Catch up on the week in HR with our at-a-glance news round up including the rise in sickies, how stress drains profits and why e-mail is the new tactic for bullies.

W/C 22/08/05
Sickies soar in the north
Workers in the UK have notched up around 78 million absence days over the last year.

Some 13.9 million have taken at least one day off due to sickness.

More shockingly, around two million have admitted to taking off more than three weeks due to sickness within the last 12 months, a tally that equates to 30 million lost working days per year.

Women marginally topped men, taking 54% of the share for days off, compared to men with 46%. Younger workers, those between the ages of 16-24 were also more inclined to miss work due to illness. Sixty-eight per cent has taken at least one day off, well above the 50% average.

Those in the 25-34 age group were, however, likely to be absent more often, with 12% or 890,000 of those in this age group having taken off more than three weeks in the last year.

Jakki Stubbington of Benenden Healthcare commented that the problem was the growing trend for employees to take off more and more time during the year.

“It is concerning that over two million workers has taken more than three weeks off work in just one year. This equates to almost six per cent of the year spent off ill.”

By region, those in the north west had the worst absence record, with 12% of people or 345,000 taking off more than three weeks over the last year. This compares to just 2% of Scottish workers.

However, the Scots were more inclined towards shorter absences with nearly 600, 000 (26%) taking between one and two days. This compares to 16% in the north east and Yorkshire region.

CBI warns employers pay for failures of school system
The education system is failing to arm school leavers with the rudimentary arithmetic, reading and writing skills they need to succeed at work, the CBI has warned.

It says that employers end up picking up the tab, having to invest in basic training to get many school-leavers up to scratch in English and Maths.

As young people around the country make plans for their future after collecting their results, the CBI said that barely half of GCSE students achieved a Grade C or above in Maths (54%) and just six out of ten (60%) reached the same standard in English.

According to results from the CBI/Pertemps Employment Trends Survey 2005, to be released this autumn, almost half of employers (42%) feel unhappy with the basic skill levels of school-leavers and 50% believe teenagers do not have sufficient communication, team-working and problem-solving abilities.

Sir Digby Jones, Director-General of the CBI, said: “The UK is the fourth richest economy on Earth. Surely it cannot be beyond us to ensure all our young people have the basic skills they need to get on at work? Yet sadly too many, particularly boys, are being left behind. How can school-leavers hope to succeed in the modern world if they cannot read or write?”

For more on this story see: Training Zone

LSC builds links with Big Brother winner
The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) is supporting Big Brother’s Craig Phillips in his new venture to help address Liverpool’s construction skills gap.

More than 8,000 extra construction workers are needed in Liverpool to complete vital building work before 2008, when the city will host the European Capital of Culture, according to a report by CITB-Construction Skills, the industry’s Sector Skills Council. LSC funding will pay for facilities at a training centre set up by Phillips and provide tools for up to 180 students.

Elaine Bowker, Executive Director of the LSC Greater Merseyside, said: “We will fund training to help people gain the right skills for employment and Craig will use his links with employers to place the new recruits, helping to fill skills gaps.”

Phillips, 33, who originally rose to fame when he won the first series of Big Brother in 2000 and has since worked as a TV handyman on ITV, will spend five days a week at his construction college when it opens next month. Speaking about his role at the centre, he said: “I can’t teach because I am not qualified but I will be supporting the staff with my practical skills.”

On a national level, the LSC says that construction suffers from the second worst skills shortages of any industry, with almost 43 per cent of total job vacancies remaining unfilled because of a lack of skilled candidates.

New Chief for SSDA
Mark Fisher, currently business strategy director of Jobcentre Plus, is to succeed Christopher Duff as the new Chief Executive of the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA).

Fisher, who is expected to join the SSDA in October, has also worked as HR Director for the Department of Social Security and was a board director of Working Links (Employment) Limited.

Skills minister Phil Hope welcomed the new appointment: “I am pleased to welcome Mark Fisher to his new role and wish him well in moving forward this exciting agenda. I would also like to thank Christopher Duff for his excellent work setting up the Skills for Business network, through which employers and government are now successfully joining forces to ensure UK plc has the skilled workers it needs to boost productivity,” he added.

Fisher also said of his predecessor. “I am delighted and honoured to follow in his footsteps and lead the SSDA in the next stage of its development, adding real value to the network of Sector Skills Councils and helping to put employers right at the heart of the skills system,” he said.

Stress drains profit
Excessive stress at work costs the British economy around £100 billion per year and is predicted to be the biggest risk to industry in the early 21st century.

A recent report estimates that nearly 10% of the UK’s gross national product is lost each year due to work-related stress and figures show that almost 13 million working days were lost to stress, depression and anxiety in 2003/04.

Steven Lanzet, Life Works’ clinical director, comments, “Less than 10% of companies have a policy to tackle stress, yet the pressures and demands of 21st century industry are intense. Alcohol and drug addiction has emerged as a significant problem for 10-15% of those in upper management and at the executive level of organisations.”

He continues, “Addictive disorders are among the most prevalent, costly and least intervened problems in the workplace today.”

Lanzet says that the good news is that burnt-out professionals respond well to intervention and treatment.

While psychometric testing experts, SHL say that the use of personality assessments can help businesses identify those ‘dark-side’ issues that work against the success of the individual and may prevent them from fulfilling their potential.

He concludes, “Employers need to consider developing personalised coping strategies with their employees that limit the impact of “dark-side” aspects of personality and maximise the benefits of bright-side aspects. In the long-term, this will be beneficial for all involved.”

E-mail harbours bullies
Employment expert Croner is advising businesses to tighten up on e-mail monitoring policies.

