Home | Archives for May 2022

Sarah Carrington has worked extensively as the senior HR professional for a range of organisations across the public, charitable and private sectors, including the NHS, Social Care and most recently the cultural sector.

Her impressive CV includes leading on numerous transformation change programmes, managing complex employee relations issues, negotiating and implementing new systems and terms and conditions of employment including pay and reward and job evaluation initiatives plus implementing strategic learning and development programmes.

Sarah is also a fellow of the CIPD, an accredited Mediator, a CIPD Enterprise Advisor and mentor, a school governor for a pupil referral unit, and a Mental Health First Aider.

Sarah’s wealth of knowledge and expertise makes her a great addition to the expanding Narrow Quay HR Team. This skillset is exemplified by the work she has undertaken on a recent project reviewing the leadership structure and competencies for a critical team within a national cultural organisation, including setting up strategies and mechanisms to resource plan and manage.

Sarah commented on her appointment:

“I am delighted to join Narrow Quay HR, working with such a supportive and friendly team of professionals (towards colleagues and clients alike) with an extensive and inspiring range of individual and collective experience and expertise. The team’s approach is wholly client-focussed, with a genuine ambition and care for finding workable and successful outcomes that are tailored to meet specific needs. No ask to the team appears too small (or large) from our clients, they are all important. I look forward to helping with the expansion of services the team can offer, including using mediation as a tool to resolving workplace conflict.”

Narrow Quay HR Directors Caitlin Anniss and Sarah Martin commented:

“We are absolutely thrilled Sarah has joined us. Her deep understanding of HR best practice coupled with her practical strategic mindset and outcome focussed approach will be invaluable to our clients. Not only is she a hugely skilled and experienced HR Practitioner, she is also a qualified Mediator. Mediation is such an effective means of dispute resolution and is a great fit with the services currently offered by Narrow Quay HR.  We are hugely excited to develop this area of our business in conjunction with Sarah.”

Home | Archives for May 2022

Date: Thursday 16 June

Time: 10.00am – 11.30am

Price: £35 + VAT

Location: Virtual Online Event

What’s this session about?

Line Managers are usually closest to managing employee issues on the ground and it is therefore essential that they have appropriate support and training in order to this effectively. These expert led sessions will provide delegates with the skills and confidence to deal with the issues they are likely to face in practice. Delegates can attend each session or choose the ones that they feel are the most relevant.

In this second session we will cover grievances and how to handle to difficult conversations. The session will include:

  • the definition of a grievance and when to act
  • the procedural requirements
  • informal resolution and mediation
  • investigating, note-taking and record keeping
  • decision making and appeals

 Difficult conversations

  • when it may be appropriate to act
  • planning and preparation
  • structuring the conversation
  • communication skills The sessions will be interactive with relevant case studies and there will be opportunities to ask questions.

The sessions will be interactive with relevant case studies and there will be opportunities to ask questions.

Speakers: Sarah Martin & Kirsty Hunt

We hope you are able to join us. If you have any queries, please contact the Events team.

Home | Archives for May 2022

Date: Thursday 9 June

Time: 10.00am – 11.30am

Price: £35 + VAT

Location: Virtual Online Event

What’s this session about?

Line Managers are usually closest to managing employee issues on the ground and it is therefore essential that they have appropriate support and training in order to do this effectively. These expert led sessions will provide delegates with the skills and confidence to deal with the issues they are likely to face in practice. Delegates can attend each session or choose the ones that they feel are the most relevant.

In this first session we will be covering disciplinary and conduct issues, and the session will include:

  • Handling minor conduct concerns in the workplace;
  • What a fair disciplinary process is, with reference to the ACAS code of practice;
  • How to distinguish between conduct and capability issues;
  • Identifying issues early and informal management;
  • When it is appropriate to commence a formal disciplinary process;
  • When to consider suspension and how to do that;
  • The principles of a fair investigation;
  • The disciplinary process itself and tricky issues that might arise such as sickness absence, remote working, overlapping disciplinary and grievance issues; and
  • Sanctions and appeals.

