Legal Obligations and Best Practices for Companies in Reduction in Headcount and Missing Money Scenarios

This document discusses the legal obligations and considerations for companies in scenarios of reduction in headcount and missing money. It provides advice on how to manage these processes in a way that complies with the law and principles of best practice HR. The document also includes information on redundancy, statutory redundancy pay, alternatives to redundancy, and the process of applying selection criteria. In addition, it covers the legal obligations and considerations for companies in cases of missing money, including control but not ownership, intent, conversion, and return. The document concludes with recommendations on how to manage these processes in a way that complies with the law and principles of best practice HR.

Applied case Analysis

Table of Contents
Scenario A: Reduction in Headcount at the Domestic Division......................................................3
Summarise relevant legal obligations or considerations for companies in such a situation........3
Advise about how to manage this process in a way that both complies with the law and
principles of best practice HR......................................................................................................4
Scenario B: Missing Money in the Corporate Division...................................................................5
Summarise relevant legal obligations or considerations for companies in such a situation........5
Advise as to how to manage this process in a way that both complies with the law and
principles of best practice HR......................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

Scenario A: Reduction in Headcount at the Domestic Division
Summarise relevant legal obligations or considerations for companies in such a situation
Redundancy
Redundancy refers to a state where a person is no longer useful for an organization. In
U.K., United Kingdom Labor Law governs the various rights and benefits which are received by
the workers (Bettinghaus, Goldberg and Kessler, 2019). Therefore, this law also includes rights
of employees on being dismissed. The facts in this case study meet the criteria as the persons
employed have completed at least one month in the organization. In Schwartz Group, there are
various workers who are not useful for the organization due to many reasons and therefore there
is a state of redundancy in the organization towards them.
Legal obligations
(i) The duty to consult arises in a situation when the layoffs have been planned in an
organization.
(ii) The employees are the ones who have to be consulted with and the trade unions should
also be consulted.
(iii) There is a particular time which should be given to the workers in the organization when
this redundancy exercise is being carried out in the organization.
(iv) The content of the consultation should be as follows-
 Briefing regarding the prevailing situation
 The steps which the company needs to take
 The compensation which would be given to the employees who have been selected for
layoffs The timing of layoffs
Statutory redundancy pay

It is the lump sum payment which has to be made by the employers to the employee at
the time of layoff (hadj Miled and Rejeb, 2018). To be eligible for it following are the conditions
to be fulfilled in U.K.-
 The employee should be permanent. However in the case of the workers who are working
on a contract since more than 2 years there is a provision to pay them Statutory
Redundancy Pay.
 The worker should have an experience of at least 2 years
 The employee should have been dismissed. The dismissal should have taken place due to
the redundancy exercise in the organization.
The rates for such payments are-
 1.5 week’s pay for full year of employment after the age of 41
 a week’s pay for full year of employment after the age of 22
 half a week’s pay for full year of employment up to the age of 22
The weekly pay has been capped at 538 pounds w.e.f 06/04/2020. The maximum
statutory payment which can be given is 16,140 pounds.
Advise about how to manage this process in a way that both complies with the law and principles
of best practice HR
Alternatives to redundancy Recruitment freezes: The Company instead of initiating layoffs should consider freezing
the recruitment process it was planning to. This will enable saving of jobs of its various
employees. The process of considering it can be stopping the recruitment advertisements
and stopping hiring on vacancies. Pay cuts: Instead of proceeding with layoffs, the HR department of company may
consider deducting pay so that expenditure burden can be reduced which can save the job
of many people (Abduvaliev and Bustillo, 2020). The process is to inform the staff about
the rate with which the pay would be deducted. Pay deferral: The Company can also consider pay deferral i.e. to defer the payment of
salaries and wages. In this way, it can save expenditures for the time being. The process
is to inform the staff about the time for which the pay will be deferred. Stopping of fringe benefits: The fringe benefits offered by the company to its staff can
be stopped so that burden of finances can be reduced. The process is to identify the
benefits which can be stopped.

Choice and process of applying selection criteria
The process of applying this criteria is as follows-
 The company must carry out a performance evaluation exercise and therefore must
evaluate the overall performance of the different workers in the organization.
 After the performance evaluation the company should be able to identify the workers
whose performance is not up to the mark. These workers can be given a warning to
improve their performance.
 The workers who are not improving their performance should be identified for the
redundancy exercise and the steps must be taken in this regard.
 The HR Department needs to carry out the formalities related to redundancy and must
therefore make sure that legal rules and obligations are taken care of while
conducting the exercise.
Scenario B: Missing Money in the Corporate Division
Summarise relevant legal obligations or considerations for companies in such a situation
By considering the current case study about the missing money then the corporate area
relies under the corporate crime regarding the lost and theft of money and for this HR manager
need to take proper legal obligations and consideration regarding the legal issues. In that context
by analysing the current loss of company that is around 50,000 premium payment from the
customer. Therefore this kind of act is considered under the employee theft which describes the
common stealing cash considering embezzlement which defines the theft or bad action by
employee within the business regarding money and other property of an organisation. In this
context stealing is all about money either through cash or selling assets of organisation (Laufer,
2017). The human resources selection technique is based on the grounds of the staff members of
company and concerning resources. In regard of this, significant methods are opted for effective
selection of employees that tends to include preliminary screening, interviews, face to face
meetings and so on that helps in determining about the significant factors which is useful in
considering the prominent resources that are limited and also tends to consider various factors
and steps to select right candidate. In this context few legal obligations are considered by the HR
manager of Schwartz group that are mentioned as underneath:

