FAQ's

All employees are entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) when they are too ill to work. However, when an employee takes frequent short spells of sick leave, they can cause much more disruption than an employee on long term sick leave. But how do you identify where this is happening and manage it as an employer?

The best way to identify where frequent absences are occurring is to use the Bradford Scoring system, which measures employees’ absences with heavy weighting towards the number of spells of absence. A higher Bradford Score = a more disruptive employee.

Once you have identified an issue with an employee who takes frequent sick leave, the first course of action would be to have an informal discussion with the employee to ascertain where they will have the opportunity to explain their frequent absences. If they do have a satisfactory reason, an ongoing health condition for instance, then good practice would be to see what support your company could offer them in order to assist in their recovery or to make it easier for them to do their job.

If you find that the employee doesn’t have a satisfactory reason for their frequent absences, then you should continue the disciplinary process by inviting them to a formal disciplinary meeting, informing the employee of the outcome of the meeting as soon as possible.

When an employer is having troubles with an employee, it can be hard to know what to do. It is vital to follow the correct course of action to resolve situations that could be damaging to a business. The best way to do this is to have a disciplinary process that can be followed in the event of an incident that requires corrective action.

The disciplinary process is a procedure set by an employer which provides guidance throughout a disciplinary situation. The process should set out:

• The rules of the procedure regarding confidentiality, investigation and suspension.
• The circumstances in which it should be applied.
• The procedure for special cases such as where trade unions are involved, or a criminal offence has occurred.
• What the company considers to be gross misconduct or gross negligence
• The review process for improving performance
• The disciplinary procedure itself

Ideally, as an employer, you should consider if the issues presented can be resolved informally. If this is not sufficient to resolve the issue, the employee should be invited to a formal disciplinary meeting. At the meeting, the company will explain the complaint and present their evidence, then the employee will have the chance to present their own evidence and explain themselves. Following the meeting, the employee should be informed of the outcome as soon as possible and given the opportunity to appeal against any formal disciplinary action taken.

The disciplinary process is there to support a positive outcome from issues that can arise from time to time. If you are unsure of when to apply your disciplinary policy, then you should always seek advice.

 Since the introduction of GDPR, many businesses have become more aware on what personal information they are holding on their employees and ensuring this is kept safely and securely. Long gone are the days with overfilled filing cabinets with years’ worth of documents on each employee.

We are always focussed on finding solutions for our clients that make their lives easier and so our HR software delivers just that when it comes to personnel records and personal data.

For businesses new to using HR Software, we offer a set up service to ensure that:

•         All employee data is imported and set up correctly.
•         All paper records are reviewed and relevant documents to retain are securely scanned and added to the system and out of date or irrelevant documents are securely destroyed.

Ultimately, this allows a much more secure storage of personal data to meet your GDPR requirements and also makes it much easier for Managers to access the information relevant to effectively manage their teams

If you work on a manual system or spreadsheets for managing holidays then you have undoubtedly found that as your team grows, so does the time needed to keep on top of this. Does any of the following sound familiar: 

•         Last minute holidays being taken but these haven’t been recorded anywhere?
•         Arguments for who put in their holiday request first?
•         Lots of paper holiday requests piling up in your tray?
•         Employees asking all the time how many holidays they have left to take?
•         Wondering how you figure out what holidays someone is entitled to when they start or leave part way through the year? 

If you recognise any of the above as issues you come across then looking at an online system will save you hours of your time and your sanity!

We recommend and use My HR Toolkit which is easy to use and very user friendly and one of its many functions is managing and tracking holidays. We find all our clients see a significant time saving from this function alone and even the most tech adverse employees use this when they realise it’s the only way to book time off!

What are the benefits?

•         This is a self-service system and so employees make their requests online or through the app for approval.
•         We set up who should be reviewing and authorising holidays for which employees and so when a request is received, they are notified and simply accept or decline the request.
•         Every request is presented in strict date and time order so no more arguments of who put their request in first.
•         A holiday calendar is updated so everyone can see who is off when.
•         Notes can be added to the calendar, for example to say no time off is permitted in a certain period.
•         Employees can see at any time the holidays they have book and have left to book.
•         When someone starts or leaves, the system calculates exactly what holiday they are entitled to – no guessing!

Quite simply, if you want to save precious time then consider investing in an online system to remove the headaches of holiday management.

There are two stages in managing long term sickness, one manage the absence and two manage the return to work.

Generally, an absence over 4 weeks is classed as long term but you need to check your absence policy to confirm this, but as soon as it becomes apparent that the absence will be long term it is good to plan regular contact to keep the employee informed of business activity and to see how the employees’ condition is, how they are reacting with treatment and what is preventing them returning to work.

Regular contact could be either weekly or fortnightly, but it needs to be regular and dates and times agreed by both parties.  It may also be a good idea to involve occupational health and or the doctor, but the employee needs to agree to this.

For either the GP or occupational health report you will need to ask specific questions about the condition and the treatment and definitely need to include a plan to return to work.  Even if an employee cant return to their original role you need to assess what they can and cant do and offer them reasonable adjustments.

Reasonable adjustments can be any of the following;  reduced daily hours, reduced days, different shifts,  different role, reduced responsibilities or different work area.

The latest Health & Wellbeing at Work Survey shows that work is good for us! Where we enjoy quality, good work then this benefits our wellbeing overall.

So, what happens when it goes wrong?

The research shows that the biggest reported causes of stress at work are 62% of workers citing unmanageable workloads and 43% citing poor management style.

Your Line Managers really do play a crucial role in the wellbeing and effectiveness of your staff yet:
• Less than 50% of businesses train their Managers to handle stress or have sensitive conversations with their teams.
• 80% of Line Managers are responsible for short term absence with only 56% reporting any training being provided.
• 40% of Line Manages are responsible for Long term absence with few reporting any training or support.

