Hot HR Weekly Digest and Blog 25-29 July

Hello and welcome to this week's Hot HR weekly digest and blog. 

Here is a round up of this week's discussions and exciting news from within the group:

Speed Read: 
1. TUPE and service provision changes
2. Warning to employers in regard to overtime payments 
3.  TUPE and equal pay

To find out more connect to Hot HR

Discussion:
This week we have had lots of activity and discussion, here is a summary of the most popular (in no particular order):

1. Measuring Absence - Bradford score or time lost?
2. Interns
3. Do any of you have experience of identifying roles in your organisation that may need CRB checks?

To read more join Hot HR


Other news:
Please add a bit about yourself to the section - INTRODUCE YOURSELF HERE (The who's who of HOT HR). This is highlighted in Manager's Choice


Hot HR Content Members:
•Harmajinder Hayre Employment Lawyer from Ward Hadaway Solicitors
 •Stephen Hart owner of Edenchanges training
 •Andy Whittle from Genesys Training

Hot HR continues to endeavour to add to the portfolio of content members who can add value to the group and to Hot HR members and to compliment each other's skills and expertise. If you have any suggestions for the group please contact me.
 
If you would like to ask our strategic partners any questions please join Hot HR and if you would like to become a strategic partner or write an article for our Hot Spot along with Michael Rabone, HR Manager for The Seafood Restaurant group owned by Rick and Jill Stein in Padstow, Cornwall please contact me.

The Hot HR Hot Spot - Developing a Safety Culture by Michael Rabone

Developing a Safety Culture

Michael Rabone, HR Manager for The Seafood Restaurant group owned by Rick and Jill Stein in Padstow, Cornwall highlights the steps that can be taken to improve workplace safety standards.

A recent Hot HR contribution from Stephen Hart regarding health and safety in small businesses provided an interesting insight into the things that happen in the real world of business; whether it is a lack of awareness, a lack of understanding, apathy or fear of litigation and reprisals, it is no wonder that talk of workplace safety has most managers running a mile!

The shift towards self governance has created a difficult challenge, especially in small and growing businesses where it can be difficult to assign resources for safety related responsibilities. With a vested interest in people and their wellbeing, if there is a HR department available it is likely that the challenge of workplace safety is destined for that door! Although the thought can be a daunting one, a collective approach involving senior managers, line managers and department representatives is the key to progress. 

Whilst it is logical that enforcement agencies focus the majority of their time and resources on those that flout regulation, limited resources can often mean that businesses requiring proactive support, guidance and visits from the local authority are less likely to obtain the advice and guidance that they need, often finding that visits only take place after a serious incident has occurred. This effectively leaves two options; pay for a potentially expensive consultant or take on the challenge in-house.

Having fulfilled the latter, a range of benefits such as an improved safety culture, less risk for staff and customers, reduced risk of litigation and reduced insurance costs have been achieved and it was far more manageable than we’d originally anticipated. We have worked collectively to achieve our goals by ensuring that line managers play a key part in the safety process, working on the basis that we know our business better than anyone else and we are best placed to make improvements to the way we work.

In order to achieve this, there are a number of resources that are available to cut down the workload, many of which can be downloaded from the website of each respective safety organisation.

Effectively engaging directors and senior managers is a great place to start. The Leading Health and Safety at Work publication (created by the HSE and Institute of Directors) provides excellent guidance; a periodic safety report for the board has been a helpful tool to communicate safety matters on a monthly basis.

Building a safety policy is a crucial first step. The HSE provide a simple tool that will help ensure that the most important considerations are reviewed, paving the way for a risk assessment to take place. 

Although risk assessment records will be safely stored to demonstrate an intent to comply, it is important that there is a broad understanding amongst managers and staff of what the risk assessment entails. It is best to keep it simple and use a format that everybody (including the HSE) can understand, such as the publication five steps to risk assessment. There are a range of excellent examples for a number of different industries if you need a little inspiration.

Fire safety is an area that is experiencing increasing media scrutiny and a well managed fire safety risk assessment will certainly help with the delivery of important improvements. You may also wish to use the opportunity to get in touch with your local Fire Safety Officer to ask if your tactical/premises details are up to date.

Having taken part in a recent consultation regarding public health and protection (covering food safety, fire safety, health and safety and licensing) it was reassuring to hear that members of each department would welcome a telephone call to provide help and advice and they are very keen to work away from the perception of being wholly and solely focused on enforcement. I appreciate that this may not be the case in every region; however, it is certainly worth the effort as good relationships will be the ultimate key to success.

In addition, local authorities are running more and more safety events on a local and regional basis, providing a great opportunity to meet key individuals that can provide support and guidance relating to safety matters. It may mean that you have to sit through a session about noise pollution or asbestos, however, the networking opportunity is too good to miss!

Although we know that workplace safety isn’t always the most desirable of topics, it affects each and every one of us and therefore a safety committee provides an opportunity to gauge the general feeling towards workplace safety and provides an excellent opportunity for consultation, in addition to an avenue for solving ongoing safety related problems.

