Tales of an HR Services expert – Day 2: Recruitment

Don’t do this! Recruit someone you find attractive (apparently most of us do!) Accept their word that they can do something – test them Reject them giving one of the protected characteristics as a reason (unlimited £££ tribunal claim)

The importance of being formal

Many employers don’t like to have formal meetings, i.e. in private, with closed doors, with staff who are not performing. They feel that an informal comment at their desk or the coffee machine will be enough for the person to understand the feedback and act on it. But as this incident that we had to … Read more

The show must go on!

I have had a great summer. It seems like the kids have been off for months! And one of the reasons that it has really felt like a holiday for me is that I have been to London to the theatre four times in the past 4 weeks! That might not seem much to you, … Read more

Invasion of the Identity Snatchers

What, an invasion? Well, not that bad, but it is an area that employers need to protect themselves. From what? Identity fraud and unwittingly employing illegal workers. In Terminator they used dogs to sniff out the “intruders”, the robots. We need to use a much more banal way – seeing their photo ID! This might … Read more

Flexible working even more flexible!

Sometime this year, employers worst fears will be realised: EVERY employee will be able to request flexible working!

This is a change which was supposed to come into effect from April 2014, but somewhat strangely ACAS had not got the guidance finished on it in time, so the introduction of this new right has been delayed.

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My employee resigned, didn’t she?!

This case was frustrating because my client had really bent over backwards to help, and it had backfired badly. The employee had resigned, and then said that as she was intending to move up north, and things hadn’t been finalised, could she stay on till the end of term (this was in a preschool). My … Read more

£4000 fisticuffs!

I went on a conflict management workshop recently. Which you might think is a bit strange, considering that a lot of my business comes from when conflict doesn’t get resolved. But believe me, I would have enough to do without sorting out playground fights! That became clear when Marc went through the amount of time … Read more

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