< Previous East Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk LEGAL SERVICES certifications, or memberships in relevant legal associations. Just as you would showcase your business successes to prove customers can trust you, a reputable and trustworthy law firm should do the same. By this point, you should have a manageable number of firms or individuals to arrange consultations with. These meetings are excellent opportunities to assess whether a lawyer is the right fit for your business, but it’s also important to prepare for them properly. Note down your needs both from your business and from legal support, and identify questions you could ask about their experience in similar cases. While you talk to them about how they would approach your situation, pay attention to how comfortable you feel. Communication between you both will be crucial throughout your legal dealings, and sensitive conversations are bound to be much easier if you sense an instant rapport. As long as you aren’t making unfair judgements or acting on discriminatory attitudes, it’s okay to use your instincts. Intuition is often undervalued in business—though it can Seek independent advice to avoid HR issues turning your business toxic After 20+ years as a Solicitor in private practice specialising in employment law, contracts, disciplinary, redundancies and advising on employee disputes, Simon Bond now runs a private legal consultancy in Leicestershire. As an independent employment law solicitor, he specialises in employee and/or director disputes and independent HR investigations for businesses, universities, charities and not for profit organisations. He spent over a decade as a member of the regional Chartered Institute of Personal Development (CIPD) Committee, as well as five years as Director of the Black Country Chamber of Commerce, so is no stranger to contract disputes, employees and employers making accusations, plus pay and inequality investigations. He’s seen first- hand how HR issues can take over day-to-day operations and that’s why he recommends acting swiftly to seek an independent solution. Simon comments: “Any kind of dispute, allegation or disagreement in the workplace that escalates to a level where it is having an operational impact causes an immense pressure on the business owners and the employees involved. Things can quickly get personal and emotional and both parties can feel that the other is being unreasonable or unfair, plus the rumour mill is a dangerous thing when ‘he said/she said’ becomes ‘fact’. “This is where is it pays dividends to talk to an independent adviser as early as possible for guidance or to investigate independently. Whether it’s looking into allegations of whistleblowing, inappropriate behaviour and bullying or tackling claims of racism, misogyny and institutional corruption, only a truly independent third party can find a resolution.” www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link LEGAL SERVICES be a slippery source of reasoning, the fact it’s more in tune with emotion is more helpful when considering the person you want on your side, not just the job you want done. Consider it a working relationship and choose someone who not only possesses the required legal expertise, but also understands your business. A strong lawyer-client relationship is built on trust, and needs someone you feel good about working closely with. Finding someone whose ethics and personality aligns with your business and its goals can bring you a long way towards closing a deal with them. But certain details shouldn’t be overlooked, even at this late stage in talks. Before making a final decision, inquire about the lawyer’s fees and billing practices. Different lawyers may have various fee arrangements, such as hourly rates, flat fees or contingency charges. Be sure to discuss the estimated costs and any potential additional expenses associated with your legal matter, as getting tripped up by fine print may land you in yet another complicated situation further down the line. Discuss any associated expenses, which can include court filing, travel expenses or witness fees, and determine which ones you or your lawyer will cover. It’s important to know where responsibilities lie on both sides, so you know everything expected of you as well as what is legally required of your lawyer. When you’re going over the details anyway, always review and understand the engagement agreement thoroughly. This document outlines the scope of work and extensive terms of your partnership, but is also legally binding. It can be surprisingly stressful to read and digest so many specifics, but a lawyer you can trust will let you keep the document for reviewing in your own time. Rushing through may cause misunderstandings or missed words, so make sure you take all the time you need. You may find it particularly helpful to review any clauses on dispute resolution, such as arbitration or mediation, so you can understand how disagreements between you and a lawyer will be resolved. Taking this in now will smooth over any potential conflicts, avoiding any messy arguments in already complicated legal matters. But you should also receive a copy of the agreement for later reference, and seeking legal advice from another impartial source is always an option if you have any uncertainties or concerns. