The Knowledge Hub

Incorrectly identifying the employment status of an individual can lead to problems. The simple list below will provide guidance on whether an individual should be classed as an employee or a worker.

Employees:

• Have a mutuality of obligation (they are required to work contractual hours and are unable to refuse work)
• Have full employment rights

In contrast workers:

• Have no mutuality of obligation (i.e. cannot expect to be asked to work and can refuse work if asked)
• Have no right to claim unfair dismissal or other employment rights except for statutory benefits such as paid holidays

Both employees and workers are required to carry out the work personally and are unable to provide a substitute for their services.

Employees have various rights including:

• Payment of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)
• Maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave and pay
• The right not to be unfairly dismissed
• Statutory redundancy pay
• The National Minimum/Living Wage
• Protection against unlawful deductions from wages
• Itemised pay statements
• The statutory minimum level of paid holiday
• The statutory minimum length of rest breaks
• Receiving notice of termination of employment
• Time off for family emergencies
• To not work more than 48 hours on average per week or to opt out of this right if they choose
• Protection against unlawful discrimination

All employees must be issued with written particulars of employment on or before their first day of employment.

People management is more complex than ever before. Human Resources (HR) will need to spend more time focused on people challenges arising from:

• New employment legislation
• Remote working
• New working practices
• Skills and talent shortages

This will be made possible using technology designed to take away much of the administration burden from HR professionals.

We also believe that more organisations will look to outsource their HR activities to bring in HR specialists as and when required.

The best time to outsource your HR is before any tricky people issues arise. As you would expect, it’s much easier to manage people issues when you are proactive rather than reactive.

Ideally you should outsource your HR at the point of taking on your first employee. That way, you can have your employment contracts and other employment documentation drafted by a professional. They will ensure your documents are legally compliant and protect business interests.

Realistically, we understand many organisations look to outsource their HR when there is a people problem that needs to be resolved (such as a grievance, redundancy, or performance management issue). That is fine. The HR Dept are happy to help whenever a problem arises.

HR is all about the effective management of people to enable an organisation to meet its strategic aims. There are many activities associated with an HR department including:

• Resource planning and recruitment
• Writing employment contracts, policies and procedures (sometimes organised into a staff handbook)
• Dealing with staff issues such as grievances
• Managing discipline issues and performance management
• Restructures and redundancies
• Psychometric assessments and team building
• Organising staff pay and benefits
• Training and career development

The type of HR work varies from business to business and HR professionals can choose to specialise in a particular area (e.g. training or recruitment), or become a generalist and get involved with the full range of HR activities.

HR operates at all levels of an organisation from the board room to the shop floor. HR professionals need to demonstrate a range of abilities including:

• Problem solving
• Clear and sensitive communication
• Strategic thinking
• Administration and organisational ability

HR outsourcing is an alternative to having an in-house HR team. For many organisations, it is not cost effective to have an in-house HR team so outsourcing HR is a great option.

All organisations that employ people require some level of HR support.

When taking on your first employee, your business needs to provide employment contracts and other documents to ensure compliance with employment legislation. Well drafted employment documentation can also help protect an organisation’s interests.

HR businesses like The HR Dept offer packages such as the Flying Start (for new businesses) or HR Advice Line (telephone and email support). It is up to you to decide which package is the best fit for your business.