At a glance: reward and benefits headlines this week 16-22 April 2021
Here are the headlines you might have missed between 16-22 April 2021.
Pension scheme members want more retirement decision help
Employee Benefits: Aon’s 2021 Member Options Survey, published today, has revealed that there continues to be a clear trend for schemes to provide members with more support for their retirement decisions. Read Story.
New survey paints positive picture of Employee Engagement during lockdown
Engage Employee: Throughout lockdown, business leaders have debated the tricky issue of how best to engage and support their people while working from home. However, according to a major new industry survey “The 2021 Contact Centre People Engagement Survey”, 81% of Agents/Advisers – and 56% of Directors/Managers – say that People Engagement in their Contact Centres is not a problem. Read Story.
Mental health concerns at SMEs have surged during the pandemic
Workplace Insight: Breathe has released the findings from a recent survey aiming to understand business attitudes and approaches to mental health in the workplace. According to the firm, the pandemic has fuelled a health crisis which continues to impact the mental and physical wellbeing of staff in a number of ways. As a result, employers are under pressure to introduce adequate safeguarding measures, according to the report. Read Story.
A fifth of UK workers feel remote working has reduced recognition in the workplace
Workplace Insight: Research from Ezra, provider of digital coaching claims that a fifth of UK workers feel they get less recognition within their career as a direct result of working remotely. It remains to be seen to what extent we will return to a full working environment, as Covid restrictions see many continue to work from home for part of, if not their whole working week. Read Story.
Insecure workers ten times more likely to receive no sick pay
HR Review: 3.7 million workers in the UK who face insecurity linked to work, whether through a lack of regular hours or income, are much more likely to miss out on receiving Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). According to new analysis by the Trades Union Congress, workers who have insecure work are almost 10 times more likely to fail to receive Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) from their employers. Read Story.
Over a third of employees worry about job security if they report an accident at work
Workplace Insight: Employees would worry about the security of their job if they were to report suffering an injury in the workplace, claims new research carried out by JMW Solicitors. More than 1,200 people were surveyed and results claim that 39 percent either ‘strongly agreed’ or ‘agreed’ that they were worried their job would be at risk if they reported their employer for negligence. Read Story.
Pressure and weak leadership form the recipe for workplace bullying
Workplace Insight: Employees experience more bullying on days with higher work pressure and passive avoidant leadership, finds new research from BI Norwegian Business School and the University of Bergen and published in The European Management Journal. Read Story.
Mental wellness tops home workers' desires
Cover magazine: A survey conducted by on behalf of Canada Life has highlighted the most desired elements of employees that plan to continue working remotely. Those that will continue working from home indicated that mental wellness days (54%), diarised screen breaks (48%) and daily mental health check-ins (44%) were the most desired measures for employers to adopt. Read Story.
ABI launches mental health training platform for advisers
Cover magazine: The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has launched a free training platform for insurance advisers on mental health in an effort to improve industry standards. Developed in collaboration with health and wellbeing specialists Rightsteps, the platform provides bespoke mental health training for insurance advisers and customer-facing staff, accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). Read Story.
Homeworkers more likely to miss out on promotion and pay rises
Corporate Adviser: Homeworkers are more likely to miss out on pay rises, training and promotions, according to new data published by the Office of National Statistics. Their figures – which largely relate to home working prior to the Covid pandemic – show those working exclusively from home were paid 6.8 per cent less than those who never worked from home. Read Story.
Covid could sink one in four SMEs: survey
Corporate Adviser: One if four SMEs say they are unlikely to be in business at the end of the year as a result of the Covid pandemic, according to the latest research from WorkLife by OpenMoney. It’s Small Business Monitor shows the effect Covid-19 is having on many of these businesses, with three fifths (61 per cent) saying they won’t be able to stay afloat without additional funds. Read Story.
Employers must gain the trust of disabled employees to collect their data
HR Magazine: Employers need to work on building trust and understanding if they want to have an accurate depiction of their disabled workforce. A new global report published today (19 April) by the Business Disability Forum, found for employers, collecting employee disability data is growing in importance. Read Story.
MPs call for AE providers to offer additional savings options
Corporate Adviser: Leading Conservative MPs are calling for a change to the auto-enrolment rules, to compel pension providers to offer a ‘sidecar’ savings option. The Tory Reform Group, led by former minister Damian Green MP, says the proposal would encourage employees to build emergency savings and help with the post-Covid recovery. Read Story.
Towergate: Employers should reassess benefits provision to guard against long Covid
Healthcare & Protection: Employers need to reassess their benefits provision to successfully tackle long Covid, Towergate has warned. The health and wellbeing intermediary warns long Covid could have a big impact for employers for many months to come as a new picture of long Covid is now emerging. Read Story.