Although we provide guidance and support to businesses, we also recognise that your Managers would benefit from additional training on key areas such as Absence Management and our workshop programme offers you low cost training which only takes your Managers out of the business for ½ day.

Managers leave with an improved knowledge and practical tips on how to be more effective in tackling both absenteeism and presenteeism.

For more information on our range of Skills Workshops for Managers simply contact Amy Sharpe or speak to your Consultant, call 0844 8797286

Bradford Scoring is a system of measuring absenteeism based on the length of absences as well as the number of absences. It was developed as a result of research conducted at the University of Bradford, which found that a number of shorter periods of absence were more disruptive to businesses than long periods of absence.

In order to take into account the number of periods of absence, researchers came up with the formula S x S x D = Bradford Score where:

S = The number of absence spells

D = The total number of days absent

This means that, even if you had the same number of days off as someone else, your Bradford Score heavily depends on the number of absence spells. For example, if one employee had 10 days off in a year all in one spell, their Bradford Score would be 1 x 1 x 10 = 10, whereas someone who had 10 days off over 4 spells of absence, their Bradford Score would be 4 x 4 x 10 = 160.

The added weighting to the number of spells allows employers to identify which employees are causing the most disruption. To use it, employers benchmark certain scores as points at which intervention is necessary. For example, at 50 points a verbal warning may be issued, at 200 points a written warning etc.

The benefit of using the Bradford Scoring system is that it provides a solid marker for all employees to be assessed against, meaning that managers cannot be accused of treating some employees preferentially, or for singling any one employee out. However, the problem with assessing all employees against the same measuring stick is that not all employees are the same. For example, an employee with severe asthma may need to visit the hospital several times a year for check-ups or treatment; it would be impractical to expect them to go outside of working hours for every visit, thus their Bradford Score will be much higher than an employee who has no health conditions. This can be countered by manually adjusting the benchmarks for that particular employee, but it still marks a fundamental flaw in the system.

The best way to implement the Bradford Scoring system would be to use it as a tool to highlight where there are staff problems rather than as an unbending rule where staff are dismissed without question once they reach a certain score. Where there are problems flagged up by the system, they should be addressed with a discussion to find the root of the problem and see what support the business can offer to employees who have a genuine reason for their absences.

Full time workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks paid holiday per year, essentially for zero hours employees it means for every hour worked they accrue holiday.

You can calculate holiday using the 12.07 rule. 5.6 weeks out of 52 weeks a year is 12.07% to calculate holiday accrual on an hourly basis. Holidays are accrued as follows, its 12.07 % of the total hours an employee works in a week. You may choose to cap this at the equivalent of a full-time employees’ entitlement.

Once the employee has accrued enough hours to cover the time off, they could then book the paid time off, you can make the calculation weekly and keep track of the time accrued each week/month.

Please note this is the method generally used although there are occasions this isn’t appropriate so please check with your HR provider.

If you like to talk to one of the team about Zero hours, please call us on 0844 8797286.

When an employee is called for jury duty, you are obliged to give them time off as an employer. Jury duty usually lasts up to 10 days, which the employee is not required to take out of their statutory holiday entitlement, but it can last for longer.

Whether or not an employer continues to pay an employee during jury duty is entirely at their discretion, there is no legal obligation to pay them, although many employers do.

If you choose to pay your employee, you would pay them in the normal way for their usual working hours. However, you cannot claim back the money you pay them, or any money the business loses during the employee’s jury service.

If you do not pay your employee, they can claim an allowance from the court for a loss of earnings and, if they have children, they can also claim for childcare expenses.

You will have to fill in a Certificate of Loss of Earnings for them to provide the court with along with evidence of any other expenses.

In some cases, the extended absence of a key employee could be highly damaging to your business, in which case they may apply to have their duty deferred, and give the court a date when they will next be able to perform their duty.

Other reasons an employee might be allowed to defer their duty include having a holiday booked, having an operation, it is exam time and they are a teacher or they are taking a temporary job that they would lose if they were forced to attend court.

It’s good practice to document how your business will handle jury duty in your Sickness & Absence Policy. If you don’t currently have a policy, we can help! Call us on 0844 8797286.

The working time directive states that an employee should have minimum 5.6 weeks statutory holiday each year, which is 4 weeks under reg 13 and an additional 1.6 weeks under reg 13a. The 4 week holiday entitlement may not be carried forward into the next year unless there has been a long period of sickness and the holiday carried over needs to be used within 18 months, or the employee has been on maternity leave.
The government relaxed the regulation and employees may carry over up to four weeks annual leave into the next two holiday years, where it has not been reasonably practicable for them to take it as a result of the effects of coronavirus.
Holiday can be taken during a period of furlough but the employee must be paid their normal rate of pay for a period of annual leave.
No holiday period should be paid in lieu unless the employment has been terminated.

For advice and guidance on holiday, please feel free to contact our Advisors for a free initial consultation on 0844 8797286.

It is important to have an Absence Policy to clearly set out when and how your employee should contact you when they are unable to work due to illness, but what steps should you take when an employee returns to work?

If an employee has had less then 7 calendar days off then they can self-certify their absence upon their return, to record this you can have a self-certification form for them to complete. If an employee had been off for longer than this then they should have had a Statement of Fitness for work from their GP to sign them off as unfit to work, this will have detailed the reason for their absence.

A return to work process is a great way of checking in with your employee that they are fit to work and to have that welfare check. Whether their absence has been just a day or longer, this gives you the opportunity to understand what has caused their absence and if needed, make arrangements to support them now they are back at work.

