Many HR experts are highlighting the need to make Christmas events casual and low-key or risk putting pressure on staff who feel compelled to buy clothes or gifts to be able to take part in the workplace Christmas experience.

On the other hand, businesses need to show that they appreciate the hard work and sacrifices of employees and the contribution their hard work has made to surviving the global economic crisis.

Tailoring your party to the size of your business is important. It’s a good idea to ask people what kind of party they would like, and to appoint a member of the staff team to receive their suggestions, as it’s quite difficult for employees to make suggestions to the CEO or some other high-powered individual.

Ideas that are being implemented by a lot of organisations this year include:

•    Bowling parties with teams being given printed ‘team shirts’ in which to bowl.
•    Go-karting or mini-golf tournaments or a treasure hunt around a local place of interest (get permission if you are using a building or location)
•    A chocolate making or pizza building party – especially for those firms where many employees have children as this allows families to be invited along.

In one Louisiana hospital, from 2012, smoky clothing will be outlawed.  Employees who turn up in clothes smelling of smoke will be sent home. Exactly this policy is already in place at the hospital, in the wings that care for women and children, as these are the groups where third-hand smoke and other smoking contaminants have been shown to have the most far-reaching negative effects. But from July next year, the whole hospital (Christus St Frances Cabrini) will come under the same rule.

Because employees are not allowed to smoke at all during their shifts, the hospital will offer smoking cessation services based at the hospital on a 24 hour basis. Under the program employees were sent letters explaining that they had nearly one year to make adjustments to their lifestyle and comply with the new hospital policy.

There are concerns about the fairness of hospital administrators choosing to institute these kinds of sanctions on staff who may be working double and triple shifts regularly but there are also clear indications that employers are starting to consider how the behaviour of employees may reflect on an organisation.

Alternatives that might be considered to this kind of approach are offering staff a clothing bank where they can swap an item of work-branded clothing for a fresh one between shifts, thus allowing them to go and have a smoke if they wish, or, as is more commonly done in Japan, organising a shift bath, where a local gym or bathhouse offers all the members of the same shift the chance to take a shower and sauna or steam room before changing clothes and either going home or going back on-shift again. This can be a good solution for companies wishing to invest in employee health, as it gives staff an incentive to swim or visit the gym when they finish work. For smaller firms, organising a five-a-side football side or other team activity and providing sports clothing for those taking part can create a healthier way to encourage people to stop smoking.

A recent survey by Peninsula, the legal specialists, discovered that over 60% of British workers have had a workplace affair.

For companies this is a dangerous issue: every employer wants staff who enjoy their jobs, like their colleagues and have fun at work, but when this good workplace vibe tips over into clandestine romance, it can lead to work-based rows, colleagues breaking up and others taking sides, people leaving the workplace to avoid a former lover and even to legal action.

Part of the issue is familiarity which causes us to get to know our colleagues better than anybody else – once we reach a point where the office, factory or shared workspace becomes our world, we start to expect to meet our emotional needs within it, and colleagues easily become sources of admiration, attraction and love. The team-building part of work can also lead to romances – when we’re encouraged to bond with our workmates, it’s easy for them to start looking like life-mates too.

It’s not all bad, around half the people currently working in offices have met a partner at work, according to the Industrial Society, but on the other side, around 20% of people regret work romances enough to leave their jobs, which can be damaging ot the company.

Some organisations try to control workplace romance by setting rules about appropriate clothing and ‘fraternisation’.  This rarely works and can lead to a different form of legal problem, when people object to being restricted in their behaviour. It’s better to try and widen the pool by bringing your workforce into contact with a similar workforce nearby – shared cafeteria facilities, organising sports such as 5-a-side football, running groups at lunchtime or gardening clubs to improve an industrial estate or suite of offices can all bring your staff into contact with people in a similar situation which sparks romance.

For many of us, the lives of Premier League footballers appear to be adult-rated fantasies of sex, shopping and international travel, but Blackburn Rovers have decided to kick against the trend by giving away a big part of their income generation to raise funds for the Prince’s Trust charity.

In addition to wearing the Trust logo on their shirts, the football team have committed to running fundraising throughout the season and to supporting work with disadvantaged youngsters in their region.

In Ireland a charity called Camara (West African for ‘teacher’) takes unwanted computers from Irish businesses and government offices, refurbishes them, loads them with educational software and ships them to Africa and the West Indies. This month it sent computer number 25,000 to West Africa, where it will help children learn how to use computers and to study other subjects that they may not have physical teachers for (such as sciences and languages) via the specially chosen software.

The charity’s Chief Executive said, ‘We have hit a milestone in Camara’s history in exceeding the 25,000 mark for computers distributed. I want to thank all of those that have given technology, time or donations and contributed in reaching this significant achievement.’

Several organisations now collect and refurbish office equipment for use in charities or as training aids for the homeless or the elderly who may be unfamiliar with new technology. There are also new charity recycling schemes in several UK cities offering people the chance to bring old but good work clothing into a depot where it will be redistributed to homeless people or those with special needs to help them dress appropriately for job interviews.

Regus, the virtual office people, have conducted some international research that shows we are still highly national when it comes to packing for our business travel.

Nearly half the Australian business travellers who responded packed bathing trunks, a swimsuit or a set of sports clothing, compared to just 27% of the rest of the world.

On the other hand, only 6% of Australians packed hygiene supplies like hand sanitising gel, while, in the rest of the world, 15% of business travellers packed some kind of disinfecting toiletry.

