* The role of Acas

Malcolm Phillips

24th February 2014

Agenda

who arewe?

how we help you

our areas of expertise

* Section One

Who are we?

Who are we?

Our aim is to improveorganisations and working life through better employment relations

Up to date

Independent

Confidential

Practical

Impartial

Yorkshire and Humber – Leeds

East of England - Bury St Edmunds

East Midlands - Nottingham

London - London

North East - Newcastle

North West – Liverpool, Manchester

Scotland - Glasgow

South East – Fleet

South West - Bristol

Wales - Cardiff

West Midlands - Birmingham

Who are we?

Trainers

Extensive knowledge

Local economics

Local needs

* Section Two

our areas of expertise

Area of expertise

Conciliation

Individual conciliation helps settle complaints about employee rights. Nearly all complaints to Employment Tribunals come to Acas

Collective conciliation helps parties in dispute to reach or make progress towards agreed settlements which they all find acceptable

Pre-claim conciliation helps settle complaints about employee rights before the point at which a claim is made to an employment tribunal

Collective conciliation

• We help parties in dispute to reach or make progress towards agreed settlements which they all find acceptable

• 871 requests for collective conciliation in 2012/13

• 93% success rate in resolving collective disputes

Collective conciliationCause of dispute 2012/13

Base: 871 requests for collective conciliation

17%

30%

13%12% 12%

10% 10%

3%

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5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

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Individual conciliation

• Settle complaints about employees’ rights

• Nearly all complaints to employment tribunals come to Acas

Individual conciliation

Benefits of individual conciliation and pre-claim conciliation

• voluntary agreement (and withdrawals)

• fewer tribunal hearings

• lower cost to the parties than tribunal

• not in public domain

• less stressful

Individual conciliation

• 67,825 net cases received for conciliation from the Employment Tribunal Service during 2012/13

• 79% of potential hearing days saved

Individual conciliationNet cases received by Acas (2007/08 – 2012/13)

Individual conciliationMost common jurisdictions 2012/13

Base: 155,015 net jurisdictions

Arbitration

• A voluntary means of settling disputes by inviting one or more impartial persons, within agreed terms of reference, to make an award which the disputing parties undertake in advance to accept

• Service provided on behalf of Acas by Arbitrators from the Acas panel.

• Free at point of delivery.

advise on a range of approaches

train and assess your mediators

help you develop a workplace mediation scheme

trained mediators skills in management

Area of expertise

Mediation

Individual Mediation2012/13

• 235 charged-for mediations in individual disputes started in 2012/13 with a success rate of 91%

• Approximately 300 delegates trained on the Certificate in Internal Workplace Mediation (CIWM) course in 2012/13

• All CIWM delegates surveyed in 2012/13 reported that the course met their learning needs either completely or to a large extent

Area of expertise

Training solutions

workplace projects

key point sessions for small businesses

in-depth sessions on employment issues

flexible and adaptable individual workplaces

chargeable fee

hands on practical sessions

Acas training solutions2012/13

• More than 9,000 delegates reached by open access training courses

• 949 bespoke training events delivered to more than 18,000 delegates

• Discipline and grievance most popular topic for both open access and workplace training (around 25% of courses)

• 98% of all delegates were satisfied with Acas’ charged training events

Area of expertise

Business solutions

improving employee relations

job evaluationstress management

skills for supervisors

change managementcommunication, consultation & negotiation

Business Solutions (workplace projects)

In the last evaluation carried out in 2012:

• 90% of management and 87% of employee representatives were satisfied with the intervention

• 92% would recommend the service

• Eight out of ten management reps and seven out of ten employee reps reported that the main aim of the project had been achieved

Business Solutions (workplace projects)

Topics 2012-13

Base: 249 workplace projects

Helpline

• Approximately 930,000 calls answered by the Acas Helpline in 2012/13

• The most common call topic was ‘discipline, dismissals and grievances’ accounting for 36% of enquiries

• 1,976 calls to Equality Direct during 2012/13

• 94% of callers satisfied with the overall service received from the Acas Helpline in the last evaluation

HelplineVolume of calls (2004/05 – 2012-13)

HelplineCall subjects 2012-13

Base: 928,995 calls

Website

• We continue to see high volumes of traffic to our website with 4.6 million visits during 2012/13. We have also noticed a huge increase of people accessing the website via mobile devices.

• To engage with our mobile customers more efficiently we created a mobile version of the website in January 2013.

Website

• During 2012/13 we continued to develop our online media content and created more podcasts on social media and mental health.

• We saw a further increase in followers on Twitter who are engaging in conversations by re-tweeting our messages, and mentioning Acas' services in their own tweets.

• The Acas LinkedIn group has become the ‘go to’ place for HR managers looking for employment relations information and advice.

Publications/Guidance

• New guidance on managing to collective redundancies

• Acas Code of Practice on discipline and grievance continued to be the best seller during 2011/12

• Move to electronic delivery of more of Acas publications via the website continues

• Provided free checklists, tools and useful templates

* Section Three

how we help

Services

mediation conciliation

workplace scheme

training

your place or our placeflexible and tailored for youeasy accessimmediate advice

Reputation

tried and tested courseslong standing relationships Thoroughly enjoyed the

training. Excellently delivered and well-presented. Made a difficult situation easy to understand and applied in the working environment.AALPS

I would use Acas trainingagain and I will continue to useAcas workshops that are runregionally as they are concise,easy to understand and excellentvalue for money.Allergy Therapeutics

I really appreciated learningalongside like-minded people in afriendly and informal environment.Fruit of the Loom

non profit organisation

stability

focus on HR excellence

Cost effective

Area of expertise

Problem solving. . .

. . .to more complex situations

advise informwork

with youtrain

Everyday workplace disputes. . .

more effective workplace

save you time and money

unlock potential

People

1994: 1st public body to be awarded investors in people

2011: awarded 6th time to Acas and achieved Bronze Standard

People

supported by the governmentvast expertisepractical adviceunderstand local needs & economies

How Acas can help

helpline

trainingsessions

workplace training

mediation

publicationsCustomer services team08457 38 37 36

Acas contact information

Acas helpline

08457 47 47 47

Acas website

www.acas.org.uk

www.gov.uk

Customer Services Team:

*08457 38 37 36

Redundancy and

restructuring

Discipline & grievance at

workEmployment law update

Contracts of employment

Essential skills for

supervisors

Having difficult

conversations

Equality and diversity

Recruitment,selection and

induction

Conducting investigations

Managing absence at

work

Acas Training www.acas.org.uk/training