Sleeping on the job

Have you ever seen someone in public who should have been working or wearing company uniform doing something they shouldn’t have? If you did, would you report this to their employer?

Well that is exactly what happened when a local business man snapped not one but two workers catching 40 winks when they should have been emptying Birmingham’s dustbins? The photographs were sent in to the employer, Birmingham City Council, who then took swift action to dismiss the workers.

Nowadays, it is worthwhile remembering that the world is a very small place thanks to the internet, social media, camera phones etc. Keeping the travel mugs topped up with coffee might have been a better idea than parking their boots on the dashboard and dozing off.

Bear in mind as well, falling asleep in the workplace can be a hazard…

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”

Should employees bring their own computer to work?

We recently came across research that suggested that employees are more engaged with their work when they bring their own devices to work - click here to read more. Whether it is the latest iPad or bringing in a laptop, in our advancing modern society this doesn’t seem surprising. Employees are likely to be more productive if they are using equipment they are most comfortable with. Simply allowing employees to work on their own devices might demonstrate that the employer recognises the needs of the workforce and the fast moving technological advances. Plus, it cuts the computer equipment bills down by not having to fork out for the newest computer when one of your employees complain they don’t have a fancy operating system!

On the other hand, it is important to consider the health and safety aspects of this. There are legal requirements to ensure your employees are safe in work. Any equipment required for work needs to be maintained in safe condition. This could be done by administering PAT testing (which The HR Dept can do for you).

Security issues need to be considered too – if employees bring in their own pc’s etc, then they are also bringing in potential virus threats! Also, what happens if your employees take advantage and play ‘Words with Friends’ or other games on their iPad rather than working? Could this open up a can of worms?

Do you think your workforce would be more engaged if they brought their own devices to work? Leave a comment or tweet us @thehrdept

No Olympics holiday policy required here

We appreciate the Olympics is a one off event, however all business owners should be planning ahead while remaining flexible and consistent in plans or procedures with regards to managing staff holiday or absence.

Time off and holidays should be booked in advance in accordance with existing holiday procedure/policy. We have heard a lot about advising business owners to create one off policies for the likes of the Olympics, but why create more paperwork and administration?! Our advice is to use the same rules that apply throughout the year when it comes to requesting holiday/leave. Unauthorised absence or ‘sickies’ should be treated in the exact same way as any unauthorised absence throughout the year.

If someone is volunteering during the Olympics, leave should be treated either as holiday entitlement or unpaid leave.

Though a special event, an employer has the right to refuse any request for holiday, but would have to grant it another time. Here is the reality: be fair, consistent and make sure people aren’t watching it on the internet at work if they are supposed to be working!

Keep calm and carry on really...

p.s. We are running a very quick poll to find out our reader’s thoughts on the impact of the Olympics. We’d really appreciate if you could take 30 to answer our poll here https://qtrial.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_5vvcfNPUU0HhDhi

Summer of sickies? Our quick poll

Extra bank holidays, the Olympics, school summer holidays and the enjoyment of the European Football Championships, it would appear it will be a busy summer this year! We have been giving lots of advice recently on how these events might impact on SME businesses across the UK, especially around managing holiday requests and the reinforcement of a business’ sickness absence policy.

We have set up a really short poll for you, just to see whether you think these events will have an impact on your business. We would appreciate 30 seconds of your time to answer the two questions set up via this link.

As a thank you, please follow these links for more help, guidance and advice from The HR Dept on how to manage this unusual but exciting British summer. Our major word of advice is like with most things: be prepared.

Guidance and advice on what employees are entitled to for bank holidays and for the Diamond Jubilee

Top tips on how to deal with unauthorised absence during the Olympics/EURO 2012

We would love to do something about the summer weather, but miracles are out of The HR Dept remit.

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth

Ever thought someone wasn’t telling you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in a disciplinary meeting? How do you get the truth from that person? Well... in South Africa we have discovered you are able to use lie detectors in disciplinary meetings!

It certainly is different to our ‘reasonable doubt’ judgement when looking into disciplinary matters.

With theft, fraud, blackmail and sexual harassment cases, lie detectors are brought into disciplinary meetings which in South Africa is considered legal. Permission is always sought from the person being interviewed and it is always made clear that the person has the right to refuse. Naturally those that were taking medication and pregnant women are excluded. However, as with refusing to do an alcoholic breathalyser test, the inference might be that they had something to hide. This sub-technique works wonders.

