The Gap HR Blog

Rounds are up, but people are down

Rounds are up, but people are down

Last week’s BRS Golf figures made interesting reading.

The number of rounds of golf so far this year is up 100% from the number played in the same period in 2019.

But the number of members of golf clubs? Down 6,000

If you’re still a member somewhere, this is all good news – more space, more tee times and so on and so forth.

For the golf clubs dependent on the subscriptions every year for your budget? Not so good.

It wasn’t all bad news – visitors were up by 21%, which goes some way towards plugging the gap, but the point is that not all revenue is created equal.

Whether you’re a private business or a golf club, recurring income makes life so much easier.

You can’t rely on “one-offs” to pay the increased electricity bill, but you can try to convert them to members so that you can rely on their payments.

Anyway, all this talk of the decreasing members reminded me of an article I wrote a while back, which is pretty pertinent to this subject – here it is below:

Honesty is not the best policy…

Honesty is not the best policy…

A client of ours had decided to terminate the employment of one their greenkeepers last week, but very nearly bungled the whole thing at the 11^th hour.

The greenkeeper in question had been there less than two years, had performed poorly for a long time, and had been called in for numerous performance meetings, and had continually failed to improve.

Open goal, right?

They spoke to us, and we explained exactly what they need to do: explain that they were letting him go, have a witness present just in case (they chose the Chair of Greens) and pay him a month’s notice. Job done.

It all went well at first.

AWOL

Awol

One of our clients called us at 10:30am on Monday – an employee was 90 minutes late and counting.

There’d heard nothing from him, no excuses or explanations, despite trying to call him.

What they wanted to know was whether they could just fire him on the spot.

The employee in question was a rather troublesome character, and they were already speaking to us about how they could part company with him.

So when he didn’t turn up, it seemed like all their Christmases had come at once.

Except they hadn’t – you can’t just “fire” someone if they don’t turn up for work.

Instead, here’s what you need to do:

10 outrageous excuses for not paying National Minimum Wage

10 outrageous excuses for not paying National Minimum Wage

WH Smith, Marks & Spencer and Argos are among more than 200 firms that have failed to pay workers legal national minimum wage (NMW). The employers were found to have failed to pay their workers almost £5 million in a clear breach of NMW law, leaving around 63,000 workers out of pocket.

The employers named previously underpaid workers in the following ways:

39% of employers deducted pay from workers’ wages.
39% of employers failed to pay workers correctly for their working time.
21% of employers paid the incorrect apprenticeship rate.

Whilst not all minimum wage underpayments are intentional, there is no excuse for underpaying workers. However, some employers have tried the most outrageous excuses to justify their failure to pay their workers NMW.

And before you read these, I want to clarify that these are genuine excuses that employers have given to HMRC enforcement officers – not a single one is made up:

Bad news for this employer!

Bad news for this employer! Usually I spend my time helping employers to stay the right side of employment law. But this week I found myself helping an employee. Her employer had given her a contract last year, which is impressive in itself – many employers don’t even bother with that! Sadly, the contract was … Read more

Dull as dishwater

I’m afraid it’s a slightly less whimsical note from me today, as I need to share something with you on whether employees should work their notice period. Yes, I agree, it’s dull as dishwater, but failure to do the right thing around notice periods can spell serious trouble. There are three options when notice has … Read more

Written warning from ChatGPT

Chances are you might have heard of ChatGPT. It’s been the talk of the town recently, with thousands of words written about how it’s going to take all the white-collar jobs away. I’m a big fan of tech (anything that’ll do the same job better or faster is worth exploring), so I thought I’d have … Read more

“How many bank holidays do I actually have to pay my staff for?”

