A Warm DOHR Welcome to June News…
It’s been a while, but we’re back! Suffice to say the past few months have been pleasantly hectic and we’re brimming over with exciting news, great ideas and as always, looking forward to helping and advising our loyal clients, old and new. This month we focus on Kate Hickey, our HR Officer and see what she’s been up to since joining us last October. We bring you our Facebook re-launch, where we hope to have you join in, we look forward to the Luton Best Business Expo where DOHR will be exhibiting and we take a look at HR news headlines and give you our opinion too. We’d be delighted to hear your comments so feel free to email us at [email protected] or of course, you could let us know via Facebook or Twitter!
Donna
In this Issue
- Facebook Re-Launch
- Luton Best Business Expo
- Latest HR news
- What Kate did next
- Key dates
DOHR, Friends, Followers & Fans
June sees the re-launch of our DOHR Facebook page. We’ll be using this as a great social tool to interact with our Clients and Followers. Look out for our HR Facebook Clinic which we will launch shortly, an opportunity for you to ask those burning HR questions and Donna will answer. We’ll also be posting our blog, news, reviews an interesting HR information onto our page as and when it happens. To find us on Facebook simply follow the link and don’t forget we Tweet too so please join us for all the latest, breaking HR news.
This month sees Father’s Day when fathers and carers will deserve a much earned break; Donna takes a close look at Paternity Leave and legislation in our blog, sign up here to be one of the first to read it. We’ll also be blogging about Annual Leave as Summer Holidays are looming, let’s hope for those of you going away you manage to escape to MUCH warmer climates!
Luton Best Business Expo – We’ll be there, will you?
We are delighted to be exhibiting at Luton Best Business Expo (Riverside Centre (VRC) in Gypsy Lane); the topic for this exhibition will be The Business of Sport which is perfectly in line with the Olympics next month. With numerous exhibitors and inspirational speakers, this is a great chance to network with other businesses in the surrounding areas and furthermore, there will be opportunity to learn valuable new skills. We’re looking forward to exhibiting and will be delighted to welcome you to our stand. Why not book in advance to guarantee your time with Donna? The first three bookings will receive a free HR review! Call or email us on 01923 504100/ [email protected]. For more information about Luton Best Business Expo visit www.bestbusinessexpo.co.uk. DOHR will be exhibiting at various other centres during the next 12 months, more news coming shortly about where else you can visit us.
Latest HR News – The Enterprise & Regulatory Reform Bill
During May, the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill went through Parliament. This means that the Government now commits to binding shareholder votes on executive pay and tribunal reforms.
The details of the legislation have only just emerged. Top of the list, is Employment Tribunal Reforms. Under the bill, employees and employers are encouraged to resolve any workplace dispute through early conciliation and the greater use of “Settlement Agreements”, (formerly referred to as “Compromise Agreements”). The Government is also introducing a new “Rapid Resolution” scheme which is set up to deal with less complex cases which in turn will make the process quicker and cheaper for employers and workers.
The new legislation also deals with the disconnect between Director’s pay and long-term company performance by giving the shareholders of UK quoted companies binding votes on Directors’ remuneration. This means that shareholders will be more involved in remuneration policy and companies will have to listen to what they say. How this works in practice will be interesting as many shareholders are institutions rather than individuals and where individuals are direct shareholders, they may not have the interest, skills or inclination to ‘get involved’ or make informed decisions. That said, we are already seeing boardroom unrest as Aviva, Trinity Mirror and AstraZeneca all loose executives as a result of Shareholder power.
There will also be a reduction in Health and Safety inspections which will help lessen the hindrance on Employers.
Business Secretary Vince Cable, said: “Growing our economy out of a period of acute crisis is the most pressing issue for this government. We want to make sure the right conditions are in place to encourage investment and exports, boost enterprise, support green growth and build a responsible business culture.
