New research from Specsavers Corporate Eyecare shows how employers and employees value eye care as an employee benefit.

Undertaken among over 500 senior decision makers from companies across the UK, the research revealed that 89% of employers believe their employees value eye care as much or more highly than other benefits. It also showed that 88% of employers believe eye care contributes to the overall health and wellbeing of their staff.

Jim Lythgow, director of strategic alliances at Specsavers Corporate Eyecare, said:

‘We are delighted that eye care is being taken so seriously among UK companies and organisations. It would appear that it is viewed as an employee benefit in itself and not just as an obligatory provision for matters like the DSE regulations. Employers are clearly valuing the wider benefits of eye care, appreciating the contribution it makes in helping to maintain and improve employees’ health and wellbeing.’

Eyecare helps more than just eyesight

Indeed, an eye examination can assist with the detection and monitoring of many serious illnesses, including heart disease, diabetes and cancer, as well as more minor ailments such as headaches, tired eyes and migraines.

Despite recognising the value of eyecare, 26% of employers stated they spend less time sourcing and communicating eye care than they do on other benefits.

Jim Lythgow commented:

‘Many employers are likely to see sourcing an eye care supplier as less onerous than the sourcing of providers for some other benefits. This is a positive, making eye care a straightforward benefit to offer employees. However, we would like to see more time given to the communication of eye care. Employers may assume it’s easily understood by their staff, but not all employees will appreciate the extent that it can help to contribute to their overall health and wellbeing and the range of illnesses that can be detected.

‘It’s also important that employers let their staff know that the benefit is offered; while employers may be aware of their obligations, not all employees will know whether they are entitled to an employer-funded eye care benefit.’

For more information on the benefits of eyecare in the workplace, visit www.specsavers.co.uk/corporate.

New research has identified that powerful bosses can become “blind” to gaps in workplace connections between employees.

The research, conducted by academics in the UK, the US and Germany and published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, found that feelings of power reduces the ability to perceive opportunities to link people who are not already connected.

Paradoxically, such powerful people are actually more willing to “broker” such connections if made aware that gaps exist. The gulf revealed by the findings suggests that leaders are not taking full advantage of the connecting opportunity their powerful position presents, and are failing to make connections that can improve the flow of ideas and information, thus helping firms.

Conversely, people who feel less powerful tend to recognise the gaps in organisational networks, but may be less willing to take action because this might be seen as overstepping their role’s boundaries.

From a practical standpoint, therefore, powerful individuals within companies may need to rely on less senior staff to point them to gaps in the network of work relations, and these less powerful individuals may need to prompt their bosses to do introductions and close those gaps, or provide the less powerful individuals the freedom to serve as brokers themselves.

The paper, based on almost 500 U.S. and UK-based workers, is co-authored by Blaine Landis and Martin Kilduff of UCL School of Management, Jochen Menges of Cambridge Judge Business School and WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management, and Gavin Kilduff of New York University.

Shock new research reveals that a majority of hirers feel permanent employment in no longer the default option for most roles, according to leading talent and recruitment events, insight and strategy firm, TALint Partners.

In a survey launched ahead of its talent leaders event, the Tipping Point, the firm found that only 29% of internal hirers and recruiters feel permanent jobs will remain the default option for the workforce in the foreseeable future.

The results of this survey suggest that the pace of growth in the gig economy will rapidly pick up speed. According to current estimates from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) more than half of the workforce works flexibly in some way. Statistics from the Office for National Statistics, have also revealed that almost 15% of the UK population – 4.8 million people – in the UK are self-employed.

Ken Brotherston, Managing Director of TALint Partners and host of the Tipping Point event, believes these figures will accelerate even faster:

“We all know the gig economy is growing rapidly, but a lot of employers have perhaps underestimated just how quickly the demand of candidates for traditional, permanent roles is dropping. The fact that so many internal hirers and recruiters are seeing such a rapid, and seemingly long-term change suggests a need to fundamentally re-think the current approach to perm vs temp roles. For those employers who believe that the ‘status quo’ is maintainable or desirable, these results suggest that they need to learn to be more flexible – and fast.”

