Gender Identity and the Employment Tribunal
Gender identity is attracting headlines in the news at the moment.
You might have no dedicated HR team, but a growing need. Or be undertaking a particular project, like a restructure, which will temporarily increase demand on your existing people team resource.
You might be running a disciplinary which would benefit from independent, external leadership. Or be rolling out a new HR initiative with the peak in demand this brings.
You might want help recruiting a full time HR professional. Or simply need a sounding board to give you added confidence you are doing the right thing.
We have a professional and trusted HR service that can offer pragmatic, empathetic support for your business, your managers and your staff.
We can plug into your organisation on a very flexible basis. Whatever your short, medium or long term needs, we can offer the help and advice you and your teams need.
Our HR service works alongside our team of award-winning employment lawyers, which means the HR service is able to quickly and simply draw on our wider team experience to ensure the best possible guidance.
Whether you’re looking for a retained outsourced HR service, ad-hoc advice or have a particular project in mind, we’ll help you stay ahead. Let us support you, ensuring your business remains up to date and in control, so you and your team can concentrate on being your very best.
Work we can do for you
Employee Contracts and Handbook
With an ever changing HR and legal landscape it is crucial that your employment contracts and policies are up-to-date. We can review your documentation and either amend your documents or provide new documents to ensure they are legally compliant.
We can also provide you with access to up-to-date legally compliant template letters, guidance notes and other documents for a wide range of HR issues, including sickness absence management and misconduct issues.
Investigations
Sometimes it is necessary to have an external person conduct an investigation. We can take investigations off your hands e.g. disciplinary, grievances, whistleblowing, safeguarding, bullying and harassment.
We will review the evidence, decide which witnesses to speak to, carry out all investigatory interviews, gather all necessary evidence and provide you with a report on the evidence gathered.
Improving employee performance
Dealing with poor performing employees is a challenge. We can work with you to look at your internal performance management processes and help you resolve specific incidents of poor performance, including supporting managers in performance management meetings.
Discipline and grievance
We can provide guidance and support you when dealing with disciplinary and grievance issues. We provide end to end support from the initial investigation right through to the appeal process either from behind the scenes or by attending meetings as a HR advisor.
Organisational change and consultation
We can provide support and guidance to you at all stages of restructuring and redundancy exercises from planning the exercise through to implementation. If required we can take over managing the project on your behalf.
Exercises we can assist you with include:
- Planning redundancy, collective redundancy and TUPE exercises
- Redundancy selection processes and voluntary redundancy programmes
- Implementing exercises including support in individual and collective meetings, electing employee representatives and trade union consultation
Recruitment and on-boarding
Conducting a fair and objective recruitment exercise is a time consuming process. We can take the bulk of the work out of your hands, freeing you up to carry out final interviews. We can also support you with on-boarding of employees to ensure that all documentation is provided to new recruits before they start and you have an appropriate induction process in place for them. Our support includes:
- Assistance to assess your recruitment needs, drafting job specifications and adverts and preparing interview questions
- Shortlisting applications and interviewing candidates
- Ensuring appropriate checks are carried out on new starters including references and right to work
- Devising induction documentation and processes and producing offer letters and contracts
Absence management
If absence isn’t managed appropriately it can have a significant impact on organisational performance. However, sickness absence issues can be complex and expose the organisation to claims of disability discrimination. We can support you in managing individual and general absence issues with an aim of improving overall attendance.
Our support can include:
- Review of current processes for managing absence
- Analysis of existing levels of absence across the business and recommendations to reduce absence levels and support on implementing the recommended changes
- Support during individual absence management issues including support at meetings with the employee and producing necessary documentation
- Drafting Occupational Health referrals
HR Audit
We can carry out a detailed audit of your existing HR procedures, systems and policies and make recommendations for change.
Ways we can work with you
Our HR service can be adapted to suit your particular needs. Here are some examples of how we can work with you either remotely or at your offices.
HR Project Support
We can provide HR support throughout a planned project such as a restructuring exercise with defined start and end points
Regular HR Support
We can provide a regular HR service – such as 1 day per week or per month – to deal with ongoing and planned HR matters.
Ad-hoc HR Support
If you don’t need regular support you can use our HR service on an ad-hoc basis as and when issues arise, for example occasional support at employee meetings.
Banked Days HR Support
In order to fix your budget for HR support instead of paying for ad-hoc support, you can purchase a fixed number of days of HR Support for you to use as and when you need us over an agreed period of time.