Apprentice Katie claims three weeks maternity is enough
Katie Hopkins, the ex-Apprentice and reality TV contestant, has sparked another row by appearing on The One Show with a report (which you can view here on iPlayer – it starts at 8.58 minutes) suggesting women should take no more than three weeks off after giving birth. Most people realise being a parent isn’t an […]
Book review: Top Tips for Talented Working Parents by Jo Lyon & Harriet Beveridge
Title: Top Tips for Talented Working ParentsAuthor: Jo Lyon & Harriet BeveridgeISBN: 978-184876-598-6Price: £5.99 This A6 book is something you can pop in your pocket, briefcase or handbag to have to hand for any spare moment. It is a resource you can dip in and out of and you certainly don’t need to have […]
The workspace is key to engagement
‘If you are not allowed to arrange your desk as you would like to (then) you’ll feel uncomfortable, like an outsider and not part of the team’ (respondent to a workplace survey conducted by psychologists at the University of Exeter). During the recent election campaign, Nick Clegg suggested that cuts in the public sector […]
Life and work will continue to blur, predicts study
Work patterns will change drastically over the next 10 years as the boundaries between personal and professional life continue to blur, activity becomes less routine and more ad hoc and collaboration across enterprise boundaries becomes the norm. According to a report by Gartner entitled ‘Watchlist: Continuing Changes in the Nature of Work, 2010-2020’, organisations need […]
Working hours culture changed by recession
Working patterns have changed as a result of the recession, with staff moving to a “mixed hours” rather than a “long hours” culture and older workers changing career in order to stay in employment. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the loss of nearly one million full-time jobs and a […]
Is your organisation a work-life balance champion?
A website for working mums and flexible work jobseekers has launched it’s own awards to see which workplaces are most family-friendly. Workingmums.co.uk, a website for professional working mums and flexible jobseekers, is proud to announce the launch of its inaugural annual Top Employer Awards to publicly recognise and celebrate the achievements of companies offering leading […]
Females feel ‘unsupported’ by smaller businesses
Female workers are nearly twice as likely to experience sex discrimination in small companies rather than large and almost half of all women in the UK feel that their employer does not give them enough support to attain a reasonable work-life balance. These are the sobering findings of two reports looking at the plight of […]
Wellbeing – the crucial engagement factor
Do not underestimate the power of wellbeing when it comes to engagement and business performance, explains Ian Jameson. According to Best Companies’ survey of over 250,000 employees, almost 90% of employees who felt strongly negative towards the wellbeing aspects of their workplace said they would leave tomorrow if they had another job. Not a great […]
Active rest and recovery for competitive advantage at work
If you are searching for competitive advantage and sometimes wonder “how do I achieve more?” then part of the answer could well be counter-intuitive. Keith Hatter explains why we should protect our sleep. In both the corporate and sporting arenas, an important part of the recipe for achieving consistent, intense and sustained high performance is […]
Happiness more important than money, claim employees
Getting the right work-life balance, up-skilling and family time is now more important to workers than achieving a high salary, according to new research. According a survey conducted by a travel company, the recession has made employees rethink their priorities and most now would choose time at home with their families over direct monetary benefits. […]
Paternity leave – the good, the bad and the ugly
New government draft regulations promise more flexibility for parents when it comes to caring for a newborn, but is the pressure to perform at work preventing paternity leave – and your organisation – being a success? When it comes to paternity rights there seem to have been three schools of thought: the employers who recognise […]
The key to creating a great place to work
Long hours, high workloads, out-of-date leadership style and cultures do little to retain staff. Flexibility and good leadership is key to a happy workforce, says Lynne Copp. In the UK we work 46% longer hours than our European neighbours and are 27% less productive. Long hours and high workloads do not create successful businesses […]
Parents to share maternity leave, says Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown has announced that the government will go ahead with plans to allow parents to ‘split’ maternity leave after six months. The prime minister outlined the proposals, which were put on hold by Lord Mandelson earlier this year, at the TUC conference in Liverpool today. Under the new scheme, mothers will be able to […]
Seven office gadgets from the future
While genetically modified chimpanzees that are able to make sales calls, prepare tea and send emails are yet to be invented, there are plenty of other futuristic gizmos and inventions on the market that could give your office that hi-tech feel. Here are seven gadgets for your office, straight from the set of Star Trek. […]
Life Coach at Large: Going round in circles with work/life balance
Life Coach, Emma Ranson Bellamy offers a quick exercise to assist with evaluating the balance of time split between work and personal pursuits. In our lives we wear many hats. I am a writer, coach, mother, daughter, sister, ex-wife, friend, networker, club member, school committee member and parent to name but a few. Each of […]
Bosses fear working time opt-out removal
Employers are keen to hang onto the Working Time Directive opt-out clause; despite embracing new work/life balance initiatives says new research. IRS Employment Review, publishers of the research released today, surveyed 77 organisations covering more than 70,000 people to establish how UK employers organise working hours and their views on the Working Time Directive and […]
Feature: Work-life balance – equality for all?
Flexible working should be offered to all staff – not just those with children, says Karen Charlesworth, Head of Research at the Chartered Management Institute. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy – a phrase we are all familiar with – but what about John and Mary and Sue? Do they […]
It’s Work – Life Balance Week!
This week has been designated Work-Life Balance Week. You can find out more from the Work-Life Balance Trust. There will be events across the UK, starting in London in Bristol on Tuesday, Manchester on Wednesday and Edinburgh on Thursday. The DTI also has a Work-Life Balance area on its website.
Can mothers afford to work?
In spite of efforts to improve the situation, mothers still face substantial hurdles in undertaking paid employment. New research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests that for those who do manage to work, childcare arrangements are a diverse mixture of carers, cost and quality. Government initiatives to increase the availability of childcare places have […]
Childcare costs becoming prohibitive
The price of childcare has soared, according to a national survey of the cost of nurseries, childminders and after school clubs. The research was compiiled by the national childcare charity, Daycare Trust, and supported by Accor Childcare Vouchers. It suggests that there is only one childcare place for every seven children under eight in the […]
