Guest blogger Robert Dixon, partner and employment law specialist at Turbervilles Solicitors, takes a closer look at some of the myths and misconceptions around employment law.

Myth 1: You cannot ask about domestic arrangements and family plans at a job interview.

Reality: It is not illegal to ask about an applicant’s family, or plans for one, at a job interview. However, if you decided not to employ a woman because you suspected she was about to start a family, this would be sex discrimination and the applicant might be able to use your questions and her replies as evidence to support her case. The safest approach is to align your questions to specific job requirements and then put those questions to each applicant.

You could, for example, ask each applicant if they would be able to work regular overtime if it was required. If the job involves overseas travel, you do not need to know who would look after the applicant’s children whilst she was away. You just need her to confirm she can travel abroad as you require.

Myth 2: You can be fined for not giving a new employee a written contract of employment within the first two months.

Reality: An employee who is not given a written contract of employment within the first two months can complain to an Employment Tribunal. However, the only power the Tribunal has is to order you to provide a written contract. The Tribunal has no power in that situation to award compensation.

However, if an employee brings some other successful complaint against you (for example, unfair dismissal or discrimination), the Tribunal has the power to award them extra compensation (between two and four weeks’ gross pay) if you had failed to provide a written contract of employment by the time that complaint was made.

Myth 3: Employees with children have the right to work part-time.

Reality: Employees with children under the age of 17 do not have an automatic right to work part-time but, once they have completed six months’ service with you, they have the right to ask for flexible working – for example, working part-time. You do not have to agree to such a request but you must consider it carefully by following a set procedure and only refusing it on one or more of the available business-related grounds.

However, even if you follow the procedure to the letter, turning down a flexible working request from a female employee may amount to indirect sex discrimination. If, for example, you insisted on full-time working, this would adversely affect your female employees more than your male employees because women are more likely than men to be the primary carers of children. An insistence on full-time working could be objectively justified, but you would need to have good reasons for it and evidence to support those reasons.

Myth 4: Staff have no right to privacy at work.

Reality: Employees do have a right to privacy in the workplace. You are therefore limited in what you can do to check up on your staff. The key thing is to limit your employees’ expectations of privacy by publishing policies saying what they are and are not allowed to do whilst at work.

These should be backed up by a monitoring policy spelling out what forms of monitoring will occur and for what purposes. Although some level of monitoring is reasonable – for example, to check the quality of work and compliance with workplace rules – employers must strike a balance between their business needs and their employees’ right to privacy.

Myth 5: You cannot take, or continue, disciplinary action against an employee who is off sick.

Reality: There is no law which says that an employer cannot pursue a disciplinary process against an employee who has been signed off work due to sickness. However, in practice it is likely to be difficult and you have to tread carefully. An employee who is off sick clearly cannot be forced to come to work to attend a disciplinary meeting. They might, though, agree to come in or to the meeting being held at their home or at some convenient neutral venue.

Other possible alternatives are to hold the meeting by Skype or telephone. If the employee is unable or unwilling to agree to any of these, the meeting can be held in the employee’s absence with the employee having first been sent as much information as possible and given the opportunity to submit written evidence and representations. The important thing is to treat the employee as fairly as reasonably possible whilst at the same time having a firm determination to get the process completed.

Myth 6: You cannot make a woman redundant while on maternity leave.

Reality: If there is a genuine redundancy situation when someone is on maternity leave, you do not have to wait until she returns to address the situation. You should inform and consult with her exactly as you would if she was at work.  You need to use common sense and discretion and you may need to be flexible over where and how meetings take place. However, you should not go overboard and give the employee an unfair advantage over other employees, particularly where a selection exercise has to be carried out.

Myth 7: You can dismiss an employee who is 65 or over without the risk of claims.

Reality: Prior to October 2011 it was possible to compulsorily retire employees at the age  of 65, against their will, without facing claims for unfair dismissal or age discrimination. You just had to follow a special statutory procedure. That is no longer the case. An employee aged 65 or over should now be treated exactly the same as any other employee is treated.

Are you a small business with employees? Do any of these myths surprise you?

About Robert Dixon

Robert Dixon specialises in employment law and human resources and is a partner at Turbervilles, a full-service, South East law firm. He currently jointly heads the firm’s HR & Employment Law department.

Ten days and counting.  The hype is building up – or is it?

Over half of SMEs in the London area expect to suffer disruption as a direct result of the Olympics, according to a YouGov survey commissioned by Citrix. Furthermore, only one in five small business have a business continuity plan in place, and a paltry 10% of businesses are adopting specific working practices to help minimize disruption during the Olympics.  Many companies haven’t even informed staff of an official leave policy for the games.