We have another extra bank holiday this year for the coronation of King Charles. (It’s Monday 8 May, if you didn’t know). So I thought it would be a good time to brush up on what we do and don’t know about bank holidays. “How many bank holidays do I actually have to pay my staff … Read more

Terrible holiday pictures

I’m in Miami this week. Yes, it is amazing, thanks for asking. Florida is my kind of holiday to a tee – sun, sea, sand and a good book. But everyone’s different – some are sun worshippers like me, some prefer snow and apres ski, others like a safari or a city break. There is … Read more

The question on everyone’s lips

Now that everyone has stopped talking about the snow (it was lovely, but then, I didn’t need to go anywhere!), the next talking point at work is whether people are going to get paid for their “snow day”. The first place to look is your handbook, in your severe weather policy (you do have one, … Read more

10 minutes with the house manager was all it took

We recently took on a client who’d been accused of discrimination in the past, long before our involvement. They’d gone through a redundancy process in which everyone in the F&B department was put “at risk”. They went through the consultation period, did it by the book, and made one person redundant. So far, so good, … Read more

Settlement agreements and redundancy

A settlement agreement is where an employee gives up their right to bring legal action against their employer at the end of their employment, usually in exchange for payment.

Once an agreement has been reached, the employee has officially given up their right to bring a case against you in an employment tribunal.

It’s a useful option for many employers who are considering redundancy, for two reasons:

1. It protects the business
2. It also settles the end of the employee’s time in your employment, while still giving them something.

Bob punched me

One of our clients told me that their house manager was a confirmed liar the other day.

It seemed a trifle strange that they were saying it in such a matter-of-fact way, without having taking action on it, so I delved a little deeper.

Their most recent lie went a little like this…

There’d been a party at work, and then the team had decamped to the pub, leaving two staff members to follow behind:

The house manager and an apprentice.

Female and male. Older and younger. Both quite drunk.

A match made in heaven, right?

Pearly whites

Pearly whites

Watching American TV a lot, as I do (yes I know it’s trash, but entertaining trash!), you can’t help noticing the teeth.

Most people in the UK don’t give teeth much thought. OK, we brush them in the morning and at night, but do we ever think of them as one of the first things that people see when we meet them?

When we give a big, toothy smile, we are really letting the world know a lot about ourselves.

And this applies to businesses as well as individuals.

Is football a belief system?

Is football a belief system?

With the World Cup about to start, it’s worth remembering that – for some – football isn’t just a game.

It’s a way of life.

And as an employer that can present a bit of a problem, with staff claiming that it’s discrimination for you not to allow them to take a break during working time to watch the matches.

(Or you might find that a very important, 90-minute Zoom call just happens to coincide with a particularly important fixture.)

So, let’s examine the claim and look at a precedent…

Seven pints on camera

Seven pints on camera

You might know we run a weekly Zoom call, where you can drop in and get questions answered. (If you haven’t joined us before, here’s the link for next week’s session.

And there was a great question this week:

“Can I install CCTV with sound in my reception area?”

The answer? Well, maybe.

Obviously a black and white answer would be most helpful here, but it’s all a bit grey.

Visual CCTV is straightforward – you can do it as long as:

You couldn’t make it up

You couldn’t make it up

Make Most employers know, for good or bad, that it is tricky to dismiss a pregnant woman.

But not impossible.

There are ways to part the company if performance or attitude is bad, and they involve documenting meetings, setting deadlines etc so that you can prove that the pregnancy is not the reason you’re dismissing them.

So we were shocked into silence when we received a call from a client saying that he had received an Early Conciliation form from ACAS (the first step in a tribunal case).

He had obviously dismissed someone without talking to us, so we asked for the details.

“Well, she only has 3 months service…”

So far so good, there is no protection for unfair dismissal under 2 years’ service.

“And she is 6 months pregnant…”

Uh oh.

Advisors of Gap HR

In HR, there’s plenty of jostling to be the leader of the pack.

And we’re the leader of ours – true specialists in HR for private member golf clubs.

But that doesn’t mean we ignore what’s going on in the wider HR world – we like to keep an eye on other HR firms, to understand what is and isn’t working for them.

Last week though, it was them keeping an eye on us.

What is the current retirement age?

What is the current default retirement age?

I ask this during my presentations quite a bit, and get A LOT of different answers, with “65” being the most common

The real answer? There isn’t one. It was abolished in October 2011, with a short transition period where you were allowed to give your employees six months’ notice of retirement.

That concluded in 2012.

What does that mean for you as an employer?

Quite a bit as it happens.

If you know, you know

If you know, you know……

When it comes to disability discrimination, there’s a pretty important case – Stott vs Ralli Limited.