A return to work form can document these discussions and keep a valuable record of their absence and discussions should you need to reference back if a pattern emerges or the employee encounters ongoing health issues.

For more information about back to work, please contact the team on 0844 879 7286

When an employee is called for jury service, they need to respond within 7 days and if they can’t attend on the date specified they can request an alternative date or they can be asked to be excused.

Reason for requesting an alternative date could be a booked holiday, a pre-planned operation or the employer will not agree to the time off, for all the reason you will need to be specific and give details and give 3 alternative dates within the next 12 months.

As the employer you must give the employee the time off unless their absence will seriously harm your business and you will have to put this in writing to the courts.

With regards to pay this will depend on your business and your policies should state if this is paid or unpaid.

If the leave is to be paid you would pay the employee as normal as per their contract of employment and you cannot claim anything back from the courts.

If the leave is unpaid the employee will need to complete a loss of earnings certificate from the court and any unpaid wages will be paid directly to the employee.

For advice and guidance on jury service, please feel free to contact our Advisors for a free initial consultation on 0844 8797286.

We often talk to businesses who tell us they have issued a ‘verbal warning’ to employees but what they really mean is that they have given an informal verbal warning, which is very different in the eyes of employment law.

At the outset, in the event that an employee’s performance or conduct is unsatisfactory, the disciplinary procedure generally begins with an informal discussion where the employee’s shortcomings are explained, and the employee has a chance to explain their actions.

This may result in you verbally outlining improvements, but this is not a formal warning.
If an informal discussion is insufficient to resolve the issue, then the next step to take is to have a formal disciplinary meeting with the employee. What disciplinary action to take as a result of the meeting is entirely at the employer’s discretion. A recorded verbal warning is the least severe of these and remains on the employee’s file for 6 months usually.

A verbal warning states that any further misconduct renders the employee liable to further, more severe disciplinary action.

If you do not see the required improvement after an informal discussion / warning, then you may decide to take formal disciplinary action. In this case, an employee is clearly invited to a hearing and the issues / evidence are presented in advance. After completing the hearing, then you may decide to issue a formal warning which usually starts with a verbal warning which ironically is issued in writing.

If you would like to speak to the team about disciplinaries in more detail, please do get in touch on 0844 879 7286.

Simply put, no, if you have a permanent employee with no disciplinary record, you cannot dismiss them unless their offence amounts to Gross Misconduct or Gross Negligence. To do so would constitute unfair dismissal, where the employee has not been given the chance to improve their performance or conduct.

If you unfairly dismiss an employee in this way, they have legal grounds to take you to court and you may find yourself on the losing side of an employment tribunal.

However, if your employee is still in their probationary period, you may dismiss them by serving their notice, provided you have a valid reason for dismissing them.

To avoid an unfair dismissal, you should have a disciplinary procedure that is fully integrated into your company policy. This should detail what your organisation considers to be Gross Misconduct, misconduct and capability issues, as well as what disciplinary actions an employee can expect at each stage of the process. When an employee with a clear record commits an offence, this should trigger the commencement of the disciplinary procedure rather than a dismissal.

For more information on what a disciplinary procedure involves, please contact the team on 0844 879 7286.

When an employer is having trouble with an employee, it can be hard to know what to do. It is vital to follow the correct course of action to resolve situations that could be damaging to a business.

The best way to do this is to have a disciplinary process that can be followed in the event of an incident that requires corrective action.

The disciplinary process is a procedure set by an employer which provides guidance throughout a disciplinary situation.

The process should set out:

– The rules of the procedure regarding confidentiality, investigation and suspension.
– The circumstances in which it should be applied.
– The procedure for special cases such as where trade unions are involved, or a criminal offence has occurred.
– What the company considers to be gross misconduct or gross negligence
– The review process for improving performance
– The disciplinary procedure itself

Ideally, as an employer, you should consider if the issues presented can be resolved informally. If this is not sufficient to resolve the issue, the employee should be invited to a formal disciplinary meeting. At the meeting, the company will explain the complaint and present their evidence, then the employee will have the chance to present their own evidence and explain themselves. Following the meeting, the employee should be informed of the outcome as soon as possible and given the opportunity to appeal against any formal disciplinary action taken.

The disciplinary process is there to support a positive outcome from issues that can arise from time to time. If you are unsure of when to apply your disciplinary policy, then you should always seek advice. With this if you would like to talk about any aspect of the disciplinary process, please get in touch on 0844 879 7286.

If an employee is invited to a disciplinary meeting, they are entitled to the right to be accompanied. However, it is worth noting that this right does not extend to informal discussions or investigatory meetings.

Employees can request to be accompanied to such meetings, but the decision is ultimately at the employer’s discretion, whereas an employer cannot legally prevent an employee from being accompanied to a disciplinary meeting.

In exercising their right to be accompanied, an employee is entitled to invite a colleague, a representative from a trade union, or an official from a trade union. They are not entitled to be accompanied by any other individual, though they may request to be accompanied by someone else (such as a family member) at the employer’s discretion.
The accompanying individual is limited in what they are able to do in the meeting. They may:

• Take notes on behalf of the employee
• Present the employee’s case
• Sum up the employee’s case
• Confer with the employee during the course of the meeting

Employees must inform the employer prior to the meeting of their intention to be accompanied (preferably in writing), otherwise the employer is entitled to refuse accompaniment to the employee. If the accompanying individual is unable to attend the meeting, the employee can request that the meeting is rescheduled within a reasonable time after the original date.

If an employer refuses to allow an employee to be accompanied after the proper procedure has been followed, this can result in a tribunal with compensation being awarded to the employee.

