Employment Law and HR
Flexible, fixed-fee Employment Law & HR support
Already have a small HR team? Looking to enhance your in-house capability?
With WorkNest, you can add real value to your people management function by building your own fixed-fee package tailored to your exact requirements. From a 24/7 employee relations advice line delivered by dedicated legal experts to hands-on HR consultancy, powerful ER technology and wellbeing services, we have the solutions to take your HR team to the next level, wherever you are in your journey.
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including sample policies, definitive guides and more
Already have a small HR team? Looking to enhance your in-house capability? With WorkNest, you can.
What's included in our bespoke fixed-fee Employment Law & HR packages
Case management software
CaseNest is a next-generation ER case management tool, integrating every aspect of ER case management to ensure all critical information is in one easy-to-navigate, secure location, with proactive alerts to ensure tasks are never missed.
CaseNest facilitates the relationship between ER professionals and their legal team for a collaborative, compliant approach to case management that reduces costs and resolves ER matters before they escalate to a Tribunal.
The system provides valuable MI to help facilitate commercially-savvy strategic change, tailored to your organisation.
Contracts and handbooks
Compliant contracts and handbooks are the cornerstone of good HR management. Our experts will carefully review and refine these essential documents to give you the confidence that they are up to date, fit for purpose and offer maximum flexibility.
What are the risks of not having the right contracts in place?
Failing to provide an employee with a contract could lead to additional compensation being awarded to an employee who successfully makes another sort of claim against their employer. In addition, a number of practical problems could be caused by having incorrect contracts, such as paying too little (or too much) notice, getting holiday entitlement wrong and failing to protect legitimate business interests in the face of an employee leaving for a competitor.
How often do HR policies need to be reviewed?
Whenever there are changes to UK employment legislation, such as the recent changes to bereavement leave or the Good Work Plan, it’s important to make sure your contracts, handbooks and policies are updated accordingly. We can take the pressure off by alerting you to any such changes and helping you to implement them in your documentation and practices.
Drafting letters and documents
Dream of offloading your document production? From a straightforward warning for poor attendance to complex grievance outcome letters, our experts will take care of your HR-related correspondence so you can focus on other things.
What sorts of documents can you draft?
Just about anything and everything you might need during the employment relationship. All of our advisers are qualified legal professionals or on the road to formal qualification, which means we can support you with a full spectrum of advice and documentation, from first written warnings to new contractual clauses, to a policy you might not have in your handbook, plus more complex legal documents like settlement agreements and redundancy outcome letters.
I’ve got a HR team and just want templates we can use. Do you have a resources bank?
Yes, our fixed-fee Employment Law and HR support includes full access to our Knowledge Hub, available through myWorkNest, which contains most of the templates we work from. If you have an internal HR team, you may prefer to access these and tailor them yourselves. However, for more complex cases, we would always suggest engaging with our legal advisers as it can be all too easy to word something in a way that leaves you exposed.
e-Learning
The best-trained workforce is the most productive workforce. LearningNest enables you to meet your legal obligations, enhance productivity and promote employee engagement. Access a tailored choice of in-person and e-learning courses, constantly updated content and rewarding learner experiences that embed long-term cultures of compliance.What types of courses are available?
Our ever-growing library of e-Learning courses currently covers over 100 topics, including HR courses such as Equality & Diversity, Sexual Harassment and Social Media Use; soft skills courses such as Communication, Leadership and Change Management; and compliance courses such GDPR, Anti-Money Laundering and the Bribery Act. We also offer an extensive range of Health & Safety courses, including Accident Reporting, Risk Assessment and First Aid. Download the full course catalogue.
How much do the courses cost?
All of our e-Learning courses are free for the first year when you purchase our Employment Law & HR or Health & Safety managed service. This means you’re not paying per head or per course, which not only keeps down but gives you complete cost certainty over your training expenses. This is particularly handy if your workforce is growing, as you won’t need to purchase extra licenses, giving you exceptional value for money.
Find out moreEmployee relations advice line
At the core of our support for your organisation is our employee relations advisory service, delivered by our experts. Simply select a subscription model that suits you best – anything from a fully unlimited service through to a ‘banked hours’ approach.
What sorts of things can you advise on?
HR matters come with the territory when you run a business or manage an organisation and we’re here to help you through it all. Whether you’re battling absenteeism, struggling to manage an underperforming employee or need help navigating a complicated exercise like redundancy, we can walk you through the steps required to handle the situation appropriately.
Is everything dealt with through one team?
Yes. You will be allocated a small dedicated team of advisors, headed up by a senior lawyer, who will get to know you and your organisation. Through these personal relationships we can ensure we give the most pragmatic, commercial, and appropriate advice based on your specific needs. In the event that you’re presented with an Employment Tribunal claim, we will conduct a full handover to our Litigation Team so that they are well equipped to defend you.
