Dr Tok Hussain (Consultant Occupational Physician) from Healthwork Ltd writes a guest blog for us this week discussing the benefits of Occupational Health to employers. Occupational health (OH) is a service that many employers value in looking after their employees as well as managing health related and corporate risk. Occupational health is a specialist branch of medicine concerned with the effects of work on health and health on work. So, for example, an occupational health nurse or doctor might be carrying out hearing tests to ensure workers don’t develop deafness as a result of their work. The nurse or doctor might also be seeing someone who has had a heart attack or is suffering with anxiety and then advising about how that worker can safely return to work. Occupational health focuses on providing the best possible advice in relation to health and work. Occupational Health focuses on: maximising people’s opportunities to benefit from healthy and rewarding work while not putting themselves or others at risk of harm; the elimination of preventable illness caused or aggravated by work; advising about workplace health matters; helping to rehabilitate those who have suffered injury or sickness back into work; helping support those who because […]
Seriously considering the question how to conduct an exit interview improves the usefulness of the process. They help your business out with real feedback from a departing employee to reduce future employee retention. Exit interviews bring to light the specifics about why an employee is leaving. They help identify organisational issues which are contributing to the turnover rate. By using this information, leaders can make real changes to reduce the drain of talent from the organisation. What’s the benefit of having low employee turnover? Organisations with low turnover rates spend less on recruitment costs and see increased productivity. All this embeds the organisation’s culture because those employees staying already know the core mission and the organisational norms. How should an exit interview be conducted? When you’re inviting the employee to the exit interview, tell them what you want to gain from the conversation. Include in the invitation your expectations around confidentiality. Scheduling interviews with the employee giving them ample time to prepare for the conversation is an important part of how to conduct an exit interview. Arrange the meeting close to their last working day. If you’re serious about how to conduct an exit interview meaningfully, give the employee a […]
If you’re planning on introducing Return to Work Interviews, your next move is likely to be wondering how to carry out a return to work interview. 64% of employers believe that Return To Work (RTW) interviews reduce absence levels so it’s certainly worth considering doing them. RTW interviews can be an effective method of reducing absence, but only if the interviews themselves are carried out effectively. RTW interviews are much more than the old fashioned “sick parade” approach to dealing with people coming back to work. They are not an interrogation of employees reasons for absence. Why carry out a return to work interview? By carrying out RTW interviews, and making it clear in your sickness policy that you will do so, you can discourage unauthorised and non-genuine sickness absence. When should you carry out a return to work interview? Ideally the line manager would meet with the employee on their first day back from absence, however long, or short, that period of absence was. If the employee is field based, or geographically distant, a RTW interview by phone is acceptable. What should you cover in the Return to Work Interview? welcome employees back and check they are well enough to […]
The scenario Can I ban staff from eating breakfast at work? I’m sure we’ve all experienced that member of staff, who comes in at 8.59am, switches on their computer, and logs in dead on 9.00am. All good so far? Then they go off to the kitchen, say good morning and have a good natter with all their colleagues whilst they make a hot drink and put an instant porridge pot breakfast in the microwave, warm up a bacon sandwich, or make a round of toast. Then they come into the office with hot, smelly food – back to their desk and begin to slurp and chomp their way through their breakfast. Besides dropping crumbs in to the computer keyboard or dripping splodges of porridge onto the floor, they then proceed to leave all their dirty pots and cutlery in the sink for someone else to clean and put away. What Can I Do About It? It’s irritating and frustrating, so the question we get asked is Can I Ban Staff From Eating Breakfast at Work? The Answer is yes, of course you can. Not only is this phenomenon eating into your work time, their behaviour can cause resentment amongst your […]
As an employer you may have looked at monitoring staff at work for various reasons. The Data Protection Act doesn’t prevent employers from monitoring workers, but you must remember that workers are entitled to some privacy at work. You must tell your employees about any monitoring arrangements and the reason for it. Why Monitor? It is advisable to have written policies and procedures in place regarding monitoring at work. Monitoring shouldn’t be excessive and should be justified. Staff should be told what information will be recorded and how long it will be kept. However, if you want to monitor workers by collecting or using information, the Data Protection Act will apply. Therefore, Any information collected through monitoring should be kept secure. Monitoring staff at work may be needed for a variety of reasons. It can be used to safeguard employees, for example to ensure workers aren’t at risk from unsafe working practices. In some sectors you may have a legal or regulatory need to carry out some monitoring. The information gathered through monitoring should only be used for the purpose it was carried out for. Unless it leads to the discovery of other things such as a breach of health […]
