Anti-Slavery Day takes place every year on the 18 October. Anti-Slavery Day is part of Anti-Slavery week, a UK and European awareness week, which this year runs from 16 – 22 October 2023.
In 2010, an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom introduced a national day to raise awareness of the need to eradicate all forms of slavery, human trafficking and exploitation. Today, we continue to raise awareness of these issues, highlighting good practice.
While the concept of ‘rolled-up’ holiday pay may seem perplexing, it still holds considerable relevance in today’s UK employment market. The idea revolves around including an employee’s holiday pay in their regular wage, rather than paying it separately when they take their annual leave.
This approach is often associated with flexibility and simplicity, particularly for contract or part-time workers. However, it’s not without its controversies and legal implications, thus necessitating a comprehensive understanding. Our aim in this article is to shed light on the concept of rolled-up holiday pay, its benefits, drawbacks, and its place in the contemporary UK market.
“Rolled-up Holiday Pay” is a practice where businesses encompass holiday pay within the regular pay of their workers, instead of disbursing it when the employees take their actual leave.
Despite the ruling in the Robinson-Steele v PD Retail Services case [2006] by the European Court of Justice, the practice of ‘rolled up’ holiday pay still endures in the UK market. The Court stipulates that payment for holidays should be made when the actual holidays are taken, technically rendering ‘rolled up’ holiday pay impermissible.
This ruling was instituted to ensure that workers are not dissuaded from taking their rightful time off due to concerns over finances. The continuation of ‘rolled up’ holiday pay, however, indicates a nuanced situation wherein the practicalities of the working world and the legislative guidelines seem to diverge.
The common critique against the usage of rolled up holiday pay is that it creates a financial disincentive for workers to take their rightful holidays, given they are not being compensated directly during their time off. The European Court encouraged EU member states to take decisive action to terminate this practice. Despite this exhortation, the UK government has yet to promulgate legislation expressly prohibiting the use of rolled up holiday pay.
However, in non-statutory guidance, the government has asserted that any contractual arrangements involving rolled up holiday pay should be subject to renegotiation. This demonstrates the ongoing tension between efforts to ensure fair compensation for workers and the practical considerations of payroll management.
Businesses that employ casual and/or zero-hour contract workers often prefer to use the ‘rolled up’ holiday pay system. The primary reason is convenience. The calculation of a flexible worker’s holiday leave entitlement, along with the corresponding pay, can be a complex and time-consuming administrative task.
This complexity is amplified by the fluid nature of casual and zero-hour contracts, where work hours can fluctuate significantly from week to week. Furthermore, considering annual leave can create complications when scheduling work rotas. By incorporating holiday pay within the standard pay, businesses find a streamlined solution that circumvents these challenges, despite the potential legal ambiguities involved.
Employers who choose to implement ‘rolled up’ holiday pay run the risk of potential double payment. If a worker is able to effectively demonstrate that the structure of their pay has discouraged them from taking their legally entitled holidays, they might be eligible for ‘just and equitable’ remuneration. Consequently, the employer could end up compensating the worker twice for the same holiday period – once within the ‘rolled up’ holiday pay and a second time as a compensatory measure.
An additional implication could be that workers are allowed to defer their holiday entitlement to the subsequent holiday year. If these workers then decide to leave the organisation, they retain the right to demand a payout in lieu of their unused holiday time upon termination of their contract. Hence, while ‘rolled up’ holiday pay may initially appear to streamline administrative processes, it also poses considerable monetary risks for employers.
Additionally, for workers with irregular hours, the ‘rolled up’ holiday pay system may not always equate to an accurate reflection of their holiday pay entitlement. Factors such as fluctuations in their work hours can lead to miscalculations, resulting in either insufficient or excessive payment. This inconsistency can bring about the risk of claims against the business for unlawful deductions of wages. If a worker believes they have been underpaid, they may choose to take legal action, further complicating the scenario for the employer.
On the flip side, if the worker has been overpaid due to inaccuracies in the ‘rolled up’ pay calculation, it creates a financial burden on the business. This highlights yet another risk factor employers must consider when opting to use the ‘rolled up’ holiday pay system.
For businesses choosing to implement the ‘rolled up’ holiday pay system, transparency and clear communication with their workforce is paramount. An initial step in this direction would entail introducing the usage of rolled up holiday pay as part of the recruitment process. Prospective employees should be made aware of this practice from the onset, and written confirmation must be obtained from them indicating their understanding and acceptance of this payment model.
It is essential to emphasize here that, while workers can choose to accept their holiday pay being rolled up into their standard pay, they retain the right to opt for paid annual leave at any point in the future. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that, as per the European Court of Justice, workers cannot completely waive their holiday pay rights. No matter the pay structure in place, these rights remain inviolable and mandatory, thereby ensuring that workers are not disadvantaged in any way.
