Hearing Loss – Issues for the Workplace

“Image courtesy of Jeroen van Oostrom / FreeDigitalPhotos.net”.

Many disabilities can be hidden and this is very true for individuals with hearing loss. My elderly father is about to be fitted with two hearing aids and I know several people both young and old who are deaf or now have hearing problems. To me it seems therefore that deafness is common and hearing loss raises issues for the workplace.

Those of us who do not have hearing problems take our hearing for granted. However, according to Action On Hearing Loss (http://www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/) one in six of us have a hearing problem which means 10 million people in the UK; this figure is rising. Many people take ten years to deal with their hearing loss and despite two million people having hearing aids only 1.4 million actually use them regularly whilst a further four million could do with using them. Men are more likely to suffer from hearing problems compared to women.

Hearing loss can take many forms.

Deaf
This can mean profound deafness, but may also be used to describe a less severe hearing loss. Deaf people may use British Sign Language (BSL), Sign Supported English (SSE), speech-to-text, lip reading, or a combination of these. Hearing aids may be of little benefit to someone who is profoundly deaf. Deaf’ (with a capital letter) usually refers to deaf people who use BBSL as their first or preferred means of communication and who consider themselves part of the Deaf community. Sign language however is as diverse as language itself and there are lots of different sign languages across the world. In the UK the Deaf community sees itself as a linguistic minority rather than a group of people with a disability.

For companies that use publicity materials to be more inclusive, the term “deaf” (note the lower case ‘d’) should be used as this can refer to people who are Deaf, deafened or severely hard of hearing.

Deafened
This is used to describe people who were born hearing and became severely or profoundly deaf as adults, often suddenly. Deafened people usually have good English skills and may use speech-to-text reporters, lipspeakers or electronic notetakers to aid communication. Many deafened people have cochlear implants – small, complex electronic devices that help to provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. This can help them cope with lip reading which an often present many problems as many words have the same lip shapes.

Hard of hearing
This term refers to anyone with a mild to severe loss. It is usually used to describe people who have lost their hearing gradually as they have become older. Some hard of hearing people wear hearing aids and find lip reading helpful in certain situations. They may also find sound enhancement systems beneficial, such as loops and infra red.

A recent BBC programme, Inside Out East (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03nxg10), highlighted how a simple visit to the shops can be a huge struggle for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Although the technology exisits to help such individuals the programme found that only one in six retail outlets are actively using hearing loops which allow people with hearing problems to take part in a conversation and convey their needs. The programme shockingly exposed Next and John Lewis as poorly performing yet high profile retail outlets and compared this against Sainsbury’s who ensure that hearing loops are used because they see the benefits to their customers.

The Equality Act 2010 provides for reasonable adjustments to be made and access to services and products should be readily available otherwise discrimination is taking place.

A total of 3.7 million people are of working age have hearing difficulties with 40% who are aged over 50 which has implications for employers.To avoid discrimination employers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments by:

changing a provision, criterion or practice (ie the way things are done)
adjusting physical features – such as the layout of an office or room
providing equipment such as an induction loop or textphone.

Employers should always check job descriptions to ensure there are no barriers to those with hearing problems; allowing an individual to use purely email for communication rather than communicating by phone for example. Then at interview employers should ask what reasonable adjustments the individual requires. Whilst not all requirements may be possible due to financial constraints, the employer should strive wherever possible to meet any needs.

Flexible Working – The Advantages and Disadvantages

From 2014 the government proposes to extend flexible working to all employees in an effort to promote economic growth through a strong and efficient labour market having undertaken a consultation exercise in 2011. Flexible working was brought into force during 2003 and already parents and carers benefit from being able to make flexible working requests. ACAS will be developing a Code of Practice on flexible working to support the new law.

The new legislation will replace the current statutory procedure where employers will need to consider flexible working requests within a specified time frame; employers will have the duty to deal with requests in a reasonable manner within a reasonable time frame. This is being introduced as the government consultation identified that many employers find the existing statutory procedure too prescriptive and time frames inflexible. A statutory code of practice will give guidance on the meaning of reasonable. Employers will be provided with guidance on how to tackle conflicting requests when received at the same time. The current requirement to have 26 weeks qualifying period of continuous service will remain.

Flexible working can take many forms – part time working, term time working, job-shares, home-working, compressed hours and flexitime and brings with it both advantages and disadvantages.

