Opinion – Page 23
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OpinionEmma Kosmin: How to support staff going through gender transition
Many of us spend most of our lives at work, so it’s vital that people feel free to be themselves in the workplace.Going through a transition while at work can feel daunting and exposing. It is so important that employers understand this and provide trans and non-binary employees who are ...
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OpinionLaurie Ollivent: Covid-19 is reshaping gender and diversity reporting
Working parents comprise a key demographic of the workforce. As mid-tenure employees, they are experienced and often have a level of institutional knowledge which can rarely be replaced with a lateral hire.However, reports suggest this demographic is more likely than others to be re-evaluating their roles coming out of the ...
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OpinionDaisy Hooper: Cutting pay for hybrid workers is a risky strategy
After more than a year of adapting to Covid-19, we know from experience that remote and flexible working is not only possible, in many cases it’s desirable. Employees like it and the impact on business hasn’t been anywhere near as negative as some predicted at the beginning of the pandemic. ...
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OpinionVickie Graham: There are clear benefits to introducing self-service pay systems
A self-service pay system enables payroll departments to redistribute some administrative tasks, for example updating employee data online and printing payslips if required, putting ownership on the employees themselves.There are clear benefits. For payroll professionals these benefits are associated with efficiencies and time savings. By empowering employees to take ownership ...
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OpinionTom Moyes: Encouraging conversations with employees around mental health
At any one time, one-sixth of the working age population of Great Britain experiences symptoms associated with mental ill health, and this causes around 40% of all days lost through sickness absence, according to the Mental health and work report published in 2008 by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.So why ...
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OpinionAdrian Cooper: Where next for financial wellness?
The nascent financial wellness industry is set to evolve into a fragmented market offering specialised solutions to meet different financial challenges.The current approach is to offer a one-size-fits-all package. Yet the financial challenges people face are not homogenous. At the start of their working life, young people may be saddled ...
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OpinionHenicka Uddin: Employees should be involved in updates to absence policies
If employers are considering introducing or updating absence policies, it is good to include staff in the process by consulting with them on plans. There might even be an agreement in place to consult on changes, in which case this will need to be adhered to. Either way it is ...
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OpinionChris Roberts: Employee feedback is crucial for engagement and motivation
At ClickThrough Marketing we have always made staff engagement a priority but in the last 18 months, we’ve really stepped up our efforts to drive motivation. We have adopted hybrid and flexible working to allow people to work from wherever they feel most productive and, at the moment, ultimately safe. ...
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OpinionDavid Jepps: How Covid-19 affects statutory sick pay
At the start of the pandemic, statutory sick pay (SSP) rules were changed to include Covid-19 (Coronavirus) scenarios because self-isolation or having tested positive with no symptoms were not covered by the SSP definition of incapacity. Those rules have since been tweaked many times and are expected to stay in ...
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OpinionJohn Adams: Pensions landscape will be changing in 2022
In what may bring a sigh of relief, 2022 is not a year with new legal requirements incumbent on employers regarding pensions. But there are many ongoing requirements to be mindful of, and changes within the pensions environment that could lead to future impacts.There is going to need to be ...
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OpinionKerry Hudson: Is a change ahead in flexible working laws?
UK employees seeking flexible working arrangements to help manage their work-life balance could be caught short unless they have completed at least 26 weeks of service for their current employers.With a great many businesses and employees still away from the office since the start of the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, and ...
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OpinionDr Zofia Bajorek: Good work holds key to mitigating the 'Great Resignation'
Over the past few months, there has been a lot of discussion about the ‘great resignation’: the idea that employees are leaving their jobs at unprecedented rates.The post-Covid labour market suggests that there are a high number of vacancies but not enough staff to fill them, and so workplaces need ...
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OpinionEmma Clark: Will there be more menopause-related employment tribunal hearings?
Recent analysis of figures from the HM Courts and Tribunals Service showed that the menopause was cited in five employment tribunal cases in the last nine months of 2018. That rose to 10 cases in the first six months of 2021.While there has been a rise in claims which refer ...
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OpinionIan Hodson: 2022 will be the year to reset reward strategies
Covid-19 (Coronavirus) has certainly impacted the last couple of years, and for many agendas has served as an accelerator in respect of its impact on the ways we work, our wellbeing priorities and how we interact with our colleagues and balance work and home.I believe 2022 will give reward professionals ...
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OpinionCharles Cotton: Flexible working should be a focus point in 2022
Reward professionals have been busy responding to an increasingly tight labour market in the latter half of 2021. While skill and labour shortages have been felt across the board, they have been most acute in hospitality, haulage, health and social care, with bonuses and pay increases being used to counter ...
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OpinionJeremy Harris: What are the long-term consequences of the pensions pay gap?
During a House of Lords debate on 22 November 2021, following a question posed by Labour life peer Lord Sikka about the UK government's efforts to tackle entrenched gender pay inequality, the pensions gap was highlighted as an issue of major concern.The pensions gap, it was noted, contributes to societal ...
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OpinionLorraine Heard and Karen Plumbley-Jones: Has gender pay gap reporting closed the wage gap between men and women?
18 November marked Equal Pay Day, the date from which on average women work without pay for the rest of the year as a result of the gender pay gap. Since April 2017, it has been compulsory for large employers with 250 or more employees to publish a gender pay ...
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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 ...