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July-August Welcome to July/August newsletter. Hopefully you will find our newsletters contain not just employment legislations news but hints and tips on good HR practices.
Remember, that employment tribunals can be very costly and stressful. Picasso HR is here to support and advise our clients to reduce the risk of a tribunal claim. If you think you might have a tricky situation you don't know how to handle or one that you think might be heading towards a claim then call us straight away so that we can advise you appropriately.
Forthcoming Legislation – things to watch out for….
Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006
Maternity and Parental Leave and the Paternity and Adoption Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2006 come into force
How to avoid age discrimination when selecting CVs
If you are a company that still relies on CVs when recruiting, from the 1st October 2006, it will be unlawful for you to discriminate against a worker because of their age.
Employment references - understand the pitfalls
An increase in cases and litigation has turned the legal spotlight on to the issue of references. All employers, irrespective of their size, will be asked to provide references at some time and it is therefore important you think carefully when preparing them.
Interviewing for Engagement – selecting the right people in the first place…….
Recruiting and selecting staff can be a minefield at the best of times. It can sometimes be expensive, time-consuming and a considerable drain on management time.
Picasso HR team expansion
Lou Cessford joins us.
Picasso HR has moved
........about 50 yards.
1st October 2006: Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006.These new Regulations outlaw age discrimination in employment and remove upper age limits on the right to claim unfair dismissal and redundancy payments. Maternity and Parental Leave and the Paternity and Adoption Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2006 come into force. The amendment will apply to an employee whose expected week of childbirth is on or after 1 April 2007 or whose child is expected to be placed for adoption with him or her on or after 1 April 2007, It will remove the 26 weeks service qualification needed for additional maternity leave. This means that an employee who is entitled to ordinary maternity leave will also qualify for additional leave. It will also entitle an employer to make ‘reasonable contact’ with an employee while he or she is on adoption or maternity leave. Also worth noting that this includes increase in the period of notice that an employee is required to give to an employer of his or her intention to return to work before the end of the additional maternity or adoption leave from 28 days to eight weeks; Statutory maternity pay and leave are extended The Work and Families Act increases statutory maternity pay from six months to nine for employees with an expected week of childbirth that is on or after 6 April 2007.
If you are a company that still relies on CVs when recruiting, from the 1st October 2006, it will be unlawful for you to discriminate against a worker because of their age, in deciding who to recruit, unless an exemption applies. Thus you will need to ensure that you can demonstrate you acted fairly when deciding not to give a potential candidate an interview. It is advisable that you start to consider and make the necessary changes to your recruitment and selection procedures. Find out the things you need to consider when making these changes in the full article. Clearly define what you are looking for:
You will not be able to specify how many years experience a candidate should have, as this may rule out younger capable candidates who have the skills required but have not had the opportunity to demonstrate them over an extended period.
For example, you may want to recruit someone with three years experience.
This discriminates against someone with one year’s experience who is likely to be younger than someone with three years experience (indirect age discrimination). Someone with one year’s excellent experience may be better than someone with three years inadequate experience.
It would be advisable that you evaluate the job to identify the competencies that are needed to perform the role successfully. A potential candidate will need to demonstrate these in their career.
Produce clear sifting guidelines:
You will find it beneficial to rate each competency on a 1-5 scale in order to distinguish between what is, or is not acceptable in terms of skills that a potential candidate will need require and demonstrate to perform the job.
When sifting through CVs it is important that you keep a record of what ratings were awarded for each potential candidate and decisions that were made. If your decisions are challenged, these records will enable you to demonstrate that you acted fairly and consistently.
Identify appropriate qualifications:
If a job requires a particular qualification it should be relevant to the particular role and must not discriminate against people of different ages.
For example, you may be looking for someone with a degree.
This requirement might discrimination against older applicants, who are less likely to have gone to university. Such an older applicant might be well capable of doing the job by virtue of skills and experience.
To overcome this, you should firstly ask yourself:
- are the qualifications really necessary?