7% of business travellers from the Indian sub-continent packed a musical instrument. A quarter of Chinese travellers tucked a lucky charm into their case but 39% of them packed a computer game. 24% of those Indian travellers took a suit when they travelled, but less than 5% of Australians packed a shirt, let alone a suit. One did take along his snake-catching kit though!

The Institute of Fundraising’s chair, Mark Astarita, has made a forthright challenge to the value of Payroll Giving. He told the media some weeks ago that he thought, ‘the only people who really love [payroll giving] are those who make loads of money from managing the transactions.’ It’s a controversial viewpoint and one that many major charities would be wary of supporting, but for smaller firms it’s true that the cost of payroll giving can make it a burden.

The alternatives to payroll giving have different kinds of costs: the time taken to organise fundraising events like ‘dress down Fridays’ or corporate events, the cost of persuading people to pay up for sponsored activities and the difficulties of balancing the demands of the workplace with the desire to give back to society.

There can be simple ways to reduce the costs of workplace giving. One idea is to have team based activities with the winning team (either the one that raises most money or the one that donates the most time) being given a special printed T-shirt to wear for the day and rewarded with certificates and employee recognition in newsletters and on websites. This can seem a little too much like being given gold stars at school, particularly for undemonstrative British firms, so an alternative is to offer a volunteer bank where people can ‘bank’ the hours they spend working for a particular charity of their choice. When they reach an agreed level they receive back a dividend of Time Off In Lieu to give to the charity – in other words, their employer pays for them to have a day off, as long as they spend that day doing voluntary work.

News from Scotland suggests that charities may experience up to a 25% drop in income as a result of a massive decline in clothing collection and it’s happening because firms that sell on donated clothing to make money are cutting into the charities’ income!

The British Heart Foundation says that it could be losing around £3 million annually. Firms are distributing leaflets that meet the law by saying that the bag with which the leaflet is given away is from a limited company, not a charity, but the print is very small and the large print, includes words like ‘kindly donate’ and that the items will ‘reach those who do not have possibility to purchase new footwear and clothing’ along with logos very similar to those of major charities. Some companies are even asking for ‘donations’ of old mobile phones and laptops which they simply trade in or resell.

Charities are asking for householders to be given clearer information from collectors about where the proceeds of their goods are going so they can make an informed choice about where to donate their unwanted clothing and other items.

In happier news, the armed forces charity Help for Heroes is close to achieving £100 million in public donations. The charity builds recovery centres for soldiers injured in recent conflicts and offers a range of opportunities such as retraining in independent living, providing resources for ex-service people to find work, undertake sport and other healthy activities, helping them to live an integrated life with their families and wear stylish clothing. Recently £8 million was spent on building a pool and gym at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court in Headley, Surrey.

It’s actually called Team Green Britain Bike Week, and in 2011 it runs from 18th – 26th June. It’s the UK’s largest cycling event with nearly half a million people taking part in 2010 and the idea is to get more people cycling, more often. Cyclists are fitter and generally happier than the average commuter – and they have less days off work!

If your company or organisation wants to take part in Team Green Britain Bike Week Here are a few tips:

1.    Give your employees or team a chance to check their bike is in good working order, if not, have details of local bike repair firms handy.
2.    Think about providing space for bikes at the workplace – and maybe offering locks for sale along with other accessories such as helmets, gloves, lights, puncture kits and so on.
3.    Set up a commute club, offering people a free energy drink if they cycle to work.
4.    Have a fashion show with a local store or fitness centre, showing all the fantastic clothing that can be cycled in and still look good, such as sleeveless fleeces and poly-cotton mix polo-shirts.
5.    Set up a bike slalom in the car park and post You Tube videos of cyclists trying for the fastest run!

In the USA, we’re constantly told, they are facing a workplace epidemic of obesity costing $168 billion every year – which is 17% of all medical bills in the States.

Dealing with this isn’t easy, especially for employers, and in the UK, large companies are looking to their US counterparts to see how they can best manage the issues surrounding workplace obesity and welfare.

It seems that Americans may be recognising that they need to lose weight and that many are focusing on ways to get slimmer and fitter at work. According to a survey of nearly 6000 workers, 18% claimed they had lost weight at work in 2011 compared to 16% in 2010. But 43% admitted that they had gained weight in their current job.

Reasons for this increase include comfort eating as a result of the increased stress of a recession; longer work hours leading to more time spent seated at work and a tendency to buy the cheaper (and therefore less healthy) options in work canteens and from fast foot restaurants.

28% of American employers say they provide gym classes or gym membership as an employment benefit and around half of those say that they provide places for people to change into sportswear or casual clothing so they can take part in classes or even go for a jog in their lunch break.

But around half of the companies also say that they are concerned about the additional costs of larger workers, ranging from extra time off sick through to having specially made clothing for those who exceed even the XXXL size in which many items of workplace clothing are now made.

As Red Nose day approaches, lots of companies are working out how to support the fundraising event with workplace based activities and fun. But for one or two people, charity fundraising is more of a challenge than a bit of fun.

Take Alastair Humphreys, who at 24, started cycling for charity – he didn’t stop for four years! He travelled England to South Africa, then crossed the Atlantic by yacht and continued cycling from Argentina all the way to Alaska. He then crossed the Pacific by freighter (with his bike in the hold) and cycled back from Siberia to England. In total it was a 46,000 trip.

He wore no underwear (to save weight!) and made do with one long-sleeved cycling top and just two 2 T-shirts, plus loads of clothes in Siberia that he gave away when he left.