The advantages to businesses include being able to hold onto valuable staff, having a wider talent pool, reducing absenteeism, increasing commitment from employees and improving productivity. A business might also be able to extend opening hours due to the wider availability of the workforce. The government consultation exercise highlighted some employer concerns over the extension of flexible working such as an increased burden and threat of employment tribunals for increased declines in flexible working requests if they can not be accommodated. Smaller businesses have to ensure they have enough staff available to cover the required hours. This could be more difficult due to lower levels of employees compared to larger organisations.

Flexible working benefits employees with a better work life balance so that they have more time to spend with their families or undertake hobbies. Childcare costs may also be reduced. With employer permission they can travel into work and avoid rush hour traffic, therefore arriving more refreshed. For those employees who are allowed to work at home all or part of the week, there are the benefits of reduced fuel and motor maintenance costs.

However flexible working without a supervisor being present may cause difficulties for some employees who may be unable to take the initiative or need direction with their duties. Employees who are not personally motivated may struggle to stay on task and give the job “their all” so that productivity is affected. Another disadvantage could be that communication and team working may be affected.

The government are confident that the introduction of flexible working for all with bring huge benefits to businesses as well as encouraging a more motivated engaged workforce. Time will tell…..

How To Manage Remote Workers

Over the last few years there has been a huge growth in the numbers of people working from home or remotely. This has been caused by the increased use of high speed broadband, Skype, laptops, tablet computers and hand held devices facilitating the ability to work wherever we like. Millions of people now work at home or remotely on either a full time or part time basis. With it comes the challenges of learning how to manage remote workers.

A challenging economy has also forced employers to cut back on costs, such as office expenses, and let people work remotely. There’s also evidence that others, who haven’t been able to find jobs, are earning a living by starting a home-based business.

There are many advantages to this type of working, which we can all recognise; the work-life balance is much improved without the stress of struggling to work every day on the congested road and increasingly disorganised rail systems. So much time is saved by not having to get up at the crack of dawn to get to the office on time and exhaustion is a distant memory as we leisurely wake up, eat a decent breakfast in the comfort of your kitchen then get the kids to school before sitting down to the computer to start the working day.

As long as we meet our targets and maintain our usual output, the hours we work need not be fixed if our work (and where relevant our manager) dictates, so that by working flexibly we have the time to do that bit of shopping or attend that dentist appointment during the day.

Having set up and completed a risk assessment on the work area to comply with health and safety what could be easier than working from home?

The reality is, however, that it doesn’t suit everyone. Working from home can be very isolating. How many of us actually see our neighbours and friends during the day now – they are all out at work! Being alone day after day with no social interaction can be very lonely without that “over the photocopier” chat, gossip with the tea-lady or the office Friday pub lunch where we can look forward to the weekend.

For those individuals prone to depression working from home can become a nightmare with the distinction between work and home becoming a blur.

The saying “out of sight out of mind” might apply with a perception of being ignored by the company, if we are an employee, can set in, only getting the odd phone call to check that performance targets have been reached and to find out when the monthly figures will be sent in. In such circumstances a feeling of de-motivation and being under-valued can occur and lead to a drop in performance.

Working from home is ideal for self-starters who can discipline themselves to work set hours so that there is a clear distinction between work and home. Line managers of such individuals have to have the experience and skill to be able to manage at a distance and understand the issues that arise.

First and foremost, the type of work needs to be adaptable to home-working such as administration, freelance interviewing and sales.

The company needs to ensure there is a home working policy in place that covers issues such as health and safety, equipment safety, data protection, communication and performance management. There should be consideration to having a home working checklist. These documents should be communicated well to the workforce with clear procedures in place.

The line manager needs to be able to encourage team interaction by organising team meetings at a single location on a regular basis to provide valuable information on what is happening within the business, eg and training & promotional opportunities. Perhaps video conferencing could replace physical group meetings when these are not possible. Such get-togethers should be supplemented by phone calls and emails to keep in touch.

The line manager needs to be able to communicate clear goals and the standards expected within the home-based role and be equipped with the tools for measurement and assessment of work quality to ensure that everything is satisfactory. Training for line managers in managing hom workers is important.

Security of information and data protection should be a high priority. A decision should be taken whether to give remote workers full or controlled access to network links using an IT security risk assessment. The issue of company laptops with encryption software, for example, would reduce the possibility of disaster with important corporate documents getting mixed up with the children’s homework or theft from the boot of a car.

