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Your happiness at work is not just down to your employer

Your happiness at work is not just down to your employer

When Google promoted a software engineer named Chade-Meng Tan to the role of “Jolly Good Fellow”, his career – and the entire culture of Silicon Valley – took a sharp turn. Meng, a cheerful employee valued for his motivational qualities, went from developing mobile search tools to spreading happiness across the organisation. Happiness became his job. Google wasn’t the first to hire someone with the sole remit of enforcing employee contentment. In 1999, when Google was still a start-up, French fashion brand Kiabi hired Christine Jutard as its chief happiness officer. She was one of the first to perform the role. But once Google did it, happiness at work became a key metric and other organisations quickly adopted their approach. Three years after Meng’s appointment, fast food giant McDonald’s even promoted Ronald McDonald from brand mascot to CHO.

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Fewer than half of Australians now work in a traditional job

Fewer than half of Australians now work in a traditional job

Fewer than half of employed Australians now hold a standard, traditional job, according to a new report into the growth of insecure employment published by the Centre for Future Work. The report, The Dimensions of Insecure Work: A Factbook, reviews eleven statistical indicators of the growth in employment insecurity over the last five years: including part-time work, short hours, underemployment, casual jobs, marginal self-employment, and jobs paid minimum wages under modern awards. It defines a standard job as permanent full-time paid work with leave entitlements. According to the authors, all the indicators of job stability have declined since 2012, thanks to a combination of weak labour market conditions, aggressive profit strategies by employers, and passivity by labour regulators.

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Low unemployment means new recruits will quit if the job doesn’t measure up

Low unemployment means new recruits will quit if the job doesn’t measure up

Low unemployment means new recruits will not stay if the role doesn't measure up

Alongside the challenge of finding the right people to fill roles is keeping them there, according to a survey from Korn Ferry which claims that the majority (93 percent) of employers agreed that the retention of new hires in their organisation is becoming an issue.  New recruits individuals agree, with 26 percent admitting they’d leave a job if it wasn’t a good fit, even if they didn’t have another position lined up. The top reasons new hires leave, according to the survey, is their specific role isn’t what they expected and working for the company was different than they thought it would be. Respondents said a desire for more money was not a primary reason a new hire would leave. More than half of the respondents (55 percent) said that offering more money to a new hire who wanted to leave would not make them stay and more than three quarters, (82 percent) said that if they personally accepted a job that they ended up not liking, even though it paid well, they would leave as soon as they found a new job.

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A quarter of people would switch jobs for the chance of flexible working

A quarter of people would switch jobs for the chance of flexible working

New research from totaljobs claims that more than one in four workers (28 percent) would move jobs if they weren’t allowed to work from home, increasing to nearly half (45 percent) of millennial workers. While two thirds of UK employees (65 percent) can work from home, 35 percent are still not given the option of working remotely. Totaljobs’ research claims that remote working is in the top five most important benefits when looking for a new job, beating perks such as enhanced parental leave, travel allowances and learning and development.

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Remote working preferred, with just one in ten workers happiest in an office environment

Remote working preferred, with just one in ten workers happiest in an office environment

Remote working preferred, as just one in ten workers happiest in an office environmentOne in four workers (28 percent) would move jobs if they weren’t allowed to work from home, increasing to nearly half (45 percent) of millennial workers. Yet while two thirds of UK employees (65 percent) can work from home, 35 percent are still not given the option of working remotely. Totaljobs’ research revealed that remote working is in the top five most important benefits when looking for a new job, beating perks such as enhanced parental leave, travel allowances and learning and development. One in five workers would pick a job that offered remote working over one that did not when deciding on a new role. Given the choice, two fifths (38 percent) of the UK workforce prefer working from home, a figure that rises to 46 percent of 18-34-year olds as opposed to just 31 percent of over 55’s, clearly showing the popularity of remote working options to the millennial workforce. The flexibility that remote working offers is most appreciated by women, with a quarter (24 percent) preferring the option of working from home or in the office compared to 16 percent of men.

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More than three quarters of British workers have worked whilst genuinely ill in the last year

More than three quarters of British workers have worked whilst genuinely ill in the last year

Employee services business Personal Group and online doctor service videoDoc have published the findings of a survey of 2,496 UK employees on their attitudes and behaviours around work presenteeism and illness in the workplace. The results indicated some worrying trends with regards to the prioritisation of work over health, with the average British worker having worked more than four days whilst genuinely ill in the last year, and over half of UK employees (52 percent) admitting to delaying seeking medical advice because they didn’t want to take time off work. Of those who did take time off work to see a doctor in the last 12 months, 15.7 percent took unpaid leave to do so, 17.5 percent used their annual leave entitlement and 22.4 percent left work early or arrived late – each of which arguably negatively affect both employee wellbeing and organisational productivity.

