We bring you the latest HR news including revelations that more than two thirds of employees slack off during the festive season, 30 year celebration at Acas and why public sector workers are happy with their lot.

W/C 5/12/05
’Tis the season to slack off
More than two thirds of UK employees (68%) think their colleagues are less productive at work during the Christmas period, according to a new survey.

The poll, conducted for Investors in People by YouGov, shows that the problem is widespread across the UK – with workers in London scoring highest in the seasonal slow down ratings (77%).

Ruth Spellman, Chief Executive of Investors in People UK, commented, “Whilst it’s important to keep staff focused to ensure that the job gets done over the Christmas period, no one wants a Grinch for a manager. The key to getting the best from your staff at a time when they may be distracted by planning for Christmas is to ensure that they continue to enjoy coming to work. Wise men and women understand that staff motivation is vital to all year round prosperity.”

Businesses of 250+ employees are most likely to suffer from seasonal slow down (70%) – but growing companies are also vulnerable (67%). To stem staff sluggishness, Investors in People is urging bosses to keeping employee spirits high with six top tips.

1. Promote healthy working by making time to check in with staff – make sure they are not struggling in to work with a nasty cold or flu, or suffering from lack of proper cover or support;
2. Ensure that any extra time staff put in over Christmas is logged in their next review – and make sure that your employees know it has been noted;
3. Don’t be a Scrooge – if you’re not awarding bonuses, why not at least give each member of staff working over Christmas a small festive gift as a token of appreciation – it need not cost you much but will show you recognise each employee’s commitment;
4. Show your own face – if you’re not prepared to put in the hours during the festive period, how can you expect your team to deliver?
5. Think outside the Christmas box – allow your staff to take an extra half hour at lunchtime for present buying and make up the time at the start or end of the day;
6. Pay extra attention to those employees who work shifts during the Christmas period Bank Holidays – at a time when everyone else is celebrating with friends and family, it is important that managers keep staff motivated in their work.

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Acas celebrates 30 years
Acas the advisory, conciliation and arbitration service are celebrating their 30th anniversary this week.

Formed in 1975 at the height of industrial disputes it created its reputation on resolving them.

Aged 30 the organisation now enjoys the following:

• 30 visits on the website every 40 seconds




• 30 calls to the helpline every 5 minutes




• 30 people booking training every hour and a half




• 30 employment tribunal cases received every 40 minutes




• 30 advice publications ordered per four hours




• 30 people signing up to e-learning every five hours

In 1975 when talks often went far into the night the price of beer was 32 pence for a pint while a large loaf of bread cost just 14 pence.

Firms fail to deal with under-performance
More than half of employers are not grasping the nettle when it comes to dealing with under-performance, according to a new survey.

The poll showed the public sector to be the worst culprit, with 62% of civil servants claiming that their organisation does not deal effectively with underperformers.

While in the private sector, IT companies fared worst, with 58% of professionals in the industry saying that their company is failing to address this issue
The survey, of 400 companies, by consultancy Hay Group found that even in the most effective sector, pharmaceuticals, almost half (45%) of employees were critical of their company’s ability to deal with under-performance.

Ben Hubbard, manager at Hay Group, said: “Business leaders must act to address performance and ensure a motivated and effective workforce. And the public sector, in particular, must take steps to address dead wood if it is not to be seen as a haven for underperformers.”

The study also found that on average only 42% of employees felt their company had a fair system for evaluating employees’ performance. In the public sector, 62% believed that their organisation did not have a fair system for evaluating employee performance.

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Parental leave doubts plague career-minded
Over half of men would consider taking advantage of changes to parental leave rights next year but still worry that time out of work will damage their careers.

According to research conducted by totaljobs.com 58% of men would consider taking advantage of proposals that will entitle fathers to take up to three months of mum’s paid, extended maternity leave available from April 2007. From this time the statutory pay period will go from six to nine months.

Sharing the parental responsibilities gets the support of both sexes – 64% of women are in favour of transferring some maternity leave and pay to fathers, with 60% wanting their partner to take an active role with their children when they are young.

Men certainly don’t see staying at home as an easy option. Just under half – 48% – admit that raising a child is no easier than going to work.

But despite the change in attitudes, almost a quarter of men admit that they won’t be taking advantage of the changes because they believe that taking more than two weeks paternity leave will damage their career.

