December Update

Welcome to our December newsletter.

As this is the first festive period in two years that we can celebrate “normally”, Christmas parties are well underway. If your company has decided to have a Christmas party this year, here are our top tips:

·??????Email out a gentle reminder to all employees advising of acceptable behaviour at Christmas parties– of course Christmas parties are there to enjoy and celebrate your employees however, this needs to be met with mutual respect

·??????Everyone should included and invited. Make some arrangements for those who need it. An earlier shuttle bus home perhaps for those who need to get back home or just like an early night!

·??????Ensure under-18s aren’t drinking.

·??????Be aware of religious sensitivities.

·??????If an issue arises on the Christmas do, then note down what’s happened and take appropriate action the next working day or if serious, delicately at the time.

·??????Be mindful that Christmas can be a difficult time of year for many people. Not everyone will be in the joyful spirit and so if they do not want to come or engage fully this should be respected by all – but don’t assume and leave them out.

However, we also respect and understand that not all companies have opted for a Christmas party this year for a number of reasons and if this is something your company does not want to implement, there are other ways to celebrate and show appreciation to your employees this festive period:

·??????Christmas jumper day – hand out a prize for the best / worst Christmas jumper

·??????Charity day – schedule a day this month that employees can go volunteer for a charity close to their heart and give back this Christmas

·??????Virtual escape room: teams can search for hidden clues and work together to find their way out of the virtual room. Macmillan is running a virtual escape room that not only supplies you with the resources but also helps them to raise money at the same time.

·??????Secret Santa

·??????Festive bake-offs

·??????Bring your own bauble – each employee then has their own input on the Christmas tree

·??????Christmas hampers for employees

·??????Festive food day – order / buy in some food for the whole team and have a festive lunch

·??????Bonuses

Mental Health and Wellbeing

We would like to once again introduce you to our Mental Health and Wellbeing partner Henri Saha. He is offering all Wurkplace clients a free mental health and wellbeing audit to assess current practises in your company and work with you to create and carry out an action plan that you can use to improve these practices.

Christmas time can be a tough time for many employees for many different reasons and so having practises and policies in place that helps employees with their mental wellbeing and creates an awareness is extremely beneficial.

Wurkplace clients can request their free audit through: https://henrisaha.com/mhwaudit

Training Courses

We have created some incredibly useful and in-depth training programmes that are delivered by our very own HR consultants that we believe could benefit your company tremendously.

There are two courses that are available, these are HR Policies and Practices training which contains 6 modules and Management Development training which contains 8 modules. These courses can be purchased separately, together or individual courses can also be purchased. Each module will take around 3.5 hours.

Please contact us if you would like more information on these.

Team News

We have had an exciting year here at Wurkplace with our very own HR software in the making, our Managing Director getting married and existing and new relationships being formed with both clients and partners.

From all of us here at Wurkplace, we wish you a very happy Christmas and a happy New Year.

At Wurkplace we continue to support our clients in both their HR and Health and Safety requirements.?If you would like any information on our services, please visit our website www.wurkplace.co.uk or call us on 0330 400 5490.