Opinion – Page 9
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OpinionBecky Thoseby: Supporting employees during the festive period
With autumn weather already here, increased restrictions across England and grim predictions for the coming months, many people will be looking towards winter with trepidation, and this is likely to affect their wellbeing. At Ministry of Justice (MOJ), we have, therefore, been looking at how to safeguard employee wellbeing during ...
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OpinionAlison Pay: Has the pandemic changed employers' priorities around workplace wellbeing?
When it comes to employers’ priorities around wellbeing, and specifically mental health, the pace of change has been slow and, in many cases, inadequate.The Business in the Community (BITC survey), Mental health at work 2020, published in October 2020, indicated that 30% of people would still not tell anyone about ...
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OpinionBill Hill: Supporting the wellbeing of employees in the construction industry
The Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity is the only charity that is 100% dedicated to the physical, mental and financial wellbeing of our construction workers and their families in the UK and Ireland.The charity provides a 24 hour a day, seven days a week, Construction Industry Helpline which acts as a ...
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OpinionSophie Sinclair: Employee feedback is the best source for ascertaining wellbeing priorities
As managers, most of us are experienced in organisational change and supporting employees to navigate the uncertainty that it brings. But the unique demands of the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic have brought new and additional stresses. Every day, the conflicting and often frightening messages from government and the media make it ...
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OpinionMatthew Lawrence: Wellbeing in the new normal
With Covid-19 infection rates doubling every seven to eight days across the UK, the country is on the cusp of a second wave of the virus. Already, we have seen a huge increase in the numbers of people suffering with mental health problems as a result of the pandemic and ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: Adjusting to a new wave of home working
Prime minister Boris Johnson’s announcement earlier this week declaring that employees should return to working from home if they are able to do so represented a sharp u-turn from his previous focus on returning staff to offices around the UK. With some organisations in the process of returning staff to ...
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OpinionAlastair Currie: How to support employees making the return to work
Owing to the pandemic, according to figures by the Office of National Statistics (ONS), an estimated 7.5 million UK jobs were put on furlough between 20 April and 10 May 2020, with that figure coming close to almost a quarter of the British population.Organisations need to be particularly sensitive when ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: Supporting grief during a pandemic
Sunday 30 August marks National Grief Awareness Day in the UK. While grief is a very present issue for thousands at any one time, this year may be particularly poignant for many given the more-than 46,000 deaths that have occurred as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK ...
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OpinionAmber Clayton: The pandemic’s impact on employee voluntary benefits
Covid-19 is disrupting economies and affecting household incomes and mental health alike. With these conditions in mind employers are taking necessary measures to maintain existing talent and ensure both employer and employee can endure. Changing household circumstances have resulted in financial, legal, and dependent care issues, as well as taking ...
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OpinionRoshani Hill: Private medical insurance market adapted to support employees during pandemic
A landmark deal was struck between the private health sector and NHS England in March 2020 to help the national effort to fight Covid-19 (Coronavirus). Freeing up capacity in private hospitals at that point in time was the right thing to do. But what did these changes mean for medical ...
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OpinionStefan Martin: The future of remote working post Covid-19
A few months ago it would have been inconceivable that so many people would have been working from home for such an extended period of time. Now employers and employees are actively considering the role of remote working when the current crisis ends.Even before the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) lockdown, the government ...
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OpinionWilliam Phillips and Michael Whitmore: Covid-19 brings opportunity to reassess work policies
The Covid-19 crisis has forced many people to change the way they work, with a huge increase in the numbers working from home. As certain restrictions lift, and life for some begins to return to a ‘new normal’, employers may have the opportunity to rebuild work policies to better support ...
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OpinionEd Dickinson: Addressing the causes of poor employee mental health
The impact of Covid-19 has had an unprecedented impact on employee wellbeing. While there have been some positive effects, the negative impacts pose both legal and commercial risks. Productivity drops while disputes rise. Proactivity is key to tackling such threats.The most obvious risks relate to health and safety, and discrimination. ...
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OpinionSamantha Woodham: Supporting employees through a divorce
42% of marriages end in divorce according to research by the Office for National Statistics, published in December 2012.If you had a blank sheet of paper, it would be hard to devise a worse process for navigating the legal side of a separation than our adversarial system. It pits couples ...
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OpinionDr Holly Blake: Remote healthcare options for employees are rapidly expanding
Britain’s employers lose over £81 billion each year to sickness absence, according to Vitality's Britain’s Healthiest Workplace report, published in April 2019. This can be crippling to businesses in ‘normal’ times, but the unprecedented spread of Coronavirus has brought this into even greater focus.Coupled with an increase in remote working ...
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OpinionKate Martin: Managing an employee’s holiday allowance while on furlough
With so many holidays booked and cancelled during lockdown, and there being a number of bank holidays that have fallen during this period, it has left employers wondering what is the right way to be managing employees’ holiday allowances while they are on furlough.The government guidance on taking holiday while ...
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OpinionLucie Greene: The future of work post-Covid 19
When it comes to workplaces, one of the most obvious changes we will see post-Covid 19 is the shift to remote working. Most businesses have been suddenly thrown into remote working and have had to very quickly set their teams up virtually. This is something we will see continue post-pandemic. ...
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OpinionColin Barnes: How will benefits, wellbeing and employee expectations change as we reshape in a post-Covid-19 world?
It goes without saying that Covid-19 has forced immense change.Although there is some degree of uncertainty over how the workplace will look once the pandemic has finished, there are some key areas emerging where we are predicting great change. We have defined four key phases which business will go through: ...
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OpinionNatasha Broomfield-Reid: Promoting employee wellbeing during the Covid-19 lockdown
As the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic forces many to continue to work from home and others to accept furlough, a proactive, well-planned approach to employee wellbeing could make all the difference to employees' happiness, motivation and productivity.Whether this focus comes in the form of a dedicated employee wellbeing manager, or HR ...
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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 ...