Office gossiping - They did what in the stationery cupboard?!

Fact: Everyone gossips

Whether it's done verbally, via email or more recently via social media platforms like Facebook and twitter, it doesn't matter what form gossiping has. Gossiping in the workplace, especially when it is about other work colleagues, has all the negative downsides associated with the following words:

Tribunal
Harassment
Money

These are three words to make any employer jump to attention. Why? Because gossip usually becomes their problem after a fallout or incident. Read more about how inappropriate behaviour between two employees at a staff function became idle talk in the office and led to an employer landing claims of sex and pregnancy discrimination, harassment and constructive dismissal on his desk.

Does this look familiar?

Socialising and interaction in work is all part of fostering teamwork as well as building a culture of openness and transparency, but when rumours and malicious gossiping start to affect a workplace, it can become increasingly uncomfortable for everyone.

Here are our top 3 tips for businesses dealing with office gossip:

• Cut it out - Warn everyone that it won't be tolerated
• Make your staff aware of boundaries. You don't want all your staff to be robots - after all it's human nature to get things off your chest.
• Don't participate yourself!

It's a number's game

We have compiled a weekly round-up of HR and business news in numbers: 

0.2% - UK growth contracted 0.2% in the last three months of 2011. What does 2012 hold for everyone?

£300 could be what businesses in a Scottish city are charged for their own parking spaces provided to employees. A reserved car parking space at work is often highly prized... Early bird catches the worm!

At the time of writing, it is 182 days, 10 hours, 56 minutes and 6 seconds until the British Olympic Games begin.  Basically, it is 6 months today that the hype of the Olympics will reach its peak. There could be an opportunity for your business to take advantage of the Olympics, but also be aware of employees wanting time off to attend /watch/volunteer at the games, so plan ahead.

£963,000 - The bonus paid to RBS chief Stephen Hester, who will be receiving the hefty sum as a bonus in shares. It has caused an outcry given the bailout provided to RBS and their ongoing cost cutting exercises.

2.69 million is the unfortunate number of rising UK unemployment. Without wearing rose coloured glasses, it is positive that the government has announced its’ Youth Contract to help and support employers in recruiting young people. This needs to get moving quickly.

£68 million is the substantial amount of compensation given to ex-Woolworths staff. An employment tribunal ruled that administrators had failed to follow redundancy procedures and awarded ex-workers a protected award for failing to consult.

£158 million - You will read more information about salary sacrifice schemes in our upcoming newsletter (which you can subscribe to here for free) but this week we find recruitment firm Reed could lose up to £158m in a ruling in a tribunal that it’s tax bills were incorrect when providing a salary sacrifice scheme to its’ temporary workers.

£1 trillion – British debt hits £1 trillion mark in December.

Difficult to comprehend really because written out it is - £1,000,000,000,000

Balancing the books is always a priority!

Christmas parties - Where has the fun gone?

Where indeed?

It is the definition of fun in regards to a Christmas party that needs some refining:

A social meet up at Christmas to thank staff members for their contribution to the business, whether paid for or not.

The problem is that there are so many stories that come out of Christmas parties that it means it can all sound like employment law and HR is the Christmas Grinch!

Though it may not sound like the Christmas spirit the reality is a business can be liable for the action of their staff and be the ones footing any legal bill.

HR Dept top tips for a Christmas Party without further cost;

• Make sure all of your staff (including directors) are aware that the Christmas party is an extension of the workplace. Yes, people should enjoy themselves but as a business owner you have a responsibility to them and you could be the one picking up the pieces
• Ask employees to use their common sense. Regardless of where you hold it, they are employees representing your business brand
• Be mindful if you have any staff under the age of 18
• If the party is in the office, keep the photocopier out of bounds
• Have a range of food and soft drinks available so that individuals religious observance is catered for
• If the staff do is during the week, make clear that everyone is expected at their desks at normal time the following day - or organise it on a Friday!

Here are some examples why:

'Gossip about an employees pregnancy following a Christmas party'

'Teacher loses sacking appeal after punch up'

'Explicit text message told husband of wife's affair'

'Millionaire boss humiliated as tribunal rules he sexually harassed employee'

We aren’t part of the ban the Christmas party brigade, it is these and many other untold stories that did not hit the media serve as a reminder of an employer’s liability when organising an event that should be seen as reward and time of enjoyment.

Tweeting in the workplace: Do you have clear guidelines set?

Recent research by ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) found just over half of all workers (55%) now use social media sites at work, either on computers or mobile phones, costing British firms billions of pounds a year in lost productivity.

The problem is created when employees are spending time on personal profiles and pages when they should be working. What is of deeper concern however is when employees use social media platforms to speak negatively of their place of work or worse, their boss. Another study conducted showed almost 40% of British employees criticize their ‘workplace’ on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. In addition, one in five admitted slandering their bosses on them.

There have been some high profile cases of employees being dismissed for bringing the company into disrepute because of comments either about work or colleagues on these social media platforms and The HR Dept is certainly dealing with more cases where employers have discovered tweets or messages which have caused issues within the workplace. The key of course, is communicating to all staff what your IT and Social Media policy is!

The HR Dept has written an IT/Social Media policy for employers containing guidelines on how to manage employees in this complicated area. If interested, contact your local HR Dept for more information.

www.hrdept.co.uk

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...