Are your employees surviving or thriving at work?
Would you consider your employees to be in good mental health? It is, perhaps, a simple question to ask and answer. My employees come in, they smile, they get their work done, and they go home. Simple. But consider this: would it surprise you to learn that only 13% of people report living with high […]
Falling into an HR hole? What potential pitfalls are ahead for HR.
The latest CIPD HR Outlook [PDF] has found that the top three current and future priorities for the profession are cost management, talent management, and the increasing agility or flexibility of their organisation. These top three priorities should come as no surprise – they are perennial to the HR Industry. In fact, talent management is taking […]
How a bad night’s sleep can disrupt the workplace
Do you feel grumpy, short-tempered, or prone to irrational behaviour after a bad night’s sleep or are you one of those who can quell your emotions and be ‘as nice as pie’ when you’re tired out? Sleep is a challenge for most of us, and to get a good night’s rest can have a significant […]
British resilience demands… resilient Britons
How resilient are you? A friend of mine was asked this question in an interview recently. It is a difficult one to answer and – put on the spot – we would all answer that resilience is, of course, one of our biggest assets. But is it? For all of us? Right now, it needs […]
How to conserve mental energy during the day
We all have good days and bad days at work: days when perhaps we are writing a document and the words are flowing, clear, concise and convincing. But, equally we all have days when we feel overwhelmed and frazzled and can’t think straight; and we have those days where we have deadlines, but nothing too […]
How to build an award-winning company culture
How do you create a fantastic working environment and a happy workforce? It’s the million dollar question that we believe we’ve found some answers to. Simply Business has been named the Best Company to Work For two years in a row, topping the Sunday Times list in both 2015 and 2016. The rankings are based […]
What should modern leadership development look like?
Blaire Palmer has been in the leadership development field for nearly 2 decades. And in that time she’s experienced plenty of fads. But rarely has she come across leadership development that really works. In this two-part series Blaire busts some myths about leadership development and offers some alternatives that might actually create more leadership. If […]
Great Place to Work announces best workplaces of 2017
Every year, the Great Workplaces Special Report profiles the UK’s top workplaces for employee engagement and gives insight into how best-performing organisations are pushing the boundaries in terms of connecting with their workplaces and driving performance through innovative engagement and people management. This year’s report points to large discrepancies between companies appearing on the Best Workplaces list and […]
The Madness of Kings: leadership, hyper-masculinity & mental health
If you had a choice to return to Earth after this lifetime, and, while resting on your celestial cloud, were given a menu of gender, racial and sexual orientation preferences to choose from, what would you pick for your next time around? Of course, approaching this logically, received wisdom would tell you to check the […]
Gig economy: the equality challenge?
This article was co-authored by Sean Dempsey, Partner, Lewis Silkin LLP and David Hopper, Associate, Lewis Silkin LLP. The onward march of technology and the “gig economy” is re-shaping the workplace with the move away from traditional “9-to-5” jobs and towards technology-enabled “gigging” for a multiplicity of work providers at any one time. An authoritative study published […]
Why we need simplicity to cope with complexity – mindfulness in business life
This article was written by Parham Vasaiely, Feature Strategy and Engineering Manager of Autonomous Vehicles at Jaguar Land Rover. He is the chair of the JLR Mindfulness Programme. Before joining JLR, he worked at Airbus, as well as a management consultant in Switzerland. Parham is part of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) Mindfulness Initiative. Parham will […]
“If you feel stuck in a rut and are not developing on a daily basis, it’s up to you to drive change.”
We’re always curious to hear how our members and contributors tackle the challenges that the ever-changing world of HR throws at them. We’ve got a wealth of experience and knowledge across the site, and what better way to showcase the diversity of our community than to get them to walk us through an average day? Want to […]
“Suffering in silence is such a hard thing to bare and generates self-stigmatisation.”
Colin Minto is the founder of APeopleBusiness, a new organisation set up to celebrate the capabilities, skills and contribution of people with mental difference in the workplace, and equipping organisations, leaders and colleagues to ‘open up’ and harness the productivity it brings. Colin set up the business after ‘going public’ with his struggles with OCD following a […]
Building the case for mindfulness in the workplace
In October 2016, the UK’s All-Parliamentary Group published a second report to build the case for mindfulness in the workplace. This article shares some of the reports key findings and anecdotes from case studies. But first, let’s explore what mindfulness is and why there’s such a growing trend in using mindfulness to improve wellbeing in […]
Are mental health apps actually any good?
It’s estimated that 1 in 6 people will experience a common mental health problem each week, including depression and anxiety. 1 in 5 will have thought about taking their own life at some point, with 1 in 15 having made an attempt. There’s increasing scientific evidence that work itself can be beneficial for someone’s mental […]
Are competing priorities impacting your health?
Everyone can recognise that familiar tug of war inside us; go out or stay in and catch up on work, make a fresh dinner for the kids or finish catching up on e-mails; work late or go to the gym? These are common everyday dilemmas we all face but have you ever stopped to consider […]
Round-up: 7 popular articles from our mental health month
Our mental health focus looks at mental health with a spotlight from very different angles! Here are seven articles we’ve run and why they’re an essential read if you’re looking to take action on mental health in your organisation. 1. Why tackling absenteeism could hike presenteeism Sickness monitoring, raising awareness of sickness policies and techniques […]
Presenteeism in academics: a shift to the twilight zone
This article looks and when and why academics in the UK work while they’re ill and the systemic factors at play. It pulls together a concept called the ‘twilight zone’ of work and looks at the effects of presenteeism on academics. It was written by Gail Kinman, Professor of Occupational Health Psychology at the University of […]
Presenteeism in prison officers: a case study in pressure
This article looks at the degree of presenteeism in UK prison officers and the reasons prison officers give for working while sick. It also looks at the impact of presenteeism on UK prisons. It was written by Gail Kinman, Professor of Occupational Health Psychology at the University of Bedfordshire, Andrew Clements, a lecturer in organisational psychology […]
Tackling absenteeism could increase presenteeism: what can be done?
This article looks at why techniques for reducing absenteeism can encourage presenteeism. Organisations need to focus on reducing the punitive parts of absenteeism policies if they want positive action on presenteeism. It was written by Andrew Clements, a lecturer in organisational psychology at the University of Bedfordshire, Gail Kinman, Professor of Occupational Health Psychology at the […]