Condoning, Big Brother tactics Croner warns that e-mail is being silently used by employees to bully, harass and air prejudices against colleagues.

It is estimated that at least 35% of all outbound office emails are unrelated to work, with almost half of employees admitting to using internal email for personal reasons.

Richard Smith, HR expert at Croner, says: “In the past a controversial opinion might have been inappropriately voiced between colleagues over a drink in the pub, nowadays employees are also making these exchanges using office email. But whereas verbal harassment is difficult to prove, convicting email evidence could be sitting in a recipient’s inbox, creating serious legal issues for the company.

“Employers can’t afford to be blasé and are best advised to adopt a more watchful ‘Big Brother’ attitude over emails sent using their network.”

Croner warns that even ‘harmless’ jokes between colleagues can be construed as offensive if accidentally discovered by an innocent party.

Smith adds: “A sensible employer needn’t take email observance to the extreme, but should be taking email conduct very seriously and may think about looking into an email monitoring system which will alert them to potential bullying, harassment, discrimination or slander.”

Employees fear ‘stress’ revelations will lead to sacking
Seven in ten employees admit to feeling stressed but say that they won’t confess all to the boss out of fear they will wind up jobless.

The survey results by employment law firm, Peninsula also reveals that 84% of employers won’t take time off work through stress as they cannot afford to be without pay and a job.

Seventy-nine per cent of employees suffering from stress have admitted that they feel isolated by the lack of confidants to turn to, resulting in 71% who say that work related stress has a negative impact on their personal life.

And 79% believe they just don’t get paid enough to deal with the amounts of stress and responsibility they undertake as part of their job.

Peter Done, Managing Director of law firm Peninsula warned that employers who ignore the stress issue are likely to wind up at an Employment Tribunal for not conforming to legislation requirements resulting in them breaking the law.

“The well being of employees is part of an employers responsibility and obligation; stress in the workplace should be treated seriously and monitored closely once the problem has come to light.”

Done says that preventative measures can be taken to reduce the likelihood of stress emerging in the workplace.

“An employee who has a healthy line of communication with their employer can express their needs, difficulties and expectations before the problem becomes substantial. Employers should discuss the expectation of their employees in the job and discuss the workload which they place on the employee and be willing to listen to the workers feedback.”

Done also highlights the importance of proper training for managers to enable them to recognize the signs of stress.

Frequent appraisals on the rise
Over a third of the 145 employers assessed by analysts, IRS say they now carry out six-monthly reviews.

While annual appraisals are still the norm for 55% of those polled 34% now conduct them at half yearly intervals while 7.5% run them quarterly.

The results compared to those of 2003 show that appraisals are being conducted more frequently.

Where an employee’s performance is of concern, just under half of the employers have arranged for a more frequent review session. These are also more common in the first year or two after an employee joins the organisation and for newly promoted employees.

Other key findings include:

• Around half the respondents use competencies to measure performance, and nine in 10 (89%) measure accomplishments against objectives or goals. Less than half use numerical scores to rate individual staff.




• Although the link between appraisals and pay is rarely a major reason for setting up an appraisal scheme, half the organisations surveyed use the results to help decide pay rises and almost a third (29.4%) to determine bonuses.




• Almost all employers offer training for appraisers, usually on a one-off basis, but managers in 13% of organisations receive regular training.




• Formal training is provided in six in 10 organisations (60.9%) and three-quarters (76.0%) say their appraisers are encouraged to use coaching techniques during the appraisal interview.




• Self-appraisal forms part of the process at nine out of 10 organisations (91.1%).




• Most organisations use appraisal results to assist with training and development plans; six in 10 (61.6%) use the information to help with succession planning and a similar number to plan promotions.




• Most organisations evaluate their appraisal scheme and plan to make some changes in the near future.




• Although four in 10 (40.4%) employers said there had been no problems linked to their appraisal system, less than a third (30.1%) said there had been, and just over a quarter (27.4%) did not know.




• Disagreement between a manager and appraisee about negative feedback or the way a review has been handled was by far the most common problem.

IRS Employment Review managing editor, Mark Crail said:

“Appraisals are central to company productivity. When managers have a good system to work with and implement it effectively, they can help improve both individual and organisational performance. But all too often things go wrong – so it is essential to keep any appraisal scheme under review. Our research shows that HR departments are well aware of this, with almost half those we spoke to planning to introduce changes in the near future.”

HCI confusion may cost
Research carried out by FAST Corporate Services shows that confusion over the Home Computing Initiative (HCI) may leave company directors exposed to hefty fines.

Failure to have the right IT policies governing the responsibility of leased PCs is exposing two-thirds of businesses to the risk of fines.

According to the findings as many as 66% of companies surveyed were unaware that it is the company directors who are liable for any illegal or inappropriate use of the PC by staff or family members.

FAST Corporate Services advises companies to ensure users sign an agreement stating that the computer was supplied with a software specification and that all further additions are the employee’s responsibility.

“The HCI undoubtedly has many benefits for companies in improving employee skill sets and supporting flexible working programmes,” commented Chris Minchin, membership manager at FAST Corporate Services. “However, businesses need to be aware that, during the lease period, the equipment still technically belongs to the company, along with the responsibility for any unlicensed or inappropriate use of the PC.”

“The easiest way for businesses to address corporate responsibility for the loaned devices is to ensure that all users of the scheme sign a comprehensive agreement governing their use of the PC.”

Minchin also urges bosses to ensure employees that are using home computers to log onto a company network are signed up to a policy governing mobile security concerns.

“All users should also be made aware of threats such as spam, spyware and identity theft, with training provided if required.”