Operational human resources refers to the day-to-day functionality and human transactions in your organisation. These may include vital tasks such as creating/updating policies and procedures, absence management, maternity paternity and flexible working requests, handling disciplinaries and grievances or assisting with performance management.
Square Peg HR can support you with all of these day to day activities – we’re just a phone call or email away if you simply need reassurance or want to discuss practical approaches to any issue.
It is important to ensure that you have appropriate employment policies in place that reflects what happens in your business, gives you the protection and flexibility you need, as well as being compliant with the law.
The polices should explain how the organisation will deal with issues when they arise and show that the organisation operates in a fair and consistent way towards their employees.
Square Peg HR recommend that you have the following essential policies in place:
- Recruitment and Selection process
- Equal Opportunity
- Dignity at work (including Harassment and bullying)
- Health & Safety (where five or more staff are employed)
- Discipline and Grievance
- Absence Policy
- Holidays/Annual leave policy
- Family policies including parental rights such as maternity, paternity, adoption, parental (including shared parental) and dependents leave
- Flexible Working
- Whistleblowing
- Data Protection
Square Peg HR will ensure that each policy is drafted to suit to your particular organisational needs in straightforward language that can be understood by everyone.
Having the right polices in place and ensuring that all employees have access to them is essential if the organisation finds itself in a position where it needs to rely on one of its policies.
Employers likely know that most employees have the right to up to 52 weeks’ maternity leave. However, the laws and regulations governing maternity, adoption, paternity and parental leave are long and complex.
There is now the additional right to shared parental leave introduced for parents whose baby is born on or after 5th April 2015; shared parental leave does not have to be taken in one block so an employee could request to take their leave in separate periods up to 52 weeks after the baby is born making it harder for employers to manage and monitor what time off employees are entitled to and what they should be paid.
All employees who have 26 weeks’ continuous service with you now have the right to request flexible working.
Employers must follow a statutory process in dealing with the requests and all requests must be treated ‘reasonably’. An employer can refuse a request if they have a good business reason for doing so.
Square Peg can help you by providing advice and support for any issues arising around maternity/paternity and flexible working. By having the right policies in place together with the appropriate and compliant documentation, we will help you negotiate your way through the maze of maternity/paternity and flexible working regulations.
All employers will have staff that are absent from time to time – either short or long term and for a variety of reasons. Employers are required to deal with absences fairly so having a policy in place that sets out the employers’ expectations and ensuring that it is available to all employees is crucial.
Normally a policy would include sections dealing with short term and long term absence, what is expected from the employee and what support is available from the employer. It would deal with how to monitor absences and ‘back to work’ interviews. It may also set out any policy on Occupational Health – helpful in long term absence scenarios.
Square Peg HR will help you to have a clear policy in place to deal with absence for whatever reason.
Performance management is a means of getting better results from the organisation, teams and individuals by understanding and managing performance within an agreed framework of planned goals, standards and competence requirements. It’s a process for establishing shared understanding about what is to be achieved; it should be forward looking and developmental.
Whether you are looking to review your current performance management processes or are keen to implement a new system of appraisal or support and supervision, Square Peg HR can advise on the best strategy that fits with the culture, ethos and values of your organisation.
All employers must have in place Discipline and Grievance Procedures which should meet the current ACAS Code of Practice. All employees should be made aware of these policies and procedures and have access to them.
Square Peg will help you to draft policies and procedures that are both compliant, meet the needs of your business and also meet the required standards set out by ACAS.
No one likes dealing with disciplinary matters and likely it isn’t something you’ll be doing every day, so to have a legally qualified HR practitioner to discuss the matter with – and agree the best way forward – will help to smooth the path to a satisfactory outcome.
Square Peg will be with you throughout to advise and support and if necessary and, where the matter is particularly complex or sensitive, will support you in person at your premises. We will take you from the investigatory stage through to the final outcome. We will provide you with any papers or correspondence you need on the way.
It is never easy having to consider making an employee or employees redundant. The law requires that employers follow a fair procedure and that the need for the redundancy is genuine and not covering up another reason for dismissal.
For there to be a redundancy, one of three circumstances must be present:
- You must have ceased or intend to cease carrying on the business for which the employee was employed
- You must have ceased or intend to cease carrying on business in the place where the employee was employed
- The requirement for employees to carry out work of a particular kind at a particular place must have ceased or diminished or are expected to cease or diminish
You need to carry out meaningful consultation with those whose jobs are at risk, and you must ensure that any selection process is fair and does not discriminate against any at risk employee.
Most employees now have the right to decide at what age they will retire. For most jobs there is no longer a set legal retirement age and employers must not treat an employee unfairly on the basis of their age, their decision to retire or not. An employer must not:
- treat an employee detrimentally because they are thinking about retiring or could already take their work pension or State pension.
- suggest the employee should retire before or during a dismissal process
- make the mistake of thinking it has the right to change an employee’s employment contract once they take any pension.
An employee does not need to retire when they reach their State pension age.
Square Peg HR can help ensure that your organisation does not treat anyone at work unfairly and keep you appraised of the Equality Act 2010.