Search Results for: employment

November 9, 2016

Will Brexit mean business as usual for employment law? ⁰

by Michael Farrelly • Comment, Legal news, Workplace

The decision by the UK electorate to leave the European Union has created widespread uncertainty in almost all areas of law, with employment law particularly affected. A large amount of present UK employment law has its base in EU law, which means a withdrawal from the EU could result in UK employment rights no longer being guaranteed by the EU. This leaves both employees and employers in a state of flux and uncertainty, and the approach that has thus far been taken by the government appears to have been driven, to a very large degree, by a desire to create a sense of continuity. Both the Prime Minister Theresa May and Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, David Davis, have repeatedly sought to offer reassurances that the rights of workers will remain largely unchanged post-Brexit. Given the political situation, however, it is entirely possible that this may end up being simple rhetoric rather than a deliverable result.

October 27, 2016

Majority of freelancers don’t want more employment rights ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

Although British Prime Minister PM Theresa May has recently, announced a Government review into how employment rights can be extended to freelancers, a new survey claims that the vast majority of the self-employed don’t really want them. The admittedly small scale study of 250 freelancers from ContractorCalculator claims that 80 percent aren’t interested in them anyway and a mere 7 percent think they would be of benefit.

Key findings from the survey include:

88 percent of freelancers don’t want maternity/paternity rights
82 percent do not want paid sick leave
85 percent say no to holiday rights and pay
80 percent shun extra rights to help with grievances or disciplinary matters
94 percent don’t want restrictions on the amount of hours they can work
74 percent believe more employment rights would compromise their tax status and complicate their tax affairs.
More than half of respondents also raised concern that the provision of such rights would both restrict their flexibility and result in lower earnings.

“These results are not surprising,” claims CEO Dave Chaplin. “The Government needs to understand that the negative reports associated with self-employed couriers and drivers are woefully unrepresentative of all of the self-employed. There are several million self-employed businesspeople working on a business to business basis with their customers who are very happy with the way they work and the last thing they want is further legislative burdens.”

September 28, 2016

Gig economy boosts UK employment rate despite Brexit summer lull ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

There were fewer job vacancies on offer in August, due to the traditional summer lull and the after effects of the Brexit vote, but employment levels were maintained by a rise in self-employment and the growing gig economy. The latest UK Job Market Report from Adzuna.co.uk reveals that 1,123,365 job vacancies were advertised in August, dropping 2.7 percent from 1,154,993 in July. The post-Brexit summer period of uncertainty, combined with a seasonal slowing in the market, lay behind this blip, but hiring is 0.6 percent higher than six months ago and the jobs market is proving resilient in the face of political uncertainty. Despite vacancies falling, the employment rate was 74.5 percent – its joint record highest level since comparable records started in 1971, according to the ONS. This has been partly propped up by the rise of the gig economy and growing self-employment as job-seekers look to alternative forms of employment amidst the growing entrepreneurial environment.

September 2, 2016

Institute for Employment Studies launches new Brexit Observatory ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Workplace

The Institute for Employment Studies, a human resources and employment think tank, has launched what it calls a Brexit Observatory, which will aim to track the effects of the UK’s vote to leave the EU on employment levels and issues. According to the IES, the Observatory will ‘provide a space to collate evidence, share relevant research and commentary, track datasets, and link to sources of independent information as the debate continues and the terms of the UK’s departure are revealed. It will build over the following weeks, months and years as events unfold and data surfaces. In addition to content originating from IES, the pages will feature guest blogs and links to external sources.’ The IES says that it hopes the Observatory will stimulate and facilitate debates on key topics, such as the labour market; education and skills; migration (including the impact on the UK’s nursing workforce); the impact on HR; workforce planning and recruitment; employment law; and employee engagement.

August 15, 2016

Brexit leads to ‘softening’ of employment market, claims CIPD survey ⁰

by Neil Franklin • News, Public Sector, Workplace

The UK’s decision to leave the EU has resulted in a softening in hiring intentions and businesses should invest in skills immediately, according to the latest CIPD/Adecco Group UK & Ireland Labour Market Outlook. The report is based on employer sentiment in the two weeks before and after the EU Referendum and claims that employers surveyed ahead of the vote were somewhat more optimistic about hiring intentions than those surveyed afterwards. It suggests that the proportion of employers expecting to increase staffing levels over the next three months dropped from 40 percent pre-Brexit to 36 percent following the vote. The net employment balance, based on the difference between the share of employers expanding their workforce and those reducing it, dropped from +21 pre-Brexit to +17 post-Brexit. However, the fall was significantly sharper among private sector employers, with the post-Brexit employment balance declining to +25 from +39.