Also the installation of virus protection and guidelines on authorised use of additional software and prohibition of USB sticks and floppy discs to transport data should be essential.

Information on using secure servers and taking daily back ups should be incorporated into an IT security policy both for remote (and office) workers giving details on not sharing passwords, not opening suspicious email attachments and visiting work-related websites only. Clear instructions for not modifying any company spreadsheets and macros without authorisation can also help to provide guidelines on what is acceptable IT use.

Companies considering implementing home or remote working should think about running a pilot scheme to see if it is feasible and practical for business and individual needs before making a commitment.

Succession Planning – Who Will Walk In Your Shoes?

Succession planning is the process whereby an organisation plans its human resources in such a way as there are successors to take over when senior post holders retire or leave. It is all about identifying skills and providing appropriate training and development to enhance those skills so that the successors can effectively step into an identified pre-determined role. By nature of its description the planning is to considered as part of a long term strategy. Succession planning can be for an individual or for a pool of employees. Succession planning for an individual can be due to a specialism. Using a pool of employees who are to be developed is ideal to develop generalist skills so that the individuals can be slotted into a number of posts when they become vacant.

It is relevant for both small and large organisations. Some time ago I had a conversation with the MD of a small business who did not have any family to pass the business to. He told me he did not know what would happen to the business when he came up for retirement. I advised him that it would be a good idea to identify someone in the business who could take over whilst he took a back seat when the time came.

These days succession planning is linked to strategic talent management and should be balanced in that home grown talent is used in conjunction with recruiting outsiders who bring fresh blood. A wide range of activities can be incorporated into the development of internal talent which includes informal and formal activities designed so the individuals can gain work experience. Whilst many upward moves are not possible these days with the growth of flatter management structures, lateral moves and secondments can offer valuable development experience. Succession planning should also be linked to business strategy.

Candidates for succession planning can come out of conversations with managers, appraisal interviews, skills audits and competency assessments and is usually coordinated by HR.

Keeping In Touch Days – Guidance for Employers

Statutory maternity leave allows for ten keeping in touch days whereby an employee can go to work without that affecting her statutory maternity pay provided she has a contract of service. Keeping in touch days are also available to employees who are on adoption leave and additional paternity leave. The shared parental leave legislation due in during 2015 will add an additional twenty keeping in touch days to an employee’s entitlement. Keeping in touch days can commence two weeks after a baby is born. They can be taken in blocks or individual days.

Keeping in touch days can help ease an eventual return to work. They can be used for attending a conference, team or training event or having an appraisal interview for example or even doing some work. An employee has to agree to work with her employer; her employer can not insist she works. The arrangements should be made with notice prior to the employee going into work.

Any work done on a keeping in touch day will be counted as a whole day, this includes even if a employee goes into work for just an hour. Keeping in touch days can be taken as single days; in blocks of two or more days; or can be taken consecutively. Once an employee has used up the keeping in touch days if they do any further work they will lose a week’s SMP in the maternity pay period in which the work is done.

For any keeping in touch days that an employee works under her contract of service for the employer paying her SMP, the employer must pay SMP due for that week as a minimum. Any contractual payment for the work done as a KIT day, will depend on the agreement between the employee and employer.

If an employee has more than one employer they she is entitled to ten keeping in touch days for them all employers if they all pay SMP due to qualifying criteria.

An employer should stay in touch with employees on maternity leave, adoption leave or paternity leave and inform them of any promotions, redundancies or changes at work. This is not a statutory requirement but should be more so because of courtesy and encourages employee engagement.

Shared Parental Leave – Sharing the Parental Load

In April 2015 new rules related to the shared parental leave will come into force as announced by Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-business-innovation-skills. The new legislation means that fathers can take more time off work to share in the upbringing of their baby in the following 50 weeks after the birth. Any shared parental leave fathers take will be in addition to the existing two weeks paternity leave. Father will soon have the right to two days unpaid to attend ante natal clinics.

A new mother will be able to convert statutory maternity leave and pay into shared parental leave and shared parental pay in the year following the birth of a baby. Shared parental leave and shared parental pay will also be available to adoptive parents and parents through surrogacy.

There will be a two stage eligibility test.

Stage 1 (the joint test): for an employee to qualify for shared parent leave and shared parental pay, their partner must meet the economic activity test. This means they must have worked for any 26 out of the 66 weeks preceding the baby’s due date and have earned at least £30 gross salary per week for any 13 of those 66 weeks.

