The economic recovery will be slower than previously expected but the impact on employment may be less severe than had been thought, the CIPD has forecast.

Official ONS figures released today show that unemployment fell by 26,000 in the three months to May, to 2.45 million.

And the economic picture over the last two quarters has now led the CIPD to revise its forecasts for both economic growth and unemployment. The institute now expects the economy to grow by just 1.4 per cent in 2011 (down from 1.6 per cent in its previous forecast in December). However, it now forecasts that unemployment will peak at 2.7 million (8.7 per cent) in mid-2012 rather than its previous more pessimistic view of 9.5 per cent.

The changed forecast is mainly due to unemployment being less than expected in the final quarter of 2011, and could be down to the effect of a clampdown on pay mitigating the scale of job losses, according to John Philpott, the CIPD’s chief economic adviser.

“Just as pay freezes and pay cuts protected jobs in the recession, the ongoing pay squeeze is helping our anaemic economy support employment,” said Philpott. “This is clearly preferable to a further very sharp rise in unemployment. But a combination of falling real wages and the likelihood of unemployment well above the pre-recession level for several years to come represents an equivalent amount of labour market distress. 

“While the specific labour market symptoms of economic austerity are different than initially expected, the ongoing pain is no less severe as the UK workforce continues to suffer an implicit trade-off between jobs and real living standards,” Philpott continued. “In this respect one must hope that the coalition government will not stick rigidly to its existing ‘Plan A’ for fiscal deficit reduction if much weaker economic growth makes the trade-off ever harder to bear.”

The revised CIPD forecasts for economic growth, employment and unemployment – outlined in the Institute’s latest Work Audit, The ‘jobs without growth’ conundrum - remain more pessimistic than the current forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) made in March 2011. While the CIPD now forecasts a lower peak in unemployment, the revised forecast nonetheless indicates that unemployment will be around 2.4 million in 2015, roughly where it stands today and still 800,000 higher than the pre-recession level.

Today’s job figures – which saw the unemployment rate drop by a tenth of a percentage point to 7.7 per cent – were offset by a rise in the numbers claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance in June, up 24,500 to 1.52 million. The discrepancy was the result of more women in particular claiming JSA rather than other benefits due to changes in the benefits system, said the ONS.

Source; www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2011/07/cipd-revises-growth-forecasts-as-unemployment-falls.htm?area=pm

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said 334,000 foreign-born workers had taken up jobs in the past year, compared with 77,000 people born in Britain.

The employment rate for British nationals in the three months to March was around 71 per cent, the figures show, a rise of only 0.3 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Growth in employment for foreign workers was 2.2 per cent but the overall foreign employment rate was only 67.8 per cent.

Earlier this month Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, reignited the debate over foreign workers by saying businesses had a responsibility to recruit jobless British youths rather than immigrant labourers.

He said: “We have to ensure that our immigration system works in the interests of Britain, enabling us to make a realistic promise to our young school-leavers.

 “It is part of our contract with the British people. This Government is reforming welfare to make work pay, and to help people back to work.

“And we are toughening sanctions against those who refuse to take jobs when they are available.

“But we also need an immigration system that gives the unemployed a level playing field.”

Mr Duncan Smith’s comments provoked a storm of criticism from business leaders who said British youngsters were too lazy, ill-educated and lacking the work ethic to compete for jobs.

Between 1997 and 2010, more than half of the rise in employment in the UK was accounted for by foreign nationals.

The unemployment rate was 7.7 per cent — down from 7.8 per cent from the preceding quarter, with unemployment falling fastest among the 16-24 age group.

The number of people out of work for up to a year increased by 11,000 in the quarter to reach a total of 1.64 million, while 807,000 had been unemployed for more than a year.

Unemployment among young people fell by 42,000 over the quarter to reach 917,000.

Sir Andrew Green, the chairman of MigrationWatch UK, said: “It is impossible to look at these figures which show a substantially greater increase in the foreign born workforce than in the British born workforce, without deducing that there has been a significant impact on the prospects for British workers.

“There is no point in being in denial about this.

“British employers surely have a responsibility to consider the wider implications of who they employ.”

A source close to Mr Duncan Smith was quoted last night saying: “These figures are exactly why Iain felt the need to speak out about this.

“We are doing everything we can do to get people into jobs in the short term, but if businesses keep falling back on foreign labour, we are going to face this problem again and again.

“He is very concerned about the impact of this on the economy.”

The ONS yesterday stressed that the figures for the number of non-UK born people includes individuals who were born outside the country, but also have British nationality.

Source; By Raf Sanchez The Telegraph

Retailer's chief executive is targeted at annual meeting over £3.2m in pay and bonuses

Sainsbury's checkout staff have demanded that Justin King, the supermarket's chief executive, "try something new today and pay us a decent wage".

Staff, wearing Justin King masks, protested outside the company's annual meeting in central London demanding that their pay be increased from the current minimum of £6.31 an hour.

Debbie Walker, a checkout worker who had travelled from Ellesmere Port, near Liverpool, said it was "shameful" that King collected pay and bonuses of £3.24m last year while she struggles to get by on £6.71 an hour after 15 years of loyal service. "I've had no pay rise for two years, and we're facing no pay rises in the future," she said. "I don't really have enough money to live on. I get paid just 40p more than my daughter, who only started this year. What's that for loyalty?"

The Unite union is calling on Sainsbury's to pay its staff a "living wage" of £8.30 an hour in London and £7.20 outside the capital. The union points out that Sainsbury's is lagging behind rival Tesco, which pays staff a minimum of £7 an hour.

Jennie Formby, national officer of Unite, said: "It is only right that the dedicated workforce, many of whom are female and work part-time for family reasons, who form the backbone of this company are given a fair pay settlement which reflects the outstanding performance of Sainsbury's."

Walker said she would be happy to accept a pay freeze if Sainsbury's was struggling, but "they're making huge profits". Earlier this year the supermarket reported a 9% increase in underlying full-year profits to £665m.

King said that Sainsbury's offers "absolutely competitive wages" and is "very proud" of its record of paying competitively. He said the company had to "juggle" paying staff more money against reducing prices for customers and returning value to shareholders.

Despite the protest, 98.2% of Sainsbury's shareholders approved the supermarket's pay policy.

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Source; Sam Flynn Social Media

Public sector management lack confidence in the ability of senior leaders to meet the challenges of far-reaching reform, both now and in the future, according to research published yesterday by global management consultancy, Hay Group.

Our exclusive survey of frontline social workers found two-thirds have had two or more line managers since April 2010. The high turnover rate was more apparent in children's services (69%) than in adults' services (59%).

Around 16% of practitioners said they have had at least four managers in that time.

When asked why their manager or managers had left, two themes emerged. Many social workers said it was because their department had undergone a restructure, often due to recent budget cuts. Others said it was because their employer could not recruit permanent managers, so they relied instead on agency staff.

Asked what the impact had been on their practice, social workers reported problems with supervision, a lack of continuity making casework more difficult, and the pressure of varying expectations.

However, 62% of respondents said their relationship with their current manager was good or excellent.

Responding to the results, Maurice Bates, interim co-chair of the College of Social Work, said local authorities had a responsibility to create conditions in which highly competent social workers could flourish.

"This can only happen if they are well managed, something that will inevitably be compromised by a constant turnover of line managers," he said.

The College is particularly concerned about the impact of high manager turnover on supervision, Bates said, adding: "The best line managers are knowledgeable, know their staff, are clear about what they want and offer helpful feedback.

"This is next to impossible if managers constantly change with the result that stress levels will rise, reflective practice will suffer and standards will fall."

