Five Indicators of Good Employers in England

Employers in England owe substantial obligations to their employees. Even where certain obligations may not be strictly legal, best practice often dictates how employers ought to manage their workplace. Good employers tend to embrace these obligations by exceeding what is merely required of them. The effect is almost always creating a more efficient, productive, and happy workplace. This translates to higher rates of employee retention and profitability. Likewise, you greatly reduce the risk of facing employment disputes and employment tribunal claims. This article will cover five key markers of a good employer, while also outlining important legal obligations. 

Flexibility

With the COVID-19 pandemic, the way we work has changed. Often out of necessity, employers had to adapt to lockdowns by implementing remote work systems. Since then, a consensus among employees has emerged: remote work is often preferable to commuting to the office every day. 

While many employers lament that remote working means they have less oversight over their employees on a daily basis, the statistics suggest that remote working actually increases productivity. 

Of course, there are important reasons why employees should not work entirely from home. However, businesses that require five days in the office out of inflexible principle now report difficulties recruiting and retaining staff. On the other hand, employers that offer workers flexible alternatives to full-time office work report higher levels of staff satisfaction.  

Flexibility here can amount to other solutions aside from working from home. For example:

• offering hybrid structures that combine remote working with office working;
• implementing flexible work patterns that align with school schedules, also called term-time working; and
• adopting a flexible approach to working requests in general.

From a strictly legal perspective, you may also wish to note that you may have to consider flexible working. This is often where you have an employee that has worked for you for a minimum of 26 weeks. 

Encouraging Career Development

A critical marker of a good employer is that you help your staff prosper and grow in their job roles within your business. Employees thrive where they have strong learning and development support. For instance, many highly regarded employers offer development programmes specifically tailored to enable employees to obtain promotions within the company. 

By offering your staff training and other learning and development tools, they will stay motivated and productive. This in turn benefits you as a business owner

Legally, you must ensure that you provide your employees with sufficient training so that they can carry out their duties safely. If you employ at least 250 people, you must provide time off for training if an employee:

• is legally considered an employee;
• have been working with your business for at least 26 weeks; and
• will benefit in their job with your business from the training.

Nurturing Wellbeing

Many businesses require their staff to devote considerable time and energy to their roles. The best employers recognise that, if left unchecked, these demands can drain employees of their motivation and productivity. This can ultimately threaten the well-being of your employees, particularly if the demands of their job mean they are engaging in conduct that makes the workplace unsafe. 

Therefore, rather than try and extract as much productivity as possible, great employers recognise that their staff need time to rest and recover. In practice, this can take numerous different forms, such as providing:

• extra holidays for employees that hit certain key performance metrics;
• paid time off for employees that have worked more than their contracted hours over a given period; 
• flexible sick leave entitlement; and 
• access to well-being tools, like gym memberships, counselling, meditation, massages, and health retreats. 

Legally, you have an obligation to take reasonable steps to promote your employee’s health, safety, and well-being.

Promoting Diversity

Studies show diversity in the workplace promotes productivity and increases the success of businesses in the long term. 

The diversity here refers to hiring and supporting employees from different backgrounds and walks of life, including by age, ethnicity, disability, religion, and sex.

Highly regarded employers almost always have a diversity inclusion policy as well as an equal opportunities policy. These policies set out:

• your commitment to supporting and treating all your staff fairly; and
• how you expect your staff to behave.

Part of valuing diversity is about tackling unconscious bias in the workplace. It is essential to do this because unconscious bias can reveal itself as unlawful discrimination. As an employer, you have a duty not to unlawfully discriminate and also ensure none of your employees’ conduct encourages unlawful discrimination. The law defines unlawful discrimination as any conduct which unfairly disadvantages another person on the basis of their: 

• race;
• sex;
• religion;
• disability;
• age;
• marriage or civil partnership;
• sexual orientation
• maternity or pregnancy; and/or
• gender reassignment.

Key Takeaways

Great employers almost always translate to great businesses. That is, by going above and beyond your mere legal duties as an employer, your business will be more profitable and successful. Certain key markers of great employers include flexible working, strong diversity and inclusion efforts, and emphasis on career development. 

If you need help understanding key points which make a good employer in England, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. Call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.

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