Aberdeen-based consultancy Hunter Adams recently convened 40 senior HR leaders from the oil and gas sector to debate the practicalities around the implementation of the IR35 reforms, due on April 6, 2020.
Based on the current approach the answer is no. Throw in a deferred budget and an election to make it extra interesting and confusing.
Christmas arrived early for staff at Hunter Adams after founder Dean Hunter gave away 30% of the shares in his Aberdeen-based human resources (HR) consultancy. Mr Hunter, who founded the firm in 2011, was inspired to give away the stake in his business by Production Services Network (PSN), the oil and gas services firm at which he previously worked before it was taken over by Wood Group. He said: “We often say to our staff that it’s their company, but it doesn’t ring true when you hold all of the shares.
We talk about “managing the survivors” when we talk about those left behind post redundancies.
Are you in this to be liked? Have you asked yourself how well you managed the cost reduction exercises in your business this year? This recession has cut deeper and lasted longer than most of us ever expected, but that doesn’t mean we have to wait for it to be over to be liked. Most leaders in this market have been through recession and subsequent headcount reductions several times. Many will admit that managing redundancies is the toughest thing that they have had to do in their careers.
An estimated 14.1 million people in Britain want flexibility in their working hours or location, equivalent to almost half the working population, the consultancy and jobs site Timewise says. As businesses continue to look to ways in which they can reduce their cost base other than simply by reducing headcount, one stone that is often left unturned is flexibility. It is commonly held that flexibility costs money, be it in management time for administering a complicated flexible working programme or by having to add more people to the mix to get the work done. In 1998, certain major oil and gas operators led the way by allowing employees to have every second Friday off of work (The 9 Day Fortnight or Alternative Working Week) – on the basis that they worked their contractual hours over 9 days. Competitors scrambled to put in place similar schemes in order to ensure that they retained their staff and to try and prevent them from being lured away by the competitors.
There are various myths surrounding employee hires versus workers and vice versa – but which is the most efficient and sustainable option for the energy industry to see it through the next 50 years? Legally, people are either ‘employees’ or ‘workers’, the latter bill the employer through an invoice for a provision of services and the former are on the payroll. There’s a myth that we have two options, ‘staff’ and ‘contract’, but there are a variety of options available and a lack of creativity in this area can create issues for businesses. Employees are generally seen as lower cost, more loyal and, by some leaders, more productive than workers. However, in my experience, companies aren’t required to manage the quality of delivery of ‘workers’ any more than ‘employees’.