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All businesses experience staff absence due to ill-health from time to time. For some, it can be an occasional inconvenience. For others, it can become a headache that compromises the businesses\u2019 ability to function. hfjhghf<\/p>\n
At some point, all business owners must consider whether or not to offer Occupational Sick Pay. Maybe you are thinking about this now because your business has grown and you are reviewing your staff benefits. Or perhaps because you are just embarking on becoming an Employer and it\u2019s on your list of decisions to make.<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t offer an Occupational Sick Pay scheme, then your employees will, most likely, be entitled to Statutory Sick Pay<\/a> (SSP). That’s providing they meet qualifying criteria. You can read more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n There are pros and cons when considering an Occupational Sick Pay scheme. Here are three of each.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Part of being a responsible and desirable employer is how you discharge your duty of care towards all of your employees. Occupational Sick Pay helps you to do this by building a healthier workplace. When people suffering from contagious conditions stay away from work, you prevent the wider workforce being affected.<\/p>\n Occupational Sick Pay reduces the fear, stress and anxiety of financial hardship faced by a sick employee. You offer them peace of mind that, whilst they take time off to recover, they will still be able to pay their bills for a defined period of time.<\/p>\n As part of your employee benefits<\/a> package, an Occupational Sick Pay scheme contributes to a positive and supportive culture. By making your staff feel valued and cared for, you make them less likely to abuse your trust. This is important to both the retention of staff as well as attracting new talent to your business.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n There is a risk of your Occupational Sick Pay scheme being abused by unscrupulous employees who think they can get away with taking days off whenever they feel like it. This can be easily addressed with consistently applied, fair and robust absence management policies and systems.<\/p>\n This is a crucial aspect to consider and it\u2019s worth talking through with your accountant and your HR advisor. Inevitably, people will become unwell. When this happens, you need to have a clear understanding of the full financial impact. For example, some businesses (i.e. shops and restaurants) may be able to manage with reduced staffing for a finite period of time. Others, however, are subject to statutory requirements which may result in the need to employ temporary staff (i.e. childcare providers) in order to remain open.<\/p>\n The flipside of providing a supportive culture is the risk that you are seen to be rewarding ill health. This is particularly relevant where you have multiple employees with varying levels of health and wellbeing. Staff who enjoy good health and rarely take any time off may become jealous of staff who do not have such good health and, as a result, take more sick days, for which they are paid.<\/p>\n Deciding whether an Occupational Sick Pay scheme is the right choice for your business relies on the underpinning finances and policies you have in place. It also depends on the day to day operational needs of your business.<\/p>\n With robust absence management processes in place, you can negate risks such as frequent short-term absence and abuse of the scheme. However, you need to be able to consistently apply the rules in order to avoid claims of being unfair or discriminating between individuals or groups of employees.<\/p>\n That\u2019s okay, needing help is understandable. The decision to provide SSP is a big commitment and can be a daunting decision to make alone.<\/p>\n To find out how we can help you come to a well-balanced decision that is sustainable for your business, book a call<\/a> with me today!<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Posts Footer Section” _builder_version=”3.24″ global_module=”3751″ fb_built=”1″ _i=”1″ _address=”1″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.25″ _i=”0″ _address=”1.0″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||” _i=”0″ _address=”1.0.0″][et_pb_blurb title=”Don\u2019t keep it a secret” use_icon=”on” font_icon=”%%83%%” icon_color=”#ffffff” icon_placement=”left” use_icon_font_size=”on” icon_font_size=”104px” admin_label=”Don\u2019t keep it a secret” _builder_version=”3.24″ header_font=”||||||||” header_font_size=”44px” header_line_height=”1.1em” background_color=”#97026d” text_orientation=”center” background_layout=”dark” custom_margin=”||2px” custom_padding=”25px||25px” _i=”0″ _address=”1.0.0.0″]<\/p>\n Did you find this blog useful? Think you have fellow business owners that would too? \u00a0Feel free to share or \u2018like\u2019 using social media buttons to the left.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_blurb][et_pb_cta title=”Sign up to my blog” button_url=”https:\/\/blog.kateunderwoodhr.co.uk” button_text=”Sign Up” admin_label=”Sign up to blog” _builder_version=”3.24″ header_font=”||||||||” header_text_color=”#97026d” header_font_size=”49px” body_font=”||||||||” body_text_color=”#97026d” body_font_size=”20px” background_color=”#a2bdf2″ _i=”1″ _address=”1.0.0.1″]<\/p>\n Did you enjoy reading this blog?\u00a0 if so please sign up so you can receive them directly to your inbox each week … keep your FOMO in check.