Employment is facing unprecedented volatility. A recent survey suggests that a quarter of firms will continue to allow homeworking while a fifth say they want staff back in the office five days per week. All of this suggests a sizeable majority intend either working to a hybrid model or are waiting to see how things shape up. The matters to consider when developing your return-to-work plan include the obvious fact that ‘Freedom Day’ hasn’t magically erased any existing Covid risks from the workplace or persuaded every employee to happily ditch their home office for the commute.
We are going through a period where many sectors are finding it very difficult to recruit new people, while others are expecting to make redundancies; especially since the job protection scheme is quickly coming to an end. In addition, many are assessing whether to adopt some sort of no jab no job policy which could further alienate many staff. When this climate of uncertainty is added to the fact that there is no one-size-fits-all plan which will work for every company, or any likelihood any one plan will suit everyone within a company, (data from Future Strategy Club has revealed that 57% of Brits do not want to return to their 9-5 office role), we expect a lengthy period of adjustments and ongoing changes.
Our advice
- Firstly, each job role and organisational function could benefit from separate consideration. For example, while it might be essential for the IT team to be on-site every day, your sales team can probably do their job just fine on a hybrid model.
- What about seniority and experience. A highly experienced and resourceful senior person may be able to work remotely with minimal team interaction and supervision; while more junior team members might be more likely to benefit from being in a team environment for at least some of each working week.
- With the prospect of many staff returning to a physical setting, for some, this could be after months of being out of the routines of business operations. Senior Managers need team up with HR and think about training staff and giving them an opportunity to ask any questions as the return to either traditional or new ways of working unfolds.
- Staff could also feel anxious about the prospect of returning to work – whether this around the cost of the commute again, or catching the virus and managers should try to understand individual worker worries and consider what they can do to help. This involves consulting rather than guessing!
- Employment Law expert are advising that communication regarding face masks is key, your people may view that they don’t have to wear one but your H&S risk assessment on may say otherwise.
- Supporting staff wellbeing should also be a top priority for employers and HR, particularly when returning staff to work and ensure everyone knows that wellbeing is part of the return-to-work plan and that staff can take their time, where it is possible. More than anything, talk to them, ask questions and make them feel like they are returning to a safe place, a great place where they can connect with colleagues, collaborate with others and continue to do great work.”
In summary
- Consider – what do we really need here & what is the strength of our business case?
- Communicate – talk to staff, listen to them, let them know your plans.
- Clarity – be very clear on what the rules and expectations are.
- Consistent – make sure the rules apply to all, special cases for pure preferences should not be granted but medical reasons are different.
- Comfortable – make sure staff are comfortable in what is being done and have the ability to ask questions, seek guidance and work through what will be a big change.
Fair Redundancies
We are often asked to be involved with redundancies and we sense that the next few months may see many firms re-sizing their workforce. Legally a fair process must be used, but there is no legal blueprint for this, except that if you are making more than 20 job cuts all you need to consult for 30 days prior to the first redundancy. (45 days if more than 99 cuts). We advise the following as a minimum procedure and we would be pleased to lead or support your redundancy or reorganisation programme.
- If you already have a policy/procedure on making redundancies, make sure you follow it, some policies for example, might point to “short time working” or “layoffs” as an alternative or first step.
- The driver for redundancies has to be founded in either an “Economic”, “Technical” or “Organisational” reason (or a combination thereof), therefore make sure you have a robust business case that highlights this.
- Check first that there are no likely / viable alternatives to compulsory job cuts
- Formally inform the workforce and then begin to consult the pool of all potentially affected employees (this should take a few days – we advise a minimum of 5 to 10 working days depending on numbers involved).
- Consultations can be both collective and individual, but definitely individual if there is no collective agreement in place.
- Once you have consulted and have established there to be no viable alternative: select from the pool, those to be dismissed – you’ll need to adopt a set of objective selection criteria for this. (e.g., a scoring matrix)
- Formally invite the employees who are proposed to be redundant to a meeting and give them notice, (contractual notice if that is greater than statutory, otherwise statutory notice is 1 week per completed year of service)
- When giving notice to someone they are entitled to be offered the right to be accompanied by a colleague or trade union rep.
- Anyone with 2 or more completed years’ service (by their date of termination) is entitled also to receive a redundancy payment
- Reshape the workforce to align duties and responsibilities after exits and reassure everyone.
- Take notes and keep records of all conversations and follow up each meeting by letter.
Learning & Development
Have you recently promoted one of your staff or are you about to give one of your employees their first crack at management?
These are such important stage gates in a person’s career. You want them to succeed and no doubt they also want to succeed but is that enough? The world of business is littered with countless stories about how people felt when they were first promoted, the mistakes they made, how their colleagues reacted and so on. It can be a tricky, stretching and even stressful time. Management isn’t for everybody and frequently people are ill prepared for the realities, but there are many great success stories too, and often all that’s needed is some timely training and coaching.
Avalon HR is working with one of its clients on a new into management programme. This is a series of modules delivered over a few months to help new leaders get into their role and quickly become productive.
What’s involved?
- Firstly, we recommend blending course modules and workshops with 121 coaching sessions to maximise impact. Research shows that regular programmed learning maximises memory and enables lasting practice, so developing expertise more quickly.
- In terms of content, we begin with the psychology then move to the practicalities of leadership.
- We look at managing yourself, becoming more resilient, overcoming imposter syndrome, learning how to be assertive/high impact and then moving to delegation team building, developing people and capability, performance management and handling employee relations.
- We can add components or adjust the programme to suit your organisation and the level of your people.
- Our bespoke approach can be developed exclusively for your company, or at lower cost we can offer the modules to be shared between a number of clients who may want some, but not all of the modules; basically, its flexible, based on experience and best practice and represents great value.
Thank you for reading our newsletter, if you would like to discuss any of the matters covered here, or would like to speak with us about HR & Change practices, Coaching, People Management or Leadership, please call us on 07793369716 or email quentin.lillis@avalonhr.co.uk
