertising remains, with potential applicants believing that a company that uses print media is serious about recruiting for the role.
  • A recruitment campaign in a respected publication can provide your company with a good opportunity to promote and build your employer brand.
  • For certain types of recruitment, such as a graduate recruitment campaign, a printed brochure with colourful imagery and great content can help to promote your brand above and beyond the immediate recruitment campaign.

The main disadvantage of relying on print media for recruitment is the cost. Print media is significantly more expensive than online channels and is based on the advertising space acquired. There could be extra costs for design, graphics and copywriting. Think carefully about where is best for you to promote your job vacancies, based on where your ideal candidates will look. You need to put your adverts where the highest number of the right sort of people will see them.

  1. Using Your Company Website

Many jobseekers research potential employers by visiting their company website to find background information on your operations, products, services, financial performance, locations, press coverage and job opportunities. Ideally, your company should have a dedicated job section within its website.

  1. Online Job Boards 

Promoting vacancies on commercial job boards has several advantages compared to advertising in other places, including: 

  • You can update the content of the job advert immediately yourself
  • Job board adverts are visible online around the clock and from any location
  • They can bring you a large, diverse audience across multiple generations and socio-economic sectors
  • They cost much less than traditional print advertising. A typical job board advert costs from £50 to £300 for 30 days’ advertising (at the time of writing)
  • Online adverts can deliver quick responses from applicants, speeding up the recruitment process. 

There are some disadvantages associated with job board advertising. A job board posting may generate a high response rate from potential candidates and it could take substantial time and resources for you to process candidate responses. Make sure you have staff ready and able to handle all the applications.

  1. Social Media

Social media recruitment involves you using social and professional digital platforms to promote vacancies and enhance your recruitment process. Typically, social media recruitment supplements, rather than replaces, other ways of attracting candidates.

The most common way for companies to use social media is to promote themselves as an employer, either by driving applicants to their company or careers website, or by developing the company’s page on a social media platform such as Facebook or LinkedIn.

Direct job advertising is another popular way in which you can use social media when hiring staff. The most common approach is to use paid-for, as opposed to free, job advertising. The ability that social media provides for companies to make lasting connections with successful and unsuccessful candidates makes it a good tool for attracting candidates and recruitment in the long term.

There are many ways in which you can search for the best candidates for your job vacancies. Take the time to plan your recruitment campaign and write the best advert that you can, so that you can place it where the best candidates will see it and you will have the best chance of finding the people you are looking for.

For more specific advice on finding the best people for your own team, click here to email me or call me 0118 940 3032.

How Does Snow White Manage the Seven Dwarfs?

Posted on by

Managing a team of employees brings with it many challenges. Everyone in the team is different – with different needs and needing to be managed differently. How do you work with everyone in your team, to make sure that everyone is pulling together and ensuring that you’re getting the best from each individual and therefore the team as a whole?

In this festive blog, we’ll look at how Snow White manages the very different characters of the seven Dwarfs, for the best effect.

Did you know that six out of seven dwarfs are not Happy?

The seven Dwarfs are all very different and need to be managed differently by Snow White, if she is to get the best from her team. As their manager, she has spent a lot of time getting to know each of the Dwarfs and what motivates them. She has also used a number of different personality profiling tools to help her. Here’s what she’s learnt over the years.

Doc – is a great team leader and a fixer. He can often see a solution to a problem that the others can’t figure out. But he can be a bit bossy too, expecting the other Dwarfs to jump when he gives them an order. Snow White has to give him enough challenging work to stop him from getting bored and trying to boss the others around.

Grumpy – is the technician of the team. He’s great with detail and analysis, but this means that he’s not good at speaking to clients. He gets frustrated when anyone asks him a silly question or doesn’t understand the answer he gives them. He just wants to be left to get on with his work, which he’s actually really good at.

