Search Results for: covid-19

Balancing the rights and responsibilities of employee wellbeing

Balancing the rights and responsibilities of employee wellbeing

wellbeingHealth and wellbeing has been at the top of the agenda for HR departments for a long, long time, but there’s nothing like a global health emergency to catalyse a fundamental rethink of how you approach your responsibilities as an employer. Corporate healthcare has moved from the remedial approach to curing existing ills, to the preventive approach that encourages employees to take care of themselves through services such as gym membership. More →

BCO launches podcast to explore the future of offices

BCO launches podcast to explore the future of offices

The British Council for Offices (BCO) has launched its first podcast, a 12-episode series, hosted by chief executive Richard Kauntze, which explores how COVID-19 is impacting the office, both in the long and short term. The interviews are edited versions of a recently run video series by the BCO. More →

Don’t be a commute Canute, Boris

Don’t be a commute Canute, Boris

So, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told the British people to get back to work by Christmas. This  means that millions would be renewing their season tickets, getting up in darkness to dress up for work, crowding onto those trains, buses and tubes while swaddled in facemasks and battling their way into the office (which for the time being will be a pretty dull experience with social distancing). More →

Graduates feel their education leaves them wholly unprepared for work

Graduates feel their education leaves them wholly unprepared for work

graduates setting outMany of this year’s graduates finished their degrees online and are due to enter the workplace amidst a tumultuous jobs market, however, fewer graduates felt like their university had prepared them for the workplace this year, with only 15 percent reporting that they felt completely prepared (down from 18 percent last year). Graduate jobs board Milkround’s survey of nearly 3,000 students, graduates and young workers has revealed that 10 percent of the next generation of workers feel wholly unprepared for the workplace after their degree. More →

People should have the right to paid bereavement leave

People should have the right to paid bereavement leave

bereavement leaveIn an open letter to the Business Secretary Alok Sharma, the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, is calling on the Government to introduce the right to bereavement leave and pay to all employees experiencing a close family bereavement. The call follows the introduction of Jack’s Law, a legal right to paid bereavement leave for working parents who lose a child under the age of 18, in April this year. More →

Self-employment is great for wellbeing, not so great for the bank balance

Self-employment is great for wellbeing, not so great for the bank balance

In the week the ONS announced that the number of self-employed people in the UK had dropped by 178,000 over the last quarter, a new report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Institute for Fiscal Study suggests that the growing number of people who turn to self-employment do so despite a drop in their incomes. On average, they earn nearly £500 (30 percent) less a month than they did before falling out of traditional employment. More →

HR is often the last resort for people with mental health issues

HR is often the last resort for people with mental health issues

mental healthStigma around mental health in the workplace persists in many organisations, amid signs that stress is putting significant pressure on workers across a range of industries, claims new research from the ADP Research Institute (registration). Only one in seven (14 percent) of respondents polled in ADP’s study say they would feel comfortable telling HR about a mental health problem or concern. One in four (25 percent) would not feel comfortable telling anyone at work. More →

Prioritising nature in development could create 395 million new jobs by 2030

Prioritising nature in development could create 395 million new jobs by 2030

Mental healthThe global COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented job losses and economic uncertainty. As governments and businesses look to stimulate growth, a new study from the World Economic Forum claims that ‘nature-positive’ solutions can create 395 million jobs by 2030. The Future of Nature and Business Report says this is a $10.1 trillion business opportunity. More →

Business leaders remain confident about post lockdown growth

Business leaders remain confident about post lockdown growth

CEOs and the self-employed are cautiously optimistic about post-lockdown growth, claims a new report. As the country begins to emerge from lockdown, new research from The Institute of Leadership & Management ‘Life after lockdown: future of work’, explores the predicted changes to the workplace following the Covid-19 pandemic. More →

SMEs say that lockdown has made them braver about the environment

SMEs say that lockdown has made them braver about the environment

Two thirds of Britain’s SME business leaders say they are now more environmentally conscious in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new survey, jointly commissioned by Opus Energy and Haven Power. The report claims that small and medium business bosses are having to make bolder decisions as they prepare for a brave new business world. 66 percent say that their own leadership requires a greater degree of bravery in decision making since the pandemic.  More →

The economic challenges of the post lockdown world become clearer

The economic challenges of the post lockdown world become clearer

There are so many unknowns about the ways in which the Covid-19 pandemic will shape our world in the coming months and years but what it has highlighted are the strengths and weaknesses in the global and UK economy and their implications for the commercial property sector. In its latest white paper, property consultancy and chartered surveyors Bruceshaw examines the macro and micro economic challenges that will shape the property sector for many years to come. More →

Half of SME employees say working from home negatively affects mental health

Half of SME employees say working from home negatively affects mental health

Findings from a recent study show that there is little additional support from SME’s to meet employee wellbeing standards when working from home, as many make a more permanent change after lockdown. The Working from Home study, conducted by Wildgoose, surveyed employees from 133 companies throughout the UK as the Covid-19 lockdown eases. They were asked how their working day differs at home compared to in the office, whether they would be happy to continue working from home after lockdown is ended, and how companies could improve home working practices. More →