Posts in category: Business

Understanding Employee Benefits

Employee benefits are non-salary compensations provided to employees in addition to their wages. These can include health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, and more. Consequently, benefits are crucial for attracting and retaining talent, boosting morale, and increasing productivity.

Essential Employee Benefits

1. Health and Wellbeing

Health insurance is a top priority for many employees. Providing private health insurance can significantly improve employee satisfaction. Additionally, offering mental health support, such as access to counselling services, can help create a supportive work environment and boost employee wellbeing.

2. Pension Schemes

In the UK, it’s mandatory for employers to enrol eligible workers into a workplace pension scheme. Indeed, contributions from both employer and employee are essential for long-term financial security. You can learn more about auto-enrolment and your duties as an employer here:

3. Paid Time Off

Generous paid time off (PTO) policies, including annual leave, sick leave, and parental leave, are highly valued. In the UK, employees are entitled to a minimum of 28 days of paid annual leave. Coupled with offering additional PTO, this can further enhance job satisfaction and when employees are satisfied, they stay longer.

4. Flexible Working

Flexible working arrangements have become increasingly popular in recent years. Undoubtedly, allowing employees to work from home or offering flexible hours can improve work-life balance and reduce stress. In addition, this type of flexibility can lead to higher productivity and employee retention, leading to greater organisational success.

5. Professional Development

Investing in professional development opportunities, such as training programs, workshops, and courses, shows your commitment to your employees’ growth and development. Also, it not only enhances their skills, but it benefits your company through improved performance, so the benefits are two-fold.

What change has been made to the Employment Rights Bill?

The Flexible Working (Amendment) Regulations 2023 Act has now come into effect and applies to any applications made from 6th April this year.

Previously, employees needed to be working for you for a minimum of 26 weeks before they could request to work flexibly.

Under the new amendment, they can request flexible working arrangements from the first day of their employment with you. They can make two requests within a 12-month period (previously they could only make a single request).

Employees are no longer required to discuss with their employer what impact their request may have, or how the effects can be managed.

As their employer, you are required to consult with an employee requesting flexible working before you can reject it.

Under previous rules, employers had 3 months to consider and respond to a request for flexible working; this has now been reduced to two months.

What does “flexible working” mean?

This can refer to your employee’s working hours or their pattern of work, for example, working part-time, flexitime, having compressed hours or adjusting their start or finish time. It can also apply to changing their working location, for example working from home.

What do you need to do?

The first thing to do is to review your policies – and make sure your flexible working policy fits with the new law.

Make sure you have a process in place to review and respond to requests for flexible working – don’t wait for the first application to come in. Decide how you will deal with requests and make sure all managers are aware of this.

How should you respond to a request?

Firstly, ask your employee to make their request in writing, stating clearly what changes they wish to make.

It is important to consider all requests fairly and it’s always worth discussing with your employee. Of course, they are not obliged to discuss the potential impact on your business, but it may be helpful for you to know their thoughts and feelings on the matter.

Remember that while your employees can request flexible working patterns, you do not have to say yes.

Not all job roles are suitable for different working patterns – but it’s a good idea to approach all requests from the point of view of “how can we make this work” rather than “we don’t want to do this.”

What are the reasons for turning down a request?

There are eight valid reasons for turning down a request for flexible working and you can only turn down a request if one of these applies:

• The cost to your business would be too high
• Work cannot be reorganised among your other staff
• You cannot recruit more staff
• Quality will be negatively affected
• Your business’s ability to meet customer demand will be negatively affected
• Performance will be negatively affected
• There is not enough work for your employee to do at the time(s) they’ve requested
• There are planned changes to the business, and you believe the request will not fit with these plans

Look for a compromise

If you’re not able to accept your employee’s request as it is, look for ways to compromise:

• Could you agree to part of the request, for example allowing them to work from home two days a week instead of three?
• Could you agree to a short-term change, rather than permanently?
• If a weekly work pattern change is not possible, could a fortnightly pattern work?

What if you can’t agree to a flexible working request?

All decisions must be made fairly and using facts rather than personal opinion.

If you really can’t find a way to make it work, talk to your employee and explain the situation. Listen to their reasons for requesting the change and suggest other options where you can.

Ask them if they have any other ideas for future options.

You want your employees to feel happy and valued in their work. So even if you can’t accommodate their request, it’s important that they feel heard and understood.

Bear this in mind with any future hires

It’s important to communicate your flexible working policy, and the level of flexibility you can reasonably accommodate, when you’re hiring new employees – otherwise you could see your staff turnover rocket.

