How to Conduct a Risk Assessment for Remote Workers
Given the increase of remote and hybrid workers in the workforce, it is important to make sure you know how to conduct a risk assessment for remote workers. The usual health and safety duties extend to those working remotely and include identifying risks, ensuring workstation assessments are carried out and providing appropriate training.
Most people working from home are office workers which means it is a lower risk from a health and safety perspective, however, issues such as stress, fatigue, and poor posture can pose real dangers to homeworkers.
Risk assessments for remote workers
It is your duty as an employer to conduct risk assessments for remote and hybrid workers. The process of carrying out your risk assessment will be different. For example, you may not be able to visit the employees’ homes to carry it out, however, you may ask them to do a risk assessment themselves or send you a picture of their workspace.
Once your employees’ home workplace is passed as safe, it is their responsibility to ensure that it has been kept that way. However, the risk assessment must be reviewed periodically or whenever you have reason to believe that the risks may have changed.
Hazards to look for when conducting a risk assessment for staff who work from home
There are some risks that you should consider for most staff working remotely. Common risks include:
- Mental health risks such as stress and anxiety
- Risks associated with workstations e.g., the use of display screen equipment
- Electrical equipment
- Environmental issues such as noise levels, temperature, and ventilation
These are just some common risks homeworkers may experience, additionally you must keep an open mind to any risks specific to the work your employees are doing remotely.
Protecting the mental health of homeworkers
The following steps can help you reduce stress and mental health issues for staff who work remotely:
- Ensure that remote workers come into the workplace regularly so they can stay up to date with the business and stay connected with their colleagues
- Remember to include them in work socials to tackle feelings of isolation
- Have proper communication systems set up to stay connected with off-premises staff during the day. E.g., phone, email, instant messaging, videoconferencing, etc
- Provide helplines for IT support or equipment breakdown.
Health and Safety training for homeworkers
You must give enough health and safety training to all your staff to enable them to be safe at work, including those who work from home.
Regardless of where employees are working, all employers still have a responsibility for their health, safety, and wellbeing. Managers should be encouraged to regularly discuss this with team members, as employees should still take the first step in reporting any issues to their employer.
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Tips for Dealing with Underperforming Employees
Poor employee performance can affect not only their immediate team but also the wider business. When colleagues see an employee slacking, their own motivation can decrease.
In some cases, an employee may be genuinely trying but is struggling to hit their targets or meet the needs of the business. On the other hand, an employee may be more than capable but not as bothered when it comes to hitting their targets.
These tips may help you deal with underperforming employees.
Know what you want from the employee
To identify if an employee is underperforming you need to be aware of what you want from them. It’s important to know that the employee must be aware of the required standards of the business.
Informality
When addressing the performance issue for the first time, you should approach it informally with the employee. A simple conversation with the employee will make sure the issue is not unaddressed.
Let the individual know that there are concerns
The first practical step is to let the employee know that you have concerns regarding their performance in the workplace. This should be done privately with the employee. This isn’t a formal meeting so there is no need to formally invite the employee with notice. It’s best to approach this conversation in a friendly manner.
Identify the problem
There should be inquiries to the reason for the employee’s underperformance. This is necessary to establish what action you need to take. If they have the capacity to perform better but simply choose not to, they need to be told to improve.
If they’re trying hard to do the job but still can’t perform well, that’s the problem and you should identify how you can help them for example providing training or supervision. If it’s a medical reason, it may be necessary to obtain an expert medical opinion.
Make them aware of the consequences
Although you’re dealing with the issue informally, you should inform the employee that if there are no signs of improvement you may need to begin a formal procedure with them.
Revisit
If the employees’ performance doesn’t improve, the issue should be revisited. You should speak to the employee again, pointing out your previous discussion and any help that you provided and that it doesn’t appear to have any effect.
Formal Procedure
If no sufficient improvement or explanation is provided, you should consider implementing a formal disciplinary or capability procedure with the employee. Formal hearings should be held where the employee is permitted to respond to the concerns you have. Employees should be formally invited to these hearings, allowed the right to be accompanied and formal sanctions, e.g. warnings may be given where appropriate.
Additionally to these tips you need to remember to communicate clearly with each employee. Ensure the employee is clear on the objectives they’ve been set and on the consequences of their underperformance.
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What you need to know about Hiring Employees in the UK
There are a number of things to consider when hiring employees in the UK such as background checks, medical examinations, and the contract of employment all of which will be discussed in this blog.
Background Checks
Background checks are a standard procedure for a number of sectors in the UK. They are used to ensure that the candidate is qualified for the position and that they do not have any criminal records. When you are looking to hire someone, you should request a background check.
