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Your workforce is your greatest asset, but managing employees in line with the law is no easy task, especially when you’re time-poor or without in-house HR support.
Even for organisations who do benefit from internal HR help, as you grow, so too does the burden of managing an increased number of staff, which can put your in-house teams under enormous pressure.
So where do you turn for HR support?
Submit your details and one of our team will be in touch.
How we help
There’s no escaping the inevitability of employee relations issues when you run a business or organisation, and this requires employers and HR managers to find smart ways of managing people-related challenges quickly and effectively, without inviting legal risk or spending a small fortune.
At Ellis Whittam, we help thousands of UK employers to alleviate their people pressures and ensure compliance with the law and best practice through unlimited, fixed-fee HR support.
More than just an HR helpline, each of our clients benefits from a small team of dedicated, legally-qualified HR and Employment Law Advisers for personalised, high-quality HR support tailored to your business or organisation. Known for the quality of our service and advice that rivals that of a traditional law firm, your adviser will take the time to get to know you, how you operate and the specific challenges you face and then use their extensive HR knowledge and expertise to help you achieve your preferred outcome, quickly.
Related Information
With access to simple, practical and personal support at any time, you can be confident that your HR matters are handled in full compliance with the law and best practice, and ensure the stability and productivity of your workforce.
We provide close HR support to thousands of organisations throughout the UK across a diverse range of sectors. Our clients range from small employers with fewer than 50 employees at a single location, through to large employers employing thousands of people at multiple sites around the UK. Each relies on our support for different reasons.
Whether you’re looking to fully outsource your HR function or just in need of expert HR help to take the pressure off your internal team, we can complement your current arrangements and contribute to the stability and growth of your organisation.
Reluctant to spend a fortune in hourly legal fees, but frustrated by the generic HR advice and personalised service offered by some fixed-fee providers?
Ellis Whittam was born out of a genuine need for fixed-fee services that don’t compromise on quality.
Since the beginning, our aim has been to challenge low-quality non-regulated providers of HR and Employment Law support services, by taking the quality standards of a leading law firm into the fixed-fee market. We believe that the value of saved time, saved costs, improved productivity and reduced risk is greater than the cost of our services, and this is reflected in our client satisfaction score of 94%.
Our unique service has been developed to help you to prevent HR headaches before they arise, overcome issues quickly, and enable you to approach HR tasks with confidence on a daily basis.
The key elements of our service include:
To talk through your specific requirements and find out how Ellis Whittam might be the right fit for your organisation, call 0345 226 8393 today.
Experts in Health & Safety
We have the expertise to help you simplify complex health and safety legislation, find workable solutions to health and safety challenges, and protect your organisation from the rising cost of non-compliance.
Director of H&S Services
Principal H&S Consultant
Regional H&S Manager
Senior H&S Consultant
H&S Consultant
H&S Consultant
Client Stories
“I’ve taken Ellis Whittam into every organisation that I’ve worked with. I’ve introduced them to many teams and many colleagues and referred them with absolute pleasure because I genuinely trust in the service that we get.”
Debbie Jamieson, People Director
Client Stories
“We get a great deal of comfort and satisfaction knowing that we have support as and when we need it, in a decisive and responsive way.”
Richard Berry, Group HR Director
Client Stories
“What we recognised in Ellis Whittam is the background that they have. They are able to supply knowledge and experience in a number of disciplines, which enables us to develop our business in a way that’s safe, to do it on time and with a quality to it.”
Debbie Rainbow, Director of Human Resources and Health & Safety
Client Stories
“As the company started to get larger, we knew we had to protect our employees and our contractors both onsite and in the offices. Ellis Whittam is exactly what we needed to move the company forward.”
Joanne Beaver, Operations Director
Client Stories
“We have found Ellis Whittam to be responsive and aligned with our business in terms of our processes and expectations. Their pragmatic approach has proven to be a great fit – nobody wants to be fighting their adviser on basic employment decisions.”
Jonathan Green, COO
Client Stories
“Ellis Whittam supports our 280 staff members with Employment Law and Health & Safety and has provided quality management training too.”
Lisa Best, Head of Service Delivery
Resources
The specific rules around third-party harassment were deleted from the Equality Act (EqA) 2010 in 2013; however, employees may still be able to bring a claim for third-party harassment under its general harassment provisions in Section 26(1).
In regular harassment cases, the question to be asked is “does the unwanted conduct relate to a protected characteristic?” In cases of third-party harassment, the focus is slightly different. Here, the question for a court to determine is whether the employer’s actions, or indeed failure to act, is related to a protected characteristic. For example, if an employer responds swiftly to complaints of third-party harassment made by female employees but takes no action when the complainant is male, a court is likely to hold the employer liable for failing to protect the latter on the grounds of sex. This highlights the need for employers to have proper procedures in place to ensure incidents of this nature are sufficiently reported and properly dealt with.
Whistleblowing or “blowing the whistle” refers to the act of making a protected disclosure – that is, lifting the lid on serious wrongdoing within a company or organisation. Laws exist to prevent whistleblowers from being subjected to any detriment on the basis of speaking out about malpractice; however, to quality for this protection, the allegations must relate to certain categories of wrongdoing, the whistleblower must be a worker, and they must reasonably believe that they are acting in the public interest.
To avoid falling foul of whistleblowing laws, it is vital that employers ensure workers are in no way penalised for blowing the whistle. This means making sure that any decision to discipline or dismiss a worker, or select them for redundancy, is in no way related to or influenced by them having made a protected disclosure. Otherwise, they would have grounds to bring a claim to an Employment Tribunal for unfair dismissal.
