Yes, we are all fed up with hearing about Brexit, but while all the bluster has been going on, nine months have passed since the government published its long-term proposals for post-Brexit immigration. Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) research found that 58% of employers had either not heard of the UK’s future skills-based immigration system or had no knowledge of its contents.

The main principles in the proposal are that: –

• skilled workers will have to be sponsored by an employer;
• there’s a suggested minimum salary threshold of £30,000 per annum;
• no limit  to the overall  number of visas issued;
• there is likely to be a transitional system allowing temporary workers scheme to come to UK without a job offer for up to 12 months at a time.

The Government has faced criticism because these proposals are all geared to higher-skilled workers whereas a large number of employers, relying on EU citizens to take up minimum wage roles, can expect significant change. The hospitality and travel sector as well as caring professions can expect to be widely affected.

Another challenge to watch out for is that currently EU citizens make up one in eight of the UK workforce. According to official figures, more than half a million EU citizens applied to the EU Settlement Scheme last month, which has renewed concerns over the growing backlog of applications from European employees looking to stay in the country after Brexit.

Recent figures reveal that there will be a backlog of applications totalling 275,500 at the end of September which could cause problems with the current Brexit deadline current still set for 31 October.

So, is there anything you can do as an employer to protect yourself?

• Carry out a ‘late’ risk assessment of your workforce / roles to be filled
• Ensure your current employees feel valued and speak to them directly about the challenges
• Support them with any settlement visas applications.

Hafton partners with immigration lawyers who can offer support with legal aspects of the EU settled status or any or other aspects of moving to the UK. If you believe your organisation would benefit from further advice please get in touch with Hafton by giving us a call or email us at info@haftonconsultancy.com.

One of Hafton’s clients has offered financial support to their employees applying for EU settlement status, asking them to give a guarantee that they will stay for an agreed period.

It’s surprising that 75% of HR respondents to a survey about pay feel that staff are paid fairly whereas only 33% of all workers have that view.  Or is it?  Maybe management and HR professionals are out of touch?

The reward management survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found that less than 40% of employers had carried out a fair pay audit in the last three years. Line managers can play an important role by explaining the organisation’s pay policies and this relies on the HR function making sure that line managers are on board.  In some cases, it could be just a question of having improved communications about pay and supporting managers to have improved communication around pay.

Here are some of the top tips from the CIPD for employers about helping improve real and perceived fairness around pay. Ensure staff know what they need to do to get a pay rise.  According to the research less than half of employees know how to do this.

These top tips include:-

• audit actual pay outcomes
• ensure you pay a liveable wage
• ensure that staff know what they need to do to get a pay rise

Management and HR teams can do a lot to manage perceptions around fair pay.  For example, they can

• seek the views of employees and shareholders/trustees to agree on what ‘fair looks like’,
• make sure staff understand what the organisation expects of them, why it wants it and how the organisation will reward and recognise their efforts.
• support managers to have meaningful conversations with their teams about the fairness of pay outcomes.

If you believe your organisation would benefit from further advice about fairness around pay please get in touch with Hafton by giving us a call or emailing us at info@haftonconsultancy.com.

We know that a number of organisations are still not publishing their gender pay gap despite legislation being in place since 2017.  However, it seems there is some progress being made in the gender pay arena.  Incidentally, the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 apply to private and voluntary-sector organisations with 250 or more employees so there are many organisations with less than 250 employees who are under the radar.  In a similar vein some companies have committed to publishing their ethnicity pay gap and the government is considering making this mandatory too.

Remember back in November 2017 when the BBC first published its pay gap data?  There were some shocking differences between male and female presenters, yet far less attention was paid to the gap between white and BAME (Black and Minority Ethnic) staff.  The figures showed that the highest-earning man was paid over £2m per annum compared to the highest paid woman (c £500,000).  That compares to the highest paid BAME presenter earning £300,000 and the highest paid BAME female presenter earning £250,000.   The differences in the BBC pay levels indicates that there is a wide ethnicity gap which need to be addressed as vigorously as the gender gap.

Carrie Gracie, the China Editor for the BBC, won a pay-out of £280,000 which she donated to the Fawcett Society which campaigns for women’s rights.  Just recently Samira Ahmed also won her case, which has not been announced yet when she claimed she was out of pocket to the tune of £700,000 because of the difference in pay between her and Jeremy Vine.

But is this just an issue for the BBC?  Research shows that it is similar across other sectors and industries.   So maybe the better question is why?  Part of the answer lies in the fact stereotypical roles for women are paid less and BAME men are more likely to be occupying female dominated roles such as care or service roles.

If you believe your organisation would benefit from further advice about fairness and equality around pay please get in touch with Hafton by emailing us at info@haftonconsultancy.com.

