Employment Advice?

[HM-123]

I have a meeting with a socilicitor this week to arrange various contracts to be written up (employment contracts, sub-contractor contracts & b2c service agreement). Before my meeting I thought it would be a good idea to clue myself up as to not waste any time in the meeting.

My family run company is in the process of pretty quick expansion, we're scaling quite well and we're in the process of setting an office up to accommodate inbound call center-esque staff. (these staff will slowly be trained up to almost run and operate the whole company, being a great opportunity for promotions as new positions become availible)

The 'call operator' staff will:

- Take inbound calls & dispatch/schedule our field engineers
- Talk directly with engineers
- Chase invoices
- Take payments over the phone
- General customer service, queries etc.

Having never employed before, we're only just coming to terms with all of the requirements and legalities that come with being an employer.

Questions/Advice Needed (possible terms including in the employment contract?)

- How will we terminate employment for staff that aren't meeting our expectations/requirements?

- What employment terms give us the most control, as an employer, for a job like above?

- What are the industry standard models/contract terms for employing staff for positions like this?

I don't know enough about employment yet to know what questions to ask, although the feeling of losing control of my overheads by employing a low achieving staff member is a pretty scary thought. I'm not entirely fixated on poor performing employees, and we have every intention to create an environment for them to thrive and succeed within the company... but it's still scary nonetheless!

 

[The Byre]

I would go to an employment lawyer or HR specialist with legal training (and there are a few on this very forum BTW!) and I would body-swerve the High Street solicitor.

High Street solicitors are like GPs - great for run-of-the-mill stuff, but dangerously out of their depth on specialist subjects.

 

[Regency Hypnotherapy]

I have a background in Mediation, employment law and HR

To answer your questions:

1. It is relatively easy to terminate someone's employment in the first 2 years as long as there isn't any aspect of discrimination (disability, pregnancy etc). You might want to call an organisation called ACAS before you fire but rest assured, it's pretty simple!

2. This is a difficult question to answer without knowing A LOT more about your business. There a a number of clauses you could add but it all depends on what you want to protect.

3. You can get basic contracts from ACAS but if you need someone to look over it, you're better off going to a good HR Adviser or employment specialist.

Also, as a business you probably have legal expense insurance (employers liability) if so -you can obtain free employment advice from them usually.

Good luck!

 

[Nicola Mullineux]

To answer your questions:

Implementing appropriate employment documentation is a vital first step for employers to take but is often one they pay little regard to. Most small businesses will simply adopt a standard template agreement and handbook for reasons of ease and expense. However, in the future when seeking to rely on these agreements, they may find themselves unsupported by the very documents they put in place themselves.

All contracts of employment have standard terms that need to be included to meet the employee’s right to receive a written statement of main terms of employment. This includes information such as the employee’s job title, start date, pay, hours of work, holiday entitlement, place of work, notice periods and how to make grievances. The statement also needs to indicate where the employee can find procedures on sick pay, disciplinary, dismissals and grievances. Whilst this covers quite a lot of information, obvious contentious issues are not required to be placed in the contract and many employers use handbooks of employment to incorporate these.

Handbooks of employment usually contain policies which control how the employee should and shouldn’t behave whilst at work. An absence policy is vital to include in the handbook as this will inform employees of acceptable levels of absence, at what level their absence becomes unacceptable and then sets out how high levels of absence will be dealt with. In small businesses, this policy is key as proactively managing absence will help to reduce levels of absence, including false sickness, whilst also ensuring genuinely sick employees receive the support they need to return to work. For your type of business, it would be sensible to include internet, social media and use of company property procedures. This member of staff will have wide ranging access on computer devices to allow them to complete their allocated work so it is important they know what they can and cannot use this access to do. Other relevant policies to include are: a dress codes as the member of staff will be client facing; anti-bribery as they will be responsible for handling money; alcohol and drugs policies; disciplinary and whistleblowing policies.

Although there are standard contracts and handbooks available for businesses to use, employers need to tailor any documents so that they are truly applicable and relevant to their business. For example, most disciplinary policies will contain examples of misconduct and/or gross misconduct. This is something which differs on a business and industry basis so employers need to tailor this to include what is regarded as misconduct in their company. Only then will they truly be able to regard something outside the general scope as misconduct and the policy can be relied on as evidence that the employee was aware of this.

