All Opinion articles – Page 30
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OpinionJulianna Barker: What are an employer’s legal responsibilities around mental health?
A healthy workforce increases a business’ performance, productivity and profitability and can help an employer retain staff. However, employers also have legal obligations to look after employees’ mental health. The following is a summary of an employer’s main responsibilities.There is a common law duty of care on all employers ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: Should Facebook base employees' pay on location?
Should your salary be set according to the area in which you live?This was the question raised earlier this week when Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerburg, discussed the organisation’s plans to move towards remote working in the post-pandemic era. In a public livestream, Zuckerburg explained that over the next five to ...
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OpinionRachel Nayani: Health and wellbeing support needed in times of crisis
Covid-19 has seen record numbers of employees working from home for the first time, or for a prolonged period of time. Keeping employees in good mental and physical health is critical for business’ sustainability, so how can managers help?Prior research has identified many and varied risk factors for home-based working.For ...
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OpinionJonathan Lord: Returning to work after long-term sick leave
When an employee is off work due to long-term sick leave, lasting four weeks or more, they can face increased difficulties getting back into the routine of work and their normal way of life. These difficulties are varied and will depend on the nature of the illness but it can ...
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OpinionJoanna Sharples: Why responsible investment could be the pensions engagement message members need
Assets held by UK defined contribution (DC) pension schemes are expected to increase substantially over the next decade. That vast sum of money will support the retirements of millions of UK employees over the next 30 years and beyond.Over the last few months, stock markets around the world have suffered ...
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OpinionAmy Davies and James Edmonds: Should the burden of pensions move to the employee?
Employers in Australia make significantly larger contributions to their employees’ pensions than their UK counterparts. Thanks to the Superannuation Guarantee, Australian employers pay 9.5% of an employee’s earnings to their pension pot. In contrast, the minimum contribution rate for UK employers under the automatic-enrolment regime is just 3% for eligible ...
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OpinionHelen Smith: Supporting employees’ mental health during Covid-19
A few months ago, most employees would have never heard of Covid-19 but now it is the biggest factor affecting their daily lives.Benenden Health surveyed 2,455 respondents in April 2020 to understand how this is impacting employees and share the insight into the challenges Covid-19 poses to their daily life, ...
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OpinionKelly Feehan: Employees' physical health can impact their mental wellbeing
Employee mental health has been a significant focus throughout lockdown but employer responsibility does not stop there. Employers also need to consider the physical health of staff, as for some, the conditions we face when working from home can have a serious impact on our overall wellbeing.Firstly, working from home ...
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OpinionAlison Reynolds: Recognise the challenges affecting employees' mental wellbeing
Covid-19 (coronavirus) has led to an upheaval of our day-to-day routines, limited or halted access to our support systems, and thrown us into mass uncertainty. How long will it go on? When will we be able to see our family? How will our organisation fare? Uncertainty is notoriously difficult and ...
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OpinionDuncan Brown: Will reward strategies post Covid-19 mean the end of extreme market-driven flexibility?
Writing this piece in my back room in the midst of our coronavirus lockdown affords a good opportunity to reflect soberly on where recent reward and benefits orthodoxies and trends have taken us; and how they need to change in the future.A demotivated, low productivity workforce through manifestly ‘bad work’ ...
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OpinionEmma Swan: Five finer details of the furlough scheme
One of the biggest economic impacts of Covid-19 is the high risk of widespread job losses. Organisations are experiencing significant drops in revenue and, unfortunately, for many businesses, making redundancies is a logical first step to protect cashflow and help secure company survival.The Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) is ...
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OpinionSimon Richardson: How to define a benefits strategy for the ‘new normal‘
‘Exercising my right not to walk, sir!’ is the response of one of the students to the challenge from the maverick English teacher in the film ‘Dead Poets Society’ to find their own way of walking in order to challenge conformity. How often have we debated whether to participate in ...
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OpinionMatthew Swynnerton: Key pension issues arising from Covid-19
Some trustees may receive requests from sponsors to reduce, delay or suspend contributions, as employers may seek to deviate from the schedule of contributions due to cashflow concerns.Any such proposal would require the consent of the trustees, who would need to consider the members’ best interests, the scheme rules, The ...
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OpinionVikki Massarano: Member contributions during the pandemic
The Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic has multiple ramifications for businesses in every sector. Its implications for pension schemes are huge. Despite the government’s confirmation in March that employer minimum auto-enrolment contributions will be covered under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) for furloughed workers, the defined contribution savings space has been ...
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OpinionKate Cooper: Recognition schemes must display a clear sense of fairness
The Institute of Leadership & Management undertook research last year into the values that are espoused by organisations and those that individuals hold, to discover whether there is alignment between the organisation and its employees, and who decides the organisational values that employees are expected to live.Although it did not ...
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OpinionDavid Jones: Managing employees during Covid-19
We are in unprecedented times; unchartered waters for employers. When some businesses are focused on simply keeping themselves afloat, it is important not to lose sight of the biggest asset to any business: its employees.How businesses manage their employees today is going to have a profound impact on how those ...
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OpinionNigel Peaple: Employers need to show staff the value of pension contributions
With staff working from home and businesses under financial pressure from the Coronavirus lockdown, the government has provided two vitally important measures to support workplace pensions during this crisis.The first provides support for employers to meet automatic-enrolment contributions for workers. Grants paid to employers under the Coronavirus job retention scheme ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: The economic impact of Covid-19 continues to bite
When looking for inspiration for topics for my weekly blog, I often look back over the news we have covered that week. Unsurprisingly, our headlines this week have been dominated by pay issues, be these about employers that have awarded pay increases or appreciation bonuses to front-line or key workers ...
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OpinionLouise Skinner: Are your contracts compliant with updates to employment terms?
The Good Work Plan, issued in December 2018, brings in reforms to Section One of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA).These relate to new obligations on employers in the provision of written statements of particulars of employment and adopt many of the recommendations set out in the Taylor Review of ...
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OpinionDan Lucy: Employers can support the financial wellbeing of employees during Covid-19 crisis
Covid-19 (Coronavirus) is turning all our worlds upside down right now and that is no less true of the world of work. Regrettable job losses sit alongside staff being furloughed now or possibly in the future. Much has been said and written on how employers can protect and support employees’ ...