HR Direct UK Ltd

Policies and procedures should be consistent with your company values. They provide the frameworks that inform and guide all employees (directors and managers included) how to behave and how to do things ensuring consistency across the business. For example how a manager should undertake a disciplinary procedure or manage absence. Policies and procedures provide clear guidance on how your employees should conduct themselves in the workplace.

Here are just some of the policies and procedures that we can help you develop: Annual Leave, Attendance/Absence, Data Protection, Dignity at Work, Disciplinary, Employee Referrals, Equal Opportunities, Flexible Working, Grievance, Ill-health Capability, IVF, Learning and Development, Long Service, Maternity, Mediation, Parental Leave, Paternity, Performance Capability, Recruitment & Selection, Redundancy, Retirement, Special Leave, Stress, Weather Disruption etc.

We can help you to update your current policies and procedures or work with you to develop and implement the right HR policies and procedures to complement your strategies making sure they are in line with current legislation and appropriate to your business at all times.

We can also help you to put together or update your Employee Handbook.

Alternatively, you may need support or advice on dealing with specific employee issues such as conduct and behaviour, absence and performance or you may need advice on changing terms of employment or maternity leave entitlement etc.

Contact us today to arrange a consultation.

Employee relations, known historically as industrial relations, is concerned with the contractual, emotional, physical and practical relationship between employer and employee.

The aim of your strategy should be to create a shared agenda that will communicate a common perspective on what needs to be done. This can be expressed in writing or through involvement and communication processes such as a Partnership Agreement and the electing of a Partnership Council which can include directors, managers, employee representatives and union representatives (if applicable). Your strategy should also include statutory disciplinary, dismissal and grievance procedures.

The Department of Trade and Industry and Department for Education and Employment report that partnership is central to the strategy of successful organisations and that by developing a partnership with your employees your business can achieve significantly enhanced performance.

Contact us for further details on how we can help you create an employee relations strategy that will build stable and co-operative relationships with your employees that minimise conflict and develop a mutual common interest in achieving your business goals.

Effective recruitment is crucial, it involves attracting and selecting individuals into the right role ensuring that your workforce has the relevant skills and abilities for the current and future needs of your business. Without the right people your business is much less likely to be able to provide what is needed to your customers.

It is also important to understand the link between effective recruitment and other procedures within your organisation. If your recruitment process is ineffective it is likely that the recruited person will not perform well giving rise to performance management issues and/or significant training and development to enable them to work effectively all of which are extra costs in both time and money to your business that may not have been taken into account originally. As well as these issues it is probable that the individual will become demotivated and leave the business causing you to start the recruitment process all over again. Therefore, getting the right person in the right job at the right time is critical to your success.

Effective recruitment helps your business achieve certain goals:

Improved performance;
Increased customer satisfaction;
A better reputation;
Greater employee morale;
Line managers gain a reputation for being able to recruit effectively.
We can help you devise each step of your effective recruitment process and dependent on your requirements either provide specialist advice and guidance in part or alternatively support the complete recruitment process from beginning to end. From helping your recruiting managers to prepare job descriptions/person specifications, deciding on their selection methods, designing and advertising their vacancies and shortlisting applications on their behalf, to supporting their interview process, methods and selection decisions and preparing offer packs and contractual terms of employment.

Contact us today to discuss your recruitment and selection requirements.

"There is no shortage of talented people. There is a shortage of people who know how to identify, develop, recruit and retain talent". Stuart-Kotze and Dunne.

Do you define talent as a small number of individuals with high potential to reach the top jobs within your organisation? If so you may be missing out on those who are most critical to your business success. It is important to link talent to your business strategy identifying the jobs that give you the competitive advantage of your organisation.

Talent management is basically about the identification and development of potential. It is the process of identifying, developing, recruiting, retaining and deploying talented individuals who are considered valuable to an organisation either because they are identified as high potential for the future or because they are fulfilling business/operation critical roles. It is important to recognise that it is not sufficient simply to focus on attracting talented individuals, developing, managing and retaining them as part of a planned strategy for talent is equally important as well as adopting systems to measure the return on this investment.

However you define talent within your organisation we can help you develop your talent management strategy and processes with the aim of becoming a high performance workplace with a competitive advantage that is future ready.

