Challenge Blog

From February 2010, the maximum compensatory award made by an Employment Tribunal will be £65,300 for a successful unfair dismissal claim whilst awards made in cases of unlawful discrimination can be unlimited.  In 2007/08 nearly 190,000 claims were made and data suggests that this figure has increased to the end of 2009 as the recession has impacted on employment.

For an SME this kind of payout, not to mention the legal fees, disruption to work and bad publicity, could irreparably damage a business.  Falling foul of other Employment Legislation can be costly too.  So what can you do to minimise your risks? 

1.       At a minimum provide all employees with a Written Statement of the Terms and Conditions of Employment within 8 weeks of their start date – this is a legal requirement.

2.       Preferably provide all employees with a more comprehensive Employment Contract that includes key rights and requirements associated with being employed by your business; provide this prior to employment commencing or as soon as possible after the start date. 

3.       Maintain comprehensive employee records that evidence your correct and fair treatment of employees; ensure that these records comply with Data Protection requirements

4.       Check your employees – always obtain references, request medical reports if you have any concerns, complete CRB checks if required, and ask to see proof of qualifications and driving licence if appropriate to the job.

5.       Check eligibility to work in the UK whenever you take on a new employee – the fine for not doing so is £10,000 per employee who is not entitled to work in the UK and you could face 2 years in prison.

6.       Proactively establish a company culture of respect and value for people, that promotes fairness and does not tolerate prejudice, discrimination, harassment or bullying.

7.       Ensure that all matters relating to Health, Safety and Welfare of employees are managed by a competent person who fully understands their responsibilities.

8.       Set clear workplace policies, rules and issue guidelines for conduct and performance; consider training for employees to ensure that these are understood and followed by everyone. 

9.       Outline the consequences for failure to adhere to these rules in a Disciplinary Policy that complies with the ACAS Code of Practice – this is a legal requirement.

10.   Set out a formal Grievance Policy that complies with the ACAS Code of Practice to deal with concerns or complaints raised by employees – this is a legal requirement.

11.   Deal with problems and issues as they arise; deal with matters immediately, fairly and consistently. In the first instance aim to deal with matters informally, however if matters are significant enough to warrant formal action, do so in accordance with your Disciplinary or Grievance Policies as appropriate.

12.   If in doubt seek the advice of an expert!  HR Consultants are an invaluable service to your business that can save you time, money and help you avoid costly mistakes, whilst legal advice through an expert employment law solicitor is advisable in circumstances of a complex nature.

Challenge Manager offer a FREE HR AUDIT for a review to ensure you are legally compliant and following best practice so that you avoid potentially costly tribunal claims.  Contact Us Today.

At the start of the year I met a business owner who told me “Most importantly, I just want to be sure that we’re getting the ‘people bit’ of this business right”.

What a great way to approach business; after all it really is all about the people…the people you employ, the people you buy from, the people you sell to, the people you enter into agreements (or disagreements!) with….

Its a big step for many business owners to take the leap into becoming an employer.  There are fundamental questions to ask and answer: what / who do I need, who would be the best type of person to work here, what do I want them to do, how am I going to find them, how will I know they are the right person, how can I trust them, if they are as good as I hope how do I keep them and how do I deal with any problems along the way?

I have heard many business owners say they would rather not grow the business if it  means taking on staff and if people have had bad experiences with poor employees I can understand why they might feel that way, but it isn’t going to help generate the kind of success or wealth that many of those same business owners aspire to.

So what to do?  Well be like my client who wants to get the “people bit right” and focus on answering those questions before you even place a card in the window to say “staff wanted”. 

Get the fundamentals sorted first - once you have a clear vision for employing staff, a solid objective about who to employ, a robust set of policies and procedures to manage those employees, strong leadership to ensure those employees are working towards your business success and the desire to really grow your business, then you stand a pretty good chance of getting the people bit right!

As for my business owner client - he’s doing a great job!

