Tales of a Golf HR Consultant – Day 4: Zero hours contracts continued
Clearly there is an important role for zero hours contracts within golf clubs, however it is worth considering that there is growing evidence that using zero hour contracts is not so good if you are trying to build a team that works well together and a cohesive team will naturally deliver better results. Zero hours can lead to lower morale and less commitment from staff that see less commitment from you!
It is also a double edged sword, while you can be flexible on the hours you offer, there is no obligation for the employee to accept them, so without careful management you might find that you do not have the staff you need. This could mean you need a bigger pool of potential employees in order to ensure you are always properly staffed.
In reality short term contracts might be more better suited if you need to guarantee someone will consistently on site delivering the required service. You cannot have zero hours contract staff on site waiting for work without paying them.
The media have complained workers are being exploited with only compliant or popular workers being rewarded with hours and less committed workers missing out. Hang on a minute, since when has rewarding the most able employees been exploitative?
One of the most popular reasons we are asked about using zero hours contracts is this very reason. If you find a good employee you can give them more hours and if someone does not come up to scratch you can give them less or indeed none at all.
The nature of zero hours contracts make this approach entirely acceptable and the only consideration would be if the employee being given less hours had one of the ‘protected characteristics’ identified in employment law. These are thankfully well known, and to recap the nine are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex and finally sexual orientation.
If an employee falls into one of these identified categories than you should be cautious in how hours are distributed. For example, you may be vulnerable if you give a straight employee preferential treatment in terms of hours of work and discriminate against someone who was gay.
Read more tomorrow…