We spend an awful lot of our time working and, when things go wrong it can be upsetting and disorienting. In this article, we’ll be sharing our advice on what employees need to know before signing a settlement agreement at work.

When an issue crops up in work that requires serious action from your employer, finding an amicable solution is the best option for all involved. However, when this is not possible, you may find that you’re offered a settlement agreement from your employer in order to bring the issue to a close.

These agreements aren’t always drawn up with the employees’ best interest in mind, but it can be tricky to know what’s a good settlement and what isn’t. In this article, we’re sharing the things you need to know before signing a settlement agreement at work.

What is a Settlement Agreement?

In the event that you have a dispute with your employer which could potentially lead you to escalate the issue to an employment tribunal, your employer may (particularly if they feel that you have a strong case), choose to offer you a settlement.

This will usually be either a cash sum to be paid to you as compensation for your grievance or, a promise and action plan to cease the behaviour or activity behind the grievance.

In the event of a settlement, an employer will instruct their lawyers to draw up a settlement agreement which will lay out the company’s intentions and any terms and conditions which go with the promise that they are making. The agreement will be signed by both parties, at which point, the employer should deliver what has been promised.

What Employees Need to Know Before Signing a Settlement Agreement

While the offer contained within the settlement agreement may seem attractive, there may be some sneaky clauses waiting to trip you up if you don’t read the fine print, So, you should never jump in and sign on the dotted line before considering the following:

Confidentiality clause

If your employer is offering a settlement, it may be because they do not want the bad publicity that a court case or tribunal may generate. Because of this, there will almost certainly be a clause in the settlement agreement detailing who you may or may not speak to regarding the circumstances that led to the settlement. It’s worth bearing in mind that this can even include a ban on speaking with your former colleagues – some of whom may also be friends.

As this is a legal document, you’ll need to take this seriously before signing. In general, your employer is not permitted to prevent you from speaking with a solicitor or a police officer, so you need to double check that this hasn’t been sneaked into the settlement agreement.

Post termination restrictions

You will need to read the settlement agreement carefully and check for clauses known as post termination covenants which may limit your activity. For example, there may be a clause saying that you may not poach any clients or a clause which forbids you to operate in the same industry within a certain distance to the current place of work  – something which seriously hinder your career plans.

A senior moment

If you are a senior member of staff, for example, a director, the settlement agreement may require you to resign from your post and waive any further compensation on the date of signing. In some cases, this can mean a serious loss of earnings so it’s a good idea to have your solicitor check this out for you and to possibly renegotiate.

Payment

If the settlement agreement requires your employer to make a cash sum – for example, a redundancy payment, you (or your solicitor) will need to check to see if the sum is subject to tax. In general, a redundancy payment will be tax free up to £30,000, however, other types of payment may differ.

Without prejudice

If your employment will be terminated on the signing of the contract, it’s a good idea to negotiate with your employer regarding employment references.

Your former employer is under no obligation to provide a reference for you, but this can influence a potential employer. Getting this locked down is a good idea, and a battle you’re likely to win if your employer wants a quick resolution to the issue with no adverse publicity.

A second opinion

Having read through the settlement agreement, you may feel that it all makes sense especially if you’re eager to get your hands on the cash and move on. You may be tempted to get the thing signed as soon as possible but it’s always best to get a second opinion first.  

The agreement will have been drawn up by your employer’s solicitors and will be very much slanted toward the employer’s interests, not yours. Although hiring a solicitor may cost you, this will almost certainly be a worthwhile investment as they will have the experience to spot any subtle wording and clauses which you may miss.

Before you sign a settlement agreement…

When a work issue escalates to a point whereby a settlement agreement is necessary, this can be stressful, and it may be tempting to ‘get it over with’ as quickly as possible.

Although this is understandable, hiring a solicitor will help you to navigate this often-unpleasant business and to make sure that you get everything that you are owed by your employer. This is particularly important when negotiating any terms or clauses within the agreement which you may not wish to agree to.

Please be advised that this article is for general informational purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for advice from a trained legal professional. Be sure to consult a lawyer/solicitor if you’re seeking advice on the settlement agreements. We are not liable for risks or issues associated with using or acting upon the information on this site.

Nowadays, business becomes more and more digital. That fact refers not only to the trend of online communication with customers. That’s also about the opportunity to implement hi-tech solutions in the business. The idea of the use of Artificial Intelligence is one of them.

In business, that idea is known as the Business Intelligence concept, and today, it gains popularity in all types of businesses, from small manufacturers to big enterprises.

What benefits to gain from the Business Intelligence solution and how to get it? We asked Avenga’s experts about that.

What Is Business Intelligence and What It Brings You

First, let’s discover what is BI and what principles that concept adheres to. BI solutions are useful for companies from most areas. For example, manufacturing, finance, retail and wholesale, insurance, and telecommunications – everywhere where there is a need to understand what is happening in the business. Previously, BI was implemented only by large enterprises, however, now more and more often medium and even small businesses are starting to use analytical solutions. In many ways, this is facilitated by the emergence of simpler systems and even the integration of BI tools into accounting systems.

