All Opinion articles – Page 16
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OpinionKatie Ash: Protecting employee mental health is more than just a workplace perk
As such a large part of an employee’s life is spent at work, it’s important that employers play an active role in ensuring that their workers develop and maintain a good quality of life and a healthy relationship with their place of work.This is particularly important post pandemic, when it ...
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OpinionDr Karen Michell: Employers can offer multiple support options for employees' physical health
The Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, we all know, took the world by storm. While we soon learnt that most people who contracted the virus would get better, what became apparent later was that full recovery was not going to be the reality for everyone.In the UK alone an estimated 1.3 million ...
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OpinionCherry White: Employers should promote physical activity through the workplace
When offices closed in March 2020, it forced a rushed transition to working from home (WFH) full time.Instead of sitting at ergonomically designed workstations, many employees suddenly found themselves hunched over kitchen counters or slouched on the sofa as they worked from tiny laptops. ‘Commuting’ simply meant stepping into a ...
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OpinionDale Critchley: Saving for a brighter retirement; how to engage employees with their pension now
Getting employees to think about their retirement savings can be tricky, and employers may struggle to make pensions exciting but there are ways to get employee's attention. After all, people do care about their finances and their future.A great way to capture the interest of employees is to let them ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: Is workplace gender equality out of reach?
In a week that included International Women’s Day on 8 March, it is perhaps unsurprising that we have seen the launch of a number of initiatives by both government and employers designed to support female employers and tackle existing workplace inequalities.The government, for example, launched a pilot initiative aimed at ...
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OpinionClaire McCartney: Employers need to listen to the needs of young adult carers
There are an estimated 3.7 million carers in England and Wales and a growing number of people are having to juggle their jobs with caring responsibilities. So, how can organisations best support their staff and what are the benefits?First, employers need to identify which of their employees are balancing caring ...
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OpinionOscar Hodgson: Is unlimited holiday really without limits?
For the Zoom-weary worker emerging from the depths of the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, a holiday sounds like a fantasy. It is no wonder that mention of unlimited holiday captivates the most sceptical workers.Imagine an unlimited number of days off each year, no holiday requests, and the ability to take it ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: Moving forward
Today marks two weeks since I returned to Employee Benefits following 13 months’ maternity leave. While my time away once again seemed to fly past, the industry I’ve returned to appears quite different to the one that I left in many ways.When I went on leave in January 2021, the ...
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OpinionDanielle Ayres: Communication is key when considering a four-day week
As news circulates of the four-day working week trial set to get underway in the UK in the second half of this year, co-ordinated by 4 Day Week Global, both employees and employers alike are starting to wonder whether this would work practically for them.There are multiple factors to look ...
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OpinionMartin Williams: Will a return-to-work policy pose risks for employers as Covid rules end?
How are we to frame the lifting of Covid-19 (Coronavirus) restrictions in the workplace? The virus is still with us and people are being admitted to hospital in a way they would not if this were the common cold.All good employers will need to be mindful of the risks involved ...
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OpinionDale Critchley: Value for members should mean greater value for employers too
With headlines focused on a rise in the cost of living, the need to obtain value for money has never been greater. When it comes to a workplace pension it is no different. Employers need to make sure their pension scheme is valued, acts as a tool to attract and ...
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OpinionElena Visser: The argument for giving employees growth shares
The benefits of giving employees a stake in the business by way of equity participation are well rehearsed.Often the decision comes down to a choice between allocating shares upfront, effectively making the employee a day-one shareholder, versus granting them a tax-efficient enterprise management incentive (or EMI) share option.Making employees a ...
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OpinionProfessor Peter Wells: There’s never been a better time for employers to go electric
There has never been a better time for employers to encourage electric car ownership, or for employees to appreciate the benefits.There are major savings to be had for individuals, including with the plug-in car grant, benefit in kind, and salary sacrifice schemes, while several car manufacturers are offering to help ...
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OpinionDale Critchley: How to keep members engaged with ESG investing
Thanks to automatic enrolment the staff pension scheme is now ubiquitous and employee awareness of the need to save is high. Employees know they’ll receive at least a minimum contribution paid into their workplace scheme. Many employees might understand that the minimum is unlikely to be enough, and value the ...
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OpinionTracy McMullen: Ashurst engages all staff in pension savings
At Ashurst, we closely consider the pension and benefits we offer and focus particularly on how we engage our people in these offerings to ensure they are of maximum benefit.We all benefit from employees feeling equipped and able to perform at their best, and a critical component of this is ...
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OpinionJeremy Harris: How can employers reduce the gender pensions gap?
The fact that both personal and workplace private pensions are closely aligned to paid work means that employers play an important role in determining post-retirement financial wellbeing. So what can employers do to close the gender pensions gap?Women are more likely to work fewer paid pensionable hours than men over ...
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OpinionHarriet Calver: Is the four-day week worthwhile for employers?
A four-day work week is not a new phenomenon. Many employees in the UK already have this pattern, typically agreed on a case-by-case basis between employee and employer following a flexible working request. It tends to be accompanied by a corresponding reduction in pay, except in the case of compressed ...
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OpinionAntonia Blackwell: How ESG is changing the future of employee benefits
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations underpin the decisions and behaviour of a business. Employees want to see ESG in action and employers will need to take steps to address ESG if they want to attract and retain the best talent in the future.The way businesses operate in practice has ...
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OpinionAlan Lewis: What a recent court case can teach us about vicarious liability
Whilst employers can draw some comfort in terms of defending vicarious liability claims from the recent Court of Appeal case of Chell v Tarmac Cement and Lime Limited [2022] EWCA Civ 7, they ought not be complacent and there are lessons to be learned.Chell was a fitter employed by a ...
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OpinionBecky Lawton: Will new staff family rights come into force in 2022?
The government has committed to introducing several new family rights following a number of consultations over the last couple of years.The introduction of neonatal leave and pay will create a new statutory entitlement for employees whose babies spend an extended period of time in neonatal care. The intention is to ...