Happy – is always happy! He’s great at motivating the rest of the team and keeping projects going through his energy. He does get distracted easily and sometimes comes up with a new idea before finishing the project that he’s working on. He relies on other members of the team to get the work finished.

Sleepy – sometimes the others think that he’s not pulling his weight as he’s always taking time out for a snooze. But actually, Sleepy is the reflector in the team. When Happy comes up with yet another great new idea, Sleepy is the one who will sleep on it and then come back with the useful questions and suggestions that help the team to decide whether or not to pursue this particular idea.

Dopey – is the joker in the team. He likes to have a laugh and can keep things light, even when the team is working to a deadline. He loves playing practical jokes on Grumpy and teasing Doc when he gets too bossy.

Bashful – is the shy, quiet one in the team. Snow While can’t shout at him if he does something wrong, but spends time explaining exactly what she wants him to do and he’ll do a great job for her. She won’t ask him to go networking or give a presentation to the rest of the Dwarfs because he’s too much of an introvert to do that. He’s a steady, reliable worker who often finishes what Happy starts.

Sneezy – is the member of the team who will come down with the latest bug first. He complains a lot about how it’s too cold or too hot in the office, but Snow White has learnt to keep him busy with plenty of interesting work and responsibility for projects.

By spending time with each of her team members, Snow White has come to know their strengths very well. She can manage them individually and as a team, to get the best from them all through the year!

Maintaining a Healthy, Happy Work Environment

Posted on by

We all want to create a working environment in which our employees look forward to spending time and where they will be their most productive. But sometimes it can go wrong and people find that they have to work somewhere they might feel unhappy, degraded or even humiliated. The creation of an offensive work environment is to be avoided at all costs, if your employees are to remain happy and healthy.

The phrase “creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment” means that behaviour can amount to harassment even if it is not targeted at an individual. It will be enough that the behaviour creates an atmosphere at work that causes offence to a particular employee, or makes them feel uncomfortable. For example, the circulation of sexually explicit material around an office, even though it might not be targeted at a particular employee, could constitute sexual harassment against any woman or man who found it distasteful.

Harassment can be physical, verbal or non-verbal and a wide range of different types of behaviour at work may potentially be perceived as harassment. This rather long list gives you some examples of behaviour that could be perceived as harassment:

  • Sex-related harassment
    • Telling jokes about women
    • Making derogatory sexist remarks
    • Deliberately placing tools or materials that a woman needs to do her job on a high shelf to make it harder for her to reach them
  • Harassment of a sexual nature
    • The display of sexually explicit material on computer screens or in calendars
    • Leering at a woman in a manner that is overtly sexual
    • Physically touching someone in a sexual manner where such conduct is not welcome
    • Remarks, banter or jokes of a sexual nature
    • Making sexual suggestions or persisting with sexual advances after it has been made clear that such approaches are unwelcome
  • Gender reassignment harassment
    • Calling someone a nickname linked to the fact that he or she has undergone gender reassignment
    • Inappropriate touching designed to check whether or not an individual has undergone reconstructive surgery
    • Leaving items specifically associated with the individual’s old or new gender on their desk
  • Racial harassment
    • Calling someone a nickname linked to their skin colour or nationality
    • Remarks, banter or jokes about people from different racial backgrounds
  • Disability harassment
    • Using insulting terminology when referring to a disabled colleague
    • Excessive staring, for example at someone with a facial disfigurement
    • Mimicking a disabled colleague’s mannerisms or speech
  • Religious harassment
    • Remarks, banter or jokes about particular religious beliefs or religious practices
    • Derogatory remarks made about a particular item of clothing or jewellery worn by someone as a symbol of their religion
  • Sexual orientation harassment
    • Deliberate isolation of someone on grounds of their sexuality or perceived sexuality
    • Deliberately behaving in an effeminate manner in the presence of someone who is gay
    • Calling someone a nickname based on his or her sexuality or perceived sexuality
  • Age harassment
    • Banter and jokes that make fun of older people or demean their abilities
    • Calling someone a name linked to their age
    • Ignoring someone, or treating their views as worthless, just because they are younger or older than other employees

How do you guard against offensive jokes, banter and remarks?