“The challenge going forward is how businesses will cope with adapting to this evolution. We’re hoping that by bringing together industry leaders from the likes of APSCo, Adecco’s Group X, Credit Suisse and Manpower Group as part of our Tipping Point event, we can help hirers and recruiters better understand how to create the right environment for success in the future.”

More information on the Tipping Point event in June can be found on the website:
http://tlconevents.com/tippingpoint 

Andy Caldicott, MD of PeopleValue explains why employers won’t achieve better engagement from voluntary benefits unless they learn to communicate them better to staff

It’s no good providing valuable benefits if your staff don’t know about them!

The old adage, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t force it to drink, may resonate with some when it comes to Voluntary Benefits and in particular, discount schemes. However, I would take issue with that. As with almost everything in life, it’s all about how you communicate it.

It is a well proven fact that engaged employees will be more loyal, perform better and generally go that extra mile when you need them to.

According to Government-backed research by Hay Group, people who are motivated and have the necessary skills/equipment to do their jobs effectively are 50% more likely to outperform expectations and 54% less likely to leave their jobs. (https://www.haygroup.com/en/your-challenges/engaging-your-pe…) The same research found a clear link between employee engagement and an increase in competitiveness and business performance.

High value, low cost staff benefits 

Providing a Voluntary Benefits scheme, where staff can take advantage of over 7,000 different offers and discounts to save on their everyday purchases is something that is a low cost for an organisation to provide yet delivers high value to its employees.

The key to getting the most out of your Voluntary Benefits scheme is making sure that your communications about the programme are well targeted. You need to think about the make up of your workforce and ensure you clearly message you are providing something of value to them. Make sure that any specific retailers you highlight are relevant and of broad appeal otherwise you risk disengaging employees if they think “this isn’t for me”.

Tell ‘em it’s coming, tell ‘em it’s here, and then tell ‘em again

How you communicate the benefits also has a huge impact on take-up. Where do your staff go to get information? Not everyone is online, but certainly younger workers (millennials) will be on social media via their mobiles. Older workers may still prefer the company intranet, email, leaflets or posters in the canteen area. A multi-channel approach is typically what’s required. As well as ensuring that you make information easily accessible to all staff, you need to plan your communications. There are numerous studies that say you need a certain number of touchpoints (anything from 6 to 13) before people take action, so just telling staff about the discount scheme when they join the organisation or hiding it in the staff handbook certainly won’t be enough to get them to engage.

Plan internal comms like you plan your marketing

When launching a Voluntary Benefits scheme you need to plan your comms campaign as you would any other marketing campaign. You need to start before the launch, asking staff what benefits/discounts etc they would like, try and get them to contribute. Then you need to tell them it’s coming – make a big thing of it, maybe even hold a launch event. Depending on the demographic of your workforce you may need to consider training, for example, to ensure that they know where and how to access the service, or where to go on the staff intranet/employee hub/portal. Where possible, seek out “scheme champions”; individuals within your organization who are willing to help promote the scheme to their peers. Nothing sells something quite like a recommendation from one of your colleagues or workmates.

Then once launched, don’t just treat it as a box that has been ticked, you need to continually promote the benefit to ensure that staff stay engaged and that new staff are embraced. Each time there is something new, let people know, gather examples of just how much can be saved to whet their appetite.

With PeopleValue Advantage, we have numerous engagement tools built in to the platform and our consultative approach to delivering a tailored and measurable comms plan ensures we work with clients to maximise service usage and deliver the associated return on investment. We continually work to promote the package, helping to build that all important staff engagement.

As the UK starts a new financial year, the latest report  on corporate compliance with section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act makes for sobering reading.

The report, produced by TISCreport.org, found that 50.8% of organisations (9627 out of 18939) that should have complied by now still have no locatable statements. This compares with 50.6% as reported in TISCreport’s interim briefing at Westminster in September 2017 at the halfway point.

What’s more, a unique data sharing alliance with the UK Anti-Slavery Helpline, run by Unseen, has been enabled by the platform’s GOV.UK compatible architecture. With in excess of 0.5 Million UK supplier records in TISCreport, the critical mass in order to drive change through supply chains has been reached. The data sharing alliance is breaking new ground by joining live compliance data sets at the top of supply chains with geographical modern slavery hotspots on the ground.

