Filling the GAP in HR services: Audible Subscription-Filling the GAP in HR services: Audible Subscription I love listening to podcasts. I’ve got my favourites – “No Such Thing As A Fish” and “The Infinite Monkey Cage” have been the pick of the bunch over the last year or so. But when we went into lockdown, I rapidly “used up” all my podcasts, ... Read more
Filling the GAP in HR services: Tequila and TV-Filling the GAP in HR services: Tequila and TV We’ve all had our vices during the lockdown. A bar of Dairy Milk for some people, a glass of red wine for others. Mine? Tequila and television. Don’t worry, I haven’t let my liking for the Mexican liquid get the better of me – I’m not ... Read more
Filling the GAP in HR Services: Night Owl-Filling the GAP in HR Services: Night Owl I’m a night owl. Always have been. Getting up at the crack of dawn has never been my thing, and consistently I’ve done my best work and had my best ideas once the sun has dipped below the horizon. But, being a mother of two, I’ve had ... Read more
Filling the GAP in HR services: Dirty little habit of mine-Filling the GAP in HR services: Dirty little habit of mine. Since “lockdown” began, we’ve all been closer to our nearest and dearest than we ever thought we would be. And in this strange, coronavirus world, some of our loved ones’ habits are bound to be seen as cause for justifiable manslaughter – “If he ... Read more
Filling the Gap in HR Services: Caribbean in Oxfordshire-Filling the Gap in HR Services: Caribbean in Oxfordshire As we enter yet another weekend in lockdown, albeit one with cooler weather on the horizon, I can’t help but cast my mind back to last weekend. It really was lovely – one of the nicest Easter weekends I’ve ever experienced; so different from the ones ... Read more
Filling the GAP in HR Services: Eight Whole Hours-Filling the GAP in HR Services: Eight Whole Hours I’ve been spending a lot of time on Zoom recently. I’m sure you have too. But when I say “a lot of time”, I don’t mean a 30-minute team meeting and a pub quiz in the evening. I mean hours and hours and hours – an ... Read more
Filling the GAP in HR Services: A very lovely silver lining-Filling the GAP in HR Services: A very lovely silver lining Last night, I realised that the isolation is playing into the hands of one of my favourite creatures: Hedgehogs. I’ve been a fan of the little snuffly animals for a while – we have a family of three living under next door’s shed, and ... Read more
Filling the Gap in HR Services: Blindsided-Filling the Gap in HR Services: Blindsided We were all worried about the effects that Brexit would have on our businesses, and now we’ve been blindsided by Covid-19. Clearly the next few weeks will make running a business and dealing with staff particularly challenging, so I just thought I’d drop you a quick line to ... Read more
Filling the GAP in HR Services: Coronavirus Employer Update-Filling the GAP in HR Services: Coronavirus Employer Update If you are struggling, here are some options: Reduce all the zero hours people to zero hours, if you have them. How much you still have to pay other staff? Do still need to make cuts? Next step would be to fire all staff under 2 ... Read more
Filling the GAP in HR services: HR update – Coronavirus-Filling the GAP in HR services: HR update – Coronavirus Latest employer related updates regarding coronavirus: Statutory sick pay is now to be paid from day one of illness. No other changes to the amount paid or for how long – 28 weeks. The Chancellor said that SSP for all companies with fewer than 250 ... Read more
Filling the GAP in HR Services: Being Grounded-Filling the GAP in HR Services: Being Grounded As I write this, we’re at the end of the second day of full lockdown, or “being grounded” as I like to refer to it. And what amazes me is how the media is rubbing salt in our wounds, by playing out of date TV and radio ... Read more
Filling the GAP in HR services: No planned perspiration-Filling the GAP in HR services: No planned perspiration I went up to London with Frances and Christopher at the weekend. I’d booked the Mischief Theatre’s Magic Goes Wrong at the Vaudeville Theatre, so we hopped on the train and off we went. I printed the tickets, checked the route in London, and although it ... Read more
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 ... Read more
Filling The GAP In HR Services: Refusing To Get Money From The Government?!-Filling the GAP in HR services: Refusing to get money from the Government?! Just before Christmas I read about a small employer trying to save money. Nothing wrong with that, but only if you’re sensible about it. This company wasn’t. Instead, they’ve ended up in tribunal after telling a pregnant employee that it was the ... Read more
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 ... Read more
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 ... Read more
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
