HR Expert, David Thompson, has joined Silverman Sherliker to head up Silverman Sherliker Specialist HR Services, a dedicated HR Specialist service

The service will provide front-line HR advice and resources to complement the legal services offered by the firm’s extremely busy employment team.  
 

Innovative Client Benefit

Senior Employment Partner, Nicholas Lakeland, explains how this innovative step will benefit clients:

“Silverman Sherliker can now provide an integrated and complete HR Service thus assisting clients with practical advice and on site assistance whilst also being able to offer Employment Law advice as and when required. Our HR consultants are available to undertake regular weekly or monthly first-line human resources support on a retained basis or to deal with on one-off projects as may be required.    The services are flexible and can readily be tailored tosuit a client’s requirements.”

A Wealth of Experience

During his 23 years HR career with Barclays Bank, Dave Thompson has acquired a wealth of hands-on HR experience in successfully dealing with contentious and non-contentious HR-related issues.  Dave progressed through the branch network to Operations Management where he quickly gained a reputation as an effective troubleshooter, turning negative situations around through a combination of re-motivating employees and bringing good disciplines to the workplace. From the London Regional HR team, he progressed to Employee Relations Manager in Barclays’ Head Office and also spent two years as a Project Manager for Employee Development and was responsible for implementing Recruitment & Assessment Centres. 

Dave explains the service that he now heads up at Silverman Sherliker Specialist HR Services :

“I am excited to be offering a seamless professional service to businesses of all sizes, backed by Silverman Sherliker’s legal expertise.  We offer a standard HR package to small, medium and larger employers.  Our range of services includes:
 
·        Absence Management
·        Guidance on issues involving incoming employment legislation
·        Assessment & Development Centres 
·        Avoiding Employment Tribunal Claims 
·        Disciplinary & Grievance procedures
·        Employee Attitude Surveys & Employee Relations
·        Managing line managers and personnel to improve attendance
·        Organisational, Employee and Management Development 
·        Record Keeping/Monitoring
·        Psychometric testing, CV and  reference verification  
·        Restructuring and Redundancy
·        Salary Reviews
·        Terms & Conditions of Employment
·        Training Team Leaders on employment related issues.”
 
For further information please contact Dave Thompson on dt@s2hr.co.uk  or Nicholas Lakeland on ncjl@s2hr.co.uk  or call +44 (0)20 7749 2700

Lots in the news today about everyone having to work longer before getting their State Pension.

Not entirely unexpected as the present Government has already laid plans to make us struggle at the coal face until men hit 66 and women 65.

But that was all before billions were paid to shore up our banking system and the next Government, of whatever hue, is going to have to deal with a massive black hole in the country’s finances. Pensions are one of the biggest problems (and don’t get me started on workplace pension schemes – a topic for another day!).

It was perhaps inevitable that the day of reckoning for state pension age was going to come sooner rather than later.

Ultimately, the one thing we all fear is an impoverished old age. Depending on the State to provide us with anything other than the most basic provision is simply unaffordable and the UK is not alone in facing what has been called the ‘demographic time bomb’. As medical knowledge improves, we are all living longer and someone has to pick up the tab for pensions having to keep us for perhaps 20 or 30 years AFTER we retire.

In 2005, Lord Turner (now the Chair of the Financial Services Authority) recommended to the Government that the state pension age has to rise if we are going to be able to provide any sort of half way decent pension. He has now been quoted as saying that if he was writing his report today, he would be suggesting a retirement age of 70 and that within the next 20 years or so. The word on the street is that he will be asked by a future Conservative Government to review the state pension system again. I’m not taking bets that he would move away from that position!

And the lesson to take away from all this? Don’t depend on the State to provide you with a comfortable old age. If you have access to a workplace pension (with all their faults) take it, especially if your employer is paying a contribution on your behalf. Failing that, start saving for that long rainy day…