General

Employee Engagement

February 8, 2012 |

Author Tim

What is an engaged employee?

An engaged employee gives freely, they feel their jobs are worthwhile and the work inspires them to do their best.

Employee engagement can be seen as a combination of commitment to the organisation and its values and a personal willingness to contribute as part of a team. It goes beyond job satisfaction and is not simply motivation. Engagement is something the employee offers; it is not just what is defined in a job description or required as part of the employment contract.

Employee engagement is the product of the way people are managed, employee attitudes and business performance.

How does an employer benefit from an engaged workforce?

Employers benefit from engaged employees because they deliver improved business performance.

Engaged employees will help promote the business and protect the employer from the risks associated with poor service levels or product quality. This will help to develop a strong employer brand which in turn will help to attract and retain employees.

How do I recognise a work force that is not engaged?

In general a workforce that is not engaged will be evidenced by:

High levels of short term absences
Increased staff turnover
Reduction in quality of products or service.
Increased customer complaints
Poor performance leading to discipline & grievance issues
Higher costs and reduced profit

How do you build an engaged workforce?

A business consultant’s normal approach might be to recommend that you carry out an employee survey to measure employee attitudes but if you do not have a number of the key building blocks in place all a survey will identify will be a number of current issues that should be obvious to the management and are possibly the direct result of not already having those basic blocks in place.

Additionally, an employee attitude survey will either raise scepticism or an expectation that because a matter has been raised it will be immediately addressed. Unfortunately, in reality, the problems are generally more deeply seated and, again as the basic building blocks are not in place, cannot be easily resolved, resulting in cynicism and an even less engaged work force.

HR Management Support approach to building an engaged workforce.

Firstly, do not refer to an employee engagement programme as the employee engagement will be the outcome of introducing business strategies which include performance management and development policies and the active support of line managers. The people management strategies and policies need to be aligned with those of the wider business. Employees need to understand how their work can contribute to the organisation’s strategic goals.

Do employees know what is expected of them?
- Is the job defined
- Have SMART objectives been set
- Are regular performance review meetings held
- Is regular feedback provided
Do employees have the skills and competencies necessary to carry out their jobs?
- Are training needs identified
- Are learning and development opportunities available
Do employees have the opportunity to discuss and contribute to individual and team objectives
- Are regular team and department briefings held
- Are employees actively involved in the setting and measurement of performance targets
- Are employees recognised for their individual or team contributions
Are there clear and consistently applied policies and procedures in place?
- Are all employees treated fairly and equally

For further advice and guidance on helping to achieve employee engagement of your workforce contact HR Management Support Ltd.

Posted in General, Managing People |

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Auto Enrolment – Employers new pension obligations

January 27, 2012 |

Author Tim

From October 2012 all employers with at least one worker in the UK will need to automatically enrol certain members of their workforce into a pension scheme. As an employer you will need to make a contribution to it and ensure that you meet all of the new requirements to comply with the law (even if you already offer pension arrangements for your workers you will still have some new obligations to meet).

When will this affect me?

The new employer duties for auto enrolment will be introduced in stages over 4 years starting later this year. Each employer will be allocated a date from when the changes will first apply to them, known as the “staging date”. The first staging date will be in October 2012 and will continue through to 2017.

Your staging date will be based on the number of people that you have in your PAYE scheme and employers with the largest number of workers will have the earliest staging dates. The Pensions Regulator will contact you 6-12 months before your staging date but it would be prudent to start looking at the effects this will have on your business sooner rather than later.

Employers with 250 or more staff are being staged in from 1 October 2012 to 1 February 2014 with the largest employers coming in first. Their staging timetable hasn’t changed.

Employers with 50 to 249 members of staff will be staged in from 1 April 2014 to 1 April 2015.

Employers with 30-49 staff will be staged in from 1 August 2015 to 1 October 2015.

Employers with less than 30 members of staff will be staged in from 1 January 2016 to 1 April 2017.

To find out what your staging date is likely to be you can visit The Pensions Regulator website at:

www.tpr.gov.uk/staging

What employers will need to do to comply with the law

Employers will need to:

Automatically enrol certain workers into a pension scheme
Provide a qualifying scheme and inform all workers what type of scheme has been chosen
Pay employer contributions for eligible jobholders into the scheme
Tell all eligible jobholders that they have automatically been enrolled and that they have the right to opt out if they want to do so
Provide workers with certain information about the changes and how they will affect them
Inform workers that do not fall into the “eligible” category that they can opt in to the pensions scheme
Register with The Pensions Regulator and give detail of your qualifying scheme and the number of people that you have automatically enrolled.

Employers must not:

Encourage workers to opt out of the qualifying pension scheme
Have recruitment practices that will benefit job applicants who indicate they are prepared to opt out
Treat a worker unfairly or put them at a disadvantage because of automatic enrolment.

Which employees will I need to automatically enrol?

Workers who need to be automatically enrolled are called “eligible jobholders”.

An eligible jobholder is:

Aged between 22 and state pension age
Working, or ordinarily working in the UK
Earning above a certain amount (currently proposed to be £7,475).

To identify if a person is earning above or below the lower earnings limit (£7,475) you will need to include earnings in salary, overtime, commission, bonuses, sick pay, maternity, paternity and adoption pay. This calculation will then give you the workers “qualifying earnings”.

It may be possible for employers to defer this assessment – by allowing a “waiting period” of up to 3 months. More guidance on waiting periods will be published by The Pensions Regulator shortly.

What pension characteristics will my scheme be required to have to meet the new legislation?

Employers with an auto enrolment duty will need to choose a pension scheme they can use for auto enrolment. You may use an existing scheme or set up a new one with a pension provider. In addition, there is the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST). NEST is a pension scheme with the following characteristics:

It has a public service obligation, meaning it must accept all employers who apply
It has been established by Government to ensure that employers can access pension saving and comply with their automatic enrolment duties.

