Source: Personnel Today

Date: 26 July 2007

Gender equality is still generations away and needs urgent action across all aspects of life to close the stubborn gaps in the next 10 years, the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC)  has warned.

Completing the Revolution, the EOC’s final report before it is absorbed into theCommission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) on 1 October, identifies 22 leading indicators that measure the state of the nation in terms of gender equality.

The indicators show gender gaps across all areas of life, and at the current rate of progress change will be painfully slow. For example:

• The “power gap” for women in Parliament will take almost 200 years to close and it will take up to 65 years to have a more equitable balance of women at the top of FTSE 100 companies.
• The “pensions gap” will take 45 years to equalise: retired women’s income is currently 40% less than men’s.
• The “part-time pay gap” will take 25 years to close and the “full time pay gap” 20 years. Currently, women working part-time earn 38% less per hour than men working full time. Full time female employees earn 17% less per hour than men.
• The “flexible working gap” is unlikely ever to change unless further action is taken. Even though half of working men say they would like to work more flexibly, currently women are much more likely than men (63% more likely) to work flexibly.

The publication of today’s report coincides with the launch of the EOC’s Gender Agenda campaign, which highlights the work left to do on the eve of the transfer to the CEHR.

Jenny Watson, EOC chair, said: “A country that channels women into low paid work fails to adequately support families and forces people who want to work flexibly to trade down in jobs, pays a high price in terms of child poverty, family breakdown and low productivity.

Click here for Equal Opportunities Commission http://www.eoc.org.uk/

Click here for CEHR http://www.cehr.org.uk/

Click here for Gender Agenda campaign http://www.gender-agenda.co.uk/

Date: 21 July 2007

Source: House of Commons

In its document - The Governance of Britain – The Government’s Draft Legislative Programme, HM Government has announced plans to simplify the current employment regime.

Globis welcomes the Governments intentions to simplify the current dispute resolution regulations saving UK Business an estimated £180 million /year. This provides UK leaders with part of the business case for improving relationships at work.

The purpose of the bill is to simplify, clarify and build a stronger enforcement regime for key aspects of employment law.

The purpose of the bill is to:

• Simplify, clarify and build a stronger enforcement regime for key aspects of employment law.

The main benefits of the bill are:

• Significant administrative savings for businesses, specifically through legislation to implement the Gibbons review of workplace dispute resolution, with an estimated benefit to business of up to £180m/year;
• Further cost and time savings for businesses, trade unions, individuals and public sector bodies;
• Delivering a more straightforward and transparent enforcement and penalties regime for the national minimum wage (NMW) and employment agency standards, to provide greater support to vulnerable workers, fair arrears for the underpaid and a level playing field for compliant businesses
• Greater clarity for employers, trade unions and employees
• Compliance with European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) judgment in Aslef v UK 

The main elements of the bill are:

• Implementation of the outcome of the Gibbons review of workplace dispute resolution (including repeal of the statutory dispute resolution procedures and implementation of a package of replacement measures to encourage early/informal resolution and changes to the employment tribunal system.
• Clarification and strengthening of the enforcement framework for the NMW, specifically through the introduction of a straightforward penalty that can be levied against all non compliant businesses and a fairer method of calculating arrears.
• Strengthening the employment agency standards enforcement regime by making offences under the Employment Agencies Act each way offences and clarifying investigative powers.
• An amendment to trade union membership law in light of the ECHR’s judgment in Aslef v UK (such that trade unions can expel members on the basis of their membership of a political party).
• It might also be necessary to use the Bill to clarify provisions in the NMW Act related to voluntary workers, depending on the outcome of current consultation which closes 4 September.

Globis will monitor this Bill as it passes through Parliament and we will keep our website fully up to date. Anyone with additional information about this Bill or associated Parliamentary discussions are invited to contact us. Further details of the Bill can be found by clicking the link below:

Related links :

The Governance of Britain – The Government’s Draft Legislative Programme

Related Documents:

• Consultation on workplace dispute resolution

Source: The Economist

Date: July 19 2007

THE Big Four look embarrassingly male at their most senior levels. Although around half of their intake is female, that proportion shrinks rapidly as people climb the career ladder. KPMG wants women to account for a quarter of partners by 2010; Deloitte is aiming for a figure of 31% for its female partners and directors by 2009, up from 26% now.