Well I go to a lot of networking events and I like to offer something a bit different when I’m telling people about the HR side of our business

So I’ve introduced people to my little green pal Marvin the Martian

Marvin is a model employee on his planet

He works a long week and never complains about needing rest breaks or wanting to exert his rights under the Working Time Directive.  He doesn’t take time off sick and never complains of back ache or stress!

He plans to works until he is 80 and has no thoughts that his employer needs to provide him with health care or a pension.

His wife wouldn’t dream of expecting maternity benefits and paternity leave is unheard of.

Marvin does everything that is asked of him, he would dream of behaving inappropriately at work and he never questions the bosses as he knows that disciplinary matters are dealt with quite simply…..by laser gun!

Sadly for businesses here on earth Marvin can’t survive outside of his own planet.  So if you need to employ staff they will have to be of the human variety with all the variations, complications, rights and issues that brings.

That’s why you need Challenge Manager to help you deal with all HUMAN resources matters - we’ll ensure you have the best people working for you and achieving the successes your business wants.

CHALLENGE MANAGER - PROVIDING GREAT HUMAN RESOURCES SUPPORT!

Tune in to hear more about Marvin’s successes in the New Year.

….Or what gets measured gets done

I’ve been working with a business who wanted to develop the skills of their managers.  I was pleased to agree a series of outcomes and plan training to help those be achieved.

As the first day unfolded it soon became clear that this training wasn’t what was needed at all (or at least not yet!).  Managers were telling me that they saw no need for the kind of skills we were working on.  The view seemed to be “we just need to get on with our jobs and so do our staff”.

Interesting…..

So what are their jobs?  They all have MANAGER if their job title.  Without exception they have all been  promoted from the staff teams they were in and it became clear that the reason they were promoted was where the difficulties began.  They were all ambitious and keen to get ahead in their careers which they see as being through promotion to manager.  They were also all fantastic top performing sales people who got great results when they were selling.

Guess what - now they are managers what they REALLY still want to do is SELL!

There is little recognition within the business for the skill of managing and certainly the biggest financial rewards are still given for highest sales.  Targets are about sales activities and results, meetings are about sales figures, the appraisal questions focus on sales performance….

What gets measured gets done

These managers keep on selling and view managing as an inconvenient side activity to be done as little as possible.

So where are they now?  Well we’ve begun a much more fundamental process of reviewing business processes, organisation structure, pay and rewards, career progression and company values. 

It is early days yet but I am delighted that the senior management team in this business are really willing to listen and take action.  They want their business to be the best in the market, the best in the region and the place that people want to come and work.  They are keen to get it right and come out of what has been a tough two years in their industry fighting fit,  focused and strong for the future.

They recognise that strong management is essential and they are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that.  I believe they will succeed and I’m really pleased I’ll be on the journey with them throughout 2010.

How do you feel as we approach the end of the year?

I feel we at Challenge Manager have much to be thankful for.  So we didn’t get rich in 2009  but we’re still succeeding as a business - we’ve weathered the storm and feel optimistic that 2010 is going to be our best year yet. 

We are busy coaching and training in December which is almost unheard of & add that to the fact that I ran training for the first time ever in August this year tells me that times have changed in how businesses are approaching things.  For the better in many cases I think and we are seeing signs of that in the work people want to do with us.   We have a new client who wants to set his business apart from his competitors by simply being the best through having the best staff.  How great is that?

We’re reaping the rewards of networking and we’re getting invited to some pretty swanky dos too!  We continue to speak at events and write articles for local business publications - people recognise us - we almost feel famous!

Our trainers networking group Challege Yourself! goes from strength to strength with more members, busier sessions, heaps of people wanting to run those sessions and a real sense of excitement about what value the group can add for training coaching and development businesses.

Despite sad events and tricky times at various points this year, we’re all now pretty healthy and we’re surrounded by people who love us and we love back.  I personally am delighted that my husband is back in work after being made redundant at the start of the year and I’m proud of how positive he stayed throughout the whole time of looking for a job.

