Is your Business HR Brexit-Ready?
Written by Leah Waller
Senior Employment Consultant Solicitor
There is a lot of uncertainty, concern and even some panic surrounding that dreaded ‘B-word’…BREXIT.
So, as business owners, what are some of the things we should be considering in terms of Employment Law and HR?
Staff Audit
It is important that you know exactly who your business employs and whether they are UK or EU Nationals.
Many EU Nationals will have concerns about their future both in general and in relation to their employment so anything that you can do as a business, to alleviate this, will settle your workforce and increase morale and productivity amongst your staff.
Some of your employees may also be married to, or in a relationship with, EU Nationals and this may cast some doubt on their future which should be considered.
Is your business ready for a loss of EU Nationals?
Some of the things you may wish to plan for are…
- How many of your staff are EU Nationals or married to EU Nationals?
- What roles do those EU Nationals undertake in your business?
- Are all of the job roles and job descriptions up-to-date and reflective of their day-to-day role?
- Could your business cope without those individuals, whether on a temporary basis or permanently?
- How would you go about replacing those staff, if it was necessary to do so?
- How long would a recruitment process take to fulfil those roles, should it be necessary?
- What are your interim plans?
Staff Retention
Following on from the theme of staff, as a business owner you will know only too well that good quality staff are at the heart of all good businesses, no matter what the industry.
Taking care of your staff and providing a stable, thriving and motivating environment is key but do you have a procedure in place to retain your key staff?
This is important, Brexit or not!
However, Brexit could cause a reduction in the workforce within the UK and significant gaps within certain industries and so attracting and retaining good staff will become even more critical.
Gaps in the market and a reduced workforce may not affect your current workforce initially but it may begin to affect you if your competitors are justify with a gap and begin to poach your staff.
Again, it may be worth considering some of the points above in relation to attracting and recruiting new staff for your key positions as well as considering your current staff retention rates and procedures.
Business Requirements
When Brexit does take place, will this have an impact on your business in terms of productivity and requirements?
Will the quantity or productivity decline?
If so, have you got plans in place to deal with this, if not let’s have a look at some of the things that you may want to consider…
- Is there provision within your Employment Contracts for varying hours of work or Short-Time Working?
Short-Time Working is a contractual provision that allows employers to reduce an employee’s contractual working days or hours. Effectively the employees are laid off without pay.
- Do your Employment Contracts have a contractual Redundancy Procedure?
- If you do have a contractual Redundancy Procedure…
- will this impact the time it will take to make redundancies?
- what will the costs of redundancies be?
- If you do not have a contractual Redundancy Procedure…
- Have you considered the statutory requirements in relation to make redundancies?
- Who will deal with the redundancy procedure (someone in-house or perhaps an external provider)?
- What are the timescales involved in making redundancies and how will this affect your business?
Making more than 20 redundancies will significantly affect your timescales, due to consultation times, and this increases again if you are making redundancies of 100 staff or more.
Payroll
For most business owners your biggest cost each month is likely to be your payroll.
As a business owner, we are sure that you are well aware of your monthly outgoings, especially in relation to payroll, however, it is important to start considering what the likely increase is going to be following the increase to the National Minimum Wage in April 2020.
The National Minimum Wage for over 25’s increase from £7.83 in 2018/19 to £8.21 from April 2019, with an increase of £0.38 per hour this could have a significant impact on your business if you have a number of staff receiving National Minimum Wage!
If you have any questions on the above, or would like a FREE consultation with our Employment Team please contact us on
