It is clear that the government is trying to support employers and take steps to encourage them to take on more staff.
What is a continuing mystery, however, is why ministers repeatedly ignore the areas of greatest concern to business.
Such areas of concern range from the extremely high costs of employment and the removal of the default retirement age to a failure to address the unwillingness of employment tribunals to use the powers already given to them appropriately.
At the end of last year, however, another furore broke out when proposals by Adrian Beecroft for ‘compensated no fault dismissal’ legislation was leaked to the press. At the time the outcry was so great that you would have thought he was proposing the boiling alive of errant employees, before serving them with mint sauce for Sunday lunch.
Although nothing more has been heard of the proposals in very recent times, they could still see the light of day, albeit in a modified form and limited to specific areas such as new micro-companies. We shall have to wait and see.
A positive aspect of the proposals, however, is that many businesses would likely hire more people if it wasn’t so difficult to let them go later, even if they underperform, for example, or if times get tight.
Effective management
Employers are struggling under ridiculous burdens of cost and excessive admin, while suffering from a slowly dwindling employee work ethic and feelings of personal accountability.
Another problem is workers’ far greater insistence on their ‘human rights’, which are so often misquoted and misunderstood that it is unclear whether they have any idea of what they’re really asking for.
But the situation with employment tribunals also doesn’t help. Our experience (even when we win) is that tribunals are crazily lacking in commercial wherewithal, to the extent that one of our team refers to the process as “going to the casino”.
Nonetheless, I don’t necessarily believe that legislation in and of itself is the problem. We are where we are and at least we know what to expect from the tribunal system.
There are instead other factors contributing to the issue, which include the way that many employers manage. Ask yourself the question: ‘how appropriate is the management style in your organisation and are all of your employees meeting each of the organisation’s reasonable standards almost all of the time?’
The vast majority reading this will turn a little pink around the ears and admit that – ahem, maybe at least one or two of the team are performing somewhat below par. But that not is the government’s fault, a tribunal’s fault or anyone else’s fault but your own.
And if you haven’t already tried to deal with the situation, you are simply colluding with it by allowing all of the things that you complain about to continue happening routinely.
Tinkering at the edges
But it is quite easy to sort things out if you so choose. If you need guidance, there are a plethora of good books out there, including my own ‘How to Get Top Marks in … Managing Poor Work Performance’ (well, I would say that wouldn’t I?!)
The downside of Beecroft’s proposals, meanwhile, is that there is no real evidence to suggest they would stimulate economic growth. As a solution, his suggestions appear to simply tinker at the edges without addressing the underlying issues.
Moreover, there is also a risk that employers could use any new regulations in order to exploit their staff – a situation that is indefensible, particularly if leaders have not done their job properly. We all have a duty to manage ethically as well as firmly.
A further concern, however, is that the government has so far failed to take the comments of employers into consideration. In April, the new two-year service qualification rule comes into force. But it didn’t work before and it won’t work this time either.
As many employers have done, I have written to Dr Cable on several occasions to express my concerns, but have not even been given the courtesy of a reply.
The problem is that there is no real evidence to suggest that the government understands the wishes and requirements of small-to-medium businesses (which comprise more than 65% of all UK companies).
Therefore, it appears likely that they will fail to fix anything and employers will continue to employ reluctantly and only as an act of last resort.
Kate Russell is head of employment law and HR consultancy, Russell HR Consulting.