So if you run a business in the London area, or have staff who commute into or out of London, you need to have a ‘how to survive the Olympics plan’ in place.  The Olympics is likely to affect your business in a number of ways:

Disruption to transportation – difficulty getting to and from work

Assess feasible alternative working practices that can mitigate transportation issues, such as :

• Working from home
• Flexible working hours
• Access to the company network from home
• Using personal devices (such as smartphones, home computers, ipads) to connect to the workplace if there are no company laptops available
• Use Skype or conference call facilities to hold meetings.

Higher staff absenteeism

Staff may have tickets to events. Alternatively, they may want to watch certain events from the comfort of their own home.  Flexibility on your part will ensure that fewer staff are absent, either through annual leave, sickness or unauthorized absence.  Explore the options of arrival at work early or late to miss the rush hour congestion.  Manage the holiday timetable to ensure that disproportionate leave isn’t been taken by a small percentage of staff  and communicate how much annual leave people are allowed to take.

Furthermore, consider setting up a temporary TV up in the reception area that your staff can watch at lunchtime, or print a schedule of major events that you are willing to have to broadcast in the office.  Either way, you need to accept that employees will want to watch Olympics events.  By allowing some events to be televised or watched on computers, it will promote goodwill amongst staff and  help prevent further absenteeism.

Poor customer service

There is a danger that calls from important clients are missed or that requests for work are not given the appropriate attention due to the distraction of the Olympics.  Put in place a communication plan to reassure your clients that you’re looking after them during the Olympic period.  As part of this plan, draw up a call schedule for individual members of staff so everyone knows who’s responsible for contacting which client.  Your clients may even have specific needs during the Olympics that you aren’t aware of. By being proactive in addressing their specific needs, you are also creating a potential business opportunity.

Communicate, communicate, communicate

You must communicate to your employees the changes and new working practices that you are putting in place – and do it as soon as possible.  This will aid with employee buy-in for the changes in working practices as well as minimize any misunderstandings. It also allows you to communicate what behaviours are acceptable and unacceptable.  If the disruption to “business as usual” is managed properly, the Olympics can be used as a feel-good factor to boost morale and encourage teamwork.

If  you think your business is going to be adversely impacted during the Olympic period and would like help to create working practices to suit the needs of your business, email Ines Respini Jones at irj@simplyhrconsulting.co.uk .

After recently spending five days in New York, I got thinking about the differences in workplaces, working patterns and attitudes between the USA and Europe. As businesses are looking to attract and retain talent, the high performers are coming from an increasingly culturally diverse talent pool.

According to Dean Foster, who recently published an article on the Global HR News website entitled “Managing the Differences Between the US and….” , the highest number of failed expat assignments from the USA is to the UK.  Now why is that the case when both countries speak the same language; surely that should make the transition as easy one? What Foster has discovered is that the use of a common language creates a feeling a similarity that masks actual cultural differences that don’t get addressed and resolved, leading to further problems.

This is also the case in Germanic countries in Europe. Did you know that in the German speaking part of Switzerland, German employees get very offended if Swiss employees speak to them in Swiss-German? Nevertheless, many Swiss continue to do so and thus contribute to a fractious, and, one can argue, potentially less productive, working environment.

Someone I know very well has had to manage conflict between German and Swiss employees because of language issues. He has gained has the respect of all his team members because he conducts his meetings in English, therefore showing respect to both cultures by not favouring one language over the other. It is not a coincidence that he is running diversity and inclusion programs at this Swiss multinational and has also been selected to the talent management program.

Tolerance, understanding, and knowledge is key to working effectively and productively with people of different cultures and in diverse working environments. From an HR viewpoint, providing training or coaching in both language, culture and local attitudes for employees embarking on international assignments will increase the success rate of those assignments.

Access to talent, which crosses many cultural divides, has also provided many challenges in recruitment. According to Paul Wesley, HR Director of psychometric testing firm SHL, based in the UK, says:

“The ability to differentiate between people is more important now as businesses haven’t the luxury of recruiting people who are not going to perform. We don’t have an issue in attracting people – we have an issue in attracting the right people and making decisions about which of those people are going to perform.” (“Global HR: Europe”, Personnel Today 13 Oct 2009)

HR practitioners and managers also need to be aware of differing management styles; is it a paternalistic management environment, or are you working in an autonomous flat structure where taking responsibility for decision making is encouraged?  Who are the key decision-makers and how are decision-made? What is the legislative environment like and what laws do you need to be aware of?  How can you ensure that inadvertent discrimination doesn’t take place?

My advice is: think global, act local and create an environment of mutual respect amongst your diverse workforce.  On that note – arrivederci, ha det bra, au revoir, auf wiedersehen, and goodbye for now!

Over the past three months I’ve had the pleasure of volonteering at the charity WheelPower, the national charity for wheelchair sport.  I’ve been working alongside Joyce Sheard, who is a volunteer fundraiser, event organizer, as well as being a mum, grandmother and wife – and an international weightlifting referee in her spare time!  One amazing lady. Working alongside Joyce, I’ve come to understand the sense of the commitment and passion that people who work at WheelPower have to help others less fortunate than them. Giving my time to help organize a fundraising event has been my way of giving back to the community that I live in.