Blair McPherson, a management development expert and former senior manager at Lancashire Council, pointed out that many local authorities had axed management jobs in a bid to deal with front-loaded budget cuts.

"Now we're seeing the consequences of those decisions," he said.

McPherson also pointed out that many authorities were merging teams and putting added pressure on managers.

Ruth Cartwright, England manager of BASW – the College of Social Work agreed that cuts had exacerbated an existing problem, whereby line managers did not receive enough support and frequently moved between jobs.

"We need to ask why that line management role is unpopular," said Cartwright.

"From my experience, as a line manager you get hassle from the top and, by nature of the job, staff come to you with any issues. It comes at you from both sides."

This was echoed by Unison's national officer for social work, Helga Pile, who said: "The perennial problem of recruiting and retaining staff won't go away until we address the underlying issues that make the profession so unattractive."

Unison has called for managers to have set limits for the number of social workers they have to supervise, as well as more investment in social work departments to tackle issues such as high caseloads.

McPherson added that employers should make better use of cost-effective training for line managers, such as peer support groups.

But John Nawrockyi, secretary of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services' workforce network, argued that turnover of frontline managers could be a positive thing.

"People move on," he said. "We shouldn't be defensive about it; we should see it as an opportunity to bring someone else in."

The Social Work Reform Board's final report, Building a Safe, Confident Future, found "skilled and confident frontline managers are essential to good frontline social work".

But the board noted concerns about the overall quality and consistency of frontline management. It devised a "health check" tool, which employers can use to monitor staff turnover, including that of line managers.

Of the 124 qualified social workers who took part in our online survey, the majority (87%) worked in a local authority setting.

www.communitycare.co.uk

But the trouble with forecasting is that predictions often miss the mark.

That has not stopped Alan Mulally, the chief executive of Ford from making a few bold ones.

Indeed, he wants the number two American car maker to increase global sales by 50% in the next four years.

At a Ford dealership in Manhattan, a cheery Alan Mulally in a dark suit and red tie spoke about the company's aggressive growth strategy.

To achieve this, Ford will not be relying on American car buyers.

Much of the growth will come from overseas, particularly in Asia.

"Clearly the highest growth rates will be in Brazil and Russia and in India and in China", said Mr Mulally before adding: "China's really exciting because of the next few years we're going to go from 5 vehicles we have in China up to 15 vehicles."

Transformation

Since Mr Mulally took over five years ago, he has transformed the company.

These days it is less reliant on sports utility vehicles and trucks, and is focussed more on selling smaller cars which it hopes will account for more than half its sales by 2020.

But if it wants to win over Chinese drivers, Ford will have to play catch-up. Competitors like General Motors and VW are already well established in that country.

Certainly, with its turnaround at home exceeding expectations, Mr Mulally says Ford has the financial strength needed to go ahead with this expansion: "Now we're generating the profits and the cash which we can invest in the business going forward."

Ford made a profit of $6.6bn (£4bn) last year.

Posing

As Alan Mulally moves to leave the showroom, staff at the dealership crowd around him.

As one of the few rock stars of the car business, he is used to receiving a lot of attention and happily stops to chat and pose for pictures.

His turnaround of Ford saved a large part of the US car industry. Now, it seems, he is poised to take his success on to the international stage.

Source; BBC website

As The Lawyer revealed last month (4 April), a group of senior magic circle partners ­recently convened a summit meeting at the offices of Allen & Overy (A&O) to explore ways their firms could ­collaborate to level the playing field for ­candidates from less well-off backgrounds.

It is believed that items on the agenda included the introduction of a work experience programme aimed specifically at A-level students, as most firms’ vacation schemes are ­currently only open to penultimate-year and final-year undergraduates or those who have completed their degrees.

The partners also discussed ways to encourage students from non-­traditional backgrounds to ­consider support roles in the legal sector.

Deborah Dalgleish, head of diversity and inclusion at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, acknowledged that social mobility is a serious ­problem for law firms.

She said: “The legal sector suffers from some of the lowest levels of intergenerational social mobility, so this is a particularly pressing issue for the sector to address.

“All the evidence shows that greater diversity ­delivers more creativity and innovation, so for firms ­anything that can help ensure they identify all ­possible sources of talent is strategically important.”

The legal sector was ­singled out as being ­dominated by those from privileged backgrounds by government social mobility tsar Alan Milburn in his much-publicised report on the issue, published in the summer of 2009.

Since then the Legal ­Services Board (LSB) has launched a consultation ­document, ’Increasing Diversity and Social ­Mobility in the Legal Workforce: Transparency and Evidence’, which is expected to form the largest-ever survey of the profession’s diversity ­credentials. As part of the ­data-gathering exercise, the LSB plans to ask lawyers to reveal whether their parents went to university.

In a separate development, the Black Solicitors Network has added ­questions about fair access to its latest annual survey, the results of which will be incorporated into its ­Diversity League Table, which will be ­published in the autumn.

Of the top 20 firms (according to their ranking in The Lawyer UK 200 Annual Report 2010) ­surveyed exclusively by The Lawyer, Addleshaw Goddard, Berwin Leighton Paisner, ­Eversheds, Freshfields, Herbert Smith, Linklaters, Pinsent Masons and Simmons & Simmons have now introduced socio-economic monitoring to their training contract 
and vacation scheme ­applications.

All these firms apart from Pinsents also ask social mobility questions of lateral hires at associate level, as well as anyone applying for a support staff position. In contrast, only Addleshaws and Linklaters capture data from lateral hires at partner level (see table).

Our research found that monitoring of existing staff was less common, with ­Linklaters the only firm ­currently doing this.

However, Addleshaws, Freshfields and Simmons all plan to survey their ­existing workforces later this year.

With the exception of SNR Denton, which refused to ­participate in the survey, no firms monitor staff at all ­levels.

A&O plans to start ­monitoring all staff later this year.

Addleshaws and Herbert Smith were among the first firms to start gathering social mobility data.

Addleshaws diversity manager Mary ­Gallagher said: “Social mobility’s no ­different to any other area of diversity - if you want to assess the impact of 
your actions, you need to monitor.

“We want to attract the best possible talent; and in relation to our graduate recruitment activities we’re interested in seeing if we’re doing enough to attract applicants from a broad range of backgrounds and schools and whether ­candidates are making it through to the offer stage in proportionate numbers.”

Herbert Smith diversity manager Carolyn Lee, meanwhile, said she was not surprised that less than 50 per cent of the top firms currently engage in social mobility monitoring.

“There’s a perception that educational background is more personal than ­ethnicity, gender or ­disability, and it will take time for some firms to be really ­comfortable with ­asking the question,” she explained.

Indeed, when Pinsents starting asking questions about candidates’ socio-economic backgrounds some students viewed the move with a degree of ­suspicion, with several claiming that the questions made them feel uncomfortable and others saying they were simply irrelevant.

Herbert Smith, however, claimed that its questions received a positive response, with 90 per cent of ­applicants choosing to answer them. Similarly, Addleshaws has not encountered a negative reaction.

The questions being asked by firms that have started to monitor include whether the individual was the first person in their immediate family to go to university and what type of secondary school they attended - ie private or state. Pinsents’ questions go a little further by also asking if individuals qualified for free school meals.

Gallagher said: “Given the current lack of guidance, there are inevitably some differences in the questions firms are asking, but we feel the two we’re asking are ­relatively straightforward to answer and in combination will give us some interesting data. If it transpires that there are other questions we should include we can always do that in the future.”

Monitoring, of course, is only a small part of boosting social mobility in the legal profession. Before the ­meeting of magic circle partners took place at A&O many firms were already working on their own ­initiatives in this area.