HR consultancy
Our HR consultants can support your organisation with a full range of HR project services. Whether it’s pay and reward, recruitment, culture change, developing HR strategy, or support with restructuring or TUPE transfers, we can offer hands-on help.
Find out more
HR software
PeopleNest sets a new benchmark for HR delivery, bringing together the HR fundamentals of policy, process and – most importantly – people in a single environment.
With PeopleNest, employees, managers and HR professionals have all the tools they need in one place, enabling everyone to collaborate in the most productive, secure, and easy-to-use, real-time solution.
Will I be able to run reports?
HR users and managers can have access to reporting (subject to management permissions/set-up), and there are over 75 built-in reports available.
Is the system self-service for employees?
Yes. Employees can access the application to view and update their own details, request absence and view company and their own documentation.
Legal Expenses Insurance
An Employment Tribunal is every HR team’s worst nightmare. By underpinning our advice with Legal Expenses Insurance (LEI), you have maximum reassurance that your organisation is protected against unfair dismissal and other costly employee claims.I’ve never had a claim before – why would I need to take LEI?
For the same reason you take out any insurance policy – to guard against the high cost of defending an Employment Tribunal claim. The premium cost is very low compared to the potential payout, especially as it covers the cost of representation as well as any potential compensation. You don’t have to have LEI, but it could significantly impact your bottom line if something goes wrong, given that the cost of even the most basic unfair dismissal claim could be £20-25,000 when legal costs are factored in. Unfortunately, the latest Tribunal statistics suggest that employers now are more vulnerable than ever.
Can you deal with Employment Tribunal claims, or is this triaged outside of WorkNest?
Should you receive a claim, your dedicated Employment Law adviser, who will have dealt with the matter up until that point, will conduct a full handover to our Litigation Team. They will explain the case history, share all the relevant documentation and offer their views on the prospects of the claim. Our Litigation Team will then take over all the prep work, including drafting a defence, producing bundles, dealing with Acas and the other side, and briefing counsel. Rest assured this is a smooth process, with everything kept inside WorkNest, and you will be in safe hands throughout.
Find out moreExplore our other Employment Law & HR services
Training
Created and delivered by experienced consultants, our interactive HR training workshops are designed to upskill your team and develop manager confidence.
HR Consultancy
Facing a difficult employee dilemma that you don’t want to deal with alone? Get hands-on support from seasoned HR specialists with consultancy services from WorkNest HR.
Why choose us?
Experts in Employment Law & HR
At WorkNest, we’re known for our bespoke service and the quality of our support. Not only is our expertise unmatched, but we take the time to know you so that we can function as a true extension of your team.
- Your own small team of dedicated experts
- Commercial, pragmatic advice tailored to you
- Bespoke contracts, policies and handbooks
- Trusted by over 40,000 organisations
- Recognised as a leading firm by The Legal 500
Who you’ll be working with
Angela Carter
Director of Legal Services
Toyah Marshall
Head of Team
Toyah Marshall
Principal Employment Law Adviser
Client stories
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Gus Hosein
Executive Director, Privacy International
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WorkNest supports our 280 staff members with Employment Law and Health & Safety and has provided quality management training too.”
Lisa Best
Head of Service Delivery, Catalyst Choice
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We get a great deal of comfort and satisfaction knowing that we have support as and when we need it, in a decisive and responsive way.”
Richard Berry
Group HR Director, Culina Group
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We moved our legal support to WorkNest (formerly Law at Work) having previously used a time and line law firm. It was important, though, that an all-inclusive fee structure did not come at the expense of quality. Thankfully we’ve been delighted with the service we’ve received from WorkNest.”
Chief Executive
Waverley Care
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What we recognised in WorkNest is the background that they have. They are able to supply knowledge and experience in a number of disciplines, which enables us to develop our business in a way that’s safe, to do it on time and with a quality to it.”
Debbie Rainbow
Director of Human Resources and Health & Safety,
Bluestone National Park Resort
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Celia McKeon
Chief Executive, The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT)
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As the company started to get larger, we knew we had to protect our employees and our contractors both onsite and in the offices. WorkNest is exactly what we needed to move the company forward.”
Joanne Beaver
Operations Director, Beaverfit
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Pineapple have worked with the team at WorkNest (formerly Law at Work) since 2003, and we have built a trusted partnership together. We particularly like WorkNest’s concise and practical advice concerning employment law/HR issues and also appreciate their totally supportive approach in all areas of health and safety.”
General Manager
Pineapple Dance Studios
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I’ve taken WorkNest into every organisation that I’ve worked with. I’ve introduced them to many teams and many colleagues and referred them with absolute pleasure because I genuinely trust in the service that we get.”
People Director, The Works