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Feature


HR & Employment Law Key trends in HR By Samantha Hulson (pictured), Director at Birch HR


The Supreme Court has allowed Unison's appeal against employment tribunal fees, holding that the fees regime is unlawful. This will be frustrating news for


employers and the Government but welcome news for claimants, unions, some employment lawyers or HR providers. So, what is the basis for this ruling? The court found that the fees of up to £1,200 prevent access to justice for workers unable to fund their case and are indirectly discriminatory to women because a higher proportion are female. Working in HR, we saw a significant drop in cases when the Government introduced fees in 2013 to reduce the number of malicious and weak cases. In fact, we know the decision to introduce fees led to a 79 per cent reduction in cases over three years. Public and private sector employers seemed less troubled by the potential of a claim, but will now


need to focus on the reality that the number of claims will increase. In addition, the Government will have to pay back £32m in fees paid by claimants and this is a rather embarrassing U-turn. Our HR advice is to use the next few months to get your house in order, and we urge SMEs to make sure some key policies are in place, such as disciplinary, grievance, absence management and to sort out contracts of employment. If you


need some specialist HR advice regarding adhering


to process, don’t be afraid to bring in some expertise. This will help defend any legal entitlements or employee challenge and save you time and expense in the long run. Don’t give claimants lodging weak claims an open chequebook to settle. Consider adding additional legal cover to your insurance policy to carry the burden of the cost when defending claims. Unfortunately though, employers will sometimes settle because it’s


cheaper than defending. Nicola Johnson, Senior HR Consultant, said: “It’s worth undertaking a HR health check, to ensure compliance and to effectively manage any risk particularly now that the fees no longer apply.” Let’s hope that employment


judges use the powers at their disposal to either dismiss or strike out claims with no reasonable prospect of success or perhaps require a deposit to be paid for claims with limited reasonable prospect of success, so that employers including SMEs don’t have to incur costs for preparing and attending a full hearing and limit the number of sleepless nights worrying about a few days in court. Watch this space! On a more positive note, let’s


consider some other key trends in HR. There is digital transformation in education, media and elsewhere, so now it’s time for HR to try new ways to recruit, working, learning and engaging employees. As a new HR business, we can now spend less time in wasteful meetings and more being customer focused, pro- active and providing real solutions


to all our clients to maximise the productivity of your staff. Retaining top talent and attrition remain a major concern for companies. Retaining your talent is important to the quality of leadership and growth of any company. Applying talent management


strategies and initiatives, even in a small company, can really be beneficial. This could be investment in developing a performance related bonus scheme, structured career pathways and well-being incentives for large and medium companies or just a simple interview of all employees discussing their development needs as part of a simple annual appraisal scheme. Retaining your key talent is important to the growth of your company; organisations that fail to retain top talent are at risk of losing out to competitors. The result of good talent management is a workforce that is committed, with increased productivity and high morale. Don’t just think HR is all about grievances, disciplinary and sickness absence – it can add much more value than that.


Do you understand the HR implications once you employ staff? Do your clients? What would the impact of the cost of an employment tribunal be to you or your clients?


Tarnya Brink


For the last 17 years Sagegreen has provided HR support to businesses just like yours. We understand owner managed SME’s because we are one. We give practical, commercial solutions to the people problems that get in the way of running your business and may well keep you up at night.


Tarnya is a Fellow of the CIPD and has over 30 years international HR experience across diverse business sectors. If you would like to find out more about what Sagegreen HR can offer you, please contact her on tbrink@sagegreen.com or 07986 544 694


52 CHAMBERLINK September 2017


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