How to achieve diversity through fair assessment
Aspiring to achieve a diverse workforce, which reflects the diversity of the population, is a worthy goal. However, positively discriminating by recruiting individuals from selected groups to achieve diversity targets is illegal and unfair. Instead, today’s employers should aim to attract a diverse range of applicants and ensure that every person has an equal chance […]
Why resourcing is everyone’s business
One could be forgiven for thinking that managers (or indeed anyone else in the organisation) have practically no part at all to play in resourcing. Strategic workforce planning, social recruitment, AI, impactful job ads, powerful metrics and outsourcing, assessment methods all seem to be owned by HR. Of course, it isn’t really like that and […]
How and why wellbeing proactivity pays
A proactive approach to employee wellbeing shouldn’t just be for the privileged few, says Courtney Marsh, Commercial Director of Health Shield. No matter the size of your company or budget, it can be a reality for all. Everyone’s talking about wellbeing these days. Yet how many employers are still paying lip-service to it? And how […]
Workplace benefits uptake: map employee lifecycles to benefits
The employee lifecycle typically encompasses attraction and recruitment, onboarding, development, retention and separation – when the employee leaves the organisation. Mapping benefits to employee lifecycles is key to driving uptake, layering on top of that a strategy to match the right benefits to your workforce demographic. But, aside from high profile Silicon Valley tech giants, […]
It’s National Sickie Day. Let’s analyse this dangerous abstraction…
I’ve been indundated with ‘news’ around National Sickie Day today – the day of the year when absences due to sickness are highest. Many factors explain the high absence rate, including job interviews for those spurred by the new year into jumping ship, an increase in flu and colds due to the cold weather and general […]
Employee benefits uptake: why less choice is more
The benefits industry has long held to the mantra that offering more employee choice is the way to deliver better benefits but there’s not much evidence that this, on its own, is the lead factor is employee satisfaction. So it’s worth digging a little deeper and seeing whether choice is always the best thing to […]
Employee benefit uptake: 4 thoughts to better results
It’s February. The “New year, new me” phase is all but a distant memory and fewer and fewer employees are making full use of the onsite staff gym. The free fruit initiative is beginning to ferment and grow fur. Uptake on the EAP is dwindling by the day despite increasing absence figures. Employee benefits are […]
Beyond employee benefits: How to create a culture that sticks
Company culture is a tricky thing. We all agree on its importance yet nobody knows exactly how to cultivate it or even whether it should be cultivated? Should we just let it emerge and develop? Probably not. Developing a clear and consistent company culture is a crucial – and ongoing – task that every business […]
How to build and maintain an effective wellbeing strategy
You will no doubt be familiar with the saying “build it and they will come”. This can work, but in most cases, unless you’ve luckily hit upon a genius solution to a major need (including a need we didn’t know we had – such as the smartphone), it won’t. The simple reason for this is […]
Why we need a new approach to conflict resolution
Conflict between employees and their co-workers, with managers, within teams or with their employers is inevitable. It goes by many names: falling out, feud, fight, battle, disagreement, grievance or complaint, to more severe forms including bullying, harassment and discrimination. The problem is rife. The CIPD estimates that four out of ten employees in the UK has experienced […]
Authenticity is the only way to engage with the smartphone generation
When engaging and recruiting youth talent it is critical that engagement is authentic – the smartphone generation want personable and relevant content because that is what they are accustomed to. This article will look at how the latest technology and clarity of message is crucial and how trigger-point based marketing activity – for instance, around […]
Seven employee benefits that help build resilience
There’s an interesting relationship between stress and productivity. A little stress at work can actually do us good – helping us focus and prepare the body for action. But it can also lead to mistakes, cause difficulty when making decisions and impact our ability to concentrate. There are also physical side effects of stress – […]
One man’s experience of life after cancer
Aside from the more obvious physical symptoms of cancer and fatigue following treatment, there can also be emotional and mental side effects such as depression and low mood. All of this can have an impact on a patient’s ability to work; many people are forced to reduce their working hours, or even stop working altogether. […]
Why communication is key to supporting employees with cancer
One of the main challenges line managers face when supporting an employee affected by cancer is how best to start initial conversations. It can be difficult to know where to start, what to say and, importantly, what not to say. Despite concerns, it is vital that employers initiate talks and keep communication channels open, so […]
Why you should be offering returnships to career-breakers – and how to get started
If you haven’t heard of a returnship, you are not alone. Totaljobs’ latest survey results found that a staggering 85% of employers aren’t aware of back-to-work schemes, which is rather surprising given the positive response from employees. Of the candidates we spoke to, three in four revealed they would consider a returnship programme after a […]
How can line managers support employees with cancer?
When some people think of cancer, they may not realise the long-term impact it can have. In fact, 40% of cancer survivors are unaware of the long-term side effects of cancer and cancer treatment, despite 65% saying they’ve had to deal with fatigue during and after treatment. These long-term effects – such as persistent hair […]
How to tackle workplace discrimination against people with cancer
For those going through an illness such as cancer, discrimination can unfortunately be a very real and stressful part of their experience. This is despite the fact that if you have or have had cancer, you are protected by law from unfair treatment at work. Research from Macmillan Cancer Support, exploring the impact of cancer […]
Home worker wellbeing: how to manage it properly
With the exponential growth of technological development and the concept of multigenerational workforces, working from home is becoming more commonplace and feasible. Flexible working is also becoming more in demand from younger generations entering the workforce now, and never has there been a more opportune time for HR and managers to keep up with the […]
6 ways to support the health and wellbeing of shift workers
For someone standing on the outside, it’s hard to fathom how such a rewarding and compassionate profession can be equally frustrating, demoralising and, to put it frankly, bad for one’s physical and mental health. Working in the NHS as a young, single woman, I would often work overtime, miss tea breaks due to unplanned emergency […]
What to do when you want to prepare for retirement
When I wrote The Good Retirement Guide 2018 I had one overriding objective: to help people achieve a better retirement. Over the years I have drawn on my experience in financial services regulation, on giving business and taxation advice and, significantly, helping people prepare for retirement. Below are some practical hints and tips from my […]