Read the case studies below on our website, https://hrdirectuk.org/talent-and-succession

Case Study: Nando's. https://hrdirectuk.org/case-study-nandos

Case study: Kellogg's. https://hrdirectuk.org/case-study-kelloggs

Contact us today to discuss your talent management requirements.

The UK’s largest annual survey of sickness absence rates and costs shows that sickness absence was an average of 2.8% of working time per annum, or 6.5 days per employee, during 2014. This costs employers an average of £16 billion, or a median cost of £11 billion. Research findings are based on data provided by 670 organisations covering just under two million employees, making it the most current and largest survey of its type at this time.

Employee absence may be short-term or long-term, authorised or unauthorised, due to sickness, holiday, maternity/paternity, parenting, public duties etc. and is a significant cost for many organisations. For example:

Pay - Overtime costs, Agency worker costs;
Redeployment - Staff covering the absent employees work for which they may not be trained;
Benefits - Paying sick pay
Administration costs - time spent collecting absence data, administration of sick pay schemes, training costs of the replacement member of staff;
Production/Service Losses - Lower productivity, lower quality, costs of production and/or deliver delays and customer disenchantment;
Overhead costs - plant and equipment standing idle, increase in overhead cost ratios when production or service fails;
Psychological costs - increased pressure on staff who have to cover the absent employee and on the managers who have to supervise with less people, higher accident rates, increase in cases of stress etc.
Effective absence management seeks to support the needs of employees while providing clear and consistent guidance to avoid unauthorised absence or inappropriate use of sick pay schemes. We can help you develop an absence strategy that includes absence review and trigger points, absence targets and benchmarking, measuring absence types and their cost to your business, introducing short term and long term absence policies and procedures and training line managers in their application and recognising employees with good attendance.

Read the case study below on our website: https://hrdirectuk.org/absence-management

Case Study: NHS - Risk Assessments for Stress: https://hrdirectuk.org/case-study-nhs

For further information contact us today.

Performance management is the activity and set of processes that aim to maintain and improve employee performance in line with your organisation's objectives. It is strategic as well as operational, as its aim is to ensure that employees contribute positively to business objectives.

Performance management is about getting results. It is concerned with getting the best from your employees and helping them to achieve their potential. Performance management is an approach to achieving a shared vision of the purpose and aims of your organisation. It is concerned with helping individuals and teams achieve their potential and recognise their role in the contributing to the goals of your organisation.

Everyone wants effective performance. Your employees want the satisfaction of achievement and results, your managers want their staff to be effectively coordinated and productive and your customers want a good product or service at the right price.

If people are the greatest creators of value in your organisation, then good performance management is critical for your organisations success. Employees need to know what is expected of them, what they will be rewarded for, how they should deliver results and what business wide results the organisation is looking for.

Line managers need a toolkit of techniques and skills that complement each other to help individuals, teams and your organisation excel. For example:

Measuring and managing performance
Undertaking performance reviews and setting objectives
Recognising their leadership management style
Coaching
Empowering staff
Delegating
We can work with you to develop your performance management strategy including your performance appraisal process and help you build the line manager toolkit and roll this out in a variety of line manager training packages.

For further information contact us today.

All organisations are in flux: changing their focus, expanding or contracting their activities and rethinking their products and services. Frequent organisational change is the norm, yet the high levels of failure indicate that effective change management remains an issue and failure to introduce effective change can have a high impact: loss of market position, removal of senior management, loss of stakeholder credibility, loss of key employees, and a reduction in employee engagement.

There is no single model of change and no single solution to effective management, but as HR and L&D professionals we can make sure you have the skills, knowledge and credibility to develop champions of change within your organisation and that issues like organisation (re)design, due process, employee voice, and clear communications are appropriately and effectively addressed as part of your change management ensuring the long-term sustainability of change, through effective design and delivery of learning and development initiatives.

Your change programmes may entail acquisitions and mergers, relocation or restructuring (growth or downsizing) or site closures etc.

Contact us today for support in:

Redundancy process and consultation;
Transfer of Undertakings (TUPE) process, consultation and due diligence;
Harmonisation or revision of employee terms and conditions of employment.

Managing people is not easy and difficulties may arise at various points in the employment relationship.

It is inevitable that at some point a manager will encounter issues with performance or behaviour in the workplace and that disciplinary and grievance procedures are available ensuring that these challenges are dealt with fairly and consistently and crucially, that they are dealt with immediately.

