Monthly Archives: February 2012

Prevention Best Cure For Tribunal Claims

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The sensible approach for employers at small and medium enterprises when it comes to employment rights is a vigilant approach.

There’s no point reacting and tightening up procedures after being hit with costs from a tribunal. Instead, prevention of breaches of employment rights is best practice.

This is easier than it sounds, as it only takes a wrong word from a manager failing to recognise a grievance, an ill-timed remark in a redundancy consultation, or procedures out of sync with legislative change for an employer to find themselves in trouble.

But auditing your business to see where you are exposed can reap benefits. All staff have employment contracts but these need to be up-to-date relevant to their position.

And, the staff handbook also needs to be relevant and clear about what is and isn’t contractually binding, and that these strictures don’t cut across any statutory rights.

If there’s any ongoing redundancies, guidelines for those dealing with redundancy need to be clear about the rights of staff for consultation on their dismissal and objective procedures for selection. Any decisions which influence employees’ pay or promotions also need to follow correct procedure.

When assessing exposure, it can seem like the framework of employment relations is a minefield, with the slightest of stumbles from the correct path causing damage to the business.

Added to this, many SME’s are tied up with running their business and cannot afford in time or cost a legal adviser running a daily rule over procedure and practice. But, thankfully, there are now operators attuned to dealing with such issues in novel ways which minimise costs and exposure for businesses.

Papertrail is such a provider allowing an employer to avail themselves of all the necessary employment documentation which is updated in line with legislation. And, unlike other seemingly similar providers, they have recognised the importance of audit trails – the paper trail -, of making sure dealings with staff are fully documented to reduce litigation risk.

This has been accomplished by logging meetings and outcomes digitally, so there’s an accurate record of correct procedures being followed. The cost in time and money of employment disputes should be avoided by having a preventative policy in place, rather than a reactive policy when problems come to light.

Partnerships with companies such as Papertrail can help companies reduce their exposure , keep in line with legislative change and ensure correct procedures are being followed in the workplace. This can only save time and money, and therefore, can only be sensible business practice for any SME.

Care Always Required With Redundancy

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At school in days past, it was a common joke to say you were learning the three r’s: reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic. But, in times of economic downturn, it’s common to learn a more chastening lesson about the two r’s: recession and redundancy.

Global recession has made redundancy a fear for many, and a lamentable fact for others. Naturally, there will be a rise in disputes over redundancy, so it pays for employers to make sure they are fully versed in their redundancy policies and procedures.

With statutory redundancy pay in place, there is less concern over pay-outs: these will be itemised and explained and follow fairly clear-cut procedures regarding maximum level of pay-outs, qualification periods and amounts payable without tax.

Problems are more likely to occur with employees feeling they have been treated badly or that their job isn’t been made redundant for the right reasons.

As a form of dismissal, redundancy can occur for many reasons: new technology making certain tasks redundant; relocation of a business, cost-cutting due to reduced revenues or the job you were employed to do has ceased to exist, which can itself be caused by numerous reasons.

Redundancy can be hugely distressing for some employees, and can understandably provoke an emotional response. After all, when someone is hit by the worry of how they’re going to feed their family or pay their mortgages to the way they’ve become used to, with a salary which is about to cease, it’s often difficult to be objective about ‘business needs’.

That’s why there is an onus upon employers to tread carefully, sensitively and follow procedure. Consultation needs to be carried out, with employees facing redundancy allowed to have their input and suggest alternatives. Failure to provide consultation can lead to unfair dismissal claims.

Another area for potential problems comes when a proportion of staff are being made redundant. Objective and fair assessment needs to take place backed by evidence throughout this process.

Beliefs that the criteria was unfair or people felt their selection was far from objective due to a misplaced comment or skewed criteria can again lead to unfair dismissal claims. And, the need to find alternative employment if it exists can also be highly controversial, with staff feeling demoted or pushed into unsuitable roles.

Clearly, there are sensitive footfalls to navigate, which is why guidance from correct procedure and being able to generate a papertrail of all communications with staff regarding redundancy is absolutely vital.

Papertrail, with its comprehensive and updated employer guidelines and unique ability to record trails digitally, is ideally placed to help employers comfortably traverse the often complex and contentious redundancy procedures, which sadly are often all too commonplace during periods of recession.

Bringing Businesses to Book – Online Staff Handbooks

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Papertrail will be a one-stop shop for all online employment template needs, providing protection for the employer and reference for the employee.

And, a key facet of both these particulars comes from the employee, or staff, handbook.