Wellbeing a “permanent shift” in benefits provision
Employee Benefits: Covid-19 (Coronavirus) has brought about a permanent shift in benefits provision towards mental health and wellbeing, according to new research by Towers Willis Watson. Data from the global advisory company’s Emerging trends in health care delivery report, published today (20 April), found 87% of employers now say they are ‘concerned’ about an increase in mental health problems among staff. As a result, it concludes the pandemic has caused organisations to completely overhaul their employee benefits. Read Story.
Nearly a million workers struggling with mental wellbeing due to remote working
Workplace Insight: As April is Stress Awareness Month, Instant Offices researched how the last year has affected employees mental health also what business and individual employees can do to improve and support mental wellbeing. Read Story.
Coronavirus straining work relationships
HR Magazine: Over half (54%) of workers have found it harder to build relationships with colleagues while working from home. This has changed employees attitudes towards the benefits of the workplace and the role the office plays in bringing teams togethers, according to a new report by employee engagement platform Totem.UK. Read Story.
Nearly a third of employees don’t receive training in a hybrid workplace
Workplace Insight: Lane4, has announced the findings of its nationwide survey which suggests how organisations need to better support their employees as some begin to return to their on-site workplaces, while others remain remote. Read Story.
Employers need to address mental health challenges
Corporate Adviser: Employers must address workplace mental health challenges that have worsened since the Covid-19 pandemic, Anna Spender, director of actuarial & data analytics (UK & Global) at Howden Employee Benefits & Wellbeing, has warned. Read Story.
TPR’s guidance on prosecution “inadequate” according to industry
Corporate Adviser: The industry has called for further clarity around the Pensions Regulator’s new prosecution policy. TPR is consulting on its policy for investigating and prosecuting the new criminal offences which were included in the Pensions Schemes Act. These include the of avoidance of employer debt to the scheme or risking accrued members’ benefits. Read Story.
Two thirds of retirees risk outliving pension funds
Corporate Adviser: Two thirds of those retiring in 2021 risk exhausting their pension pots, and having insufficient funds to sustain their retirement income, according to a new report from Standard Life Aberdeen. The research found a 2021 retiree plans to spend, on average, £21,000 a year in retirement – almost £10,000 less than the average UK household income (£29,900). Read Story.
Women have 39% smaller pension pots
Employee Benefits: New research has revealed the pensions gender gap is more than double the difference between men and women’s average earnings, with women having significantly smaller pension pots. Read Story.
HR professionals expect employees to split their time between the office and home
Workplace Insight: Research commissioned by CANCOM, conducted with UK HR professionals about post-COVID work habits claims that only one-in-ten organisations does not intend to run a hybrid way of working – with nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of HR professionals of the opinion that employees will divide their time between the office and home after all COVID restrictions have lifted. Read Story.
Problems at home impact employee creativity more than problems at work
Workplace Insight: Feeling ostracised by family members has a negative effect on employee creativity, more so than feeling ostracised at work, claims new research from Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Business. Read Story.
Businesses shown to be out of touch with staff on future of work
HR Review: New research shows a lack of alignment between what employers believe staff want and what employees actually desire when it comes to the future of work. New research by IDC and Unisys has shown that employers may be out of touch with what staff actually desire in a workplace post-COVID. Read Story.
Employees less worried about hybrid working than leaders
Personnel Today: Almost four in 10 business leaders are worried about lack of management oversight as organisations move to hybrid working, compared with just 7% of employees. Read Story.
New data shows how hiring frustrations damage long term reputation
HR News: Today, Cronofy presents new data that clarifies why candidates leave the recruitment process in different regions, providing more detail about their priorities and expectations. Read Story.
Pay awards stagnant at 1%
Personnel Today: The median basic pay award in the first quarter of 2021 was less than half the value of that seen in the same period in 2020, at just 1%. This is according to the latest analysis of pay settlement data by XpertHR, which showed the average pay award recorded across the three months to the end of March has remained at this level for the fourth consecutive rolling quarter. Read Story.
Remote workers now say email fatigue and notifications are worse than commuting
Zdnet: Over one-third of employees say email and message overload may lead them to quit their jobs, according to a new report. Companies are planning whether to reopen their offices for a mass return to in-office working, encourage their employees to stay remote or introduce a hybrid work model once the pandemic ends. Read Story.
Experts warn of employee health risks as only a fifth of organisations have well-rounded wellbeing strategies
Employer News: Experts are warning of the risks employers pose on workforces by underestimating the need for well-rounded health benefits. It comes as recent findings show that just one-fifth of organisations have wellbeing initiatives that integrate mental, physical, financial and social issues whilst linking closely to business strategies. Read Story.