If you can barely remember the last time you got your employment contracts or handbook checked over, you’re not alone. These types of reviews are often towards the bottom of the list of a business owner’s priorities; however, it is nevertheless important.
In fact, contracts and handbooks should be reviewed at least once every couple of years to ensure compliance.
Why is this so important?
With recent changes to legislation including the April changes, Right to Work checks and the ongoing obligations in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, maintaining your HR documentation allows you to tackle any issues proactively, helping you stay up to date, compliant and one step ahead of the competition.
How confident are you that your documents are accurate, legal or fit for purpose?
Receive a FREE health check on your employment contract & handbook
As a loyal subscriber to our newsletter, we would like to offer you a free health check review. Simply fill out a few details in our form and upload your current contract and handbook, and we will respond once a consultant has analysed your documents.
It only takes a few minutes to complete, however, our FREE health check review may prove invaluable when it comes to keeping your business compliant.
Abate Pest Management has been approved as health and safety compliant by the UK’s largest health and safety assessor CHAS (Contractors Health and Safety Assessment) for the 5th year running.
Awarded to businesses that demonstrate excellence in their approach to health and safety, CHAS is recognised industry wide as an acceptable standard to buyers. CHAS will give Abate’s customers further peace of mind and confidence that the work it carries out is fully compliant with the latest health and safety legislations.
The accreditation means that the award-winning Pest Control company, now in its 20th year of operation, can reassure clients about their continued commitment to comply with important health and safety legislation. Working with pest control companies that are accredited with CHAS, offers peace of mind to customers that they are fully compliant with the highest levels of health and safety.
Jon Blake, Managing Director, said: “CHAS is an established industry benchmark, and this award means it’s easier for over 1,000 companies to use us. We have several clients that only work with CHAS approved contractors. These companies use CHAS, as it supports ongoing improvements in the control and selection of its contractors, helping them achieve Health and Safety compliance. It also demonstrates responsibility and safeguard their reputation.”
In addition to Chas, Abate Pest Management are accredited with EN 16636 CEPA certification, SafeContractor, ISO9001, ISO 18001 and ISO14001. They are also a full servicing member of the British Pest Control Association.CHAS (The Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme) was created by experienced health and safety professionals in 1997 to improve health and safety standards across the UK.
This December we invite you to join us on one of the most glamourous nights of the year as we play host to a Christmas Night at the Theatre.
Our magical festive package includes;
Arrival Champagne Cocktail
Red Carpet Arrival with one complimentary group photo
A delicious festive Three Course Menu
A bottle of wine & water on each table
Table Decorations
Disco, Dancefloor & much more
Therefore if you work for one of our corporate organisations, and are looking to organise a night for family or friends, why not book a table with us! We would be thrilled to welcome you through our festive doors.
Tickets are priced at £50 per person
Tables are available to be booked between 8 and 10 people
Tables are available exclusively to organisations signed up to the Norwich Theatre Corporate Community (Sponsors, Associate Sponsors, Members)
With the day of the forthcoming funeral of Her Majesty The Queen having been officially allocated as a Bank Holiday, many employers and employees might be left wondering what their entitlements and obligations are.
At MAD-HR, we’ve been taking a look at some of the inevitable questions which may arise for both leaders and staff.
Does the declaration of the funeral day bank holiday mean I am obliged to give all staff the day off?
Not necessarily. It depends very much what your contracts dictate in terms of bank holiday entitlement. For example, your employee contracts may specifically refer to a set number of public holidays, and/or the requirement for staff to take days such as those covering the festive period, as holiday.
What’s important is to clarify the expectation and entitlement to staff as soon as possible.
Bear in mind that over and above any ‘legal obligation’, you may feel it is the appropriate thing to allow staff to take this significant day as an addition to their typical allocation.
One of my employees wants to take the day after the funeral off, to allow them to attend the event in person, and return the following day. I’m a small business and really can’t afford for them to be non-productive for a second consecutive day. How do I manage this conversation?
