Search Results for: employers

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

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

BrexitThe 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.

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The traditional office is still very much alive, but it is changing

The traditional office is still very much alive, but it is changing 0

mote_articleA skim through workplace features in the media and you’d be forgiven for thinking that the traditional office is no longer with us. According to the narrative, we’re all now 20-somethings, working in open-plan warehouses, with table football, bean bags and comfy sofas to lounge on, while drinking our custom-made soya lattes. When in actual fact, while more relaxed, fun and funky offices tend to make the headlines, the majority of people still work in a relatively traditional way, with their PC or laptop, a desk and an ergonomic task chair. What’s more, with an ageing workforce, we certainly aren’t all 20-somethings, with DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) figures revealing that the employment rate for people aged 50 to 64 has risen by 14 per cent in the last 30 years, and doubled for over 65s. So designing with just the youngsters in mind simply doesn’t add up. Recent research by the Senator Group, backs up this view.

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Disabled workers continue to face barriers in the workplace

Disabled workers continue to face barriers in the workplace 0

disabled workersA series of reports published in the past few days highlight the challenges faced by Britain’s disabled workers. The studies claim separately that disabled workers are keen to work but are less likely to be in employment and may be hiding disabilities from employers, are paid less when they are in work and that many employers do not feel they are well equipped to deal with the needs of disabled staff. The first study from Reed in Partnership and Disability Rights UK found that one in ten employers do not feel able to support a disabled employee. Meanwhile research from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that employees who experience mental ill-health earn up to 42 per cent less than colleagues. A third report from Citizen’s Advice found that 40 percent of disabled people would like to work but can’t find a job. And finally a report from RIDI claims that many people applying for jobs may be hiding their disability from employers.

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The solution to closing the digital skills gap starts at home

The solution to closing the digital skills gap starts at home 0

Digital skillsMuch has already been written about the UK’s digital skills gap, and undoubtedly as the Government continues to develop and roll out its Digital Strategy for the nation, many more headlines will be devoted to it. For a country so focused on technological development it’s a problem which is both acute and imperative. Recent Government figures put 12.6 million Britons at risk of being left behind in terms of the skills needed for a modern economy. Parliamentary plans to address this issue focus firmly on education: including digital development as a key part of apprenticeships, encouraging vocational digital skills courses at universities, and broadening access to other educational courses to help people to learn to code. However, responsibility to upskill the nation’s workforce also resides with employers. Whether the current role demands IT skills or not, technology increasingly impacts and transforms every element of our lives.

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Low take up for shared parental leave raises questions over demand

Low take up for shared parental leave raises questions over demand 0

Parental leaveNew research questions how much demand exists in the UK for fathers to take shared parental leave. The first available figures reveals a low take-up of new rights to paid leave, as just 3,000 new parents took advantage of the system in the first three months of 2016 – one year on from its introduction. By contrast, approximately 52,000 fathers and 155,000 mothers took paternity and maternity leave in an equivalent time period in 2013/14. The figures were published as a result of a freedom of information request from law firm EMW who suggest that this shows that the new rules are being significantly under-utilised and policymakers need to give more consideration to what benefits future changes to employment law will actually deliver versus the impact on small businesses which have to implement them. The new Shared Parental Leave system allows parents to share paid time off between them, in place of (and at the same rate as) Statutory Maternity Pay.

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Poor tech and long meetings remain key sources of workplace misery

Poor tech and long meetings remain key sources of workplace misery 0

workplace meetingsBadly run and overrunning meetings remain amongst the main sources of workplace conflict and unhappiness, according to a study of 1,000 US employees from workplace software provider Eventboard. The main sources of this conflict appears to be the number of meetings that overrun and poor technology, claims the report. More than half (56 percent) of frontline employees spend 1-2 hours in meetings daily and three-quarters (75 percent) of senior and mid-management level employees spend 3-4 hours in meetings daily. The report also highlights the inadequate provision of workplace technology even though the tools people use are seen as essential for their happiness and productivity. More than half of respondents claim they have to supplement the technology they are given by their employer with their own devices, even though technology can be twice as important as other perks in terms of making people happy and productive.

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Time to address ‘shocking disconnect’ between boardroom and staff pay

Time to address ‘shocking disconnect’ between boardroom and staff pay 0

Executive payAs the new prime minister Theresa May has already indicated in her tenure, the growing gap between rewards for those at the top of organisations and everyone else is hard to justify at a time when economic uncertainty is intense and corporate performance mixed. So it’s shocking to learn that the average FTSE 100 CEO earns 129 times more than the firm’s employees, receiving around £5.5 million a year, up from £4.96 million in 2014. According to the annual survey of FTSE100 CEO remuneration packages by the High Pay Centre, rewards at the top continue to grow at a double digit rate, with the most highly paid being part of an all-boys club. No woman has made it into the top ten in either of the last two years. And in contrast to the generous packages awarded to their executives, only a quarter of the 100 FTSE 100 companies are accredited by the Living Wage Foundation for paying the living wage to all their UK-based staff.

