“I am delighted to announce the official launch of ‘Clarigen, Your Complete HR Partner’, established to bring comprehensive, best practice Human Resource Management to small and medium enterprises. Clarigen’s first class management team have the skills and the experience to propose solutions that match SMEs toughest challenges. They have developed an affordable best practice framework for the major HR issues employers face. The Clarigen solution focuses on ensuring that every HR communication between employer and employee is optimally efficient, creating a much more productive working environment as well as safeguarding the business from legal and financial risk.”                          

-  Ian Duffy, Chairman, Clarigen

Quick Links

Check out Clarigen’s simply powerful web-based and fully hosted software.   It automates day-to-day administration; driving cost savings and giving you time to focus on strategic activity that increases HR’s contribution to profitability. The software acts as a ‘virtual filing cabinet’ where both managers and employees can access appropriate information and records re: compensation, benefits, holiday schedules and much more.

Download a full range of pdf brochures on Clarigen’s HR offers

HR Matters in the news: The National Pay Agreement by Bernie Cullinan

The National Pay agreement which was concluded on September 17th is a 21 month agreement and provides for the following pay terms in private sector organisations:

• A pay pause for 3 months
• 3.5% pay increase for next 6 months
• 2.5% pay increase for next 12 months except for employees earning €11 or less per hour, in which case it will be 3% for next 12 months.

For the public sector, it provides for an 11 month pay pause and then 3.5% for the nine months commencing September 2009 and a further 2.5% for the remainder of the agreement.  

The pay agreement was negotiated within the context of the social partnership framework – Towards 2016. As such, there are wider provisions in the agreement beyond pay. Almost all of these are confirmation or modification of existing initiatives which are in place.

However, there are two that are probably of most interest to employers:

• The employment practices compliance initiatives
• The temporary and agency workers provisions.
• Opting out…

(This is an extract from a discussion paper written by Bernie Cullinan, CEO, Clarigen.
Click here to access the full article )

Employer Concerns: Introduction by Sinéad Creane

We are delighted to launch our new website and release our first e-zine. The purpose of our e-zine is to inform you, our clients and prospective clients, on recent and pending changes within the world of HR Management and to tell you about how we can assist with challenges in this area!

Over the last number of months we’ve noticed a common theme in many of the challenges that Employers face:

1. A lack of time to deal with fundamental employment matters; such as the generation of employment contracts, tracking of probation periods and management of employee leave
2. A lack of expertise regarding the handling of employee relations issues, such as dealing with grievances and disciplinary matters
3. Large costs when something goes wrong; settlements, solicitor’s fees and management time
4. Difficulty in sourcing, hiring and retaining talent into their business; especially at mid to senior management level
5. A lack of systems and procedures for the effective storing and management of employee records
6. A lack of clarity regarding when and how to hire a HR professional and the level of seniority required.

All of this can lead to a lot of stress for those involved!

Over the next six editions we will discuss each of these issues, providing you with practical advice and outlining how our employee management solutions can help you.

Employer concern 1 – Lack of Time

When we ask Employers about the main challenges they encounter managing people; they often refer to a ‘lack of time’. Specifically; not enough time to:

• Thoroughly interview candidates. Many Employers feel that taking the time to interview a second time or establish an interview panel would increase the likelihood of a successful hire. The reality is though that many recruitment decisions are made in haste
• Check out the candidates’ credentials such as references and qualifications. Missing out on this important stage increases risk for the business
• Clarify performance expectations at the outset. Failure to do this reduces the likelihood of a successful probation
• Manage performance on an ongoing basis. Not having the time to do this means that valuable feedback and development opportunities are missed and also employees’ efforts may not be focused on business priorities

• Maintain up to date employee records from which insightful reports on areas such as absenteeism and payroll costs can be generated
• Deal effectively with employee relations matters otherwise they can spiral out of control very quickly
• Manage the leaver process in a professional way, otherwise Employers may miss out on the opportunity to gain feedback from the leaver about their experience and to close off on any outstanding matters

Our studies have shown that a business with 50 employees will spend in excess of 1,250 hours in a year on people management activities. This is an average figure and does not allow for exceptional activities such as major recruitment campaigns, downsizing programmes, complex grievance and disciplinary management. When provisions are made for such matters, the total is likely to be closer to 1,500 hours. It is important to consider the opportunity cost of this time; i.e. this is 1,500 hours not being spent on some other critical area of the business. Yet for many Employers they still feel this is not enough time; that they are not effectively addressing core employment matters

Unfortunately there is no easy way to manage the problem; time simply cannot be manufactured. However we recommend four simply steps to help you save time in how you manage HR…

(This is an extract from an article written by Sinéad Creane, Executive Director, Clarigen.
Click here to access the full article )

Best Practice HR: HR Outsourcing - What to watch out for
There are many different ways and means to manage the employment relationship within your business; establish a professional HR department which will oversee the many aspects of managing people, outsource various aspects of the function to third party suppliers, buy in consultancy services for specific HR initiatives or a blend of all three.

Recent surveys have found that a significant number of companies have outsourced some HR services; most notably recruitment and payroll. Many of those who have not yet engaged in outsourcing are considering it as a way of tapping into external expertise and reducing costs. Furthermore business owners recognise the value of concentrating on core activities to maintain their competitive edge and thus engaging external experts to manage important but non core functions.

In this short article we explore what is meant by HR outsourcing, the benefits to companies, the challenges in implementing an outsource arrangement and some practical steps to overcome these challenges so you can experience the full benefits for your business…

(This is an extract from an article written by Sinéad Creane, Executive Director, Clarigen.
Click here to access the full article )

Customer Comment

“Clarigen provided us a total, turnkey solution to designing, implementing and managing our payroll, human resources and employee benefit programs.  Their hands-on, attentive approach made us confident these areas were under control so that we could focus on the development of our core business activities and objectives.”            

 -   Jim Albrecht, Chief Financial Officer, Gendux Molecular Ltd

Compliance: Managing the Employment Relationship – The Fundamentals

With the vast amount of legislation, codes of practice and general guidelines that surround the area of employment, one question we are often asked by employers is “What do I absolutely need to have in place for my employees?”

Regardless of the type of employment, all employees are entitled to a written statement of certain particulars of their employment (Terms of Employment Information Act 1994 & 2001). This should be issued within 2 months of the employee commencing employment and should be accepted and signed by the employee. This document covers areas such as hours of work, place of work, rate of pay, frequency of pay, holiday entitlements.

(This is an extract from an article written by Evelyn Quinn, HR Consultant, Clarigen.
Click here to access the full article )

Check out our new website at:        www.clarigen.com

Click here to access our survey

It just takes 2 mins. to complete and everyone who does so is entered into a competition for a bottle of vintage champagne!

We hope this Ezine has been interesting and appreciate your feedback. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us by email info@clarigen.com

Sincerely,

The Clarigen Team