Welcome back to your weekly dose of HR Bitesize
In this week’s edition:
🧑🏽🎓 Inspiring the next generation
🍟 Fish man taking a stand
🤮 Are they really sick?
Inspiring the next generation
On Wednesday Holly, Linda and I took part in the 3rd annual Generation Hertsmere careers fair.
Our local council’s Economic Development Team brought together 50 local businesses, educational providers and public sector organisations with 50 year 10 – 12 students from each of the 11 state secondary schools in the borough.
Our job was to introduce these young people to opportunities for further study and / or employment both now and in the future.
On the DOHR stand we spoke to small groups and individuals about a career in HR. Something that almost none of them knew anything about.
They were able to discuss A’level options, university courses, apprenticeships and other routes into HR.
We also discussed how knowing their rights as an employee was essential to their futures.
For those with part-time jobs, did they have a contract? Where they being paid at the right levels? Did they know what benefits they were entitled to, including their breaks and sick pay.
With so many of these young people, we literally saw the penny drop.
They also had the opportunity to test their HR knowledge with our True / False Flash Cards. Those sparked great conversations and even got them talking about allowing support pets vs service animals into the workplace.
I’m sure we will be seeing some of these young people again as they look for work experience during their summer term.
Fish man taking a stand
Although I wrote about Philip Robinson, on a recent LinkedIn post, I am aware that not all our wonderful readers here, follow me on LinkedIn!!!
Philip owns a Fish and Chip shop in Wiltshire.
After receiving a glowing Just Eat review, which then got shared on Facebook Philip posted a subtle, yet strong response.
The review read “Really hot food always great from Robinsons also hot delivery girl.”
This is legally, sexual harassment, which an employer must take all reasonable steps to prevent in order to protect their staff and ensure a healthy and safe working environment.
Mr Robinson responded by thanking the customer for the review and adding, “we will make sure a male delivers your food from now on”.
Understandably, he doesn’t want to upset a customer, but in this response he has taken steps to ensure that 1) the perpetrator of sexual harassment knows that his words were inappropriate and 2) to protect his female employee from future incidents with that customer.
However, under new proposed law, his employee could bring a case against him for not preventing the sexual harassment in the first place.
Is this practical?
What could he reasonably do to PREVENT the sexual harassment of his delivery staff?
1) Go himself – that is no way to run a business.
2) Send female drivers to female clients and male drivers to male clients – how do you know if the order is online? How does this help same sex sexual harassment
3) Have a notice for all customers that any sexual harassment of their staff is not acceptable and criminal proceedings will be instigated? In this case, perhaps the food order is only confirmed once the customer has ticked a box to accept this condition.
Would love your views on this.
Are they really sick?
Staff absence is always an issue for small businesses.
If it is planned, such as annual leave or even an operation, then as a business owner, you can plan for it. However, one-off days can cause major operational issues.
Many small companies only provide statutory sick pay and at the moment that means that the first three days of any absence period is unpaid. For some employees, that is a deterrent. They can’t afford not to be paid.
In some cases that’s a bad thing, as people who are genuinely ill come to work and spread their germs. However, it also means that people do all they can to avoid taking time off unpaid.
At the opposite extreme, we see people who have a company sick pay scheme, treat their 5 days of company sick pay as an extra 5 days of holiday every year.
Next year, the law is changing.
(We think) from April, all employees will be entitled to statutory sick pay from day one of employment.
While some see this move as the right thing to do, many others believe that employees will take ‘Duvet Days’ if they an get some pay while doing so.
What does that mean for you as an employer?
Actions for you now:
- Think about your company culture and what you want to be doing to prevent or reduce sick days
- Review your contract and handbook to ensure that they are compliant with the new law.
- Ensure that all employees who are off sick complete and submit a self- certification form which is properly logged and reviewed.
- Insist on fit notes for any absence in excess of 7 calendar days
- Carry out return to work meetings with all staff who have been off, even if it is just for one day. Log these meetings and observe for any trends.
- Liaise with the employee’s GP if you have concerns
- Ensure your contract of employment enables you to send an employee to occupational health and use this facility if you need to
- If you have any doubts about the legitimacy of a fit note, contact the GP surgery to confirm the details – we have just done this for a client employee who has been signed off for 6 months with ‘multiple issues’
It is going to take a while to see how this new entitlement settles down, but it is coming, so you need to prepare your business for it now.
Our next online training session will take place on Thursday 21st November at 10am.
Taking a slightly different format this month, I will be joined by two guests to discuss the impact of Domestic Abuse and Domestic Violence on the workplace.
It’s free to attend, but you do need to register.
That’s it from me this week.
Have a great week and remember, if you need me, hit reply, call me on 01923 504100 or email [email protected]
Donna
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