Department for Business Launches 'Employing People Campaign'
A new campaign to help businesses save time and money on employment costs was launched today by the Department for Business.
The 'Employing People' campaign is part of the department's Employment Law Guidance Programme and follows recent research which showed that businesses were spending unnecessary time and money complying with employment law.
The campaign aims to promote savings by directing businesses to Business Link's online tools, calculators and interactive guides, to help them understand their legal obligations and reduce unnecessary duplication of materials and wasted effort.
Employment Relations Minister Pat McFadden said: "Complying with legislation can be complex at times but employment law is often easier than business owners think. Instead of spending money on buying in professional advice on employment law, employers can get access to a range of easy-to-use, fully compliant documents that take only a few minutes to complete. In challenging economic times, it is all the more important that employers make full use of these free services.
"For example, producing written statements of employment is a significant burden for employers in both time and money, and many businesses are paying external advisers to draw these up for them. In the last year, however, over 40,000 firms have benefited from switching to the written statement tool we have provided - each of them saving around £120 every time that they do so."
The Department for Business is committed to reducing employment law admin burdens on businesses by £365m per annum by May 2010. By engaging with key business stakeholders such as the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), British Retail Consortium (BRC) and British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), the campaign will reach out to businesses of all sizes, across a variety of sectors, offering simple, practical advice and guidance on the full range of employment issues, from drafting documents to simplifying record-keeping.
As part of this outreach, the department recently provided over 300 stakeholder organisations with a toolkit to help their members demystify some of the practices around employment law.
For more information on the Employing People Campaign and the tools it provides, visit http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/employingpeople.com.