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Catering Update - October 2006
Caterers are ill equipped to deal with staff sickness, says expert
No sooner has the great British Summer come to an end, than we begin to see the seasonal bouts of colds and flu doing the rounds. Still in the early stages of the autumn months, with relatively few people complaining of the usual symptoms, a survey by Marshall James, a leading HR consultancy, reveals that more than 78% of businesses in the catering industry are ill equipped to deal with work place sickness, with a further 87% claiming that they would not send home an employee who was complaining of a common cold.
164million days were lost in 2005 as a result of employees taking sick days, costing the UK's economy more than £13billion. Although this is an extremely worrying figure, the findings could be further aggravating the situation with manager to turn in resulting in the virus being spread not only across the workforce, but also to customers.
With employers looking to further reduce the number of working days lost to absenteeism, there are more examples feel obliged to turn up for work, even if they are suffering from a genuine illness. 48% of managers claimed that they would be suspicious of any employee claiming to be absent as a result of a cold or flu, and would encourage them to return to work.
Managers in the catering sector can no longer ignore grumbles from employees suffering from ill health, especially when the illness could be contagious. Working in close contact with food and other members of staff means that once an infection has been introduced, it will often affect not only the customers, but also the majority of the workforce and it can therefore be very difficult to get rid of, as colleagues will keep reinfecting each other when their immune systems are lowest.
Mark Flanagan , Managing Director of Shieldyourself, explains: “It is an issue that everyone faces at this time of the year. We find ourselves full of cold or flu of worse, but still we drag ourselves into work because that event is too important and it would be frowned upon if we did not.
“However, managers are actually exacerbating the problem the problem by allowing ill employees to come in to work because before you know it, the germs from one person will spread like wildfire around the hotel through the food, cutlery and tea towels. Even being in the same room as that person will be enough to leave that already vulnerable immune systems of your workforce and your customers wide open to infection.”
Andy Cook, Managing Director of Marshall James, says: “Commercially focused managers may think that by pressuring employees not to take time off sick. Their profit levels will not be affected by loss of productivity. However, this couldn't be further from the truth. It is important that managers see the bigger picture and realise that acting in the best interest of the staff will also benefit the business long term.”
Catering Update, October 06 issue. Page 43.
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