For more information on employee accompaniment in disciplinary meetings, please get in touch with the team on 0844 8797286.

As an employer, having clear and transparent policies create a strong foundation for your staff to know how you intend to manage certain situations.

Every business is very different to what policies are important to how they want to manage their business and the type of culture they are looking to create. That’s being said there are quite a number of policies that have statutory processes which mean there are minimum standards that an employer should be following.

Basics such as Disciplinary, Grievance, Family friendly policies etc… may be the common policies all businesses think of but there are many more considerations you may want to include.

What about the guidance you want employees to follow for Social Media postings, how you want to handle dental and medical appointments, do you have a dress code or perhaps need a Hospitality and Gifts policy?

To make sure you make the right choices and selection for your business, please do get in touch on 0844 879 7286.

Since the introduction of GDPR, many businesses have become more aware on what personal information they are holding on their employees and ensuring this is kept safely and securely. Long gone are the days with overfilled filing cabinets with years’ worth of documents on each employee.

We are always focussed on finding solutions for our clients that make their lives easier and so our HR software delivers just that when it comes to personnel records and personal data.

For businesses new to using HR Software, we offer a set up service to ensure that:
• All employee data is imported and set up correctly.
• All paper records are reviewed and relevant documents to retain are securely scanned and added to the system and out of date or irrelevant documents are securely destroyed.

Ultimately, this allows a much more secure storage of personal data to meet your GDPR requirements and also makes it much easier for Managers to access the information relevant to effectively manage their teams.

If you would like more information on our MyHR Toolkit software and how this can help, then please call Amy on 0844 8797286 to arrange a free demo.

It is important that If and when any formal disciplinary action is taken with employees, that a clear audit trail is kept in relation to the process followed, meetings held, and action taken. This is important for a number of reasons:

• You have clear records should there be issues in the future with the employee.
• You can demonstrate you have followed a fair and consistent approach.
• Any evidence is retained to show how and why a decision was made, especially if challenged through an appeal or tribunal.
• You are taking active warnings into account should further disciplinary action be taken.

Many businesses at best only keep the outcome of any disciplinary on file, which is often hidden with piles of other paperwork in a personnel file in the depths of a filing cabinet.
We help our clients keep accurate and easy to locate records though our HR software.

This allows at the click of a mouse to clearly see:

• Any previous disciplinary action taken and on what date.
• If any warning is still active or has expired.
• To view all associated documents relating to each individual disciplinary matter together.

As a proactive HR Consultancy this also allows us to follow up with Managers to see if they are happy with any progress since a disciplinary and where improvement has been seen we can recognise this and relay this to the employee. After all a disciplinary should be used for positive effect.

If you are thinking of tackling a disciplinary issue without obtaining any advice, proceed with caution. Many claims that employees make through tribunals are a result of a failure to follow the right process by Employers and so don’t fall foul of this, we are always happy to have a chat to guide you in the right direction at no cost.

If you would like more information on our HR software and how this can help, then please call Amy on 0844 879 7286 to arrange a free MyHR Toolkit demo.

Whether you have external courses or qualifications that you need your employees to undertake or whether you take the time to run great internal training and coaching, it is important to record the training each employee undertakes.

Why?

– This information can be used at reviews and appraisals. Sometimes your employees may forget what you are investing in them and what they have learnt!

– There is a cost to manage for training and so you can keep accurate records of what you are investing in your employees.

– For more formal qualifications then there may be training agreements in place for you to claw back costs if an employee leaves within a certain timescale, accurate records ensure you can process any such claims.

For any Manager looking to manage performance there is inevitably skills gaps to be addressed and so understanding how to write and use training plans is a great way of developing and retaining great team members.

We work with a range of businesses from 1 employee upwards and give guidance and support and how to get the best from their employees. If this is used with accurate training records this can be a powerful tool to guide and manage your teams to being even more effective.

We use a HR software system that helps you do just that, including:

 Recording each training session undertaken.

– Detailing and training costs and the training provider.

– Recording CPD points.

– Diarising for any refresher training or renewals needed.

– Recording formal results.

If you would like more information on our HR software and how this can help, then please call Amy on 0844 879 7286 to arrange a demo.

If you work on a manual system or spreadsheets for managing holidays then you have undoubtedly found that as your team grows, so does the time needed to keep on top of this.

Does any of the following sound familiar:

– Last minute holidays being taken but these haven’t been recorded anywhere?

– Arguments for who put in their holiday request first?

– Lots of paper holiday requests piling up in your tray?

– Employees asking all the time how many holidays they have left to take?

– Wondering how you figure out what holidays someone is entitled to when they start or leave part way through the year?

If you recognise any of the above as issues you come across then looking at an online system will save you hours of your time and your sanity!

We recommend and use My HR Toolkit which is easy to use and very user friendly and one of its many functions is managing and tracking holidays. We find all our clients see a significant time saving from this function alone and even the most tech adverse employees use this when they realise it’s the only way to book time off!
What are the benefits?

– This is a self-service system and so employees make their requests online or through the app for approval.

– We set up who should be reviewing and authorising holidays for which employees and so when a request is received, they are notified and simply accept or decline the request.

– Every request is presented in strict date and time order so no more arguments of who put their request in first.

– A holiday calendar is updated so everyone can see who is off when.

– Notes can be added to the calendar, for example to say no time off is permitted in a certain period.

– Employees can see at any time the holidays they have book and have left to book.

– When someone starts or leaves, the system calculates exactly what holiday they are entitled to – no guessing!

Quite simply, if you want to save precious time then consider investing in an online system to remove the headaches of holiday management.

To arrange a demo of My HR Toolkit please contact Amy on 0844 8797286.

