Search Results for: employer

May 25, 2016

An out of hours email ban and why we all need the ‘right to disconnect’ ⁰

by Adrian Lewis • Comment, Flexible working, Legal news, Work&Place, Workplace

The recent announcement from President Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party that they plan to give French employees the “right to disconnect” by pushing through measures for an email ban out of hours has been the subject of great debate. Although many commentators have argued the need for employers to encourage people to ‘switch off’ when they aren’t in work, to date there have been no legal guidelines on this specific issue, despite several negative reports about modern technology blurring the boundaries between home and work, which some claim is creating a stress epidemic. In the UK, the Working Time Regulations specify that no worker should work more than 48 hours per week. However, there has been no case law as to whether or not checking work emails outside working hours would fall within this limit – and many UK staff check and respond to work emails outside work hours, even on holidays.

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May 25, 2016

HR failing to inform European staff on implications of Brexit ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

The majority of non-British Europeans living in the UK don’t feel informed by HR about potential work policy changes caused by Brexit and nine out of ten are worried about what will happen should the referendum lead to an exit vote. The study of 1,000 Europeans by totaljobs also found that one in three (33 percent) would feel discriminated against if they were to look for a job in the UK in the current climate. Of those Europeans already living in the country, (87 percent) are worried about the potential impact of a Brexit vote, with half (49 percent) fearing for their job security and over a third (37 percent) for their personal lives. Worryingly for employers, nearly half (40 percent) of respondents said that the British decision to hold the Brexit referendum has negatively affected their opinion of the country and is forcing some (25 percent) to reconsider their career options outside of the UK.

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May 24, 2016

A fifth of staff experience more stress at home than in the workplace ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Home may not be the haven we might assume, meaning that employers who encourage staff to work from home may actually be adding to their stress levels. Around a fifth of employees find their domestic lives more stressful than their working lives and many either don’t want to discuss it with managers or feel unable to, claims a new report from MetLife Employee Benefits. According to Building Resilience in the Workplace, 19 percent of employees overall are more stressed at home than at work, with slightly more female respondents to the study claiming to be stressed more by their home lives than the workplace. Around 21 percent of women say their home life is more stressful compared to 15 percent of men. The research claims that 67 percent of employees say domestic issues – including childcare, looking after elderly parents and financial pressures – are having an impact on their work performance.

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May 20, 2016

New guide to Level 2 BIM compliance launched ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Facilities management, Legal news, Property, Technology

Anybody who is still confused about Building Information Modelling (there’s a lot of us) and its obligations under new legislation will welcome new free guidance published by the excellent Designing Buildings Wiki created by BRE, CIOB, BSRIA, ICE and others. Since last month, Level 2 BIM has been mandatory on centrally-procured public projects, with far-reaching implications for those involved. Clients, consultants, contractors and suppliers are now required to understand the finer details of the Level 2 process. But the 2016 NBS BIM Survey found 42 percent of respondents were just aware of BIM and 28 percent were not very, or not at all confident in BIM. The new guide aims to take users step-by-step through the Level 2 workflows, from the basics of storing project information to preparing employer’s information requirements. It is open access, meaning anyone in the industry can edit and improve the guide to reflect their experiences of using BIM in practice. It is aligned to Level 2 standard PAS 1192-2 and the 2013 RIBA plan of work.

May 20, 2016

Quarter of UK workers would choose home working over pay rise ⁰

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

We reported earlier this week that flexible working has gone mainstream, with over a third of organisations now offering some kind of flexible working arrangement. The question is whether these flexible workers are more productive, as some employers persist in perceiving a flexible working request as a means of ‘shirking from home.’ Now new research to mark National work from home day, shows that 48 percent of workers are happier when they can work from home and nearly a third (32 percent) of British workers ‘feel more productive’ when they do so. The study by the Institute of Inertia, a partnership between comparethemarket.com and the University of Sheffield, found that nearly a quarter (24 percent or 7.5 million) of British workers would rather work from home one day a week than receive a pay rise, while seven million admit they suffer from ‘procrastination or inertia issues’ when working in an office.

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May 18, 2016

Younger working mothers bear the brunt of maternity discrimination ⁰

by Sara Bean • Comment, Flexible working, Legal news, News, Workplace

As we’ve discussed before, when female workers have children their career prospects and salaries begin to slip. Having kids young and ramping up your career in your late 30s isn’t an option either as many working mothers find it difficult to secure flexible and well paid work with good career prospects while still in the early years of their career. This is one of the reasons why the average age of mothers in this country is now 34 and rather more controversially, why companies such as Apple and Facebook are offering women the chance to have their eggs frozen. More disturbingly though, research by the Equality and Human Rights Commission has found young mothers are significantly more likely to experience pregnancy and maternity discrimination, with six times as many under 25 year olds than average reporting being dismissed from their jobs after they tell their employer they are pregnant.

