Five new challenges with returns to work

12/20/21 • 32 min

Returns to work are set to become even more challenging with the advent of hybrid and remote working, to the extent that the traditional toolkit may no longer be fit for purpose.

In this episode, our employment and regulatory teams discuss five new challenges for HR and legal teams, and share their insights and advice surrounding:

Occupational stress
Supervision and performance management
Personal injury
Training and career development
Long Covid

There are some recurring themes, including:

The risk that employers underestimate their legal obligations;
The need to think about the individual employee and take a tailored approach;
The importance of effective employee communications; and
Maintaining a complete record of steps taken to support employees and minimise health and safety and other risks.

Our listener question addresses the timely topic of mandatory vaccinations at work, and what we’ve been seeing and advising clients.

Useful link: HSE guidance on home working

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Send us your questions and we'll answer them in a future episode – email [email protected] or Tweet us using the hashtag #TLTemploymentpodcast and tag @TLT_Employment

You can find out more about our employment team at tltsolicitors.com/employment

If you’ve enjoyed listening, please rate us and write a review.

Returns to work are set to become even more challenging with the advent of hybrid and remote working, to the extent that the traditional toolkit may no longer be fit for purpose.

In this episode, our employment and regulatory teams discuss five new challenges for HR and legal teams, and share their insights and advice surrounding:

Occupational stress
Supervision and performance management
Personal injury
Training and career development
Long Covid

There are some recurring themes, including:

The risk that employers underestimate their legal obligations;
The need to think about the individual employee and take a tailored approach;
The importance of effective employee communications; and
Maintaining a complete record of steps taken to support employees and minimise health and safety and other risks.

Our listener question addresses the timely topic of mandatory vaccinations at work, and what we’ve been seeing and advising clients.

Useful link: HSE guidance on home working

***

Send us your questions and we'll answer them in a future episode – email [email protected] or Tweet us using the hashtag #TLTemploymentpodcast and tag @TLT_Employment

You can find out more about our employment team at tltsolicitors.com/employment

If you’ve enjoyed listening, please rate us and write a review.

Previous Episode

The rise of the disability agenda

After Me Too and Black Lives Matter, there are growing signs that disability could be the next recipient of a major social media movement, not to mention new legal duties for employers.

In the UK, the government has published a new National Disability Strategy including mandatory reporting for employers, the employment gap is impossible to ignore, and the Tokyo Paralympics sparked the campaign WeThe15 representing the world’s 1.2 billion people with a disability.

But are employers ready for this? Disability varies wildly from other areas of equality law, and as PageGroup CEO and disability rights champion Steve Ingham recently said, many employers simply think: “It’s too complex an issue to grapple with” and therefore don’t engage.

We discuss:

Why this is such a complex area of employment law, and why employers should act now
The merits of pay gap reporting and quotas, but more importantly, the need for an inclusive workplace culture
Employer attitudes when deciding what is/is not a disability
The different types of disability discrimination and knowledge tests
The tricky business of using medical reports

We also explain cases covering:

Concealment of a disability
Assuming the knowledge of your agents
“Reasonable” adjustments including cost

Our listener question looks at four-day working weeks and what employers should consider when defining the scope of a trial.

Useful link: EHRC Code of Practice

***

Send us your questions and we'll answer them in a future episode – email [email protected] or Tweet us using the hashtag #TLTemploymentpodcast and tag @TLT_Employment

You can find out more about our employment team at tltsolicitors.com/employment

If you’ve enjoyed listening, please rate us and write a review.

Next Episode

Race discrimination

Can an employer really claim to have strong ESG credentials if they aren’t addressing societal issues like race equality and discrimination, and if they’re simply relying on policies and training?

How can employers meet the changing expectations of regulators, investors, employees, job candidates and clients?

The legal definition of race is much broader than many people realise. In this episode, Kanika Kitchlu-Connolly, co-chair of TLT’s BAME network, joins our employment team to discuss:

Why this is so challenging but important for employers to get right
The role of employee networks, from sharing information and lived experiences to raising issues, offering solutions, acting as a sounding board and holding employers to account
The role of data, from helping employers to achieve their goals, to demonstrating what’s working, revealing barriers and defending claims
Other ways to embed an anti-racism policy, from induction processes and exit interviews, to reverse mentoring and enabling people to become allies
Complex legal issues, including those arising from “zero tolerance” policies, “banter”, harassment, indirect discrimination and positive discrimination

Our news update covers fire and rehire practices and the rights of agency staff.