At the start of a new year, many individuals will have resolved to make small changes to their lives. How could these top six new year’s resolutions by your staff affect your organisation?
1. Spend more time with the family
Having perhaps just spent an enjoyable festive time with their family, individuals may decide to make more time for their family life. This year sees the implementation of some new Government measures which will facilitate this resolution - employers should be aware of these changes and be ready to deal with such enquiries:
Additional Paternity Leave: To encourage shared parenting from an early age, fathers of children due on or after 3 April 2011, or matched for adoption on or after 3 April 2011, will now be able to take additional paternity leave on top of the 2 weeks currently allocated. The additional paternity leave of up to 26 weeks is transferable from the mother’s maternity leave, allowing the mother to return to work while the father stays with the child. There are some conditions relating to this and employers should take advice about fathers’ entitlement to take this leave.
Flexible Working: Currently, the right to request flexible working applies to parents of children under the age of 17, or under the age of 18 if the child has a disability. From April 2011, this right will be extended to all employees with children under the age of 18, estimated to affect some 300,000 employees. Though employers must consider the request, the request can be refused on certain grounds set out in the legislation, including: burden of additional costs, inability to re-organise amongst existing staff and detrimental impact on performance. Employers should be aware that a process must be followed in considering the request and failure to do so can result in a claim to the employment tribunal, not least in relation to unlawful discrimination.
2. Spend more time with friends
For many individuals their new year’s resolution will be to make more of an effort to keep in touch with friends. Weekends are short and many may decide that maintaining an active social life requires opening out the social calendar to the entire working week. How could this impact on your organisation? Employers should ensure that they have clear, carefully worded policies which deal with the eventuality of an employee attending work under the influence of alcohol. What about the situation of drinking at lunch or with clients? Is this allowed, or only in certain circumstances? It is important for the sake of maintaining productivity, ensuring health and safety and protecting reputation that a clear stance is adopted and that policies are in place and enforced. Do you have a policy and is it up to date? One new year’s resolution for employers should be to dust off any old policies and speak to bto’s Employment Team to have them audited and updated.
3. Make a plan for the future
There is a tendency to formulate “life plans” in the new year, not just for the coming year but for the years ahead. Typically, our working lives were mapped out in accordance with the idea of retirement at a certain age. However, the abolition of the default retirement age from 6 April 2011 means that employees’ working destiny is now in their own hands.
After 6 April 2011, employers will be prohibited from issuing notifications of retirement based on the default retirement age. There are transitional provisions in place that allow employers who issue notifications prior to 6 April 2011 to retire the employee if they are due to retire on or before 1 October 2011. Retirement at a certain age, however, can only be justified if it is a shown to be a ‘proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim’. Does your business have a default retirement age? Do you have a succession plan and, if so, will this change affect you? bto can advise you how to manage this process in light of these legal changes.
4. Get fit and lose weight
After the excesses of the festive season, getting fit and healthy will top many employees’ lists.
Though being overweight, or even obese, is in itself not a recognised disability, weight problems can sometimes be a cause or effect of certain disabilities. Employers need to be aware of the potential for discrimination claims from employees subject to harassment in the course of their employment as a result of their weight.
Employers do have a duty to comply with the health and safety regulations and there may be situations where an employee’s weight impacts on their safety or capability to do their job, but legal advice should be taken before addressing these issues. Comments about employees’ weight could also jeopardise the relationship of trust and confidence between the parties and contribute to possible issues of constructive dismissal. Tread warily and take advice.
5. Meet someone special
At the start of a new year many individuals often resolve to make that extra bit of effort to meet someone special. For many people finding somebody will involve the use of online resources.
There may well be a temptation for employees to log on to their profiles during working hours to check for updates. How should employers handle this? There is a lot of fashionable discussion about the monitoring of social networking sites. Personal internet usage as a whole, for whatever reason, is capable of being curbed with the implementation of strong and effective email, internet and social networking policies. These need to apply not only to the use of the work computer, but to mobile phones that are capable of accessing the internet during the time the employee should be working. Do you have a policy to deal with these issues? bto’s employment team can create such a policy tailored for your organisation if you do not, as prevention is always better than discussing such issues with us after the problem has arisen.
6. Get a different job
Last year saw many employees happy simply with the fact that they had retained a job in the face of the recession. On the slow emergence out of the recession and the dawning of a new year, changing jobs may be at the top of employees’ lists.
When an employee hands in their resignation, employers typically have one of three major concerns:
1) If they are a valued employee, how can the employer persuade them to stay?
2) If there has been a dispute, is the employee resigning with a view to claiming constructive dismissal?
3) If both parties in general are happy for the employment relationship to end, how can the employer ensure that the employee does not steal business clients, ideas or work for a competitor?
Rarely when an employee resigns does one of the three scenarios not come to mind and an employer should take advice to ensure they are prepared for each of the eventualities above.
The New Year can also see employees with a new zest for their job, a desire to succeed and contribute. This is perhaps the optimum time to encourage and motivate staff to ensure that employers get the best out of them for the coming year. The Employment Team at bto look forward to working with you in 2011.
Caroline Carr
Partner & Accredited Specialist