20/06/2022 – This week we are mourning Paul Hellmuth, the inspiration behind myHRdept, Paul died on Thursday 16th June 2022.

23/05/2022 – What should employers be doing to prepare for recession? The economic indicators would suggest a recession is on the way, but what should employers be doing now to prepare for the worst?

17/05/2022 – Why did Mrs White successfully sue her employer for unfair dismissal having accepted voluntary redundancy?  More importantly, why did she win? myHRdept looks at the learning points from this important appeal tribunal case.

13/05/2022 – This week we spoke with 2 SME CEOs, one looking to outsource HR, the other in-sourcing HR. Which is right? With a recession on the way, we consider the relative merits….

05/05/2022 – Preventing sexual harassment at work – how can employers make sure that it isn’t happening in their own back yards?  The answer is to raise awareness of sexual harassment and in particular its most common manifestations. At the same time we should encourage employees to report incidents and train managers in how handle both low level and more serious sexual harassment allegations.

21/04/2022 – HR Recruitment – In addition to our 20 years in HR outsourcing, we’ve recruited everything from HRD to HR admin roles, for ourselves and our clients – here are the top 5 mistakes employers make when recruiting HR….

07/04/2022 – HR processes are a pain in the backside, ask any business owner, and that’s exactly what they’ll say, except they’d probably be a bit ruder. So why aren’t we all more like P&O ferries, happy to toss aside employment laws and HR processes?

03/04/2022 – April 2022 sees changes to UK employment laws with increases in minimum wage, statutory payments and the redundancy pay cap, in addition to the end of the IR35 ‘grace period’. We’re offering a free employment law compliance checklist, and a free 20 minute HR consultation for new customers.

31/03/2022 – From 1st April 2022 NMW rates will increase again, and the over 23 rate will be £9.50 per hour, up from £8.91 in 2021. Our article contains all the applicable rates from 2022 including the new accommodation offset rate.

18/03/2022 – The early press (led by Downing Street’s statements) misbranded this as P&O using ‘fire and rehire’, but this was wrong, I saw no intention of rehiring in P&O’s 4 minute video announcement.  In sacking 800 employees with neither notice, nor consultation, the Company has broken pretty much every rule in the employment law book.

05/03/2022 – To sanction the Alan Sugar ‘you’re fired’ approach to dismissals is controversial, nevertheless, many employers will prioritise decisiveness over process.

25/02/2022 – New rights are being proposed for zero hours workers – although stemming from Northern Ireland, employers in the rest of the UK with zero hours staff should take note.

16/02/2022 – With a reported 1.3m vacancies in the UK, it’s certainly a candidate’s market, and employers are reporting high levels of turnover and significant wage inflation. But is it really possible to proactively retain employees in a jobs market like this one? myHRdept looks at the problem, and possible solutions.

14/02/2022 – myHRdept has been providing outsourced HR services to SME organisations for 20 years. These days our team also supports the in-house HR teams of larger organisations, including some global businesses.

02/02/2022 – What options are open to employers in situations where an employee doesn’t want to work their notice period? myHRdept’s practical tips for employers may just help secure a little more notice from an employee keen to be underway.

26/01/2022 – Many companies have already switched to hybrid working, and home working has become mainstream, rather than the preserve of the few, as was the case prior to the pandemic. Some industries and sectors will do well from this economic shift – the delivery sector, housing and construction and their respective suppliers, as people adapt homes and shopping patterns to suit their new working lives.

20/01/2022 – The average time for an employment tribunal claim to make its way from the initial form (ET1) to an actual hearing is, currently, 335 days. Add on to that the time it takes a claimant to actually submit the claim form (which can be up to 6 months from the incident in dispute) and that’s the best part of a year and a half.

13/01/2022 – Fair or unfair, it’s happening, and employers and governments are increasingly pursuing policies to treat non-vaccinated people differently. Whilst in Canada Quebec is imposing state-wide health surcharges on the non-vaccinated….

07/01/2022 – Shortly before the Christmas break the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled that DPD driver franchisees were neither workers nor employees, and therefore not entitled to the rights bestowed upon either category.

24/12/2021 – 2021 is about to conclude and it’s been another year dominated by Covid-19. The pandemic will continue to have an impact, but what else is coming for UK employers in 2022?

