No break for SME bosses

Three out of five bosses in small-to-medium enterprises plan to remain in daily contact with staff during their summer break this year, a situation fuelled by concern over increasingly complex HR and payroll issues.
 

According to a poll of 293 owners of small-to-medium businesses undertaken by internet service provider Eclipse Internet, while 73% plan to take a holiday this year, tough economic conditions and tight resources mean that nearly two thirds will not take the usual two-week break.
 
Instead they intend to go away for just a week or for long weekends, with 60% planning to be in daily contact with staff while they are on holiday. Some 17% even said they would make themselves available on a 24x7 basis to deal with any emergencies that cropped up.
 
Clodagh Murphy, director of Eclipse Internet, said: “SME owners and managers are fiercely protective of their businesses and with the current economic climate don’t feel comfortable being out of touch with what is going on in the office, even if they are supposed to be on holiday.”
 
But the situation was not helped by the fact that only a third of such organisations employed a dedicated HR or payroll specialist on either a full- or part-time basis. This is despite the fact they are finding it difficult to cope with as many as 20 significant changes to UK employment law, which have come into force between February 2009 and May 2010.
 
As a result, a survey undertaken among 1,500 SMEs by business software supplier Sage UK found that around two thirds were being forced to fork out for external advice when they could ill afford it in order to stay on top of matters.
 
But Jim Scott, head of support service SageCover, said that it was crucial to get things right in this area. “If your business can’t ensure that employees are receiving what is entitled to them by law, you may as well send them to the recruitment pages for your competitors. People understandably have a low tolerance when it comes to errors in things so personal as their pay or paternity leave,” he added.