There are many reasons why an employment relationship could falter – including misconduct, poor performance, personality clashes, absence, or just the way circumstances fall. Whichever reason applies, trying to respond to a reference request for an employee or ex-employee in that situation can be awkward. In this blog, I’m going to talk through some common…

This May, not only are we planning for the usual spring bank holidays, but across the United Kingdom we have an additional Monday to factor in, for the Coronation of the King. Inevitably, questions about annual leave entitlements and how bank holidays are calculated will be raised by members of your team! As many practice…

Many practices use locum GPs to temporarily take over the place of a regular partner or team member. Traditionally they’re self-employed and will have numerous GP practices as clients. This includes locums who work through a limited company. However, the law surrounding such contractor status is complicated, which means that, in reality, situations can become…

In GP practices, we like our employees to stay focussed and committed to their work. But sometimes in an individual’s life, family must come first. That’s why there are multiple types of statutory family leave in the UK, all with their own eligibility criteria and entitlements. The most obvious of these is maternity leave, but…

Do practice managers get gifts from Santa? They surely deserve them. But if they did, what would a practice manager ask for? I wonder…  Dear Santa, I hope you are well. This year I’ve been very good. Well, I think I have been anyway… I’ve done all my staff appraisals and their ‘return to work’…

As practice manager tasks go, telling a staff member that they smell is probably one we’d rather not take on. But one unlucky member of Practice Index posted recently that this was indeed a piece of feedback they needed to give, and they quite reasonably asked for some advice about it. The forum responded with…

I’m a pretty staid and sensible HR professional as things go. However, like most people, I have a secret: I love overdramatic, ‘am I unreasonable?’, social-media posts. You know, the ones that sound so outrageous they get republished all over the internet. Well, I think the ones about people’s experiences in the workplace are especially…