Toxic Workers Every organisation has at least one Toxic Worker, those people who exude negativity. They don’t like their jobs or they don’t like the company. They dislike their bosses and they feel they are always being treated unfairly. You can’t control how people act all of the time, but you do have control over how you react with them. Calling them to a meeting for an informal chat to discuss their behaviour may be your first port of call in nipping their toxicity in the bud. Be clear about which workplace rules they are breaking and how it affects the workplace as a whole. However, if the toxic worker is more than just irritating and annoying – they may be abusive, behave inappropriately and unprofessionally. If you think they are bringing the company into disrepute or another employee complains, this is the time to take more formal action. Some toxic workers operate under the radar of their employers. They may come across positive and outgoing openly with their managers, whilst talking negatively to belittle, criticize and slander those workers they feel they can control and manipulate. They could possibly persuade other co-workers to do their dirty work for them, whilst outwardly they maintain their angelic façade! What to do? Don’t allow the […]
When is a warning not a warning? The simple answer is when it’s not carried out correctly. We get a surprising number of calls from employers who have reached the end of their tether. They’ve given an employee lots of verbal and written warnings with no improvement. Now they feel the need to remove the employee. It comes as a shock to them when we say, “that’s risky”. Let me give you an example of what I mean A business provides a facilities service to clients. They send teams of employees into a client premises, often out of hours. The intention is that the client will come into work the morning after and be delighted by the results. Over a 10 year period this had not always been the case when the business sent in one particular employee. His work was not always of a high standard. Over the ten year period the employer had given the employee a number of verbal and written warnings relating to his poor standard of work. One morning the Facilities business owner received an irate phone call from a client about the less than sparkling state of his premises after having paid for an overnight service. The […]
Mediation in the workplace is a completely voluntary and confidential form of alternative dispute resolution. It involves an independent, impartial person helping two or more individuals or groups reach a solution that’s acceptable to everyone. The mediator can talk to both sides separately or together. Mediators do not make judgments or determine outcomes – they ask questions that help to uncover underlying problems, assist the parties to understand the issues and help them to clarify the options for resolving their difference or dispute. The overriding aim of workplace mediation is to restore and maintain the employment relationship wherever possible. This means the focus is on working together to go forward, not determining who was right or wrong in the past. Many kinds of dispute can be mediated if those involved want to find a way forward. It can be used at any stage in a dispute but is most effective before positions become entrenched. You might want to think about writing a mediation stage into your individual grievance procedure. In facilitative mediation – the style that dominates workplace mediation – the mediator is said to be neutral with respect to both the parties and any solutions found. Mediators manage a structured […]
When the unemployment rate is low, how to create an effective employee retention plan becomes an urgent piece of work. Replacing employees is expensive. It can cost up to a third of the worker’s salary to find a replacement. The latest ONS statistics show that the unemployment rate in the UK continues to fall (the latest rate for 2018 is 4.2%). Organisations that aren’t serious about retention are risking real money. With around 727,000 jobs available, workers have plenty of opportunities to jump ship if they want to. The 2017 Investors In People Employee Sentiment Report shows that 25% of employees are actively seeking new employment. Whatever sector you’re in, establishing how to create an effective employee retention plan is critical. It isn’t a science, and it isn’t easy. Employee retention in a competitive market In today’s competitive labour market, keeping workers on board involves more than just making them happy on the job. Employers have to engage employees enough to avoid the temptations being dangled in front of them by other companies. A higher salary on its own can be a powerful incentive to leave; but the number one reason why people leave their jobs is because they don’t […]
Managing employees with piercings can create uncertainty about what you are, or are not, allowed to do as an employer. Body piercing (other than ear lobes) is more prevalent in women than men and more common in younger age groups. 46% of women aged 16-24 have had a piercing (other than in their ear lobe). This suggests that most employers will have have to think about a dress code policy for piercings. Whilst it’s acceptable in law for employers with employees with piercings to ban piercings, there are some things to think about. Some employers may feel that visible, non-earlobe piercings are at odds with the image that they’re trying to project. Because if this they may ask employees with piercings to remove them whilst at work. It’s worth stopping and considering how many of your employees are actually having client contact if this is one of your reasons for objecting to piercings. In today’s informal society, there’s actually a great deal of evidence to show that the most successful dress code is, by and large, to encourage your customer-facing employees to dress more or less like your customers. This puts your customers as well as your employees at ease, and will […]