Legally, an employer needs only to provide a written statement of the key terms and conditions of employment.

But best practice – the kind of practices that can save employer’s from costly legal bills – favours the creation of full employment contracts and staff handbooks.

After all, companies like Papertrail have taken the headache and costliness out of embodying such good practice by providing online employment contract solutions.

Benefits of a Staff Handbook

As with the employment contract, the staff handbook makes clear – in more exhaustive and comprehensive detail than the contract- the policies, procedures and regulations at an employee’s place of work.

The provision of a staff handbook may not be a statutory requirement but it’s a sensible offering from the employer, helping to remove ambiguities by clarifying every aspect of the employment relationship down to the most minute aspects, such as pay and working hours, holiday entitlements, health and safety regulations, sickness regulations, security at work, and disciplinary and grievance procedures.

Such an outline not only helps protect the employer by documenting their compliance with employment law, it helps the employee to have a clear reference manual about all aspects of their working conditions.

Online Staff Handbooks

Given the clear benefits of bringing a business to book, namely having a comprehensive staff handbook, why do so many small and medium enterprises continue to operate without one?

Part of the answer is in the question, namely ‘comprehensive’. When there’s no legal obligation to provide a staff handbook, it can seem overly arduous to map every aspect of the employer-employee relationship.

Added to this, the mapping may soon be out-of-date if it references statutory aspects of that relationship which are subject to change.

Finally, there’s the cost of producing all this material – paying someone to write it, then have it printed, along with, possibly, an employment specialist to check it – which can prove a final and fatal obstacle to some businesses.

At least, it could until now.

The beauty of online staff handbooks, as will be provided by Papertrail, is they can take all this pain and procedure away at a minimum of the previous costs.

Now, there is little excuse not to embody best practice and provide all employees with a staff ‘bible’ to cover all aspects of the employment relationship - especially when this added transparency could reduce potentially costly conflicts in the workplace.

Preventative pain relief for HR Headaches

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Small medium enterprises are often at a huge disadvantage to their corporate brethren – they can’t afford a large, dedicated Human Resources department.

In the corporate world, there is always someone on hand to take you by the hand, and brief you before any sensitive conversation with a member of staff, concerning, for example, their productivity – or rather lack thereof – or their habit of being sick every Monday.

Managers are told what to say and how to say it, minutes are recorded to be forwarded to HR: everything is planned and premeditated to avoid any costly, legal comebacks – set procedure is always to be followed.

Further, employment law is a moving feast. New governments come and go each leaving a trail of new employment legislation from seismic changes to less spectacular change such as permitting more ‘frank’ conversations about certain sensitive subjects.

These changes are seamlessly integrated into employment procedures by HR – or should be – so managers can behave accordingly, non-the-wiser for changes in legislation.

But, even in the corporate world, well-staffed, well-versed HR departments can be an unaffordable luxury for many, especially in today’s tough trading conditions.

This leaves the non-corporate player with a number of headaches. Firstly, day-to-day interactions with staff can be a potential, litigious minefield. You may have, correctly, shifted your employees towards improved performance by introducing new goals and guidelines, but have you followed every step correctly to challenge non-performers without ending up at a tribunal?

And has every step been properly documented so you can prove that you’ve followed every step? To reduce such risk exposure, it’s common to seek the help of an employment lawyer or employment specialist, but do you have one on tap for every new initiative?

If you’re using them ad-hoc, is every pertinent point of new legislation channelled into current practises? And, how much time are you spending liaising or fretting about the minutiae of workplace legislation rather than doing what you excel at, running your own business?

These problems are commonplace, and as is equally common, when there are problems, it creates market demand. And where there’s market demand, solutions do become available.

Papertrail is such a solution, designed as pain relief for the headaches described above. Like other online solutions, it allows small and medium enterprises to take advantage of their own virtual HR department, generating relevant and bespoke employment documentation.

This clearly saves costs but would provide only partial pain relief as there’s still exposure to legislative changes to consider.

Plus, you may have all the guidelines in place but are they followed in a sufficiently robust manner to stand scrutiny at tribunal? These latter points are Papertrail’s own points of difference, providing full pain relief for all your HR headaches. And, that’s not just a cheesy ad-slogan.

The documentation is constantly updated by their own team of employment legal specialists, so you have access to the relevant, right material.

And, uniquely, the system allows for digital signatures to be recorded so there’s an audit trail for sensitive communications with staff. Ultimately, it is like having your own HR department at hand – just without the huge cost.