The sessions will be interactive with relevant case studies and there will be opportunities to ask questions.

Speakers: Caitlin Anniss & Sue Meehan Boyes

We hope you are able to join us. If you have any queries, please contact the Events team at events@vwvplus.co.uk.

Home | Archives for May 2022

Are you confident that you know how your staff are feeling at work? Have you noticed tensions in the staffroom or at meetings, but no one suggests anything is amiss?

Perhaps you already do an employee engagement survey but don’t feel this is giving enough relevant details. Or perhaps you are aware that there is a particular team which is not functioning well and you can’t quite establish why that is.

There can be a variety of reasons why it can be hard to get to the heart of what is happening in situations such as this – finding time in a busy schedule, using the right tools to gather in that feedback. Sometimes there is a reluctance from staff to engage on sensitive issues or to speak about colleagues. If left unchecked these tensions may well develop into significant issues for you. Undertaking a traditional workplace investigation to look into these matters might not be the right tool, as the concerns may not focus on one individual, may come too late, may not be practicable, or might not really get to the bottom of the issue.

What Does a Culture Review Involve?

This is where a culture review can really help. It can take a number of forms – online surveys directed at the particular issue, focus groups or one-to-one interviews. Often a culture review will involve a mixture of these methods to really gain a detailed understanding of what is going on.

What Data Can a Culture Review Gather?

At Narrow Quay HR we have a lot of experience in running a variety of culture reviews – looking at general morale across the staff community, dysfunctional teams, character clashes and conflicts. We have also conducted reviews to check in on staff confidence and understanding of key policies such as safeguarding. We know that staff respond really well to a third-party undertaking this type of review – it reassures them of confidentiality (or, potentially, even anonymity), enables them to talk more freely than they would to colleagues and/or offer constructive feedback where they might not otherwise feel able to voice their thoughts, and demonstrates the school’s commitment to finding a resolution.

How Narrow Quay HR Can Aid Your Culture Review

We work with you to develop the right medium for gathering the feedback you need, and through our analysis will draw together the key themes with recommendations for action. We analyse the data we collate and provide you with a report setting out themes and findings, and our recommended next steps. We can meet with you to discuss our findings and any appropriate follow up. We can support you with actions that may flow from the review, which may be more formal investigations into particular incidents or mediation where you have unresolved conflicts.

Narrow Quay HR is a subsidiary of VWV and our team of HR consultants are a mix of former lawyers who now specialise in HR and highly experienced HR professionals, giving you solid legal grounding and practical expertise.

If you would like to talk to us about your individual HR needs, please contact Sue Meehan Boyes in our team on 07384 468797.

Home | Archives for May 2022

In our many investigations into misconduct and harassment allegations, a regular issue is when a colleague makes comments about another colleague’s appearance. 

Those remarks are often intended to be complimentary but can make the recipient of those remarks to feel ‘othered’.

This is a word that we are increasingly seeing in our interviews and it raises an interesting point.

Compliment or Criticism?

If a male manager comments regularly on how a female colleagues is dressed, their hair, or whether they have lost weight, that manager may well say that they intended it to be received as a positive thing.

However, if the manager doesn’t also comment on any male colleagues’ appearance then there is real risk that the female recipients of his comments could feel singled out, embarrassed or offended, particularly if the comments are made in front of a group of other people.

We recently did an investigation where something similar to the above happened. Whilst the comment in question was intended to be a compliment, in the mind of the recipient it merely served to highlight how something about her appearance was different to all of the other colleagues present.

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What Are the Limitations of Behavioural Policies?

These examples show the limits of policies, as it is very difficult to draft a policy that covers every eventuality. Who would have thought for instance that you would need to specifically deal with looking at pornography whilst sat in the House of Commons?

If you do try to cover every possible eventuality in a policy then you will soon find that the policy will become very long and unwieldy and it will probably put a lot of employees off from reading it.  

Experience also says that as soon as you finish a policy like that and press print or post it on your intranet, then you’ll want to add to it – it will never stop growing.

What’s a Better Approach?

