The employer’s guide to maternity and paternity law
For all HR practicioners, dealing with maternity well is essential for talent retention, engagement and attraction as well as complicance with employment law. However with the new paternity rights as well it’s clear you need to make sure you work with your employees to help them fulfill their parental responsibilities as well as their careers. […]
Ask the expert: Providing a reference – what’s our duty to the employer?
The experts, Adam Partington and Esther Smith advise on whether a reference given should be updated to take account of a recent disciplinary hearing. The question: providing a reference – what’s our duty to the employer? About a week ago, we supplied a reference to a prospective employer of one of our employees. Our […]
Director who withheld £11k banned from running business
The director of a recruitment firm has been banned from running a similar business for seven years after withholding wages from staff. Christine Lewiss from Trimmingham near Norwich ran two recruitment firms, Rail Recruit UK Ltd and Rail Recruit UK Projects Ltd, which supplied employers with rail workers. The action was taken against her following […]
Auto-enrol pensions too costly for small businesses
Recommendations that all UK businesses should automatically enrol staff into a company pension scheme from 2012 will, if adopted, impose a damaging administrative and cost burden on small companies, an employers’ body has warned. The warning came as Steve Webb, the pensions minister, was expected to give the go ahead to the findings of a […]
Lancaster University acquires The Work Foundation
Lancaster University has acquired The Work Foundation after it was wound up due to a pension deficit. The 92-year-old workplace practices researcher and consultancy will continue to operate as a distinctive entity and its brand and work programmes will remain intact. It will stay at its Westminster headquarters and none of its 43 staff, including […]
Job creation plan: time to get real
The coalition government must act quickly to flesh out its National Infrastructure Plan to boost job creation and stimulate economic growth as it currently lacks the necessary specifics to generate business confidence, employers have warned. At business lobby group the CBI’s annual conference yesterday Prime Minister David Cameron outlined his “strategy for growth” for the […]
ConnectingHR – when the community came together
ConnectingHR was possibly the most eagerly-awaited date of the year for certain HR and social media enthusiasts. Having experienced the #TRU unconference format, I think I almost thought I knew what I was talking about. However, having joined the Yammer group set up in advance to discuss the day (after we bored all of our […]
The employer’s guide to: Redundancy
With the announcement of the public sector spending review the British public are braced for an age of austerity. This will almost certainly lead to extensive redundancy rounds, affecting both the public and also the private sector. This article looks at how an employer should go about getting a redundancy process right and minimising the […]
Immigration cap already too tight
Despite an overall drop in the use of temporary agency workers during September, the social care, logistics and manufacturing sectors are being hard hit by the coalition government’s temporary cap on skilled labour from outside Europe. According to a study undertaken by consultancy de Poel, which helps employers optimise their relationships with recruitment agencies, just […]
Shift in focus in training market
The global managed learning market is about to be hit by consolidation as the focus moves from improving the quality of clients’ service provision to demand planning, a provider has warned. According to AI Bird, learning consultancy director at KnowledgePool, while customers initially hired external specialists to buy and administer their training in order to […]
Employers warn extending paid maternity leave will add £2.5bn in payroll costs
Employers have reacted with dismay to a European Parliament vote extending paid maternity leave from 14 to 20 weeks, warning that the legislation will add £2.5bn in payroll costs and deter them from hiring new staff. Under the terms of the Pregnant Workers Directive, maternity leave will be extended to 20 weeks on full pay. Currently […]
Public sector job cuts likely to hit three quarters of a million
Public sector job cuts are likely to hit three quarters of a million rather than the implied 490,000 over the next few years as the coalition government looks to completely restructure service provision in the UK, an HR body has warned. The chancellor in his Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) announcement said that planned real cuts in […]
Call for Foundation Pension to offset increase to state pension age
A pension funds body has called for the creation of a universal Foundation Pension of £8,000 to offset the coalition government’s decision to increase the state pension age to 66 by 2020. In his Comprehensive Spending Review announcement yesterday, chancellor George Osborne revealed that the state pension age for both men and women would rise from […]
Lord Alan leads the call for realistic strategy to clear public sector deficit
The coalition government must lay out a clear strategy for economic growth if the private sector is to have enough confidence to create the positions required to absorb public sector job cuts, business leaders have warned. In the wake of the Comprehensive Spending Review announcement yesterday, Lord Alan Sugar, entrepreneur and star of the BBC's Apprentice […]
Risky business: Balancing the risk types in teams and organisations
One man’s risk taker is another one’s high performer, but you need to balance teams to create effective, sustainable success, says Geoff Trickey. The City was divided about Bob Diamond, the new CEO at Barclays, and so were the politicians and the media. For some he is the apotheosis of the dangerously reckless bankers who […]
The ultimate guide to the Equality Act
Michael Slade, managing director of employment specialists, Bibby Consulting & Support (previously mhl support) explains how the Equality Act may affect employers. 1 October 2010 saw the implementation of the Equality Act 2010. This is both an important and extensive review in the area of discrimination and equality. Periodically, employment law is codified and […]
Agency worker directive ‘not for review’
The coalition government has lost its standoff with the CBI and the TUC over attempts to water down legislation giving 1.3 million agency workers the same employment rights as permanent staff. Employment relations minster Ed Davey said that the government would not proceed with any amendments to the regulations, which come into force in October […]
Supporting employees out of the public sector
Reducing staff numbers is never easy, and is a problem most public sector organisations will face. The NHS has implemented an idea for employees to help lighten the load. The recent introduction of the Mutually Agreed Resignation Scheme (MARS), which has since been adopted by a number of NHS organisations, shows how the NHS is […]
610,000 jobs will be axed in the public sector by 2016
Some 610,000 jobs will be axed in the public sector by 2016 as a result of coalition government budget cuts of more than 50% in some departments, according to draft copies of today’s Comprehensive Spending Review document. The plans were unwittingly revealed yesterday by Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, when he fell foul of […]
Charities must improve leadership talent to tackle global challenges effectively
To tackle global challenges such as climate change effectively, international charities must improve their leadership-related talent and performance management processes and ensure that they work across interagency boundaries. This is because, over the next decade, it will no longer be possible to deal with issues ranging from climate change to global insecurity, scarce resources and increasing […]