Planning for your Workforce

With the Government proposing a number of significant changes to employment law, are you aware of what this might mean for your business?

Are you prepared and ready to adapt?

Here are some key considerations for employers.

Plan for an effective Probationary Process

The government are proposing to change when an employee could claim unfair dismissal?

Currently, an employee needs to have 2 years service with an employer to claim Unfair Dismissal. The changes proposed will reduce this timeline to a day 1 right to match the rights for other claims such as racial/disability discrimination etc which already have day 1 rights.

Whilst this may bring security for many employees, it may also bring greater risks for an employer of a claim if processes to manage performance are not handled well. It is currently understood the proposed changes would allow an employer to fairly dismiss a new starter during or at the end of their probationary period, but this is dependent upon whether they have appropriately managed the situation.

With this in mind, one of the important areas that you may need to put effort into planning and reviewing ahead of this change is your practices for inductions and new starter training, performance management and probationary period processes.

If you do not have a probationary period or process in place, it may be the time to consider planning and implementing this. If you do have a probationary period in place, it will be important to consider  how robust it is and how you currently manage the process consistently, making sure it is fit for purpose and how you support new starters during this time to induct them into their new role.

To ensure you are best prepared ahead of this change in legislation, it will be crucial to assess what training you have in place to support your managers in dealing with any issues during the probationary period and within the processes on a day-to-day basis.

Not only can this support you to reduce the risks of any potential claims, it is also about being fair and supportive to new employees to help them succeed in their role.

Review your current workforce

Are you also aware that the government are proposing a change to the differences between an employee and worker? Plus, no doubt you’ve heard ongoing press reports about zero hours contracts.

Whilst we are still awaiting further clarity from the government on this, if you have anyone working on varied or flexible contracts and certainly on the likes of zero-hour contracts you are likely to be affected. To prepare for this, it’s crucial that you can identify what basis your staff work on, what factors determine whether you view them as an employee or not and how you manage any zero-hour contracts within your organisation.

Are you prepared to tackle Sexual Harassment?

From October 2024, the legislation around sexual harassment will be updated, meaning employers will have further duties placed upon them to take ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. This includes colleagues, customers, clients and anyone employees may come into contact with, members of the public and contractors. To prepare for this, it will be crucial to review any policies or training that is in place, it would also be useful to complete any risk assessment to assess any situations where this could arise and plan what you could do to mitigate. Clients may begin to request additional documents to evidence how you undertake staff training during tenders etc.

Be ready for changes to Statutory Payments.

It is expected that from April 2025, as well as the announcement to increase the National Living Wage and National Minium Wage rates there will also be changes to the pay rates for 18-20 years olds, removing that current bracket to form a single 18+ rate.

Currently statutory sick pay is only available on the fourth day of sick leave and many employers also use this as a timeline for payment of occupational sick pay.

The new government proposes to remove the 3-day waiting period for statutory sick pay, although no timings for this have been communicated as yet.

Both of these changes may increase direct and administration costs for employers and in the case of the statutory sick pay change, may also lead to higher levels of short-term sickness absence as workers no longer need to wait for sick pay to kick in.

It would be wise for employers to plan ahead for these changes, how they might effect salaries and costs and also to review absence management processes.

Plan to report on EDI

Linked also to pay, since 2017 organisations with over 250 employees have had to complete an annual Gender Pay Gap report. In addition, now the governments wants a greater focus around Equality Diversity and Inclusion and are proposing that employers with more than 250 employees will also need to report on ethnicity and disability pay. To get ahead, ensure that you review your employee records and how the EDI data is recorded to make sure this will be accessible for reporting in the future.