21/12/2021 – ‘Fire and rehire’ has become a well-known phrase thanks to extensive media coverage. The practice, under which employers terminate the contracts of employees and then rehire them, usually on different terms, is so widespread that ACAS felt it necessary to publish an employer’s guide.

16/12/2021 – The new statutory pay rates, applicable from 11th April 2022, are currently awaiting parliamentary approval (but are unlikely to change). Statutory national minimum and living wage increases have already been announced and were covered in our earlier article.

02/12/2021 – Flow (lateral) before you go will be the order of the day for many staff parties this year, and 52% of employers are not planning on having a party at all…..

19/11/2021 – A disability is a long term physical or mental impairment which has a substantial impact on a person’s ability to do normal day to day things. This is (more or less) the definition contained within the Equality Act 2010, which enshrines discrimination law. Over the years case law has helped us to understand what is likely to constitute a disability, and what isn’t. ‘Long term

16/11/2021 – The number of those moving jobs in the last 3 months is so startling that it’s being dubbed ‘the great resignation’, and is largely thought to be down to individuals reassessing their working lives post the pandemic.

08/11/2021 – I’ve just come off a call to potential new client, where I’ve dealt with (for probably the 200th time this year) the question: “Will you cover our tribunal losses is we lose a case?”

28/10/2021 – From 1st April 2022 NMW rates will increase again, and the over 23 rate will be £9.50 per hour, up from £8.91 in 2021. Our article contains all the applicable rates from 2022 including the new accommodation offset rate.

22/10/2021 – A survey of 7000 hybrid workers suggests that 9 – 5, and with it the suit, has gone forever! Our article details the survey’s findings and the particular impact hybrid working has on the young.

01/10/2021 – The new right, to up to a week’s unpaid carer’s leave, will apply to any employee seeking to care for a qualifying person, and will be introduced when parliamentary time allows. myHRdept will be working with clients to establish their preferred approach to the new statutory right.

30/09/2021 – What’s benefited 11.4m people, cost £70 billion, is responsible for tax and NI rises and ends today? Yes, the furlough scheme, which undoubtedly prevented hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of pandemic-related job losses. Yet 1 million remain (until tomorrow) on furlough leave and many sectors, particularly those related to the travel industry, are still struggling and will for a while yet.

15/09/2021 – We have a perfect storm in the labour market & the return of inflation and high taxation – the very real potential to return the boom and bust economic conditions of decades past.

07/09/2021 – For whatever reason the relationship between Thompson and her boss hit rock bottom prior to her resignation, and her employment has now concluded in the most public of ways. Three conclusions can be drawn from this case for employers…….

03/09/2021 – HR publication Personnel Today reported that 9 out of 10 employees questioned admitted to drinking alcohol while working from home, and the OECD reported increased alcohol receipts across many countries including the UK. A UN report found that drugs use increased 400% between 2017 and 2020, leading many to conclude that the number of employees still under the influence of something after a night out, or indeed a night in, must be rising.

02/09/2021 – With the government unable to rely on its staff to lead a return to the workplace, it seems unlikely that private sector bosses will have much scope to follow Rishi’s desire to return to the office, other than on a voluntary basis for those staff who prefer not to work at home. In the meantime with almost all of myHRdept’s clients reporting their intention to stick with a 3:2 or a 2:3 model in order to avoid losing staff to more flexible employers, it seems that hybrid working is not just for now, it is forever.

27/08/2022 – Extended until 6th April 2022, employers can continue to use temporary right to work checks as part of their statutory defense against fines for inadvertently employing illegal workers.

20/08/2021 – As offices remain near empty, what’s it going to take to give employers the confidence to restore normality in employment? The Telegraph called for a ‘Back to Normal’ taskforce to give employers and their employees the confidence to return to the workplace, and we don’t think that’s a bad idea!

18/08/2021 – Tribunal cases are great at pulling in the headlines, but considering 70% of working women will undergo menopause its something of a mystery why we’ve not been talking about it more widely. If the reports that 1 in 4 women experiencing symptoms are considering a change in employment, shouldn’t we be more engaged with the topic, and shouldn’t we be looking at ways to support women undergoing menopause to make sure they don’t leave? 

