HR & Finance Newsletter

Autumn 2020

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Welcome

We are delighted to present to you our latest HR & Finance Newsletter. The past 6 months have been extremely difficult for many people and businesses, running on reduced staff, having to make difficult decisions with regards to headcount, furlough, flexi-furlough and more besides! It’s fair to say that in our 19-year history we have never witnessed anything like this.

On a more positive note, we are experiencing a steady return to some form of normality, our offices have all been made COVID secure and our people are gradually returning to work from them, we have always had the flexibility to work from home and will continue to offer this. We started welcoming back our furloughed colleagues in August which has been great for morale.

Now we are looking to the final quarter of the year with much more positivity, we are seeing an increase in the number of roles being registered each week and can really feel things starting to pick back up.

We have some exciting news regarding our popular Employment Law Updates, a new partnership with Learning Curve Group which is set to launch this month, summaries from our Summer HRD Boardroom events, legal e-briefings from Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP and more.

We hope you find this newsletter both useful and informative. If you would like to contribute to our next edition or be involved with our events, articles or blogs please do not hesitate to contact us.

Many thanks,

The Ashley Kate HR & Finance Team

Head Office – 0115 9223000

Email – solutions@ashleykatehr.com

Changing Direction Employment Updates

All our Reward Members enjoy regular legal updates from Eversheds Sutherland, and included here is a link to their excellent quarterly update. In a change to this quarterly update due to current turbulent times, Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP now takes a short term look ahead at some of the key employment law developments expected in the coming months of 2020, to help employers start to prepare.

Click here for the July – December 2020 short-mid term forecast

Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP has also provided a checklist for Navigating the challenges ahead: beyond lockdown which can be downloaded here

HR Director Boardroom Events Update

Our popular HR Director Boardroom events are now fully booked for 2020.

We are delighted to have hosted, with Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP our HR Directors Boardroom events with informative and enlightening discussions on the key topics of:

An HR Directors Guide to the ‘Real’ Future of Leaning, delivered by James Poletyllo, Director at The Learning Effect
How do companies recover from multiple highly publicised misconduct and potential bullying cases and what lessons can HR learn from this, regardless of sector and how can this be tackled remotely? Delivered by Louise Slatterley, Deputy Director of People, The National Deaf Childrens Society

Our next HR Director forum is taking place on Wednesday 30th September with guest speaker Emma Wedderburn, Group HR & Transformation Director at Capita Plc and the topic for this debate is:

‘Change Management, the news business as usual’

Notes will be made available following this event if you would like to receive a copy of these, please email: amanda.underhill@ashleykatehr.com

If you didn’t manage to take part in one of our HRD events don’t worry we have started to book our programme of events for 2021 with two HRD forums already confirmed. Make sure you don’t miss out register your place today.

HR Director Boardroom Notes

Notes are made available after each event, you can download the notes from our June and August events here:

HR Directors Boardroom Summary - An HR Directors Guide to the 'Real' Future of Learning 24/08/2020
Download

HR Directors Boardroom Summary - An HR Directors Guide to the 'Real' Future of Learning

An HR Directors Guide to the ‘Real’ Future of Leaning, delivered by James Poletyllo, Director at The Learning Effect.
HR Directors Boardroom Summary - How do companies recover from multiple highly publicised misconduct and potential bullying cases and what lessons can HR learn from this, regardless of sector? 18/08/2020
Download

HR Directors Boardroom Summary - How do companies recover from multiple highly publicised misconduct and potential bullying cases and what lessons can HR learn from this, regardless of sector?

How do companies recover from multiple highly publicised misconduct and potential bullying cases and what lessons can HR learn from this, regardless of sector and how can this be tackled remotely?

Employment Law Updates

Join us for our next Essential Employment Law updates, where leading employment lawyers from the international law firm Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP will provide an update to HR professionals on key legal developments.

Both sessions will be led by Helen Rice -Birchall (Principal Associate | Employment) and Wie-Men Ho (Legal Director) and will encompass recent case law and key employment law updates.

We have 2 sessions available, however, both webinars will be identical, therefore you will only need to register for one. Please click on either link below to find out more and register your FREE place.

Wednesday 21st October 2020

Wednesday 25th November 2020

HR & Finance Featured Articles

Dear HR professional: 10 things I wish I’d known - Guest Article by Nicola Forbes-Taylor

Dear HR professional,

I know. It’s not easy. It feels isolating at times. Elating at others. Mind-bendingly frustrating at oh-so-many points in between. There are so many things I wish I’d known. You know? No. Well, I thought I’d share 10 things I wish I’d known…
Little changes that'll make a big difference to your CV

The current economic climate has created financial difficulties for many businesses globally. Some companies may not survive, whilst others may downsize, this will leave a high population of candidates actively looking for work. Read more...
How Finance Leaders can help to navigate the Covid19 crisis - Guest Article

Finance Leaders top priority, therefore, has to be about optimising cash reserves, as the magnitude and duration of the crisis remain unclear. Specifically, the CFO (and fellow Treasurers) should focus on Read more...
You matter! The importance of self-care when out of work - Guest Article by Abby O'Hara

In April I found myself on the furlough scheme, yes I know, I’m with the other 9 million people in the UK. It’s had it’s ups – enjoying the early summer we had, baking banana bread and relaxing in the garden. But it’s had its downs too Read more...

Article Writers

We are always looking for great articles to promote through our newsletters and website, each week we promote contacts in our HR and Finance network through our popular Social Media platforms which reach thousands of likeminded individuals.