Perhaps your business has never had homeworkers until 2020, when we have all had to find new ways of working. There are challenges to managing home workers, not just in terms of performance but in terms of maintaining that culture and team spirit that is evident when you are based at the same location.
You lose those ‘Water cooler’ moments where your teams will naturally have breaks to chit chat and this does help build relationships – these are lost when you suddenly are working from different locations.

Give a forum for the social interactions

We have often heard employees say that they miss the interactions with their co workers but feel if they called them for a chat or messages them online that it may be seen as they are not working as effectively being at home.
Why not create a forum that gives your permission and in fact encourages those interactions? Perhaps this can be from having a messaging service, WhatsApp group or even a team zoom call that has no other agenda other than to check in and catch up?

Communicate more

We have seen feedback from lots of employees that feel that communications from their Managers has reduced since working from home yet Managers feeling like they are not communicating any less. This may be a case of perception, but it is fair to say you need to be more proactive and communicate more frequently to create that feeling of support that your teams may crave right now.

Team Build

It may seem like it is difficult to have social times with your teams right now but there have been some creative ways to still complete team building activities together online. Think about virtual cocktail making, a cooking class, team quizzes, yoga, art class – the options are endless and there are some creative suppliers there ready to facilitate these.

We may have been forced in 2020 to embrace a more online / remote way of working and interacting but there are lots of ways you can still build that team spirit and then when you may return back to the business premises – you have a stronger team as a result.

Should you have any further questions or concerns then we are happy for you to speak with one of our HR Advisors, please contact us on 0844 879 7286.

With an increasing number of home workers and a new flexible way of working, how can you ensure your company information or data is secure?
It is your responsibility as a business owner to secure the data your workers have access to and this does not change if you have homeworkers, whether using your IT equipment or their own. Add to this any paperwork that may be in use when family members have access to the work area then this becomes harder to control. Here are some tips for considering keeping your data safe:

Homeworking Policy

Ensure you have a policy that clearly sets out the expectation for data security. These policies ought to detail the procedures which employees must follow when processing personal data at home and what is considered authorised use of personal data.

Equipment

How do your employees access the data they need to work? Are your systems cloud based and if so is there sufficient security to avoid data breaches or hacking?
A good way to ensure this would be to provide the equipment your teams need to work on, usually a business computer would have professional software and antivirus protection that is superior to home editions.
If working with paperwork is part of the job then do you provide you employee with a lockable file to allow this to be secured when they finish their working day?

Data Breaches

You should ensure that your staff understand how to alert you to potential data breaches so that you can investigate and take action.

If you need assistance with considering any aspect of home working then please contact one of our HR experts on 0844 879 7286

Where you have Home Workers, you should have completed both a Home Working risk assessment and a Display Screen risk assessment to identify where there may be a need to provide certain equipment to ensure your employees are able to work safely from home.
What type of things may be needed?

Furniture

As homeworking has become a longer term arrangement than many expected, it may not be ideal that you have employees working from a kitchen / dining table on an unsuitable chair or even working with their laptop on their knee.
There may be equipment you already have that you could provide the employee whilst working at home. For example, could they take their office chair home if you do not have them working from the office?
For more permanent arrangements you may want to consider the provision of a good adjustable chair and possible a work desk.

IT

Do your employees have the ability to take a desktop computer hone or do you need to invest in laptops?
If an employee is working from their own device, then you may need to consider the security this may have and possibly provide your own Antivirus or security software to ensure data is not compromised.

Connectivity

Have your employees got a fast-enough internet connection to work effectively? If not then you may wish to invest in providing a faster service or contributing the cost of them upgrading their own service.
Can your phones be diverted or are you providing mobiles to allow employees to work effectively from home?

By completing the correct risk assessment, this will help you identify what is needed to support your employees to work safely from home.
Should you have any further questions or concerns then we are happy for you to speak with one of our HR Advisors, please contact us on 0844 8797286.

All employees have the right to be accompanied to a formal meeting, whilst there is no legal right to be accompanied at investigation it is good practice to allow this, the invite letter should set out the right to be accompanied with clear guidance who is allowed.

The companion could be either a work colleague or a union representative and the employee needs to let you know prior to the meeting who they are bringing with them. If the employee has a disability you may need to make reasonable adjustments for example allow a support worker.

Also be mindful that if they are under 18 you might allow a parent or guardian to be present.
If the employee is alone, at the beginning of the meeting ensure that the employee is aware of the right to be accompanied and that they are happy to continue by themselves and ensure that this is documented.

If the employee wants to be accompanied ensure that they are not involved in any stage of the process such as providing a witness statement or have been interviewed as part of the investigation process.

If the companion is a union representative ensure that you check their identification and note this on the minutes of the meeting.

During the meeting the companion can support the employee, address the hearing and ask question to confirm understanding but cannot answer questions on behalf of the employee, they can request a short break to confer with the employee and they can take notes.

At the end of the meeting and before saying what the next stage will be ensure that you ask the companion if they have anything to add on behalf of the employee.

For advice and guidance on managing formal meetings, please feel free to contact our Advisors on 0844 8797286.

Getting the balance between micro managing and leaving staff to get on with their work is only achieved by communication and putting a plan in place from the beginning.

1 Decide how the daily contact will take place, video calling, phone call, group or individual. This can differ from person to person and allow the employee to suggest how they would like to be contacted
2 Consider how you can record the work your team has in progress and make this visible – this is then easy to review.
3 Plan some time for non-work related conversation. Everyone like to have chit chat at work and this is no different when working from home, ask about their family or what they did the previous evening.
4 If you had weekly or monthly meetings ensure these still happen to ensure consistency.