Each pension scheme will have its own rules, but all employers will need to provide their scheme with information about the person who is being automatically enrolled. In addition your scheme must:

Be able to auto-enrol jobholders within one month of their auto-enrolment date
Meet minimum requirements that differ depending upon whether the scheme is a money purchase or final salary arrangement
Not require the employee to make any choice about funds in order to be a member
Not put any barrier on membership other than a three month waiting or postponement period after the employee first becomes eligible
Have a legally binding obligation on the employer to make the necessary minimum contributions (many existing group personal pensions or stakeholder schemes do not have this in place).

If your current scheme does not meet this criterion then you may have to amend your existing scheme or select a new scheme that is compliant such as NEST.

Employers who already have a pension scheme can confirm that it is suitable for automatic enrolment by a process called “certification”. The Pension Scheme Regulator will contact you 6-12 months before your staging date to confirm your arrangements.

What should I do now to prepare?

Review your current pension arrangements
Identify if you have the expertise in house to manage the process or if you require the services of an HR Management Support consultant
Identify any potential job holders, job roles or situations where auto-enrolment may not apply
Contact your current pension provider to identify if the scheme is going to be auto-enrolment compliant and meet the new legislative criteria
Identify budget implications and review the potential for using salary sacrifice to help fund the costs of auto-enrolment
Identify when your staging date is likely to be.

More details relating to auto enrolment can be found on the Pension Regulator website www.tpr.gov.uk/staging

Posted in Employment Policy Guidance, General, Pension |

Tags: 1 April, 12 Months, Auto New, Certain Workers, Employer Contributions, Employer Duties, Gov Uk, Hasn, Pension Arrangements, Pension Obligations, Pension Scheme, Pensions, Regulator Website, Staging, Timetable, Tpr, Workforce |

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Games Makers or Spectators – Time off during the Olympics 2012

January 18, 2012 |

Author Tim

Dealing with requests for time off work during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

During the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games events will take place at venues in the Olympic Park, across London, and at the following out of London venues:

Brands Hatch
City of Coventry Stadium
Eton Dorney
Hadleigh Farm
Hampden Park
Lee Valley White Water Centre
Millennium Stadium
Old Trafford
St James’ Park
Weymouth and Portland

The Olympic Games start on 27 July 2012 and run until 12 August 2012.

The Paralympic Games begin on 29 August 2012 and close on 9 September 2012.

Some of your staff may already be asking you for time off because they have volunteered to help at the Olympic Games or want to attend as a spectator at the London 2012 Games.

The Games will rely on about 70,000 volunteers called “Games Makers”. Games Makers will undertake a wide range of roles. Many of these may be behind the scenes or may require working anti-social hours. Some may have to work off-site in a warehouse distributing uniforms; others will be outside exposed to the elements for hours on end.

Games Makers will be required to commit to a minimum of 10 days at either the Olympic or the Paralympic Games, or for a minimum of 20 days if they want to volunteer at both.

For the Olympic officials coordinating the volunteers will be a complex operation, so volunteers will need to be as flexible as possible but once a roster has been allocated Games Makers will not be able to change their shifts.

Games Makers will be given their roster in April 2012, so employers can be given a couple of months’ holiday notice.

With around 6 months to go until the Olympics, it is recommended that, to avoid any last-minute hurdles employers should be preparing for staff being away from work either as volunteer Games Makers or simply spectators at the numerous events.

Employers should start talking to employees now who are volunteering during the 2012 Games or have acquired tickets to go along to one or more of the events in order to manage expectations and minimise the impact on workplace productivity.

The key to avoiding potential misunderstanding or conflict is to have a clear policy in advance and communicate this to all staff – that way, everyone knows where they stand and you look after your business needs. Your policy need not be very complicated – a simple process of ‘first come, first served’ may be enough.

Employees have no legal right to take time off for volunteering. You can decide to give paid or unpaid time off or, if not, the employee may wish to take annual leave.

Annual Leave – the basics

When an employee starts work details of holidays and holiday pay entitlement should be found in the employee’s written contract, where there is one, or a written statement of employment particulars given to employees by their employer.

Most workers – whether part-time or full-time – are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave. Additional annual leave may be agreed as part of a worker’s contract. A week of leave should allow workers to be away from work for a week – i.e. it should be the same amount of time as the working week. If a worker does a five-day week, he or she is entitled to 28 days leave. If he or she does a three-day week, the pro rata entitlement is 16.8 days leave. Employees who work irregular work patterns accrue leave at a minimum rate of 12.07% of each hour worked.

Employers can set the times that workers take their leave, for example for a Christmas shutdown. If a worker’s employment ends, he or she has a right to be paid for the leave time due and not taken.

Public or Bank Holidays

There is no legal right to paid leave for public holidays; any rights to paid time off for these holidays depends on the terms of a worker’s contract. Paid public holidays can be counted as part of the statutory 5.6 weeks of holiday.

How much notice should be given when requesting leave?

Employers and employees can agree how and when to give notice of when leave is to be taken. But in the absence of any agreement the notice period should be at least twice the period of leave to be taken.

Can an employer refuse leave?

Restrictions on taking holidays may be stated in the contract of employment, implied from custom or practice, or incorporated into individual contracts from a collective agreement.

Employers may choose to:

Shut down for certain periods where workers have to use their annual entitlement;
Nominate particular dates as days of closure when workers are expected to take annual leave;
Determine the maximum amounts of leave that can be taken on any one occasion and also the periods when leave may be taken;
Determine the number of workers who can be off at any one time.

How do you calculate holiday pay for workers with no normal working hours?

If a worker has no normal working hours then a week’s pay is the average pay received over the preceding 12 weeks. Any weeks for which no pay was due should be replaced by the least previous week for which pay was due.

