By Alan Finlay on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs
Here is what you need to know about notes for disciplinary or other formal employee meetings.
Taking minutes
Minutes taken at a formal meeting with an employee can constitute important evidence in both your company’s internal proceedings and in any subsequent tribunal claims. Be it a disciplinary, capability, absence or grievance meeting, the minutes should be detailed and accurate and, if possible, agreed by both you and the employee.
You should also consider your company’s position on electronic recording and employees secretly record meetings. It is best to set out your position on this clearly in writing, usually in your company’s staff handbook.
Provisions for note or minute taking
If you are holding any kind of formal meeting with an employee, you should have a minute taker present since it can be difficult for the chair to run the meeting and also take minutes. The minute taker should be another employee and ideally, someone who is not involved with the employee or with any circumstances giving rise to the meeting. The minute taker should not actively participate in the meeting and will act only as a scribe to ensure everything
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Calculating holiday allowances for part-time staff
by Victoria Greaves • • 0 Comments
By Victoria Greaves on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs
Part-time employees are entitled to equal treatment with full-time employees as a result of the Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000. This means that they should receive the correct pro-rated amount of annual leave as a full-time employee doing the same job. To ensure compliance with this legislation and The Working Time Regulations 1998, you could use the following calculations:
If an employee is contracted to work a set amount of days and works full time five days a week, they are entitled to a minimum of 28 days statutory annual holiday entitlement a year. This amounts to 5.6 weeks. It is up to you whether you allow employees to choose 20 days holiday and require them to take the eight bank holidays as holiday or whether you give them 28 days holiday and no automatic day off on a bank holiday. The minimum statutory holiday entitlement would not increase even if the employee works six or seven days a week.
It doesn’t matter if a part time employee doesn’t usually work on a bank holiday, you still need to make sure that they
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How can leaders get the best out of their team when the pressure is on?
by Clive Woodward • • 0 Comments
By Clive Woodward on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs
It’s safe to assume anyone in a management or leadership position has felt the extra pressure over the last 18 months. In a constantly changing and uncertain environment, tasks such as motivating teams, running training sessions or just keeping a clear overview of projects came with their own set of unique challenges. What’s more, working remotely means it’s even harder to ensure team members, and leaders themselves, are working collaboratively and performing to the best of their ability, especially when the pressure is on.
Boris Johnson’s latest announcement means that employees are now able to return to offices across the country, yet three quarters (73 per cent) of Brits are set to continue working from home. It’s more important than ever before for leaders to be prepared to handle pressure, as well as have the ability to coach their team to perform in challenging circumstances too.
At a recent event hosted by the Executive Development Network (EDN), Sir Clive Woodward, England’s Rugby World Cup winning Head Coach, and Team GB Director of Sport for London 2012 provided his own unique perspective on vital strategies for leading and
Hot Business News Today
How can leaders get the best out of their team when the pressure is on?
by Clive Woodward • • 0 Comments
By Clive Woodward on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs
It’s safe to assume anyone in a management or leadership position has felt the extra pressure over the last 18 months. In a constantly changing and uncertain environment, tasks such as motivating teams, running training sessions or just keeping a clear overview of projects came with their own set of unique challenges. What’s more, working remotely means it’s even harder to ensure team members, and leaders themselves, are working collaboratively and performing to the best of their ability, especially when the pressure is on.
Boris Johnson’s latest announcement means that employees are now able to return to offices across the country, yet three quarters (73 per cent) of Brits are set to continue working from home. It’s more important than ever before for leaders to be prepared to handle pressure, as well as have the ability to coach their team to perform in challenging circumstances too.
At a recent event hosted by the Executive Development Network (EDN), Sir Clive Woodward, England’s Rugby World Cup winning Head Coach, and Team GB Director of Sport for London 2012 provided his own unique perspective on vital strategies for leading and
Hot Business News Today
Embrace your unconventional superpowers
by The Inside Tracc • • 0 Comments
By The Inside Tracc on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs
Brij Thankey started out in the corporate world, “a numbers guy” as he puts it, but he grew weary of conventional thinking and jumped ship to create a different kind of business.
A decade on, that business – Precision FM – is a national leader in facilities management across the UK and Ireland, and CEO Publication has recognised Brij among the UK’s Top 20 Dynamic CEOs.
One of Brij’s guiding principles is that honesty and transparency are what connect with people, and as you’ll see he’s still more than happy to give voice to ideas that go against the grain.
For starters, there’s the notion that big businesses can learn a lot from the way that small businesses operate. When he was starting out at Precision FM, Brij believed he could base the new business on the assumptions he’d acquired in his corporate career, but he soon came to realise he’d need to rethink things from the bottom up.