We have already been made aware of similar scenarios playing out for employers, for example, where staff have wanted to travel to London to pay their respects and have asked for additional time off unpaid.
It would be sensible to have a 121 conversation with the individual and understand where they are coming from and what impact this might have on their current workload.
If it is at all possible for them to do so, perhaps you can request that they take this from their available holiday days. Do also check how their absence will impact other staff, as you won’t want to cause unrest throughout your team.
What if an employee would ordinarily have Monday off, how do they recover that holiday?
This is will be down to the individual’s contract with you, and what is already in place over bank holiday Mondays throughout the year. Ordinarily, that person might be entitled to take their ‘off day’ on an alternative day.
I feel under pressure from my staff to close down until after the funeral. How should I handle that with my team?
We understand how employers can end up feeling pressurised into making significant changes at such a time. It would be far better to communicate with your staff why you have chosen to remain open, what leniency or changes you will implement in the coming days, and at the same time to ensure you reinforce how much you are compassionate and respectful of the way employers might be feeling.
Four rail stations in Norfolk have received a ‘Wildlife Friendly’ accreditation recognising the work of community volunteers to improve biodiversity and support nature.
Greater Anglia has partnered with Norfolk Wildlife Trust to formally recognise the achievements of its team of volunteer ‘station adopters’ to create wildlife havens at stations across its network through the new ‘Greater Anglia Wildlife Friendly Stations Accreditation Scheme.’
Brundall Gardens, Cantley, West Runton and Thetford stations became the first ones to receive the award this week, following assessment by a Norfolk Wildlife Trust Conservation Officer to determine how well they support local flora and fauna.
James Hogg, Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Corporate and Membership Development Officer, said: “The alarming decline in the abundance of wildlife and the plight of species under threat means that just protecting the nature we have left is not enough; we need to put nature into recovery, and to do so at scale and with urgency. We are working to create a nature recovery network across Norfolk – and with fellow wildlife trusts across the UK – to create more space for wildlife.
“This project with Greater Anglia is a fantastic example of how people can transform nature-poor areas into new nature-rich places – and change the way we think about land, seizing opportunities to help nature outside traditional nature reserves.”
Each assessment also offers tips and advice for how to make the stations more wildlife friendly and the reports can also be used as examples of best practice to help spread good ideas around all Greater Anglia’s stations.
Greater Anglia’s Customer and Community Engagement Manager, Alan Neville, said, “We’re delighted to partner with the region’s wildlife trusts to formally recognise the valuable work of our station adopter volunteers in supporting wildlife and improving their local environment.”
“I’d like to congratulate the volunteers at these stations on receiving this recognition and thank them for the incredible work that are doing that makes each station a wonderful place to be, that is contributing to support biodiversity locally.”
Rail stations in East Anglia are increasingly becoming havens for local wildlife thanks to the efforts of volunteers who last year transformed over 6,800 square metres of land into thriving wildlife gardens.
In a recent survey, Greater Anglia station adopters reported a wide range of creatures visiting their stations including many different types of butterflies as well as bees, slow worms, bats, foxes, deer and many varieties of birds, recording more than 200 different species.
Greater Anglia has joined the rest of the rail industry in pledging to make stations across Britain more sustainable.
Action to reduce waste, support local wildlife and cut the carbon footprint of railway stations will be informed by the industry’s Sustainable Stations: Best Practice Guide, which details ways in which train operators can meet this commitment in support of global goals of decarbonisation, reducing waste and supporting local plant and animal life.
Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s vision for a Nature Recovery Network envisages a landscape in which nature reserves are connected by corridors of habitat, through which wild species and their genes flow freely. Crucially, people are also personally connected to wildlife and wild landscape, for their own wellbeing and for the benefit of nature.
Above: Thetford station adopters receiving their award. Credit: Greater Anglia.