Stage 2 (the individual test): In order to be eligible for shared parental leave, the parent must have at least 26 weeks’ continuous service with the same employer at the 15th week before the baby’s due date and still be working for the same employer when they intend to take the leave.

To qualify for shared parental pay, the parent must have earned an average salary of the specified amount, or more (the Lower Earnings Limit – currently £109 per week) for 8 weeks prior to the 15th week before the baby’s due date.

Shared parental pay will be at the statutory level therefore pay for 39 of the 52 weeks will be based on the salary of the parent who is on leave. For the first six weeks the person on leave will receive 90% of his or her average weekly earnings before tax, after that it will be 90% or £136.78 – whichever is lower – for 33 weeks.

Parents will decide how much leave to take, whether they take the time off together or in turns. They have the right to return to the same job as they did before they went on leave provided the total leave (maternity, paternity and adoption leave) does not amount to more than 26 weeks. If the leave amounts to more than this then they have the right to return to a similar job.

Employees will need to give a non-binding indication at the outset of when they expect to take the leave. They will be required to give eight weeks notice to take specific periods of leave, or to change a previous notification. Employees will be able to take a maximum of three blocks of leave unless their employer agrees to more. Employers will not be able to refuse leave, but they will be able to refuse discontinuous blocks of leave eg if someone asks for two six-week periods of leave, an employer can insist that it is taken as a single 12-week block. Mothers must take a minimum two weeks of maternity leave to recover before they can split their leave with the father.

Parents will be able to have up to twenty ‘keeping in touch’ days at work per parent whilst on shared parental leave. This well be in addition to the ten keeping in touch days for the mother as provided for in maternity leave legislation.

Employers should review and update their existing policies in the light of this forthcoming legislation.

Pensions Regulator Investigates Pension Auto Enrolment Challenges in the Recruitment Sector

Pension auto enrolment is looming fast for many companies in the next few years. The Pension Regulator is taking a health interest in what certain sectors are doing to meet the challenges and avoid non-compliance. Recently the Pensions Regulator http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/ has visited firms in the recruitment sector. As a result of information gathered from the visits, the Regulator will be issuing compliance guidance tailored for the recruitment sector.

The Pension Regulator wants to ensure that organisations comply as well as wishing to establish a pro compliance culture. The regulator’s automatic enrolment compliance and enforcement team visited a number of recruitment employers where they were able to have an in-depth look at how these employers are implementing automatic enrolment.

The recruitment sector faces significant compliance challenges and the Pension Regulator decided it was particularly important to target because more than 1,000 recruitment employers are due to reach their staging date between April and July 2014.

The Pension Regulator is urging the industry to make sure their chosen pension scheme and software provider can meet their needs. Employers must start communicating with providers in good time and test payroll systems ensuring they allow enough time, before their staging date to address any complications. Employers must also plan how they will best communicate with workers and leave plenty time to accurately assess their workforce.

The Pensions Regulator recommends that employers should have providers and advisers in place at least six months before their staging date. The staging date is the date when an employer’s automatic enrolment duty is switched on.

Staging date information is available on the Pension Regulator website and employers can create their own individual plan from the the timeline. The Pension Regulator recommends that preparation is started 12-18 months before the staging date.

The Tax Situation of Seasonal Gifts And Benefits To Staff

With Christmas nearly upon us yet again this is a quick reminder of the tax treatment of seasonal gifts and benefits to staff.

Social functions for employees

There is a tax exemption for employee entertaining, but terms and conditions apply. The relief only applies to ‘annual parties’ available to all staff and is set at £150 per head. The figure is inclusive of VAT. If the cost of qualifying parties goes over £150 per head then unfortunately all the costs (not just those above £150 per head) are taxable as a benefit in kind.

Taxis home and any overnight accommodation have to be included in the calculation.

It’s important to note that the amount of £150 per head applies to all those attending the function not just employees. This will come into play if employees are allowed to bring guests.

Tax on business profits

The cost of employee entertaining, as long it’s not incidental to the entertainment of others is allowable. If you invite clients and customers to your party, it is important to consider how to apportion the costs for corporation tax purposes.

Gifts to employees

Christmas presents paid in cash to employees will always be taxable along with other earnings. The same treatment extends to vouchers that can be spent on either one or a number of different shops of the employee’s choice. The employee has to pay tax on the full value of the voucher.