In essence, while the ‘rolled up’ holiday pay system may provide administrative convenience for employers, its use necessitates open dialogue and mutual agreement with employees to avoid misinterpretation, ensure compliance with the law, and maintain industrial harmony.
As a crucial step towards transparency, employers using the ‘rolled up’ holiday pay system must ensure that payslips issued to workers clearly distinguish between holiday pay and basic pay. This distinction is not merely for clarity’s sake; it is a legal requirement for employers to provide itemised payslips. The payslip should explicitly break down the payment, stating the specific amount attributed to basic pay and the sum designated as holiday pay.
This practice helps to avoid any confusion or disputes regarding payment, enabling workers to fully comprehend their compensation structure. Moreover, it allows for better tracking and validation of whether the holiday pay component aligns accurately with an employee’s entitlement based on their working hours. It is, therefore, paramount for businesses to incorporate this step into their payroll process, ensuring a more transparent and just system.
Lastly, under no circumstances should businesses prevent workers from taking their annual leave. In fact, businesses should ideally adopt a proactive approach in encouraging their flexible staff members to take their holidays. The significance of this cannot be overstated. Holidays are an essential part of maintaining a healthy work-life balance; they provide workers with the opportunity to rest, recharge, and return to work with renewed vigor. As such, businesses must foster a culture that promotes and values time off.
This could involve periodically reminding workers of their remaining holiday entitlement, or perhaps even implementing a system that highlights upcoming periods of lower workload, when taking leave could be most beneficial. Ultimately, the aim should be to create a supportive environment where workers feel comfortable taking their earned leave without fear of repercussion or negative impact on their job security.
It has been reported today with surveying of businesses across the UK that a whooping 76% of UK companies are struggling to hire new staff.
Recruitment being a hot topic in the news at the moment with 3 in 4 companies struggling to recruit and retain staff which is a massive number and with the market still being candidate led, what can companies do to attract and retain staff.
Years back candidates went where the money was but now we are finding although having a great salary and benefits, company culture is what is important, staff stay or go where they feel most valued and respected.
So what can you implement in your business to ensure you attract and train your staff?
Culture:
Culture is everything and ensuring staff feel happy, valued and respected within the business and amongst colleagues is key, so what can you do to ensure your staff are happy within the work place. Having open door policies, staff want to be able to address and raise concerns without feeling penalised, likewise they want to ensure they can share ideas and thoughts openly and feel they are being listened too. Offering staff flexibility, work life balance and not to feel micro managed. Having team events / team building exercise and most importantly, have a work hard play hard culture, get the job done but ensure staff can laugh and enjoy along the way.
Salary and Benefits:
Of course this one will be up there in key ways to attract and retain staff and its a pretty simple one to navigate, having an attractive salary within a job role of course will attract candidates to the role. Go above the average for that role, pay staff their value along with additional incentives such as increased holiday entitlement, discounted perks, life style benefits, bonuses and ensure these are regularly reviewed. You will be surprised the return you will get from an employee when you pay they what they deserve with additional incentives.
The Recruitment Process:
So you have had a lot of candidates apply for the job role, don’t wait around to short list as good candidates won’t stay on the market for long, so get interviews lined up in your diary. There is nothing worst to candidates than a lengthy and drawn out recruitment process, if you are taking a long time to get back to candidates or having a extremely long interview process such as multiple interviews / tests and so on, it can put candidates off. a one or two stage interview process we thinks works well in keeping candidates engaged, anything longer than this, you may risk loosing candidates interest.
If you want to have a chat with one of our friendly consultants who can work with you in offering advice on ways to improve candidate attraction and retention then get in touch today.
3 Ways a Recruitment Agency can support your business.
When it comes to recruitment and hiring it can often become a stressful and time-consuming process with some businesses not knowing where to start or simply not having enough time to sift through applications, arrange interviews and ultimately find the right person for the job.
This is where an agency comes in, an agency will work with you in finding out exactly what you need in terms of candidate skills, experience and personality fit. Taking the stress away from the recruitment process and freeing up your time to focus on your business.
Here are just 3 ways a recruitment agency can add value to your business.
Candidate Attraction – giving you access to a higher pool of candidates.
Direct Response will manage the whole process on attracting candidates for your job role. We will create an eye-catching job description, showcase what you have to offer and advertise these across a wide range of job boards and social media channels ensuring your job is seen by those looking for new opportunities.
At Direct Response we all have established a large database of candidates over the years meaning we have access to candidates who may not be active on the job market but could have the skills you are looking for, giving us a greater pool of candidates to approach on your behalf.
We Manage the process for you.
Having to sift through a large number of applications can be time consuming, but here at Direct Response we will handle all that for you. We will manage all applications and short list candidates who are suitable for the role. We will pre-screen all candidates, discussing the role in detail, salary expectations and so on before sending all suitable candidates over to you attached with a CV and profile detailing their suitability for the role.
