Search Results for: employers

Half of workers have experienced poor mental health in their current job

Half of workers have experienced poor mental health in their current job

by • News, Wellbeing

A new and major study into workplace wellbeing by the the charity Mind claims that poor mental health at work is widespread, with half (48 per cent) of all people surveyed saying they have experienced a mental health problem in their current job. The survey of more than 44,000 employees also revealed that only half of those who had experienced poor mental health had talked to their employer about it, suggesting that as many as one in four UK workers is struggling in silence. These findings are revealed as a new online Mental Health at Work ‘gateway’ is launched today by HRH the Duke of Cambridge. Mind, with support from The Royal Foundation, Heads Together and 11 other organisations, has created the UK-wide portal as a free resource for both employers and employees.

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Four day working week could become a reality soon, claims report

Four day working week could become a reality soon, claims report

by • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

A four-day working week could become a reality this century, according to the general secretary of the Trade Union Congress and a new TUC report. In a key speech to the TUC’s annual congress set to be delivered later today, Frances O’Grady will call for firms to use technology in a way to improve the lives of workers and cut the number of hours they spend working. However, the union also concedes that it may take government intervention for this to happen, given the way technology has encouraged the extension of working time over past few decades.

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We should measure wellbeing and security if we want to create Good Work, claims the RSA

We should measure wellbeing and security if we want to create Good Work, claims the RSA

by • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Job security, workplace mental health, and how well-supported workers feel by their employer, should be monitored annually by the government, a report led by the RSA and the Carnegie UK Trust recommends. The need to better monitor quality of work in the UK was called for in RSA chief executive Matthew Taylor’s 2017 employment review for the Prime Minister. The UK Government subsequently committed to delivering on this proposal; and Measuring Good Work now sets out a roadmap for how the ambition can be achieved. The report highlights that employment has a major impact on people’s wellbeing and quality of life, arguing that since the 2008 financial crisis, despite record employment, the overall figure on the number of people in work fails to account for issues like worker pay; whether employees feel they are trapped in a job below their skillset; are working too few or too many hours; or are facing excessive workplace pressure.

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Creating a productive workplace for people is all about context

Creating a productive workplace for people is all about context

by • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace, Workplace design

commercial property innovationThe quest for a proper understanding of the links between the places we work, the things with which we fill them and our wellbeing and productivity has been ongoing for a very long time. It predates our current thinking on productive workplace design and the facilities management discipline as we now know it by decades and has its roots in the design of early landmark offices such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin building and research such as that carried out at the Hawthorne Works in Chicago in the late 1920s. Yet the constantly evolving nature of work means that we are forever tantalised by an idea that we can never fully grasp and makes established ideas seem like revelations.

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Leading a hybrid future workforce of robots, episodic employees and gig leaders

Leading a hybrid future workforce of robots, episodic employees and gig leaders

by • Flexible working, News, Technology

future workforceVisions of hybrid workforces, episodic employees, gig leadership and acceptable failure have been unearthed in a new study, ‘Work 2028: trends, dilemmas and choices’, revealing business and society leaders’ projections for the fourth industrial revolution. The project was led by Professor Bernd Vogel at Henley Business School and run in collaboration with Deutsche Telekom and Detecon Consulting, who commissioned Henley to carry out the survey. The research involved interviews with over 50 influential leaders from across a variety of sectors and countries including senior figures from Amazon and Unilever to look at the challenges facing organisations and their future workforce.

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Cash is key motivator for UK workers and it is leading to high levels of disengagement

Cash is key motivator for UK workers and it is leading to high levels of disengagement

by • News, Workplace

Cash is key motivator for UK workers and it is leading to high levels of disengagement

UK workers are more motivated by cash than their European counter-parts, a new survey has claimed, with over half (62 percent) saying their pay check is the reason they come to work. According to the research from ADP, this compares to an average of 49 percent across other European countries. The study, which surveyed over 2,000 workers across France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and the UK, also shows that non-financial drivers lead to higher engagement levels and greater satisfaction on pay day. UK employees were also the least likely to claim they come to work because they love what they do, with only 13 percent of UK workers saying this is the case, compared to 26 percent in the Netherlands. Worryingly, UK workers are also the most likely to feel like quitting, with 19 percent thinking this every week or more, and 9 percent going as far to think about it most days. This is drastically higher than all other countries, averaging 11 percent and 6 percent respectively.

