Get Ready for Euro 2016
On Friday 10th June 2016 the Euro 2016 football tournament will commence, and will finish with the final on Sunday 10th July 2016. This tournament includes England, Wales, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
This presents several issues for an employer including requests for annual leave, sickness absence and website usage during working hours.
Flexibility can be key from both employers and employees throughout the period of a major sporting event. It would be advantageous to have plans and agreements involving arrangements for annual leave, sickness absence and flexibility during working hours in order matches can be watched live.
Annual Leave
It will be useful to have a company annual leave policy or procedure in place to ensure that it is clear how employees can book time off. Annual leave requests should be considered fairly and consistently by an employer. It may be worth looking at being more flexible when allowing annual leave, but make this very clear that this is a temporary arrangement. However it should also be remembered not everyone likes sports, and individuals should not be placed at a disadvantage.
Sickness Absence
Sickness absence levels are susceptible to increase during a sporting event, and employer should have a mechanism to monitor levels and patterns of sickness absence.
It is important that an organisation has a clear sickness absence policy in order to manage such absence as and when this occurs.
Flexibility
Many employers provide an option for a flexible working day, and numerous employers may provide access to television coverage in the workplace. Allowing employees to watch a match during normal working hours can be good from an employment relations perspective. An employee can then make the time up later after the match or event has finished.
An employer should be mindful to be fair and consistent as not all staff may be interested in an event such as Euro 2016. It is important to ensure that it will not be viewed as certain colleagues are being selected for special treatment.
For further advice and guidance please contact Atom HR.