Workplace wellness: Healthy staff, healthy business
Ensuring your staff are healthy and well is key to employee morale and productivity, as well as helping to tackle absenteeism. Liggy Webb explains how to successfully implement workplace wellness strategies in your organisation. The vast majority of the population spends more conscious hours in the workplace than anywhere else. No wonder that there […]
HR tip: Alcohol on site
These questions are being answered by Learn HR, a market leader in the provision of HR and payroll training and nationally-recognised professional qualifications. Question:"Can we impose a complete alcohol ban across our company if, from time-to-time, our directors entertain important customers with wine at lunch?" HR tip:You may apply whatever restrictions you like provided you are […]
HR tip: Pre-employment medicals
These questions are being answered by Learn HR, a market leader in the provision of HR and payroll training and nationally-recognised professional qualifications. Question:"We give all new employees a medical before confirming their employment, but have heard that this is unsafe. Is there a problem?" HR tip:This suggests that, were employees found to be unfit, they […]
HR tip: Controlling absence
These questions are being answered by Learn HR, a market leader in the provision of HR and payroll training and nationally-recognised professional qualifications. Question: "How does one control absence?" HR Tip:This is too big an issue to be covered satisfactorily in a short answer, but essentially you need to make people want to come to work […]
HR tip: Phoning in sick
These questions are being answered by Learn HR, a market leader in the provision of HR and payroll training and nationally-recognised professional qualifications. Question:"Who is the best person for a sick employee to phone in to on the first day of absence?" HR Tip:The immediate manager or supervisor would seem to be the best person since […]
HR tip: Drunk employee
These questions are being answered by Learn HR, a market leader in the provision of HR and payroll training and nationally-recognised professional qualifications. Question: "An employee turned up for work one afternoon drunk. He was sent home. Next day, when we remonstrated with him, he insisted that he was not drunk though had popped into the […]
HR tip: Personality problem
These questions are being answered by Learn HR, a market leader in the provision of HR and payroll training and nationally-recognised professional qualifications. Question: "One of our supervisors has a dreadful personality for which he has been warned. Can we dismiss him?" HR Tip:You cannot dismiss someone just because you do not like their personality. If […]
HR Tip: The right to privacy for sick employees
These questions are being answered by Learn HR, a market leader in the provision of HR and payroll training and nationally-recognised professional qualifications. Question: "If we visit a sick employee in his home are we in breach of his right to privacy provided by the Human Rights Act?" HR Tip: You would be in breach of good […]
HR Tip: Persistent absenteeism
These questions are being answered by Learn HR, a market leader in the provision of HR and payroll training and nationally-recognised professional qualifications. Question: "A small hardcore of our employees is absent regularly on Mondays, Fridays and the days before and after holidays. However they always have a plausible reason, usually sickness, which we are unable […]
Smoking away your salary. By Sarah Fletcher
Being practically perfect, a bit like Mary Poppins, I don't smoke. However, I lovingly accept my smoker friends. In fact, I don't even throw rubbish at them in the street. Unfortunately the Italian Association of Personnel Managers doesn't feel so benevolent and has asked its members to consider slashing smokers' salaries for their cigarette breaks. […]
Stress management: The facts
The impact of stressed employees upon motivation, productivity and cost makes it an issue that employers must address with urgency. In a new column for HR Zone Annie Lawler, director of Breathing Space for Business and member of HR Zone, explains the issues underlying stress and how to manage it. Welcome to this, the first […]
Chasing sickness: Getting the return to work interview right
As businesses try to combat the damaging effects of rising rates of employee absenteeism, return to work interviews are taking a prominent place in the process. Training consultant Nik Kellingley explains how to make this work for your organisation. Does the rising tide of absenteeism threaten to wash away the humble British business? Probably not, […]
Avian Flu: Protecting Against a Pandemic
Should businesses be preparing to protect themselves against the possibilities of a bird flu pandemic? What can be done to avoid disruption to the business? Should employers be accommodating to employees concerned about an outbreak, how seriously should they take requests to work from home? Can anything be learned from the 9/11 attack in New […]
Sickness absence and disability: Time for new thinking?
Paul Avis questions the way that sickness, absence and disability management is being de-medicalised and asks what this means for traditional and more innovative Occupational Health programmes. To start this article I will attempt to appease the clinicians in the membership. I will never run a sickness absence and disability management programme without routine referral […]
What happened next? Dealing with drugs. By Sarah Fletcher
How do you handle an employee whose drug-fuelled weekends are spilling over into working hours? Find out What Happened Next when member Claire Fitzgerald asked Any Answers how to make her workplace a pill free zone. By Sarah Fletcher How do we stop the downward spiral?“A valued member of our team has a really bad […]
What happened next? Stubbing out smoking. By Sarah Fletcher
Repeated cigarette breaks, staff that stink like an ashtray, and a collective smokers’ cough that makes the ground shake…what can be done to encourage employees to kick the habit? We look at What Happened Next when a member asked the Any Answers forum for tips on lifting the cloud of smoke from her workplace. By […]
Gaynor’s Thoughts: Career breaks, sabbaticals and personal transformation
“Companies find that if they don't give people the opportunity to take time off, they'll burn out and leave – or worse still, they'll burn out and stay!" When I was 22 years old I had a dead-end job in a factory, a wife and two babies, played football at the weekend and performed in […]
Legal focus: RSI a pain in the neck?
Member, Jo Oxley recently requested some advice on the considerations of taking on a typist who suffers with neck and shoulder problems in response to this we asked Scottish law firm Dundas and Wilson to offer their expert guidance; read on to see their hot tips and pointers. The question: We are recruiting a typist […]
Feature: Employment and occupational health
Guy Hollebon, Partner and Head of the Employment Team, discusses employment and occupational health in the latest article of a series produced by Bevans, solicitors. An Occupational Health (OH) adviser is a vital tool to employers when managing any form of sickness absence. The majority of SME’s do not have their own in-house OH adviser […]
The Couch?! asks “Are you a workaholic?”
Inspired by The Trades Union Congress (TUC) ‘Work Your Proper Hours" day, The Couch?! would like to know how many hours you spend in the office? Are you a work bore? Do you work in the evenings and weekends? Have your family/friends forgotten what you look like? Are your colleagues your closest friends? Do you […]