Staff who are unable to meet their required targets are usually dealt with either under a conduct or capability procedure. These will require different processes and the way to distinguish between them is to ask whether the employee can’t do it, if so it is capability, or if they won’t do it and then it is due to conduct. Capability procedures will generally require employers to take steps to improve the employee’s performance through further training, improvement plans or additional support, though the extent to which employers have to do this will depend on the length of service the employee has with the business. It is vital that all dismissals of employees with two years’ service are because of a fair reason and have followed a fair process.

Although the member of staff is not currently meeting expectations, employers may wish to meet with the employee to determine the reason for this to see if it is something which can be put right. In some circumstances, it may be that extra training on one aspect of their job can solve their performance issues and will, in the long run, prove less expensive and troublesome than dismissing and recruiting a new member of staff.

 

[carl.atkinson]

Some good advice here.

It's worth checking whether the solicitor that you have chosen is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association. Membership would confirm a degree of experience and specialisation in employment work. I would also ask what proportion of their work is conducted for businesses rather than employees - this is not a critical distinction but can help to illustrate whether they are likely to "get" the commercial realities of your business.

 

[Newchodge]

To answer your questions:

Implementing appropriate employment documentation is a vital first step for employers to take but is often one they pay little regard to. Most small businesses will simply adopt a standard template agreement and handbook for reasons of ease and expense. However, in the future when seeking to rely on these agreements, they may find themselves unsupported by the very documents they put in place themselves.

All contracts of employment have standard terms that need to be included to meet the employee’s right to receive a written statement of main terms of employment. This includes information such as the employee’s job title, start date, pay, hours of work, holiday entitlement, place of work, notice periods and how to make grievances. The statement also needs to indicate where the employee can find procedures on sick pay, disciplinary, dismissals and grievances. Whilst this covers quite a lot of information, obvious contentious issues are not required to be placed in the contract and many employers use handbooks of employment to incorporate these.

Handbooks of employment usually contain policies which control how the employee should and shouldn’t behave whilst at work. An absence policy is vital to include in the handbook as this will inform employees of acceptable levels of absence, at what level their absence becomes unacceptable and then sets out how high levels of absence will be dealt with. In small businesses, this policy is key as proactively managing absence will help to reduce levels of absence, including false sickness, whilst also ensuring genuinely sick employees receive the support they need to return to work. For your type of business, it would be sensible to include internet, social media and use of company property procedures. This member of staff will have wide ranging access on computer devices to allow them to complete their allocated work so it is important they know what they can and cannot use this access to do. Other relevant policies to include are: a dress codes as the member of staff will be client facing; anti-bribery as they will be responsible for handling money; alcohol and drugs policies; disciplinary and whistleblowing policies.

Although there are standard contracts and handbooks available for businesses to use, employers need to tailor any documents so that they are truly applicable and relevant to their business. For example, most disciplinary policies will contain examples of misconduct and/or gross misconduct. This is something which differs on a business and industry basis so employers need to tailor this to include what is regarded as misconduct in their company. Only then will they truly be able to regard something outside the general scope as misconduct and the policy can be relied on as evidence that the employee was aware of this.

Staff who are unable to meet their required targets are usually dealt with either under a conduct or capability procedure. These will require different processes and the way to distinguish between them is to ask whether the employee can’t do it, if so it is capability, or if they won’t do it and then it is due to conduct. Capability procedures will generally require employers to take steps to improve the employee’s performance through further training, improvement plans or additional support, though the extent to which employers have to do this will depend on the length of service the employee has with the business. It is vital that all dismissals of employees with two years’ service are because of a fair reason and have followed a fair process.

Although the member of staff is not currently meeting expectations, employers may wish to meet with the employee to determine the reason for this to see if it is something which can be put right. In some circumstances, it may be that extra training on one aspect of their job can solve their performance issues and will, in the long run, prove less expensive and troublesome than dismissing and recruiting a new member of staff.

That is a great article, Nicola. Have you any specific advice for the OP?

 

[Jay69]

Can I also recommend as a new employer you vet your new employees, you don't have to spend big monies on outsourced pre-employment checks and it can all be done in house if train your admin staff or your family members in the business to the BS7858 Security Screening & Vetting standard. This will ensure you can verify the history of the person you are taking on and also they are who they say they are. for more information just search google for BS7858 Training Online

 

[Ava Williams]

Thank you @Nicola Mullineux for the insightful contribution to the discussion. I learned a lot from your response.