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May 17, 2016

Lack of productivity growth continues to impact on UK employment ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

The Government to be more interventionist in its support and work in partnership with business to help improve organisations’ productivity to improve salaries and performance, the CIPD has said. This follows the second quarter in a row when the CIPD’s survey of employers has anticipated a pay figure below the Government’s official inflation target of 2 percent. The Labour Market Outlook highlights how low inflation, expanding labour supply and the lack of productivity growth are working in combination to reduce the economic pressure for employers to pay their staff more. The UK is now in its eighth year of a productivity slump, which for employees means that pay growth is likely to remain sluggish until at least the end of the decade and for employers means that low productivity leads to tightened budgets. This ‘jobs-rich, pay-poor’ economy is set to continue as pay awards are expected to only rise by 1.7 percent in the next year.

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May 16, 2016

Yet more evidence that flexible working is now mainstream ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

Although flexible working remains an idea that is still often presented as some sort of novelty, challenge to the natural order of things, ‘trend’ or (spare us) a ‘craze’, at some point a lot of people will have to accept that it’s just the way an awful lot of people work nowadays. Earlier this year, The Work Foundation published a report suggesting that half of UK employers will offer flexible working by next year. Now, job site Monster.co.uk has published its own survey suggesting pretty much the same thing. It found that around a third of British employers already offer their staff some sort of flexible working arrangements and 26 per cent already offer them to all employees as a matter of course although it tends to apply somewhat disproportionately to senior employees. However, the research also claims that more than a fifth (21 per cent) of employees don’t know what their company’s policy is which is obviously a major constraint on its uptake.

May 16, 2016

Women (and men) don’t enjoy the full wellbeing benefits of flexible working ⁰

by Dr Daniel Wheatley • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

There has been significant expansion of flexible working arrangements (FWAs) in the last two decades, driven to some degree by the work-life balance agenda. However, in practice work-life balance and flexible working continue to be viewed as a ‘women’s issue’, as women more often reduce hours or work part-time. But recent research conducted by my own department suggests that women working flexibly are not experiencing the potential wellbeing benefits when compared to men. Flexible working arrangements include part-time, flexi-time, job share and homeworking. Part-time accounts for approximately 40 percent of female employment and is the most common FWA used by women. Term-time working is also used predominantly by women, reflecting the typical gender roles regarding caring for school-aged children. Meanwhile, flexi-time remains the most common arrangement used by men, at around 19 percent.

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May 16, 2016

Major survey aims to change approach to mental health at work ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

To mark the first day of Mental Health Awareness Week, (16-22 May 2016) the most comprehensive survey on workplace mental wellbeing has been announced. The National Employee Mental Wellbeing Survey is designed to herald a step change in how businesses approach mental health in the workplace. Mental ill health is the leading cause of sickness absence in the UK and is on the increase. 15.2 million days of sickness absence in 2013 were caused by everyday conditions such as stress anxiety or depression – a dramatic increase from 11.8 million days in 2010. Business in the Community which is launching the survey with support from Mind, CIPD, the Institute of Leadership and Management, The Work Foundation, Maudsley Learning at Work and Mental Health First Aid; aims to use the results to help identify solutions to improve mental health at work. A new interactive toolkit to help employers take positive actions to build a culture that champions good mental health also being launched today.

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May 13, 2016

Graduates want meaningful work and a fully digitised workplace ⁰

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

Millennials entering the workforce want employment that offers meaningful work, ongoing learning opportunities and a fun workplace culture. This is according to a new study by Accenture on the workforce of the future which reveals that new graduates are increasingly digital, embracing new technologies, both to find work and on the job. The fourth annual Accenture Strategy 2016 U.S. College Graduate Employment Study found that the majority (70 percent) would rather work at a company that provides an employee experience built on a positive social atmosphere and receive a lower salary – up 10 percent on last year’s graduating class. Almost all (92 percent) of 2016 graduates said it is important to be employed at a company that demonstrates social responsibility. They are also three times as likely to prefer to work for a small or medium-sized company (44 percent), versus a large company (14 percent), indicating their preference for a smaller team environment.

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May 12, 2016

Making sense of the relentless babble about flexible working

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Flexible working, Workplace design

Not a day goes by when some organisation or other isn’t found extolling the virtues of flexible working or urging everybody to adopt the practice. While it’s easy to be cynical about the results of surveys from technology companies which are a staple part of this media onslaught, they are actually on to something. And that is why governments, employers and their associations and employees are all attracted to the idea of flexible working as a way of achieving whatever it is they want. The result is the stew of motivations, ideas and terminology that can lead commentators to make grand and daft pronouncements about flexible working; pronouncing it dead, most famously in the case of Yahoo but more subtly in the case of the grand new Xanadus being created in Silicon Valley by the area’s Charles Foster Kanes, or as the harbinger of death for the office based on the notion that somehow we’ll all be working in exactly the same way at some point in the future.