What is a disciplinary hearing? It’s an opportunity for the details of the disciplinary investigation to be considered a person not previously involved to review evidence gathered the person facing allegations to present mitigation or new evidence When should a Disciplinary Hearing be convened? After a Disciplinary Investigation is completed. The Investigating Officer should have concluded that the evidence gathered suggests that there is the potential for the allegation(s) to be proven. They recommend that the matter be considered in a formal Disciplinary Hearing. Your Disciplinary Policy probably outlines the process in your organisation for convening a Hearing. But typically, the employee is invited to attend the Disciplinary Hearing by letter or email given the right to be accompanied at the Hearing by a work colleague or trade union representative given a copy of the Disciplinary Policy sent an evidence bundle. Only evidence that the employee has been able to review should be considered at the Hearing Who attends a Disciplinary Hearing? Check your Disciplinary Policy. Different organisations have different standards. Our recommendation is that there should be a Hearing Chair. the Investigating Officer who presents their investigation to the Hearing. They will also answer any questions put to them. […]
What does the Job Support Scheme really mean for employers? Having read the detail of Chancellor’s announcement yesterday we’ve put together the main points for your information. The Job Support Scheme is potentially not as helpful to employers as it first sounded. The main pointers of the scheme are The government have said that further guidance “will be published shortly”· The Scheme opens on 1 November 2020 and closes in April 2021 (no specific date given)· You can use this Scheme even if you as the employer or the employee concerned have not previously used the furlough scheme (Job Retention Scheme)· The Scheme is only open to those businesses where turnover is lower now than before experiencing difficulties from COVID19· Employees must have been on your payroll on or before 23 September 2020 (so a Real Time Information (RTI) submission must have been made before 23 September 2020.· Employees will be paid for 77% of their contracted hours· The Government will pay a third of the hours not worked by an employee up to a cap of £697.92 per month· […]
We were asked today how to manage employees as they return to work from Lockdown. As this might apply to a lot of employers, we thought we’d make it the subject of a blog. You’ll already have done the things that the Government’s advising you to do to create a COVID safe workplace. You’ll have completed your COVID 19 risk assessments, you’ll have put up the signs reminding people to wash their hand and you’ve likely bought hand sanitiser. But there are some practical things to think about how people behave at work. Our ten tips to manage employees as they return to work from Lockdown Touching colleagues. It should go without saying but some returning workers will need reminding what your policy on touching. What’s your policy on whether your employees should shake hands with visitors. The more informal supportive slap on the shoulder or the high fives when someone signs a big deal are no longer welcome. Facemasks at work. At the time of writing it’s not always necessary to wear a mask all day. But it will depend on your workplace and your risk assessment. But each worker should at least have a mask on their person […]
Working out how to cope with COVID at work this winter isn’t easy because the data is conflicting. Are we going to have more deaths? More illness but fewer deaths? More flu and less COVID or more COVID and less flu? With more local lockdowns happening and more schools shutting temporarily one thing’s for sure, no one knows what is going to happen. If you’re planning how to cope with COVID at work this winter, we have some tips that might help. If you have 25% absenteeism, can you still operate? What about 50%? If nothing else, the last six months have shown us some new ways of dealing with a lack of people in the workplace. Some of these plans will still work as we approach winter, some won’t. Have you done as much as you can to cross-train people to carry out multiple roles? Test this cross training by rotating people now, rather than waiting for a crisis. Because you’ll find wrinkles in the process that need sorting out and this way you’ve got time. Are your IT systems up to the job? Can people easily access the information they need to do their job and the work […]
Alison Driver shares her opinion about what are the roles and responsibilities of an HR Consultant. What are the roles and responsibilities of an HR Consultant? The role of an HR Consultant is one of trusted advisor. An experienced professional who is able to talk with employers about their people related problems. HR consultants are professionals hired from outside a business or organisation tasked with solving or meeting a human resources-related need. Often they are hired to provide high-level solutions and recommendations to employers. Specialist or Generalist HR? HR is a broad professional discipline. There are HR Consultants who are specialists and HR Consultants who are generalists. Specialists are experts in specific areas of work. Generalists are broadly experienced in a number of aspects of HR. An HR consultant asks enough questions of a potential client to know that they have the right experience for that client. An HR Consultant is responsible for not taking assignments where the skill set lies outside their own. Advice An HR consultant delivers high quality support and advice to their clients. They must be able to think across the breadth of the organisation and consider the direction that the organisation is going. Advice from […]