Andrew Wallis OBE, CEO of Unseen says of the alliance:

“The power of a solidly built register that works with UK Government systems means that our anonymised and redacted data can help companies who subscribe identify where their greatest risks lie, just by sharing their business premises with TISCreport. There is no other register where our data could possibly have this sort of impact.”

Says Jaya Chakrabarti MBE, CEO of TISCreport,

“TISCreport is the only live platform in existence capable of proving non-compliance of individual financial entities. We’ve built our system to enable procurers to quickly check their supply chains for compliance, partial compliance and non-compliance. Just by uploading their suppliers, buyers can keep their supply chains transparent, and they can do this for free.”

TISCreport tracks websites of all those companies and groups known by the system to be over £36M as well as recording voluntary compliance from organisations below the threshold. More critically, the system automatically alerts companies that are overdue that they need to take action where social media or email contact details are available.

The TISCreport dynamic dataset is continually being updated, and there are now 917 UK public bodies within the system. It is a certified open data provider, free to join and enables an in-depth drill down of the data against shared supply chains via private, secure dashboard. Uniquely, beyond the UK, TISCreport interlocks intelligently with related global legislations focussing on supply chain transparency and tackling modern slavery/human trafficking.

Says Stuart Gallemore, CTO of TISCreport,

“We’re worked hard to create a platform to help organisations fight modern slavery collaboratively, compatible with global technology systems. With critical mass reached on the compliance side we are now looking to join things up quickly with intelligence on the ground that can help real victims of exploitation. We’re integrating rapidly now with numerous related data sets that provide even deeper insights for all our members. The Anti-Slavery Helpline team are on the front foot with their approach to data sharing. These are exciting times!”

As a B-Corp social enterprise, TISCreport funds itself through subscription fees and data services from organisations able to afford the £200 annual fee. 50% of the subscription fee goes directly to anti-slavery charity Unseen, which runs the UK Anti-Slavery Helpline.

A business leader from Swansea is this month celebrating 30 years in business with one of the country’s leading high-spec construction and maintenance companies and says he has seen changes both within his company and across the industry over the years.

Managing director of the construction division of The Premier Group, Steve Evans, started with the national fuel engineering specialist in April 1988. He joined the company after completing a successful carpentry apprenticeship and has worked for the firm ever since.

Steve has seen many changes across his 30 year career, not least growth within the construction division.  When Evans joined back in 1988, the company had 4 employees – now there are 80 members of staff.

However, staff numbers are not the only thing to have changed in Evans’ career – he says that the construction and fuel sectors have been constantly evolving.  Over the years, he has had to contend with learning how to run, develop and grow the business within a constantly changing market.

Evans says that identifying and adapting to such changes has been one of the company’s biggest challenges, as well as a personal one:

“There has been a lot of growth and success, but we have also taken quite a few knocks along the way. It is how we have been able to adapt, learn and become better as a team that has made us successful. Without so many good people working with me, we wouldn’t have achieved what we have today. It’s the people I work with that have given me my proudest moments in the business and it’s important to me to be a part of their development.”

When Evans was new to the sector, unleaded fuel was just taking off, and the primary source of income for petrol stations was fuel.  These days, the retail offering is as important as the fuel.  Evans believes a new challenge for the industry is to install sufficient charging points to support fast growth in the demand for electric vehicles.

There is strong ambition for the construction division of The Premier Group to continue to grow. The company has started to undertake more work outside of the petroleum industry in recent years, and has taken on more traditional building and maintenance contracts. The general shortage of construction workers, combined with the company’s experience in a specialist, demanding sector means they are uniquely positioned to deliver the highest levels of safety and quality.  Evans says:

“The business plans to grow more into traditional markets, which we are optimistic about.  We have the advantage of specialist experience from completing large projects with very unique specifications. I look forward to seeing what the future brings as we increase our presence in this market.”

However, for Evans, the thing he is most proud of is the improved standards and increasingly professional perception of the construction industry he has witnessed throughout his career.

