October 4, 2018
A new deal for dads at work is essential in the quest for gender balance
New research published by consulting firm Talking Talent claims to identify how it is essential for employers to improve support for working fathers in order to achieve equality for working mothers. Organisations need to go further than setting policy to achieve this – they need working practices that make it easier for employees to share parental responsibilities between mum and dad, according to the report (registration required). Successfully sharing their role as parents is essential for women to continue the progression of their careers and is key to closing the gender pay gap, according to the study of 7,000 people. But it will only succeed if organisations ensure working dads don’t face exactly the same negative experiences which have stopped working mums progressing in the past. The research claims that over half (52 percent) of working parents, including 26 percent men and 30 percent women, think that their career has slowed down compared to their childless colleagues.
The vast majority (98 percent) of UK employees think learning is essential in deciding to stay or leave their employer, yet new research claims that three quarters (75 percent) of companies don’t have a learning culture and 66 percent don’t have a digital learning strategy. The research from Bridge in collaboration with Two Heads Consulting, finds that most businesses in the UK are struggling to engender a culture that prioritises learning and development with only 25 percent of HR staff saying their organisations have a learning culture. In comparison, three quarters of companies don’t have one at all (11 percent), are still trying to establish one (59 percent) or report it is not a priority (5 percent). Furthermore, despite recognising its importance, 60 percent of UK companies don’t measure the impact of learning on business performance. Employees also complain that their performance reviews are ill thought out and infrequent.
Almost half (49 percent) of UK workers are in jobs they are either under- or over-skilled for, according to new research from the CIPD. Its report ‘Over-skilled and underused: Investigating the untapped potential of UK skills’ surveyed 3,700 UK employees and found that more than a third (37 percent) of workers have the skills to cope with more demanding duties than they currently have. At the opposite end of the scale, one in ten (12 percent) employees said they lacked all the skills needed to carry out their job effectively. This means that as many as half (49 percent) of UK workers could be in the wrong job, based on their skill level. The UK has one of most skilled workforces in the world, with 42 percent of workers qualified to degree level, yet it also has the highest proportion of jobs within the OECD which require no qualifications at all.
National Work Life Week (1st – 5th October 2018) starts today with the aim of encouraging companies to think about their employees’ wellbeing and happiness. To mark the week new research asked British workers about the things they most want from their work. The YouGov survey of 2,000 adults, commissioned by the Oxford Open Learning Trust, found that while money is predictably the biggest motivator behind career choice (64 percent), over half of the respondents cited working hours and flexible working as an important factor (55 percent). 
The majority (86 percent) of UK office workers claim they are more likely to be told off for forgetting to do menial tasks, like emptying or loading the dishwater and keeping their workplace tidy, than complying with GDPR policies, according to a new poll which assessed whether GDPR is being taken seriously by UK office workers since its introduction in May of this year. The study from Fellowes found that only 14 percent of workers have been given a ticking off about careless handling of confidential data, while 25 percent claim office chores, like emptying or filling the dishwasher, has landed them in the hottest water. The data, collected from over 1,000 UK office workers in July 2018, also reveals that many are more likely to be challenged about missing deadlines and being late (17 percent) than ensuring they are compliant with GDPR.