July 15, 2016

Substantial growth in 21st Century self employment in the UK ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News

The 21st Century has seen an explosion of self employment in the UK, and most people who have become self employed have done so for positive reasons, claims a new report from the UK Government’s Office for National Statistics. According to the Trends in Self Employment Report, there are now more than 4.7 million people classified as self employed, around 15 percent of the workforce. There has been a marked upturn since the 2008 recession, an increase of 730,000 over that period. The trend to self employment has been evident since the turn of the Millennium when around 3.2 million people were classified as self employed. Between 2001 and 2015, part time self employment grew by 88 percent, compared to 25 percent for full time work, partly because of the growing number of workers choosing part time self employment before retirement. The report describes the changes as structural, which suggests that the growth will continue.

June 23, 2016

How could UK employment laws be affected by the outcome of the Brexit vote? ⁰

by Sathesh Alagappan • Comment, Legal news, Workplace

The result of yesterday’s EU referendum vote will dominate the UK’s political scene for months now and the outcomes will be followed with particular interest by business owners, who currently have to adhere to a range of employment laws that either originate from the EU itself or have been developed within the context of our membership of the organisation. Therefore, a vote for Brexit today could fundamentally change the way businesses operate in the UK. This is particularly true given that a large amount of the UK’s employment law has its roots in Brussels. Article 153 of The Lisbon Treaty set the precedent for this. It allowed the EU to create a base level of legislation that applies to all facets of the workplace. This includes working hours, workers’ rights, and health and safety. Individual nations are free to supplement this with their own legislation. For example, the minimum wage is an example of employment legislation that is independent of the EU.

June 6, 2016

How performance data can help enhance your employment metrics ⁰

by Andrea Hak • Comment, News, Technology, Workplace

The rise of data based applications has brought about a new era for the HR department. Processes developed in the 70s are now going through a transformation, with tools for gathering more accurate reports based on people analytics. But what exactly can you do with this information? The main objectives of every organisation, is to boost engagement, lower turnover, provide effective training & development and attract great talent. Aside from turnover, these objectives are difficult to measure. How do you measure engagement or the effect of a training programme? This is especially difficult when your company only tracks performance annually. Data based on continuous feedback is providing new answers. There are four ways it can help: by measuring and tracking engagement; give you better insights into the causes of turnover; helping you develop a feedback culture and enabling your organisation to create better hiring and recruitment strategies. We take a closer look at these below. More →

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.

February 29, 2016

Full employment drive can help over a million more UK over-50s into work ⁰

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

The UK government should find ways to encourage more than one million more over-50 into work by the end of this parliament, claims the Resolution Foundation think tank. The call comes ahead of a final report this week following a nine-month investigation into the issue full employment. The Chancellor announced a commitment to full employment in last year’s Summer Budget, with the government committing to report annually on progress towards this objective. The Foundation says that support for the over 50s, particularly to keep them from leaving the labour force, should be at the heart of the government’s strategy. Older people have contributed the fastest jobs growth of any age group over the last decade, leaving employment rates for workers aged 50-64 and 65+ are at record highs. The Foundation says that previous progress shows this group can and should be at the centre of plans for realising full employment.

January 26, 2016

Unethical employment practices drive ‘Gen S’ professionals away ⁰

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, News, Workplace

Over half of ‘Gen S’ workers would refuse to work for employers who have a record of using slave labour, generating high levels of pollution, employing unsafe working conditions, poor environmental performance, questionable investments and unethical practices. According to the Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment’s (IEMA) annual Practitioner Survey these people see environmental roles as the career change of choice, with 42 percent of professionals who now work in these roles considering themselves “career changers”. Those entering the profession come from a variety of backgrounds including finance, operations, marketing and communications and R&D. Gen S workers are typically people in their mid-thirties, above average in their qualifications with 45 percent having a Master’s degree or doctorate, looking for more than just a career and earning money, but actively seeking a career which is primarily “ethical” in nature.

November 9, 2015

Business success is progressively less related to employment levels ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

If you want to understand exactly how the economy has changed over the last few decades, one of the most important statistics is also one of the least remarked upon. It is the growing disconnect between a firm’s earnings and the number of people it employs, a statistic that puts paid to the lie that people are an organisation’s greatest asset. Once upon a time, of course, there was a direct correlation of one sort or another between the a firm’s revenue and the number of people it employed and consequently the amount of space that it took up. This was especially true for the world’s great manufacturers and other industries engaged in what was once proper work; moving, creating, destroying and maintaining things. Growth and success meant more employment and more space. There were economies of scale but the upshot was more or less an arithmetic progression in employment based on earnings.