Chronic illness: Supporting your staff to be their best
Chronic illness can take many forms, from certain mental health conditions to arthritis or diabetes. If a member of your staff suffers from a chronic illness, it does not mean it will impact their work for sure. But it might well do.
If a chronic health condition is brought to your attention, be compassionate. The starting point for an employer should be to understand the impact and see what reasonable adjustments can be put in place to facilitate an ongoing successful employer-employee relationship.
While it will help your employee feel valued, and assist them in living with the illness whilst serving you; for you it should optimise their productivity, promote retention through loyalty and protect against legal risk – most chronic illnesses may be considered disabilities under equality legislation.
Of course, if the chronic illness ultimately means they cannot perform their role, as long as you have followed the proper process, we can help you end their employment in compliance with the law.
Reasonable adjustments should be looked at on a case-by-case basis. It may be as simple as giving them the time and space to take diabetic medicine in private during working hours, or allowing food at the workstation; and for back problems, an ergonomic chair or standing desk. Getting more complex it could be exploring whether their role needs to be adjusted or if remote working is what is required. You may need to call in an occupational health specialist.
Beyond direct interventions like these, though, you could consider broader actions. This could include training managers to handle the situations compassionately and pragmatically. Equip them to spot the signs, handle difficult conversations, know the law and find solutions.
Consider how suited your company culture is to maintaining success should an employee experience chronic illness. Is it open enough for them to broach the subject? Will they still feel a welcome, valued part of the team? Is mental health support prioritised to keep employees performing?
Chronic illness is not easy for those who experience it; but it can often put pressure on employers too. If you need help finding the right way forward, lean on our expertise. Talk to us today.
Supporting working parents during the summer holidays
With the summer holidays here in England and Wales, and well underway in Scotland, approximately three quarters of mothers with dependent children, and 90% of such fathers, are in work in the UK.
That means that for all the sunshine and feel-good vibes that the summer months bring, they also present a conundrum to parents whose routine of shipping the kids off to school for much of the working day grinds to a halt.
Many will choose to take annual leave for some of this time. But few will have the luxury of disappearing for weeks. So what’s a working parent to do? And what part, if any, should you as employer play?
A good place for them to start (and for you to keep in mind) is the statutory allowances, which include annual leave and unpaid parental leave. The former we have already hinted at and can absorb a chunk of time, subject to your booking policy; whilst the latter is an additional option for consideration.
The fact it is unpaid may rule it out for many, as the summer holidays already come with additional feeding and entertaining costs. But if it is a viable option, a parent is broadly entitled to 18 weeks of time across an entire childhood per child, with a maximum of four weeks a year (eligibility permitting).
A different approach is flexible working, which may remove the financial shock of unpaid leave. This may be just minor adjustments around the edges, say to accommodate pick-ups and drop-offs at summer sports clubs or camps. Or a more permanent solution like a term-time-only contract that gives them the required time off, but with an even wage paid pro rata across the year.
If they wish to work from home, emphasise to them that this does mean “working” and not primarily childminding.
While you have no choice but to honour statutory entitlements; to preserve good employee relations, it is worth being accommodating where possible for everything else. If employees are really struggling you could point out financial support that many local councils may offer and special deals that many businesses run too, like kids eating free or for £1 over the holidays, and heavy discounts on attractions for low income families. As one major retailer says: Every little helps!
Pay transparency
For European operations, a directive is coming into force that orders organisations to be far more transparent on matters of pay. This will not directly affect the UK, being no longer in the EU of course. But in the spirit of fair pay for all, it is something the UK government is considering separately.
Looking at the EU model, it will include pay structures and requiring that equal value work is paid equally; transparency – that wide-ranging pay information is published; gender pay gap reporting; joint pay assessments, where categories of worker (teams/functions/departments) are assessed and addressing an issue where patterns of men being paid more than women in excess of 5% occurs.
It also comes with teeth: enforcement measures where employees can seek redress for unfair pay, and the burden of proof being on the employer to prove no wrongdoing.
Gender pay disparity has never been right and grows evermore anachronistic. If you would like help addressing any issues pragmatically before the practice is further legislated against, we can help you.
Sun’s out; pension funds out
An easy pitfall with the auto-enrolment pension regime is to forget to take into account seasonal workers. And when the sun is out and many more businesses employ temporary workers, the summer is a time to be aware of this.
If earning more than £192 per week, any worker over the age of 22 (even if just working for a week or two) should fall into auto-enrolment from day one, making a small contribution themselves, plus qualifying for an employer contribution and a top up from the government.
Good payroll software or a service provider (talk to us if you do not have it) should adjust for this automatically. There will be correspondence that needs to go to workers as well as the pension and payroll calculations to be done. Life’s more difficult if you have to do all this manually yourself. Get in touch if you need help.
A mug’s game
It’s galling, but sometimes you may be taken to an employment tribunal despite not doing anything wrong. You may win the case but it will cost you time, energy and worry while you prepare to defend yourself.
A ruling earlier this year illustrates the point. A male employee of British Pakistani heritage claimed race discrimination and harassment related to sex amidst a long list of complaints against his employer. These also included being denied permission for a five-week holiday and implying that colleagues had stolen his favourite mug, not letting the matter go.
Despite scoring a minor victory over some underpaid notice remuneration, the judge threw the rest of the claims out, ruling that no discrimination occurred.
Research shows that race discrimination claims have tripled under equality law, despite the proportion of successful cases staying the same. It suggests a legal system in which people may see a slight where there is none, causing unnecessary disharmony in the workplace, and undue stress for SME business owners.
Our retained advice line is designed to keep you out of the tribunal courts or protect you from the cost through insurance if you have followed our advice. If you want to find out more, get in touch.
Train(ing) spotting
This month we are shining a spotlight on training and development for businesses. Investing in improving your staff’s skills: technical skills, management and leadership as well as softer skills; can make a huge impact on the success of your business.
Directly you may improve your business’s capabilities and productivity, but indirectly there is so much more to gain, from a more pleasant company culture and workplace relations to improved recruitment and retention by demonstrating a pathway to personal success within the company.
So choose training. Choose an e-learning course. Choose an on-site workshop. Choose to better your company by bettering your staff. We offer a wide range of both general and industry specific courses, to suit all budgets and needs. Choose The HR Dept for your people training requirements.
