What’s up with using WhatsApp at work?
WhatsApp is so popular and so convenient, that in many workplaces it has become a default channel for some communications. But hold on one minute! For all its convenience, it carries a fair amount of HR risk.
In fact, between 2019 and 2024, the number of tribunal cases in which WhatsApp messages were used as evidence rose from 150 to 427. So what are the risks?
You have got blurred lines between personal life and work life; an accepted degree of informality which can lead to inappropriateness; and a reduced or zero ability to monitor communications if they are on private accounts.
Consider reputational damage. The public inquiry into events surrounding Lucy Letby’s crimes is currently being reported on. Earlier this month, the enquiry heard evidence that a colleague had joked regarding sharing tips on getting away with murder in a WhatsApp conversation with Letby. This was a full year after concerns had first been raised about the danger she may have posed. It reflects badly on both individuals and the organisation.
Whether it is the perceived privacy, the informality or something else, left unchecked WhatsApp is a problem. Sexual harassment, especially now more stringent obligations have fallen upon employers (since October 2024), is another danger.
There is even an instance of someone winning a discrimination case for being excluded from a WhatsApp chat whilst on long-term sick leave.
Thankfully (because WhatsApp is useful for many businesses), you can take measures to protect yourself through the creation and sharing of policies, and potentially training.
Include acceptable WhatsApp usage in your social media policy, and if staff use their own devices, a bring-your-own-device policy can set expectations on these. Ensure these policies are shared with everyone at reasonable intervals, and log this and any training, too. This makes it easier for you, where any breaches occur, to instigate appropriate disciplinary procedures.
For any help with policy preparation or disciplinary support, please get in touch.
Do your employees suffer from financial stress?
We all know that managing finances can be stressful, especially if you are a business owner. It may be surprising to learn, though, that as many as 36% of employees in the UK have recorded absence due to money worries, according to research by a financial well-being company.
That’s when other people’s concerns can start to cost you, so for everyone’s sake it is worth giving it some attention.
A different survey, this time from a mental health charity, calculated the overall cost to British employers to be £1,035 per employee, comprising £335 for absenteeism, £605 for presenteeism and £95 for staff turnover.
Of course, most SMEs cannot simply throw money at employees – we know how tight cash is for many British businesses, especially considering the planned hike to employer national insurance and national minimum wage increases.
By the time absences are registering, it is already costing you (and your employees through anguish). A sustainable approach is to facilitate coaching and education. Partnering with a charity is one idea, for example The Money Charity, who provide free resources; as well as paid for workshops and mentoring programmes.
Local independent financial adviser firms may offer lunch and learns too (with the prospect of gaining some new clients), or some kind of drop-in sessions if they are looking after your pension scheme, so there are options if you seek them out.
Another value option is to review your employee benefits package. There are always new options coming on to the market which can help. Including a benefit which provides high street store discounts, a health cash plan which contributes money towards medical treatments or death in service benefits can offer excellent value for everyone. If you are interested in a review, please just ask.
Employment Rights Bill – Spotlight on unfair dismissals
With the Employment Rights Bill set to have such a dramatic impact on managing workforces, we will spend the next few months shining a spotlight on individual aspects of it.
Thankfully for SMEs, many of the changes will not come in until at least Autumn of 2026. Nevertheless, it is important to understand the changes and what action you need to take now, so that you are not playing catch-up later on.
So first of all, we have significant changes to unfair dismissal law. Currently, employees do not enjoy any protection from unfair dismissal until two years of continuous service has passed. There is an exception to this for any claim related to statutory rights and discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.
The intention is, when the new law is implemented, that unfair dismissal will become a day one right. This means it will carry more risk to dismiss new hires who turn out not to be a good fit for the business. There will be a consultation on the length of a statutory probationary period which may provide some mitigation for employers, but it is a good idea to have well documented probationary reviews in place.
For you, it may mean amending the length of your probation period (when this becomes clear), and we’d advise reviewing your hiring processes to ensure they provide you with fit-for-purpose employees as best as can be ascertained.
Managing side hustles
What are your thoughts on side hustles – those extra income streams that some employees may have outside of work?
On the plus side, they may make a big difference to any hard-pressed staff struggling to make ends meet on their remuneration from you; and/or be a boost to mental health by easing financial stress (see financial stress article above) or being a creative outlet.
However, there is plenty of potential downside, too: from leading to burnout through extra hours worked, to the risk of reputational damage due to the nature of the side hustle (a Hollyoaks actress left the show last year after opening an OnlyFans account). Other risks include a potential drop in productivity or even competition issues if the employee is offering the same service they perform for you on the side.
In one eye-catching recent constructive dismissal case, a police body was ordered to pay a former sergeant £1.1 million in compensation after they ordered her to cease a side hustle she was operating whilst on sick leave.
Her side business was providing decorated party tents for events, and she had been advised to take up creative hobbies by occupational health as a counter-balance to her intense role in the police dealing with child sexual exploitation and drug exploitation. Initially permitted by her employers to do this, she was ordered to cease the activities while on a period of long-term sick leave.
It was a complicated case, but shows the fine line that you may need to walk if you have an employee with a side hustle. A good place for any business to start is to make it clear what is and isn’t acceptable within your terms and conditions of employment. We can help you think through the issues for your business and come up with suitable wording if you want a review, or don’t have a policy in place.
An inspector calls
As frustrating as it may be to have members of your team off on long-term sickness absences, there are right and wrong ways to deal with it. The distinction may not always be obvious and that is something we help our clients with, reaching pragmatic decisions in the business’s best interest.
Many, though, will agree that a step too far (except maybe in some extreme cases), is to start paying surprise home inspections to those who are unwell, checking up on their fitness to work. According to the news, in Germany, Tesla is currently embroiled in a row with unions for doing just this.
Any business will want to bring a level of robustness to absence management, but unless for good reason, such inspections smack of a breakdown of trust between employee and employer. The reports on the story suggest that Tesla has key statistics to show that some of their absence isn’t genuine, whilst they are accused of poor general working conditions, overly long working hours and insufficient health and safety measures.
If you are suffering from significant long-term sickness absence in your business, by which we mean anyone away for four weeks or more, getting medical advice as to how to get the employee back to work is essential. Get in touch for help if you need it.
Dealing with workplace “icks”
What’s worse: microwaving a fish lunch in the office kitchen or gossiping about colleagues? It’s probably down to personal choice; although while there is no “law” against microwaving aquatic lunches (there should be), a colleague could easily breach a disciplinary policy with malicious or persistent gossip.
Other common “icks” include taking smoking or vaping breaks (and bringing the odours back in), leaving expired food in the fridge and bringing a stinking cold into the office. Generally, many of these kinds of behaviours can be avoided by instilling a good culture within your business. But it is essential to have this backed up with written policies which everyone is familiar with.