King’s Coronation – Extra Bank Holiday in May 2023

Sophie Mamaladze

An additional bank holiday has been proclaimed in honour of the Coronation of His Majesty King Charles III, which will fall on Monday, May 8^th, following the Coronation on Saturday May 6^th, 2023.

With another unexpected UK public holiday approaching, business owners will yet again be left wondering whether their employees are automatically entitled to the day off. Just like last year, it’s not a simple YES or NO answer- it will all come down to the employee’s contract whether they have a contractual right to have a day off.

For example:

If the contract states something along the lines of: “Employees are entitled to 20 days’ paid holiday each year plus bank holidays” then as bank holidays are on top of the employee’s annual leave allowance, and as the contract doesn’t stipulate the exact number they are entitled to, the employee will be contractually entitled to take and be paid for the extra bank holiday on May 8^th.

If the contact states: “Employees are entitled to 20 days’ holiday during each holiday year plus 8 bank holidays” because bank holidays form part of the employee’s set holiday entitlement, and because employer has expressly provided 8 public holidays, the employee won’t have a contractual right to the extra bank holiday in 2023.

If the contact states: “Employees are entitled to 28 days’ holiday during each holiday year including bank holidays” because bank holidays form part of the employee’s set holiday entitlement, and because employer has expressly provided the public holidays in question, the employee won’t have a contractual right to the extra bank holiday in 2023.

What if the company is closed, but staff don’t have a contractual right to time off?

If the company intends to close for the day, and employees’ contracts don’t give them the right to the extra bank holiday, employers have two options.

First, employers can require employees to use a day of their normal annual leave entitlement on May 8^th, so that they don’t miss out on a day’s pay.

Alternatively, as many did with the additional bank holidays in 2022, employers could choose to permit an extra day’s paid leave as a discretionary gesture, however the fact that they allowed employees to take these extra days off last year doesn’t bind them to make the same decision in 2023.

Do you need HR support and advice at the end of the phone, direct from specialist employment lawyers? Contact info@hranchor.co.uk to discuss how we can support your business from as little as £150 + VAT per month.

21st April 2023

Are you supporting your staff?

Sophie Mamaladze

12th November 2022

Sophie’s Top Tips – Flexible Working Requests

Sophie Mamaladze

How to Deal with Flexible Working Requests

The right to request flexible working applies to all employees providing they have 26 weeks of continuous employment and have not made a flexible working request in the previous 12 months.

It may be that dealing with the flexible working request is second nature within your organisation, however, it is always useful to refresh yourself on the basics to ensure you are dealing with requests in the best way possible.

As the request for flexible working is increasing in the UK in this month’s tips, I look at ways HR can advise employers on how to deal with the procedure.

Check the employee meets the qualifying criteria

To make a statutory request for flexible working following eligibility criteria apply:

a request can only be made by an employee.
the employee must have 26 weeks’ continuous employment at the date the request is made; and
only one request may be made under the statutory scheme in any 12 months.

Ensure the request meets the statutory requirements

An employee’s application must:

Be in writing and dated.
State that it is an application made under the statutory procedure.
Specify the change that the employee is seeking and when they wish the change to take effect.
Explain what effect the employee thinks the change would have on the employer and how this could be dealt with.
State whether a previous flexible working request has been made.

Deal with the request in a reasonable manner

Including discussing the request with the employee promptly and allowing the employee to be accompanied to any meeting. Consider requests carefully, looking at the benefits of the requested changes for the employee business and weighing these against any adverse business impact. You may want to use a trial period where it is unsure about the long-term effects of the arrangements requested.

Know the time limits involved

You must notify the employee of its decision as soon as possible, and within three months of the date, the request is received.

Agree on any contractual variations in writing

If the request is accepted, this will be a contractual variation to the employee’s employment. The employer should issue a written statement of changes to the employee’s terms and conditions within one month of the changes taking effect.

Only refuse a request on specific grounds

Requests may only be refused for specific business reasons and must not be refused for discriminatory reasons. You may only refuse a request if one or more of the following grounds applies:

The request does not meet the requirements.
There is a burden of additional costs.
There will be a detrimental effect on the ability to meet customer demand, quality or performance.
The employer is unable to re-organise work among existing staff or recruit additional staff.
There is insufficient work during the periods the employee proposes to work.
The employer is planning structural changes which impact the request.

Have a written procedure

Employers should have written procedures in place to ensure that employees are aware of the requirements to make a request and the potential reasons why a request could be rejected.

Be aware of the consequences of failing to deal with a flexible working request

If you fail to reasonably deal with a flexible working request, an employee may claim in the Employment Tribunal. It will also be automatically unfair to dismiss an employee because they have made or proposed to make a flexible working request, and there is no qualifying service necessary to bring this claim.

