Every year, throughout my 15 year career, I have had to advise on issues created from an office party - from minor incidents to full blown fights and fall outs. eg, two married women fighting in the loos over the affections of their manager, also married or the drunk employee who decided it was a great idea to tell everyone what EXACTLY he thought of them (including his wife..)

Here are some points on how to handle festive parties and celebrations at this time of year:

•Make sure employees are aware of the policies which are there to help prevent harassment and discrimination.
•Make sure they are aware of the types of behaviour that is unacceptable (fighting, excessive alcohol consumption, use of illegal drugs).
•Make sure you have plenty of soft drinks and water available, so people have a choice and those who don’t drink are not discriminated against. Nothing worse than a party, you don’t drink, and all they have is cola…
•Ask for volunteers to remain sober so they can supervise the event and spot/prevent potential behaviour before it becomes a problem.
•Employers have a potential for third-party harassment, act promptly and take any complaint seriously. Use the discipline and grievance procedures as needed.
•Check that the Secret Santa presents are appropriate and not likely to give offense.
•Remember if you are inviting partners, all partners are welcome, opposite and same-sex.
•Check that it is on a day that all employees are able to attend, Friday night might not be suitable for Jewish invitees, and also those with childcare responsibilities might find an evening party difficult to attend.
•Check everyone is old enough to get into any venue, that the venue is generally going to make all feel comfortable and relaxed, that it is not going to cause offense (Lap dancing bars might not be an idea for that last drink).
•Check that from a Health and safety prospective, that potential hazards have been considered and if you are holding it on the premises - check the insurance policy, particularly if third parties are invited.
•Check dietary requirements
•Take steps to prevent drink driving and manage the trip home, ordering taxis or laying on transport is an idea - employers have a duty of care to ensure the safety of employees and non-employees.

And afterwards…

Make sure employees are clear that they are expected to attend work the following day if required, don’t let absence go undealt with. If it a lunchtime party, make sure people know if they are expected to return in the afternoon. Remember if your employees use machinery or driving, make sure there are fit and able to do so on return to work if they have been consuming alcohol - even if it is the night before.

Always get an opt out form signed by the employee - better to make it a separate form and get it signed on induction or before, of course they don’t have to and they can opt back in again, but believe me, forgetting or neglecting this and they do over the hours - HEADACHE!

KEEP RECORDS - always keep records of the hours worked - it is easy to get people to send in a timesheet to record what hours they do. Failing to keep records incurs financial penalties, if find out, and frankly it is good management to know what and when your people are working

If your people are regularly doing excessive hours - look at hiring someone else, it will mean BETTER PRODUCTIVITY in the long term and possibly less cost in overtime.

It is not good enough for HR just to be interested in employee engagement, this in itself does not create a large financial gain, combine it with a engaged custoemr base and BOOOM!!! financial impact made.

The book advises 5 golden rules:

Human Sigma is based on five new rules to bring excellence to the way employees engage and interact with customers:

RULE #1: E Pluribus Unum. Employee and customer experiences must be managed together — not as separate entities.

RULE #2: Feelings Are Facts. Emotions drive and shape the employee-customer encounter.

RULE #3: Think Globally, Measure and Act Locally. The employee-customer encounter must be measured and managed at the local level.

RULE #4: There Is One Number You Need to Know. Employee and customer engagement interact to drive enhanced financial performance. And this interaction can be quantified and summarized with a single performance metric.

RULE #5: If You Pray for Potatoes, You Better Grab a Hoe. This means that good intentions alone do not constitute a plan of action. Sustainable improvement in the employee-customer encounter requires disciplined local action coupled with a companywide commitment to changing how employees are recruited, positioned in roles, rewarded and recognized, and importantly, how they are managed.

I find this theory very exciting and I will blog about it when I have absorbed the book, I have always had an objection to employee engagement as a very internal measure of productivity, slightly lacking in substance - I am interested to see a hard measure for bring the reported large benefit to the bottom line.

Thank you big brother for sending me the article!!

Recent results of a survey of 400 over-50s jobseekers. It found the number who believed employers viewed them as too old for a vacancy had risen from 63% in 2008 to 72%. The number of over-50s reporting that they felt they had experienced age discrimination in the workplace or in seeking employment also rose by 5% to 55%.

Don’t forget that ageism doesn’t only apply to the older employee, we should be careful that discrimination doesn’t occur for younger members of staff. In fact, a substantial number of age discrimination tribunal claims are from the younger population.

It seems to indicate that regional businesses have taken the threat of swine flu seriously, with 83% reviewing their business continuity plans, however not looking closely enough at the legal impacts of changing working arrangements and conditions.

Of 428 businesses of all sizes across the UK, over half believed themselves to be at high or very high risk of swine flu affecting their business and 80% had reviewed their absence management procedures as a result of the outbreak.

However, a quarter of regional businesses had opted not to communicate their business continuity plans to their staff, whilst almost half had chosen not to inform their customers or suppliers of their arrangements. Hmmm, so how are these plans going to be activated quickly and without panic or fuss? Better keep the communication going strong.

This is not the first time businesses have been faced with continuity planning and possible ammends to terms and conditions, remember Bird Flu? Maybe it is time to have a hard look at the overall long term policy on business continuity and make sure you have something manageable, well communicated and robust in place that can be activated at a moments notice.

It would save on re-writing the rules everytime there is a propective pandemic or other disaster looming.

Hmmmm, after all that hype on how they are putting actions in place to stop the double digit absence figures. Possibly not putting their money where their mouth is? An under-budgetted HR department is not unusual!

Ok, so to give them some due, the figures are probably generated by one day absences etc. which is actually more of a conduct problem than an occupational health one. Culture has a lot to be blamed for here.

Considering a constable’s basic salary can reach £34,707, but with London weighting and other allowances, this can go up to just over £42,000. This still double the original salary in overtime.

Overtime can become to some employees a right rather than a business need - if overtime is excessive you have your manpower plan wrong and you need to review and re-align to actual business requirements.

“Never say no to a Manager, Ask why instead”

The reason I put this note up was to remind me that when a manager wants to act on an employee issue and feel that they are very clear on the direction they should take, it is very easy just to run with it, particularly if their solution is a legal and reasonable one. It gets interesting when you ask the question “why do you want to do that?” Exploring the issue or problem helps to reality test the solution - is it an emotional response? Is it really in the best interests of the business or the employee? What will be the effect of the solution on other employees? Cost implications?

Sometimes the immediate or easiest solution isn’t always the best solution.

Good measures now in place, working with GP’s, physio appointments, mediation… Hang on… Mediation? Doesn’t that indicate that the managers and employees can’t talk together without the help of a neutral mediator? Have the relationships broken down that far??

Also what are they putting in place for the sporadic sickies - the cause of the most disruption, return to work interviews? disciplinary measures?

There are obviously some underlying issues in the very high absence rate departments, on first look, I would ask - why don’t people want to work there? Also is taking sick seen as additional holiday? I am sure some see it that way, Councils are known for their generous sick pay schemes and strong union presence

Mediation is a dispute resolution method which allows the parties involved to reach their own solution, something which should be looked at very seriously in the increasing environment of litigation and the new ACAS code for dispute resolution further emphasising the need for mediation as a dispute resolution method.

My reasons for getting involved in mediation is that I believe that this is an intelligent and quick way to allow all parties to be heard and listened to in a safe enviroment. Quick - as most mediations resolve on the day or in the days after. Court and legal process can take months even years. Reducing the emotional impact rather than increasing it and entrenching parties in their positions.

I hope to practice soon, the course is very exacting and there is still written assessments after two assessment days - CEDR take their accreditation very seriously!