Above: Station adopters at West Runton receiving their award with James Hogg, Norfolk Wildlife Trust. Credit: Greater Anglia
Left to right: Rebecca Evans, Norfolk Wildlife Trust Conservation Officer, James Hogg, Norfolk Wildlife Trust Corporate and Membership Development Officer, station adopters Gillian Lincoln and Greg Chandler, Martin Halliday, Community Rail Norfolk, Jonathan Denby, Greater Anglia Head of Corporate Affairs and Alan Neville, Greater Anglia Customer and Community Engagement Manager. Credit: Greater Anglia.
Above: Flower bed at Cantley with new Greater Anglia train passing through. Credit: Greater Anglia
Above: Flower bed at Thetford with new Greater Anglia train passing through. Credit: Greater Anglia
Breakwater IT, a leading IT support and technology solutions company, and Swains Plc, one of the UK’s premier business telecoms providers recently hosted a morning of cars and communications at Lotus Cars, Hethel.
Businesses from around the region gathered in the Club Lounge at Lotus, overlooking their impressive test track, to engage in demonstrations from TalkTalk Business and Datto. TalkTalk focused on making a connectivity choice to match the needs of your business, highlighting the high performance capabilities of the Ethernet. Datto also focused on the rapidity of their technology – a business continuity solution that safeguards data and enables your business to be up and running again within minutes.
Speed had a continued presence in the morning as attendees received a first-hand experience of the inner workings of the Lotus factory, the facility in which all of their sports cars are individually hand-built.
The Lotus Exige was then given a spin on the test track, as 3 attendees had the chance to get behind the wheel of this remarkable car, swiftly followed by a hot lap with one of the Lotus Driving Academy’s experienced instructors (a chance for the acceleration of the car to really come into its own – as heard by those attendees watching from the Club Lounge). We hope that Tom Thornley, Director of The Original Cottage Company, Alton Nutile, Commercial Manager of Dardan Security and James Howells, Managing Director of Turning Factor all enjoyed feeling the power and sheer speed of the Exige.
Breakwater IT and Swains Plc are working together to ensure both IT and business telecoms can be dealt with as one. This event enabled businesses to get a taste of the benefits of an aligned approach to communications, as clients receive the latest technologies combined with an exemplary customer service.
Profit hunter Freddie Bennett talks about comfort zones, rejecting the corporate grind and how to dream, disrupt and deliver!
Freddie’s baaaack! Series 2 of Leadership & Life Chat kicks off with a former guest, professional adventurer and profit hunter, Freddie Bennett!
Freddie first joined James and Mark back in early 2021 on Impromptu Business Chat, chatting about how he uses the lessons he’s learnt in life to advise and inspire businesses on how to motivate their teams and embrace change. Since then, Freddie has had some major life changes, including packing up and moving his family to New Zealand, so the team invited him back to find out why, and talk about his new book and career change – tapping into customer bases to discover new lines of profit.
Freddie has worked with some of the biggest companies in the world and conquered some mammoth personal demons along the way, having left the corporate grind behind him. He speaks passionately about choosing your battles, whether we really need to smash our comfort zones, his own theory on the relativity of time, and how we should all be more aware of our own waypoints! He also discusses how we should embrace the seasons of change in our lives and businesses, and how we can reject hustle culture.
Thank you to our sponsors Larking Gowen, Chartered Accountants and Business Advisors – check out their website to see how they could help your business www.larking-gowen.co.uk
Five Local Action Groups across Norfolk and north Suffolk (Brecks, Broads, Waveney Valley, Wensum & Coast and West Norfolk) are pleased to announce that they are open for business, and invite applications for their funding scheme. The funding is to achieve jobs and growth in the rural economy, anddelivered under the Rural Development Progromme for England under six priorities:
Increase farm productivity
support micro and small businesses and farm diversification
boost rural tourism
provide rural services
provide cultural and heritage activities, and
increase forestry productivity
The emphasis is that projects create jobs and economic growth in the rural economy.Applicants are advised to check the handbook to see if proposed activities are eligibile, and to reviewaction group funding priorities which are unique to their area. these can be found at www.norfolklags.co.uk, by clicking of the relevant local action group tab.