Construction, he says, has progressed into a far more professional and safer industry to work in. Builders are no longer perceived as a low paid workforce, and working in construction now offers a desirable, fulfilling career.  Far from being a ‘default option’, roles within the industry are now viewed as highly skilled and very well paid – and the shortage of construction workers means qualified professionals can expect to be in demand throughout their career.

So does Evans have advice for new entrants to the industry?  Evans says:

“I’ve learnt that through hard work you can achieve anything – you just have to work harder at the things you’re not so good at!“

“I feel lucky – I’ve have been with the company for 30 years, and I’ve had the opportunities to progress through the business rather than having to leave to progress.   I’m looking forward to the future.”

 

New research has discovered just how often people outside the financial industries find themselves getting lucky in the bedroom department with those who work in other jobs apparently enjoying up to a whopping 17x love-making sessions per month.

According to the poll, those who are involved in trading/brokers are the least lucky in the bedroom, having just two love-making sessions during the average month.

Whilst only half of Britons believe in luck, those who are not involved in the financial trading industry find themselves getting lucky in love with their partner on average 17 times per month, closely followed by those who are not working in marketing or media. Unfortunately for those who are trading in the financial industry (or trading online from home/office), twice a month is going to have to suffice.

The team at TopTradingPlatforms.co.uk have conducted the research as part of an ongoing study into British attitudes towards luck. 2,499 Britons aged 18 and over, all of whom stated that they were in a committed relationship, were asked about how often they ‘get lucky’ in a variety of ways. The team at TopTradingPlatforms.co.uk have than coupled the data with job profiles and have come up with rather surprising findings.

Initially all respondents were asked ‘Do you believe in luck?’ to which just over half of respondents, 53%, stated that ‘yes’ they do. When asked if they did anything to boost their luck, a third of those (32%) admitted that ‘yes’ there are things that they do, including ‘abiding by superstitions’ (39%) and ‘carrying a good luck charm’ (33%).

All respondents were then asked how often they ‘got lucky’ with their partner, as well as being asked to state what job they had in in order to determine job averages. All of the responses were collated and the results were as follows:

• Not involved in Trading/Financial Industry – 17x (love-making sessions per month)
• Not employed in Media/Marketing – 15x
• Carpenters – 14x
• Civil Servants – 14x
• Travel Industry – 10x
• Police/Army/Firemen – 9x
• Doctors/Nurses – 8x
• Administration – 7x
• Mechanics – 5x
• Modelling – 4x
• Working in Media/Marketing – 4x
• Working in Trading/Financial Industry – 2x

According to the poll, the average love-making session was revealed as 22 minutes, with the most popular times to do so revealed as ‘in the morning after waking up’ (24%), ‘when in bed at night, before going to sleep’ (23%) and ‘usually under the influence of alcohol’ (17%).

Those who confessed that they typically had sexual relations with their partner first thing in the morning were asked why the morning was their preference. ‘It wakes you up for the day’ (39%) and ‘we’re too tired in the evenings’ (36%) were cited as the most common reasons why.

Ethan Rowe, Editor in Chief of TopTradingPlatforms.co.uk, commented:

“Whilst some may be jealous of others for getting lucky in the bedroom more than they do, ultimately sex isn’t the be all and end all of a relationship. There are various factors that make a strong, healthy relationship – but being intimate definitely helps. It is not surprising in a way to see that those who have potentially high income and maybe are expected to have more opportunities have to commit more free/personal time which in return has a negative effect on their ‘volume’ of sex-life. ”

Specsavers Corporate Eyecare has held two health and wellbeing fairs for one of its customers, Registers of Scotland.

Registers of Scotland is the non-ministerial government department responsible for compiling and maintaining 18 public registers. These relate to land, property, and other legal documents. Specsavers provides enhanced eyecare for the public-sector organisation’s screen users and works with the organisation to promote the wider benefits of eyecare to employees.

