Every four years sees a leap year and often an election but more notably, this year brings the World Cup.

South Africa host Mexico today in the opening game of the full tournament, consisting of 32 teams and 63 matches, which culminates in the final to be held in Johannesburg one month later.

England has qualified and therefore, it is inevitable that the forthcoming month will bring a whole host of broken dreams, sporting injuries, penalty shootouts and sendings off with it.

However, with the competition heating up and vital games edging ever closer, it is important to remember that there are many employment law issues that many employers may wish to consider before supporting their favoured team.

The business world never sleeps and predictably, fixtures are often broadcast at times that conflict with usual working hours, posing potential problems for bosses with employees who wish to watch their team.

Employees may take the opportunity to abuse the system of ‘calling in sick’, preferring to stay at home to watch the game rather than keep up to date with their working duties. A ‘food poisoning’ excuse epidemic has been predicted, with 12% of working men expected to use it to ensure that they do not miss any all important matches.

However, help is at hand. The World Cup and Absence Management Guide was recently published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) which includes protocol for the main issues that may arise during the event.

The in-depth guide suggests that flexible hours, shift swaps and unpaid leave could be implemented following suit with the likes of Sainsbury’s, Asda and other corporate firms that have chosen to opt for this solution.

Alternatively, companies may find that they wish to use the World Cup to their advantage, promoting team building by screening matches or having a radio on within the workplace. It is important to note that whilst these solutions may suit football fanatics, others who have no desire to keep up with the game may feel disrupted and resentful.

Whichever solution your firm deems appropriate, may we wish you a productive World Cup season both on and off the pitch.

Location-based features are becoming par for the course in Twitter apps, so the idea of a Twitter app whose unique selling point is location may, at first glance, look a bit unnecessary.

However, Tweetsii is an interesting attempt to do something new – encouraging you to checkout tweets near your location more often, and associating them with places like bars, gig venues and tourist hotspots. In that sense, it’s like a Twitter app crossed with social location apps like Foursquare – you can even ‘check in’ to places as you can with Foursquare.

It might not tempt you away from ‘Tweetie 2’ or ‘Tweetdeck’ as yet, but it is definitely a worthy contender.

According to a report published recently by the Reputation Institute, the corporate reputation of O2 is ranked the highest out of all telecommunications providers by the general public.

Across all industries, O2 finished number 11 out of 150 UK companies. Interestingly, the next highest telecommunications provider was Orange, who finished a staggering 53 places below O2 in the overall rankings.

The report revealed that business results are increasingly impacted by corporate reputation as a company’s reputation score is often positively linked to customer attitudes and behaviours. It is fair to say that a company’s reputation often speaks for itself, in turn creating more business revenue and customer loyalty.

Paul Giacalone, Sales Director at Total Ltd said: ‘These figures represent an outstanding achievement by O2. I believe these results vindicate Total’s decision to become a Solus O2 Service Provider; there are outstanding products and service behind this reputation.’

He added: ‘We are happy to be working with a business which cares about its reputation and is always looking to exceed its own targets. In terms of benefitting Total and our customers, it is clear that we work with some truly brilliant people at a senior level in O2 and this means that we’re always thinking ahead for new and existing customers, working together, striving to deliver excellence.’

UK retailers have been significantly slower than the US in terms of m-commerce. While most retailers do have an online presence, the number of retailers which have developed any form of mobile commerce functionality, is surprisingly low.

Recent research from BT Expedite, found that 47% of all North American retailers are planning to implement some form of m-commerce into their marketing mix in 2011, compared to just 24% of UK retailers who are considering it.

These figures are especially concerning when you consider that in the UK, web traffic from mobiles is thought to be growing eight times faster than the traffic from PC’s. As this rate of growth is only set to accelerate as SmartPhone technology improves, m-commerce is not something retailers can continue to ignore, especially in the current market conditions.

While the number of UK retailers with mobile commerce functionality is significantly lower than in the US, there are a few brands which have recognised the potential of m-commerce. However, instead of developing an independent m-commerce site, UK retailers have chosen to develop the much more fashionable, SmartPhone app.

Tesco, for example, has developed a range of apps including the particularly clever ‘Clubcard app’ which allows users to scan their SmartPhone at the checkout. While the easy navigation and well designed basket offered by the designer shopping ‘Net-A-Porter’ app appears to address one of the main challenges that m-commerce presents – the checkout.

For the contemporary SmartPhone user, it’s simply not enough to develop an app that links to a desktop checkout process. While mobile web browsing is improving constantly, a checkout process optimised especially for m-commerce will improve usability – and therefore conversion rates – massively. Only once this has been achieved will retailers fully realise the benefit of driving visitors via mobile.