November 24, 2022

Mental health flagged as major concern in HSE annual stats

The estimated number of workers in Great Britain suffering from work-related illness is 1.8 million with mental health issues related to stress, depression, and anxiety making up around half of all cases. That is the headline figure in the latest annual statistics report from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The figures from the workplace regulator show there were an estimated 914,000 cases of work-related stress, depression, or anxiety in 2021/22. An estimated 17 million working days were lost due to work-related stress, depression, or anxiety in 2021/22. This is over half of all working days lost due to work-related ill health.

August 23, 2022

A safe and healthy working environment is now a human right

by Malcolm Staves • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

A landmark decision was made recently in the long history of efforts to protect people from injury and illness at work. At a hybrid conference held by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva, for those attending in person, delegates voted in favour of a resolution to make the principle of a safe and healthy work environment a human right. That’s correct; we managed to reach the third decade of the 21st century without a safe workplace being a fundamental right of us all. More →

July 14, 2022

There are now fewer taboo workplace subjects, and we should talk about that

by Peter Nagle • Comment, Wellbeing

Rewind even a few years and issues like mental health were not really talked about in the workplace. Now we’ve seen dramatic improvements around certain topics, we should ask what other areas of employees’ lives could employers help with? There’s been a lot of discussion around what employers can do to support women going through the menopause. Though the construction industry is a traditionally male dominated sector, NHS Employers says that “Menopause is not just a gender or age issue as it can impact on colleagues both directly and indirectly and it should therefore be considered as an organisational. issue.” More →

June 29, 2022

Hard up workers look to second jobs, side hustles and help from current employers

by Jayne Smith • News, Workplace

Nine in ten UK employees have, or would be interested in a second job, as the COVID-19 pandemic and cost of living crisis sees hard up workers keen to increase incomes and turn hobbies into enterprises according to a poll in Benenden Health’s ‘Workforce of the Future’ report. It claims that almost one in three employees in the UK currently have a second occupation (29 percent), with half of these taking up their additional role during the pandemic. Meanwhile, another survey, from Culture Amp claims that six out of ten employees in the UK believe that their employers should help with the rising cost of living. More →

March 10, 2022

Nearly three quarters of people have ignored mental health to continue working

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

More than 7 in 10 UK employees have pushed through a mental health struggle to avoid taking time off work in the past three months, according to a new report by BetterUp Labs. Over half (59 percent) also reported that they’d had to push through a physical health struggle, suggesting there is widespread hesitation about stepping away from work to take time to recover. The report also claims that over a quarter (26 percent) of respondents have or have had a mental wellbeing condition, with 30 percent of women and 21 percent of men reporting this. More →

March 8, 2022

Wellbeing, skills and diversity data absent from majority of FTSE 100 firms’ annual reports

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

New analysis of FTSE 100 annual reports finds that while workforce reporting has improved in the past two years, the quantity and quality of disclosures still varies significantly and remains very poor in places. The new report, How do companies report on their ‘most important asset?, from the CIPD, the PLSA and Railpen, analysed the quality of workforce disclosures in the 2021 annual reports of FTSE 100 companies against seven key themes: Workforce cost and composition; employee relations and wellbeing; reward; voice; skills, capabilities and recruitment; and response to COVID-19. More →

February 23, 2022

Employers offering flexible working reap recruitment and retention benefits

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Employers who have embraced flexible working policies have seen a 20 percent improvement in employee recruitment and retention compared to two years ago, according to new global research from Targus. According to the poll, seventy percent of senior business decision-makers say flexible working policies and working environments are positively impacting recruitment and a further 76 percent say it’s positively impacting employee retention. More →

February 15, 2022

The opportunities and challenges of new technologies for AML

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Technology

Back in 2021 the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) put out a paper on the opportunities and challenges that new technologies are bringing to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) efforts. If you are unaware of who the FATF is it may be worth your while to investigate farther into it. For now, though, let it be known that they are an independent inter-governmental body that defines the rules and procedures that need to be in place to prevent these two criminal activities. More →

January 25, 2022

Third of people crave a return to the office for their mental health

by Neil Franklin • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Property, Wellbeing

A new study from smart building platform Infogrid claims that nearly a third of working Brits (32 percent) want to return to their offices in January because they feel it would improve their mental health, which has been impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The top reasons UK employees cite for wanting to return to the office include working in a positive social environment (35 percent), having a reason to leave the house (26 percent), not having to worry about being cold at home (25 percent), and the daily commute providing time to transition between home and work life (23 percent). More →

November 15, 2021

Toxic workplace culture impacting the mental health of almost half of workforce

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

Two in five employees across the UK have experienced problematic behaviour, such as bullying, harassment or discrimination at work; with 42 percent confirming toxic workplace culture has impacted their mental health, according to research from Culture Shift. The study (registration) also claims over one third have felt silenced on issues that matter to them in the workplace, while 29 percent have taken time off due to an incident that happened at work, such as bullying, harassment, discrimination or sexual misconduct. A further 41 percent confirmed bad workplace culture has impacted their productivity and 42 percent have previously left a job due to negative workplace culture. More →

November 1, 2021

Companies focusing on holistic organisational health outperform their peers

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working culture

The Josh Bersin Company have released a global study on the factors involved in creating a holistically “healthy” organisation. The research emphasizes the importance of transitioning from the traditional focus on employee benefits to one that encompasses job and work design, management, rewards practices, a demonstrated commitment to psychological safety and fairness, and a culture of employee health and listening. The research claims that a people-centric approach to all work is the foundation of every healthy organisation. More →