Please fill in these health check questions to check your current status.
Yes No
If you chose YES:
Excellent. Well done. You are in a good position from a basic compliance perspective.
If you chose NO:
You are in breach of the law. Employment legislation requires that, as an absolute minimum, you issue your staff with a written statement of terms and conditions of employment not later than two months after the beginning of each employee's employment.
You should rectify the position as a matter of urgency. HCS recommend you seek professional assistance with the production of the relevant documentation. Contact HCS and you will ensure you have a written statement of terms and conditions that will mitigate the high risk currently exposed to.
Well done. Is it up to date with the latest changes effective 1st October 2004?
You could be heading for problems if you do not have proper disciplinary and grievance procedures in place. If you dismiss an employee for conduct reasons without following a fair disciplinary procedure, you could be at risk of an unfair dismissal claim if the employee has been employed by you for one year or more.
Additionally, on 1st of October 2004, new statutory requirements were introduced making it mandatory for employers to manage all employee grievances and many disciplinary issues and dismissals in accordance with minimum standards. If you do not follow these requirements on dismissal, you will be held to have automatically unfairly dismissed the employee (provided they have one or more years' continuous employment) and the compensation awarded against you must be increased by between 10% and 50%. Likewise, if you fail to follow the statutory grievance procedure and the employee is subsequently successful in their claim that was the subject of their grievance, again the compensation the employee receives will be increased by between 10% and 50%.
You should take steps to put in place both a disciplinary procedure and a grievance procedure. Again, seek professional help from HCS we can provide you with the necessary documentation.
Fantastic...you are ahead of most companies in this respect. Congratulate your HR team!
Your personnel practices could be better. Whilst a staff handbook or a set of policies are not legal requirements, they do form the basis of your employees' contracts of employment. The contract of employment essentially sets out the rights and obligations of both employer and employee. Having a set of well-drafted policies in place will provide you with a high level of protection should you have a dispute with an employee or should an employee take you to an employment tribunal. Bear in mind that tribunals tend to decide ambiguities in favour of the employee!
You should take steps to protect yourself as far as possible by putting in place appropriate policy documentation, HCS can help you with this.
Are you an HR Consultancy or Law firm? Again, well done...you have the right support infrastructure in place.
You could land yourself in trouble if you take action against an employee without the benefit of legal advice.
Instructing a solicitor every time you have a personnel problem will be costly and takes time. You should subscribe to the HCS network where you will have access to our support line Monday to Friday from 9 am to 6 pm, you will be provided with advice. You will then be free to use the services of the HCS network support line as often as you need without the fear of receiving a large bill for legal fees. HCS provides a support line which is staffed entirely by fully qualified CIPD consultants.
You know what you are doing, are well resourced and have a significant budget and infrastructure in place already. Well done.
It looks as if you might be out of your depth when dealing with some personnel problems. You need help from time to time!
Use the services of HCS Consultancy Service to assist you with complex personnel issues. HCS can provide you with onsite support to help every step of the way. That way, you can guarantee you won't put a foot wrong.
You ARE an Employment Law specialist! Why are you here?
If you are not up-to-date on the law, then it is only a matter of time before you fall foul of it.
Make sure you keep abreast of all important changes in employment law. Being aware of future changes also means you can be proactive and plan your implementation programme in advance. You can keep up- to-date by subscribing to the HCS network.
If you wish to discuss the services of HCS and your requirements, please complete the form below and click 'Send to HCS'. We will treat your responses with absolute confidentiality and will promise to get back to you within 24 hours.
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