Yes, there is a faint glimmer of hope for businesses on the horizon.   An announcement which came out last week about IR35 legislation (the rollout of changes to private sector off-payroll rules) and the enforcement of gender gap reporting will be delayed for the time-being. Both of these changes weredue tomorrow on 1 April 2020.

Just a quick reminder about what this news means for employers.

IR35

So what is IR35?  IR35 is a term used to describe two sets of tax legislation thatare designed to combat tax avoidance by workers, and the firms hiring them.  The latter are companies who are supplying their services to clients via an intermediary, such as a limited company, but who would be an employee if the intermediary was not used.

The Government had intended to introduce the rollout this year to the private sector having done so across the public sector in the UK.

In short, IR35 involves applying three main principles to determine employment status.  These are known as the principal ‘tests of employment’:

Control:  What degree of control does the client have over what, how, when and where the worker completes the work

Substitution:  is personal service by the worker required, or can the worker send a substitute in their place?

Mutuality of Obligation:  This is a concept where the employer is obliged to offer work, and the worker is obligated to accept it.

However, our advice is that you should check your workforce contracts to see how many fall foul of these principles.  Now is a good time to do a review and assess the outcome for your business.

Gender gap reporting

The Government Equalities Office (GEO) said it had decided to suspend enforcement of the gender pay gap deadlines this year in the wake of the challenge presented to employers by coronavirus, meaning it will not investigate any employers failing to report their pay gap.

While employers will not be obliged to publish their gender pay gaps this year, the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) recommends and encourages all businesses that are able to submit their data, should do so.

Again, this is a good opportunity if you have additional capacity in your business because of the changes in circumstances, to prepare and assess your gender pay gap if any.

If you would like to find out more or have any questions please get in touch with Hafton by giving us a call or emailing us at info@haftonconsultancy.com.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses, and particularly HR professionals were pre-occupied with sorting Brexit and grappling with the new points–based system on immigration.  While there are rumours that Brexit deadline of January 2021 might be delayed, HR cannot rely on any further hold ups, and will need to prepare and act, even if for one hire from the EU or beyond next year.

On the positive side it gives organisations, and particularly HR, the opportunity to design agile and flexible work approaches around the needs of its employees.  The focus will need to be on workforce planning.

Under the proposed scheme overseas workers who want to come to the UK after free movement ends on 31 December 2020 will have to meet certain criteria (or 70 points).

Here are the two tests which are set out below:-

There will, of course, be some winners and losers in the economy.  For example, the IT industry is likely to be one of the ‘winners’ with their higher paid roles which require specific specialised skills.  Other sectors such as hospitality, social care, food production and agriculture may now face further problems with their lower paid workforce.

So what can you do to prepare?  If you haven’t done so already the first step will be to confirm who in your workforce will need settled status through the EU Settlement Scheme.  You might want to support them by contributing all, or some of the cost.

In the longer term ensuring you have a good pipeline of talented and engaged staff it will be of vital importance. Have you done any analysis to identify the skills you will need in the future?  Can you re-deploy some of your employees to other areas of your business?

If you would like to have a confidential chat or have any immediate questions please get in touch with Hafton by giving us a call or emailing us at info@haftonconsultancy.com.

Since Boris Johnson outlined his plans in early May to kick start the economy and get people back to work, there have been anecdotal stories and examples of how organisations have made a decision to return to work and then had to back-track.

Dyson, for example, faced a staff revolt when they sent an email to all staff, including those who could work from home, announcing that all employees should return to its work sites.

Hafton did a survey amongst several of its clients in the first month of lockdown to find out how staff were coping at home, what additional support they needed and what aspects of their roles were more difficult to carry out from home.  Surprising the majority of junior staff members said they were most productive and were happiest to continue in this vein.  Should you just leave them to it if they are hitting their objectives?   Unfortunately, it isn’t a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.

Firstly, risk assessments will be an essential aspect of the return to work as well as considering the mental welfare of staff with any return to the workplace.   Businesses will need to make sure the return is mutually agreed with staff and this points to the need for an honest, face-to-face (over camera) discussion.

Businesses will need to decide:

1. What are the circumstances of people working remotely and coming in occasionally?
2. Are staff and customers safe to come in?
3. When staff work from home, do they have the right resources?
4. Have they had a DSE (Display Equipment) assessment?  Do they need to adjust their equipment?

What should you do, as an employer, if an employee refuses to return to work?  Each situation needs to be addressed on a case by case basis.  The refusal could be for reason of shielding, or underlying health conditions or maybe issues of childcare because school and nursery facilities are remaining closed.  However, if an employee doesn’t wish to return just because they prefer working at home, it could ultimately end in disciplinary action.

In larger organisations and businesses, HR must be the lead on these matters making sure that the organisation has fair criteria and is not discriminating against a certain group of employees.  Getting people back to work after lockdown is an enormous task and having a company stance on what is acceptable will be important because what some employees might think is safe, will not be seen as safe by others.