- are they still current?
- are there other ways of specifying the skill level you require?
The following case law, Batholomew v London Borough of Hackney [1999], clearly shows that the reference has to give a true, accurate and fair picture. This is vitally important because the referee also has a duty of care to the receiver of the reference. Read the full article on this case law and our guidance on giving references. Mr Bartholomew was suspended by Hackney because of some alleged financial irregularities. Because of this, Mr Bartholomew alleged that there had been racial discrimination and took the council to an employment tribunal.
The two parties reached a compromise agreement and it was agreed that Mr Bartholomew would take 'voluntary severance' and that any disciplinary proceedings would be stopped. Mr Bartholomew was subsequently offered a job with another Council which sought a reference from Hackney. The reference stated that Mr Bartholomew had taken voluntary severance: "At the time of his departure Mr Bartholomew was suspended from work due to a charge of gross misconduct, and disciplinary action had commenced.
This disciplinary action lapsed automatically on his departure from the authority. Because of the reference the job offer was withdrawn and Mr Bartholomew brought a case against Hackney alleging that although the reference was correct, it was unfair. The court of appeal laid down 3 principles concerning references: There is a duty on employers to ensure that references are true, accurate and fair in substance.
However, there is no duty on employers to be "full and comprehensive". This is imposing too high a burden. Employers cannot break references down into individual sentences and state that each individual sentence was factually correct. References must be looked at in the whole. In the Bartholomew case, The Court of Appeal decided Hackney was not in breach of its duty to him and his claim was dismissed.
Employees rights to a reference
An employer is under no obligation to give a reference, except in certain sectors of activity such as the financial services or where there is an express clause in the employee’s contract (or in a settlement agreement) that the employer will do so. Duty of care When giving a reference the employer has a duty of care to both the ex-employee and the recipient. The employer must use reasonable care in preparing the reference, as the information given must be true, accurate and fair.
Employers who are ‘economical with the truth’ in references should be wary. Even if everything said is true, if what is left out would change the reference, it could be negligent!
An employer could be excused for thinking that it may be simpler merely to confirm employment details. It is doubtful that one could call this a reference since it contains no assessment of work or character. However, as long as there is no duty to give a reference this should suffice.
Age discrimination
With age discrimination coming into force from 1st October 2006, care will need to be taken for written or verbal references. Words such as too young/old or inexperienced are forms of direct discrimination.
Disclosure of references
There is some good news for employers! Generally speaking, employees do not have the right to see a reference about them unless the referee or recipient discloses it to them. Even when the Data Protection Act 1998 grants access to manual personnel files, if a referee gives a reference in confidence for employment, self employment or educational purposes, the employee will not have access to it unless the referee gives permission for its disclosure.
Practical Advice
- Employers should closely monitor the giving of references. Consider whether you wish or have to provide a reference.
- If a reference is given, decide whether simply to confirm employment details or give a full reference including an assessment of work and character
- Decide who can give references, do they have personal knowledge of the employee and do they know about the pitfalls and their responsibilities.
- Obtain a second opinion on the content Ensure references are true and accurate, fair and reasonable
- Treat all requests for references equally and avoid discrimination; never refuse to provide a reference as an act of retaliation
- Decide on a policy on verbal references (which can carry the same weight if challenged but may not be as thought through); the best policy is not to give oral references and consider a disclaimer in any reference to increase your level of protection.
If in doubt get advice, call Picasso HR on 01473 890037.
Selecting the right people for the job in the first place – getting people “engaged” to the extent that they enjoy and believe in what they do and feel valued for doing it is a situation all businesses should aspire to being in. DDI, a global HR Consultancy have recently carried out research with some 4000 companies across a range of industry sectors and jobs and have come up with some six personal characteristics that might predict the likelihood of individuals becoming those “engaged” employees. Discover in the full article what they are. Their research findings showed that these characteristics are: Adaptability Passion for work Emotional maturity Positive disposition Self-efficacy Achievement orientation So when you are next recruiting think about the characteristics above and screen your candidates in relation to both how they fit the job and the culture of your company.
