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Managing Football Fever- 17/05/2010
With the FIFA World Cup set to kick off in South Africa on 11 June, West Midlands law firm FBC Manby Bowdler LLP has drawn up a list of tips for employers to help them deal in advance with any absences causing disruption to business.
Alasdair Hobbs, Partner in the Employment Department of FBC Manby Bowdler, says that employers should decide their policy now for managing requests for time off during the World Cup.
“Employers should be prepared so that they can pre-empt the pattern of ‘sickies’ coinciding with key match fixture dates and take into account the impact on productivity and the gripes and moans of colleagues left to cover the work of absentees,” says Mr Hobbs, who is based in FBC Manby Bowdler’s Telford office.
“Options such as providing TVs for employees to watch the matches at work (licensing arrangements permitting) or allowing flexible working hours so that workers can take a couple of hours off to watch the matches and make the time up later could help avoid absences.
“Employers should also remind workers of their policies on appropriate behaviour and drinking alcohol during working hours.”
FBC Manby Bowdler's top five tips are:
Make clear that requests for holiday during the World Cup should be made in accordance with the holiday policy, that the same notice periods apply and such requests will be considered in line with business needs.
Communicate what absences, if any, will be paid and which will be unpaid if employees do not turn up to work. Remind employees of the disciplinary procedure in this respect.
Consider allowing employees to work flexibly during the tournament period and the options for this, such as taking extended lunch breaks or swapping shifts, and whether any working time lost should be made up that day, week or month.
Make employees aware that downloading a match to watch on their work computers could be a breach of the company’s IT policy and TV licensing laws.
Remind employees that being unfit for work due to drinking excessive alcohol will not be tolerated and will be dealt with in line with the disciplinary procedure.
“Provided England does well in the tournament, allowing employees to watch key games could actually boost employee morale and help improve productivity,” concludes Mr Hobbs.