legal-island.com How to Reduce Costs of Workplace Absence and Leave 9:20am - 4:30pm on Thursday 22nd May 2014 Hilton Hotel, Lanyon Place, Belfast Speakers include Absence and leave entitlements cost huge amounts of time and money for organisations. Our experts highlight legal changes and practical actions that will benefit organisations and individuals, creating a more productive and motivated workforce at the same time as reducing costs of time away from work. What are the benefits of attending: • Understand health trends expected to reshape the workforce. • Know practical measures you and your managers can take to reduce absence costs and better motivate employees to attend work and create more. • Have knowledge of and detailed notes on all the expected legal changes in this area – from shared parental leave, to extended rights on flexible working and a new occupational health service. • Be able to answer difficult questions relating to disability-related absences; older workers; zero-hour contracts; and much, much more. Who should attend? Here is what our customers said after last year’s conference “Very informative and I enjoyed the opportunity to talk with guest speakers and left feeling motivated to try new healthier concepts in the workplace.” Julie Taggart HR Coordinator, Lidl Northern Ireland GmbH This event is ideal for HR professionals and managers concerned with absence and engagement levels in the workplace. When and where? 9:20am - 4:30pm on Thursday 22nd May 2014 Hilton Hotel, Lanyon Place, Belfast Price Standard Rate: £450+VAT “I came away much better informed and feeling empowered to tackle future issues.” Johnny Wylie HR Officer, Asidua Special Offers To avail of our special offers, please contact Vanessa Porter on 028 9446 3888 How to Book Your Place Online – www.legal-island.com · Click on ‘Upcoming Events’ tab · Select your event Telephone – 028 9446 3888 · Contact our Customer Service Team to register Email – vanessa@legal-island.com · Please include the course title plus your name, organisation and contact telephone number “Great range of topics, going above more than the legal aspects of absence management to wellbeing, prevention etc.” Claire Anderson HR Advisor, CCEA Programme 9:20am Introduction and Welcome Scott Alexander, Head of Learning and Development, Legal-Island. 9:30am Health Trends That Will Reshape the Workforce In November 2013 the CIPD and Unum produced a white paper that explored six key health trends HR professionals need to understand, their implications and how HR departments in organisations large and small should react. Dr Philip McCrea of OH Consultants sets out the importance of these trends and gives his views on what else HR professionals should be looking out for and doing now to minimise future risks. Q&A at 10.10am 10:15am Exit Interviews – A Driver to Reduce Absence Rates and Turnover We all use, or should use exit interviews. They can root out underlying problems and poor management, help with recruitment, cut down staff turnover and protect against claims. Using a template form and interactive exercises, expert trainer Michele Berry, Director, Charis Consultancy Services, takes you through best practice, from planning to recording and driving internal improvements. Q&A throughout 11:00am Break and Networking 11:30am Shared Parental Leave and More We expect to see a shared parental leave Bill introduced in the NI Assembly before the summer recess. When commenced, working parents will be allowed to share paid and unpaid leave. How is this likely to work in practice? What are the notice requirements? What information must be provided? What will be the provision for KIT days? Mark McAllister, Employment Relations Manager, Labour Relations Agency, sets out the likely rules you will need to know. We also look ahead to the expected extension to all employees of the right to request flexible working and consider the implications in NI of GB proposals on a state-funded occupational health service where employees are off sick for more than four weeks, plus SSP changes from April 2014. Q&A at 12.10pm 12:15pm Absence Compendium Gareth Walls, Partner, A&L Goodbody takes you through FAQ’s, setting out answers to common topics, such as: • How long does an absence have to be before I can argue frustration of contract? • Can I introduce zero-hour contracts and what are the pros and cons? • Can I ban e-cigarettes in the workplace and order employees to take ‘smoke’ breaks outside? • What is the best way to handle an employee out on stress during a disciplinary process? • How do I manage staff absences amongst manual workers who are no longer able to carry out their role as they get older, without falling foul of age discrimination laws? • What can I do if I do not know that the employee has a disability and the medical diagnosis is not definitive? Q&A at 12.55pm 12:15pm Absence Compendium Also with this session: All delegates receive Managing Absence Risks template documents on: • Absence Management • Patterns of Absence • Stress • Using Social Media to Spot Absence Trends • Standard wording for zero hour contracts 1:00pm Lunch and Networking 2:00pm Engaged or Disengaged? The importance of employee engagement in keeping absence and turnover rates low cannot be overestimated. Grainne Cochrane, Director of Woodland Training Services, delivers a fascinating session on employee engagement through exploring mental and physical vitality. Discover the formula for ‘flourishing’; how to tame the stress response by reframing your perceptions; learn about the mind / body connection and its impact on performance. Develop practical strategies to enhance efficiency, effectiveness and engagement for you and your team. Trust us: you’ll enjoy this and learn from it. Q&A throughout 2:45pm A choice of workshops to round off the day Delegates attend two but receive notes from all four. Each workshop is introduced by the presenter in the plenary session before delegates choose their preference. 