Businesses are bracing themselves for a rise in staff absenteeism with the World Cup just nine days away.
Every two years when either the European Championships or the World Cup come around – providing England’s football team qualifies – the level of unauthorised absence soars as countless fans either stay at home to watch a crucial match or nurse a hangover from the previous night’s game.
And a survey of more than 400 England fans by betting website Betfair has revealed that around a third (32%) would consider calling in sick to watch a crucial game this summer. Among those who regularly attend football matches this figure rises to 68%.
And yet the results of a poll of more than 1,000 employers carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development suggests that employers aren’t taking the problem seriously enough; nine out of 10 respondents admitted to having no plans in place to help manage staff absence during the tournament.
You don’t want to be seen as a killjoy so you could consider introducing flexible working hours for staff, reorganising the shift rota, agreeing to annual leave and even screening matches in your office
Neeta Laing, Lewis Hymanson Small
Shift swapping
However, in another survey 51% of respondents said they planned to offer flexible working to staff who want to watch the England games. The poll of 352 business leaders and HR professionals by law firm DLA Piper also revealed that 33% said they’d use shift swapping, 59% planned to allow staff to finish early, while 35% said they’d let employees start late.
Other companies plan to incentivise staff to work their normal hours by screening games in the workplace, whether in the canteen, in the office or in the shop. At the Birmingham head office of the Phoenix Group, a group of life assurance companies, for example, a marquee is being erected so that staff can watch the England versus Slovenia game.
Meanwhile, supermarket chain Asda is adopting a novel approach by giving employees the option of taking unpaid leave to go on a “Safari sabbatical” to the tournament itself in South Africa.
Neeta Laing, head of employment law at Lewis Hymanson Small, believes that if employers are demonstrate flexibility and trust employees to make up any lost time, then most staff will feel "morally obliged" to behave honestly:
“As World Cup fever hits your office employers may have to balance employee enjoyment with business output,” she says.
“It is important to create a culture of trust in your workplace so staff feel morally obligated to be truthful. You don’t want to be seen as a killjoy so you could consider introducing flexible working hours for staff, reorganising the shift rota, agreeing to annual leave and even screening matches in your office.”
Where staff have called in sick, Laing recommends: “To effectively manage short-term absence consult an employment solicitor if an ongoing problem arises.
“There are several ways to determine if an employee has been truthful about their absence, including return-to-work interviews, disciplinary procedures for unacceptable absence levels, training line managers in absence management, restricting sick pay and involving occupational health professionals.”
Many of Britain’s bosses will have mixed feelings about how far England progresses in the tournament, and not only because they’ll invariably support the team themselves. For pubs, off-licences, sports retailers and other businesses, the World Cup brings the prospect of higher takings, while some commentators have sought to draw correlations between successful tournaments and rises in high-street spending.
Employers whose business operates according to normal office hours will be relieved that the first two of England’s qualifying games are taking place on Saturday and Friday evenings. Absences might be expected to rise suspiciously on Wednesday 23 June when England take on Slovenia at 3pm in the afternoon.