16th August 2022

How HR can support those reluctant to return to the office

Sophie Mamaladze

Top Tips

With almost two years of home working, many employees are hoping to continue remotely in the future and for many Hybrids working would be the way forward, where they split their time between home and the office. The reality nowadays is that probably 50% of the employees will want to work remotely or at least have an option for a hybrid working, however many businesses are looking to resume office life and want their employees back at their desks.

In this month’s tips, I look at ways HR can support employers to encourage employees to get back in the office.

Promote safety and flexibility

Promote safety

Some employees still might be concerned about the safety in workplace. Make sure they know that all the health measures are in place at work, such as hand sanitisers, regular Covid testing etc. also some employees would feel better if they had flexible start and finish time, so they do not have to travel during a rush hour especially those who use a public transport.

Be inclusive and understanding

Be understanding

Not only create a safe space but be inclusive and understanding in the return to office plan you create. Remember that different people have different experiences, so be mindful of those differences. For example, someone who has to commute for 1.5 hours because they cannot afford to live closer to the office will likely prefer to work from home at least a few times per week to save time and money. Another employee might live close to the office but in a shared flat without a dedicated space for them to work, so they might be thrilled to work from the office five days a week.

Encourage a sense of community

Encourage a sense of community

Remote working comes with many benefits, from saving time and money on commuting to a better work-life balance. However, many people have reported feeling lonely when working from home. Having people come back to work and meeting their co-workers is an important step to helping people feel more included. The difficulty is that the length of the pandemic has created new habits, new morning routines, and they need to be changed back. Easing people back into the office is probably the best way to go. To encourage people to return, make sure socialising is a key aspect of their work lives.

Communicate clearly

For employees to feel happy about heading back to the office, they have to know what to expect, therefore, it’s key for employers to communicate any changes and expectations before people return. An open, supportive environment will allow staff to speak up if they have any concerns or worries, which will help to build a trusting, healthier environment.

28th June 2022

Sophie’s Top Tips For Successful Online Onboarding

Sophie Mamaladze

During COVID 19 majority of the companies had to implement remote working and onboarding employees suddenly became more tricky than ever. Although the pandemic has reached a different phase where restrictions in the UK have been removed, many employees and some employers are still preferring homeworking and continuing to hire and onboard through online processes.

Successful online onboarding of your new employees is a key to maintaining productivity and performance and particularly important for starting the process off on the right footing.

In this month’s top tips Sophie advises employers what actions to take for a successful and smooth onboarding.

Pre-Boarding – Whether you are onboarding staff in person or remotely the fundamentals remain the same: Be prepared! Start strong with pre-boarding, everything that happens from background check to signing contract, providing access to your systems, learning modules, inductions, and anything else they might need for day-to-day work. With remote onboarding communication is even more important, new hire needs to feel plugged in to the workplace even if they are not physically there.
Check in on them regularly – Try to schedule one-on-one meetings with your employees who are working on a virtual basis a bit more frequently than you would with the ones in the office, at least at the beginning of their employment and during the first few months whilst a relationship is established and whilst you get used to working together.
Use checklists to keep new employees engaged- It can be easy for the new employees to get distracted from their job when they are working remotely. To help keep people engaged and focused use checklists to ensure that onboarding activities are completed and to ensure that you keep to the programme.
Document everything – It’s essential to provide your new employee with written documentation of everything they are going to need to work with you. Guidance on processes and procedures, ‘how to’ guides, means of identifying fellow colleagues and getting to grips with who is who and what their roles are is really important to help people feel embedded.
Seek regular feedback – Great onboarding is all about progress over time and good communication. Be sure to check in with your new hires about their onboarding experience. Find out if the process is helping them, try to understand what’s working and what needs improvement.

Couple of things to avoid with remote onboarding

Information Overload – Working remotely may bring images of relaxed employees enjoying a work life balance, however it is and can be a stressful experience for some. Always be aware of how much information you are giving your hires at once and try not to overwhelm them.
Constant Communication – Just because you can stay in constant contact does not mean you should. Remember to keep your messages to the point (without being too blunt!) and give your new employees the space they need to get on with their onboarding and their work.

28th April 2022

HR Bombshells

Sophie Mamaladze

HR Bombshells – when an employee delivers unexpected news

Tips for Employers

What can you, as an employer do when you are caught completely by surprise – and not necessarily in a good way? How can you anticipate the unknown? And protect your business in the first instance?

What if an employee tells you they are moving abroad due to family issues and want to work remotely?
What if an employee discloses a serious health condition?
What if an employee wants to transition gender and communicates it to the workforce?
What if an employee notifies you of a serious health and safety issue in the workplace/significant near miss?