The employee in question put in a claim, saying she’d been discriminated against because of her disability; she had mental health issues and dyslexia.

But here’s the thing: her employer didn’t know that. She’d never raised it, and only brought it up in a grievance AFTER she’d been dismissed, a fact that she agreed with, albeit asserting that “somehow they should have known”.

So, no discrimination, no victory for Stott, and no compensation doled out.

A happy ending. But it doesn’t always happen, highlighting the need to do things the right way if you don’t want to lose at tribunal:

The metaphorical unicorn that this greenkeeper never saw

The metaphorical unicorn that this greenkeeper never saw

I was talking to a head greenkeeper the other day, and he was probing me about human resources-related stuff (occupational hazard!).

One of the things he was keen to know was whether there was a legal requirement for an employer to have a handbook that they gave to their staff.

I asked him why he was so interested, and I was pretty surprised by his answer:

“Because I was given my contract, which refers to the handbook a lot. So I asked the Club Manager for a copy of this handbook. He said I should think of it like a unicorn.”

As you can imagine, I was a little bit confused by this, so he elaborated…

Bank holiday for the Queen’s funeral

Bank holiday for the Queen’s funeral

There have been many millions of words already written about Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and I can’t hope to add anything meaningful to them – it is a seismic moment in our nation’s history, and I’m sure she will be missed greatly.

Practically speaking, the Queen’s death has resulted in a number of questions from a business perspective, I just thought it’d be helpful to give you as much information as I can.

When is the funeral?

The funeral will be held on Monday 19th September.

Will it be a bank holiday?

Yes!

Magnum PI

Magnum PI

One of our clients has a greenkeeper problem: he’s off sick far more than they’d like.

So far in this calendar year, he’s had 23 days off sick; all of them odd – a day or two here.

Which is more than everyone else in the club combined.

They haven’t been happy about the situation for a while but became even more incensed when the rumours started spreading that he was working somewhere else on his “sick” days.

The suspicion turned to conviction quite quickly, and they began telling us that they KNEW he was working somewhere else, and that his car had been “seen” outside another company.

It all seemed slightly fishy to us – the company in question isn’t on a main thoroughfare, so how could he have been “seen” enough times to be sure that that’s what he was doing.

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 that started after the trial.

Our answer?

“No.”

Unfortunately for our client, there is no legal definition of a “work trial”.

And you don’t want to be the one providing us with one by going to tribunal and paying a barrister £5,000 a day to argue your case.

The current default is that you HAVE to pay the national minimum wage to anyone working for longer than a day, and for reasons other than a recruitment assessment.

Which – before you ask – a one-week work trial isn’t.

I was on fire

I was on fire

I was at a Girl Guiding Day last week, helping out with some activities for Ukrainian and Afghan child refugees.

I was on fire.

Not literally, I just happened to be in charge of the fire activity, which as a casual pyromaniac, suited me down to the ground.

What I WAS nervous about was the language barrier.

Turns out I had no reason for nerves – their English was generally pretty good (much better than the zero words I could speak in either of their languages!).

And once I got into it, I just talked through everything I was doing.

Half-dead Dave

Half-dead Dave

You know, half-dead Dave, right? He’s been in accounts FOREVER.

Then there’s Yoda, who’s nearly as old as nearly deceased Dave, and MUST be close to retirement now.

Of course, you’ll know Jimmy Savile – we call him that not because of any crime he’s committed, but because he’s called Jimmy and his surname starts with ‘S’.

And finally, we’ve got Dolly – the Parton variety, who had to restrict his hours, and therefore we simply had to reference that he only works 9-5.

Birthday party booking

Birthday party booking

Running a business can be tough at the best of times.

But with taxes rising, inflation spiralling and everyone going on about the ‘cost of living crisis’, things are even more challenging.

Which – you might think – would result in companies trying harder than ever to acquire customers.

But it seems there are some people just coasting along and hoping for the best.

And I was reminded of this reality just the other day.

My son turned 18 this year, and back in February we started planning.

Just mowing the grass

Just mowing the grass

I was talking the Chair of Greens at a golf club recently, and they had a few challenges with getting enough greenkeepers to look after all the greens.

