Search Results for: employers

June 25, 2015

The healthy workplace is now a matter of public policy in the UK

by Mark Eltringham • Legal news, News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Promoting a culture that improves the health and wellbeing of employees is good management practice and leads to a healthy and productive workplace, according to the Governmental body charged with shaping policy and offering advice on health related matters in the UK. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), part of the Department of Health, has published a new set of guidelines on the issue and called on employers to do more to address the challenge of creating a productive and healthy workplace. According to NICE, workplace health is a significant public health issue with more than a million working people in the UK experiencing a work-related illness each year, leading to around 27 million lost working days and costing the economy an estimated £13.4 billion.

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June 23, 2015

Fit note scheme is not reducing long term sickness absence, claims new study

by Mark Eltringham • Legal news, News, Wellbeing

The UK government’s fit note scheme, introduced five years ago to help people back to work from long term sickness absence, has failed to deliver its intended reductions, according to research from manufacturing and engineering trade association EEF and Jelf Employee Benefits. The study of 345 companies claims more than two-fifths (43 per cent) of employers believe the policy had not helped employees return to work, up from 35 per cent in 2010. Employers also told the survey that the quality of GP advice on fitness for work has deteriorated, which the report’s authors claim is largely down to the fact that only around one in eight GPs in the UK have been trained in specific health and work and the Government has shown no willingness to invest in more training to bring the numbers of those qualified up to the necessary levels necessary to meet its own goals.

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June 19, 2015

Well designed offices should create spaces suitable for everybody

by Dan Callegari • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace, Workplace design

The basis of the commonly held belief that offices are designed for extroverts seems to be that, because the primary goal of offices is to bring people together to work and because the de facto office design standard is open plan, then this makes them an ideal home for extroverts. They are parties to which everybody is invited, but at which the wallflowers are told to dance. There is something in this but it doesn’t tell the whole story. This is just as well because personalities are not so straightforwardly easy to categorise and the needs of everybody to collaborate or work alone – however extroverted they might be – vary throughout the day. The office remains endlessly complex and sophisticated and any simplistic notions about it and the things it does should be challenged with a cold, hard look at the facts and what is happening in the real world.

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June 18, 2015

Gen Z workers will be far more conventional than commonly assumed

by Sara Bean • News, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

Despite being the first generation of workers to boast ‘native’ digital skills, so-called ‘Gen Z’ is far more conventional than previously assumed. The coming generation of 16-19 years-olds who are fast approaching the jobs market will care far more about their workplace and their employer’s ethics than Gen Y, new research from recruiter Adecco claims. The research shows that long-term security is more appealing to Gen Z than short term perks; with gym memberships (12%), free technology (16%) and time off to travel (26%) rejected in favour of qualifications and job security; at 43 percent and 41 percent, respectively. However, the research does show they have strong personal ambition and high expectations from employers, with half of those surveyed expecting a promotion within their first year of employment and the same number expecting to move on from an employer within two years.

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June 16, 2015

Back pain and mental ill health still the main reasons for workplace absence

by Sara Bean • Furniture, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Back pain and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) remain the prime reason for long-term workplace absence (38%); with stress and mental-health disorders the main cause of absence for one in four companies. However, the results of the UK’s largest business survey on sickness absence published by EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation and Jelf Employee Benefits reveals that stress and mental illness is regarded as the most difficult form of absence to make workplace adjustments for, with almost a third of companies saying this is the case. Furthermore, a third of employers said that they do not have approaches for managing mental-health-related long-term absence. Just one in ten companies provides training for line managers in mental-health issues and only 2 percent of companies have an open mental-health disclosure policy, suggesting business matches society in finding it a difficult issue to address.

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June 15, 2015

Generation Y isn’t as tech savvy as it and everybody else likes to think

by Mark Eltringham • Technology, Workplace

The shaky idea that the members of Generation Y are somehow different to the rest of the human race tends to rest on their characterisation as ‘digital natives’. However, according to a new report from US campaign organisation Change the Equation, just because Millennials have grown up with digital technology and are very attached to it doesn’t mean they are particularly tech savvy, especially when it comes to using technology to solve challenges in the workplace. The report, based on na analysis of the OECD’s Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies, found that although Millennials spend an average of 35 hours a week using digital devices, more than half of them (58 percent) are still unable to use their tech to help increase their productivity. They are still better in this regard than previous generations where 70 percent of people have low skills, but not significantly better.

