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22 Feb 2019
by Annie Makoff-Clark

At a glance: reward and benefits headlines this week 15-21 February 2019

Your quick-read round up of the reward and benefits stories appearing in the press in the past seven days.

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Your quick-read round up of the reward and benefits stories appearing in the press in the past seven days.

The headlines you might have missed between 15-21 February.

TPR used enforcement powers 21,814 times to tackle auto-enrolment non-compliance in Q4
Employee Benefits The Pensions Regulator (TPR) used its enforcement powers for pensions auto-enrolment non-compliance 21,814 times between October and December 2018, compared to 38,095 times in Q3 of 2018, according to research by TPR. Read Story.

A sense of belonging is crucial factor for employee engagement
Workplace Insight: A sense of belonging is just as important an employee retention tool as good pay and benefits, a new academic paper has found. Read Story.

Rise in number of employers that prioritise reduction of gender pay gap
Workplace Insight: New research commissioned by the Government Equalities Office (GEO) has found that more companies are prioritising reducing their gender pay gap since the legislation was introduced in 2017. Read Story.

Released: Mental Health First Aid guidance
HR Review: Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England has launched best-practice guidance for employers on how to implement Mental Health First Aid in the workplace. Read Story.

Fatality highlights concerns over employee life cover in construction sector
The HR Director: Unite, the construction union, is launching a campaign to ensure that all workers in the industry, regardless of their employment status or where their employer sits in the supply chain, are provided with death benefits, following the recent tragic fatality of a worker in Scotland. Read Story.

Bonus boost for more than half of all managers
HR Review: More than half (55.2 per cent) of all employees in managerial and professional roles took home a bonus last year, new research reveals. Read Story.

Personal and social factors impact return to work after ill-health
Workplace Insight: Support from managers and colleagues, as well as a positive attitude, are most likely to enable a more long-term return to work for employees after a sickness absence, according to a new review of research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA). Read Story.

32 per cent of UK workers admit to missing work because they can’t afford the commute
HR Review: New research has found that 25 per cent of UK workers have suffered from a lack of concentration at work due to worry over their personal finances showing productivity could be improved if workers had more control over their earned pay. Read Story.

Public sector – ‘most alleged offender’ in workplace disability discrimination claims
The HR Director: People with disabilities continue to overwhelmingly claim to be the main victims of discrimination under the Equality Act, according to new figures. Read Story.

Basic pay expectations rise in private sector
HR Magazine: Skills shortages have put pressure on wages and upped starting salaries in the private sector, while the public sector struggles to keep up. Read Story.

UK ranks at 13 out of top 21 European economies for entry-level salary
Employee Benefits: Entry-level employees in the UK earn a median gross base salary of £22,242, ranking 13th out of the top 21 European economies, according to research by multinational risk management, insurance brokerage and advisory organisation Willis Towers Watson. Read Story.

Staff working three extra days each month
HR Magazine: Almost one in eight (79%) office-based staff work on average 20.4 hours (almost three full working days) beyond their contracted hours each month, sapping their productivity and wellbeing. Read Story.

Millennials increasingly more challenging to work with
The HR Director: Millennials have been dubbed the most ‘impatient generation’ in the workplace, with over 90 percent wanting ‘rapid career progression.’ Almost 70 percent of employers believe that this level of ambition and desire is the leading cause of conflict between generations – with a third of Generation X (34 percent) and a quarter of Baby Boomers (24 percent) and Millennials (24 percent) agreeing with this. Read Story.

40% of UK employees would opt for reduced work hours, rather than a lunch break
Incentive & Motivation: In a world where flexible working is gaining popularity over the traditional 9-to-5 shift, it appears that the customary break for a lunch hour is in a state of flux too. Read Story.

Workers do not take week and a half of holiday allowance each year
Incentive & Motivation: A new survey by consultancy Lee Hecht Harrison Penna claims that UK workers are not using up all of their holiday allowance. By the end of last year, employees had more than a week (7.5 days) of annual leave they had not taken. Read Story.

Employment stats in the UK at record high
HR Review: The UK labour market stats for February have just been released by the ONS, revealing  employment within the UK remain high for another year.  Productivity has decreased by 0.2 per cent in the year to Q4. Read Story.

People ‘should know their cholesterol as well as their Pin code’
Health Insurance Daily: People are being encouraged to know their cholesterol and blood pressure numbers as well as they know their bank Pin code. Read Story.

‘Carer support’ would keep more people in the workplace
Health Insurance Daily: Offering employees “carer support” would keep more people in the workplace, it has been suggested. It follows figures from the charity Carers UK showing 15% of the working population are now looking after an elderly, ill or disabled relative. Read Story.

