With the World Cup having kicked off yesterday and England and Wales World Cup matches starting today, we have turned our attention to preparing for the weeks ahead. Whilst some of us may be more – or less – interested than others at this point, as the tournament progresses, if our chosen teams do well, it is likely that most of us will get caught up in the excitement of the moment, especially if our chosen country is doing well!
There are a number of areas that you might like to think through and we thought we’d start the ball rolling with some ideas of things you might like to consider.
Holiday Requests
Falling as it will, in the run up to Christmas, there may well be some challenges when it comes to allocating holiday if this is a particularly busy time of year for you. Some of your team may be looking for odd days/hours off here and there to follow the live coverage of particular games.
Managing holiday requests. What should you be considering?
- What is your current policy?
- Is that contractual or discretionary? If it’s discretionary, you have the right to authorise or reject holiday requests.
- Most holiday policies allow for the employer to refuse the request based on the needs of the business. Calculating demand and essential staffing levels would be a good start; that should give you a good idea of how many people you can spare at any one time.
- Ensure that your policy is very clear that no holiday arrangements/bookings should be made or paid for prior to written authorisation being obtained from the employer; be clear that you will not be held responsible for any losses incurred if this is not adhered to; drop us your HR Business Partner an email to if you’d like a copy of our standard holiday policy.
- Consider who will authorise holidays during this period – you may wish to relieve direct line managers of that responsibility so that you can keep a clear overview of the whole business.
- Some sectors (or even departments) may wish to place a complete embargo on holiday
- Consider asking employees from other teams if they would be prepared to work elsewhere in the organisation to provide additional cover.
- How will you deal with over-demand for holidays? Being clear about the grounds on which requests will be refused is a good idea.
- Will you allocate holiday on a first come, first served basis? Whatever you decide, your process for acceptance and refusal must be non-discriminatory.
What happens if I can’t grant the requested time off?
As the employer it is your right to refuse a holiday request (provided your reasons for doing so are fair) but that may still cause problems with your employees.
- Consider what is likely to happen if someone really wants to see a particular game and you cannot give them the required time off?
- How robust are your procedures for dealing with unauthorised absence or “sickies”?
- Remember that employees will still be entitled to “emergency” time off to look after dependents provided they follow the correct reporting procedures. This will still apply even if the employee knows well in advance that they will have a problem with, for example, childcare since it could be argued that not being able to take time off because of additional demand related to the World Cup was “unforeseen” and therefore couldn’t be planned for; we suggest engaging with your employees to help and support them with any potential issues!
- Consider what you could do to help with childcare if you are likely to be short handed at particular times; could you run a family event where the whole family is invited to watch certain matches on a big screen?
- You might want to add to your holiday policy, if it isn’t already in there, what happens if someone takes unauthorised absence for a period that was originally refused?
- Consider introducing a system that requires employees who are sick to provide a GP’s certificate to prove that they visited the GP.
- How will you deal with overtime if you need people not on holiday to undertake additional work? Will you give time off in lieu? When will they be able to take that time? Will you pay them? Will pay or TOIL be at single time or more?
How can you engage with your employees to make the World Cup “live” in your workplace?
- Consider allowing employees to stop work and watch key events at work – this has the advantage of them being at work and whilst you might seem to lose a little productivity, you may well gain in employee loyalty, team spirit and attendance. If you wish, you may require employees to make up any time spent away from their workplace by coming in earlier or leaving later. This has the advantage of not penalising anyone who isn’t interested in the event and continues to work.
- If you’re going to hire (or even buy) a big screen remember, demand is likely to be high, so get your order in now!
- Do a league table in the office or rest area and fill in the results as the tournament progresses.
- Run an event for key games; consider inviting employees’ families to attend.
- However, be respectful of those members of your team who do not wish to participate.
The negative zone
- Just beware of conduct during tournament
- The World Cup is divided on national lines, so be aware of how fans of one nation interact with fans of another. Just because it’s the World Cup does not mean that racism, taunting, bullying and other unacceptable behaviour become acceptable, they don’t and should be managed swiftly to prevent escalation.
- The World Cup is divided on national lines, so be aware of how fans of one nation interact with fans of another. Just because it’s the World Cup does not mean that racism, taunting, bullying and other unacceptable behaviour become acceptable, they don’t and should be managed swiftly to prevent escalation.
- Alcohol (and potentially drug) usage goes up during this period so be aware of employees over imbibing and then, for example, coming into work still over the limit and driving one of your vehicles or operating machinery.
- Watch out for domestic abuse. It is a statistical fact that domestic abuse increases if a supporter’s team does badly; some of your team members may end up as victims so be alert to this so that you can provide appropriate support and signposting.
Whatever you decide to do, the World Cup will be a major national event and will affect everyone, so be prepared.
Our support and advice
We are always happy to debate the pros/cons, dos/don’ts with you so please do talk to us if we can help in any way, we are here to support you.
Please note, this briefing is accurate at the time of writing, it is not intended to replace advice so please do call us if you have any queries.
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