The Agency Worker Regulations 2010, which came into force last month, are an attempt to ensure consistency across the EU in the treatment of temps. However, they have prompted a great deal of comment, some of which has been more provocative than accurate. Here I attempt to redress the balance.

British companies have relied for many years on a flexible temporary workforce supplied by employment agencies to fill gaps caused by sickness, holidays, unexpected peaks in workloads and vacancies. Broadly these arrangements have been mutually beneficial – although, as with anything, there have been a few exceptions where temps have been exploited.

From the October 1, 2011, any temporary/agency workers must be allowed access from day one to the collective facilities and amenities you offer to a comparable member of staff. This includes things such as the canteen, staff recreational facilities, transport, showers, changing facilities, car park, onsite nursery etc. Where there is a waiting list for any of these things you need only ensure that temporary employees’ names are added to it for fair consideration at a time when they come to the top.

From day one temporary workers should be advised of any job vacancies at the site they are working at and should be allowed to apply for them. The most common way of bringing this to the attention of all staff is the noticeboard and you do not need to do any more than ensure that  agency workers/temp are aware that you advertise vacancies in this manner or in any other ways.

If temporary workers stay with you longer than 12 weeks, they become entitled to the same contractual rights as permanent members of staff. But service before October 1, 2011 does not count. After 12 weeks’ service they become eligible for the same overtime, shift allowances and bonus payments relating to individual performance or productivity, breaks and rest periods, hours of work, meal allowances and annual leave provided for  comparable permanent staff members. This calculation is not pro-rated for part-time staff, so if some of them work only one or two days a week for 12 weeks, they also qualify.

Redundancy pay, contractual sick pay, maternity, paternity and adoption pay, loans and non-cash benefits are excluded. The agency employing the temp has the responsibility for any such payments. It is important to discuss with the agencies your terms and conditions and salary levels. This will ensure they can pay the temp the appropriate rate for your business and they are aware of your other terms of employment. While the law states that this should apply only after 12 weeks, it would be good practice to ensure the agency pays the appropriate rate from day one where this is possible.

The 12-week qualifying period cannot be broken by a short absence of a few weeks for holidays or a period of sickness. If this is more than six weeks the clock is reset when the temporary returns, but if the absence was due to maternity, paternity or adoption leave continuity is preserved.

These regulations are well written and it would be pretty tricky for employers to unintentionally misapply them. There are clear indications about when and how the continuity of the qualifying period is broken. For instance, the following do not break continuity of employment:

• Breaks of six weeks or less between contracts.
• Sickness absence of up to 26 weeks.
• Time off relating to a statutory or contractual entitlement e.g. maternity, paternity, adoption leave etc.
• Strikes or lock-out.

Similarly, more than two assignments with the hirer (in the same or different roles) are likely to be regarded by an Employment Tribunal as continuity of employment.

So for employers it is not worth taking the risk of misapplication. The costs of doing so are high and your business will suffer from adverse publicity in any Tribunal case. Employment Tribunals can award compensation for any losses incurred by the agency worker for less favourable treatment. And an additional £5,000 can be awarded for each affected worker where it considered an employer has tried to avoid the regulations – and that could seriously add up.

Following my recent blog Training Evaluation…How to Measure what Matters, now a look at using questionnaires as a
training evaluation tool.

There are several decent online surveying tools for designing and distributing questionnaires and analysing results. The easiest is SurveyMonkey, but you may need more than the free version.

The prevalence of these tools has encouraged many people with no experience in writing or interpreting research to have a go. Hence the volume of overly long surveys with ambiguous and over complicated questions and unbalanced rating scales that ambush our inboxes.

So where do you start to get your training evaluation questionnaire right?

