Shift pattern design - are you compliant?

We’re experiencing a significant uplift in enquiries relating to potential working time compliance issues.

Clearly every industry and organisation is different, but there are some central re-occurring themes in these discussions.

Some of the key concerns being raised with us that we actively supporting customers on are:

• Legislative compliance: Not having 100% visibility on when and how long employees are working can make it impossible or onerous to evidence full compliance with Working Time Regulations. Some organisations we speak to feel exposed because they don’t have a single central repository of accurate working time data that would support governance and help identify pressure points and risks.
• National Living Wage: It is essential for the compliant implementation of the National Living Wage to be able to accurately unify data from across HR and ERP systems to calculate employees’ hours worked over any given period. We’re hearing that many feel exposed in this area and are worried because fines for non-payment are levied at 200% of unpaid wages and directors face disqualification for up to 15 years for any breach.
• Supplier audits: Quite a few organisations are finding that supplier audits by key customers are incorporating elements of working time. For example, the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), which has been adopted by many large businesses, includes a code which states that no employee will work more than 60 hours in a 7-day period. For some organisations who experience significant spikes in demand, the concern is that they may occasionally exceed this limit and therefore put valuable relationships at threat.
• Legislative change: We are increasingly hearing from organisations that are looking to understand and plan for how changes to working time legislation could affect them. This is being driven by high profile issues such as rulings on travel to work time, overtime/holiday pay cases as well as the potential impact of Brexit.
• Best practice: With the increasing importance of employer brand in highly competitive labour markets, we are finding that many organisations are exploring duty of care considerations in more depth (e.g. minimising fatigue, reducing mental pressure and improving work-life balance). Regular media reports on the health and lifestyle impacts of shift work is encouraging some to ensure their shift patterns are not just compliant, but capable of supporting recruitment and retention strategies too.