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Universal basic income is an idea whose time has come at last

Universal basic income is an idea whose time has come at last 0

Universal basic incomeIt is no longer a question of whether one of the world’s major economies will introduce a universal basic income for all of its citizens, but when. Over the weekend, the leader of the UK’s Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn announced in an interview in the Huffington Post that he was ‘instinctively looking’ at an idea that is already being discussed and piloted in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway and Canada. Corbyn may be one of the current glut of what would have once been political outliers in the Western World, but the idea of a universal basic income is one that is increasingly accepted in mainstream economic thinking. The RSA continues to campaign for it and has even put a number on it, suggesting that every UK citizen should be offered £308 between the ages of 25 and 65. Andrew Flowers offers up a masterful and detailed analysis of the economic and political issues involved in this piece on fivethirtyeight.com.

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Lack of perks leaves workers feeling less trusted and appreciated

Lack of perks leaves workers feeling less trusted and appreciated 0

Perks of the job

Businesses are failing to provide the perks that can help employee productivity and motivation during the summer months, claims a new survey by Peldon Rose. It also suggests that workers feel less trusted and appreciated by their companies. The report argues that during the summer months, businesses can find motivation slows as employees are distracted by seasonal events and count down the days until their holiday. Those companies found to offer summer perks to help boost morale and wellbeing, summer hours (47 percent), casual dress (37 percent) and ice cream rounds (31 percent) were the most popular, indicating that these benefits are the most highly valued by workers. However, 86 percent of respondents said that their company does not offer any such perks, with the result that many employers are missing an opportunity to make employees feel appreciated and boost happiness and morale in the summer months.

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Third of people have nobody to talk to about stress, claims report

Third of people have nobody to talk to about stress, claims report 0

stressA new survey by office products supplier Viking claims that a third of workers suffer from stress and yet have no one to talk to about it. The authors of the study claims that these findings correlate strongly with people’s overall levels of fulfilment at work, with 46 percent of those surveyed saying they had negative thoughts about their job several times a week. When it comes to a person’s working environment, the results showed that office workers were more stressed than those working from home. Factors that contributed to these stress levels included working overtime, not taking enough breaks, having no one to talk to, job satisfaction, pressure to succeed. It’s no surprise that a lack of breaks is causing stress, with half of office workers admitting to taking no breaks at all during the day, excluding lunch. Conversely, a massive 61 percent of people working from home said they took two to three breaks throughout the day.

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One in five UK workers believe their job is less secure due to Brexit vote

One in five UK workers believe their job is less secure due to Brexit vote 0

Around one in five employees in the UK are feeling pessimistic about the security of their current job because of the Brexit vote to leave the EU, a new survey by the CIPD claims. Answering a range of questions, including how they felt about the future as a result of the UK’s vote to leave the EU, around 44 percent of the 1,000 working adults who took part felt pessimistic about the future, with this being particularly high amongst public sector workers (61 percent), voluntary sector workers (58 percent) and people aged 25-34 (63 percent). 22 percent said they felt their job was less secure now. The CIPD’s survey also highlighted incidents of harassment and bullying in the workplace relating to the Brexit decision, with more than one in ten employees saying that they have experienced, witnessed or heard of incidents of harassment or bullying of a political nature and just under one in ten (7 percent) referenced incidents of a racist nature (7 percent).

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The gig economy must be harnessed to address skill shortages and uncertainty

The gig economy must be harnessed to address skill shortages and uncertainty 0

gig economyThe legal status of  people working in the gig economy must be clarified so that businesses and individuals can thrive, according to a new report from the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC).  Gig economy – The Uberisation of Work (registration needed) explores the impact of digital work platforms such as Upwork, Task Rabbit and Freelancer.com, which act as ‘marketplaces matching freelancers with a wide range of project-based work’. The report suggests that almost a third of all UK employers will  use these kinds of digital work platforms by 2021. The REC has called on policy-makers to ensure that the gig economy is fair to self-employed workers and businesses, and to secure benefits for the UK wider economy. The report claims that this will become increasingly important as the gig economy becomes more mainstream, adding £45 billion to the UK economy and creating work for 766,000 people.

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