The Lions Tour Rugby is taking place this month, something which many of you or your teams may be supporting and watching.
Events such as this, along with other sporting events (football, tennis, Olympics etc) can often cause concern for organisations about increased levels of absence.
These types of events can cause a number of challenges for businesses. Along with the risk of increased staff sickness, companies may also see increased annual leave requests, shift change requests, AWOL and unauthorised absence, lateness, or shift cancellations,
How can you manage absence within your organisation during sporting events?
It is essential to adopt a pro-active approach, encouraging open communication within your teams to enable staff to forward plan, and ensure that business needs are met.
Ensuring that employees are aware of expectations, in terms of “banter”, conflict or associated issues is essential. Often, you will have those within the workplace who support different teams, or different sports, and it is vital that you consider issues such as equality when implementing policies and approaches to managing absence. Failure to do so can relate to increased bullying, grievances and discrimination.
However, on the positive side the camaraderie and team spirit created by events can sometimes be a positive aspect for morale and team spirit – having a shared interest can bring teams together, and create a culture of excitement and anticipation about matches or events.
How to proactively manage absence
- Sickness absence management – carry out return to work interviews following absences, and ensure that you deal with any concerns in a timely, consistent manner. Manage any concerns in accordance with policies, and ensure you keep accurate data to enable you to identify trends or issues
- Adopt a fair process to consider annual leave requests. Make sure staff know how, and when, to request holiday, and consider the numbers of annual leave requests you can facilitate on any given day.
- Temporary flexibility – consider whether you can accommodate temporary changes, i.e. shift swaps, condensed working hours, adjusted break times, working from home to avoid commuting on match days, or other aspects which may be determined by your location and workplace.
- Early starts or late finishes – review times of matches or events to see if it is possible to adjust shift times (obviously depending on business need) to allow some flexibility for staff who want to work around events
- Standards of behaviour – remind staff of the standards of behaviour you expect when representing your company – which may include events in working hours, or for example out of hours but in branded uniforms / vehicles etc.
Addressing concerns
The most important aspect of managing absence is to make sure you address issues as they arise. This may include allegations of discrimination, harassment or unwanted conduct, as well as increased absence levels, or concerns with reliability and punctuality.
Ensure your managers or leaders are also trained in how to address issues, and are confident to do so consistently within their own teams.
Support
If you need any support managing absence within your own workplaces, or training your managers in any aspect of absence management, please contact us on team@hrprime.co.uk to discuss how we can help.