Businesses outsourcing to reduce costs must remember TUPE may apply. The legal implications of outsourcing, particularly from the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (“TUPE”), are complicated. Businesses outsourcing to reduce costs must remember TUPE may apply. If you’re considering outsourcing any function you need to understand the practical implications of TUPE and how it might affect your plans. The Effect of TUPE TUPE protects certain employment rights where there is a ‘service provision change’. A service provision change is where a business engages a third party to carry out certain activities on its behalf (i.e. outsourcing). For example, if you previously did your social media marketing in house and you now want an external company to do it, you are making a “service provision change”. If you previously did your payroll in house and you now want an external payroll bureau to do it, you are making a “service provision change” TUPE Regulations state that employees who are engaged ‘wholly or mainly’ in carrying out the relevant activities or service will transfer from you, the employer to the new provider at the start of the outsourcing arrangement. You are obliged to inform and consult with affected employees, […]
If you are thinking about working with an HR Consultant here are eight questions to ask an HR Consultant before hiring them. As with any investment, it pays dividends to do some research and ask the right questions. Here are our eight questions to ask an HR Consultant before hiring them to work with you and your business. 1. How much experience do you have? How long have you been working as an HR Consultant? What was your professional experience before becoming a consultant? Try to find someone with in-depth experience managing people and of running a business. Someone who can relate to the pressures that you, as a business-owner, are facing. 2. Who are some of your other clients? What kind of work have you done for clients like me? Can I call them to ask about your work? Some HR Consultants may be reluctant to disclose the names of their clients. But at the very least you need to know that the HR consultant has worked with companies closer to your size and industry. If they have they’re more likely to understand your needs. If the HR Consultant is reluctant to put you in touch with a client so that […]
The worst thing a manager ever has to do creates the popular question how to tell someone they are redundant. During this pandemic, while businesses across all sectors have been hit, we’ve seen a growing trend of companies using furlough or making employees redundant. How a company communicates its decision when thinking about redundancies is critical to how the news is received. It makes headline news when companies haven’t thought carefully how to tell someone that they are redundant. We hear quickly enough when companies don’t handle the communication of redundancy well. The company that tells people by text that they’re being made redundant, the employees who simply turned up for work to find the doors locked. It’s always how the news is communicated that creates the grievance, not what’s being communicated. People can usually accept business change; they often know it is coming. But how they’re told is how you’ll be judged. When you’re thinking about how to tell someone that they are redundant there are some communications issues to consider Sow seeds early about what’s happening in the business. If you’ve kept employees in the loop that the orders are not coming back as quickly as you’d hoped, […]
One of the questions that we feel we must always keep at the front of our minds is “How does an HR Consultant add value to your business?”. One of the questions that we feel we must always keep at the front of our minds is “How does an HR Consultant add value to your business?”. We understand that you’re quite rightly focused on the results we produce for you and how we help you with the challenges you have in your business. As HR Consultants we put our all into the projects we do for you. We understand that you won’t automatically appreciate the technicality of the work that we’ve done or propose to do but we’ll work hard to explain ourselves. How do Metis HR Consultants add value to your business? 1: Understand your world We spend time understanding what you’re trying to achieve and why you’re trying to achieve it. We need to understand what your challenges are. We’re like doctors, until we know all of the symptoms and have done tests, we can’t make an accurate diagnosis. To do this we have to go a layer deeper than most people usually go. To do this we […]
If you’re going through a process of redundancies then the question of what is suitable alternative employment is key question. To dismiss an employee fairly on the grounds of redundancy, there are two things you need to do as an employer: You must establish that redundancy was genuine, it was the real reason for the dismissal. You must act reasonably throughout the redundancy process and any ultimate dismissal. What is reasonable? The test of reasonableness comes from case law. You can’t act reasonably if you haven’t considered the question of suitable alternative employment (amongst other things). You must search for and, if it’s available, offer suitable alternative employment within your organisation. What is suitable alternative employment? Whether a job is suitable or not usually depends on: how similar the work is to the employee’s current job the terms of the job being offered, eg how much you’ll pay the employee and what benefits they’ll get the status of the job where the job is – if it’s further to travel it may not be suitable the employee’s skills and abilities in relation to the job When should the offer of suitable alternative employment be made? You need to make the […]
