Details of the UK’s new Employment Rights Bill were released yesterday. The legislation represents what the government claims is a significant overhaul of workers’ rights, offering more protections and benefits and helping to promote practices like flexible working. Key elements of the bill include granting workers access to statutory sick pay and parental leave from the first day of employment, and introducing a ban on exploitative zero-hour contracts. It also aims to curb controversial “fire and rehire” practices and gives employees the right to claim unfair dismissal from day one, rather than after two years of service. However, businesses will still be allowed to operate probationary periods to ensure fit for roles, with discussions suggesting a maximum of six months. More →

Millions of workers aged 57 and over in the UK are being overlooked for job opportunities, as employers increasingly consider this age ‘too old’ to hire, according to a new poll. The survey, conducted by Totaljobs, claims that a third of people over 50 worry they will struggle to find work due to age discrimination, with one in seven reporting being rejected for jobs because of their age. The study suggests that two-fifths of HR decision-makers have faced pressure to hire younger candidates, placing older workers at a disadvantage when looking for work. In response, more than a fifth of over-50s have chosen to omit their age from their CVs, while a quarter hesitate to apply for roles, fearing potential bias. More →

In spite of all the chatter about the so-called Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting, whether people decide to stay with or leave an employer still largely depends on whether they think they are paid enough. According to a new poll from SD Worx, pay remains the number one reason employees will stay with a company or leave. For the report, SD Worx surveyed 5,000 businesses and 18,000 employees in 18 countries across Europe, including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Belgium. More →

Only around a third of employees feel the conflict they experienced at work has been fully resolved, according to a new poll from the CIPD.  According to the survey, eight in 10 (81 percent) employers feel they are doing enough to prevent and manage bullying and harassment at work, but just over a third of employees (36 percent) who experienced workplace conflict in the past year feel it has been fully resolved. More →

People used to walk around the office with pieces of paper to look like they were working. Now a new report suggests that a third of UK workers admit to ‘pretend productivity’ by other means. The poll from Workhuman claims that it is the pressure to appear busy that is driving workers to fake activity. More →

A new report claims that UK graduates are falling short when it comes to offering organisations the creativity they need in the workplace. The poll from Canva of around 1,000 recent university graduates, educators, and hiring managers in the UK, suggests that over three quarters (77 percent) of graduates and 66 percent of hiring managers consider creativity essential for landing a job and succeeding in the workplace. More →

New research suggests that Shared Parental Leave (SPL) has failed to encourage greater take-up or longer leave by fathers, prompting calls for policy reform. Introduced in April 2015, SPL was designed to let parents share the load of looking after their children, giving fathers a greater role at home and encouraging mothers to get back to work sooner. But new research by economists from the Economics Department and Institute for Policy Research (IPR) at the University of Bath and Cardiff University shows that the policy has fallen flat. Workplace Insight has been tracking the bumpy passage of the legislation over the past nine years. You can see our coverage here. More →

Workers in the UK are lukewarm towards the “New Deal for Working People,” a cornerstone of the recently introduced Employment Rights Bill. This ambivalence is coupled with a significant lack of awareness about their current workplace rights and their employers’ stance on various aspects of the deal. These insights come from the latest Robert Half Jobs Confidence Index (JCI), an economic confidence tracker developed in collaboration with the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr). More →