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to discuss them with the lawyer before signing. One of the most important things to remember is that open and ongoing communication is key in any legal matter, and is a requirement of any law professional to facilitate. You should never feel discouraged from speaking out about anxieties relating to your discussions, and you’re entitled to regular updates on progress and developments while being given space to discuss them further. As a final note, specialised lawyers often have extensive networks within their field. Consider whether the lawyer you’re teaming up with has connections that could be beneficial to your business going forward. They may be able to refer you to other professionals, such as tax experts, industry consultants, or financial advisors, to provide comprehensive support. You never know whose help you could use, and making connections through people you already trust can be a valuable lifeline for quick and reliable legal help in the future. © stock.adobe.com/insta_photos East Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk BOND LEGAL Q&A A long-standing employee has been consistently underperforming for a while – what’s the best way to end their employment? If the employee has over two years’ service with your business, they will have the right to claim unfair dismissal at an Employment Tribunal if due process is not followed. Therefore, it is important to adopt a fair process in managing the employee’s under performance before any contract termination. A Tribunal would expect you to take several steps, including warning the employee that their performance is unsatisfactory, making it clear in what way you are dissatisfied with their work and telling the employee how their performance should be improved – for example by setting clear and measurable goals and expectations. Next, you will need to give the employee a reasonable time for them to improve their performance. What is a reasonable time period to demonstrate improvement? A good question! There’s no legal set period. It will largely depend on the nature of the employee’s work and what is needed in terms of improvement. It should be sufficient to enable you to measure the employee’s performance and give them a fair opportunity to improve. For example: • if the employee is a salesperson with monthly targets, you could measure their performance over three months to assess whether sales income improves; • if the employee is making simple mistakes, such as an administrator making spelling errors, then you could measure the performance over a shorter period of time e.g. one month. Whatever time period you decide is appropriate, you should also consider what additional support the employee might need to reach the expected standards of work, such as training or mentoring. Also, are there any health issues which are affecting their performance? If so, would a referral to Occupational Health help identify any additional needs? Failure to consider these issues before terminating an employee’s employment could result in a successful unfair dismissal claim against the business. Could I just make the employee redundant instead? Termination of employment on grounds of redundancy might feel like a ‘kinder’ way of dealing with employee underperformance, but it carries similar risks, namely an unfair dismissal claim Q&A Talking Tribunals This month, the East Midlands Business Link team caught up with Simon Bond, an independent employment solicitor and HR specialist about the tricky subject of Employment Tribunals. www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link BOND LEGAL Q&A being made against your business. Whilst a redundancy situation can arise at any time, it is important not to conflate a redundancy process with one focussed on the employee’s performance. They are separate issues and there is a risk of making it apparent to the employee that you simply want to terminate their employment by whatever means! In addition, handling redundancy situations can be less than straightforward because the employer ought to consult with all affected employees, devise a fair method of selecting the individuals who will be made redundant and consider alternatives (such as a different role). Prior to embarking on a redundancy process, it is advisable to take advice from a specialist employment lawyer or HR expert. They will be able to devise the redundancy exercise, map out the required steps and provide the necessary documentation. What is the chance of being taken to an Employment Tribunal? According to the latest government statistics, 24,000 claims were made to the Employment Tribunal service in the period April to June 2023, meaning that the volume of claims made has returned to levels seen prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. How much could an Employment Tribunal claim cost me? Compensation for unfair dismissal is subject to a statutory ‘cap’ of £140,700. However, the cap does not apply where a dismissal is due to whistleblowing or for raising certain health and safety issues. In 2022, the average unfair dismissal award was £13,541. In discrimination cases, there is no cap on the compensation available. The highest maximum award in 2022/23 was £1,770,000 in a disability discrimination case. Usually in Employment Tribunal cases, each side bears their own legal costs, which means that generally employers do not recover any outlay on professional costs, even if they successfully defend the claim. As a result, Employment Tribunal claims can prove expensive, and often come with a number of ‘hidden’ costs, such as the fallout from any adverse publicity and the management time associated with managing the process. Are there any other options to avoid a Tribunal? One option is an employee Settlement Agreement, a legally binding agreement that brings an employee’s employment to an end and is in full and final For further information email: simon.bond@bondlegal.co.uk, call 07905 710365 or visit www.bondlegal.co.uk settlement of any claims the employee may have against the employer. Invariably the employer will pay the employee a sum of money as an incentive to sign the Settlement Agreement and certain non-contractual amounts can be paid tax free up to £30,000. Employees should be given adequate time to consider any Settlement Agreement presented to them (Acas recommend 10 days). To be legally enforceable, employees must receive independent legal advice on the terms of the Settlement Agreement. In