Welcome to the August roundup from Employment Law Solutions, annual leave, childcare juggles and disciplinaries are in full flow in our clients’ offices.
Celebrating Excellence at the NetworkIN awards
Kevin Murphy was honoured as Team Leader of the Year at NetworkIN Annual Awards.
Well done to one of our employment lawyers Kevin who was recently rewarded for his leadership skills and dedication to NetworkIN.
Many early mornings before the advice calls start see Kevin up and at ‘em for networking meetings in Staffordshire and Cheshire.
Let Kevin know if you’d like a welcome at any of his meetings, they have certainly helped us to grow our business.
Mike shares his top 10 things that you need to know about Health and Safety compliance
As Mike visits more clients to check their Health and Safety compliance, he’s compiled a list of his Top 10 Things to look out for in the workplace.
Document your policies – If you employ 5 or more – including directors – you must document your policies and procedures.
Risk assessments – Are your risk assessments up to date and relevant? Businesses can suffer from having too little risk assessments or too much. Bonus: Do you involve your employees in drafting your risk assessments?
Assess your premises – Do you own your buildings? You need to ensure you have a fire risk assessment in place, by a competent person, and an electrical installation report. For most premises, these will need updating every 5 years.
Involve your staff – Health and safety is not a burden for management alone. It is important to involve your staff in your health and safety management and processes.
Train your staff – On the job, role-specific training is not the only training you should be considering. Are any of your staff trained in first aid, or as a fire warden? Training is very accessible and can prove invaluable in an emergency.
Manage visitors and contractors – You are responsible for people on your premises, even if they are not employed by you? Ensure that visitors are documented and monitored, and that your contractors have the correct permits, insurances, and supervision whilst on site.
Ensure your policies are actually being carried out – It is not enough simply to draft up a policy and call it a day. An inspection by HSE will look past your documents and see if your premises and staff are actually being managed safely. Are employees refusing to work safely? We can help with that too – call your lawyer.
Manage records – Health and safety can be a nightmare to organise and manage without assistance. We recommend digital records so you can see at a glance which training and insurances need updating.
Ensure you are using correct PPE – PPE should be managed effectively and used as a last resort where other control measures fail. PPE should be fit for purpose. Did you know that respirators require face-fit testing? Employees with beards will need alternative solutions, such as ventilated hoods. A generic solution will not always be best.
Additionally, manage your PPE effectively by securely storing it and signing it in and out.
Investigate and improve – Had a near miss or an accident at work? Ensure that is thoroughly documented – but don’t stop there. This is a perfect opportunity to fully investigate and implement a solution that will ensure the incident will not occur again.
If any of these spark concerns in your business give Mike a call to discuss how he can support and put your mind at ease.
Discover our Health & Safety solution
Take a quick look at your employee stats with our HR software
Our HR Software is going from strength to strength and so pleased that clients are finding it really beneficial in the management of their teams.
This month we’re pleased to announce two new features of the HR Software; Exporting Organisation Charts (great for redundancy); and Snapshot Reports.
Business snapshots
Let’s take a look at a snapshot report with test data for a business with 10 employees. We can quickly see:
- Quick view of employee data and percentages of age, full-time, part-time, gender etc.
- Details of the average length of employment, salaries and staff turnover. Retention is better than recruitment, after all.
- Details of the number of staff off sick, on maternity
- Quantity of people within 3 months of the end of their first two years of employment – a feature we particularly love… especially since Alf recently sat on a Tribunal claim where a business admitted that they regularly reviewed and culled employees who were approaching two years service – a practice which was deemed to be perfectly acceptable!
Let us know if you would like a free demo of the HR software.
Discover the difference we are making in the care sector
Unfortunately, so many of us are forced to look at long-term care for family and know the difference great care can make to our loved ones’ lives.
When care does go wrong – the team at Employment Law Solutions want to be there so that we can swiftly help management teams train, discipline, manage or dismiss staff at fault.
On our blog page, you will find three new case studies where our lawyers have helped to minimise further risk to service users.
The case studies include:
- A Midazolam misshap which sees an employee find vial in their pocket when they return home
- A Carer who was dismissed after a service user had unexplained bruising on nose
- A late night spot check at care home that found service users walking around while staff slept
If you know a care home or domiciliary team that needs our support, please refer them over and if they become a client you will benefit from our referral scheme.
Take a look at the case studies
Drive down the risk to your business
Some things in the world of employment law seem obvious and common sense, but the law can complicate what appear to be simple matters.
Over the last couple of months, we have been looking at what businesses need to consider when they are hiring drivers. This could be really obvious like in the logistics sector – or you may have a sales team on the road, carers travelling to service users’ homes or a pool car available for staff meetings.
What to consider before hiring
Thanks for coming to see us at the Cheshire Business Expo
Jen and Luke had a great time at the Cheshire Business Expo on Wednesday, August 9 at Crewe Hall.
It was great to see so many businesses coming together and we had lots of really interesting conversations.
We hope all of our clients enjoy the last few weeks of the summer holidays.
We are now recruiting for a part-time Office Administrator and a new trainee lawyer, so if you have any recommendations or contacts please send them our way.