Once you have selected which candidates you would like to interview, we will manage the interview process for you, scheduling and assisting with the all-important interviews.
Offer, Rejection and Negotiation.
So, you have found a candidate you would love to join your business and its time to make an offer, we will support your business in making that all important job offer.
Direct Response will assist with the whole offer, negotiating salary, carrying out references checks and supporting with the onboarding process of your new recruit.
We will also ensure any candidates you have been declined during your recruitment process are informed within a polite manner so you can concentrate on what you do best within your company.
If you would like to find out more about how Direct Response can support your business, then get in touch with us today to see how we can help.
Mental health can affect us all at different times in our lives and with work being here we spend a lot of our time during the working week, its important that employers and colleagues alike to be able to support those who may be experiencing mental health in the workplace.
Its important that your employees are aware they can come to you should they be struggling or generally just need some time out or someone to talk to and it’s an employer’s job to ensure you have that open door policy to allow employees to do this.
However not everyone feels comfortable when it comes to talking about their feelings or asking for help, so how do we recognise if someone is struggling within the workplace.
Is you employee / colleague struggling with mental health and what are the tell tell signs to look out for.
Sometimes it can be easy t spot a change in someone’s behaviour or if someone is perhaps not in a good mood, we can pick these up easily but there are times where people who may be struggling and out on a go mask so to speak.
Which brings me on to what can we do in the workplace to encourage mental health awareness and what support can you provide?
It is important to remember that an employee who is struggling can feel vulnerable or may be embarrassed to ask for help, so its important to raise as much awareness within the workplace.
Create a supportive and open environment and ensure mental health is not frowned upon and that your door is always open.
If you would like to take a look further about what training or work shops surrounding mental health which may health your organisation, then check out the links below.
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-mental-health/publications/how-support-mental-health-work
Is it all about the Salary?
The ball is very much in the candidate’s court at the moment as we are in a candidate driven market, so you may be wondering what you can do to keep current staff engaged and attract new talent?
There once was a time where it was very much all about the salary, candidates went where the money was and even though this is still high on a candidates list, there is so much more to it.
With the ever-changing market, working from home and the increase in the desire to have that work life balance, candidates are looking at the overall package as opposed to what they would take home at the end of the month.
So, what exactly are candidates wanting and view as high or musts on their check list when looking for a new position?
We have asked the question and created a list of what candidates have said are important when looking at their next role.
Number one on the list…… Flexibility!
Work life balance is key and what was the norm a few years back, working 5 days a week 9-5 has changed, having that flexibility is a must, especially when it comes to the working family.
So what flexibility are they looking for?
Working 4 days a week.
Having school hours or the flexibility to start a bit later or finish early.
Early finish on a Friday.
The flexibility to work from home if they have the technology / capacity to do so.
For the working parent having a company that is understanding when it comes to childcare, such as doing the school run, having time off if the child is poorly or generally being flexible with working around school holidays, school performances is a real must.
If it has been a while since you looked at how the company views flexible working, it may be worth having a look at what your company can do to support your workers.
Company Culture:
That’s second on the list. What is your company culture like? Do you have an open-door policy? Are employees made to feel they can express feelings / ideas and do you offer a friendly working environment?
The last thing you want is an employee that dreads coming in to work, so what can you do to build that team spirit and ensure employees are happy?
Listening is key, try not to micromanage and let employees have the freedom to complete their job knowing they have support if needed.
Create team building exercises, make the office / workspace fun and have a laugh while you work. Yes, get the job done but nobody wants to work in strict environment.
We spend a lot of time with our colleagues so having a team which feels friendly and supportive makes employees enjoy being in work.
Salary:
Here it is, Salary! Third on the list as being the most important when looking for a new opportunity.
Candidates need to feel they are being paid what they are worth and offering a fair salary for the job is just as important as the other added additional benefits.
There are a number of points that companies can do to make sure they are remaining competitive.
At the end of the day, if an employee feels valued they will go the extra mile and productivity is key with business performance.
Holiday Entitlement
Fourth on the list is Holiday entitlement, a lot of companies are still offering the standard 28 days (Normally 20 days plus 8 bank holidays) holiday, which is the minimal legal entitlement. So, can this be classed as a benefit when you are offering the standard, as let’s face it, legally you have to give this amount to candidates, so where is the added benefit?
While most companies will offer an increase with years of service, perhaps it is worth looking at offering an increased entitlement from the very beginning of the candidate staring work.
Having enhanced holiday, is a must for companies to look into, along with some companies offering the option to also buy or sell additional holiday.
Additional Benefits:
We have also listed some additional benefits below which may make the package a little sweeter for your employees.
So, whilst salary is an important factor when a candidates employee looks at another job or is considering leaving, Employers need to be looking at the whole benefit package.
