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.
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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. 
A significant number (37 per cent) of workers (11 million people) in the UK worry their job will change for the worse and 23 per cent (7 million people) are concerned that their current job may no longer be needed, claims a survey into the impact of automation over the next decade. In the survey, carried out to mark the launch of a new Commission on Workers and Technology chaired by Yvette Cooper MP, workers were 73 per cent confident they can adapt to technological change and update their skill if automation affects their job and over half think (53 per cent) are optimistic that technology change will be good for their working lives. 
A quarter (25 percent) of businesses currently employ staff from the EU but half (50 percent) of business leaders say they would be put off employing someone from the EU after the immigration laws change a new survey has claimed. A quarter (25 percent) are also concerned the recruitment process will become lengthier, and almost a fifth (19 percent) believe it will become more costly. The study by Blacks Solicitors also found business leaders in the UK don’t feel confident in communicating the forthcoming changes to employees’ rights during Brexit. A quarter (23 percent) revealed they feel underprepared, and a further 61 percent say they are worried about leaving the EU. 
Fears of robots taking workers’ jobs appear to have lessened over the last year, a new report has suggested. Research from Perkbox and SEMrush examined fears of robots at work according to online searches from January 2015 to June 2018 in the UK and found that in just one year, from 2015 to 2016 the phrase ‘will robots take my job?’ increased from zero to 1,600 average monthly searches. In 2017, the phrase was searched 197,800 times/monthly on average. In 2018 so far, the average has dropped but it remains relatively high regardless (57,833 searches). According to online searches with keyword ‘robots’ and ‘work,’ people are gradually becoming more concerned about what jobs robots will replace first. The phrase ‘what jobs will be replaced by robots? was rarely searched in 2015. However, in 2016-17 the number rose from 200 searches/monthly on average (2016) to 2,400 on average in 2017 (a 1,100 percent increase). 
August 21, 2018
How do you make your company culture work for everyone?
by Jonathan Richards • Comment, Workplace
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