Why do I need HR support?

Many small employers cannot stretch to employing someone to manage their HR but there are alternatives that can give that peace of mind you need. 

If you’ve dealt with a complicated disciplinary matter, redundancies or long term sickness absence in your business then these are some of the more obvious areas where an HR Consultant can advise and help.  Less obviously HR can help with your performance management systems and absence management for example. 

I can’t afford an HR Manager  

The advantage of purchasing a monthly retainer with an independent HR Consultant is that you always know that they are available for you should an HR issue crop up. We at Home of HR provide a basic monthly retainer starting at £140 per month for smaller businesses.  We can check that your HR documentation is fit for purpose and provide regular catch ups where advice can be dispensed giving you peace of mind for your business.  We are there at the end of the phone or by email to provide the necessary support and advice. 

Where can I find HR expertise without having to employ someone? 

Home of HR is an HR Consultancy with a breadth of knowledge across a variety of industries. We offer pragmatic and practical HR expertise.  We take the time to understand your business before dispensing tailored advice. One advantage of using an external consultant (apart from the cost!) is objectivity which can be useful particularly with disciplinary and grievance situations for example. As an employer it can be hard to see the wood for the trees when an employee’s behaviour is stressing you out! 

Can an HR Consultant help me with business reorganisation? 

Has Covid-19 affected how you now see your business but you don’t know how to handle the changes your employees will need to go through?  This is where an HR Consultant can be invaluable, again with applying an objective eye over your business strategy and how this applies to your staff and providing you with carefully considered routes to meet your objectives. 

What help will an HR Consultant give me with redundancies? 

An HR Consultant can assist you with the criteria for scoring for redundancies, who you should include in a pool of at-risk employees, templates for the various letters you will need, guide you on what to do and when, help you with redundancy calculations and help to your redundant employees with CVs and general advice on finding alternative work. 

I’m struggling to get a couple of employees back from furlough – can HR help? 

Many employers have had issues with getting employees back to work after they have been furloughed. HR Consultants are now experienced in the reasons for this and how to work towards a return to work or a solution for these employees. 

My performance management procedure isn’t working - can an HR Consultant help me? 

Performance management is probably much more important than some employers realise. A good process can pick up poor performance and deal with it as well as highlight where training may be required or where further support may required. It can help highlight issues outside of work which may be affecting the employee’s performance for example. 

As well as employee relations matters, an HR Consultant can also help with an audit of your HR documentation, provide recruitment support and assistance with interviewing (we know how time consuming that can be!), help with TUPE and guidance on upcoming employment legislation. We can advise you on risk and put your mind at rest when it comes to your employees always taking into account our understanding of your business. 

The Job Retention Bonus - how will the scheme work?

What is the job retention bonus?

The government is introducing a new job retention bonus to provide additional support to employers who keep their furloughed employees in “real” employment. This is intended to ensure that as many employers as possible bring furloughed employees back to work when the job retention scheme ends on 31 October 2020 and to keep them in employment for six months.

The payment is designed to be a one-off payment of £1,000 for every employee for whom employers have made a claim under the job retention scheme and who remain continuously employed until 31 January 2021. The chancellor believes the scheme will be particularly helpful to small and medium sized businesses.

From February 2021, employers will be able to claim the job retention bonus through GOV.UK.

Which of my employees is eligible?

Employees who were furloughed after the cut-off date of 10 June 2020 or who are returning from paternity leave or were part of the military reserves are eligible. Those on fixed term contracts will also be eligible subject to them having have continuous employment with you at the time of claiming.

Employees must earn at least £520 a month on average between the 1 November 2020 and 31 January 2021.

You can claim the bonus for all employees who meet the above criteria, including office holders, company directors, agency workers and those employed by umbrella companies.

You will not be able to claim for any employee who is serving their notice after 1 February 2021.

Can I claim the bonus for my employees?

You will be able to claim the job retention bonus for any employees that were eligible for the coronavirus job retention scheme that you have claimed a grant for. Where a claim for an employee was incorrectly made, a job retention bonus will not be payable.

All employers are eligible for the scheme including recruitment agencies and umbrella companies.

What information will I need in order to claim?

You must have complied with your obligations to pay and file PAYE accurately and on time under the Real Time Information (RTI) reporting system for all employees.

TUPE

To claim the job retention bonus for employees who have been transferred into your business they must have been furloughed and successfully been claimed for under the scheme by you as their new employer. You will be unable to claim the bonus in respect of any employee transferred under TUPE after 31 October 2020.

What earnings can be included in the £520 a month average minimum earnings threshold?

Only earnings recorded through HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) records can count towards the £520 a month average minimum earnings threshold.

When can I claim the Job Retention Bonus?

You can claim from February 2021.

Do my employees need to return to the same job after furlough?

It is not yet clear whether employees have to return to the same job in order to claim the job retention bonus.

