October 1, 2018
As more and more women are staying in the workplace after having children – and often full time – parents are demanding greater access to flexible working, but dads are still being held back by old-fashioned policies and fears that their employer will react negatively to requests to work flexibly, according to two new Workingmums.co.uk surveys.
August 29, 2018
Young people leaving education and looking for work may be missing out on potential employment opportunities by failing to consider Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and the advantages they offer, new research from Santander UK claims. ‘Gen Z’ and Millennials do not believe SMEs offer the same job security or salary as large businesses, meaning just a third (35 percent) of young people leaving education in 2018 want to work for smaller employer, and an even smaller proportion, just one in six (18 percent), want to work for a start-up or micro business. The most popular career aspirations for Generation Z and Millennials are to work for a large firm (51 percent), the public sector (51 percent) or a global multinational (49 percent), because of a perceived lack of job security (56 percent). There is also the belief that SMEs offer a lower salary (46 percent) and fewer opportunities for progression than large companies (33 percent). Yet the majority (70 percent) of SMEs are actively recruiting for entry level roles, whether that be graduates (43 percent), further education leavers (36 percent) or school leavers (35 percent).
May 18, 2018
Half (49 percent) of UK workers believe their current job offers little to no chance for career progression and out of 1,000 UK workers asked about the state of their career progression including the prospects for advancement, not one felt they had the right level of support from managers. The survey by Qualtrics claims that just 7 percent believe there is a great deal of opportunity to progress their career in their organisation. It’s a marked difference from October 2017, when the number of employees saying they had a significant opportunity for career progression was 17 percent. The research suggests the pessimistic outlook could be down to a lack of acknowledgment and support at work. Of those claiming to have little or no opportunities for career progression, the data found that 71 percent are given little to no change to trying out new things that interest them, all of them (100 percent) say they don’t receive the right level of support from managers and 49 percent rarely receive consistent acknowledgement for doing good work.
March 26, 2018
A new survey that confirms the ongoing gender pay gap with stats that show men are paid 42 percent more than women after ten years in workforce, goes on to suggest that the reason is not just to do with a lack of diversity but the attitude of women moving up the corporate ladder. The report from Adzuna claims that British men are significantly more confident than women in furthering their career. The career progression confidence gap between the genders widens greatest with those who have more than ten years’ experience in the workplace, with men twice more likely than women to hold a top job. The research analysed 500,000 CVs submitted through Adzuna’s ValueMyCV tool, comparing the gender and estimated pay grade with number of years’ experience in each respective industry. The research also highlights a disparity in the average salary commanded by men and women for the same position with the same number of years in experience.
February 5, 2018
Parents are being hit by a “pay penalty” if they work in part-time jobs, according to a new study from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The report found that mothers in particular tend to spend more time in part-time employment, so they do not benefit from pay rises associated with more experience, research found. By the time a first child reaches the age of 20, mothers earn around 30 percent less on average than similarly educated fathers, said the report, and the issue is a fundamental driver of the gender pay gap.
December 14, 2017
The majority (72 percent) of employees in the UK go to work just to afford to live rather than for job satisfaction and one in four are considering a career change in 2018, claims a new survey. According to research conducted by Paymentsense, over half of those questioned say money is their biggest motivation, 67 percent say their degree went to waste and they work in an unrelated role, and 25 percent are considering a whole career change in 2018. According to the 2,000 UK participants in the survey, a career peak occurs at 42 years old, which is when you start to lose passion for your work. At this age, opportunities to progress seem to be rare which is why when asking those in their 40’s ‘why do you go to work every day’? 76 percent say to be able to afford to live. 51 percent say they need to just pay the mortgage and 57 percent have responsibilities to support the family.
