Sarah King Employment Solicitor Northampton

Excello Law

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Workshop – How to maximise attendance and manage performance – 5th October 2022

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How to maximise attendance and manage performance workshop

A practical day to provide you with the knowledge and practical skills to maximise attendance by dealing with attendance issues early and to understand the importance of performance management. Warning: delegate participation required!

Aimed at line managers, those with HR responsibilities or employees in the business who have to handle attendance and performance issues and conduct performance reviews.

Don’t wait until it’s too late. Join us on a first come first served basis. We will cover the following:

  • An overview of disability discrimination and the duty to make reasonable adjustments
  • Managing short term absence
  • Long-term sickness absence and occupational health involvement
  • Maximising the effectiveness of the probationary period and annual reviews
  • How to implement a performance improvement plan
  • Dismissing for performance or capability reasons

We will look at these areas using case studies of real-life attendance and performance issues utilising the facilitators experience in practice and in Tribunal with real examples. This is a workshop with limited Powerpoint and delegates will work through processes using real life examples in groups. Businesses are welcome to send a team of their own or just a single delegate who will join a group. We will be using different scenarios from different sectors to cover the industries in which delegates work.

100% of delegates rated the last workshop as “Excellent”
Feedback included “Very interactive and informative” “Enjoyed how interactive it has been” and “Very useful course and I can take a lot away from today for future use”

Delivered by:

Sarah King

Join us on: 5th October 2022 9.30 – 4.30pm at Harrowden Hall, Wellingborough, NN9 5AD

Cost (includes lunch and materials)

  • £149 plus VAT per delegate
  • Early bird discount £99 plus VAT per delegate available until 25.08.22
  • Multiple delegate discounts for teams (5 for the price of 4)

Secure your place

Book here

The venue details

   Harrowden Hall
   Wellingborough
   Northamptonshire
   NN9 5AD

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

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Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

I would like to take this opportunity of thanking all my clients for their instructions in 2020 and to wish all my readers and contacts a Merry Christmas whatever this ends up looking like and a Happy and healthy 2021.

2020 has been a whirlwind of a year for many in HR and Employment law as we grappled with a changing landscape with new challenges.  We had new laws but also new concepts like “Furlough”.

This time last year little did we know what was coming.  Excello will be closing its doors on Christmas Eve until the New Year and I will be taking a well deserved break.  See you all in 2021.

Are restrictive covenants enforceable?

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Restrictive Covenants

This is the million dollar question.  It depends on whether the restrictions only go so far as is necessary to protect the business’ proprietary interest.  There are many arguments on both sides about protecting the business assets when staff leave and preventing solicitation and poaching when acting for the employer and being able to freely practice a trade and not be in handcuffs when acting for the employee.  Restrictive covenants are a tricky area that involve lots of contractual considerations and it is always wise to seek advice before leaving your employer or at the time of critical staff resigning.

The Government has recognised that restrictive covenants can restrict innovation and hamper competition.  Under the guise of supporting the economic bounce back the Government are exploring reform to “unleash innovation, create the conditions for new jobs and increase competition” and are seeking views on reforms to restrictive covenants.  Consultation is invited by 26th February 2021 when consultation closes.

The last review followed a call to evidence in 2016 to understand how these clauses were used and why as well as look at the benefits and disadvantages associated with them at that time.  The Government are consulting on a few ideas including making non-compete clauses enforceable only when compensation is paid for the duration of the clause alongside other measures to increase transparency and communication on these sorts of clauses with the possibility of a statutory limit on the duration.  Other ideas include making non-compete clauses unenforceable (banned rather like those in zero-hours contracts).

You can read the full consultation document here https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/941110/non-compete-consultation-document.pdf

and you can complete the survey and express your views here. https://beisgovuk.citizenspace.com/lm/non-compete-clause/

ACAS early conciliation extension

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ACAS early conciliation extensionThe 1st December 2020 brought not only the start of advent and the Elf on the Shelf for some but for employment lawyers saw changes made to the time periods for early conciliation through ACAS.

 

ACAS early conciliation is mandatory before employees start many of the common employment law claims in the Employment Tribunal including unfair dismissal and discrimination claims.  The process has been in place for some time now and has had some success at early resolution of complaints.  Those wishing to bring a claim complete the online form and then ACAS early conciliation starts.  This is the start date on the certificate when this is issued at the end.  The standard period for ACAS early conciliation (ACAS EC) was 4 weeks.  If progress had not been made then a certificate was automatically issued after four weeks unless that parties to conciliation agreed to extend the period by two weeks.  There was no possibility of extending this further although the parties could still use ACAS after the period had expired.  If parties requested it sooner or the employer declined to have the settlement discussion the certificate was issued and this has not changed.

 

However with effect from 1st December 2020 the start period of ACAS early conciliation has been extended from 4 weeks to 6 weeks with the possibility still of the parties having the two week extension.  At a time when employment lawyers, ACAS and the Tribunal are frankly creaking at the seams with demand, the changes bring some welcome respite for all.  As the certificate is used to calculate the limitation period for the claims this can add a couple of weeks onto the limitation period if the full 6 weeks is used.  ACAS are also experiencing high demand for their services and the delays were this year meaning sometimes that the employer would not be asked to participate in that process until the middle or worse still the end of the period.  The Tribunal system has seen an increase in number of claims and the backlog as a result of the pandemic so it will be interesting to see the impact the additional period has on the quarterly publicly available statistics in due course.

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Meetings by appointment at:
The Hall
Thorpe St
Raunds
Wellingborough
NN9 6LT

Correspondence address:
Excello Law Ltd
5 Chancery Lane
London
WC2A 1LG

Other offices:
Chester, Leeds & Liverpool

Sarah King t/a SK Employment Law is not a firm of solicitors. Sarah King is a consultant solicitor at Excello Law Limited and legal services are provided by Excello Law Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under SRA number 652733.