With over 200 important dates for the remainder of this year and 2025, this calendar aims to highlight important themes around Diversity and Inclusion to help promote awareness of diversity throughout your organisation. Raising awareness can encourage self-learning and personal development, provide accessible information on dates, holidays and events for all employees and support your organisation’s diversity, cultural and quality training objectives. August 2024 19 August: World Humanitarian Day. Celebrate those working to promote human welfare and save lives. 23 August: International Day for the…
Let's face it – dealing with the rising absenteeism is a challenge many of us have faced. Recently, absenteeism rates in the UK have soared to their highest in over a decade, with the CIPD reporting a notable increase driven by stress, poor mental health, and minor illnesses. Have you noticed more empty desks in your office lately? You're not alone. The rise in absenteeism can be a real headache for businesses, affecting productivity and team dynamics. It's not just about the numbers; it's about…
A business is a team. No matter how large or small the organisation, in order for it to be productive, profitable and provide exceptional customer experience, every single individual and department needs to work as one. The thought of ‘tribes’ and silos existing in an organisation is unpalatable for any business owner or HR team. After all, you've spent years creating an organisation built on a set of values that promote the importance of collaboration. Communication is the key, you say regularly at staff meetings,…
In business, a culture of sharing can be transformative. Imagine a staff base that proactively shares new techniques, insights into competitor strategy, market trends and lessons learned from mistakes. What organisation wouldn’t want that kind of culture to thrive? However, getting people to share knowledge within the workplace isn’t necessarily easy - particularly with your HR function. In this article, we go through the hurdles to get past and how to develop healthy information sharing in your business. Obstacles to effective information sharing Trust Feeling…
Suffering from bereavement is a difficult time in anyone’s life, especially if the person you have lost is a close work colleague or friend. Dealing with grief can impact someone physically, emotionally, and psychologically, leaving long-lasting scars that might affect their ability to do their job. Though dealing with bereavement in the workplace can be difficult to manage, it's important that you do manage it and that you provide your employees with the level of support they need to get through this difficult time. This…
Most people will experience the death of someone they know at some point during their working lives. In the last year, 24% of the working population in Britain has experienced a bereavement, which equates to 7.9 million people. Only 30% of employees say the leadership of their organisation has communicated with them about grief or bereavement in the past year and subsequently, only 32% of employees are aware that their employer has a bereavement policy. Although employees may take very different paths when dealing with…
The 2024 King’s Speech reminded us of childhood letters to Father Christmas – a lot of hopes and expectations but no guarantee the presents will be under the Christmas tree on the day. Signalled for progression within the first 100 days of the new Government does not translate that everything will be law in that time frame. Keir Starmer has made clear he intends ‘partnership’ between business, working people, and the unions. Consultation on key issues means some may take a couple of years to…
If you're thinking about outsourcing your payroll, you're probably wondering how much it costs. An outsourced or 'managed' service from a professional payroll provider must be costly, right? Let's find out! Keep reading to find out how much it costs to outsource payroll. Plus, we reveal the hidden costs associated with running your payroll in-house (and getting it wrong – eek!). We also explore 'free' options for businesses who are operating their payroll operations on a shoestring. What's an example of a payroll fee? PEPM:…
The best practise is any formal meeting with an employee should be recorded in some form and placed on the employee’s personnel file. This includes performance reviews and appraisals. As Police Sergeant Angel explained about his pocket notebook in the 2007 comedy film, Hot Fuzz: "This is the most important piece of equipment you will ever own. This notebook has saved my skin more times than I care to mention." - Nicholas Angel, Hot Fuzz (2007) And when it comes to employment law, we agree.…
The payroll year end in 2025 is 5 April. Here’s everything you need to do to prepare for it. Payroll year end ties in with the tax year-end, which is 5 April 2025. The deadline for getting your ducks in a row (i.e. doing all your paperwork) is 31 May 2025. Quick checklist Send last FPS to HMRC. Report your expenses and benefits. Prepare for new tax year and the first payroll run. Send P60 forms to your employees. Sending your Final Full Payment Submission…
