HCS Business Matters 15th September 2009
Alcohol at Work
Having reviewed recent HR forums whereby HR Professionals have been discussing ITV’s new comedy series Monday Monday with the caricature of the gin soaked HR Director we thought that we would spend some time in this update considering whether alcohol has a place at work and what employers can do if they think staff have an alcohol problem.
In general, our experience tells us that the days of drinking alcohol as an accepted part of the working day have passed and a great number of our clients operate strict no alcohol policies, but there are some in certain industries that are still expected to drink when ‘entertaining’. Equally even those with zero tolerance to alcohol during the working day then have to think carefully about what is acceptable at staff functions, and whether the summer party should be treated differently to an industry awards ceremony. So how do you make a call on this and what are the risks to consider:
- A good place to start may be to think about whether there is any specific health and safety risk in allowing alcohol to be consumed by staff during the working day (sales lunches, client entertaining, birthday/retirement lunches!) If for example staff are expected to drive for work or operate machinery then you may want a blanket zero tolerance policy to alcohol consumption.
- What about sensitivity to religious beliefs? It may be very well to assume that people who don’t want to drink, for whatever reason, can refuse, but what if networking, or rewards – such as a night out or a bottle of champagne – exclude some people because of their beliefs? It would be worth considering how these scenarios may affect your workforce and what alternatives may be suitable to protect you against potential claims of discrimination.
- Workplace promotions in the pub! We may all think that promotions are based on merit and the seemingly archaic notion of someone promoting their ‘drinking buddy’ no longer occurs, but it stands to reason that the more time that is spent together the more likely an individual’s talents will shine through. On the face of it a merit based decision like this is perfectly sensible, but if that person has access to the decision maker in a context that someone who doesn’t socialise in the same way doesn’t, i.e. in the pub, there could be an angle for discrimination again, either sex or religious. It would be best therefore to have tight recruitment and promotion policies/procedures, if you (quite reasonably) don’t want to try to police who goes out with who outside of work.
- What about those evening events? It’s likely that you don’t want to be the one who steals the party spirit but equally it may be worth laying out ground rules prior to any events and offering ‘friendly’ advice in terms of booking taxi’s (avoiding drink driving!) and being respectful of each other in the same way that everyone hopefully is during the working day. If it is an industry dinner, for example, you may want to impose tighter control on staff and remind them that they are representing the Company and so must act in a professional and courteous manner.
- Testing – Introducing this generally throws up all kinds of issues and so it is worth considering carefully when and how testing would be done and what impact the results would have on an individual’s employment. There are organisations that provide testing services and it would be worth investigating what they have to offer if you feel that it may be appropriate to carry out alcohol or drug testing with your staff.
- Finally, if behaviour at an awards evening gets out of hand or the Christmas party descends into a fracas, or you receive a complaint from a client after a business lunch, it is worth being sure how such behaviour will be dealt with. Is your disciplinary policy robust enough to support any action that you may feel it’s necessary to take?
You may have staff who have a problem with alcohol, drugs or other substances and you may want to support them in overcoming this. Some of our clients have helpline numbers incorporated into their alcohol policies in the handbook; others provide access to Occupational Health services and/or counsellors. There is such a wide scope of ways in which help may be offered and there is of course the obstacle of the individual recognising that they need assistance, but once over this hurdle you may like to:
- Investigate whether support is available through any health cover you provide.
- Look at the cost and access to private treatment and arrange for the employee to have paid time off for appointments.
- Reconsider any policies you have about alcohol consumption during working hours to see if they are still relevant and support individuals with a problem.
If you would like any support with a particular issue regarding alcohol in the workplace, or anything else, or if you would like assistance in reviewing your alcohol policy or creating a new one from scratch please get in touch: call one of our consultants on 0141 776 6456.
25 February 2010, Administrator
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