Employment Law and HR Training

At Darwin Gray, our Employment and HR team are experts in dealing with the day-to-day issues that can arise in your relationship with your employees as well as the issues which arise less often, but which can have serious consequences for employers when mistakes are made.

We regularly provide training sessions to employers, including to:

• Boards of directors/trustees;
• Senior management teams;
• HR teams;
• Line managers;
• Wider staff – e.g. on issues such as workplace behaviour, unconscious bias, and equality and diversity.

Our training can be delivered in person or virtually and can range from 1-hour to 1-day sessions. We can also tailor our training towards your own existing policies and procedures, to help familiarise your managers with them and guide them on what to do in difficult situations.

Some of our most popular training topics for employers are:

1. Employment Contracts and Policies: The Essentials

Are your employment contracts, policies and handbooks up to date? Do you always follow them and do you review them regularly?

Employment contracts and policies are an integral part of running a successful business or organisation. In this seminar we’ll talk about why it’s so important to have comprehensive contracts and handbooks in place, provide advice on the “dos and don’ts” of drafting these documents, and cover how to make the most effective use of employment contracts and handbooks as a tool to help you get the best out of your staff.

2. Navigating the Disciplinary, Capability and Grievance Processes

The processes employers need to follow when disciplining or performance managing their employees, or when dealing with grievances, are hugely important. Employers have a legal duty to follow a fair process in such situations, and failure to do so in a process which ultimately leads to the employee’s dismissal or resignation can lead to successful unfair dismissal claims against you in the Employment Tribunal.

This seminar will look at the most important rules for employers to remember when conducting these types of processes, and will provide examples of mistakes often made by employers and practical tips for how best to avoid those mistakes.

3. Managing Difficult Employees

Most employers will have experience of certain types of employees who take up much more management time than others. This might be because they’re a serial complainer, their absence levels are high, they regularly commit misconduct or they cause tension in the workplace.

This seminar will make use of interactive case studies to help you think about how best to deal with each type of “problem” employee early on and how to manage disciplinary and grievance processes when they arise.

We’ll also look at how to fairly dismiss employees who are simply not working out, in order to minimise the chances of an unfair dismissal claim.

4. An Overview of Good HR Practice

An employer’s relationship with its employees is fundamental to its success. Day-to-day issues can arise in that relationship which can escalate into much bigger problems. The role of the HR team and the line manager is to prevent these types of issues from arising and to deal with them as swiftly and effectively as possible when they do arise.

During this seminar, our HR and employment experts will guide you on the best ways to manage the employment relationship, advise you on how to deal with day-to-day HR and management issues and talk about the most important “dos and don’ts” in the world of HR.

5. Home, Agile, Hybrid and Flexible Working: Getting the Balance Right

The Covid-19 pandemic opened up the chance for some workforces to operate in a more agile way, with many employers permitting a greater amount of homeworking by their staff post-pandemic. This can lead to both challenges and opportunities, as employers navigate the difficult questions: when is homeworking right for the business? Do requests for flexible working have to be granted? What should be done if an employee refuses to return to the workplace?

We provide training to employers on how to explore which working model is right for them, how to manage difficult conversations with employees about the way they work, and how to keep a handle on their staff’s working arrangements. We also look at what wording needs to be included in contracts of employment, what practicalities and health and safety issues should be addressed, and what to do if an employee makes a formal flexible working request.

6. 10 Tips for Avoiding Employment Tribunals

Have you ever faced an Employment Tribunal claim by an employee? Do you know what types of claims employees can bring against their employers? How can you avoid such claims being brought against you?

The number of Employment Tribunal claims being brought in England and Wales has shot up rapidly in the last few years, especially following the Covid-19 pandemic. Employment Tribunal proceedings can be costly and damaging for businesses and organisations. This seminar will focus on 10 key tips for preventing and heading off claims by employees and for resolving claims quickly and with minimal cost.

