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Book promotion

As a regular reader of this blog, you’ll already know that working in HR is very much like working on the submissions team in the creative writing department at Random House.

Every day brings a selection of new short stories, each one packed full of unforgettable characters and unexpected plot twists.

So many times, I’ve been told “you should write a book”, so I finally have!

I’ve brought together all the many awful, amusing and expensive situations that we’ve had to help deal with over the years in a book that any good fiction publisher would turn away.

Employment Law For Private Member Golf Clubs – Keeping You Out Of The Rough

It’s less a relaxing read that’ll help you to drift off to sleep, and rather more a series of learning experiences that’ll keep you out of a tribunal or courtroom.

You’ll discover…

The Golf Club employee and the Never-Ending Pregnancy
The Golf Club employee and Gun on the Golf Course
The Golf Club employee and the cancer that meant he STILL couldn’t be fired

Sure, that last one’s a working title, but it’s a good story, and there’s plenty of them in this book…

How one golf club got MONEY BACK when their employee walked out (and you can too)
How another club threw away £360,000 for saying “what everyone knows is true”

Every story is 100% true, and unbelievable as they are, I know that many of them will seem completely believable to anyone with experience of running a golf club!

The book is available now on Amazon in Kindle and paperback format, or give the audiobook a listen on Audible or Spotify.

Scantily clad employment law

Written by Carolyne Wahlen

I love social media.

But despite what the gurus have told me, I’ve still struggled to make it work for my business.

And by make it work, I mean make ANY money out of it.

I know all about how influencers make it work (I’ve just watched the Dubai TV series), but I’m struggling to link scantily clad females to employment law nuggets!

But last Friday, I saw how it can work in a commercial way for business owners who choose to wear more clothes.

I was due to do some disciplinary training for a client, and after talking it over with Nadia, she suggested we get our “video guy” to film it, so we could use some snippets in our marketing.

I thought it was a great idea, but then I completely forgot about it.

Later that night, I was mindlessly scrolling through Instagram when I saw a post from Mick at Boxset Media (he’s the “video guy”).

This jogged my memory, I ‘DMed’ him, and in 10 minutes it was all sorted – location, video and price.

By bedtime on Friday, he’d secured £2,000 of work he’d probably never have got – I may have remembered by Monday, but by then it would have been too late.

Marketing doesn’t always have to be complicated, or highly orchestrated – sometimes it’s just being in the right place at the right time.

Even on social media.

Is GDPR the death of email marketing?

Written by Carolyne Wahlen

If you’ve been in business for a while, you’ll be familiar with the trends coming round and round again.

And often in small business marketing, with marketers trying to sell new initiatives all the time, methods die and then rise from the ashes like a phoenix, only to be pronounced dead again when the marketer needs to sell a new service.

And particularly with GDPR coming in, the death of email marketing has been predicted – again.

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Do I have to give employees redundancy pay?

Written by Carolyne Wahlen

Yes! If you employ anyone, be it a receptionist, sales person or nanny means that you have responsibilities under employment law.

As is usual in law, ignorance is not a defence and will not protect you!

You don’t need to pay redundancy to staff who have worked less than two years for you. You will obviously have to pay them their notice period.

You do need to pay redundancy to staff who have worked for you for more than two years. Statutory redundancy pay is currently max £571 per year’s service. You will have to pay them their notice period.

In addition, you will have to follow a fair and reasonable consultation process. This needs to be at least 3 weeks long. The employee also has the right of appeal.

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Can I make them work their notice?

Written by Carolyne Wahlen

Short answer to this is no (sorry, know you didn’t want to hear that!). They may have stormed out after a row. They may have calmly handed in their notice once their pay was on their bank account. But as far as they’re concerned, it’s over.

You could try and get them to stay with financial incentives. But a court won’t make them work their notice period, as it considers your relationship “broken” (so don’t waste your breath threatening to sue).

You won’t have to pay them though, as they are refusing to work their notice period.

And if you have a clause in your contract (like we do, of course), your can in addition reclaim one day’s pay for every day of their notice period not worked. Which is not meant as a penalty, oh no, just a realistic evaluation of the loss and costs we would have if they walked out and we had to find a short term replacement.

NB if you say that they don’t have to work their notice period, then you DO have to pay them!

If you know of an organisation that could do with our help, please let us know – we always reward referrals with chocolate!

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Tales of an HR Services Consultant – Day 26: Christmas Decorations are religious discrimination!

Written by Carolyne Wahlen

Are Christmas decorations religious discrimination?

No! Don’t worry, it’s not political correctness gone mad!

Religious belief is protected by the Equality Act 2010. It doesn’t stop the display of Christmas decorations in the workplace. In fact, it doesn’t stop any traditional customs under religious discrimination.

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