Any suggestions for HR Company for small business MANCHESTER? Need contracts renewing etc

FrankFalcon

Hi all

My families company is constantly growing, which is good news.  However, the office staff are being bogged down by HR Issues, that quite frankly they are not trained to do.  Therefore, the business has decided it needs some specialist help from a professional HR company.  The business needs help with the rewriting and reissuing contracts to all staff, to meet all current regulations.  They also need to identify the problem of an employee that has been sick for 18 weeks and the possibility of making another staff member redundant.  Can anybody offer any advice? The business definitely cannot afford a full time HR employee as there wouldn't be sufficient work.  We looked on-line, especially Trustpilot and I noticed that amongst a lot of good reviews, Peninsula have some shocking reviews.  Also, the good reviews regarding Peninsula all seem suspiciously the same (all naming a particular employee who was magnificent etc).  Ideally, we are looking for a HR firm for a maximum of 1 day per fortnight, or even short term.  Any advice folks?  Anybody else been in a similar position?
Thanks in advance.

MattMattMattUK

How many employees do you have?
If you are constantly growing why do you need to make someone redundant?

Peninsula are ok, I have used them in previous employment, they follow the rules, they give guidance and advice. A lot of the complaints will be from people who do not understand HR, either they feel Peninsula could not get rid of someone for them or they were the one got rid of.

FrankFalcon

The company has 15 Employees.  They have got on well over the years because there was a senior staff member  in the offices who knew a bit of everything but he has recently left.  The reason for redundancy is because the firm is split into several departments and one of the departments is being merged with another.  

MattMattMattUK

FrankFalcon said:

The company has 15 Employees.  They have got on well over the years because there was a senior staff member  in the offices who knew a bit of everything but he has recently left.   

You do probably need to do things properly, contracts, employee handbooks, guidance on various things, Peninsula will cost around £4k per year for 15 employees HR only so not a huge cost, but also not exactly a throwaway cost either. There are plenty of others online but I do not know much about them, I either worked for small employers who used Peninsula, or larger organisations that has many people in HR departments. I also know a few people who use Croner and seem happy with them, pretty much the same as Peninsula from what I understand. 

FrankFalcon said:

The reason for redundancy is because the firm is split into several departments and one of the departments is being merged with another.  

You need to make sure you do that process properly, especially if the person is going to be reluctant to go and you cannot already have pre-decided that it is them going not their opposite number in the other department. I cannot remember but Peninsula might charge extra for a redundancy process. 

ACAS has some good articles, mostly written from the perspective of an employee, but the process is not difficult, it just must be done properly. 

https://www.acas.org.uk/redundancy

Savvy_Sue

My last employer used to use Citrus HR, who now seem to be Safe HR. https://www.safe-hr.com/

I can't say I was hugely impressed with them, but then I felt I was reasonably well-informed myself. 

Who does your payroll? Would they recommend anyone? 

My 'wondering' is whether you need one of the companies like Croner or Peninsula, who will provide regular mailings and are useful for keeping someone with basic knowledge up to date, or whether you could more economically have an employment solicitor on speed dial: a chunk of work to do initially to get contracts up to date, followed by advice on an 'as needed' basis for starters, leavers and problems like redundancies and long term sickness. 

If you're a member of the FSB or local Chamber of Commerce, may be worth an ask there?

FrankFalcon

Thanks everybody.  Just wondering whether to plump for Croner or Safe.  The patroll is done by the company secretary, who uses sage payroll.