Monthly Archives: September 2013

Business and employment regulations play a hugely important role in modern society and they have reformed the way in which people work. However, keeping up-to-date with all the legislation can be tricky and if you don’t have much experience or you lack the resources to devote too much time and money to this task, it can be a real struggle.

If you’re not careful, you can quickly end up on the wrong side of the law, and this can have hugely damaging consequences.

Come to us

However, there are ways of making your life easier. For example, here at Simply-docs we offer a whole array of business documents and by using these, you should find it much more straightforward to adhere to the legislation.

Our templates cover all aspects of enterprise, from corporate to property, health and safety and employment.

More info

Of course, before you spend any money on these resources, you’ll want to know exactly what you’ll get in return. If you subscribe to our unique service, you’ll benefit from one year’s downloads from the document folder(s) or packs to which you subscribe. You’ll also have the opportunity to register to receive monthly newsletters to help keep you up-to-date with any legislation and regulatory changes.

Meanwhile, our services are affordable. We enable you to benefit from hundreds of legal contracts, agreements, forms and letters for the price of one. In addition, downloads are unlimited. You can access the documents 24-7. Simply help yourself whenever you need another template.

Updates

The fact is, documents aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on unless they’re bang up-to-date. You can rest assured that all our templates are because we constantly update them to ensure our clients have the latest versions.

We even send alerts when your documents have been updated and these include an explanation as to why the changes have been made.

Furthermore, we regularly add to our selection and range of documents, helping to provide even greater protection for your business.

Some stats

You might also like to note that our business documents folder contains a total of 584 business document templates, while our employment folder comes with 424 documents, our health and safety folder contains 307 templates and our property folder has 146 documents for you to peruse.

If you’d like a more comprehensive selection of documents, it’s worth checking out our Premium Pack, which has 2,108 documents, and our Premium Plus Pack, which contains 2,254 templates.

Peace of mind

Let’s face it, running a business isn’t easy. There are so many different tasks to attend to and often you may feel as though there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to complete them all. The last thing you need is the added pressure of worrying about legal issues.

By taking advantage of our business documents templates and other documents, you can make your life easier and boost your peace of mind at the same time. To find out more, just take a look around the rest of our website.

Taking on new staff members can be an exciting process. After all, getting more personnel on board can help to reinvigorate your enterprise and it also indicates that your firm is doing well.

However, as with virtually all aspects of business, there are complications. To help ensure that the rights of both workers and employers are protected, there are a series of laws in place and it is vital you adhere to these at all times. This means filling in the necessary documentation.

Don’t panic

If you have little or no experience in this matter, or haven’t taken on new members of staff for a long time, you might feel your blood pressure start to rise at the thought of filling out this paperwork. After all, where to start?

However, there is an easy way to approach this potential problem. By being savvy and taking advantage of our services here at Simply-docs you can access all the legal documents you need quickly, simply and inexpensively.

You’re not alone

One thing’s for sure, you’re not alone in hiring new employees. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveal that the labour market continued to rise in the final three months of last year, with employment increasing and the jobless rate falling.

According to the organisation, the number of individuals in work rose by 154,000 between September and December, swelling the workforce to 29.73 million. Meanwhile, the number of unemployed people declined by 14,000 quarter-on-quarter, bringing the unemployment rate down to 7.8 per cent.

More stats

The ONS also noted that the number of individuals in full-time positions went up by 197,000 over the three-month period, while the number of people in part-time work dropped by 43,000.

There was also a fall in the number of workers who said they were in part-time employment because they couldn’t find a full-time position.

Continues to astound

Responding to the figures, which coincided with a contraction in UK GDP, director of the Jobs Economist John Philpott said: “The UK jobs market continues to astound. We are in a middle of both a jobs boom and a pay slump as jobseekers struggle to gain or retain employment in a stagnant economy by pricing themselves into work.

“This is unlike anything seen in this country since the Second World War, with the economy using more and more people at falling real rates of pay to produce a static level of output.”

See for yourself

If you’re intrigued by the legal documents we have to offer, just take a look around the relevant section of our website. Our employment documents folder provides a complete range of options, including employment application forms templates, employment contracts, policies and letter templates, to help you recruit and manage personnel from recruitment through to redundancy and dismissal.

With our documents at your disposal, you should find managing your workforce easier and you can help ensure you don’t end up on the wrong side of the law. You may also be pleasantly surprised by the low cost of our templates.