Above all, he says, big businesses get too obsessed about the bottom line. They need to recognise that their greatest assets are their people, and that they’ll get
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How to grow your team
by The Inside Tracc • • 0 Comments
By The Inside Tracc on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs
Of course it’s great when your business begins to grow, but growth can generate a fair few challenges too. In this Masterclass Andrew Walsh, founder and CEO of AW Repair Group, will look at some of the issues entrepreneurs face as they start to scale up.
There’s one particular danger that they need to look out for: the temptation to spend too much time working in the business rather than on it. For Andrew, the image that springs to mind is of a captain who’s down below in the engine room when they should be upstairs on deck with their hands on the wheel. If all their attention is on shovelling fuel they won’t notice when the ship starts heading towards the rocks.
So as their business gets bigger, entrepreneurs need to accept that they can’t do everything – or at least that they can’t do everything well. They need to build a team and they need to learn to delegate.
Andrew reflects on the qualities to look for in a new recruit and on the strategies you need to keep people fully motivated and playing to
Hot Business News Today
Embrace your unconventional superpowers
by The Inside Tracc • • 0 Comments
By The Inside Tracc on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs
Brij Thankey started out in the corporate world, “a numbers guy” as he puts it, but he grew weary of conventional thinking and jumped ship to create a different kind of business.
A decade on, that business – Precision FM – is a national leader in facilities management across the UK and Ireland, and CEO Publication has recognised Brij among the UK’s Top 20 Dynamic CEOs.
One of Brij’s guiding principles is that honesty and transparency are what connect with people, and as you’ll see he’s still more than happy to give voice to ideas that go against the grain.
For starters, there’s the notion that big businesses can learn a lot from the way that small businesses operate. When he was starting out at Precision FM, Brij believed he could base the new business on the assumptions he’d acquired in his corporate career, but he soon came to realise he’d need to rethink things from the bottom up.
Above all, he says, big businesses get too obsessed about the bottom line. They need to recognise that their greatest assets are their people, and that they’ll get
Hot Business News Today
Can I force my staff to come back to the office after July 19?
by Anna Jordan • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Staff may have to return to their offices and workplaces after July 19 after an extended period working from home.
We’ll be asking if you can force staff to come back to the workplace and what risks you need to be aware of.
Why are staff expected to return to work?
As part of his announcement yesterday (July 5), Boris Johnson said that the ‘work from home wherever possible’ advice would be lifted. From July 19, it’ll be up to employer whether they ask their staff to come back into the workplace.
Aside from that, the PM also outlined from this date that:
Masks will no longer be a legal requirement
Social distancing rules will end
All businesses that are closed will reopen
Covid-19 certificates will not be a legal requirement
Travellers who are double jabbed won’t have to quarantine after returning from amber-list countries
An announcement may follow that those who are double jabbed won’t have to self-isolate if one of their colleagues contracts the virus. Self-isolation is expected to be replaced by a regular testing regime.
What’s more, the government has no plans to introduce a legal right to work from home. There are also no plans to introduce labour laws that
Hot Business News Today
Can I force my staff to come back to the office after July 19?
by Anna Jordan • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Staff may have to return to their offices and workplaces after July 19 after an extended period working from home.
We’ll be asking if you can force staff to come back to the workplace and what risks you need to be aware of.
Why are staff expected to return to work?
As part of his announcement yesterday (July 5), Boris Johnson said that the ‘work from home wherever possible’ advice would be lifted. From July 19, it’ll be up to employer whether they ask their staff to come back into the workplace.
Aside from that, the PM also outlined from this date that:
Masks will no longer be a legal requirement
Social distancing rules will end
All businesses that are closed will reopen
Covid-19 certificates will not be a legal requirement
Travellers who are double jabbed won’t have to quarantine after returning from amber-list countries
An announcement may follow that those who are double jabbed won’t have to self-isolate if one of their colleagues contracts the virus. Self-isolation is expected to be replaced by a regular testing regime.
What’s more, the government has no plans to introduce a legal right to work from home. There are also no plans to introduce labour laws that
Hot Business News Today
Gaining settled status for European employees – what employers should do
by Helen Jamieson • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Helen Jamieson on Small Business
On top of the Covid-19 headache, there are growing concerns that many European nationals are unaware of what they need to do to continue working in the UK, such as applying for settled status.
Research from The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants earlier this month warned that one in seven EU care employees was at risk of losing their immigration status as a result of changes to regulations. This indicates a worrying lack of awareness among EU employees about the need to act now to secure working status.
If your European employees fail to secure this settled status (or pre-settled status) before the deadline they run the risk of losing their right to remain in the UK. That could be a massive blow to your business.
It is essential that, as an employer, you know where you stand in relation to the new immigration rules and that you support your employees to do what they need to do.
What do European employees need to know about securing the right status?
There are mounting concerns that many EU, EEA and Swiss nationals do not know they need to apply for settled status, with some believing that as