Ask the expert: Do we have to pay sleeping workers?
This week the experts, Adam Partington and Esther Smith advise on whether the pay-to hours ratio on this sleep shift is correct and legal. The question: Paying the sleeping shift Currently staff work a shift of 7pm to 7am. They work (awake) from 7pm to 11pm and then can sleep from 11pm to […]
The HR Headmistress asks: Overtime – is it bad for business?
From being a fact of working life, overtime has become a very emotive subject. Perhaps that’s the influence of the rise of the work-life balance lobby. Setting aside business owners, for whom 30-40 hours overtime a week is the norm, in the main there are two discrete groups of workers who regularly work overtime. Historically, […]
Long hours are bad for your health, study reveals
Staff who work more than 11 hours a day are two thirds more likely to suffer heart disease than colleagues working a standard seven to eight hours, research has found. The study undertaken by researchers at University College London tracked the health of 7,095 civil servants aged between 39 and 62 over an 11-year period. […]
Employers working with managers and GPs see fall in sickness absence
Employers that both train line managers appropriately and introduce tougher targets in relation to staff sickness absence are a third more likely to reduce non-attendance rates than those that fail to take action. These are the key findings of a survey among 454 organisations undertaken by UK manufacturing member body EEF and health insurance provider, […]
New guide to help identify stress risks at work
A new guide to help employers assess and manage the workplace risks that could lead employees to suffer mental and physical stress has been published by the British Standards Institution. The Publicly Available Specification or PAS 1010 ‘Guidance on the management of psychosocial risks in the workplace’ was developed by BSI Standards. But it is […]
Sweatshop labour claims in Kent
The UK’s largest greenhouse complex, which supplies many of the country’s leading supermarkets, is being investigated following claims that agency workers at its facility in Kent are being treated like “sweatshop labour”. The Gangmasters Licensing Authority, which regulates agency practices, is looking into complaints lodged by Unite against Thanet Earth, which supplies cucumbers, peppers and […]
Corporate Manslaughter Act: are you doing enough?
Jim Irving examines new vulnerabilities within businesses when it comes to the legislation and considers how else to best protect staff. As the Corporate Manslaughter Act came into force on 6 April 2008, and with recent new sentencing guidelines recommending appropriate fines to start from £500,000 in the event of a conviction, all companies […]
Absenteeism costs UK business £32bn a year
Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Absenteeism is costing UK business about £32bn per annum, with workers taking an average of 10 unscheduled days off, about twice that of their counterparts in the US and Asia-Pacific. According to a study among 2,000 companies undertaken by management consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers, UK personnel, who are […]
Wellbeing – can it work with flex?
In recent years ‘wellbeing’ has become a bit of a benefits buzz-word with many employers now feeling that they have some level of responsibility for looking after their employees. The reasons are varying, including factors such as commercial benefit, legislative requirements or the desire to be seen as an employer of choice. A typical wellbeing […]
Income protection insurance instead of statutory sick pay
Lord Freud, the government’s welfare reform minister is considering proposals for the reform of the current system of statutory sick pay (SSP) to cover sick employees. His aim is to avoid people claiming long term sickness and disability benefits by providing earlier support for employees. He has commissioned an independent review of sickness absence which […]
Happiness and wellbeing during depression awareness week
Physical and mental wellbeing is a key theme this week, with the focus being on raising awareness of the impact of depression and the need for first aid skills and equipment in the workplace. Depression affects a huge one in five of the UK population at some point and costs the British economy more than […]
Ask the expert: Sickness and pay increases
This week the experts, Adam Partington and Esther Smith advise on whether to give a pay increase to an employee on sick pay. The question: Sickness and pay increases I have an employee on long term sick, the SSP has long ended and we are approaching our financial end of year. The other […]
Deja vu – the back to work interview
Back-to-work interviews help to reintegrate staff returning to the workplace. This can include planned absences such as maternity leave or a sabbatical. The aim is to welcome employees back, brief them on any relevant matters and ensure they are fully prepared to take up their duties again. The most frequent use of return-to-work (RTW) interviews […]
Mediation and wellbeing: An all-weather strategy
Conflict in the workplace is as common as a rainy day in the UK. And, like a miserable wet day, workplace disputes have a negative effect on our wellbeing in the workplace. Whilst we can prepare for rain, with stylish wellies and colourful umbrellas, most HR professionals and line managers feel ill-equipped and lack the […]
Want wellbeing? Time to be flexible
According to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), companies looking to make sure staff aren’t under too much pressure, should consider implementing flexible working policies, such as remote working. In fact, it claims that employees who work for organisations that offer flexible working practices are the happiest of all. The Office of National Statistics reveals […]
Health and safety cuts will put employees at risk
Cuts of a third to the number of automatic health and safety inspections from April will put employees at risk and inevitably lead to more workplace injuries and deaths, lawyers have warned. The Work and Pensions Minister Chris Grayling announced yesterday that automatic inspections would now take place only at high risk installations such as […]
Wellbeing: become more resilient
Do you feel under pressure to deliver at work? You could do with a spot of resilience training. Mark Walsh will help you out in this area. I help people build their personal resilience and stay sane in difficult environments – in both the high-pressure business world and in areas of more obvious conflict globally. […]
Sickness insurance could replace sick pay from employers
Employers could be required to take out income protection insurance for their staff rather than provide statutory sick pay in a bid to cut a sickness absence bill that currently costs them £8 billion a year. This is a leading proposal before Lord Freud, the coalition government’s welfare reform minister, and is one of several […]
Health and safety spot checks could be reduced: good or bad for business?
The British Safety Council has called for public debate on the implications of proposals by the Health and Safety Executive to reduce unannounced workplace inspections by a third following deep budget cuts. The move follows the leaking of a letter signed by HSE’s chief executive Geoffrey Podger to the BBC’s File on 4 programme on […]
Overworked employees napping in the office
One in ten office workers have slept overnight at their desks over the past year, with a further 10% calling it a day between 12pm-3am as they try to tackle ever-growing workloads. According to a poll undertaken by officebrokers.com, which helps companies find office space, some three out of five also regularly started work ahead […]