December 4, 2017
Three in ten (29 percent) black employees say racial discrimination is to blame for them failing to achieve their career expectations, almost three times as many as white British employees, according to a new survey by the CIPD. One in five BAME employees (20 percent) said that discrimination had played a part in a lack of career progression to date, compared to just one in ten (11 percent) white British employees. This comes despite the fact that significantly more BAME employees said career progression was an important part of their working life than those from a white British background (25 percent vs 10 percent). When asked what would improve their career progression, BAME employees were much more likely than white British employees to say that seeing other people like them that have progressed in the organisation, and a greater diversity of people at senior levels in their organisation would help boost their career progression. Additionally, the survey found that a quarter of BAME respondents (23 percent) whose organisations don’t provide mentoring said they would find it useful in achieving their potential at work.
January 16, 2017
The UK is running the risk of creating a ‘fatherhood penalty’ – as fathers consider stalling or side-lining their careers to find roles they can better combine with family life, according to a new study. The 2017 Modern Families Index, published today by work-life charity Working Families and Bright Horizons, captures a broad picture – of fathers wanting to take an active part in childcare and the workplace failing to adapt and support their aspirations. Family is the highest priority for fathers. A quarter of fathers that took part in the study drop their children at school or nursery every day; with just over a quarter (26 percent) collecting them more than half the time. Seven out of ten fathers work flexibly to fulfil their caring responsibilities. However, for half of the fathers we spoke to their work-life balance is increasingly a source of stress. A third of fathers feel burnt out regularly and one in five fathers are doing extra hours in the evening or weekends all the time.
April 13, 2016
Women take competition with other women at work too seriously and it could be damaging their careers, new research from UCL School of Management claims. Assistant Professor Sun Young Lee found that women experience competition with same-gender co-workers more negatively than men do because female peer culture values harmony and equality, and competition is at odds with the norm of female relationships. On the other hand, hierarchical ranking and competition is natural in male peer culture, so men’s work relationships do not suffer from competing with male colleagues. But competition with female co-workers taxes women’s work relationships. Women may struggle to interact with female co-workers, becoming overly cutthroat and mean, which can restrict their career progression. The findings suggest that, for organizations with a majority of female employees, competitive practices may not be the best way to organise work.
July 2, 2015
Employees value a varied working experience and flexibility over traditional, linear career progression, a global study published by the Top Employers Institute claims. The Career & Succession Management Report identifies the global developments forcing employers to rethink career and succession management strategies. These include skill shortages resulting in a global competition for best talent and an increased risk of losing business-critical knowledge due to the ageing of the workforce. There is also a new generation of workers seeking diverse work assignments and flexibility, who are taking greater responsibility for their own career management, resulting in less loyalty to employers and less interest in the traditional step-by-step climbing of career ladders. The findings suggest that HR needs to move from assuring the smooth succession of leadership to concentrate more on wider long-term staff engagement and retention.
June 2, 2015
The latest research on the aspirations of so-called Millennial workers (born 1980 – 1999) reveals a cohort that wants to rise up the career ladder as quickly as possible, but do so in a less traditional workplace than previous generations. According to a whitepaper – ‘Attracting and Retaining Millennial Professionals’ from recruitment firm Robert Walters, 91 percent of Millennials say the opportunity for rapid career progression is one of the most important things about their job, with 68 percent citing a clear path to grow in a role is the most important factor in keeping them engaged. While Millennials are not that different from their older colleagues – they favour a more relaxed working environment where technology is seamlessly integrated into their working practices. They also place a higher value on personality, communication skills and fit within a team than they do on hard technical skills.
March 27, 2015
The UK Cabinet Office has published a report in partnership with Disability Rights UK to look at ways the Civil Service can better support the careers of its 27,000 staff with disabilities and health conditions. The report claims that ensuring that disabled employees ‘fulfil their potential makes basic business sense and would significantly enhance the Service’s performance.’ It claims that there has been some progress since the last report on the subject in 1998, but that barriers remain. Nearly 9 percent of civil service employees now claim to have a disability which is more than double the reported rate of 4.1 percent in 1998. The report identifies the underlying challenges and looks to share best practice. It notes that while there is strong commitment to disability equality from senior champions, this has not been translated into line manager action and cultural change.
