http://www.hradvantage.co.uk The latest from HR Advantage Copyright: (C) HR Advantage Ltd 60 en-gb Tue, 9 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/images/rss.gif http://www.hradvantage.co.uk http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/275.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/275.aspx With effect from 6th April 2010 GPs will be introducing a new type of sick note which will enable them, based on an assessment of the patient’s health condition, to state one of two options, either that the employee is unfit for work, or that they may be fit for work . The new scheme is designed to tackle long-term sickness absence and to reduce the number of people currently unable to work through incapacity by making it easier to return to work. Where the patient is stated to be fit for some w... Fri, 5 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/276.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/276.aspx We are pleased to announce the launch of our Learning & Development service to clients starting with two open courses. We’ve listened to feedback and researched the demands on organisations in the current climate and aim to help you get the most out of your employees and keep them motivated during challenging times. What’s on offer? Managers Managing Stress (one day, 9.30 – 17.00)Managing Difficult People (one day, 9.30 – 17.00) When? 12th April 2010 Managers Managing Stress 20th April 20... Fri, 5 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/277.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/277.aspx Is reducing staff benefits a sensible way to reduce costs during difficult financial times? Well, it can be but you need to follow some sensible processes to make sure it doesn’t itself become a huge cost reaping no benefits whatsoever. Your first step is to determine whether the benefits you intend to reduce are a contractual benefit and if so, whether there are provisions in the terms of the contract to allow flexibility. The most likely scenario is that the benefits are contractual obligation... Fri, 5 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/278.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/278.aspx What is Employee Engagement?Employee engagement is not a new concept. However, it has become increasingly important in times of the recession where engaging your staff during difficult times has been pivotal to help businesses survive and stay competitive. Employers want employees who will do their best work, or ‘go the extra mile’. Employees want good work: jobs that are worthwhile and meaningful. More and more organisations are looking for a win-win solution that meets their needs and those... Fri, 5 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/279.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/279.aspx Whistle Blowing UpdateFrom 6th April 2010 employment tribunals will be able to pass information from whistle blowing claims straight to the relevant regulator. Relevant regulators are normally local authorities concerned with the particular instance under investigation, for example the Health and Safety Executive, the Care Quality Commission, the FSA, the Serious Fraud Office or HM Revenues and Customs. Passing the information on will be very straight forward as the tribunal claim form (ET1) wil... Fri, 5 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/274.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/274.aspx Fewer companies may be recruiting at the moment and recruiting for some roles may be a bit easier than it was a couple of years ago but this doesn’t mean but the process of getting your new recruit up to speed and working effectively has got any easier. So how do you get your new starter off to a flying start? A good induction process may hold the key. “What is induction?” Induction refers to helping an employee adapt to working in their new environment and role. It includes the initial ‘welc... Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/270.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/270.aspx The recent snow and freezing conditions have once again caused disruption across the country and highlighted the problems for employers and employees alike of the problems that can arise with getting to work. It’s no surprise that this has prompted a number of our clients to ask the question – do I have to pay an employee who didn’t make it into work? The employment relationship is based on the employer paying wages in return for work performed by the employee, so if the employee does not attend... Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/271.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/271.aspx The Shortage Occupation List – a list compiled by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), which sets out the areas where there are skills shortages in the UK – has been revised and is in force as of the 14th of December 2009. This list shows which vacancies the Government deems necessary (due to a shortage of the necessary skills within the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA)) to fill with migrant workers from outside the EEC. The main changes from December can be summarised as follows: • A... Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/272.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/272.aspx Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009On 12th November 2009 the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 received Royal Assent. The Act provides the first complete overhaul of apprenticeship legislation for nearly 200 years and brings in a host of new measures to prepare for the country’s long-term economical and social needs and build on the huge rise in school standards over the last decade. As an Employer, the key points of the Act that you should be aware of... Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/273.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/273.aspx On Call Advice and GuidanceClients of HR Advantage will be familiar with the concept of on-call advice and guidance i.e. the ability to phone us with any HR query at any time and receive a timely and effective response. This month, we are focusing on our on-call advice and guidance service to highlight it to all our readers, including non-clients.The types of questions we are asked by those using our on-call advice and guidance service vary widely. Recent examples include:• I want to employ som... Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/262.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/262.aspx We all know that discriminating against an individual because they have a disability is illegal. But what is a disability? What should you do to avoid discriminating against an individual who is disabled? What do you do if one of your employees becomes disabled? Put these questions together with the estimate that in today’s workforce nearly 20% of people of working age have a disability (CIPD, 2009) and it is clear that employers need to know the answers. The Law:Under the Disability Discrimina... Tue, 1 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/263.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/263.aspx Parliamentary time and elections permitting the Government has confirmed in the Queens Speech that it intends to implement the Equality Bill in the autumn of 2010. The current nine different pieces of discrimination legislation will be condensed into one new Equality Bill covering all strands of discrimination. Current discrimination legislation has been developed over a long period of time and has become increasingly complex and difficult to use, creating barriers to equal treatment. The proces... Tue, 1 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/265.