Fire and Re-hire

What does Fire and Re-hire mean? Fire and Rehire is a practice where the employer wants to employ the employee on less favourable terms and conditions and effectively, the employer gives contractual notice of termination of their existing contract terms and then re-hires them on less favourable terms and conditions with the employee maintaining continuity […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Medical Certificates

Female doctor writing sick note

What is meant my medical certification? We all have different names for the same document – a note issued by the Doctor to certify that the employee is not fit for work. Sometimes, they’re called Fit notes, Medical Certificates, Doctor’s note, or maybe a Statement of Fitness for Work, Med 3 or sick note. Regardless […]

Christmas parties – the HR nightmare

Christmas Party celebration

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 […]

Probation Periods

Probation periods – what you need to know… It is common practice that when a new employee is recruited, they are advised that their employment is subject to a 3 or 6 month probation period. Everyone is familiar with the concept and the expression but how significant are they? Is a probation period a statutory […]

Managing Long Term Absence – when enough is enough

Managing long term absence

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 […]

Mental Health – conflict of interest

Mental Health

Mental health in the workplace is one of the most significant HR challenges and rarely is there a disciplinary or grievance issue or bullying investigation or a performance management issue where mental health is not referenced. It is an ever present in the workplace and it is important to understand from a legal standpoint that […]

Covid-19 Relaxation in the Workplace

Covid 19 Restrictions

“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 […]

Out of Court Settlements

Out of Court Settlement Agreements

In the world of HR Support, we spend much of our time sorting and settling cases before they get anywhere near an Employment Tribunals saving legal costs and the risk of reputational damage because Tribunal proceedings are open to the public. So, let’s answer a few questions? What are  Settlement agreements and ACAS COT3s? These […]

Personal Relationships at Work Q&A

Personal Relationship in the Workplace

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

man talking to woman with back turned

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 […]

Training Clawback Agreements

Training clawback agreement

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 […]

Confidentiality Clauses

People agreeing confidentiality clause

Confidentiality clauses protect employers and employees. During the course of their employment, an employee is under an implied duty of confidentiality and is therefore under an obligation not to disclose to unauthorised third parties confidential information and trade secrets about their employment obtained during the course of their employment. Why does it matter? This is important […]

Mental Health at Work – what employers need to know

Mental Health meeting between employee and employer

Everyone is talking about mental health at work and it is reasonable to assume that absence due to mental health issues is going to continue to increase and it is becoming a significant challenge. Mental Health and Medical Certification You don’t very often see a medical certificate that says the reason for absence is mental […]

Working Flexibly – not a statutory right

Flexible Working

Coronavirus has changed the way we work and millions of people have been working flexibly or working from home over the last few months. Job roles that we probably never thought would lend themselves to working flexibly and/or at home have been done very successfully away from the office core hours. For years, we have […]