Working from home doesn’t always work for everyone and so having the time just to check in with your employees regularly can flag in any concerns before they start to impact on the performance or wellbeing of your staff.
We would always advise having a Home Working Policy in place to clearly outline how Homeworking will work in practice and also be open to reviewing this. For more advice and guidance on the obligations you have as an Employer for Homeworkers, please contact us on 0844 879 7286.

A Contract of Employment is an agreement between an employer and an employee that states the terms and conditions of employment across a number of different fields. It sets out the hours an employee works, how much they are paid for their work, how many days’ holiday per year they are entitled to and the employee’s main place of work, among other things. It also gives certain rights to employers and employees to protect both parties in the event of legal action or to prevent exploitation. The rights granted to an employee in a Contract of Employment are in addition to the rights granted to them by law, they do not replace lawful rights.

In the absence of a Contract of Employment, both the employer and the employee have no legal obligations to one another. The employer technically wouldn’t have to pay the employee for their work; the employee wouldn’t be obliged to show up to work because they have no official working hours; in essence, nothing would get done and nobody would get paid!

It is possible to have a Contract of Employment without an official document of the terms and conditions of employment. For example, a verbal agreement between an employee and employer regarding working hours and remuneration could be considered a Contract of Employment. You have agreed that, for a defined number of hours per week/month, an employee will receive a defined amount of money. If this is the case, it is best to write down what has been agreed so there is some sort of record of the terms and conditions of employment.

Furthermore, all Contracts of Employment feature implied terms of employment. These are terms that are present in all contracts, even though they are not explicitly agreed upon. They include things such as providing a safe working environment for employees; maintaining trust and discretion; an employee’s duty to obey any reasonable request made by their employer and an employer’s duty to provide work and payment.

For the most part, there will always be some form of Contract of Employment between an employee and employer, be it verbal or written, though employers are legally obliged to issue employees with a written statement of the terms and conditions of employment on day 1 of employment (although ideally prior to the employee starting).

It is important to ensure you obtain a Contract of Employment from a reputable advisor, there is a danger in downloading free resources if you don’t know where they have come from and to using old documents that you may have obtained from other employer.

For more information on Contracts of Employment or to book a Free Review, please call on 0844 8797286, or email on info@questconsultingservices.co.uk.

By law, written statements setting out the terms and conditions of employment must be issued to all employees in the UK within 2 months of them beginning their employment. This can include, among other things, the names of the employee and employer, the employee’s start date, the employee’s job title and location, working hours, rate of pay and holiday entitlement. However, this does not necessarily form a Contract of Employment.

For a statement of the terms and conditions of employment to become a Contract of Employment, it must be agreed upon by both the employer and the employee by signing an official document.

Otherwise, the statement could be viewed as the employer’s version of the agreement and not the actual agreement itself, allowing it to be challenged in court by an employee. Therefore, to ensure both parties are properly protected, all employees should be issued with a Contract of Employment that details all of the terms and conditions of employment, and is signed by the employer and the employer so as to avoid any ambiguity regarding the obligations of either party.

For more information on Contracts of Employment or written terms, or to book a Free Review, call on 0844 8797286 or email on info@questconsultingservices.co.uk.

As an employer, you should make it clear in your Contract of Employment if a worker is entitled to receive pay for any overtime worked and if so at what rate this will be calculated.

Typically, overtime rates apply for hourly paid workers whereas salaried employees may be expected to work overtime with no additional pay in order to fulfil their duties – either way this should be made clear to avoid any confusion. Where overtime is not paid, the employees’ hourly rate must not fall below the current National Minimum Wage.

As an employer you may want to consider whether you offer an incentive of a higher rate of pay for overtime to encourage your staff to work the overtime you may need. This is often the case when overtime may be in unsociable hours such as evenings or weekends.

You may want to consider alternatives to offering overtime pay such as time off in lieu. This means that an employee ‘banks’ the additional overtime hours they work and can take these as leave at a later time. For this to work effectively it is essential that you are able to keep accurate records of lieu time as it is accrued and taken by employees. Ideally any arrangements for time off in lieu should be clearly documented so that both employer/employee understand issues such as:

• when leave can be taken
• any maximum limits you want to impose
• the authorisation process for booking the leave
• what happens if the contract ends before all accrued overtime is used.

What about part time workers?

Unless your contract says differently, there is no obligation on an employer to pay a part time worker an overtime rate until they have worked the same amount of hours as their full time counterpart. When they have worked a total of the full time equivalent in hours then you must apply the same rates as a full time worker if these are enhanced rates.

If you have any questions or concerns relating to working hours or overtime then call one of our HR Consultants on 0844 87972886.

All working hours for employees in the UK, including overtime, are governed by the Working Time Regulations.

These state that your employees:

• must not work more than 48 hours per week on average
• must be allowed at one day off each week or two days off in a fortnight
• should have 11 hours uninterrupted rest in a 24 hour period
• is given at least a 20 minute break if their shift lasts more than six hours.

An employee may choose to opt out of these Working Time Regulations and any opt out should either form part of the Contract f Employment or be separately documented. An employees may also withdraw their consent to opt out at any time.

Different rules apply for 16 and 17 year old workers. They cannot work more than 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week. Young workers cannot sign an opt -out agreement and must have two days off per week.  

If you have any questions or concerns relating to working hours or overtime then call one of our HR Consultants on 0844 87972886

The simple answer to this is yes, unless the overtime is worked on a genuine occasional and infrequent basis.

Recent court decisions have indicated that all overtime worked should be included when calculating a worker’s statutory holiday pay entitlement.

