HR Training

Employment HR Training Courses

Our in-house training sessions, tailored to meet your specific needs, can be delivered throughout the year. Each member of our HR training team is a fully qualified solicitor practising in our Employment Team. Our training programme covers a wide range of topics designed to assist you and your managers in efficiently running your business and dealing with your HR issues.

Our half-day (3 hour) training sessions cover the following key HR topics:

1. How to Dismiss Fairly

This course provides a comprehensive guide to the law of unfair dismissal and how to avoid common pitfalls which can expose a business to potentially expensive claims. The course also covers:

• the potentially fair reasons for dismissal
• the dangers of automatic unfair dismissals and the overlap with discrimination issues
• how to follow a fair dismissal process
• the ACAS Code of Practice
• how Employment Tribunals deal with unfair dismissal claims

2. Dealing with Disciplinary and Grievance Issues

This course covers the essential steps to take when dealing with disciplinary and grievance issues from the investigatory stage to disciplinary/grievance hearings and issuing disciplinary sanctions, including dismissal. The course also covers:

• how to conduct an effective investigation
• whether to suspend
• the role of Trade Unions/accompanying co-workers
• the burden of proof and how to make a decision
• overlapping disciplinary and grievance issues and dealing with multiple grievances

3. Managing Sickness Absence

This course covers the effective way of dealing with sickness absence issues and avoiding the many pitfalls that can catch businesses out. The issues covered in this course include:

• sickness absence procedures
• monitoring absence
• return to work interviews
• problem areas, e.g. pregnancy-related illness, disability discrimination issues
• overlapping issues with unfair dismissal

4. Managing Change – Re-organisations, Redundancy and Avoiding Unfair Dismissals

This course covers the effective way for businesses to conduct re-organisation and redundancy exercise and focuses on how to avoid expensive litigation and Employment Tribunal claims, including:

• how to effectively consult – both individually and collectively
• selection pools and selection criteria
• alternatives to redundancy
• how to follow a fair process
• potential grounds for unfair dismissal and possible awards
• dealing with overlapping discrimination issues
• minimising the risks of dismissing unfairly

5. Whistleblowing

Whistleblowing is an extremely complex area of law and getting it wrong can be very expensive and can result in a great deal of adverse publicity. This course provides a comprehensive understanding of the law relating to Whistleblowing and provides practical training on how to deal with these issues, including:

• the legal whistleblowing framework
• who is protected?
• what is a qualifying disclosure?
• when is a disclosure protected?
• confidentiality and whistleblowing
• detriments and dismissals
• the cost of getting it wrong – damages, reputational damage

6. Equal Opportunities and Discrimination

This course deals with all aspects of the law regarding discrimination, including:

• types of discrimination
• who is protected?
• vicarious liability of employers for acts of discrimination carried out by employees
• equal opportunities policies
• defending discrimination claims

Attendance on this course by your employees is a useful way of being able to demonstrate that your business has fulfilled its legal obligations to train your workforce in discrimination issues so as to minimise the risk to your business of being found vicariously liable for any discriminatory acts carried out by employees.

Latest News from SDM Legal

Latest News Articles