Of course, the primary goal of any business is making money, so this is likely to be one of your top priorities. However, there are also other issues that you can’t afford to ignore. For example, you have an obligation to protect the wellbeing of your workers.

These days, there are stringent laws in place governing this issue and if you fall foul of them, you could find yourself in serious trouble. As well as risking your personnel, you may also find yourself subject to long and costly legal proceedings.

Help is at hand

At first, adhering to health and safety laws can seem like a daunting task. However, help is at hand. By using our services here at Simply-docs you can take advantage of a range of document templates that should help you conform to all the relevant legislation.

Having access to these documents can make your life easier, boost your peace of mind and help protect you from potentially serious problems further down the line.

HSE stats

If ever you need reminding of the significance of these laws, you can turn to figures provided by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Last autumn, the organisation revealed that between April 2011 and March 2012 a total of 22,433 major injuries such as amputations, fractures and burns occurred among employees in the UK.

Meanwhile, 88,731 other injuries serious enough to keep people off work for four or more days were reported during the 12-month period. The HSE also revealed that around 1.1 million individuals said they were suffering from an illness caused or made worse by their occupation.

Most seriously, 173 workers were fatally injured over the course of the year.

The right direction

However, as alarming as these statistics may seem, they represent a fall from the previous 12-month period and the five-year average, showing that improvements in workplace health and safety are being made.

Focus

Commenting on the figures, HSE chair Judith Hackitt said: “Britain has earned the reputation of being one of the safest places in Europe to work, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. We need to ensure that we all focus on managing the real risks which lead to serious workplace harm.

“HSE remains committed to helping employers understand what they need to do to ensure workers can go home from their jobs safe and well without creating unnecessary paperwork and bureaucracy.”

Take a look

If you think you could benefit from the health and safety forms we provide, just take a look around the relevant section of our website. The health and safety documents folder contains a wide range of professionally drafted and simple to edit document templates that can help facilitate the management and control of risk in the workplace. It includes risk assessment forms and health and safety statements and policies.

Like all of our templates, these documents represent superb value for money and they are easy to use. With our help, adhering to safety laws should be straightforward.

The current coalition government set aside £112 million to support the Start-Up Loans initiative. It was hoped the fund would enable budding young entrepreneurs to access start-up capital more easily, leading to growth in the number of start-ups quite literally starting up in our economy. The scheme also puts young entrepreneurs in touch with mentors to help them navigate all aspects of new business, from legal contracts to PR. Chaired by Dragon’s Den star, James Caan, the project recently announced its 1000th loan.

But why are start-ups so good for the UK financially?
Start-ups and small businesses are good for the economy because they fill niche spaces and encourage home-grown business growth. Start-ups are uniquely placed to offer highly tailored services and can grow and adapt much quicker than larger organisations.

But a great idea isn’t always a guaranteed success. Here are five of the most common reasons for start-up failure.

1. Giving up
You never hear about an entrepreneur who gave up but their business carried on without them and was a success. All entrepreneurs are hard working, focussed, ambitious innovators. They believe in their product and are willing to wade through an awful lot of a mud before swimming in the river of success.

2. Overdevelopment
The simplest ideas are often the most successful, at least at first. Just look at the likes of eBay or the Slanket. Focus on reaching the majority with a simple, trustworthy product or service before adding all the bells and whistles (Facebook is another great example of this!) There will be time for product development once you have a solid customer base.

3. Poor marketing
Reaching your market – it’s crucial. Aside from all the contract templates, logistics networks and market research, you MUST reach your majority target market quickly and easily. Tools like social media make it inexcusable not to have a marketing strategy in place before you launch your product. This brings us to the next point.

4. Lack of mentor
It can be too easy to think of more experienced people in and around your sector as simply competition. But mentorships can offer superb insight into things like industry trends and marketing strategies and perhaps offer advice and point out pitfalls you’d missed. Never cast aside advice from entrepreneurs who came before you; they’ve succeeded so they must have done something right!

5. Poor prioritisation
If an entrepreneur gets bogged down in something like what colour to paint the walls in their first office or what font to make their standard terms and conditions, it’s likely some other area of the business is suffering.

To have a shot at success, young entrepreneurs need to focus on casting a wide net and utilising all the tools at their disposal. Companies like ours make it easier than ever to access clear, trustworthy information, so stay on the lookout for similar businesses that could boost your chance of success.

