Dependency leave is time taken off from work to deal with the emergency situation of a dependent. This is usually your child but can also be a spouse, partner, parent, grandchild, or anyone else who depends on you for their care.
- Topic:
- Human Resources
It is way past their start time and you’ve still not seen or heard from your employee. What should you do?
For many managers, initial thoughts are likely to be of concern for the employee’s welfare and so naturally, the first step is to try to contact them. But what happens if you can’t get hold of them? And what if they’d previously requested this day as annual leave, had it declined, but were now off anyway? What rights do you have as an employer to manage this sort of behaviour?
- Topic:
- Human Resources
Have you ever considered how much time your employees collectively ‘waste’ just on making hot drinks every day? It’s ok, we have too, and it turns out it would be worthwhile for most organisations to employ someone to make those drinks for the team instead!
- Topic:
- Human Resources
When thinking about employee wellbeing, our focus tends to be on physical and mental health. These two strands remain the linchpin to any wellbeing strategy and delivering on them will effectively put you ahead of many organisations straight away. But if you’re looking to take your wellbeing strategy one step further, here are three areas you may wish to consider...
- Topic:
- Human Resources
Presenteeism is often a mute topic when it comes to managing sickness absence in the workplace. The reasons for this are completely understandable; if, on the face of it, employees are at work, what could possibly be the issue? Below, we’ll explore the concept of presenteeism, how to identify it, why it is a problem, and what you can do to prevent it.
How do we define presenteeism?
Presenteeism describes when an employee continues to come to work despite being unwell, whether that be physically or mentally. This can lead to burn-out, spreading of sickness to colleagues and a reduction in morale.
- Topic:
- Human Resources
A highly engaged and motivated workforce is an outcome that every organisation across industry, size and location endeavours to achieve. There has been considerable research around the benefits of achieving this, and the positive impact it has on business performance. The nurturing of employee wellbeing is now central to achieving positive business outcomes.
In the current landscape, organisations aspiring to stay ahead of the curve should be offering a wellbeing strategy which encompasses much more than physical health.
Forward thinking organisations, therefore, have now introduced independent wellbeing strategies which include the strands of physical, mental and financial wellbeing. Becoming much clearer on the business benefits of wellbeing strategies and also seeing the value it can add from a competition point of view, organisations are now more willing than ever to make investments in this space.
- Topic:
- Human Resources
Sickness absence is notoriously difficult to plan for and can have a considerable impact on the morale of other employees within the organisation and importantly the overall productivity and financial performance of the organisation.
All employees have the right to take time off when they are sick. In fact, it is important employees feel supported to take time off when they need it which is why having effective absence management procedures in place is so important.
Furthermore, employees are now much more aware of what levels of absence are deemed ‘acceptable’ within their organisations and are more knowledgeable on the associated trigger points which may lead to conversations occurring or disciplinary procedures kicking-in. You may even have experienced employees explicitly asking how many sick days they are entitled to each year.
- Topic:
- Human Resources
Recruiting the best new people can be a tough challenge when competition is fierce and staff budgets are tight. And understandably every potential new employee wants to secure the most attractive total package they can. So now is the perfect time to look at one benefit that costs nothing to offer but gives employees something they really like: flexibility.
Many employers have already looked at flexible working and remote working. For some this will have proved feasible but for other businesses or job roles, it may not be practical or possible to introduce. But another often overlooked option is holiday rollover. This gives employees greater flexibility with their holiday entitlement by allowing them to carry over unused holidays into the next year, on top of the new allowance. There are some legal limits on how much can be taken over which need to be adhered to but apart from that, it’s up to the business to decide how many days and any cut off point that applies.
- Topic:
- Human Resources
Every finance director will be fully aware of just how much absence costs their business, not just in wages but also in lost productivity. Clearly all forms of absence must be managed within the legal parameters and responded to appropriately, but there is more that could be done to help finance directors keep tighter control.
- Topic:
- Human Resources
Thinking of introducing holiday rollover for your staff? Congratulations – it’s likely to be a popular and well-received benefit and it’s a great way of offering your valued employees greater flexibility without costing the company lots of money. But beware – there are some potential problems that could arise which you need to be aware of in order to avoid them. No one wants their exciting new staff benefit to be overshadowed further down the line.
Holiday rollover is simple, right? You just let your staff carry over their unused days and add them to their new entitlement for next year? That’s the basic premise, but as with most things in life, you need to make sure you get the details right. Read on to find out about the potential pitfalls of holiday rollover and what you need to take steps to avoid.
- Topic:
- Human Resources