General banter linked to sex, race, religion, sexual orientation or age is the most common form of harassment in employment. Managers should make sure that they properly brief all their staff as to the types of conduct and speech that might cause offence to others and make it clear that such behaviour will be unacceptable.

The basic rule should be that any jokes, remarks or banter that might cause offence to another employee on any grounds will not be permitted. Employees should be encouraged to realise that their colleagues will have differing views and feelings and differing levels of sensitivity about certain matters.

In addition, no individual employee can ever know everything about their colleagues – who they are married to or any family issues that might mean that offence will be caused by inappropriate remarks. It should be a requirement in every department that employees treat their colleagues with dignity and respect and refrain from any behaviour that might cause offence.

Are you worried about the environment in which your staff work? Do you need help creating the most productive environment possible? Call me on 0118 940 3032 or email me here and we can talk about how I can help you to do this.

Source: XpertHR

It’s Time to Stamp Out Bullying at Work!

Posted on by

The issue of bullying and harassment at work is a serious matter. The CIPD published a study showing that 13% of employees reported having experienced bullying or harassment at work in the previous 12 months. Yet many managers assume that the problem does not exist, often because no one has complained. A belief or assumption that bullying and harassment do not happen is probably the biggest barrier to tackling the problem.

Many employees may be reluctant to report instances of bullying or harassment out of fear of damaging working relationships with their colleagues, fear of reprisals, embarrassment or worry that they may be perceived as troublemakers. It is important for managers to bear in mind that just because no one has complained does not mean that bullying or harassment is not taking place.

Let’s look at what you can do to deal with bullying and prevent it from happening.

What is Bullying?

Bullying at work is behaviour that is:

  • threatening, aggressive or intimidating;
  • abusive, insulting or offensive;
  • cruel or vindictive; or
  • humiliating, degrading or demeaning.

Bullying will inevitably erode the victim’s confidence and self-esteem. It normally relates to negative behaviours that are repeated and persistent, and deliberately targeted at a particular individual. It is often an abuse of power, position or knowledge, and may be perpetrated by the victim’s manager, peers or even subordinates.

The following table gives some examples of behaviour that could be perceived as bullying.

What about Harassment? 

Harassment is unlawful if it relates to sex, gender reassignment, race (which includes colour, nationality, ethnic or national origins), religion or belief, sexual orientation, disability or age.

The right not to be harassed at work extends to all workers, so agency temps, casual staff and contractors are all protected.

Employees can complain of harassment even if the behaviour in question is not directed at them. This is because the complainant does not actually need to possess the relevant protected characteristic. An employee can complain of unlawful harassment if they have experienced:

  • harassment because they are related to or associated with someone who possesses a relevant protected characteristic; or
  • harassment by a colleague who has the mistaken perception that they possess a relevant protected characteristic.

For example, an employee could complain of harassment where it relates to the fact that they have a homosexual family member or is wrongly perceived to be homosexual. In addition, harassment could occur where a protected characteristic is used as an excuse for the behaviour, even if the perpetrator does not believe that the employee possess the protected characteristic. For example, a line manager may harass a colleague if he teases him about a learning difficulty, even if he does not have a learning difficulty and the line manager knows that he does not.

It is also unlawful to engage in unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature, or to treat a person less favourably because they have rejected or submitted to unwanted conduct of a sexual nature or unwanted conduct related to sex or gender reassignment.

How Can You Stamp Out Bullying and Harassment? 

As an employer you should have and put into effect an anti-bullying/harassment policy. You need to make sure that all your employees know that bullying and harassment at work will not be tolerated and that all instances of such behaviour will be viewed as misconduct, leading to disciplinary action up to and including summary dismissal. 

