New Year's Resolutions......

As the end of January draws closer, the time is here to reflect on the past year and what lessons have been learnt. January is undoubtedly a popular time for people to make important decisions. David Woods reports that one in three employees’ makes it their New Year's resolution to quit their job. As we all know many New Years resolutions go out the window with the January detox diet, how many of you are still going to the gym 3 times a week and have kept to the alcohol free January plan? I know I haven’t.
So what HR resolutions did you make and have they pushed aside with that cabbage soup detox diet?!
Will 2011 be the year when you get the best out of your people? Will it be the year when you review all your policies and procedures? What HR resolutions can you make?

· Give regular feedback?
Does feedback necessarily have to be in the form of a yearly appraisal? We don’t think so.
Why not try to give regular feedback in the form of 1 to 1’s with your staff. This doesn’t have to be lengthy or formal process it can be an informal chat about progress or any issues that have arisen in the day to day performance of an employee or it can just be a pat on the back for a job well done. Sharing your thoughts with an employee about their progress, giving then constructive criticism or a simple well done can have a significant impact on staff morale and improve performance.

– Manage poorly performing staff?
Whilst we are not promoting the Alan Sugar ‘you’re fired’ effect. Managing poorly performing employee’s should not be avoided. Have you got performance management procedures in place? Are you tackling situations as they arise to prevent them turning into issues? With Unfair dismissal claims continuing to rise, 56% in 2010, caution in this area is understandable. However, to ignore performance issues can cause real problems for your business in the long run and can have implications for the efficiency and morale of your team.

– Keep up to date with Employment Law?
Employment legislation does continue to change. However, are you aware of the key dates for 2011? Get these in your diary-
January 1
– Expenses for travel to temporary workplaces can no longer be counted towards the National Minimum Wage.
– Scheme for naming employers that breach national minimum wage legislation introduced. Those found to be in breach of legislation will be given three months to address the problem.
April 3
– Fathers can claim up to six months' of the mother's maternity leave provided she returns to work, under new Additional Paternity Leave arrangements. The new right is granted to fathers of children due on or after 3 April 2011. The extra leave is in addition to the current two weeks’ paternity leave entitlement.
April 4
– Single Equality Duty for public bodies comes into force, replacing the current separate duties for race, disability and gender, and including other grounds such as sexual orientation and religious belief.
April 6
– Default retirement age set to be abolished. Employers no longer able to issue notifications for compulsory retirement using the DRA procedure. Some employers may be able to objectively justify why certain workers should retire, such as those in the police force or construction industry.
– Personal allowance for income tax for basic rate tax payers under the age of 65 will be increased by £1,000.
– Employers' national insurance contributions increased by 1pc to 13.8pc. National Insurance Contributions will also be increase by 1pc for employees, and the primary threshold increased by £570. Threshold at which employers pay National Insurance raised by £21 per week.
– Employees of companies with fewer than 250 employees are granted statutory right to request time off for training or study. Already in place for businesses with more than 250 employees, the change means employers have to seriously consider any training requests received.
Also in April (date TBC)
– Right to request flexible working extended to parents with children under 18, one year older than present. Employees must be employed by the same business for 26 weeks or more before they are eligible.
– Bribery Act 2010 comes into force, introducing a new corporate offence of failure to prevent bribery by employees, agents, or other "associated persons" working on behalf of a business. This is unless a business can show that it has adequate anti-bribery procedures in place.
October 1
The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 will give agency workers the same basic employment conditions as permanent employees after just 12 weeks on an assignment. This will relate to pay, holidays and other conditions of employment.

– Manage sickness absence
According to CIPD's research employee absence is a significant cost to businesses. Whilst many employers are tackling absence and have systems in place to monitor absence more can still be done to ensure that short term sickness is not having an impact on your business. In the latest CIPD absence survey fewer than half of employers monitor the cost of absence, just under half of organisations have set a target for reducing absence and just over one third of organisations benchmark themselves against other employers.
Have a look at how you monitor sickness? We advise using the Bradford Index as this is a great tool for monitoring sickness absence and triggers points can be used to highlight any issues with employees who have recurring incidents of short term sickness.
We would also advise conducting Return-to-work interviews as they can help identify short-term absence problems at an early stage. They also provide managers with an opportunity to have a chat with staff about underlying issues which might be causing the absence which could ideally knock the problem on its head before it has an impact on your business.

Finally……. If you need any advice or have any questions why not make it one of your resolutions to contact The HR Experts at info@thehrexperts.co.uk

Parental Leave Regulations

Clegg wants to reform the “Edwardian” rules that “patronise women and marginalise men”

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has announced that the government will be pressing ahead with plans to change current parental leave regulations. As of April this year new fathers will be entitled to take up any remaining unpaid leave if their partner goes back to work early. Whilst mothers are still guaranteed the first six weeks of maternity leave receiving 90% of their full pay, these changes will mean the remaining 46 weeks can be shared in a variety of ways between the parents with men being entitled of up to 6 months of this (three months paid at the statutory rate, three months unpaid) rather than the current allowance of 2 weeks.

The announcement of these changes has sparked great debate and discussion in the media. Brendan Barber of the TUC states that this “extension is welcome. New parents should be able to decide for themselves who looks after their baby in the first year, rather than having that decision dictated to them by the government”. The changes could be advantageous for the labour market too by evening out the playing field in regards to employers hesitations when hiring women due to their concerns about time off to start a family. Now that this leave is becoming a shared responsibility it should make these worries obsolete.

From a business perspective these proposals have received a “cautious welcome” from the CIPD with David Frost of the British Chamber of Commerce stating they will “simply burden businesses with more red tape and deter them from taking on new starters”. The feasibility of companies arranging cover or managing absence for parents sharing parental leave in small blocks is questionable.

However, this is just the government’s first step towards establishing a properly flexible system of shared parental leave that is forecast to be introduced in 2015 after rigorous consultations with the Demos think tank. Therefore, The HR Experts advise that in the meantime small businesses should promote a large single block of time off for parents (rather than lots of little ones), or adopt Clegg’s “use-it-or-lose-it” time off policy for new parents so that employers can plan for cover.

For more advice on this don’t hesitate to contact us at info@thehrexperts.co.uk!