Holiday Blues

As the end of the summer holidays approaches, September often means fresh starts and new beginnings for many. As pencils are sharpened and bags packed, people are returning to work relaxed and refreshed, ready to hopefully face work challenges with renewed vigour.
It is important therefore to ensure that your HR strategies are in place to support this and that employees’ focus is where it should be and not seeking alternative employment opportunities. Some of the following points may be worth currently considering;
• Is it time to rethink your performance reviews? Are they linked to the end of the calendar year and are they still delivering the right result for your organisation?
• Is it time to rethink your approach to learning and development? This may be necessary to keep your employees motivated at this time of year. Can and should you consider alternative programmes and development opportunities rather than relying on the traditional training courses? Coaching, mentoring and secondments are all techniques that can be utilised to move people to the next level, maintaining employee engagement and motivation.
• Is employee welfare on your agenda and if so are your policies and procedures supporting this to aid employee retention? With holidays and other time pressures, this time of year can have been a fairly disjointed one in the workplace. Therefore it may have been some time since you have had a detailed conversation and updates with your employees.
• It is important to ensure that you keep up to date and ahead of employment law. Traditionally, although not a busy time of the calendar year for employment legislation to be passed, we should be mindful that the government has recently published its White Paper, ‘The Future Relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union.’ This proposes no regression in employment laws which would mean EU based laws such as TUPE, Working Time Regulations and collective consultation regulations would not be repealed. However the eventual outcome remains subject to the terms of any Brexit deal reached with the EU.
As always if you need any support or advice on holidays and absences on any of the above issues please contact us on 0121 516 0299, 01905 824051 or at info@cloverhr.co.uk