Three-fifths cite having more than 28 days of annual leave as an important benefit
Employee Benefits: Approximately three-fifths (59%) of employees state that having more than 28 days of annual leave within their benefits package is important; however, only 36% of employers offer this, according to research by recruitment organisation Hays.  Read Story.

A fifth of job hunters feel benefits and perks make offers more attractive
Employee Benefits: Nearly a fifth (19%) of respondents who are looking for new employment believe that benefits and workplace perks make job offers more attractive, according to research by CV Library. Read Story.

Seven in 10 have no plans for end of life care
Health Insurance Daily: Seven in 10 people have made no plans at all for their end of life care, a poll shows. The survey of over 3,000 people from Which? Later Life Care found that of those who have made plans, only 28% have prepared an advance decision outlining the circumstances and types of medical treatment they wish to refuse in the event they do not have the capacity to communicate the decision. Read Story.

Gender pay gap grows at hundreds of big firms
BBC: Four in 10 private companies that have published their latest gender pay gap are reporting wider gaps than they did last year, according to BBC analysis. The BBC looked at a company's median pay gap - that is the difference in pay between the middle-ranking woman and the middle-ranking man. Read Story.

'Too busy to be sick': study reveals worrying presenteeism
HR Grapevine: Despite the workplace health and wellbeing trend being a core priority for UK HR practitioners over the last few years, it seems that employees working in SMEs are still putting personal illness and injury on the back-burner. Read Story.

Unregulated companies source of 52% of all scams
Pensions Expert: More than half of all scams can be linked back to unregulated introducers or advisers, according to research by the Pension Scams Industry Group. Read Story.

Jobseekers prioritise progression and working conditions over pay
HR Magazine: Almost half (45%) of companies mistakenly believe salaries drive employees to move jobs, rather than their working culture. Read Story.

Work life balance remains greatest challenge for owners of growing businesses
Workplace Insight: A new survey from Vistage claims that work-life balance is the biggest challenge facing what it refers to as scaleup business leaders in the UK. Defined as a business with an average annualised return of at least 20 percent in the last three years – and with a minimum of 10 employees at the start of the period – scaleup businesses are seen as key to the success of the UK government’s Industrial Strategy. Read Story.

Working parents ‘shunning new tax-free childcare system’
People Management: Working parents’ uptake of tax-free childcare at the end of last year was far below government expectations, according to the latest official figures, leading experts to warn the system remained too complicated and bureaucratic. Read Story.

Health Insurance Group: Business investment in mental health outweighs the cost
Employer News: Mental health costs employers in the UK nearly £35 billion a year and yet there are relatively simple and cost-effective solutions to start tackling it, already available at HR professionals’ fingertips. The Heath Insurance Group highlights five key areas to help HR get on top of the mental health agenda in the workplace. Read Story.

NHS urged to do more to prevent staff burnout
People Management: All NHS workers will be given safe spaces and a 24-hour helpline to help them cope with traumatic incidents at work, as part of a raft of reforms announced yesterday. Read Story.

Two-fifths of organisations offer cash to staff who reach lifetime or annual limits
Employee Benefits: EXCLUSIVE: Two-fifths (42%) of organisations offer cash as an alternative to pension contributions for those employees that reach their lifetime or annual allowance limits, according to research by Employee Benefits and Barnett Waddingham. Read Story.

A quarter of small to medium employers are too busy to support mental health
Employee Benefits: More than a quarter (28%) of small to medium employers state that they are too busy to think about supporting mental health in the workplace, with 48% believing they could be doing more in this area, according to research by small business platform Xero. Read Story.

Over half of workers admit to arguments about the office temperature
Workplace Insight: Almost two thirds (59 percent) of UK employees say that the office temperature is a controversial topic amongst colleagues, with over half (52 percent) admitting that it causes regular arguments. Read Story.

Parents of sick babies ‘forced to return to work too early’
Health Insurance Daily: Two thirds of fathers of premature and sick babies are being forced to return to work while their child is in intensive care, research shows. Read Story.

Disabled people frozen out of work
HR Magazine: Almost three-quarters (73%) of disabled workers in the UK have stopped working because of a disability or health condition, according to disability charity Leonard Cheshire. Read Story.

Third of mums using toilets to express milk at work
Personnel Today: A third of breastfeeding mothers returning to work are being forced to use a toilet to express milk because of a lack of suitable facilities in their workplace, a survey has found. Read Story.

DWP calls for employers to offer ‘mid-life MOTs’
Corporate Adviser: The Department of Work and Pensions has launched a new online service for consumers looking for a financial healthcheck – or ‘mid-life MOT’.  But it is also calling for employers to provide similar services through the workplace. To help facilitate this, the DWP is also working with the organisation Business in the Community (BiTC) on a guide for SMEs, showing how that can offer mid-life MOT’s to staff. Read Story.