Starting afresh
Tips for your employment Spring clean.
Spring has sprung, the sun is (sometimes) out and you may be thinking about having a good old spring clean. While many things are best left at home, this is one area of your home life that is worthwhile embracing at work in some shape or form. If you are looking for some tranquillity for your employment related headspace, here are a few suggestions to get on top of this month:
Updates
If you’re thinking that things are ‘on the up’, you would be right, at least as far as numerous money related matters go. Every April sees changes which you need to digest and apply to all relevant employees. This year these include:
- National minimum wage rising across all bands. Workers aged over 25, for example, now must be paid at least £8.21 per hour.
- Statutory sick pay has increased to £94.25 per week, and statutory maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave increased to £148.68 per week.
- Total contributions for auto-enrolment pension schemes must now equate to a minimum of 8%.
- Workers are now entitled to receive an itemised payslip.
Updates should be made to documents, relevant personnel informed and, when it comes to pensions, if you have not already agreed with your employees who will pay what to reach the 8%, you must do this now.
Reward systems
If you’re wondering what you can do this year to retain your trusty staff, dusting off your reward system and giving it an overhaul (if needed) might be a good place to start. There are many innovative ways of recognising and rewarding staff that don’t always cost a fortune that you can consider.
Documents
Nothing says employment law spring clean better than getting your contract and handbook looked over. We recommend doing this at least once a year to ensure that you are keeping on top of current legislation and best practice. We provide free contract and handbook reviews for our clients – do get in touch if you would like our help. In this month’s edition of the e-bulletin, we have also produced an article that sets out the 5 most common contract mistakes for you to be aware of.
Recruitment processes
When did you last look at how you recruit? Have you checked that your process is discrimination free and ensured that your advertisements, arrangements for interviews and wording of job and person specifications aren’t putting you at risk? Struggling to recruit? How about trying alternative methods, such as engaging a head-hunter or getting your staff involved. Trialling new approaches to a time old task can produce interesting results.