13/08/2021 – All the signs are that hybrid working is here to stay, but with growing concerns over the economy and city centres, we could be heading for a month of employment discord as employers attempt to reinstate office attendance.

11/08/2020 – It seems that new into our vocabulary is the ‘3:2 diet’ and the ‘2:3 diet’, which refer to days per week in the office and at home – A recent YouGov poll suggests that only a fifth of employers will seek to return workers full time to the office, and a plethora of household-named businesses have declared their own hybrid working arrangements …..

09/08/2021 – The government, following an extensive consultation, intends to legislate to create flexible apprenticeship, under which we will see the creation of flexi-job apprenticeship agencies. Will this lead to a popular new form of apprenticeship contract, or will it be another white elephant? Time will tell whether the £7m scheme will prove to be a success.

07/08/2021 – 191 firms have been ‘named and shamed’ by the government’s Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) department for minimum wage breaches, although that might seem a little unfair to some whose breaches were technical omissions rather than deliberate acts of employee denial……

06/08/2021 – With 1 in 5 firms planning redundancies as the furlough scheme winds down, myHRdept reminds employers of how to follow a fair procedure.

19/07/21 – ‘Freedom day’ seems a long way off in the context of UK employment as employers struggle with vast quantities of government workplace guidance…

06/07/2021. This month the state’s contribution to a furloughed workers wages drops to 70% to a cap of £2,187.50 for the month, with employers picking up 10% (up to £312.50) plus the NI and minimum pension contributions. In August and September the government contribution will be 60% to a cap of £1,875 for each month, with employers picking up 20% (or up to £625.) 30th September will be the final day of the scheme, and let’s hope we never have to see another one.

26/06/2021. If enacted, changes changes to flexible working regulations are likely to allow employees to lodge a flexible working request on day 1 of their employment. There is some suggestion that the default position would be that flexible working should be permitted, with the onus moving away from the employee, who currently has to justify in their request why flexible working will work, onto the employer, who would have to show at the outset their objective reasons for why flexible working would not work.

25/06/2021 – Normal right to work checks will resume 1st September – HR support and guidance for employers Employers are required to verify that new hires have the

First quarter statistics show a 13% decrease in single claims (9,100) versus 2020, however, the overall trend in the last few quarters is still up, probably due covid-related unemployment and changes to working conditions. The tribunal system is currently sat on 44,000 cases, an eleven year high. With the furlough scheme ending in September, we expect a further peak.

24/06/2021. Last week I travelled to  London by train for the first time since March 2020. In fact I travelled in twice, once on Wednesday for a client

19/06/2021 Cyber attack on myHRdept on 18th June @ 1.43pm At 13.43 yesterday we became aware that a hacker, masquerading as one of our HR staff, Emma, had

03/06/2021 – Critical staff shortages as millions languish on furlough Michel Roux Junior has cancelled his lunch service because of staff shortages (Daily Telegraph: Michel Roux Jr of

28/05/2021 – Are you returning to the office? Yep, we are too – soon. And when myHRdept return to the office we’ll be thinking about the practical ramifications.

21/05/2021 – Normal right to work checks will resume 20th June – HR support and guidance for employers Employers are required to verify that new hires have the

12/05/2021 Is our obsession with mental health harming those who really need help? We can’t pick up a paper or watch the telly these days without a reference

05/05/21 Tribunal claims are on the rise and are expected to peak when furlough comes to an end. HR press Personnel Today reports an increase in litigation since

Many serious workplace situations, ending up in a collapse of trust and irreparable relationships, stem from an inherent inability to articulate an emerging problem to the person from whom the problem emits.

01/04/2021 – April employment law changes – briefing for employers Changes are afoot, and the key dates are the 1st and the 6th April. The most notable change

Shielding ends at midnight tonight, but the anxieties of a year of shielding won’t end that quickly.

