Absence may be an issue for businesses of all sizes, but it seems SMEs in particular are using flexible working as an ally to offset absence-related issues.

Research from Group Risk Development (GRiD), the industry body for the group risk protection sector (employer-sponsored life assurance, income protection and critical illness benefits), has shown that absence is an issue across the board for businesses of all shapes and sizes, and across all sectors and locations.

However, the research also reveals that smaller businesses – possibly with more limited HR and benefits resources in comparison to big businesses – are taking practical measures to reduce absence, with flexible working policies at the top of the list of measures.

Katharine Moxham, spokesperson for GRiD said: 

“The larger the workforce, the easier it is to offer flexible working but the harder it is to monitor it. If smaller businesses are making this work as an absence-management solution though, there is no reason why larger business couldn’t do the same.”

The research shows that:

• 35% of SMEs with up to 249 employees are actively using flexible working strategies to combat absence compared to just 23% of organisations with over 250 employees.
• Drilling down further into the detail, 38% of micro businesses with between 1 and 9 employees use flexible working as a means to reduce absence.

Moxham continued: 

“It’s encouraging to see small businesses employing creative ways to target absence. There also seems to be a greater propensity among SMEs to arrange return-to-work interviews for similar purposes.”

How does flexible working reduce absence management in practise?

Flexible working is so much more than allowing an employee to work from home when they are feeling under the weather, and following changes in the law in 2014, it is now an option for everyone with at least 26 weeks continuous employment to request it – not just those with children or carer responsibilities. It also includes part-time working, term-time working, job sharing, compressed hours and flexitime. A greater degree of flexibility can increase productivity and reduce burn out, particularly in stressful occupations.

GRiD’s research also highlighted other top-ranked ways that organisations are seeking to control absence levels and improve attendance:

Method	Micro business (1-9 employees) %	SMEs (1-249 employees) %	Big business (250+ employees) %
Flexible working	38	35	23
Health & wellness Promotions	11	13	32
Stress counselling	10	14	23
Return to work interviews	5	17	13
Disciplinaries for unacceptable absence	6	14	15
Employee Assistance Programme	7	11	24

Moxham said: 

“It’s evident in these figures that smaller and larger organisations take a very different approach to managing absence, and whilst that is perhaps to be expected, an area where all could benefit is by better utilising the support that exists for employers, line managers and employees at no extra cost within group risk products.”

 

Group risk as a means to improve absence

GRiD points out that group risk products themselves can cost relatively little compared with the other component parts of an employee benefits package, so are accessible to most businesses. As well as providing financial benefits and additional support to employees, they also have inbuilt services to help keep people at work and group income protection in particular can facilitate a quick return to work – even in cases where no claim is made – which also benefits the employer.

GRiD stresses that the cause of an absence can range from minor issues through to more complex, multi-faceted problems – particularly in the case of mental health issues – and it can be difficult to know when and how to intervene. A robust absence management programme needs to cover all bases to be successful. Although offering flexible working can turn what might have been an absence in to a productive day, it doesn’t pick up the pieces when things go really wrong for a member of staff.

 

Moxham concluded: 

“If you have staff with qualifications in physiotherapy to help employees with musculoskeletal conditions; medical experts to offer a second opinion, psychologists and psychiatrists to support those with mental health conditions; relationship counsellors; and other expert therapists, you may not need the support provided within a group risk policy. However, for organisations that don’t, having support in place via group risk benefits that offers early intervention backed up with a variety of expertise, can make a huge impact to absence levels.”

Bank of England’s chief economist, Andy Haldane, has today warned on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme that artificial intelligence and robots pose a greater threat to long term employment than the industrial revolution.  Haldane said that previous industrial revolutions had “a wrenching and lengthy impact on the jobs market, on the lives and livelihoods of large swathes of society”, but that the fourth Industrial Revolution would have far more impact.

 

Mr Haldane added:

“That hollowing out is going to be potentially on a much greater scale in the future, when we have machines both thinking and doing – replacing both the cognitive and the technical skills of humans.”

The economist said some jobs will be created as a result of the new technology, with roles that focus on human interaction, face-to-face conversation and negotiation becoming more important, but he believes that simple manual jobs will be more at risk.

Haldane is not the only leading figure to express concerns.  Earlier this year, the think tank Centre for London warned that almost one-third of jobs in London have high potential to be carried out by machines within the next 20 years, and today’s comments echo the findings of a PwC report last year which claimed that up to 30% of the UK workforce were potentially under threat.

 

Tara O’Sullivan, CMO at Skillsoft expressed concern that women would be more affected than men by the changes, and called for more employers to offer more education.  Tara says:

“It will be women who bear the brunt of the implementation of these technologies.  According to estimates by the Institute for Spatial Economic Analysis, twice as many women as men will lose their jobs because women are typically working in areas that are most likely to be automated.  We’re talking jobs like cashiers, office and administrative roles.  

