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Posts by category

• Category: Age discrimination
  • How to avoid age discrimination when recruiting
  • Age discrimination and service-related benefits – aren’t they incompatible?
  • Could you be discriminating against younger workers?
  • Six common myths about older workers debunked
  • Age discrimination – the legal basics
• Category: Agency workers
  • Taking on agency temps as permanent staff – what you need to know
  • Employment rights of agency workers
  • What you need to know about dealing with agencies supplying temporary workers
  • Agency workers – when best to use them?
  • 10 easy steps to understanding the Agency Workers Regulations for small businesses
• Category: Appearance and behaviour
  • The pitfalls of workplace relationships and how to avoid them
  • Five tips for dealing with employees’ behavioural issues outside work
  • Uniform at work – 5 things to remember
  • Implementing a dress code in your business
• Category: Apprenticeship
  • Apprenticeship levy – what you need to know
  • Managing an apprentice – seven ways to do it right
  • Apprenticeship contracts
  • Seven reasons why you should use apprentices in your business
• Category: Brexit
  • How does Brexit affect recruitment of new EU workers?
  • What does the end of Brexit transition mean for European workers I currently employ?
  • Planning for recruitment challenges resulting from Brexit in a small business
  • Helping your EU workers through Brexit
  • Assessing the impact of Brexit immigration changes on your workforce
  • The impact of Brexit on employment law
• Category: Bullying
  • Dealing with the aftermath of bullying at work
  • Dealing with a bullying complaint
  • Identifying and preventing bullying
  • The impact of bullying on your business
  • What is bullying in the workplace
  • Dealing with bullying in your small business
• Category: Business relocation
  • Relocation and redundancy
  • Gaining employee co-operation when relocating your business – 8 top tips
  • Mobility clauses and relocation – some FAQs
• Category: Contracts of employment
  • Contracts of employment – why a good one is one of the best investments a small business can make
• Category: Coronavirus
  • Can I force my employees to get the Covid-19 vaccine?
  • What are my options if an employee is struggling with home schooling?
  • Calculating redundancy pay and notice pay for furloughed employees
  • Job Retention Bonus – who can claim?
  • How to handle quarantined employees travelling abroad this summer
  • Seven steps to protect your business if an employee refuses to come back to work
  • Annual leave and coronavirus – what’s the deal?
  • What to do about probationary period during lockdown?
  • What should you do about disciplinaries or grievances during lockdown?
  • What happens to terms and conditions during furlough?
  • What if someone refuses to work during coronavirus?
  • Managing a pregnant worker during coronavirus
  • Should I rehire an ex-employee so I can furlough them?
  • Changes to holiday rules during coronavirus
  • I don’t need to furlough everyone – who should I choose?
  • I need staff to go on furlough but they won’t agree – what do I do?
  • What has changed about SSP during the coronavirus crisis?
  • New starters not eligible for furlough – how shall I handle them?
  • What’s the difference between ‘furlough’ and ‘lay-off’?
  • What to do if you have employees reluctant or refusing to self-isolate
  • Lay-offs and short-time working – what you need to do if you suffer work shortages in your small business
• Category: Covid-19 Health and safety
  • How do my general Health and Safety obligations relate to Covid-19?
• Category: Disability discrimination
  • Capability dismissal and disability
  • Five important principles about reasonable adjustments for disabilities
  • 10 answers about indirect discrimination
  • What exactly is a disability?
• Category: Discipline
  • Managing the aftermath of a disciplinary
  • Tips for a successful disciplinary hearing
  • Companions at disciplinary hearings – our top ten FAQs
  • All about gross misconduct
  • Our guide to disciplinary investigations in small organisations
  • Are you finding excuses to dismiss someone?
• Category: Employee benefits
  • Workplace pension basics
  • Flexible benefits in a small business
  • How to choose which benefits to offer employees in your small business
  • The value of employee benefits in a small business
• Category: Employee communication
  • Communicating during organisational change
  • Choosing the best communication method
  • What should you communicate with employees about?
  • What does good employee communication look like?
  • Communicating well with employees – why does it matter?
• Category: Employee concerns
  • How grievances interact with other processes
  • Avoiding grievances in a small business
  • Grievances in small businesses – trends we’ve noticed
  • Investigating a grievance in a small business – some key questions
  • What You Need to Know About Whistleblowing
• Category: Employee consultation
  • The Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations – 10 FAQs
  • Why should I involve my employees in decision-making?
  • Organising a forum for staff consultation
  • What must small employers consult employees about?
• Category: Employee engagement
  • 10 ways to improve employee engagement in your small business
  • Measuring employee engagement in a small business
  • Key factors in employee engagement
  • What does employee engagement mean and why does it matter?
