Apprenticeship Levy
21 / 12 / 2015
In the Budget earlier this year the Government announced that it wanted to create an additional three million apprenticeships. Apprenticeships are a practical alternative to tertiary education. A survey of 1000 small and medium business owners carried out by Rated People in April found that 71 % of those responding said they would prefer to hire an apprentice with on-the-job...
Can I dismiss an Employee Who is Found to be Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol?
18 / 12 / 2015
As the Christmas party season gets under way, the Police step up their testing processes. Despite all the warnings every year many drivers still overdo the alcohol and all too often are caught still under the influence the morning after the night before. In September this year PC Nicola Townsend was found to have driven to work with 70mg of...
Unauthorised Absence
14 / 12 / 2015
As a general rule there has to be a valid reason for absence from work. There are a significant number of rights to leave of absence from the work place, some paid, and many unpaid. Some of the most common rights include maternity and paternity leave, holiday, ill health absence, ante natal appointments, dependency leave, jury service and public duties,...
Avoiding a Culture of Secrecy
11 / 12 / 2015
Once again, the Health Service Ombudsman has found that 40% of complaints made against NHS employees are not investigated properly. This comes in the wake of headlines that Southern Health Foundation Trust failed to investigate over 1,000 unexpected deaths. The report emphasised the need for trusts to find out why failings happened in the first place rather than carrying out...
People’s Potential: Unlocking the Skills Gap
09 / 12 / 2015
At a recent Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce event, Grow your Businesses through People, the common thread that ran through the day was the lack of skills available. Most of the companies at the event were SMEs with an average of four - ten employees. The skills crisis they said was impacting on their ability to grow, profit margins and productivity....