If employees are given a seasonal present, such as a turkey, an ‘ordinary’ bottle of wine or a box of chocolates, as long as the cost is reasonable, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) won’t seek to tax it. Unfortunately, HMRC will not tell us the monetary limit it considers as ‘trivial’ but in our experience, less than £50 a head is usually acceptable. If the value of the gift is more than this, it will be taxable.

This blog has been provided by Duncan Mitchell of CED Accountancy Services Ltd.

Contact details:

TEL 01327 358866
FAX 01327 358355
EMAIL duncan@cedas.co.uk
WEB www.cedas.co.uk

Reverend Flowers – Lessons for Employers

Reverend Flowers has been big news as the disgraced chairman of the Cooperative Bank which has almost been brought to its knees with a £1.5 billion black hole. Facing a government committee he displayed a pitiful ignorance of the bank which he was in charge providing incorrect information about the balance sheet when questioned on such important matters despite having done the job for three years.

When asked about his qualifications for the role he said he had four years as a banking clerk when he left school. Key questions are now being asked how and why was he recruited for the top job where he earned £132,000 when clearly he had little or no relevant experience. He had been a church minister for forty years, a Labour councillor and a trustee and/or chair of various high profile charities which includes Lifeline . It appears that possibly the “old boys club” got him appointed to chairman of the bank to oversee the board’s directors. Ideally he should have been steering the bank to profit, but unfortunately the reverse has happened.

Clearly the bank’s recruitment process was not fit for purpose. It is important to recruit top executives carefully as they have a serious role to play in steering an organisation strategically. The starting point is a robust job description and person specification. To find candidates the use of a head hunting or executive search agency might be beneficial. They take the leg work out of creating a final shortlist provided they are provided with the right information from the organisation of what they should be looking for in accordance with the job description.

The short listed candidates can then be subjected to an executive assessment day which should contain a range of assessments designed to provide the organisation with sufficient information on each candidate to make a decision as to who should get the job. Assessments can include psychometric profiling, a group exercise to highlight team working and leadership skills, verbal and numerical reasoning together with a robust job-focused structural interview and accurate reference checking. The assessment centre can be carried out over several days.

Clearly the Reverend Flowers was guilty of performance errors. With many top jobs employees’ performance is assessed with 360 degree appraisal which is a useful tool for identifying good and bad performance. It is a less subjective process than a 1:1 appraisal. The employee is assessed by 4-5 peers who they are managed by and who they manage who all comment. The process can be carried out on paper or online. Poor performers should be dealt with quickly before they cause damage to the organisation. Unfortunately, in my experience many employers are not good at dealing with poor performance issues. It seems they don’t like to have difficult conversations with members of staff, but it is essential that they are dealt with.

Flowers, the apparent pillar of the community, has been exposed for drug taking and how he has conducted his private life. It is reported that he used his Cooperative bank email to purchase drugs and contact rent boys. He also viewed pornography on the bank’s computers. Hopefully the Cooperative bank has a robust IT and computer use policy in place whereby misuse of the system is linked to use of the disciplinary procedure.

Data Protection Reform Delayed

The European Council has announced that EU data protection reforms will not be implemented until 2015. The General Data Protection Regulation, which was originally expected to be finalised by May 2014, will introduce a single data protection framework throughout the EU. It was previously anticipated that the data protection reforms would be finalised before the European Parliamentary elections in May next year.

The Data Protection Act was first introduced into the UK in 1984 and covered the use of paper records. In 1998 it was updated to include records held on computer. There are eight legal principles which organisations have to abide by when processing personal information which can include names, addresses, date of birth, bank details, etc.

Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully and, in particular, shall not be processed unless –(a) at least one of the conditions in Schedule 2 is met, and(b) in the case of sensitive personal data, at least one of the conditions in Schedule 3 is also met.
Personal data shall be obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purposes, and shall not be further processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose or those purposes.
Personal data shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which they are processed.
Personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.
Personal data processed for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.
Personal data shall be processed in accordance with the rights of data subjects under this Act.
Appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data.
Personal data shall not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data.

The Information Commission website http://www.ico.org.uk/ provides independent advice and guidance about data protection and freedom of information.

The plan is to modernise the data protection legislation across the EU. David Cameron has sought to avoid a deadline being brought in as the government fears the implementation of the new legislation will damage business due to increased costs, but has now agreed to the date of 2015 as a compromise. Data protection law will be implemented consistently across all member states.