Archive

We’re receiving an increasing number of queries about how to deal with employment related concerns about the virus.

Here’s what we’re advising:

• Communicate regularly the importance of good hygiene – wash hands, catch coughs, bin dirty tissues
• Check you’ve got up to date personal contact details for everyone
• Make sure everyone knows how to spot the symptoms of the virus and who to speak to about concerns
• Have a plan for disruption and avoid asking colleagues to travel to affected areas unless absolutely necessary
• Keep checking the government website for guidance

Click here for what we suggest you share and communicate with colleagues.

The Good Work Plan means that by 6th April 2020 you need to have updated your employment contracts to remain legally compliant. In particular, every employment contract now needs to include information about training, opportunities for paid time off, and whether hours of work are variable (and lots more!)

Don’t worry though, we’ve got you covered! If you subscribe to Intelligent Employment, the contracts on our platform now include the required changes. We’ve also added a letter to the platform for you to give to your employees outlining changes made.

Here’s all the changes we’ve made, or what you’ll need to update if you’re not using our documents.

• Days of the week the worker/employee is required to work
• Whether working hours are variable and how this will be determined
• Any paid leave the worker/employee is entitled to
• Details of all remuneration and benefits
• Details of any probationary period
• Training entitlement (whether this is mandatory or paid for by the worker/employee)

To make sure we’re providing Intelligent Employment users with the most straight-talking and engaging documents possible, we’ve updated the tone, clause names and order so our contracts are even more user-friendly.

If you’re not currently subscribed to Intelligent Employment, get in touch and we’d love to discuss how we can support you to update your contracts, along with all the other awesome benefits you’ll secure!

Even though employees use work emails and you have a good email policy, doesn’t mean you can freely root around inboxes.

Whether you’re accessing an inbox when an employee’s absent, in an emergency or to investigate, here’s what you need to know.

Employee’s have the right to put their trust and confidence in you as their employer. Snooping at emails without proper cause, will breach that trust and confidence, data protection laws, right to a private life and could give rise to constructive dismissal claims (and possibly discrimination claims). So only access inboxes with good reason.

Before you open an inbox, ensure you’ve carried out an impact assessment to show:

• the reasons for the access
• there isn’t another way to secure the information
• you’ve limited the search to particular terms
• that any data found will be kept secure, not needlessly shared and deleted appropriately.

If someone is absent and you need to look at their emails, ensure that you limit the view to subject headings only and open only those which appear relevant.

As ever, a policy setting out when you may access inboxes, identifying whether personal use of work email is permitted and the need to mark personal emails as private is a must!

You can access our impact assessment template through the Intelligent Employment platform. If you don’t have access and want to know how it will benefit your business, get in touch!