• Category: Employee monitoring
  • Using evidence gained through employee monitoring in a disciplinary
  • CCTV in the workplace – 5 things to consider
  • Monitoring electronic communications at work – what you need to know
  • Employee monitoring and the Data Protection Act
• Category: Employee wellbeing
  • Is flexible working really good for employee health and wellbeing?
  • What can a small business do to improve employee wellbeing?
  • Why should a small business focus on employee wellbeing?
  • What is employee wellbeing?
• Category: Employment contracts
  • Getting a contract drafted
  • Most common problems with employment contracts
  • Three myths about employment contracts
  • Contract of employment – what should you include?
  • Contracts of employment – why does your business need a good one?
• Category: Employment law
  • Employment law changes for 2020 – what does your business need to know?
  • Privacy notices and information you must provide to employees and potential employees under GDPR
  • Who should take responsibility for data protection in your business?
  • Long term sickness absence and avoiding isolation
  • Supply chains and Modern Slavery – what you need to do
  • Basic principles of employment law – it’s all common sense really
  • Giving up employment rights for shares
  • Confused by recent employment law announcements? Key points for small business owners
  • Employment law changes – what’s the deal?
  • 5 easy steps to understanding the Bribery Act for small businesses
  • Top ten employment law myths
• Category: Employment status
  • I’m a small business so the new IR35 rules don’t apply to me – right?
  • Casual worker rights
  • All about zero hours contracts
  • Changing employment status – what to look out for
  • Employed or self-employed? What indicators should you look for?
  • Employment status – who decides?
  • Employed or self-employed? What indicators should you look for?
• Category: Employment tribunals
  • Will tribunal system changes really save £16m?
• Category: Ethics and values
  • 5 easy steps to understanding the Bribery Act
  • Five ways to reduce your environmental impact as a small business
  • Community involvement for your small business, why it works and how to do it
  • What is corporate social responsibility and how does it work in small businesses?
• Category: Family friendly workplace
  • Balancing family-friendly with the needs of all staff
  • Family-friendly initiatives for your small business
  • Enhancing family leave pay – 7 things to consider
  • Work and school – how you can support parents in your business?
  • Six reasons you should ensure your small business is family-friendly
• Category: First employee basics
  • What time off work can your employees take?
  • Paying staff – the basic legal requirements
  • Contracts of employment – minimum requirements and why you should include more
  • Basic principles of employment law – it’s all common sense really.
• Category: Flexible working
  • Managing homeworking effectively
  • Flexible working – its not just “going part-time”
  • Refusing flexible working requests
  • Flexible working – why is it good for your business?
  • How to follow the right procedure when dealing with flexible working requests
  • What you need to know if you’re thinking about using unpaid interns in your business
• Category: Franchise News
  • Welcome to Rachel Weaven
  • Welcome to Rachel Norrington
  • Welcome to Kirsty Duck & Lisa Macdonald
  • Welcome to Lorraine Canham
  • Welcome to Kathryn Rodgers
  • Welcome to Jane Fryatt
  • Welcome to Siobhan Goodchild
  • Welcome to Sue Pardy
  • Kirsten at Ely Cathedral business exhibition
  • Welcome to Helen Christie
  • face2faceHR Cambridge donates policy to auction to raise money for five local charities
  • Welcome to Kirsten Smith
  • Welcome to Dawn Cross
• Category: GDPR
  • What counts as personal data and where might you find it?
  • Five steps to audit your employee data ahead of GDPR
  • Major changes for employers
• Category: Grievances
  • Dealing with the aftermath of a grievance
  • Realistic outcomes for a grievance in a small business
  • Following a reasonable grievance procedure in your small business
  • Is it a grievance?
• Category: Health issues
  • Reducing the impact of upper limb disorders on your business
  • Back pain in the workplace – what should you be doing?
  • E-cigarettes – what stance should you take
  • Smoking at work – five faqs
• Category: Holiday
  • Holiday and long term absences
  • Dealing with holiday requests at popular times
  • Refusing holiday requests
  • Calculating holiday for irregular workers
• Category: Homeworking
  • Communication and wellbeing for homeworkers
  • Security and Data Protection for homeworkers
  • Health and safety for homeworkers
  • Managing performance for homeworkers
• Category: HR technology
  • Bring your own device – yes or no?
  • Legal consideration for using technology in the workplace
  • 11 ways you can use technology to improve the employee experience in your small business
  • Six reasons why you should consider HR software in your small business
• Category: Information for employers
  • How do I choose my suppliers?