This is also a concern for some women. Of those who don’t wish to take extended leave, almost a quarter (22%) are concerned that taking more than six months off would damage their career, whilst 31% said they need the stimulus of a working environment and the interaction with adults it provides.

John Salt, website director for totaljobs.com, commented:
“It is worrying that many employees are clearly concerned that taking additional time off could be damaging to their careers. Organisations across the UK need to do more to support and reassure new parents whilst still operating as a successful, business.”

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Public sector workers most satisfied
A new survey suggests that public sector workers are happy with their lot and are more content than their private sector counterparts.

The research conducted on behalf of Inside Public reveals that eight out of ten public sector workers find their jobs rewarding compared to just six out of ten private sector workers.

And the news may come as no surprise when you consider working hours. Around a quarter (23%) of public sector workers do not work beyond their contracted hours compared with only a sixth (16%) of those working in the private sector.

“The public sector has an unfair reputation for bureaucratic and unfulfilling jobs,” said Sean Kemp, editor of Inside Public, “But this study turns those stereotypes on their head and proves that working in the public sector can provide a very rewarding and satisfying career.”

Topping the poll for most satisfied workers are those in the voluntary and charity sector: 95% regard their job as rewarding.

In a sign that money still talks, the majority (67%) of both private and public sector workers said a pay rise would improve the quality of their working life while almost a quarter believe that working less hours would improve satisfaction levels.

The study went on to ask workers how much overtime they worked during an average week. There is a marked difference between the extra hours worked by public and private sector workers: around a quarter (23%) of public sector workers do not work beyond their contracted hours compared with only a sixth (16%) of those working in the private sector.

Mr Kemp added: “One of the major benefits of working in the public sector is the ability to adapt your working hours to suit your life style. Benefits such as flexi-time, home working and crèche facilities are a reality for many public sector workers and just go to show how modern an employer public bodies have become.”

The public sector employs over 5.8 million people.

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Coaching conference set for spring
The Association for Coaching has announced the details of its second international conference, to take place next spring.

The one-day conference includes keynotes from Professor Cary L. Cooper, PhD, professor of Organisational Psychology and Health, Lancaster University Management School; Katharine Everett, director of change at the BBC, and Ian McDermott, director of International Teaching Seminars (ITS).

It will address topics including executive and leadership, organisational, private and personal and advanced coaching. There will also be a stream on coaching tools and resources.

Katherine Tulpa, chair of the Association for Coaching said: “Our second annual conference is called ‘Leading the Way’. That is precisely what the AC is doing right now – helping to lead the way for the coaching industry to become fully accredited and a highly regarded profession.”
The conference is due to take place on 24 March at the Victoria Park Plaza, London. More details are available at www.acconference.com.

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New occupational standards for retail
Retail is the latest sector to publish its National Occupational Standards.

Sector skills council Skillsmart Retail said the revised standards have been approved in all four UK nations and it is expected that National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) and Scottish Vocational Qualification (SVQ) units will be developed from the retail NOS by the end of January 2006.

Angela Roberts, Standards Manager at Skillsmart Retail, said the standards were “blueprints” to guide the standard of training courses and qualifications, describing what an individual needs to do, know and understand to carry their job.

“The retail NOS provide the standard of competence for the sector and underpin its qualifications. Employers can use them to design, deliver and evaluate training and identify individual development needs,” she added.

For more on this story see: TrainingZONE

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Leitch interim report: UK skills threat to prosperity
Skills shortages could leave the UK struggling on the global stage, according to a government report.

The interim report by Lord Leitch called the skills challenge faced by the UK “daunting” in its scale and warned that delivering current government plans would be difficult.

Lord Leitch, chairman of the National Employment Panel, said: “Our nation’s skills are not world class. We run the risk that this will undermine the UK’s long-term prosperity.”

He added that improving skills levels would be “of fundamental importance to the UK’s economic and social health”.

While the UK was seen as having important strengths such as an excellent higher education system, good reforms on vocational training and an increasingly effective school system, there were also considerable weaknesses, the interim report Skills in the UK: The long-term challenge said.

These weaknesses included: a third of adults do not hold the equivalent of a basic school-leaving qualification, almost half are not functionally numerate and a sixth are not functionally literate.

By 2020, Lord Leitch said that existing targets meant there would be significant improvements, however UK skills levels would “continue to compare poorly in an increasingly globalised world”.