view of the requirement for legal advice, it is usual for employers to contribute to the employee’s legal costs. Settlement Agreements require sensitive handling and can often be complex from a legal and tax point of view. As a result, it is advisable to take independent legal advice if considering a Settlement Agreement. What are the main reasons why employers lose Employment Tribunal claims? I cover this question in a free download at: Resources | www.bondlegal.co.uk East Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk TAX James Pinchbeck, partner at Streets Chartered Accountants, considers how businesses can safeguard themselves from inflation. Managing a business during a period of high inflation certainly brings its own set of challenges. For some younger business people and perhaps even older ones, this is something that has not been faced before. Perhaps explaining more about what inflation is might not be necessary as we are exercising the effects in our daily lives, but for context inflation is the sustained increase in the general price level of goods and services. It is a complex economic phenomenon that affects various aspects of an economy. Businesses, regardless of their size or industry, are not immune to the far- reaching consequences of inflation. There are a number of key areas in which inflation impacts businesses, including: Rising costs One of the primary effects of inflation is the rise in overheads, and particularly for manufacturers, production costs. As prices for raw materials, energy and labour increase, businesses face higher operational expenses, squeezing profit margins. Reduced purchasing power and customer demand Inflation erodes the purchasing power of consumers as their money buys fewer goods and services over time. This can lead to decreased demand for non- essential items. Perhaps the hardest hit are those businesses that rely on discretionary consumer spending. Uncertainty and investment Inflation introduces uncertainty into the business environment, making it difficult for business owners to plan for the future. Companies may become hesitant to make long-term investments or expansion plans due to the volatile economic conditions associated with inflation. Wage pressure Inflation often leads to demands for higher wages from employees to maintain their real income levels. While businesses may be able to accommodate these wage hikes to some extent, they can further strain profitability. Debt burden Businesses that carry debt are impacted by inflation in terms of their repayment obligations. While debts remain fixed in nominal terms, their real value decreases as inflation rises. However, this effect can be mitigated if the interest rates on loans also adjust for inflation. Reduction in working capital In light of increased costs, reduced customer demand, declining margins and customers given credit taking longer to pay, a number of businesses potentially face a reduction in working capital. This is the life blood of the business in terms of its day-to-day operation. There a number of steps that businesses can take to safeguard themselves from inflation. These include: Cost management and efficiency Businesses can adopt rigorous cost management practices to optimise their operations and reduce wastage. Analysing supply chains, negotiating better deals with suppliers and streamlining internal processes can help mitigate the impact of rising costs. Pricing strategies As input costs increase, businesses may need to adjust their pricing strategies. Carefully considering price hikes to reflect increased costs while remaining competitive is essential. Re-engineering or re- imagining goods and services In an attempt to maintain margin, it might be a useful exercise to look at adapting what you do to see if there are lower cost alternatives that might still meet customer needs. Re-finance It might be worthwhile reviewing how the business is financed and funded, TAX perhaps an alternative funding arrangement and structures could help ease pressure. Businesses can consider negotiating contracts that include inflation indexation clauses. This helps align revenue and expense adjustments with inflation, reducing the risk of financial imbalances. Employee benefits and incentives To manage wage pressures, businesses can offer performance-based bonuses and incentives rather than across-the-board wage rises. This approach ensures that employees are rewarded for their contributions while also maintaining cost control. Measure and manage When it comes to business finance, now is probably the time to focus on some important numbers including the business bank balance and the value of creditors and debtors, along with perhaps more frequent even daily cash flows. Hopefully by combining some of these strategies with a keen understanding of market trends, business owners can safeguard their enterprises and foster resilience in the face of inflationary pressures. East Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk IT AND COMMUNICATIONS The internet’s unstoppable influence The internet’s unstoppable influencewww.