Mothers of children under the age of three who don’t work full time are generally more happy than those in full-time employment, a new study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies claims. The survey by Dana Hamplová of the Czech Academy of Sciences asked 5,000 mothers from 30 European countries to make a subjective assessment of their levels of wellbeing and happiness. It found that there was a small but significant increase in happiness among mothers who were not working, compared to full-time workers. The report found there were no differences in the self-reported levels of happiness of non-working mothers and those who work part time.

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A study commissioned by Cascade HR claims to reveal the topics most likely to keep Human Resources professionals awake at night in 2018. Employee engagement topped the list of upcoming challenges for 44 percent of the 447 participants, followed by staff retention (36 percent). Absence management and recruitment came in as the joint third biggest worry for 33 percent of respondents, with succession planning in fifth place (26 percent). And it appears the same themes have posed the biggest headache for HR in 2017. When asked to reflect on their toughest encounters from the past 12 months, professionals ranked recruitment as the clear front-runner (52 percent), followed by absence management, (43 percent), employee engagement (39 percent), and retention (37 percent), with learning and development the only difference(20 percent).

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Businesses failing to comply with gender pay gap reporting regulations could face unlimited fines and convictions, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has warned as it published its enforcement strategy. As the regulatory body responsible for ensuring that all employers with over 250 employees report their gender pay gap statistics, the Commission has set out its enforcement policy for consultation. Although it will take steps to encourage compliance and engage informally with employers who are in breach of the regulations as a first port of call, it will ultimately enforce against all employers who do not publish their gender pay gap information. The Commission’s policy – which is open for consultation from today until 2 February 2018 – explains how the Commission will use a range of its powers.

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A survey of 2,000 US workers carried out by researchers at Olivet Nazarene University in Illinois claims that while everybody get irritated at work at times, for most people the source of those irritations is just a handful of their colleagues. Only 2 percent of respondents claim to find 10 or more of their coworkers irritating.  The healthcare and insurance industries have the highest number of annoying coworkers and 40 percent of the respondents who work in fashion/art and retail claim to be the most annoyed on a regular basis. 48 percent of respondents claim general loudness and complaining, followed by 31 percent who said gossiping and bullying behaviour was most annoying about their colleagues. Respondents in communications and journalism have the most gossipy workplaces, and because those industries are people-centric, discussing others’ business becomes a workplace side effect.

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