Easy way to lose a “customer”…

Easy way to lose a “customer”…

I was chatting to my favourite golf club the other day (the identity of the club will remain a secret!).

And they had good news – they’re at full membership AND they’ve got a 100-strong waiting list.

A position they haven’t been in for over a decade.

I congratulated them, and then my marketing head kicked in and I started asking a few questions.

“Okay, so you’ve got a hundred people on your waiting list – what do they get?”

            “What do you mean?”

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Overtime doesn’t count towards holiday entitlement – or does it?

Overtime doesn’t count towards holiday entitlement – or does it? The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decided in 2014 that any overtime worked does count towards an employee’s holiday entitlement. Yikes! What does that actually mean? It means that if you have in their contracts that they work 20 hours a week, and they work 10 … Read more

Contract Information Center

Read through all of Gap HR’s documents about contracts. When issuing a contract, it is important to always remember that you cannot make an employee sign away their rights. A contract is a document designed to let employees know what they are entitled to, but not to change their statutory rights. You can schedule a … Read more

You MUST understand

You MUST understand

I have a SEAT Ateca.

It’s not the most fashionable car in the world, but I’ve had it for a few years, and it’s served me well.

SEATs come with a three-year warranty, which I’ve been keen to keep it alive, so I’ve headed to the local dealer each year for the service.

And I’d have kept going indefinitely, but the events of the last couple of months have changed all that.

I turned up for my service, waited in the queue and started observing the goings on at the front desk.

What was clear straight away was the distinction between the sales staff and the service staff – there were several sales guys standing around doing nothing and one harassed looking service staff member, running around like a headless chicken.

One of the serene looking salesmen make the mistake of approaching me and asking if he could help.

I explained what I was there for, and he responded:

“Oh sorry, I can’t help – I’m sales”

After uttering those words, he moved onto the next person, also in the service queue, asking the same question and giving the same response.

That was when I lost it:

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Treasurer says zero hours workers have no rights

Treasurer says zero hours workers have no rights

It’s the consultant’s curse – people value your advice enough to ask for it, but try everything they can to avoid paying for it.

But this week, we experienced the complete opposite.

A golf club client of ours point blank refused to take the advice we gave them.

Advice that they’ve already paid for.

The club had received an ACAS Early Conciliation (EC) notification – EC is the stage just before formal tribunal, so they were – understandably – pretty worried.

The employee in question had worked for them for six years on a zero hours contract, had been given notice in February and left at the end of June because the notice period had been extended.

So what was the problem?

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