December 7, 2017
Flexible hours best way for employers to reduce staff stress Christmas lead up
Over 50 percent of respondents to a recent survey want their bosses to offer more flexible hours in the weeks leading up to Christmas to help them deal with the stress of the season, while a significant minority do not want to attend their office Christmas party and see little value in building friendships with colleagues from such events. These are the key findings from the latest survey conducted over the past month by Peldon Rose which claims that 54 percent of people feel stressed in the lead up to the holidays. Yet, while many employers off the typical well-intentioned holiday benefits, such as Christmas parties, office decorations, team outings and lunches, what employees really value are perks that have a direct impact on improving their workload and allowing them to work in a more relaxed manner at this very busy time of the year, such as more flexible hours, finishing early on agreed days and a dress down code.
Despite recent figures indicating that work productivity is down in Britain, the UK remains a highly attractive country for employers and employees based on a combination of talent, location, quality of life and cost, according to the latest edition of Colliers International’s European Cities of Influence report. The analysis of 50 major European economic cities for employers saw London retain its top position, with all other UK cities in the analysis featuring in the top 20 (Birmingham, Edinburgh, Manchester, Bristol and Glasgow).The report finds that quality of life factors are important to accelerate business and attract talent with the research revealing that the nature of workplace strategy is evolving so rapidly that keeping up — let alone staying ahead of the curve — can be a challenge. Employers are now focused on creating a workplace that can attract and retain talent by incorporating co-working and collaborative facilities, flexible working options and ingraining a healthy mindset. With the onus on keeping employees happy and productive, the design and utilization of the workplace is helping to accelerate business productivity more than ever before.
British workers are lagging behind employees from other countries when it comes to flexible working hours and benefits like extended leave, suggests new research. New independent research commissioned by travel specialists Opodo.co.uk compared Britain with other nations across Europe and the USA, which reveals that British companies are lagging behind other businesses when it comes to flexible working. Three-quarters of employees in the UK (75 percent) don’t believe they have a generous holiday allowance and 84 percent aren’t offered time back in lieu for days worked over the weekend. It’s of no surprise then that 69 percent of Brits don’t think they have a good work-life balance.
The majority of UK employees (61 percent) do not feel encouraged by their employer to lead an active lifestyle, despite most managers agreeing that exercise positively impacts employees’ productivity (78 percent) and their ability to handle stress (82 percent) claims new research from AXA PPP healthcare. Of those British employees who do exercise after work, nearly half (46 percent) would prefer to do so before work but 79 percent blame a lack of time in the morning; yet for those who find time to be physically active before work, three quarters (75 percent) feel it spurs them on to be more effective in the morning while 69 percent feel more productive. More worryingly, nearly half of employees (45 percent) of employees admit they do not do the NHS recommended 30 minutes of daily exercise, five times a week, but finding time to be physically active during the working day can be difficult, or undesirable. Sixty?two percent of employees with good intentions to exercise at work find they’re cancelling their lunchtime exercise plans due to workload or work commitments.