ACAS state that ‘These court decisions apply to the four weeks of annual leave which are required under European law. All workers in the UK must receive an additional 1.6 weeks of leave by law, and some receive more as part of their terms and conditions of employment. Many employers choose to apply the judgments to this extra annual leave. Doing this is not a legal requirement but can help to keep their processes simple and understandable.’

There is still much uncertainty from business owners on how to calculate holiday and so if you are unsure, seek expert advice.

If you have any questions or concerns relating to overtime or holiday pay then call one of our HR Consultants on 0844 87972886.

Overtime by definition is when an employee works over and above their contracted hours, this may be for example due to seasonal peaks or to cover absence in the workplace. Recognised overtime rates are more commonly associated with hourly paid workers and there is no obligation to pay enhanced rates of pay for overtime, although may business do this if the overtime is in less sociable hours such as nights or weekends.

ACAS set out some clear guidance on how to classify overtime:

‘Overtime can be compulsory or voluntary. It will depend on the terms and conditions of the contract whether overtime is:

• voluntary
• compulsory and guaranteed
• compulsory but non-guaranteed.

Voluntary Overtime

Voluntary overtime is where there is no obligation on an employer to offer overtime and no obligation on the worker to do overtime if it is offered. A worker should not be subject to any detriment for turning down voluntary overtime.

For example: Several workers are absent from work due to sickness. This leaves their employer short-staffed. The employer offers overtime to their colleagues so they continue to meet customer demand. The workers are able to choose whether or not to work the extra hours as there is nothing in their contract to say they must do so.

Guaranteed Overtime

Guaranteed overtime is overtime that an employer is contractually obliged to offer and a worker is obliged to accept.

For example: An employer knows they need to fulfil an order from a particular customer on the last Sunday of every month. The contracts of employment include that staff will be scheduled to work overtime on this particular day each month and they will be obliged to work it.

Non-Guaranteed Overtime

Non-guaranteed overtime does not have to be offered by an employer. However, when it is offered, the worker must accept and work it.

For example: An employer knows that their business is likely to be busier at certain times of the year but does not know how much overtime they will need their employees to work. The employer includes in its contracts of employment that, if needed, workers will have to work extra hours during the busy periods.

An employer who wants to rely on either guaranteed or non-guaranteed overtime should clearly set out in the terms and conditions of employment that the overtime is compulsory.

If a worker refuses to work overtime they are obliged to work, the employer may view this as a breach of the contract and a disciplinary matter.’

Should you wish to discuss how your company deals with overtime and to ensure your contracts reflect this correctly then contact us to speak with one of our HR Consultants on 0844 87972886.

Growing your business means you have too much work to take on yourself, so it’s finally time to take on your first staff member. But where do you start? Let us give you a few tips.

First, you need to document a job description, so you are clear exactly what tasks the role will fulfil. Then, give consideration to the person specification: what experience, qualifications or qualities will make the ideal candidate?

Then, you’ll need to consider your recruitment process. Are you going to recruit yourself? If so, you’ll need to know how and where you’re going to advertise your vacancy and draft an advert to attract the right people to your business. However, you may be inundated with CVs, and sifting through these can be very time consuming, particularly if you’re not entirely sure what you’re looking for. A good alternative is to advertise through a recruitment agency; they will post an advert for you and screen applicants before sending you those with the most potential. The drawback here however is that you will have to pay for the services of a recruitment agency, but it will save you a great deal of precious time.

Another thing you will need to consider is the package you plan to offer with the role. How much are you going to pay them? How many days’ holiday per year will they get? The best way to gauge this is to browse job sites for similar roles and create benchmarks of what other people are offering for the same job. This gives you an idea of what applicants will be expecting, and it gives you the opportunity to give yourself an edge while competing for applicants with a competitive salary or staff benefits.

Once you have shortlisted your best applicants, you’re going to want to interview them. Consider what your ideal employee looks like in terms of experience, qualifications and training, then construct questions that will extract this information for you. Finally, at the end of all that hard work, you’ll have your first employee!

Getting your recruitment process and final selection is so important that it may be worth enlisting the help of an expert or you my end up paying for this later down the line if your employee isn’t a good fit.

For more information, please call us on 0844 8797286.

When advertising for a vacancy within your business, you’re naturally going to want to gather as much information as possible about your applicants; you need to know who’s applying so you can make an informed choice. However, there are some topics you have to avoid by law to prevent discrimination. Read on to find out what you can and can’t ask job applicants on their application forms.

Firstly, you need to know who your applicant is, so you can ask for a name, address and contact details. It’s also important to know whether a potential candidate is qualified for the role you’re advertising before you start interviewing them, therefore asking for things such as work and education history is a standard fixture on most job applications. Some roles require specific applicants to have specific qualifications and training, such as a forklift truck driving license or a degree in a relevant area, so some job applications will ask for these as well.

However, there are some types of information you can’t ask applicants to provide, as they may cause bias in the recruitment process, either consciously or unconsciously. The government has published a list of ‘protected characteristics’ that employers cannot ask about in the recruitment process by law. These are as follows:

• Age
• Being or becoming a transsexual person
• Marital status
• Pregnancy or being on maternity leave
• Disability
• Race, including skin colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
• Religious beliefs or lack thereof
• Sex
• Sexual Orientation

Under no circumstances may recruiters ask for this information in the recruitment process. Recruiters are also restricted from asking whether or not an applicant has or is planning to have children. In some cases, recruiters may ask about health or disability, but only if the requirements of the role can’t be met with reasonable adjustments or if they need to know if an applicant needs help to take part in an interview.

For more information on the recruitment and application process, please call us on 0844 8797286.

You have a vacancy, you’ve advertised it online or through a recruitment agency, you’ve shortlisted the best candidates and now it’s time to start interviewing. But what should you ask your candidates? 