Detailed guidance on how to claim will be published in September 2020. More details on the scheme are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/job-retention-bonus/job-retention-bonus

Guidance for Businesses Returning to Work After Lockdown

We can all remember how quickly we went into lockdown back in March and compared to returning to the workplace and starting businesses up again, it was a fairly simple process.  Businesses are gradually opening up again and employees are returning to work, however, there are many points to consider and the following guidance may help.

• Health and safety measures

When your employees return to the workplace it is important to carry out a risk assessment of your premises.  Where possible, arrange the workplace to ensure social distancing.  Where that isn’t possible you will need to manage the transmission risk by asking employees to wear PPE as appropriate.

Reinforce your cleaning processes.  Provide antibacterial spray, hand gel, gloves, wipes.  Put up signs around social distancing.

Create a policy on social distancing, handwashing, use of communal areas, how meetings will be held etc. Provide training regarding the newly set out workplace and how you see it working. Give employees the opportunity to suggest ideas to improve or maintain safety in relation to the virus. It is important to reassure your workers to avoid issues with returning to the workplace.

• Communicating with employees

If you are bringing workers back to work whilst also making some redundant you need to manage both simultaneously. Leaving employees wondering about what is happening will probably cause trust issues and could damage the relationship you have with your team.

For those who you are not planning to bring back from furlough at present, continue to communicate with them regularly.

Why not survey your team before bringing them back to work?  You can then find out what challenges they face in doing so and try to solve them if you can.

Poor communication can hinder business recovery.  Communicating regularly is a must to aid the business in getting back up and running both with those working at home, those coming back to work and those still furloughed.

• Supporting mental health

Perhaps consider offering some managing mental wellbeing courses online.  Many people have suffered with their mental health whilst in lockdown and there are numerous ways to help.  This may assist in getting your employees back into the workplace particularly those who are anxious about doing so.

• Continuing to use the furlough scheme

The Government’s Job Retention Scheme will be continuing until 31 October 2020, however, the contribution you as an employer will have to make will increase over the next few months. From the 1 July you can bring back your staff part time with the rest of their pay being furlough pay.  From 1 August you will have to pay the national insurance and employer’s pension contributions for your furloughed employees. 

Currently, the Government is paying 80% of salary under the furlough scheme but from 1 September this will drop to 70% and from 1 October to 60%.  Employers will have to make up the difference to 80% of salary.

From 1 November you have to consider whether you are bringing back your furloughed employees or if you are in a redundancy situation.  If you are still employing your staff in January 2021 then from February 2021 you can claim a £1,000 job retention bonus from the government (if your employees’ average pay is £520 per month+). More details on this scheme and how to claim will be released in September 2020.

• Managing leave on return from furlough

Employees continue to accrue holiday whilst they are furloughed.  You can require your employees to take their holiday if necessary.  This will avoid them returning to work with a number of weeks holiday still to take which could affect your business recovery.  You must give your employees double the length notice for the amount of holiday you are asking them to take. It is best to engage with your employees if you are going to require them to take leave to explain why you feel it is necessary.

Employees can request holiday as normal during furlough using the notice period outlined in their contract of employment. Contractual holiday pay should be paid when your employees are taking their annual leave.

There is new legislation to ensure that employees do not lose leave going into a new holiday year where it can be shown that they were unable to take it due to coronavirus. However, employers need to do everything possible to ensure staff take as much leave as possible during the normal holiday year even if the business has increased workload due to coronavirus. Employees have two years in which to take holiday carried over due to the pandemic and it cannot be replaced with pay in lieu (unless the employee leaves your employment).

• Return to the workplace

When asking your employees to return to work place consider the following; is it essential? Is it safe? Is it mutually agreed?

If your employees can realistically continue to work at home then can you give them the option?  Do they want to continue working at home? Could they work some days at your premises and some at home?

You have a duty of care to ensure your employees’ safety so you must manage the risks. Gradual return of employees may help you test the safety measures you have put in place.  In turn this will encourage others to return if they hear that safety in the workplace is well managed.

Ensure any dialogue you have with your team is clear and that you allow people to raise concerns they may have about returning to the workplace. Take into account their needs and concerns. You may need to be flexible in managing some of these issues such allowing a start time outside of rush hour to avoid busy public transport for example.

Some employees will be afraid of returning to the workplace and you should take time to listen to what is worrying them. If an employee ultimately refuses to return to work even if you try to arrange different hours or partial working from home and you try to reassure them about your safety measures then , with your agreement, they can take holiday or unpaid leave. Ultimately you can consider disciplinary action if you are sure that you have all the facts but you could consider extending furlough if you feel the employee has reasonable grounds for refusing to return to work.

Furlough and Job Retention Scheme FAQ's - UPDATED

The first blog that was posted on 24th March was shortly after the Government announced its first plans to help support organisations retain employees for an extended period of time. Since then, there have been many new developments and new pieces of legislation that have meant more changes for employers to keep up with. 

