Don't Get Blamed for the Antics of Crafty Employees: The Legal Safety Net for HR Managers

Steering 30ft towards the ground, every tight rope walker understands the importance of a safety net. Despite years of training, and a thousand practice runs, one foot out of place at 30ft could spell disaster.

As an HR Manager, your company's employees could spell new disasters. They are unpredictable. No performance process or disciplinary process is the same. You are expected to deal with every HR instance as if you are legally trained to deal with unpredictable and crafty employees. Do you have a safety net in place if something goes wrong?

When things go wrong you get the blame. For many CEO's, HR is seen as an expense. As an expense, there is little tolerance when things go wrong. But employees are difficult, particularly if they have sought advice from a lawyer. The lawyer would use every trick in the book to trip you up. If you don't have a safety net the damage could be in the thousands of dollars spent defending a personal grievance or even paying damages.

Your CEO won't thank you when it comes to writing out the cheque.

Introducing the Legal Hotline for HR Managers: Your Safety against Personal Grievances

The Legal Hotline for HR Managers is specially designed to give you the legal back up you need so you don't risk being tripped up by crafty employees looking to exploit a personal grievance.

The Hotline provides you with 24/7 access to a practicing employment lawyer to answer questions about HR procedure and strategy. It is a subscription based s service, but unlike those other services that set the fee based upon the number of employees, the Hotline works on a small flat fee per month irrespective of the number of employees in your business.

What does the subscription cover?

The subscription covers all the one off phone calls and email advice plus an audit of your employment documentation. That telephone and email advice includes letter drafting if it takes less than 30 minutes to complete. If something takes more than 30 minutes you move into consultancy, but as an Hotline member you get access to heavily discounted consultancy rates. For example, for non Hotline members the consultancy rates are $300 plus GST per hour. However, for premium Hotline members the rate is $200 plus GST per hour and for basic Hotline members the rate is $250 plus GST per hour.

The real benefit of this service is in your ability to ring up whenever you want to prevent things going wrong in the first place. This is what other business owners have found:

What can I say? Having Mike on tap every month is a huge relief. We have often found that we may have just one question we need a legal answer for. This may happen once in a month it may happen 20 times. The bottom-line is we now know that if anything crops up we can get an answer and fast so we don’t end up breaking any employment laws that we haven’t managed to read the latest legislation and updates on. Not only that we don’t have to wait around for the “every six minute billers” to gather every man and his chargeable dog to become involved in a quick “yes you can or no that’s illegal” decision.

Unlike you average lawyer Mike has a sense of humour (yes we we’re surprised too!) and his well worded letters are a constant source of delight with their clever use of the English vocabulary and boundaries within the law.

As a business owner that likes to have an answer “NOW” Mike has also demonstrated he has the patience of a saint who can handle the most “challenging and demanding” of clients. Sarah Lee, Creative Director, IT Maniacs

Your company's membership will help your managers too

One of the most frustrating things as an HR Manager is to find that one of your managers has already made an HR mistake before getting you involved. This often stems from a lack of understanding on their part of how employment law and good faith operates.

That is why with the premium version of the Hotline you will also get access to online training for your managers so that they can identify when to get you or the Hotline involved. One face to face training can also be arranged each year to add the personal touch. You could also forward Approachable Lawyer articles to your managers or incorporate them into your own newsletter to keep them up to date with the latest advice or legislation changes.

Here is a summary of what is included with each package:

Benefits	Basic Package	Premium Package

Unlimited calls to the Hotline
Consultancy Fees charged at $200 plus GST per hour (Premium) or $250 plus GST per hour (Basic)
Use of Approachable Lawyer articles to educate your managers and other staff
Access to online training
One Face to Face training session per year with your managers
Audit of all employment documentation

Why your CEO will be impressed

The Legal Hotline for HR Managers makes sense to you and your CEO. By joining you get the safety net you need but also your CEO gets to take advantage of heavily reduced legal fees when you need it. Overall it makes a compelling business case and if after a year you find you don't use it, you can cancel your membership at any time.

How to apply:

To ensure that all members receive the quality of service promised, membership is limited. You must complete an application form. Once you have done that, email it to me and your application will be assessed alongside whether there are current vacancies within the Hotline service. If there are, you will be asked to set up an automatic payment. All payments are made on the 20th of the month.

To download an application form click here

Alternatively if you have any questions about the Hotline please fill out the online form below.

Regards,

Michael Smyth LLb. (Hons.), Dip, Cert
The Approachable Lawyer

P.S. Once you are signed up, don't forget to taken advantage of the audit of your employment documentation. This would normally cost you $2,000 or more.

I knew from the outset that you were professional and that I could rely upon you. That's why I signed up for the Legal Hotline. When I started using the Hotline my perception didn’t change. I like the way I can talk to you personally, the fact that you are a specialist in your field, and that your documentation is easy to read. I would definitely recommend you and the Hotline to other businesses because of your expertise and because you are approachable. Bryan Berry, Bryan Berry Panel Beaters

The Hotline seemed like a good plan to me because I figured I couldn’t really lose out. Because I had used Michael previously I knew it was going to be a reputable service and not someone after a quick buck. The great thing about the Hotline is that I can call or email anytime. I don’t feel nervous about getting a massive invoice for a two minute conversation but I still get good legal advice. The response times are quick and the service efficient. I would have no hesitation recommending the service to other business owners who can rely on the approachable nature of Michael and the Hotline. Gary Richards, Jag Design, Auckland

I didn't think I'd need a lawyer just because I was hiring an employee. Then things went wrong. Quite wrong, I must add. And boy, was I glad I had a water-tight employment agreement. What also helped was that I was able to let go of the employee at 2 days notice, simply because of the constant advice, and the solid paperwork I had in place. And it was all thanks to the Approachable Lawyer. I did have to spend a few anxious days while dismissing my employee, but I was far less stressed, because of the constant support and the fact that I could get in touch with Mike at a moment's notice and have my worries resolved. I'd say any business owner would be foolish to not have access to a hotline such as this. Sean D'Souza, Psychotactics.com

As one of New Zealand’s fastest growing franchises, the potential for employment disputes is huge. Prior to using Michael and the Hotline we had already been taken to mediation by one employee and advised to pay compensation because of a slip up in process. I learnt my lesson from that case, and two years ago retained Michael to advise us and our franchisees. Since then we have only had one employment dispute which was withdrawn by the employee before reaching trial. The biggest benefit of the Hotline is that our franchisees are able to call Michael to get advice before they have a problem. As a result we rarely have employment issues. For that reason alone the Hotline is invaluable, but it also enables me to offer added value to any person considering buying an Esquires franchise. I would recommend the Hotline to any business owner and particularly to any franchisor wanting to add value to its franchise model. Stuart Deeks, Managing Director, Esquires Coffee Houses, New Zealand.

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Contact Michael Smyth
PO Box 91053 AMSC
Auckland 1030
New Zealand
P: +64 9 358 2725
F: +64 9 358 2715
M: +64 21 320 171
E: michael@approachablelawyer.com

In the UK:
P: +44 709 204 5664
F: +44 709 204 5664