Finance Monthly April 2020 Edition

How can Titan help? Titan employs over 100 professional surveillance operatives, the majority of whom are former government investigators and covert operations specialists. Our staff are bound by Non-Disclosure Agreements, fully insured, Data Protection compliant and registered and regularly DBS checked. Our evidence gathering methods and procedures are lawful and will withstand the scrutiny of a criminal court if required. If you’re a government agency, such as a County or District Council, then RIPA and the Human Rights Acts will apply. Due to our staff’s extensive knowledge and previous operational use of this legislation, we’ll be able to guide you through this and ensure you’re compliant. We deploy a minimum of 2 surveillance operatives to monitor and record the employee’s movements whilst on leave and provide a fully comprehensive report outlining our findings backed up with still images taken from the surveillance footage. What should business leaders do if they feel that their company might be subject to a culture of absenteeism or wish to test their current security protocols? Contact one of Titan Investigation’s dedicated Corporate Investigations team on one of the below numbers for a free consultation which will be treated in the utmost confidence. we can be contacted as below: Birmingham office - 0121 7162442 London office - 020 39046622 Cambridge office - 01223662022 Leicester office - 0116 2436520 Nottingham office - 0115 9646950 Derby office - 01332 504256 Sheffield office - 0114 3499400 Leeds office- 0113 4574066 Absenteeism Hurts • It’s costly Most organisations assume that paying holiday and sick time is simply one of the costs of doing business. But even routine employee absences carry hidden costs. Replacement workers and overtime charges raise costs, and heavier workloads for workers who are present can disrupt daily routines and increase employee stress. • It lowers productivity Across the board, replacement workers are less productive in all cases of employee absence. The Mercer study found that replacement workers are only 71% as efficient when covering for unplanned absences and 79% as efficient during planned and extended absences. Absent workers may slow down work output and other processes, cause meetings to be postponed, and create delays in key project steps. • It impacts engagement One of the hidden costs of absence is the effect it has on other employees. The additional workload, the inconvenience of having to work extra shifts and the possibility that they might know that co-workers are not actually ill, are bound to have a negative effect on employees. • It can increase compliance risks Managing different forms of absence and allowances, especially in organisations with workers’ councils is complex. Adding to the challenge are government and local leave laws like the European Working Time Directive. Under penalty of noncompliance, organisations must sort out the overlapping provisions of these regulations and internal policies. Failure to accurately track and enforce employee absence policies can result in costly regulatory violations and employee grievances. “Nearly a quarter (23%) of UK firms report ‘non-genuine absence’ as their top cause of short term absence for a non-manual worker and 30% in the case of manual workers.” BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES - CORPORATE INVESTIGATIONS 33 www.finance-monthly.com