MyPersonnel Department

The Personnel Department helps to provide solutions to your problems. These can vary and cover a number of complex areas. To give you a flavour of the type of cases we have dealt with recentlym a few scenarios are summarised below;

An employee goes home with stress and is reluctant to return - How do you manage them back to work meeting your obligations as an employer?

An employee is not performing to the standards expected - how would you deploy your performance management processes and get them to perform to meet your business needs? how long do you allow for this?

 An employee is being investigated for misconduct. Their union representative is delaying the investigation. How can the employer ensure compliance and fairness and deal with this employee adn the case?

 An employee is pregnant and is frequently absent from work and unable to meet her contractual requirements.  How does the employer manage her?

 The organisation is tranferring part of their contract to another provider and some employees want voluntary redundancy. How is the TUPE managed to the new contract and staff requirements met?

 A new organisation is set up and looking to employ 5 staff. How does management set up the contracts, induction and probation arrangements?

 The firm is losing staff and constantly recruiting and covering through agency cover. How do you retain staff and manage the agency resource more efficently?

The department are looking to reduce staffing resource by 20% but no volunteers have come forward. How do you undertake redundancy in a safe and dignified manner and then redesign the department so that it still meets customer and business needs?

 There is a racist and harassment complaint made to the CEO. How does the CEO start addressing this?

 An employee is injured using equipment at work and the HSE are now involved. How does the firm manage this and what training and risk assessments should be put into place?

The organisation is embarking on a change project (bringing in a new technology system). How would ths be managed engaging the right stakeholders to ensure legal obligations are met?

 A charity has been set up but has no personnel polices and procedures in place. How does it start putting together the minimum requirements for employees?

Do these situations sound familiar?

If you employ staff, are you legally compliant? .

Do you have a process for dealing with misconduct and concerns?
Do they all have employment contracts and terms and conditions to work to?
Is your health and safety policy clear and staff trained on the risks?
What do you pay staff - minimum wage? Is there a payslip?
Do you know the rules on maternity/paternity/adoption leave?
Do you have a sickness absence policy?
Are all your staff legally entitled to work?

If not your business is at risk and of employment tribunal claims and costs to the business

There will be other requirements that can be supported by the department to reach your full potential as an organisation. However, we do need to recognise that these elements of personnel management are inter-related. It is important to get some of the foundations right before you start building your business. We will help you to become compliant in your business.

Employment Law

This addresses the legal rights of employees and employers and is becoming a minfelield for organisations. It is important to get your contracts of employment and polices written and commuincated correctly and in a timely manner. All employees have a statutory right to a contract of employmeny.Terms and conditions of employment are the elements of a contract which help to define the relation between an employer and an employee. It is important to ensure that the content of these are carefully thought through and the appropriate contract issued to suit the needs of the organisation. This may vary from permanent,fixed term, short term and temporary contracts.

Discipline and grievances

Difficulties  inevitably which may arise as part of an employer's or employee's working relationship require fairness and transarent processes and procedures to avoid costly tribunal costs.

 Absence/Attendance

Managing absence due to sickness requires effective people management policies supported by employee well-being inititatives. All apsects of an absence need to be managed effectively including the causes of absence, monitoring and management, return to work, and the sick pay. Other absences not related to sickness need to be carefully separated so that you can understand the well-being aspects of the organisation.

 Talent management

The talent of any organisation needs to be managed from start to finish in a  small or large organisation. This ranges from from career management promotion, secondments, succession planning and formal training. To develop this talent there also needs to be senior ownership and committment to coaching and mentoring whether this be on or off the job.

 Performance Management

Traditionally and specifically in certain types of industry managers are known to shy away from managing performance for many reasons. A culture that encourages the continuous improvement of business processes and of individuals, skills, behaviour and contributions will need to be encouraged. This will incorporate performance measurement, poor performance triggers, performance indicators, objective setting, SMART objectives, performance reviews, performance appraisal and feedback.

 Equality and Diversity

Todays' businesses are made up of diverse cultures and backgrounds bringing a rich diversity of skills and experiences. This means they need to be treated fairly and equally within the work environment  specifically in terms of opportunities, training and development and reward.

 Family Friendly Polices and Flexible Working

Striking the balance between effective flexible working and meeting the business needs has been a challenge for the majority of managers. There are also legal rights that need to be considered.

 Learning and Development

It is important that employees are trained in key requirements relevant to their roles and are able to comply with legislation aswell as an organisations values and behaviours. In specific cases employees may have certain mitigation when being disciplined or being performance managed where they have not been adequately trained.

 Redundancy and Redeployment Management

Many organisations are currently looking at multi-skilling and a flexible staffing base. In order to achieve this effective communication  with staff and maangmeent of the process is needed. At times unions can be challenging and a blockage to the process of the situation is not handled well. A number of small organisations have recently been challenged and lost employment triunla cases due to inadequate management of redpeloyment and redudancy processses involving even or two employees. it is important ot follow the basic steps and meet the minimum statutory requirements,

 Strategic HR and Change Management/Project Management

From time to time there will be specific projects across your organisation that require additional and specialist resource for projects. This can be provided on a materials basis. Employees usually relate well and trust an independent person to listen to views during a period of change. This buy in and engagement is critical if the process is to be effective and successful.