Private use of the internet during work time

A common employment problem is the suspicion that an employee is spending huge amounts of working time on private online messages.  It’s one of those frustrations that you might think you can’t do anything about as the employer.  Maybe you feel uneasy that, were you to look at what the person is doing online while at work, you’d be breaching their human rights to privacy in some way....

What if you find that the employee (an engineer as it happens) has been using Yahoo Messenger to chat not just with his professional contacts but also with his family.  You monitor his communications and are able to present him with a 45-page transcript of his messages, including exchanges with his fiancee and his brother about his health and sex life.

And what if your company’s internal regulations state that it’s strictly forbidden to use computers, photocopiers, telephones, telex and fax machines for personal purposes.

And what if, after you’ve dismissed him, the engineer brings a claim that the company has breached his right to confidential correspondence by accessing his messages, and should have excluded all evidence of his personal communications on the grounds it infringed his rights to privacy.

In fact, this is a case that the European Court of Human Rights ruled on last week. 

The judges said that the employer has the right to check that an employee is completing their work and that the engineer had breached the company’s rules by sending personal messages on its time.  It ruled that the employer was within its rights in monitoring and reading the employee’s Yahoo Messenger chats that he sent while he was at work - it was not “unreasonable that an employer would want to verify that employees were completing their professional tasks during working hours”.

However, the ECHR also made clear in its judgment that it’s not acceptable to carry out unregulated snooping of staff’s private messages.  In this case the employer had a clear, absolute ban on using its IT resources for personal matters: when the employee denied doing so, the employer could only properly investigate by reading his emails.  Many employers allow, or at least tolerate, some personal email use at work, but this wasn’t the case here.  If an employer reads personal emails without justification and has no clear policy allowing them to do so, they could easily find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

So providing it’s reasonable and proportional, employers can monitor internet usage to check that employees are working during their working hours.  The Human Resource can develop a clear policy for your employee handbook about internal rules on internet usage while at work and any monitoring.  This will set expectations and provide a sound framework if there are ever any issues.

If it’s an extreme example as this one, it’s important to follow a proper disciplinary process too, giving the employee the information from the monitoring and the opportunity to respond.

For HR advice on employment problems such as private use of the internet during work time, as well as clear policies about IT and Internet Usage for your employee handbook, contact The Human Resource on enquiries@thehr.co.uk or 07884 475303.

Are you going to lose a third of your workforce this year?

The beginning of a New Year is a natural point for people to start thinking about their future job prospects – but not usually quite as many of them as this year.  Research this week from the Institute of Leadership and Management suggests that in 2016, one third of UK employees plan to change jobs. 

What would happen to your business if a third of your workforce left in 2016? – think about the time and costs of recruiting to replace them and training the new people up, as well as the impact on business continuity. 

Although you might be quietly relieved if one or two people decided to go, it’s sensible to do everything you can to hold on to the best people in your business and head off the chances of them getting itchy feet.  A good starting point is to take a look at the reasons that the one in three people gave for wanting to move on.

According to the ILM research, lack of progression and opportunity is the number one reason, with just over a quarter of saying it’s why they want to move on.  On the other hand financial reward is less important, with only 15% of people wanting to move for a better salary.  It appears that it’s the opportunity to progress and not the desire for a bigger pay packet that’s the main motivation in looking for a new job.

These are the top five reasons why UK workers are looking for a new job right now according to the research:

1. Better opportunities for progression (26%)

2. More appreciation (17%)

3. To change careers (17%)

4. Better salary (15%)

5. More enjoyment (12%)

If you want to keep the people you’ve got, it will help if you can figure out, honestly, how far your organisation is delivering in these top five areas and improve. You don’t have to be the best, just good enough – after all, you’re balancing the realities of your business world and working with the resources that you have available.  But maybe there are opportunities that you aren’t taking?

For example:

·        Thinking more creatively and pro-actively about the progression opportunities you can offer such as extra responsibilities, developing skills, project work, secondments and job shadowing.   Where promotions aren’t feasible, look for sideways moves that vary experience and make the work more interesting.

·        Taking advantage of the positives and expressing appreciation when people do good work, recognising achievements.

·        Creating an upbeat atmosphere at work so that people are more likely to enjoy it!

For practical advice about improving retention in your company, saving you a lot of time, money and hassle, contact The Human Resource on enquiries@thehr.co.uk or phone 07884 475303.  We’ll be pleased to help.

Preparing for January’s challenges

January: New year, new challenges, time to get back to business and start creating your 2016 success story.

It's a month that can present business owners with sudden hiccups as well as great opportunities. To help you hit the ground running, here are some important considerations for you to factor into your thinking over the next couple of weeks, to make sure you're really prepared for the challenges that the month will bring. These are your January-critical questions:

How can you wake everyone up again?

Head off that post-holiday slump by re-energising your workforce – and yourself – as soon as you have everyone back at work in the New Year. Some tips:

·         Start with yourself. If you can project yourself with extra energy and confidence no matter how you feel inside, it will be infectious. Being the boss means you have the responsibility of kick-starting the year by communicating the next set of targets – in such a way that your employees see and believe they are achievable, and buy into them. 

·         The New Year’s resolution approach motivates because it helps people to disconnect from past failures and promotes a big-picture view of life. Simply by giving yourself a fresh start to things, you give yourself a fresh burst of energy. So encourage those around you to identify how they can make a fresh start so things are better in the future - and don’t forget to lead by example!

·         Celebrate business successes. You might be raring to go towards those new targets, but before you move on, take time to review last year’s successes with everyone. Employees like to be valued and given recognition for their commitment and hard work– often some basic acknowledgement is all it takes.