Investigation - is a skill that requires training. Upskilling your managers in how to conduct a thorough and reasonable investigation is crucial. An investigation is a fact-finding exercise to collect all the relevant information on a matter. A properly conducted investigation can enable an employer to fully consider the matter and then make an informed decision on it. Making a decision without completing a reasonable investigation can make any subsequent decisions or actions unfair, and leave an employer vulnerable to legal action. You may want all of your managers trained in conducting investigations or you may want to have a small number of trained investigators that can travel around the business conducting investigations wherever they are needed.

Disciplinary Procedure - gives the manager a step-by-step process for handling an employee who is not meeting the expected standards of performance or behaviour. This could be anything from not reaching targets to high levels of absence and they make employees aware of what's expected of them in terms of standards of performance or conduct (and the likely consequences of continued failure to meet these standards).

Grievance Procedure - provides the employee with a step-by-step process for resolving a complaint they are unable to resolve through regular communication with their manager. This could be anything from bullying, discrimination or an issue with their terms and conditions of employment etc.

Your disciplinary and grievance procedures must comply with current law and follow the Acas Code of Practice. Following the Acas Code is crucially important; an employment tribunal will consider whether or not the employer and employee has followed the Code; if they haven’t, the tribunal may adjust any awards made by up to 25% for unreasonable failure to comply.

We can train your managers to develop their investigation skills and capabilities and help you to develop your disciplinary and grievance procedures giving line manager training in their application and advising and supporting your line managers at every stage of each process.

Read the case study below on our website: https://hrdirectuk.org/investigation-discipline-and-grievance

Case Study: Discipline: https://hrdirectuk.org/case-study-discipline

For further information contact us today.

Reward is a key tool for securing talented employees, boosting performance and engaging your staff so how can you ensure that your reward policy is helping you get the best out of your workforce?

Employees expect to be rewarded for a job well done and research has shown that the right reward packages can be highly influential in increasing the level of engagement and productivity of employees, as well as on an organisation's ability to recruit and retain talented staff.

Having a strategic approach to pay and reward can pay dividends. It's crucial for organisations to develop reward systems and strategies which are right for them, give value for money and reward workers fairly for the work they do. Importantly, employees need to be able to understand their employer's reward system and how they can benefit - overly complex pay scales and reward practices can sometimes be perceived as unfair and do more harm than good.

The concepts of strategic reward and total reward are very simple:

Strategic reward

Strategic reward is based on the design and implementation of long-term reward policies and practices to support and advance your organisation's objectives as well as employee aspirations.

Total reward

The concept of total reward covers all aspects of work that are valued by employees, including elements such as development opportunities and/or an attractive working environment, in addition to the wider pay and benefits package.

Links between strategic and total reward

The use of total reward may form part of a strategic approach to reward for many employers. For example, you might adopt a total reward approach, providing cutting edge learning programmes together with flexible working options, as well as more traditional aspects of pay and benefits, to recruit, retain and engage the high quality staff needed to secure your business objectives.

Not all employees have the same values and needs so your reward strategy needs to treat each person as an individual with different personalities, interests and motivations by offering a reward 'buffet' or flexible benefits platform as well as the usual pay awards, bonuses and salary incentives. There are a variety of options you can take into consideration when putting your total reward package together:

Flexible working; run down to retirement; maternity and paternity gifts; long service awards e.g. extra holiday days earned; buying and selling extra holiday days; employee's birthday holiday; child's first day of school holiday; wedding day holiday; company pension contribution amounts; life assurance; health cash plan cover; medical insurance; company car/car allowance; help with childcare e.g. vouchers or workplace nurseries; discounted benefits such as a compliments shopping card or subsidised gym memberships; free drinks, fruit and breakfast or subsidised meals; share options; award ceremonies; subsidised social events such as quarterly nights out and Christmas parties; employee savings such as a Christmas club or discounted reloadable gift cards; cycle to work; eye care vouchers; loans; shopping vouchers; lunch vouchers; total reward statements etc.

Contact us today for support developing and implementing your reward strategy and total reward packages.

Every organisations success is built on its people. Get the people bit right and you are likely to have motivated, productive staff and a more successful business.

Employees who have good quality jobs and are managed well, will not only be happier, healthier and more fulfilled, but are also more likely to drive productivity, better products or services, and innovation. This mutual gains view of motivation and people management lies at the heart of employee engagement and putting focus on employee engagement means putting good people management practices firmly on your organisations agenda.