The Employment Background Check Act was introduced in 2008. It is a requirement for employers to conduct background checks on staff before hiring them. These checks can include criminal records, credit checks, and employment references.
Employers are legally obliged to follow the best practice when conducting compliance checks. This includes:
- Conducting a thorough check of criminal records and checking with the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) for any previous convictions.
- Checking employment references
Medical Examinations
Pre-employment health checks or questions are regulated under the Equality Act 2010. In certain circumstances, pre-employment questions of or about an applicant for work are prohibited before an offer of work to the applicant is made, or before his or her inclusion in a pool from which candidates for work will be selected.
Individual offers of employment can be made conditional upon satisfactory health checks, but a recruiting employer may then render itself liable to discrimination claims if it appears that an offer is not confirmed based on the information disclosed by the health checks.
Medical reports given by a medical practitioner responsible for an individual’s care are subject to the Access to Medical Reports Act 1988, which essentially allows the patient the right of sight and comment on the report.
Hiring of employees
Employment Contracts
There is no statutory requirement for a written employment contract however it is common practice in the UK for all employees to have a written employment contract with their employers that contains the following terms;
• the names and addresses of the employee or worker and the employer;
• the start date and the continuous employment commencement date;
• the job title;
• the place of work;
• the length of the temporary or fixed-term work;
• terms relating to work outside the United Kingdom for a period of more than one month;
• remuneration details;
• the hours of work;
• the days of the week on which he or she is required to work and whether working hours or days may be variable;
• any probationary period that starts at the beginning of the engagement, including any conditions and its duration;
• holidays and holiday pay;
• sickness and sick pay;
• any other paid leave (eg, family related leave such as maternity or paternity leave, or time off for public duties);
• the pension;
• any part of any training entitlement that the employer requires him or her to complete, including any training that it requires but does not pay for;
• any other benefits provided by the employer;
• the notice period;
• whether the work is temporary or fixed-term;
• collective agreements; and
• the disciplinary and grievance procedures
Bright Contracts software has everything you need to create and manage professional contracts of employment. It provides all the employment law knowledge for you so there is no experience needed.
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Five Steps to Building a Positive Recognition Culture
As an employer, it is your job to ensure that your organisation cultivates a positive work culture. One of the most effective and accessible ways we know of to do that is through employee recognition. When employees feel seen, heard, valued, and upheld it positively affects nearly every human need.
Let's take a look at putting it into practice
1. Building a recognition culture
The most important thing about recognition is to embed it culturally, so it flows in every direction in the organisation. It’s important to recognize people immediately after an event as it can be more motivational for the employee.
2. Making it personal
There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to recognition. It’s important that employees find out how their colleagues prefer to be recognised and tailor approaches accordingly. This builds empathy, tolerance, and compassion which can contribute to positive mental health.
3. Create Meaning
Recent research from The Achievers Workforce Institute highlighted the importance of giving meaningful, specific feedback. 64% of those surveyed wanted to receive more meaningful recognition about something specific they did; about themselves as individuals or something they valued.
4. Accelerating impact through Technology
With many people working from home or working hybrid, technology plays a vital role in helping to match up and connect people, provide communication channels and manage feedback and preferences.
There are many approaches and tools you can use to support your goals- from simple spreadsheets and communications software up to integrated peer to peer recognition and rewards platforms.
5. Empowering Managers
Finally, managers play an important role in building recognition cultures that promote mental health. But for them to feel empowered to do their part, HR must continually support them. You should ensure that managers meet up regularly with their team and ensure that you help them give constructive motivating feedback.
It’s not enough to give managers targets for recognition, but you need to coach and mentor them on how to give that meaningful, timely recognition that they deserve.
Employing Young People: What you need to know
With the Summer season upon us, may employers will be looking at recruiting teenagers for the summer months. In doing so employers need to be mindful of the specific legislations that apply to young workers.
There are a number of employment rights all workers have when they start a job, but younger workers, those who are under 18 years old, have a few additional rights to protect them at work.
Key Points:
- Younger workers are entitled to two days off per week
- A daily rest break of 12 consecutive hours (the break between finishing work one day and starting work the next)
- A rest break of at least 30 minutes if the working day lasts more than 4.5 hours
- Younger workers normally will not work more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week.
- Younger workers don’t work at night, but there are some exceptions
- Workers aged 16-17 are entitled to be paid at least the National Minimum Wage at the relevant rate.