“The World Economic Forum also identified that in absolute terms, men will face nearly 4 million job losses and 1.4 million gains, approximately one job gained for every three jobs lost, whereas women will face 3 million job losses and only 0.55 million gains, more than five jobs lost for every job gained.  

“How do we start to fight back?  It’s all about education.  I believe it is the employer’s responsibility to reskill and upskill their employees.  We cannot allow millions of women to be laid off without offering an alternate career.  We need to provide employees with access to learning which they take can take at their own pace, where and when it suits them, and offer them various options of how to learn – including videos, ebooks and audiobooks. 

“I believe in the future the most successful employers will have the best learning solution as part of their offering.  Just like companies talk about their pension, health insurance or vacation policy to attract the right talent, it will become necessary for companies to demonstrate how to grow your skills.”

However, not everyone shares the view that AI is a huge risk.

Tom Dixon, Head of Technology at Hiscox, only last week told Employment News that tech stands to create more jobs than it threatens:

“…Technology has, over the past hundred years, created more jobs than it has destroyed, and there’s no reason to imagine that the next hundred years will be any different.”

HubSpot co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah has previously said he thinks bots and AI will make us better at our jobs and more secure in our careers, not the other way around.

Leslie Willcocks, a professor at the London School of Economics, also told the Huffington Post that the move to greater automation in the workplace could be beneficial for employees, saying that companies that use AI for “monotonous” roles could then place workers in “more interesting” and “rewarding” positions.

As today ends the nervous wait for A level results for thousands of young people across the UK, HR professionals and leaders in the tech industry are expressing concerns about a clear gender gap when it comes to students choosing STEM subjects at A level.

Despite much work being done within the industry to bridge the gender gap in STEM careers, today’s figures show the level of female students choosing STEM subjects has changed very little since 2017, with most subjects showing overwhelming levels of mostly male students:

COMPUTING

2018 Female – 0.3%, Male – 2.5%

2017 Female – 0.2%, Male – 2%

ICT

2018 Female – 0.4%, Male – 1.1%

2017 Females – 0.5%, Male – 1.4%

Physics

2018 Female – 1.9%, Male – 8.1%

2017 Female – 1.7%, Male –7.7%

Mathematics 

2018 Female – 8.6%, Male – 16.2%

2017 Female – 8.2%, Male –15.5%

Mathematics (Further)

2018 Female – 1%, Male – 3.2%

2017 Female – 1%, Male – 3.1%

 

We spoke to STEM leaders to see what they felt would make a difference to the low levels of women choosing STEM-related subjects and what they thought could be done to facilitate change.

 

The impact of skills shortages in STEM subjects

Sarah Atkinson, VP at CA Technologies and board member at techUK said that skills gaps in STEM subjects could compromise our ability to innovate:

“Failure to plug the skills gap is estimated to cost the UK economy £63bn a year, according to the Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee. The industry must work faster to tackle the low uptake of computing related subjects in schools to address the shortage, before it damages our ability to innovate. Independent bodies such as the WISE Campaign and its People Like Me Programme are finding creative ways to connect employers and schools to make a change.

Sarah Lewis, Director & UK Women in Tech Ambassador at Ivanti said:

“Tech in this country is booming, with the UK digital technology sector being worth nearly £184 billion, and turnover of companies within it growing by 4.5% between 2016 and 2017 (compared with the UK GDP which only grew by 1.7%). And yet in spite of this growth we find ourselves increasingly reliant on imported talent – about a fifth (180,000) of technology jobs in London are occupied by EU citizens. And, worryingly, we have already seen a 10% downturn in job applications from the continent, and that’s before Brexit has even happened. Women make up over 50% of our population, but only 17% of those working in technology in the UK are female.”

 

Call for more female role models in STEM careers

Tara O’Sullivan, CMO at Skillsoft, believes that the industry needs more female role models.  She says:

“To be something, you need to see something. These results are reflective of the lack of female role models in technology and STEM as a whole. The field is male dominated. Young girls often feel like they don’t have a place in STEM, so they don’t choose these A-level subjects. To make a change, we need women who have climbed up the STEM ladder to showcase themselves and their career choice. They need to show young girls that working in STEM is cool and rewarding – and that women belong in the industry. Girls need to be inspired to choose IT and other STEM A-levels. With a lack of female role models in STEM, they are only being put off.”

 

Challenging Stereotypes at an earlier age

Gareth John, Managing Director of Estate Agent Software company AgentPro said Universites and employers cannot achieve a diverse workforce if STEM careers are not promoted before girls choose their study subjects:

“Companies like AgentPro work very hard to recruit a balance of male and female software developers, as a diverse team tends to produce better ideas.  However, we can only work with the qualified applicants we receive.  Most STEM careers need a certain level of education, so we need to encourage girls to think of tech careers as a viable option before they choose their subject options – rather than expecting Universities and employers to solve the problem.”  

