January 16, 2020

Employers shift focus to wellbeing and employee benefits

New research from Aon claims that employers have increased their strategic focus on both emotional and financial wellbeing programmes, while physical wellbeing programmes have remained largely static. Aon’s UK Benefits & Trends 2020 Survey (registration) shows that 51 percent of employers now have financial wellbeing strategies in place, up from 21 percent three years ago, while 68 percent have emotional wellbeing strategies, up from 41 percent. These were the least developed pillars of employee wellbeing when Aon asked organisations in its 2017 UK Health Survey. More →

December 16, 2019

Is flexible working the answer to improved employee mental health and productivity?

by Sarah King • Comment, Flexible working

One of Labour’s flagship policies for its 2019 general election campaign was to introduce a four-day week. More accurately, its policy is to introduce a 32-hour week. This brought flexible working again into the media spotlight. Research suggests that flexible working and reduced hours can have multiple benefits, including improved mental health and greater productivity. More →

December 4, 2019

Employee engagement linked to improved financial performance

by Neil Franklin • News

Companies which make employee engagement a strategic priority may be more likely to perform better financially, according to research released today. An analysis of the UK’s biggest companies found that those which frequently reference “employee engagement” in their annual reports also perform better financially. The findings were released by Sideways 6 which analysed the annual reports of the FTSE100 Index for each of the last three years (2016-18). More →

November 18, 2019

Gulf between the values of businesses and those of employees

by Jayne Smith • Business, News

A new study from The Institute of Leadership & Management claims there is a significant gulf between the organisational values held by UK businesses and the personal values of their workers, and highlights the different values considered important to men and women, younger and older workers and between sectors. More →

November 5, 2019

Four-fifths of British employees continue to work when sick

by Abi Eskdale • News, Wellbeing

A new study conducted by Love Energy Savings claims that more than 80 percent of British employees still continue to work when they are ill or sick. Love Energy Savings investigated which groups were most likely to continue to work when ill, with less than one-fifth of British workers (17 percent) admitting to taking sick days when they’re ill. And there is a widening margin when it comes to age groups.

October 21, 2019

Banning email out-of-hours likely to be harmful to some employees

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology, Wellbeing

Banning email outside of normal office hours could do more harm than good to employee wellbeing, a new study suggests. The newly published research, led by the University of Sussex, states that while blanket bans could help some workers to achieve certain goals, they could impede other employees’ progress towards their own targets. More →

October 16, 2019

Business leaders out of touch and failing to inspire, say employees

by Neil Franklin • Business, News

British businesses are facing a crisis of leadership, according to new research from Tiger Recruitment, which claims that 58 percent of employees are rarely or never inspired by the leader of the company they work for. Furthermore, according to British employees, many business leaders are setting a poor example around the issues that matter to them today, including work-life balance (28 percent), managing stress (29 percent), flexible working (21 percent) and staying mentally healthy (21 percent). More →

September 23, 2019

Work is creating mental health issues for two in five employees

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

Although two in five (39 percent) UK workers experienced symptoms of poor mental health related to work in the last year, according to a report released by Business in the Community (BITC), in partnership with Mercer Marsh Benefits and BITC’s Wellbeing Leadership Team. The report also claims that most employers do not acknowledge or deal with the adverse impact work has on employees’ health. More →

September 20, 2019

Managers lack confidence in their ability to develop employee skills

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

Despite acknowledging the importance of new skills, 45 percent of managers don’t feel confident in their ability to develop the skills employees need today, according to a poll by Gartner. In addition to a lack of confidence, Gartner research also claims that managers lack time to coach their direct reports, with managers spending on average 9 percent of their time on developing their direct reports. More →

September 19, 2019

Employee privacy issue explored at CoreNet Global Summit

by Freddie Steele • News, Property, Technology, Working culture

Employee acceptance of new technology was a recurring theme of the CoreNet Global Summit in Amsterdam last week. The business value of monitoring software was largely accepted during the three days of the Summit; however, the individual’s perspective – that the benefits that might be traded for loss of employee privacy – was widely acknowledged as a pressing issue. More →

August 9, 2019

Productivity decline linked to poor employee financial wellness

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology, Workplace

Almost all (98 percent) employers believe that their employees’ financial wellness has a direct impact on productivity and their business performance – especially concerning employee productivity (67 percent) and engagement (62 percent). This is according to the Future of Pay research study (registration) by technology firm ADP, which surveyed 4,000 employees and 2,900 businesses to explore workers’ perceptions and attitudes towards traditional and emerging pay methods to address some of the biggest human capital management concerns. More →

July 25, 2019

SMEs remain in dark about rights of disabled employees

by Neil Franklin • Legal news, News, Wellbeing

Despite ambitious government policies to get a million disabled people into work over the next ten years, the latest ONS data shows a minuscule 5 percent increase since the 2017 goal, which would only see a total of merely 5,800 disabled people in work by 2027 if the pattern continues. In light of the disability employment issue, a new survey of UK SME owners conducted by Bolt Burdon Kemp claims that 95 percent of respondents don’t know the full legal rights of disabled employees. More →