Why men die first

This week we have a compilation of images depicting the possible reasons why women outlive men.

A balancing act?

Looks like a game of Jenga!

Holding on for dear life?

Some might say resourceful?

Crikey!

I suppose we should appreciate they are protecting themselves from the sun?

Looks as if these employees did not read their health and safety manual! Or more worryingly perhaps, that these employers did not consider that balancing on a ridge to paint windows might be dangerous?!

For all health and safety queries, it’s best to speak to The HR Dept’s health and safety experts www.hrdept.co.uk 

Ageism is alive and well

Ageism appears to be alive and well and no we’re not referring to the thousands of older workers who face discrimination in their search for work. We are talking about the veiled questions faced by candidates who are regularly asked “do you think you have enough life experience to do this role?” which could be misconstrued as “are you old enough?”

A BBC Points West interviewer even asked the new Bristol Labour prospective mayoral candidate Marvin Rees this on TV. Instead of looking at age, interviewers should look and evaluate the candidate’s real experience. Is 15 years in one job going to give a candidate more experience than one who has travelled and perhaps worked for three different employers experiencing a range of management styles and roles?

Whatever the position, whether it is The Mayor of Bristol or an office manager, interviewers need to base their decisions on a person’s knowledge, skills and attitude. Just as important is a candidate’s drive, energy and motivation as this can’t just be taught. Above all, the old adage that The HR Dept lives by is “if you are good enough you are old enough”

How sickness absence excuses can be misinterpreted by an employer

In a recent poll we asked employers if they thought workplace absence would increase during the UK’s ‘Summer of Sport’ and whether they had a plan in place to deal with this. We can now reveal that 42% of respondents expected workplace absence to increase during the summer due to the Olympics and Euro 2012. Of these respondents, a further 47% said they didn’t have a plan to deal with unauthorised absences. British employers now need to get to grips with managing all those employees who come knocking on the door asking to leave early to watch the match.

In a previous blog post we criticised creating a policy for the sake of creating a policy. Employers should use existing policies and procedures for dealing with holiday requests, unauthorised absence and so on. It would be useful to have an IT/social media policy which would prohibit employees misusing the internet to live stream the games while they are meant to be working.

Employers should absolutely not accuse their employees of pulling a ‘sickie’ without reasonable evidence (seeing one of your ‘sick’ employees appear in TV coverage would be evidence enough!).

Here are our top 3 excuses from employees and what employers might interpret them as:

Employee: [Monday morning] I can’t come into work today as I have come down with food poisoning.

Employer: Probably too much alcohol rather than bad prawns!

Employee: [Friday] My child is unwell and there’s no one else to look after them

Employer: Looks like they want a head start to their weekend

Employee: I have to go to my Gran’s funeral

Employer: Again? How many grandmothers can one person have?

If you would like more information or would like further help, contact The HR Dept

'The Beecroft'

There has been much discussion this week about the controversial proposals for compensated no-fault dismissals, where an employee could be sacked with a payment of a set amount of compensation, otherwise a yet to be defined ‘pay off’.

Adrian Beecroft’s proposals have also been criticised by the CIPD. We strongly believe that these proposals will only undermine staff morale. It is morally irresponsible for employers to simply point the finger and exclaim ‘you’re fired’. This isn’t Lord Sugar’s board room.

Smaller businesses are driving the economy forward. SMEs and micro businesses will lose out on talent because they cannot compete on salary and benefits packages.

So if statutory employee rights are going to be reduced or removed within these businesses, why would employees want to work for them?

The TUC have launched a campaign to protect employee rights which will in turn protect smaller businesses © TUC

 

SMEs are able to offer more flexible working, and close performance management so both employee and employer get the best out of each other. However instilling fear into employees will not motivate them.

There is no denying that employment law is complicated, but watering down employment law will only do more harm. For help and guidance in all HR issues go to our website www.hrdept.co.uk