To get to even these relatively modest targets, the firms must grapple with what Sylvia Hewlett, of the Centre for Work-Life Policy, calls women’s “non-linear career paths”. According to her research, 37% of all professional women drop out of work at some point; even more will spend time working flexibly. Getting back into employment is not easy: only 40% manage to find full-time jobs. And those that do suffer a loss of earnings: a 38% fall for those who have been out of the office for three years or more compared with those who have stayed.

Smart employers are toying with ways to keep the door to “off-ramped” female staff ajar. The big accounting firms offer formal career breaks that allow staff to take unpaid leave from work. Booz Allen Hamilton, a consultancy, and Lehman Brothers, an investment bank, run programmes offering interesting project-based work to women who are not ready to take on full-time positions.

Flexible working can also improve retention, through options such as part-time work, compressing work into fewer days and seasonal schedules which can fit in with school holidays. Flexitime and home working are popular and help explain why more than 80% of the women on maternity leave at the Big Four return to work, which is a higher proportion than in other industries.

Child care is not the only issue such schemes address. More and more people look after elderly relatives—Ms Hewlett points to China, where women from the one-child generation will look after not just their parents but also their in-laws.

Source: CIPD

Date: 17/07/2007

As sickness absence rates increase for the first time in two years, more and more employers are beginning to focus on staff well-being, it has been claimed.

According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the average level of employee absence has increased from 3.5% of working time lost in 2006 to 3.7% this year.

The average cost of absence has similarly risen to £659 per employee per year from last year’s figure of £598, the CIPD revealed.

As the rate of sickness absence rises, so does the prevalence of workplace stress, with 31% of employers reporting an increase in stress-related absence, the research found. It was also cited as the most common cause of long-term absence in non-manual workers.

Consequently, the CIPD said that the number of organisations focusing on employee well-being as a means of tackling rising absence levels and costs has soared over the last year.

Service businesses are leading the way in the private sector, the survey found, with the number of firms having a well-being strategy rising dramatically from 22% in 2006 to dramatically to 37% this year.

Ben Willmott, CIPD employee relations adviser commented: “The report shows employers are increasingly recognising the benefits that can be gained by supporting employee well-being.”

“As organisations increasingly face the costs and risks of long-term absence, damaging their productivity, growth, retention and brand, businesses are increasingly under pressure to address the well-being agenda.”

However, Willmott warned that efforts to promote employee well-being and manage absence will be undermined unless they are underpinned by good people management and effective organisation.

He added: “There is no point providing healthy eating options and on-site gyms if people are dreading going to work because of their bullying line manager or because of their excessive workload.”

Source: People management Magazine

Date: 13/07/2007

Employers in small businesses are being warned to keep an eye on their business’ supplies, as new findings suggest workers are pocketing office goods worth millions of pounds each year.

A survey commissioned by The Federation Against Software Theft has found that the items stolen by staff range from computer software and digital downloads such as film, music and video (which 10% of staff admitted taking), pens (62%) and notebooks, printer paper and blank CDs (25%).

Furthermore, while 8% of respondents said they feel the occasional stab of guilt over taking pens, just 2% felt that downloading illegal software was something to feel ashamed of.

John Lovelock, director general of The Federation said: “Just as we expected, people fail to recognise that theft is theft – whether it’s the act of physically taking something that doesn’t belong to you or downloading software that you haven’t paid for.

“Digital theft is costing the UK millions of pounds each year. You wouldn’t expect to walk out of PC World with a piece of software up your jumper and get away with it, would you?”

He also warned bosses that the downloading of software, films, music or games is illegal, and it would be the employee’s boss who could be liable to ten years in jail, should the activity be caught.

Clive Lewis of Globis said “When working relationships need developing one of the areas that begin to increase are staff theft and sabotage. Organisations can avoid this when there are productive healthy relationships at work”.

Source: People Management magazine 

Date: 12 July 2007

The government has received mixed messages from employers in response to its consultation on dispute resolution.