No matter, he told me, they had a Plan B.

The plan?

“I know a chap who mows my lawn – I’ll just ask him to come in and help us out”.

Before you get too outraged, this story is almost 100% fiction, but it raises an important point.

You see, no Chair of Greens would EVER suggest that solution.

Off to the States

Off to the States

I’m off to America this week.

It’s a holiday I’ve been anticipating for AGES, but the build-up has been fraught with anxiety, mainly thanks to the prospect of the flight being cancelled, or the baggage handlers going on strike.

To try and counteract the latter point, I decided just to take hand luggage.

And as soon as I did, my whole packing regime felt a lot less stressful.

Pincher by name…..

Pincher by name

Unless you’ve sworn off the media completely (and I wouldn’t blame you if you had), you’ll be well aware of the Pincher saga – the bad behaviour of MP Chris Pincher, and the government’s various attempts to deal with the situation.

What I’m more interested in is how the Carlton Club – the venue for the alleged events – are dealing with it.

So far there’s been radio silence from the club, and my guess is that they subscribe to the time-honoured approach of “having a quiet word” and asking him either to resign as a member or warn him that he will have to if anything like this happens again.

In theory, that’d be a nice, non-messy way to deal with it.

It rarely works out that way in practice.

Fit note frenzy?

Fit note frenzy?

It’s not the easiest time to be a business owner, what with staff shortages, inflation, cost of living, Brexit and Ukraine.

Which makes it the natural moment for the government to make your life even harder.

From next Friday, sick notes (officially Fit Notes) can be officially signed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and pharmacists.

Gone are the days when only GPs that could sign them, making it pretty easy to work out if they were genuine.

Not only has the number of people who can sign a note gone up, but as you may have already noticed, as of April 1^st this year, they’re now only digitally certified and not signed or stamped.

If They Don’t Have A Written Contract, What Holiday Pay Do I Have To Pay?

If They Don’t Have A Written Contract, What Holiday Pay Do I Have To Pay? If you’ve got workers who don’t have a written employment contract, there’s a few questions you probably have. It all comes back to what their rights are when it comes to employment law. But when it comes to holidays, what’s … Read more

You’re fired. But before you go…

You’re fired. But before you go…

The moment when Lord Sugar points the finger and gives the contestants their marching orders has gone down in TV folklore.

But I’ve never seen him ask someone to complete a task after firing them. After all, they’re fired: why would they?

Bizarrely though, we’ve seen employers attempting to do this a couple of times recently.

The first one was a club who’d made someone redundant after 20 years of service.

Just because you’re bored with it…

Just because you’re bored with it…

I went shopping last weekend.

The official reason was to buy birthday presents for others, but you know how things go:

I found myself in my favourite perfume shop, L’Occitane.

I’ve been wearing Oud & Rose since last summer, which I really love, so I thought I’d treat myself to a new bottle.

No.

They did have a perfume with Oud in it, but not the one I bought last August, as that’s been discontinued.

I wasn’t in the mood for something new, so I walked out.

Dodgy WhatsApp images

Your employees, however, well you get on with them, are there to earn money. Never forget this. So many small business owners make the mistake of treating employees like family or buddies. This is all well and good when things are going smoothly. But what happens when a downturn in business means you have to … Read more

Are they over yet?

Are they over yet?

Being a full-time business owner and mum is great. But it takes its toll in the summer.

I had a plan to write something about the whole ‘back to school’ period, but then I came across something written by a friend of mine, Sara Southey, which is beautifully put, so rather than write my own, I thought I’d just share it with you.

Enjoy….

Don’t get me wrong I love the summer holidays. Family time and seeing my kids chilled and happy without the school pressures is a blessing, mostly.

However, I run my business from home. I timetable my day so that I can always fit in my ‘me time’ around my work and the kids school hours.

What Is Their Notice Period If They Don’t Have A Contract?

Notice Period If They Don’t Have A Contract

When it comes to employment law and notice periods, one of the most common questions we’re asked is ‘what is their notice period if they don’t have a contract?’.

Of course, any worker you hire has rights under employment law, and employers also have rights when it comes to people leaving the business.

