HR Consultancy

Sometimes employers need some extra support.

HR consultancy support for disciplinary and grievance investigations and hearings

Employers can be faced with complex and involved grievance and disciplinary issues or may need assistance with managing a restructuring programme.

We can assist with this by organising and undertaking disciplinary and grievance investigations with our HR Consultancy partners. We can also put HR Consultancy partners in place to deal with the disciplinary or appeal hearings themselves.

HR Consultants can be particularly useful in relation to the investigation of disciplinary matters.

The ACAS code states “It is important to carry out the necessary investigation of potential disciplinary matters without unreasonable delay to establish the facts of the case.  In some cases, it will require a holding investigatory meeting with the employee before proceeding to a disciplinary hearing.  In others the investigatory stage will be the collation of evidence by the employer who use it to attend disciplinary hearings.  In misconduct cases were practicable different people should carry out the investigation than in a disciplinary hearing.”

In small organisations there might not be anybody sufficiently experienced to handle the investigation stage. The investigator should also ideally not be a key witness in the case. That is where we can help by providing a  HR Consultant.

HR consultancy support for redundancies

Our HR consultants can be based at the employer’s premises and can also help to manage restructuring/redundancy programmes to ease the burden. The assistance can involve attendance at collective and individual consultation meetings.

How George Green LLP can help with HR consultancy support

If management teams are busy and do not have time to get involved in HR matters we are able to provide the resources to resolve matters simply, quickly, efficiently, effectively and within budget.

The benefit of doing this through George Green is that at each stage the HR Consultant’s work is monitored and supervised by our lawyers to ensure high quality. Further if correspondence in relation to the HR Consultant’s role is conducted via ourselves this will be subject to legal advice privilege. One down side of instructing HR Consultants directly for employers is that all correspondence with them is likely to have to be in the event of an employment dispute.

Some examples of recent cases where we have worked with HR consultant partners are as follows.

One of our HR consultant partners dealt with an appeal against dismissal by an interim Chief Executive. The interim Chief Executive had only been in place for a short time but made whistleblowing unfair dismissal and detriment allegations. Our HR consultant partner heard the appeal and resolved the matter without any claims being brought.

Our client had an employee on maternity leave.  The company were considering making her redundant. They met with her and had a protected conversation with her.  The employee raised a grievance which was heard by another manager. Our HR consultant partner was dealt with the appeal hearing as no one else was available to do so in the company.

Our HR consultant partner dealt with an investigation of a grievance following the resignation of an employee. The employee in question was alleging that she had been constructively unfairly dismissed. Our HR consultant partner dealt with the grievance hearing and no claim arose.