Employee Problems
Our team of HR professionals can help sort all employee problems that you may experience.
These problems may fall under 4 categories:
Disciplinary
There will come a time as an employer that you will be faced with an employee who has poor performance or commits a small or even large breach, such as not following business policies and procedures. It is vital that these issues are handled in a timely manner and that your disciplinary process is compliant with employment law and ACAS guidance. We can take the stress and worry out of the process for you. Here is how we can help:
- Investigation – it is paramount that an investigation is carried out fairly and in a manner that is focused on fact finding and evidence gathering and not making any judgment. We can ensure your investigation process complies with HR best practice, taking the pressure away from you as the employer. If you required, we could come and assist in conducting the investigation face-to-face.
- Disciplinary – following your investigation, we can help inform your decision as to whether there is a disciplinary case to be answered. If there is, we are here to ensure your disciplinary process is fair and compliant with employment law and ACAS Guidance. We are also on hand to produce tailored letters, attend the disciplinary hearing face-to-face as well as advise you through the process to ensure you feel as comfortable and as confident throughout.
- Outcome – we will be on hand throughout the process ensuring the outcome is fair and reasonable.
- Dismissal – if the outcome of the process is dismissal we are on hand to ensure your process is compliant with employment law and ACAS guidance when dismissing an employee in order to avoid a tribunal.
Grievances
There will be times when you are faced with an unhappy employee, which can lead them to making a formal grievance if they feel their issues have not been dealt with in a manner that they are satisfied with. As the grievance process is a statutory process, it is important for employers to follow a fair and compliant process. We have a highly experienced team of HR professionals who can guide you through the grievance process. We can help ease your worries by:
- Guiding you through the grievance process, ensuring it is fair and compliant.
- Attending face-to-face meetings with the employee who has raised the grievance and if necessary, we can assist in planning and conducting an investigation with your involvement.
- Based on the information gathered from the initial meeting and the investigation that was carried out if required, we can guide you through the conclusion process. A grievance can either be upheld or dismissed. The employee also has a right to appeal the outcome.
The grievance process may also lead into a performance management or disciplinary process. We are on hand to help guide you through this.
Performance Management
Your employees’ performance is at the crooks of your business’s success. Having a team of driven staff will help steer your business in the right direction. Performance management should be an ongoing and positive process. Right at the start of an employee’s journey with your company, you want to see them striving to prove they are the one for you. However the support that is provided throughout an employee’s probationary period should continue in order to get the best out of them. By having regular catch-ups and an effective appraisal process, you can ensure performance management is a positive process for all involved, rather than experiencing many of the negative connotations such a process has.
There are many facets we can assist you with when it comes to performance management and appraisals:
- We can work with your organisation closely to truly understand your culture, ways of working and what you require of your employees.
- We can help build a positive performance management process from scratch to help you get the most from your team.
- We can work closely with managers so they understand how to follow the process in practice.
- We can review/develop your appraisal process, ensuring you and your employees are getting the most out of the process.
However, there will be times where an employee is not performing to the required standard. We can help guide you through a formal performance management process, where an employee is given fair opportunity to improve. However in such a process this could lead to disciplinary and even dismissal. If this is the case, we will ensure your process is watertight and that your organisation is compliant with employment law and best practice.
Absence Management
Sickness absence can be very costly for your organisation, especially if you have employees who have high levels of short term sickness absence. We can assist you in implementing a system whereby you can have an overview of levels of sickness absence across your business, advise you on methods of helping reduce levels of short-term sickness absence, as well as advising you on how to manage specific employee cases.
When it comes to long term absence, there could be underlying issues causing the absence which could be related to a protected characteristic. In these circumstances, we can assist you with involving occupational health and take the worry out of the process for you by ensuring you are following a process that is compliant with employment law. Long term sickness absence can sometimes lead to an employee being dismissed. These cases are extremely complex and require guidance and support to ensure the dismissal is fair and compliant.