The fund is open until 2020, or until budgets have been assigned to projects.
TaxAssist Accountants is pleased to announce it has now reached the milestone figure of 200 franchises in the UK.
The franchise which is this year celebrating its 20th Anniversary, continues to successfully recruit new franchisees, and has finished off the year with a flourish, taking on 6 new franchisees on its last course of the year.
There are now over 250 modern, welcoming TaxAssist shops and offices around the UK, and 24 in Southern Ireland. TaxAssist has seen huge interest in its franchise model in Australia and is hopeful the first franchisee will sign up shortly.
Karl Sandall CEO of The TaxAssist Group comments “I am very pleased with the way the franchise network has grown. TaxAssist has a good track record and a solid, successful business model which means we have always outperformed many other franchises and accountancy networks in terms of growth. We already have a lot of interest in our next course in February 2016, and I would urge anyone interested in the franchise to get in contact to see if their preferred territory is currently available.”
TaxAssist has franchise opportunities available all over the country, and has recently opened up new territories in Central London. Anyone interested in finding out more should contact Jody Fiveash on 0800 0188297 for a confidential chat, before booking onto a discovery day.
Cloud, connectivity and data centre experts MIGSOLV have announced the Benjamin Foundation as their chosen charity for 2019 and beyond.
The Benjamin Foundation supports children, young people and families in Norfolk and Suffolk who are dealing with serious life challenges. They provide help with housing and homelessness, childcare, youth support and emotional wellbeing.
MIGSOLV are beginning their support of the Benjamin Foundation by purchasing ceramic butterflies for the charity’s ‘Flight for Youth’ campaign. MIGSOLV’s staff and their families, will paint the butterflies before they are displaced around the grounds of their Norwich data centre. They will then go on to feature in a larger art installation arranged by the Benjamin Foundation themselves.
“We’re really pleased to be able to support this fantastic charity in our small way” says David Manning, Managing Director of MIGSOLV. “Each year or so, we choose a charity to sponsor and fundraise for. As they’ve delivered support for twenty-five years this year, it seems a great time to help raise funds and awareness for the important work they do.”
Money donated to the Benjamin Foundation goes to range of projects including youth clubs, safe night accommodation, counselling and childcare for vulnerable families. The charity’s current ‘Flight for Youth’ campaign has been established to help them celebrate a quarter-century supporting children and young people in Norfolk and Suffolk.
MIGSOLV provide cloud, connectivity and data centre services which help businesses with every aspect of storing, managing and protecting their IT and data. Best known for providing East Anglia’s only world-class commercial data centre, they’ve recently announced a number of new services including multi-cloud storage solutions, infrastructure technical support and advanced cyber security.
This signals the start of a new era where the full strengths of our group can be accessed by all our local customers, demonstrating we truly are stronger together.
Credo Asset Finance, based in Norwich with offices in both Norwich and Ipswich, is building on more than two decades as one of the most successful and trusted financial services providers in their region and are proud to be a part of the STAR Asset Finance family of experts.
The group-wide rebrand reflects a closer alignment of the group’s businesses and new specialist divisions – ready to serve UK SMEs better than ever.
In a challenging time for many small businesses, STAR Asset Finance Group are confident they’re building a group that serves their financing needs better than many other independent asset finance providers.
STAR Asset Finance Group have a bold ambition to be the most recommended asset finance provider in the UK and believe they can achieve this by offering more to customers, without taking away what they have come to expect – great personal and local service.
Stronger together
This re-brand across all group businesses, inspired by the new leadership team of Jim Higginbotham (CEO) and Paul Slapa (Commercial Director), reflects a closer alignment and even greater collaboration within the group, with more shared resources, expertise and investment in improved back-room systems.
They have also created new specialist divisions – STAR Stocking and STAR Professions – backed up by expert hires and a new STAR Loans product providing unsecured ‘own-book’ lending with greater decision speed and flexibility.