I appreciate that fulfilling the action plan resulting from your risk assessment is a task in itself; diarising a quarterly review date for risk assessments and training provides a great reminder, especially if it is tied in with a quarterly safety committee meeting date. An occasional site visit, self-audit or document check doesn’t do any harm either; we know that workplace safety is a difficult topic for some managers and we’d all prefer to find solutions internally, especially when we take into account the number of non-compliance cases that are being publicised in local and national media.

I’d imagine that there are a range of great examples of documentation, training and records that exist (along with a wealth of expertise) and I’d encourage the use of Hot HR to share valuable information and experiences in order to improve our safety standards within our businesses. We’ve made a great deal of progress and we will never take for granted that there is plenty more to do!

Hot HR Blog & Weekly Digest 18-22 July

Hello and welcome to this week's Hot HR weekly digest and blog. 

Here is a round up of this week's discussions and exciting news from within the group:

Speed Read 

1. What is a 'Closed Material Procedure'?

2. Unfair retirement

 

To find out more connect to Hot HR

Discussion

This week we have had lots of activity and discussion, here is a summary of the most popular (in no particular order):

1. recruiting for customer service staff to work on social media. up to now all   CS activity has been phone based. Are there any    specific skills people would recommend that we look for?

2. HR in the Care Sector

To read more join Hot HR

Other news

Please add a bit about yourself to the section - INTRODUCE YOURSELF HERE (The who's who of HOT HR)

Hot HR Content Members

• Harmajinder Hayre Employment Lawyer from Ward Hadaway Solicitors
• Stephen Hart owner of Edenchanges training
• Andy Whittle from Genesys Training

Hot HR continue to add to the portfolio of content members who can add value to the group and to Hot HR members and to compliment each other's skills and expertise.

  

If you would like to ask our strategic partners any questions please join Hot HR and if you would like to become a strategic partner or write an article for our Hot Spot along with Michael Rabone, HR Manager for The Seafood Restaurant group owned by Rick and Jill Stein in Padstow, Cornwall please contact me.

 

Hot HR Weekly Digest and Blog 11-15 July

Hello and welcome to this week's Hot HR weekly digest and blog. 

Here is a round up of this week's discussions and exciting news from within the group:

Speed Read 
1. Employee not unfairly dismissed after refusing pay cut
2. Agency workers are not employees
3. We had no actual knowledge of your disability!? 

To find out more connect to Hot HR

Discussion
This week we have had lots of activity and discussion, here is a summary of the most popular (in no particular order):

1. HR in the Care Sector
2. Has anyone passed the booking of external training to employees? I would be interested in hearing what has been positive and    what the issues have been.
3. I would really appreciate your thoughts on attaching policies to the employment contract. Personally I've never advised this    but I have a client who is adamant they want it this way.
4. Health & Safety in small companies

To read more join Hot HR


Strategic Partner - An exciting opportunity for Hot HR members!
Welcome to Andy Whittle from Genesys Training.

Andy is based in Warrington and assists new and existing clients with business management systems training requirements, specialising in standards ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001 and ISO 50001, he is responsible for scheduling and running public training courses throughout the UK.

Hot HR continue to add to the portfolio of content members who can add value to the group and to Hot HR members and to compliment each other's skills and expertise.

Our content members are:

• Harmajinder Hayre Employment Lawyer from Ward Hadaway Solicitors
• Stephen Hart owner of Edenchanges training
• Andy Whittle from Genesys Training

If you would like to ask our strategic partners any questions please join Hot HR and if you would like to become a strategic partner or write an article for our Hot Spot along with Michael Rabone, HR Manager for The Seafood Restaurant group owned by Rick and Jill Stein in Padstow, Cornwall please contact me.

Hot HR Blog and Weekly Digest: 4-8 July

Hello and welcome to this week's Hot HR weekly digest and blog. 


There has been some really interesting discussions going on within the group this week. Here is a round up:

 
Speed Read 
1. No series of discriminatory acts leading to dismissal

2. No right to legal representation at disciplinary hearings

  To find out more connect to Hot HR

DiscussionsInteresting! Facebook comment about a workplace incident was gross misconduct justifying dismissal  

HOT HR - HOT SPOT!!
This week we have seen the introduction of the Hot HR 'Hot Spot'. This is a new and exciting platform for HR professionals to write about HR issues that effect them in their roles from a very real perspective.

It is with great pleasure that Michael Rabone, HR Manager for The Seafood Restaurant group owned by Rick and Jill Stein in Padstow, Cornwall joined us with his contribution on youth employment. A great article, very infomrative and insightful, Thank You Michael.

Strategic Partner
Welcome to our strategic partner - Stephen Hart from Eden Changes training. Stephen has joined the group to share his expertise in training and offers exclusive free training tips for HOT HR members.

Event
This week our event 'Social Media - The Right Way' took place. It was a great success with 69 attendees and some fantastic feedback. Thank you to those that attended and hopefully a few new Hot HR members have joined following the event. Watch this space for more details on upcoming events.