HR Services & Consultancy. Supporting UK companies
So Scott Thompson resigns because he lied on his CV and we find out that Andy Coulson hasn’t been vetted properly, holding News International shares whilst being in the inner government circle influencing policy.
Both these stories bring into clear sight the importance of conducting in-depth employment screening. Each of these embarrassing situations could have been prevented if the organisations had have been more diligent before they commenced their roles. [Read more…]
Unfair Dismissal Qualifying Period
On 6th April the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims increased from one to years service. It’s important to note that this only affects employees starting employment on or after 6th April 2012. Anybody employed before this date still only requires just one years service to qualify. [Read more…]
The 27th July 2012 will see the dawn of one of the proudest days in our country’s history with the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic games. Between 27th July and 9th September (Inclusive of the Paralympics) there will an outpouring of sheer unbridled national pride as the world tunes into our games. We cannot wait? Or can we?
The possible chaos and upheaval for employers is unlikely to be unrivalled. So it is important that employers need to be considering now the impact the Olympics could have on their business. [Read more…]
Last week we saw the reports of the Virgin employee who was accused, and later resigned, of passing details of celebrities arriving at Heathrow to a picture agency.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2125949/Virgin-Atlantic-employee-resigns-leaking-flight-details-celebrities-paparazzi-agency.html
The question it raises is what price loyalty of the employee to their employer? [Read more…]
Proposals on executive remuneration
Following the publication of the discussion Paper on Executive Remuneration Vince Cable has announced various measures to address ‘excessive pay’ for company senior executives. This has been a hot topic in the media recently.
The measures proposed fall into four key areas: [Read more…]
Luis Suarez’s refusal to shake the hand of Patrice Evra put Liverpool Football Club in a difficult position. It’s clear his actions have brought more negative focus onto the club. The clubs response was to issue a statement saying they were disappointed in his actions. They also stated that he had told them in advance of the game that he would shake hands,
Given he has brought the club into such disrepute should the club not take stronger action? In normal business life if an employee had behaved in such a way there is a high likelihood that their actions would result in dismissal. So why do Liverpool FC tolerate this? [Read more…]
The explosion of social media has introduced a whole new challenge to the working environment and for HR policy makers. The first question for organisations is do you allow staff free access or do you limit it? For HR professionals the next question is if there is unfettered access do you have a formal social media policy, covering elements such as not referring to your employer and making derogatory statements etc. [Read more…]
The 2010 Equality Act is the latest in a line of legislation to enshrine maternity rights in the workplace. However the first maternity rights appeared in legislation in the 1975 Employment Protection Right.
There is a comprehensive range of family friendly legislation such as maternity, paternity, adoption, parental leave, flexible working and emergency leave. Why is that even with all these mechanisms that we still a raft of tribunal claims citing breaches by employers, these claims can be as extreme as those of Lisa Needham from Glasgow on Victoria Derbyshire’s 5 Live show of 8th November 2011, who following informing her employers that she was pregnant was demoted, the impact of this meant that she decided to abort her baby. [Read more…]
As the party conference season draws to an end for another year, we have seen all parties put unconvincing cases forward as to how they can solve the ongoing economic crisis; which is engulfing the euro zone and threatens to cause the UK a bad hangover.
The truth appears to be that none of them truly have the answer to the ongoing swirl in the markets and the constant downgrading of growth forecasts, but the certainty that cannot be denied is that the economy is not growing and there are more reports of organisations constricting and vacancies at a premium.
So what is the true state of the labour market, according to the CBI we may actually have a skills gap and that even with the high unemployment levels companies in the new technology driven industries are struggling to access the skills they need. [Read more…]
Additional Paternity Leave and Pay
Additonal paternity leave and pay allows fathers to benefit from up to 26 weeks’ additional paternity leave if the mother returns to work before using her full entitlement to statutory maternity leave. The new right is available to parents of children with an expected week of childbirth beginning on or after 3rd April 2011. [Read more…]
