Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
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Small businesses urged to get free advice
Many small businesses may be paying for employment law advice which they could be getting for free, new Government research has revealed.
The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) survey found 40 percent of businesses questioned as part of planning for its new employment law guidance campaign, said they were likely to seek outside advice for employment issues in the next year.
BERR is set to contact around 400,000 small businesses as part of a campaign to make sure they know how to access free help from the Business Link website, http://www.businesslink.gov.uk.
Employment Relations Minister Pat McFadden said:
"For small businesses in particular, every penny counts and they shouldn't have to put their hands in their pockets unnecessarily.
"By using Business Link as their first port of call, businesses could save on the costs of advice.
"Employers will get a clearer picture of their legal obligations towards employees and save themselves time and money too."
The Employing People section of http://www.businesslink.gov.uk is designed to give businesses simple, practical advice and guidance on the full range of employment issues, from taking on staff through to dismissals and redundancies.
The site includes calculators and interactive guides to help businesses understand their legal obligations.
Producing written statements of employment is a significant time burden for employers, with many using external advisers to complete them. If half of employers switched to using the tool we have provided, the saving to business could be as much as £160m.
If a third of affected businesses used the new redundancy statements tool, the saving to business could be as much as £5m.
Major stakeholder organisations and businesses have specifically highlighted to Government the need for better information.
The survey also revealed that 84% of businesses who had used Business Link's advice on employment issues from its' website rated its advice as excellent, very good or good.
Interactive features of the site include:
* An employing people checklist
* Downloadable written statements of employment.
* A new redundancy tool, which enables employers to produce redundancy statements.
* An interactive tool to calculate how much holiday staff are entitled to.
* An interactive tool to help with managing new and expectant mothers in the workplace
* The facility to sign up for email alerts about new and changing regulations.
Notes to editors
1. Business Link services can be accessed online at businesslink.gov.uk or by calling the National Help Line on 0845 600 9 006.
2. The survey
* The survey was of 300 businesses to be targeted by the Employing People campaign (i.e. employing between 2 to 49 employees and with a bias towards the following sectors: wholesale/retail; hotel and catering; and business services). Sample included 125 interviews with companies with 2-7 employees; 75 with 8-15 employees; 50 with 16-25 employees; and 50 with 26-49 employees. Survey conducted during December 2007.
3. The Employing People campaign
* The campaign will launch on 23 January and will run to the end of March 2008. The campaign will include electronic direct mail, direct mail, online advertising, trade press advertising and PR.
* The campaign targets SMEs, with a focus on smaller businesses and those in the business services; wholesale and retail; and hotel and catering sectors
* This is the first stage of a three year campaign to reduce the admin burden of employment law, by giving business access to free, easy to use, tools and information to help them answer a wide range of employment questions.
4. BERR Simplification Plan
BERR's 2007 Simplification Plan sets out both savings that have already been delivered as well as detailed proposals that will achieve our target of 25% reduction in administrative burdens by 2010. Taken together these will deliver savings worth more than £1 billion per year.
* There are five projects that will deliver the bulk of the reductions:
* Improved guidance for employers on their employment obligations
* Implementation of the Companies Act 2006
* Delivery of an improved employment dispute resolution system
* Implementation of the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive
* A consumer law simplification review
