Four reasons why you should consider the needs of your employees with family and caring commitments
Over three million UK employees juggle caring commitments with work, impacting productivity and retention. Employers lose £618 per employee annually in absences, while 22.4% of workers with caring responsibilities have considered leaving due to lack of flexibility.
Office pets: the best first impression you can make?
Office pets boost employee morale, reduce stress, and can improve company performance. Research shows that having a pet in the workplace helps workers relax, increases productivity, and creates a welcoming environment for staff and visitors alike.
Why financial wellness is a crucial part of your employee wellbeing strategy
Poor financial wellbeing reduces employee productivity and damages business performance, making it a critical component of workplace wellness strategies. Financial wellness means employees feel in control of their money, can meet current and future needs, and handle unexpected costs without worry. Employers can support this through rewards, benefits, financial education, and access to advice and implementation solutions tailored to their workforce’s needs.
Recruitment: why ‘cultural fit’ is an essential requirement for assessing candidates
Cultural fit is crucial for hiring success, with 89% of new hire failures linked to poor cultural alignment rather than lack of technical skills. Companies must clearly define their organizational culture and systematically assess candidates against it, rather than relying on gut feeling alone.
Book review – Too Fast to Think: How to Reclaim your Creativity in a Hyper-connected Culture
Chris Lewis explores how today’s always-on digital culture threatens creative thinking and offers strategies to reclaim imagination despite constant connectivity. While the accessible writing and education-focused perspective provide reassuring validation of common concerns, the book lacks deep practical solutions for established professionals and contains somewhat repetitive middle sections.
Employee benefits: the changing face of company perks
Modern employee benefits are evolving to meet the priorities of younger workers, who value flexible work arrangements, professional development, and genuine support over traditional perks. Companies must rethink benefits to address real challenges like financial stability and work-life balance, rather than offering superficial gestures.
Employee experience: not just an HR rebranding exercise
Employee experience (EX) adds genuine value only when integrated with customer experience and driven by cross-organizational collaboration—not just HR rebranding. Research shows that service climate factors like organizational structure, rewards, and team cohesion directly impact customer satisfaction and performance more than employee engagement alone.
Employee engagement: why the UK has an employee apathy problem and how this can be solved
UK businesses face significant employee apathy due to line managers failing to meet core psychological needs around status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness. Empowering managers to conduct effective performance reviews and career development conversations can help bridge this engagement gap and improve organizational performance.
Employee wellbeing: what do you do when an employee raises a grievance?
When an employee raises a grievance, follow proper procedures by listening carefully, exploring the complaint thoroughly, and attempting resolution. Ensure the hearing is conducted by an uninvolved manager, allow the employee to bring a companion, and clarify what outcome they seek before deciding next steps.
Employee engagement: why it’s time for HR to step up and deliver on ‘purpose’
HR plays a critical role in making organizational purpose real, yet research shows HR departments are underutilized in this effort. Purposeful organizations succeed when HR helps embed values into people processes and empowers employees to live the company’s mission with collective responsibility.
Flexible working: a vital differentiator in a challenging labour market
Flexible working emerges as a crucial strategy for UK businesses struggling to attract and retain talent amid economic pressure and labour shortages. By prioritizing employee flexibility over wage increases alone, organizations can boost productivity and satisfaction across multi-generational workforces, particularly among younger professionals demanding schedule control and convenience.
Employee engagement pitfalls: how can we make it more human?
Most organizations treat employee engagement as a checkbox exercise rather than fostering genuine two-way dialogue with employees. True engagement requires building robust relationships and open communication between adults, where both positive and negative concerns can be discussed authentically.
“If financial wellbeing becomes a handcuff, you haven’t solved an engagement problem, you’ve just given it a different shape.”
Financial wellbeing programs are expanding as employers recognize the link between employee financial stress and workplace productivity loss. Effective strategies should focus on building savings habits rather than just managing debt, helping employees feel more in control of their finances.
Company culture: how to create a more engaged, diverse and better equipped workforce
Build a strong company culture by investing in continuous learning, creating feedback dialogue, and preparing younger employees for industry challenges. Organizations that prioritize development programs, recognize talent, and provide comprehensive onboarding see improved engagement, retention, and workforce readiness.
Employee engagement: bridging the gap between generation Z and parents in the workplace
Generation Z and working parents have fundamentally different workplace needs, but both value flexibility. Companies can bridge this generational gap by implementing flexible policies that support remote work, varied schedules, and work-life balance, boosting employee satisfaction and retention.
Engaging employees in the age of social media
HR teams face growing challenges managing employee communications as social media blurs personal and professional boundaries. Using platforms like WhatsApp for business creates data protection risks under GDPR and reduces organizational control over how employee data is stored and archived.
Maternity discrimination: five ways line managers make maternity returners want to leave
Line managers often undermine maternity returners through five key behaviors, including viewing mothers as problems to manage, failing to formalize flexible working agreements, and creating hostile return-to-work environments. These actions directly drive experienced employees to leave organizations, resulting in significant recruitment and training costs.
What role do employees play in a brand’s customer experience?
Employees are the primary drivers of customer experience, directly shaping how customers perceive and interact with your brand at every touchpoint. Their engagement and actions—described as individual dots of color in a pointillist painting—either enhance or diminish the overall brand experience and customer loyalty.
Employee engagement: sometimes it is the small things that make a difference
Small daily actions significantly impact employee engagement more than major organizational initiatives. Research shows that simple gestures like acts of kindness, collaborative language, and positive feedback activate the brain’s reward centers, improving workplace wellbeing and satisfaction.
Complacency kills: three ways for SMEs to foster employee engagement and productivity
Low employee engagement threatens SME productivity and growth. This article explores three practical strategies to boost engagement: reviewing rewards and benefits beyond salary, creating a workspace that fosters motivation, and implementing additional measures to reduce workplace monotony and improve morale.