In the broadest terms, employee engagement brings together a range of established concepts, including job satisfaction, motivation, work effort, organisational commitment, shared purpose, energy and ‘flow’. It describes an internal state of being – both physical, mental and emotional – but can also include behaviour, such as commitment and ‘going the extra mile’.

To successfully foster employee engagement and motivation requires working with all areas of the organisation. HR can lead initiatives, but employee engagement needs action from leaders at all levels. You should pay attention to:

empowering employees to make decisions and shape their jobs. If they are able to relate what they do to the organisations objectives it gives their role meaning and the feeling that they really can make a difference;
effective channels for employee voice: Your employees know first hand what works and what doesn't. If you actively listen you will get better decision making and more innovation;
on going communications from leadership to keep employees informed, and reinforce purpose and vision;
values that are lived and not just spoken, leading to a sense of trust and integrity;
effective line managers who are fair and can relate to their staff and motivate, empower and support the well-being of their employees. Line managers are the crucial link between the employer and employees, and their behaviour is central to levels of engagement. It is true what they say, people leave employment because of their line manager, not their employer. Line managers need to be capable of selecting the right person for the job (the person-job fit), of understanding that everyone is different with different needs, requirements and values etc. there is no 'one size fits all' approach, of communicating regularly with their staff, identifying relevant training needs and developing people, of encouraging people and ensuring they reward people's efforts.

Engaged people at work are positive, interested in and even excited about their jobs and are prepared to go the extra mile so if what you do does not work then do something different.

Contact us today for help in developing your organisation-specific employee engagement strategy and build a motivated, engaged workforce ensuring future business success.

Health and wellbeing involves a holistic approach to employees which seeks to promote physical, mental, emotional and social health by creating an environment that promotes a state of contentment which allows an employee to flourish and achieve their full potential for the benefit of themselves and the organisation.

A motivated, healthy workforce is more likely to perform well. Employers and employees benefit through improved morale, reduced absenteeism, increased retention and improved productivity. Therefore promoting a healthier, more engaged workforce makes good business sense.

Health and wellbeing initiatives can include:

Advice on healthy eating, having a healthy menu in the staff restaurant, healthy snacks in vending machines, free fruit offered daily, in-house gym or subsidised gym memberships, exercise classes held on company premises, lunchtime or after work walking / running clubs, support to stop smoking, regular health checks, private health insurance, healthcare cash plans, employee assistance programmes and access to counselling services, stress risk assessments, access to physiotherapy and massage, occupational health support, personalised healthy living programmes etc.

Addressing employees' health and wellbeing and bringing high rates of absence to average levels will deliver huge financial gains and provide a boost to the performance of organisations. For example:

Bringing absent workers back into work;
Adding back extra days worked by employees per annum;
Increasing annual cost savings.
As we said earlier health and wellbeing involves a holistic approach to employees that is rooted in the culture of the organisation and to which fitness and healthy eating is just a part. Organisational wellbeing is seen in its values and the daily practices and processes undertaken by its employees such as having a values-based working environment and management style, open communication and dialogue, team working and cooperation, clarity and unity of purpose, flexibility, discretion and support for reasonable risk taking, a balance between work and personal life, the ability to negotiate workload and work pace without fear of reprisals or punishment, the right tools and equipment to do the job, autonomy of the role and being fairly compensated in terms of salary and benefits etc.

Read our case study below on our website: https://hrdirectuk.org/health-and-wellbeing

Case Study: Royal Mail: https://hrdirectuk.org/case-study-royal-mail

For support on creating your holistic health and wellbeing strategy that is linked to your culture and values contact us today.

It is not good business sense to think that learning in the workplace is a luxury that only the best-resourced organisations can afford. Learning not only promotes individual development, but can mean bottom-line growth for a whole organisation. The only sustainable competitive advantage is an organisation's ability to learn faster than the competition.

A Learning and Development (L&D) strategy is an organisational strategy that articulates the workforce capabilities, skills or competencies required, and how these can be developed, to ensure a sustainable, successful organisation. When effectively designed and implemented, an organisation’s L&D strategy can deliver the capabilities, competencies and skills required to support sustainable business success.

