How to Prepare Your Team for the World Cup Final

As the World Cup rapidly approaches, every where you turn there are reminders of the weeks of excitement and apprehension ahead…and perhaps not just apprehension on the part of football fans. For employers, the World Cup may present worries of a more practical kind. For instance, how to manage requests for time off, absenteeism and the potential for nationalistic office banter.

It’s not all doom and gloom. Occasions such as the World Cup, if handled properly, can be a good boost to staff morale, and as with many employment issues, planning and preparation is the key.

One of the most important issues will be ensuring that your business functions as it should which is likely to mean ensuring that you have an appropriate number of staff at work. It may be that you cannot accommodate all requests for time off, but dealing with all holiday requests in accordance with company policy should ensure consistency and fairness, and using a well publicised first come, first served policy for holiday requests for this period, should manage employee expectations. Those employers considering allowing employees to watch football matches at work, must also consider that all employees may not be England fans. Football fans of other nationalities and ethnic origins need to be given the same opportunities. It also important to bear in mind those employees who are not football fans at all. Whilst they may not wish to watch a football match, if other employees are given time off to do so (which they are not expected to make up), the non-football fans should be treated the same way. Again, any policy as to whether time needs to be made up should be clearly communicated in advance and all managers should deal with the issue the same way.

Where a holiday request is refused, but the employee nevertheless does not attend work that day, disciplinary action may be warranted unless the employee has been off work due to a genuine illness and has followed the appropriate sickness procedures. Where sickness procedures have been followed, it may be very difficult to ascertain if the employee has had a genuine illness (unless you saw him or her in the pub, but even then, procedures must be followed).

Another significant issue to bear in mind is the possibility of harassment claims following on from office banter or nationalistic atmospheres and sentiments expressed which go beyond football and into the remit of inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour. It is worth reminding employees of the equal opportunities policy and the consequences of not abiding by such policies i.e. disciplinary action. Ensure all managers responsible for dealing with discipline are aware and that the company is treating all issues of misconduct in the same way.

Ultimately, reminding employees of the polices and procedures you have in place and consistently applying those policies and procedures to all employees, irrespective of race, ethnic origins or gender, should ease any World Cup tensions and make it an enjoyable time (depending on the score).

For more information on this subject or other employment issues, please contact David Gibson on 0191 233 9789.

« Back to 2006 Archives