IR35 changes: Gird your loins, but don't panic

Rumours of the death of public sector PSC contracting are being greatly exaggerated.

When I met chancellor Hammond after AS 2016

Working on how our sector is perceived could pay a different kind of dividend.

IR35 changes: Gird your loins, but don't panic

Rumours of the death of public sector PSC contracting are being greatly exaggerated.

Contractors' Questions: What will a health check via my company cover?

Private medical pointers for a PSC eyeing chiropractic and X-ray services.

Contractors' Questions: What will a health check via my company cover?

Private medical pointers for a PSC eyeing chiropractic and X-ray services.

Hammond's AS 2016 'a bit of a yawn' on avoidance

Sheer weight of £450m in avoidance measures explains one adviser's fatiguing feeling.

ContractorUK Reader Awards 2016: vote now!

Your chance to pay recognition to those who excel in the IT contractor marketplace.

Contractors Questions How to tell good agencies from bad

Eight characteristics you'll want your next recruiter to have (and eight you won't).

Autumn Statement 2016: Contractor Case Study

How much IR35 with no 5% expenses allowance could cost you from April 2017.

Autumn Statement 2016: Contractors' Guide

In-depth takeaways for PSCs from the chancellor's anti-contractor package.

How contractor finances fared at AS 2016

IFA reveals where chancellor Hammond helped you out, or hit your pocket.

Hammond heaps on more anti-contractor measures

IR35 reform approved; VAT FRS raided, new schemes targeted and incorporation is next.

Autumn Statement 2016 – chancellor's full speech

Philip Hammond's first (and last) AS hits incorporation and false self-employment earnings.

Autumn Statement 2016: Contractors' Checklist

Tick of the chancellor's most likely announcements as they happen.

IR35 research subjects make charges against HMRC

Naïve; disingenuous and heading for a fiasco -- say the taxman's own status advisers.

How to Get Your Employees to Really Tell You What They Think

Ben Franklin once wrote in his annual Poor Richard’s Almanack that “the same man cannot be both friend and flatterer.” Oftentimes we’re so focused on not hurting our friends’ feelings that we flatter them instead of giving them the cold hard truth.

And why wouldn’t you give them the cold hard truth? Because you know that they will most likely hold some sort of a grudge against you after the fact.

To anyone who’s ever given their best friend a hard dose of truth: much respect. But for the rest of us who find it hard to give constructive criticism, we’re paralyzed when it comes time to talk.

For this case, however, anonymity is the cure.

It’s not easy to tell someone how you feel, especially when it’s straight to their face. This is a problem for both you and the recipient, since you need to get your feelings off your chest, and they need to hear it to become a better person.

It’s not just a problem for personal relationships, but for businesses as well. A major problem for companies is receiving honest feedback from their employees. Businesses want to know the brutal truth– how employees feel about their superiors, how the business could be more efficient, and so forth.

The truth is that companies aren’t going to get genuine answers from handwritten notes, emails, or even face-to- face discussions (particularly when a relationship between the manager and subordinate isn’t on solid footing) since employees are worried about getting fired or becoming the target of future abuse. Though fear isn’t the only reason employees aren’t keen on speaking up. Futility, according to a 2009 Cornell National Survey, was found to be 1.8 times more common a reason than fear for not sharing ideas and feelings to direct supervisors in large corporate settings.

So what’s the solution?

Well, for one, online voting tools that utilize anonymous surveys, polls, and forms is a start. Anonymity gives employees the freedom to dig deep and discuss feelings that are true to their core, while the survey template allows companies to ask about any topic they desire, in addition to having a central repository of feedback that can be analyzed for common issues and subsequent action.

Without anonymity or an organized system to aggregate data, a mirage may exist around the office that everything is fine, and that employees are happy. Anything that does end up being shared by employees also runs the risk of not being followed through with, which only heightens the futility aspect.

Surveys, especially anonymous ones, do a few positive things for the office:

Telling the truth makes employees feel better.

Just like venting to a friend can help ease our pain, writing our feelings in a survey or poll gets it off our chest. We’re now hopeful that our words can spur change around the office, amongst our superiors, or for the broader company as a whole. In short, employee morale improves through the answering of a few questions.