Do you live in Aylesbury Vale or the surrounding villages and want to help a local charity raise much needed funds? Then come and get yourself pampered at the Ladies Indulgence Evening  on Thursday 29th March whilst raising money for the charity WheelPower.

The event is from 6:30-9:30 pm at the Olympic Lodge at Stoke Mandeville Stadium (in Stoke Mandeville, near Aylesbury). There will be  a variety of  beauty taster treatments such as manicures, reiki, reflexology, facials, as well as stalls selling a range of accessories, gifts, home decorations, and beauty products. There will be a raffle with some fantastic prizes, including tickets for two to the 2012 Olympic Park.

If you are interested in attending, you can either contact me for tickets at irj@simplyhrconsulting.co.uk or you can buy tickets at the door. Tickets cost £7.50 and all funds raised will go directly to WheelPower.

WheelPower is the national charity for wheelchair sport and provides opportunities, facilities and equipment, which enable disabled people, of all ages, to play sport and lead healthy active lives.  Sport provides tremendous benefits by improving health and physical strength, increasing self esteem and confidence leading to a better quality of life. If you want more information, please check out www.wheelpower.org.uk

Have you been watching the latest series of The Apprentice on BBC1? If you don’t watch the programme, it is a twelve-week recruitment process designed to identify Britain’s brightest talent and offer them a role in Sir Alan Sugar’s organization. In a new twist to the show, this year’s winner will receive £250,000 to invest in a joint venture with Sir Alan Sugar. This change reflects the mood in Britain to support entrepreneurs and small businesses to help revive a flagging economy.

However, as a SME or start-up, you don’t need to be Alan Sugar to attract top talent. As a small business, when recruiting, you need to be clear and communicate the advantages of working for a small business versus working in a large organization. For example, the advantages of working for a small business are:

• Less bureaucracy
• Closer and more productive relationships between management and employees
• A family-like culture and being a valued member of the company
• More variety, breadth and diversity in the job
• Potential for job flexibility
• Potential for high organisational growth
• Influence how the business is run and play a significant part in it’s success
• Financial rewards through investment in the business.

So even if Britain’s alleged brightest business brains on The Apprentice think Christopher Columbus is English and invented the potato, you don’t need to resort to offering a £250,000 investment to lure talent to your small firm.

As a small business, you are only as good as your people, so effective people management is more important than ever. Here are our top five HR tips for small businesses:

1. Know what your legal employment obligations are

Changes to employment take place every six to twelve months, and over the past year there have been some major changes, such as the introduction of the Equality Act in April 2010- a framework that replaced previous anti-discrimination laws with one act – and the Agency Workers Regulation which comes into force in October 2011. If you are making people redundant then make sure you follow ACAS best practice in order to avoid costly unfair dismissal or discrimination claims. The average award for a successful unfair dismissal claim is £9120 (Employment Tribunal and EAT Statistics 2009-2010).

2. It’s not just about the money

Financial rewards are only one way of rewarding and motivating staff, and research proves that it is a relatively ineffective tool to do so. The 2008 Employee Benefits/YouGov study found that bonuses and benefits packages rank in 16th and 17th place respectively in a list of factors driving employee engagement – the most important factors cited were interesting work, work-life balance and the working environment.

There are may interesting and diverse incentives that you can use to reward your staff  - such as offering flexible working patterns to putting in place recognition programmes – that can result in improved employee engagement and performance. Small businesses should not ignore non-financial rewards as they are a vital tool for retaining and motivating employees.

3. Make your employees feel valued

When you take new staff on, it is vital that you provide a useful induction session in order for new joiners to get a better understanding of not just your business, but to find out the answers  questions such as how to book time off or what the working hours are. It is important to give an employee handbook to all new joiners, which will contain all the relevant information about the company and procedures in place. Involvement in team meetings from day one will ensure that a culture of team work is fostered and strengthened.

4. Communicate, communicate, communicate

Talking to staff in a small company is just as important as in a big organisation and communication will foster a more open working environment in which mutual respect between managers and employees can thrive. In addition, by consulting with employees you will give them a sense of feeling valued, of having their issues and concerns listened to, as well as tapping into a well of knowledge that could benefit your business. In recognition of the importance of communication to the success of a business, in 2010 the Institute of Internal Communications (IoIC) was launched, with the aim to help businesses improvetheir success and profitability through better internal communications.

5. Be flexible

A flexible organization will better meet the challenges facing it in these politically and economically uncertain times. The benefits of a flexible approach are considerable: increased productivity, lower levels of absenteeism, increased loyalty to the organisation, and improved staff wellbeing. Flexibility can reflect the structure of resources, such as having a core team, supported by part time or outsourced staff, as and when the business needs it. Alternatively, you can implement flexible working practices such as part-time working, working from home or job-sharing. The introduction of new technologies will enable small businesses to embrace the concept of flexibility.