1. Start with the end in mind

Start with the end goal. That means you should:

• Clarify the training programme objectives (see Training Evaluation…How to Measure what Matters)
• Determine which issues the training evaluation questionnaire must address and don’t get carried away with ‘nice to haves’
• Clarify who is going to use the survey and see the results
• Confirm what decisions will be made as a result

2. Choose the right training evaluation methods

Don’t assume a questionnaire is automatically the right training evaluation tool. They are great for many things, in particular:

• Facts and figures, rankings, average scores and preferences
• How many, how often, when, where and who
• Comparisons (before vs after, or one group vs another)

But if you are making complex decisions, you may need a statistically significant sample size. And that requires a very high response rate. Depending on the objectives of your research, you may find qualitative research is more appropriate.

Qualitative research from in-depth structured interviews, focus groups, observation etc, can be a useful steer if you cannot access the wider audience. It can also be a pre-cursor to a questionnaire. You should also opt for qualitative research to:

• Deal with sensitive issues
• Explore feelings and attitudes
• Look for ideas and creative solutions
• Answer the ‘whys’ and uncover truths

You may want to consider different training evaluation methods for different stakeholders, eg learners, their managers, peers, L&D managers, trainers etc, to give a full view of the programme’s outcomes.

3. Structure your survey for user-friendliness

A well designed training evaluation questionnaire flows logically and comfortably. To achieve this:

• List all essential information required across all stakeholders
• Group information by topic
• Sequence topics starting with broader issues before drilling down into more detail
• Aim for consistency and don’t jump between topics
• Keep sensitive or more challenging personal questions at the end

4. Find out who your respondents are

Classification (or profiling) questions about your respondents help you do deeper analysis of age, gender, location, employment status, length of service etc. Classification questions are usually at the end of the survey with a couple of exceptions:

• If you need to determine whether a respondent is eligible to take the survey (eg you may exclude very recent joiners)
• If you want to route the respondent based on their answers (eg staff in different divisions may answer a different set of questions)

5. Ask the right questions

When deciding what to ask, think about how the results will be used. I recommend including questions about all four levels of the Kirkpatrick model. You could even sequence the questionnaire through the levels, eg:

• Was the pace of the course right? (Level 1 – quality control)
• Indicate the level of your skills / knowledge before and after training (Level 2)
• Rate how confident you feel about xyz following training (Level 2)
• Have you applied the learning since the course, if so give examples of how (Level 3)
• In what ways has the training enabled you to make a positive benefit, eg saved time / cost, increased revenue, improved customer retention, increased your efficiency, reduced accidents? (Level 4)

6. Be consistent

With rating scales, you may wish to label each point of the scale, but do make sure the wording is ‘balanced’, ie you use the same terminology throughout the scale, and the mid-point is truly neutral. The example below might help.

On the following scale, please show how much you agree or disagree with the statement:

I understand rating scales very well:

1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Neither agree or disagree
4. Agree
5. Strongly agree

7. Test it

Piloting your questionnaires will ensure questions are unambiguous and easy to complete. You can also time how long it takes someone unfamiliar with the survey to complete it. Best attention span is under 15 minutes and you may be surprised how short the survey needs to be to fit within that. Use ‘word’ selections, smiley faces or other images to break up the monotony of a standard rating scale.

8. Explain the relevance of your survey

Last, but by no means least, if you are asking people to give up their time to complete your survey, it is only fair they understand why they are doing it.

I hope these pointers help you improve your surveying. Don’t panic if you find some of the research techniques daunting – a little friendly advice could save a lot of hassle and dramatically improve the final results. Do feel free to add a comment at the bottom. I’d love to know what tools and techniques you are using – and happy to help with any issues or questions.

Guest blogger Liz Barnes, an expert in the training evaluation process, looks at best practice thinking on the evaluation of training

With all departments under increasing pressure to prove ‘best value’ for all expenditure, the need for L&D professionals to demonstrate value from training programmes looks set to continue. However, there is much variation in how – and whether – organisations are evaluating training programmes effectively.

Many of our clients use a structured approach to L&D evaluation with internal systems for pre, during and post training evaluation. And such investment can pay real dividends.

But where do you start?

The most common training evaluation question we hear from clients looking at developing a robust training evaluation process is: “What should I evaluate?” And it is a very valid starting point, because it is easy to get bogged down with the course detail and forget to determine the WHO, WHY and WHAT of training evaluation.

