Wednesday 14th March 2012
Seminar – 08.00am – 9.45am
Expo – 10am onwards
The Lights, Andover
FREE to Members and those sampling events for the first time

We’ve teamed up with the Andover Business Expo 2012, offering you the opportunity to attend the opening event of the year! Attending the event will also give you access to the Expo for FREE for the rest of the day.

The Andover Expo is the largest event of its kind in the area and attracts hundreds of visitors from the Hampshire region with a series of business seminars and keynote speeches.

Business Growth Seminar with Lara Morgan

Local entrepreneur and inspirational business woman, Lara Morgan, will talk about her experiences in building a business from nearly nothing to selling her share for £20m. Having transformed her company from hand-selling products door-to-door into a multi-million pound business empire – under Lara’s management, Pacific Direct became the supplier of amenities to luxury hotels in 110 countries around the world.

In her keynote speech at the Expo, Lara will talk about her journey, and following action plans from her new book ‘More Balls than Most’, she will impart some of the critical tools which aim to maximise a company’s potential.

We look forward to welcoming you to this event. Please RSVP as soon as you can to events@northhampshireenterprise.co.uk or call 0844 375 9547 to book today.

Kind regards,
Lisa Childs
Event Manager

It is sometimes worth remembering that employees have obligations to the organisation, too, and that employers are sometimes more protected than they might realise. This is certainly the case when it comes to unauthorised absences.

An unauthorised absence is an absence during which an employee fails to attend work but where he or she does not have a statutory or contractual right, or the employer’s permission, to be absent. Usually, the employer has failed to contact the Company and people may well be concerned as to the employee’s health or safety.

Absences that are due to pre-booked annual leave, genuine and correctly reported sickness absence or family-related (e.g. maternity) leave, or that result from a statutory right to take time off (for example to look for work in a redundancy situation, or for antenatal care) of course do NOT constitute unauthorised absence. Simply put if an employee fails to attend work without a good reason, or without notifying the Company, this will amount to unauthorised absence.

Unauthorised absence may take various forms. It can take the form of an isolated unplanned absence for a good reason (for example to care for a dependant in the event of an emergency) or a persistent pattern of unauthorised absences (for example “Monday morning syndrome”), which are likely to be less acceptable. Alternatively, an employee may “go AWOL”, taking an extended period of unauthorised absence. Employers should not therefore deal with every situation in exactly the same way, it is recommended that the length of, and reason for, the absence should determine how the employer deals with it.
While unauthorised absence without good cause is a disciplinary offence, an employer faced with an incidence of unauthorised absence should investigate the situation and hear the employee’s explanation, before it takes formal action.

Clearly, employers need to be consistent, fair and non-discriminatory in how they deal with unauthorised absence, or risk being liable in the event of an unfair dismissal and/or unlawful discrimination claim. However, the level of action that is appropriate for an employer to take in respect of unauthorised absence will depend on the circumstances of the case. For example, an employee who takes a one-off day of unauthorised absence for a good reason would normally be treated differently to an employee who has a prolonged period of absence without proper cause and who repeatedly fails to return the employer’s attempts to contact him or her.

There is no obligation on employers to pay employees their normal pay for periods of unauthorised absence, whatever the reasons for it. An employer that fails to pay an employee in these circumstances would not normally be in breach of the employee’s contract of employment. Non-payment would also not amount to an unlawful deduction from wages because payment would not be “properly payable” (under s.13 (3) of the Employment Rights Act 1996) in the first place. However, to help reduce the likelihood of a dispute about non-payment employers can include a clause in the contract making clear that employees will not be paid for periods of unauthorised absence.

Whether or not an employer can lawfully dismiss an employee for unauthorised absence depends on the reason for, and length of, the absence and the procedure that the employer follows. It will be difficult for an employer to argue successfully that its dismissal of an employee for one day’s unauthorised absence that was taken for a good reason was fair. However, if the unauthorised absence is prolonged, persistent and/or not for a genuine reason, dismissal is more likely to be fair, provided that the employer follows a fair procedure.
In seeking to follow a fair procedure, the employer should: provide the employee with details of the allegations against him or her in writing together with any supporting evidence; write to the employee to invite him or her to attend a disciplinary meeting; give the employee the opportunity to put his or her case forward; allow the employee to be accompanied at the disciplinary meeting by a trade union representative or colleague; and give the employee the right of appeal against the dismissal.

If an employee’s absence is prolonged and he or she fails to respond to the employer’s attempts to contact him or her, the employer may need to carry out the disciplinary hearing in the employee’s absence. It should write to the employee inviting him or her to a hearing and to advise that it will proceed in the employee’s absence if necessary.

