Almost half of over 55s will work past retirement age, but need bosses support

Almost half of over 55s will work past retirement age, but need bosses support 0

by • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

 

A majority of older workers (55+) in the UK are bracing themselves to continue working until they are 70 years old, but three quarters of employees don’t think employers are doing enough to support them, according to new research by the CIPD. In a survey of more than 1,600 UK employees, more than a third (37 percent) believed that they will have to work past the widely accepted retirement age of 65, a figure which jumps to 49 percent among workers over 55 years old. Among those who predict they will work past 65, the average age they expect to actually retire is 70. The most common reasons for employees wanting to work past 65 the belief it will keep them mentally fit (32 percent), followed by a desire to be able to earn enough money to continue to enjoy themselves. However, the research has also found that many employers aren’t doing enough to support older workers in the workplace. Just one in four (25 percent) employees believe that their employer is prepared to meet the needs of workers aged 65 and over, demonstrating how much work organisations need to do in order to prepare for the increased numbers of older workers in the workplace.

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Working significantly past the state retirement age is a threat to recruitment and retention, claims study

Working significantly past the state retirement age is a threat to recruitment and retention, claims study 0

by • News, Wellbeing

Rising numbers of employees working past traditional retirement ages is a potential threat to recruitment and retention, new research from employee benefits consultancy Portus claims. Its study of 103 HR executives and 1,043 employees claims 41 percent of HR managers believe they face looming problems in retaining and recruiting new staff if existing employees are unwilling to retire or can’t afford to. Employment data shows 1.19 million over-65s are still working – slightly down on the 1.202 million peak at the start of 2015 – but still nearly double the 635,000 over-65s in the workforce in 2006. Working past 65 is increasingly seen as an option by employees, the study claims. It found just 29 percent of employees have ruled out working past 65. Younger workers – who face higher state pension ages – are the most likely to work past 65 with just 23 percent of those aged 25 to 34 saying they will definitely stop work by 65.

UK firm asks 16,000 employees whether their jobs could be done by robots

UK firm asks 16,000 employees whether their jobs could be done by robots 0

by • News, Technology

robotsUK insurance firm Aviva has asked 16,000 of its employees whether they believe their jobs could be done better by robots. The consultation process will see those people who answer yes retrained for a new role within the business. Research by Oxford Martin School recently warned that 35 percent of jobs in the UK were in danger of automation over the next 20 years. Insurance underwriters were at the top of the list, rated 98.9 percent at risk. Despite frequent warnings that automation will disrupt a wide swath of industries, many workers believe that their own job is safe. This is in spite of warnings such as that from Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, who claimed recently that automation could put 15 million British jobs at risk, equivalent to nearly half of the 31.8 million people who work in the UK. Most recent research backs this up. A White House report from 2016 concluded that between 9 percent and 47 percent of all American jobs are vulnerable, including around 80 percent of jobs paying less than $20 an hour. Image: SoftBank Robotics

London commercial property market letting down its small businesses

London commercial property market letting down its small businesses 0

by • News, Property

commercial property LondonSmall businesses are poorly served by London’s current commercial property market, claims a new report from the think tank Future of London. The Workspace That Works report calls for local government, developers and landlords to address the threats this poses to the capital’s economy. The report claims that SMEs make up 99 per cent of all businesses and 41 per cent of employment in the capital, in line with the rest of the UK, but London faces a number of unique structural challenges such as the growing number of offices being converted to residential use, high rents and a general lack of suitable development sites. The report highlights the growth of shared spaces as a key factor in providing dedicated space for niche firms with significantly reduced costs for small businesses and start-ups.

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New report sets out the workplace factors that are most fulfilling for older workers

New report sets out the workplace factors that are most fulfilling for older workers 0

by • News, Workplace

The Centre for Ageing Better at the Institute for Employment Studies has produced a new report which sets out the workplace and job-related factors that make employment fulfilling for older workers, offering insights into both the attitudes of older workers and the implications for employers. The report offers guidance on what employers can do to support older workers, asserting that understanding what they want is the first step in helping employers, policy-makers and others to create age-friendly workplace. The report is split into three sections covering older workers’ attitudes towards different aspects of work: work content – what older workers value about their job roles and tasks; work culture – outlines how older workers consider work fulfilling if certain behaviours, management styles and values are presented by employers; workplace adjustments – offers practical steps that employers can take to make their workplaces more age-friendly.

Digital transformation and flexible workforce will help drive growth, say senior managers

Digital transformation and flexible workforce will help drive growth, say senior managers 0

by • Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace

Implementing new technologies over the next 12 months is of primary importance for  senior managers, with nearly two-fifths of finance directors saying digital transformation is one of their greatest priorities. Against a backdrop of economic uncertainty, chief financial officers (CFOs) are focusing on increasing profitability (41 percent) and driving overall company growth (39 percent) in the year ahead, according to research from, Robert Half Management Resources which claims that CFOs and finance directors (FDs) will assume more responsibility for balancing traditional financial responsibilities with developing business strategy. The use of temporary and interim professionals also looks set to continue with a third of CFOs and FDs planning to use temporary staff for business transformation projects to either fill vacated positions or support active expansion. In the long-term, 31 percent of finance executives plan to actively add new permanent positions to implement the company’s digitisation and automation efforts over the next 12 months.