Working from home may be the Holy Grail of working life for many, but those who live it as a reality can profess to the curses of procrastination, mixing business with pleasure (i.e. washing the dishes whilst trying to make a work phone call!) and never quite feeling like you’re not in work mode.

Developing an effective working environment is essential to getting the most out of your business. And aside from taking advantage of great support systems like our document templates packages, there are plenty of ways to hone your home into a well-oiled productivity machine!

1. Keep regular office hours
Easier said than done, we know! You can’t always know what the work day has in store for you, but you can at least attempt to create a routine on which to base it. Regular working hours – 9 to 5, 10 to 6, 7 to 7, whatever suits your business – can be an exceptionally productive asset.

2. Schedule blocks of time for email catchup, admin, cleaning the office, etc.
The Pomodoro technique is a great way for solo workers to work and break effectively. Wikipedia defines this process of working in time blocks as follows:
a) Make a list of tasks and select the first one.
b) Set a timer to 25 minutes.
c) Work on the task for 25 minutes until the timer sounds, when you should assess how far you’ve got.
d) Take a 5 minute break, then either continue with the task or move on to the next one.
e) After every four blocks of time (“pomodoros”) take a longer break of 15-20 minutes.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re filing legal forms, brainstorming or cleaning the office windows, scheduling tasks can help keep up productivity by breaking down large jobs into smaller, more manageable tasks.

3. Create a clear social policy
Do you need to block social media websites to keep your cursor from clicking over to that Facebook tab every five minutes? Is it possible to make 11:00-14:00 critical working hours, when no family are permitted to wander in asking for some sticky tape?

4. Measure twice, cut once
You may have plenty of copies of that business agreement template, but that’s not to say you can afford to waste time on elementary issues like misspelling. Learn to work at a pace that encourages productivity but allows for the minimum number of mistakes. After all, it’s you who’ll have to amend those mistakes further down the line. It’s better to take a few extra minutes to proofread a document than to handle a customer complaint about incorrect content in the future.

5. Be a productive sleeper
We left the best tip until last, and it’s sure to be the most popular! Every freelancer, small business owner and sole trader is guilty of burning the candle at both ends from time to time, and according to Harvard Medical School, that unbalanced sleep cycle could be impairing your mood, judgement, motivation and perception.
Get into a regular sleep pattern to teach your body when it’s time to work and when to rest.

The UK enjoys a super reputation for start-ups and small business. Initiatives like the current coalition government’s £112 million Start-Up Loans Scheme have helped make Britain an attractive breeding ground for home-grown small businesses.

As your business grows out of the home office and into something like a rented space with those precious first few employees, it can be tempting to take your eye off the ball in terms of things like office productivity, organisation and staff motivation. It’s understandable – the average self-employed small business owner takes less days off than any employed person due to always ‘being on call’ as the head of their business.

But amongst the document templates, health & safety regulations, dress down Friday requests and numerous other topics chirping for the attention of the small business owner, it can be fairly simple to implement effective, sensible measures to keep productivity to a maximum amongst employees.

1. Clear social rules

According to Business Insider, 77% of employed people who have access to social media like Facebook on their work computers will check it at least once per day. One of the most common pitfalls of the small office environment is that employees will typically be on very friendly terms with each other. This in itself is not an issue, but when the odd social catch-up chat becomes an hour of wasted time every single day, there is an issue.

Be clear – should you block social media websites? Would it help to have a ‘quiet’ period of work each day? Be consistent and clear about social boundaries.

2. A strong emphasis on a team ethic
As a small business, you need a team of employees you can rely on 100% A team ethic is crucial and helps boost the connection between you and your staff – and therefore productivity.

3. Good habits and routine
An office routine could seem a little uninspiring, especially in a busy, unpredictable office. But a rough routine can help focus both creative and analytical attention amongst team members.

4. Everybody needs to hear “no” from time to time
It doesn’t need to be written into employment contracts – “must not answer back when told ‘no’” – but as the boss you do need to make boundaries clear. A very friendly, relaxed office environment can be exceptionally tough to police, especially when working amongst people you consider your friends, but being able to say ‘no’ when the situation requires is vital for your standing as a leader.

5. Praise and attention to wellbeing
One of the great things about a small business is that it’s often very clear who is responsible for what. When it comes to praise and concern for employee wellbeing, be honest with your team about how important they are and why you value them, either in writing via staff appraisal templates or in person. According to some experts, this is the number one way to motivate a small business workforce.

