Search Results for: workplace training

September 14, 2016

New alliance aims to help eradicate maternity discrimination at work ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, Legal news, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

A new alliance between leading businesses and the Equality and Human Rights Commission is being launched today to combat the level of pregnancy and maternity discrimination that affects around 390,000 pregnant women and new mothers each year. A coalition of businesses in the initiative ‘Working Forward – supporting pregnancy and maternity rights’, aims to inspire other organisations to follow their example by working to eradicate discrimination from their businesses and show employers how to attract, develop and retain women at work. The launch follows the EHRC’s recent landmark research, carried out in conjunction with the former Department from Business, Innovation and Skills which highlighted that while the majority of employers say they are firm supporters of female staff during and after pregnancy and find it easy to comply with the law, three in four (77 percent) mothers say they have had a negative or possibly discriminatory experience at work.

(more…)

September 13, 2016

Two thirds of older jobseekers say they feel discriminated against ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Over a quarter (27 percent) of jobseekers don’t research the role when preparing for a job interview and 60 percent don’t even bother to update their CVs for each role applied for – a basic and key component of any job hunt. And more than a third (37 percent) of jobseekers don’t research the industry when preparing for a job interview, claim new research from totaljobs. It should come as no surprise, then, that the research also reveals that 76 percent of jobseekers are finding the job hunting process difficult while 81 percent have job hunting fears. Fears include not being invited for interview (28 percent), never finding a new job (16 percent) and not having the right or enough experience (13 percent). For the older generation, a huge majority are worried that their age gets in the way of progression as almost two-thirds (63 percent) have said they have felt discriminated against by a prospective employer because of their age.

(more…)

September 8, 2016

Acas issues guidance for line managers on how to run effective teams ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, Legal news, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

The transition from team member to manager can be a challenge. Well trained front line managers are crucial for business performance but need the right tools to help them do their jobs says workplace experts Acas, which is calling on small businesses and larger companies to use its new guidance to ensure that staff are equipped to manage and care for their teams. The new guide highlights leadership, people management and strong organisational skills as three key areas for team leaders. It advises the managers should know how to build trust and respect with their teams, listen to their concerns and ideas. They should also learn how to manage tricky situations with people; for whether it’s staff members having family problems, two colleagues accusing each other of bullying, or jealousy in a team over nominations for training and bonuses. A good manager should also be effective at planning team work, rotas, budgets, and balancing their own time.

(more…)

September 7, 2016

Report published on employing older workers to help close labour gap ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

A new report – published to encourage employers to create more age friendly workplaces – warns of a widening labour gap in the UK. Between 2005 and 2015 the number of people working over the age of 50 in the UK increased by 2.5 million. By 2022, the UK economy will need to fill 14.5 million job vacancies created by people leaving the workforce and by new positions being created; but it is estimated that there will only be seven million young people available to fill them – leaving a labour shortage of 7.7 million people. Yet currently, one million older people who are not in work want to work and if just half of these were to move into employment GDP would increase by up to £88 billion a year. Business in the Community’s new report, Age in the Workplace, supported by the Centre for Ageing Better, advises employers on how to implement practical changes; such as introducing more flexible hours, which will help improve the recruitment and retention of older workers.

(more…)

August 16, 2016

A well executed wellness strategy benefits staff and employers ⁰

by Beate O'Neil • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace

Employee health and wellbeing is moving up the agenda of many companies. A recent report from the Reward and Employee Benefits Association (Reba) and Punter Southall Health & Protection found that a third of companies have a wellness strategy in place, with 80 per cent having introduced one in the last three years. Of the 70 per cent that don’t yet have a strategy, a third plan to implement one this year, a third plan to implement a plan in the next few years and the final third have it firmly on their wish list. This is driven by the fact that the UK is experiencing a major demographic change – in 2014 the average age of the population exceeded 40 for the first time. With the percentage of the total population over 60 predicted in a report from AgeUK to rise from 24.2 percent at present to over 29 percent in 2035, employers are beginning to wake up to the fact that wellness is good for staff and good for business.

(more…)

August 15, 2016

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

by Neil Franklin • News, Public Sector, Workplace

The 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.

(more…)

August 10, 2016

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

by Andrea Chadwick • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace

Much 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.

(more…)

August 5, 2016

Lack of perks leaves workers feeling less trusted and appreciated ⁰

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

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.

(more…)

August 1, 2016

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

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Public Sector, Wellbeing, Workplace

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).

(more…)

July 27, 2016

A third of people have experienced mental health issues while working ⁰

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

According to new research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the number of people saying that they have experienced mental health issues while in employment has climbed from a quarter to a third over the last five years. Despite this, the majority of employees still don’t feel that people experiencing mental health issues are supported well enough at work. In response, the CIPD is calling on organisations to take a more preventative approach to employees’ mental wellbeing, encouraging a culture of openness in their workplace, whilst at the same time, training line managers to provide and signpost support for employees, in order to create healthier, more engaged and more productive workplaces. The new research from the CIPD claims that in 2016, almost a third (31 percent) of the over 2,000 employees surveyed said they have experienced a mental health problem at some point during their working life, compared with a quarter (26 percent) in 2011.

(more…)

July 27, 2016

Bridging the UK’s persistent productivity and digital skills gap ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology

Two of the most persistent and related structural problems facing the UK economy are the productivity and digital skills gaps. Earlier this month, the Office for National Statistics reported that there had been a further 1.2 percent fall in productivity. Part of the reason for this is that there is an underlying digital skills gap. According to a report from Barclays, nearly a third (31 percent) of working-age adults in the UK lack even basic digital problem-solving skills which places the country comfortably below the 37 percent average across OECD countries. Despite this, a mere 38 percent of UK employers offer their workers digital skills training, perhaps because on the other side of the coin, the UK ranks highly in what the report calls ‘digital empowerment’, which it defines as ‘the ability and desire to use one’s digital skills to work productively and creatively, and to have the opportunity to continually upgrade them to keep pace with changing technology’.

(more…)

July 26, 2016

Working with people and on complex tasks slows cognitive decline ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Wellbeing

Working on complex tasks and work that is based on interactions with other people rather than data or things appear to protect against cognitive decline, according to research presented at the Alzheimer’s Association’s International Conference in Toronto. Researchers in two separate studies claim that people whose work requires complex thinking and activities are better able to withstand the wider causes of cognitive decline. The results suggest that working with people, rather than data or physical things, contributed the most to the protective effect and could offset the widely reported effects of a Western diet on cognitive ability. Researchers found that people with increased white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) – white spots that appear on brain scans and are commonly associated with Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline – could better tolerate WMH-related damage if they worked primarily with other people rather than with things or data.