Trends 2012: Health and wellbeing
Coming up with wellbeing trends for 2012 during a period of such uncertainty seems like something of a poisoned chalice. But a number of themes that started to emerge during 2011 are likely to gather momentum over the coming year and, therefore, are worthy of mention. Not only were such topics talked about by […]
Communication key to morale in face of ongoing pay restraint, advises CIPD
With 2012 set to be marked by constrained and frozen pay, employers must find more effective ways to communicate the rationale behind their decisions to staff in order to keep them motivated, an HR body has warned. According to a survey among 3,056 working adults across all sectors undertaken by the Chartered Institute of Personnel […]
Fit notes more than double days lost to sickness absence
Workers who obtained a fit note from their GPs were off work for more than twice as long as those who failed to follow procedure, a study has revealed. An analysis of 22,086 employee records by absence management services provider, FirstCare, revealed that personnel requesting a fit note were absent from work for an average […]
Self-efficacy: Limiting the damage of redundancy
Christmas is a time for giving. But some presents are less popular than others – and that includes the dubious gift of redundancy. Sadly, however, Christmas is a depressingly common time for workers to be handed their notice – Virgin Megastores went into receivership on Christmas Eve, 2008; Woolworths closed the last of its stores […]
Only a third of employers handle staff mental health issues well
Although about a quarter of employees have experienced mental health problems while in employment, only just over a third believe that their employer is supportive of such issues. An online poll of 2,068 UK workers undertaken by YouGov on behalf of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development revealed that a worrying one in five […]
Update: Lloyds boss to return in January with reduced workload
The boss of Lloyds Banking Group is set to return from his stress-related sick leave in January, albeit with reduced management responsibilities, the bank has revealed. Antonio Horta-Osorio, who joined the organisation in March to restructure it, has been absent from work since the end of October when he was signed off by doctors for […]
Blog: New Year memo to self – boost employee health and wellbeing
Christmas is coming fast and with it that annual angel/demon where you are already forgiving yourself for indulging two sizes in the wrong direction with the promise that starting Jan 1st you really honestly will do something about your health. Of course, businesses do this too. They get to the end of the year, worked […]
Health and wellbeing programmes: Engagement is key
Many organisations are beginning to understand that employee wellbeing plays an important role in personal happiness and productivity which, in turn, has a positive impact on corporate performance. But one of the biggest challenges is simply engaging staff sufficiently to actually take part in the wellbeing programmes intended for their benefit. High levels of such […]
Busiest expenses day of the year piles pressure on accounts staff
Yesterday was the busiest expenses day of the year, with finance teams facing a 139% rise in the number of claims submitted. According to claims management software provider Concur, staff rushing to recover the coming cost of Christmas placed huge pressure on finance teams to complete last-minute submissions before the break. The expenses rush added even […]
Lowering organisational stress levels
Pressure appears to be endemic in today’s society – and nowhere more so than in the workplace. Indeed, in many companies, it seems to be almost an ethos. As a result, pressure to meet targets, make money and even push for promotion is simply part of day-to-day life for hundreds of thousands of employees up […]
Ask the Expert: What rights do staff have during performance reviews?
The question I am a standalone HR Manager in medium-sized company and took over this year, after the previous HR Manager left. A few months after I started, I was informed by senior management that a member of staff, who has been with us for six years, was to be performance-managed out of the […]
Plan in advance to cope with winter weather, warns ACAS
With the weather expected to turn increasingly wintry over the weekend, HR departments must prepare themselves by ensuring that suitable staff policies in place, ACAS has advised. According to the mediation service, advance planning is key to ensuring that everyone and everything keeps working smoothly when circumstances turn unpredictable. Adrian Wakeling, the organisation’s guidance […]
Legal Insight: Surviving the Christmas party
The Christmas party season is upon us again. But while it is known as a time of goodwill to all men, the Christmas period can cause massive headaches for employers. In particular, the office party, where the mulled wine is flowing freely, can lead to a number of employment-related challenges as alcohol-fuelled employees have […]
Autumn Statement Preview: What to expect
The Chancellor, George Osborne, will get up at the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday 29 at 12.30pm, facing calls for dramatic interventions and tax changes to kickstart the flagging UK economy. Alongside the Chancellor’s statement, the Office for Budget Responsibility will publish its latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook. The Bank of England cut its 2011 […]
Medical panel should sign off long-term sick, report recommends
An independent panel of medical experts should be set up to decide whether or not people are fit for work, stripping GPs of the power to issue sick notes for long-term absence. Employers should also be given the right to appeal decisions made by family doctors to sign off workers, while being offered tax breaks […]
Blog: The value of early intervention
Mary is an established member of her team, with good social and professional relationships with her co-workers. Her boss has managed the unit with a fair degree of success (neither perfect nor imperfect), and everyone knows where the boundaries are and what is expected of them. Boss moves on with fond farewells. New boss […]
Employee vetting in recruitment – a must or a nice-to-have?
How effective is making pre-employment vetting part of the recruitment process in order to reduce subsequent fraud and theft? Which pre-employment checks are necessary and where do you stand on hiring ex-offenders? Such topics have been widely debated in the HR world for years without any clear-cut answers having emerged. But what is […]
Ask the Expert: What is the legal situation around medicals?
The question How useful, in practice, are medicals undertaken as part of the recruitment process? If it is standard to make a job offer subject to a satisfactory medical, how do you decide what an unsatisfactory one is? And when would a medical condition be considered a disability? If the medical reveals a […]
Employee resilience – whose responsibility is it anyway?
The concept of ‘developing resilience’ in employees is becoming increasingly popular as redundancies and talk of fresh economic downturns start to hit the headlines. But although it is intuitively understood that the term is linked to stress management, definitions of what it means in exact terms are often vague. Advocates tend to fall into […]
CIPD Conference Blog: Eight steps to enhance resilience at work
Recent reports that Lloyds Banking Group’s Chief Executive has been signed off with stress and ‘extreme fatigue’ re-enforce the need for a resilient workforce to face the challenges in the changing economic climate. At the CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition this week resilience was a hot topic and two of our experts, Dan Hughes and […]