Calibre HR & Training is offering Kent2020 Vision visitors and exhibitors the chance to win three months’ pay as you go HR advice.

The pay as you go HR service is tailored to the needs of small businesses and charged at a competitive hourly rate. Employers simply call one of Calibre HR & Training’s qualified HR professionals when they need help. Calls are then logged and billed on a regular basis in blocks of 15 minutes and up.

To enter the competition to win three months’ FREE pay as you go HR advice, visitors to Kent2020 Vision simply need to visit the Calibre HR & Training stand C5.

Kent2020 Vision is on April 22, 2010 at the Kent Showground, Detling.

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Calibre HR & Training will be exhibiting at Kent 2020 for the fourth year running.The exhibition is at Kent Showground, Detling, on Thursday, April 22, 2010.

Kent 2020 is the largest business conference and exhibition in the South East. Organisers are expecting a record 3,700 plus attendees and more than 350 exhibitors. Delegates can
register online.

In recent months, restructuring and redundancies have been pretty much standard practice across the hard-pressed retail sector.

But the critical part is what happens next.

Unfortunately, too many businesses sit back and expect things to go back to business as usual after a small mourning period. But life after redundancies is a challenge for managers and teams alike. And it needs careful thought and attention if the business is not going to grind to a halt.

This case study shows how Calibre HR & Training director Tara Lloyd helped get 100 store managers back in the swing of things.

Read the case study

For more on rebuilding after a restructure see Restructuring Factsheet

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Calibre HR & Training’s Tara Lloyd is hosting a free teambuilding session at a Teambuilding Showcase at Howfield Manor Hotel, Chartham Hatch, Kent, on Thursday, September 17, 2009.

This unique session will be based on Calibre HR & Training’s  facilitation and teambuilding card games The Values Game and The Feelings Game.

As well as a morning of teambuilding sessions – visitors can choose up to three – there will be a Train to Gain consultant on hand to explain possible sources of funding.

For more information or to book a place call Catherine Lloyd on 01227 733892 or email events@howfield.net.

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The Calibre HR & Training team will be on stand 73 at the Exhibit 09 – Business to Business Exhibition on June 24, 2009 at the Ashford International Hotel, Ashford.

Admission is free, so come and say hello and find out how we can help you with your HR and people development.

If you are new to www.calibrehr.com, welcome. If you are a returning visitor, you may notice some changes.

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The big difference is we now ask you to sign up to access our FREE factsheets. In the years we have been producing these expert HR and training factsheets, the feedback has been amazing. So now we want to let you know when we put something new up.

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The Calibre HR & Training team will be on stand 17 at Kent 2020 Vision, Kent Showground, Detling, on Thursday, April 2, 2009.

Come and talk to us to find out how you can sign up for our FREE online HR and training resources.

Your wages bill may be your largest financial commitment, but it does not stop there. Your total committed staff costs may include many commonly overlooked items.

For instance, don’t be fooled into thinking your recruitment costs will be nil due to the recession. People continue to move jobs. And if you want to counter the effects of the downturn, try taking advantage of the talent that will be available on the market.

At the other end of the employment relationship, if you are planning to reduce or restructure the workforce you need to factor in redundancy costs. And don’t be tempted to underestimate the role of professional support in avoiding litigation as a result of a redundancy programme.

Total committed staff costs should include:

• All wage costs.
• Cover for holidays and other absences (see our Holiday Entitlements Factsheet).
• Benefits – cars, food subsidies, life assurance, pensions, health cover, staff discounts and private health insurance etc.
• Pay rises and bonuses (including deferred).
• Recruitment costs (see our Recruitment in a Recession Factsheet).
• Training.
• Unreclaimed Statutory Sick Pay (see our Managing Sickness Absence Factsheet).
• Redundancy payments (see our Making Redundancies Factsheet).
• Professional HR support.

The second part of the picture is labour flexibility. To meet today’s challenges you need to know what flexibility you have to rework your operations as needed. To give you maximum flexibility, ensure you know and understand the implications of:

• The employment status of every staff member.
• The terms of engagement of contractors and agency staff.

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Any change in a business can have a big emotional impact on staff. But nothing is a bigger challenge to the willingness and ability of staff to do their job well than a looming or recent redundancy programme. Read Elspeth Watt’s tips at My Business for helping everyone in the small business move forward.

This is our first round-up of forthcoming changes in employment law and takes you up to April 2009. See our factsheets for help with the practical issues surrounding these changes.

From February 1, 2009

Tribunals Service compensation limits increased

• Unfair dismissal basic award will increase from £9,900 to £10,500.
• Maximum compensatory award will increase from £63,000 to £66,200.
• The statutory maximum figure a week’s pay is considered to be for calculating tribunal awards will increase from £330 to £350.
• Breach of contract award remains at £25,000 maximum.

From April 1, 2009

Holiday entitlement second staged increase takes effect

• Employers must ensure employees have a minimum of 5.6 weeks (28 days for five days per week workers) annual leave per year. This can include the eight Bank and Public Holidays in England and Wales.

From April 6, 2009

Right to request flexible working extended

• Right to request flexible working extended to parents with children aged 16 or under.

From April 6, 2009

Statutory discipline and grievance procedures abolished

• The new Acas code of practice for handling discipline and grievance procedures comes into effect on April 6, 2009, when the statutory procedures are abolished.
• Employers should ensure they understand the Acas code, as Tribunals will use this in their judgements.

The team here at Calibre HR Training will be on stand 51 at Kent Learning Showcase on February 27 (10am-3pm). The exhibition is taking place at Ramada Hotel & Resort, Maidstone.

This is the show’s sixth year in Maidstone and it is FREE to visit. If you are involved in training, learning or education this is a must for you and your business. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible.

See Kent Learning Showcase for details.

Small firms are missing out on talent that could have a real impact on their future prosperity due to dated and inflexible recruitment processes, says Calibre HR & Training director Elspeth Watt. Recruiting for new positions or replacing people who leave is always challenging, but in times of economic uncertainty, filling critical roles with the right people requires an even more robust approach.

“When the economy is buoyant, it is easy to get stuck in a rut by focusing on technical skills and not looking outside of a specific industry. But when there are so many skilled and experienced people in the jobs market, professionalising the recruitment process can really help small firms capitalise on the opportunities out there,” says Elspeth Watt.

Calibre HR & Training advises firms to look for transferable or softer skills – intellectual capability, problem solving and the ability to lead and motivate, etc. Elspeth Watt adds: “Such competences make a real difference to flexibility and competitiveness and are vital for surviving the current economic crisis. They will also put you in a stronger position when the turnaround comes.

“But finding and selecting people with these skills requires a different approach, from how you write the advert to how you interview candidates. This might increase the time and cost in recruiting new staff – including training interviewers – but  you need to make that investment in order to make the right recruitment choice first time, every time.”

To help small businesses recruit more effectively in a recession, Calibre HR & Training has published a free factsheet Recruitment in Uncertain Times.

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