Like most other employers these days, you may well rely on employment application forms to gather consistent information about prospective employees. Indeed, job application forms (unlike CVs and cover letters) enable you to receive information in a truly uniform format and compare applicant credentials efficiently and impartially, thereby ensuring your entire recruitment process remains swift and fair for all involved.

Quite simply, a well designed job application form really is invaluable when it comes to recruiting new workers as it enables you to ask every applicant the same questions.
Yet this is not all.

To be sure, there are also a number other very significant reasons why it makes sense to use employment application forms rather than CVs and cover letters.

Truly Pertinent Information

Job application forms allow you to gather information about an applicant’s credentials which they may not include on a CV or cover letter. For example, potential candidates may well choose to gloss over details about previous convictions or why they abruptly left their previous employer when they apply for a post by CV; however, they will have no choice but to declare all pertinent information when they fill out a well designed application form.

Peace of Mind

Employment application forms also enable you to obtain an applicant’s signature which attests all of the information they have provided is true. More often than not, this signature will also afford you the right (as a potential employer) to check the veracity of the data which an applicant has provided, such as their employment history, education history, training qualifications, and so forth. In an age when job hunting is getting increasingly mercenary, false information (such as phantom qualifications, exaggerated job descriptions and inaccurate dates of employment) on application forms is becoming more and more common. Having the capability to verify data is invaluable as it gives you peace of mind that the individual you are thinking of hiring really does have all of the attributes, experience, skills and qualifications they claim to have.

So, how do you go about creating the perfect application form?
Well, whilst there are a number of methods available to you, undoubtedly the quickest and most efficient approach is to download an application form template from us here at Simply-docs.

Simply-docs

Unlike most of the free application form template downloads which are now available on the Internet, the high-quality templates we offer here at Simply-docs have been designed by expert legal teams and HR professionals; therefore they are guaranteed to draw out all of the pertinent information which you as an employer need to be privy to. Moreover, all of our forms are compliant with current employment legislation so you can rest assured your recruitment processes will adhere fully to The Equality Act 2010 when you download our offerings.

To find out more about our services and view samples of our high-quality document templates in greater detail, simply browse our pages further.

If your company employs five or more people then you are required by law under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to have a written health & safety policy. This document contains your statement of general policy on health and safety at work as well as the organisation and arrangements you have in place for putting that policy effectively into practice. In addition, a health and safety policy also contains many other notes and references for further information.

Like many other small business owners and entrepreneurs, you may have little experience of drawing up health and safety documents. And, if you only employ a relatively small number of people, you may well find your collective capability to write such a policy to be just as limited as yours alone.

Fortunately we here at Simply-docs can be of great assistance in this respect as we are able to provide downloadable health and safety document templates which can help you to devise and develop your own comprehensive policy.

Comprehensive Policy
Quite simply, your health and safety policy needs to clearly state who does what, when and how.
To this end, your policy needs to include and address the following aspects:
• Health and safety policy statement – Statement of general policy, signed and dated.
• Responsibilities – overall, day-to-day, specific areas.
• Health and safety risks – what they are, what action is needed to remove/control them, who is responsible, time for review?
• Consultation with employees – who are your employee’s representatives, who provides consultation?
• Safe plant and equipment – who is responsible for identifying when maintenance is required, who draws up maintenance procedures, who should problems be reported to, who purchases new equipment?
• Safe handling and use of substances – who identifies hazardous substances, who is responsible for undertaking COSHH assessments, informing employees, reviewing assessments?
• Information, instruction and supervision – where is the Health and Safety Law Poster displayed and/or who issues the equivalent leaflets, who supervises and trains new staff members?
• Competency for tasks and training – who provides induction training, job specific training, keeps training records?
• Accidents, first aid and work related ill health – who requires, arranges and keep records of health surveillance, where is the first aid equipment stored, who is the appointed person/designated first aider, who keeps records, who is responsible for reporting incidents relevant to RIDDOR?
• Monitoring – who monitors conditions and safe working practices, who investigates accidents and work related sickness?
• Emergency procedures – who carries out fire risk assessments, how often are things like escape routes, fire extinguishers, alarms and evacuation procedures checked?