Control but not ownership: In this context the individual it to show that the entrepreneur
of the property whether it is an individual group an organisation and so on that is interested in
order to provide money to the defendant that allows them to control over it. In this context the
HR manager of Schwartz group need to analyse the suitable defendant that prominently head
possession but not ownership.
Intent: In relation with this the HR manager need to consider the misappropriation of
money which cannot commit the crime by creating the prominent mistake and error in this
context the HR manager of Schwartz group need to appropriately fund the money and keep it
safe by considering the many compliances as misappropriate funds does not have prominent
intend to physically take the money. Along with this it is more enough for the prosecution to
define the accused intend in order to take prominent actions for the result regarding the
misappropriation of funds (Omodero and Ogbonnaya, 2018). By considering the many areas the
accused must need to consider legal actions regarding the theft of money by which the accused
only has to act intentionally and also need to know do criminal activities.
Conversion: In this context the HR manager of Schwartz group regarding the
commitment of misappropriate funds and money. For this, the individuals do not the
responsibility of money but also use this fir their own purpose (oo, Eom and Shin, 2017).
Therefore, it does not need accused in order to take the money and usage it purchase various
things to spend it. In this context, it is useful regarding transferring the money to bank to refuse
to hand over the money of owner when entrepreneur demands it.
Return: In terms of this, an individual who inappropriately manage the funds considering
the intent to later return the money regarding the right act which is still guilty for their
misconduct. It describes that no matter the misappropriation that lasts the short amount of time.
Therefore, in this context the HR manager of Schwartz group and other concerning
individuals are liable for penalties that can lead describe the theft misappropriation and
embezzlement crimes. In terms of this public employees take public funds which are also
punished more harshly instead of private organisations.

Advise as to how to manage this process in a way that both complies with the law and principles
of best practice HR
Money making and theft is considered as the most serious problem that are majorly face
in small businesses and large businesses as well. In regard of this the respective company has
various ways to undertake as the best HR practice considering the prominent selection of hiring,
effective managed teams, offering significant training, prominent performance management,
employee feedback and other HR processes which is useful in effectively undertaking significant
laws and various methods that are helpful in effectively considering various employment acts
and norms that are useful in undertaking the prominent issue and disciplinary meetings and
outcomes that consider various policies as well. In this context various laws and penalties are
defined for the punishment of culprit but in this context the HR manager of Schwartz group need
to take prominent steps and adopt best HR practices to prevent from these issues that are
discussed as under:
Clearly communicate anti-theft policy: In terms of this HR manager of Schwartz group
need to clearly communicate regarding their anti theft policy and also describe the prominent
security system which significant detects the theft by watching for it. In terms of this many small
organisation skip this step and large one does not put many focus on it because of their work
pressure that leads to increase theft within the organisation and employees take advantage of it
(Weismann, 2017). Therefore HR manager of respective company need to describe that they are
monitoring and observing their employees regarding any misconduct as it leads to reduce the
attempt.
Define company theft: In relation with this most of the employees know about borrowing
money for products from the company as they consider other kinds of theft including stealing
office supplies considering company information and also use the credit of company for their
personal expenses. In this context responsibility of HR manager of the Schwartz group is to
significantly define the company policies regarding any misconduct and theft to their employees
as no one can pursue even pen to their home as it comes under the office property (Critchfield
and Reed, 2017). It provide the clear line which does not caused by the employees and also have
no room for creative interpretation of any stealing misconduct.
Look for the strange behavior: In terms of this the HR manager of Schwartz group also
look for the strange behavior among employees and analyze that they have committed any theft

and crime within an organization. It depicts that after any crime an individual has fear in their
eyes regarding caught by someone else as by this employees become reluctant to take vacations
and frequently stay at home after the office hours. By considering the case study of Schwartz
group there employees can publicly complaint regarding any misconduct and changes which they
faced with their colleagues and clear bike carefully reviewing their overall behavior.
Give employees an anonymous way to report theft: It is considered as a tip for the
employees and employers in order to find about the fraud. After any theft many employees
become more reluctant in order to report the behaviour of their co-workers as they does not have
any evidence as it leads to develop a prominent question regarding the dishonesty of employees
(Wells, 2017). In that case ACFE, reports that organisations that have fraud hotlines can be
detected under the 50% faster and experience fraud that was around 41% less cost.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Abduvaliev, M. and Bustillo, R., 2020. Impact of remittances on economic growth and poverty
reduction amongst CIS countries. Post-Communist Economies, 32(4), pp.525-546.
Bettinghaus, B., Goldberg, S.R. and Kessler, L., 2019. A reporting dilemma: Hiring freeze
headcount. Institute of Management Accountants.
hadj Miled, K.B. and Rejeb, J.E.B., 2018. Can microfinance help to reduce poverty? A review of
evidence for developing countries. Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 9(2), pp.613-
635.
Joo, J., Eom, M.T.I. and Shin, M.M., 2017. Finding the missing link between corporate social
responsibility and firm competitiveness through social capital: A business ecosystem
perspective. Sustainability, 9(5), p.707.
Laufer, W.S., 2017. The missing account of progressive corporate criminal law. NYUJL &
Bus., 14, p.71.
Omodero, C.O. and Ogbonnaya, A.K., 2018. Corporate tax and profitability of deposit money
banks in Nigeria. Journal of Accounting, Business and Finance Research, 3(2), pp.47-
55.
Weismann, M.F., 2017. The Missing Metrics of Sustainability: Just How Beneficial Are Benefit
Corporations. Del. J. Corp. L., 42, p.1.
Wells, J.T., 2017. Corporate fraud handbook: Prevention and detection. John Wiley & Sons.