The aim of the first interview is to find out as much information as you can about an applicant beyond their CV. Your questions should reflect this; they should be carefully chosen to illicit detailed responses. Things to find out include:

• The candidate’s personal values
• The candidate’s ideal working environment
• How the candidate prefers to be managed
• Their past performance / how they deal with challenges
• Why they are applying for the job / why they are leaving their old employer
• What skills they have that will benefit your company
• Their views on professional and personal development

The best approach is to form a question that will provide the information you want but without asking directly, ensuring the candidate’s honesty. For example, if you want to know what a candidate’s values are, you might ask them what their greatest achievement at work was. They will likely talk about what they have achieved in relation to their values. If you’re looking for someone dedicated to customer service, maybe you don’t want to consider someone whose greatest achievement was a big sale.

For more information, please call to speak to one of our HR Consultants on 0844 8797286.

It has been a strange few years’ and for some this may have provided issues that affect their mental wellbeing. Here so here are some tips to help you spot and employee that may be struggling.

There are 5 common signs that you should look out for:

• Long-lasting sadness or irritability
• Extremely high and low moods
• Excessive fear, worry, or anxiety
• Social withdrawal
• Dramatic changes in eating or sleeping habits

These may be harder to spot if you have homeworkers and so you may want to consider creating opportunities where you are checking in with your teams such as:

• Create the forum for employees to mix socially even if online – getting those ‘Water cooler moments’
• Have regular check in’s whether on the phone or by video just to see how homeworking is being managed and to openly discuss any concerns or frustrations.
• Pull your team together with update meetings so you can review interaction.
• Publish self-care information for employees to follow.

If you spot concerns, perhaps with a change of behaviour or performance, then it is important to address these concerns by reaching out – explaining you are concerned because you have seen these changes and you want to simply check in to see if there is anything worrying them that you could help with.

If you experience concerns and are not sure how to approach this, we are all qualified Mental Health First Aiders at Quest and would be happy to offer some initial free advice by calling us on 0844 8797286.

If the employer is not satisfied that an employee is ill and no evidence has been provided of sickness, the employer can withhold the employees statutory or contractual sick pay.

This would then become unauthorised absence, if the employee as not provide good reason for their absence, then the employer might consider further investigation for possible disciplinary action.

If you would like to talk to the team or book onto one of our Absence Management courses, please call 0113 733 4666

Yes, as an employer you are allowed to make reasonable contact with an employee during their maternity leave. What is deemed as reasonable should be discussed together, prior to them going on maternity leave.

In return, you must ensure you keep employees informed of:

• Promotion opportunities
• Potential redundancy situations
• Any re-structures that will affect their position

It is also good practice to inform the employee of their entitlement to use up to 10 Keeping in Touch Days (KIT). KIT days can be used by the employees to remain up to date with what has been going on within the business while they have been on leave. KIT days are not mandatory and are paid at your normal pay rate. KIT days must be authorised by the employer in advance.

If you have any questions about maternity and would like to speak to one of our HR Consultants, please contact the team on 0113 733 4666.

As an employer you must pay SSP from the fourth qualifying day of sickness.  Qualifying days are classed as days the employee is usually due to work.

To qualify for SSP you must on average earn at least £123 per week before tax. SSP is available for a maximum of 28 weeks.

There is no automatic entitlement to CSP and is at the discretion of the employer, if the business offers CSP the entitlement will be stipulated within employment contracts and must be adhered to.

Please do get in touch if you would like to talk to one of our HR Consultants about Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) or Company Sick Pay (CSP).

An employee can request to use holiday for a period of sickness. As an employer you cannot direct an employee to take holiday while on SSP.

Employees will continue to accrue holiday in the normal way while on sick leave.

If an employee falls ill prior to going on annual leave or during, they may request to change to sick leave.

Please contact the team if you have any further questions around sick or holiday pay on 0113 733 4666

We have a blog specifically on Quiet Quitting. You can find it on our News page here:

If you spot any signs for Quiet Quitting and would like to speak to one of the team, please get in touch on 0113 733 4666.

Pregnant employees have four main legal rights:

Paid time off for antenatal care – This is not just medical appointments, it can also be parenting classes if recommended by a doctor or midwife.

Maternity leave – A total of 52 weeks, the first 26 are classed as ordinary maternity leave and the last 26 weeks are additional maternity leave.  The earliest this can be taken is 11 weeks prior to the due date and the minimum is two weeks leave after the birth.

Maternity pay or maternity allowance – In order to receive maternity pay the employee needs to be:

• In payroll by the 15^th week before the expected week of childbirth
• Give you the correct notice
• Earn at least £123 a week
• Been continuously employed by you for at least 26 weeks up to the qualifying week
• Give you proof of the pregnancy
• Protected against unfair treatment, discrimination or dismissal – pregnant employees are protected and must not be treated unfairly

If you have a pregnant employee and are unsure about what you need to do, or what they are entitled to, please contact one of our HR Consultants for advice.

Unlike maternity leave which is a day one entitlement, paternity leave has a qualifying period which is continuous employment for 26 weeks by the 15^th week before the baby is born. Leave cannot start before the birth. It must end within 56 days of the birth. You can chose either one or two weeks which must be taken in one go.  A week is your normal working week, so if you only work two days a week it’s classed as these two days.

Paternity pay has the same criteria of 26 weeks employment by the 15^th week before birth.  The rate for statutory paternity pay is currently £156.66 (Sept 2022) or 90% of your average earnings (whichever is the lowest).  Some employers do offer enhanced paternity pay but you won’t get less than the statutory.

If you have an employee who is would like to apply for paternity leave and you need guidance on the rules, please contact one of our HR Consultants for advice.