August 30, 2024
It is important to choose the right contract when preparing a new written statement of terms and conditions for your new hire. Unfortunately once the wrong template has been selected it can cause many issues, not necessarily immediately, but down the line when you most need the contract to work for you.
As you may know employees have the right to be provided with a written statement of terms and conditions of employment on or before their first day of employment. This has been the case since April 2020, and previously written statements were required within 8 weeks of someone starting.
When it comes to drafting a contract, it is vital that you firstly take your time to consider exactly what contract template is right for the role of your new hire in order to avoid making any mistakes that could cost you more than you think.
Always check to see whether you are using the latest templates, we date our templates and give them issue numbers to help you keep on top of the templates to be used and delete those that are no longer useful.
Seek advise at this stage before the written statement has been given to your new hire. HR Consultants like our team here at Redwing are on hand to advise on the options that you have, the benefits of those options and to help you word any tricky areas you want covered.
One of the most common issues we see here at Redwing is clients asking for advice on what to do when their Apprentice is coming to the end of their apprenticeship, and they don’t want to keep them on.
An issue arises when we see the employee’s contract of employment and discover the Apprentice who should be on a fixed-term apprenticeship contract with a termination date has actually been put on a permanent staff contract with no end date in sight.
In this situation if a staff member has been put on a permanent contract with no indication that the employment was on a fixed term basis with a specified end date they would be classed as a permanent employee and their performance would need to be managed using the Capability Procedure.
As a contract is legally binding, in order to change anything in an employee’s existing contract you would need to consult with them and get their agreement before doing so. This can be a very tricky thing to get employees to agree too especially if the new terms are less favourable than their current ones.
So next time you find yourself needing to draft an employment contract with only 5 minutes to spare think twice. Ensure that you put aside plenty of time to sit down and thoroughly consider exactly which contract template is needed for the role and the specific details that should be included to avoid finding yourself in a similar situations. Remember one size does not fit all and if in doubt ask.
To get Redwing’s help with your contracts of employment, please call us on 01527 909436.
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