HR Advice For Small Businesses

HR Advice For Small Businesses

Filling the GAP in HR services: Holiday pay calculation charges

This guidance explains how to calculate holiday pay for workers without fixed hours or fixed rates of pay.

An important change is coming to the holiday pay reference period, and it’s going to be used to calculate holiday pay entitlement for employees and workers.

Until now, average weekly pay for holiday pay purposes has been calculated using a twelve-week reference period.

Only those weeks where monies have actually been earned are counted; weeks of annual leave, sickness absence or nil earnings are not included in the calculation. Neither are those where an individual has been in receipt of statutory payments such as paternity pay.

This means that you have to count backwards until the individual has twelve successful weeks of earnings.

In early 2019 the government stated that this twelve-week reference period punished those who work irregular and fluctuating weekly hours because they would receive less holiday pay after quieter times.

The government passed the Employment Rights (Employment Particulars and Paid Annual Leave) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 which come into force on 6 April 2020.

These Regulations increase the holiday pay reference period to 52 weeks.

From that date, holiday pay will need to be calculated on average hours worked over 52 weeks.

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Tribunal Details Embarrassing?

Tribunal Details Embarrassing?

Imagine this: an employee has taken you to the tribunal.

And then, with the tribunal settled, they ask the Court of Appeal to withhold the tribunal ruling from the public register because the details are “embarrassing”.

Are they allowed to do this?

Well, here’s what happened recently in the case of L v Q.

In L v Q Ltd 2019 L had brought claims of disability discrimination, harassment and victimization against his employer, Q Ltd (Q).

At the final hearing, L’s solicitors asked for the tribunal’s judgment to be anonymized and withheld from the public register. They submitted that L was embarrassed about aspects of his case and disability.

When the tribunal agreed to do this, Q appealed.

The Court of Appeal decided that, save for cases involving national security, there’s no explicit power to prohibit the publication of a judgment on the register.

The Court said that case details should not be edited to prevent potential embarrassment – whilst this can be unfortunate, all information should be available to assist readers in understanding the case.

However, the parties can be anonymised, but only where it’s deemed genuinely necessary.

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Filling The Gap In HR Services: Best Christmas Present

Filling The Gap In HR Services: Best Christmas Present.

As I have grown older and financially independent able to buy my own gadgets, the joy of getting Christmas presents is now a little bit muted.

Maybe you feel the same?

Giving gifts is still immensely enjoyable, but most of the things I want I am in the lucky position that I can just go out and buy.

So, I was blown away by my present from South Oxfordshire District Council.

Yes, a PRESENT from my local council.

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Filling The GAP In HR Services: Trawling Through Images

We had an interesting one this week. An ex-employee at one of our clients has she decided she wants her image to be removed from all company social media, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the websites, quoting GDPR and the “right to be forgotten” at them. Our client was not best pleased, as there are … Read more

Filling the GAP in HR services: How Not To Get A Dismissal Claim

There are times in life where less is more. For example, after you’ve said something nice like “I really enjoy your sense of humour” it’s probably best not to follow it with “…I don’t care what anyone else says about you!”. The same goes for unpleasant conversations like firing an employee for poor performance. One … Read more

Filling The GAP In HR Services: Changing Salary Willy Nilly……

Filling the GAP in HR services: Changing salary willy nilly…… I was speaking to a golf club chairman last week, and we got onto the subject of contracts; specifically the contract for the club manager. Turns out that the chairman didn’t want to put a salary in the contract, and that “back in the day”, … Read more

Filling the GAP in HR services: Let them say no

Filling the GAP in HR services: Let them say no I don’t have a sales or marketing manager here at Gap HR. I do it all myself, and there’s a simple reason why: I love it. But this summer, a vital part of marketing (the follow up) went a bit pear-shaped. We moved office and the … Read more

Filling The GAP In HR Services: Celebration Time

Filling The GAP In HR Services: Celebration Time We moved offices back in the summer, and now we’ve “sorted things out”, we want to throw an office warming! On Friday 6th December, 5pm  –  8pm, there is a Christmas Late Night Opening evening in Goring on Thames, and our office is right in the centre, … Read more

Filling the GAP in HR services: Shocked, pleased, embarrassed

Filling the GAP in HR services: Shocked, pleased, embarrassed I was in London recently, to see Hamilton, which is my son’s favourite play/soundtrack at the moment. He has listened to it hundreds of times and knows all the lyrics. So, for his birthday, which was in June, I booked tickets for as soon as they … Read more

