It only comes around once every four years, but unlike most other sporting events it’s an event that seems to grip the nation. This year it’s the World Cup and currently you can’t move for all the hype surrounding it.
Great news if you’re a football fan, but possibly bad news if you’re an employer looking at four weeks of coverage and a group of employees desperate to tune in.
While most of the matches in the early stages are shown in the evenings over here, there’s still the problem of absence based on the repercussions from the night before – mainly hangovers.
So what, as a business, can you do to manage any advance requests for time off and any absences taken during this time?
The Federation of Small Businesses recommends that businesses have a policy in place that offers guidance for employees over the month-long tournament.
It suggests:
- Allowing employees to take the relevant days or half-days off as part of their annual leave entitlement in the usual way.
- Where possible, putting in place a flexible working system on match days so that staff can watch the matches, either by granting a longer break, or allowing them to come into work later or leave earlier and make the time up.
- Not discriminating when deciding which matches to grant time off for and not favouring your male employees over your female employees.
- Putting in place a requirement that employees who are off sick during the 2010 FIFA World Cup period must notify their absence to a specified person. This will help make your employees aware that you are closely monitoring sickness absence during this period.
- Allowing staff to listen to the radio or watch the television at work. You could allow short breaks at regular intervals or you could have the radio or television on in the background.
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