August 22, 2018
SMEs more likely to offer flexible working than larger businesses
More SMEs than larger businesses offer flexible working as a way of reducing absences, research from industry body Group Risk Development (GRiD), suggests. The research showed that 35 percent of SMEs with up to 249 employees are actively using flexible working strategies to combat absence compared to just 23 percent of organisations with over 250 employees. Drilling down further into the detail, 38 percent of micro businesses with between 1 and 9 employees use flexible working as a means to reduce absence. Flexible working now means a lot more than allowing an employee to work from home when they are feeling under the weather, and following changes in the law in 2014, it is now an option for everyone with at least 26 weeks continuous employment to request it – not just those with children or carer responsibilities. It also includes part-time working, term-time working, job sharing, compressed hours and flexitime. A greater degree of flexibility can increase productivity and reduce burn out, particularly in stressful occupations.
Most organisations already offer some sort of flexible working and over half of employees now ask to work flexibly, a new survey from XpertHR research has claimed. One in 12 organisations (8.1 percent) reported that all employees worked flexibly, with employers attributing the rise to a more supportive workplace culture and the impact of recent legal changes. The survey found that more than half (55.9 percent) had seen an increase in flexible working requests over the past two years. Three out of four believed that this was due to changes in workplace culture in recent years, attributable in part to a change in the law in 2014 that extended the right to request flexible working to all employees with at least 26 weeks’ service. Flexible working goes across the board, and includes part-time working, variable start and finish times, home-working and other options.
As fresh graduates from generation Z, i.e. those born between the mid 1990’s and 2000 are enter the workplace, new research from Perkbox claims that over 1 in 3 (36 percent) admit that the workplace perks are one of the most important deciding factors on whether to accept a new job or not. These post-millennials are also the group most likely (32 percent) to prefer smaller benefits that they can enjoy on a more frequent basis, all-year-round, over one annual event, such as a Christmas party. The top three workplace perks most popular amongst Generation Z included simple benefits, such as receiving a day’s annual leave on your birthday (86 percent), followed by free coffee and hot drinks (85 percent), and flexi-hours (83 percent). Despite this, Generation Z feel less deserving of workplace benefits than co-workers born pre-1995, with fewer than half (38 percent) believing they should benefit from such offerings – which is less than any other age group.
The already low number of fathers claiming paternity leave has fallen for the first time in five years, to 213,500, down 3 percent from 221,000 last year an analysis by law firm EMW has revealed. To help encourage more men to take paternity leave, the Government launched the shared parental leave scheme in 2015. However, take up of the scheme has also been slow, with less than 2 percent of all UK fathers participating. These latest figures suggest that hundreds of thousands of men are not taking up their entitlement to paternity leave. In comparison with low rates of paternity leave, nearly treble the number of mothers (662,700) took maternity leave in 2017-2018, up from 661,000 in 2016/17. 
New research has revealed the top 15 cities worldwide that are best for remote working and Prague is on top, with London ranked as the 5th best city in the world for remote workers. Inspired by the top 15 cities listed in InterNation’s Expat City Ranking Report, Powwownow analysed the cost of living, average monthly salary, internet speed, price of coffee, and cost of public transport in different places across the world. Cities were individually scored on each factor and ranked by the total number of points, to calculate the top 15 cities around the world. Calculating an overall ranking for each city, Prague was revealed to be the best city worldwide for remote workers. 
Employers need to recognise the workplace as integral to delivering a business’ commercial strategy, and treat employees as ‘workplace consumers’ – creating ‘frictionless’ experiences and environments that help them perform to their best ability. This is according to a report: ‘Optimising performance: defining, designing, maintaining and evolving workplace experiences’ from Interserve, undertaken in partnership with Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA). The two-year study into the science behind effective working environments argues there is a need to radically re-envisage workplaces to optimise team productivity and maximise the value of physical working environments. It sets out a series of critical steps for knowledge-based businesses to revolutionise the workplace – and thereby aid employee performance. The report argues that traditional silos, from IT and HR to facilities, need to be broken down to integrate the management of the workplace as part of a ‘one-team’ approach; doing so will ensure companies can deliver a streamlined workplace experience which supports employee productivity.
August 15, 2018
The global problem of overwork and the right to disconnect
by Aki Stamatis • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing
Anybody who doubts the importance of work and working culture to people’s lives should look at the resistance to President Macron’s mooted changes to labour laws. His attempts to modernise and liberalise French workplace legislation marked the first cracks in his reputation and brought millions of French workers to the streets as part of a national strike.However, one change to French legislation that met with little or no resistance earlier this year was a new right to avoid work emails outside working hours. Under the legislation, firms with more than 50 workers will be obliged to draw up a charter of good conduct, setting out the hours when staff are not supposed to send or respond to emails as they seek a right to disconnect.
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