Search Results for: job interview

October 5, 2016

Employees increasingly value health and wellbeing benefits ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Employee benefits that help promote a healthy workforce are increasingly important when you consider that (perhaps unsurprisingly) 69.8 percent of employees say they felt less productive if they come into work whilst ill. But these benefits are increasingly as important to employees as an aide to productivity. A range of employee benefits are still a crucial recruitment and retention tool, with almost three quarters (69 percent) of employees saying they are more likely to stay with an employer that offers a good employee package compared with 66 percent in 2015. New research from the fourth annual Capita Employee Benefits Insight Report also reveals that 44.8 percent of respondents would judge an employer based on the quality of the health and wellbeing packages they offer. This is particularly valued by higher earners where nearly half (48.8) percent of employees earning over £45,000 a year said they would evaluate their employer or potential employer on the strength of their commitment to employee wellbeing.

August 16, 2016

How to save a sinking ship: lessons from Marissa Mayer’s experience at Yahoo ⁰

by Andrea Hak • Case studies, Features, Flexible working, Technology, Work&Place

When former Google employee Marissa Mayer joined Yahoo as its CEO in 2012, she inherited the company’s vast problems. Though it was once seen as one of the first tech behemoths, Yahoo’s inability to come up with ground breaking products like Google and others, put it in a slow, steady decline. Mayer was immediately tasked with trying to reinvigorate the stagnating company. Her focus was to find a way to identify and retain talent, while phasing out ineffective employees. However, Yahoo’s new management policies have brought about much debate and criticism from HR experts. A controversial book by journalist Nicholas Carlson titled “Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo!” paints a highly critical view of Mayer’s first years as CEO. In response others have defended her, arguing that she has done the best she can with the resources available, but has become a scapegoat for poor management, like so many other women in powerful positions.

August 11, 2016

Disabled workers continue to face barriers in the workplace ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Legal news, Wellbeing, Workplace

A series of reports published in the past few days highlight the challenges faced by Britain’s disabled workers. The studies claim separately that disabled workers are keen to work but are less likely to be in employment and may be hiding disabilities from employers, are paid less when they are in work and that many employers do not feel they are well equipped to deal with the needs of disabled staff. The first study from Reed in Partnership and Disability Rights UK found that one in ten employers do not feel able to support a disabled employee. Meanwhile research from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that employees who experience mental ill-health earn up to 42 per cent less than colleagues. A third report from Citizen’s Advice found that 40 percent of disabled people would like to work but can’t find a job. And finally a report from RIDI claims that many people applying for jobs may be hiding their disability from employers.

August 8, 2016

Universal basic income is an idea whose time has come at last ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing

It is no longer a question of whether one of the world’s major economies will introduce a universal basic income for all of its citizens, but when. Over the weekend, the leader of the UK’s Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn announced in an interview in the Huffington Post that he was ‘instinctively looking’ at an idea that is already being discussed and piloted in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway and Canada. Corbyn may be one of the current glut of what would have once been political outliers in the Western World, but the idea of a universal basic income is one that is increasingly accepted in mainstream economic thinking. The RSA continues to campaign for it and has even put a number on it, suggesting that every UK citizen should be offered £308 between the ages of 25 and 65. Andrew Flowers offers up a masterful and detailed analysis of the economic and political issues involved in this piece on fivethirtyeight.com.

June 17, 2016

Women’s long hours working linked to alarming increases in serious illness ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, Knowledge, Wellbeing, Workplace

Women who put in long hours for the sake of their careers may pay a heavy price including life-threatening illnesses, such as heart disease and cancer. Work weeks that averaged 60 hours or more over three decades appear to triple the risk of diabetes, cancer, heart trouble and arthritis for women, according to new research from Ohio State University and published in The Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The risk begins to climb when women put in more than 40 hours and takes a decidedly bad turn above 50 hours, researchers found. Men with tough work schedules appeared to fare much better, found researchers who analysed data from interviews with almost 7,500 people who were part of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. More scheduling flexibility and on-the-job health coaching, screening and support could go a long way toward reducing the chances employees become sick or die as a result of chronic conditions, according to the report.

March 7, 2016

Nearly all managers are now seeking to redesign their organisation ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Workplace, Workplace design

Ninety-two per cent of the UK’s human resources and business leaders see redesigning their organisation as their most important priority, according to Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends 2016 survey. As part of this shift in focus, 42 per cent of UK respondents say they are already currently restructuring their organisation and 49 per cent have recently completed the process. Only seven per cent say they have no plans to restructure. The report also claims that lack of employee engagement is an issue currently facing 80 per cent of respondets. Only 36 per cent report that they are prepared to tackle engagement issues. Despite the emergence of ‘easy to use’ tools to frequently evaluate employee sentiment, 76 per cent of UK organisations still measure employee engagement only once a year. Forty-two percent measure this engagement through annual surveys and 20 per cent through interviews and focus groups.

