With the start of a new academic year, it’s not just teachers and pupils who are heading back to college.
Employees of businesses throughout Gibraltar will also find themselves back in the classroom over the coming months at Gibraltar College, working as volunteer business advisers to Young Enterprise companies.
Through the Young Enterprise Company Programme, young people aged 15 to 19, set up and run their own real company for one academic year, with the support and guidance of a Business Adviser, a volunteer from the business community who acts as facilitator and mentor to the students. The programme is based on a principle of learning-by-doing, and exists to provide students with a relatively safe environment in which to learn by trial and error, and from their own mistakes, how a company operates, and how business works.
“It truly is an exciting and motivating experience, both for the students you support, and for yourself as a volunteer,” says John Lowe, Managing Director of the UK’s Avalon Training and 2005 Young Enterprise Business Adviser of the Year. “The change in the students from the beginning of the experience to the end is quite dramatic as they grow and develop in terms of their business skills and knowledge, but also in confidence and their aspiration to succeed. It’s great to know that you have played a part in making that happen, and the spin-off benefit is that you have had the chance to develop your own mentoring skills along the way.”
Company Programme Business Advisers attend a 1-2 hour weekly “board meeting” with the students, where they are on hand to offer help and advice, and to stimulate and facilitate discussion and debate. Some Business Advisers volunteer on an individual basis, and some volunteer as part of their employers’ volunteering programme.
At the beginning of the summer, and in preparation for the autumn launch of Young Enterprise in Gibraltar, the Chamber of Commerce hosted two training sessions for Business Advisers and Link Teachers here in Gibraltar.
If you are interested in becoming a Young Enterprise volunteer, you can find out more, and volunteer on-line at www.young-enterprise.org.uk or contact Ken Longster, Project Manager in Gibraltar at ken.longster@yeyh.org.uk for an informal discussion.

Chamber Absenteeism Survey 2006
During August and September, the Chamber conducted a survey among its members on absenteeism in the workplace. It is the first time that such a survey has been conducted and the findings shed light on some of the issues facing many local employers.

A total of 44 responses were received. This is considerably lower than the response rate we have for the annual Trading Conditions Survey. The timing of the survey may partially explain the reason for this. Nevertheless the responses received provide a lot of information about absenteeism in the workplace in Gibraltar.

One of the most striking points about the responses we received was the number of companies who said that they had only begun monitoring absenteeism and keeping records in the last two years. Well at least they have made a start.

Those members responding employ more than 1660 staff or around 10 per cent of Gibraltar’s total workforce. Here are a few of the key findings.

If an employee has taken their full sick leave entitlement, over eighty per cent of companies responding said that they would act depending on the merits of the case.

The estimated costs of sick leave to respondents’ businesses rose from an estimated £117,000 in 2003 to more than £256,000 in 2005 and the trend looks to be continuing in 2006 (£169,000 in the first six months)
Forty three per cent of those companies responding said that they thought the level of sick leave abuse in Gibraltar was average, high or very high.

Monday was the most frequent day for reported sick leave (74 per cent of respondents) followed by Friday (13 per cent).

The end of the survey sought additional comments from respondents on any other areas of concern. Here is a selection of some of the comments we received:

“Absenteeism in the public sector”
“Ease with which doctors issue medical certificates”
“Doctors at the health centre seem to give one week’s sick leave at a time. If not, the worker goes to another doctor until they are signed off for a week.”
“Reluctance of company doctors to go against NHS colleagues”
“Sick leave seems to be taken as an allocation of extra holiday”.
“We do not keep records but some employees take advantage more than others”.

Dealing with sick pay abuse
Some companies have suffered over the years by individual members of staff taking their full quota of sick leave even when they are not ill, just as if it was part of their annual holiday allowance. This penalises companies but also creates more work for colleagues who have not abused their sick leave entitlement.

In an attempt to combat absenteeism and in particular reduce the abuse of taking sick pay by some staff, one employer has introduced an attendance bonus. This works by awarding those staff who take no sick leave with a lump sum payment. Attendance is monitored each quarter and if a full record has been made by a staff member they are paid a lump sum in the following quarter. The payment is taxable but still it encourages workers not to abuse the entitlement. The company which introduced this scheme, which employs more than 100 staff, has reduced the number of staff taking sick leave considerably and now the number of staff taking their full sick pay entitlement, has shrunk to single figures.

The Chamber would be interested to hear what measures other members use to encourage staff not to abuse their sick leave entitlement.