We would be delighted to run through some of the key themes outlined here and the best practice processes that would help protect and develop your organisation. We can help with the design, implementation and communication of effective policies and procedures in this area, and many others so please call us on 0844 375 9547 or drop me a line via tania.woodward@northhampshireenterprise.co.uk if you would like to hear more.

Performance management is fundamental to the effectiveness of today’s organisations, dependent as they are on their people for the goods and services that they provide. Almost every aspect of your business’ sucess or failure dpends on the people you choose to execute your plans. Collectively, a workforce that performs at high levels can help the organisation survive and prosper in a competitive marketplace and each person can make a difference.

However, poor performance can cost you clients, reputation, other members of staff, future talent and industry standing so don’t stand for it!

What is performance management?

Performance management consists of two parallel processes:

1. The informal, day-to-day management of individuals and teams by their immediate line manager; and
2. The formal framework within which the performance of individuals and teams is assessed and improved.

The two processes are mutually supportive and depend on the same factors for success. They involve:

• monitoring individual or team performance against accepted benchmarks or standards;
• feedback on performance – both praise (positive reinforcement) and feedback highlighting unsatisfactory performance;
• ensuring that negative feedback is delivered in an objective manner and is accompanied by an explanation of why the performance is unsatisfactory, affording an opportunity for the employee to provide an explanation as well as the means to improve in the future;
• coaching, training or other support to address poor performance;
• follow-up monitoring to check that the performance has improved, with the improvements reinforced with positive feedback; and
• recourse to formal procedures such as the disciplinary or capability procedure where the poor performance continues and represents serious cause for concern.

Our team of HR consultants can advise you on what your requirements might be and how to make sure that you gain the maximum benefit from your performance management processes. We can review your existing arrangements and advise you how to make any changes that might be beneficial to your business and we can make sure that any changes that you introduce mesh well with your Company’s objectives and Business Plans.
Don’t leave it to chance, invest in the future of your business. A good performance management system will reduce costs across your organisation, improve morale and produce genuine bottom line benefits.

Please call our HR team on 0844 375 9547 for further details.

As with so much employment legislation, it takes a while before the affects of any changes sink in. It also takes a while for employees to become aware of any new rights and it appears that has certainly been the case in regards to paternity rights. So, here’s an overview of the main changes to help you understand what families are now entitled to.

Paternity leave and pay

An employee whose wife, civil partner or partner gives birth to a child, or who is the biological father of the child, is entitled to two weeks’ ordinary paid paternity leave provided that:

• they have 26 weeks’ continuous service by the end of the 15th week before the week in which the child is expected and

• have given 15 weeks’ written notice of the date on which their partner’s baby is due, the length of ordinary paternity leave they wish to take and the date on which they wish the leave to commence.

Ordinary paternity leave is also available to adoptive parents where a child is matched or newly placed with them for adoption. Either the adoptive father or the adoptive mother may take ordinary paternity leave where the other adoptive parent has elected to take adoption leave. In the case of an adopted child, the employee must give written notice of his/her intention to take ordinary paternity leave no later than seven days after the date on which notification of the match with the child was given by the adoption agency.

Ordinary paternity leave is granted in addition to an employee’s normal annual holiday entitlement. Ordinary paternity leave must be taken in a single block of one or two weeks within eight weeks of the birth or adoption of the child.

Pay during ordinary paternity leave will be at a standard rate of £124.88 per week, or at a rate equivalent to 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings if this figure is less than £124.88 per week and is subject to PAYE and national insurance deductions. Pension contributions will continue to be made during any period when the employee is receiving statutory paternity pay but not during any period of unpaid additional paternity leave. All other accumulative benefits continue to be accrued.

The Company has no right to require the employee to carry out any work, and the employee has no right to undertake any work, during his/her additional paternity leave. Any work undertaken, including the amount of salary paid for any work done on keeping-in-touch days, is entirely a matter for agreement between the Company and the employee. Any keeping-in-touch days worked do not extend the period of additional paternity leave. Once the keeping-in-touch days have been used up, the employee will lose a week’s statutory paternity pay for any week in which he/she agrees to work for the Company. It may also bring the additional paternity leave period to an end.

The employee is entitled to return to the same job as he/she occupied before commencing paternity leave on the same terms and conditions of employment as if he/she had not been absent.

Transfer of maternity leave

For children born on or after 3 April 2011, if an employee proposes to return to work early without using her full 52-week entitlement to maternity leave by giving proper notification of an early return in accordance with the rules set above, she may be eligible to transfer up to 26 weeks of her outstanding maternity leave (and outstanding SMP) to her spouse, civil partner or partner, or the father of her child, to be taken as additional paternity leave (and additional statutory paternity pay) on her return to work. Obviously this will require some communication if the wife works for a different company.