Addleshaws, for example, had already removed details of candidates’ A-level grades and schools from the ­paperwork given to ­graduate recruitment ­assessors. It has also introduced a verbal ­reasoning test as part of its trainee recruitment process to reduce the reliance placed on A-level grades. ­Additionally, it has ­tightened up its rules regarding work ­experience to ensure ­opportunities are given on the basis of what candidates know, not who they know.

Meanwhile, later this year Addleshaws will be launching a work experience programme for Year 13 students, which will be run from its Leeds and London offices. The ’Legal Access Week’ will be held during the week commencing 1 August, with 10 places available to students at Highbury Grove School, London and Notre Dame Sixth Form College, Leeds. The scheme is open 
to ­second-year A-level ­students on mentoring and developmental programmes considering careers in law.

Students will apply for a place through the relevant schools, which will make recommendations. Each student will be paid for the week.

Meanwhile, Herbert Smith has launched ­’Networked’, a five-year ­programme that aims to ­provide experience, support (both practical and financial) and guidance to talented local students, starting from their A-levels and ­continuing throughout their time at university.

The support the programme provides includes careers days, internships, training in areas such as communication and presentation skills, mentoring, access to professionals, including partners and clients, and a bursary.

Elsewhere, firms ­including Freshfields, ­Linklaters and Simmons are supporting participation initiatives such as ’Pathways to Law’, a £3m scheme launched jointly by the College of Law and the ­Sutton Trust in 2006.

Source; The Lawyer.com

In addition to the increased adult rate, the following will also be introduced:

• The rate for 18- to 20-year-olds will increase by 6p to £4.98 an hour;
• The rate for 16- to 17-year-olds will increase by 4p to £3.68 an hour; and
• The rate for apprentices will increase by 10p to £2.60 an hour.

The increases will come into effect on 1 October.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "More than 890,000 of Britain's lowest-paid workers will gain from these changes. They are appropriate - reflecting the current economic uncertainty while at the same time protecting the UK's lowest-paid workers. I would like to thank the LPC for doing a good job in difficult circumstances."

Sheila Attwood, XpertHR pay and benefits editor, said: "The 2.5% increase in the adult rate of the national minimum wage from October 2011 is above the current going rate of pay settlements, which XpertHR recorded at 2.3% in March 2011. Overall, private sector employers are predicting a median 2% pay rise for 2011. Pay increases across the board are pitched well below the rate of inflation, however, with price increases on the retail prices index (RPI) measure running at 5.5%."

David Norgrove, chairman of the Low Pay Commission, said: "We welcome the Government's acceptance of our recommendations. The commission was again unanimous, despite all the economic uncertainties. We believe we have struck the right balance between the needs of low-paid workers and the challenges faced by businesses."

Source; PersonnelToday John Eccleston

 Fast-food chain McDonald's plans to hire as many as 50,000 employees later this month in a massive boost to the economy.

The move comes as McDonald's announced sales at it 14,000 restaurants nationwide rose 2.7 per cent on last year.It's workforce will grow by seven per cent to 700,000 staff with more of its outlets staying open 24 hours a day.McDonald's will hold its country-wide hiring day on April 19 with the franchise owners of  the restaurants spending $518 million in wages on the new employees.The company's hiring goal translates to between three and four new staff at each outlet.McDonald's said that although turnover slowed because of the weak economy, the company sees an opportunity to attract employees in a tough job market.Last year McDonald's held a similar event in its Western region with more than 60,000 applying for the 13,000 jobs.

Last month, the unemployment rate fell to 8.8 per cent,  the lowest in two years, as U.S. companies employed workers at the fastest pace since before the recession began.It was down from 8.9 in February, the second straight month of solid gains, as the economy added 216,000 new jobs, off-setting layoffs in local government and education. The rate has fallen a full one per cent over the last four months and the figures are spurring hopes that the economy is finally strengthening, nearly two years after the recession was said to have ended.Private employers, the backbone of the economy, drove nearly all of the gains.It was the first time private-sector hiring topped 200,000 in two consecutive months since 2006 — more than a year before the recession started.

Source; The Mail

According to the survey's findings, around two-fifths of organisations have either decreased funding for learning and development this year or anticipate doing so, while only one in 10 anticipates an increased investment in training in the next 12 months.

More than half (54%) of organisations report that their economic circumstances have declined in the past 12 months, with one-third reducing the use of external suppliers and moving to in-house provision as a result.

The survey also found that companies have increased their training offering per employee this year compared with 2010 levels. They have also increased their use of lower-cost development practices such as e-learning (54%), coaching by line managers (47%), in-house development programmes (45%) and internal knowledge-sharing events (37%).

Meanwhile, public sector cuts are having a significant impact on learning and development, with public sector employers three times as likely as those in the private sector to report that the funding of learning and talent development will decrease in the next 12 months (three-quarters (76%) compared to a quarter (26%)). This compares to last year's figures of two-fifths (19%) of public sector and more than half of private sector respondents reporting that they expected cuts.

Dr John McGurk, learning and talent development adviser at the CIPD, said: "With the full impact of the spending cuts yet to be felt in the public sector, maintaining support for employee development by linking it to organisational change is essential if organisations are to steer through these uncertain and challenging times.

"It's encouraging to see that during the tough times organisations have coped well with reduced budgets and shifted from external to in-house provision, as well as utilising less costly development practices. This has proved that the function is adept to new innovations, as well as cost control when the going gets tough. We expect to see public sector learning and development teams rely on similar methods as the cuts start to bite, already indicated by our findings."

The full findings of the report will be revealed at the CIPD's annual HRD Conference and Exhibition on 6 and 7 April.

Source; Personnel Today

Speaking today at a Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) conference in Liverpool, business minster Mark Prisk announced a three-year moratorium on new business regulation for businesses of fewer than ten employees and for "genuine new start-ups".

Prisk also outlined Government plans to remove workers' rights to request leave for training at companies with fewer than 250 staff, and scrap Regulations giving parents of children up to the age 17 the right to flexible working hours.

However, there has already been some angry response to the proposals, with trade union Unite claiming that the Government has an "anti-women bias". Assistant general secretary of Unite Gail Cartmail said: "[This] announcement is the latest example of a policy that will make it harder for women to hold down jobs and make a valuable contribution to the economy and the financial well-being of their families.

"Last summer's emergency Budget saw a series of measures that hit women's income disproportionately harder compared with men's. The so-called Employer's Charter saw women bearing the brunt on all fronts, with maternity rights being under threat.

"Only last week we had Lord Hutton's report on public sector pensions, which if implemented, will hit local government and the NHS, with their huge female workforces, very badly.

"And then in the background, you have works and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith's aiming 'to make work pay', with the implication that women will be forced back to work in very low paid jobs, despite the lack of national childcare facilities and the threat to their incomes."

Ben Willmott, senior policy adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said the decision to repeal April's planned extension of the right to request flexible working for parents of 17-year-olds shouldn't be seen as conceding that felxible working is burdensome to employers. He said: “We understand the argument that multiple changes to flexible working regulations are not helpful. But this limited repeal mustn’t be seen as conceding the ill-conceived belief that flexible working can only ever be seen as a regulatory burden and a cost. Millions of workers already benefit from flexible working well beyond anything enshrined in legislation, because employers in firms large and small see the benefits they derive from a more flexible, more engaged, more diverse and more effective workforce as a result.

“Recognising that your employees have lives outside of work, and seeking to accommodate those lives where business requirements allow isn’t a cost, it is a sensible employee retention and motivation strategy that can boost organisational performance and economic growth.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for construction union UCATT said the decision to scrap the right to request time off for training risks lives. They said: "The decision is particularly alarming for the construction industry, due to the fact that as the industry begins to recover from the recession an increasing number of new inexperienced workers will be recruited. Without proper training they could place themselves or their colleagues at risk.
 