Joanna Hu, senior data scientist at Exabeam, also called for schools and parents to do more to challenge the stereotypes:

“It’s disappointing to see we are still struggling to balance the STEM divide. Young women should not be afraid of pursuing careers in the tech industry – it’s challenging, exciting and offers tremendous opportunities. The world is changing fast, and we need to change with it. Out-dated stereotypes mean many young women will be missing out on the chance to develop skills in areas they are really passionate about. This needs to change. Schools, parents and universities all need to do more to ensure young women have the support and encouragement to confidently pursue training and careers in STEM fields.”

Victoria Shepherd, Service Excellence Manager at Arqiva believes that even small measures like After School Clubs could make a difference to the way STEM fields are perceived:

“In the engineering industry, the UK has the lowest percentage of female employees in the whole of Europe, coming in at just 11% of the total workforce. Given the ongoing struggle for skills, it is crucial that STEM industries start finding ways to make career paths such as engineering attractive for women.

“Despite the ongoing consumerisation of technology, there is still a perception that the STEM subjects are both boring and more suited to boys.

“I’d love to see schools pushing more alternative career routes/vocational subjects – even if just via after-school clubs – but until this happens the onus needs to fall on businesses to reach out to this audience, and demonstrate that modern day engineering is exciting, innovative and, most importantly, gender inclusive.”

Changing the image of STEM careers

Michelle Roberts, Director at IT managed service provider, Ensono, said that tech needs to lose it’s ‘nerdy’ image:

“When tackling this issue, it is crucial to start from the ground up. School years can have the biggest impact on young women’s choices, with many girls unaware of the career options at their disposal and the common belief that science and technology is for boys. It’s also about changing the perception of STEM careers themselves, which stereotypes often portray as ‘nerdy’ or lonely occupations. STEM demands creativity, imagination, and inventiveness – the very same qualities that attract girls to liberal arts subjects. Unfortunately, this message isn’t commonly acknowledged, and most young girls are still unaware of the skills that they can bring to the STEM table.”

Her view was echoed by Award winning black female engineer and author Kerrine Bryan. 

Kerrine has already smashed many glass ceilings to become respected in her field. She was shortlisted in Management Today’s 35 Women Under 35 for notable women in business and, in 2015, she won the Precious Award for outstanding woman in STEM. Kerrine is a volunteer mentor for the Institute of Engineering & Technology (IET) and is an avid STEM Ambassador. It was while she was undertaking talks at various schools across the country for children about engineering and what her job entails that she became inspired to set up her independent publishing house, Butterfly Books.

Kerrine says:

“There are many misconceptions about the profession that starts from a really early age. Many people – including parents, teachers, and therefore children – often think of engineering as a hands-on, manually difficult and dirty job for older white men. I quickly came to realise that if youngsters don’t see people who look like them doing a certain job, then they are less likely to go for it. That might seem like a crude simplification of a larger problem, but it’s certainly a contributing factor to the engineering sector’s diversity issue.” 

 

Change is coming – at Higher Education level

The good news is, however, that changes are happening at University level, despite the disappointing diversity in STEM subjects at A level.

Exasol, provider of a high-performance analytic database, analysed the UCAS data which has just been released, looking in particular at numbers entering STEM degrees, Exasol found that the proportion of women entering STEM subjects has increased slightly from 42.0% in 2013 to 43.4% in 2018, but more importantly that the number of women entering Computing has increased five-fold in five years from 245 in 2013 to 1211 in 2018.

Perhaps even more crucially, overall talent shortages in STEM careers are set to fall, as researchers found:

• More young people than ever are studying STEM subjects, up by 8.9% over five years, and 36.8% in ten years
• The most popular STEM subject, Maths, has increased its examination numbers by 10.9% in five years, and 51% in ten years
• Computing entries have seen the biggest change of the STEM subjects – an increase of 173% in five years – entries in 2018 are almost three times the number in 2013 – up from 3,758 to 10,286

 

Changing STEM higher education course entry requirements

Of course, none of the above will change the fact that, at this moment, far fewer female students have studied STEM subjects than male students at A level, but some universities believe this need not be an issue.

NMiTE (the new specialist engineering university being created in Hereford) is aiming for a 50/50 male/female intake when it opens to students in Sept 2019.

CEO and Engineering professor Elena Rodriguez-Falcon said that changing the entry requirements to STEM courses could make a massive difference:

“Not enough young women study physics or maths, or if they do they choose to do degrees in other subjects such as medicine, because of the perception of our profession. Removing these entry requirements for engineering is a quick win.  The reality is that the maths and physics required during training can be tailored to our course.

