The legally required period for declaring custodial convictions by individuals to their employer has changed. New legislation (Section 193 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022) came into force on 28 October 2023 which means that criminal convictions...
Is a 4-day working week coming ever closer?
61 companies recently trialled a 4-day working week and, in a report, published this week the results seem to speak for themselves. 92%, that’s 56 business who took part in the trial have decided to continue with a 4-day working week with some making it a permanent...
Do you have part-year workers or term-time only workers – important news!
The Supreme Court has ruled that a part-year worker should not receive pro-rata holiday based on the number of weeks they work in a year and instead should receive the full statutory 5.6 weeks annual leave in any given year based on their working patterns the same as...
Rail, road and air problems will cause staff shortages due to travel chaos this summer.
Delayed or cancelled flights, the biggest rail strike in decades and the cost of fuel is a headache that we could all do without but are likely to affect most of us over the coming months so what will you be doing to manage the uncertainty of staff shortages due to...
Will you be working from home again
I’m sure you all saw that the government has announced we are going to ‘Plan B’ in Covid measures in a bid to slow the spread of the new Omicron variant, which includes working from home again, so forgive us if we are repeating stuff you know but we of course wanted...
Employee Travel Plans in 2021
We’re sure you were glued to the news last week waiting to know what will and won’t be allowed for our summer holidays this year so we’ve pulled together just a couple of useful resources for you with things you should be aware of when it comes to your employee travel...
Out of Office messages are getting a makeover
Have you noticed a change in the out of office messages you receive? Gone are robotic justifications of why you cannot reply immediately to an email, with an offering of a number of alternative contact numbers and email addresses so that actually you ARE constantly...
Getting right to work checks right
Right to work checks will have to be in person again as of 17 May 2021. Of the many things that have changed the way we work in thelast year some are starting to return to the pre Covid way of doing things andright to work checks are one such task. In the remote world...
Do small businesses really need HR support?
One thing the events of 2020 have shown us is that the answer to ‘do small businesses really need HR support?’ is ‘Yes, they absolutely do!’ Probably not in house and not full time but definitely a presence, maybe in the shape of, hmmmm, I don’t know, someone like us,...
Are you missing your daily commute?
One of the good things to come out of lockdown for those of us that do still a daily commute to work is that it seems to be a lot quieter out there, which helps reduce the time we spend on the road. But what about those of us who are now working remotely? Without the...
New Covid Job Support Scheme from 1 November
We are sure you will have seen the news today about the new Covid Job Support Scheme that will come into effect on 1 November. There is as yet no Govt Guidance on the Gov.uk covid webpages but we have received a copy of the factsheet and it sets out the details we...
Are you over communicating?
Over communicating, you can have too much of a good thing! Can you remember a time before endless video calls? Ahhhhhh the heady days of February 2020! Family quizzes, pub quizzes, kitchen parties and virtual music festivals in the garden were the things that got me...
Test and Trace in the workplace, guidance for employers
As more employees start to return to the workplace we thought the following track and trace guidance may be useful: This link gives you guidance on Test & Trace in theworkplace: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/nhs-test-and-trace-workplace-guidance There is guidance at...
Horrible bosses or lacking in leadership skills?
We all have stories about our own experiences with horrible bosses, but what is it that makes them bad leaders? Horrible bosses aren’t horrible people, most of the time, they just lack certain skills themselves. BambooHR asked 1,000 UK-based employees what traits...
Is redundancy the only way?
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has helped many businesses since March but we now know that it will be coming to an end in October and unfortunately that means that we are starting to talk about redundancy more often as business are starting to think about what...
Burnout & Presenteeism
Employee Burnout & Presenteeism How are you? Really? This is a question you should be asking your employees on a regular basis? Burnout has doubled since lockdown began. Burnout is categorised as depleting energy or exhaustion, mental distancing or negativity to...
The future of work
Remote working, home working, flexible working, virtual meetings, what will the future of work look like? It’s probably fair to say that recent events have changed the way many of us will work, forever. Where working from home never seemed possible before over night...
Managing your remote management
How effective is your remote management during lockdown and isolation? 5 weeks in, at least 2 to go, how are we all holding up? Thinking about it, for me, the last 5 weeks have been a bit of a blur and have passed pretty quickly. Days have seamlessly run into each...
Protecting your business from Coronavirus
We don’t want to jump on the Coronavirus scaremonger bandwagon & we appreciate that the infection figures are still low in the UK but we do think that is worth spending some time planning what you will do if the coronavirus becomes more widespread in the UK or if...
Dress for work or dress for your day?
7 February has been given the weird holiday of Working Naked Day. It was created by Lisa Kanarek after she left the corporate world to work from home, this was over 20 years ago when working from home wasn’t as common as it is today. The day is a celebration of the...
Generation Z have arrived, time for Millennials to move over!
By the end of 2020 Generation Z will make up almost a quarter of the worldwide work force and if you thought that the Gen Y Millennials were rocking the boat you aint seen nothing yet! Gen Z are digital natives, they don’t know a world without smartphones and social...
Termination, when it’s time to go your separate ways
Termination of employment unfortunately happens, even after following all the rules and being the perfect employer there are many reasons an employee may say – ‘so long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye’. When an employee resigns ensure that their reasons are of no...
Putting the ‘you’ in team
“There’s no I in team” – in our view this is a cringeworthy statement that gets bandied about with no real thought for what it means – in fact it contradicts so much of what we know is important in creating and managing successful teams. John Adair, a guru if there...
How to get the best from your staff
How do you get the best from your staff? You pay their salary so you want them to do their very best for you all the time they are at work right? We’re constantly amazed by the number of employers who don’t give that much thought as to how to get the best from their...
Recruitment top tips, vivoHR’s guide to successful recruitment
So your business is growing & you need more people in it to get all the work done, it’s a daunting thought and you might not have employed anyone before, we are here to give you our recruitment top tips to help make things a little easier. The first job is to...
What do you do with your mobile phone when you’re driving?
We all know the dangers of driving whilst using a handheld mobile phone and the penalties for being caught doing so. But that doesn’t seem to be enough to stop us from doing it. The RAC have published some very worrying statistics about driving and phone use which...
Would providing a reference for an ex-employee be in breach of GDPR?
A client asked a question today about GDPR compliance when completing a reference for an ex-employee so I thought it might be useful to clarify what you need to do: Providing a reference will be an act of processing personal data and you will need a legal basis to do...