The Summer of 2012 promises to be an eventful year, with Euro 2012 starting on 8 June, the Golden Jubilee with its additional bank holiday on 4-5 June, and Olympics and Paralympics starting on 27 July.
This is bound to place additional strain on the resources of small businesses, with potential for increased sickness absence, employees wanting to watch key events during working hours, travel problems etc.
It makes sense to plan now for these events, so that you can maintain ‘business as usual’ whilst taking steps to keep employees motivated.
The following ideas might help you to make it through the Summer successfully:
1. Consider now whether or not you intend to pay employees for the additional Diamond Jubilee bank holiday. Does your contracts state ‘all bank holidays’ or ‘eight bank holidays? What did you do last year for the Royal Wedding? This is something to consider before you speak to your employees, we are happy to discuss this with you. If you do intend them to have this paid, tell them, don’t just let an extra day’s pay go by unnoticed;
2. Consider allowing staff to watch key events at work to avoid a surge in short term sickness absence or last minute requests (you may need a TV licence to do this). Remember those that may not want to watch any events, how will you ensure they do not feel as if they are ‘left to do all the work’;
3. Communicate with staff this month, giving dates for all these events, and encouraging employees to think about any time off they intend to take off in advance. A little planning now could save you a lot of unplanned absence later;
4. Review your short term sickness absence policy if you have one. If not, plan now how you intend to deal with unacceptable levels of short term sickness absence;
The following links provide all the key dates you will need to know for the Olympics and Paralympics as well as Euro 2012:
http://www.london2012.com/schedule-and-results/index.html
http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/season=2012/matches/index.html
Finally, contact me if you need any further advice, or if problems arise over the Summer.
Regards
Jane