But unless you start in the right place, you won’t be able to measure what matters. So build a training evaluation process by first asking:

• Who cares about evaluation and who are we evaluating for?
• Why are we evaluating – do we want to measure effectiveness, efficiency or both?
• What learning are we evaluating and what are the costs and benefits of that learning?

See our Training Evaluation – Measuring What Matters Factsheet for a full overview of the questions to consider at the start of designing an evaluation system.

When it comes to answering these questions, start with the needs of your stakeholders. Make sure you include all relevant stakeholders in your thinking. And remember to consider the practicalities of what it is they want to know. For example, how do they want this reported and how will they use it?

No doubt your stakeholders will be concerned about outcomes. Anyone who cares about training in your organisation will want to know what the results have been – they are much less concerned about the learning process. They will want to know how they as individuals, teams, departments or other groups, will benefit from the learning.

If you are familiar with the old, but still incredibly valuable, Kirkpatrick training evaluation model, this is Level 4 evaluation, and it usually requires quantifiable ways to measure the impact of the training on the organisation, such as sales figures, workplace injuries, productivity etc.

Focusing on results, means your evaluation system will have the end goal in mind. You then need to work backwards to define desired behaviours (Kirkpatrick Level 3) from the training – ie what is the individual doing differently in their job as a result of the training. You then need to evaluate the knowledge and understanding acquired as a result of the training (Kirkpatrick Level 2). This is about validation and seeks to measure what new knowledge or skills have been acquired. Evaluation tools might include written or performance tests before and after training.

And finally we get to the trainee’s perception of the training influenced by basic quality control measures of satisfaction, attendance and completion (Kirkpatrick Level 1). Questionnaires can assess reactions and attitudes and gather opinions about training methods, instructors, the environment and other aspects of the training process.

Why a blanket social media policy doesn’t work

Back at the beginning of 2010 we asked how many HR professionals were gearing up for the year of social media. More than 18 months on and it seems employers are getting tough on the social networking employee. According to a recent survey, nearly a third of employers have social media guidelines that ban or discourage the use of social networking sites at work.

And that might be a logical step for some organisations. But it does not deal with the risks of social media out of work, including on mobile devices in break periods. So what every organisation needs is a sensible policy – not just an outright ban on social media.

But where to start managing social media risks in your business?

There is no such a thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to eliminating the risks inherent in social media. First of all, organisations need to take time to carefully identify the nature of the specific social media risks to their business – and to their people. And there are many. Those highlighted below are just some that I’ve come across. Have you found others?

Risks for employers from the social networking employee:

• Disclosure of confidential information
• Unclear ownership of certain information, eg who owns LinkedIn contacts?
• Breaches of data protection
• Breaching codes or regulations
• Vicarious liability for discrimination, bullying or harassment by employees
• Employees wasting time on social media during the working day
• Disclosure of inaccurate information, eg an employee claiming a role on LinkedIn from which a colleague has just been made redundant
• Bringing the company into disrepute, this could be a range of actions including, for example, an ex-employee posting defamatory comments about a manager

Risks to the social networking employee:

• Poorly judged comments about the employer, a manager or colleague
• Conduct bordering on bullying or harassment – even crossing the line
• Private communications being made public by indiscrete recipients forwarding and re-tweeting
• Being caught out by privacy settings
• Employers using social media checks in recruitment
• Breaching rules on defamation and confidentiality after leaving a job when the rules still apply

So the risks are plentiful. But that does not mean organisations can or should paint social media as a negative. Like any other business tool or communications channel, it has many positives as well as pitfalls.

What does set social media apart however is how these risks are compounded by the very nature of the medium – communication is immediate with potential for a viral effect without geographic boundaries. And not only are the consequences of their actions too often ill thought out by users of social networks, content that is put out there is permanent and searchable even after it has been deleted.

To answer the ‘what should I do about it?’ question, the first step is understanding the unique nature of the risks to your people and organisation. You then need to draw up a clear social media policy about the use of social media at work with rules and guidance relevant to your organisation. This should be supported by frequently asked questions.