So I didn’t get my new kitchen this year (but I hold out hope for next!), and my car is getting rustier & will continue to do so but the important things in life feel pretty good to me right now.

So I will be bidding 2009 farewell but not feeling as glad to see the back of it as I thought I might earlier this year.  I am beginning to get excited about Christmas as an opportunity to indulge ourselves and spend happy time with my friends and family, and I look forward to 2010 very much.

How about you?

Does it seem like every networking event you go to there are these magic people who call themselves coaches?  Do you often wonder how someone else can have all the answers to things that worry you!? 

How can other people know how to help YOU? 

Does working with a coach really work?

How can it work……..?

Imagine you have won the Open at St Andrews.  How did you get there when from being just a good golfer? 

Yes - you had a coach.  A coach who knew what your strengths and weaknesses were, a coach who knew the game of golf [maybe who knew the best players!]  You worked together, you set goals together.  Coach gave you feedback, and showed you the difference between a good shot and an excellent one.

You won the Open, your coach didn’t and at the next tournament he’ll still be your coach constantly helping your strive for perfection. 

This is the same for tennis players and other sports people so what’s the difference between these games and the game of life?

A coach [some people would call this person a mentor] knows people, understands potential, believes in YOU.  They understand that you have the answers somewhere even if you can’t find them right now.

They ask the right questions.

They see what your face is saying but your mouth is not.

They pull threads together and present back to you possible links in the threads. 

Being coached can help you with an immediate issue or an old chestnut.  Have you always had a problem with relationships, a new challenge, that type of manager/client/member of staff and you’d really like to resolve it now? 

Did you know the rugby player Matt Dawson had a drama coach to help him improve his dancing when he was in the competition Strictly Come Dancing?

I would like to tell you about someone I coached who we’ll call George.  He was a young manager who had ambition but he was not progressing very well and felt he was undervalued.  He was recognised as a skilled technical member of staff but had very little credibility with his team. 

I noticed he had a young face and manner, in fact childish mannerisms.  We built trust and confidence and worked on different aspects that he was frustrated with and needed to change including his gravitas and maturity as well as his communication and management style. 

Yes this story has a remarkable and happy ending.  George became accepted and respected by his team [not an easy journey but rewarding one].  As part of the journey, he revealed and accepted help with learning difficulties that no one knew about and following that he became more confident. 

He could measure the value of changes; in just one meeting his new adult behaviour saved the company £10,000.  That was just one of many changes he recorded.  He went from being on a performance improvement plan to being a highly respected manager.  He felt more confident and significantly raised his level of performance.

George used the coaching skills he experienced to coach his own team.  Exercises I did with him he used with them.  They supported each other learning and growing!

Your challenges may be different to George’s, but you may have an area in your life where you want to improve your performance, and know more about this growing process which will support your improvements and give you tools to use with others at home or at work!

Article written by Coach and Mentor

Lynne Ewer Carrington

Director

Challenge Manager

Gosh it is easy for time to slide by without blogging!  I’ve been on holiday and Emma & Lynne have both been really busy - good news for the bank balance but bad news for the networkingand maintaining an online presence (as our web designer would say!).

Striking a balance between work and leisure is so important - we talk to many of our clients about focusing on all the important areas of your  life and it is so crucial to make time for family, fun, friends and yourself alongside or as well as work . 

More than that now for those of us running our businesses, we also need to strike a balance between doing the paid bits of the job & marketing for the future - networking, calling, social media, twittering, blogging, forum posts - it all adds up to a whole lot of stuff to do!

How do you find that balance between all the ways you can / do spend your time both a work and home?

Do the boundaries overlap between these areas of work and life?  Is that okay if they do?

Not sure I have all the answers but I’m enjoying the questions I ask myself!

I’m really enjoying being part of 4Networking - if you haven’t gone to a 4N breakfast yet you are missing out on the fun!