“NMITE is a pioneering establishment that will change engineering tuition in the UK and, hopefully, the world for the better. Recruiting more women into engineering will be vital to fill the shortage of UK engineers. We have to accept that the efforts that we have made so far have not been enough to dramatically change the number of women entering engineering disciplines.

“Our goal is to have a gender balance and taking away the requirement to have maths and physics A levels will help to attract talented female candidates to engineering.”

 

The role of apprenticeships

Samantha Burrows, HR Manager at Protolabs says that apprenticeships have played a part in helping them successfully attract more female talent than many within their industry:

“As a leading global digital manufacturer, we need a continuous pipeline of talent to remain competitive. What’s more, we make it one of our main priorities to seek out the best female talent and potential in STEM when sourcing our colleagues. We hit above the industry average for having women in our workforce, with a notable fifteen percent of our staff body being women.

Protolabs is beginning to use a variety of methods to recruit a wealth of diverse new talent, adding measures to ensure graduate hires have high potential and can continually develop their skills. Previously Protolabs hired only entry-level recruits with undergraduate degrees, today apprenticeship programmes are being used more frequently as an alternative route to find and grow talent.”

 

Hope for the future

STEM employers are all facing recruitment challenges and it is clear from speaking to employers than they are passionate about diversity.

Within the industry, the dark days when a man would turn up to a construction site, software development suite or laboratory, speak to the woman in charge and ask to speak to her boss are thankfully over.

However, the stereotypes outside the industry, from society, from parents and from teachers, clearly need to be challenged.

Perhaps the most hopeful factor for the industry is the strong, successful women above who have taken time to contribute to the STEM debate today.  It is stories like theirs which can inspire the next generation – and hopefully inspire parents and teachers to visualise a future without boundaries in science, technology, engineering and mechanics.  I will leave the last word to Chartered Civil Engineer and Seismic Team Leader at Mott MacDonald, Barnali Ghosh:

“While it is heartening to see that the intake for STEM subjects is continuing to increase among A-level students, it is equally frustrating to see the gender imbalance in these choices. Clearly, we need greater focus on female role models and celebrate their outstanding contributions to science at all levels to motivate more girls to embrace STEM subjects. Engineering must also be promoted as an exciting career choice for girls by everyone involved in the sector, as well as the media.”

Aon, the leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions (NYSE:AON), is offering 10 tips to help organisations maximise the use of occupational health (OH) programmes. Generally, employers use occupational health to be responsible and compliant, while also reducing costs.

Aon’s 2018 Benefits and Trends survey found that 96% of employers agree that they have a responsibility to influence employee health, although only 65% access Occupational Health services.

Charles Alberts, head of health management at Aon, said:

“The common denominator for employers using Occupational Health programmes is that they help prevent employees from being absent for health reasons by enabling intervention and then offering support to help them to recovery.

“Yet if OH is used proactively, it helps enhance employee wellbeing, while preventing health issues from occurring in the first place. At the same time, it helps protect employees from harm in the workplace, which avoids litigation and improves corporate image.

“It’s a win-win, because although employers gain from all this, employees are likely to have improved health and have greater protection against work-related illness – while working maintains their earnings and quality of life.”

Aon’s 10 steps to optimise occupational health programmes are:

1. Invest time and energy to understand what your company and employees need. Armed with this, you can find the best provider to align with, understand and support your strategy.
2. Although costs of OH providers differ, so do, for instance, service levels, processes, clinical availability, capability and outcomes. Therefore, rather than focusing on cost, make your partnership decision based on the value that will be delivered to your organisation’s specific needs.
3. Build a close relationship with your OH provider; take time to understand all its service offerings, and use its expertise to support your business and particular employee health issues.
4. Engage with employees who are referred to OH, to dispel any common misconceptions. They may worry that you are trying to get rid of them or to catch them out. Instead, use the opportunity to demonstrate a caring and supportive approach.
5. Use OH proactively – refer employees for an assessment while they are still at work, with the aim of keeping them at work.
6. Provide training to line managers so they understand what OH is and how to get the most out of it. They may also have misconceptions – perhaps that an OH provider is not objective or will make recommendations that are impractical to accommodate.
7. The old adage ‘you get out what you put in’ applies. Carefully craft referrals, make sure all relevant supporting information is included and be clear on what you would like the provider to answer.
8. Involve OH in your health and wellbeing strategy, particularly combining their data with yours to inform wellbeing practices. This will help avoid unhelpful costs or programmes.
9. Invite your OH provider to join meetings with other health-related providers such as Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs), in order to encourage collaboration that improves patient pathways by sharing trends and discussing new ways to tackle health risks.
10. Use OH as a preventative measure to protect employees against workplace hazards. Also be aware of contemporary hazards such as work-related stress, which has risen in prominence and is not confined to any particular industry or market.

Charles Alberts summarised:

“At its core, OH advises employers on the impact that work has on employee health and the impact employee health has on their ability to work. With this knowledge, employers can monitor and manage health risks and provide rehabilitation and return to work strategies -including adjustments for people with health problems or disabilities.