7. Disability Discrimination and Mental Health Issues

Mental health problems among employees (including work-related stress) are becoming an increasingly common issue in the workplace, and many employers are unsure of how to deal with the legal issues which can stem from them. Getting it wrong can seriously damage an employer’s relationship with an employee and can also lead to disability discrimination claims being brought in the Employment Tribunal.

During this seminar we’ll look at when mental ill health can amount to a disability in employment law and what duties employers have to make reasonable adjustments to support disabled employees. We’ll provide practical guidance on the different types of disability discrimination in the workplace and how this can be avoided, including how to manage attendance and performance issues arising from mental ill health and how to work effectively with Occupational Health and other medical professionals.

8. Handling Sickness Absence and Maternity Leave

Sickness absence and maternity leave are the two most common types of long-term leave, but can cause logistical difficulties for employers when they arise unexpectedly. They can also lead to costly discrimination claims when employers are not sure of their legal duties in handling them. This seminar will give you guidance on:

• How to handle employees on long-term sickness absence, or those who frequently take short periods of sickness absence, and how to minimise sickness absence levels;
• What your legal duties are towards pregnant employees before, during and after their maternity leave; and
• The best ways to avoid claims of sex, pregnancy and disability discrimination by your employees.

9. Managing TUPE and Redundancies – A Practical Guide

Employment law surrounding TUPE and redundancy is complex, and business transfers and redundancy situations can be very unsettling for both employees and employers. Getting the process right in these situations is crucial, as making a mistake can leave employers open to costly Employment Tribunal claims.

During this seminar, we will walk you through a TUPE process and a redundancy process, giving you practical guidance on the most important HR and legal aspects of each, to give you the confidence to manage your own process.

10. Holding Difficult Conversations

Many employers find it tough to speak to their staff either formally or informally about difficult issues such as performance, behaviour, or redundancy. In these types of situations, dealing with the issue as early as possible is vital to prevent it from escalating into a bigger problem.

This seminar will focus on how best to handle difficult conversations and meetings with employees who are underperforming, unwell, or causing mischief in the workplace or whose jobs are at risk. It will look at how to handle performance management meetings, disciplinary issues and grievance hearings, and when a protected (or without prejudice) conversation to discuss an employee’s exit may be a sensible option.

11. Discrimination: Avoiding the Pitfalls

Employees can bring claims of discrimination under the Equality Act in relation to many different characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or beliefs, sex and sexual orientation. Discrimination claims in the Employment Tribunal can be costly, time-consuming and damaging to an employer, whether the employer wins or loses.

Our employment law experts will guide you on how to try and prevent discriminatory situations from arising in the first place, how to head them off early when they do, and how to deal fairly and reasonably with disciplinary and grievance issues arising out of complaints of discrimination. This will include examples of how employers can discriminate indirectly against certain groups of their staff, as well as how to deal with acts of discrimination (including bullying and harassment) by employees against their colleagues.

12. Social Media: Challenges and Opportunities

Social media can be a tool for the promotion of your organisation, or, if wrongly used by your employees, a weapon with the potential to seriously harm your organisation.

In this seminar, we’ll look at how to avoid and deal with the abuse of social media by your employees both in and outside of work.

We’ll examine what makes an effective social media policy, explore some examples of when employees have gone “rogue” on social media, and advise you on how to handle those situations effectively and in compliance with employment law. We’ll also look at how to maximise your own use of social media for the benefit of your business or organisation.

13. Fair Treatment in the Workplace

We provide training to employers on equality and diversity, discrimination, harassment and unconscious bias.

This can be tailored to line managers and HR teams, with case studies and practical examples of unfair treatment that can arise in the workplace. We can also provide workforce-wide training sessions to all of an employer’s staff on acceptable behaviours, types of discrimination and unconscious bias and how this should be avoided.

We will look at your own written policies on equal opportunities, bullying and harassment, and will tailor our training towards those policies to guide staff on the procedures that should be followed when a problem arises.

If you are interested in any training sessions we could offer you, please contact a member of our employment law team in confidence here or on 02920 829 100 for a free initial call to see how they can help.