Contact HR Management Support if you need any further guidance on managing applications for time off from Games Makers during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Posted in Employment Policy Guidance, Managing People |

Tags: 29 August, 9 September, Brands Hatch, End Games, Eton, Hadleigh, Hampden Park, James Park, London 2012, London Venues, Millennium Stadium, Old Trafford, Olympic Games, Olympic Officials, Olympic Park, Olympics 2012, Paralympic Games, St James Park, Weymouth, White Water |

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Successful Restructuring and Redundancy programmes

January 13, 2012 |

Author Tim

Successful Restructuring and Redundancy programmes

Varying economic times dictate a company’s actions. Financial uncertainty can lead to companies closing and laying off workers, while an economic upturn can encourage acquisitions and mergers. No matter what the economic climate a company needs to follow a structured plan to ensure a smooth process as they go through major corporate transactions and restructurings.

From mergers, acquisitions, reduced demand for products or services, changes in technology and plant closures careful handling of restructuring and redundancy is essential to minimise the risks and comply with employment legislation and employee relations issues.

Companies engaged in a restructure involving redundancy or redeployment often face a difficult period in terms of managing employee relations, costs, risk and productivity. These factors may also be balanced with the desire of the management to do the right thing by their staff. An objective assessment approach enables a company to provide a fair and defensible process, and allows it to see where their talent lies to help the business move forward following a restructure.

The use of clear and structured assessment criteria in redundancy or redeployment processes greatly benefits the business by:

By providing a fair and defensible selection process employees are less likely to appeal against final decisions
Allowing the company to identify talented individuals and effectively match skills in the population to future requirements
Providing development opportunities through feedback, to both retained employees and those leaving the company

The following steps help to ensure a fair and defensible assessment process, which in turn facilitate positive outcomes for the business and the individuals involved.

1 – Have Clear Objectives

At the start of any project it is imperative that the organisation and key stakeholders are all clear about the objectives of the process. Without clarification of the goal, it is hard to ensure a process will be designed and delivered that will meet the success criteria. Whoever first identifies the need for redeployment/redundancy must have a rationale in mind and it is important that this is explored, understood and accepted by those involved in the roll out of the process.

What are the success criteria?
What are the proposed outcomes and business factors determining the change?
Are you looking to assess against current role performance or future requirements?
Who are the population likely to be impacted?
Will volunteers from outside the affected population be accepted?
What is the proposed approach to support objective decision makers (Assessment Centre, psychometrics, interviews etc)?
Who are the key decision makers and stakeholders to engage with?
Ensure HR representatives are present at all briefings to advise and guide managers, manage questions and feedback key issues raised to the decision makers.

2 – Communicate with Employee Representatives and Unions

As a first step in the redundancy or redeployment process, a procedure should be put in place and communicated internally to employees and their representatives. This benefits all parties by helping to ensure fair treatment. By openly sharing information, the process is more likely to be understood and will demonstrate the company’s continued concern for their employees.

Communicate the policy, process and any updates to employee representatives and/or trade unions as soon as possible.
Sharing and agreeing points with employee representatives and/or trade unions allows all parties the opportunity to influence the policy before any changes are made, therefore helping to reduce the likelihood of appeals at the end of the process.
Provide details about the retraining, transfer and redeployment opportunities available.
Consider and design a redundancy appeals procedure to deal with complaints from employees who feel that the selection/assessment procedure has been unfairly applied to them. This could be achieved by setting up a committee of management and employee representatives to consider individual grievances and any subsequent remedies.

3 – Communicate the Process

People are naturally concerned and apprehensive about the unknown, so clear communications can help to ensure clarity and a thorough understanding of upcoming events. Ongoing communication and support can help to put people at ease during a redundancy or redeployment process. It is also advisable to provide information to employees on what to expect and what the process will involve.

Try to minimise uncertainty: announce plans to all involved hierarchically and simultaneously according to job level and provide an initial briefing document to respond to any immediate queries.
Advise in writing all employees who are “At Risk” and those who are not involved in the process.
Explain to staff the decision making. This can be done through either a briefing document or face to face group briefings
It is helpful to have a full briefing immediately prior to the first assessment interviews being undertaken. Here, you can introduce the employees to the personnel that are involved and make sure they are clear about what the assessment will be like.
Gaining the buy-in of the senior operational manager who fully understands what is involved emphasises the business support towards the process.

4 – Understand what to Assess

An important element in designing a successful process is ensuring that the criteria for selection are directly relevant to the roles being reviewed. In order to do this, some form of job analysis should be conducted. This involves talking to, and possibly observing, people currently in the affected roles to identify the behaviours demonstrated (which will be assessed), the types of tasks completed (which will inform the choice or design of exercises) and the level of behaviours required for success (which will become the benchmark for identifying effective employees).

Whilst it is ideal to speak with individuals already in role, during a redundancy or redeployment process these individuals are likely to be going through the process themselves.
If new jobs are being created, or if roles are changing, observing people in current roles may not be appropriate. Even if this is the case, it is still important for some kind of job analysis to occur, as if a participant appeals their Assessment interview outcome, evidence would be needed to show why specific behaviours and benchmarks were chosen.

In these situations, job analysis could be conducted with:
- Directors or those leading the restructure to understand the drivers of change
- Senior managers who can project what behaviours they anticipate being required in any new or changed roles
- Customers who can outline what their current needs are, or how these might change in the future
Draw up a matrix of all required skills and behaviours and rate them on priority and importance.

5 – Manage Special Requirements

When designing the assessment process, it is important to consider how individuals who may have special requirements can access the assessment process. There are many types of special requirements to consider, with some of the most common ones being those with physical disabilities, learning difficulties or visual impairment.

When people are selected to go through the assessment process, whether through nomination or voluntary application, it is important to directly contact anyone who states a ‘special requirement’ to explore their specific requirements.

