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More questions than answers on the outlook for jobs
Signs of distress are spreading across the economy, with supply bottlenecks, rising energy prices, fuel shortages and looming tax increases throwing the brakes on the UK’s post-lockdown bounce. According to last week’s monthly survey by the Institute of Directors (IoD), business confidence among its members fell off a cliff in September, tumbling from a positive […]
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Too much intensity as job satisfaction ‘levels down’
The job satisfaction “premium” formerly enjoyed by lower-paid employees over higher earners has disappeared, according to new research, with less autonomy and higher workplace intensity blamed for the levelling down in individual fulfilment. In 1992, 73 per cent of lower earners reported high job satisfaction. Among those on larger salaries, the figure was just 59%. […]
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Time to emasculate male-coded job advertisements
Are your job adverts unwittingly discouraging applications from relevant candidates? According to recent research, so-called masculine language such as “individual”, “challenging” and “driven” is putting women off from applying for certain roles. In an analysis of more than 7,500 UK job adverts, hiring platform Applied used a gender score calculator to detect male-coded language as […]
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Home truths about cutting pay for remote workers
As the furore over cutting pay for home-based workers rumbles on, it seems evident that remote working is still viewed in a negative light despite its overall success during lockdown. Google employees in the US are reportedly facing salary cuts of up to 25 per cent if they continue working from home after the pandemic, […]
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Problems with childcare don’t stop at the school gate
It’s often assumed that the acute problems for working parents associated with a lack of childcare largely evaporate when their youngsters reach school age – a myth that anyone who has lived the experience will quickly discredit. A new survey by childcare firm Koru Kids found that nearly half of the 2,000 mothers questioned believe […]
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Time for workers to squeeze the most from shortages
Skills, skills, skills – with the economy rebounding out of lockdown and the exodus of EU workers post-Brexit, employers just can’t get the know-how they need right now. From traditionally lower-wage positions in hospitality and retail through to HGV drivers, construction workers and IT specialists, employers across the spectrum are reporting staff shortages that have left them […]
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Failure to communicate will destroy employee loyalty
Feelings among office employees are mixed, to say the least, when it comes to returning to the workplace. Some relish the idea and others dread it, while the majority fall somewhere in between. With the Scottish Government yet to confirm when the legions of home workers might begin to be repatriated, the only certainty right […]
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Sick pay U-turn creates dilemmas for frontline staff
Even in a world where contact tracing systems work accurately and efficiently – a sphere we definitely don’t occupy at the moment – such schemes are only effective to the extent that people comply with the notice to self-isolate, and it is here where the Government’s recent U-turn on reforms to statutory sick pay (SSP) have created […]
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Four-day week risks further divisions among workers
With workers toiling for longer since the onset of the pandemic – one study has suggested that hours in the UK are up by 25 per cent – the momentum for a shift to a four-day week has gained renewed traction. Skills shortages across an array of sectors might suggest the bargaining power exists to […]
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Time to inject some reality into student recruitment
The lack of work experience opportunities caused by the pandemic has left nearly half of university students feeling unprepared for employment, according to a new survey which found that just 17 per cent had undertaken a work placement in the last year. A poll of 7,000 students and recent alums by graduate careers specialist Prospects […]