How to check for job fit…
Look for “job fit” as early in the recruitment process as possible.
- Does the job you are filling include enough of the things that your candidate loves about work?
- Are there aspects of the work that might irritate the candidate?
Speaking to existing job holders is a good way of collecting information about the key aspects of a role and matching these against a candidate’s description of their ideal job is a relatively simple approach.
Chart your company culture….
Another important area to consider is that the candidate will fit into your company’s culture. If you have no idea what your culture is, then ask your staff what characterises it – do you take risks, is there a strong hierarchy, are you heavily driven by processes/systems, is coaching an everyday activity, is it entrepreneurial etc.
Having a list of attributes that describe your company will give you a good reference point for selecting new people. If they have similar values and needs that are aligned to the culture and work environment you can offer, then they will contribute better and give more of themselves.
Be consistent when recruiting…
When you have your shortlist of strong candidates, be sure that are confident that your managers know and understand how to glean information from them and fully predict the likely degree of engagement. Design the interview questions so that managers can elicit relevant and sufficient information from candidates. Ask the same questions of all candidates – this approach will avoid managers deviating from the end goal and misinterpretation.
Assess adaptability…..
The first of the six attributes can be tested by asking candidates for examples where they have been involved in change or new ideas, how they reacted to to this and how they modified their behaviours or methods of working.
Achievement orientation ….
Can be measured in the same way e.g. asking a question such as “describe a time in your previous working life where you have had to work towards a set of goals or objectives, achieving them and setting more challenging goals. What did you do and what were the results?”
Predicting passion……
Talk to candidates about how they have reacted to obstacles in the past. This should reveal their resilience to stress, frustration and change. Check how they describe their reaction to changes, do they recount those experiences, albeit perhaps stressful and difficult, with enthusiasm and energy?
Emotional maturity and positive disposition….
These are key attributes if you are recruiting for a management/supervisory position whether sourcing from externally or internally. When interviewing look for examples again. Search out examples of exemplary teamworking and customer focus when under fire. A strong willingness to help others perform and succeed to achieving goals is also another characteristic to look for with real-life examples and test the candidate’s willingness to put results before their own ego.
Self-efficacy…
Here you will be looking for evidence that the candidate has strong inner beliefs about their own capability to succeed and aspire to greater things. You could ask “has there ever been a time when you took action, in spite of resistance from others. Why did you do it and what happened?” Look for evidence that the candidate has a strong desire to learn and develop – ask for examples where perhaps they got things wrong – what did they learn and did they take a different approach when faced with something similar later on? So next time you are recruiting think about the above, spend some time preparing and planning, gathering information and discussing the characteristics you are looking for. The DDI research showed that highly engaged employees are much more likely to be good coaches, effective salespeople and strong team players than those who are poorly engaged.
As part of our expansion plans we are pleased to announce that Lou Cessford has joined the team as HR Adviser. Over the last 10 years Lou has worked for Business Link Suffolk and the Training and Enterprise Council (now the Learning and Skills Council). Lou has worked with a wide range of SME’s across Suffolk in supporting them with business development and human resource related issues. Lou is CIPD qualified and has worked extensively as both adviser and assessor with the Investors in People National Standard.
On the 30th July Picasso HR moved to a new larger office. We our now based in Unit 5, which is directly across the courtyard from Unit 2. Our new office provides us with an additional reception area and kitchen facilities, and we also have a larger training / meeting room. Our new postal address is Unit 5, Hill Farm Barns, Henley, Suffolk, IP6 0SA. Please note that our Registered Office address remains unchanged. Our telephone number remains the same. If you are passing this way, please do come and take a look. If you’re looking for a venue to hold training or a meeting, which is cost effective, set in beautiful country side and easily accessible from Ipswich, please do give us a call.
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