“The announcement has very serious implications for the construction industry. As the industry recovers from recession there are genuine concerns that fatalities and injuries will increase. If companies make short-term knee jerk decisions and high levels of safety training is not provided to new entrants, those dangers will increase.”

Source; Personnel Today, John Eccleston

Among Osborne's announcements was confirmation of last week's declaration by business minister Mark Prisk of athree-year moratorium on business regulation for small businesses and start-ups.

Outlining his desire for the UK workforce to be the most educated and flexible in Europe, Osborne committed to investment in technical colleges, aimed at increasing vocational training. He also said that there would be increased access to work placement schemes for a further 100,000 people.

In addition, 40,000 more adult apprenticeships will be created, with Osborne claiming this meant a total of 250,000 apprenticeships.

Katerina Rudiger, CIPD skills adviser, welcomed this commitment: "It is more important than ever for the Government to invest in the right skills to aid economic recovery," she said.

"The increased workplace-based training funding, especially for 40,000 extra apprenticeships, will allow British businesses to grow and become more competitive through their people. The focus on highly skilled trades, also through the creation of 24 new technical colleges, is a welcome step in the right direction as more needs to be done to improve the quality and reputation of the vocational education on offer for young people.

"On top of this, the increased funding of work placements for young people is an efficient way to target youth unemployment, helping to break the vicious circle of no experience/no job and give young people an opportunity to develop and demonstrate the skills and commitment employers need," Rudiger concluded.

No-change Budget?

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation broadly welcomed today's announcements, but said the Government can still do more. Chief executive Kevin Green said: "It is promising to see that the Government has prioritised youth employment with a new £300 million package to help young people into work. Our Youth Employment Taskforce has urged the Government to take decisive action on the rising number of young people outside of education or employment, and it is good news that 40,000 new apprenticeships and 100,000 work experience opportunities are coming onboard.

"However, we urge the Chancellor to consider further fiscal incentives to help employers take on young people, such as a national insurance holiday of at least one year for SMEs who take on additional young people."

Commenting on the employment regulation moratorium, CIPD employee relations adviser Mike Emmott said: "We are concerned about the moratorium on all new employment regulation for small firms for three years. The onus should be on government to bring forward only light-touch employment regulations that do good, not harm - irrespective of company size. A moratorium for the smallest firms is a dangerous precedent that risks creating a two-tier labour market, and could, even at the margins, act as a perverse disincentive for growth among firms considering employing the extra staff member that would bring them into the 'regulated tier' of the labour market."

Meanwhile, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber called it a "no-change Budget", adding: "Today's measures do nothing to end the basic error of imposing deep, rapid and unfair spending cuts on an economy where unemployment is rising and growth faltering.

"While there are some welcome measures on funding for apprenticeships and much needed relief on fuel duty, most of today is about taking us back to the 1980s with deregulation gimmicks, hand-outs to big business and a deterioration of working conditions that failed to deliver jobs or growth then and won't today.

"Overall, there was little in the way of help for hard-pressed ordinary people fearful for their jobs and reeling from inflation driven by the VAT increase. And for the young unemployed, the best the Chancellor had to offer was cut-price unpaid work experience," concluded Barber.

Work/life organisation Working Families chief executive Sarah Jackson said: "This is not a budget for families. The moratorium on any new domestic employment laws for three years for micro-businesses is disappointing. There is a danger that there will be a bigger gap between the best employers and the rest.

"Good employers know that offering strong employee benefits boosts commitment and performance. It is a shame that the Government doesn't encourage all employers - of whatever size - to heed the business case that flexible working is good for the bottom line. Instead, they have unpicked their earlier commitment to parents to extend flexible working for parents of 17-year-olds."

Source; - Personnel Today; John Eccleston 

One-fifth of public sector employers that made cuts to their wage bills in 2010 had to stop providing one or more services to do so.

This is according to an XpertHR survey on public sector cuts during 2010, which also found that three public services in 10 introduced or expanded shared services in the last year to save money.

Where redundancies were made to meet payroll cuts, voluntary redundancies outweighed compulsory redundancies by a ratio of eight to one.

However, the outlook for 2011 is bleaker, with two in three of the 92 public sector respondents expecting to cut services and many anticipating a higher proportion of compulsory redundancies.

Respondents predict, on average, that they will have to cut 21 jobs through voluntary redundancy programmes and a further 20 through compulsory redundandancies in 2011.

Of those who offered a voluntary redundancy programe, two-thirds offered enhanced terms to employees who took it. The report explains that many employers adopted this approach in order to make the offer as attractive as possible to staff.

Noelle Murphy, XpertHR editor and author of the report, comments: "The public sector is facing huge cuts and HR is growing increasingly concerned at how these cuts are going to affect employees, not only in terms of those leaving the organisation through redundancy programmes, but also those who remain.

"Morale, engagement and, ultimately, productivity are going to take a big hit, our respondents told us. There are also real concerns about how organisations can deliver cost-cutting programmes while delivering their programme of services."

Source: Personnel Today

Six employers in 10 do not believe that their managers are confident and competent in managing underperforming staff.

This is according to the 2011 XpertHR managing underperformance survey, which also found that four-fifths of organisations think that underperformance is a problem in their workforce to some extent.

However, the survey of 165 employers found that many employers are optimistic about their overall ability to deal with underperforming employees. Six employers in 10 say that their organisation is quite effective at tackling low performance levels and a further one in eight say that it is very effective.

The five main performance problems employers faced were: high levels of sickness absence; the capability of the individual; poor attitude or behaviour to colleagues; poor standard of work; and failure to meet set objectives.

Employers considered the most effective strategy in managing underperformance to be providing regular informal feedback and guidance to the individual.

Despite the lack of confidence in line managers' ability to deal with unsatisfactory performance, more than nine organisations in 10 said that management take principal responsibility for dealing with it.

Rachel Suff, author of the report, said: "If line managers are going to be up to the task of effectively managing performance - and underperformance - they need the support to discharge this responsibility.

"Appropriate training in the necessary skills is the bedrock of that support."

Source ; Personnel Today - Laura Chamberlain 21 February 2011 00:01

But, how often do your employees get away with similar comments?

Tightening of laws has led to the 'death of the office joke'.  No longer can your employees make passing comments with the risk of offence.  Even if this offence is not directly focused, it can still cause offence to those around that person.  This can quickly lead to a culture of bullying and harrassment and procedures need to be in place to avoid this.

However, how do you maintain the balance to ensure your workplace is not rule driven and fun-lacking?  Encourage your employees to create a sense of comoraderie.  Ensure they know what is acceptable and what is not.  Make sure it is clear that jokes at others' expense cannot be accepted.  And get involved in jokes yourself!  A fun workplace is lead by those at the helm. 

An atmosphere of fun does not have to stop at jokes.  Have fancy dress days, fundraising activities, office decoration competitions, etc, to maintain a relaxed and productive culture.

The office joke isn't dead; it just needs to be handled better!!

So, were any lessons learnt that have been put into practice this time round?

Technology is such now that working from home is possible.  Smartphones and high speed internet have allowed us to always be connected, so why should snow put a stop to this? 

Many employees will use the opportunity of some snow on the roads to avoid the workplace.  But, does thatworkplace do anything to understand why these people really don't want to come into work?  Are engagement practices in place to maintain commitment and avoid small excuses for absenteeism?

Are you doing enough to make sure work continues when the snow falls?