Discuss what adaptations they currently have in the workplace, explain the types of assessments they will be completing and agree how you could adapt the activities for them
Don’t make assumptions about their requirements, but communicate openly around any adaptations necessary

6 – Assessment Criteria

When using assessment criteria as part of a redundancy process, it is vital for objectivity and legal defensibility reasons, that the tools and measures used provide consistency and a balance of themes, creating a ‘level playing field’ for all participants, irrespective of their specific prior experiences or knowledge. Tools for selection can include psychometric tests, questionnaires, application forms, structured interviews and business simulation exercises.

By understanding the role requirements and what good performance looks like, you will be able to identify the key six to eight competencies essential for the role or job level, and which tools will provide a good measure of these.
Assessment simulation exercises have great validity as they can be designed to replicate the kinds of tasks the employee completes in their daily work. They provide objective behavioural evidence of current capability, which serves as an indication of future performance.
Consider time, resources and budget, as these will all influence your choice of tools. Assessing for redundancy purposes warrants significant investment because of the potential cost of getting it wrong.
Once you have selected your assessment tools, if appropriate, you should try them out. This confirms whether they are pitched at the right level for your specific purpose and will enable you to create a benchmark.

7 – Maintain Objectivity and Fairness

A key reason for using pre-defined assessment criteria are that they are one of the fairest and most objective selection tools available, meaning they can help ensure your assessment for redundancy or redeployment process is legally defensible.

All participants must receive the same experience, the same communications and be treated equally when scoring.
Any exercises should be delivered and marked by trained internal or external assessors who are able to objectively assess performance on the different activities.
Scoring rules should be applied in the same way to all participants. Your scoring rules should be determined in advance to ensure that decisions are not made after seeing individual participant scores. This is an important part of the process, as ultimately this is what the decisions regarding redundancy or redeployment are based on.
Process should be overseen by an independent manager, who is both an experienced assessor and able to coach the assessing team and benchmark their write-ups.

8 – Provide Feedback to Participants

All participants should be given some feedback on their own performance, at least results provided in a written report. This is then something they can use as the basis for development in a new role or as part of their reflection when applying (internally or externally) for other positions.

Giving feedback is often overlooked, but it shows the organisation’s commitment to transparency and to supporting individuals by providing clear and objective feedback around strengths and development areas, both for those leaving the organisation and those retained in new roles.
Bearing in mind the emotional drain of this type of process on all involved, individuals will want to know as quickly as possible what their outcome is, and then at a more leisurely pace digest their feedback and review the impact.
Participants should know in advance the timescale for feedback, who will deliver it and how it will be delivered.
We recommend that each individual is informed of the outcome (e.g. stay in role, be redeployed, or made redundant) separately to receiving their assessment interview feedback.

Other Considerations

These steps are key to a successful and well run assessment process, however there are likely to be other things to think about in the design and implementation of an assessment for redundancy or redeployment process:

Put mechanisms in place to support and encourage participants on the day of their assessment interview to reduce anxiety for those taking part.
As well as those leaving the organisation, support the survivors, as ensuring positive engagement with retained employees impacts post-change performance.

At HR Management Support we have many years of experience of successfully managing restructuring and redundancy programmes. Careful handling of restructuring and redundancy is essential to minimise the risks and comply with employment legislation and employee relations issues so, for professional advice and guidance and help with managing your project please contact us first.

Posted in Employment Policy Guidance, General, Managing People |

Tags: Acquisitions And Mergers, Assessment Approach, Assessment Criteria, Economic Climate, Economic Upturn, Employee Relations Issues, Employment Legislation, Mergers Acquisitions, Objective Assessment, Redeployment, Restructurings |

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Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Bank holiday

January 2, 2012 |

Author Tim

It has been announced that there will be a special bank holiday in 2012 to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. The 2012 late May bank holiday will be moved to Monday 4 June 2012 and an additional Jubilee bank holiday will be on Tuesday 5 June 2012.

Bank and public holidays in England and Wales

England and Wales	2012	2013	2014
New Year’s Day	2 Jan*	1 Jan	1 Jan
Good Friday	6 April	29 March	18 April
Easter Monday	9 April	1 April	21 April

Early May Bank Holiday	7 May	6 May	5 May
Spring Bank Holiday	4 June*	27 May	26 May
Queen’s Diamond Jubilee	5 June	-	-
Summer Bank Holiday	27 Aug	26 Aug	25 Aug
Christmas Day	25 Dec	25 Dec	25 Dec
Boxing Day	26 Dec	26 Dec	26 Dec
* substitute day

There are different bank and public holidays in different parts of the UK. There are currently six permanent bank holidays in England and Wales and an additional one in 2012. Christmas Day and Good Friday are public holidays.

The expected bank and public holidays for England and Wales are listed in the table above.

Substitute days

When the usual date of a bank or public holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, a ‘substitute day’ is given, normally the following Monday. For example in 2011, Christams Day was on Sunday, 25 December, so there was a substitute bank holiday on Tuesday, 27 December.

Time off for employees

Employees do not have an automatic right to paid leave on bank and public holidays, though many people receive the day off work. Any right to time off or extra pay for working on a bank holiday depends on the terms of the employee’s contract of employment.

Posted in General |

Tags: 1 April, April 1, April 29, Bank Holidays, Boxing Day, Christmas Day, Contract Of Employment, Dec 25, Diamond Jubilee, Easter Monday, Good Friday, Holidays In England, Jubilee Bank, June 27, May Queen, Permanent Bank, Public Holiday, Public Holidays, Queen Jubilee, Summer Bank Holiday |

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Parental Leave

January 2, 2012 |

Author Tim

This article provides guidance on the parental leave provisions contained in the Maternity and Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2001

What is parental leave?

