Catch up on the week in HR with our latest news round-up including why Thursday is a right off for HR workers, bosses’ doubts over the benefits of hiring incapacity claimants and why an improved lot has put the smile back into work.

W/C 23/1/06
HR puts Thursday brakes on
Thursday is the new go-slow day for HR professionals according to recruitment outfit Robert Half Finance & Accounting who say that just four per cent are productive on that day.

The start of the week is the best time for HR professionals with Friday’s also experiencing a productivity lag with just 5% admitting to be up to speed at the end of the week.

Getting back into the swing of things is also taking some time for workers in the post holiday malaise. Nearly half of respondents (45%) claim to take at least two days to get up and running after a vacation. HR workers, however, can be proud that they beat other professions with 60% claiming to be industrious on the first day back.

Sleep deprivation is also having an impact, a quarter of HR professionals said they would be more productive after a siesta.

Phil Sheridan, Managing Director of Robert Half Finance & Accounting, commented: ”Companies should look at putting new practices and systems in place to help their staff achieve maximum productivity, such as training to help them build new skills and stress-combating techniques such as membership to a gym. And what better time for companies to start motivating their staff than the beginning of a new year.”

The survey also suggests that improvements in IT would help make HR professionals more productive, with access to better computers, laptops and Blackberrys mentioned by 18%, 11% and 5% respectively. An on-site gym is also a key motivator (18%), alongside natural light in the office (11%), air-conditioning (11%), own office (10%) and an on-site crèche (10%).

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Strategic link between training and profitability
Linking training to strategic business goals has a clear impact on productivity and profitability, a major new skills survey shows today.

The survey by EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, shows widespread acceptance of the link between a more highly skilled workforce and improved performance, with two-thirds of companies saying improving productivity was the main reason for increasing training.

As a result, over the last year half the companies surveyed had improved their productivity suggesting the gap with their competitors may be closing.

The report Skills for Productivity: Can the UK deliver? also showed that firms had increased their training spend over the previous 12 months and were planning to do so over the coming year, despite their margins being under intense pressure.

According to the survey, manufacturers that place greater importance on business plans than available budget when planning training, and target the right types of training across the whole business get more out of their training efforts.

For more on this story see: TrainingZONE

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Survey on training’s professional bodies
A new survey will aim to find out what learning and development wants from a professional body.

The survey, by self-employed trainers network Trainerbase, aims to look at the current bodies representing the profession and find out what independent trainers and those who contract them, want from those institutions.

Peter Mayes of Trainerbase said: “There has been quite a lot of discussion on TrainingZONE and other forums, about the merit of forming a new professional institute for trainers. This is in some way based on the perception within certain sections of the training community that the current incumbents do not fulfil the needs of training providers.

“I got to thinking, what are the needs of trainers or the merits to be found in a professional institute? Answer – I don’t know, does anyone?”

The results of the survey are expected to be released in spring.

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16m workers with low literacy and numeracy skills
Up to 16m adults are holding down jobs despite having the reading and numeracy skills of 11-year-olds, according to a government report.

The report also claims that despite an investment of billions, the government’s Skills for Life scheme has done little to improve the quality of adult literacy and numeracy teaching.

MPs on the Commons Public Accounts Committee claim that almost £6bn will have been spent on the scheme by 2010. However its first few years have delivered little evidence of improvements in the provision of literacy and numeracy classes in colleges or in on-the-job training by employers, the committee said.

According to the report, 12 million people in employment have level one literacy skills and 16 million level one numeracy skills – equivalent to what is expected of an 11-year-old. The number of people under-skilled in both aspects is unknown.

It highlights poor quality of provision and teaching as a major reason for lack of progress.

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Bosses’ doubt benefits of hiring incapacity claimants
Government plans to get long-term incapacity benefit (IB) claimants back to work could be hampered by employers’ reluctant to hire them.

The warning comes from professional body the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) whose latest report Incapacity Benefit Reform: Why it is Needed and How to Engage Employers draws on the results of a recent survey looking at the attitudes of UK employers to recruiting the core jobless.

Author of the report, Dr John Philpott says that the government will have to ensure that its welfare to work measures do as much as possible to engage employers and encourage more to recruit people seeking to leave IB for jobs.

Key findings include:

• One in three employers admit to deliberately excluding IB claimants from the candidate pool.




• Of those employers who don’t practice exclusion, just 3% target them as part of their recruitment strategies.




• Forty-three per cent think long-term IB claimants would be less productive at work.




• Sixty per cent think long-term IB claimants would be more prone to absence.




• Twenty-six per cent think long-term IB claimants have potential but 32% also think they would be less adaptable, and 45% that they would be less reliable.




• Seventeen per cent question the potential teamwork ability of long-term IB claimants, 16% doubt their contribution to customer service, and 19% expect they would produce a lower standard of work.

