The Employee Blog

We have been told, it’s all in the news – coronavirus will leave with us for a while. At least till a tested vaccine is confirmed and that’s been predicted to take up to 18 months. Some states in the US, Germany, UK, France, Switzerland to mention a few have all relaxed some of the lockdown restrictions placed upon the public some weeks. Germany for example, had football matches yesterday in a closed stadiums and Australia has relaxed lockdown measures such that bars/pubs can reopen whilst maintaining social distancing. As the public adjusts to this new way of living, we take a look out some industries that may likely see a boom in trading or operations as coronavirus still a worry for most countries of the world. These industries we look at as a result of the public demands in relation to social distancing and lockdown measures which may be active for most countries in a while towards the end of 2020.   Here is our 6 industries listed: Information Technology Even at th

You may have come across this article because of the latest announcement made by the Prime Minister Boris Johnson about relaxing the lockdown measures. The announcement caused divisions in the public with many confused as to how things will work. Even the UK government are not in agreement over the new message been changed from STAY HOME SAVE LIVES to STAY ALERT. The Scottish first Minister Nicola Sturgeon has stressed the "stay at home" message remains in place and has disapproved the stay home message from the any Scottish media outlets.  As it stands, only England will be following the new message “Stay Alert”. The news came with unclear instructions on which business can reopen. Today the Prime Minister answered some questions about what to do and how to get by. You should only go back to work if you cannot work from home and try to do so by avoiding public transport as much as you can. Employers are expected to follow some guidelines on making this place safe

As people lose their jobs, same way businesses shutdown daily due to financial factors such as high running cost. Outsourcing some sort of functions of the company has become more popular way of reducing business overheads. Some would argue that its more expensive if you are a small to medium sized company to outsource certain functions such as the IT department or logistics. Businesses can almost outsource anything which isn't strategic to its core of it's business. Most companies now outsource their Accounting and IT department. No doubts you can cut your overhead cost by outsourcing but would it be cheaper to outsource the HR department? After all, you may be able to do with just a single personnel handling the HR side and also double as your administrator. One can really suggest that if its a small company, you can get by recruiting just one person dealing with the HR side of the business. Reasons Why You Should Outsource Your HR Function. Save on Salary Let’s star

There’s always the workplace gossip or should I say, office chat. Employers know its bad and must always try to discourage this within their workforce. You may be feeling insecure about your job because the news is going round that the board/employer have plans to make some roles redundant or maybe only your role is going to be made redundant. It’s a negative feeling, a bad counter-productive agent that will steal an employee’s mental well-being. Even though it may be just a rumour, with the current pandemic situation in the world, this article might just help you keep or save a job. But if it’s an inevitable job loss; we look at a few steps you might want to consider. 1. Self Evaluation. Do you know it’s a good practice to always review oneself periodically whether in your career, relationship, spirituality, as a parent, a boss, even as a priest? Self evaluation is a key factor to self development. We can’t have a solution if there’s no problem. Redundancy must be in a

Can I keep my job by just spending? Probably not just like that. The Office for Budget Responsibility, the Treasury’s official forecaster, warned that UK Gross Domestic Product could fall by 35 per cent in the coming months due to the coronavirus lockdown.  The world economy looks like it’s a on the brink of recession. Unemployment is on the rise, businesses temporarily shut as a result of lockdown measures, some of which may not reopen anytime soon. Just as you are worried about the future of the economy, here are the  Government’s plan to get the economy back up and running. Government’s Role in a Recession – The Built-in Stabiliser. An in-built stabiliser is “any aspect of government taxation and expenditure policies that automatically reduces government expenditure and/or increases government tax revenue when income and output are increasing, or that automatically increases government expenditure and/or reduces government tax revenue when income and output are fal

Working From Home in Today's World. With working from home our new way of earning a living, we have had to adjust to the way we shop in supermarkets and our kid’s new teacher is the parent. Many would prefer to even shop for groceries online but where are the slots home delivery? Wedding photographers now taking pictures of their neighbourhood, DJs throwing parties from roofs their homes, care workers living away from home, this is not us. After our physiological needs (food, water) and safety needs (security, safety) are met, the next need we push for is the psychological needs. Our need to socialize is why some people just can’t stay home during this lockdown, defying the government directions to stay home. But a lot of us are adjusting well this new way.   Are Things Going To Go Back To The Old Ways? It may be too early to start to talk about tomorrow. As of today, over 200,000 people worldwide has died and it is estimated that over 400,000 may be closer to the real figure.

