What are the options for employers when responding to work from home requests on a more permanent basis? With the recent lockdown restrictions slowly being lifted and the government’s encouragement for those working from home to now start safely returning to work, many employers are having to rethink their stance on homeworking due to requests from their employees. 26% of people plan to continue working from home when lockdown eases, according to a recent Independent headline. We should remember that working from home on a…
Did you know that your payroll staff are key workers? Celebrate them properly this National Payroll Week, beginning 7th September. Yes, we’ll admit it: it’s been a difficult year. With the pandemic affecting every business in the UK in different ways, as individuals we’ve been under a huge amount of both professional and personal strain. Your payroll staff in particular have had to adapt to so many changes this year: new legislation, dreaded furlough calculations, redundancy payments, changes to parental leave, holiday calculations and more.…
An important case on the topic of sex discrimination was decided by the Employment Appeal Tribunal on 5 June 2020. The Claimant, Adrienne Liebenberg, commenced her employment with DS Smith as a commercial director in November 2016. Her remuneration package was a basic salary of £200,000 per annum, a discretionary bonus of up to 50% of her salary, and participation in a performance share plan (“PSP”) of up to 50% of her salary. In December 2018, her employment was terminated after being told her “leadership…
National Minimum Wage With Sleep in Shifts: Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake BEIS (The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy) has published a revised guide on calculating the NMW, with particular reference to sleep-in shifts. They appear to have brought in a new concept of ‘suitable facilities for sleeping’ when deciding if the payment of NMW is due: “If the employer provides suitable facilities for sleeping, minimum wage must be paid for time when the worker is required to be awake for the purpose…
The Gwynedd Council v Shelley Barrett case provides clarity on the new competitive interview process when choosing which employees to make redundant. Due to the impact of COVID-19, many businesses are considering redundancies. Employers have a duty to consider alternatives to redundancy, including finding suitable, alternative roles. How they select who will be offered an alternative role from those who may otherwise be made redundant, is crucial. The traditional approach of using selection criteria applied in a selection matrix can seem artificial. The Employment Appeal…
An employee engagement survey is probably the last thing on your mind. But actually, is now the perfect time to take stock of the mood of your people? How has COVID-19 affected the employee experience? Why should you run an engagement survey? And how do you go about it? Keep reading to find out. COVID-19 Employee Survey Findings McKinsey recently surveyed more than 800 employees on a wide variety of topics related to the employee experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey found more than…
The HR Hub has now been upgraded to a new improved look and feel providing a more user-friendly experience for our customers. New Knowledge Centre We've created a Knowledge Centre for easier navigation to core HR and Health & safety content topics. From Maternity Rights to Grievances, Fire Safety and First Aid: You can access key content pages and view suggested relevant content, such as downloadable Templates, Forms, Guidance Notes, FAQs at the click of a button. New User Search Navigation Using relevant keywords, users can search throughout the software to access content…
Waiting up to three working days for a BACS payment to land? That is so last year. You should be using Faster Payments and making payments in three seconds. If you work in payroll, you’ll know that sometimes mistakes happen. It’s not right and it’s not pretty. But occasionally things get missed, balls are dropped, and that new starter your business was so excited to welcome, hasn’t been paid. ARGHHHH! Every minute, every hour, and – heaven forbid – every day that employee hasn’t been…
Are many of your employees still working from home? If yes, you're perhaps considering how best to effectively manage the process of performance management during this challenging time. The key performance management tools are still applicable, but they need to be adapted to fit the new working environment. Done well, this will help maximise productivity and allow you to find out about performance - without micromanaging! There are of course, additional challenges. For example, managing your whole team remotely and dealing with the impact of…
Since the introduction of gender pay gap reporting, you'd hope men and woman doing comparable jobs would be paid the same. But in reality, is pay based on gender? In a recent discrimination case heard by an employment tribunal, a female journalist working for the BBC and presenting a news programme, was paid £440 per episode. Meanwhile, a male presenter was paid £3,000 per episode, albeit for a slightly different type of programme. The BBC argued, amongst other things, that the male presenter was required to be…