Revisit your harassment policy to ensure it includes detail on comments made on social media. And consider how this is going to be communicated and staff educated in the rules and guidelines.

Finally consider how staff can be empowered to be more involved in managing the risks from social media themselves. This may include nominating a named individual as a ‘guru’ and source of advice and social media guidance. Having a nominated person to look after this evolving space will ensure your social media policy is always up to date and relevant to your workplace.

Read any newspaper or tune in to radio or TV and the only topic seems to be the behaviour of those in the public eye in relation to the alleged phone hacking by certain reporters, or the obtaining of information from other sources by dubious means. The forgotten story though is the one relating to the alleged pressure put on individuals to get the scoop − whatever the cost.

Allegations of 80-hour working weeks and relentless pressure to deliver are replicated in many target-driven operations. But the costs can be high. The death of the whistleblower Sean Hoare may not be directly attributable to his work, but such pressure may well have made it more difficult for him to kick the reported addiction that led to his dismissal from the News of the World.

The obligation to ensure staff are protected from unnecessary stress does not mean employers should featherbed their people, but they should recognise and act when the pressure is becoming too great. Under the Health and Safety at Work Act there is a legal responsibility to ensure a safe working environment. This includes mental as well as physical health.

In these challenging times it pays to remember those responsibilities as the penalties for ignoring the health and wellbeing of staff are high.

Recent accusations about an appointment at the Metropolitan Police which appeared to circumnavigate the normal recruitment channels is not the first such criticism to have been levelled at a police force.

While it may seem easier to take on someone known to you for a role in your business, it does not make good business sense if you are ignoring a wider pool of applicants that could bring the benefits of diversity to your organisation.

Our factsheet on Recruitment in Uncertain Times provides guidance on how to handle the process in a fair and constructive manner. There is nothing against including a friend or personal recommendation in the interview shortlist, but there should be clarity in how the process is handled. If the final decision is not made by a recruitment panel, it should be made by someone without a connection to any of the candidates.

In addition, senior managers should not apply pressure to make an appointment based solely on the fact an individual is known to them. Of course, a known individual may well turn out to be the ideal candidate. So it is important to follow the correct procedure so there is an adequate paper trail to support the decision in the event of any challenge.

I cannot stress too highly the need for due diligence in handling all aspects of the recruitment process. The Equality Act 2010 makes it possible for a wider range of individuals to feel aggrieved if they consider due process has not been followed. Such claims can be expensive as well as time consuming.

Doing it right from the outset is the best defence. This should include ensuring everyone involved in the recruitment process is aware of the law relating to discrimination in the workplace and has had interview training to avoid asking discriminatory questions.

When the decision has been made, remember to follow up on references and qualifications. Also ensure the individual has the right to work in the UK. The penalties for employing illegal workers are considerable and it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain work permits for foreign workers.

The full extent of the requirements of the Bribery Act 2010 has only recently emerged. The government was very late in releasing the appropriate guidance notes for a complex piece of legislation that became law on July 1, 2011.

The Act replaces the previous main statutory authorities on bribery and has created several new criminal corporate offences which, if found guilty, could result in very heavy fines and in some cases a maximum 10 year prison sentence.

It is therefore in the interests of all commercial organisations − including companies, partnerships and charitable, educational or public bodies − to ensure they have a clear and unambiguous policy on bribery. This should be reviewed regularly and disseminated to staff.

Senior managers must also demonstrate their commitment to a culture of integrity in which bribery is never acceptable and where there is zero tolerance of such behaviour.

A statement by itself is not a sufficient defence should a case go to court and further work will be required by most organisations to demonstrate their adherence to the new law. The extent of any steps needed will depend on the type of business and its possible exposure to corrupt practices both in this country and overseas. 

Employers should also be aware that they will be responsible for the actions of employees, agents and contractors so it is vital the organisation’s stance on meeting its anti-bribery obligations is clearly stated and regularly reviewed.