We would be delighted to run through some of the issues involved with the wide raft of family friendly policies and the best practice processes that would help protect and develop your organisation AND maintain your competitive position.

We can help with the design, implementation and communication of a range of effective policies and procedures, so please call us on 0844 375 9547 or drop me a line via tania.woodward@northhampshireenterprise.co.uk if you would like to hear more.

Proudly introducing this month’s guest article by Sam Swinstead of Member Company vivoHR. If you’re interested in providing a guest blog for our newsletter, please get in touch with adele.howes@northhampshireenterprise.co.uk.

So it would appear fair to say that despite much hype and a fair degree of hysteria last year, the Agency Worker Regulations have not had the massive impact on businesses that was predicted!

In fact figures from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) suggest that, instead of reducing the number of agency workers they use, the large majority of businesses using temporary staff plan to keep on doing so, or even increase their reliance on this way of having a flexible workforce.

The Agency Worker Regulations came into force in October 2011 and there was fear that it would increase costs and the administrative burden on employers.

The key concern was that employers would need to cease using any particular worker after 11 weeks in order to avoid having to give them the same Terms & Conditions as staff employed directly by the business.

This may in fact be how many businesses intend to use temporary agency workers but there are ways to avoid this “revolving door” situation of continuously having to get new temporary workers up to speed in your business.

The first and simplest two things to do are:

1.  Check what impact it would have on your business to keep a temporary worker beyond 12 weeks.

-          Is their pay rate actually any different in reality?  If you would need to increase pay is this cost offset by the benefit of having the continuity of the same person working in your business?

-          Do you already offer them access to the same facilities as all other staff?  We’d hazard a guess that in most businesses temporary staff are not treated any differently.  If you offer something that has a cost implication to your business – again ask yourself is the cost worth it to maintain continuity in staffing?

-          Is there any significant cost or risk to your business in offering temporary workers the right to apply for any vacancies?  Again, we hazard a guess that this won’t cause any difficulty in most businesses.

1. If you find that you are needing to use them for extended lengths of time consider if temporary workers via an agency is really your best option.

-          There are costs associated with using an agency that could be avoided by employing temporary workers on casual contracts directly with your business.

-          Alternatively do you need to consider a new permanent member of staff?  There are flexible ways of recruiting such as employing on a zero hours basis that would enable you to maintain a tight control of salary costs.

-          Are there opportunities to provide other employees with tasks so that you don’t need to use temporary workers so regularly?

There are other options you might consider and we would be delighted to talk to you about these or any of the above.  Why not give us a call today for a free review of your staffing arrangements.

Sam Swinstead

vivoHR

0845 463 9 365

sam@vivoHR.co.uk

With the stress of Christmas presents, dinners and parties out of the way, most of us will be looking forward to a peaceful start to the New Year.

But emotional issues and the stresses and strains of modern life – both in and out of the workplace – can take their toll at any time of the year.

For the first time, stress has become the main cause of long-term sickness absence in Britain, according to a survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

In November last year, research was published revealing nearly half of employees felt more stressed than they had at the same time the previous year*. The increase is believed to be the result of staff assuming larger workloads as companies make cutbacks.

With the economic outlook remaining bleak for 2012 – many workers are facing pay freezes or cuts while others are working under the threat of redundancy – stress levels are likely to continue to rise.

But it’s not just the work environment that can take its toll on staff wellbeing. A survey published in January found that personal and family problems are a major reason for employee absence**.

Twelve per cent said they had taken time off to deal with extra responsibilities such as looking after family members, while emotional problems such as relationship break-ups were behind 10 per cent of employee absence cases.

And with 23 per cent of respondents admitting they would consider not going into work because of a relationship issue, it is clear that employers need to support their employees in both their work and personal lives.

Proactive employers who provide their staff with access to counselling and advice services could find their workforce more productive.

Westfield Health’s Chamber Primary Health Plan, which is available to all members of North Hampshire Enterprise, offers employees a full confidential counselling service, which includes a 24 hour counselling and advice line as well as up to six face to face counselling sessions or cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) sessions.

The Government’s ‘No Health Without Mental Health’ strategy emphasises the importance of talking therapies such as counselling and CBT in helping treat stress, anxiety and depression.

For more information about the Chamber Plan, visit www.westfieldhealth.com/chamber or call 0845 602 1629, available 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday.

When people ask us about our week, this week we will be telling people that we’ve helped ship a 20ft container of wines, beers and spirits (lucky recipients!!) and we helped one of our customers complete a 9 million euro deal…..  phew!

Good job the team know what they’re doing, they spotted a mistake on the 9 million euro paperwork which could’ve caused lots of unneccessary hold ups and delays not mention damage to our customer’s reputation.

If you need your export documentation doing come and talk us about how to do international business locally!