This article from People Management discusses the impact on businesses: Businesses Count Cost of Snow Absence

Most organisations have restrictions on social media sites.  However, the future of communication is through these platforms.  Those organisations that are using these now to engage with their employees will be well ahead of the game.  Plus, encouraging social media use within organisations will also rise the external profile of the organisation.  As more and more of your employees fill their bios with the great places they work, and their tweets with success they've had during the working day, your profile will be raised all over the world, not only atrracting customers but also great candidates.

With the rise of the smartphone, banning social media on work PCs does not result in no access to these platforms.  So, why not embrace social media and use it to your advantage?

Click here for an article by Personnel Today about the rise of social media in business communications.

The following comments relating to employee surveys were posted on Twitter in the last couple of weeks:

"Employee survey includes questions about age, gender, ethnicity, place of birth and job title. Confidential? Relevant? I plan on lying!"

Do not include a large number of demographics in your survey as this will lead to lack of anonymity and, therefore, reduced response rate and honesty of response. Ask limited demographics and don't ask them at all unless they have an impact on the actions you will implement from the survey results.

"Just completed the employee survey, never ticked "strongly disagree" so much in all my life!"

Imagine if these negative views about your company were being broadcast across the net?!  Not great publicity.  Make sure actions are taken, reviewed and evaluated from your employee survey results to improve positive responses.

"Just did an "anonymous" employee survey about how I feel bout the company while management walked around looking at our sheets"

This is shocking practice.  It firstly takes away any anonymity and secondly shows that management have something to fear from the results.  Ensure your employee survey is kept confidential.  Running surveys online helps employees feel more confident about the anonymity of the survey and allows them to complete it in their own time.

"I've just wasted 30 minutes of my life completing a staff survey for the #nhs"

Avoid these negative views by ensuring action is taken from all surveys and staff are kept aware at all opportunities of how the survey will result in an improved working environment for them.  Don't make promises you can't keep.  Commit to action and implement it!

And here are some examples of good employee survey tweets and how some companies have used Twitter to promote completion:

"There's still another week for staff to fill in their staff survey - you'll find the link on the staff intranet. We need your feedback – NHS Lothian"

"Staff survey now 90% which is great. Creative came through with 87%, Prod now lowest with 71%, guess they're not on twitter?"

"Staff have now got an extra week to fill in their staff survey - the closing date is now 12 Nov. Click on the link on the intranet."

What are your employees saying about your employee survey?  How are you making sure you manage the process correctly?

Those companies flourishing during the downturn, are the ones who are standing up asking "what can we do to overcome this?".  "How can we flourish where our competitors flounder?".  "What opportunities does the downturn open up for us?".

One of the best approaches of getting through this downturn with heads and profits high, is by focusing on your staff.  While many people in other organisations are faced with lack of security, job losses, pay cuts and recruitment freezes, you can use this to your advantage.  It is how you handle your people during the difficult times that will determine their levels of employee engagement.  If you can drive their performance, they'll drive performance for you!

Have a read of the following article published in People Management today, that highlights how 'Engagement Dip During Change Can Be Avoided".

I blogged the other day about employers engaging with both employees and customers through social media and have just come across the following article in Personnel Today.

HR departments really need to be utilising the fantastic tool that is social media.  Have a read of the article and let's hope to see a revolution in the way companies engage with both current and future employees.

http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2010/10/27/56807/a-dummies-guide-to-social-media-for-hr.html

The problem?  Only time will tell.  But, this is no excuse to not be prepared now for the future.

Management need to be maintaining constant communication with employees, discussing how the cuts are going to affect their organisation.  They need to reassure if they can guarantee no job losses.  And, if they can't guarantee this, they need to create open forums with employees about how redundancy can be avoided. 

If the cuts haven't affected your organisation, and you are in the fortunate position to be recruiting people, don't discount public sector workers for your private organisation.  The skills are very much transferrable and you should always be recruiting for behaviours over skills.  You are essentially given a blank canvass on which to paint the way your organisation works.  Don't underestimate how powerful this can be.

This is according to research by recruitment consultants Badenoch & Clark, which also found that workers in local government were the most concerned that their skills would not help them get a job in the private sector.

The findings follow last week's announcement in the Comprehensive Spending Review that 490,000 public sector jobs are likely to be cut.

A recent survey by recruitment consultants Hays found that employers have a similar view, with 90% of private sector firms not believing that public sector experience is valuable when hiring.

Nicola Linkleter, head of public sector recruitment at Badenoch & Clark, said: "This research highlights that the transition from the public sector to the private sector, for the 500,000 people expected to lose their jobs, may not be as easy as some have claimed.

"Not only must we question whether the private sector can pick up the slack in terms of volume, but there are clearly issues around how much support the public sector workers will require to make the move."

Unsurprisingly, half of public sector workers believed that the results of the Spending Review would have a negative effect on staff retention and 57% said they are likely to move on from their current job in the near future.

Yet, 44% of public sector workers felt that they would not need to retrain to move to private companies and the same amount said they hoped to remain in the public sector for life.

Badenoch & Clark surveyed 1001 public sector workers across local government, central government, housing and charities sectors and the NHS.

Source: Personnel Today Online

Engagement is huge for businesses. Those who engage their employees have been found through extensive research to be more profitable. And it is most definitely the case that customer engagement will increase profit share too.

So, what does engagement mean? Well, think about what it means when you become engaged to be married. You are giving someone your trust, commitment, promise, and future. Is this any different in terms of employee and customer engagement?

You certainly want your employees trust, commitment and promise to give at least a proportion of their future to you. Similarly with your customers, you need to gain their trust in you, create commitment so they choose you over your competitors, and promise that you will deliver exactly what is expected. So what about the future? It is always going to be easier to sell to those customers who have already bought from you than to find new customers, so you are definitely looking to keep hold of this customer into the future.

Sounds so simple – engage your employees and engage your customers and profits will flourish. So, how can this be achieved? Social media is definitely a tool that can help!

Engage with your customers through social media. Take interest in their tweets (especially if these relate to the service you have provided for them), respond to their needs, create relationships and engage.

And, as for your employees, well funnily enough they are on social media too! So many businesses block these tools as they do not want employees to be procrastinating during the working day. How about using them to engage with your employees? Get discussions going online, open forums and closed groups will allow your employees to come together as a team online.

So, come on then! LET’S GET ENGAGED!

A report, "Sectoral and regional impact of the fiscal squeeze" by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), predicts that job losses caused by public sector spending cuts, including resulting losses in the private sector, will amount to around 3.4% of total employment in the UK in 2014/15.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, is expected to announce significant cuts to public sector spending in the Comprehensive Spending Review on 20 October.

However, John Hawksworth, chief economist at PwC, commented that the increased flexibility in the labour market, caused by employees working less hours or for lower wages, could lead to fewer job losses. He added that during budget cuts in the 1990s, there was a net rise of around 1.2 million in private sector employment.

"Although the recovery may not be as strong this time as in the 1990s, we would expect at least some rise in private sector employment over the next five years despite the fiscal squeeze, bearing in mind that this squeeze should allow interest rates to remain lower for longer," said Hawksworth.

Unions have called on the Government to "rethink" the planned cuts in light of the PwC's findings.

David Prentis, Unison general secretary, responded: "The Government must rethink its ideological obsession with cutting public spending fast and deep. There is an alternative that includes targeting the bankers who caused the recession, and the tax dodgers, rather than ordinary working people."

Source: Personnel Today Online

Source: People Management Online

The study developed an intervention that targeted more than 1,300 employees from 44 worksites within five organisations, including the local county council.

Half of the worksites were randomly assigned to receive the intervention, and half to receive a leaflet that raised the awareness of a healthy lifestyle.