National Minimum Wage Rate April 2022
Age 23 or over - £9.50
Age 20-21 £9.18
Age 18-20 £6.83
Apprentices & Under 18 £4.81
Working Time Regulations
Normally younger workers (16 & 17 year old’s) are entitled to 12 hours of uninterrupted rest within a 24 hour period in which they work for.
They are entitled to 2 days off per week and these cannot be averaged over a 2 week period and they should be consecutive days.
Night Work Limits
Workers under 18 are not usually allowed to work at night, however, exceptions can apply in some circumstances.
Young workers may work during the night if they are employed in a hospital or similar places of work, or in areas such as, advertising, sporting or cultural activities.
Young workers may work between 10 pm or 11 pm to midnight and between 4 am to 6/7 am if they are employed in:
- Agriculture
- Retail
- Postal or newspaper deliveries
- A catering business, hotel, public house, restaurant etc
- A bakery
Working Hours for workers over 18
In general, workers aged 18 and over are entitled to:
- Work no more than six days out of every seven, or 12 out of every 14
- Take a 20-minute break if they work more than six hours at a stretch
- Work a maximum 48-hour average week
Employee Inductions: The Complete Guide
Workplace induction is the process of getting new employees familiar with your business. This includes helping them get comfortable with their new jobs and providing them with information to make them valuable team members. Research suggests that induction programmes benefit both employers and employees.
A good induction program sets the tone and expectations for employees. It also details their relationship with managers and the organisation. It helps new employees know the purpose, functions, and tasks of their job.
Topics to Cover During Induction
Usually, managers and supervisors are responsible for handling workplace induction. Induction training needs to include practical information that immerses the employee into the company culture. Meeting new colleagues and getting familiar with the workplace are essential. Everybody wants to feel welcomed and secure on their first day.
Heath and Workplace Safety
Learning health and safety procedures on the first day is necessary. This includes going over any specific safe work procedures your company has.
Documents and Policies
During induction make sure each employee fills out and signs all necessary employment paperwork. You should also help employees understand the incident reporting system at your company. A strong understanding of workplace procedures allows new employees to be the most dependable team members from the beginning.
Benefits of an effective induction programme
A well-designed induction programme results in a positive first experience of an orgaisation. It means the employee:
- Settles in quickly
- Integrates into their team
- Understands the oganisation’s values and culture
- Feels supported
- Becomes productive quickly
- Works to their highest potential
Without an effective induction, new employees can get off to a bad start, and lack clarity on their role and how it links to the organisation’s goals, which could impact on their intention to stay in the role.
What to avoid in Induction
- Providing too much, too soon - the inductee must not be overwhelmed by a mass of information, especially on the first day.
- Pitching presentations at an inappropriate level - where possible, presentations should be tailored to consider prior knowledge of new employees.
- Creating an induction programme which generates unreasonable expectations by overselling the job.
- Creating an induction programme that focuses only on administration and compliance but does not reflect organisational values.
An effective induction programme should be engaging and reassure the new employee that they have made the right decision to join the business.
The induction process should be evaluated to determine whether it is meeting the needs of the new recruits and the organisation. This should include opportunities for feedback at the end of the induction process and allow new recruits to highlight areas for improvement.
As well as getting feedback from new employees, it is important to identify key measures of success of the induction process.
Is Hybrid Working Here to stay?
As companies started moving back to on-site work for their employees, many employees have chosen to change jobs rather than be forced to return to an office. Of course, there are pros and cons to working from home or from the office but this is where hybrid work comes in. Working from home has become a valued part of many employees’ daily life.
Does Remote Work Affect Employee Productivity?
Working from the office allows an employee to chat with colleagues, have one-to-one or group meetings in person, and increase the chance of easy collaboration. On the other hand, working from home provides a more comfortable and relaxed environment where you can feel more in control of your day. Working from the comfort of your home, will also save you a lot of commuting time.
According to a Stanford Study, home working leads to a 13% overall performance increase. The experiment took place with a company with over 15’000 employees. The employees were assigned to either work from home or the office on a random basis. The employees who worked from home needed fewer breaks and fewer days off and did 4% more per minute compared to their peers.
Why are Remote Workers More Efficient?
In a 2021 survey conducted by FlexJobs, it was found that 51% of the surveyed workers considered themselves more productive at home or working remotely mainly due to:
- Being able to avoid office politics and relationships
- Having better focus
- A quieter work environment
- Fewer interruptions throughout the work day
Whether working from home becomes a legal right or not, from 2022 onward, employees will consider it an essential requirement when looking for work. The option to work remotely has become central to the decisions employees make.
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To Pay or Not to Pay – The Jubilee Bank Holiday
On Friday 3 June 2022, there will be an extra Bank Holiday granted to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The usual May Bank Holiday has been moved forward to Thursday 2 June 2022 resulting in a four-day weekend for those able to take time off.
