Eloise’s May 2019 News – Holidays, The Good Work Plan, IR35 Tax, Local Elections and Bamboozle Marathon Hello and welcome to May As I’m writing, the sun is going down and the birds are chirping away merrily. The air feels warmer and the evenings are lighter. There is definitely a spring in everyone’s step. May always feels like a real turning point in the year, we’re a third of the way through 2019, there are new budgets in place, plans are made, targets set, and the team are off and running. With two bank holidays, it feels like a shorter month, but we still get 22 working days; which is actually slightly more than average. I find that the bank holidays keep everyone motivated, meaning May is often one of the most productive months. The staff holiday challenge – Temporary work cover The challenge for May is the increase in holiday taking and making sure you have enough people in at the right times in the right places. I’m also already looking ahead to July and August. Not only from a business planning point of view, but also from a personal childcare point of view. The juggle in the school summer holidays can take months of planning that generally starts now. If you have a lot of parents of school aged children in your team, this is something to bear in mind. When you’re planning team holidays and resourcing, remember we have a fantastic temporary worker team who can help you fill planned and last-minute staffing needs. We can cover all sorts of job types for all lengths of support. Just drop us a line to find out more about how this could be the solution for your business (contact Sarah or Ben to discuss your options, ask questions and get expert advice). The Good Work Plan – Have you made the necessary changes? In March’s blog, I spoke about the Good Work Plan. This is the biggest government workplace reform for more than 20 years. Its aim is to make workplaces thrive but be more transparent with things like holiday allowance, overtime and pay. The main bulk of the changes come into effect in April 2020, but some of the changes have already been introduced. The main one being itemised payslips. From 6th April 2019, all employees are entitled to an itemised payslip. This has meant a lot of employers needing to overhaul how they issue payslips. There has been an increase in businesses changing payroll providers and even the dates employees get paid, in order to meet the new guidelines. Have you made the necessary changes and are you aware of what you need to get in place for April 2020? I’ll keep you updated on most of the changes coming into force as things are agreed, but for more information have a look at the government website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/good-work-plan/good-work-plan IR35 tax regulations – Review your current set up and act now if needed Are you aware of IR35? What it is? How it works, and your responsibilities come April 2020? IR35 is tax legislation that was brought in back in 1999. Its aim was to stop tax avoidance where self-employed workers are supplying services to a client via an intermediary, such as a limited company. The worker and the business both save money doing this, rather than the person being employed by the business. HMRC refer to this set up as ‘disguised employees’. If caught, back dated National Insurance Contributions and income tax need to be paid as if the person had been employed. The issue with IR35 it that it hasn’t really been enforced and implemented, because of a lack of understanding and parameters. This will change in April 2020. Businesses will continue to need interim, contract, freelance and temporary support, so you will need to be aware of how to determine a person’s employment and tax status correctly. The Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) are pushing the government to define the new legislation by October 2019. This will allow businesses 6 months to prepare. But at the moment it is unclear if this will happen. The government website has an online checker. But, it doesn’t often give a conclusive result. Until we have more information, I would urge businesses to review their current set up. To examine if how they are paying contractors could be called into question. And to act now to make changes ahead of April 2020 if needed. Local Elections in Market Harborough Local elections are taking place for 248 councils across England, on Thursday, 2nd May. This includes Market Harborough district as well as Leicester and Rutland councils. Those of you who live in Northamptonshire, won’t be having a local election. However, across Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and Rutland, we will all have the chance to vote for our East Midlands MEP on 23rdMay. There hasn’t been a great deal of campaigning or PR for the local council elections. With lots of people still asking who their options are. This vote is extremely important though. The money we pay in council tax totals millions of pounds every year. Whoever is elected as the local councillor influences how this money is spent. As well as leading decisions about the development of our areas and public services. Only 1 in 3 eligible voters actually voted in their last local election. But, this is an important vote with the result impacting where we live and work. So, I urge you all, if you have a local election taking place where you live, exercise your right to vote. To find out if you have a local election taking place and who your candidates are, visit: https://www.yourvotematters.co.uk/how-am-i-represented/local-council and use the postcode search. For the European elections for our East Midlands MEP, a list of candidates are here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48081187 And, our current MEPs are shown here: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/unitedkingdom/en/european-elections/uk_meps/east_midlands_region.html Running towards June – Bamboozle Marathon I wrote last month about our chosen charity, Bamboozle and that we are sponsoring the Bamboozle Relay Marathon at Leicester Racecourse in June. Well… spurred on by all the amazing runners who took part in last weekend’s London Marathon, our Vanilla team of runners; myself, Nathan, Ben, Sarah G and Nikki, are all training extra hard. Special mention to Ben, who is now churning out half marathons. Think we might be using him quite a lot during our team effort! If you would like to get behind us and support this amazing Leicester based charity, click here. People planning If you would like to have a chat through your recruitment plans across: Office Sales Marketing Accountancy & Finance HR For jobs at any level within the Midlands; Leicestershire, Northamptonshire or Rutland. Do get in touch. My team are experts in their fields and we have lots of very satisfied clients who think the same – have a look at some of our case studies here. Also, if you would like to get involved and work with us on a case study, we’d be delighted. Just drop me a line. That’s it for another month. Have a great May and I’ll be back in touch in June, if I don’t see you before. Eloise We recruit throughout the East Midlands covering Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Rutland and the surrounding areas, especially Market Harborough, Lutterworth, Leicester, Corby and Kettering. We help people find their perfect job and match suitable jobseekers with businesses looking to hire the best candidates across our five specialisms – Sales, Marketing, Accountancy & Finance, HR and Office.