You should also have a well-publicised complaints procedure, to provide a clear route for employees who believe that they are experiencing bullying or harassment at work to raise the matter without fear of recrimination and have it dealt with.

All your managers and supervisors should receive training in how to prevent and deal with bullying and harassment in the workplace. The training should include an overview of the relevant legislation and what it means and the measures needed to deal fairly and effectively with instances of harassment should they occur. Further, all your staff should, ideally, receive basic harassment awareness training.

You should also make a confidential record of any complaints of bullying or harassment that arise. Once a complaint has been effectively dealt with, you must follow up to ensure that working relationships have returned to normal and that no further harassment is taking place. 

As with most people issues, the best way to deal with bullying and harassment is straight away. Stamp it out immediately so that it does not escalate into a more serious problem and make it clear to your employees that it will not be tolerated.

If you think you’re being bullied at work, or that bullying is happening in your workplace, please do get in touch with me straight away for a confidential conversation. Call me on 0118 940 3032 or click here to email me.

Source: XpertHR

How Do You Manage Employee Probation Periods? Part One

Posted on by

By setting a probationary period, as an employer, you can let newly recruited employees know that their performance will be under continuous review during the first weeks and months of employment. It also lets them know that their continued employment is subject to them completing the probationary period. This can help you to manage the employee’s expectations and their relationship with you, as their employer.

Length of Probationary Period

The length of a probationary period will depend on the position and your requirements. A role requiring a high degree of skill and responsibility is likely to need a longer probationary period than one with limited skills or responsibility. Probationary periods are typically between three and six months.

You should set out in writing to your employee that the position is subject to satisfactory completion of a probationary period. You should also specify the length of the probationary period, how progress will be monitored and reviewed and that the probationary period may be extended.

It is important for you to set out employees’ roles and responsibilities at the outset and to go through a comprehensive induction process.

It is advisable for you to hold frequent review meetings or one-to-ones with your new employees to provide progress updates, encouragement and support and to identify training needs. If performance issues are identified during the probationary period, you should consider whether or not extra training or coaching would be appropriate, rather than leaving it to the end of the probationary period before addressing performance issues.

Statutory Employment Rights

Probationary periods have no legal status and an employee who is on probation has the same statutory employment rights as other employees. It is the length of continuous service that defines an employee’s statutory employment rights, including his or her rights in the event of dismissal.

Probationers are entitled to:

  • the national minimum wage
  • statutory sick pay
  • rights under the Working Time Regulations
  • annual leave entitlement
  • family-related rights in the same way as other staff.

Dealing with Disciplinary Issues

Employers often don’t apply their formal disciplinary procedure to employees on probation. To avoid ambiguity, where you do not want to follow your full procedure, you should make clear, in writing, in the contract and/or disciplinary procedure, that there is no contractual obligation for you to do so.

As probationers do not normally have sufficient service to claim unfair dismissal, they cannot challenge the procedural fairness of a dismissal in the employment tribunal.

However, a probationer could claim that a dismissal was for an automatically unfair reason or for reasons that amount to unlawful discrimination. Therefore, where an employee on probation is suspected of misconduct, you should investigate further before taking action. If you prejudge the situation and dismiss the employee without going through your disciplinary process and giving the employee the opportunity to explain his or her version of events, this could increase the risk of a claim of unlawful discrimination or automatically unfair dismissal. You will be in a better position to argue that the reason for dismissal was the employee’s misconduct if you investigated the matter and can show reasons behind its decision to dismiss.

Extending the Probationary Period

Where an employee has not reached the required standard of performance by the end of the probationary period but you recognise that there is potential for improvement, you might choose to extend the probationary period. The right for an employer to extend the probationary period should be set out in the contract or offer letter, which should also make clear the terms and conditions that will apply during the extension period.

The extension should be for a reasonable period, taking into account how long it might take him or her to complete an improvement plan. You should discuss your employee’s performance and why you are extending the probationary period with him or her and allow the employee to put forward any explanation for the performance issues.