“Ultimately, OH helps to protect people’s health at work through creating healthier workplaces, minimising sickness absence and improving performance.”

AI and rapid advances in technology often get a bad press – but are the hype and fears justified?

Tom Dixon, Head of Technology at Hiscox,  discusses how technology affects the job market, and what we need to be developing to ensure a balanced employment future.  

 

The future of modern work is regularly called into question. With technology progressing at a more rapid pace than ever before in history, people are worried about automation and artificial intelligence (AI) subjugating their careers.

The figures vary; some estimate that 35% of all jobs will be made redundant by advances in tech, others that up to 15m jobs in Britain are vulnerable to robotic replacements[1]. Given the sombre predictions that seem to dominate in the media, it’s unsurprising that 70% of people (according to one study) are concerned about machines doing the job of humans.[2]

But is the future as bleak as some news outlets would have us believe?

The past

Change is disruptive, and it always has been. In the 1800’s, luddites (highly skilled textile workers) smashed weaving machines to protest how technology was edging them out of their own careers. Or rather, to protest how — in a time of economic strife — the elite relied on sub-standard automation to maximise their own profits, to the detriment of workers and consumers.[3]

It’s a story many modern individuals can surely relate to. Who hasn’t given an exasperated sigh and considered taking a blunt, heavy object to a self-service checkout as the cool mechanical voice declares ‘Unexpected item in bagging area,’ ad nauseum?

And yet, supermarkets continue to install these hugely unpopular, automated bores.[4]

The present

However much we may dislike self-service machines, there’s no reason to fret too much over the futures of people who might have otherwise been supermarket cashiers. The job of tending a checkout relies more on soft skills such as patience, empathy and friendliness than extensive training. Just as switchboard operators and video store clerks before them turned their people skills to other professions, so too the supermarket cashier will find a place for their talents.

Employees won’t just be able to take similar roles in different careers — technology has, over the past hundred years, created more jobs than it has destroyed, and there’s no reason to imagine that the next hundred years will be any different.

As this interactive job timeline illustrates, while some jobs have become obsolete, advances in tech have initiated whole new career paths. Where were User Experience Designers before the launch of Mosaic in 1993? Or Cyber Security Experts before ‘Brian’, the first PC Virus, kicked off a new age of cyber-crime in 1986? And it’s not just jobs involved in the building and maintenance of computers that have benefited.

The future

The jobs that are passed off to our mechanical counterparts are often ‘hard, dull and dangerous’ a recent review by Deloitte concluded.[5] Professions reliant on muscle power — such as cleaners, miners and domestic servants — have declined in the last twenty years, whereas ‘caring’ professions (think teachers, welfare workers and assistants) have grown by several hundred percent.

This offers an optimistic view of the future of employment. Yes, there will be advanced roles for the technologically literate, but as hard labour is increasingly delegated to machines, it leaves humans with the opportunity to put resources into improving our society.

Developing professions that utilise the profoundly human characteristics of compassion, empathy and community (while allowing self-service checkout machines to handle the laborious task of scanning goods, for example) will only benefit our society.

The ‘soft-skills’ that AI simply cannot replicate are our greatest asset. But, we must learn from the lessons of the past. It’s no good replacing human workers with mechanical until we make provisions for the retraining and re-employing of the people who stand to lose out.

As technology progresses ever faster, its down to businesses, governments and training bodies to ensure that machines are used to enable, rather than replace us.

 

 

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/19/robots-could-take-4m-private-sector-jobs-within-10-years

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/04/robots-artificial-intelligence-machines-us-survey

[3] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-the-luddites-really-fought-against-264412/

[4] https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/youre-going-to-use-that-self-checkout-machine-whether-you-like-it-or-not_us_5b05ada4e4b05f0fc84428a5

[5] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/aug/17/technology-created-more-jobs-than-destroyed-140-years-data-census

Guest article from Sage People

Ever wondered what it would be like to swap sexes in the workplace?

That’s exactly what two employees did when one of the male employees inadvertently used his female colleague’s signature on emails from a mailbox that they shared.

In the experiment, the two decided to keep up the exchange for two weeks. They found that whilst he struggled to gain respect from clients, she breezed through, able to complete tasks much more quickly as a result.

In the words of her colleague she swapped places with:

‘By the time she could get clients to accept that she knew what she was doing, I could get halfway through another client. For me, this was shocking. For her, she was used to it. She just figured it was part of her job.’

Data for western countries show the one of the most important explanations for the gender pay gap today is differences in how much time is spent on the job, bias in pay negotiation and negative stereotypes regarding women in the workplace.

There’s a lot that companies can do to rectify this. Not only is it the right thing to do, but eliminating gender bias is vital to attract and keep top talent. In fact, companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15% more likely to outperform their competitors financially.

