Neate & Pugh

Do you need someone to help with the HR challenges in your business? 🤔 Someone who has all the answers and knows employment law inside out 🤔 Someone who takes the stress out of managing your employment relationships 🤔 Look no further! The N&P team are ready and waiting to help you with all this and more… ✅ Contracts of employment ✅ Settlement agreements ✅ Tribunals and court claims ✅ Policies and handbooks ✅ Absence management ✅ Redundancy ✅ Asset protection ✅ Training and development ✅ Salary benchmarking ✅ Mediation ✅ Investigations, disciplinaries & grievances ✅ TUPE & business change ✅ Employee engagement ✅ Executive agreements ✅ Discrimination ✅ Mergers and acquisitions ✅ Outsourced HR support (ad-hoc or long term) ⭐️ Our mission ⭐️ To provide the high-quality service and advice expected from a big firm, with the personalised attention to detail and care you can only get from a small firm. Our expert team are here to help you navigate the ever-changing world of employment law and HR with tailored advice delivered exactly when you need it. 30-minute consultation calls are completely free so why not chat to one of them today? 📲 Ann-Marie Pugh 07899 936239 📲 Emma Neate 07834 413249 📲 Beth Hodgetts MCIPD 07971 452295 #employmentlaw #hrsupport #smesupport

Did you know we can undertake investigations for your organisation? Using an external party to conduct an investigation has many benefits for the employer: ➡️ Impartial and unbiased view of the situation ➡️ No assumptions made, no question unasked ➡️ No prior relationship with anyone involved ➡️ A thorough and analytical approach Outsourcing grievance and disciplinary investigations can more readily produce the right outcome than an internal process where emotions can run high, and it can be difficult for a decision to be impartial. Our investigation process is simple but effective… *️⃣ We gather all the evidence *️⃣ We use the data to decide who to interview *️⃣ We meet and interview all witnesses (in person or online) *️⃣ We draft and get the witness statements approved *️⃣ We write a full report on our findings *️⃣ We recommend best course of action *️⃣ We can help with the next steps (disciplinary, mediation, coaching etc) Our team are very experienced at handling investigations and have successfully completed many cases involving allegations of sexual harassment, bullying, breach of trust and more. We have also successfully stepped in when initial attempts at resolution have failed. If you have a tricky internal issue that you don’t have the capacity to deal with or you’d rather outsource, book a free 30-minute consultation call with one of our team for an informal chat to find out how we could help. We don’t do any hard selling, we’re just here to listen and offer great advice. Give them a call👇 📲 Ann-Marie Pugh 07899 936239 📲 Emma Neate 07834 413249 📲 Beth Hodgetts MCIPD 07971 452295 #employmentlaw #hrsupport #investigations

Updates on the Employment Rights Bill are coming out of parliament thick and fast now, and already there are some significant potential changes on the horizon. All of this is still under discussion and could take time to become law, but it’s important for employers to stay informed and be prepared. Here’s a quick rundown on the key updates over the last few weeks: 👉 Media reports suggest the right to switch off outside working hours is being abandoned completely. 👉 The cap on protective awards for collective redundancy and fire and rehire will be increased from 90 to 180 days in a bid to reduce abuse of current legislation. 👉 A right for low and zero hours workers (including agency workers) to be offered guaranteed hours and to receive payment for shifts cancelled at short notice. 👉 Removal of the Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) waiting period creating a day 1 entitlement, and removal of the lower earnings limit making all workers eligible. 👉 Significant changes to trade union, statutory recognition and industrial action legislation, above what was already set out in the original Bill. 👉 Increasing the regulation of umbrella companies. 👉 Introducing a duty on employers to keep compliance records of statutory annual leave entitlements. And this one is a BIG one… 👉 The newly created Fair Work Agency will be given the power to bring tribunals on behalf of workers (even when they don’t want to), to offer legal assistance in employment cases, and to pursue employers for unpaid holiday and sick pay and issue financial penalties on top. So what now? The ERB has now moved to the House of Lords for debate, and if it progresses at normal speed we could see some parts receiving royal assent by July and becoming law by October of this year. It sounds far off but will be here in a flash, so if your organisation is finding it hard to keep up and you’d like some straightforward, practical advice on what to do and when to do it, then our team have got your back! Book a completely free 30-minute call with one of them today and get instant clarity on how these changes might impact your business. 📲 Ann-Marie Pugh 07899 936239 📲 Emma Neate 07834 413249 📲 Beth Hodgetts MCIPD 07971 452295

We've received another 5-star rating on ReviewSolicitors from Peter, saying Anne Marie did a really good job, this was complex because there were shareholder and SPA agreements to review so nothing conflicted. She stood her ground well, despite pressure from the other side. Read more reviews here!