The employment landscape is changing, and jobseekers are keen to work for businesses that show that they value employee wellbeing. Flexible working opportunities are a great way of attracting the best new people to your team, so it’s in everyone’s best interest to make this work.

In conclusion

Your employees are now entitled to request a flexible working pattern from their first day of employment with you.

You must consider their request fairly and have a valid reason for turning it down.

If you’re concerned about how this may affect your business, or worried about how to put it into practice, get in touch for an informal chat about how we could help you.

Mr Parbhjot Singh v Metroline West Limited

The employee went on sick leave following an invitation to a disciplinary meeting. He attended an occupational health (OH) appointment to assess his capability. The OH advisor didn’t suggest that his sickness wasn’t genuine. However, the employer believed that the sickness absence was a means of avoiding his disciplinary meeting, so paid the employee statutory sick pay instead of contractual sick pay.

The employee claimed to have been constructively dismissed due to the failure to pay their contractual pay.

The employment tribunal (ET) found that the employer failing to pay contractual sick pay was a breach of contract, but also stated that it was not a repudiatory breach. This was because the employer intended to maintain the employment relationship and withholding the employee’s pay was a means of doing this. However, the employment appeal tribunal (EAT) dismissed this line of reasoning, as the employee was entitled to pay which he didn’t receive.

Adams v Charles Zub Associates Ltd

The employee, Adams, hadn’t received his April salary by the 9th of May, so he quit his job and filed an unfair dismissal claim to an ET.

Ordinarily, because this constitutes a significant breach going to the “root of the employment contract”, the ET would conclude that the employee was constructively dismissed.

However, in this case, the ET found that although a breach of contract had occurred, it wasn’t the intention of the company to purposefully withhold the money, so it didn’t pass the test for constructive dismissal. This is because the employee was made aware of the organisation’s financial situation and the mitigating circumstances surrounding their pay.

This case highlights the importance of maintaining clear communication channels.

Craig v Abellio

In this case, an employee had been off work due to sickness. His sick pay was calculated and paid incorrectly as a result of a series of errors and miscommunications by the employer. The employee raised a grievance and the employer was originally found to owe £2,000 to the employee. Then, the employer was found to owe over £6,000.

The employer agreed to pay the employee by a specified date but failed to pay by the deadline. The employee resigned the next day and brought a constructive dismissal claim.

The ET and EAT went back and forth on whether the issue was a result of mistakes or a genuine repudiatory breach. Originally, it was found that the failure to pay was merely a mistake and not a breach of an express contractual term. However, the EAT eventually sent the case back to the ET for further consideration.

This case demonstrates how difficult it can be to determine whether the final straw in a constructive dismissal is enough to raise a successful claim.

As you can see, constructive dismissal isn’t clear cut. Tribunals can be long processes, and even when you think they’re concluded, an appeal can be launched.

If you’re unsure as to where you stand with any employee dispute, or potential cause for concern, take expert advice before you act. It could save you a lot of time, money and stress. If I can help you with that, please get in touch.

Here are 3 reasons why you should be using employment surveys:

1. They help you to create strategy

Have you ever felt like you could do with a GPS for your business? The answers and insights you receive from employee surveys can be treated like your navigational system. They can help you to spot opportunities, dodge obstacles, and get a clear view of your company’s landscape.

2. Surveys help you to boost employment engagement

Engagement isn’t just a buzzword, but the very heartbeat of a thriving workplace.

Employee surveys are an access-all-areas pass to understanding what fuels your team’s fire. From flexible hours to a well-stocked snack cupboard, these surveys can unveil the secret to a motivated and satisfied team.

3. Also, they help you to save costs and increase income

As a result of using employee surveys, you’ll make better business decisions that will help you to save costs and increase income. Simple!

If you’re new to employee surveys and would like some help getting started, get in touch.

Why managing and reducing absence is important

The silent cost of absence

The bottom line is that absence costs you A LOT of money. In 2020, absence cost UK business owners approx. £7bn. Can you believe it?

While colds and flus are unavoidable and it’s expected for your employees to take the odd day off here and there, it is important to keep a close eye on how much absence could be costing your business.

How can you calculate the cost to your business? You need to think about the knock-on effect.

Well, not only is their salary still being paid, but this causes a resourcing issue for you, their workload often falls on the shoulders of their colleagues, which can lead to decreased productivity, missed deadlines and possible disruptions to client relationships.

How you can track absence

The easiest way for you to keep a close eye on absence is to track it using HR software like Breathe. Software like this allows you to automatically record, monitor and report on trends; giving you all the insights you need to understand how much of an issue absence is to your business.