So, here are ten steps to take to help eliminate gender bias in your company.

 

1. Be transparent

Report on your gender statistics transparently. This is the law for companies over a certain size in the UK.

Acompany it with a clear action plan on the steps you are taking as an employer to close the gender pay gap, with clear targets and milestones.

Communicate this openly and honestly with your workforce, explaining the tangible progress you plan to make.

 

2. Support women into more senior roles

Accenture, Barclays, Credit Suisse UK and KPMG have all set gender targets, broken down by business lines and functions. They have clearly defined interim milestones and deadlines, so that they can continually measure themselves against their targets.

Furthermore, managers and decision makers are held responsible and accountable for meeting those targets.

 

3. Implement gender neutral recruitment processes

Carefully word your job adverts. Research shows that adjectives like ‘competitive’ and ‘determined’ put off women. On the other hand, words like ‘collaborative’ and ‘cooperative’ tend to attract more women than men.

Standardize interviews, anonymize CVs and use blind evaluation processes.

Unilever and Vodafone have found that blind evaluation procedures — including work sample tests and neuroscientific tests of an applicant’s aptitude and skills — have helped them recruit from more diverse backgrounds.

 

4. Review salaries and standardize pay

Frequently review salaries for parity between genders, races and other areas where diversity is a priority.

When recruiting, set the pay range offered on years’ experience with some leeway for special achievements, not on how well the candidate negotiated their last pay package.

 

5. Provide training on unconscious bias

Educate employees about their own unconscious bias. Although this does not guarantee that attitudes will change, it does help employees to understand their biases and to work towards eliminating them.

 

6. Have a clear policy on discrimination

Create a clear, unbiased, non-retaliatory discrimination policy that ensures employees have a proper way to comment or report on inappropriate treatment in the workplace. Make sure everyone knows and understands the policy. Implement severe penalties for sexual discrimination and harassment.

A Unilever study found that women and men struggle to acknowledge gender discrimination and inappropriate behavior (most likely sexual harassment) in the workplace. And infact 67% of women said they feel pressured to get over inappropriate action. And most women (64%) and slightly more than half of men (55%) said that men don’t confront each other when witnessing this behavior.

 

7. Provide flexible working and de-stigmatize shared parental leave

Shift your company mindset to assessing workers performance on their delivery and achievements rather than time spent in the office. This not only benefits working mums but dads too, those caring for elderly parents and everyone in general.

Even millennials, perceived to have fewer responsibilities at home, are increasingly valuing and looking for flexible working. Telstra, the Australian telecoms firm, has made flexible work the default option.

In the UK, parents can share up to 50 week of leave, and up to 37 weeks of pay between them. Ensure your employees are aware of the policy, including dads.

 

8. Diversify the board

Set targets for gender diversity on your board and look beyond your existing talent pool.

A growing number of companies, including Tyson, Republic Services, Foot Locker, and Best Buy, are eschewing traditional board candidates—retired chief executive officers, who are predominantly older white men—and opting for diverse members, many of them first-timers with no experience.

In 2017, 45% of appointees to the boards of S&P 500 companies were novice directors, and last year was also the first time a majority of the incoming directors were women or minority candidates.

 

9. Ensure managers are actively encouraging women to progess

Make sure that female employees are applying for promotions and asking for pay rises.

At KPMG, when a promotion is advertised, line managers are encouraged to check whether their high potential female colleagues have applied and if not ask why. Martin Blackburn, People Director at KPMG UK explains: ‘Where the men would apply for a role if they had 80% of the [required] skills, women would think they were missing 20% and not bother’.

 

10. Promote a culture of meritocracy

Promote a culture where great ideas come from all levels, genders and races and all voices are welcome and respected around the table.

When President Obama took office, two-thirds of his top aides were men. Women had to elbow their way into important meetings. And when they got in, their voices were sometimes ignored. So, female staffers adopted a meeting strategy they called ‘amplification’. When a woman made a point, other women would repeat it, giving credit to her. This forced the men in the room to recognize the contribution — and denied them the chance to claim the idea as their own. It’s no surprise then that during Obama’s second term, women gained parity with men in the president’s inner circle.

 

Staggering statistics demonstrating the shocking impact of gender bias in the workplace

Moving at the current pace, the global gender pay gap will take 100 years to close.

Globally, women make up just 22% of ministerial and parliamentary roles. They take up just 15% of all board seats. And, a gobsmaking 76% of people globally tend to think of men as better suited for careers and women better suited as homemakers.

Our new infographic on the impact of gender bias in the workplace summarises the data, and what it means.

Companies shouldn’t be simply waiting for change; they can be the change they wish to see and play a vital role in eliminating gender bias in the workplace today.

 

Five people die every day on UK roads and around 60 people are seriously injured according to road safety charity Brake, andRedArc believes insurers could be the key in providing victims and their families with emotional support after an accident.