What’s the real cost of conflict for businesses? An ACAS study estimated the cost of an average grievance to be 7 management days, but the reality for many businesses is that it probably extends even further than that. And what about the hidden costs… ❌ employees going off sick during the process ❌ reduced team productivity ❌ effect on staff morale ❌ impact on profitability None of this is great news for the employer, or the employees involved. But what if there was another way? There is ⇨ mediation. A grievance often looks to place blame and consequences, and if a resolution can’t be found, it can result in the loss of an employee, or a permanently broken relationship.  Whereas mediation gives each party involved the chance to share their perspective, but with more of a focus on repairing and improving the relationship for the future. ✅ mediation is quicker and more effective ✅ it works well in place of a more formal procedure ✅ helps develop conflict management skills ✅ promotes better communication and listening ✅ encourages solution focused problem solving It’s not always the answer to the problem, but it certainly needs to be on the agenda! If you’d like to chat about how mediation could help a current situation in your business, book a free 30-minute consultation call with one of our team today. No strings, just great advice! 📲 Ann-Marie Pugh 07899 936239 📲 Emma Neate 07834 413249 📲 Beth Hodgetts MCIPD 07971 452295   #employmentlaw #hrsupport #mediation

Exciting news – we have a new team member! Emily Browne is our new Admin Assistant, supporting us part time on Thursdays and Fridays. Emily is a law student and aspiring solicitor, so we’re very happy to have her join us 😊 Welcome to the Neate & Pugh team Emily 🙌

It’s International Women’s Day and this year the theme is #AccelerateAction, emphasising the need to speed up global progress towards gender equality.   True inclusion in the workplace is about more than just improving opportunities for women, it’s about educating others on why the current imbalance matters and demonstrating how changing it would be a positive thing, for both women and men.   As individuals, there are lots of things we can do to make a difference… 👉 question bias when you see it 👉 recognise stereotyping 👉 challenge discrimination 👉 encourage open dialogue around the subject 👉 celebrate the success of men and women equally As employers we can also… 👉 recruit, retain and develop diverse talent 👉 support more women into leadership roles 👉 ensure women’s representation in key decision-making 👉 declare how your business supports diversity, equity and inclusion What could your organisation do to make a difference?   #IWD2025 #workplaceequality #womenintheworkplace

Did you know that today is Employee Appreciation Day? Whilst it’s nice to have an annual day to celebrate your employees, it actually makes much more sense to build appreciation into your daily and weekly workplace interactions, so it becomes naturally embedded into your organisational culture.   Employees who feel recognised and appreciated are far more likely to remain engaged, motivated and thriving in their roles – which also benefits the employer! 🤩 Improved productivity levels 🤩 Reduced staff turnover 🤩 Better employee engagement 🤩 A more positive working culture And for employees, knowing you’re making a difference and that your contribution is valued leads to greater job satisfaction. A win-win for everyone.   Our team of employment law and HR experts are full of ideas when it comes to reward and recognition, so if you need top-notch advice that’s tailored to your business then chat to one of them today. 30 minute consultation calls are completely free (no strings – we promise 😉) Give them a bell ☎️ 📲 Ann-Marie Pugh 07899 936239 📲 Emma Neate 07834 413249 📲 Beth Hodgetts MCIPD 07971 452295 #employeeappreciation #employeerecognition #employeerelations

We've received an excellent review from Alison via ReviewSolicitors, demonstrating the outstanding service we provide. Read the full comments here! Emma recently helped me through an employment matter. Her approach was pragmatic and realistic, helping me to really think about what I wanted to do. She listens and cares about her clients and

Last October new legislation came into force requiring employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. This means employers now have a positive duty to look closely at the workplace to identify any risks, record them and put steps in place to mitigate them. But what are the reasonable steps that employers should be taking? We’d recommend starting with these… RISK ASSESSING ✔️Carrying out risk assessments to identify the right preventative actions ✔️Considering out-of-hours work events and third party risks ✔️Tailoring your actions to suit your workplace and working patterns ✔️Documenting all your actions and keeping a monitoring log POLICIES & PROCESSES ✔️Creating a specific sexual harassment policy (or refreshing an existing one) ✔️Reviewing policies on bullying/harassment, equality/diversity, grievance/disciplinary ✔️Creating a clear and efficient complaints handling process COMMUNICATION & TRAINING ✔️Communicating a zero tolerance approach to sexual harassment ✔️Making all employees aware of updates to policies and implications ✔️Identifying training needs for both colleagues and management ✔️Delivering tailored guidance for management and staff To save you heaps of time and hassle, we’ve created a specific training package on this new legislation, which can be delivered by us in your workplace, or we can brief your managers or internal HR team so that you can roll out the training yourself. Here’s some feedback from a session we ran last month👇 💬 “Very informational and the trainers were great.” 💬 “Good detail and kept it interactive.” 💬 “Covered a lot of interesting content and it was very educational.” For full details contact a member of our friendly team below ⬇️ 📲 Ann-Marie Pugh 07899 936239 📲 Emma Neate 07834 413249 📲 Beth Hodgetts 07971 452295   #employmentlaw #hradvice #sexualharassment