Edition 32 - August 2024

The summer holidays have officially arrived, and many working parents are left feeling overwhelmed. They are faced with the challenge of balancing work, alongside the care and needs of their children, during the extended break from school.

It is important to support your staff who have young children during the summer holiday period. It can be a very stressful time for your employees, and you, so planning ahead can reduce this anxiety.

Let’s break down how you help employees navigate the holidays.

• Offer flexible hours or compressed workweeks during the summer months, to reduce the pressure on employees.
• Offer remote working so that employees can continue working as normal.
• Where flexible or remote working is not a viable option, you can consider offering holiday request priority to working parents.
• If your business operates on shifts, promote shift swapping, which could resolve any scheduling issues.

Ensure you maintain open communication with your employees. Work with them to elevate their stress, this will make sure they feel valued and supported.

If you need support creating flexible processes, get in touch with our team today.

With the newly appointed Labour Government, it’s important to stay informed on the latest changes to employment law.

Labour have proposed a reform of the UK’s minimum wage, ensuring that the cost of living is considered when setting rates. They also propose to remove ‘discriminatory’ age bands.

What does this mean for your payroll?

It has never been more important to ensure that you have an expert running your payroll. With new legislations coming into force, potentially imminently, there will be many changes that need to be made and enforced to ensure compliance.

Our experts can take the pressure off of you, and make sure your payroll continues to be accurate and compliant.

To speak with one of our payroll advisors, get in touch with us today.

It’s no secret that training is vital to a business’ continued success.

A lack of ongoing training can have severe repercussions to your business.

Did you know it is estimated that to replace a salaried employee it can cost, on average, between 6-9 months’ salary!

By offering consistent training to existing employees to develop their skills and aid their career development, you can improve your retention rate.

Improving your retention rate, means you spend less money on recruitment increasing your profit margins.

Our consultants can support you in making a personalised training service to suit your business’ needs.

To find out more about our tailored training services, get in touch with us.

When it comes to managing health and safety hazards, your first thought may be construction sites, industrial plants and factories. However, if your workplace is office based there are many risks you need to ensure are managed effectively.

If you’re wondering where to start, the best course of action is to have a risk assessment conducted. The risk assessment will help you to identify risks and put procedures in place to mitigate them.

Here are 5 of the most common hazards reported in an office environment:

1. Slips, Trips and Falls: Slips, trips, and falls are one of the most common hazards across all workplaces, not just office environments. They account for around 30% of workplace injuries as reported by the HSE (Health and Safety Executive).
2. Ergonomic Injuries: Unsuitable chairs, and office furniture can lead to serious strains and other injuries.
3. Stress: Stress can be a serious hazard in the workplace, with the HSE reporting over 11 million days of work being lost a year because of it.
4. Eye Strain: Working with equipment such as laptops or computers for long periods of time can result in employees experiencing eye strain, or similar problems.
5. Fire Safety: Fire safety is an essential part of any workplace environment.

To update your office risk assessment, get in touch with our health and safety experts today.

Our CEO, Sophie Forrest-Lavery, will be featuring TWICE in the August edition of the Tunbridge Wells Business Magazine.

Sophie will be giving her advice on what employers can do to support working parents during the school holidays and also provides her thoughts and comments on the proposed employment bill as recently covered in the Kings Speech.

You can check out the articles online now and hard copy from 17 August.

We are sad to announce that we will be losing two of our HR Consultants, Jacqui Falvey and Grace Lord at the end of August.?

They have both been huge assets to the business and we wish them all the best for the future.

Thanks for reading!

All at the Forrest Group team x