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Flow of gig workers moving in and out of Britain will increase due to Brexit

Flow of gig workers moving in and out of Britain will increase due to Brexit

Flow of gig workers moving in and out of Britain will increase due to BrexitUK businesses are already one of the top employers of short contract “gig workers” at an international scale and with Brexit just around the corner,  a new survey commissioned by Graebel and carried out by Wakefield Research found that 97 percent of UK Millennials would be interested in relocating to another country for a contract job. After Brexit takes place, nearly three in five (58 percent) British gig workers are more likely to relocate from the U.K. to another EU country for a contract job, and 72 percent of British Millennials answered the same way. Gig workers in each of the top three gig economy markets (UK, US and Singapore), were asked how companies can cater for the needs of this new generation of workers and how to retain their top talent. New York (33 percent), Los Angeles (21 percent) and Paris (21 percent) are the top three picks for UK gig workers looking to relocate. On the other hand, London is still the top choice for US gig workers (33 percent) and second choice for gig workers in Singapore (26 percent).

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Nearly half of workers blame technology issues as top reason for lack of productivity

Nearly half of workers blame technology issues as top reason for lack of productivity

Nearly half of workers blame technology issues as top reason for lack of productivityEight in ten workers use their personal smartphones for work purposes to make their jobs easier as almost half report wasting 10 minutes per hour in their working day due to their employers’ ineffective technology. According to the 2018 Connected Worker survey from Deloitte – just under half (49 percent) of respondents said they waste an average of ten minutes for each hour worked, in a median 35-hour week. Of the reasons given, 44 percent cited issues with technology, such as non-working or lack of devices as the main reason for not being productive at work. Workers compensate for the lack of employer provided technology with their own devices, with eight in ten (81 percent) already using their personal smartphones for work purposes. Over half (54 percent) of the workers feel they have the skills to use more technology at work.

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New report aims to increase use of modern flexible working practices to improve lives of employees

New report aims to increase use of modern flexible working practices to improve lives of employees

flexible working

Businesses are being urged to increase their use flexible working practices in a bid to improve the lives of staff and end gender discrimination in the workplace. According to the report, A Manifesto for Change: A Modern Workplace for a Flexible Workforce, one of the main barriers to gender equality is employers’ reluctance to adoptnon-traditional working practices. The report calls on employers to embrace flexible working. The report from Timewise and Deloitte sets out a five point action plan, which it claims will enable UK businesses to bring about the change needed to address ‘outdated’ working practices. The plan is based on findings from a a survey of almost 2,000 professional workers, 92 percent of whom are women, as well as interviews with UK business leaders.

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New religion and belief guidance from Acas aims to help prevent discrimination at work

New religion and belief guidance from Acas aims to help prevent discrimination at work

New religion and belief guidance from Acas aims to help prevent discrimination at work

New guidance on religion and belief in the workplace has been published by Acas. It is intended to help ensure businesses are following the law when it comes to managing staff that have a particular religion, belief or indeed don’t hold any beliefs. The guidance offers employers essential advice on how to comply with the Equalities Act, which protects employees against discrimination based on religion and belief. The new guidance for employers and employees sets out to explain what religion or belief discrimination is, how to avoid it and includes advice on what the law says about religious dress codes, fasting and time off for religious festivals or holidays.

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Report calls for more support for working carers, including flexible working

Report calls for more support for working carers, including flexible working

office design and facilities managementThe UK’s Work and Pensions Committee has published a report detailing recommendations on how working carers can be better supported by both employers and the government. This includes proposals to make the right to request flexible working available from an employee’s first day. The report, Employment support for carers: thirteenth report of session 2017-19, seeks to offer advice on how working carers can be better supported to remain in or enter employment. The report covers recommendations for the existing state benefits system around the carers’ allowance, potential changes to employment policies and also how the government can act as a model employer in this space.

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Employees’ overwhelming view is they are being held back from developing their career

Employees’ overwhelming view is they are being held back from developing their career

Employees' overwhelming feedback is they are being held back in developing their career

Half (49 percent) of UK workers believe their current job offers little to no chance for career progression and out of 1,000 UK workers asked about the state of their career progression including the prospects for advancement, not one felt they had the right level of support from managers. The survey by Qualtrics claims that just 7 percent believe there is a great deal of opportunity to progress their career in their organisation. It’s a marked difference from October 2017, when the number of employees saying they had a significant opportunity for career progression was 17 percent. The research suggests the pessimistic outlook could be down to a lack of acknowledgment and support at work. Of those claiming to have little or no opportunities for career progression, the data found that 71 percent are given little to no change to trying out new things that interest them, all of them (100 percent) say they don’t receive the right level of support from managers and 49 percent rarely receive consistent acknowledgement for doing good work.

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