Dona McLafferty, Corporate Accounts Manager at Specsavers Corporate Eyecare, said:

‘The fact that Registers of Scotland provides enhanced eyecare shows their level of commitment to the wider health and wellbeing of their staff. They don’t simply provide eyecare to comply with the Display Screen Equipment (DSE) regulations, but they very much see the wider health and wellbeing benefits and the importance of promoting these to staff too.’

Eye tests can aid in the detection and monitoring of many serious systemic conditions, such as heart conditions, raised blood pressure, diabetes, risk of stroke, and thyroid problems. It can also help with more minor ailments like headaches, dry eyes and migraine. In this way, eyecare can support wellbeing, morale, engagement, and productivity.

Specsavers Corporate Eyecare visited Registers of Scotland on 26 and 27 February at its sites in Edinburgh and Glasgow, where over 1,000 members of staff are employed.

Billy Harkness, Corporate Director, Registers of Scotland, said:

‘There is a much wider health and wellbeing message relating to eyecare, which goes far beyond the DSE regulations. We are keen to communicate the benefits of eyecare and do so regularly via our internal communications. The eyecare management system from Specsavers also allows us to check that the eVouchers are being redeemed by our employees, so we know they are receiving the care to which they are entitled. The two-day health and wellbeing roadshow is an extension of this commitment and we are delighted that Dona attended with the vision screener which really helps to bring the benefit to life.’

A local Specsavers store staff member was also in attendance at each of the fairs to talk about in-store service, discounts and special offers available to the employees, as well as members of their families.

April is Mental Health Awareness Month – and in recent years, there is far more awareness among employers around what the issues are and how employers can be a vital source of support.

However, it’s still concerning that even where there are provisions in place for improved mental health support, RedArc Nurses has discovered that some employees will still decline help altogether, or at best delay it.

Often, however, a good communication strategy can help.   Christine Husbands, managing director for RedArc says:

“We speak to people from all walks of life and from all backgrounds, and we’ve found that there are a significant number of concerns that employees may have.  Organisations need to address these in order for their mental health support to achieve its full potential.”

Typical employee concerns include:

• Confidentiality – employees worry that if they share their concerns with a third party, be that an insurer, EAP (Employee Assistance Programme), or mental health worker, will eventually be shared with their employer’s HR department.
• Privacy – staff are uneasy about making private phone calls within an office environment, for example to a GP or insurer.  They are also concerned that colleagues may find out if they have to attend appointments within office hours.
• Promotions & Renumeration: employees fear that disclosing mental health issues could mean they are overlooked for future promotions or that disclosing health issues could impact on pay rises and bonuses which would cause financial stress as well as embarrassment and frustration.
• Ability to perform: employees are concerned that their employer may deem them unsuitable to continue in their current role – especially if they are required to drive, carry firearms, use heavy machinery, or be particularly sensitive to others’ situations.
• Split persona: Some employees perceive strongly that they should leave their problems at the office door and split off their home persona from their work persona.  Of course, stress at home or work will have an impact on the other area and most employers understand this.
• Letting down family: Some employees wrongly believe that by acknowledging a mental health issue, they are letting down their family.
• Cost: despite being told that mental health support is offered by their employer, some employees are suspicious that there will be associated costs further down the line – especially if private face-to-face support is recommended.
• Seriousness of condition: Often employees believe they can’t access support unless they have extreme symptoms, and can also be worried about opening a can of worms.

Christine Husbands believes that employers have a duty to clearly communicate that these commonly held beliefs are incorrect, and that employees who raise mental health issues at work will receive compassion and support rather than judgement.  She concludes:

“It’s really important to remember that just because HR professionals and wellbeing experts are making lots of noise about breaking down the taboos of mental health, employees might not feel the same. Millennials may have grown up in a world where they often feel happier to talk about their feelings but the same doesn’t necessarily apply to other generations, different personalities or within specific industries.

“The communication of mental health support needs to not only say ‘we offer it and here’s how to access it’ but it also needs to address these very genuine concerns of real employees. Any mental health condition that is left to fester will ultimately take longer to heal which is then more challenging for both the employee and employer.

“We need to take a pro-active stance and tell employees that there should not be any fear around talking or acting upon mental health issues, and debunk some of these concerns and myths.”