Opinion – Page 19
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OpinionKatherine Wilson: Support for working carers will retain key talent in the workplace
Most of us will provide unpaid care at some point in our lives, and with women having a 50:50 chance of providing care by the time they are 46, working carers are becoming a significant proportion of the working population. At the height of the pandemic, Carers UK estimated that ...
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OpinionSuzanne Staunton: How can employers tackle furlough fraud?
With the UK government’s furlough scheme having come to an end, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has now stepped forward to start counting the cost of the scheme to taxpayers. Already, many instances have been identified of bogus companies having been set up purely to siphon off public funds, the ...
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OpinionAngela Watson: How employers can offer staff more eldercare support
The Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic has shone a light on informal caring as pressures outside of work have increased, with many people caring for others for the first time as a result of this. People have struggled to balance work with new responsibilities and there are fears that these pressures may ...
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OpinionSue Yeandle: How can employers support staff with caring responsibilities?
It’s a growing issue. In 2020, England and Wales had 3.7 million working carers according to the Supporting working carers: how employers and employees can benefit report, published in June 2020 by the University of Sheffield and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).Numbers continue to rise. Managing paid ...
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OpinionMark Witte: Employers should take note of an ageing workforce
Across the world, people are living longer. Between 2015 and 2050, the proportion of the world’s population over 60 is set to almost double from 12% to 22%, according to the World Health Organization.In Aon’s recent report, The aging population: why it’s time to take notice, it noted that life ...
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OpinionKatharine Moxham: The benefits of group risk need to be regularly communicated
Group risk benefits, that include employer-sponsored life assurance, income protection and critical illness benefits, have emerged as a must-have from the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic as we’ve seen a fundamental shift in attitude from “it won’t” to “it could" happen to me.As well as paying out £218.7 million in Coronavirus-related death ...
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OpinionKirsty Pake: How to solve a problem like pension scams
To quote the Department of Work and Pensions: “pension scams are a menace”. Until now, trustees’ hands were tied where a member had a statutory right to transfer their benefits and, even in cases where the receiving arrangement appeared to be a scam, they were obliged to make the transfer.Regulations ...
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OpinionRebecca Florisson: What managers can do to make hybrid working inclusive?
Many employers and employees have experienced first-hand both the joys of enhanced flexibility remote working affords and the lack of a commute against pressures on wellbeing resulting from the feeling of living at the office and being unable to disconnect.With the return to the office now well underway, many employers ...
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OpinionTim Tyndall: FCA employees facing pay and benefits changes
Following a flurry of interest in the proposed changes to pay and benefits at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), most notably from unions keen to look after members and to attract new ones, the FCA chose to publish its consultation document aimed at its employees to a wider audience.In opening, ...
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OpinionDr Christine Grant and Professor Gail Kinman: How can employers address presenteeism among a virtual workforce?
Covid-19 (Coronavirus) has presented organisations with a major challenge regarding how they manage and stabilise their staffing resources. Many organisations are experiencing considerable uncertainty during the post-pandemic recovery phase and there are concerns about retention of key staff as individuals re-evaluate their working and personal lives. The move to remote ...
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OpinionJohn Hebblethwaite: Employees need more pensions education
There has been a seismic shift in the pensions landscape since the launch of automatic enrolment and there are now 15 times as many retirement savers who are members of defined contribution (DC) pension schemes compared with the historically more typical sort of defined benefit (DB) schemes.The Financial Conduct Authority ...
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OpinionSophie Wahba: What can employers do to manage stress in the workplace?
Managing the mental wellbeing of employees is a matter of growing concern for many business owners, as the stress of the last 18 months has taken its toll on the workforce.A 2020 Perkbox survey called The 2020 UK workplace stress survey suggests that an astonishing 79% of British adults commonly ...
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OpinionKate Brown: How to avoid reduced pay and benefits impacting staff engagement
At the beginning of October, British Airways announced plans to rehire some 3,000 employees after cutting around 10,000 jobs in the peak of the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic last year. The airline has been heavily criticised in the press for re-engaging staff on less favourable terms, including reduced pay and benefits.This ...
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OpinionPolly Neate: What employers need to know about the housing emergency
The housing emergency is real. Just ask your colleagues.Right now in the UK, working families are being evicted from their homes. Working people are living in hostels and working parents are going without food just so they can pay the rent. This is the housing emergency. How much do you ...
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OpinionEmma Clark: Breaking the staff menopause taboo
All women will experience the menopause at some point during their life. It can also impact both trans and non-binary people who may not identify as female. Most of those who experience the menopause will do so between the ages of 45 and 55, and between 75% and 80% of ...
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OpinionProfessor Alex Bryson: Has the pandemic changed how to motivate employees?
Debate on how to motivate employees goes way back. Employers have two sets of tools in their toolbox. The first are pecuniary rewards, so beloved by economists, for extrinsic motivation: more money, and linking pay to performance can deliver greater worker effort if designed properly. The second are the non-pecuniary ...
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OpinionJeff Fox: The future of total reward and what businesses need to do today
Over the past 18 months the world of work has changed immensely. The Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic has altered not only our patterns of working, but also the expectations employees have of their organisations.The workforce has adapted to become more agile and flexible, but in order for employees to stay engaged, ...
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OpinionCharles Cotton: Total reward can help attract and motivate staff in a turbulent job market
Under a total reward approach, all aspects of the employee experience are recognised, with focus given to non-financial rewards alongside pay and those perks with a monetary value. Examples of the non-financial elements making up total reward include access to career development training, freedom and autonomy, supportive line managers, recognition ...
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OpinionMark Ormston: Key considerations to introducing a salary sacrifice pension scheme
When introducing a salary sacrifice pension scheme, early engagement with payroll is key, as it is vital to involve them as soon as possible in the discussions. An employer may discover the systems or software currently being used have certain limitations or missing functionality to meet desired requirements.Employers should consider ...
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OpinionKaren Plumbley-Jones: Guidance for employers on the furlough scheme end
How many jobs have been saved by the furlough scheme? We won't ever know the answer to that question, but 11.6 million jobs have been supported by the scheme at some point. That equates to roughly 40% of the total UK workforce and we have seen far fewer redundancies than ...