23/03/2021 – IR35 – Off Payroll Working. New rules from April will extend IR35 to the private sector, meaning that all contractors who provide services to a client

09/03/2021. Covid Vaccination Policy. In an earlier article (Link: can an employer force an employee to be vaccinated) we suggested that employers will be able to encourage employees

04/03/2021 – Furlough scheme to continue until end September In yesterday’s budget the Chancellor announced the extension of the furlough scheme which will now continue in its current

09/02/2021 – Screening applications – 300 applicants for a Receptionist vacancy! We’re still very much in the middle of a pandemic, with (fingers crossed) light at the end

08/02/2021 – Returning to normality, HR implications In March 2020 many of our working lives changed, and will probably never be the same again. Almost a year on,

Can you refuse to employ a smoker? It may surprise you, but yes you can – smoking is not one of the 9 ‘protected characteristics’ on which we must not discriminate.

Why are employers seeing a rise in requests to return early from maternity leave, and to be furloughed? UK maternity regulations entitle mothers to 39 weeks Statutory Maternity

05/01/2020 – Failure to consult award attracts maximum compensation. The Southport Theatre and Convention Centre (STCC) in Merseyside employed 23 staff, and announced its decision to close its

22/12/2020 – Tier 4 employees on the Shielding list must ‘not go to work.’ While the general advice across tiers remains to work at home ‘if possible,’ the

17/12/20 – Key employment law events 2021. Let’s hope we see the back of the pandemic in 2021, and can return to normality. We’re sure we’ll spend considerable

16/12/2020 – UK National Minimum Wage rates for 2021. (Click here to watch this article on a video.) From 1st April 2021 NMW rates will increase again, and

03/12/2020 – Under the Health and Safety at Work Act, employers are under a general duty to provide a safe and healthy workplace, and that includes taking reasonable

02/12/2020 – Frontier workers application scheme opens 10th December A new category of work permit has just been announced and regulations were published last week. The Frontier Worker

25/11/2020 – Employer’s cannot claim furlough for employees under notice…and what comes after furlough? The furlough scheme’s current phase will run until the end of January 2021, and

24/11/2020 – EU, EEA or Swiss employees? Deadlines are approaching – employers (and their staff) must take action If you have EU, EEA or Swiss employees (who are

06/11/2020 – Latest furlough news On 1st November the Chancellor announced that the old CJRS (furlough scheme) would not be switched off after all and, would be extended

1st November – CJRS to be extended until December Yesterday the government announced that, in tandem with a new period of lockdown from Thursday 4th November, the old

CJRS Extended Furlough scheme extended 1st November – Yesterday the government announced that, in tandem with a new period of lockdown from Thursday 4th November, the old CJRS

1st November – UPDATE – Extended furlough scheme The government announced yesterday that the JSS Open and Closed schemes will be delayed. As the nation enters another month

16 October 2020 – Extended Job Support Scheme, ‘JSS Closed’ (for employers required to temporarily cease trading.) (Article updated 23rd October) Earlier in October the Chancellor announced the

23 Oct 2020 – UPDATED JSS On 22 October 2020 the Chancellor announced significant amendments to the JSS: Employees will now only need to work and be paid

28 Sept 2020 – £1000+ fines for employers and workers for failing to self isolate Under the ‘Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Self Isolation) (England) Regulations 2020 a worker

24th September 2020.  ACAS, CBI and the TUC issued a joint statement to businesses on 24th September recognising that redundancies may be necessary, but reminding employers in clear

22nd September 2020 – Boris Johnson encourage employers to continue with home working arrangements through the winter in an effort to stem the rising tide of covid 19

25th September 2020 – the CJRS winds down through October with government support reducing to a maximum of 60% of wages up to a cap of £1,875 per

22nd Sep 20: Return to homeworking imminent…. Boris Johnson is expected this afternoon to encourage employers to continue with home working arrangements in an effort to stem the

03/09/2020 CJRS Scheme heads towards its final month With September comes the penultimate month of the Covid Job Reduction Scheme, the CJRS launched by the government in March

02/09/2020 Employment Appeals Tribunal rules against reinstatement/reengagement order Sure as eggs is eggs there are a lot of tribunal cases on the horizon and the case of Kelly

30/07-2020 1st August changes to furlough scheme and the end of Shielding (probably) Furlough scheme July was the last month for the furlough scheme in its current guise

29th July 2020 – Employer’s rights when employee has to quarantine after a holiday abroad UK government requires people holidaying in particular countries to quarantine at home for

