Black Friday is upon us tomorrow, and it’s just in time for the Christmas present bargains – but what does that mean for your business?
Did you know that employment law expert ELAS Business Support, has stated that “UK businesses need to vigilant, or they risk losing valuable hours”.
This is due to the fact that although there are many price cuts and sales, not all businesses will be having such a celebration. In 2014, there were £810 million spent on approximately 404,835 online orders on Black Friday; which means that productivity in the workplace, took a considerable slide.
For many employees, if they are unable to have annual leave, this browsing time on the internet looking for a bargain, will most likely take place during work hours. Therefore, you need to ensure that your employees understand that browsing or buying during their working hours, isn’t acceptable.
If you catch your employees browsing, you may have to take disciplinary action against them, if it breaches your company’s internet policy. You may want to consider having content filters on work computers, this will ensure that access is blocked to retail websites; with them being accessible during break and lunch times.
Online browsing on Black Friday isn’t the only concern for businesses, as many employees will have their bargains delivered to their work address. Post may already take a large amount of time to arrange, therefore with packages that are not work-related being delivered – this will lead to more time being taken out of the day to organise.
If you are worried about packages being an issue in the aftermath of Black Friday, you are within your rights to ban this, if you believe it is affecting the productivity of the reception staff.
If you need any support, contact us on 01909 512 120 or email phillipa@loftusstowe.com