Can you harness that fresh start feeling to improve profits?

How can you harness that fresh start feeling to give the business a real boost? Could you roll out new projects that you’ve had on the back burner for a little while? Or maybe there are easy wins you haven’t yet tapped into, that could have a fantastic impact?

The freshness of a new year can work to your advantage in getting the ball rolling again after what may have been a sluggish or stressful holiday season. Sometimes, clean slate and new goals (either for the company or an individual employee) can be powerful motivators.  This is the time when many people are eager to get stuck into new challenges and make fresh resolutions for the future, and it makes sense to embrace this energy as a manager.

It’s a good time to set some attainable goals to remind your workforce how good it feels to accomplish tasks and tick off a to-do list. 

Your employees might be keen to develop their skills, and savvy managers know that this needs to be harnessed. Just asking each person simple questions like “where do you want to be one year from now?” or "where could we most improve our service to customers?" can get people motivated and looking at the bigger picture.

Are your staff looking for another job?

It's very likely that at least some of them will be - many people find themselves thinking about a job change at this time of year. If they’ve been stagnating for a while or they feel unappreciated and unchallenged, January is the peak time of year when people decide to do something about it.

Making sure that your employees are happy in their roles is important. If they decide to leave for pastures new, it can create serious problems.

·         What’s the current climate amongst your workers? Are they happy and engaged? And how do you know?

·         Are there any external factors that could have an impact on retention, such as new businesses opening in the area?

·         Do you have contingency plans in place so productivity won’t take a hit if someone does leave? 

This would be a good time to put more focus on developing your staff and encouraging them to take on new, value-adding tasks and challenges. Career development is an excellent way of retaining good people.

If people are starting to look outside your business for better conditions and pay, work out your plan of action. Head off the possibility of being forced into offering a salary increase just because one of your good people gets a higher offer elsewhere.

Are you ready for legislative changes?

Employment law is changing all the time: staying on top of it keeps your practices up-to-date, and helps you to create a business with a strong reputation when it comes to handling and developing its workforce.

We can help you to pinpoint any new legislation that will apply to your business, and start planning your approach to make sure you will be compliant. You may need to update your policies, and organise consultation and communication with your staff.

First off will be the introduction of the National Living Wage on 1st April (more here). Several other developments are in the pipeline that will have an impact on your policies over the next 12 months: more here key employment law changes for 2016. 

If 2016 could be the year when you decide to get help with ensuring that your business is geared up for a successful year – also retaining your best people and fully compliant with legal responsibilities - we’re there for you. Get in touch today on 07884 475303 or enquiries@thehr.co.uk for an initial consultation.

£7.20 an hour: planning how to pay the National Living Wage

If you don’t employ people age 25 and older who are paid below £7.20 an hour, you can stop reading now. But for everyone else, read on!

“The government’s new National Living Wage will provide a direct boost to over two-and-a-half million workers in the UK – rewarding and providing security for working people. I am urging businesses to get ready now to pay the new £7.20 rate from 1 April 2016. With just under 4 months left, there are some easy steps employers can take to make sure they are ready. By taking these measures, companies will be able to properly reward their staff and avoid falling foul of the law when it takes effect.” Business Minister Nick Boles, December 2015.

Here are our recommendations for the easy steps you can take as an employer to make sure you’re ready:

Find out who in your business will need to receive an hourly rate increase to bring their pay to £7.20 an hour. This will involve analysing the age profile as well as current hourly rates - the legal requirement to pay £7.20 an hour only applies to people age 25 and older.

Identify whether the increase to £7.20 an hour will give enough of a wage gap between the lowest paid and the more skilled people. It could prove problematic where, for example, there is a 21-year-old supervisor in a team earning less than their more junior colleagues. Look carefully at rates just above the lowest level, as well as the distribution of pay across the organisation as a whole.

Make a policy decision about whether your company will ignore the age banding and pay everyone at or above the National Living Wage. Perhaps you think it’s too complicated to have people doing the same job paid different rates just because of their age. Or you're reluctant to create a two-tier workforce. There's a possibility that the age banding will be challenged as a breach of European law on age discrimination further down the line– although so far this hasn't happened.

If you use agency temps whose take-home pay is the National Living Wage, the 25 year olds and over will have to be paid more too. Take this into account in your costings.

Quantify the increase in your total employment costs. Plan ahead for it rising to £9 an hour by 2020.  

Consider the different ways your company could offset the increased wage bill and plan ahead. Some decisions you take will need action starting well in advance to produce the necessary cost saving.

This is what other employers are considering to offset the extra costs, starting with the most popular plan:

·         improve efficiency and staff productivity 

·         cut overtime and bonuses, or reduce allowances or out-of-hours payments

·         reduce profits to absorb the outlay

·         raise prices 

·         reduce the number of employees via redundancies or slowing down recruitment 

·         plan to take on more workers under the age of 25 in future

This is an opportunity to step back, consider your strategy and take a long-term view. Do you need to reskill people, to switch roles around? Consolidate some roles so there will be fewer people on the bottom rate and more with higher skills and higher pay? Giving low-paid staff more responsibility will also be beneficial in the long term by improving retention and productivity. 

Communicate the upcoming changes to staff affected. Send terms of employment change letters to everyone receiving an increase by the end of March.

Ensure the company payroll is updated with pay changes in time for 1 April.

Ensure your record systems are able to track each employee’s age and pay the right legal minimum after 1st April.

If you would like help and advice with calculating your additional costs, with planning to offset them and with the policy implications, plus communicating the change to your employees, contact The Human Resource on 07884 475303 or enquiries@thehr.co.uk