Search Results for: labour

May 3, 2017

Gender differences in global corporate culture begin earlier than supposed ⁰

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Workplace

While the last 50 years have seen a notable convergence between men and women in labour force participation, hours worked, wages, and educational level, despite all this progress women are still less often found in high-paying occupations. Now a new study by Finnish economist Antti Kauhanen of the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy suggests that a substantial gender wage gap in corporate cultures emerges in early careers. In the latest IZA World of Labor report, Kauhanen cites a number of recent studies which conclude that women are much more likely than men to begin their careers at the bottom levels in the hierarchy; and this difference in initial job assignments is partly due to a divergence in educational background. Although the gender differences in years of education are small, differences in the field of education chosen remain large and are affecting career outcomes. Furthermore, in addition to educational choices and career interruptions, the hours worked, discrimination, and preferences and psychological attributes also contribute to the gender wage gap.

May 2, 2017

Immigration and skills will be key to success of next UK Government ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property

The next Government must ensure the construction sector has enough skilled workers post-Brexit or its housing and infrastructure manifesto pledges will be redundant, says the Federation of Master Builders (FMB). The FMB has called on all major political parties to recognise the importance of migrant labour to the construction sector as part of its ‘Programme for Government’, that has been launched the day before Parliament is dissolved for the General Election. The organisation claims that the UK construction sector’s demand for skilled migrant workers from the EU and beyond cannot be overstated. It suggests that in London alone, there are more than 157,000 non-UK construction workers constituting almost half of the industry’s workforce in the capital. Pre-Brexit, 60 percent of small construction firms are already having trouble hiring key workers even before the Government unveils its intentions for the free movement of people.

April 21, 2017

Governments need to address perfect storm of low wages, productivity and automation ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology

Governments need to act now to address issues such as productivity, automation and stagnating or falling wages, according to two new reports from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In both its Spring global policy agenda and world economic outlook, the IMF claims that workers are subject to a perfect storm of factors that will destabilise their jobs and lives unless governments implement robust policies to help them work more flexibly, acquire new skills and work alongside the new generation of automated technologies instead of in competition with them. Addressing the issues in a speech last week, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said that governments need to create a new economic and social architecture that allows everybody to take advantage of the opportunities offered by technology and the current growth in the world economy.

April 14, 2017

Gender pay gap legislation may be aiming at the wrong target, claims report ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Workplace

Britain’s new gender pay gap legislation is addressing the wrong issue and so will fail to do what it sets out to do, according to a new report from executive search firm Korn Ferry Hay Group. The firm claims that its analysis of over 570,000 people on its UK database shows that the gender pay gap is “virtually non-existent” when men and women do the same job at the same level in the UK, but that the differences become pronounced in senior and executive arenas. The study backs up data from the Office for National Statistics which recently began publishing details of pay differentials by age and sex and the results are eye opening. The most startling finding was that women in their 20s and early 30s earn slightly more than men of the same age and in the same job. However, as people get older, the pay gap goes into reverse, with men marginally out earning women at the age of 35, with the pay gap then widening rapidly into early middle age. As we reported earlier this week, the major issues arise both at a senior level of organisations and when women start families and begin paying a ‘motherhood penalty’ in terms of their pay and careers.

April 13, 2017

Over three quarters of workers prefer traditional employment to the gig economy ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

Much has been written about the inexorable rise of the gig economy. However, a new survey from jobsite Glassdoor, claims that only 13 per cent of workers across all employment types would even consider this route for future employment, and the vast majority of employees (76 percent) feel more secure sticking to permanent employment in 2017. As with any work arrangement, using temporary or “gig” workers has both benefits and drawbacks when set against traditional employment.

The survey suggests that the major perceived benefit is flexibility, both for job seekers and employers. When asked the question, “What do you think would be the biggest advantage of working in the gig economy?”, most (35 percent) of employees selected “flexible working”, followed by “better work-life balance” (11 per cent) and the ability to “be my own boss” (10 percent). Furthermore, 39 percent of female employees feel that the biggest advantage of working in the gig economy would be the flexible working, compared to just 31 percent of men. However, 73 percent of women also reported they already enjoy a good work-life balance in their current roles.

Salaries and benefits remain the most important workplace factors for both men (56 percent) and women (63 percent), something which is typically less stable in gig or contract work.

Gig employment for task-based jobs like car rides, accommodation rentals, and food deliveries are all now mainstream services. Glassdoor’s previous research for the US labour market suggests a slowdown for gig work in 2017, especially as job seekers weigh the pros and cons of this employment type. This new UK survey finds that only 12 per cent of those already self-employed feel they would earn more if they left a job to take on work which paid “per activity” (rather than an annual salary), with 21 per cent of those in full time work feeling the same. On a wider level, just one in ten of all respondents across all forms of employment believe that the gig economy would become the “future of work,” with double that amount (20 per cent) feeling it actually exploited workers and harmed employees’ rights.

In terms of job generation, only 13 per cent of all respondents predict that the gig economy would be a good way to reduce unemployment and create jobs in the future. When broken down by gender, nearly a third of women (31 per cent) feel that the gig economy would only ever be for a “limited number of workers” and was not accessible across a “wide range of roles”. This was opposed to just a quarter of men.

The millennial generation of employees has been labelled as the group who will structure and shape the way we work in coming years. However, only 10 per cent of 18-24 and 9 per cent of 25-34 year olds are of the opinion that the gig economy will eventually become the “future of work.”

Dr. Andrew Chamberlain, Glassdoor’s Chief Economist said: “The gig economy may be associated with prodigious growth of app-based taxi rides and food delivery, however, as we’ve already witnessed in the U.S., the impact on the UK workforce could remain minimal in the longer term.

