No tribunal rights for first 2 years of employment……   With effect from April 6th 2012

Healthy New Year!!   Why not exercise your employees?

Time for Another Holiday!   Extra Bank Holiday 5th June 2012

5 Steps to Effective Delegation   Learning the steps

Increases to Statutory Payments   

No tribunal rights for first 2 years of employment……

With effect from April 6th 2012, employees will need two years’ continuous service with their employer before they can claim unfair dismissal at tribunal. This period has been extended from the previous requirement of 12 months. However, before employers start breathing a sigh of relief too soon, it is worth bearing in mind that there are 20+ exceptions where no period of service is needed before a claim can be brought. Examples include the following areas:

• Sex and race discrimination
• Age discrimination
• Disability discrimination
• Discrimination against a part-time employee
• Discrimination against someone on a fixed term contract
• Whistleblowing

The ‘no win, no fee’ brigade are finding ever more creative ways to sidestep the length of service requirement and seek a tribunal claim settlement. Employment lawyers are reporting more common use of the whistleblowing claim, where the employee claims the employer has sacked them specifically because the employee was trying to uncover wrongdoing. The most common version of this is where the employee says they had raised health and safety concerns which the employer ignored and then sacked them to ‘shut them up’.

So when you are contemplating ending someone’s employment with you, it’s always worth getting some advice, regardless of the length of service the person has – talk to PicassoHR and we’ll help you avoid the pitfalls…

Healthy New Year!!

So the Xmas holidays and party season are now behind us, and we have all (hopefully) returned to work with positive attitudes and are looking forward to a happy, healthy and successful New Year.

Now is the time for all those New Year Resolutions to be made and there is a good chance that top of the list among your employees will include:  to lead a healthier lifestyle; to lose weight; to take more/regular exercise.   

Having a healthy and motivated workforce will always be a benefit to your organisation so why not help them in keeping those resolutions.  One way to do this, which can also have a financial benefit to you as an Employer, is to introduce a “Cycle to Work” Scheme.  In essence, you loan your employee money to purchase a bicycle, which is repaid, typically over a 12 month period, via a salary sacrifice scheme.

Benefits include:

• Employers save up to 13.8% on NI contributions for the portion of the gross salary which is sacrificed
• Employees save on Tax and National Insurance and potentially on public transport costs/ personal petrol/diesel costs
• Fitter and healthier employees, and therefore potentially reduced absence rates
• Good for the environment – reducing carbon footprint!

You could be providing a popular employee benefit at no extra cost, but with potential benefits to your Organisation…..

Time for Another Holiday!

Whilst we all recover from the recent bout of bank holidays and annual leave, as we head into the New Year we should look at the year ahead as far as holidays are concerned, particularly if your holiday year also commences in January.

An additional bank holiday
This year there is an additional bank holiday on Tuesday 5th June to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.  Whether or not you give this to your employees depends on what is stated in your contracts of employment. 

If your contracts state “x days of annual leave plus bank holidays”, you’ll have to give your employees paid time off on June 5th.  If the contracts however state a total number of holidays inclusive of an entitlement to bank holidays, or clearly state the number of bank holidays to which an employee is entitled, then 5th June is discretionary and you can choose whether or not to give it.  Now is a good time to confirm to your employees whether or not you will be giving this additional day.

Remember that both part time and casual employees are entitled to a pro rata amount in respect of this additional bank holiday, if you give it.  This applies even if the part time employee does not usually work on Tuesdays and the casual employee is not required to work that day!

If you decide not to give this additional day you can explain that, if employees wish to take this day off, they will need to request the holiday day as per your holiday booking procedures.

Company shutdown
Although it seems a long way off, next Christmas will undoubtedly soon be here!  If you intend to have a Christmas Shutdown Period (or a shut down period at any other time of the year, you should confirm this to your employees and let them know how many days of their annual leave entitlement they will need to reserve to cover it.  Problems arise where employees use all their annual leave during the year and have none left to cover this period.  You should therefore ensure on an ongoing basis during the year that everyone does reserve sufficient days from their entitlement to cover this and advise any new employees joining the company during the year to do the same.

Additional annual leave entitlements
If your holiday year starts in January and you offer an increase in annual leave entitlement linked to length of service, now is a good time to check if any one is entitled to an additional day this year and advise them accordingly.  This is a benefit to the employee so a nice little letter thanking them for their loyalty and confirming the additional day usually goes down well!

Please call PicassoHR if you need our assistance with your annual leave calculations or any of the above.

5 Steps to Effective Delegation

If you are a business owner and you have got used to doing everything yourself, delegating can be very difficult, especially if you have a strong desire for control and quality.

Effective delegation is a skill that can be learned. When done well it can saves you time, develop your people, groom a successor and motivate. Poor delegation will cause you frustration, demotivate and confuse the other person, and fail to achieve the task or purpose itself. So it's a management skill that's worth improving.
There can be many reasons why people don’t delegate; don’t trust other people to do as good a job, fear of loss of control, fear that the other person will do a much better job than you, not enough time to delegate effectively!

Delegating will free up your time to work ‘on’ the business rather than ‘in’ it, but it’s vital that it is done correctly. So, here are our top 5 tips for effective delegation.

1. Be clear about why you are delegating and why this task. What should you not delegate?

• Tasks that are solely your responsibility and you have been asked to carry out personally.
• Overall responsibility for the task.
• Overall leadership of your team nor final accountability of your team’s work.

2. Select the individual team/group – why this individual or team? Ask yourself

• Do they have the required skills?
• Will it help develop them?
• Do they have the same work ethic as you?
• Do they have the capacity to take on additional work?

3. Explain and consult about the task – discuss with them;

• Why the job is being delegated and why to them
• What is its importance and relevance
• Their level of knowledge and ability
• The outcome required and how it will be measured
• Their level of authority and responsibility
• Time scales
• Resources needed
• Ensure they know how to do it or know where to go for help and advice

4. Show them what to do if necessary and provide necessary documentation and instructions. You must give the other person the opportunity to discuss, question and suggest issues concerning expectations attached to a delegated task.

5. Make clear at what stages they should provide a progress report to you but being available if they have any queries or need assistance in-between. Once they are ready let them get on with it and don’t keep looking over their shoulder! Provide feedback.

If you would like us to deliver a workshop for you and your team, please contact us on 01473 890037.

Increases to Statutory Payments

Effective from: 1st February 2012

The cap on a week’s pay for calculating Statutory Redundancy Payments will increase from £400.00 to £430.00 per week

Effective from: 1st April 2012

Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Leave increases from £128.73 to £135.45 per week

Note: the Lower Earnings Limit used to calculate an employee’s entitlement will increase from £102.00 to £107.00 per week and will be effective from the 6th April 2012

Effective from:  6th April 2012

Statutory Sick Pay increases from £81.60 to £85.85 per week

Note: the Lower Earnings Limit used to calculate an employee’s entitlement will increase from £102.00 to £107.00 per week

Government delays changes to Parental Leave

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has just announced that the increase in Parental Leave from 13 weeks to 18 weeks, which was due to come in from March 2012, will not now come into force until March 2013.

The information in this newsletter is of a general nature and is not a substitute for professional advice. You are recommended to obtain specific professional advice before you take any action.

For further information, advice or assistance on any of the matters raised in this newsletter please contact Picasso HR on 01473 890037.

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