Naturally on the occasions when the detector went off the scale, this could indicate that the person was being a little economical with the truth. When this was pointed out to them, on about 99% of cases; they then confessed all to the offence.

Using a lie detector in UK disciplinary meetings is likely to attract unwanted attention and we have yet to find reference to it in the best practise guidance of managing difficult disciplinary meetings!

Fuelling the strike

Earlier this week the Unite union announced that fuel tanker drivers have voted to go on strike to improve terms and conditions. The army have been called into training should they have to take over fuel deliveries. What would happen if members of your staff claimed they were unable to get to work because of fuel strikes i.e. there was no fuel left in the local area or they couldn't afford to put fuel in the car? We were asked recently this very question so we thought we would share it with you:

Employer: I’ve heard the news that there may be strike action on fuel. What if one of my employee’s comes to me claiming they have run out of petrol and could not afford to pay the premium on the short amount of fuel left in the pumps? In the short term they have suggested working from home, but I need them in the office so this wouldn’t work. What should I do?

The HR Dept: You’ve answered it for yourself; you need them in the office. Contractually they are obliged to turn up to work on time and perform their duties. You could consider your compassionate side with them and at least they were being honest and didn’t pull a sickie, but can you afford to sub wages? The reality is they need to find a way in to work – it is their responsibility. You could also suggest using public transport, share a lift with a colleague, share a lift through a car sharing website or like this GP did, walk the 18 miles to work. There are always practical ways around this disruptive event. Make it clear however that you expect them to be on time each day as well as understanding their predicament. Ensure they recognise that any unauthorised absence will be treated seriously as being AWOL.

Straight forward stuff really, but a good practical example of how to deal with these one off situations.

Top tips on flexible working requests

Could a small business ever really guarantee part-time work for new parents following family friendly leave? Probably not!

Guaranteeing part-time work for returning parents from maternity, paternity or adoption leave is one step to enhance your brand’s image. However the reality is very few businesses could ever actually follow HSBC’s recent announcement in the same vein.

The HR Dept receives plenty of calls about handling requests for flexible working following a working parent returning to the workplace. Employees have a statutory right to make a flexible working request and have it considered, in line with statutory procedures, but not for it to be accepted by the employer. If it is rejected, the reasons for grounds for the refusal are strict.

It is the employee who must put forward a suggestion for a flexible working pattern, outlining its impact and how it could be handled. Flexible working requests and their scope can be broad, such as;

• Working less than normal days and or fewer days
• Times of work could change – flexi-time for example
• Job sharing
• Home working

The problems (tribunal claims) that arise from flexible working request cases are mostly due to the failure to communicate properly and the failure to follow the statutory procedure, not necessarily because it was rejected on genuine grounds.

There are varying different views in the media so we thought we would share them with you:

Professional women who have children 'forced to accept low paid and unskilled roles'

Working Mum's feel men are discriminated against on flexible working

Micro maternity leave

The HR Dept’s top tips:

• Get advice on how to handle flexible working requests from the onset
• Remember that it is someone's right to make a flexible working request, but not a right to have it accepted
• Explore all options when considering the request
• Always be fair and consistent

Feel the burn

Making an employee who fails to meet a performance standard do squats or press ups seems about the most unusual way to discipline staff in the workplace!

Well this is the approach taken by the flagship Abercrombie & Fitch shop in Milan.  Staff who failed to greet customers with ‘sufficient cheeriness’ were ordered to do 10 press ups (male employees) or 10 squats (female employees). We won’t even comment on the sex discrimination occurring here with regards to ability of male and female employees!

Could this Abercrombie & Fitch model be 'cheerier'?

We must admit though novel, we would struggle to write this into any disciplinary policy!

Why a quiet word wouldn’t be sufficient in cases like this we are not sure, but some sort of ‘cheeriness competency framework’ would have to be developed.

We smiled after we read this, so no press ups or squats for The HR Dept!

Cupid in the office?

The HR Dept has many a time dealt with issues around relationships in the workplace. As today is Valentine's Day, we thought we would share some Q&A’s to highlight how relationships in the workplace can often be a troublesome issue for employers:

Last week I caught two of my young employees getting too close for comfort in the stationery cupboard! What do I do?