Parental leave offers qualifying parents the right to take up to 13 weeks unpaid time off work to look after a child or make arrangements for their welfare.

Parental leave should only be taken to care for the welfare of a child, for example an employee may wish to take leave to:

Stay with a child who is in hospital
To spend more time with a child
To make school / childcare arrangements and to help them settle in.

Who qualifies for Parental Leave?

If an employee has completed one year’s service with an employer, they are entitled to 13 weeks unpaid parental leave for each child born or adopted. The leave can start once the child is born or placed for adoption, or as soon as the employee has completed a year’s service, whichever is later.

The employee must either be the parent:

named on the child’s birth certificate
named on the child’s adoption certificate
with legal parental responsibility for a child under five (under 18 if the child is disabled)

If the parents are separated and the employee does not live with their children, the employee has the right to parental leave if he/she keeps formal parental responsibility for the children.

Foster parents do not have rights to parental leave but may be able to request a flexible working pattern.

Employers can ask for evidence that the employee is entitled to parental leave. This could be:

the child’s birth certificate
papers confirming the child’s adoption or the date of placement in adoption cases
the award of disability living allowance for the child

Employees can take the Parental Leave at any time up to the child’s fifth birthday (or until five years after placement in the case of adoption).

If the child has disabilities, the employee can take 18 weeks up to the child’s 18th birthday.

How is Parental Leave requested?

A request should be made to the employer giving 21 days notice of the start date of the parental leave, the employer may ask for this to be in writing.

As long as the employee qualifies for parental leave and gives the employer the correct notice the employee should be able to take parental leave at any time.

To take parental leave straight after the birth or adoption of a child, an employee should give notice 21 days before the beginning of the expected week of childbirth or placement. In cases where this may not be possible the employee should give notice to the employer as soon as possible. For example, if a child is born prematurely or where less than 21 days notice is given that a child is to be placed with you for adoption.

An employee will remain employed while on parental leave and terms of their contract of employment, such as contractual notice and redundancy terms, still apply.

At the end of parental leave the employee has the right to return to the same job as before or, if that is not practicable, a similar job with the same or better status and terms and conditions. If leave is taken for a period of four weeks or less, the employee is entitled to go back to the same job.

Can the employer postpone parental leave?

An employer can only postpone parental leave if they have a good business reason for doing so. For example seasonal production, another member of staff is off or the staff absence would harm the business.

Parental leave can be postponed for up to 6 months but can not be postponed so that the leave ends after the child’s fifth birthday (or 18 in the case of adopted or disabled children).

How long can an employee take off in a year?

The default arrangement does not allow anyone to take off more than 4 weeks in any year. However, if the employer agrees to more parental leave being taken then it may be possible.

Is parental leave paid or unpaid?

Statutory parental leave is unpaid, but an employer can offer other arrangements as part of the terms and conditions of employment.

See other articles related to Parental leave: Flexible Working

Posted in Employment Law, Employment Policy Guidance |

Tags: 18th Birthday, Adoption Cases, Adoption Certificate, Amendment Regulations, Birth Certificate, Certificate Papers, Disabilities, Disability Living Allowance, Fifth Birthday, Foster Parents, Guidance, Maternity Leave, Nbsp, Parental Responsibility, Provisions, School Childcare, Time Off, Unpaid Time, Welfare |

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Small Business Auto Enrolment delay

November 28, 2011 |

Author Tim

Government announced changes for small business to the automatic enrolment timetable

The Government today (28th November 2011) announced that automatic enrolment will begin, as planned, in the autumn of 2012 and all employers will remain in scope. However, small businesses, (i.e. those with less than 50 employees), will be given additional time to prepare for the implementation of automatic enrolment. The timetable will be adjusted so that no small employers are affected by the reforms during this current term of Parliament.

The rate of pensions contributions will remain unchanged until all businesses have started automatic enrolment. The Government considers that his measure will benefit all employers.

Under the revised timeline, small business would begin automatically enrolling their staff in May 2015, instead of the current timing of April 2014.

Posted in General, Pension |

Tags: Automatic pension enrolment, Autumn, Business Auto, Implementation, Nbsp, Parliament, Pensions Contributions, Scope, Small Business, Small Businesses, Timeline, Timetable |

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Workplace pensions & automatic enrolment – a guide to employers duties

November 4, 2011 |

Author Tim

From October 2012 changes to pensions law involving automatic enrolment into a pension scheme will affect all employers with at least one worker in the UK.

The changes will require employers to:

Provide a process of Automatic enrolment of certain workers into a pension scheme.

Note: A ‘worker’ is a wider category than just employees and can include some contractors or agency workers. As a general rule, if you have to pay the national minimum wage to someone, or they are working under an apprenticeship, they are a worker.

Register with The Pensions Regulator (‘the regulator’)
Make contributions to the pension scheme on their workers’ behalf
Provide workers with certain information about the changes and how they will affect them.

The changes will be introduced over 4 years starting in October 2012 and each employer will be allocated a date from when the duties will first apply to them. This will be known as their ‘staging date’. – Small firms will not have to comply with automatic enrolment until 2014 at the earliest.

The staging date will be based on the number of people in the employer’s PAYE scheme with the largest employers having the earliest staging dates. (Employers can check their provisional staging dates on the following web site: www.tpr.gov.uk/staging )

Employers will be allowed some flexibility by choosing to bring forward their staging date by up to three months but they will not be able to choose a date later than the one they were allocated.

Assessing and indentifying the workforce

Employers will need to assess their workforce to see what their duties will be in relation to each of their workers.

Workers who need to be automatically enrolled are called ‘eligible jobholders’ and include workers:

Aged between 22 and state pension age
Earning more than the minimum earnings threshold (currently proposed to be £7.475 pa) – The worker’s ‘qualifying earnings’ will include: salary, overtime payments, commission, bonuses, sick pay, maternity, paternity and adoption pay.
Working, or ordinarily working, in the UK. – The location of the employer is not relevant when considering if a worker is an eligible jobholder. Neither is the workers nationality or length of stay in the UK. What is relevant is whether the worker is working or ordinarily working in the UK.