Dr Philpott commented: “Even so, overcoming employer resistance to hiring long-term IB claimants may require greater use of direct financial incentives to employers, such as the offer of recruitment subsidies or low cost work trials for claimants. This, however, could increase the budget needed to win the so-called ‘war on worklessness’ and thus reduce any net savings to the Treasury from a cut in the IB count.”

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Cost of business drives bosses to offshoring
The escalating costs of business in the UK has been estimated by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) to have resulted in 30,000 jobs being offshored each year since the turn of the century.

Whilst 17% of respondents that have had experiences of offshoring report the benefits are less than they anticipated, more than 60% are very satisfied or fairly satisfied. However, the survey did highlight disadvantages with over half (55%) of employers believing it can cause low staff morale, 48% believing managerial control is more difficult, 44% citing job losses in UK as a problem and 33% stating language barriers as an obstacle.

Ben Willmott, CIPD Employee Relations Adviser and author of the report, said: “The survey shows there is more scope for the use of HR expertise in early consultation with union/employee representatives as well as in considering the opportunities for employee redeployment. At the planning stage HR should also already be contributing to the internal communication strategy and identifying training needs.”

The survey finds organisations make 180 UK job cuts on average as a result of offshoring. In spite of these job losses offshoring business activities also leads to the creation of new jobs, with organisations generating an average of 58 jobs in the UK as a result of offshoring.

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Improved lot puts smile back into work
Increased employee rights and working from home opportunities has catapulted the number of workers who are happy with their lot.

According to Peninsula employment law firm, three out of four workers are happy with their jobs.

Seventy-seven per cent said they were happy in their current job compared to just over half when the same sentiments were tested in 2005.

When asked what makes them happy in their current job, 29% said it was down to ‘good’ work colleagues and working environment while 26% cited salary and perks, 23% flexibility to work from home and 15% extended employee rights.

Portfolio Payroll’s director, Danny Done commented: “A stable economy and a sustained period of growth in the last 6 years is obviously a factor which has helped alleviate job security and monetary concerns.

“Even compared to last years figures, issues such as, the flexibility to work from home and increased employee’s rights at work account for a third of all employees’ reasons for being content in their current job. The introduction of legislation weighted in favour of employees in recent years and the subsequent expansion of their rights in the workplace has given employees further security.”

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Gender quotas observed with caution
Experts show concern at following Norway’s gender quota policy.

On 1 January, it became Norwegian law to have at least 40% of boardroom seats filled by women. Any businesses failing these compliance regulations face closure.

Mark Higgins, head of employment at Manchester law firm Betesh Fox commented: “People should be chosen on the basis of their skills and talent. Whilst companies must ensure they demonstrate fair recruitment and promotion procedures, they must also beware of promoting women over men as a mere cosmetic exercise in diversity. It’s worth remembering that the Sex Discrimination Act works both ways, outlawing discrimination against men, as well as the reverse.

“It’s getting to the stage where it’s almost a badge of honour for people to make a claim against their employer. Having a gender quota will lead to even more employment law traps for companies to fall into.”

Recent research* from the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) found it would take 40 years to achieve an equal number of female directors in FTSE-100 firms and 200 years for women to be equally represented in Parliament.

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Network Rail employees’ identities hijacked
Identity fraud continues to plague the Tax Credits system after it was revealed that identities of Network Rail employees have been used by fraudsters to open bank accounts and make false claims. The scale of the fraud is not clear, but may run into millions.

The fraud was discovered by HMRC, which notified Network Rail. The government hopes the discovery will dispel the view the Revenue is an easy target on the grounds that its checks were more effective than those carried out by the banks.

Identity fraud is yet another setback to the tax credit system. Critics have claimed that its design renders it open to fraud, as well as causing problems with overpayments to honest claimants.

As recent as two weeks ago, David Varney, chairman of HMRC, appeared in front of a House of Commons Public Accounts Committee and admitted that that criminals had defrauded the tax credit system to the tune of some £15 million by making false claims in the name of job centre workers.

For more on this story see: AccountingWEB

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HMRC apologise for incorrect P11D late filing penalties
Tens of thousands of businesses have been incorrectly fined £400, for failing to submit P11Ds in 2004/05. The errors were discovered when firms complained to their agents, who then contacted HMRC.

In a statement to employers HMRC said, “We would like to apologise to employers and affected agents for the inconvenience undoubtedly caused by an error in our systems. We recently discovered that approximately 10,000 employers received penalty notices for 2004-05 although no penalty is due. This came to light because of the welcome increase in online filing.”

An internal memo, leaked to Computer Weekly, blamed the problem on a basic flaw in the design of the automated systems that issue penalty notices. The memo said various offices had been issued with a spreadsheet with the details of employers fined incorrectly.

Staff have been told to review each relevant case, discharge the penalty and “issue a letter of apology to the employer in all cases”. Once the fine has been cancelled, HMRC’s compliance system will issue amended notices to all employers and if necessary their agents, and ensure that the fine is not followed up as a debt.

For more on this story see: AccountingWEB