Partner Article

World Cup warning

AS THE England team prepares to do battle in South Africa, the region’s businesses have been urged to get their own tactics in place before the big kick off on 11 June.

With a predicted rise in the number of employees taking time off work to watch their team in action, international legal practice DLA Piper has warned that UK businesses may not be as prepared as they should be to manage employee relations during the tournament.

In a survey of 352 business leaders and HR professionals from across the UK, 51% of respondents said they planned to offer flexible working to staff who want to watch the England games.

Many respondents cited shift swapping (33%), early finishes (59%) and late starts (35%) as part of their strategy for supporting World Cup fever without impacting on productivity.

Simon Roberson, regional manager for BT in the North East, has said flexibility is a policy the communications company always strives towards.

“Providing it fits with the company’s aims, being flexible over the World Cup is a sensible thing to do.

“We haven’t put anything specific in place for it because we have flexible working patterns anyway. We do these things as second nature really.”

Mike Parker, managing director of Stride PR added: “The World Cup is a major event, it’s the most popular sporting tournament on Earth, so we’ll be more than happy to work flexibly around this.

“We’ll also have a telly in the office, so hopefully it won’t disrupt staff too much!”

Tell us your company’s World Cup plans by emailing jon@bdaily.info.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .