How to Manage a Local Lockdown: For National Employers with Multiple UK Sites

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The coronavirus is giving rise to a variety of challenging issues for employers, particularly due to the ever changing national and regional laws and guidelines relating to lockdowns. At the time of writing (01/10/2020) a number of regions around the UK are in, or are embarking on imminent lockdowns with a number of further regions…

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NEW: Redundancy Resource Hub for HR Professionals and Employers

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Today we are launching our new Redundancy Resource Hub for employers and HR professionals. Following the popularity of our Coronavirus Resource Hub over the last few months, and as we move forward into a period of change and uncertainty for many employers, we wanted to help as much as we can. So, we’ve been hard…

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Managing Employees Overseas Holiday Plans in Light of Quarantine Rules

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Updated: 27/07/2020 With effect from the 8th June, anyone who returned to the UK from being overseas who was not exempt due to their occupation or because they had travelled from the Common Travel Area, was required to self-isolate for 14 days. From 10 July 2020 individuals will not have to self-isolate when they arrive…

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How to Manage an Influx of Flexible Working Requests Post Covid-19

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Back in December 2019 we spent some time looking at the legal responsibilities for employers when dealing with flexible working requests. Although this was written pre-Covid-19 pandemic, the legal framework remains the same. We look at who can submit a request, how employers should deal with requests, refusing a request if you need too and…

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VIDEO: Managing an Influx of Flexible Working Requests (Post Covid 19)

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What are the key things to think about when managing an influx of post-Covid 19 flexible working requests? Abayomi Alemoru, Director of Legal Practice & Investigation Services at Vista, who talks us through the process. *Top tip: Use the ‘chapter markers’ in the video below to navigate through each section: the process of managing requests,…

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Redundancy and Furlough – What’s the Relationship?

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Redundancy and furlough: can employers make redundancies when the furlough scheme is still in place? Here’s our guidance. You can find more on our Coronavirus Advice Hub. The Current Situation There is now estimated to be approximately 8.4 million employees on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). As of 29 May 2020, the Government announced…

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COVID-19: Managing Employees with Health and Safety Concerns

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As we start the conversation about returning to work, how can we best manage employees concerns about health and safety? We got together with Vicky and Abayomi to talk through the legal framework, how to manage these difficult conversations from the get go and, if needed, how to manage the formal process when despite everything…

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Managing the Day to Day Issues that Arise from Returning Employees from Furlough Leave

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We answer your questions on managing the day to day issues that arise when bringing our workforce back from Furlough leave. **Top tip: use the ‘chapter markers’ on each video (bottom right corner next to the ⚙️ icon) to navigate to the specific questions you want to hear.

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Planning a Phased Return from Furlough: Q&A

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We’ve answered your top questions on ending furlough leave and planning a phased return. Over to Vicky, Claire, Tim and Stephen! **Top tip: use the ‘chapter markers’ on each video (bottom right corner next to the ⚙️ icon) to navigate to the specific questions you want to hear.

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Returning Employees from Furlough Leave: How to make changes to working arrangements

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If it’s becoming apparent that your employees’ duties, work locations or times when work is done need to change when they return to work after a period of furlough leave, how do you achieve it? The first step is to identify whether you have the right to make the change in the contract, so start…

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How to Run a Disciplinary Hearing Remotely

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What are the things we need to think about when running a disciplinary hearing remotely? The legal requirements can be boiled down to this formula: Fair Reason + Fair Procedure + Reasonable Decision = Fair Outcome But how can we achieve this when running a hearing from home? Our Head of Learning, Vicky Roberts takes…

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How to Diagnose Performance Problems when Working from Home

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All employers are having to react to the challenges arising from the Coronavirus outbreak. For many, this means a switch to working from home for an extended period of time. Its unfamiliar territory for some, and can be especially tricky for managers with teams of people around them that they now need to manage remotely.…

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How to Diagnose Performance Problems when Working from Home

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Here’s our technique for diagnosing performance problems in your team when working remotely. It will help your managers diagnose what might be affecting the performance of their team and identify whether is it an external factor, a what, why, or a how problem. If you found this useful, take a look at our new workshops…

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Coronavirus: Managing the Staff Member Who isn’t Sick or High Risk, but Refuses to Come to Work

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Coronavirus is giving rise to a variety challenging employee relations issues. Whilst each case will need to be dealt with on its own merits, there are some common approaches that employers may wish to adopt as a framework to help make decisions when issues of a similar nature arise. We have put together a short…

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Managing Performance during Covid19

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All employers are having to react to the challenges arising from the Coronavirus outbreak. The welfare and protection of staff is paramount, coupled with the economic implications and consequent organisational changes. In particular, the advice around social distancing has resulted in many employers having to introduce measures for staff to work at home and stop…

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Does the present situation or new furlough arrangements avoid the need to collectively consult?

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We are being asked if the ability to access support via the Coronavirus Retention Scheme (furlough arrangements), or even just the urgency of the current situation overrides any collective consultation obligations. The answer is no. That said, you do not need to collectively consult if you simply agree any changes with employees directly. Where you…

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Guidance on Collective Consultation (COVID19)

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In this extraordinarily challenging period, most employers are having to consider what changes they need to make to protect the business and to keep going (e.g. pay cuts; reduction in working hours; imposing lay-offs). Whilst such changes may need to be made as a matter of urgency to save the business, the law nonetheless requires…

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CORONAVIRUS ADVICE HUB

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Our team of employment lawyers are continuously collating helpful advice and guidance for HR professionals and employers in light of this fast moving Covid 19 pandemic. The current guidance documents available, free to download for all, are: Lay-offs and short time working Working from home Time off for dependents Absence management Statutory sick pay, including…

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