Filling the GAP in HR services: First time for everything

Filling the GAP in HR services: First time for everything Over the years, I’ve had A LOT of questions related to the world of employment, but this week I had a question I’d never, ever had before: What to do when staff go on strike. The reason we’ve never had that question is because none … Read more

Filling the GAP in HR services: Don’t be a Loughborough

Filling the GAP in HR services: Don’t be a Loughborough I almost can’t believe I’m typing this, but I was at Warwick University at the weekend, looking around it with my daughter Frances. Honestly, the idea that she’s nearly at university age is slightly terrifying, but I’m doing my best to put that to the back of … Read more

Filling the GAP in HR services: tumble.angry.detriment

Filling the GAP in HR services: tumble.angry.detriment I came across an interesting article on the BBC website. It is about an app “what3words”. The team behind it have divided the whole planet into 57 trillion boxes, each of them 3 metres by 3 metres. Each box has a been given a unique 3 word reference. … Read more

Filling the GAP in HR services: Discrimination grievance

Filling the GAP in HR services: Discrimination grievance I was speaking to a lady this week who’s recently won a disability discrimination case against her ex employer. The employer, despite having in-house legal counsel, made many, many mistakes. One of which was to NOT carry out a proper investigation of a grievance. Patricia had raised a grievance against her … Read more

Filling the GAP in HR services: Named and shamed

Filling the GAP in HR services: Named and shamed I was at a networking meeting the other day, and – as you do – I ended up speaking to a business owner and trying to explain the point of HR to him. I say “trying”, because that is what he was being – trying! His … Read more

Filling the GAP in HR services: No more suspension.

Filling the GAP in HR services: No more suspension. Things change. But some things change more dramatically than others. For those of us who have read “1984” (spoiler alert: it is NOT an uplifting book!) one of the key parts of their world was the absolute change of direction and allies from one day to … Read more

Unlimited holiday for employees?!

One of the trendier ideas in the big companies, especially the Silicon Valley ones, is to offer an unlimited holidays policy to staff. For most employers, this will understandably seem like a scary concept – with most concerns centring around staff taking advantage. But when we delve deep into it, there are further problems than just being … Read more

Filling the GAP in HR services: Snowdon Walk

Filling the GAP in HR services: Snowdon Walk I walked up Snowdon last week. It was a great experience, made even better by the glorious sunshine and pleasant breeze that meant there was zero need for my expensively acquired waterproof trousers. It was my friend Claire and I that made the trip happen – we’ve been … Read more

Filling the GAP in HR services: Your invalid agreement

Filling the GAP in HR services: Your invalid agreement We’ve had a rash of settlement agreements to draw up recently. Usually we’re asked to do these because the business doesn’t want to go through a lengthy disciplinary process before possibly parting company. However, the struggle is usually getting the business to understand that they are not just … Read more

Filling the GAP in HR services: Preston Fairytale

Filling the GAP in HR services: Preston Fairytale I was up in Preston last week. I don’t generally venture that far up north, but I was asked to give a talk at a GCMA meeting up there, so it was well worth the trip. And here’s an admission: one of the reasons I love my trips … Read more

Filling the GAP in HR services: Perfect boots

Filling the GAP in HR services: Perfect boots I’m climbing Snowdon at the beginning of July. I’ve always loved walking, but I’ve only ever scaled the Welsh peak by train, so I jumped at the chance to take part. And with just over a month to go, I’ve started training to make sure I’m ready for it … Read more

Filling the GAP in HR services: Black box

Filling the GAP in HR services: Black box I had a somewhat stressful weekend. My daughter has just passed her driving test and as a condition of the insurance she needs to have a telematics black box fitted. The insurance company sent a helpful video where a young lady in a modern MINI fitted the box in … Read more

Filling the GAP in HR services: Why I stopped networking

Filling the GAP in HR services: Why I stopped networking I went to a group last week. I love networking. I enjoy the buzz of meeting new people, understanding more about different industries and hearing stories about how people have made sales and businesses in various areas and niches. But I don’t do it much … Read more

Working at 2.35am

We recently had a client whose staff member had decided to work all the hours of the night and weekend. She claimed that it was so busy that she had to work in the small hours of the morning, regularly sending emails at 2.35am, 4am, Saturday evenings at 10.45pm, and so on. Our client wasn’t … Read more

