Opinion – Page 14
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OpinionJane Crosby: Change in the workplace and how to avoid conflict
In times of uncertainty, organisations facing falling profits have to find a means of reducing their overheads to ensure their continuing survival.Employees are usually the most important and expensive resource for a business. When all other efficiency savings have been made, the difficult decision to reduce employee numbers may need ...
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OpinionSally Wilson: Good mental wellbeing is good for business
The current increased attention to mental wellbeing at work, and the growing recognition of its paritywith physical health, is long overdue.High profile campaigns such as Time to Change,Mates in Mind and Heads Together have contributed to this shift in thinking, but there is still a lot of work to do.There ...
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OpinionNick Kemsley: Employee wellbeing is an evolutionary journey
Organisations need to think of employee wellbeing as a continuum, rather than a series of ad-hoc initiatives. To do this, we need to begin to influence thinking and engage employees and their managers in wellbeing.This involves education and breaking through into other elements of physical wellbeing, such as nutrition, work ...
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OpinionHelen Smith: Creating a wellbeing strategy that gets positive business results
Encouraging employees to lead healthy and fulfilling lives, both in and outside of work, can be hugely beneficial to a business and its people.According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the most common reasons organisations focus on employee wellbeing are to become a great place to work, ...
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OpinionVinita Arora: Is unlimited holiday a positive reward strategy or a potential headache?
In a changing workplace where job seekers increasingly value work-life balance over remuneration, some are turning to unlimited annual leave to attract top talent.In theory, flexible holiday can make commercial sense, as happier staff are generally more productive. However, there can be pitfalls, both legally and practically.Legally, employers are required ...
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OpinionDr James Chandler: Occupational health is a valuable employer investment
The value of occupational health, whether to stakeholders, employees, employers or the government, is well documented. It has been highlighted by two in-depth reports, Occupational health: The value proposition, and Occupational health: The global evidence and value, published in May 2017 and April 2018 respectively, by the Society of Occupational ...
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OpinionRuth Wilkinson: Proactive occupational health helps create sustainable business
The workplace is evolving. Increased life expectancy and new ways of working, such as the gig economy and ‘always on’ access to technology, are transforming employment - and not always positively.Organisations have moral and legal duties to implement effective occupational health and safety, including provision of health surveillance for certain ...
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OpinionJennie Doyle: Employees are an organisation's most important asset
People spend a third of their waking lives at work; for many, this can mean sitting indoors at a desk for long periods of time, staring at a computer screen, and having few proper breaks. This can have a detrimental effect on physical and mental health, negatively impacting productivity and ...
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OpinionDr Sayeed Khan: Valuable occupational health services need better marketing
Occupational health is not marketed as well as it should be, that much is clear. We need to get the message across that occupational health nowadays is much more than just screening and surveillance.Physicians often discuss three tiers of occupational health practice. The first is around surveillance and screening, which ...
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OpinionDr Kellie Vincent: Challenges and opportunities for urban employees
London features as one of the Rough Guide's top five cities to visit; however, according to Expert Market's The best and worst cities for commuting report, published in June 2018, it is one of the 10 worst cities in the world. In the same survey, Leicester made the top 10; ...
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OpinionJames Townsend: What will employment status look like in 2019?
Until recent years, the term 'gig economy' was virtually non-existent. However, a number of high-profile cases involving organisations such as Pimlico Plumbers and Uber have put the employment status of casual workers in the spotlight.Recently, the courts and tribunals have been tasked with determining how those working in the gig ...
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OpinionHelen Undy: Employers should help staff build financial resilience
Overstretched, overdrawn, underserved: Financial difficulty and mental health at work, published by the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute in May 2017, found that two-thirds of UK employees who are struggling financially also show at least one sign of mental ill-health. These are issues that could affect their ability to ...
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OpinionJane Crosby: Why employers need to care about employees’ work-life balance
Given Britain’s ageing population, employees are under increasing pressure to balance their working lives with looking after elderly relatives.Employers have an obligation to consider flexible working for employees with caring responsibilities. The change in normal working hours can be to the number of hours worked, or to the start and ...
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OpinionDr Heidi Smith: Focus on behaviour change to embed sustainability
At Swansea University, sustainability and wellbeing have been linked with employee benefits and reward because we want to embed sustainability into life here.Swansea is currently ranked ninth in the Guardian University Green League, and we are proud of our many achievements so far; however, we recognise that the process of ...
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OpinionPrisca Bradley: Workplace reforms do not go far enough
In December last year, the government unveiled a range of workplace reforms to improve the rights of workers on zero-hour contracts, agency employees and those working in the gig economy.The announcement of greater rights for those operating in the gig economy will be welcomed by the 1.1 million workers in ...
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OpinionJohn Forth: How have total reward trends developed?
A major feature of the reward landscape in recent years has been the prolonged period of wage stagnation; according to Employee earnings in the UK: 2018, published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in October 2018, average wages are still below levels recorded in 2008, after adjusting for inflation.As ...
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OpinionKatharine Moxham: How can employers promote group risk to increase interest?
Employers want to provide an engaging package for their people. As part of that package, group risk benefits, such as employer-sponsored life assurance, income protection and critical illness, throw out a financial lifeline when it is most needed. However, these benefits can be wallflowers because they provide for catastrophic events, ...
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OpinionHina Belitz: Harassment and bullying - employers are letting themselves down
In a dramatic wake-up call for the legal profession to examine its culture and working practices, the preliminary findings of a recent International Bar Association (IBA) survey, revealed in October 2018, found that bullying and sexual harassment are rife.According to more than 5,000 lawyers in 120 jurisdictions, one-third of male ...
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OpinionEwen MacPherson: Health and wellbeing during organisational change
For many organisations, wellbeing has just become a focus point, as the social movement around the topic gathers momentum. For Havas Media, however, health and wellbeing have been long-term strategic objectives for some time, under the guiding lens of the overall employee experience.It is widely accepted that most employees spend ...
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OpinionLaura Boothman: Workplace provisions for employees with arthritis
With around 600,000 people with arthritis currently missing out on the opportunity to work, it is clear that finding and staying in employment can be a challenge. However, there is plenty of evidence to show that working in the right job is good for us, whether that is financially, socially ...