At the start of the study, participants were given a health check to measure their blood pressure, body mass index and body fat.

Each participant was asked how they felt about physical activity, how much physical activity they carried out, how satisfied they were with their job and how many days they had lost to sickness.

The intervention was run for three months, carried out by physical activity "champions" within each workplace, with leaflets, self-monitoring tools, team challenges and posters working to keep people engaged in their physical activity.

At the end of the study the participants reported how much physical activity they had done. The health checks were repeated 12 months after the start of the study.

While the researchers found no significant improvement in the reported levels of physical activity, those who took part in the physical activity intervention had improved blood pressure and resting heart rate readings at the end of the study.

Dr Rebecca Lawton, lead researcher from the university's Institute of Psychological Sciences, said: "An interesting point was that we did find significant increases in physical activity among council workers. We collected data on how well the intervention was delivered and it seems that in the county council the facilitators did a great job of working through the intervention with their teams."

A pedometer-based intervention is set to be tested and the team plans to look at how social networks can influence health behaviour. The study was supported by a £300,000 grant from the Bupa Foundation.

Source: Personnel Today Online

The XpertHR housing sector salary survey found that basic pay rose by 1.4% in the 12 months to July, a slow down on last year when it rose by 3.4%.

Personnel Today reported in 2009 that housing associations predicted rises in basic pay would fall to 1.2% this year due to economic pressures.

The survey also found that total earnings, which include bonuses and location allowances, increased by just 0.9% in the housing sector, compared with 3.9% in 2009.

Mark Crail, head of salary surveys for XpertHR, said that last year's survey found pay rises had remained buoyant in the previous 12 months, mostly because pay rises had already been agreed before the worst effects of the recession hit the sector.

"People are beginning to feel the impact of the country's economic problems in their pockets. Across the economy as a whole it looks as though the average pay rise will be in the region of 2% in 2011. It is too early to be certain, but it looks as though the social housing sector will struggle to keep up with this," he said.

The survey included data on 8,463 employees in 25 housing associations and is based on anonymised payroll data.

Souce: Personnel Today Online

Despite the drop in resignations, it was still the most common reason for employees in the 2010 report leaving their jobs, with 36 workers resigning per company. This compares with 72 workers resigning per employer in 2007.

Fewer employees opted for retirement this year, with an average of five employees per organisation taking retirement in 2010, compared with 10 three years ago.

Charlotte Wolff, XpertHR editor, commented: "These findings echo those of our 2010 survey on labour turnover rates, which found that employee resignations dropped from an average of 13.5% in 2008 to 12% in 2009. In a tight labour market this does not come as a surprise, but it is interesting to see that, alongside this, fewer employees are chosing to take retirement."

However, the number of employees leaving due to redundancies or reaching the end of their fixed-term contracts rose in the last three years.

She added: "[Fixed-term contract termination] is arguably an easier way for employers to cut back on staff numbers and employment costs during difficult times."

The research found that the most common length of notice period for resignation was one month. For redundancies, organisations were most likely to base the notice period on the statutory minimum.

Source: Personnel Today Online

Source: People Management Online

Source: People Management Online

Nearly half (48%) of employers thought that their organisations did not use return-to-work interviews consistently and many blamed this failure on the shortcomings of line management.

Rachel Suff, author of the report, said: "Some of the problems relating to line managers' competence in carrying out return-to-work interviews are surmountable if employers are able to offer effective training."

The majority (94%) of employers said they conducted return-to-work interviews with employees who had been off sick, and more than two-thirds (68%) reported that their organisations' absence rates had fallen as a result.

The report also found that many companies did not use different approaches for different types of absences. Four in five employers used the same procedures for conducting return-to-work interviews whether the absence was long-term or short-term, and more than three-quarters did so when the employee had been absent due to a disability.

According to XpertHR guidance, employers should distinguish between sickness absence and disability-related leave in relation to return-to-work interviews and any disciplinary consequences.

Suff added: "It may be better for an employer to agree with each employee who has a disability what is relevant. This means an individual with a known condition, who is diligent at all other times, need not be subjected to repeat return-to-work interviews if they are not necessary."

The 2010 XpertHR survey on return-to-work interviews looked at 166 organisations.

Source: Personnel Today Online

The World's Most Attractive Employers 2010, published by employer branding company Universum, is a global talent attraction index, based on responses from nearly 130,000 job hunters with a business or engineering background in the world's 12 largest economies: the US, Japan, China, Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Brazil, Spain, Canada, Russia and India.

In the business category, Google managed to stave off continuing pressure from the "big four" professional services firms - KPMG, Ernst & Young, PwC and Deloitte - which ranked second to fifth respectively. But while KPMG climbed to number two from eight last year, PwC dropped a couple of places from last year's second position.

Two banking giants saw their rankings drop this year, with JP Morgan falling from number seven to nine and Goldman Sachs dropping from four to 10.

Proctor & Gamble at six, Microsoft at seven and Coca Cola at eight completed the business top 10.

In the engineering category, however, IT-sector companies continue to dominate with the top three employers - Google, Microsoft, and IBM - maintaining their positions from last year.

"We're witnessing the auditing firms and FMCG companies reconquering their talent group after a brief love-affair with the IT industry", said Michal Kalinowski, Universum's CEO.

Lovisa Öhnell, Universum's research and consulting director, said: "Firms in the professional services sector need to attract top talent to be successful; the auditing firms are aware of the challenges and spend a lot of resources in talent attraction and employer branding."

Source: Personnel Today Online

This is the highest proportion of wealthy individuals out of 20 developed global economies surveyed by Barclays Wealth.

Barclays said the number of so-called "nevertirees" is set to continue to rise as more and more people shun the traditional concept of retirement.

The UK government wants people to work longer to fund their retirement.

It is planning to scrap the default retirement age of 65 from October 2011.

Currently, an employer can force an employee to retire at the age of 65 without paying any compensation.

'Different attitude'

The Barclays survey found that 60% of UK high net worth individuals - which it defined as those having more than £1m in investable assets - do not want to retire, but carry on working as long as they are able.

This compares with 54% in the US, 46% in Japan, 44% in Spain and 34% in Switzerland.

Around 70% of respondents under the age of 45 said they would always be involved in some form of work.

"Whilst in previous generations there have always been an energetic few with the health and drive [to keep working], many looked to create their wealth early on in life with a view to enjoying it whey they retired," said Greg Davies at Barclays Wealth.

"This report reflects a different attitude, with wealthy individuals wanting to continue to challenge themselves well beyond the traditional retirement age."

The Barclays survey was conducted among more than 2,000 wealthy individuals across Europe, North and South America, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.

Source: BBC News Online

Despite the recent growth in homeworking, official statistics show that there is still "huge untapped potential" across the workforce, with 4.5 million employees saying that they want to work from home on a regular basis but are not being allowed to do so, the union body said.

While not all workers want to work from home, and many jobs require staff to be at a specific workplace, there are still millions of people and thousands of businesses that could benefit from more flexible working patterns if they took the chance, according to TUC general secretary Brendan Barber: "Working from home is growing in popularity but millions of staff are still unable to try it out thanks to over-controlling employers," he said.

"Too many workers are wasting their time making journeys they don't need to, clogging our transport networks during the rush hour and adding to their carbon footprint unnecessarily, while companies are losing out on the cost and productivity benefits of homeworking. Surely we can be a lot smarter than that."