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Levels of engagement amongst the UK workforce trail behind other European countries

Levels of engagement amongst the UK workforce trail behind other European countries

by • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Workplace

UK employers need to improve working conditions to increase workforce satisfactionEmployers in the UK need to improve working conditions, as the UK’s workforce pride is trailing behind other European countries, a new report claims. The survey from Cornerstone OnDemand and IDC found just a 48 percent approval rating by UK workers, with just 52 percent of respondents “completely agreeing” that they are proud to work for their organisation – a steep drop compared to countries such as Italy (59 percent) and Norway (66 percent). While UK work satisfaction is falling behind the rest of Europe, it is however ranking higher for employer recommendations. Almost half (47 percent) of Brits “completely agree” that they would recommend their current employer to others, versus 43 percent in Sweden and 41 percent of respondents in the Benelux regions. When it comes to employer attractiveness, only 47 percent of UK respondents “completely agree” that their organisation is an attractive place to work, in comparison to 51 percent of Spanish respondents and 56 percent of Finnish respondents. So while the UK is ahead in some criteria, the findings suggest there’s work to be done if British employers want an improved result.

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Flexible hours and opportunities for growth help reduce graduate job-hopping

Flexible hours and opportunities for growth help reduce graduate job-hopping

by • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Flexible hours and opportunities for growth help reduce graduate job-hoppingThe latest generation of workplace recruits, the so-called Gen Z graduates, are more likely to stay in their first role if flexible working and mentoring is on offer, new research claims. According to graduate jobs board Milkround, while over half (55 percent) of new graduates’ plan to stay in their first role for less than two years, 76 percent can be encouraged to stay longer with training/mentorship and 63 percent with flexible hours. They are also ambitious and have high expectations, with 65 percent believing they will work in their dream industry. This impacts what is expected of employers and could hold the key to encouraging this new generation to stay in roles longer. This change in expectations begins before they start their new role – 68 percent of graduates are calling for more detailed job descriptions and 57 percent would like to have an open line of communication with their line manager from the moment they accept a job.

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Larger businesses far more stressful to work for than smaller firms

Larger businesses far more stressful to work for than smaller firms

by • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Larger businesses far more stressful to work for than smaller firmsWe reported yesterday that younger job seekers who favour corporates could be missing out on greater opportunities within smaller organisations, and now new research suggests that despite margins often being tighter and tensions or losses often being felt more keenly in smaller businesses, the level of occupational stress workers feel directly correlates to the size of the company they are in. Micro businesses employing a maximum of four members of staff were less likely than those in businesses of any other size to feel work-related stress, with 45 percent of employees reporting this to the Perkbox 2018 UK Workplace Stress Report. This figure increases to 57 percent for small businesses (5 – 50 staff) and again to 62 percent for small to medium sized organisations (51 – 500 employees).  Finally, workers at larger sized businesses – those with more than 500 members of staff – report the greatest instances of staff experiencing workplace stress (65 percent).

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Majority of staff check emails on holiday, even if bosses don’t care if they keep in touch

Majority of staff check emails on holiday, even if bosses don’t care if they keep in touch

by • Flexible working, News, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace

Majority of employees check emails while on holiday despite bosses not caring if they doThe majority of UK employees check their work emails while on holiday despite the fact that their employers do not want or expect them to keep in touch, new YouGov research has revealed. It seems the majority (60 percent) of those who use email for work check their inboxes while on holiday. One in four (25 percent) check ‘very often’, one in five (19 percent) check ‘sometimes’, and one in six (16 percent) check ‘rarely’. Just four in ten (40 percent) say they never look at their emails. This is despite the fact that eight in ten workers (80 percent) would prefer to ‘completely switch off’ when they’re on holiday, rather than stay on top of what’s going on in the office. The exception is those who check their emails ‘very often’. Half of this group (47 percent) say they’d rather stay on top of what’s going on at work, with the other half (50 percent) happy to stay out of work issues while on vacation. The research suggests however that fewer than one in six think their managers care whether they stay in touch or not.

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Finance professionals prioritise protection of employment rights in Brexit deal

Finance professionals prioritise protection of employment rights in Brexit deal

by • News, Workplace

Securing employment rights for workers must be one of the key priorities of any Brexit deal, according to a fifth of finance professionals surveyed by REED. The recruitment agency asked almost 800 senior finance professionals about company preparations for leaving the EU, finding that only prioritising a free trade deal for the UK (31 per cent) received more votes than securing employment rights (20 per cent). Finance professionals gave considerably less backing for prioritising membership of the single market (18 per cent), self-determined UK law (10 per cent), the customs union (10 per cent) and border controls (10 per cent).

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Why early intervention matters for workplace mental health

Why early intervention matters for workplace mental health

by • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace

Last year alone, poor mental health was the primary cause of long-term absence for 22 percent of organisations, with employees feeling too stressed or anxious to face going in to work. This was up from 13 percent in 2016. However, 45 percent of those who take time off for mental health reasons give their employers another excuse for their absence. Symptoms of mental health can build up when not properly recognised or assessed, but they’re hard to combat when so many employees don’t feel confident enough to open-up about how they’re feeling.

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