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With Christmas nearly upon us, I hope you are starting to feel festive and have begun stocking up on mince pies and mulled wine for the celebrations.
It's definitely time for a well earned break so that we all feel rejuvenated and ready to go again in the New Year. We shall be closed from Christmas Day until Friday 1st January, with business as usual on Monday 4th January. However, in case of emergency I can be contacted by email.
As usual we shall not be sending out Christmas cards but will be making a donation to Willen Hospice.
All that is left to say is have a very Merry Christmas and a very prosperous Happy New Year!
Kind regards,
Angela
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10 Steps to a Successful Office Party
Make sure your office party is a success for everyone, before and after the event …
Decking the halls with boughs of holly for the office party is all very well. But after the event, employers can find it’s not always the season to be jolly.
You don’t have to be a party pooper to keep on the right side of the law, but as an
employer you need to be aware of the potential pitfalls of the annual festive bash. Otherwise you can find yourself facing a number of different grievances and costly claims from employees. Love them or hate them Facebook and Myspace are with us and pictures provide evidence.
Staying informed, taking good advice and putting in place some simple precautionary measures means that everyone can have a safe and enjoyable celebration.
- Remember that your Christmas party is a work activity - A ‘works do’ is part of work life, and the same principles apply when it comes to looking after your staff at a posh dinner dance or a night at the local ten pin bowling alley.
- Make sure food and drink is safe and appropriate - Whether or not you’re doing your own catering, be careful with health and safety issues and sensitive to different religious codes, including those surrounding alcohol. Make sure you have a choice of food and drink, so that everyone feels comfortable, valued and respected.
- Set boundaries - At an event where people can let their hair down, people can also be tempted to let their behaviour slide too. It’s how you manage the event that makes the difference. Set out some clear guidelines and make sure everyone is aware of them before the event.
- Be careful what you promise - A couple of drinks and an informal chat with an employee at a party can easily lead to you promising things you didn’t really mean. You may not intend to create something legally binding over a glass of wine, but the employee could certainly understand it that way and call you to account in the future.
- Make sure you take an ‘inclusive’ approach - Discrimination (whether intended or not) on the basis of sexual orientation, race, gender, disability, religion ,age or other strongly-held beliefs is a definite no-no. Just one example is If you use an outside venue, make sure the building – and the dance floor – is accessible to wheelchair users. It’s details like these that can save or sink your reputation as an employer.
- Have an observer - Choose one of your managers to act as a discreet ‘nanny’. If they observe someone drinking in excess or beginning to harass other staff, the observer can have a quiet word and remind that person of their responsibility to the company and to their fellow employees.
- Be fair with the logistics - Choose a venue that takes into account how far and wide people live. If budgets permit, you could organise transport and/or accommodation as a goodwill gesture and to reduce the temptation for people to drink and drive. Also, issue staff with details of taxi companies and self-funded accommodation options.
- Delve into the detail - If you’re having a party at your own office premises, spend some time making the space party-safe. Make it difficult for people to put their drinks on top of office equipment and make sure people don’t stand on swivel chairs when they’re putting up the decorations!
- Show that you do not condone heavy drinking - Act wisely when it comes to alcohol – and beware of the pitfalls of the free bar! Alcohol-induced fights and other bad behaviour can often be successfully defended at a tribunal once it’s known that employer provided the alcohol. Always consider the safety of employees who may not be fully sober the following day, especially if they drive or operate machinery as part of their job.
- And finally … enjoy the event! - Common sense strategies can save you a lot of money and hassle, both at the event itself and afterwards.
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Employees Have The Monday Blues
New research shows that more than a third of all absenteeism in the workplace occurs on a Monday. The research, carried out by Mercer, has also found that women take 24% more sick leave than their male counterparts, and are also twice as likely to take time out of the office due to stress, depression, anxiety or exhaustion.
It is important to ensure that companies have effective absence management plans in place before the Christmas period, as Mercer also noted that January is the month that sees the highest level of sickness absence.
Another survey, carried out by AXA PP, has shown that almost three quarters of British workers have gone to work feeling under the weather, when they could have spent time at home. 29% did so because they did not want to let their colleagues down, 15% said they were concerned about the impact it would have on their sickness record.
This has led some professionals to suggest that employers should focus on dealing with serious sickness issues rather than being overzealous in their management of occasional sickness.
Dudley Lusted, AXA spokesman has said that employers should not make their employees feel like they must come into work when they are genuinely unwell. They should concentrate on those whose attendance is a real cause of concern and those whose illnesses put them at risk of long-term absence, such as back pain, musculoskeletal problems and psychological problems.
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Reasonable Adjustments for Disabilities
Section 4A(3) of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 states that employers do not need to make reasonable adjustments for employees with disabilities in certain circumstances.
Following the EAT decision in DWP v Alam, two questions arise, and the employer will be exempt from having to make reasonable adjustments if both questions can be answered in the negative:
- Did the employer know that the employee was disabled and that this disability was likely to affect him in the manner laid out in section 4A(1)?
- If not, should the employer have known that the employee was disabled and that the disability was likely to affect him in the manner set out in section 4A(1)?
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Delay to Equal Rights Law
Following strong pressure from the CBI, the government has decided not to introduce the Agency Workers Directive before October 2011. This is to cut the cost of an estimated £16.5 billion facing small businesses in dealing with the new regulation. However, with the General Election looming in 2010, it is also likely that Gordon Brown wanted to convince us that he’s keeping our best interests at heart as employers!
This delay means there are now two years to prepare for the fact that a temporary worker will gain the right to equal treatment with a permanent counterpart, after 12 weeks in a role.
Rather than leave preparation to the last minute, use this time well. Look at when you use temporary staff either at times of peak workload or to cover holidays. Consider whether you would be able to redistribute work internally or if you have to use temps, limit their contract to less than 12 weeks. It might also be worth reviewing your holiday policy to ensure fewer staff are away at the same time, meaning more adequate staffing levels can be maintained.
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Your Questions Answered
Q: To cut costs, we are looking at introducing an annual shutdown period between Christmas and New Year, and forcing staff to take annual leave at this time. Are we allowed to do this?
A: This is common practice, particularly in the manufacturing industry. They will have a holiday shutdown clause in their employee contracts of employment, which makes staff take this time as annual leave.
However, if you do not have this clause, you can rely on the Working Time Regulations 1998. They allow employers to give employees double the length of notice as the annual leave you want to make them take. For example, one week off would require two weeks’ notice. However, given how close it is to Christmas, it is possible that your employees won’t have retained enough annual leave, meaning the time off will have to be unpaid. Therefore, you will need their prior agreement before you do this.
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In Closing
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I hope you have found this month's newsletter useful and informative. If so, then why not forward it on to someone. if not, then do tell us how we could improve it.
Crispin Rhodes is a specialist human resources company that offers a wide range of cost effective HR services, tailored to the needs of small and medium size businesses.
We provide advice and tailored service packages embracing recruitment, HR policies and procedures, discipline and grievance, sickness, terms and conditions of employment, maternity, paternity and adoption, redundancy, psychometric testing and one to one personal development.
Thank you once again, and for now I wish you all the best.
Kind regards,
Angela Rhodes
Crispin Rhodes Ltd
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Tel 01908 576991 - Fax 01908 607533 - Free HR Resources - Newsletter Archive - Contact Us
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Crispin Rhodes Ltd, 4 Aldrich Drive, Willen, Milton Keynes, MK15 9JH - VAT Reg No: 690381621
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Crispin Rhodes Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 3336715
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