Employee Relations
Expert HR support when you need it most
In the event that you find yourself dealing with a difficult situation, such as a disciplinary, grievance or employment tribunal, we can step in to manage the entire process and provide an impartial voice that will protect your business.
Our experienced team can provide you with the appropriate level of support ensuring that your organisation can handle any work-related disputes in a timely and effective manner.
We can assist you with:
- Reviewing your current disciplinary/grievance procedures to ensure they comply with the Acas code of practice
- Manage all the stages involved in disciplinary or grievance situations including carrying out thorough investigations, conducting hearings and appeals
- Training your current managers and provide them with coaching and guidance on all aspects of dispute resolution
Investigations
Whether you have no internal HR resource or you have a HR team, our consultants provide you with the certainty that the important investigatory process will be carried out professionally, with rigour and in a timely manner, in line with current employment legislation.
We can conduct investigations remotely, using video conference software, to assist you at any stage of your grievance, discipline, whistleblowing, bullying and harassment, or capability procedures. Equally, we work across the UK to support you onsite with any investigatory process.
Disciplinary Handling
With decades of experience our qualified HR team have worked with clients across all sectors, in the UK and internationally, to resolve complex disciplinary cases. We can support you with the following:
- Drafting disciplinary policies and procedures.
- Undertaking detailed disciplinary investigations and the production of disciplinary investigation reports.
- Chairing disciplinary investigations and disciplinary appeal hearings when there is no internal independent person available, or you need the additional resource.
- Advising on disciplinary issues, processes and procedures, including drafting letters.
- Supporting in disciplinary hearings and appeal hearings to help you make a balanced and fair decision on the outcome.
- Assisting with disciplinary outcome recommendations including mediation, demotion, and changes in workplace practices.
- Note-taking at disciplinary hearings.
Grievance Resolution
We all know issues will arise from time to time. Often these issues can be resolved informally. However, there are equally times when you will need to invoke your formal grievance procedure, and this is where our expertise comes into play.
We provide a consultancy service where the problem is swiftly reviewed, professionally investigated and managed, ensuring good practice and expert handling and record keeping for legal compliance.
We can assist you with:
- Conducting the grievance investigation, including interviewing potential witnesses
- Chairing the grievance hearing
- Production of a robust and detailed grievance investigation report or outcome letter
- Providing a note taking service for all meetings
Our real expertise is in handling more complex and senior level issues. We know how important it is to act in a timely manner to resolve the issue, whilst minimising impact on your daily organisational operation.
If you are facing a grievance issue and wish to discuss this, why not speak to one of the team who will be happy to listen and provide you with some advice on how to manage this or will provide you with our terms of reference for how we would approach the matter to resolve the grievance for you.
Appeals
The importance of appeals cannot be understated. The Acas Code of Practice sets out how disciplinary and grievance procedures have to include the right to appeal. Where an employer does not follow the Code, an employment tribunal can increase any awards by up to 25% for an unreasonable failure to comply.
It is therefore important that these are handled professionally and in a timely manner. We are specialists in appeal investigations and chairing hearings, so if you find yourself needing independent and impartial advice on appeal handling do get in touch to arrange to speak to one of the team.
Mediation
Even with the best policies, procedures and expert guidance sometimes disputes are not resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. At Holgate HR we provide a mediation service where we can act as a neutral and impartial third party to a dispute, to explore the issues being raised and reach a mutually acceptable agreement or settlement.