Employment tribunal proceedings that goes through to final hearing will normally take between one year to 2 years. It depends on location and other factors not including a situation such as a pandemic. I have explained what to expect if you are prepared to go all the way to the final hearing.  Early Conciliation All employment tribunal proceedings must start with Acas, The claim starts with the claimant getting the early conciliation number without it, claimant will not be able submit an ET1 form. You must have started this process with Acas and an appointed Conciliator would have tried to work things between you and your employer. You must have submitted your claim to Acas within your limitation date. Limitation date is the period in which you can bring a claim to the Employment Tribunal and this is defined as 3 months less one day at which the incident occurred. Your conciliator will try to work things out between you and your employer with a month. He/she may extend it by 2

Average Cost Of Employment Tribunal To The Employer Are you a claimant wondering how much it would cost your employer to defend your claims at the employment tribunal? Maybe you are an employer thinking if its worth going through defending the claims or probably just settling the claims early. In a much as its important not to spend too much on defending claims you know you could lose, it is more important to use good representative right from the start. Good and experienced law firms cost money and I have written this article as a guide of what to expect. Law firms charges differently and accordingly. Below is an estimate of what you can expect. Please have in mind that your case may be more complicated and that may also affect your cost. Response Form Reviewing the ET1 claims from the claimant and advising / helping with the response 2,000 – 3,500 Schedule of Loss. The claimant would have submitted to you their schedule of loss and you may want to counter it. You may

Asda To Provide Face Masks For Staffs Asda CEO Roger Burney, has just announced that the store will be providing face masks for the employees who may need one at work. Though the Government and WHO guidelines do not recommend masks for daily use but the company have acted on what the employees want. They (employees) want to feel safe at work and wearing face masks will make them feel safe. Experts say wearing mask (not the approved PPE) can prevent infected ones from spreading the virus but wont protect you from the virus. If the public when outside wears face masks, the spread of the virus will slow down though some say social distancing its as effective as wearing a home made mask. The company also announced that they will be part of the key worker testing programme and employees can test themselves and families with them.

5 Ways To Become A Software Tester With No Prior Knowledge So the country is still on lockdown and you have probably gone through every episode of “Ozark” “How to Get Away with Murder” watched all the movies you can possibly watch or if you are a gamer, bored with your console already. Maybe you can add a few more skills till we get out of the lockdown. It might be an opportunity for you to get into a new job or switch careers. If you can read from this page right now then with the right mind, you can also get into the IT sector. If you follow these steps, you will be alright.  Step 1 on how to become a software tester. Visit  this website  here for readings into what you need to know about software testing. You do not know everything but just the basics. This will prepare you for the interviews. The plan is to set the foundation for you to start as a Manual Software Tester.  Step 2    on how to become a software tester. Watch and learn how to use Gira Software. This softw

Covid 19 -  Adjusting To The New Norm.  Difficult times around the world. We are worried about how the world economy will bounce back from this. Record high on unemployment figures around the world. Many companies have made their staffs redundant. Big loses in major industries especially travel and leisure sectors, even though it affects practically all industries with the exception of the key sectors keeping our health ticking.  You are not alone in this. In the UK, the government has taken some measures to support the large number of employees through job retention schemes and also backing self employed individuals through grants. Also, there is the government backed loan available new or existing business owner. Likewise in the US, the government has just passed new $483bn stimulus plan ‘to protect families, small business’ The same thing in Germany and the European Union. We may be in different regions or nation, we will fight this together even if it means "printing mo

Its the last day of your Employment Tribunal hearing and you have just been awarded compensatory  cost but it feels like you have just lost. A different outcome where you got more cost awarded and you probably may feel the same way. Sometimes it’s difficult to explain.  Many times the respondent do not get what you feel they really deserved. About half of the cases that get to the final hearing are dismissed for lack of merits. Many claimants fail with claims due to poor preparation and/or poor representation at the hearing. For the successful claims, it may feel like a defeat. It is worse if the claimant had acted unreasonably during the cause of the proceedings as sometimes, this will be reflected in the cost awarded to them (Case No: 1805235/2019). In this case, the tribunal ruled that "It is just and equitable to reduce the basic award by 33% to reflect the Claimant’s conduct prior to the dismissal".  Even though the deductions were as a result of the claimant