Employers should prepare for the impact of World Cup 2014, analysts warn

The 2014 World Cup represents one of the most important sporting events of the year, which means that British employers may have to deal with absence issues and distracted employees, HR analysts at XpertHR have warned.

Luckily for the majority of employers who operate a single, 9-to-5 shift, most football matches will be played outside normal working hours. However, those companies that require staff to work evening or night shifts could be faced with absence-related problems and should set up a contingency plan, the experts' report argues.

Plus, some of the matches take place later in the evening (with some starting as late as 11pm), which could have knock-on effects on attendance and productivity the following day.

The experts have provided a few tips every HR department and manager should consider before the start of the World Cup 2014.

Hence, they should plan for competing World Cup holiday requests and deal with them in a fair and consistent manner, and also put in place specific measures to monitor absence, in order to deter employees from calling in sick unless they are genuinely ill.

Employers should also make sure that no particular groups are disadvantaged by their policies during the World Cup, especially since quite a few employees might not be interested in watching anything related to the sporting event.

Last, but certainly not least, in order avoid issues such as misconduct, absenteeism and harassment, employers need to make sure that employees are aware of the rules in advance of the tournament.

Tensor plc supplies an extensive range of solutions designed specifically to help employers thoroughly monitor and manage absence, with our flagship WinTA.NET integrated workforce management solution incorporating a dedicated Absence Planning and Entitlement Management feature.

Our comprehensive, yet user-friendly software comes pre-loaded with graphical calendar charts that provide a colourful way of viewing an individual's or a department's absence records.

WinTA.NET supplies the relevant managers with information on employee's absences through warning email notifications or via hardcopy reports. After that, the system would rapidly identify missing employees that are expected to be at work and then informs you via automatic email reporting reports distributed by email.

If you'd like to find out more about the Tensor workforce management solutions, just contact our team or Book a Demo, we'll be more than happy to answer all of your questions and queries.