Having spoken to a number of businesses in recent weeks, we know that many of you are concerned about how you will manage work loads when your offices re-open as most staff will have accrued a significant amount of holiday by the time the current restrictions are eased.
Various professionals in the HR sector are already predicting that the majority of people will be anxious to ensure they have a 'proper' holiday fairly soon after the formal return to office working i.e. September / October, so we have pulled together some ideas on how to plan for and manage this situation going forward that you may find useful:

• How to manage Previously Booked Holidays
  
• How to manage going back to Normal Working
  
• Some other ideas!​

The government has now released clear guidance on which Employees are eligible for Furlough Leave, there are some changes from the FAQs that we released last week.

As we know, you can only claim for Employees that were on your PAYE payroll on or before 19th March 2020.
Employees hired after 19th March 2020 cannot be furloughed and claimed for in accordance with the Scheme. 

Contract types:
Employees can be on any type of employment contract, including full-time, part-time, agency, flexible or zero-hour contracts. Foreign nationals are also eligible to be furloughed.
If your Employee has more than one job then they can be furloughed by each Employer individually as each job is separate. This also means that the Employee can be furloughed for one job but continue working for the other receiving their normal wage for that position.

Following the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme FAQs that we previously released, we know a number of employers are considering furloughing some of their employees to help ease the financial burden while the business isn't trading normally.
We also know that while you've been exploring this option and having conversations with your employees, some of you have received the seemingly somewhat cheeky question of: 
"Can I work for another business while I'm on furlough leave?"

As we know, to access the 80% grant (which covers the salary, NI contributions and 3% employer pension contributions) the employer needs to register their employee as "Furloughed". 

This guidance sheet is intended to provide answers to some of the many questions that we are receiving in regard to Reclaiming SSP. We will update this guidance document regularly and keep updated answers on our website.

What is the Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme?
This Scheme has been set-up to repay employers for any Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) outgoings to current or former employees who had periods of sickness starting on or after the 13th March 2020.

The Scheme is anticipated to open toward the end of April 2020, similar to the Furlough Scheme the HMRC are designing a new online portal for claims.

A number of Employers will have been recruiting or will have recently agreed contracts with new starts.
As we know, most recruitment projects have been postponed until the Autumn (or the next earliest opportunity) as travel has been vastly restricted, the ability to complete any interviews face-to-face has been removed (unless you're open to video conferencing) and it would prove extremely difficult to agree new contracts during this time due to uncertainty. 

However, what about those Employers who have already agreed new starts? New Employees that were due to start working for you soon and have already resigned from their previous Employer - what can we do about them?

As the situation continues to unfold, our team are taking calls and emails looking for support and reassurance on similar topics so we've pulled together the most Frequently Asked Questions.

How does the sick pay work? Do I have to pay SSP? Do I have to pay CSP?
SSP is a legal entitlement for employees who are "off sick" - in these circumstances, self-isolation is being classified under this banner. So, if your employee is off due to self-isolation for whatever reason they are entitled to SSP.
If you have under 250 employees (SMEs) then you will be able to claim this back from day one - we're unsure of the procedures around this as they have not been clearly laid out, so this is something to watch out for. So the simple answer is: yes, you have to pay SSP.

So what options do you have as an employer to reduce your resource and reduce your "people" costs accordingly - if you don't have the option of providing home-working alternatives?

1. Weekly Rotations
An quick way to reduce your in-office staff and your expenses is to implement weekly rotations. After identifying the number of staff required for key functions, you arrange for that number of staff to be available in-office weekly while the rest of your employees remain at home. This gives all employees the opportunity to earn a full wage every second week - and in the weeks they're at home you could either put the employee on SSP or agree a lower rate of pay.​