News

Earlier this week it was encouraging to read results from the 10th annual XpertHR survey that, amid continuing challenges and cost cutting, HR has grown in influence and effectiveness within organisations....

With the annual absence management headache of “National Sickie Day” kick starting the week, we were more encouraged as the week progressed to hear positive soundings about employee engagement and read some inspirational stories as part of National Apprenticeship Week....

With a raft of employment law changes introduced earlier in the week, employers need to grasp new award limits and amounts payable. ...

Statutory Sick Pay will increase from £81.60 to £85.85 per week. The change will take effect from 9 April 2012....

With a raft of employment law amendments and changes to the tribunal system in the offing this year, an interesting development this week was the announcement from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills that they will fund mediation training for employees from a group of 24 SMEs....

Statutory maternity, paternity, additional paternity, adoption pay and maternity allowance will increase from £128.73 to £135.45 per week or 90% of normal weekly earnings if lower....

The statutory redundancy payment will increase from £400 per week to £430 per week as from 1 February 2012....

In a week which saw unemployment figures rise, the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, announced that employee share ownership is the “key to unlocking growth”....

In this week’s news two tribunal cases caught the eye: one for its payout of almost £1m and the other believed to be the first of its kind. ...

Happy New Year to you all! We were greeted at the beginning of the week by the Annual Barometer from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development....

Planned changes to the limits and amounts payable under employment legislation are due to take effect from 1 February 2012. The changes include an increase in the maximum award for unfair dismissal, from £68,400 to £72,300....

The Government has published its new proposed rates for statutory benefits, which will apply from April 2012....

With 2011 drawing to a close, attention is turning to important new employment legislation for employers to negotiate in 2012....

With winter taking hold and the first signs of over-indulgence showing on colleagues' faces, a survey of 1,948 office workers, by 2e2, the ICT services company, showed that just under half (47%) of the respondents stated that the best ideas come when in a pub or restaurant!...

The Government has announced plans to charge people to bring a claim to an employment tribunal, suggesting fees of between £150 and £1,750....

Our business case calculator test is a free and easy to use online tool for businesses to calculate savings they could make through HR outsourcing....

Earlier this week we reported on pension auto-enrolment and provided a link to People Management's HR Talk, a short online film which focuses on what employers need to do to prepare for auto-enrolment....

The Pensions Bill recently received Royal Assent and is set to transform UK pensions. From October 2012, larger employers will have to automatically enrol eligible employees into a qualifying workplace pension scheme. The aim is to encourage more workers to save for retirement....

This week’s news has been dominated by Tuesday’s autumn statement, in which The Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered bleak news for the public sector: pay caps and further job losses. ...

'GPs are not well placed to judge what work sick people can do and have no incentive not to sign sick notes sought by their patients'....

New business realities, Fresh HR perspectives....

Come and see us at the CIPD conference in Manchester on 8-10 November and win an iPad! ...

CIPD/Simplyhealth has released its 2011 Absence Management survey. The report makes interesting reading as the findings show that stress is, for the first time, the most common cause of long-term sickness absence amongst respondents....

From 1st October 2011, the national minimum wage rate for adults aged 21 or over increased from £5.93 per hour to £6.08 per hour. ...

The Agency Worker Regulations 2010 came into effect on 1st October 2011. They provide a significant enhancement to the rights of agency workers or “temps” who are now entitled to certain benefits from their very first day, equal to other permanent employees within the organisation they are working for. ...

The new website was launched today with a built in Business Case Calculator for you to fill in and find out how much Ochre can save your business....

We are pleased to announce, after a comprehensive assessment, we were awarded the ISO9001 and ISO14001 accreditations on 16th September 2011. ...

Having created the entire back office function for Future Energy Services Ltd when they set up in May 2011, we are proud to be able to support them through their phenomenal growth over the last 5 months in the solar panel sector. ...

We are pleased to welcome Mark Boorman as HR Relationship Director to Ochre Business Services. Mark is a senior HR professional with extensive experience having worked with leading organisations across a range of sectors. ...