Hiya everyone… it feels like such a long time since you lovely lot last got the joy of a blog from me. Unfortunately, I have to blame the good ol’ nursery bugs for me missing my last one. Thanks team for picking it up for me again!
So, what is it I have been up to since we last spoke? Well…I have had a few little core memory moments to be honest.
Firstly, if you have not been living under a rock you will have seen my recent LinkedIN post where I gushed over the fact I had been to see Torvill & Dean’s last dance at the Nottingham Ice Arena. It was their farewell tour and marked the end of their 50- year skating partnership. As I said in my post, I used to figure skate myself, and even had the honour of skating with them at a training camp one year, so I was essentially back in my old stomping grounds, feeling all the feels watching them just be purely epic. They had not even got through their first performance and the water works had already started- this surprised even me haha. I think it was just all the emotion of a past life I used to have and also just witnessing such beauty. It was an absolutely incredible show filled with the most amazing talent- definitely one for the ages and very grateful to have had the chance to witness it.
Something else that I/Halle and me, have been up to is Halle (kind of me too) taking part in her first ever ballet show at the Newark Palace Theatre. SPOILTER ALERT– I will be delving into this more in a Linkedin post, so keep your eyes peeled. But essentially she started having ballet lessons a month or so ago. We started mid-way and in the first session were told, oh there is a show at the end of July that all the academy are doing if you wanted to join. All the other mums and bubbas were doing it so I thought, why not? Well let’s say it was incredibly proper, a real serious show, that involved many dancers of all ages doing various dances and my little Halle, with the mums, was part of it. The production was called ‘when I grow up’ and was about everything all the little kiddos wanted to do when they grew up. Our dance was about them wanting to be superheroes (hello, Team Precept and the dude?!), it was like 2 minutes long but was on a proper stage, with proper stage lighting and a massive audience anddd… my little Hallebean just smashed it. I, of course, did a blinding performance too, of which involved essentially just ensuring Halle copied the dance moves/didn’t just jump off stage. It was a super proud moment. If you want to hear more… which of course you do.. then check out my upcoming LinkedIN post.
Anyways, back to the good stuff! What little knowledge nuggets can I bestow on you this week?
A big elephant in the room is the fact that the .. da… dah …dahhhhhh… school summer holidays have started and it’s important to look at how this might in fact be impacting many of your employees.
Now, the summer holidays should be a period to look forward too, but for many employees, it comes with dread because they are not offered any additional support from their employers. This can either be from the fact that lots of employees are needing more annual leave all at once, or parents wondering how they are supposed to exactly juggle childcare even more than usual.
New research released to mark the start of school holidays by charity, Pregnant Then Screwed, suggests this period should better be described as the great ‘fret’-away rather than ‘getaway.’ It finds the long summer break pushes staff to the brink, with 87% of respondents saying they have heightened stress around navigating this long period.
Because of a lack of support from their employers, it also reveals that 26% of employees will be forced to take unpaid leave this summer, with 75% likely to take more than five days’ unpaid time off – just to manage. More than a third of mothers taking unpaid leave told the charity that they’d be forfeiting more than two weeks’ pay just to cover the childcare gap. Worse still, nearly half (49%), say they also feel judged by their non-parent colleagues for doing this.
There is then also the cost of parents trying to use different avenues of childcare. The stats are that “Nearly 70% of parents are having to rely on costly holiday clubs” and that half of parents are “spending more than £300 this summer, and a third are forking out over £500.”
But what is it you as employers can do to help with all of this?
- Offer some element of flexible working during the summer break- perhaps you allow some flexibility on hours worked, of course ensuring core business hours are covered.
- The ability to work from home more frequently during the summer break- again this would of course be dependant on whether the work that employee does can be done from home etc. and ensuring that appropriate boundaries are put in place (can the parent actually concentrate on work if there are children at home? What about joining meetings etc.)
- Could you offer early finishes on Friday? Of course, again dependant on whether this is doable, work required etc. PWC piloted this in 2021 and some 90% of its staff thought summer Fridays had a positive impact and 73% said it positively impacted their general wellbeing to a ‘great extent’. Sports brand Huel has also recently introduced its own version of this – called ‘Flexible Fridays’, where staff can finish at midday on a Friday.
- Offering more support – this is really basic! Carry out more checks just to see if your employees are managing ok, and see if there is anything more you can do, practically to support them.
- Communication – keep ensuring you have an open door policy so that your employees feel able to approach you should they be feeling the additional stress over the holidays
What I would suggest is that if you are going to change an employee’s hours or location for the summer holidays, it would be a good idea to still get these agreements formulised in an agreement which makes clear the arrangements are temporary, so as to help manage expectations, set out clearly what is still expected and to ensure fairness. This will then help prevent any misunderstandings and make everything crystal clear.
If you want any help with implementing any of the above or have any queries on any of this then be sure to give your friendly Precept team a call.
Speak soon!
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