In a word: training. You should train your staff on the approach you want them to take, giving them examples of the sort of conduct mentioned above. You should then ask them to reflect on how it would make them feel if a colleague commented just on their appearance on a regular basis.

We tend to find that taking that approach and getting the delegates to consider the impact of certain behaviours can result in longer lasting changes in behaviours. Those changes will be much more effective than simply handing them a lengthy policy and asking them to read and digest it.

Narrow Quay HR delivers training on these types of issues. For further information about our training, please contact Simon Martin in our team on 07384 813 076 to find out more.

Home | Archives for May 2022

If you are responsible for GDPR matters in your workplace then you should take heed of recent guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) regarding the storage of COVID vaccination data.

The ICO, which is the UK’s information body set up to uphold information rights, has published guidance called ‘Data protection and Coronavirus-19 – relaxation of government measures‘. This is to help organisations and employers to comply with their data protection obligations following the Government’s relaxation of the rules relating to COVID-19.

Sharing Vaccination Data

Some employers may have checked people’s COVID-19 vaccination status historically. The ICO has outlined in this recent guidance some key things organisations need to consider around the use of this type of personal information.

Why Hold Vaccination information?

Employers may wish to seek voluntary proof of vaccination:

  • to track staff vaccination levels within the workforce and assess the risk of transmission
  • to ascertain an employee’s eligibility under any vaccination incentive scheme

If an employer has vaccination data it may help them with internal risk assessments and planning from an operational viewpoint.

What Is Your Purpose for Storing Information?

Now is the time to review your current practices in respect of collecting and storing this type of data. Employers now need to understand from a data protection viewpoint, what information they can request and record about their employees’ vaccination status.

An employer should consider carefully whether capturing this information can be justified, given the current position taken by the Government. Employees’ health information falls into the category of special personal data so employers must identify a lawful reason to request and process this data under data protection legislation.

The ICO guidance states that if employers collect vaccine information they must be clear what they are trying to achieve by doing so and demonstrate how it helps them achieve it. The use of data must be fair, relevant and necessary for a specific purpose.

There must also be a compelling reason for collecting this information and ‘just in case’ will not be good enough. The intention of using and processing this vaccination data must also be transparent from the employer and should not provide any risk to the employee or any detrimental impact to them.

How Long Should an Employer Retain Vaccination Data?

If you have vaccination data for your employees you should review it and ensure that it is still reasonable, fair and appropriate for you to retain this data going forward. You should safely dispose of this data if it is no longer relevant or required. If you need to store vaccination data you should do so for only as long as is necessary and review regularly.  

For specialist support on managing your employee vaccination data, please contact Helen Couchman in our team on 07799 901 669.

Home | Archives for May 2022

CIPD research in 2020 found that 4% of employees reported being sexually harassed within the last three years, with younger women most likely to be impacted.

What Is Sexual Harassment?

Harassment is defined in the Equality Act 2010 as ‘unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic, which has the purpose or effect of violating an individual’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that individual.’

Sexual harassment is unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature. This could include inappropriate touching, sexual jokes, sending emails or messages of a sexual nature or displaying pornographic material.

What Are the Duties of Employers?

Employers have a duty to protect their workers and can be held liable for acts of sexual harassment in the workplace if it is found that they have not taken reasonable steps to prevent it.

 The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) have produced a helpful guide for employers on preventing sexual harassment at work, and has other helpful information on their website for employers.

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Action Plan for Employers

In late April, the EHRC produced an action plan and checklist for employers in the UK working in the hospitality sector, to help ensure that staff are protected from sexual harassment at work.

This follows a report that more than 50% of women and two thirds of LBGT people reported sexual harassment in the sector. Although the guide has been developed with the hospitality sector in mind, it can be adapted to suit different workplaces and sectors.

The action plan includes helpful templates which can be used by employers, including:

  • a practical checklist to support employers considering issues such as how to communicate a culture of zero tolerance to staff, how to change the working environment and how to assess working practices – the checklist can be adapted to suit different workplaces
  • an action plan to record what action is needed in a workplace
  • monitoring logs to record action taken

How Can You Prevent Sexual Harassment in Your Workplace?