Whose comfort, yours or theirs? If you have a policy about workplace relationships, see each of them individually and make sure they understand the rules. If not, then spell out the rules in the meeting i.e. not wasting working time canoodling or sending loads of emails and text messages. We will send you some HR Dept tissues as the course of young love never does run smoothly.

Around 20% people meet their long term partner in the office

One of my employees is saying they don't want Valentines flowers or chocolates around the office because of her beliefs, I’m at a loss.

Whilst we may believe that this is a commercially exploited event, St Valentine’s Day has been around since the Middle Ages and is a Christian celebration. Realistically disliking it is not going to count as a philosophical belief. Tell her to ignore the flowers and say you will eat her share of the chocs if they are handed round.

One of my staff is hoping her partner is going to propose on the 14^th and wants to provisionally book the 15^th off but able to cancel it if he does not.

Well let’s hope he does then or she will be absolutely no use to you on the 15^th if he does not. Better she takes the holiday come what may.

If workplace romance is destroying productivity in your business, then speak to us!

Is it OK to dismiss staff by text message?

Let’s quickly answer that one: NO!

Text messaging is a great way to communicate quickly to contacts, but it is impossible and unethical to convey a difficult and delicate dismissal message in 160 characters.

What might that text message read like? It might resemble what Lord Sugar says in “The Apprentice”, “It is with regret that you are fired” [ending with a finger pointing emoticon?]

It has The HR Dept running for the hills!

We’ve also come across other shocking ways in which employees have been let go; a schoolgirl was sacked from her Saturday job via Facebook: 

"I had to tell the owner bout u losin that tenner coz obviously the till was down at the end of day. She wasn’t very pleased at all and despite me trying to persuade her otherwise she said I have to let u go. I'm really sorry”

Another case we dug up reported a store boss setting the fire alarm off to gather his staff outside only to tell them they’re out of a job! 

We haven’t spotted any Twitter dismissals yet, but we are sure it is only a matter of time. With only a 140 characters to use, it would be short and sweet. But again the advice is resist...

If you need to dismiss a member of staff for whatever reason and feel yourself reaching for Facebook or that fire alarm, reach for the phone instead and call The HR Dept!

Italian firm deems female employees ‘not the main bread winners anyway’

The uncertain economic climate poses many worries for companies these days, and it is likely that many redundancies need to be made in order to survive the ‘storm’. You would think then as an employer, you would consider performance of employees, absence, and time management as factors when making the difficult decision of who to give the bad news to.

However recently, a small, Italian engineering company did not consider such factors. The firm decided that the best decision was to let the majority of the female employees go, while keeping its’ male workforce. The women were made redundant on the grounds that they could then spend more time at home with their families, and ‘weren’t the main bread winners anyway’.

Jaw drop!

Sex discrimination still counts for the highest number of claims in employment tribunals in the UK and are usually the most costly in terms of time and solicitor fees. If this had happened in the UK, then we would advise: Bring your cheque book...

Let’s hope these attitudes stay in Italy!

Lying in a tribunal - not a good idea

We always say to all of our clients that paperwork is so important when dealing with employee issues, having the right piece of paper and ensuring you have a paper trail could mean you being able to defend what ever is thrown at you by an disgruntled employee..

However trying to 'invent' documents is not recommended as a Scottish employer found out recently. By trying to produce forged documents to get out of paying the worker some compensation they were due and by inventing a contract of employment and further letters in regards to their case, the employer ended up with a £29k award and for his ignorance a four month jail term...

Not recommended...

An employee should receive a written statement of their employment terms and conditions within 8 weeks from their start date...

Paper trail is vital in HR...

Graduate Recruitment

It is a shame to see BT pulling its graduate training programme, I hope this is not a sign of things to come in larger organisations. Though it takes only 130 graduates on a year I think this sends out a message to the recent graduates and people about to go to university that they will struggle to find work on completion of their degree. The recession affects everyone but apparently the under 25's suffer more than any other demographic... http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/aug/24/bt-axes-graduate-recruitment

It must be a daunting prospect leaving uni at the moment, what you have to hope is that this doesn't damage the talent train further on in the future because of a lack of graduate placements and people's desires to go to university. In reality there could be a lost generation. http://www.economicsuk.com/blog/000964.html