Emotional support lacking

In RedArc’s experience, those involved in road traffic accidents are physically well cared for by the NHS but the psychological impact of an incident can often be overlooked. The after-effects can be felt by those injured in the collision, their families, as well as drivers who may have caused the incident, where the aftermath of a road crash can be devastating.

People can also experience trauma following a minor accident even if they weren’t injured or driving the car at the time. They may have witnessed the incident, and the stress that this can cause should not be underestimated.

Christine Husbands, managing director of RedArc said:

“Whilst the focus is initially on the physical recovery from a road traffic accident, the emotional aspect is rarely the priority but if ignored, the consequences can impact greatly on all areas of daily life.

“Insurers really are in a prime position to support the victim and their family at this point. Motor insurance policyholders will of course be in touch with their provider but other insurers, such as home, travel, life, critical illness and almost all other types of cover, can also add value by providing independent third-party support even though a claim may not be made.

“A financial payout will undoubtedly give immediate relief for the policyholder and their family but providing emotional support not only helps the individual but also helps the insurer differentiate themselves in a competitive market by building goodwill and loyalty from those involved in treatment.”

In the most comprehensive of offerings, the policyholder and their family do not even need to make a claim but can access support directly.

Emotional journey

RedArc Nurses find that the effects of an accident can vary greatly, and it’s quite normal to feel a number of different emotions:

• Initially the most overpowering feeling is shock, which can be particularly intense if the crash has resulted in life-changing injuries or if someone has died.
• Stress and anxiety can follow once the initial shock has subsided, and it is quite common for people to worry about the safety of themselves or loved ones, not only on the road but also in general. Sometimes people become so anxious they can be fearful to leave the house.
• After an initial wave of support, people can begin to feel isolated and find it difficult to share their feelings with those around them, when perhaps the perception is that they should be ‘moving on’. At this point, many find it easier to talk to someone outside the situation who can provide a confidential, professional listening ear.

The stress and anxiety following an accident manifests itself in various ways including problems sleeping, struggling to eat, digestive problems, or even experiencing aches and pains not linked to any injury sustained.

Some people also suffer extreme emotional symptoms including panic attacks, flashbacks to the event, and vivid dreams and nightmares. Such is the intensity of feeling that people can experience suicidal feelings to escape from their emotional distress. Distressing symptoms usually improve over time with support and care, however if symptoms remain extreme, people may be diagnosed as suffering with PTSD or depression.

Third-party emotional support can help people develop tools for understanding, and techniques to cope with these initial stress reactions as well as provide expertise if symptoms persist: specialist psychological services for trauma such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) can be made available and are easily accessible.

Christine Husbands concludes:

“Having access to support from someone who is qualified or experienced in supporting people who have suffered a major traumatic event can make such a difference. Providing this service in a timely manner can be crucial in preventing longer-term difficulties for the policyholder or their family.

“We understand that providing added-value services to a policy needs to be a commercial decision, not simply a feel-good factor for insurers. However, evidence shows that insurers who go beyond expectations can win customer loyalty and trust – both hugely sought after differentiators in financial services.”

Over half of UK businesses expect Brexit to trigger a drop in revenue in 2019 according to new research by MHR Analytics, the specialist provider of business intelligence and analytics solutions.

Detailed planning findings from 200 senior decision makers

The findings are contained in a new report published today entitled ‘Business Insight: The Data Surge’ which contains detailed polling of 200 senior decision-makers in large and medium sized UK businesses about their investment plans.

Majority expect Brexit to have an impact

When asked which factor was most likely to trigger a drop in revenue for 2019, the majority believed it would be Brexit at 57 per cent, followed by reduced customer spending at 22 per cent. Interestingly, 10 per cent of those polled thought the recently implemented General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) would have an impact on revenue. Only seven per cent of respondents said no factor would trigger a drop in revenue.

Tech investment set to rise

The survey found that businesses were boosting investment in key areas to tackle the revenue drop, with IT coming top by a significant margin, suggesting tech spend is of huge importance to companies. 59 per cent of businesses will increase spend on IT in 2019, 48 per cent believe marketing will also see an increase and 46 per cent are planning to boost investment in sales.

96% understand the necessity for data, but one in 10 don’t have a data strategy

When asked about the importance of data, 96 per cent of business chiefs said they understood the importance of data for their company’s future. However, one in 10 businesses are yet to implement big data strategies and less than a third regularly conduct big data projects.

Nick Felton, SVP at MHR Analytics comments:

“It’s clear that businesses are braced for significant turbulence next year and are planning major investment in key areas to power through an anticipated drop in revenues. Despite these fears, companies are adopting a combative approach to this problem, with departments such as IT, marketing and sales all set for a cash injection.”