Surveys are more precise.

When an employee says they aren’t happy, it’s hard to gauge that in our minds. However if we ask them how unhappy they are on a scale of 1 to 10, this changes everything. A four on that scale, while still surprising, isn’t as alarming as an eight or nine. Using anonymous voting and survey tools, we can get more detailed responses with a combination of binary, scale, and open-ended questions.

One of the supposed problems with online surveys is that following up with employees is nearly impossible. But this is just an assumption. Managers should be reviewing the results of surveys, though they don’t have to be the only ones.

After survey results are gathered, it’s pertinent to go over those results with the team. A big meeting to discuss answers amongst those in the office is an opportunity for managers and employees to dig deeper into certain responses without directly singling anyone out.

But it all comes back to anonymity—that’s the key to honest answers. If you want to really know what your employees think, look into utilizing an anonymous feedback system for your company.

UK will be G20's least taxing nation, firms told

Theresa May commits to setting corporation tax at a record low.

Cover firms' bills for quarterly tax reporting, HMRC told

One-man bands facing 'MTD' deserve 'whatever amount of financial support' they need.

End the war on contractors, Hammond urged

Plea to chancellor to stop punishing contractors every Spring and Autumn.

Why it's no longer a case of best contractor gets the job

Phone not ringing off the hook with offers? It's your marketing, stupid.

Contractors' Questions: How to do a one-day job in Switzerland?

When a short stint overseas can be long on compliance.

IR35 reform 'to rob public sector of 9,720 IT contractors'

Government's 18,000-strong IT contractor workforce to be cut in half from April – IPSE.

HMRC targets temporary staff tax avoidance schemes

Routing agency temps through companies for VAT & NI EA doesn't work, taxman insists.

Autumn Statement 2016: Contractors' Wishlist

What an adviser to contractors hopes to hear from Hammond on Wednesday.

Contractors' Questions: Can my German contract be executed IR35-free?

PAYE is the recommended friend of a Berlin-facing PSC with admirable qualities.

Bring NICs and income tax closer together – report

Timely recommendation for an alignment, not an outright merger that would nullify IR35.

Making NICs simpler – what OTS recommends

How National Insurance Contributions and Income Tax could be about to change.

Autumn Statement 2016 'will be thin on proposals'

Chancellor's draft fails to wow, just as small firms are blamed for half the tax gap.

IT company boss opts for jail over unpaid labour

Techie who dreads 'monotonous' work gets nine months behind bars.

Contractors' Questions: Am I inside IR35 if the client pays for my hotel?

Two nights taken care of is much less determinative than if the day-to-day is controlled.

OTS rejects 'look-through' taxation for PSCs

A potentially new vehicle for contractors succeeds where a way to tax them fails.

Five 'hot' IT contractor skills to weather 2016's cold snap

Digital specialisms shaping up to be a shoo-in for temporary IT workers; this year and next.

Where the IT pay cap will keep harming the NHS

Restricting the rates of those with the mammoth task of modernising the NHS doesn't compute.

IT contractor index hits seven-month high

'Scarce' IT contractor skills drop to just two, but calls to liberalise the visa regime persist.

Fake IT consultant jailed over VAT fraud

Techie who wasn't a techie receives a 27-month sentence after stealing £204,000.

'Align digital tax plan waiver with VAT threshold'

Make more traders exempt from quarterly tax e-updates, and delay them, HMRC told.

A Guide to getting a Contractor Mortgage

Simple guide to everything you need to know about obtaining a mortgage as a contractor.

Government inquiry into work told not to meddle

Experts find fault with a new probe that lumps agency temps in with 'gig' workers.

Future of Work inquiry: the questions to answer

Listed and at-a-glance; the eight areas that government wants your input on.

What the IR35 assault on the BBC really means

A new red flag for contractors emerges, ahead of much easier IR35 enforcement for HMRC.

Autumn Statement stimulus 'would incite Brexit panic'

Chancellor's Brexiter colleague said to favour leaving out an economic boost on November 23rd.