Workers classified as ‘eligible jobholders’ will need to be automatically enrolled into a pension scheme that meets a number of conditions based on the level of contributions paid or the benefits that they receive. Eligible jobholders may choose to ‘opt out’ of the scheme, but only after they have been automatically enrolled by the employer.

It may be possible for employers who employ short term or seasonal staff to defer auto enrolment of a worker to a pension scheme by introducing a ‘waiting period’ of up to three months.

Choice of pension scheme.

Employers may choose a pension scheme into which workers will be automatically enrolled. This may be an existing scheme, a new scheme from an approved pension provider or the National Employment Savings Trust, NEST which has been set up by the Government to ensure that employers, including those that employ low to medium earners, can access pension saving and comply with their automatic enrolment duties.

Whether a scheme an employer uses for automatic enrolment is new or not, it must meet certain criteria set out in legislation.

The scheme cannot:

Impose barriers, such as probationary periods or age limits for members
Require staff to make an active choice to join or take other action, e.g. having to sign a form or provide extra information to the scheme themselves, either prior to joining or to retain active membership of the scheme.

Each pension scheme will have its own rules, but all employers will need to provide their scheme with certain information about the person who is being automatically enrolled.

Regulator registration

All employers will need to register on-line with the regulator.

Employer and Worker contributions

The rules of defined contribution (DC) schemes must require the employer to pay an overall minimum contribution of at least 8% of the worker’s qualifying earnings, of which 3% of this contribution must be from the employer.

In most cases, Government tax relief will account for 1% of the total 8%.

Employers who already have a pension scheme can confirm that it is suitable for automatic enrolment by a process called ‘certification’.

Opt-out notices

Workers who have been automatically enrolled have the right to opt-out of the employer’s pension scheme. There is an opt-out period of 1 month, where any deductions made from their salary will be refunded. The worker can choose to cease membership at any time, although they may not be entitled to a cash refund of contributions after the end of the 1-month opt-out period.

To opt-out, workers must give notice via a document called an ‘opt-out notice’ to the employer. These notices will usually only be available from the pension scheme provider and not the employer, so that workers do not feel pressured into opting out.

When employers receive a valid opt-out notice within the 1-month period, they must pay back any contributions deducted from the worker’s pay. Equally, any contributions the employer has made must be refunded to the employer by the pension scheme.

Opt-in or joining requests

As well as automatically enrolling eligible jobholders, employers must also put certain other workers into a pension scheme, if these individuals ask. What the employer will need to do depends on the type of worker.

Certain workers have a right to ‘opt-in’ to an automatic enrolment scheme and the employer is required to arrange this and make employer contributions.

Other workers have a right to ‘join’ any scheme but there is no requirement on the employer to make employer contributions in respect of these workers; although the employer must set up the deduction of the worker’s contributions from pay.

Inducements and prohibited activity

Any worker’s decision to opt-out of a scheme, or stop saving for retirement altogether, must be taken freely and without influence by the employer.

There are safeguards in place intended to protect the rights of individuals to have access to pension provision. These safeguards mean that employers must not take, or fail to take, any action, with the sole or main purpose to attempt to induce a jobholder to opt out of a pension scheme. Equally, an employer must not try to screen out job applicants on grounds relating to potential pension scheme membership, or suggest that a job applicant’s success could depend on whether or not they opt out of a pension scheme.

Maintaining appropriate and accurate records

Employers must keep specific records about their workers and their pension scheme(s). Most of these records must be kept for a minimum of 6 years.

Employers can use electronic or paper filing systems to keep or store any records, as long as they are legible or can be produced in a legible way if the regulator asks to see them.

Keeping accurate records about workers and the pension scheme helps avoid or resolve potential disputes with workers, as well as aide reconciliation of pension contributions.

Employers have a great deal of flexibility to use their existing business documentation (e.g. payroll records) as evidence of keeping a particular record.

An employer must also be able to keep track of the ages and earnings of everyone who works for them at all times. This is important to retain on-going compliance with the requirements.

Providing workers with information about the changes

Employers will need to inform their workers about the changes and how those workers are affected by them.

The specified information must be provided in writing, which can include being sent by email. However, it is not enough just to point individuals to an internet or intranet site, or display a poster in the workplace.

If the specified information requires personal or individual data to be communicated, it should not be included in a generic communication. In these circumstances, the employer is likely to have to write to, or email, each worker individually.

Where the specified information does not require individual data (e.g. the information to a jobholder about their right to opt in), it may be possible to provide the information in a generic communication, such as a joining pack.

The duty is on the employer to provide the right information to the right individual at the right time. Someone acting on the employer’s behalf (such as an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA), provider or benefit consultant) can provide the information, but it remains the employer’s responsibility to make sure it is provided on time and is complete and correct.

Click here for other Pension change posts

We will be updating this website with more information about workplace pensions and automatic enrolment in the coming months as and when the Pensions Regulator releases further details.

Posted in Employment Law, Pension |

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Agency Workers Regulations 2010 – A brief guide

September 9, 2011 |

Author Tim

Agency Workers Regulations

The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (as amended 2011) give temporary agency staff equal treatment with regards to basic working and employment conditions after 12 weeks of service in the same job.

Equal treatment under the regulations relates to basic working and employment conditions such as; working hours, overtime, breaks, rest periods, holidays and access to training and facilities, such as childcare. The regulations do not include pension provision and occupational sick pay, nor do the regulations change the employment status of temporary agency workers to that of permanent employees after 12 weeks.

