Welcome to the latest news page.

1st March 2012

Gaia HR Botswana launched

In early 2012 we launched GAIA HR Botswana providing broad HR Solutions to clients in Southern Africa.

In addition to the services provided in other territories, the Botswana business will also be focusing on recruitment – particularly to the tourism and mining industries.

18 October 2011

The importance of the manager

In recent research, carried out by Mona Smith of Gaia HR Consultancy, into Employee Engagement, it was found that in the target company the employee’s manager had a pivotal role in the person’s engagement.

More specifically, it was found that having trust and confidence in one’s manager is critical to engagement.

How important is it therefore that as an organisation, managers are equipped with the right skills to communicate with, engage with and manage their employees effectively?

It was also found that the alignment of the organisations goals and objectives and the employee’s individual objectives were a considerable factor for engagement, combined with the employees’ understanding of how they can make a difference and where they fit in the performance of the organisation.

How important is it therefore that managers are equipped with the right communication skills, performance management tools in which to ensure that employees are performing to the best of their ability?

Do you know what makes your employees tick in your organisation? Would you like to find out?

Contact us for more information.

12 June 2011

Can an employer impose pay cuts on its staff?

In these still turbulent financial times, employers are looking at a number of ways of reducing costs. In order to avoid redundancies, some employers are asking their staff to agree to a cut in their pay.

In order to be able to do this, a proper consultation process must be carried out and hopefully all employees will agree to the change in their terms and conditions of employment.

If employees do not agree to the change in their terms and conditions of employment, the employer may dismiss the employees for ‘some other substantial reason’ which is potentially fair reason to dismiss, and rehire on new contracts with the new terms. This is a risky process and employees could potentially claim unfair dismissal.

A recent case, Garside & Laycock v Booth, in the EAT established that an employer does not have to show that the survival of the business depends on the proposed changes in order to defend subsequent unfair dismissal claims. The employer's actions may be justifiable in less desperate circumstances. The test is whether it was reasonable for the employer to dismiss in all the circumstances, rather than whether it was reasonable for the employee to accept the proposed reduced terms.

In addition, the EAT noted there may be situations where pay reductions have not been applied to management and tribunals may need to consider whether this accords with equity, with its implied sense of fair dealing, depending on the facts of the particular case.