Welcome to the September newsletter for DOHR. We have lots of information for you this month and are delighted to introduce you to our two lovely new team members. Also this month we provide you with a brief legal update, a reminder about the need for risk assessments and details of a first aid course. As the new school year starts, we are also asking you if you are willing and able to take on a student and provide essential work experience.
DOHR is Expanding
I am delighted to be able to introduce you to two very capable new members of the DOHR team. Sonal Ruparelia joined us on 15th July and is already very involved in supporting our clients and has proved a capable pair of hands while I have been away.
Adding further capability and expertise to our team, Fiona Mendel joined us on 12th August. Fiona is an employment lawyer who has specialised in working with small businesses. Fiona has joined us as Senior HR advisor and will have her own portfolio of clients as well as supporting the rest of the team and our clients with the ever increasing employment legislation.
Blogs
As many of you are aware, we are active bloggers, but not obsessive! We try to get at least one article a month onto our blog. Topics are usually topical, often based on real client issues and always aimed at small businesses. Our latest blog on Doctors signing staff off with depression can be read here and has sparked interesting debate on some of the LinkedIn groups. If you have had experience either as an employer or as an employee, please do share your thoughts here.
If you have topics you would like us to cover, please let us know. If you want to add your views to our blogs we would love to get some discussions going on line, just press the comments link for the relevant blog.
Employment law updates
July has seen the introduction of a highly controversial piece of employment law which is
certainly aimed at helping employers. Its place on our statute books is not yet confirmed as there is a challenge going thought the courts, but at the present time, anyone wishing to bring an employment tribunal against their employers is going to have to pay a fee to do so. Full details will be available in a blog shortly, so do check back regularly.
In addition, the compromise agreement used by some employers to remove employees from the organisation in a low risk way, has been renamed ‘settlement agreements’.
First Aid Training Course
One of our clients has some spaces on an emergency first aid course on Saturday 12th October. The course will take place in Watford and cost £120 per person. Please contact us for further details.
Risk Assessments
It is essential that you have up to date risk assessments for your business. If you need help with these, please get in touch. It is a legal requirement to keep these up to date. If you have staff working from home, they need to complete home worker risk assessments.
Annual Leave
With the summer holidays drawing to close, it is time to review how much holiday staff have left until the end of the year. It is important that staff spread their annual leave fairly evenly throughout the year and don’t save it all until the end of the year when there may not be time for them to take it. If you don’t give anything above statutory, annual leave can not be carried forward. If you are going to close over Christmas, now is the time to let staff know. If they need to save holiday days for this period, make sure you communicate it now, clearly and in writing.
Work Experience
Are there projects you just don’t have time to get to? Does your website need updating or your social media require some tender loving care? Are there client databases which need some cleansing? If so, a student on a 1, 2 or 3 week work experience placement may provide your business with a cost effective solution while giving a young person some essential exposure to the world of work. We have a number of schools with a wide variety of students seeking different career experiences. If you are able to help and give a young person some vital work experience, please do get in touch with us at [email protected] or on 01923 504100 to discuss the options further.
