The company place an advertisement in a local newspaper for a Customer Service Representative.  They put a few lines together in the ad of what they are looking for.  Imran applies for the job and is invited to interview along with 5 other candidates. 

No HR:

The Customer Services Manager looks through the CV’s and chooses 5 people to invite for an interview whose CV’s look as if they could do the job.  Imran is invited to interview.  The Customer Services Manager has a general chat with each of the candidates talking through their CV and telling them about the role.  The Manager offers the role to a Caucasian female, Rebecca.  Imran receives a letter in the post thanking him for his application but that on this occasion he has not been successful as someone else has more suitable skills.  Imran is furious as he thought the interview went well and thinks he must have been racially discriminated against.  He puts in an employment tribunal claim for racial discrimination.  The company are unable to defend the claim as they have no job or person specification stating what skills and abilities they were looking for and they took no notes or scores during interview on what the candidates said.  The company settled out of court. 

Freestyle HR:

HR talk to the Customer Services Manager about what the job involves and what skills the person will need to fill it.  A job description and person specification are then drawn up.  Applications are sifted by HR according to the job and person spec.  A shortlist of candidates is drawn up for first interview.  An interview template is designed with questions written down to be asked of all candidates.  Space is provided on the template to write notes on the candidates’ responses and a score is required to demonstrate how well their responses answer the question and demonstrate the requirements of the role.  Imran scores 20 in the interview and Rebecca scores 35.  Imran is not invited to second interview with the Customer Services Manager but is provided with feedback on the reasons why which is put together from the notes taken at interview.  Imran takes the constructive feedback and uses it to apply for his next job.

Simon is a Marketing Assistant and has been with the company for 2 years.  His role has changed over time due to the demands of an ever changing business but his job description has not been changed since the day he was recruited.  Simon reported to the owners of the business who did not have much time to manage him and left him to his own devices.  As the company has grown the owners recruited a Marketing Manager 4 months ago who Simon now reports to.  The Marketing Manager notices that Simon is not performing at the level he would expect for the Marketing Assistant role. 

No HR:

The Marketing Manager has an informal chat with Simon and tells him he is not happy with the level of his work.  He tells him a few of the areas he needs to improve in.  He places Simon on a verbal warning and says if things don’t improve he will have to dismiss him.  During that month Simon is left alone to get on with his job.  At the end of the month the Marketing Manager calls Simon into his office and says there has still been no improvement from Simon and that his employment is to be terminated with one month’s paid notice.  Simon leaves that day.  Two weeks later the company receive an employment tribunal claim from Simon for unfair dismissal.  The company failed to follow the proper dismissal procedures and Simon had no up to date documents clarifying his job expectations.  The tribunal ruled that Simon had been unfairly dismissed and had Simon re-instated at the company.  Simon felt no trust in his employer and did not stretch himself beyond the requirements of his role.  He bad mouthed the company to his colleagues and friends.  The company were too scared about the repercussions to tackle Simon’s performance and attitude.

Freestyle HR:

The Marketing Manager discusses Simon’s performance with HR.  HR advise to manage Simon’s performance in accordance with the capability policy they have previously implemented.  The company write to Simon inviting him to a first stage capability meeting to discuss issues regarding his performance.  He is given the right to be accompanied at the meeting by a trade union or employee representative.  HR attends the meeting with the Marketing Manager and makes notes.  Simon says he is feeling a bit lost as before the Marketing Manager came along he didn’t really have any direction.  Since the Marketing Manager came on board things have been moving quite fast and Simon is finding it difficult to cope and doesn’t really know what is expected of him.  HR and the Marketing Manager rewrite Simon’s job specification, set him some SMART objectives and ask him whether he requires any support or training.  They identify a training course for him to go on and for him to spend some time with the Sales department so he can see how Marketing will drive the Sales plan.  They set him a monitoring period of 3 months to improve.  During those 3 months his Manager meets regularly with Simon to review his performance and how he is getting on with his objectives.  At the end of the 3 months Simon is doing a sterling job and receiving positive praise from all areas of the business.  The Sales pipeline has increased.  His Manager decides to give Simon a pay rise.

Emily, a full-time Purchase Ledger Clerk, returns from 9 months’ maternity leave.  Prior to returning to work she submits a flexible working request to work 3 days per week.

No HR:

During her maternity leave Emily receives no contact at all from her company and feels very insecure about going back to work.  She receives a written response to her flexible working request from the company saying it’s not possible as there’s too much work for her to work part time.  No other reasons are provided.  Emily is feeling very hostile towards her company as she feels totally neglected and under valued.  Financially she has no other choice but to return to work.  Her first day back she is launched straight back into her old job and the temp has already left so there is no handover.  Someone from IT spends an hour showing her around the new Finance system and then she is left alone to try and work it out for herself.  By the end of her first week she is feeling very stressed and depressed with the situation at work which is enhanced by the guilt she feels at being away from her daughter.  The next week she calls in sick.  The following week the company receive a sick note from Emily signing her off with depression for a month.  The company have an enhanced sick pay scheme, therefore they have to pay Emily full pay whilst she’s off sick. The company has no policy for managing absence.  At the end of the month the company receive another sick note signing Emily off for a further month.  The company writes to Emily and terminates her employment.  A few weeks later the company receives an employment tribunal claim from Emily for unfair dismissal and failure to consider her flexible working request.  The company spends a significant amount of time and money defending the claim but lose their case.  They incur further costs by paying out an award to Emily.

Freestyle HR:

Prior to going on maternity leave, the company establishes how much contact Emily wants to have over her maternity leave.  Emily’s flexible working request is considered in line with the company’s legal obligation to seriously consider the request under the Flexible Working Regulations.  The company considers that although the amount of work warrants a full time role, the type of work Emily does can easily be accommodated by a job share. On her first day back, Emily is re-inducted into the company and brought up to speed on what’s been going on in the business over the last 9 months.  She is trained on how to use the company’s new Finance system and she has a thorough handover with the temp that was covering for her maternity leave.  Emily soon feels completely settled back into the company and feels like she’s never been away.  She is also happy that she is able to combine time with her daughter with her career.  In addition the company implements a childcare voucher scheme which saves both Emily and the company money.  There are lots of applicants for the job share from semi-retired people and other parents seeking work life balance.  Emily is really happy and motivated at the way the company have handled her return from maternity leave and tells her colleagues what a good place it is to work.