The extension should be agreed and arranged before the original probationary period ends.

Sickness Absence

Sickness absence during a probationary period will need to be monitored and managed in the usual way. Where the absence is frequent and/or long term, this may make it difficult for you to assess the employee’s performance during the course of the probationary period because of their reduced attendance.

You will need to consider whether to: terminate the contract due to the employee’s failure to complete the probationary period satisfactorily; extend the probationary period to give the employee more time to demonstrate his or her suitability for the job; or confirm the employee in post regardless of the absence.

You should investigate the sickness absence to find out if it is due to a disability under the Equality Act 2010. If it is, but you dismiss the employee for failing to complete the probationary period satisfactorily, they may have grounds to bring a disability discrimination claim. You would need to be able to justify your actions.

In part two of this series of blogs, we’ll look at what to do if all goes well through the probation period and you decide to keep your new employee on. If you need any advice now about how to handle probation periods, get in touch by emailing sueferguson@optionshr.co.uk or calling me on 0118 940 3032.

Handling Difficult Conversations – Part Two

Posted on by

In a previous blog post we wrote about the first couple of steps that you can take, when preparing to handle a difficult conversation with a member of your staff. Here are the next steps for you to follow.

3. Listening

Taking the time to listen will also help you to gather useful information about the issue. You should prepare questions but must let the employee explain or react in his or her own time.

Dos and don’ts

  • Do ask for the individual’s view, as this could help to find an appropriate solution to the issue
  • Do use open questions such as “what is your view on that?”
  • Do listen to and acknowledge the employee’s point of view
  • Do appreciate the value of silence. This allows the individual time to gather his or her thoughts
  • Do ask if you have not understood what has been said
  • Do summarise the main points of what the employee has said. This is useful as it shows that you have listened, helps to consolidate your thoughts and helps you to decide where the conversation should go next
  • Do check that the employee has understood what you have said
  • Don’t jump in while the individual is speaking
  • Don’t answer questions that you have put to the employee to answer
  • Don’t ask multiple questions as this can come across as intimidating and prevent the employee from giving a useful answer.

4. Explore the Issues

During the conversation, you and your employee should explore the issue together. If you explore the issue as a whole, including the reasons why it arose, this will increase the chances that the conversation will be successful. Exploring the issue could also help you to find out more about the individual, the team and the organisation.

The issue can be explored in a number of ways:

You can use probing questions to understand or clarify what the employee has said, for example “tell me more about that.”

You might ask rather than tell. You could ask the employee what he or she sees as the ideal outcome of the conversation and how this might be achieved, as well as how others might respond to this.

You can discuss the pros and cons of the different options with the employee.

5. Agree Action

Having ascertained the ideal outcome of the conversation, you and your employee need to agree how it can be achieved.

You need to agree the way forward together. This encourages joint ownership of the issue, which helps the employee to treat it seriously and take responsibility for resolving it.

Brainstorming will help the employee feel involved and is an easy way of comparing the positives and negatives of different solutions.

If the issue requires action, you should both agree a deadline. Scheduling a date by which the action must be completed helps to focus minds. This could be coupled with the date for the next meeting to review the situation.

If the employee needs to improve, you should both agree how development or progress will be measured.

The employee may need support from you to resolve the issue and you need to take this into account.

Once it has been agreed what the employee is going to do, you should ask them to summarise this, which ensures that they have fully understood what is required and by when.

You should end the meeting by explaining that you want the individual to succeed.

When you have a difficult conversation to handle with an employee, don’t put it off. Spend time preparing for it and you will be able to get the best outcome for both you and you member of staff.

Handling Difficult Conversations – Part One

Posted on by

Difficult conversations with employees are part of a line manager’s role.

Any conversation that you would rather not have can result in you expecting it to be a difficult one. However, issues need to be dealt with before they escalate into more serious problems, so in this series of blogs we’ll look at how best to handle them.