The job market is changing. According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS)*, job vacancies are reaching record highs.
With employers recruiting again following the impact of COVID-19, many employers are leaving the recruitment process in the hands of the recruitment agencies. This means it is a great time to register with a recruitment agency so that you’re first in line to hear about a new job.
Direct Response Employment Services is your local recruitment agency, finding the right people for the right jobs in Wiltshire, somerset and nationally. We recruit for permanent and temporary positions from warehouse, production, and industrial, transport and office and technical jobs.
With lots of people realising that recruitment agencies are the best way of job searching, how can you make sure that you are the first person that springs to mind for a recruiter?
The key is in a successful registration.
A registration with Direct Response Employment services includes a 45-minute appointment with one of our friendly Recruitment Consultants. We also need some necessary details to be able to help you on your job search like your personal details, ID check and GDPR form so that we’re complying with our legal requirements. It doesn’t take long to complete online.
This is an opportunity for us to meet you face to face and have an informal conversation with you. This enables us to get a better feel for the types of jobs and employers that would be the best fit for you and your interests and skills. We are looking for the right person for our clients and a job for you that you will be happy in.
Furlough is ending… so what now?
The Furlough scheme has undoubtedly been a lifeline for companies and employees during the Covid pandemic and has helped protect millions of jobs when companies were forced to shut, and companies took a financial hit.
With Furlough now in its final week and the scheme coming to an end on 30th of September and surprisingly still over a million employees still on furlough, most companies would have made a decision as to if they are bringing employees back into work or making redundancies.
I do hope most of these employees will be bought back into work, but it is fair to say there will be a lot of redundancies taking place, so where does that leave you if you are left facing redundancy.
I am facing redundancy, what should my next steps be?
If you are facing redundancy, it is important that you look at what you can apply for that will help financially during these times, we know it may not be as much as you were earning being employed but every little helps during this difficult time.
After losing your job, the main benefit, you would be entitled to job seekers allowance and it is important you apply for this straight away as it can often take a couple of weeks to process your application.
Job seekers allowance also know as JSA entitles that person to a sum that currently stands at £59.20 per week and £74.70 per week for anyone aged over 25.
This is normally paid on a fortnightly basis, and you may need to attend jobcentre appointments as part of the process.
You may also be entitled to additional benefits such as help with housing costs so it is worth checking out what you may be entitled to, we have included some sites below which may help.
Benefit Calculator – www.turn2us.org.uk
Citizen’s advice can also assist with money related matters and can offer free advice and guides.
There is some positive news on the horizon…
The job market is booming right now, and companies are crying out for staff so even though you may feel you are facing a difficult time following redundancy, it is a great time to be job hunting with so many companies hiring.
Choosing the right agency
Most employers do not have the time or resources to find the right employee for a certain jobs within their company, they resort to a recruitment agency.
Go online and check out your local agencies. Look at their reviews and once you decided who to register with make an appointment.
Give as much information as possible upfront about the kind of role you are looking for. Expect to be asked about the type of organisation you want to work for. How far you are willing to travel and your salary expectations.
Make sure your CV is accurate and up to date. This will save you a lot of time in the end. Your recruitment consultant can give you advise on how to improve your CV, based on what they know their clients are looking for.
Be proactive! Keep in regular contact with your agency to stay at the top of their mind.
LOOKING AFTER MENTAL HEALTH AT WORK
In the UK each year 1 to 4 people are affected with Mental health. With the country slowly easing its way back to some sort of normality, taking time to prioritise your mental health is as important as ever.
Work can make us feel good about ourselves and give us a sense of purpose, but for some it can also have a negative effect on mental health. To cope with the stresses of work and overcome what life can throw at us, it is important we stay on top of our mental health.
Five ways to boost your mental health at work:
TALK.
It is important to remember that you can talk about your feelings at work. This can help you maintain your mental health and deal with times when you feel stressed or troubled.
KEEP ACTIVE.
Taking regular exercise can really help boost your self-esteem, not to mention help you concentrate, sleep and feel better. Experts say that we should aim to do 30 minutes of exercise, 5 days a week.
EAT AND DRINK WELL.
What we eat and drink can affect how we feel both immediately and in the longer term. It is important to bear in mind that a good diet that benefits your physical health is also good for your mental health.
TAKE UP A HOBBY.
Enjoying yourself is an excellent way to combat stress. At work, you may have a hobby that you would like to share or join in with colleagues. For example, a work running club or crafting group can be a great way to share a skill with others and enjoy yourself.
MAINTAIN YOUR RELATIONSHIPS.
Maintaining relationships and collaborating in a supportive team is important for mental health at work. If working relationships break down it can lead to tension. Seeking out a friend or trusted work colleague with whom you can share your feelings can help you work through any challenges you experience in your workplace.
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