HR in 90 Seconds - October 2019

It just keeps getting busier and busier in the world of HR!  This month sees me revising my knowledge of handling investigations and the processes involved in investigations.

When I started thinking about conducting a Workplace Investigation the first thing that came to my mind was the Legal Island and HR Suite Webinar – Let’s Discuss…Workplace Investigations in Ireland. This was the first webinar in the continuing series that runs with Legal Island and Caroline McEnery form the HR Suite.   I listened back to this on a train journey – you see that’s the joy of a webinar you can listen to it, refresh your memory and learn something while on the go!  For me this is an invaluable tool provided by Legal Island for all of us busy, busy HR professionals. If you have never listened to one before I really encourage you to take the opportunity to listen back to this one, it was the first in the series in 2018 and is still completely relevant today. 

In this webinar Caroline touched on ‘The Investigation Report’.  This year Caroline returns to the Annual Review of Employment Law 2019 and takes this to a full 40 min session covering ‘Best Practice Investigation Process and What a Good Investigation Report Looks Like’. There will also be an opportunity for a panel Q&A including Caroline so you can ask her any of those burning questions that you have in this area. For me this session alone is worth every penny – get your ticket booked now!

The latest webinar in this series saw a discussion on how to foster a culture of dignity and respect and what the risks of not achieving this are. It highlighted the importance of a grievance procedure and the key principles applied to the disciplinary and investigation procedure. The HR Suite followed this up with an article setting out key tips for successful grievance management, here is a summary of the main points:

1. Policy: The first and most important step is to have a policy in place. If you have this in place it means that you have taken proactive steps in order to address this before it became an issue.
2. Training: It is advised that as a Company you should provide appropriate training to any staff members who have staff management functions.
3. Be Fully Informed: Your Company Policy should have several routes for your employee to invoke should they so wish. A typical policy will have 3 routes; Informal, Mediation and Formal.
4. Talk to your Employee: If the employee comes to you to discuss the concerns make sure that you follow this meeting up in writing and include the Company policy.

Other items of interest:

Have you ever been to an Annual Review of Employment Law?

No…. want to see what you are missing?

Legal Island have given you a treat this week – you can now watch Ailbhe Dennehy's Irish employment case law review session from the Annual Review of Employment Law 2018 conference AND that’s not all - you can download the note and slide deck too! AWESOME – have a look and see what you could potentially get this year.

If you and your HR colleagues would benefit from a full day conference packed full of employment law updates similar to the one session from last year’s review, check out the programme and speaker line-up at the Annual Review of Employment Law 2019 conferences.

Find out more about the Annual Review of Employment Law 2019 conference, including the full programme, speaker list and how to book your place here:

• [SOLD OUT] Red Cow Moran Hotel, Dublin – Wednesday 30th October
• City North Hotel and Conference Centre – Thursday 14th November
• Talbot Hotel, Stillorgan, Dublin – Tuesday 26th November - Less than 10 places remaining!

The next webinar details are:

Tis the season to be... Cautious?

2:00 - 2:45pm on Monday 2nd December 2019

It's Christmas party season and love it or hate it, it's one of those annual events that is important to a lot of your employees. In this webinar, Caroline McEnery, Managing Director of The HR Suite, Adjudicator in the WRC and former member of the Low Pay Commission, discusses the key issues arising for employers to ensure that the Christmas party is not eventful for the wrong reasons!

Register Now