Posts from July 2021

Back to recent posts

How to be Cool, When it's Hot Hot Hot!

Posted on 23rd July 2021 at 17:47
 

From Our What'sUp? Workshop 21 July 2021 

There are no statutory health and safety regulations that state a minimum or maximum temperature in the workplace, but the guidance suggests that 13°C for physical work and 16°C for office work should be appropriate. But nothing for maximum temperature? 
 
Why? 
 
Well Health and Safety legislation places the onus on the employer to make sure it is “reasonable” because they’re the ones in the know for the particular circumstances. We can’t always control our environment (and should we? – but there’s another topic for another day!), but it’s generally easier to warm a body up. 
 
Which doesn’t help, given the high temperatures that the UK sustained during July 2021. The mercury was rising, the barometer rising and what could employers actually do to keep tempers from doing the same? 
 
We put this to the WhatsUp Workshop panel to see what actions could be achieved sensibly, without having to close the business down during a heatwave. 
Read more

How Employers Can Cope with Extra Statutory Holidays

Posted on 15th July 2021 at 12:50

From Our What'sUp? Workshop 14 July 2021 

The excitement and enthusiasm for additional “Bank Holidays” being offered by government is quite palpable, such as an extra day for the Queen’s Platinum Jubliee in 2022 and the suggestion of an additional day this August in the event that England won the Euros 2020 (if you’re reading this and confused why the Euros 2020 were played in 2021, you might have missed that small event called a pandemic?) 
 
For the typical employee, that means an extra day’s holiday – paid but not needing to work. 
 
For the employer, it’s multiple man-days paid, but no productivity to offset it. 
 
Seems a little unfair, doesn’t it?. 
Read more

What if You Had to Save a Life at Work?

Posted on 15th July 2021 at 12:48

From Our What'sUp? Workshop 07 July 2021 

An interesting question raised at the forum was whether anybody could use a defibrillator and would they know how to actually use it. Would this lead to hesitation before helping a collapsed colleague at work, and concern that you might harm them? 
 
Scary stuff. But it needn’t be. 
 
Most of us are fortunately rarely confronted with a real life-or-death situation at work, and we often just don’t know how we would react if a colleague just collapsed next to us – would we run around like a headless chicken, or freeze, or just calmly take control? 
Read more

Good Time to Change?

Posted on 15th July 2021 at 10:12

From Our What'sUp? Workshop 07 July 2021 

The last 15 months have been one major change with a continuous number of more minor ones along the way, as far as working practices are concerned. 
 
With the promise of a return to something a little closer to normality (reach for the dictionary to find out what this week’s definition of “normality” is) should we be aiming to go back to our past behaviours, or continue with what we’ve become used to, or adopting new ones, or maybe a combination? 
 
Our workshop panel discussed some of the things that maybe we should take into account: 
Read more

Helping Colleagues with Mental Health Troubles

Posted on 2nd July 2021 at 15:36

From Our What'sUp? Workshop 30 June 2021 

Good and poor mental health has been and continues to be a major topic of discussion, in all contexts, and the stigma surrounding the subject is gradually lifting. The workplace is an environment where many people spend a significant proportion of their days, and sometimes without much control over their circumstances, so it’s important to be aware that mental health issues will come to work. 
 
The days of employees and colleagues being treated as just functional machines are (hopefully) on the way out. When people are treated well and fairly, this has a not-insignificant effect on the bottom line in avoiding lost days through ill health, recruitment costs, re-training and the boost to productivity.  
 
A number of employers have trained some of their staff in Mental Health First Aid, but what can the rest of us do to help? 
Read more

Archives

Our site uses cookies. For more information, see our cookie policy. Accept cookies and close
Reject cookies Manage settings