The Rugby World Cup starts tomorrow with the final being held at Twickenham on 31st October and ACAS have produced as in the past for other events some guidelines on how to manage the impact it may cause to your business.
Most matches are at the weekend and evening but some start as early as 2:30pm.
You may have had some requests for annual leave for those members of your team who want to watch the games that will be on during work hours but what about those that haven’t?
Will you allow them to watch via the internet? Consider how you will define what is allowed and what would be considered to be excessive. If you have an internet usage policy make your staff aware of it.
You might want be flexible with finishing work early. Allowing staff to follow the games whilst at work may have less of an impact than any unplanned absences. Although we don’t think it is really a common occurrence if you notice a pattern of ‘sickies’ that correlate with matches, deal with this in the same way as you would any other issues regarding non genuine sickness absence – this will usually be your disciplinary procedure!
Not everyone will be supporting the same team, so any treatment for one has to stand for another.
What about those that don’t get what all the fuss is about?
Remember to be considerate of them and any requests that they may make.
Be fair and be consistent and make sure your team know what is acceptable when it comes to following their team!