Filling the GAP in HR services: Handbook Bribery

Filling the GAP in HR services: Handbook Bribery We’ve recently been through the annual handbook update process – no mean feat with the number of golf clubs we support! The handbook gets updated as employment law changes and issues and problems our clients face arise. It’s our view that prevention is MUCH better than the … Read more

Filling the GAP in HR services: My court date

Filling the GAP in HR services: My court date I’ve now discovered the biggest deterrent to using the civil courts to sue for money owed to you: attempting to pay the trial fee so you can actually defend your case. I’m currently in dispute with a recruitment agency about a fee that I feel I should be … Read more

Filling the Gap in HR Services: It doesn’t get much lower than this….

Filling the Gap in HR Services: It doesn’t get much lower than this…. You are NOT going to believe the lengths that this employee went to avoid being sacked for non performance. He was employed last September in a sales role in a recruitment company. The company have really good sales software, so they could track what … Read more

Filling the Gap in HR services: A bit like an intern.

Filling the Gap in HR services: A bit like an intern. One of our clients contacted us recently about a “one-week work trial” for a potential new employee. Essentially they wanted the candidate to work for nothing, “a bit like an intern”, and if she was good, then they wanted us to put together a contract … Read more

Filling the Gap in HR services: Unfit to work, but not to meet…

Filling the Gap in HR services: Unfit to work, but not to meet… There are a lot of myths about sickness absence. One of the most common is the idea that an employee who is signed off sick is unfit to attend any meeting. Especially if they have been signed off for “stress at work”. This … Read more

Filling the Gap in HR Services: It’s like a foreign country…..

Filling the Gap in HR Services: It’s like a foreign country….. After Christmas, I went – with the kids – to Berlin and the Christmas markets. It was great have a Gluhwein (okay, a few), and to be back in Germany with the kids again, for the first time since 2011. I’m in Germany most years, … Read more

Filling the GAP in HR expertise: Getting more expensive….

Filling the GAP in HR expertise: Getting more expensive…. Well, we’ve made it past Christmas and the next significant date in the HR world is the 6 April. That’s when all the Statutory employment entitlements change. There is no legal requirement to inform your staff of the changes BUT we would recommend letting them know the change … Read more

Do I have to pay them during maternity leave?

Do I have to pay them during maternity leave? The issue of maternity pay has come up A LOT lately. We’ve had several calls from clients indignant that new staff members have now told them they are pregnant. So here’s the first thing: You can’t fire them for not telling you they are pregnant – they are not legally … Read more

People think I make this stuff up!

People think I make this stuff up! You couldn’t make it up. Most employers know, for good or bad, that it is tricky to dismiss a pregnant woman. But not impossible. There are ways to part company if performance or attitude is bad, and they involve documenting meetings, setting deadlines etc, so that you can prove that … Read more

He’s pregnant?!

He’s pregnant?! Under shared parental leave (introduced 2014) the husband, civil partner or partner of the pregnant women has the right to unpaid time off to attend up to 2 ante-natal appointments. Action: don’t laugh when a man asks for time off to go to an antenatal appointment.

Invasion of the identity snatchers

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 … Read more

Bye bye, Bob

Bye bye, Bob I’m back, with another story about the unbelievable states golf clubs get themselves into! In this particularly story, we’re on the employee’s side of the fence, rather than the Club. “Bob” was supposed to meet up with the chairman on Friday afternoon to have his weekly catch up meeting. However, on this occasion he … Read more

Dress policy is racist by omission

Dress policy is racist by omission When a new client comes on board, we update their handbook and contracts, explaining and agreeing the contents with them. This process can lead to some interesting conversations, with such an example presenting itself this week. While going through one of the contracts, we discussed the dress policy – which is … Read more

You should be Kean for this

You should be Kean for this Usually I steer clear of puns. They’re not my thing. But I couldn’t help it today. You see, in the last few months I’ve come across a lovely lady called Laura Kean, and her surname just lends itself so wonderfully towards positive puns that it almost felt wrong NOT to … Read more

Calories, not bargains

Calories, not bargains We went to our local bonfire night on Saturday. It was a fine evening – not too cold, but cold enough that we wanted some warm nibbles afterward. The fireworks were in a field in Wallingford, a mere 100m from a nice, spacious Waitrose. So, once the final bang had passed, we headed … Read more

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