To mark today's "National Work From Home Day", organised by WorkWise UK, the TUC is offering five reasons why employers can benefit from homeworking:

Better staff recruitment and retention Homeworking can widen the recruitment pool by attracting people who have traditionally struggled to find work, such as single parents and those with disabilities. Improved motivation and productivity Employees are more likely to have high morale where employers are seen to take account of their needs. Employers as diverse as the Nationwide building society and the Ministry of Defence are reporting productivity gains achieved by homeworking. Improving the quality and reputation of the service Good employment practices can enhance the reputation of businesses. Homeworking and flexible working can extend the hours when businesses are in touch with customers. Reduction of sickness absence and travel costs Not working in an office environment can reduce exposure to colds, flu and other contagious diseases. Cutting out the commute can reduce stress. Infrastructure cost savings Homeworking can save on car parking space, office rent and running costs. BT saves £2.2 million per year through homeworking and flexible working, whilst Suffolk County Council was able to cut the size of its new central services office block by one-third by using these practices.

Source: Personnel Today Online

The Body and Soul report, from the Work Foundation, said that employers and health providers often tackle either physical or mental health problems rather than looking at individuals holistically.

Researchers said that a “silo approach” to staff health meant that the relationship between – and impact of – health conditions, for example back pain and depression, was completely missing from the health at work debate. They said that this was a mistake.

The report highlighted research revealing that it is “common” for workers to have more than one health condition or “co-morbidity”, for example, diabetes and anxiety.

Workers with co-morbidity often have higher absence rates as well as an increased number of days when they arrive late or leave early because of illness.

Researchers also found that the rate of mental health problems is higher among people with a chronic physical condition. For example, a worker with a bad back could find that this provokes a “co-occurring” condition, such as depression.

The report identified a range of prevention and intervention activities for employers, including increasing physical activity, improving early identification and intervention and providing support for people with chronic health issues. It also called for the stigma around mental health to be tackled by employers.

The report said: “These interventions should be particularly geared to work outcomes and include promoting a good work environment.”

Commenting at the launch of the report at the Liberal Democrat annual conference, Louise Aston, business action on health director at Business in the Community, said that most of the businesses she had spoken to used reactive tactics and dealt with employee ill health via the “three silos” of occupational health, health and safety and HR.

She said that until the business benefits of improved productivity were recognised, it would be “difficult to get board room buy-in” to shift to a more integrated approach.

Lord German, co-chair of the Lib Dem work and pensions policy committee, said: “We should support companies in how they give support and advice to employees with mental conditions. Most employers are confused about how to handle this. We need to strengthen the support that we give to companies.”

Source: People Management Online

Last week, Personnel Today reported that Central Manchester University Hospitals Trust was introducing the new policy, which will also apply to staff who have had four separate sickness absences, as part of measures aimed at saving £120 million by 2014.

The announcement provoked an angry reaction from health service union Unison, who threatened legal action if the trust refused a pay rise to any worker.

But, commenting on Personnel Today's HR Space forum, member John Picken said: "If an employer fulfils all its obligations to ensure and promote good health at work, isn't it part of the employment contract that employees do all they can to ensure they are fit for work? The trust's proposition is discretionary and does not include those with long-term illnesses or disabilities."

AnnieHR agreed, suggesting that an 18-day limit was more than fair. "Sickness is much lower in places with less generous sick pay schemes and it's time that something is done about this in the NHS," she said.

But LMiller warned that the method being used by the trust "rarely works" when compared to approaches based on the "Bradford factor" (the theory that short, frequent, and unplanned absences are more disruptive than longer absences).

Pausanias was also unconvinced: "I don't think this will work for long because it is discretionary and this will be the scheme's Achilles heel - the union will find more and more deserving cases until almost nobody will be subject to action."

Source: Personnel Today Online

However, the report also found that 23% of staff had up-skilled during the last 18 months as many organisations had put a freeze on new hires.

In addition, the employers surveyed had a mismatched view of what issues were most important to their staff.

Workers ranked the most important factors in their choice of employer as the level of remuneration, training and development, a good career path and flexible working conditions.

In comparison, employers ranked the main factors driving staff to remain at their company as its brand, culture and the benefits package offered.

With a quarter of those employees who are not actively looking for a new job admitting that they would consider changing employers if something attractive came up, Randstad warned that companies "risk losing talented people" if they do not address the "gulf in understanding".

Brian Wilkinson, head of Randstad UK, said: "For many organisations it will be a fine balancing act between investing to hold on to key staff and minimising the overall labour cost by building in more flexible strategies.

"While organisations are focusing on managing the realities of today, they must not lose sight of the long-term trends which point towards skill shortages, particularly as the number of people of working age declines and the population ages."

The World of Work report 2010 was compiled using data from several studies by Randstad, including the Workmonitor Mobility Index which surveyed 800 workers in the UK.

Source: Personnel Today Online

Source: People Management Online

The call came after a pan-European survey of more than 7,500 workers, by consultancy Aon Consulting, revealed than nearly half (47%) of the 1,000 UK respondents were planning on looking for a new job before the end of the year.

The Irish were the only workforce more likely to want to swap jobs (49.4%) than the British. Appetite for job hunting was significantly less across the rest of Europe, with Norwegian workers closest behind the UK at 36.4% with the desire to change employer. Job satisfaction appears to be highest in the Netherlands and Belgium, with relatively low numbers (17.4% and 17.5% respectively) reporting they would start job-hunting this year.

The UK research also revealed that men (48%) are marginally more likely than women (47%) to look for a new job; 18-24 year olds are most likely to seek a move (53%); while older generations are happier to sit tight.

The survey also highlighted some marked differences between sectors, with more than half (54%) of those working in engineering expecting to actively start looking for a new job while just 21% of those working in logistics indicated that they were likely to pursue new opportunities by the end of the year.

Peter Abelskamp, executive director of health and benefits for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Aon Consulting, said the austerity measures taken by employers to counter the recession have created discontent among employees, meaning the risk of of losing key personnel was "definitely very real".

"This could seriously undermine an organisation's competitive position once the recovery takes hold," he said. "Without doubt, if you consider an employee to be valuable, the chances are that your competitors will too. Now is an ideal time to rally the troops and incentivise talented personnel by taking a strategic look at their overall remuneration package. Possibilities include the introduction or redesign of flexible benefits packages which allow employees to tailor their benefits to their own personal needs, or by extending long term incentive plans to wider groups of employees, including those with the most attractive skills."

Source: Personnel Today Online

The bank had been run as a joint venture with the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) for 12 years because banking and financial services were originally a new market for the retailer.

But the situation changed when the retailer decided to take full ownership at the end of 2008.

Therese Procter, personnel director for retailing services and strategy at Tesco, explained that as a result of the partnership approach many senior staff at Tesco Bank had actually been employed by RBS.

When the business was wholly acquired by Tesco, these staff returned to RBS. This included the executive directors at the bank and many staff with financial expert]]> http://www.personnelsurveys.co.uk/news/tesco-bank-boosts-leadership-with-cultural-change http://www.personnelsurveys.co.uk/news/one-in-twelve-women-sexually-harassed-in-the-workplace Fri, 10 Sep 2010 09:40:00 +0100 One in 12 women has felt sexually harassed in the workplace but less than half have reported it to another member of staff, research has found.

The study, carried out by HR consultancy Reabur, found that women often did not report sexual harassment because they felt it would affect their future career or that they would not be taken seriously.

Sexist comments were a problem for 21% of women and 2% said they had been inappropriately touched by a male collegue at work. Few women told anyone about incidents of inappropriate touching, many of them fearing they may have been seen as overreacting.

Kirsty Burgess, co-managing director of Reabur, said: "It is concerning that many women still feel they will not be taken seriously. I would strongly advise any victim of harassment to report the incident to a manager or trusted collegue. On many occassions these situations can be resolved internally and the resolution makes for a much happier work environment."