Your L&D strategy must reflect and reinforce the approach within your broader HR strategy and also link with other strategies such as reward. Ultimately your L&D strategy has to reflect your overarching business strategy and drive success directly towards that. A key element of your L&D strategy should target the long-term development of those you identify as exceptionally high-performing or high-potential individuals (sometimes defined as ‘talent’), who are critical to your long-term business success. This typically includes techniques such as mentoring programmes with senior leaders, in-house development courses and project-based learning. Some organisations develop an exclusive focus where learning opportunities may be restricted to such key individuals while other organisations define all staff as ‘talent’ and run a broader suite of programmes to suit a broader strategy, adopting a more inclusive approach to employee development.

We can not only help you develop an L&D strategy that is linked to your business aims and organisational culture but we can also create, develop and facilitate bespoke training programmes to fit your requirements.

Contact us today to learn more about:

Line Manager Training
Group Development
Skills Gap and Training Needs Analysis
Industry Specific Training

Line managers are the crucial link between the employer and employees, and their behaviour is central to levels of engagement. It is true what they say, people leave employment because of their line manager, not their employer. Effective line managers are fair and can relate to their team, they can motivate, empower and support the well-being of their employees.

Your line managers need to be capable of selecting the right person for the job (the person-job fit), of understanding that everyone is different with different needs, requirements and values etc. that there is no 'one size fits all' approach. They need to be capable of communicating regularly with their team, identifying relevant training needs and developing people, of encouraging people and ensuring they reward people's efforts.

High levels of attrition costs the business in both time and money in areas such as recruitment, training and development, uniform and equipment and management time etc.

The list below shows just some of the line manager training packages that we offer. This list is not inclusive so contact us today to discuss your training requirements and make a commitment to raising your line manager effectiveness and employee engagement levels ultimately increasing your business success!

Situational Leadership
Leadership / Management Styles
Change Management and Resilience
How to undertake an investigation
Disciplinary Procedure including how to conduct a disciplinary meeting
Absence / Attendance Procedure including how to undertake a return to work meeting
Mediation
Assertiveness
Difficult Conversations
Difficult Situations
The art of delegation
Time Management
Communication
Motivation

In today's fast-moving, competitive world organisations are constantly looking for ways to improve productivity and grow their business; for the majority of them their top requirement is to have an engaged workforce as they realise the business benefits that employee empowerment creates.

Coaching and mentoring can be effective approaches to developing employees with many employers using them to enhance the skills, knowledge and performance of their people around specific skills and goals through one-to-one conversations thus raising levels of engagement and ultimately optimising business performance.

Coaching

Coaching aims to produce optimal performance and improvement at work. It focuses on specific skills and goals, although it may also have an impact on an individual’s personal attributes such as social interaction or confidence. The process typically lasts for a defined period of time or forms the basis of an on-going management style.

Coaching is not only an approach to management - how your managers carry out their role of being a people manager but it is also a set of skills for managing employee performance to deliver results.

Workplace coaching can include:

assisting performance management;
preparing and supporting people through change;
supporting learning and development.
A coaching culture is one where employees are empowered and where coaching happens at every level of the organisation. And, not only does it happen at every level of the organisation, but it adds to bottom line performance. It is the recognised development tool that touches every part of the employee life cycle.

The ultimate benefit of a coaching culture is that it enables your organisation to get fantastic results and focus on continuous improvement such as:

increased productivity;
increased staff retention, which is less recruitment costs;
attracting the best candidates, being an employer of choice;
reduced absenteeism;
higher levels of employee morale and engagement;
fostering a learning environment;
fewer behaviours that are inappropriate, upsetting or disturbing ;
eradicating the 'blame' culture;
better knowledge retention; and
reduced training costs.
Mentoring

Mentoring in the workplace tends to describe a relationship in which a more experienced colleague shares their greater knowledge to support the development of an inexperienced member of staff. It calls on the skills of questioning, listening, clarifying and reframing that are also associated with coaching.

Mentoring relationships tend to be longer term than coaching arrangements and they work best when they move beyond the directive approach of a senior colleague ‘telling it how it is’, to one where both parties learn from each other. An effective mentoring relationship is a learning opportunity for both parties, encouraging sharing and learning across generations and/or between roles.

If you can create a different kind of business where coaching behaviours are valued, recognised and rewarded, and sustained through changes, then you are building a robust foundation that can see a company through to achievement of any vision.

For support in building and embedding your bespoke coaching culture strategy and training your managers with the skills needed to become coaches and coaching supervisors that can empower your employees to deliver high performing results contact us today.

