As winter sets in, employers often face an annual set of seasonal challenges: a rise in coughs and colds, adverse weather disrupting commutes, and the rush of annual leave requests for the festive period. These issues can put significant strain on businesses, making it harder to maintain productivity and meet business demands.

To help you prepare, here are some practical HR tips tailored to support your organisation and your people during this busy season.

Managing sickness during winter

Illness can strike at any time of year, but during autumn and winter, people are particularly susceptible to colds, coughs, and the flu. Promoting good hygiene practices in the workplace and encouraging employees to get a flu vaccination are effective ways to reduce the spread of germs.

Having a clear sickness absence policy is equally important. The main aim of a sickness absence policy is to provide a clear framework for reporting, managing and recording sickness absences.

You should start by establishing what you expect from your employees. This will allow genuinely sick employees to know they will be supported during their absence and make malingerers aware that you can – and will – take disciplinary action.

If an employee’s absences become frequent, it’s essential to understand the root cause before taking further action. Monitoring and recording employees’ absences and the reason for it can prove useful in uncovering trends or patterns, which should point you in the right direction and enable you to take the right course of action to rectify the problem. 

The best way to monitor sickness absence is by holding return to work meetings once the employee is back at work. This will allow you to ask why the employee was off, consider any adjustments to prevent future absence, and spot patterns in behaviour.

Persistent absences that lack valid explanation and significantly impact the organisation may be addressed through a formal process, but only after providing appropriate support and considering the circumstances.

Cold weather commuting issues and business closures

Adverse weather conditions can mean unsafe driving conditions, road closures, reduced or cancelled public transport, and school closures. As a result, employees may struggle to get into work or be forced to take unpaid leave to look after their children. You should try to be as flexible as possible.

Employers have a duty to ensure the health and safety of their employees. As such, you should never encourage employees to drive in dangerous weather conditions. Instead, consider:

• Whether there’s someone who can cover the work at short notice?
• Whether the employee can work from home or a work site that is closer to them?
• Whether the employee could make up the time at a later date?

What happens if your workplace must close?

There may be circumstances where it’s necessary to close the workplace because a large number of employees can’t make it into work, or the weather affects the core business. If you do have to close the workplace and the employee doesn’t/ can’t work from home, employers cannot typically deduct pay. However, if you provide sufficient notice, you may ask your employees to use some of their annual leave, though we recommend speaking to an Employment Law specialist before making this decision.

It’s important to note that there is no automatic legal right to be paid if the employee cannot get into work and do their job, but you may be required to pay if you have any contractual or customary arrangements in place. If you decide that you will pay for absence as a result of bad weather or travel issues, make it clear to your employees that this is for a limited period only.

If bad weather conditions are plaguing you year after year, consider implementing a policy which establishes how you deal with lateness, absences, and pay matters, and communicating this to your staff.

Coping with leave requests

The festive season, coupled with the end of the annual leave year for some, can lead to a surge in requests for time off in autumn and winter. Employers’ top priority should be ensuring that all employees are treated fairly and consistently.

If multiple people want the same days off, you could grant leave on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. You could also consider allowing people to choose between time off at Christmas or at New Year. Alternatively, if someone doesn’t get the time off they requested at Christmas, they could be given priority when booking leave for their summer holiday.

Encourage your team to collaborate with each other to coordinate leave to ensure operational business requirements are met and issues are quickly resolved. If your business is typically less busy during the festive period, you might consider closing for a few days or making it mandatory for people to take time off.

Solve your seasonal employee relations challenges with specialist support

It’s our mission to advise and develop the employment law capability of HR professionals wherever we can, helping HR teams make a real commercial difference to their organisations. That way, you spend less time solving operational issues and more time actioning projects that drive far-reaching change in your company.