A few festive FAQ's about Christmas and Office Parties from Human Resources consultancy Jaluch.
Added: (Mon Oct 29 2007)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
Q. You organise an open bar at your staff Christmas party. Part way through the evening a drunken employee assaults a colleague. Who do you think is ultimately responsible, is it the drunk employee or is it you given that you provided the free alcohol?
A. You may be found responsible if as a result of the open bar staff got drunk to the point that an assault resulted. As a recommendation, be prepared to close an open bar if you feel staff are getting too drunk or alternatively, why not put enough money behind the bar for perhaps just a few drinks for each person.
Q. If you provide an open bar for your staff this Christmas, how do you ensure you are not going to be discriminating against those who do not drink for religious reasons?
A. Be aware of people's views and if you pick up concerns, address those concerns there and then. Also, ensure colleagues do not pick on those who choose not to drink and if you encourage the focus to be on the fact that it is a Company get together with food as well as drink, you might find these sorts of concerns do not crop up at all.
Q. If you provide your staff with free turkeys this Christmas, is this a benefit that should be declared for tax?
A. Never be tempted to think that the taxman stops for Christmas. He does not! Whatever your gift, check with your accountant your employees' liability and if necessary get a dispensation set up, so when you get to P11D time of year it is not overly complicated and fraught with employee relations issues.
Q. How much does the Inland Revenue allow you to spend on staff entertaining before it becomes a taxable benefit?
A. Allowable expenditure is around £150 per head and expenditure can be split across more than one event over the year.
Q. If you have someone on maternity leave or long term sickness and forget to invite them to your Christmas do, do you have any legal or employee relations exposure?
A. Potentially yes to both. Even if people can't or won't come, they do like to be invited to work do's and if the event is offered to all staff, you should double check with your managers to ensure that no employees have been missed out.
Q. You have a no drinking at work policy but one afternoon find an entire department 'under the influence' after Christmas drinks in the pub. How do you manage the situation given that you don’t want to discipline for breaching company procedures?
A. Get advice! And if you don't, the simple advice is any time you fail to follow your own disciplinary procedures, you need to be very clear about the business reasons for that otherwise you might find you have set a precedent and any future disciplining in line with procedure might be found to be unfair.
Q. What advice should we give to line managers about managing sickies over the Christmas period that result from staff having eaten and drunk too much?
A. Make line managers aware that Christmas and New Year is a time when sickies and one day absences can go through the roof, and encourage them to stick to routines such as return to work interviews and not to be tempted to let people off 'just because'...