Not only that but we cannow proudly say we have clients that were referred to us through 4N - and we’re really pleased about that!  We met someone at a breakfast who liked the sound of what we do and how we do it.  He put us in touch with a business looking for HR Support and we made an apointment to carry out a FREE HR Audit. 

This impressed our pootential client who has contracted us to provide ongong outsourced HR Support from November.

The 4N philosophy meet like know trust works for us!

We are pleased to post our six-monthly HR & Employment Law Update containing current rates of statutory payments and other useful information that you need if you employ people.  If you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in touch and if you need any further support with any aspect of employing people then we’d be delighted to help.

STATUTORY PAYMENTS FROM 1^st OCTOBER

·         National Minimum Wage (NMW) rises to £5.80 an hour for workers aged 22 and over / £4.83 an hour for workers aged 18 to 21 / £3.57 an hour for workers under 18 but above compulsory school age

·         Tips paid to a worker through the employer’s payroll will no longer count towards calculating NMW

·         Statutory Redundancy Pay maximum limit increases to £380 per week – however employers should note that this increase only brings forward the annual increase so there will not be a further increase when it is usually due in February 2010

·         Statutory Sick Pay (SSP ) is £79.15 per week up to a maximum of 28 weeks

·         Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) and Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP ) is £123.06 per week (or 90% of average weekly pay if this is less) for 33 weeks following an initial 6 weeks at 90% of average weekly pay (39 weeks maternity or adoption pay in total)

·         Plans to extend SMP to one year have been delayed and this has been largely attributed to the current economic state and the additional costs of increasing this benefit

·         Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) is £123.06 per week (or 90% of average weekly pay if this is less) for 2 weeks

There have been a number of rulings and decisions made that will impact on employers now and in the next two years; we have outlined them in brief and would be pleased to help if you require any further information.

SWINE FLU

At Challenge Manager we have been working with employers who have had outbreaks of Swine Flu in the workplace, to help contain infection and manage employee anxieties about the illness and possible effects for pregnant or other physically vulnerable staff.  Whilst currently the outbreak seems contained, we are warned that increases in infection could be seen as we move in to the winter months so we would suggest that you consider drafting a swine flu policy & procedure in preparation.    This should include business continuity plans in the event of a major outbreak in your workplace.

SICKNESS & HOLIDAY ABSENCE

On a related subject, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has recently ruled that workers who are sick whilst on annual leave are now entitled to request that they are given this leave back to ensure that they get their full 5.6 weeks rest entitlement per year, and the argument has been made that workers are not getting this rest if they are in fact sick.   Just to remind you, 5.6 weeks is of course currently the statutory minimum leave inclusive of bank & public holidays that all workers are entitled to. 

Generally speaking employees are required to take this “reimbursed” leave in the same leave year unless this is not possible in which case it can be carried over.

It is worth noting that if a worker requests this additional annual leave and is therefore requesting that you treat the originally booked period of leave as sickness absence, employers are not required to pay holiday pay for both periods.  Sick pay (SSP or company sick pay subject to your policy) should be paid for the period now being claimed as sickness absence.

There are concerns being raised about how this right could be open to abuse by employees so we advise that employers review absence and holiday policies to ensure they clearly outline the company procedures for requesting annual leave and reporting sickness absence, as well as identifying the eligibility criteria for both company and statutory sick pay.

RETIREMENT AT 65

Following a lengthy action brought by Age UK against the default retirement age of 65, the High Court have ruled that this is lawful , providing employers have followed the correct notification procedures with employees who are approaching this retirement age.  Employers are advised to ensure they have a correct procedure for communicating with employees approaching the age of 65 in place and published.

EMPLOYING FOREIGN WORKERS

From 2010, new rules will be in force to attempt to ensure that British workers are first in line for job opportunities. The changes see employers required to advertise vacancies for skilled workers in the job centre before looking elsewhere for workers.  Businesses are advised to review recruitment policies where this new ruling may have an impact.

