HR & Employment Law Insights

Helping family businesses, start-ups and early stage growth, third sector, professional services, trades and construction, manufacturing and engineering, and other growing or established businesses throughout the UK make sense of HR and employment law challenges.

We hope you enjoy the wide range of blog articles featured. We cover a wide range of topics including HR best practices, employment law updates, recruitment strategies, employee engagement, tips for effective people management, and addressing people challenges to help businesses navigate their HR needs with confidence.

Succession Planning at Manchester United

I wrote an article yesterday on succession planning which discussed the steps a business could take to ensure they develop talent and fill critical roles in the organisation. You can read more here . It's coincided with the news that Manchester United have dismissed...

What is Succession Planning?

I delivered a seminar on behalf of the Fife Chamber of Commerce last week on learning and development, part of a series of seminars aimed at helping business owners get the best out of their people. A key topic on this subject was "Succession Planning". So, what is...

A Guide to HR Technology Tools Which are Ideal for SMEs

For large organisations with the resources to match, having an HR department to deal with the day-to-day business of managing the people in the company to get the best out of their capabilities is par for the course. However, for small or medium-sized enterprises,...

Guidance for Companies with Employees Working at Heights

Whether your company offers services that require the use of ladders; operates cranes or needs employees to use equipment to reach items from high places, there are a number of considerations to ensure that both employees and the company are protected. Health and...

How to Effectively Combat Bullying in the Workplace

Bullying doesn't stop at the school gates. Thankfully this is not something I see often, and certainly, within a lot of family run businesses and young start-up organisations, it's not something I've had to deal with too often. However, there are examples I have had...

What are my recruitment costs?

I facilitated a seminar for the Fife Chamber of Commerce today which focused on recruitment and selection. During the seminar we covered recruitment costs, job descriptions and person specs, attraction and advertising methods, the use of agencies, and some selection...

Hiring this year? Here’s what you need to know

Here’s an article that was published in the latest edition of The Business Journal that I was interviewed for. I’ll be sharing more information on recruitment after tomorrow’s Fife Chamber of Commerce seminar where I am presenting the subject “Recruitment and...

A Practical Guide to Outsourcing your Payroll Operations

Payroll the old way. Whether you're a small, medium-sized or large business, there are benefits to outsourcing the payment of your employees to an external contractor. Many of these benefits can be realised quickly following the negotiation of a contract with a...

HR Consultant for Small Businesses

There’s a perception that HR is all about compliance such as discipline and grievance and if you’re a small business or family business, you probably think you don’t need an HR Consultant. You probably think that because your staff don’t cause you any issues and if...

How to Ensure Your Workforce Engage in Their Own Wellbeing

Happy staff means more productive staff No matter what type of business you run - it could be a family business, a startup or micro business, an established company, SME, or a large organisation, you would find it hard to continue without the help of the people you...

Getting The Most From Your People

Recruitment and Selection 20th February 2014, 7.45am - 10am We are delighted to be running some breakfast workshops for Fife Chamber of Commerce members during 2014 which will focus on ''Getting the Most from Your People'' with topics ranging from the recruitment and...

Why Employee Handbooks are so essential in everyday work

You know when you check into a hotel there is usually a folder in your room that tells you all there is to know about being a guest and the way the hotel operates. Want to know what time you can have breakfast, how to contact the concierge, all about the laundry...

Computer and Internet Usage Policies, Protecting Employer and Employee

Making your policy clear will ensure employees know where they stand. Having clear policies and procedures agreed with an employer makes for a much more pleasant and productive workplace. In the modern office, your policies should include a policy for employees...

Industrial Action and Your Rights as an Employer

Employers cannot legally dismiss employees if they take place in official industrial action, providing the trade union has carried out the correct notification and balloting procedures. Many disputes between employees and employers can often be resolved before...

How to handle redundancies in the workplace effectively

Redundancy conversations need to be dealt with sensitively. There are many successful businesses that at one time or another have to face making some redundancies, whether it's through a temporary downturn in business trade or simply because they have opted for a...

How to conduct a fair disciplinary hearing

As your business and team grows it’s likely that from time to time you may experience some unforeseen challenges with your employees that you will have to deal with. We recognise that it’s important to the smooth running of your business to be able to nip these things...

Free HR Health Checks – Fife Business Week

As part of Fife Business Week, The HR Booth are offering businesses a free HR health check in a relaxed environment over a cup of tea or coffee. Appointments are on a 1-1 basis and are aimed at businesses which employ staff. The aim of the health check is to discuss...

What are the New PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) Requirements in the UK?

Balancing the books is an important part of tax regulations. If you run your own business and have staff you employ, you will be only too aware of the need to stay up to date with legislation and make sure you have the right software for the job. PAYE is an integral...

Employee Shareholder Contracts – Update

Following Wednesday's budget, we announced plans that these shareholder contracts would come into force on 1 September 2013. We now have an update, as The House of Lords has voted against clause 27 of the Growth and Infrastructure Bill, which is the clause introducing...

Budget Announcement – Employee Shareholders

George Osborne announced in today's budget an important development with regard to employee shareholders. Under the scheme, which was thought to come into effect from 6 April 2013 but is now confirmed as 1 September 2013, employers can give staff between £2000 and...

Parental Leave Changes March 2013

The legislation around parental leave changed on 8 March 2013, increasing from 13 weeks to 18 weeks. What does this mean for employers? You will need to update your employee handbooks to reflect these changes and ensure your employees are aware of this. What if I...