Dear Reader,

Welcome to Avoid the Hassles, the newsletter for people managers who need to know about HR issues and legislation relevant to small businesses rather than corporates.

In our last issue we discussed the relevance of employment law and whether it’s just common sense about how to treat people. This month I will be looking at the area of part-time workers and what the benefits, disadvantages and legal implications are of this large part of the workforce, enabling you to judge whether they will be the right solution to your employment problem.

If you like this month's newsletter and find it useful, see below for details of an HR quiz coming up in June, aimed at helping you to confirm what you already know about HR legislation and to learn some useful tips for avoiding people issues in the future.

Part-time workers - slave labour?

Even nowadays there is a common misconception that part-time workers seem to have “given up” because they have chosen (or have had to "choose" because of other commitments) more of a work-life balance.

However part-time workers can be extremely useful in helping deal with job roles or activities where you can’t justify a full time person. One of the more important distinctions between part-timers and full-timers is that they don’t spend so much time on office politics, breaks (you are only entitled to a 20 minute break after 6 hours work, and many part-timers don’t work enough in one day to earn that), or gossip at the coffee machine – they just don’t have time, or often the interest. They know they have a task to do, and they get on and do it. Having only a couple of hours to do a task in as opposed to spreading it over the whole week concentrates the mind wonderfully! So as an employer you get your clearly defined activity done quicker, possibly better, and in return they are entitled to the same benefits as your full-time employees (e.g. holidays) pro rata. A win:win situation.

You may also like to bear in mind that as the vast majority of part-time workers are women, any detrimental treatment in your company of part-time workers (e.g. trying to pay them rolled up holiday pay) could be not only unlawful but will often also be viewed as sex discrimination. Contact Gap HR to ensure that you are treating all your employees fairly to reduce the risk of a tribunal claim.

Free Stuff and Resources

The average number of sick days taken in a year in SMEs is 6.7 days (down from 8.1 in 2004) and costing employers £13 billion a year. Research by Ceridian has shown that 64% of employers trust the reasons given to them by staff and often don’t require a sick note if they are off for less than five working days. This makes a system easy to abuse by staff, so ensure that staff self-certify for absences of seven days or less, even if it’s just one day – it should make them realise that a file of incriminating paperwork is developing. To this end you will find a sickness absence reporting form on the website under Free Resources. If you find you have an absence issue, please give me a call to discuss a strategy to pro-actively manage sickness absence.