Expectant Mothers – Risk Assessment

Normally, when an employee advises the employer that they are pregnant, the employer will say “congratulations” to the expectant mother. However, depending on their job role, you may have to consider whether there are any aspects of the employee’s job which could be putting the expectant mother and unborn child at risk. This isn’t scare-mongering […]

Managing Menopause in the Workplace

The Menopause continues to be one of the biggest HR hot topics in the workplace. Why? The legal context The Menopause is effectively covered by various strands of legislation. Under the Equality Act, 2010, the Menopause is potentially covered under 3 protected characteristics – age, sex and disability. Also, the Health and Safety at Work […]

Employment law – upcoming changes and what you need to know.

In this article we’ll take a look at the upcoming changes to Employment law and what you need to know. Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023 Pregnant employees or those returning from maternity, adoption, or shared parental leave will be protected from redundancy. It will be the employer’s duty to offer these […]

Employee Loans

Employee Loans We are living through a cost of living crisis and employees are facing increases to all their utilities bills, rent and mortgage payments are going up and they struggle to make ends meet from one payday to the next. So, in amongst all this, employees are turning to their employers for either an […]

Interview Feedback

The vast majority of people who go for a job interview will say that they receive little or no feedback about how they performed. Candidates don’t normally receive any feedback other than a rejection and whilst some may say this is disappointing, it is clear that there are 2 opposing points of view that need […]

Christmas parties – the HR nightmare

It’s party time. The Christmas party should be fun and festive but for employers it can also be the worst nightmare with all the issues associated with unwanted advances, religious discrimination, drink driving, drugs, pictures on social media or dealing with the employee who fails to turn up the next day because they are too […]

Employment that comes with Accommodation

It is not uncommon for an employee’s employment to include the provision of accommodation. This may come about in many different ways – for instance – Residential tutors in the Education setting Accommodation on site for a school caretaker Chefs with Rooms in the hotel/hospitality sector Farm workers who have a cottage on the farm […]

Managing Cancer in the Workplace

At some point every business will be impacted by an employee who comes in with the dreaded words that they are either going through tests for cancer or they have had a diagnosis. So, what is the position and how should a Company manage the situation? The simple and generic answer is that the employer […]

SOSR Dismissals

You could easily be forgiven for not having heard of  SOSR Dismissals– some other substantial reason – dismissal. So, let’s explain. An employer can fairly dismiss an employee for one of the 5 “fair reasons” Capability Conduct Redundancy Breach of a statutory restriction Some other substantial reason. SOSR is sometimes seen as the last resort […]

Managing Long Term Absence – when enough is enough

The Employment Rights Act clearly states that it is fair to dismiss an employee for reasons related to “capability”. There will come a point when an employee who is absent through long term sickness is incapable of doing the job they’re employed to do but the question is – when is that time? There is […]

Job Descriptions

What is a job description? A job description – often just called a JD – is a documentation of the scope, duties, tasks, responsibilities and accountabilities of a job and also in many cases sets out through a person specification a summary of the skills, experience, competences, attributes and personal qualities etc that the potential […]

Covid-19 Relaxation in the Workplace

“I’ve not had a day off sick in 20 years……!” How many times have you heard employees say that they haven’t had a day off sick for 20 years? There is a perception that it is said in such a way that we are meant to be very impressed and they deserve a medal but […]

Personal Relationships at Work Q&A

Given that we spend so much of our time in or around the workplace, there is an inevitability that employees will find themselves embroiled in personal relationships at work. So, what are the issues? And whilst this may seem like a ridiculous question – what is a relationship at work? Personal relationships at work are […]

Relationships at Work

Given that we spend so much of our time in or around the workplace, there is an inevitability that employees will find themselves embroiled in personal relationships at work. So, what are the issues? And whilst this may seem like a ridiculous question – what is a relationship at work? Let’s deal with the latter […]

What is HR Support?

Our message at AB HR Solutions is simple – we provide HR Support to business. But what does this mean? It does NOT mean that we become your out-sourced HR Department. Our value added model provides HR Support to businesses – often SMEs – who are not large enough to need a dedicated HR team […]

Training Clawback Agreements

There has been a significant increase in situations where a Company wants to recover the cost of training from an employee where the employee leaves the Company soon after the training has been completed. This is where introducing a training clawback agreement can be useful.  The idea of recovering of training costs is not new but the high cost […]

Redundancy Myths

With gloom about redundancy all around us, it is important to get to know the facts from the myths as there are so many people saying things about redundancy that aren’t true. Let’s look at some common misunderstandings about redundancy… The employer has to consult with employees about redundancy for 30 days Not true – […]

HR Solutions – impact assessments

HR solutions – impact assessments   When considering how to deal with difficult people situations, business owners should do an impact assessment. What is an impact assessment? An impact assessment will consider the risk and impact to the business of a proposed course of action as well as the likelihood and probability. We all do […]

10 compelling reasons why a business needs HR Support

There are many reasons why a business may need HR support, including advice on legislation and to use as a sounding board when conflict arises.

10 points to remember about Redundancy

Redundancy – gone are the days when you would call someone into the office and make them redundant. A business cannot cut corners by circumventing process.