• Category: Learning & development
  • Protecting your investment in employee study
  • Training on a budget in your small business
  • Writing a training strategy for your small business
  • Key business benefits of staff training
• Category: Legal cover
  • Why legal cover from HR providers is bad for small businesses
• Category: LGBT issues in the workplace
  • 10 steps to supporting a transitioning employee in your business
  • Key transgender issues in the workplace
  • Creating an inclusive workplace for lesbian, gay and bisexual employees
  • 5 ways to prevent bullying and harassment due to sexual orientation
• Category: Looking after your employees
  • 7 ways to find out whether your HR consultant is giving you lazy advice
• Category: Managing Christmas
  • Christmas and other religions in the workplace
  • Christmas gifts and bonuses – what business owners need to know
  • Christmas Party dos and don’ts for small business owners
  • Time off and rotas during the festive period
• Category: Mental health
  • Dealing with long-term mental health absence
  • Dealing with the mental health taboo in your business
  • Three stages to deal with stress in your business
  • Is stress really a problem in your business?
• Category: Older workers
  • Side-stepping the landmines to make the most of older workers
• Category: Onboarding
  • What to do if things go wrong during the probationary period
  • Putting together an effective induction programme
  • How to use probationary periods effectively
  • Why does ‘onboarding’ matter?
• Category: Part time working
  • Benefits for part time workers
  • Part time holiday entitlement FAQs
  • Five tips for managing a successful job share
  • Part time working – what are the options?
  • Part time workers – the legal background
• Category: Pay in a small business
  • Five ways to motivate your workforce on a small budget
  • Equal pay in a small business
  • Pay and recruitment – three things to bear in mind
  • Conducting a pay review in a small business
  • Should you have a formal salary structure in your business?
  • Should you have a formal salary structure in your business?
  • Should you have a formal salary structure in your business?
• Category: Performance management
  • 8 reasons why performance management is important for high performers
  • Proactive steps to improve performance
  • Why you should reduce reactive performance management?
  • Seven steps to writing a good development plan
  • Tips for conducting a successful performance appraisal
  • Dealing with poor performance in seven steps
  • Performance management in small businesses in four easy stages
  • Five ways to motivate your workforce on a small budget
  • Why you should stop putting off that tricky conversation
  • What is their behaviour telling you?
  • How focusing on the end result can resolve your employee problems
  • How to avoid employee conflict and deal with it effectively
  • “Protected conversations” with poor performers – will it help?
  • Performance management in small businesses, why bother?
• Category: Pre-employment checks
  • Protecting your business when candidates lie during recruitment
  • Myths about references debunked
  • Pre-employment medical checks
  • Checking an employee’s right to work in the UK – FAQs
• Category: Pregnancy and work
  • Ante-natal appointments for pregnant employees – FAQs
  • My guide to managing maternity leave effectively
  • All about maternity pay
  • Maternity leave – The basics
  • Five practical things you must do for a pregnant employee
  • Tips for being prepared for a pregnancy announcement
• Category: Proactive HR
  • Using and choosing a proactive HR provider for your business
  • What can proactive HR support do for your business?
  • Why use HR proactively in your small business?
  • New Year, new start for your business?
• Category: Proactive performance management
  • Should small employers ditch the annual appraisal?
• Category: Probation & induction
  • Health and safety basics in your small business
  • Legal implications of probationary periods
• Category: Protecting your business
  • Restricting employee behaviour outside working hours
  • Five things to remember about garden leave
  • Five ways to protect confidentiality in your business
  • Post-termination restrictions – five FAQs
• Category: Recruiting the best
  • How to make your small business attractive to job candidates
  • 5 reasons why including salary details is important in a job ad
  • How to write an effective person specification
  • Are you looking in the wrong place for your candidates?
• Category: Recruitment
  • National living wage – things to think about
  • Protecting your business when candidates lie during recruitment
  • Myths about references debunked
  • Pre-employment medical checks
  • Checking an employee’s right to work in the UK – FAQs
  • Writing effective interview questions
  • Our top five tips for using recruitment agencies
  • Writing an effective recruitment advertisement
  • Internal recruitment – the pros and cons
  • Flexible ways of filling the recruitment void
  • To CV or not to CV…
  • Someone’s resigned – don’t panic, it’s an opportunity!
  • Does “what colour represents your personality” really get you the best person for the job?
  • Quick tips for writing effective interview questions
• Category: Redundancy
  • After redundancies – things to consider
  • Looking for alternative employment during redundancy
  • Redundancy decisions – choosing who is affected and selection criteria
  • What does consultation mean when making redundancies in a small business?
  • Redundancy basics
• Category: Religion
  • Specifying religion – when is it a genuine occupational requirement?