The Regulations apply to agency workers performing temporary work through an employment business (TWA, Temporary Workers Agency). They do not apply to:

those seeking permanent or direct employment with employers;
permanent employees;
fixed term employees;
casual workers hired direct by employers;
independent contractors or consultants who are genuinely self employed working through their own personal service companies.

The Regulations give agency workers two types of rights:

12 week rights

The right, once they have worked in the same assignment for 12 weeks, to be treated, in terms of pay and employment conditions, as if they had been hired directly into that role at the start of the 12 week period. This is often referred to as the right to equal treatment after 12 weeks;

Day 1 rights

Rights applicable from day one of an assignment to:

be informed of any relevant vacancies within a hirer’s organisation;
access to collective facilities and amenities provided by the hirer.

The test to establish equal treatment in relation to a qualifying worker will be: on what terms would the agency worker have been employed by the hirer had the hirer employed them directly at the start of the 12 week period?

The hirer will need to establish and confirm to the TWA what it would have paid the agency worker had they employed him/her directly, taking into account that individual’s qualifications, expertise and experience. The test is hypothetical but if it can be shown that the treatment of the agency worker is consistent with the treatment of an actual employee within the hirer’s organisation (who is currently employed and doing broadly the same or similar work), the TWA will be deemed to have complied with the Regulations.

The onus, under the Regulations, is on the TWA to satisfy this test but the TWA will not be able to do this unless the hirer has been forthcoming with the information required. If the hirer is not forthcoming then the TWA will have a defence and the hirer may be liable. The relevant treatment for these purposes is whether the agency worker is given (after the 12 week qualifying period is completed) the same basic pay and working conditions they would have received had they been hired directly into the role. This entitlement is only in relation to the following:

pay
working conditions:

duration of working time
night work
rest period
rest breaks
paid annual leave

Pay means all sums payable in relation to the position in question (subject to some exceptions):

salary or wages
commission
holiday pay (which includes statutory and occupational paid holiday)
shift allowances
overtime, antisocial hours or dangerous/difficult work premiums
bonuses attributable to quantity or quality of work done (e.g. piece work and individual performance related bonuses)

Pay is not:

Occupational sick pay
Maternity pay
Redundancy pay;
Pensions, retirement gratuity or compensation for loss of office;
Financial participation schemes including share option and profit sharing schemes;
Bonuses and incentives not directly attributable to the quality or quantity of work done but which are given for some other reason such as overall company performance.

Holiday pay

If a hirer grants paid holiday entitlement in excess of the statutory minimum paid holiday entitlement (currently 5.6 weeks inclusive of public or bank holidays) this will need to be taken into account when matching an agency worker’s terms for equal treatment purposes.

Incentives and bonuses

There are a great many different incentive and bonus arrangements which makes this one of the more complex areas of the Regulations. Whether an incentive or bonus arrangement will need to be taken into account and matched in relation to a qualifying agency worker will depend on whether the arrangement relates to the performance of the team or company (i.e. it contains an element of distribution of a share of profits, options or shares) to which extent it is outside scope or whether the payment is directly attributable to the amount or quality of the work done by the worker (in which case it is in scope).

Benefits in kind are usually not pay and will not count. The exception will be where a benefit:

has a fixed value expressed in monetary terms;
is capable of being exchanged for money, goods and/or services. E.g. luncheon vouchers

12 week qualifying period

The right to ‘equal treatment’ does not apply to an agency worker until they have worked in the same role at the same hirer for 12 continuous calendar weeks (from 1 October 2011 onwards), regardless of their working pattern.

A new 12 week qualifying period will begin if there has been:

a new assignment with a different hirer;
a six week break between assignments;
a new role with the same hirer which is substantively different from the previous one. (The TWA must have informed the agency worker in writing of the new role and type of work they will be doing in it.)

Some periods away from the workplace do not count towards the 12 week qualifying period or the six week break period but the agency worker will still be able to count the weeks worked before the absence. In other words the clock is paused during the following absences:

up to 28 weeks sickness absence;
statutory or contractual time off/leave excluding maternity, paternity and adoption leave;
up to 28 weeks’ jury service;
a temporary workplace closure according to established custom and practice e.g. Christmas shutdown;
a strike or lockout or other industrial action at the hirer’s establishment.

In addition there are some absences which do count towards the qualifying period during which, therefore, the clock does continue to tick. These are:

absences relating to pregnancy, childbirth, maternity leave or a protected period of up to 26 weeks after a baby’s birth;
absences in relation to contractual or statutory maternity, paternity or adoption leave.

In other words during these absences it is as if the agency worker were in fact at work for the purposes of qualifying for equal treatment under the Regulations.

NB – the 12 week period is measured in relation to the agency worker performing the same role at the same hirer. It is not measured in relation to the supply of that worker through one TWA. A worker may be supplied into the same role at the same hirer by different TWAs totalling 12 weeks and the agency worker will acquire the right to ‘equal treatment’ at the points/he has worked that total 12 week period in the same assignment with the same hirer.

Anti avoidance provisions

The Regulations contain provisions which give an agency worker the right to be treated as if they have met the 12 week qualifying period if it can be shown that a hirer and/or TWA have used a pattern of assignments to deprive an agency worker of their rights. In such a case a tribunal may make an additional award to that worker of up to £5,000.

Day one rights

Liability for any breaches relating to day one rights (access to vacancies and collective facilities) will rest solely with the hirer.

12 week rights

The TWA is responsible for setting the agency worker’s terms and conditions. Any breaches in relation to their pay and employment conditions will rest with the TWA to the extent that the TWA is responsible for the breach. The TWA can only afford the agency worker the requisite pay and employment conditions however if the hirer has provided the necessary and correct information in the first place. Therefore if the hirer gives the TWA incorrect information or fails to notify the TWA of any change to any pay or working condition term the burden of liability will transfer from the TWA to the hirer.