As challenging as it can be to prepare for the “what if”, the cost of not doing so can be high. In this month’s tips I look at ways HR can support employers to handle “difficult” news

Maintain eye contact– while it may seem like a no-brainer, some managers need to be reminded that, when an employee tells you something difficult, it’s important to be present.
Always remain calm and supportive– it has probably taken a lot of courage to speak up.
Listen– you are not expected to have the answers to everything and being a listening ear can be extremely valuable
Do your research– you may need to investigate, look things up or go on a course! Be honest about your limitations and be clear about what steps you are taking to educate yourself, but also don’t over promise you won’t become an expert overnight!
Take notes– difficult conversations or where emotion is involved can mean you might mis remember how a meeting took place or what was said. Keep notes, but remember these need to be kept in line with GDPR
Get the employee’s consent first – If it is something deeply personal but you need to liaise with someone else in the business.

Bonus Tip – Make sure you are briefed on what support the Company can provide and how to access it.

Want to see more of Sophie‘s top tips? See below

Exit Interviews – Sophie’s Top Tips

Pregnancy Notification: The Employer’s Guide

1st March 2022

Exit Interviews – Sophie’s Top Tips

Sophie Mamaladze

The importance of Exit Interview

Tips for the employers

Exit interviews are the most popular method used in the organisations to investigate why staff leave as departing employees are generally more open and forthcoming than those still in their jobs. They can help expose any potential weaknesses in your organisation’s process, culture, as well as to help provide evaluation over the management, and share suggestions to improve employee retention.

In this month’s top tips HR Anchor advises what questions to ask at an Exit Interview:

What prompted you to begin searching for another opportunity?

This question helps to determine any lack of opportunity or perks your company could be offering to attract and retain top talent. For example, if you notice that many employees who are leaving report an absence of opportunity for advancement, it could be a sign that direct supervisors aren’t addressing employee career aspirations appropriately.

Did you have all the tools necessary to perform well?

From providing training and software access to discussions and performance reviews, direct supervisors hold a responsibility to ensure that each member of their team possesses the necessary tools and feedback needed to excel in their job role. It is critical to know whether employees feel abandoned in any of these areas so that the matter can be addressed to the supervisor as early as possible.

What did you enjoy the best and least about your job?

This exit interview question helps identify aspects that will entice future candidates about the job role and to realise how to set the right expectations for the job position? For example, if an employee who is leaving states that they were displeased with how often they had to commute as part of the job, you will want to ensure that your next hire is comfortable with travelling frequently.

Did you feel your hard work and achievements were recognised throughout your employment?

Recognition plays a crucial role in the employee experience. When an employee sees that a company notices and values their contributions, it increases their loyalty to the company, improves their motivation, fuels further productivity and can decrease the overall turnover rate. Where employees do not feel that their efforts were appreciated, a company bears the risk of losing that employee.

What suggestions do you have for the company? How could we improve?

From providing suggestions on the style of management and compensation and benefits to what types of snacks the company should stash in the pantry, it’s important to consider all kinds of feedback. While it may not be within your power to make all the proposed changes, finding out what employees’ value will help you understand how to improve the overall work environment morale.

Is there anything that would have changed your mind about leaving?

Often the leaving employee would mention something that would have persuaded them to stay which is acting as the catalyst behind their reason to leave. Such a reason is often something worth examining further. For example, where an employee says that they most likely wouldn’t have quit if the company offered more work flexibility, it might be a good time to explore options for remote working.

Sophie Mamaladze CIPD Level 3

Sophie Mamaladze

Sophie Mamaladze, HR Administrator at HR Anchor has completed her CIPD Level 3, Certificate in Human Resources Practice.

Sophie started studying for in June 2020 and received her certificate January 2022. Sophie has been working on attaining this qualification whilst also doing a sterling job for us at HR Anchor, being a key point of contact for our customers. Sophie works tirelessly ensuring contracts of employment and policies are up to date, distributed as required and helps keep all our customers compliant. Sophie also helps with absence management of staff for a number of our clients, the recent implementation of our system “HR Anchor Safe Harbour” has been an excellent addition to our offering and removes a lot of hours working out holiday allowances.

Sophie’s course covered modules in Resourcing Talent and Performance and Reward Management. Sophie enjoyed these 2 modules in particular as they were realistic and practical. She also enjoyed working with other team members and taking part in role playing exercises.

Why did she study this?

Sophie chose to start this course to understand more about HR practices in the UK. Sophie had previously worked in Georgia, where employment law is quite different to the UK, she now has 2 different perspectives. The stark difference Sophie has noticed is how much more regulated employment law is in the UK, how much protection employees have and how many more employee rights we have here. Sophie appreciates how important this is to all UK businesses to get right first time to ensure they remain compliant and protect their businesses.

