The insolvency of a director or an employee within your company may impact their performance and the employer/employee relationship. Immediate notification • Your company will need to know of an individual’s insolvency as soon as possible. Include a provision within service or employment contracts requiring the individual to inform their manager upon becoming insolvent. • Determine which type of insolvency proceeding applies. Bankruptcy proceedings (as opposed to individual voluntary arrangements, debt relief orders or breathing space/mental health crisis moratoria) have a far greater impact on an individual’s activities. • If you suspect an individual’s insolvency, approach them directly and search against their name at the Land Charges Department. Restrictions • Bankrupt directors should resign immediately. It is a criminal offence for a bankrupt director to continue to act without the court’s approval. • If the individual’s role is regulated

What is a statutory demand? • a statutory demand is a formal written demand made of a company for payment of a debt (in excess of £750) within 21 days • it must be issued in a form containing information prescribed by the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016, SI 2016/1024

The actions available to you will depend on whether or not your trading partner has entered an insolvency proceeding (such as administration or liquidation). Pre-insolvency proceeding If you think your trading partner is experiencing financial difficulty, consider the following steps: • review the terms of your contracts; has your trading partner’s financial condition triggered a termination provision, eg has the company failed to pay undisputed statutory demands from other creditors? Can you stop providing services or making deliveries? Do you have security over any of your trading partner’s goods? • seek to renegotiate payment terms; obtain payment in advance, improve retention of title provisions (see Practice Note: Dealing with suppliers, customers and ROT claims), create security over your trading partner’s goods • keep written evidence of demands for payment. You may need to prove that payments by your trading partner were valid (eg the debt had fallen due for payment), rather than a positive desire to pay you ahead of other creditors. Otherwise, you may have to repay the money as

The actions taken by a company and its directors when at risk of insolvency are crucially important; not only to mitigate financial difficulties, but also to prevent claims by an insolvency office-holder for mismanagement. This is a specialised area of law, so obtain the advice of insolvency lawyers and qualified insolvency practitioners early to avoid potential personal liability for the directors or disqualification. For further reading, see Practice Note: Directors’ duties: companies in financial difficulties. If you become aware that your company is in financial difficulties (eg cash flow problems, tightening of credit terms by suppliers, pressure from lenders in relation to existing facilities and receipt of statutory demands) consider the following steps: • advise the financial director to undertake a thorough business review of the company’s costs and expenditure to see where they may be reduced • ensure that the company’s accounts are being properly kept up-to-date and that the board of directors obtains regularly updated budgets, forecasts, management and trading accounts and keeps them under review—ideally this should

Please click for an Excel version of this register. Name of appraisee Name of appraisor Appraisal date Follow-up action

This presentation has been designed as an aid to train your staff on how to prepare for appraisals and what to expect of the appraisal process. The training materials are customisable. This version of the training pack has been prepared in PowerPoint and it therefore cannot be downloaded to Word from this page. Click the link below to download the PowerPoint presentation. Purpose of slides/seminar This training session is designed to

This presentation has been designed as an aid to train your managers on conducting appraisals. The training materials are customisable. This version of the training pack has been prepared in PowerPoint and it therefore cannot be downloaded to Word from this page. Click the link below to download the PowerPoint presentation. Purpose of slides/seminar This

Learning and development (L&D) represents a significant investment for any organisation. With so many potential solutions on offer, it is essential to establish the business case for any planned L&D activities to demonstrate its contribution to the bottom line. This is necessary to secure initial investment and to demonstrate ongoing value to the business. Any L&D solution must be closely aligned with business goals to justify expenditure. The challenges of building a business case for L&D The key challenge for a business case is that, while the costs of L&D are generally straightforward to identify, the benefit or return is often hard to pin down. When things go wrong, it is easy to point the finger at the fact that people have not been trained, but when things are going well it is difficult to establish exactly what contribution training has made. It is important to ensure the potential L&D contribution is properly identified before training is commissioned and the actual contribution is measured and accounted for. Building

Executive summary [Insert a brief summary of the main recommendations within the document.] What is the business need? [Insert details of what performance changes are needed to meet the business needs.] [Insert details of how these performance changes can be best met by training.] What external factors are affecting the legal department? [Insert details of any

Analytical thinking Identifies concerns and causes of problems and finds links between information from various sources. “Can you think of a situation you faced which required analytical thinking on your part?” “What has been one of the most challenging problems you’ve had to analyse?” “Have you ever identified a potential problem or opportunity your manager or others has not seen? Tell me about a time this happened.” “Have you ever been in a situation where there has been a recurring problem at work? Tell me about it. What did you do in this situation?” Achievement Demonstrates motivation to achieve results; perseveres with plans. “What has been a goal for you to achieve?” “What have you done in your present position which has made you particularly proud?” Choose one the candidate mentions. “That sounds interesting—tell me more about it.” “What would be an example of a goal or a task you have had which has presented the most obstacles to overcome?” Conscientiousness Works steadily, efficiently and dependably; checks work thoroughly for errors and omissions. “What tasks have been a regular part of your duties? How have

The essence of any performance management is the relationship between employee and manager. Both should know what needs to be done to meet their own goals and contribute to those of the organisation as a whole. This Practice Note provides information about conducting an appraisal meeting and covers: • what should the appraisal cover • logistics for the appraisal meeting • conducting the appraisal meeting • rating performance • reviewing performance against key behavioural indicators • dealing with poor performance • setting future performance objectives • training and personal development • countersigning the appraisal form • disagreements between manager and employee • training See also Practice Notes: The performance management cycle and In-house lawyers—Good practice in personal development and appraisal and Precedents: In–house lawyers—Preparing for your appraisal meeting (appraisee) and In–house lawyers—Preparing for your appraisal meeting (appraisor). What should the appraisal cover? Most performance appraisals include: • an assessment of performance against previous objectives • an assessment of performance against the core skills required for the role • a mechanism for agreeing performance objectives for the next 12 months

This Practice Note provides information on formulating a learning and development (L&D) policy. It reviews key issues to consider including: • what is an L&D policy • who is responsible for the L&D policy • regulatory or statutory requirements that must be complied with • identifying the content and scope of the policy • identifying the aims of the policy • how to develop, draft and implement the L&D policy • alignment with other business objectives, and • reviewing the L&D policy The specific SRA requirements relating to training contracts are outside the scope of this Practice Note. What is an L&D policy? An L&D policy outlines the organisation's viewpoint for the development of its employees. It generally covers areas such as training standards, scope, priorities and how employees access L&D. An L&D policy is different from an L&D plan which is a strategic document setting out how L&D can help a business meet its objectives. See Practice Note: In-house lawyers—Learning and development plans. L&D policies are