Keeping you HR compliant and informed for the start of 2023

This informal CPD article, ‘Keeping you HR compliant and informed for the start of 2023', was provided by EST HR, a multi service professional practice offering HR, Accountancy and Commercial Finance services.

The New Year is always a great time to review our policies and practice around people and culture. To ensure a solid foundation for this, it’s important to be mindful of the legal, cultural and political factors that will influence how we manage our people and organisations.  

We have outlined below several areas of legal and working practice that will be key for an informed and compliant start to 2023 in the HR space.

Record Real Living Wage Increase

The Living Wage rates has risen by 10.1% to £10.90 an hour across the UK (£1 increase), and to £11.95 an hour in London (90p increase). This is the largest year-on-year in the Living Wage Foundation’s 11-year history reflecting sharp increases in living costs and in response to cost-of-living rises.

This year’s Living Wage rates have been brought forward and were announced on Thursday 22nd September 2022. Employers who subscribe to the real Living Wage should implement the rise as soon as possible but by the latest 14 May 2023.

Transport Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill

The Transport Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill was introduced in Parliament on 20 October 2022 and is expected to come into force in 2023. If enacted, it would require employers and trade unions to agree a minimum service level during transport strikes over a three-month period, ensuring that specified transport services – which could include, for example, rail, tubes and buses – will not completely shut down when unions impose strikes.

This bill will balance the right to strike with ensuring commuters can get to their place of work and people can continue to make vital journeys to access education and healthcare during strikes. There will be a public consultation on how the legislation will work in detail, followed by regulations for all transport services once that secondary legislation has been agreed by Parliament. The provisions of the bill extend and apply to England, Wales, and Scotland.

Right to Work Checks Change

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the government introduced digital ways for employers to check employee’s right to work in the UK because of the difficulties associated with manually checking documents. These arrangements ended on 30 September 2022.

New digital right to work checks, using ‘identification document validation technology’ (IDVT), became available for employees with valid British or Irish passports from 6 April 2022. Employers can use an ‘identity service provider’ (IDSP) to carry out this check, although they remain responsible for checking the identity of the employee and retaining the record for the duration of employment plus two years.

Since 1 October 2022, employers now need to either: 

• Carry out a manual check by physically meeting with the employee to check and copy their original documentation. 

Or: 

• Appoint an ‘identification service provider’ (IDSP) to check the passport of the employee on their behalf or carry out the check themselves using ID document validation technology.

Government guidance has been updated and has a list of approved IDSPs. The Employer Checking Service continues for right to work checks on non-UK/Irish citizens.

Draft ICO guidance out for consultation

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published draft guidance on two important topics relevant to employers: processing information about the health of workers, and monitoring people while at work. Both are the subject of public consultation until January 2023. Watch this space.

Hybrid Working: People practices and considerations for hybrid working

One of the greatest leadership transformations of our times has been brought on by the pandemic with many organisations experimenting with hybrid working arrangements in order to meet employee demand. Leaders and managers are having to adapt to an environment where people are measured by the work that they do and not by the hours they are logged into a system, or their presence in the workplace.

Changing leadership hearts and minds on the issue of trust is key here. For hybrid working to be successful, an open culture is needed within which unconscious bias and assumptions are addressed and employees are trusted to do their best work. It’s also worthy to note, that some employees don’t want to work remotely – they thrive and perform best in the office with the support and direction of others.

Research shows that developing a culture where employees are trusted to manage their work independently to do a good job often leads to an increased level of employee engagement, job satisfaction and productivity, as well as a work-life balance and benefits to peoples’ health and wellbeing. At a time when there is significant competition to attract and retain skills, a strong and flexible culture will help attract and retain a talented and diverse workforce, leading to increased productivity, organisational sustainability, and efficiency.

Consultation and communication with employees is key to increasing employee engagement when deciding on working practices and this together with a clearly defined policy will increase the success of what is a transformational change in working culture. The skills managers need to lead a hybrid team are the same skills needed to lead a team that works more conventionally, but managers need to be more skilled in specific areas of leadership and management competency.

• Effective hybrid/remote team management
• Coaching skills for managers
• Competent leadership programme

New government resource for employers to help employees with health and disability

The government has launched a new online service which will give employers the tools they need to empower and encourage disabled employees and those with health conditions with the aim of creating more inclusive work environments and equipping employers with advice on how people from all backgrounds can thrive at work and grow the economy.

There is currently in an early test version of the Support with Employee Health and Disability service and any employer can access the service, which provides free advice on how to manage staff who may be in or out of work with a disability or long-term health condition in a user-friendly online Q&A format. 

The new service covers potential changes an employer could make to help them return to and stay in work, supporting a government drive to boost numbers of people in employment and ensuring everyone has the opportunity to benefit from being in work.

We hope this article was helpful. For more information about EST HR, please visit their CPD Member Directory page. Alternatively, you can go to the CPD Industry Hubs for more articles, courses and events relevant to your Continuing Professional Development requirements.

References:

Coronavirus: Right to work checks https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-right-to-work-checks

Government Guidance on Digital Identity certification: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/digital-identity-certification-for-right-to-work-right-to-rent-and-criminal-record-checks/digital-identity-certification-for-right-to-work-right-to-rent-and-criminal-record-checks

Using the Employer Checking Service: https://www.gov.uk/employee-immigration-employment-status

Support with employee health and disability https://www.support-with-employee-health-and-disability.dwp.gov.uk/support-with-employee-health-and-disability