What’s next?

Sophie is really excited to have just started another course in Virtual Employment Law. Sophie comments “This course will help me to understand Employment Law in more depth, which means I will be able to advise clients on basic employment law matters without the need to ask for guidance”

Congratulations Sophie! Best of luck with this new course, we look forward to sharing your progress once completed.

31st January 2022

How HR can support those suffering with stress at work

Sophie Mamaladze

How HR can support those suffering with stress at work

Top Tips

Everyone who has ever held a job has felt the pressure of work-related stress. Even if you have the best job in the world and love what you do, you still might at some point stress over meeting deadlines or fulfilling challenging obligations. Let me tell you that stress at work is totally normal as it is something that always exists, but especially now with everything that is going on in the world, our stress might be feeling a little bit more elevated.

In this month’s tips I look at ways HR can support with handling stress at work.

Breath– I know this one is really obvious as we all breathe all the time but power of taking a deep breath can be something that helps you to move from reactive state to an active state. Taking time to breathe is actually going to allow the oxygen in your brain faster and especially if we are going to be doing some deep thinking, we want to be thoughtful in our actions. While you are taking a deep breath think of the next tip.
What is the real problem here? – The thing that you are feeling stressed about might not actually be the source of the problem but what is underlying that stress is that you don’t feel like you are in control. Often the problem is deeper than we think it is, so until we get to the point where we really understand the problem, we not going to be able to solve it. It is easier said than done but investing time into this step is something that will be really helpful.
Restore Control- If you are not in control, you are in chaos. When you have a stress at work ask yourself – what can I control? You can always control the things that you are in control of, this includes your energy, your effort, your workplace boundaries, these things really add up and when you are clear on what you can control it helps you release the stress of the things that you are not in control of.
Priority Check- When you don’t understand how things are prioritised at the company, it is easy to enter the state of overwhelm. You have all of this stuff to do and that creates a lot of stress at work, however when you know exactly what you should be focusing on, it allows you to prioritise work and take the most stress away.
Exercise- It will give you two immediate benefits: firstly, when you exercise you are going to decrease your level of two stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol. Secondly, if you do something as simple as go for a quick walk and just seeing different things and getting some clarity will be what gets you through that stress at work. At the very least it will make you feel better.

Bonus tip:

Stop being so hard on yourself– Sometimes things don’t go right, sometimes you make mistakes and that’s ok. I think one of the ways that we can do this is to make sure that you are cultivating a positive attitude, because when things don’t go your way it’s really easy to feel defeated, however when you cultivate that positive mindset it allows you to see the opportunity in every situation.

How to encourage positivity at work

Sophie Mamaladze

How to encourage positivity at work – Top Tips

However, maintaining a positive attitude on a daily basis in the workplace is harder than you may think. Many staff look to HR during times of stress or as a point of contact, being able to encourage positivity in the workplace in the face of deadlines and work pressures is crucial for HR.

In this month’s tips I look at ways HR can support and encourage positivity at work.

Moderate Complaining– staff often need an outlet to complain, allow someone to air how they are feeling and respect their point of view, however you can help someone moderate their negative feelings. Remind them that focussing on bad and negative aspects can mean you are surrendering control to your environment. Focussing on negative behaviour can result in a cycle which can be hard to come out of. Encouraging someone air the negative with you but then to work on focussing on the positive and their work can help remove someone from that negative behaviour or cycle of complaining.
Encourage Gratitude– help staff to see that the ultimate goal of practicing gratitude is to train the brain to look for positivity. Discuss with the staff member about things at work in life that they are grateful for and how they can transfer this positivity to other aspects of their work.
Smile– when we smile, we seem friendly which fosters positivity. Smiling is infectious, when you smile at someone chances are they are going to smile in return.
Focus on Positivity– the more positive your outlook, the better your mood is going to be. This can also rub off on other people and is important when dealing with staff from a HR perspective. Work on your own outlook: read inspiring quotes, listen to your favourite podcast or YouTube channel or choose an uplifting book to read. Work on your own resilience, it is a challenging job!
Set Goals– the great thing about setting goals is when you actually follow through with them and when you achieve them, it feels really good. This is also going to reinforce to you that you are making progress on whatever you are working on. This is a great technique to use for yourself as a HR professional or when working with staff members.
Be the light– I know that it is bit of a cliché, but when you are a positive person that is going to set more positive tone for other people and the more open you are to sharing that with others the more receptive, they are going to be. Being positive is going to give you a lot of control in terms of the vibe at your workplace.

Ultimately a positive attitude is not going to just serve the people around you and your day-to-day wellbeing, when you maintain a positive attitude at work you are going to be better equipped respond to challenges and opportunities.