MORE than three-quarters of British companies lack employee policies for watching this year's World Cup.
Despite this, 64 per cent of employees intend to watch games that are broadcast during office hours, according to a survey by Deloitte & Touche Human Capital.
The survey asked 100 human resources directors of FTSE 500 companies how they intended to tackle the demand from employees to watch World Cup games.
It also questioned 527 employees across the UK on their plans for games that will be shown during office hours.
Of those employees planning to watch the games, 31 per cent said they would do so illicitly and nearly one in 10 employees intended to call in sick in order to see important games.
Yet 87 per cent of HR directors believed the World Cup would not affect absenteeism.
"It's worrying that so few HR directors have established a formal policy to manage the obvious demand to watch the World Cup," said Andy Mewis, human capital consultant at Deloitte & Touche in Birmingham.
"HR directors need to tackle the problem before it happens."
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