HR FAQ's

As a minimum, businesses who employ either employees or workers need to be able to cover their workers Statutory employment rights. These Statutory rights range from day one rights to what is known as enhanced employment rights.

In addition to the legal side, commercially, you have an operation to run which your people are integral to. Resulting you need to have HR processes in place to ensure your operation can effectively Attract – Engage – Develop – Retain staff.

Complete our HR health check form to benchmark the effectiveness of your people management tools and processes.

A Statutory employment right is a basic right that either an employee or worker is legally entitled to. These are typically automatic rights i.e. from day one and form the basis of fair treatment within the workplace. Some Statutory rights are acquired by length of service which are known as ‘enhanced employment rights’.

Examples of day one employment rights for either employee or workers include:

• Written Particulars of Employment (Contract of employment)

• Itemised wage slip

• National minimum wage

• Unlawful deduction from wages

• Equal pay

• Paid annual leave (Statutory paid holiday)

• Protection under TUPE

• Weekly and daily rest periods

• Protection from detriment for Trade Union membership

• Protection against discrimination

• Protection for ‘whistleblowers’

• Protection from automatic unfair dismissal

• Statutory sick pay (workers maybe)

• Breach of contract (not workers)

• Statutory maternity leave & adoption leave (not workers)

• Statutory bereavement leave (not workers)

• Paid time off for various activities (not workers)

• Flexible working requests (not workers)

• Time off for dependants (not workers)

Yes, employees and workers are two different employment statuses with which, employees receive further rights as they accumulate length or service (and workers do not). These are known as enhanced statutory employment rights. Examples of enhanced employment rights include:

• Minimum statutory notice periods

• Unfair dismissal

• Redundancy pay

• Medical suspension pay

• Shared parental & paternity leave

• Adoption, shared parental, Maternity, and Parental Bereavement pay.

At the very least, you require Contracts of Employment and, depending on your business’s complexity, several HR Policies to establish a framework for your operational tasks. For effective people management, we usually recommend the following policies as a foundation:

• Disciplinary

• Grievance

• Absence & time off

• Holiday

• Data Protection

The main purpose of the HR Health check is to benchmark your current people management protocols. How you attract–engage–develop–retain staff as without these practises your operation is blind in forecasting either growth or managing current / potential future obstacles.

Health checks are not only relevant at the beginning of your HR journey but should be used periodically by way of best practise in continually reviewing your capabilities and efficiencies.

The obvious is when you are suffering with people matters whether getting the right people through the door. Engaging and motivating them. Or facing potential legal disputes. The other is keeping on top of the ever changing landscape of Employment law and rights to both employees and workers. All of these are indicators that you are ‘doing it’ wrong.

The other side to ‘people issues’ or expert employment knowledge, is using staff as assets and leveraging your investment (wage bill) in them, something which Micro & SME sized businesses often overlook. At Bearman HR we have the experience and expertise to achieve this.

Yes!

Our retained packages are typically cheaper than permanent salaries whilst benefiting from more senior HR experience. Furthermore, engaging in a Consultancy is more flexible and does not give employment rights like Holiday, Pension, Unfair dismissal, Redundancy etc.

The drawback of relying solely on retained HR arises when a continuous onsite HR presence becomes necessary. At this point, it is wise to recruit full-time HR staff for your business. However, before reaching this crucial stage, utilising a retained HR service offers significant benefits in establishing foundational processes and smoothly transferring responsibilities to the permanent HR team.

Like retained, but for specific HR departments that will already look after the ‘people function’ of the business but may look to outsource specific elements. Reasons could include:

• Looking for specialist expertise or escalation support

• Being stretched and snowed under

• Constantly firefighting and being unable to work on dedicated projects

• Needing confidential or additional impartial entity to run a process for you

• Looking to save on costs i.e. not a full-time requirement for certain aspect of HR

Actual outsource services could include (but not limited to):

• Recruitment, Selection & Onboarding

• Employee relation cases: Disciplinary, Absence management or Performance improvement

• Employee surveys

• Management / Leadership training

• Appraisals

• Staff forums / committees

• The Companies overall HR / People strategy

Yes!

As with our retained packages, outsourcing is typically cheaper and more flexible than permanent employment.

Established HR departments can look after the core day-day duties of the operation and outsource other HR aspects to benefit from industry specific expertise and flexibility.