Employment Law Breakfast Briefing

I’m just back in the office after our Employment Law Breakfast Briefing and my head’s buzzing with information!

We’ve been running the briefings in conjunction with Hegarty LLP Solicitors for more than a decade and now regularly have 200 people attending.

It takes a lot of work to co-ordinate but it’s so worthwhile.

Hegarty’s employment law experts Tim Thompson and Martin Bloom deliver the actual briefing. The subject this time was the introduction of the Equality Bill on Friday which will spell the final curtain for a host of other legislation including the sex, race and disability discrimination acts.

Having listened carefully to Tim and Martin this morning, I have to say I think the new Bill is breath of fresh air. As Martin explained, in layman’s terms for all of us non-legal delegates, the overall principle of the new rules is ‘fairness’.

The objective of the bill is that everyone has the right to be treated fairly and to fulfil their potential.

There was lots of talk of ‘protected characteristics’ - the new buzz phrase apparently. Protected characteristics are all the things that make us individual – our sex, race, sexuality, disabilities, marital status… Under the new Equality Bill employers – and potential employers – can no longer single anyone out for discrimination on any of those grounds.

While the protected characteristics encompass a wider spectrum than the previous laws covered – particularly including marital and civil partnership status, gender resassignment and pregnancy and maternity leave – it does seem to be a much easier to understand ‘catch all’ bill which, from an HR point of view, should make life a little simpler.

Lots more to blog about on this subject over the coming days…

Salary survey results revealed

* Guest blog from Nel Woolcott, Recruitment Partner

At last – some evidence to back up what we’ve been noticing over recent months. The results of our annual Local Market Salary Survey have been collated. And they show an average two per cent increase in wages over the past 12 months.

That may not sound a lot but bearing in mind last year’s survey revealed a 3.6 per cent downturn it’s definitely a reason to be cheerful.

The other significant thing to mention is the number of businesses which took part in this year’s survey – 32 – which is a third more than last year. The conclusion we’ve drawn from this is that companies are keen to buy in to key decision making tools, which is what we like to think the survey is.

Contributors receive detailed reports showing how their salary scales match up to other companies in the same sector. They provide the perfect benchmark when setting salary levels. This is now more important than ever as companies have to position themselves as employers of choice to attract the right candidates to lead them out of the recession.

We’ve noticed a sea change in candidates’ attitudes. With the slight upturn in the economy, candidates do now feel like they can pick and choose roles – certainly to a bigger extent than they could last year when it was a case of ‘any job’ rather than ‘that job’.

Employee retention is vital too – especially for those companies who were forced to shed jobs. They need to hold on to those who are left.

There were fluctuations in the results, as always, with secretarial and admin staff receiving the biggest rise – five per cent - on average. And, drilling down to specific roles - call centre advisers were the biggest winners with an average increase of 10.3 per cent.

To register an interest in taking part in next year’s survey please email us.