The consultation, which closed last month, proposed replacing the 2004 statutory disciplinary and grievance procedures with guidance put forward by the Gibbons review of dispute resolution, published in March.

Janice Munday, senior employment relations civil servant at the new Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, said the 400 or so formal responses to the consultation had shown a divide between large and small firms.

“We’re finding that there’s affection for some parts of the procedures,” she said at the CIPD’s annual employment law conference in London earlier this month. “Some want to save this part, some another. And there’s a split over what should go in the statutory guidelines. Put crudely, employee representatives want a return to the pre-2004 Acas code, large employers want the guidelines stripped back to what is merely the law, and small businesses are somewhere in the middle.”

The response showed that while the government wanted to simplify the regulations, there were many interest groups who wanted it to be more complicated, she added.

The CIPD’s own consultation response endorsed the need for a voluntary approach and called for a single set of guidelines, an improved Acas code of practice on discipline and grievances, and measures to increase the use of mediation in dispute resolution.

Munday acknowledged that the department had “heard businesses’ concerns about complex rules, inconsistencies and other irritants, and we’ve listened to these”. But she said the mixed response made a satisfactory outcome “a difficult one for sorting out in the future”.

The department’s conclusions will be published in the autumn.

Source: Personnel Today

Date:  11/07/2007

Small businesses are being urged to take steps to combat employee stress, as research reveals that the workplace has caused stress to affect the vast majority of staff.

Findings from employment law consultancy Peninsula have shown that a huge 82% of employees have been affected by stress brought on by work.

The consultancy pointed out that high stress levels in the workplace can have a negative effect on a business’ productivity and profits, as it can lead to higher levels of staff absences.

Clive Lewis of Globis says “There is a clear link between bottom line performance and stress levels ,” . Globis has seen a significant increase in advice calls from employers worried about staff stress levels.

Suggested stress-reduction methods included initiating simple procedures such as ensuring there are enough employees to deal with the workloads, and taking steps to prevent or stop internal conflicts. Employers have also been encouraged to focus on creating good communication.

Source: CIPD
Date: 4 July 2007
Something seems to be happening to the state of the psychological contract. The CIPD research report, Employee Well-Being and the Psychological Contract, highlights areas that many HR professionals, as strategic business partners, will want to be thinking about. So the wealth of material contained in this survey is invaluable to HR professionals.


At the CIPD, we’ve been undertaking annual surveys into employee attitudes since 1996. This report is based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,000 people in employment in Great Britain.


The psychological contract is built on the three pillars of:

• fairness 
• trust 
• delivery of the deal between organisations and employees.

And research has shown that a positive psychological contract is the best guarantee of good performance outcomes.


Analysis of the causes and consequences of the psychological contract



This research report outlines the state of the psychological contract on the main dimensions of trust, satisfaction and commitment. Findings suggest that organisations are now more successful in delivering on their promises than they were in earlier years. But there are real issues in relation to employees’ feelings of fairness and trust, levels of which have been decreasing over the last two years or more.


The survey concentrated on four distinctive themes – the concept of the good employer, effective supervisory leadership, the high-quality workplace and the link to work-related stress, and contemporary career preferences.


The concept of the good employer


A cluster of practices are associated with the concept of the good employer. These include the presence of a range of progressive HR practices, the adoption of flexible family-friendly practices, effective supervisory leadership and the delivery of promises leading to perceptions of fair treatment and high levels of trust.


The composite measure of the good employer is strongly associated with higher levels of worker satisfaction, commitment and excitement at work, as well as higher levels of motivation, positive behaviour at work and a lower intention to leave the job. The findings therefore confirm that engaging in good employment practices brings benefits not only to workers but to the organisation as well.


Effective supervisory leadership


One of the biggest challenges for HR is to support line managers in their role of managing and developing people. Line managers have emerged from earlier surveys of employee attitudes as the ‘good guys’. Employees have reported feeling significantly more trust in them than in senior managers or in the organisation as a whole. The picture that emerges this year is less positive. A majority of line managers seem to be failing in many or most of the basic elements of good management – including providing regular feedback or offering to help improve individuals’ employment.