I am going to try and condense it down for you and provide some guidance and answers on frequently asked questions. 

Furloughed Leave – What is it? 

By putting staff on furlough leave, this means that you can claim for 80% of their salary under the job retention scheme whilst doing no work for you. This is a really important part of furlough leave – staff are to do NO work for you as their employer during this time. Staff have to be put onto furlough leave for a minimum of three weeks at a time. 

The term furlough is very new to the UK and is typically something used in the US. Furloughing staff enables businesses to retain them without having to make layoffs or redundancies. 

It is really important here to note that on 15th April 2020, the Government released a Treasury Direction on the Scheme. It stated that employers must have agreement in writing that the employee will cease to do all work for the duration of furlough. 

Employers should confirm the employees’ new status and obtain their consent in writing, including confirmation that the employee will cease all work in relation to their employment. Any records should be kept for five years. 

Although staff are unable to do any work from the employer they are furloughed from, they can take up a second, or third job and earn an income from there. There is no restriction on hours worked with another employer, as long as they are working for someone who has not put them onto a period of furlough leave, this is ok. 

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS)

The HMRC opened the system for employers on Monday 20th April to start claiming for 80% of each employees wages under the job retention scheme. The scheme has been extended until the end of June 2020. You as an employer do not have to pay 100% of their wages and you are only able to claim for 80% of their salary. If you are in a position to pay the additional 20% then this is absolutely fine, however there is no obligation to do so. 

You also do not need to worry about national minimum wage when claiming under the scheme. Minimum wage applies to hours worked. So if employees are furloughed and do not work and 80% of their normal earnings would take them below the NMW, this is fine. 

Any member of staff can be claimed for, whether they are part time, full time, agency worker, zero hours worker – anyone can be claimed for – however bear in mind qualifying dates shown below. 

The pay that you claim for for each individual are all elements that you are obliged to pay your employees, including wages, past overtime, fees and compulsory commission payments. You cannot claim for discretionary payments i.e. bonuses. 

All payments made to furloughed employees will be subject to PAYE and National Insurance contributions. 

Qualifying Dates 

The scheme is open to all UK employers that had a PAYE scheme in place on or before 19 March 2020, have enrolled for PAYE online and have a UK bank account. Any organisation with employees can apply, including charities, not for profit organisations and recruitment agencies.

Staff have to have been on the company’s payroll and an RTI submission made to the HMRC on or before 19th March 2020. If you had new employees that joined at the beginning of March, but weren’t on your payroll until the end of the month, they will unfortunately fall out this extension that the Government confirmed.

Sickness and SSP 

Statutory Sick Pay cannot be claimed for under the CJRS.  On 9th April 2020, it was confirmed that the employer can decide whether to place a sick employee either on SSP or furlough them. This includes those that are already off sick, including those off on long term sick. You cannot have someone off sick and furloughed, it has to be one or the other. 

Government guidance on those who are shielding now states that those who are shielding can be furloughed if they are unable to work. Previously, these employees could only have been furloughed where an employee would have been made redundant. 

Annual Leave

Annual leave whilst staff are on furlough leave will continue to accrue as they will still be employed with the business. It was confirmed on the 17th April 2020 that annual leave can be taken at the same time as someone is on furlough leave…however annual leave has to be paid in FULL and therefore you will need to top up the additional 20% to bring them up to 100% as you cannot claim for annual leave. 

It is also worth noting here that the Working Time Regulations 1998 have recently been amended to allow for four weeks of leave to be carried over into the next two leave years where leave could not be taken due to coronavirus. This now means that all statutory minimum annual leave can be carried over. Carry over of any contractual leave in excess of the statutory minimum is subject to agreement between employer and employee. 

This extension to the carry over rules means that it is less of a concern for employers that employees have a potentially large amount of backed up leave to take once the pandemic passes.

It is currently still unknown whether an employer can ask employees to take annual leave during furlough so my advice would be for you to not go down this route currently. It is not worth the Employment Tribunal case at the end!

Furlough and Maternity Leave 

Anyone who is due to go on maternity leave will continue to do so as normal. It was confirmed by the Government on 24th April that where statutory maternity leave begins on or after 25th April, entitlement to SMP will be calculated on the employees normal, full earnings rather than their furlough pay. 

The same applies for those on paternity leave, shared parental leave, adoption leave and parental bereavement leave. 

Statutory Notice Pay 

If someone is serving their notice during a period of furlough, their statutory notice pay will be protected, and therefore required to be paid in full.

Probation Periods and Coronavirus

Where you have members of staff who have recently joined and are either on furlough leave or working from home, it may be a sensible idea to extend their probation periods. It would be unfair on both sides for a probation period to either be passed or failed given the current circumstances. If this applies to someone in your business please let me know and I can send you a template letter to extend the probation period for the reason of coronavirus.