1. Don’t ignore poor performance. You know how it goes, it’s summer, everyone is busy. A member of your staff does something stupid. You don’t have time to bring them up on it, so you decide you’ll leave discussing it until the end of the summer. This doesn’t work for you or the employee as often too much time has passed to make the feedback effective and the same errors can keep happening. Do it now while it’s fresh in your mind and make a written record that you can go back to later, if you need to.
2. Remember new contracts. If you take on a new staff member in summer, remember that you have two months to get a written contract of employment to them. If you’re too busy to do it immediately (which is usually best) make a diary note of when you need to do this by.
3. Check the hours your staff are working. If they are likely to be working more than 48 hours per week, ask them to sign a Working Time Regulations Opt Out Form. Without this, they can refuse to work that number of hours.
4. If your staff change roles or take on new responsibilities, confirm this in writing to them now. Issues can arise later when these changes happen without been documented, so try to stay on top of the admin if you can.
5. Get your holiday pay calculation right. At the end of the busy period, when your staff may wish to take their own annual leave, check that your holiday pay calculation is correct. If the employee’s pay varies, their holiday pay should be calculated on the hours that they’ve worked in the previous 12 weeks. This would include mandatory overtime.
If you have any questions or concerns about HR or employment law matters, please contact Verity Slater, Head of the Marine Team, on 01872 265100 or employment@stephens-scown.co.uk .