“The measures in the Bill will help make Britain one of the most enterprise-friendly countries in the world. It will improve our employment tribunals, reform and strengthen competition enforcement, scrap unnecessary red tape and help ensure that people who work hard and do the right thing are rewarded.”
We’d love to hear your views, so please email us on [email protected] with your comments.
Education, Education, Education
Today, employers are crying out for better qualified school leavers and graduates and
there is an increasing emphasis on work experience, apprenticeships and transferrable skills. This means that news of an autumn of Teacher strikes and disruptions will not go down well among parents or employers.
Two of the countries largest teaching unions have jointly agreed to “protect teachers and defend education”. Teachers believe there is a growing threat to their jobs and a “sustained attack on working conditions, pensions, pay and conditions of service”.
In the UK, teaching is not seen as a prestigious career and yet teachers are entrusted with developing our children’s futures. The education our children get during their early years will set them on a path for life. Teachers are educating and nurturing our future politicians, scientists, doctors, lawyers, gardeners, builders and plumbers of the future. They should be teaching them right from wrong, the ability to think for themselves and apply learning to life. You may wonder if it is reasonable that these educators believe they are treated so unfairly to the point that they need to take the ultimate action and strike.
Where does this leave employers and parents? If children can’t go to school, in turn, many parents can’t go to work. Employers are going to need to be flexible, encourage staff to work from home where the nature of the business allows, and give staff the option of using annual leave, parental (unpaid) leave or flexi-time to cover the hours of disruption.
If you want to understand more about your rights to manage parents affected by the pending strikes, please do get in contact. We also welcome your views on the autumn strikes and the backlash on business and education. [email protected]
What Kate Did Next….
Kate joined us at the back end of last year bringing over 10 years of excellent experience having worked in both public and private sectors. Kate has a thorough understanding of regulation and compliance, as well as in-depth knowledge of recruitment, training & development, policy, benefits and other HR expertise. Since October, Kate has become an invaluable member of the Team supplying clients with expert, practical HR support.
We spent some time with Kate to find out what she’s been up to over the past few months. Kate’s been busy working with a range of clients on the DOHR books. The work is always varied, from dealing with cleaning companies, hair and beauty salons, recruitment businesses to busy medical practices and more. Day to day Kate is dealing with many different HR subjects from maternity leave to recruiting apprentices into new businesses, as well as gaining more knowledge on our clients and their specific needs.
Kate says it’s always interesting having an insight into different sectors and definitely broadens the mind! Kate’s been issuing contracts of employment for staff for the aforementioned and she’s been busy liaising with DOHR’s strategic partners for Health and Safety and Recruitment issues.
Most importantly, Kate has been involved in communicating and helping implement new legislation from the Government. One initiative we’re focusing on enables employers and employees to benefit from a portion of tax free salary if paid directly to a childcare provider by using childcare vouchers. This scheme needs to go through payroll (PAYE) and Kate has been instigating a useable scheme for DOHR clients and also gaining HMRC approval. For more information about this and how your business can benefit and participate in this scheme Kate will be delighted to talk you through procedure and implementation. It gives Employer and Employee tax savings so it’s WIN WIN all round!
Finally, Kate says she enjoys the variety of the HR role and never knowing what’s going to happen from day to day, she particularly enjoys talking to clients, old and new and dealing with the interesting queries– the work is always interesting and never boring!
To speak to Kate, you can call her on 01923 504101 or email [email protected].
Key June / July dates
8th June – 1st July – Euro 2012
17th June – Father’s Day (we’ll be blogging about Paternity leave, don’t miss is, sign up for our blog here)
25th June – 8th July – Wimbledon
27th July – Olympics
And Finally….
We’re delighted to say that Donna has been asked to write a column in My News Mag – covering My News Radlett and My News Elstree & Borehamwood. Every month, Donna will explore a different facet of HR or news and information, hope you manage to grab yourself a copy! www.mynewsmag.co.uk
