Follow the Japanese leader
The UK’s TUC union is urging British business leaders to follow Japan’s prime minister and allow workers to dress casually during heatwaves, reducing air conditioning use while keeping staff comfortable and lowering energy costs.
Wise Up To Work Day
IOSH’s WiseUp2Work Day on August 30 educates young people, employers, and trainers about workplace safety risks for under-21s starting work or apprenticeships. The initiative aims to reduce injuries, as approximately 10 young workers are killed and 2,500 are badly injured annually in the UK.
Workplace stress a low priority
Workplace stress costs the UK at least £3.7 billion annually, yet 69% of healthcare managers consider it a low priority. Research shows 51% of organizations lack measures to address employee stress, despite over half a million people experiencing work-related stress severe enough to cause illness.
HR Zone Members Newswire #160 – Bonus Schemes: Do They Drive Productivity?
Explore whether bonus schemes effectively drive productivity and performance. HR Zone members share their views on financial incentives, examining if traditional bonuses truly motivate staff or simply reward executives with inflated compensation packages.
Bonus schemes: Do they drive performance? By Annie Hayes
Bonus schemes can drive short-term productivity, but their effectiveness depends heavily on structure and design. While high-value bonuses may motivate extraordinary performance, smaller percentage-based bonuses often create diminishing returns as employees come to expect them rather than view them as motivational incentives.
HR Tip: Notice for senior staff
Notice periods for senior staff should be mutually agreed between employer and employee, with no legal requirement for extended periods. Consider balancing your need to dismiss employees quickly against your need for adequate handover time if they resign, while ensuring consistent notice terms across similar roles to avoid discrimination.
How to: Craft the perfect employee opinion survey
Learn how to design and implement an effective employee opinion survey. This guide covers eight essential steps—from defining your objectives and selecting your sample to analyzing results and measuring progress over time—plus five critical success factors for HR professionals.
Sacked pregnant worker awarded £19k
A tribunal awarded a pregnant worker £19,000 after she was dismissed the day following her pregnancy announcement. The payout included £8,000 for injury to feelings, as the tribunal found her dismissal was automatically unfair under employment law protecting pregnant workers from discrimination.
New Sector Skills Agreement for Wales
Wales has reached 11 sector skills agreements (SSAs) covering land-based industries, logistics, sport, marine engineering, textiles, and health. These agreements align education and training with workplace needs across sectors employing approximately 85 percent of the Welsh workforce by 2008.
Company of the week: Mills & Reeve
Mills & Reeve, a regional law firm with 650 staff, implemented a flexible benefits scheme to attract and retain top legal talent. The program allows employees to customize rewards including additional holiday trading, moving and wedding leave, professional services, and wellness benefits based on their personal needs.
What’s the answer? Right to part time work
While employees with young children have a statutory right to request flexible working, employers must still carefully consider part-time requests from other employees to avoid indirect sex discrimination claims. Health-related reasons may warrant occupational health involvement, but rejecting the request outright could expose the organization to legal risk.
Unemployment at highest rate for six years
Unemployment rose to 5.4 percent in May, reaching its highest rate in six years, with 1.65 million people jobless according to UK government figures. The claimant count also increased, though employment rose by 223,000 over the past year and manufacturing jobs remain at their lowest level since 1978.
Law lords make employers responsible for bullying
Law lords have made employers vicariously liable for workplace bullying, allowing employees to pursue legal action under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 without proving psychiatric injury. The landmark ruling applies across England and Wales and extends the claims period from three to six years.
A Quarter of Managers Back Mandatory Human Capital Reporting
A quarter of managers support mandatory human capital reporting, according to new research from Investors in People. The survey reveals that 60% of organizations already measure human capital, though 57% don’t publicly report employee information, citing lack of resources and concerns about disclosing sensitive data.
Opinion: The inspirational art of motivation management
Effective motivation management goes beyond salary to inspire employees to perform their best. Recognition, achievement, meaningful work, and development opportunities create stronger commitment than money alone, transforming the employer-employee relationship from transactional to purposeful.
Research Launched into Future Learning Patterns
Academics have launched a research initiative to explore how learning will evolve over the next 15 years, examining how mobile computing, the semantic web, and new technologies will transform educational environments and engagement.
DTI pays out over whistleblowing report
The DTI has paid over £130,000 in compensation to whistleblowing charity Public Concern at Work following a parliamentary ombudsman’s findings of maladministration. The dispute centered on the department’s handling of whistleblowing legislation and the Public Interest Disclosure Act, with the ombudsman finding the DTI had blocked Parliament from considering new policy and misled consultees.
The great pensions debate: What’s the way forward? By Annie Hayes
Final salary pension schemes face a £57 billion annual shortfall due to aging populations, slower birth rates, and underperforming stock markets. Experts argue these defined benefit schemes made unrealistic long-term promises that fail to account for organizational change, requiring costly bond investments to hedge obligations.
Psychometrics spotlight: The ABLE series
The ABLE series is a set of business-focused psychometric tests that assess candidates’ ability to learn and apply knowledge in realistic work scenarios. Unlike traditional reasoning tests, ABLE exercises measure practical competencies such as financial analysis and legal interpretation within context-specific business situations. Developed in the 1990s, these assessments reduce bias and evaluate how quickly candidates can adapt to new information and changing environments.
New body to help ethnic minorities find work
The Department for Work and Pensions has launched the Ethnic Minority Advisory Group to help close a 15 percent employment gap between ethnic minorities and the general population. The new body will advise on welfare reforms and employment initiatives while lobbying for stronger representation in public and private sector hiring practices.