Training needs analysis or TNA is a systematic approach to identifying gaps between the skills your people have and those the organisation needs to meet its goals. A TNA identifies where training is needed to help the organisation achieve its objectives, implement plans, improve performance or innovate to do things differently.

As such a TNA or training needs assessment can and should play a key role in determining how you allocate your L&D resources. Without a proper TNA, there is no way of ensuring you invest in training in the areas most critical to your organisation’s success. And it can help you avoid wasting money on training where other interventions – such as moving an employee to a new role, outsourcing or recruiting – might be more beneficial.

Yet too many organisations fail to adopt a robust approach to learning needs analysis. Why, because it can be lengthy and costly to do a TNA. Training needs analysis that isn’t planned or executed properly can fail to give you any insights or, worse still, lead you in the wrong direction.

However, when it comes to making a training needs assessment, the process doesn’t have to be arduous – particularly with the variety of online tools available. Of course, you still need to take time to properly plan your TNA and ensure it focuses in the right areas and on the right levels – individual, team or organisational – but the results can be generated a lot more efficiently than you might imagine.

Below is a very quick guide to how you should approach the training needs analysis. For more on planning, implementing or interpreting the results of your TNA see our Training Needs Analysis Factsheet.

1. Before you start, decide on the level at which you are targeting your TNA – are you implementing, improving or innovating on an individual, group or organisational level?

2. Agree the objectives behind the training needs analysis and the critical outputs.

3. Analyse what needs to be done to achieve the outputs.

4. Find out what knowledge and skills are required to successfully perform these tasks – don’t forget other relevant factors such as job design, resources, etc.

5. Identify the employee’s actual, typical job performance.

6. Determine the gap between desired job performance and actual typical performance.

7. Assess the impact of this gap on the organisation’s performance.

8. Identify the cause of the performance gap – is there a training problem?

9. Identify the new knowledge and skills required, based on impact on job performance.

Why it’s important to have an alcohol and drug policy in the workplace

We have recently had two clients who have been affected by alcohol and substance misuse in the workplace. In the first instance, a case of serious substance addiction was uncovered when the company began to look into an employee’s escalating sickness absence. In the second, a client needed to manage a disciplinary of an employee, whose job involved driving, who had lost his license through drink driving.

Both cases highlight the importance of a drugs and alcohol policy.

Alcohol and drug abuse are growing problems and the workplace is not immune. In a CIPD survey, Managing Alcohol and Drug Misuse at Work, four out of ten respondents identified alcohol consumption as a significant or very significant cause of absence and lost productivity. And a third reported drug misuse having a similarly negative effect in the workplace.

Successfully tackling drug and alcohol misuse can benefit both the business and employees. At the simplest level, it can reduce the cost of absenteeism and impaired productivity. At the more extreme end it can save recruitment and training costs for new employees replacing those whose employment is terminated because of untreated misuse of drugs or alcohol.

And, of course, you have a general duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 to ensure the health, safety and welfare at work of your employees. This means protecting them from accidents that may be contributable to their own or a colleague’s substance or alcohol misuse.

Having a clear policy on alcohol and drugs, which has been agreed and communicated clearly to staff, is the first step in reducing the risk of a problem occurring. It will also make it easier to deal with any issues that do arise.

What to include in an alcohol and drug policy

Aims of the drug / alcohol policy

A statement on why the drug and alcohol policy exists and who it covers – it must be seen to apply equally to all staff and roles.

Responsibility

Who is responsible for carrying out the drug and alcohol policy. All managers and supervisors have a role to play, but the policy will be more effective if a senior manager is known to have overall responsibility.

Definition

Key terms should be clearly defined.

The rules

How your organisation expects employees to behave to ensure drug misuse and alcohol consumption do not negatively effect their work. You should include information about drink driving – including consequences of the loss of a license as a result of drink driving – in the company car drivers’ manual and in an employee’s terms and conditions where they drive as part of their job.

Help

The policy should state that if an employee believes they have a problem with drink or drugs they should admit to the problem to a relevant member of staff. The policy should also make it clear that such problems will then be dealt with as a medical issue with help and support to try and overcome the addiction. Any absence that occurs during treatment of the problem should be dealt with as sick leave and this should be explained in the policy. You may also want to outline company or local support services.