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June 13, 2015

The latest issue of Insight Weekly is available to view online

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Newsletter, Public Sector, Wellbeing, Work&Place, Workplace, Workplace design

In this week’s issue; Dr Kerstin Sailer, Ros Pomeroy and Rosie Haslem describe the ten demonstrable facts about the workplace you may not know; Mark Eltringham says the most pervasive and enduring myth about the office is that it is somehow dying off and discovers that people have been writing guides to good ergonomics since the early seventeenth Century. Also this week; a parliamentary inquiry into the effects of design on behaviour is launched by the Design Commission, a survey for World FM Day reveals the key role played by FM in wellbeing and productivity, the US Government’s plans to reform the way federal office space is managed, and too few employers advertise jobs with flexible working opportunities. Subscribe for free quarterly issues of Work&Place and for weekly news via the subscription form in the right hand sidebar, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

June 10, 2015

Flexible hiring out of step with flexible working, especially in London

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Only a handful (6.2%) of new jobs offer both decent salaries and the opportunity to work flexibly, according to new research from Timewise. Despite technological advances and significant changes in how and where people work, employers consistently underestimate how precious a benefit is flexibility, and rarely mention it in job ads. The flexible talent pool is massive; with more than 5.4 million people already in flexible roles, yet the number of jobs advertised with flexibility are so scarce that 77 percent of flexible workers feel ‘trapped’ in their current role, leaving those who want flexibility to fit with modern life, locked out of chances to progress. Flexible opportunities are better outside of the Capital, as candidates looking for flexible jobs have comparatively greater opportunities in Scotland, Northern Ireland and in the north of England.

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June 8, 2015

Dietitians publish key findings on workplace health programmes

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

We spend around 60 percent of our life at work and consume at least a third of our daily food intake, which is why the British Dietetic Association (BDA) has announced that the theme of office for its new Chairman, Dr Fiona McCullough, will be workplace health. Responding to recent policies such as the NHS Five Year Forward View and the NICE public health guidance for the workplace, which recognise that businesses benefit from investing in the wellbeing of employees, the BDA is conducting a review of published peer-reviewed evidence of workplace health studies in order to determine how best individuals and employers can optimise health at work. This review will underpin the development of a BDA Work Ready Programme, which has produced interim research that has already highlighted the key role employers can play in enhancing the wellbeing of staff.

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June 4, 2015

Third of working women feel disadvantaged in the workplace

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

One in three (31%) successful working women in the UK say that men are offered greater opportunities at work, according to new research by Badenoch & Clark. The research claims that the glass ceiling is still a barrier to women in the workplace and this is especially true in typically male-dominated professions such as law and the IT industry. 58 percent of women in the private sector say that their organisation had leadership and development programmes compared to only 48 percent of women in the public sector. When asked why men are offered more opportunities, over half of the women surveyed (57%) said it was because of an unconscious gender bias with male-dominated senior teams preferring to recruit, mentor and measure performance in their own image. This suggests that the challenging issue of gender bias cannot be resolved through development programmes alone.

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June 3, 2015

IT firms hold TechNorth digital hub in higher regard than TechCity

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, News, Technology

TechNorth, the Manchester based technology hothouse devised as a regional counterbalance to London, is held in higher regard than the capital’s flagship TechCity development, according to research from recruitment firm Robert Half. The study of IT decision makers across the UK claims that the vast majority would prioritise working with Northern firms over their London counterparts, with 87 percent either ‘highly likely’ or ‘somewhat likely’ to place work with IT businesses in the TechNorth hub rather than those in TechCity London given the choice. The figure is 100 percent for IT leaders based in the North and to 95 percent for those in Scotland. More surprisingly, 80 percent of those based London and the South East said they would prioritise TechNorth, as did 75 percent in the South West and Wales.

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June 2, 2015

A relaxed office environment and rapid career progress are key for Millennials

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Workplace

The latest research on the aspirations of so-called Millennial workers (born 1980 – 1999) reveals a cohort that wants to rise up the career ladder as quickly as possible, but do so in a less traditional workplace than previous generations. According to a whitepaper – ‘Attracting and Retaining Millennial Professionals’ from recruitment firm Robert Walters, 91 percent of Millennials say the opportunity for rapid career progression is one of the most important things about their job, with 68 percent citing a clear path to grow in a role is the most important factor in keeping them engaged. While Millennials are not that different from their older colleagues – they favour a more relaxed working environment where technology is seamlessly integrated into their working practices. They also place a higher value on personality, communication skills and fit within a team than they do on hard technical skills.