Q. How equal is your workforce?

Promoting and supporting equality and diversity in the workplace is an important aspect of good people management - it’s about valuing everyone in the organisation as an individual.

Therefore, it is important to recognise that a ‘one-size-fits all’ approach to managing people does not achieve fairness and equality of opportunity for everyone. People have different personal needs, values and beliefs. Good people management practice demands that people propositions are both consistently fair but also flexible and inclusive in ways that are designed to support both individual and business needs.

Equality is where everyone has the same chance to gain from any opportunities that arise within the workplace. E.g. Equal Access - everyone has the same opportunity to enter the organisation, Equal Share - there being a representation of all groups at each level within the organisation.

Diversity is about recognising difference, but not actively leveraging it to drive organisational success. It’s acknowledging the benefit of having a range of perspectives in decision-making and the workforce being representative of the organisation’s customers.

Inclusion is where difference is seen as a benefit, and where perspectives and differences are shared, leading to better decisions. An inclusive working environment is one in which everyone feels valued, that their contribution matters and they are able to perform to their full potential, no matter their background, identity or circumstances. An inclusive workplace enables a diverse range of people to work together effectively.

Discrimination is the treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favour of or against, a person based on the group to which they belong for no justifiable reason. This discrimination is an acting out of the prejudices that people hold.

UK legislation protects age, disability, race, religion or belief, gender and gender reassignment, sex and sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity so employers are obligated to make sure that there employees are not subject to workplace discrimination in how they are managed, how their pay, rewards and benefits are determined, or how decisions on training and development, promotion and dismissal are made.

Employers are also responsible under discrimination law for protecting their employees from bullying and harassment from colleagues and managers so it is important to have an effective diversity and inclusion strategy that goes beyond legal compliance and seeks to add value to the organisation, contributing to employee well-being and engagement and ultimately business success.

Business benefits for valuing diversity and inclusion include:

employer of choice;
ways of working that people from different backgrounds, experiences and identities bring;
it helps people grow and learn;
tackles under-utilisation of skills by enabling people to reach their full potential;
improves decision-making;
boosts engagement and innovation; and
enables the business to better meet the needs of a diverse customer base;
improved productivity.

To reap the benefits of a diverse workforce it is vital to have an inclusive environment where everyone feels able to participate and achieve their potential.

With support to develop and embed your diversity and inclusion strategy, culture, policies and procedures contact us today.

The employment relationship can come to an end at any time and for a variety of reasons which can be initiated by either the employer or the employee.

The employee may end the employment relationship for reasons of:

resignation;
voluntary redundancy; or
retirement.

The employer may 'fairly' dismiss the employee for reasons of:

redundancy, for example due to a restructuring of the business;
conduct;
capability or qualification;
illegality or contravention of a statutory duty;
some other substantial reason (SOSR) e.g. a fixed term contract ends and is not renewed.
As well as falling within one of the five potentially 'fair' reasons for dismissal, an employer must also have acted fairly and reasonably in taking that reason as sufficient for dismissing the employee. This involves following a fair procedure and is more complex than it sounds, and an employment tribunal still has wide discretion on what it considers to be 'fair'.

Even if an employee is found guilty of an act of very serious misconduct (often called ‘gross misconduct’), this will not necessarily be enough to make any dismissal fair. The employer still must also carry out a thorough investigation and consider all of the circumstances.

When employees are unhappy that they have been dismissed and perceive that the manner for their dismissal or the reason for it was unlawful they can take their case to the employment tribunal which is not only stressful but costly in time for the managers who were involved in the dismissal process as they have to take time out of the business to prepare for and attend the employment tribunal and can be very costly in monetary terms for the business as well as damage the brands reputation.

Tribunals

The employment tribunals are an independent judicial body established to resolve disputes between employers and employees over employment rights. The tribunal will hear claims about employment matters such as unfair dismissal, discrimination, wages and redundancy payments. Examples of unlawful treatment claims include:
unfair dismissal
discrimination
unfair deductions from pay
There is no longer a requirement for a person to pay a fee to make a claim to the employment tribunal or the employment appeals tribunal and this has seen a rise in single claims of 90% in the last year and there were 548 multiple claim cases received as opposed to 265 in the same period last year.

In wrongful dismissal claims, damages are calculated as for any other breach of contract so an employee will be entitled to their full net salary for the contractual notice period, and compensation for loss of other benefits for that period.