How you can understand the cause of absence in your business

Return-to-work interviews

Carrying out return-to-work interviews is the easiest way for you to understand why employees are taking time off from work. In some cases, these interviews can be enough to make people think twice about pulling a sickie.

There are various templates and frameworks you can use to help you conduct your return-to-work interview, which is something we can help you with.

Top reasons for absence in the UK

Taken from the Office of National Statistics

2. Save costs using HR software

Managing employees takes time and this costs money. That’s why you should be using HR software to reduce admin time and costs.

Use software to help manage:

• Recruitment and applicant tracking
• Employee onboarding
• Employee records
• Time and attendance tracking
• Payroll management
• Benefits
• Performance management
• Training and development
• Employee self service
• Compliance and reporting
• Analytics
• Documents

(This is not an exhaustive list)

Core standard one: Create a mental health at work plan

Produce, implement and communicate a mental health at work plan that encourages and promotes good mental health of all staff and an open organisational culture.

To explain this, the report suggests that every business should have a plan on how to tackle mental health. The following suggestions should be included within your plan.

There’s three parts:

Part 1 is about promoting employee wellbeing
Part 2 is about tackling the causes of work-related mental health problems
Part 3 is about supporting staff that are experiencing a mental health problem

Let’s get started with part one.

Part 1: Promoting employee wellbeing

1. Get senior leaders on board

Senior leaders should promote employee wellbeing by:

• Speaking out about mental health
• Supporting a campaign to encourage all staff to take lunch breaks and work healthy hours

2. Raise awareness of mental health

In many workplaces mental health is the elephant in the room. Too often, employees are scared to talk to their manager and problems can spiral.

Your action plan should aim to raise awareness of mental health by:

• Embedding mental health in induction and training
• Celebrating key dates in the mental health calendar
• Running internal communication campaigns
• Recruiting Mental Health Champions.

3. Involve staff in dialogue and decision making to create a culture of openness

When staff feel involved and well informed about what’s happening in the organisation, it increases motivation and helps people understand how their role fits into the bigger picture.

Your action plan should set out how you will involve staff by using methods such as:

• Staff surveys and focus groups
• Staff forums and diversity networks
• Engagement steering groups
• Monthly or quarterly performance review meetings
• Improvement or planning ‘away days’
• Regular group problem-solving meetings or innovation events
• Work-stream groups that bring together different parts of the organisation
• Feeding back board decisions to all staff
• Effectively using internal communication channels.

4. Promote a healthy work/life balance

A poor work/life balance can quickly lead to stress and burnout, reducing levels of employee productivity, performance, creativity and morale.

Your action plan should set out how your organisation encourages staff to:

• Work sensible hours
• Take full lunch breaks
• Rest and recuperate after busy periods
• Avoid working at weekends – especially from home
• Take their full annual leave entitlement.

5. Provide opportunities for learning and development

Research on employee engagement tells us employees need to feel valued, supported and that their work is meaningful.

Your mental health plan should outline ways in which you provide staff with learning and development opportunities including:

• Coaching
• Training
• Job-shadowing

6. Offer positive working relationships and social connections

Organisations should take positive action to make the workplace a mutually supportive environment where good work relationships thrive.

Your mental health plan should:

• Promote a culture of teamwork, collaboration and information-sharing
• Promote positive behaviour to avoid conflict and ensure fairness
• Ensure robust policies on bullying and harassment are in place and well publicised
• Encourage exercise and regular social events to boost staff health, teamwork and mental wellbeing
• Hold ‘lunch and learn’ sessions – these are a great way to get staff to take their full lunch break away from their desk
• Consider offering mentoring and buddy schemes. They can help new starters to understand your organisation faster and help all staff to gain confidence and develop new skills.

What REALLY motivates your people?

It boils down to three intrinsic motivations: purpose, autonomy, and mastery. That’s according to Daniel Pink in his book, Drive. That’s why your people do what they do, how they do it, and how good they are at it. 

If you can tap into these motivations, your team will be happier, more successful and you’ll cut your risk of losing your best people to competitors who could probably pay them more. 

In this guide, I’m going to cover the best 5 ways to reward your team that doesn’t involve cash. The idea is that you’ll be able to take away these suggestions and adapt them to not only your business, but the individuals working for you too. Remember, not every reward will work for every employee, but at least one of these will appeal to every member of your team, I have no doubt. 

Day 1

• Introduce your newbie to the rest of the team and show them around the office. A warm welcome goes a long way
• Verify their ID and right to work in the UK and go over their P45, if applicable
• Provide them with all the materials they need to get the hang of their new role
• Walk them through key health and safety points, like the location of fire exits and the first aid kit
• Explain precisely what they’ll be doing and how their role contributes to the bigger picture