Opinion – Page 52
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OpinionDavid White: Bringing mental health into health and safety
Construction has traditionally been a male-dominated industry with a macho culture. Many construction jobs are physically demanding, and can therefore lead to a ‘can-do’ culture where people carry on without complaint. Added to that is an environment where operatives are working closely together, and where ‘banter’ is an important part ...
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OpinionTom Heys: Gender pay gap reporting for smaller employers could be problematic
While there may be certain problematic issues with the gender pay gap reporting regulations, they have been a catalyst that has prompted employers to address workplace pay inequality for women. To assess how effective the regulations have been, the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee conducted an inquiry and ...
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OpinionSue Daley: What has AI ever done for us?
In a famous scene from Monty Python’s film Life of Brian, a character asks 'What have the Romans ever done for us?' leading to an extensive list of positive benefits gained from Roman occupation. It makes me wonder whether in the future we will have the same debate about artificial ...
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OpinionAsher Primrose: Organisational culture does not need to be office-based
Creating a strong organisational culture is not easy with a virtual team. Employees cannot ask each other about their weekend when walking to the office kitchen or decorate each other's desks for birthdays. But at Allied Health Media, the parent organisation of online continuing education business Continued, our team is ...
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OpinionJulia Waltham: Childcare vouchers are crucial for working families
Childcare is a crucial issue for many families in the UK. For a large majority, their decision to work is dependent on the availability of good quality, local, and crucially, affordable childcare. But for many families, the numbers just do not add up. Family and Childcare Trust's Childcare Survey 2018, ...
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OpinionDr Yasin Rofcanin: Keeping multi-generational employees engaged and motivated
In a world where the war for talented employees is intense, managers have the important responsibility, and the challenging task, of keeping employees from multiple generations motivated and engaged at work.Factors such as advances in technology, increasing diversity and the growing mobility of the workforce shape how organisations should communicate ...
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OpinionSteven Taylor: Is financial education the key takeaway from the TPR and FCA consultation?
Nelson Mandela famously said: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” In today’s pension’s landscape, financial education has also come to be of paramount importance; this could be one of the key takeaways from the recent The Pensions Regulator (TPR) and Financial Conduct ...
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OpinionDarren Towers: Making health and wellbeing inclusive for trans employees
We know that people perform better when they can be themselves, but trans staff face distinct challenges in the workplace, from physical spaces, such as gendered facilities, to direct harassment based on gender identity.Stonewall’s 2018 LGBT in Britain: Trans Report, published in January 2018, found that 51% of trans and ...
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OpinionAnvita Sharma: Pay transparency, where do we go from here?
In the wake of the Gender Pay Gap Regulations 2017 and widespread media coverage of the first gender pay gap reports, employers are under greater pressure to increase pay transparency.Some organisations, including the big four accountancy firms, have chosen to go beyond the formal requirements of the regulations by disclosing ...
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OpinionSimon DeMaid: Sleep-in carers not entitled to national minimum wage for time spent asleep
The Court of Appeal announced in July 2018 its ground-breaking decision in the case of Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake, overturning the Employment Appeal Tribunal's (EAT) decision and ruling that employees on sleep-in shifts are not entitled to be paid the national minimum wage for all of their shift, only ...
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OpinionAoife Hamilton: Childcare vouchers and family-friendly ways to promote a healthy work-life balance
It is important to understand the challenges parents face in achieving their desired work-life balance.Striking the Balance: the impact becoming a parent has on working life, employment and career, a survey of 4,200 parents from across Northern Ireland published by Employers for Childcare in October 2016, revealed that 91% found ...
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OpinionAlison Loveday: Understanding employer responsibilities during a heatwave
As employees across the country continue to sweat it out during one of the longest heatwaves the UK has seen, many are calling for a relaxation in working conditions.Turn on the TV or open up a social media site and you are bombarded with mixed messages about what to do ...
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OpinionSarah Chilton: How employers can put an end to sexism and harassment in the workplace
The conversation continues at Employee Benefits Live 2018...Sexual harassment in the workplace has received a huge amount of attention over the past few months. Employers must take steps to tackle harassment, to reduce their own risk, and to instill safer working cultures in their organisations.In early 2018, the Women and ...
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OpinionDr Michael Koch: How to communicate without damaging engagement
A growing body of research shows that internal communication plays a key role in stimulating employee engagement. However, for communication to be an effective engagement driver, several conditions need to be met.The first concerns the quantity of communication: as a rule of thumb, the more management communicates, the better. Employees ...
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OpinionAmbika Fraser: The pathway to good mental health
Absences due to stress and mental ill-health are becoming higher priority issues for employers and HR departments. According to Health and Wellbeing at Work, published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) in May 2018, the number of employees experiencing mental health issues is on the rise, and ...
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OpinionDavid Enser: Flexibility is key to expat motivation and recognition schemes
Expatriate motivation and recognition schemes should not be rigid, but should instead offer flexibility within a controlled framework. Managers must have a toolkit of buttons to push to ensure engagement and motivation on the one hand, while also being able to respond to the unique needs of both the individual ...
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OpinionMatthew Smith: What have recent legal cases revealed about employment status?
Does it matter if someone is called an 'employee' or a 'worker' or 'self-employed'?The simple answer is yes, provided that label reflects the reality of the working relationship. An individual's status determines what workplace rights, if any, they have and it will also have implications for tax and national insurance ...
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OpinionTim Middleton: Effective communications can protect employees' pensions
Since their introduction in 2015, George Osborne’s freedom and choice reforms have allowed the public to consider a range of options for using their accrued pension savings. Commonly, this will involve transferring savings from one pension scheme to another as the original scheme does not offer the full range of ...
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OpinionJames Bingham: The Pensions Regulator's proposed new powers may impact employer opinion
There has been much recent discussion of The Pensions Regulator’s (TPR) new mantra ‘clearer, quicker, tougher’ and what this means for trustees, employers and members. The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) recent publication of a consultation entitled Protecting DB pension schemes: a stronger Pensions Regulator, on ...
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OpinionDr Holly Blake: Increasing engagement with nutrition programmes
The number of organisations offering employee wellbeing programmes is on the increase. Healthy eating and weight management initiatives can contribute to prevention and management of obesity, as well as encourage healthy lifestyle choices among workforces.Nationally, obesity rates have risen 15% since 1993, according to NHS Digital statistics published in April ...