Some women also felt they were not respected in the workplace because of their gender. Nearly a quarter (23%) of women felt their male boss would promote a male colleague over them and 12% said they did not think their boss had as much faith in their abilities as they did in their male peers.

Of the 16% of women who said they work in a male dominated environment, a quarter of women (26%) admitted to feeling uncomfortable in certain situations. However, 41% of women who work with men said they prefer it.

The research by Reabur surveyed 1,496 women.

Source: Personnel Today Online

Source: People Management Online

Organisations who have responded to the recession with compulsory redundancies have seen a sharp drop of trust in their senior management while, in contrast, companies that have combated the recession with a more measured response, such as flexible working and budget cuts, have seen trust in their CEOs rise.

The research, published by the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM), also found that levels of trust in senior management in the public sector are lower than those in the private sector for the second year running, and local and national government CEOs have some of the lowest trust levels of any sector. With budget cuts set to affect jobs, pensions and service delivery, levels of trust are likely to sink further in the public sector over the coming months, said the report.

Penny de Valk, chief executive of ILM, said: "It is clear that the actions of senior managers are scrutinised to a far greater extent during times of crisis, and major cuts are often seen as the direct result of poor management - even when this might be beyond their control."

Female bosses, however, have managed to gain higher trust levels despite the recession. Trust in executive women has increased since last year and they are more trusted than their male counterparts. Women scored better than men in understanding employees' roles and were also rated strongly in terms of ability and integrity.

The 2010 Index of Leadership Trust surveyed 5000 employees from private, public and voluntary sectors.

Other key findings include:

Overall trust in CEOs has increased, suggesting that well-led organisations have emerged from the recession with a more trusting workforce Senior managers in the charity sector enjoy the highest levels of trust. Employees believe the most important drivers of trust are ability, integrity and understanding. The size of the organisation has a major impact on trust levels. The greater the distance between employee and line manager, the lower the level of trust.

Source: Personnel Today Online

Souce: People Management Online

The warning by workplace psychologists OPP follows research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development Employee Outlook survey, which found that job satisfaction levels across the UK workforce had fallen by almost a quarter (24%) since spring 2009.

According to the report, job satisfaction was +35 this quarter, compared with +46 in spring 2009.

OPP consultant Catherine Ellwood cautioned that unless businesses do more to manage morale, worker productivity can drop and if the economic climate improves, employees with low morale will be the most likely to leave at the first opportunity.

She said: "If morale is low in a business, employees are more likely to arrive in the morning simply to do the day job. Often the real value of a workforce can be the things they are prepared to do above and beyond the day job, and businesses should do more to ensure that they do not lose this.

"Employees with low morale are also more likely to jump ship when the opportunity presents itself. A low retention rate means a loss of institutional knowledge, as well as the cost involved in training new staff members."

Recommendations include:

• Focusing on the individual and making sure that employees can still see a career path in their day-to-day job.
• Engaging people with decision making - particularly during difficult times, a workforce can feel as though all the decisions are being made somewhere else and "handed down" to them.
• Working on team building - this is particularly important in a business that has experienced redundancies in the recent past. It is important for managers to look at the remaining team and explore how they will work best together.

Souce: Personnel Today Online

The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) study spoke to 1,440 employees, who said they would benefit from more support to deal with work stresses and the effects of the recession.

Nearly a third of respondents (29 per cent) said they wanted more emotional support from their employer to help cope with stress in the workplace, even if the causes are home-related.

A majority of employees (84 per cent) believe that the recession has made it more likely that employees will require counselling. This in turn is driving the call for more work-based support.

The stigma attached to seeking counselling for stress has subsided as 78 per cent of respondents now feel workplace stress is an acceptable reason to receive counselling, compared with just 44 per cent in 2004.

Rick Hughes, BACP workplace lead adviser, said: "The economic downturn is likely to increase presenteeism, which is already costing organisations twice as much as absence.

"The inclination to work more for less will invariably impact negatively on the emotional and psychological health of employees. Providing counselling services for staff will go some way to mitigate these adverse effects."

Employee counselling services would lead to reduced absence, lower presenteeism, enhanced employee satisfaction, reduced accidents and improved productivity, as well as cost benefits, Hughes added.

Source: People Management website

A spokeswoman at the GEO could not rule out that the implementation of the majority of the Equality Act could now be delayed under the new government.

She told Personnel Today: "With the new administration, everything is up in the air and a decision is still being made. It's all being discussed at various levels."

Legal experts said there was no time restriction on a government to implement an Act after it had received Royal Assent.

Rachel Krys, director of the Employers Forum on Age, told Personnel Today she was "very surprised" that the date had been withdrawn.

She said: "At the moment employers are getting ready to operate with the new Act in force. If it gets delayed it would lead to a lot of undoing of work.

"If the government is going to change the timings it needs to tell people sooner rather than later, rather than just removing the date from its website."

But Krys added she would welcome the opportunity to have another debate about clauses relating to religion and beliefs in the Act, and to try to remove the default retirement age through the new equality legislation.

Clio Springer, a senior employment law editor at XpertHR, said: "The coalition government could, potentially, delay the implementation of the Act indefinitely, simply by not making commencement orders. However, text in the factsheet suggests that the government recognises the positive benefits of the Act and, presumably, it will bring it into effect in the not-too-distant future."

The public sector equality duty, socio-economic duty and combined discrimination were due to come into effect in April 2011, while the ban on age discrimination in the provision of goods and services and public functions was due to be implemented in 2012. Gender pay gap reporting was set to be introduced in 2013 if not enough progress had been made voluntarily.

Source: Personnel Today Online

The Chinese government will encourage Chinese businesses to come to Greece to seek investment opportunities," China's vice premier Zhang Dejiang said during a deal-signing ceremony. "I am convinced that Greece can overcome its current economic difficulties."

Athens has been seeking to attract investment from countries with massive sovereign wealth funds – such as China – in an effort to stimulate economic growth.

The agreements signed Tuesday include three between Greek shipping companies and Chinese transport giant Cosco for the construction of seven dry bulk cargo ships, with options for four more, and the chartering of another five.

Telecoms company OTE also signed an agreement with China's Huawei Technologies, while food companies signed four agreements for the export of Greek olive oil to China.

No official figures were immediately available as to how much the deals were worth. Early reports put the value at more than€1bn.

Government incentives and bargain-basement prices have helped catch the eye of Chinese investors, even as others run the other way.

The strategic location of Greece's abundant port facilities make it a gateway for China into the Balkans and Europe.

Mr Zhang, who arrived in Athens on Monday on a four-day visit, met with Greek Deputy Theodore Pangalos and was to meet later with Prime Minister George Papandreou.

China's Transport Minister Li Shenglin and Greece's development minister, Louka Katseli, also signed a cooperation agreement for the shipping sector.

Cosco last year signed a 35-year lease with Greece to expand the two main container terminals at the main Greek port of Piraeus for a guaranteed premium of €3.4bn. It assumed full control of the major container dock last week.

"We have a saying in China, 'construct the eagle's nest and the eagle himself will come'," Wei Jiafu, Cosco chief executive, said in a Greek television interview last week. "We have constructed such a nest in [Greece] to attact such Chinese eagles. This is our contribution to you."

In May, Dimitris Reppas, the Greek transport minister, said that Chinese companies had shown interest in the privatisation of Greece's heavily indebted railway OSE.

The European Union and the International Monetary Fund have given Greece a €110bn bail-out package over three years to tackle the fiscal crisis, which has spilled over into eurozone countries such as Spain and Portugal.

Moody's ratings agency on Monday slashed its sovereign rating for Greece to "junk" status, a move rejected by Athens, which said it had taken significant steps to balance its books.

Source: The Telegraph Online