Confidentiality

The drug and alcohol policy should include a statement assuring employees that such a problem will be treated in strict confidence, subject to the provisions of the law.

Disciplinary action

The circumstances in which disciplinary action will be taken need to be clearly set out. These might include when performance is impaired and help is refused or when behaviour amounts to gross misconduct. The policy should also make it clear that possession of drugs will immediately be reported to the police as a matter of course.

It is in the interests of employers who care about their employees and want a healthy and engaged workforce to manage this issue through effective policies and procedures and support for individuals with dependency problems.

The policy is the starting point. But you should also consider an awareness programme for staff about the dangers of alcohol and substance misuse. You should also explain the policy during the induction programme.

Managers’ and supervisors’ ability to recognise the signs of drug and alcohol misuse can be a crucial part of managing the problem. They should be trained to recognise changes in an individual which might be due to substance abuse. They will also need training in how to deal with the matter in a tactful and supportive manner (see the HSE’s Drug Misuse at Work for more). Addiction to drugs or alcohol are not regarded as disabilities under the Equality Act 2010, but care should be taken to ensure that there is no underlying medical condition that might be considered a disability.

Coming soon my next blog post looking at what to do if you suspect an employee has a dependency problem.

The ability to lead through challenging times remains a requisite for all managers. However, where cutbacks and restructuring have been the norm in recent years, businesses are increasingly starting to take the longer view and invest more of their energy – and cash – in innovation, growth and creativity. This presents managers with a new set of challenges.

According to a report by top European business school HEC Paris, the innovation function is evolving from a process managed by a few, to one that spans the enterprise. And that includes R&D, strategy, marketing and other departments. Across the board, companies surveyed agreed innovation is a long-term initiative to create ‘a sustainable culture of intellectual mobility within the company that integrates all employees to transform ideas into competitive advantages’. And it is a far cry from the burden of relentless cost-cutting and efficiency drives of recent years.

And this research isn’t alone in recognising the implications for L&D. Bersin & Associates’ Enterprise Learning and Talent Management 2011 found that 34 per cent of companies now cite innovation as a top three talent strategy. This is up from only 14 per cent on 2010.

The focus on innovation is driven by, among other things, the limitations caused by an overzealous focus on performance, efficiency and cost-cutting. So if too many employees have been taught to save money and stop taking risks, what do managers now need to do to enable their teams to develop new ideas and drive them through the organisation? And how can L&D help?

L&D needs to review its approach to learning. Traditional management development programmes have served many organisations well in the past. But when innovation, motivation and ideas are an organisation’s source of competitive advantage, processing factories churning out managers with a set of pre-determined behaviours will not produce the goods. So, what needs to be done? The answer lies in five key tasks.

Talk the language of business

L&D people have to talk to senior managers about business, not about theories. By operating and communicating in the same business world as the rest of the organisation L&D will be able to create stronger bonds and get to the heart of the challenges the business faces.

Solve real organisational problems

Senior managers want solutions to their business problems – fast. L&D needs to respond quickly and effectively with the right sort of training. This could mean any number of flexible and tailored approaches, including breaking training into short, targeted and high energy sessions. Or supporting training with coaching and intelligent facilitation to help managers develop and employ new skills.

Look forwards

New challenges need new solutions. If L&D is to deliver real and lasting improvements, it needs to become a ‘productivity partner’ offering practical solutions. To achieve this it needs a broad range of business and market knowledge and a good insight into where the business is going and the environment in which it will be operating in the future.

Use technology

L&D needs to understand the role of blended learning in all its guises to ensure the organisation has more appropriate training delivered in more relevant ways.

Fail fast and move on

Innovation means taking risks. Not all will pay off – and that includes L&D solutions. But with failure comes learning. L&D needs to recognise and understand failure – as well as success – and be open and honest about it. But then it needs to be prepared to change fast and move on to the next solution quickly without getting too absorbed by analysing what went wrong..