Chancellor Gordon Brown responded to the interim paper, in his Pre Budget Report speech, by saying that would be an extension of the National Employer Training Programme – which offers free training for employees, help for all small firms with their costs – from next summer.

He also pointed to initiatives such as a “training wage” to help teenagers who have “slipped through the net” in eight areas of the UK gain skills and an extension to the New Deal for lone parents, to help them back to work.

The final Leitch proposals for reform will come next year.

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Public favours auto enrolment in pensions
A large majority of people are in favour of the Turner Report proposal to automatically enrol employees into a pension scheme, says the latest annual pensions survey by the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

Around two-thirds of people (66%) think auto-enrolment with the right to opt out is a good idea, says the ABI report, but among people with previous experience of auto-enrolment, that figure rises to a massive 93%.

However, adds the ABI, “the preferred place for any compulsory private pension contributions is individual pensions, rather than a Government-run scheme or even occupational schemes.” By contrast, Lord Turner’s recommendation was a National Pensions Savings Scheme with auto enrolment for employees without adequate cover.

Other key findings of the ABI survey include:

• 8.3 million working people (31%) are currently not saving anything at all for their retirement;




• 3.8 million working people (14%) are currently saving inadequate sums to ensure a comfortable retirement;




• 11.0 million working people (41%) are currently saving enough to provide an adequate retirement income; and




• 74% of the working population have (non-mortgage) debt and owe, on average, £8,705 each.

The full report, The State of the Nation’s Savings 2005, can be downloaded from the ABI website.

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DTI proposes to slash red tape
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has published proposals for slashing red tape costs to companies by £1 billion by 2010.

In addition, trade secretary Alan Johnson has called on all businesses to put forward further proposals to help reduce regulatory costs along with commenting on the current proposals.

The draft simplification plan, which is part of the wider better regulation programme, includes:

• Changes to company law to make it easier to understand and more flexible




• Replacing the Operating and Financial Review with a simpler ‘Business Review’




• Consumer law rationalisation and deregulation




• Companies House: new e-government services and harmonised joint filing




• Common commencement dates to be extended across all DTI areas




• Business.gov web portal – improvements and ‘see-at-a-glance’ alerts to new regulations.

Alan Johnson said: “DTI will be a leader on the Government’s better regulation programme. The draft simplification plan I am publishing today shows how we will deliver over £1 billion regulatory savings to business by 2010 with more to come as we develop our ambitious forward programme. This will be a rolling plan, updated and published regularly.

“We are working closely with business in developing the DTI Simplification Plan and need their help to make it even stronger. We want businesses to talk to us about the changes they want to see.”

You can find the full proposals plus a template for comments at DTI the official closing date for the consultation is January 31 but comments are encouraged at any time.

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MP’s bill would take 6.6 million people out of tax net
Anyone earning less than £10,000 a year would not pay Income Tax under a Bill proposed by Conservative MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown.

The Income Tax (Earnings Exemption for Persons Living in Poverty) (No. 2) Bill would abolish income tax permanently for people earning less than 45% of the average wage as defined by the Office of National Statistics (£10,000 on the basis of current figures). This would cut their income tax bills by about £872 a year, said Clifton-Brown, introducing the Bill to Parliament.

Clifton-Brown also suggested that those earning between £10,000 and £15,000 would pay half the income tax they pay now, while people earning more than £15,000 would be taxed according to the existing system. His proposals, if accepted into law, would take 6.6 million of Britain’s lowest paid workers out of the income tax system altogether, and reduce the tax burden for a further 6.1 million.

The government seems unlikely to favour the Bill, which would, as Clifton-Brown admits, “result in more than £5 billion being redirected from the government coffers to the pockets of our lowest paid workers”.

But the system would have advantages, he insisted, which would offset the lost tax. Administrative costs and the risk of potential mess-ups like the tax credits fiasco would be reduced, if low earners were simply taken out of the tax system, rather than being charged tax and then having it back again in the form of tax credits. The system would also encourage people back into work, he said, which could save up to £2.5 billion in welfare payments.

“My proposals would make tax avoidance less profitable and so help the Government to tackle the black market and to improve the health and safety issues facing unregistered workers,” he added. “Even Whitehall would make savings, as the Inland Revenue would not have to deal with the complex tax affairs of the low paid, who often change jobs, do a lot of casual work and drop in and out of employment.”
But those in favour of the proposals shouldn’t hold their breath: the second reading and printing of the Bill isn’t scheduled until 20 October 2006.