If you have content relevant to the HR or Finance community you would like to share with us to feature in our blog we would love to hear from you, please email solutions@ashleykatehr.com

Remote On-boarding Tips - By Scott Gregory

There is a key focus now on restarting the economy, but restarting it whilst staying ‘alert’ and maintaining social distancing to ensure there isn’t an increased spread of Covid-19.

Businesses across the country are currently undertaking Risk Assessments to ensure they can comply with the government’s guidelines and reintroduce their workforces to the workplace. However, this isn’t possible for all businesses, we are still witnessing a high percentage of clients who are still on-boarding remotely.

So the key now is to look at how businesses can increase profit, retention and productivity and maintain ‘business as normal’ which will ensure the much needed kick start to the economy is achieved.

In the initial stages of the pandemic, recruitment was understandably put on hold by some companies, following the second extension of the lockdown we saw a significant increase in the number of roles being recruited for, as businesses realised this wasn’t going to be over quickly and to ensure they survived they needed to recruit for the key positions. Since then, we have seen a continued increase in the recruitment of Finance, Payroll, Accountancy and HR roles across the UK and whilst we aren’t back to where we were previously, there is a noticeable movement in hiring.

So how are these businesses doing it if they are unable to bring people into the workplace for face to face meetings and on-site inductions?

Most are remotely interviewing and on-boarding. Interviewing is straight forward, there are platforms that companies including Ashley Kate HR & Finance have been using prior to the pandemic, and these are now being utilised to their full capacity by our clients to successfully identify the right candidates for the right roles from a safe and remote meeting.

So the focus now is ensuring these candidates can start with the company in a seamless fashion.

Every company wants to provide a professional onboarding experience to new employees. One that will make them feel part of the organisation, be glad they made the decision to join and one that enables them to fully understand the role, its requirements and position within the company alongside the current employees.

So how is this being achieved remotely?

I have spoken with many of my clients over the last 8 weeks who are currently onboarding remotely, and whilst this continues to be an evolving solution, there are some basics which many seem to be building into a remote onboarding session. I have listed some of the current suggestions below:

Explain what the remote onboarding program looks like to your new employee, share a plan with them – keep communication clear on their first day have a structured plan to welcome them, Total Jobs recently published a suggested timetable for the new starters first day.

09:30-10:30 – Welcome call with manager

10:30-11:00 – Team call

11:00-12:00 – Task set by manager

12:00-13:00 – Lunch

13:00-15:00 – 20 minutes calls with each team member

15:00-16:00 – Task set by manager

16:30-17:00 – Debrief call with manager

Ensure the employee has the necessary equipment to commence the role, laptop, phone, online systems access on or before their official start date.
Provide clear guidance on the employees’ contacts for any remote technical support. They may encounter some technical issues when using new systems and remotely networking into the business so make sure they have a technical support team to lend a hand.
Do your induction meeting in the same format but in an online video conference, sharing screens to show how to navigate through shared systems and documents etc.
Invite the employee to meet the team in a virtual meeting room and build a rapport with the wider business network who are also working remotely.
Send a communication to the wider business to let them know about the employee joining remotely and explain how they can be contacted.
Have regular meetings to review with the employee.
Invite the employee to online social meetings – not work related – a virtual tea break, get to know the individual and build relationships.
Ask them what they need, don’t assume you’ve given them everything.
As soon as it is possible to do so, meet them in person.

If you have questions on how I can support you with remote interview solutions and remote onboarding, please get in contact with me on 0115 922 3000 or email scott.gregory@ashleykatefinance.com

Flexible Fully Funded Training

We are pleased to announce our exciting new partnership with Learning Curve Group, this new partnership allows us to understand employers’ pain points.

Through Learning Curve, we are now able to offer a wide range of courses for employers looking to improve the skills of their employees. The benefits to businesses are far-reaching and include maximising workforce efficiency, boosting business productivity, and creating a more committed and satisfied workforce.

Welcome Back!

We are really pleased to welcome back from furlough our specialist recruiters. The last few months have been challenging but we are now witnessing more activity in the market and are keen to make sure we can fully support the HR and Finance communities, whether that be our loyal candidates looking for work or our clients who need support in sourcing top talent we are here to help.

Get in touch with:

Amanda Underhill – London & South East

James Dubowski – London & South & East

Cameron Davies -London & South East

Jacqui Wall – Midlands and South West

Penny Wallace – Midlands & South West

Katie Underwood – Midlands & South West

Rachel Rowe – Yorkshire & North West

Natasha Murphy – Yorkshire & North West

Scott Gregory – UK Finance

And Finally

We hope that you how found our Autumn newsletter useful and informative.

The next newsletter will be out in January 2021, if you would like to contribute please email solutions@ashleykatehr.com.

In the coming months, we will be reaching out to you to help contribute to our much valued Annual Salary & Benefits Guide, your support with this will be really appreciated.

Best wishes

The Ashley Kate HR & Finance Team

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‘Change Management, the news business as usual’

HR Directors Boardroom Summary - An HR Directors Guide to the 'Real' Future of Learning

HR Directors Boardroom Summary - How do companies recover from multiple highly publicised misconduct and potential bullying cases and what lessons can HR learn from this, regardless of sector?

Dear HR professional: 10 things I wish I’d known - Guest Article by Nicola Forbes-Taylor

Little changes that'll make a big difference to your CV

How Finance Leaders can help to navigate the Covid19 crisis - Guest Article

You matter! The importance of self-care when out of work - Guest Article by Abby O'Hara

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