Opinion – Page 8
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OpinionKate Cooper: Employers can use creative means to engage employees during the pandemic
Microsoft's Newly remote research, published in June 2020, analyses data on its newly remote workforce and found that across many of its customers’ businesses, a trend cropped up very quickly after the shift to remote working: virtual social meetings. In response to the lack of natural touchpoints, such as grabbing ...
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OpinionLouise Lawrence: What will be important for employers' talent strategies post Covid-19?
If employers do not focus on their flexible working offering, they will lose out on the best talent. Nearly three-quarters of the 1,000 employees and 500 employers we surveyed in partnership with YouGov in January 2020 told us that flexible working was important to attracting and retaining the best talent.It ...
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OpinionWendy Tomlinson: The 'benefit' of returning to work
The working atmosphere and environment are significantly different from what we are used to. Agile working and more flexibility are now benefits that employees can expect as standard. Something theoretical before Covid-19 (Coronavirus) is now being applied on a global scale.How employees rate their employers on the response to the ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: Is the UK truly ready for a new long-term way of working?
Over the past few months, much has been written (by myself included) around what the sudden move to remote and flexible ways of working could mean in the long term. As some organisations now begin to reopen their doors, while others extend office closures, these conversations are beginning to move ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: Preparing for life post-lockdown
Saturday 4 July will see a large number of businesses open for the first time in several months as the government continues to ease lockdown. Overall, it has been estimated that nearly two-thirds of Britons will return to the workplace by the end of August.While this is undoubtedly a positive ...
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OpinionTina McCorkindale: Challenges of employee engagement in the future
The future of employee engagement will be filled with many opportunities and challenges, some accelerated by the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. Looking into the crystal ball of business, there are five challenges that will impact the future of employee engagement.Managing the gig economyIn the September 2019 Institute for Public Relations (IPR) ...
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OpinionRebecca Peters: Engagement lessons that organisations can learn from social media
Given the prevalence of social media in most people’s lives, it should be one of the most accessible ways for employees to exercise their voice. However, our research tells us that business social media is less commonly used to solicit voice than one-to-ones, staff surveys and team meetings.Organisations may be ...
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OpinionHelen Smith: Improving engagement when launching a health and wellbeing strategy
When launching a new health and wellbeing strategy, employers need to be proactive in the way they publicise it. After all, staff will not access benefits if they do not know they exist.Invite employees to helpHow do you encourage employees to feel part of the strategy from the outset?A good ...
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OpinionJess Young: Is employee engagement missing the little things?
Several years ago, I was responsible for implementing a new benefits package at a large university. Take-up was on par with others in the sector, and the initial outlay was relatively small. Management were delighted, but I couldn’t help feeling I’d missed something.Despite sharing plenty of case studies in the ...
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OpinionGavin Willis: Matching profit and purpose to boost staff engagement
When I founded digital marketing agency Search Seven in 2011, I was clear that I wanted to make money and do something positive at the same time. That is why I began the business with the simple pledge that we would match up to 7% of our annual profits as ...
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OpinionJulie Hodges: Employee engagement and organisational change
Change is happening all around us, at a pace and level of complexity which is higher than we have ever experienced before. The challenge for businesses is to keep up and adapt, otherwise they may find themselves in a situation like that facing the retail sector, where stores are closing ...
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OpinionMelanie Wilkes: What will the future of work mean for employee engagement?
Employee engagement is fundamental to good work, and is a driver of business performance. As we think about how to maximise the opportunities of the changing economy and labour market over the coming decade, it should be at the front of our minds.In 2009, the McLeod Review found that a ...
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OpinionCharles Cotton: Aligning employees takes careful planning and investment
There are a whole range of approaches employers can take to reward their staff, which can be both financial and non-financial: a bonus, pay rise, holiday and recognition of work are just a few examples.Such variety indicates that no one approach can suit every circumstance, and employers must tailor their ...
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OpinionKsenia Zheltoukhova: To meet real staff needs, give them skills for the future
This week, Nesta is shining a spotlight on the future of work and skills, and has commissioned the UK’s first ever survey of people working in the jobs that are most at risk of being automated in the next decade. Shockingly, the results show that two in three of those ...
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OpinionEmily Hodgson: What can employers do to improve social mobility?
You are 24 times more likely to be a doctor if you have a parent who is a doctor, and 17 times more likely to become a lawyer with a parent who is a lawyer. In 2020, what your parents did, where you grew up and where you went to ...
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OpinionKaren Thomson: Fostering diversity and inclusion in the year ahead
Moving into the new year is a fantastic opportunity for organisations to continue building on the progress they have made in 2019, but also start new initiatives, and come up with new solutions.For employers to get on the right path to deliver tangible results in diversity and inclusion, they should ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: The most wonderful time of the year...?
It’s the most wonderful time of the year… or is it? While many of us, myself included, are now fully embracing the festive season, decorating our homes, shopping for gifts and making plans to spend time with family and friends, for others, this can be a time of year to ...
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OpinionMartha How: The impact of diversity and inclusion on employee experience
An organisation that develops a positive employee experience is well placed to attract and retain talent; its approach to diversity and inclusion is a key component of this. But, to avoid good intentions backfiring, employers must ensure they take a considered approach to implementing diversity and inclusion policies in the ...
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OpinionPaul Sparrow: Employers must be certain of the authenticity of their brand
Employer brands are a dangerous commodity; they can be forgiving of mistakes, or years of work carefully nurturing a brand can be destroyed by a single thoughtless act.Employer branding is the application of marketing-think to human work behaviour, and that carries risk. An employer brand is not a rational, manageable ...
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OpinionCharlotte Lockhart: A four-day week is the productivity answer we have been waiting for
Significant technological improvements, the rise of the internet and social media has formed a hyper-connected world, with innovation disintermediating established organisations and industries. Surprisingly, there has not been a corresponding advance in overall productivity.In 2018, we made a bold decision to test our assumptions around productivity with a landmark four-day ...