Voice of the SME
SMEs make up the backbone of the UK economy but are often under-represented in conversations and debates around the future of employment legislation. As a national organisation The HR Dept works with over 6000 SME businesses and want to help make sure that your voice is heard.
The HR Dept will continue to campaign for the Voice of the SME and promote the collective views of employer in the UK. If you would like to contribute, please feel free to contact us.
Recent Campaigns
Discussing the Employment Rights Bill at 10 Downing Street
On 11th September, David Hudson (Owner & Managing Director, HR Dept Clapham and Highbury & Islington) was invited to 10 Downing Street to discuss the upcoming Employment Rights Bill with Angela Rayner (Deputy PM) and Jonathan Reynolds (Secretary of State for Business and Trade).
They provided input on Labour’s plan to ‘Make Work Pay’, with David sharing concerns about the consequences of the bill on SMEs.
“Our clients are pro-growth and create opportunities to build and grow their workforce in a non-exploitative and ethical way every day, which is one of the principles of the new employment legislation which we support.
I have urged Ministers to recognise the reality our clients face, which is that the more complicated and restrictive the legislation, the less time they will have to focus on the economic growth which is a cornerstone of government policy.
There are practical implications to introducing significant changes and simply issuing codes of practice only goes so far to help employers. Our clients often don’t know where to start with employment legislation and need proper guidance and support, a space within which The HR Dept has become the go-to experts for hundreds of businesses across the UK.”
The new Employment Rights Bill is likely to lead to the biggest raft of employment law changes in decades, giving employees additional day one rights, making flexible working default, repealing various trade union laws and creating an enforcement body to ensure new practices are being implemented.
Find out more on our Impact Hub.
Lobbying Around Holiday Pay
Jill Bottomley, Director of the HR Dept Trafford and Warrington is leading a campaign to influence change when it comes to the rules regarding implementation dates for revisions to holiday entitlement and pay for ongoing zero hours, casual and term time contracts.
Jill has been heavily involved in lobbying the Government on the topic and continues to campaign for flexibility for SMEs in regards to the implementation of the new regulations.
The HR Dept, with Jill at the forefront, will continue to work hard to ensure that SMEs have a voice on issues that affect their businesses.
The HR Dept Goes To Parliament!
If you keep up with Parliamentary goings on, you may have heard about the Future of Work Inquiry. This inquiry was started by the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee so it can better understand the issues employers face today and will face in the future to put recommendations to Government for real change, to make employing people all that easier tomorrow.
At The HR Dept, we do our best to make sure SMEs voices are heard. With our 6,000 customers all over the UK we’re well placed to understand the pressures they face, so immediately decided to put a few of our ideas forward for the Select Committee to review. We think that our employment classifications are too complex, that there are too many grey areas for SMEs to run aground. The ‘Worker’ status, for example, is highly misunderstood and hence commonly misused.
We recommended abolishment of the Worker status, to replace the system with one that is cleaner, clearer and easier for SMEs to use. Off the back of our proposals, we were brilliantly invited to present them to the Future of Work Inquiry in Westminster itself, alongside the TUC and the New Economics Foundation. Founder and Chair Sue Tumelty represented our proposals brilliantly on the day. You can watch it here.
Also in attendance were Jill Bottomley from The HR Dept Trafford and Warrington, and Sara Abbott from The HR Dept North Birmingham. The work they put into the proposals was essential in getting the opportunity to present them directly to the committee. As HR professionals, we can assure you there’s no better feeling than being able to influence for the better the future policy that directs all our working lives.
National Survey
The HR Dept previously held a national survey to gain the thoughts and opinions of SMEs concerning consultations which could have affected employers:
- Health is everyone’s business, looking to reduce ill health related job loss by increasing access to occupational health;
- One-sided Flexibility which looked to change the procedures around flexible working and potentially offer zero-hour staff compensation for cancelled shifts;
- Establishing a new single enforcement body for employment rights.
- As well as employers’ opinions on Worker status and the complications imposed.
The results of this survey were submitted to the consultations in order to influence decision makers on key issues around employment affecting SMEs in the UK.
How is your HR Performing?
Do you struggle to recruit new staff? Maybe you struggle to retain your good employees?
Is your business affected by absences? Do you have policies for reintegrating long-term absentees?
What do you do when an employee hands in their notice? How clear is your redundancy process?
Preventing People Problems
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