February 25, 2016

Over half of UK employers will implement flexible working by next year ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

The UK is on the verge of a flexible working ‘tipping point’ with more than half of employers offering staff more choice of where to work. Working anywhere: A winning formula for good work? produced by Lancaster University’s Work Foundation, and commissioned by Citrix, reveals that 2017 will be the time when over half of organisations in the UK are likely to have adopted flexible working. It also predicts that over 70 percent of organisations will have followed suit by 2020. The Work Foundation, which hosted interviews with academics, business leaders and the public sector to glean insights around the theme of flexible working, supported by research with 500 managerial level employees within medium to large businesses, warns that there is still much to be done to address attitudes towards flexible working, from ensuring people don’t end up working longer hours to dealing with feelings of ‘disconnect’.

February 18, 2016

What would happen if you didn’t turn up for work tomorrow? ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

You might assume that most people would like to think of themselves as more or less indispensable at work. And if they’re not already, would like to make themselves indispensable at some point. But what exactly would happen if you simply didn’t turn up for work tomorrow? It might be nothing, as the recent case of Joaquin Garcia proved. The Spanish civil servant hadn’t turned up to work for at least six years, according to reports from last year. His absence only came to light when his employer decided he was eligible for a long term service award. His case became something of a sensation in Spain, where he earned the moniker el funcionario fantasma – the phantom official. But his story isn’t a one off. In a grim news item from 2004, a Finnish tax inspector died at his desk and the fact went unnoticed for two days.

January 29, 2016

Rise in skills shortage vacancies as training in UK firms falls short ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

New figures, published by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), show that despite a surge in job openings, the number of positions left vacant because employers cannot find people with the skills or knowledge to fill them has risen by 130 percent since 2011. These so-called “skills shortage vacancies” now make up nearly a quarter of all job openings, leaping from 91,000 in 2011 to 209,000 in 2015. Over a third of vacancies in electricity, gas and water and construction are now subject to some form of skills shortage, with transport and manufacturing not far behind. Only in public administration are skills shortages below 10 percent. And of particular concern, said the Chartered Management Institute was the revelation that almost half (48 percent) of UK managers have not received any form of training at all during the last 12 months, down from 50 percent in 2013.

January 20, 2016

Third of firms introduce flexible working to cut absenteeism, claims study ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Over a third of UK employers have introduced flexible working to reduce absenteeism, claims research from insurance industry trade association Group Risk Development (GRiD). Its survey of 501 employers also found that a quarter (25 percent) have seen absence rates improve over the last 12 months, compared to 40 percent last year. One in ten have actually seen rates worsen over the same period and 54 percent of employers say their absence rates have remained the same, which the report’s authors claim suggests a general slow-down or even complacency when it comes to managing absence. The report found that 57 percent of businesses said absence cost them up to 4 percent of payroll, but employers are using a range of initiatives to address this. This includes introducing flexible working (36 percent – up by 4 percent from last year), return to-work interviews (28 percent) and disciplinary procedures (17 percent).

December 8, 2015

Six human resources costs you might avoid by choosing the right office ⁰

by Darren Bilsborough • Comment, Property, Workplace, Workplace design

According to a report from Colliers International, the majority of commercial office space in Australia and New Zealand is occupied by government departments and firms working in the business services, finance and insurance sectors. Other than government and the Not for Profit (NFP) sector, a prime motivation for every CEO, business owner and manager is the search for increased profitability. In most instances, a business has three pathways to increasing profitability. The first is through increasing turnover or sales (assuming the cost base remains equitable), the second is through reducing costs, and the third is by improving productivity. I have previously written quite a lot about the relationship between office space and productivity increases, but this article will explore one of the most insidious elements associated with any businesses cost base (including government) and that is staff turnover.

September 10, 2015

Five ways in which your colleagues might be driving you completely nuts ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

It’s always worth reminding ourselves that while a well designed workplace and favourable working conditions are very desirable prerequisites of a good job, what really makes work enjoyable and what really makes a great culture are the people with whom we work. This simple fact is one reason why some people are happy in poorly designed offices full of all the things that supposedly make them unhappy and unwell, while other people can be miserable in airy, daylit, tastefully furnished corporate palaces. Just as Peter Drucker once said that culture eats strategy for breakfast, we also know that it washes it down with a piping hot mug of office design. Culture is defined in large measure by the people around us, it can be they who determine how much we enjoy work. Here are just five ways they can drive us nuts based on recent data.