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/265.aspx HR Advantage team members work as the part-time HR Director of a growing number of organisations – some of them surprisingly large (think 6,000 employees). The FD Centre provides part time finance directors to a growing number of organisations. So it makes sense that we work closely together. The article below, discussing current and future recruitment issues, appeared in a recent FD Centre newsletter to their own clients and, as Campbell had a few nice quotes, we are pleased to have the chance... Tue, 1 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/266.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/266.aspx Apart from the stumbling economy - and all that will entail - our predictions for the topics that will exercise most HR attention in 2010 include: • Pensions – the plans to make employer’s and employee’s contribute more will receive a lot more attention • Maternity and paternity – will dads get the chance to share mum’s maternity leave • Equality legislation – the implications of the new legislation become clear and start to take effect • Employee checking – as the CRB is joined by the Indep... Tue, 1 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/267.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/267.aspx Discrimination on the Grounds of “Environmentalism”?Back in 2003 the Employment Equality (Religion and Belief) Regulations 2003 were amended so that protection from discrimination was extended to cover not only religious beliefs or those "similar" to religious beliefs, but philosophical beliefs as well. What does this mean? A recent case has decided that a "a belief in man-made climate change ... is capable, if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for the purpose of the 2003 Religion... Tue, 1 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/268.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/268.aspx Performance Appraisal: Turning Strategy into Results – with a bit of help from a really good on-line performance management tool We all know that an effective performance appraisal process is meant to work wonders - but that writing appraisals, setting and keeping track of objectives, and giving feedback is hard and time consuming. If we are honest appraisals are something that, given half a chance, we will put off at the first opportunity. So how about an on-line system that helps with all the... Tue, 1 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/269.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/269.aspx If you like our newsletter we know you will like the ‘newswire’ produced by our partners at Haines Watts. It is published monthly, contains news briefings on a range of accountancy issues and is free. If you would like to receive the Haines Watts newswire please follow here to subscribe. For more information on Haines Watts please visit www.hwca.com or you can call them on 01494 452 921.... Tue, 1 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/257.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/257.aspx The High Court has ruled that it is (still) legal for UK employers to force workers to retire at the age of 65 Back in August we told you that the decision as to whether a default retirement age constituted age discrimination was about to be made. Well, the results are in and the High Court has ruled to uphold the retirement age of 65. The rules currently allow UK employers to dismiss a member of staff on their 65th birthday, without redundancy pay, as long as they follow the correct procedure.... Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/258.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/258.aspx As the winter nights draw in and we battle Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), it could be a good time to focus a little attention on Health and Safety issues in the work place. Health and safety of course is a year round concern but the odd review from time to time does no harm and all conscientious employers will have Health and Safety as a regular item on the Senior Teams agenda. So a few items to check: • Travel – have you given clear instruction to those travelling on work business to make... Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/259.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/259.aspx We first told you about the proposed Personal Accounts scheme back in December 2008. Recently Jonathan Wood of partner company Jelf Employee Benefits provided the HR Advantage team with an overview of the implications of this for employers and now we are pleased to share this – and a special offer - with you… Key Points: • The Personal Accounts scheme is a pension scheme which all employers and employees (unless exempt) must contribute to. Personal Accounts are to be introduced in October 2012... Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/260.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/260.aspx Over the past year many organisations have probably considered the implications of allowing employees to work from home more seriously than in previous years. With instances such as the massive snow fall earlier this year and the swine flu outbreak which continues to affect numerous workplaces, many employers will undoubtedly have been frustrated by drops in productivity whilst employees may have been confused by unclear guidance on how to cope with such setbacks. Home working of course comes in... Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/261.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/261.aspx Outsourcing HR We are often asked "What is Outsourcing HR?" The CIPD defines Outsourcing as “The partial or complete delegation of the HR function to an outside organisation.” A recent survey by the CIPD suggested that 69% of all companies in the private sector outsource some or all of their HR function. Outsourcing is particularly popular in areas where specialist knowledge is at a premium with Employment Law (69%) Payroll (66%) Training (49%) and Recruitment & Selection (47%) being seen as... Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/251.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/251.aspx The increase in the number of people using social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and My Space poses real challenges for employers. At the least the communication of what is and is not OK at work is needed, if only to give no excuse to hours of work being spent on-line for personal reasons and to make clear that Social Networking doesn’t give employee’s licence to say what they like in public about their employer. But despite the necessity of these precautions, the increase in intern... Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/252.aspx http://www.hradvantage.co.uk/news/252.aspx Maybe, just maybe, there are some green shoots out there. The latest jobs survey published by REC and KPMG, for example, suggests that signs of recovery are now beginning to appear in the labour market. This doesn’t mean that unemployment won’t stop unemployment rising for a while yet. But a little bit of brighter news does emphasise that even in the teeth of recession recruitment doesn’t stop altogether. And the same always remains true - the highest performers are most likely to be snapped up... Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT