Now, and certainly tomorrow, human capital shall be a business’ most important asset. Human resources, talent, employees – can make or break an organisation. Not only is it important to recruit key employees but to train them appropriately, measure their effectiveness and provide useful feedback and rewards when desired behaviour is achieved. HR policies and procedures form one part of that process. Employee assessment and appraisal for example, requires behaviour and outcomes to be measured. [...]

Looking for brilliant way to save (or make!) money from what you already own? Look no further. Enter ‘legal sharing’. There are a number of ways of going about sharing an asset legally. Perhaps you have a swimming pool that you can rent to your neighbour to use every Tuesday, or perhaps you have a race car that you’d allow to be raced by a third party. These are simple sharing agreements – in fact, [...]

Maternity pay proposals – a mixed response? Proposals made recently by the Equality and Human Rights Commission concerning parental leave have received a mixed response, says Sue Evans, a partner at Lester Aldridge. Under the terms of the proposals, which are set out in a Working Better report, women would be entitled to the first 26 weeks of maternity leave on 90 per cent of their salary. Beyond that, leave can be taken in three [...]

A few days ago we were discussing limited partnerships and the important of having a deed of partnership in place. Well, what if you want to set up a Limited Liability Partnership? An LLP is a relatively new concept (we are talking years!) and restricts the liability of the partners even more so than a regular limited partnership. It acts more like a company in that it is the LLP itself – not the individual [...]

There was talk yesterday that lettings agents have been cheating private rented sector clients out of £3bn a year, ‘EstateAgentToday’ claims. (zqkrwfix6t) Not surprisingly, the accusation came from a business owner in the property sector who claims his services offer an alternative to traditional lettings agents Lettings agents typically charge 12% of rent “just to market a property to prospective tenants”, said website owner Keshav Thukaram, of Smartlandlord. Thukaram also claimed agents charge £200 to [...]

About to form a partnership? Here a quick ‘how to’ guide. Partners in a business share in both the responsibilities of running the business and the profits or losses that it makes. However, precise rights and responsibilities depend on: the type of partner what the partnership agreement says There are three broad types of partner: • General partners General partners invest in the business, take part in running it and share in its profits. Each [...]

Anyone in business has to make all sorts of decisions that affect performance and profits every day. Many of the decisions involve agreements with third parties about sales and distribution of a firm’s products or services. Most business people realise quickly that trusting someone else with your goods, money or reputation can be fraught with problems, so an agreement needs thrashing out to make sure everyone knows their roles and responsibilities and no one oversteps [...]

Many people reach a stage in their life when they or someone in the family needs help managing their property, financial affairs or personal welfare. These can be trying times for everyone involved, as often the person who most needs the help is the one that least realises what needs to happen. Generally, the solution is granting ‘power of attorney’ (PoA) to a friend, relative or a professional, like a solicitor. As with all legal [...]

The Internet is an essential tool for most businesses. However, allowing your employees unrestricted access to the Internet poses a number of risks including security risks, risks of prosecution as well as internal and external problems caused by abuse of the system. A plain English Internet and communications policy goes a long way when defending legal action and before you get to that stage, it spells out to employees, what is expected of them. Why [...]

What is a farm business tenancy? 1. Qualifying conditions that must be met in order for a tenancy to come within the scope of the Act; 2. At least part of the tenanted land must be “farmed for the purposes of a trade or business” throughout the life of the tenancy. and either; 3. Provided that the tenancy is primarily agricultural to start with, the parties can exchange notices, before the tenancy begins, confirming their [...]