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_cta][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At some point all business owners must consider whether or not to offer Sick Pay. There are pros and cons to think about when considering a Sick Pay scheme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" In last week's blog<\/a>, Kate shared her top 6 \u2018go to\u2019 tech for small businesses\u2026to help with HR. This week she shares her top 6 apps for small business owners...<\/em><\/p> These are the things that I believe are helpful generally for small business owners running a business, in terms of helping you to save precious time, cut down on your admin and keep organised!<\/p> So, without further 'a do'....here are my top bits of tech for small business owners:<\/p> I have had FreeAgent<\/a> since I started my business and the best bit is that it comes free with my Natwest business bank account<\/a> so I am saving money too. I can link it to my bank, expenses card and Go Cardless account for all those lovely Direct Debits.\u00a0 Invoices are created at the touch of a button and you can set them to reoccur each month so you never have to forget to send an invoice again. If you link it to your GoCardless account you can also collect Direct Debits so you don\u2019t even have to ask for the money.<\/p> I am going to sneak in an extra bit of tech here \u2013 and that is Receipt Bank <\/strong>which I mentioned in my last blog<\/a>.<\/p> I currently have a couple of VA<\/a>'s that work with me to help keep me in check with my admin and marketing. To help manage the work they do for me, as well as keeping track of the client work Pete and I do, I use Asana. <\/a><\/p> Asana helps me to easily allocate work to different people with due dates and keep track on progress, but the best bit is that it has helped keep the email communication down. Instead of my VA's emailing me every time they complete a task or have a query on it, they log it on Asana in the appropriate place for me to pick up when I log in, which means I don't have to deal with it in my inbox too :-)<\/p> I also love that I can link it to Toggl...<\/p> Toggl<\/a> is an app we use for time tracking. It helps us to keep track of the time we spend on different pieces of work throughout the day and so we can always make sure that we are spending the right amount of time on the different projects for our clients, and so we can make sure we are always giving value to of our clients.<\/p> Zapier<\/a> helps to 'join the dots' with the systems I use. It helps you integrate various online apps and platforms that you may use to run your business and so helps you save time and keep things simple.<\/p> It means that I don't have to manually duplicate info e.g. if someone registers for a course on Eventbrite, it's integrated with my CRM system, so the information that someone has bought a ticket gets added there too.<\/p> Other integrations include saving any meeting notes I make in Onenote to Asana, and using Acuity as a meeting booking tool which gets linked to my diary.<\/p> I use Keap<\/a> (used to be InfusionSoft) as my CRM system. At first, it seemed a little intimidated with all its functionality, but after the first onboarding call, I was so pleased I'd switched to using it.<\/p> It is priced affordably for a small business like mine and fits perfectly for any businesses growing needs. With a little willingness to learn, this program really does it all, and their customer service (especially the Live Chat) is great!<\/p> Finally, this one is more of a 'wellbing' aid. Being a business owner can bring stress to your life, and my personal recommendation for combatting this is Headspace<\/a>.<\/p> It's an app to help you learn how to meditate and live mindfully. In particular, it helps me to sleep, and the focus exercise I usually do at 2 o'clock in the afternoon on the days where I'm struggling to get through the 'to do' list to keep me on track for the last few hours of the working day.<\/p> \u00a0<\/p> I hope I've given a few ideas that might help the business owners out there, and do feel free to contact me<\/a> if you'd like any more information on the various HR apps<\/a> that are available to make your life a little easier too.<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[284,293,289],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kateunderwoodhr.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7330"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kateunderwoodhr.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kateunderwoodhr.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kateunderwoodhr.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kateunderwoodhr.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kateunderwoodhr.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kateunderwoodhr.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kateunderwoodhr.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kateunderwoodhr.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kateunderwoodhr.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}3 Benefits Of An Occupational Sick Pay Scheme:<\/h2>\n
A Healthier Workplace<\/h3>\n
Prevent Financial Hardship<\/h3>\n
Facilitating A Positive & Supportive Culture<\/h3>\n
3 Disadvantages Of An Occupational Sick Pay Scheme:<\/h2>\n
Increased Absenteeism<\/h3>\n
Cost To The Business<\/h3>\n
Rewarding Poor Health<\/h3>\n
In Summary:<\/h2>\n
Need A Little More Help?<\/h3>\n
FreeAgent<\/strong><\/h4>
Asana<\/strong><\/h4>
Toggl<\/strong><\/h4>
Zapier<\/strong><\/h4>
Keap<\/strong><\/h4>
Headspace<\/strong><\/h4>