Opinion – Page 15
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OpinionRichard Kay: How will the four-day week trial impact workplaces?
This week, thousands of UK employees started the world’s biggest four-day working week trial. Over the next six months, employers and employees involved in the trial will embrace a 100:80:100 model of working, meaning staff will work 80% of the time for 100% of their salary.Understandably, the four-day week pilot ...
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OpinionDaniela Silcock: Can we better support those struggling to pay pension contributions?
It has been a difficult few years. The economic fallout of Brexit, followed swiftly by the Covid-19 pandemic has left a lot of people who were already on low incomes struggling to make ends meet. Recent cost-of-living increases arising from global fuel and food shortages and exacerbated by the war ...
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OpinionHollie Ryan: What does the GMB and Deliveroo voluntary partnership agreement mean for its workers?
Earlier this month, Deliveroo announced that it had signed a union recognition deal with the union GMB, which covers more than 90,000 self-employed riders. The voluntary partnership agreement gives GMB the rights to collective bargaining on pay and consultation rights on benefits, health and safety and wellbeing, as well as ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: How far should employers support staff with the rising cost of living?
The rising cost of living has dominated headlines over the past few months, with many households now facing increasingly bleak and difficult circumstances. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 87% of UK adults reported a rise in their cost of living in April 2022. As a result, many ...
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OpinionDr Kerrie Unsworth: Personalised employee experiences are key to motivation
What motivates people to work hard? We used to think it was money, but most of us now realise that this is not always the case. Is it flexibility to choose how and where they work? Is it a fun working environment with free ice-cream and beanbags? All of these?After ...
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OpinionAvril England: What comes next for staff in the event of a takeover?
Following the confirmation that sale terms have been agreed, all the staff will automatically transfer to the buyer under the provisions of the Transfers of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (Tupe).Tupe implements European laws designed to protect employees whose contracts of employment are in effect transferred to a ...
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OpinionAida Rehmatullah: It is never too early for staff to engage with pension decisions
Our purpose at the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) is to protect the financial future belonging to millions of people throughout the UK who belong to defined benefit (DB) pension schemes. As a large asset owner, it’s critical we consider all the potential risks over the entire time horizon of our ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: What will it take for conversations around hybrid working to change?
Earlier this week, the Employee Benefits team met up in London for our monthly catch up. During the course of the day, one of the topics of discussion was the frequently negative view of working from home that continues to prevail among some leaders and media outlets. As a team ...
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OpinionVerity Ingle: How Covid-19 may impact employees’ health, wellbeing and pay
As the world starts to learn how to safely live with Covid-19 (Coronavirus), employers are faced with the difficult decision of how to handle employees who are suffering from Covid symptoms, and whether to ask them to remain at home or come into work.An issue with this at present is ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: Is hybrid working fuelling loneliness at work?
While the removal of Covid-19 restrictions has enabled friends and families to once again mix freely, the rise in hybrid and flexible working arrangements means that some individuals may feel less connected to colleagues than prior to the pandemic, resulting in increased levels of loneliness at work. In fact, a ...
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OpinionRichard Lane: Employees need wellbeing support to navigate through cost-of-living crisis
The events of the past two years have given many employers pause for thought on whether the package of support they offer fits the needs of their employees. Millions of people in employment have finely balanced finances and are vulnerable to shocks, never more so than with the cost-of-living crisis ...
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OpinionLouise Mason: Employment legislation still on horizon despite bill absence in Queen’s Speech
The Queen's Speech was delivered on 10 May and, as expected, there was no mention of the employment bill. The purpose of the Queen's Speech is to set the legislative agenda for the next parliamentary session so the absence of the bill suggests no employment legislation will be forthcoming for ...
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OpinionChris Thompson: The wait for employment reforms continues
The absence of any reference to reforming employment rights or the Employment Bill in the Queen’s Speech [on 10 May] has highlighted the amount of employment legislation that has been announced only to be later side lined.On more than one occasion when questions have been raised in Parliament about the ...
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OpinionLucy Lewis: Omission of employment bill from Queen’s Speech is no great surprise
Yesterday’s Queen’s Speech was reportedly the shortest for nearly 10 years. It was, as many commentators have pointed out, a little on the light side, with a number of key policies and priorities not making it in to the final version delivered by HRH the Prince of Wales.The long-anticipated employment ...
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OpinionDr Duncan Brown: Should we focus on a different approach to total reward?
How is your total reward strategy holding up these days? Not that well I warrant, following the ravages of two years of the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) health crisis and now facing the onslaught of the worst cost-of-living crisis in living memory. So what is the problem with the common total reward ...
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OpinionAmanda Lennon: Could the HRT shortage lead to discrimination claims?
Employers should be flexible and support employees who are affected by menopause and perimenopause symptoms due to the shortage of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) medication, or they could risk facing discrimination claims.A surge in demand for HRT treatment has left pharmaceutical manufacturers struggling to keep up. Many women are finding ...
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OpinionKen Akers: How employers can help employees experiencing grief at work
As a nation we have made good progress in supporting wellbeing at work and together we can improve how we handle grief, too. Coping with a bereavement at work is never easy but lack of support from an employer can make things so much worse.At Marie Curie, we know the ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: Is Jacob Rees-Mogg right to force civil servants back to the office?
What is your view of working from home? That seems to be the current million dollar question. Something that millions of us adapted to at speed during lockdown now seems to be coming under increasing scrutiny as the UK adapts to living with Covid.The debate around this practice was re-ignited ...
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Opinion
Lovewell's logic:
What is your view of working from home? That seems to be the current million dollar question. Something that millions of us adapted to at speed during lockdown now seems to be coming under increasing scrutiny as the UK adapts to living with Covid.The debate around this practice was re-ignited ...
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OpinionAnita North: Delay to Employment Bill is a blow to thousands of workers
In 2019, the Conservative Party stated in its election manifesto that it would “encourage flexible working and consult on making it the default unless employers had good reasons not to.” This came after public anger in relation to poor working conditions in UK factories and warehouses.These changes were wrapped up ...