Football fever

The World Cup may bring a nation to its feet but it can chop the legs out from under time-poor human resources (HR) departments.

Last month’s (May 2006) Confederation of British Industry (CBI) survey of 400 organisations found worker time off for sickness amounting to 164m days in 2005 at a cost of £13.2 bn to the economy.

According to 40% of employers surveyed, 13% of days lost were due to major sporting events.

Consequent disciplinary processes are increasingly complicated and time-consuming for departmental managers and HR departments.

An online solution from Echelon Publishing provides geographically dispersed line managers with expert knowledge on disciplinary processes and procedures via a step by step flowchart with key stages in Investigation, Hearing and Appeal linked to a Help file pinpointing required actions.

By answering basic queries and explaining procedures to managers, the system gives managers more confidence to manage processes themselves and limits their contact with HR departments to special cases or where a procedure demands HR involvement, enabling department staff to concentrate on other important issues.

Echelon’s Absence Management programme is one of a range of bespoke, web-distributed learning packages available to members of a major professional training body.
Says Echelon’s David Hill: "This package provides its managers with all the information needed to ensure that sickness absence is handled in accordance with legislation, user policies and in a way which reflects its organisational values."

The CBI survey found absenteeism 30% higher among public sector workers, who missed on average 8.5 days of work in 2005 compared with six days on average in the private sector.

Companies that were unionised averaged 7.6 days of absenteeism compared with 5.5 days for those that were not, with similar gaps seen among large and small employers.

Ends

Released June 2006 on behalf of Echelon Publishing by BLP&PR

Media contact: Peter Muir Tel + 44 (0)1296 715228
Email: echelon@pmpr.co.uk

Sales contact: David Hill Tel + 44 (0)20 8568 1500
Email: david@echelonl.com

About Echelon Learning

Echelon Learning is a consultancy-led publishing house that integrates electronically-delivered knowledge and learning into the development of management skills and business performance.

Echelon Consulting spearheads the company’s service with the development of new content in meeting clients’ requirements. This is usually derived from analysing employee knowledge and learning needs captured during client learning programmes.

Where appropriate, Echelon Publishing then offers this new content to a wider audience by publishing the material in generic format. This is made available in the form of easy to use ‘learning nuggets’ and is complimented with business development information licensed exclusively from one of the market’s best-known providers, Bloomsbury.

Echelon e-Learning provides the electronic systems which enable content to be published, distributed and usage tracked, and offers work-based solutions to a global audience. Now Echelon’s blended learning based on a bespoke site populated with material selected to support specific courses, builds knowledge prior to the event and refreshes application when back at the desk.

About Echelon Publishing
Echelon technologies help organisations place solutions at people’s fingertips, whether solving everyday business and work-related problems or helping gain qualifications and continued professional development.
Echelon:
• Has a content management system enabling informational or learning material to be developed or converted into XML so that it can be published and distributed in text and/or via the web.
• Has a learning management system to provide ready access via the web to highly structured information, which is easily searched and retrieved, and whose usage can be tracked and learning logged.
• Publishes and/or reformats content for professional bodies and commercial organisations to help students and employees maintain or develop requisite skills throughout their careers.
• Supports people from the outset of their careers in working with professional bodies to develop and deliver the learning content required by students in preparing for examination.
• Frees up the knowledge and learning contained within a business so that people have ready access to these resources in helping them to solve problems or develop their careers.
• Works with a number of blue chip organisations and professional bodies.