What are your employees’ rights when an additional Bank Holiday is announced?
The general rule is that employees do not have an automatic right to a day off work when this or any other Bank Holiday is announced. Employers will need to review their contract of employment to determine if an employee is entitled to a day off work and to be paid for it.
Some contracts of employment will state that the employee is entitled to a certain number of days of annual leave, “plus bank holidays”. In this case, they will be entitled to the additional Bank Holiday off work.
Other contracts of employment state that the employee is entitled to a set number of days of annual leave, but do not mention Bank Holidays. In this scenario, the employee will not be automatically entitled to the additional Bank Holiday off work.
Some employment contracts provide the employee with a set number of days of annual leave “plus eight Bank Holidays”. Again, this will mean that the employee is not automatically entitled to the additional Bank Holiday off work.
If the contract states “you are entitled to XX days holidays plus the usual bank holidays in England and Wales” again this would not give the worker an automatic right to the additional Bank Holiday because the addition Jubilee day is not a “usual” bank holiday
Employers will need to review their employees’ contracts of employment to see whether all of them, some of them, or none of them are entitled to take the Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday off of work.
Where employees do not have a contractual right to the additional Bank Holiday, employers will need to consider if they wish to grant the day’s leave as a gesture of goodwill, if they will require employees to attend work or if they will give employees a day off in lieu of the Bank Holiday due to staffing requirements.
Whilst it is important to comply with the letter of the contract of employment or work, the additional Bank Holiday can also be a morale booster for staff. You may consider granting employees an additional day’s holiday for the Jubilee as an act of goodwill, stressing of course the reason for it being allowed as a one-off gesture.
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Extra Bank Holiday for Queen's Jubilee
The Benefits of having Employee Referral Schemes
One of the many challenges faced in the world of HR is recruitment. Whether it’s trying to fill multiple roles or trying to find the right candidate for one an employee referral scheme may be a solution.
In this post, we will share some benefits of introducing an employee referral scheme to your organisation.
Employee referrals are faster hires
One of the most challenging aspects of hiring is that it takes a long time to find a quality candidate. Not only do you have to search through CVs, but you have to schedule screenings and in-person interviews. Not to mention that candidates can drop out of the process bringing you back to square one.
Less costly hires
Using referral methods to gain employees will lead to not using recruiting agencies which come at a high cost.
Employee referrals onboard more quickly
New hires may feel intimidated and withhold from asking questions or getting clarification about things they’re confused about, which can slow down the onboarding process. However, having a friend in the same company can make it easier to open up and get integrated quicker into the organisation.
Improves Employee Engagement
When a company asks employees to help them find their next new hire it makes them feel more empowered. At the same time, it’s a great feeling for them when they can help their friends with their next career move.
Boost Employer Branding
When employees spread the word about job openings it brings a lot of traffic to the company. This also improves brand visibility.
Many companies use employee referral schemes with employees receiving rewards such as cash bonuses or experiential rewards. Building employee referral programs can generate buzz and excitement around the workplace.
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Employment Engagement Part one: How to Attract and Retain Employees.
Employee Engagement Part Two: Seven Dimensions of Good Work
How to Combat Loneliness in the Workplace
According to the Campaign to End Loneliness, nine million people in the UK are suffering from loneliness. Loneliness has the same health risk as smoking 15 cigarettes per day, by increasing the risk of high blood pressure.
People experiencing loneliness can feel disengaged and disconnected from their work and colleagues, which can cause them to become emotionally detached from the organization.
Tips to help combat loneliness at work:
Communicate and raise awareness: Create a space for employees to talk about their wellbeing by checking in regularly, even if it’s virtually. Raising awareness will help build a company culture where people feel comfortable disclosing challenges and being informed about the support available to them.
Facilitate workplace socialising: People with social connections at work tend to be more engaged and loyal because these relationships help to build a company culture based on trust and respect.
Create opportunities for employees to connect: Get your organisation to organise quizzes, group calls, or even exercise classes for remote employees. Additionally, assign work buddies or mentors who can listen to work and non-work-related issues and provide team lunches or away days where employees can socialise outside of the workplace setting.
Encourage employees to use their employee benefits: benefits such as (EAPs), virtual GPs and mental health nurses can all prove a useful source of help. EAPs provide around-the-clock confidential support for a wide range of problems employees might be facing.
Loneliness affects millions of people in the UK every year and is a key driver of poor mental health. It is important that employees are made aware of what they can avail of in the workplace so they know when and how to reach out.
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