Workplace culture and employee engagement at all levels within an organisation have become an important area of focus for us and our clients in recent years. People and diversity issues have flowed from popular movements such as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter as well as the social and financial repercussions of the COVID crisis. Organisations and their senior leadership are increasingly accountable for these issues, attracting greater scrutiny of their actions as regards people in or affected by their organisation. However, these predominantly cultural issues are increasingly underpinned by enhanced regulatory obligations and we are expecting this trend to continue in light of the Government's policy agenda. Businesses which fail properly to engage with people and diversity issues face a variety of legal, business and reputational risks.
Our Employment team has extensive experience in advising businesses on mitigating these risks as well as providing management training, and guidance when things go wrong. Our specialist offering includes:
- Diversity and inclusion measures
- Whistleblowing, discrimination, and harassment claims
- Confidentiality issues
- Employee grievances and investigations
- Equal pay, gender/ethnicity pay gap reporting obligations
- Health and safety responsibilities
- Codes of Conduct and other people-related policies and procedures
- Parent company risk and directors' duties
