19 January 2018

Get HR fit in 2018 with the BPIF HR Healthcheck

It's another new year and in January, our thoughts always turn to what we did last year and how we can improve in the next, especially our fitness levels. Some of us head straight for the gym!

The same thoughts will apply to your business and how you can maximise efficiency and profitability in the business this coming year. Your BPIF HR Advisers can help support you in this and carry out a thorough HR Healthcheck on all of your policies, procedures and practices to ensure your staff are fully engaged, fully effective and you are compliant with legislation. If you are a Platinum member of BPIF, this is FREE as you are of course already a member of the best HR gym available. [A small charge is made for businesses at Gold and Silver level membership]

The BPIF HR Healthcheck is a diagnostic tool providing you with a comprehensive report highlighting your best practices, compliance with employment legislation and where there are any gaps, a clear ‘fitness programme' to help you achieve any improvements, or legal protection you need. The raft of employment legislation we received last year, along with the anticipated stringent additions this year, make it absolutely imperative that your business is clear on best practice, that you have a Company Handbook reflecting all of your policies and how you expect your employees to carry out their roles and behave. In addition, to ensure your contracts of employment are robust and protect both you and your employee if challenges or possible breaches occur along the way.

Your Regional Specialist HR Adviser, will act as your business partner in this and conduct the Healthcheck to explore and assess the strength of your contracts, recruitment and termination practices, your personnel records and their safe storage. How you manage disciplinary and grievance issues and if your policies and practices equip you with sufficient protection against ever burgeoning legislation and the changes this may cause to your business and to you as an employer.

Some examples and highlights from 2017;

Employment Tribunal claims
Last year, we experienced the abolition of Employment Tribunal [ET] fees. This has meant that all employees with over two years' service can lodge a claim for unfair dismissal, without any cost to them. Your HR Adviser can carry out the HR Healthcheck to help your business and to ensure that your policies, procedures and practices, provide a watertight defence against any potentially successfully argued claim.
A basic ET award will range from a minimum of £5.900 to a maximum of £80.540.
The average payment for 2017 was £16.500.
There is of course no upper limit for successful discrimination claims.

Brexit
A major and ongoing event. However, we anticipate no immediate changes to employment legislation as an outcome of the referendum on the UK's membership of the EU. Withdrawal from the EU is unlikely to impact on employment law, as it will ultimately be for Parliament to determine whether to retain, amend or repeal domestic legislation. Many areas of domestic law have been derived from EU law and have been heavily influenced by decisions of the European Courts of Justice. [ECJ] e.g. TUPE, Working Time Regulations and Discrimination laws. Under the ‘Withdrawal Bill', the UK will still be bound by earlier decisions made by the ECJ, but will not be bound on or after the exit date. Your HR Specialist Adviser will work closely with you to ensure your business is fully informed on where compliance is essential.

Gender Pay Gap Reporting [GPGR]
Another ‘hot topic' for employers with over 250 employees was introduced in 2017 and extremely newsworthy at present. Whatever the size of your workforce however, you need to be absolutely clear on pay levels and equality within the workforce to avoid any negative fallout and potentially successful equal pay or discrimination claims. Your HR Specialist Adviser can support and coach you in a Job Evaluation exercise to analyse the value of specific roles within the business. The HR Healthcheck is a fantastic starting point to help you identify and deal with any potentially unlawful discrepancies.

General Data Protection Regulations [GDPR]
Heralded in 2017 and due to be implemented on 25th May 2018, this is the Data Protection Act 1998 [DPA] with even more teeth.

Your business will need to be scrupulously compliant with the legal requirements for HR procedures and practices on the lawful storage and processing employee personal data.
An initial audit using the HR Healthcheck as a starting point in examining current practices and future requirement in law. The HR Healthcheck will identify what, if any, gaps exist in your current business practices and where you will need to act, to avoid any threat of breach or penalty for non-compliance.

Holiday Pay and Overtime
In 2017, the court's decision to include ALL overtime in any annual holiday pay calculation was reached. This was therefore a departure from the previous inclusion of only compulsory overtime.
If you need to recalculate your holiday pay, your HR Specialist Adviser will be able to assist to make sure you don't fall victim of any expensive claims.

In 2018, we can anticipate;
Statutory Sick Pay [SSP] will increase in April
Statutory Maternity Pay [SMP] will increase in April
National Minimum Wage will increase in April
Auto enrolment to the employer contributions to will also increase

For the Eastern and South East you can contact your Regional HR Specialist Adviser on 020 7915 8400 to arrange a consultation on all of these key topics and to book a Healthcheck for your HR workout.

For the Midlands and South West you can contact your Regional HR Specialist Adviser on 01676 526 030 to arrange a consultation on all of these key topics and to book a Healthcheck for your HR workout.

For the North you can contact your Regional HR Specialist Adviser on 01924 203 330 to arrange a consultation on all of these key topics and to book a Healthcheck for your HR workout.