If you’ve got any staff members who are working without a contract, and you haven’t discussed a notice period and don’t have anything in writing…

Then you should expect the employee to give at least 1 week’s notice.

They may work a longer notice period but legally, they don’t have to – unless you’ve agreed to a longer notice period.

Do zero hours and casual workers need holiday pay?

Do zero hours workers need holiday pay? Yes! All employees earn holiday pay. It is also important to remember that part time employees cannot be discriminated against, which means that you cannot give them less holiday (pro rata) than full time workers. The reason for this is that the majority of zero hours or casual … Read more

Can I just fire zero hours and casual workers?

Can I just fire zero hours and casual workers? No! You can never “just fire” any employee. As an employer, you have a duty to make sure that you follow a fair and legal process when dealing with any employee. The easiest employees to dismiss are those under two years. If an employee has been … Read more

What is the notice period for a zero hours or casual worker?

What is the notice period for a zero hours or casual worker? As the employment term for a zero-hours or casual worker feels different to that of a full-time worker, most employers feel as though their notice period too should differ from that of a regular employee. Because zero hours or casual workers have the … Read more

It is great having Gap HR working with us for all our HR. Brilliant company.

Nick Jobson

05/12/2023

I absolutely enjoyed my recent experience working with Gap HR. There are several aspects of their service that stood out to me. Firstly, their responsiveness is truly remarkable. Gap HR consistently demonstrated the fastest response time to all our communications, which not only streamlined our processes but also instilled a sense of confidence in their support. Secondly, their expertise in HR solutions for medium and small businesses is unparalleled. Gap HR's in-depth knowledge and experience in this niche are highly valuable. Their ability to navigate the complexities of HR for smaller enterprises is a significant asset and brings peace of mind. Lastly, the team at Gap HR is an absolute pleasure to work with. Their caring and dedicated approach goes beyond the ordinary, making them not just service providers, but trusted partners. They bring a level of commitment that is truly exceptional, and it's evident that they genuinely care about the success and well-being of their clients. In summary, Gap HR has become our first and foremost point of contact for any employment law support. Their combination of responsiveness, expertise, and unwavering dedication makes them an invaluable resource in the realm of HR and employment law.

Alisa Tolmaciova

07/11/2023

I work for a local council and we began working with Gap HR a few months ago. I have found them an absolute pleasure to work with - very responsive, thorough and knowledgeable. Above all I feel that I am working with a friendly and empathic team who understand our needs and are dedicated to helping us achieve what we need to achieve. I am very grateful to have their support.

Claire Bird

11/10/2023

GAP HR has been supporting our business for a while now and they are very helpful and thorough in everything they assist us with, from the small to big issues. Great company to support your business. All staff are friendly and on point with all the knowledge they share. Thank you GAP-HR

Neath Afan Gymnastics And Activities

15/09/2023

It has been great working with Gap HR, their guidance has helped immensely with the day to day running of the business. The whole team are extremely responsive and knowledgeable which makes the experience a pleasurable one.

Will Cairns

27/06/2023

Great support from the whole team. The knowledge, advice and support that Gap HR give is second to none. They give me the confidence to know that i am doing the right thing. 👍

Jeff Wicks

06/06/2023

We are really delighted to have hooked up with Gap HR Services Limited – the team interpreted our brief perfectly and their advice and assistance was delivered in both a pragmatic and professional way. A big THANK YOU to both Carolyne and Cathy who steered us through the legislation with a best practice and smart approach. Gap HR’s sense of urgency in fulfilment and delivery matched our own so we can do nothing but positively recommend the team for your HR needs.

BCAS Ltd

28/04/2023

We receive excellent advice and service from the team at Gap. Professional, but helpful with any question big or small. They save us from many hours of debating if we should do x or y - just email Gap is the answer, which makes it easy for us and minimises mistakes - thank you Gap HR!

Jacqueline Shields

24/04/2023

Brilliant company and I highly recommend their services, professional HR services.

Robert Creer

13/01/2023

I have been using GapHR for many years and find them a great company to work with. All of the team I have worked with are very professional and experienced in many areas. I would highly recommend using GapHR as there services are fantastic.

Tommy Fisher

11/01/2023

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