At the start of another new year, many employers are focussed on making positive changes in their workplace, and addressing issues which were postponed over the busy Christmas period.

Here are a few topics which you may wish to address as New Year’s Resolutions.

Homeworking

One of the most common flexible working requests is to work from home.

As of 6 April 2024, employees have been able to make a flexible working request from their first day of employment. They are no longer required to explain how these changes may work in practice, and employers must deal with the request within two months.

The Labour government has spoken about making flexible working the default position. Exactly what this involves is unclear, but it may include changes such as allowing workers, rather than just employees, to make a flexible working request, or requiring employers to allow a trial period before turning down a request.

There will be times when a request just isn’t feasible, and face-to-face contact is still important for team building and camaraderie. However, in anticipation of the changes, we recommend that employers try to embrace the new default position, giving serious thought to whether requests can be accommodated. After all, a happier workforce is often a more productive one.

Mental Health

There has been great progress over the last few years in recognising the importance of looking after mental health in the workplace. Although benefits such as access to counselling and gym membership are often appreciated, making positive changes for your employees doesn’t always have to involve huge expense. Some low cost ideas are:

• Assigning a buddy or mental health first-aider for employees to talk to;
• Allowing ‘duvet days’ where an employee is permitted to take last minute annual leave if they are feeling fragile;
• Team-building days (this is especially beneficial if many of your employees work from home);
• Making the office a more inviting environment, for example, re-decorating and providing a relaxation room;
• Starting a book club or another hobby group;
• ‘Finish early Fridays’;
• Permitting employees to have paid time off to do feel-good activities such as giving blood or volunteering for a good cause, or getting the whole workforce involved in charity fundraising.

 Handbooks and Contracts

Give your handbooks and contracts a new year makeover!

If you’re interested in training your workforce on employment law, contact us for a quote.

If your employees have very old contracts, consider re-issuing them. This would not be to change their terms and conditions, as you would need their consent for this, but to ensure that the contracts are up to date with the law. If, however, you are looking to change employees’ terms and conditions, you could use the new contracts as an opportunity to consult with your employees on your proposed changes.

Be careful with dismissals!

You may feel as if you have dismissed many employees with under two years’ service and that the risk of a claim is low. While in many cases it will all go smoothly, there are around twenty exceptions to the two year unfair dismissal rule and Labour may introduce more, or abolish this rule altogether.

Therefore, for your own peace of mind and for the purposes of your insurance, always run dismissals past your HR adviser before you put them into effect.

 Think about AI

Artificial intelligence is evolving at a rapid pace, and while it makes our working lives easier and saves us time, it can also potentially bring problems.

Think about whether or not you are happy for your employees to use AI as part of their working toolkit. For example, can they use it to draft letters, advice or policies? What about if their job involves producing creative or imaginative content, such as wording for advertisements or novels?

If you are using AI for advice, notably legal advice, always proceed with extreme caution. It is best to only use this as a starting point, and to always run issues past your HR adviser.

If you require support on any of the above issues, please contact us by emailing enquiries@perspectivehr.co.uk or by phoning 01392 247436.

Happy New Year from Perspective HR!