The high quality workplace and stress


Stress has been moving steadily up the workplace agenda in recent years and the survey asked a number of questions about possible sources of stress. These questions were designed jointly with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The survey shows that on a number of dimensions respondents are reporting stress levels that exceed those incorporated in the HSE standards on stress management.


The survey provided a preliminary measure of six criteria identified by the HSE as likely to be associated with lower levels of stress at work.


Contemporary career preferences


There has been much debate about what’s happening to careers. The survey identified three distinct groups of employees in terms of their attitude towards their career:


Traditional – working longer hours than most, displaying high commitment and motivation. These people wanted long-term tenure in one organisation and upward mobility, and tended to be younger workers. 


Disengaged – work is not a central life interest, and they want no emotional ties to the organisation. These employees tend to be older, long-tenure, low-income workers, displaying low levels of motivation and a reluctance to do anything extra. 


Independent – low commitment and satisfaction. They want career success, but on their own terms and without being tied to any one organisation. They tend to be graduates on high incomes and with a short tenure. They report lower organisation commitment, lower satisfaction, a poorer psychological contract and a higher intention to quit.

Source: CIPD
Date: 4 July 2007
Something seems to be happening to the state of the psychological contract. The CIPD research report, Employee Well-Being and the Psychological Contract, highlights areas that many HR professionals, as strategic business partners, will want to be thinking about. So the wealth of material contained in this survey is invaluable to HR professionals.


At the CIPD, we’ve been undertaking annual surveys into employee attitudes since 1996. This report is based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,000 people in employment in Great Britain.


The psychological contract is built on the three pillars of:

• fairness 
• trust 
• delivery of the deal between organisations and employees.

And research has shown that a positive psychological contract is the best guarantee of good performance outcomes.


Analysis of the causes and consequences of the psychological contract



This research report outlines the state of the psychological contract on the main dimensions of trust, satisfaction and commitment. Findings suggest that organisations are now more successful in delivering on their promises than they were in earlier years. But there are real issues in relation to employees’ feelings of fairness and trust, levels of which have been decreasing over the last two years or more.


The survey concentrated on four distinctive themes – the concept of the good employer, effective supervisory leadership, the high-quality workplace and the link to work-related stress, and contemporary career preferences.


The concept of the good employer


A cluster of practices are associated with the concept of the good employer. These include the presence of a range of progressive HR practices, the adoption of flexible family-friendly practices, effective supervisory leadership and the delivery of promises leading to perceptions of fair treatment and high levels of trust.


The composite measure of the good employer is strongly associated with higher levels of worker satisfaction, commitment and excitement at work, as well as higher levels of motivation, positive behaviour at work and a lower intention to leave the job. The findings therefore confirm that engaging in good employment practices brings benefits not only to workers but to the organisation as well.


Effective supervisory leadership


One of the biggest challenges for HR is to support line managers in their role of managing and developing people. Line managers have emerged from earlier surveys of employee attitudes as the ‘good guys’. Employees have reported feeling significantly more trust in them than in senior managers or in the organisation as a whole. The picture that emerges this year is less positive. A majority of line managers seem to be failing in many or most of the basic elements of good management – including providing regular feedback or offering to help improve individuals’ employment.


The high quality workplace and stress


Stress has been moving steadily up the workplace agenda in recent years and the survey asked a number of questions about possible sources of stress. These questions were designed jointly with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The survey shows that on a number of dimensions respondents are reporting stress levels that exceed those incorporated in the HSE standards on stress management.


The survey provided a preliminary measure of six criteria identified by the HSE as likely to be associated with lower levels of stress at work.


Contemporary career preferences


There has been much debate about what’s happening to careers. The survey identified three distinct groups of employees in terms of their attitude towards their career:


Traditional – working longer hours than most, displaying high commitment and motivation. These people wanted long-term tenure in one organisation and upward mobility, and tended to be younger workers. 


Disengaged – work is not a central life interest, and they want no emotional ties to the organisation. These employees tend to be older, long-tenure, low-income workers, displaying low levels of motivation and a reluctance to do anything extra. 


Independent – low commitment and satisfaction. They want career success, but on their own terms and without being tied to any one organisation. They tend to be graduates on high incomes and with a short tenure. They report lower organisation commitment, lower satisfaction, a poorer psychological contract and a higher intention to quit.