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HR questions and answers
HR Questions & Answers
Wednesday, June 12th, 2013Dealing with a tired employee One of our employees seems always to be tired. He looks tired, he yawns a lot, he is slow and he makes mistakes. What can we do? Reply You need to determine why he is tired, so talk to him. Is his tiredness caused by late nights, partying or does [...]
HR Questions & Answers
Thursday, May 16th, 2013Acquiring keyboard skills I have to use a computer regularly but am slow because I type with only two fingers and just cannot remember where the letters are on the keyboard. Any advice? Reply It just comes down to training and practice, and especially the latter. See if your local college offers courses as some [...]
HR Questions & Answers
Tuesday, April 9th, 2013Proof of drunkenness How can we prove that an employee is drunk? We have no medical staff on site. Reply You do not need absolute proof, merely a reasonable belief. Ideally have a colleague join you as you speak to the employee. Make a written note of his replies, his general behaviour and the evidence [...]
HR Questions & Answers
Tuesday, March 26th, 2013No written contracts of employment I have just taken over the HR function of an old company and am trying to get to grips with employees’ terms and conditions of employment. Nobody seems to have written contracts or statements of terms and conditions. Over the years different managers have engaged people on the terms and [...]
HR Questions & Answers
Friday, February 15th, 2013East European workers I understand that we will shortly be overwhelmed by Romanian workers coming into this country, taking the jobs of British workers and sponging off our welfare state. Can I refuse to employ them? Reply Certainly you cannot reject them just because they are Romanian. You could reject someone for a telephone sales [...]
HR Questions & Answers
Thursday, January 24th, 2013Offer letters How much detail should I put in an offer letter? Reply As much as the potential employee will need to enable him or her to decide whether or not to take the job. Reverse roles and ask yourself what you would need to know if you were interested in the job. Ideally set [...]
HR Questions & Answers
Thursday, December 13th, 2012Part-time workers What is the legal definition of a part-time worker? Reply There is no definition in terms of hours. A part-time worker is one who works less than what your organisation recognises as full-time hours. Thus if most of your people work 37.5 hours, but I work only 35 hours per week, then I [...]
HR Questions and Answers
Thursday, November 15th, 2012Seeking promotion My boss retires at the end of the year and I believe I am the best person to succeed him, but I don’t want to seem too pushy. What do you advise? Reply Two points. First for reasons you may not understand or accept, you may not be suitable. Second, if you want [...]
HR Questions and Answers
Monday, October 8th, 2012Work experience youngster We have taken on a Youth Experience youngster for a few weeks. A colleague believes we should give him a project to while away his time whereas I think we should let him start at the bottom by making tea, filing and so on. Do you think I am right? Reply No. [...]
HR Questions and Answers
Thursday, September 13th, 2012Bad language A man who works in our warehouse uses the most atrocious language. I don’t swear myself but am reasonably broad-minded, but this is just too much. One or two of us have complained to the man, who ignores what we say, and to our manager who responds that the man is just like [...]
HR Questions and Answers
Thursday, August 2nd, 2012Leaving on time We hold our monthly Safety Committee meeting immediately after the midday break and sometimes continue until well after the 5.00pm finishing time. Two members of the committee just up and go at 5.00pm, although there is still business to discuss. They say they are not paid for overtime. We think this is [...]
HR Questions and Answers
Monday, July 9th, 2012Giving Notice Does notice have to be in writing? Reply There is no requirement in law for notice to be given in writing. Nevertheless it is a good idea to state in employment contracts that employees must give notice in writing so that there is no question that it was intentional and not just an [...]
HR Problems Page
Monday, November 7th, 2011Moonlighting We have discovered that one of our full-time employees works an evening shift at a local company. Can we stop him? Reply You can take action against him in three circumstances. First does his job with the other company contravene his contract with you? It would do so if, for example, he was in [...]
HR problems page
Wednesday, April 13th, 2011Here we take our weekly look at answering some of the tricky HR questions we’ve been emailed. If you have a tricky HR question you needs answering email it to help@payroll-help.com and we’ll post the best here with an answer each week. Keeping it in the family We have a section in our foundry where the [...]