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MPs criticise the Government’s response to gender pay gap recommendations

MPs criticise the Government’s response to gender pay gap recommendations 0

by • Flexible working, Legal news, News, Workplace

MPs criticise the Government's response to gender pay gap recommendations

If the Government will fail to achieve its goal of eliminating the gender pay gap in a generation if it continues to ignore the evidence which it is being given, a cross-party committee of MPs has said. The Women and Equalities Committee is disappointed with the Government’s response to a series of recommendations it put forward last March, which it says shows that the Government is not effectively tackling the structural causes of the gender pay gap. While the Government’s recognises the business case for reducing the gender pay gap and acknowledges structural factors contributing to the pay gap, including women doing jobs for which they are overqualified, concentration in part-time work, and being penalised for taking time out of work to raise children; it rejects most of the Committee’s seventeen evidence-based recommendations for addressing these issues. Instead it highlights gender pay gap reporting, as “key to accelerating progress,” and maintains that current policies on Shared Parental Leave, flexible working, and supporting women back into work are adequate.

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New book offers a roadmap for workers in the age of smart machines

New book offers a roadmap for workers in the age of smart machines 0

by • News, Technology

University of Virginia Darden School of Business Professor Ed Hess and Katherine Ludwig have released a new book, Humility Is the New Smart: Rethinking Human Excellence in the Smart Machine Age (Berrett-Koehler, January 2017), where they wrestle with the defining workplace question of our era and offer workable solutions for employees to stay relevant. In the book, Hess and Ludwig argue that workers of the world stand at the brink of an unprecedented transformation, as a coming age of smart machines promises to eliminate tens of millions of jobs across the socioeconomic spectrum. The transition to an era of widespread automation will be tumultuous for both companies and employees, and its effects on the fabric of society have not yet been fully considered by workers, government entities or global corporations.

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Big disconnect between employees, business leaders and IT when it comes to innovation

Big disconnect between employees, business leaders and IT when it comes to innovation 0

by • News, Technology

Most North Americans believe their employers and IT teams should be doing more to unleash their capacity for innovation, according to a new study by Softchoice, a North American provider of IT solutions and managed services. The study, Enabling Innovation: When Actions Speak Louder Than Buzzwords, found just 37 percent of employees believe their employers are very innovative, and even fewer felt their organisation did a good job with other leading innovation indicators, such as anticipating market trends, taking risks, and investing in technology that enables innovation. The study is based on a survey of 1,000 full-time employees and 250 IT decision-makers across the U.S. and Canada to uncover whether workplaces really walk the walk when it comes to having the right leadership, culture, processes and technology tools to drive innovation.

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We need to rethink everything we know about self-employment and the gig economy

We need to rethink everything we know about self-employment and the gig economy 0

by • Flexible working, News

The rise in self-employment is being led by workers in relatively ‘privileged’ high-skilled, higher-paying sectors such as advertising and banking rather than the gig economy. Their considerable tax advantages over employees, rather than new technology and the gig economy, are central to the rapid growth in self-employment, according to a new analysis published by the Resolution Foundation. Self-employed workers in the larger but slower growing ‘precarious’ sectors that have dominated the recent public debate, enjoy a much lower tax advantages over employees but still miss out on important pay and employment rights. The analysis shows that 60 per cent of the growth in self-employment since 2009 has been in ‘privileged’ sectors, despite them making up just 40 per cent of the self-employed. The fastest growing sectors have been advertising (100 per cent growth), public administration (90 per cent), and banking (60 per cent). The remaining 40 per cent of the growth in self-employment has come in more ‘precarious’ sectors, such as construction and cleaning. The Foundation notes that despite the focus on Uber in recent years, the sector that includes taxis is actually only up 7 per cent since 2009, a third of the 22 per cent growth in self-employment up as a whole.

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Executive pay should be linked to health and safety performance, claims industry body

Executive pay should be linked to health and safety performance, claims industry body 0

by • Facilities management, News, Workplace

Leaders would have and even greater incentive to improve health and safety if their performance was more transparent and executive pay and bonuses were linked to it, suggests the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). This is one of nine summary recommendations made by IOSH in its response to the UK Government’s Corporate Governance Reform Green Paper proposals, which follow public concern about serious failures, such as those at Sports Direct. IOSH agrees with the Prime Minister’s views, expressed in her foreword to the green paper published last November, where she said: “…big business must earn and keep the trust and confidence of their customers, employees and the wider public”. The suggestions IOSH makes contribute constructively to those aims.

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Managers waste three days a year in unnecessary and unproductive meetings

Managers waste three days a year in unnecessary and unproductive meetings 0

by • News

Badly prepared, unnecessary and over-running meetings are harming businesses while directors and managers waste almost three days on average a year in them, according to a survey from technology firm Perivan. Over a half (51 percent) of UK business managers say they have been to a meeting where documents were found to be missing or else incorrect or out-of-date papers were presented. Close to a third (31 percent) said they are aware of erroneous decisions having been made as a direct result. On average, respondents said they participate in three meetings each week, though a quarter stated more than five per week. Around 42 percent said they believe they are attending too many, while 47 percent pointed out that the number they are being asked to attend has increased in the last three years.

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