28/07/2020 Guidance for employers – Covid safe workplaces To bring workers back to work employers must ensure that the workplace is Covid safe. Employers must carry out a

We haven’t really had time to write much in the way of insightful content this week because we’ve been so busy with redundancy programmes, but we thought we’d

To know is to understand Throughout my career in HR, I have observed the essential components of a successful business – the right product at the right price,

(24 June 2020) Earlier this month the government announced the new rules and the detail for part time working under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) which will

(3rd June 2020) The furlough scheme closes to new entrants from 10th June and from August onwards employers will start contributing to the costs.  It was inevitable that

(2nd June 2020) As expected last week the Chancellor announced changes to the furlough scheme: From 10 June only employees previously furloughed may continue to be furloughed –

We know that the furlough scheme will extend to the end of October, with employers starting to share some of the cost of the scheme from August. We’re

Alcohol sales during lockdown have increased by a third and our assumption has to be that a lot of it is being consumed by employees with more time

7th May 2020. We’re expecting a lot of employee nervousness when it comes to returning to work and employers with customer facing businesses will have their customer’s concerns

myHRdept clients have support packages that generally include a mix of support hours and site visits in addition to time available for creating employment contracts and staff handbooks

There’s an enormous amount of information for employers flying around at the moment, so we thought it might be useful to take stock and sum up some of

28 April 2020 – should I re-employ (and furlough) a worker who left me after 28th February? It’s a desperate conundrum at the heart of which are former

23rd April 2020 – How to unfurlough staff It may seem premature to think about unfurloughing staff, but some of our clients are already transforming – pubs, breweries

30 APRIL – TAKING STOCK Changes last made to the Employer’s guidance on 23rd April have  been in place and unchanged for a whole week, the portal has

If it’s not on .gov….it’s not true! I cannot possibly estimate the hundreds of hours my team and I at myHRdept have spent trying to convince employers that

15th April 2020 We have updated our employer’s Q&As based on the government guidance published on 15th April. This is article is for general guidance only and is

25th March 2020 We have had multiple requests for furlough template letters and redundancy template letters since publishing our earlier articles on furloughing staff and other options to

Updated 24th March to reflect our current understanding.  On Friday 20th March the government announced that it would be providing various measures to assist employers to continue to

We have posted this briefing template to try to help the numerous businesses who are struggling to reduce staffing costs because of COVID-19.  While we hope the briefing

11th March Some employers want to keep staff at work and are worried that COVID-19 absence will prevent them from fulfilling orders. Others want to minimise staff attendance

5th March 2020. The government has published its guidance on COVID-19 for employers and businesses. This follows the ACAS guidance published last week. Amongst the material: A useful

So we know that 2020 – 2021 is going to harbour some monumental changes for HR and employment law (see our earlier newsletter) and this edition of myHRdept

It’s not always fair for an employer to dismiss an employee because of something they’ve done outside of work, but in the case of Lafferty Vs Nuffield Health,

ACAS has published advice for employers on a possible widespread outbreak of Coronavirus. We’ve been here before of course, but something does feel altogether more threatening about the

Statement of terms From April 6th 2020, as a result of the Good Work Plan, the Government will be extending rights to a statement of written particulars to

We’ll be busy during the rest of 2020 with a number of HR and employment law changes and in this article we look at some of the more

19th February 2020 Announced  today the new points based system due to come in in January 2021 will cause huge concerns for any sector currently  reliant on low

From 1st April 2020 NMW rates will increase again with the 25+ rate moving from £8.21 to £8.72, a rise of 6.2%. Other increases range from 4.6 to

* 54,000 women lose job because of maternity leave * ‘Special protection’ period to extend to 6 months after maternity leave The government has announced plans to extend

‘Sometimes’, appears to be the answer from Okedina Vs Chikale.   The conventionally held belief is that if an employee is unable to work legally in the UK they

7th November 2014 HR spotlight – our smaller business top tips for painlessly building an employment law compliant HR system for your business. Building in compliance with employment law

9th April 2015 All change please, or rather it wasn’t for the National Audit Office when it attempted to rely on a contractual clause enabling them to amend

2nd June 2015 We don’t have to worry about the rate rises themselves until October, but forewarned is forearmed and with a whopping 21% rise in one rate,