It's All About People - 10th October 2024

READ TIME - 5 minute read

Last Tuesday I was in London for some meetings and found myself in the position where one meeting was cancelled and I had 5 hours to “kill” before an evening event.

If you remember last Tuesday the weather was atrocious and also I was on crutches (another story!). I thought I was going to have to spend the afternoon moving from one coffee shop to another utilising their Wi-Fi.

However, I had a brain wave and went to work in the British Library instead. I have walked past 100s of times coming out of St Pancras but never been in - wow I have been missing out.

Such an incredible building and I got SO much work done as I sat in one of reading rooms, at a beautiful old-fashioned desk with a lamp over it and had no distractions or interruptions.

So if you ever need to somewhere to work in London, I highly recommend it.

Welcome Back

This week’s It’s All About People covers:

👩‍⚖️ Current Legal Framework
📋️ 5 Fair Reasons for Dismissal
⚖️ How to Ensure Fair Dismissal

🌹 What to do in relation to the law changing

📆 Events this month

Navigating employee dismissals is one of the most sensitive and legally complex tasks. 🚨 In the UK, employment law is clear on how and when dismissals can happen - but this may well change…so read on.

👩‍⚖️ Current Legal Framework

Currently, employees must have two years of continuous service to claim unfair dismissal.

However, as many of you will have read, this may well change, with it possible becoming a day one right.

Next week the proposals for this will be presented to Parliament, so we have to wait and see.

For now, follow this guidance and you should be fine and therefore when someone has rights is not a concern.

In a nutshell, to dismiss someone you need to have a fair reason (as defined by law) and to have followed a fair process.

📋️ 5 Fair Reasons for Dismissal

For a dismissal to be considered fair, it must fall under one of these five legally accepted reasons:

1. Capability or Performance: If an employee cannot perform their job adequately, after providing sufficient training or support, dismissal could be fair.

This could be caused by a physical or mental health issue.

2. Conduct: dismissal based on behaviour, so something someone should not have done.

Some dismissals happen on first offence (e.g. theft, violence) but you still need to follow a proper disciplinary process , otherwise it could still be unfair.

Dismissals for conduct may also be after a series of warnings.

3. Redundancy: When a role is no longer needed, a fair redundancy process must be followed, including consultation and offering alternative employment if possible.

4. Legal Prohibition: Dismissal may be necessary if continuing to employ someone would breach legal requirements (e.g., loss of a necessary license).

5. Some Other Substantial Reason (SOSR): This is a catch-all category for other legitimate reasons, but do not rely on this one without taking proper advice.

⚖️ How to Ensure Fair Dismissal

As well as having a fair reason, you also need to be sure:

- Follow a Proper Process: Always carry out investigations and hold formal meetings with employees. Document every step.

- Consult Where Necessary: In redundancy situations, consultation is a legal requirement. Similarly, ongoing communication in performance or conduct cases ensures fairness.

- Consider Alternatives: Before proceeding with dismissal, consider redeployment, additional training, or role changes that could resolve the situation.

📋️ What to do in relation to the law changing

Even if the day one right is announced next week, it will take time to become law.

So…you have time to really look at how your processes work now and would they meet the above tests for ALL dismissals - not just those under 2 years.

Take a look at why dismissals happen. Are you recruiting the wrong people and so need to work on your recruitment process? Is your development of employees poor and this leads to poor performance (capability).

Linked to both process and being proactive, make sure your line managers are trained in how to have conversations around poor performance or conduct - and nip problems in the bud (more on this in a future edition).

Whether Labour’s proposed changes to the two-year qualifying period take effect or not, having a fair, transparent process in place will always be crucial.

🗓️ SAVE THE DATE - FREE Event on Dismissals

On 23rd October at 12pm, I will be running our monthly webinar on the 100 Day Make Work Pay Law Changes. This will be 4th in the series and they are getting great feedback.

In this session we will be looking at the changes to dismissal (which we should know by then) and what you need to do.

You can book your FREE place here.

🎁 An Offer for You

If you are the person in your organisation responsible for keeping up to date with HR and legal changes - then the HR Hub is exactly what you need. (I know many of you reading this are already members so you can ignore this).

If you are not yet a member and are wondering what all the fuss is about, you can now join for 7 days for just £7 to take a good look around, download anything that you need and of course we hope you stay a member.

If not though, you are free to cancel at the end of 7 days. If you would like to take us up on this simply follow this link.

You can also sign up to our free guidance on all the law changes (not just dismissal) here.

Thank You and What’s Next?

Thank you for being part of our It’s All About People community.

Stay tuned for next week’s email, where we’ll be discussing how to have difficult conversations. Have a wonderful week!

Emma

P.S. If you're a member of our HR Hub, then we have LOADS of resources around dismissal, performance and conduct in the Hub.

 P.P.S.  If you are not a Hub member you can join here for only £45/month for all your HR needs or take us up on our 7 days for £7 offer here.

P.P.P.S If we have not connected on LinkedIn yet, I would love to connect

Events to Join in the coming weeks (click on the links to join us)

HR Clinic (free to all, come and ask your HR questions) - 22nd October 12pm 

Make Work Pay – Labour’s 100 Day Plan for HR & Leaders (Free Webinar) - 23rd October 2-1pm

 HR Masterclass - Values Aligned, Success Defined (free to clients, £150 for single places) - 7th November 9.30am-12.30pm