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link IT AND COMMUNICATIONS © stock.adobe.com/alphaspirit T he data paints a clear picture of this ongoing transformation, revealing remarkable changes in the way we connect, communicate, and consume content. During the tumultuous 2020 lockdowns, we witnessed a surge in landline call volumes and a significant increase in time spent watching broadcast TV. But as 2021 unfolded, the declines in these traditional mediums became evident, and this trend has continued through the subsequent 2 years. Using Ofcom’s yearly Communications Market Report, let’s explore the key industry trends and the reasoning behind them. The average time spent watching broadcast TV channels fell to 2 hours and 38 minutes per day, a decrease that was even more pronounced among the younger demographic, where 16–24- year-olds were spending just 39 minutes per day tuned in. Outgoing calls from landlines saw a staggering 20% year-on- year drop, now lower than the pre- pandemic levels recorded in 2019. Conversely, the demand for data across fixed and mobile connections has shown no signs of slowing down. In 2022, the average consumption per data user on mobile increased by a remarkable 24%, reaching an impressive 8.0 GB per month. On fixed broadband connections, the average monthly data use saw a 6% increase, totalling 482 GB. These trends were facilitated by the adoption of faster broadband connections, with the number of full fibre lines surging by 52% to reach 3.1 million in 2022. This expansion contributed to a total of 26.9 million superfast broadband lines, delivering actual download speeds of 30 Mbit/s or higher, as consumers continued to upgrade from standard broadband services. The impact of these changes extends to the economic landscape of the United Kingdom’s telecommunications sector. In 2022, the sector generated £31.8 billion in revenue, experiencing a year-on-year decline of £1.5 billion (5%). Retail fixed and mobile services contributed £14.0 billion and £12.9 billion respectively, with wholesale fixed and mobile services making up the remaining £4.9 billion. Notably, mobile services accounted for 48% of total retail revenues in 2022, marking an increase of 1.4 percentage points from the previous year. Fixed broadband connections also saw a modest uptrend, with 0.2 million (0.7%) new connections added in 2022, bringing the total to 28.0 million. The growth in superfast broadband lines continued, rising by 5% to 23.4 million in 2022, and by year-end, 83% of lines offered superfast speeds or higher. Impressively, 70% of broadband connections utilized fibre technologies. However, traditional voice calls saw a noticeable decline, with total fixed and mobile call volumes plummeting by 24.5 billion minutes (11%) to 202 billion minutes in 2022. Despite this decrease, these volumes remained slightly higher than the levels recorded in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Mobile networks took the lead in 2022, accounting for 84% of call volumes, up from 82% in 2021. Outgoing calls from fixed lines faced an 8.2-billion-minute (20%) reduction, dropping to 32 billion The influence of the internet on traditional communication services has been nothing short of transformative. What began as a slow but steady shift has gained momentum year after year. 48 Á East Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk IT AND COMMUNICATIONS minutes, while total outgoing call volumes from mobile phones decreased by 16.4 billion minutes (9%) to 170 billion minutes. While traditional broadcast television and landline calls experienced declines, the digital realm was on an upswing. Online video revenues saw growth in 2022, contrasting with declines in broadcaster revenues. The total audio- visual sector raked in £20 billion, up by 5.3%. This increase was driven by surges in subscription video-on-demand services (SVoD) and online video advertising. Such services, like Netflix and Disney+ played a significant role, contributing 16% of total revenues (£3.3 billion). Online video advertising added another 13% (£2.7 billion). In contrast, commercial broadcast TV revenues experienced a 1.8% dip, falling to £11.1 billion. Despite this, radio remained a formidable player in the realm of communication. A staggering 88% of adults tuned in to the radio every week, dedicating an average of 20 hours each week to the medium. Conversely, broadcast TV viewing continued its decline, with the average daily viewing dropping by 21 minutes in 2022, from 2 hours and 59 minutes in 2021 to 2 hours and 38 minutes. The younger generation, aged 16-24, now watches just 39 minutes of broadcast TV on average each day, a stark contrast to the previous year’s 53 minutes. To illustrate this, combined revenues for commercial public service broadcasters (PSBs), digital multichannels, and pay-TV platform operators declined by 1.8% to £11.1 billion. However, this figure still represented a 2.6% increase compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019. Advertising in the digital audiovisual space saw growth but at a notably slower pace than the previous year. TV and online audiovisual advertising revenue reached £6.4 billion, growing by 3.1% in 2022. This growth was primarily driven by a £341 million increase in online video advertising and a smaller £12 million increase in multichannel TV advertising. On the other hand, commercial PSB channels experienced a combined advertising revenue decline of £165 million, down 5.9% year on year. As the internet continues to shape the communication sector, online platforms have become central to our daily lives. According to a recent survey, a staggering 76% of internet users aged 13 and above reported visiting YouTube in the last four weeks, making it the most frequented platform. Facebook followed closely behind, with 69% of users in the same age group visiting the site. The preferences of different age groups in content consumption are equally fascinating. For teenagers, the most commonly used sites for user- generated videos are YouTube (90%), Instagram (70%), TikTok (66%), and Snapchat (58%). Meanwhile, among users over the age of 55, Facebook takes the lead, with 66% of them using the platform. Whilst traditional communication services experience declines, digital realms, from streaming services to online advertising, continue to flourish. The economic landscape has shifted, with revenue streams adjusting to accommodate these evolving consumer preferences. As we move forward into the digital age, the only certainty is that change will continue to define the way we connect, communicate, and consume content.www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link IT AND COMMUNICATIONS © stock.adobe.com/REDPIXELNext >