February 3, 2021

COVID-19 is having an unequal impact on the mental health of workers

When the COVID-19 crisis hit the UK in March 2020, many commented that the virus didn’t discriminate and that its impact would be felt equally by everyone. However, as highlighted in Nuffield Health’s recent whitepaper, the mental health impact of the virus – rising from financial worries, anxiety around health and the direct impact of COVID-19 – has hit some groups harder than others. (more…)

February 2, 2021

Working from home spells trouble for the careers of younger workers

by Helen Jamieson • Comment, Flexible working

Lockdown meant that the choice to work from home was made for us. However, for many the decision to continue to do so post-lockdown will be a personal choice. The question we should all ask ourselves is, whether when we are outside of any lockdown restrictions, is working from home really a workplace revolution or simply an act of selfishness? For thousands of workers who’ve spent years of their lives commuting to offices that feel more like soul-less factories than inspiring and engaging workplaces, it’s no wonder that enforced work from home has proven popular. (more…)

February 2, 2021

Staff mental health identified as key challenge in 2021

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working culture

As a new year comes into view, many SMEs in the UK are concerned about the mental health of their staff as much as their ability to drive revenue, new research claims. The new survey conducted by Hiscox, asked 1,000 SME business decision-makers from across the UK about their experiences during 2020 and their subsequent outlook into 2021. (more…)

February 2, 2021

Stress-related absence soars as COVID-19 exacerbates the UK’s mental health crisis

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

‘Stress by Sector’ data released by e-days claims concerning statistics that stress-related appointments are up generally in business by 64 percent over 2019. The data claims that the sectors struggling most with stress-related sickness are unsurprisingly healthcare (0.64 days of stress related absence on average per employee), followed by Government and International Affairs (0.57 days on average per employee) and Human Resources and staffing (0.39 days on average per employee). (more…)

February 1, 2021

Burnt out remote workers need more help than they are getting

by Karen Plum • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

There’s no question that many people now, feeling the weight of lockdown 3 and with no clear view on the timing of any sort of ‘return to normal’, are finding it tough to stay motivated. Many are burnt out. We can gain some insight into what is going on for many individuals by way of neuroscience, specifically how the brain works and how it copes with changing situations. (more…)

January 29, 2021

There is always a brighter side to uncertainty in business

by Portia Hickey • Business, Comment

The uncertainty and fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic have wreaked havoc on the mental health of nearly all of us. In a recent conversation with an HR leader, she shared with me that every single person on her leadership programme reported suffering disrupted sleep due to their anxiety around business uncertainty. The irony is the business is in better shape than it has been for years thanks to the effective management of the firm’s finances during the pandemic. Regardless of reality, the uncertainty is impacting on everyone’s resilience levels. (more…)

January 28, 2021

Right to disconnect should be enshrined in law, says EU Parliament

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

The EU Parliament has announced that it would like to protect what it calls employees’ fundamental rights to disconnect from work which includes restricting the way employers might contact staff outside their contracted working hours. Although the right to disconnect is not defined by EU law, the Parliament has called upon the Commission to come up with a law allowing employees to disconnect from work during non-work hours without consequences and setting minimum standards for remote work. (more…)

January 28, 2021

Disconnected leadership hinders effective employee engagement

by Jayne Smith • Business, News, Working culture

New research from Opinion Matters, commissioned by SocialChorus, the digital employee experience platform, claims that the digital employee experience (DEX) and employee engagement efforts by businesses across the US, UK and Nordics are hampered by the lack of collaboration between IT, HR and Internal Communications (IC) departments. (more…)

January 27, 2021

Extrovert-run businesses are more likely to be growing than introvert-run ones

by Jayne Smith • Business, News

A new report of over 1,000 small business owners and decision makers by Hitachi Capital Business Finance claims that extrovert-run businesses are more likely to be growing in the current environment, and more likely to have plans to win more business in 2021. (more…)

January 26, 2021

Call for employers to do more to safeguard the health of their employees

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Working culture

In April 2020, 47 percent of UK employees worked from home and for many, they still haven’t returned to the office. The events of 2020 have been unprecedented, as rules and advice from the government have changed at rapid rates in response to the Coronavirus Pandemic. But one thing that remained relatively consistent is the encouragement for those who can, to work from home. (more…)

January 26, 2021

Remote work continues to impact physical and mental health of workers

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

New research from Fellowes Brands claims to reveal the ‘alarming’ impact enforced remote work is having on the mental wellbeing and physical health of the nation. Over a third (35 percent) of UK workers admit feeling stressed or anxious, lonely and isolated (32 percent) and tired or lacking in energy (38 percent), while working from home during lockdown. The study is based on a survey of 1,000 UK office workers who had worked from home for at least four months. (more…)

January 22, 2021

Low paid workers have borne the brunt of the pandemic

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

New analysis by the Institute for Employment Studies has found that low paid workers are more than twice as likely to have lost their jobs during the pandemic and are at far greater risk of being temporarily laid off or having their hours cut. The research, funded by Standard Life Foundation, concludes that in this current lockdown it is likely that around two thirds of low paid workers – or four million people – are either temporarily laid off or working fewer hours than normal. This would be double the rate of work disruption for staff who are not classified as low paid. (more…)