2.45pm Case Study: Workforce Management Plans The key to unlocking employee potential is a well-designed workforce management plan, aimed at improving employee satisfaction and reducing absence. Shauna Hughes, Director, Eye Change Consultancy takes you through their workplace management plan and identifies lessons learned and opportunities lost and gained. Q&A throughout 3:30pm Break and Networking 3:45pm Case Study Antrim Borough Council secured significant performance improvements by tackling absenteeism during a period of significant financial pressure. The achievements were recognised nationally when the Council became finalists for a Health & Wellbeing Award in 2012 and a Diversity Award in 2013. Find out why the CIPD published an Absence Management case study detailing Council’s unique approach to this area and what practical tools and techniques can be employed to secure significant savings with limited resources. What made it work? Can it work for you? Elaine Magee, Assistant Director of Human Resources, explains. Q&A throughout 4:30pm Close Improving Occupational Health & Safety to Reduce Absence Our speaker Dr Bill Jenkinson MBE, Director of Occupational Health & Safety at Bombardier Aerospace argues that, although some absences are inevitable, many simple and cost-effective occupational health and safety improvements can hugely improve absence rates and lead to greater output. Q&A throughout Calculating Holiday Pay (Part 1) Recent case law, such as Neal v Freightliner Ltd and Lock v British Gas Trading Ltd has indicated that casual overtime and commission must be included in holiday pay calculations. What does this case law really say? Should employers create contingency funds? Are there any lawful ways to minimise holiday pay liabilities? Sheena Murphy, Principal at Murphys Solicitors explains. Holiday Pay (Part 2) Now you know the law, how are you calculating holiday pay? Are you likely to be in breach of EU laws and facing a huge bill for back pay? Sheena takes you through group exercises designed to challenge your understanding and reinforce learning. Q&A throughout part 2 About the speakers Dr Philip McCrea Managing Director, OH Consultants Dr McCrea has been a full-time occupational physician since 1988 and is an accredited specialist in occupational medicine with specialist qualifications from the Faculties of Occupational Medicine in London and Dublin. Michele Berry Director, Charis Consultancy Services Michele has been a self-employed employment relations consultant working across all sectors since 1999 and works extensively in dispute resolution through the delivery of mediation, arbitration, independent appeals and investigation services. Michele has particular expertise in training and consultancy services in responding to bullying and harassment in the workplace; in particular using psychodynamic coachmentoring interventions to enable behavioural change. Mark McAllister Employment Relations Manager, LRA Mark specialises in dispute prevention and joint working. He is the Northern Ireland Convenor of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and is an accredited mediator. Mark is also a member of the employment lawyers group and the Industrial Law Society and is a regular speaker on the employment law circuit and contributor to employment law publications. Gareth Walls Partner, A&L Goodbody Gareth has more than ten years experience practising as a specialist employment lawyer and has built a strong reputation for excellence in his contentious and noncontentious work aspects of employment law, notably on discrimination matters in the Fair Employment Tribunal but also in TUPE advices and corporate support. Gareth acts for a wide variety of employer clients in the private sector and the public advising on re-structuring issues, the internal application of policies and procedures, notably grievance and disciplinary matters. Grainne Cochrane Director, Woodland Training Services Grainne Cochrane, Director of Woodland Training Services, has over twenty years experience designing and delivering training to public, private and voluntary sector clients in the UK and Republic of Ireland. In 2004 she successfully completed an MSSc in Organisation and Management at Queen’s University Belfast in which her dissertation focused on the transfer of knowledge from training courses to reality. She is passionate about the link between mental and physical vitality leading to personal and professional excellence. Shauna Hughes Director, Eye Change Consultancy Shauna Hughes spent some 18 years with Caterpillar Inc, where she was Regional People and Organisational Development Manager for Europe, Asia and the US until 2013. She know runs her own consultancy business and has a particular focus on creating transformational change through working with individual business leaders in multinational settings. Shauna was also a tutor on the CIPD Diploma in Personnel Management at QUB for a number of years. She is currently the Lead Regional Ambassador for Engage for Success in Northern Ireland. Dr Bill Jenkinson MBE Director of Occupational Health & Safety, Bombardier Aerospace Dr Jenkinson introduced one of the first workplace based counselling services in 1990 and has been instrumental in the introduction of employee assistance programmes in a number of large organisations including Bombardier Aerospace. He has been an accredited specialist with the faculty of occupational medicine since 1994 and has held the position of chairman of the Society of Occupational Medicine and regional speciality advisor in occupational medicine in Northern Ireland. Dr Jenkinson has a wide range of experience of working with organisations in the provision of occupational health services to public sector services and private sector manufacturing. Catherine McFarland Director of Corporate and Regulatory Services (Deputy Chief Executive), Antrim Borough Council Catherine has been Director of Corporate and Regulatory Services (Deputy Chief Executive) for the last eight years and is responsible for ensuring that it operates within a robust corporate governance framework, is a people focused organisation where customer service excellence is the norm and where staff are properly supported and equipped to perform to the highest standards. She is currently responsible for both front line and back office services including Finance, HR, ICT, PR, Administration, Policy, Legal, Health and Well-being, Environmental Health and Building Control. Her experience spans 29 years in Local Government and Education sectors, she is a Chartered Public Finance Accountant with an MA in Law and Public Administration, an MSc in Innovation in Public Service and is a visiting lecturer to the University of Ulster. Sheena Murphy Principal, Murphys Solicitors Sheena commenced employment with a large firm in County Down and played an integral part in the establishment and operation of the firm’s Employment Law Unit at its Belfast office. In October 1999 Sheena opened her own practice, Murphys Solicitors, specialising in employment and employer law matters. Sheena has extensive experience in all aspects of employment law advice including matters arising in the Office of Industrial Tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal, as well as the High Court of Justice.