Can you use office attendance as a performance metric?
Lawyers at the firm were told to return to the office for a mandatory three days per week from 1 May 2024. However, partners at the firm can still decide which days they work from home, but the level of their office attendance will now be used as a performance metric. This may then impact on their bonuses because of the link between performance reviews and remuneration.
Factoring office attendance into performance reviews for your staff could create the following risks:
- an increase in staff resentment, resulting in more resignations
- a decrease in staff engagement and productivity levels
- indirect sex discrimination claims, particularly if office attendance has an impact on salary - for example, where it puts women at a particular disadvantage to men because of the “childcare disparity” (i.e. women being more likely to be unable to comply with office attendance requirements because they’re the primary child carers) and it puts the particular female employee at that disadvantage
- claims for breach of the duty to make reasonable adjustments - where the employee has a disability and hybrid/home working would be a reasonable adjustment for their disability.
In addition to an increase in staff resentment, leading to loss of productivity, disengagement and resignations, you could also see an increase in employment tribunal claims, particularly claims for discrimination, if you try to use levels of office attendance as a performance metric.
Create your profile to unlock this advice and many more.