Awards made by a tribunal in cases of unfair dismissal consist of a basic award to compensate for loss of job security and a compensatory award to reflect immediate and future loss of earnings. In rare cases an additional award may be made where an order for reinstatement or re-engagement is made but not complied with by the employer.

The amount of a statutory payment depends on an employee's age, length of service and the rate of a week’s pay (up to a maximum). There is also a salary-based cap on the unfair dismissal compensatory award.

To reduce the risk of employment tribunal claims to your business you must always follow a fair procedure when considering any dismissal and make sure you comply with your contractual and statutory obligations. Contact us today for support and step-by-step guidance and advice when your line management find themselves at the end of an employment relationship, for whatever the reason, and reduce your risk of a costly employment tribunal claim.

As a small business with under 50 employees we understand that you may not have a dedicated HR practitioner to rely on. That's why HR Direct UK offers a small business support package to support your HR, Payroll and Auto Enrolment and Workplace Pension requirements.

The benefits of our small business support are listed below:

Administration undertaken on your behalf includes:
1. recruitment
2. employee information and secure storage of personnel files
3. payroll
4. auto enrolment and workplace pension processing and on going management
5. issuing company branded contracts, letters, policies and employee handbooks etc.

Email and telephone support for line managers;
Onsite support for meetings including note taking and advising on outcomes with employees;
Onsite support undertaking investigations.

The small business support covers all aspects of people management including:

HR Strategy creation;
Recruitment - creation of job descriptions, person specifications and competency profiles, advertising vacancies, screening candidates and onsite support undertaking interviews;
Performance Management;
Disciplinary, Grievance and Mediation;
Absence Management;
Ill health and Performance Capability;
Learning, Development and Training;
Coaching and Mentoring;
Change Management;
Policies, Procedures and Employee Handbooks;
Employee Engagement Initiatives;
Employee Health and Wellbeing;
Reward and Recognition;
Termination of Employment.

You may need the full support package or just a small part and you may only need one off support or you may need it ongoing. Contact us today to discuss your small business requirements and we will create a unique support package for you.

We can setup and manage your company payroll on an ongoing basis using our comprehensive, HMRC recognised real time information (RTI) compliant payroll software. Our payroll software also includes features to support automatic enrolment of your workplace pension so these can be linked seamlessly together.

Our payroll service includes:

Preparation and processing of your payroll;
Preparation of your payroll reports;
Creation and Issuing of employee pay slips;
Completion of your annual return;
Creation and issuing of P45 and P60 documents;

Whether you pay your employees on a weekly or on a monthly basis we can manage the process for you. Contact us today to discuss your payroll requirements.

The introduction of the workplace pension means that employers must provide employees with a pension scheme and automatically enrol qualifying employees into this scheme.

What is a Workplace Pension Scheme?

A workplace pension is a savings plan that's arranged by you to help your employees put money aside for later in life. It is also known as an occupational pension or a work-based pension. Typically, the employer and employee contribute to the pension scheme, and so will the government in the form of tax relief.

When was Auto Enrolment introduced?

Auto Enrolment was introduced under the Pensions Act 2008 and the first (larger) companies automatically enrolled in 2012.

Why was Auto Enrolment introduced?

The UK government found too few workers were putting money into a pension and were therefore not having enough to live on during their retirement. They decided to introduce new laws requiring that all U.K. employers put their qualifying employees into workplace pension schemes by a given deadline also known as "staging date" (or "duties start date" for new employers hiring staff for the first time on or after 1st October 2017).

What are Auto Enrolment contributions?

Currently a total minimum of 5% of an employees pay must be paid into the pension. The employer must pay at least 2% but can choose to pay more. From April 2019 this will increase to a total minimum of 8% of an employees pay of which the employer must pay at least 3%.

What are the costs of Auto Enrolment?

The cost of auto enrolment depends on which provider you sign up with. We use Smart Pension, a defined contribution master trust pension scheme that meets the required legislative standards so you can rest assured that you are meeting your auto enrolment and workplace pension obligations in full.

With Smart Pension, auto enrolment is free, there are no set up costs, no on-going annual costs or per employee costs or any other costs that will be transferred so you can either manage it in-house or for a small management fee we can set up and manage your auto enrolment and workplace pension on an on-going basis on your behalf.

Click on the following link to find out more: https://www.autoenrolment.co.uk/

Contact us today to discuss your auto enrolment and workplace pension requirements.