The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme was set up to enable businesses to retain staff during the Coronavirus Pandemic. Now, as lockdown lifts slightly, many employers are asking if they can take employees off furlough. For many businesses that were either forced to close or suffered financial hardship, the Job Retention Scheme has been a lifeline. For many individuals, it has ensured they can continue to put food on the table and pay their bills. Many businesses owners are now thinking of getting their business back on track. For some that might mean moving back into their premises. For others, it might be marketing their business to get new customers. Either way, many employers are wondering if they can take employees off furlough and how that might impact their grant. In this article, we will look at how you can bring your employees off furlough without breaking the rules of the Job Retention Scheme or compromising the health of your staff and customers. How Do I Bring Staff Back Off Furlough? If you are ready to bring your staff back off furlough you should first be sure the working environment will be safe. If they are going to work from home […]
Many employers are wracking their brains at the moment to work out what alternatives are there to redundancies. With the current COVID pandemic and the economic crisis that it’s created there’s a need to review costs. The knee-jerk reaction is often to consider job cuts rather than considering what alternatives are there to redundancies? Redundancies aren’t a cheap option. If you make mistakes in the way you handle redundancies, they can prove expensive if you lose tribunal claims. The cost that’s not as easy to quantify is the loss of valuable skills and experience that you’ve invested in. These very skills and experience are what allows your business to bounce back more easily. There’s also an odd impact of redundancy. Those remaining in the business can experience a level of guilt because they are still in a job but their friends aren’t. So here are six alternatives to redundancies that may be worth considering Changing terms and conditions Not without risk. An obvious way to reduce business costs without making people redundant is to change employees’ contractual terms and conditions. For example, an across-the-board pay cut. You must remember that working hours and rates of pay are express terms of […]
As the Coronavirus Pandemic continues, businesses who were previously shut are now wondering ‘can my employees work from home?’ Or, businesses who have been home working for several weeks are now reconsidering whether they need an office at all or if they can make working from home a more permanent arrangement. Your staff may be able to work from home if that suits your business need, but there are some things that need to be considered beforehand to protect you and them; not least of which is they work from home regularly that may become their place of work rather than the office. This might mean you have to pay them an allowance for using their home as a place of work. At Metis HR, we are employer-focused HR outsourcing and advice specialists. We often help businesses through periods of change and uncertainty. Read on to find out how to get the most out of your employees working from home. How Do I Implement Working From Home? Whether you are considering staff working from home or are deciding to make it more permanent or regular, you should follow a process. Deciding where you want your staff to work isn’t as […]
The area of holidays and furlough is still unclear. Government guidance doesn’t specifically address what happens with holidays and furlough. So what do you do if you’re asked by an employee? Does annual leave accrue during furlough? Yes, employment rights continue including the right to accrue leave. Can you make an employee take annual leave during furlough? We don’t know the answer to this because the Government haven’t answered the question. In all other areas of leave it isn’t possible for someone to have two statuses eg you can’t be on holiday and off sick, you can’t be at work and on holiday. On that basis we are finding it difficult to imagine that we will be able to put people on leave when on furlough. If you want to put people on leave whilst they are on furlough, the least you should do is pay them 100% of their normal pay give them the required notice to take leave If an employee has pre-booked holiday and now wants to cancel do I have to agree? No you don’t have to agree to this, but, see above, we think that you should pay them 100%. The legislation around carry over […]
