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Associate - Employment & Immigration
Associate - Employment & Immigration
I am an associate with over 10 years’ experience in advising on all aspects of employment law. My experience covers:
I also advise on immigration matters for both individuals and businesses. My experience covers:
I also specialise in data protection issues, providing advice to businesses in relation to the employment aspects of compliance with the GDPR. This includes advising on subject access requests submitted by employees and advising on complex issues surrounding personal data, such as health information and criminal records data.
I use my experience to find practical solutions which meet clients’ commercial needs whilst managing the legal risks they face. I also help organisations manage strategic changes such as business reorganisations and redundancies, ensuring clients understand the legal requirements and risks and manage these in the best way possible.
I regularly provide training for clients and present at seminars.
I am a member of the Employment Lawyers Association and the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association.
Vicarious Liability : Was the employer liable when the Managing Director punched an employee after the Christmas party?
Recruitment & Retention Part 2: Long Term Employee Retention
Many organisations are struggling with retaining talent, with some offering high salaries in order to attract and retain key people. But does this keep good staff in the long term? Employment experts Tabytha Cunningham and Claire Merritt explore the key factors that affect employee retention, and how you can keep existing staff happy and productive.
00:50 Claire talks through the importance of good and frequent communication in your business at all levels.
01:57 Training and development is key. Businesses change all the time and people are looking for their next challenge.
03:17 Managing staff after the pandemic and new skills. How can we effectively manage remote teams and keep them engaged?
05:43 Managing wellbeing and making employees feel valued. What tools are available?
06:55 Flexible working, work life balance and making sure your employees don't feel overwhelmed.
09:12 How do you advertise your roles and do you mention remote working?
09:50 Managing mental health at work. Do you have training in place to ensure managers can help people properly? This can be key in employee retention.
12:09 The importance of recognition. What motivates people is different for each individual but it is always important to show employees they are valued.
13:44 How should you reward employees?
16:19 Career progression and ensuring employees feel they are heading in the right direction.
Recruitment & Retention Part 1: Recruitment Best Practice
Welcome to the first of our two-part employee recruitment and retention podcast. Lots of business are struggling to recruit and retain the right people for their organisation. Employment law experts Claire Merritt and Tabytha Cunningham explain how getting your processes right can really help.
01:41 What does best practice look like? Claire examines how contracts of employment can be used as a key recruitment tool.
03:51 Going back to basics and focussing on the requirements of the role.
04:30 Your job adverts - be mindful of discrimination claims be careful with language
05:20 Ensuing you have an objective selection and interview process.
06:40 Risks of getting it wrong - the pressure on wage inflation, the gender pay gap.
09:03 A move towards openness - disclosing salaries and meeting candidate expectations.
10:22 Best practice for candidate onboarding and offering the best support.
12:00 Probationary periods and using these correctly.
The Employment Tribunal: What happens on the day - Part 2
Welcome to part two of our two-part series on Employment Tribunals. In this podcast Employment experts Clive Dobbin, David Roath and Tabytha Cunningham answer your key questions about what happens on the day of a Tribunal. They chat through everything from how to give a witness statement to what to wear.
For more information on how our team can help you: https://parissmith.co.uk/your-business/employment-law/tribunal-representation/
Show notes
00:50
What is the set up for a typical Employment hearing?
David talks about how processes been pushed forward by the pandemic and what are the options for a virtual hearing. Do you get a choice which option you can have?
02:50
What should you know before the hearing to prepare? Tabytha explains what technology you should test if you are remote and some tips for making this process seamless.
If you have an in-person hearing, what happens when you arrive and who will be there? Be prepared for lots of waiting around.
04:25
What preliminary matters will there be on the day? Tabytha talks through how this works and what is common.
05:10
Who decides the outcome of a case? This depends totally on the claim. Simple cases like unfair dismissal will be heard by one Judge In more complex cases like discrimination, there will be a panel of three people. Our experts explain how to they work together to decide and who has the final say.
07:35
Giving evidence - how is this done and how should you address the Judge?
Our experts also explain how are different people are addressed and the common terms you might hear such as ‘claimant’, what you should wear, what to bring with you, where to stand when giving evidence and what swearing an oath means in practice.
09:45
What happens at cross examination? This is when the other side will ask questions about your witness statement. Our experts give some tips about what to expect and how to answer.
11:40
Our Employment team give top tips for preparing to be a witness and discuss the importance of the witness statements.
The key is that you should remind yourself what is said in the statement before the hearing as they often written a long time before the hearing.
13:40
Submitting additional documents – what is the process when you want to submit extra information?
15:35
Cross examination can be nerve-wracking. Our team give tips for giving evidence and cross examination, and cover the importance of preparation and overcoming nerves
20:35
Coming to a decision – what is the process and how long does this take?
21:50
What happens if you are unhappy with the decision and what are the grounds for appeal?