“With unpredictable market conditions, data management and analytics are critical for helping organisations deliver significant cost savings by enabling accurate decision-making. Despite a potential revenue dip, companies are still planning major investments, of which data management is a good choice in uncertain times.”

“Nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) of the decision makers we surveyed believe their company’s response to big data has been positive, yet only four per cent recognise that managing big data will lead to less administration. Early analysis of these results suggests that a sharper focus on data management and analytics could be advantageous to companies in this constantly changing economic climate.”

A new study carried out among 10,000 employees and 580 employers reveals that most CEOs are aware of the impact that financial stresses can have on their staff.

 

CEOs understand the impact of employee financial stress

Neyber’s DNA of Financial Wellbeing 2018 found that 72% of CEO’s understand the impacts of financial stress on employees and the business, while 51% of company owners and 74% of senior managers also do.

 

Financial stresses and lack of savings on the increase

The report also reveals that employee financial stresses are on the increase, with numbers of employees affected by financial worries rising from 58% to 63%.

Furthermore, those employees with less than one month’s savings have also risen– up from 24% to 32%, and a worrying 14% of employees reveal they have zero savings.

 

Businesses counting the cost of personal financial stress

It appears that these private financial worries are having a severe impact on business.  The study reveals that:

• 35% of employees report financial stress
• 26% of employees have lost sleep
• 20% of employees are suffering from depression
• 10% of employees say they cannot focus at work
• 6% of employees have taken absence from work

All this adds up to a substantial cost for employers to bear. Neyber has calculated that the lost productivity and increased absence and employee turnover associated with financial stress costs UK companies in the region of £120.7 billion every year.

 

Heidi Allan, Head of Employee Wellbeing at Neyber, said:

“Thousands of employees reported how financial worries are impacting them, including 35% who have felt stressed, 33% anxious, 26% lost sleep and 20% depressed.

“With the magnitude of this issue, it’s clear that employers have a vested interest in helping employees manage their money, so each can feel more educated and in control. From my view, there are three key issues; financial stress has a significant impact on productivity and behaviour at work, there is a link between physical, mental and financial health, and billions of pounds are lost each year in absence and employee turnover.”

Jonathan Hollow, Financial Capability, Strategy and Innovation at Money Advice Service, concluded:

“Every employer should care about the findings in this report. A growing body of evidence shows that anxiety about finances leads to poorer mental, physical and social wellbeing, and that this affects attendance and performance at work. When your workforce suffers, your business can suffer too.”

Neyber’s full report – the DNA of financial wellbeing – can be found here.

A unique powerful online solution for booking temporary staff, TempRocket has launched to create a one-stop-shop for hirers, agencies and contractors with the aim of streamlining the recruitment process. 

 

Harnessing the power of online technology, TempRocket simplifies temporary recruitment for all parties involved. The entire hiring process can be completed in seconds and is accessible 24/7 via TempRocket’s online booking dashboard, which can be tailored to individual needs and requirements, making the process of searching for and taking on temporary workers far more efficient and effective. 

 

TempRocket was founded by entrepreneur Andrew Johnston, the man behind a raft of successful businesses including ePayMe, and is supported by co-founder Sarah Johnston and Client Relations Manager Elle-Jo Lane.

 

 “The idea for TempRocket came about two years ago when we started to see a massive disparity between contractors, the agency and the end client working together – there was no seamless activity,” said Andrew Johnston, Founder of TempRocket. “So we set out to build an online booking system to help bridge that gap, and we’ve continued to add new features and capabilities to develop a product that can tick a box for everyone involved in the temporary recruitment process.”

 

TempRocket works via a bidding system, whereby hirers and agencies can compare options and prices, and then make a bid for a contractor, with the option of making a counter bid, accepting or declining an offer, until they find someone who meets their requirements. Developments are already underway for a number of additional features, including an “accumulator”, which shows hirers how much they have saved over time by using the platform.  

 

TempRocket – Key Benefits:

 

For hirers – TempRocket makes the process of searching and booking temporary workers simpler, quicker, more efficient and cost-effective – all at the click of a button. 

 

For agencies – TempRocket’s online system reduces overheads, admin workload, allows for cost-effective expansion, and manages out-of-hours booking confirmations, in real-time.

 

For contractors – TempRocket’s truly unique service allows contractors and freelancers to find and book work across a wide range of sectors within seconds, meaning that workers are fully in control of their schedule without complications. 

 

“TempRocket has been developed purely to fill a gap in the market by providing a simple and more efficient connection between hirers, agencies and contractors,” added Johnston. “We’re not competing with any one of these three entities. If anything, we’re trying to make life easier for the worker, create more business for the agency and make the hiring process simpler for the hirer. As the world becomes more digital, the recruitment sector has been slow to respond, so we want to lead by example, encompass the whole picture and evolve with it. We like to think of TempRocket as recruitment’s answer to property website Rightmove.”