  • Avoiding religious discrimination through awareness
  • Dress code and religion – 10 tips for employers
  • Religious holidays and time off work
• Category: Relocation
  • Relocation assistance packages – things to consider
• Category: Restructuring your small business
  • After a restructuring in a small business – implementing change successfully
  • Legal considerations when designing a restructure
  • The importance of communication in a restructuring
  • Developing a plan for a small business restructure
  • What is a restructure and when might it be needed in a small business?
• Category: Retirement planning
  • Succession planning with no retirement age
  • Top tips for managing capability in older workers
  • Keeping a compulsory retirement age
  • The abolition of the retirement age – what it means for you
• Category: Salary
  • Conducting a pay review in a small business
  • Pay and recruitment – three things to bear in mind
  • Equal pay in a small business
  • Should you have a formal salary structure in your business?
• Category: Settlement agreements
  • How to approach a settlement discussion with an employee
  • “Without Prejudice’ or “Protected Conversation’ – which should you use?
  • When should I consider using a settlement agreement in a small business?
  • Five key questions about the use of settlement agreements
  • Five key questions about the use of settlement agreements
  • Five key questions about the use of settlement agreements
• Category: Shared parental leave
  • Shared parental leave – when an employer can refuse a request
  • Five easy steps to handling a shared parental leave request
  • What is shared parental leave?
• Category: Short term absence
  • Formal action to address short term sickness absence problems
  • 7 steps to dealing with short term sickness absence
  • Five ways to prevent short term absence problems in your small business
  • How to identify when you have a sickness absence problem
• Category: Short term contracts
  • What happens at the end of a fixed term contract?
  • Rights of short term workers
  • Short term contracts or agency workers, which is best for you?
  • When to use a fixed-term contract
• Category: Sickness absence
  • Organisational change and long term sickness absence
  • Chronic conditions and long term sickness absence – things to consider
  • Long term sickness absence pay and financial support options
  • Managing return to work after long-term sickness absence
  • Using Occupational Health, why you should do it, and how to make the most of it
  • Statutory sick pay can no longer be claimed back
  • Dismissing for long term sickness absence
  • £29 billion – Why every employer should measure sickness absence
• Category: Social media
  • Social media and other employee issues
  • Ownership of social media
  • Considering monitoring employees’ social media?
  • Five reasons every employer needs a social media policy
  • Social media and other employee issues
  • Ownership of social media
  • Considering monitoring employees’ social media?
  • Five reasons every employer needs a social media policy
• Category: Stress at work
  • Ten steps to addressing a stress problem in your business
  • Identifying a stress problem in your small business
  • Preventing stress in a small business in five steps
  • Should you be concerned about stress in your small business?
  • Should you be concerned about stress in your small business?
• Category: Termination issues
  • Giving references – our top tips
  • Seven common queries about notice periods
  • Post-termination restrictions – five FAQs
  • Garden leave and payment in lieu of notice
  • Minimising behaviour problems at work-related events
• Category: Time off
  • Checking entitlement to shared parental leave and pay
  • Emergency dependants’ leave – 7 common questions answered
  • Five things small businesses need to know about compassionate leave
  • Time off for medical appointments
  • Employees going on jury service – some FAQs
  • So what exactly do employers have to do when temperatures soar?
  • Getting a head start on the Olympics
  • Dealing with snowy days
• Category: Training
  • Ten reasons why training for managers is so critical
  • How to write a training strategy for your small business with three questions
  • Training on a budget in your small business
  • Key business benefits of staff training
• Category: TUPE
  • Post-TUPE – how to maximise the chances of a successful transfer
  • Inform and Consult during TUPE – who, what and how?
  • How to identify which employees are affected by a TUPE transfer
  • How to identify when TUPE applies
  • What is TUPE?
• Category: Unexpected/unauthorised absence
  • Unauthorised holiday, what can you do?
  • Employee emergencies – what about time off?
  • Employee gone AWOL? Here’s what to do…
  • Time off for dependants – what you need to know
  • Top 10 tips For dealing with problem absence
• Category: Work and social events
  • Football World Cup – how will it affect your business?
  • Absence after a social event
  • Alcohol at work social events – some things to be aware of
  • Your legal risks at work-related social events and how to minimise them
  • How much social activity to expect
  • Christmas party pitfalls
• Category: Working time
  • Things you need to know about on call schemes
  • Rest periods at work – the basics
  • Understanding your obligations to night workers
  • Managing a successful shift system
  • Changing hours of work in your business
• Category: Workplace environment
  • Seven ideas to improve your workplace environment
  • The impact of the workplace environment
  • Workplace environment legal requirements
  • What do we mean by the ‘workplace environment’?