Is your business a “Yes you can” or do you suffer from “No you can’t”?
As an HR support specialist, I never know what is going to happen when I pick up the phone. In the past week, we have had three potential clients contact us for support with HR issues:
- Employee in probation period, not performing, gone off sick – they are a “Yes you can”
- Employee been working for the business for years, gone off sick with work related injury – they are a “No you can’t”
- Employee informed business she is going to resign when she has a new job – they are a “No you can’t”
So what determines Yes vs No.
The answer is a contract of employment. This legally required document, if written properly, gives employers a mandate to manage poor performance, to place employees on garden leave and to manage sickness absence and pay Statutory Sick Pay.
Without the contract of employment, there is lack of clarity, no mandate for strong people management decisions and neither the employee nor the employer knows where they stand over certain issues.
When employers ask for help with an issue, the first question is….. What does your contract of employment say? The typical response is…… We don’t have one.
Even if you only have 1 employee, you are legally obliged to give them a written statement of their terms and conditions aka A CONTRACT OF EMPLOYMENT.