If you run your own small business then you will (hopefully) know that you are obliged to provide all of your employees with a ‘statement of terms’ (i.e. a contract) within two months of their start date. Like many other small business owners however, you may not have an overly extensive knowledge of how to go about sorting contracts out and ensuring all of the legal technicalities are suitably taken care of.

Of course, a quick look on Google will soon show you that there are plenty of free employment contracts available to download from the Internet. However, whilst these documents may initially appear comprehensive enough, they do not always cover the important aspects which you as an employer require.

Fortunately we here at Simply-docs can help in this respect as, whilst our contracts, templates and other employment documents are not free, they are guaranteed to provide you with everything you will possibly need.
Comprehensive Contracts

A comprehensive contract of employment is one that enables you to clearly specify an employee’s duties and responsibilities. This is important as it ensures employees know exactly what is expected of them.

At the very least, a comprehensive employment contract template needs to include:
• Names of the Parties
• Employment Contract Start Date
• Employee’s Job Title and Description
• Place of Work
• Hours of Work
• Probationary Period
• Salary
• Assessments
• Deductions
• Expenses
• Holidays
• Sickness & Disability
• Pension
• Notice
• Restrictive Covenants
• Grievance and Disciplinary Procedure
• Retirement
• Severability
• Prior Agreements
• Jurisdiction
• Particulars of Employment
Simply-docs Contracts and Templates
Our Employment sub-folder contains a wide selection of up-to-date contracts and templates (all of which have been updated from the 6th April 2011 to allow for the removal of the Default Retirement Age). The legal contracts and templates we offer cover a wide range of employees’ responsibilities and duties so you will find that they can be can be applied to your company’s own particular needs immediately or with just a little bit of simple editing.

All of our contracts and templates have been drafted by an expert team of lawyers and HR professionals so you can rest assured that any documents you choose to purchase from us will address the specific needs of the roles they represent, as well as the staff seniorities which are implied in the titles of the contracts.

In addition to employee contracts and templates, you may also find our Staff Handbook Policies to be an invaluable investment as these can provide your company with all of the employment policies and documents required to manage your employees and help to ensure you comply fully with all current employment regulations.

To find out more about our downloadable documents, contracts and templates, and view relevant samples of our high-quality offerings in greater detail, simply take a few moments to explore the contents of the Employment sub-folder here on our web pages.

If you are thinking of setting up your own private limited company, chances are more than one person will have asked you this one simple question – why? After all, setting up a limited company will involve more administration and cost you more money than being a humble sole trader.

Well, whilst this may be true to some extent, it doesn’t tell the whole story.

Indeed, the answer as to whether or not you should set up a private limited company is likely to be determined by the issue of personal financial liability. If you’re a sole trader and your business fails, then you are personally liable for its debts. Naturally, this can result in you becoming personally bankrupt if the debts you incur are considerable enough. Setting up a limited company on the other hand provides you with protection against such circumstances.

The Appeal of a Limited Company
A limited company is a separate legal entity and therefore it is legally responsible for its own actions. This means that the finances of private limited companies are entirely separate from those of its owner(s). Private limited companies can have one or more shareholders, however shares cannot be sold publicly i.e. on the stock market (unlike public limited companies).

As long as you don’t trade recklessly or fraudulently, your risk (as a director of the company) of loss is restricted to the money you’ve invested in the company (of course, you are still liable for any bank loans if you provide personal guarantees for that limited company).

So, it is clear to see that once you dig a little deeper, the prospect of setting up a limited company is actually quite appealing.

Setting up a Limited Company
To become a limited company, you need to register with Companies House. In essence, all you need do to register your limited company with Companies House is provide them with the information they require and sign and date the right corporate documents.

Ready-made limited company names are available to buy, should you wish to go down this avenue. However, if you want form a brand new limited company then you will need to send a Memorandum of Association, Articles of Association and a completed IN01 form to Companies House.

A Memorandum of Association details the limited company’s name, registered office and nature of business, and must be signed by the director(s) in front of a witness. A registered office is the official limited company address, which is where Companies House will send notices, letters and reminders. The Articles of Association sets out the rules for the running and regulation of the company.

Companies House do not supply memorandum and articles, however, they are readily available from us here at Simpy-docs. Indeed, our Company Formation Documents Sub-folder provides a range of document templates, guidance notes, and other supporting legal forms for those who are looking to form a new company.

To find out more, simply browse our pages further or call 020 8878 7236.