By Peter Done on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs
You are not the criminal court so you don’t need proof beyond reasonable doubt but you do have to have good grounds for believing that, on the balance of probabilities, this employee is responsible for the theft. This is a potential gross misconduct situation so dismissal is a possible response.
>See also: Disciplinary notes
You appear to have a reasonable belief that there has been a theft so you now need to carry out a reasonable investigation to see how far you can narrow down your suspect list. You can then look at dismissing anyone who you reasonably believe could have carried out the theft.
If following your investigation this employee is the only one left in the frame then you can dismiss him. However, if there is more than one employee left then you would need to consider dismissing everyone who you can’t exclude. Just dismissing this employee in those circumstances would be hard to justify.
Peter Done is managing director and founder of HR consultancy Peninsula
Further reading
Can I sack my employee for a racist tweet?
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Can I dismiss an employee on suspicion of theft?
by Peter Done • • 0 Comments
By Peter Done on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs
You are not the criminal court so you don’t need proof beyond reasonable doubt but you do have to have good grounds for believing that, on the balance of probabilities, this employee is responsible for the theft. This is a potential gross misconduct situation so dismissal is a possible response.
>See also: Disciplinary notes
You appear to have a reasonable belief that there has been a theft so you now need to carry out a reasonable investigation to see how far you can narrow down your suspect list. You can then look at dismissing anyone who you reasonably believe could have carried out the theft.
If following your investigation this employee is the only one left in the frame then you can dismiss him. However, if there is more than one employee left then you would need to consider dismissing everyone who you can’t exclude. Just dismissing this employee in those circumstances would be hard to justify.
Peter Done is managing director and founder of HR consultancy Peninsula
Further reading
Can I sack my employee for a racist tweet?
The post Can I dismiss an employee on suspicion of theft? appeared first on
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Sick leave – Making changes to company sickness policy
by Peter Done • • 0 Comments
By Peter Done on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs
Changing the terms and conditions under which your employees work, which is essentially what you would be doing making changes to a company sickness policy, should be done with careful consideration.
Firstly, your approach is dependent upon whether your sickness policy is contractual or not.
If the policy is clearly non-contractual and reserves the right to be amended from time to time, then you are generally able to simply make the changes you want to make and make your staff aware of this.
>See also: Can I dismiss an employee for sending threatening text?
If the policy is contractual and therefore constitutes part of your employees’ terms and conditions, then you need to tread more carefully. Introducing changes to an employee’s terms and conditions requires agreement by both parties because unilateral changes are not permitted – this means that you cannot simply impose a change unless it is required by law, as was the case when the indoor smoking ban was introduced.
A consultation process is required during which all affected employees should be informed of the intended changes, with an explanation of the reason why the changes are required.
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Sick leave – Making changes to company sickness policy
by Peter Done • • 0 Comments
By Peter Done on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs
Changing the terms and conditions under which your employees work, which is essentially what you would be doing making changes to a company sickness policy, should be done with careful consideration.
Firstly, your approach is dependent upon whether your sickness policy is contractual or not.
If the policy is clearly non-contractual and reserves the right to be amended from time to time, then you are generally able to simply make the changes you want to make and make your staff aware of this.
>See also: Can I dismiss an employee for sending threatening text?
If the policy is contractual and therefore constitutes part of your employees’ terms and conditions, then you need to tread more carefully. Introducing changes to an employee’s terms and conditions requires agreement by both parties because unilateral changes are not permitted – this means that you cannot simply impose a change unless it is required by law, as was the case when the indoor smoking ban was introduced.
A consultation process is required during which all affected employees should be informed of the intended changes, with an explanation of the reason why the changes are required.
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When should a small business think about outsourcing HR?
by Partner Content • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
Like any other business, a small business – whether it’s a microbusiness with less than 10 employees or a fast-growing scale up – needs to take care of HR.
What does HR involve?
Staff recruitment and retention
Onboarding new employees
Training
Performance evaluation
Health and safety
Coping with long-term sickness
Employee relations issues including discrimination claims, redundancy, grievances and dismissals
However, all this can be difficult to manage for you, the overstretched business owner.
See also: Six HR mistakes start-ups make and how to avoid them
Businesses with fewer than 50 employees rarely have an HR team. Instead, a finance director who may have had some relevant experience in the dim-and-distant past is seconded to the role. Not only does this leave your small business wide open to legal challenges when HR procedures are not followed, doubling up like this reduces your FD’s productivity.
And if you yourself are handling HR, it takes time away from running your business and dents productivity – one of the biggest challenges facing any small business.
Let’s look at three of these responsibilities in more detail:
Recruiting and retaining staff
Finding and keeping talent is seen as the biggest headache for most small businesses, especially when larger companies can lure staff away
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What happens if your small business is taken to an employment tribunal?
by Partner Content • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
No matter how well you run your business, there could come a moment when an employee takes you to an employment tribunal.
It’s a heart-sinking moment for any small business owner but you are not alone. Employment tribunal claims were up 26pc year on year in 2018/19 with 35,429 cases going to court. There was a 69pc increase in sex discrimination cases alone.
Some estimates suggest the annual cost to UK businesses of employment tribunal decisions could be more than £1bn.
An employee can take you to an employment tribunal over various issues, including pay, dismissal and discrimination. The tribunal is independent and will listen to both sides before deciding.
See also: Navigating the employment tribunals process
If you lose the case, you may have to pay compensation or reinstate the employee. If you win, in most cases, you will not be awarded compensation. But if the claimant acted unreasonably or their case had no hope of success, you can ask to have your costs covered.
And that doesn’t factor in the disruption to business continuity that tribunals can cause alongside loss of management time and hassle that being involved in a tribunal takes up.
How does an employment tribunal
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Can I insist on staff having their photo taken?
by Peter Done • • 0 Comments
The post Can I insist on staff having their photo taken? appeared first on Small Business.
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Can I insist on staff having their photo taken?
by Peter Done • • 0 Comments
The post Can I insist on staff having their photo taken? appeared first on Small Business.
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The changes that could affect disabled employees in the workplace
by Anna Jordan • • 0 Comments
Rights for disabled employees have garnered a lot more attention and improvement in the past couple of decades. From changes in the law to the allocation of specific funding and companies that support getting more disabled people into work, the majority of action has been mostly positive. Not everything is perfect though and a disability
The post The changes that could affect disabled employees in the workplace appeared first on Small Business.
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Can I refuse holiday requests from my employees?
by Peter Done • • 0 Comments
The post Can I refuse holiday requests from my employees? appeared first on Small Business.