EXTENSION TO PATERNITY LEAVE

Proposals to extend paternity leave are due to come into force for families with children due in or after April 2011; these changes will entitle fathers to take up to six months paternity leave by giving families the right to transfer the last six months of maternity leave to the father on the mother’s return to work  Fathers would then receive paternity pay for three months of this time at the current rate of SMP (Statutory Maternity Pay) and the remainder would be unpaid.

Whilst this proposal is being hailed as increasing flexibility  for families, there are concerns raised about how this will work in practice for businesses and the research undertaken so far indicates that the take up by families for such a scheme will be very low.  Businesses however will need to ensure that maternity and paternity leave policies are updated by 2011 to reflect these changes once they are formally introduced.

RETIREMENT PENSION CHANGES

From 2012 it is planned that all eligible workers, who are not already in a good quality workplace scheme, will be automatically enrolled into either their employers’ pension scheme or a personal account scheme.  For the first time all employers will be required to contribute a minimum of 3 percent to an eligible employee’s workplace pension scheme. This will supplement the 4 percent contribution from the employee and around 1 percent from the Government in the form of tax relief.  Businesses are advised to begin considering how they will meet these costs now and to seek full guidance from an Independent Financial Advisor (IFA).

Contact us if we can help you with any of these areas of employing staff.

We’re still busy writing articles for the Chamber of Commerce and other publications.  They seem well received and we hope you find them useful when you read them here on our blog too. 

Our latest set of hints & tips comes at a time when we hope many businesses are beginning to believe that the worst might be over and be looking forward to business growth and development in 2010 and beyond.  So we’re focussing on recruitment, as are some of our clients.  We hope this is a great time for you in your business.

Recruiting for Success

Reports suggest that we are beginning to recover from recent economic hardships, and businesses that weathered the storm might begin to look towards a more positive year ahead which could mean a need for more staff.

It’s fair to assume that many businesses have changed the way they do things over the last year, seeing benefit in being cost aware, looking for efficiencies, and better ways to manage budgets to ensure long term stability.  With that in mind and whatever the reason you might need to recruit new staff, Sam Swinstead at Challenge Manager offers some pointers to recruiting for success.

1. Decide if you need to recruit at all.  Outsourcing functions such as telephone answering and printing can be cost effective and reduce risks as you only pay for these services as and when you need them.

1. Recruit for the right job.  When an employee leaves, avoid replacing “like for like” and look internally first.  Does the job need doing in the same way as before?  Are there people who are under-tasked or unchallenged who could take on some new responsibilities?  This keeps existing staff engaged and ensures you only recruit to fill genuine skills gaps in your workforce.

1. Attract the best applicants.  Produce a clear job description and person specification.  Advertise in appropriate places, including your own website and the job centre.  Use your network of contacts for recommendations and utilise sites like LinkedIn.  If you use a recruitment agency ensure they will get you the right calibre of applicants, and agree a clear fee structure and service level in advance. 

1. Recruit the best person.  Recruit for attitude – look for organisational and team fit – seek out the employee who has the attitudes and values that are important in your business.  If you find the right person find a job for them and hold on to them!

1. Run fair objective interviews.  Ensure you are up to date with equality legislation and plan interviews that assess the qualities you require from a new employee.  Competency based questions give indications of ability and work based tests give an objective measure of suitability for the job role.

1. Check check and check again!  Always take up references.  Ask for a medical report and Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks if the job requires one.  Most importantly but often overlooked, ensure that you check all potential employees for eligibility to work in the UK as the fine for not doing so can be £10,000 per illegal employee.

1. Plan an effective induction.  Staff that receive a good induction are significantly more likely to stay with a new employer so it is beneficial to put time and effort into getting this right after making efforts to recruit the best applicant.

Challenge Manager offer a FREE HR AUDIT to all Chamber members; call Sam on 07816 316598 or email sam@challengemanager.co.uk for a review to ensure you are legally compliant and following best practice, and to explore the most effective ways to recruit new people in your business.