“The main reason is size. Although many ride-sharing and travel platforms have popped up in recent years, they’re still confined to a small corner of the workforce. Further, gig roles only really work for relatively simple jobs that are easy to measure, don’t require deep institutional knowledge, and don’t rely on long-term relationships. The majority of the fastest growing jobs in the labour market today require human creativity, flexibility, judgment, and soft skills. For some jobs, the UK gig economy is here to stay. But don’t expect the majority of the workforce to be part-time contractors any time soon.”

Image: Jack Lemmon finally gets a corner office in The Apartment

April 7, 2017

New guide aims to advise employers on how to prepare for Brexit ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Legal news, News, Workplace

Sick of hearing about Brexit? Of course you are. Nevertheless, things have only just begin and we’d better get used to it so consultancy XpertHR has launched a new guide for UK employers on how to prepare for Brexit, after Prime Minister Theresa May triggered Article beginning the ‘divorce proceedings’. The guide, which the authors claim will be updated as negotiations between the UK and EU progress, focuses on how employers can prepare for potential changes to the right of free movement. It outlines the practical steps employers can take and suggests how they could support their European workforce in the UK. The report suggests that, while the Free Movement Directive, which allows European Economic Area (EEA) citizens and their dependants to live, work and study in any country within the EEA, will remain in force for the next two years, free movement is set to be a thing of the past with EEA nationals expected to become subject to an immigration regime under UK law.

April 6, 2017

UK productivity is up but the underlying puzzle remains unsolved ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Workplace

The latest productivity data from the Office for National Statistics shows that UK productivity is up, although the accompanying briefing admits that the data ‘provides little sign of an end to the UK’s productivity puzzle’. According to the report, output per hour increased in the final quarter of 2016 at its fastest rate for more than a year. Quarterly growth of 0.4 percent lifted output per hour 1.2 percent higher than a year ago. While the productivity puzzle is a feature of most developed economies, it is particularly intransigent in the UK, which has a significant gap compared to other nations such as Germany, the US and France. This is despite the fact that Britons spend more time working than those in any comparable nation, except the US.

April 5, 2017

Drastic changes needed to workplace laws as age of automation dawns ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Legal news, News, Technology

The rise of robots and automation in the workplace will lead to drastic changes to laws across the world, a new report suggests. The present wave of automation, driven by artificial intelligence (AI) – the development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence – is creating a gap between current legislation and new laws necessary for an emerging workplace reality, states a report published by the International Bar Association Global Employment Institute (IBA GEI). Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and Their Impact on the Workplace focuses on potential future trends in AI, and the likely impact intelligent systems will have on the labour market, companies, employees’ working time, remuneration and the workplace environment.

April 3, 2017

Brexit should be a chance for the UK to enshrine employment rights ⁰

by Chris Rowley • Comment, Legal news, Workplace

Exploitative employment contracts continue to receive widespread media attention – from shaming the businesses who use them, to prompting questions regarding workers’ rights in Parliament. In light of the Prime Minister officially signing Article 50, to trigger the formal start of the Brexit negotiation period, now is a good time to consider how this will affect the UK’s tarnished relationship with zero-hours contracts? Zero-hours contracts, and their equivalents, are demeaning policies, often backed-up by capricious management practices. They are non-negotiable, offering draconian flexibility in numerical, temporal and spatial terms and conditions. But would continuing with EU membership have made a difference? The evidence reveals otherwise.

March 30, 2017

Levels of employee engagement are declining around the world ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

As the UK triggers Article 50 to leave the EU, France goes through what could be a game changing Presidential election and the United States continues to struggle with an increasingly divisive administration it’s perhaps not surprising that global uncertainty appears to be pushing up levels of employee scepticism. Globally, employee engagement declined for the first time since 2012, according to a report from Aon Hewitt. According to an analysis of more than five million employees at more than 1,000 organisations around the world, levels dropped from 65 percent in 2015 to 63 percent in 2016. Less than one quarter (24 percent) of employees are highly engaged and 39 percent are moderately engaged. “The rise in populist movements like those in the U.S., the U.K. and other regions is creating angst within organisations as they anticipate the potential for a decrease in free labour flow,” explained Ken Oehler, Global Culture & Engagement Practice leader at Aon Hewitt.

March 27, 2017

Up to a third of UK jobs to be displaced by robots in near future ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology

The latest report to examine the disruptive potential of robots in the workplace has been published by PwC as part of the firm’s regular Economic Outlook series. The study claims that up to 30 percent of existing UK jobs will be susceptible to automation by robots and Artificial Intelligence by the early 2030s, although in many cases the nature of jobs will change rather than disappear and the change will increase productivity and wealth. This is lower than the US at 38 percent and Germany at 35 percent, but higher than Japan at 21 percent. The report looks in detail at the composition of jobs in different industry sectors and occupations, using machine learning techniques to model the potential impact of AI in the future based on OECD data. The likelihood of automation appears highest in sectors such as transport, manufacturing, and wholesale and retail, and lower in education, health and social work.

March 24, 2017

Review advises employers should devise elder care policies as pension age increases ⁰

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

A review of the state pension age (SPA) led by former Confederation of British Industry (CBI) director general John Cridland has recommended that the State Pension age shouldn’t rise to 68 until between 2037 and 2039 and should not increase more than 1 year in any 10 year period. The report has also advised that all employers should have elder care policies in place which set out a basic care offer and that people should be able to access a mid-life career MOT and review which should be facilitated by employers and by the government using online support and through the National Careers Service. Commenting on the report, which will be considered before any decision is made on changes to the State Pension age timetable after 2028, the Centre for Ageing Better has welcomed its recommendations on wider actions to mitigate the impact of bringing the timetable forward for increases to the State Pension Age.