When we talk about Business intelligence solutions, several principles are fundamental to it.

1. Who needs it? Getting useful information from the original raw data is necessary for large enterprises and corporations, as well as for SMB companies. Since business analysis systems are absolutely universal, they can be used in various industries to solve a wide range of problems.

2. Where does it get data from? You should consider BI solutions as a separate product that is not a substitute for other software that you may use. But it can work in integration with your CRM, ERP, or any other program that you use to manage your business processes and collect data.

3. Who can use it? Data provided by BI systems can come in handy for business owners, who need to get reports on the company’s activity, and for top managers who are responsible for a certain department’s work.

4. Is it hard to work with Business Intelligence systems? Today, BI developers are focused on making their products user-friendly and intuitive. Thus, usually, you do not need to acquire any special knowledge to integrate the system into your business and to work with it.

As a result, by using BI for your business, you can get incredible benefits (as stats says):

• 95% increase in customer satisfaction.
• 186% ROI.
• 16% higher income.
  

Main Ideas on How to Implement Business Intelligence Services

All that sounds pleasant, yet how to use BI solutions in practice? Avenga’s experts say that businesses can get BI solutions in the following form.

• Applications with tabs, graphs, and dashboards to get operational and strategic analysis.
• Tools for high-efficiency solutions.
• Easy access to analytic data about all the business processes from any remote place.
• Apps and software for customer-oriented automation of processes. That is, you can use it for the automated algorithm of interaction with customers and collection of their data.
  

In general, the scope of functions that you can handle in a BI system can vary. It is better to get a consultation from BI experts in advance to highlight the most beneficial functions that Business Intelligence systems can offer you.

As an owner of a small business, you should be doing everything you can to help your business improve in any way possible, which is why it is so important that you keep an eye on the potential opportunities that other services can provide.

To that end, this article aims to outline exactly how outsourcing can help you to improve your business, with a few precise examples of benefits you might want to think about working towards. After all, if outsourcing in this manner can provide a significant benefit to your business, then it is more than worth the time and effort to consider how those benefits may come about.

Many Hands Lighten the Load

Fundamentally, some of the most important benefits of outsourcing elements of your business can be quite easy to understand. As the saying goes, many hands lighten the load, so when you bring more skilled help in to assist with an element of your business, you enable yourself to benefit from both the skills you are hiring in and an increased workflow toward solving that issue.

This means that you can complete the tasks you’re outsourcing more proficiently, given the higher skill level of the outsourced services, but also with less of an impact on your business, as it would not require as much time or energy from you and your employees to get the work done – particularly if you outsource the work in its entirety.

Easily Available

One of the best things about outsourcing, when it is applied to your business, is that it can be incredibly easily available, which means that you can get high-quality results for your company quickly.

For example, if you’re looking to boost the experience that your employees have within your business, then you might want to consider engaging with an outsourcing service, such as an HR consultant in Oxford. Services such as these raise the quality of experience your employees feel within your business, while also putting very minimal weight on the operation of your company and allowing these services to remain objective in their engagement with your employees.

Of course, there are many more outsourcing services that you might want to engage with, and their ease of access makes them a wonderful option when it comes to looking towards getting work done quickly. So, make sure they are an option that you keep in your toolbox and consider when it seems appropriate for your business.

Boosted Customer Satisfaction

Finally, another massive benefit that outsourcing could potentially bring to your business, if you engage with it in the right way, is a massively boosted customer satisfaction level, as a result of the higher quality and higher speed of work being completed.

This is a benefit that could apply to your business regardless of the industry that you are in, given that customers are always going to be looking for higher-quality work done in a shorter time frame. So, it will always pay to keep in mind the option of outsourcing to get jobs done more quickly for customers that have a higher focus on high quality and short timelines. Boosted customer satisfaction will often lead to repeat business.

Balancing Your Other Resources

Of course, when it comes to running a business, outsourcing is just one of many resources that you need to juggle when you are running your company, and that means that you need to be sure you are applying it sustainably and economically for your business. The benefits of outsourcing are significant, to be sure, but they are worthless if engaging with outsourcing simply serves to undermine your business in other ways.

Particularly when it comes to outsourcing, one of the most important resources that you are going to need to manage is cost. Financial management is a vital element of any business and when you are engaging with services such as outsourcing, you need to be certain that the cost you are incurring for that service is represented in the benefits that you are provided.

These benefits might affect other elements of resources that you need to manage within your business, such as the time you spend on certain tasks and the revenue that you can bring in – particularly if you can charge a higher rate for higher quality or faster work. However, these are all important things that you will have to weigh the pros and cons of against one another to ensure that your business is operating in the most effective way possible.