The last year has been an unprecedented one for most businesses. Whilst one or two sectors have emerged relatively unscathed there is little doubt that the brave new business landscape that awaits is likely to be equally challenging and uncertain.

What we do know, from a staff perspective, is that two key areas will be well and truly be under the spotlight and are already causing major problems for the unwary and the unprepared.

Of most importance, and nothing new here, is the need to have in place all the necessary paperwork for staff and then, critically, in the event that any type of action is to be considered or taken against them to follow correct process. In our world the actual crime or issue is of secondary importance and the focus of our lawyers and courts (Employment Tribunals) is quite simply paperwork and process and the absence of either or both of these at best makes things more complex and at worst will cost employers very large sums of money, particularly for those staff with many years’ service.

Please also be clear that the days when staff didn’t know their rights is long gone and in today’s brave new world the number of calls to ACAS, the CAB, Unions, lawyers etc. has gone through the roof and very often we find they are better informed than their employers.

The other key area that has been causing problems is the vexed question of who is self-employed and who is an employee and several very high-profile cases over the last few years have well and truly thrust this complex area into the spotlight and the recent Supreme Court ruling last week against Uber has put a massive marker down and is set to open the floodgates with many lawyers and Unions eagerly awaiting this decision before starting claims.

In simple terms these cases have made clear that just calling someone self-employed (often for years) and getting them to invoice you does NOT make them self-employed and in each case the courts now look in great detail at the exact nature of the day to day working arrangements and in all the recent cases have quite simply decided that these individuals are workers, meaning they are entitled to minimum wage, holiday pay, SSP etc.

All is not lost however and our advice to all businesses is simple: use the next few months to review your current paperwork and if you haven’t got the basic paperwork (contracts etc.) in place get them drawn up, if they are very old then update them and carry out a review of any self-employed people on your books to check that they are in fact self employed.

The key though is to do this now because if you delay and then find yourself with an issue, or heaven forbid a claim, then our ability as HR Directors to help you is limited or non-existent and we have to refer you to lawyers who charge, as you can expect huge amounts more, to settle things than we would have charged to prevent the problem in the first place.