Issues that managers find difficult to raise with employees include:

  • delivering bad news, such as confirmation that an employee is being dismissed
  • providing feedback on performance
  • raising an issue of misconduct
  • raising the issue of an employee’s personal hygiene
  • addressing a conflict between colleagues
  • acknowledging that the line manager was wrong and the employee was right.

What happens if you ignore the issue?

Failing to have a conversation to address the issue could have a number of potentially serious consequences:

  • The issue may interfere with your own work
  • If an issue of poor performance or misconduct is left unchecked, the employee may think that the situation is acceptable
  • Failing to address issues of poor performance or misconduct will make it more difficult for you to impose a disciplinary sanction at a later date
  • If left unresolved the issue may cause productivity problems for the individual, the team and the organisation
  • If the issue that needs to be addressed is the employee’s failure to pull his or her weight, failing to address it may cause problems with the employee’s colleagues who may have to pick up the individual’s slack
  • A loss of respect for you as a manager and the organisation as a whole can develop.

Once you have decided to address the issue by having a conversation with the individual, you should conduct it in an appropriate manner so that both parties use the situation to maximum benefit. There are five key areas that you should consider.

1. Preparation

Effective preparation for the meeting will help you get across what you want to say without losing sight of the objective. There are several strands to effective preparation:

  • Investigate the issue before the meeting to be able to provide evidence
  • Decide what the ideal outcome of the conversation would be
  • Think carefully about the differences between your character and that of your employee. You could adapt your style of doing things to assist with understanding and acceptance of the message by your employee.
  • Think about your frame of mind before having the conversation
  • Concentrate on the issue rather than the individual

You should prepare any materials that may be needed for the meeting, including extra copies of documents for the employee. You can also practise what you are going to say, particularly any opening statement or questions.

A difficult conversation should always be conducted in private so that neither the line manager nor the employee is embarrassed and so that you both feel that they can speak freely. You should allow sufficient time to enable proper discussion.

2. Communication

It is important for you to communicate the issue clearly, so that there are no misunderstandings. You must also put the message across in a way that is constructive, even though the information may seem negative.

Set the right tone: begin the conversation in a professional manner as this will encourage a professional attitude throughout the meeting and help to achieve a successful outcome.

State the issues clearly: To avoid misunderstanding, state clearly what the issue is. Praise or positive comments can be useful, but you should not let this cloud the message that you need to impart.

Put the issue in context: Demonstrate why the issue is important.

Give specific examples and evidence: If the message that needs to be imparted is that the employee has been refused a request for flexible working, it helps if you can give specific examples of why the request cannot be accommodated.

Focus on the issue, not the person: Avoid expressing your opinion about the employee. This can be done by sticking to the facts and avoiding generalisations and comments on the individual’s personality.

Avoid an attitude of blame: The issue needs to be addressed in a collaborative way. Managers should not approach a conversation with an attitude of ‘line manager versus the employee, but with an attitude of ‘both versus the problem’.

Avoid belittling the issue: Your own fear of a difficult conversation could lead you to belittle the issue. Avoid phrases such as “this won’t take long”, “it’s really not a big deal” and “I’m sure you’re aware of what I’ll be saying”.

Be positive: Managers should be bold and state that they want a successful outcome to the meeting. This will give a constructive tone and feel to the conversation even if the news seems bad. It also helps if you use positive words, such as “improvement” and “achievement”, rather than negative words, such as “failure” and “weakness”.

Body language: Be aware of your own body language so that it does not alienate the employee. Your attitude will usually be replicated by the employee.

There is a lot more to getting through difficult conversations with employees, including listening, exploring the issue and agreeing the next action, which we’ll cover in the next blog in this series.

If you need some help now with handling difficult conversations, contact us now and we can provide you with some free, impartial advice, to help you get started. Call us on 0118 940 3032 or click here to email me.

Source: Xperthr