Posts

Modern Slavery - time for a re-think?

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Modern Slavery – Time for a re-think? The Modern slavery Act requires organisations operating in the UK, with a worldwide turnover of £36million or more to publish details on the steps they have taken in the last 12 months to remove #slavery and human trafficking from their supply chains. Awareness training and supply chain audits are often key components. Many organisations cascade these duties to their suppliers but the number of recognised victims continues to rise and at a staggering rate.      The legislation just doesn’t go far enough.    Modern Slavery is not limited to high volume production in far off lands, such as face masks, much of it is here today; right under our noses in small scale business. It is often found in agriculture, factories, cleaning, nail bars and hand car washes but no business is immune. All businesses and organisations need to raise awareness of the suffering modern slavery brings, teach people what to look out for a

Growing Pains for SME Business

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Growing pains for SME As small and medium size enterprises grow and develop they face an increasing level of legislation and reporting that their management teams need to understand comply with fully.    Compliance often demand changes to practice, policies and procedures, all of which need to be subjected to impact assessments to ensure equalities and data protection laws are met.   It is a potential minefield and unless thought through and well planned each new requirement will necessitate much research, stress and worry for management.  This can be minimised by buying in training and consultancy to help the management team understand exactly what is required and how they can meet the challenge with the least amount of stress and burden. Concrew Training is pleased to be able to offer such training and assistance. The pinch points that typically demand the most support are listed below The Modern Slavery Act - £36M+ Turnover Businesses and Organisa

Coronavirus - Preparing for Layoffs

The Government has forecast that up to 20% of the workforce could be off sick with the #Coronavirus.  We have already seen slumps in consumer demand; with airlines, travel companies and restaurants bearing the first brunt. As the virus spreads consumer demand will fall further and farther, couple this with staff off sick through illness and many companies may need to consider short time working, lay-offs or even #redundancies There are very strict rules relating to all these options that need to be followed closely if employee goodwill is to be maintained and unfair dismissal claims avoided. Concrew training recommends Senior Managers, HR staff and Employee representatives meet to discuss, explore and better understand the possible options, solutions and legalities, should business levels decline to a level that may demand #layoffs or short-time working. Where needed Concrew Training can facilitate, lead or provide technical input on the legislation and rules that

Coronavirus, Pay, Time Off & Closures

An update for HR teams, Employee Reps and Staff Over the weekend we heard about a dental practice that is proposing closure to remove the risk of spreading the virus through dental practice. Staff would take unpaid time off.  In another situation we were told about cleaning and catering staff who work in the accommodation area at a boarding school advocating that they should not have to go to work if the accommodation area or pupils were self-isolating or in a lockdown situation We see both as very worrying developments.  It is imperative that all is done to slow the spread of the virus and simultaneously find a vaccine/cure but all solutions need to be pragmatic the above are not; if taken to extremes both lead to the collapse of society. Taken to extremes both these approaches would lead to everything closing.  No food, no electricity, no water, no Governance, no Police, no hospitals just anarchy  Such anarchy cannot be allowed to develop so it is important t