Football fever

The World Cup may bring a nation to its feet but it can chop the legs out from under time-poor human resources (HR) departments.

Last monthís (May 2006) Confederation of British Industry (CBI) survey of 400 organisations found worker time off for sickness amounting to 164m days in 2005 at a cost of 13.2 bn to the economy.

According to 40% of employers surveyed, 13% of days lost were due to major sporting events.

Consequent disciplinary processes are increasingly complicated and time-consuming for departmental managers and HR departments.

An online solution from Echelon Publishing provides geographically dispersed line managers with expert knowledge on disciplinary processes and procedures via a step by step flowchart with key stages in Investigation, Hearing and Appeal linked to a Help file pinpointing required actions.

By answering basic queries and explaining procedures to managers, the system gives managers more confidence to manage processes themselves and limits their contact with HR departments to special cases or where a procedure demands HR involvement, enabling department staff to concentrate on other important issues.

Echelonís Absence Management programme is one of a range of bespoke, web-distributed learning packages available to members of a major professional training body. Says Echelonís David Hill: This package provides its managers with all the information needed to ensure that sickness absence is handled in accordance with legislation, user policies and in a way which reflects its organisational values.

The CBI survey found absenteeism 30% higher among public sector workers, who missed on average 8.5 days of work in 2005 compared with six days on average in the private sector.

Companies that were unionised averaged 7.6 days of absenteeism compared with 5.5 days for those that were not, with similar gaps seen among large and small employers.