National business benefits with a local touch
The result is a nationwide group able to offer more financial options, more choice, more flexibility and more value to their customers. And because they still operate through local businesses, they are able to retain the local touch and understanding that their customers expect and value so much.
A model that’s working for UK SMEs
This year, the group will exceed a landmark of £1.5 Billion of funding since the group formed in 2015, supporting over 100,000 UK SMEs. Their 2022 funding growth is already currently double the market rate.
“The STAR Asset Finance Group has always been a great collection of local businesses, but this latest brand refresh signals the start of a new era where the full strengths of the group can be accessed by all our local customers, demonstrating we truly are stronger together.
“I’m really excited about driving the STAR Asset Finance Group forward into its next chapter of growth. We have a great team, fantastic customers and a world of opportunity.”
Greater Anglia is advising rail passengers, including football fans and people travelling to work and school or college, to avoid travelling by train on Saturday 1 and Wednesday 5 October as national rail strikes are set to cause widespread disruption.
People travelling to the London Marathon on Sunday 2 October will also be affected, as the 24-hour strikes have a knock-on effect the following day, with first trains affected and no services before 7/7.30am.
Rail unions ASLEF and RMT have rescheduled strikes postponed due to the death of Her Majesty The Queen, to next month.
Members of the train drivers’ union ASLEF are striking on Saturday 1 and Wednesday 5 October.
They will be joined by RMT union members, including Greater Anglia’s conductors, train cleaners and station staff and Network Rail’s signallers and maintenance teams, in their national rail strike on Saturday 1 October.
As a result, Greater Anglia services will be severely disrupted, with the company only able to run a fraction of its services – and no services at all between Cambridge and London Liverpool Street or on regional or branch lines.
A heavily reduced service will run between London Liverpool Street and Norwich, Colchester, Southend Victoria and on the Stansted Express service between Stansted Airport and London Liverpool Street.
On Saturday 1 October, services will only operate from 7.30am and with all last trains setting off before the end of the working day and final whistle in most cases in order to be at their final destination by 6.30pm.
All of East Anglia’s top football teams – Norwich, Ipswich Town, Cambridge United, Peterborough United and Colchester United – have fixtures on Saturday 1 October, as do Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham and Arsenal.
Fans are strongly advised to make alternative arrangements, as are students travelling to school or college and people commuting to work, because Greater Anglia is only able to run a heavily reduced service.
On Saturday 1 October, due to engineering work there is a rail replacement bus service between Colchester and Ingatestone connecting with the heavily reduced train service.
There will be no rail replacement buses to replace trains not running due to the strike.
Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director said: “We are very sorry that once again our customers will be disrupted by strikes, which this time will affect football fans and some people from our region competing in the London Marathon, as well as school or college students, commuters and business travellers.
“We’re only able to run a fraction of our usual services, so our advice again is to avoid using our trains on strike days.
“The rail industry is working hard to resolve these disputes and talks will continue with ASLEF and RMT in an effort to avert the strike.”
Anyone who has pre-booked tickets to travel on 1 or 5 October can change them, use them to travel on either the day before or up to two days later, or apply for a refund by going back to their original retailer.
Passenger assistance will be available as usual for all trains which are running. Anyone requiring assistance who cannot avoid travelling by train on strike days should plan their journey and book assistance in advance if possible.
Greater Anglia is currently finalising details of the strike day timetables and will publish them on its website when are they are ready, which is expected to be early next week.
Further information is available from greateranglia.co.uk/strikes which will be updated as details are finalised.
Other train companies affected by strikes on both days are Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry Trains, LNER, East Midlands Railway, c2c, GWR, Northern Trains, Southeastern, Transpennine Express, Avanti West Coast and West Midlands Trains, Hull Trains and London Overground.
Network Rail, Southwestern and GTR – which includes Great Northern, Thameslink and the Heathrow Express – and will be affected by strikes on Saturday 1 October.