  • Review your training provided to managers and staff on sexual harassment in the workplace. Have you provided any? How recently? Training is a good opportunity to communicate the culture of the workplace and set the standards you expect and to help equip managers to deal with concerns raised with them by employees.
  • Ensure your policies and procedures are up-to-date.
  • Promote a zero tolerance culture.
  • Consider how complaints are dealt with in your organisation and ensure that this is effective and that staff feel confident coming forwards.
  • Monitor complaints that arise for any trends and follow up.

Narrrow Quay HR can work with you to put into action the points set out above and work with your organisation to address sexual harassment. Please contact Caitlin Anniss in our team on 07909 683938.

Home | Archives for May 2022

Mental health is something we are all talking about, particularly in light of the Pandemic, which has given rise to a global increase in levels of anxiety and depression.


Are You Supporting Your Workforce?

9-15 May 2022 is Mental Health Awareness Week, and as one of the biggest awareness weeks across the UK and globally, we want to get you thinking about how you can support your employees, and help raise awareness in your workplace.

Whilst employers must ensure work does not cause poor mental health, employers have a broader role to play in supporting staff experiencing poor mental health for reasons unconnected to the workplace. We have put together some useful guidance to help you invest in a healthy and connected workforce.

We All Have Mental Health

The World Health Organisation famously claims ‘there is no health without mental health’, and describes mental health as ‘a state of wellbeing in which every individual realises their own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and are able to make a contribution to their community’.

Mental health issues can range from anxiety and depression, to bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, but people with the same conditions can experience different symptoms, and to a different extent.

This means that workplace support must be tailored to an individual’s specific needs. With mental health issues affecting one in four people, and being a major cause of long term absence at work, we highlight some things you can do to help.

Early Signs and Prevention

In a busy work environment, it can be easy to miss the early warning signs, but early intervention can help prevent issues from escalating.

Employers and managers should be alert to the early signs of stress and mental ill health. Here are some common signs you can look out for:

  • negative changes to work habits or performance
  • deterioration in physical appearance
  • changes in demeanour
  • increased absenteeism

Whilst these may not always be a sign of mental ill health, you should take the time to regularly check in with your employees, offer them support when it’s needed, and consider whether there might be any other underlying concerns. Having someone to talk to can be invaluable for someone suffering with mental ill health.

Signposting, Training and Resources

Whilst the majority of employers and managers are not equipped to advise on mental health issues, it’s important that you do have the knowledge and confidence to signpost an employee to the most appropriate source of support. This could include a GP recommendation, an Occupational Health referral, or a referral to your employee support service. By providing managers with the right training, you can help to reduce issues and promote better wellbeing in the workplace.

Promoting Awareness at Work

Help to reduce any stigma attached to mental ill health by educating your workforce and promoting awareness. Keep talking about mental wellbeing and look to embed mental health into inductions, training, and your policies and procedures.

Promote Work-Life Balance

If your employees are working long hours and are feeling stressed, this is likely to have an impact on their mental wellbeing, as well as productivity. Consider making sustainable changes, or offering flexible working arrangements so that work, and personal lives can be more manageable. Don’t be afraid to talk to your employees and make sure they get the support they need. 

For specialist HR advice on how you can best support mental wellbeing in your workplace, or any related issues, please contact Kirsty Hunt in our team on 07384813077.

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Date: 11 May 2022

Time: 9.00am – 10.00am

Event Type: Webinar

Cost: Free

The session will cover:

In this session NQHR expert Simon Martin will take you through the steps you need to follow to conduct an investigation thoroughly, efficiently and sensitively.

During the session they will look at:

  • the role of an investigating officer
  • how to undertake a fair investigation
  • identifying and gathering relevant evidence
  • taking witness statements (including from reluctant witnesses)
  • dealing with tricky areas such as anonymity and parallel investigations
  • how to structure an investigation report

The session will be conducted virtually but we will use polls and the chat function to make the session as interactive as possible.

Speaker:

We hope you are able to join us. If you have any queries, please contact the Events team.