Recruitment Best Practice For Employers

Most employers will need to recruit a new member of staff at some stage, either because an employee has left and they need to be replaced, or because they are expanding. Finding the right person can be tricky but employers need to follow a fair selection procedure to reduce the risk of allegations of discrimination. Discrimination law covers all areas of employment, including advertising jobs and recruitment. You should keep records of the equal opportunities training that managers have received, all decisions made during the recruitment process and the reasons for them, in case you have to justify a decision later. A fair recruitment selection process should: Use a standard application form - a job description and a person specification should not include requests for personal information. Equal opportunities monitoring forms should be kept…

Share For Employment Rights

Three different types of employment status have existed for some time: employee, self-employed and worker. Each benefits from a slightly different range of employment rights. From September 2013, a fourth type joined the list: employee shareholder. This measure was introduced by the government to reduce employment costs for employers by giving employees a stake in the company they work for in return for waiving some of their employment rights. Employees have to be given shares in the business in order to become employee shareholders. The status can only be offered if your business is run as a company. Sole traders, partnerships, charities and public sector organisations will not be able to take part.  An employee shareholder has to be given fully paid-up shares worth at least £2,000 and there is no maximum amount they can…

Coast To Coast Bike Ride Challenge

Cycling enthusiasts Peter Kay (Senior Partner), David Hyams (Partner), David Kershaw (Solicitor), Andrew Daffern (Practice Manager) and Richard Daffern (Fireman from North Yorkshire Fire Brigade) succeeded in cycling 192 miles from coast to coast in only two and half days. They set off on the gruelling 192 mile bike ride from Barrow in Furness on Friday 7th June and completed 76 miles on the first leg of their journey before stopping at Kirkby Stephen.  On the second day they cycled another 74 miles to Osmotherly before completing the rest of the journey on the 9th June in Whitby with a fish and chip lunch. Peter Kay said "Nothing can beat the massive sense of achievement you feel having done the coast to coast.  It was a stunning ride through Cumbria then the Yorkshire Dales, across…

Merger With Sykes Lee Brydson

Ware & Kay are pleased to announce the merger with Sykes Lee & Brydson.   The combined practices will operate under the name Ware & Kay headed by Peter Kay as Senior Partner.   Two Historic Names One Great Firm Ware & Kay identified that Sykes Lee & Brydson share a similar ethos and approach to its own and welcomed the additional staff and most importantly its clients as part of a planned expansion strategy. Peter Kay said: "The primary driving force behind the merger was a shared desire to increase the legal services from which both sets of clients could benefit.  As a larger firm our business clients benefit from a much broader range of expertise, including corporate, commercial and employment teams, an extensive litigation and dispute resolution capability and the addition of niche know-how…

The Natural Step Forward

TWO long-established Yorkshire legal firms have merged, it was announced yesterday. Ware & Kay, which has offices in York and Wetherby, said that it has joined forces with Sykes Lee & Brydson. The combined practices will operate under the name Ware & Kay, headed by Peter Kay as senior partner. Ware & Kay said that it identified that Sykes Lee & Brydson shares "a similar ethos and approach to its own", adding that as a result of the merger annual turnover will rise by 25 per cent from £2m. The firm said that it welcomed the additional staff and its clients as part of a planned expansion strategy. The financial details of the merger were not disclosed. Ware & Kay has been operating for 200 years, while the history of Sykes Lee & Brydson goes back to at least 1830 and…

City Law Firms Merge

TWO historic York law firms have merged Ware & Kay and Sykes Lee & Brydson each has more than 200 years of history in York, and will create an enlarged Ware & Kay, employing 66 staff and five partners, at the firm's Peasholme Green premises. Ware & Kay has taken on 13 additional staff from Sykes Lee & Brydson, which was based in two sites in Acomb and Judges' Court, Coney Street, York, where it has been based since at least 1850. Peter Kay, senior partner at Ware & Kay, said: "As a larger firm our business clients benefit from a much broader range of expertise, including corporate, commercial and employment teams, an extensive litigation and dispute resolution capability and the addition of niche know-how in fields such as mediation. "The families and individuals we serve…

Do I Need A Staff Handbook

Most employers will be aware that it is a legal requirement to give all employees a written statement of particulars of employment, but also having a staff handbook gives you an opportunity to set out in detail what you expect from your staff. It is a means of passing on to employees important information about your organisation and how it works on a day-to-day basis. It is also a handy place to keep forms for sickness self-certification, requesting holidays, claiming expenses and so on. The handbook can either be printed and a copy given to each employee or it can be put on your intranet so that all staff can access it. There are some policies and procedures that you have to give employees by law and a staff handbook is a good place to…

Shared Parental Leave

Sheryl Sandberg's book 'Lean in' has refreshed the debate on gender equality in the workplace, encouraging women not to sabotage their own careers in order to have children. Sandberg's vision of 50 per cent women in every boardroom could only ever be achieved by changes to employment laws on maternity and paternity provision. To reduce discrimination based on pregnancy and childbirth and make it easier for men to have an equal role in raising their children, the government has launched the Children and Families Bill introducing shared parental leave for mothers and fathers in 2015. The new scheme will allow parents to share the statutory maternity leave and pay that is only available to mothers at the moment. Ordinary paternity leave and pay will continue but additional paternity leave and pay will be abolished. Women…

Employment Law Changes April 2013

The government is planning to make a number of changes to employment law in the near future. The key changes which will affect employers include: Increases in statutory payment rates Statutory payments go up every April at the start of the new tax year.  For the next three years they are limited to a one per cent increase.  From 6 April statutory sick pay will be £86.70 per week. Statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay go up on the first Sunday in April so, from 7 April, they will be £136.78 per week. Increase in parental leave From 8 March parents will be able to take a maximum of 18 weeks unpaid parental leave per child, rather than 13 weeks. Parents will still be able to take a maximum of four weeks leave per year…

Social Media The Implications For Employers

The use of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and blogs is growing every day and, with many people accessing social media at work, it is hardly surprising that Facebook has been described as an "HR accident waiting to happen". What are the risks associated with allowing social media to be used in the workplace and how can employers minimise them when developing a social media policy? Risks include: discrimination claims; lost productivity; vicarious liability for employee's actions; losing confidential information; damage to the reputation of the business; and losing ownership of social media contacts.   The most effective way to minimise risks is to issue a social media policy to all staff including consultants, contractors, casual staff, agency workers and volunteers. A good policy will cover access periods, monitoring provisions…