Remedies for breach

An agency worker who feels they are not being given equal treatment in accordance with the Regulations may make an information request:

to the TWA and the hirer in relation to 12 week rights; or
to the hirer in relation to day one rights.

A tribunal can draw an adverse inference from any failure on the part of the TWA or the hirer to respond.

Exceptions

If an agency worker has a contract of employment with the TWA and is paid between assignments at least at 50% of the rate they were paid in their last assignment, then provided the contract meets certain conditions, the provisions in the Regulations relating to pay will not apply. This is often referred to as the ‘Swedish derogation’. It is likely to be most useful where there is a high demand for workers with particular qualifications, expertise or experience and a corresponding shortage of them.

Employment status

The rights the Agency Workers Regulations bestow on agency workers have no impact on their employment status in relation to the hirer. The entitlement to access the hirer’s facilities from day one and to equal treatment after 12 weeks will not make the agency worker the hirer’s employee.

Posted in Employment Law, Employment Policy Guidance |

Tags: Agency Staff, Employment Business, Employment Conditions, Employment Status, Equal Treatment, Hirer, Independent Contractors, Personal Service Companies, Relevant Vacancies, Temporary Agency, Temporary Work, Temporary Workers, Twa |

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Flexible working – Responding to applications

September 8, 2011 |

Author Tim

Responding to applications for flexible working

Who can ask for flexible working arrangements?

Anyone can ask their employer for flexible working arrangements, but the law provides some employees with the statutory right to request a flexible working pattern.

Applications can be made by:

an employee, but not an agency worker
employees who have worked for their employer for 26 weeks’ continuously before applying
An employee who has not made another application for flexible working under the right during the previous 12 months

And:

have or expect to have parental responsibility of a child aged under 17
have or expect to have parental responsibility of a disabled child under 18 who receives Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
are the parent/guardian/special guardian/foster parent/private foster carer or as the holder of a residence order or the spouse, partner or civil partner of one of these and are applying to care for the child
are a carer who cares, or expects to be caring, for an adult who is a spouse, partner, civil partner or relative; or who although not related to the employee, lives at the same address as the employee

The law requires the employer to seriously consider an application, and only reject it if there are good business reasons for doing so. The law only provides the right to ask for flexible working – not the right to have it. Employers can reasonably decline an application where there is a legitimate business reason.

Employees who do not have the legal right to request flexible working are, of course, free to ask their employer if they can work flexibly.

Examples of flexible working are:

flexi time: choosing when to work (there’s usually a core period during which employees have to work)
annualised hours: employees hours are worked out over a year (often set shifts with flexibility on deciding when to work the other hours)
compressed hours: working the agreed hours over fewer days
staggered hours: different starting, break and finishing times for employees in the same workplace
job sharing: sharing a job designed for one person with someone else
homeworking: working from home
part time: working less than the normal hours, perhaps by working fewer days per week

How must the application be made?

The employee must comply with the following requirements:

the application must be made in writing, stating that it is being made under the statutory right to apply for flexible working
the application must confirm the employee’s relationship to the child or adult
the application must set out the employee’s proposal and explain what effect the employee thinks this will have on the employer’s business and how this may be dealt with
the application must specify a start date for the proposed change giving the employer reasonable time to consider the proposal and implement it. This may take 12 – 14 weeks.
the application must state whether a previous application has been made and if so the date on which it was made
the application must be dated

If the application is approved the variation in the contractual terms becomes permanent and the employee has no automatic right to change back to their previous pattern of working unless the application included a specified time period. (Employers may approve an application on a trial basis only).

Responding to applications for flexible working.

On receipt of a written application for flexible working the employer must:

Arrange and hold a meeting with the employee within 28 days to discuss the request. (A meeting is not required if the employer agrees to the terms of the application and notifies the employee accordingly.)
If requested the employer must allow the employee to be accompanied at the meeting by a work colleague.

Following the meeting the employer must:

Notify the employee of their decision in writing within 14 days of the date of the meeting. The notification will either:

Accept the request and establish a start date and any other action
Confirm a compromise agreed at the meeting
Reject the request and set out clear business reasons for the rejection together with a notification of the procedure the employee should follow if they wished to make an appeal against the decision.

If an appeal is made. The employer must:

Arrange to hear the employees appeal within 14 days of it being made
Notify the employee of the decision on the appeal within 14 days of the meeting which either:

Upholds the appeal and details the agreed flexible working arrangements
Dismisses the appeal and states the grounds on which the decision was made.

On what grounds can applicants be refused flexible working arrangements?

Providing the employer has given serious consideration to the application for flexible working it can be refused for one or more of the following reasons:

The burden of additional costs
Detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand
Inability to reorganise work among existing staff
Inability to recruit additional staff
Detrimental impact on quality
Detrimental impact on performance
Insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work
Planned structural changes

How can employers demonstrate that they have given serious consideration to an application for flexible working?

The most effective way is to carefully review the role the flexible working applicant undertakes and consider how the changes would affect the ability of the employee to fulfil the role if the proposed changes were made. Would the company need to make other adjustments, would those adjustments be feasible, realistically affordable or would it not be practical to make those adjustments due to the detrimental effect on the business. HR Management Support Ltd has developed a questionnaire that can be used by the employer to help identify and measure the effect flexible working arrangements might have on the role and the business as a whole.

Obtain your own free copy of this flexible working questionnaire by completing the form below and a copy will be emailed to you.

Posted in Employment Law, Employment Policy Guidance |

Tags: 12 Months, Adult, Annualised Hours, Applications, Br, Brea, Business Reasons, Disability Living Allowance, Dla, Flexi Time, Flexibility, Flexible Working, Foster Carer, Foster Parent, Good Business, Legitimate Business Reason, Nbsp, Parent Guardian, Parental Responsibility |

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