HR news round-up: from women in the North to childcare extension

‘Employers generally support employment rights reform’

Two-thirds (68 per cent) of senior decision-makers and middle managers, including six in 10 (61 per cent) small businesses, believe that the rights of ordinary workers should be stronger, according to a new poll.

The poll carried out for the IPPR think tank, the TUC and Persuasion UK by Opinium shows six in 10 (60 per cent) say that employees should have more security at work, compared to just 3 per cent who think they should have less. Seven in 10 (75 per cent) think that strengthened employment rights will improve employee health, compared to just 4 per cent who disagree. Seven in 10 (74 per cent) believe that strengthening employment rights will improve workforce retention, compared to just 6 per cent who do not. Seven in 10 (73 per cent) say strengthened employment rights will boost productivity, compared to just 7 per cent who disagree. And six in 10 (61 per cent) think stronger employment rights will have a positive impact on business profitability, compared to fewer than two in 10 (17 per cent) who disagree.

Nevertheless, a poll by the Institute of Directors found 57 per cent of over 700 business leaders polled say they will be less likely to hire as a result of the proposed employment reforms, while just 2% say it would make them more likely to hire and 36% say it will have no impact. 11% of those polled ran large businesses (250+ people), 21% medium (50-249), 25% small (10-49 people), 31% micro (2-9 people) and 12% sole trader and self-employed business entities (0-1 people).

Women in North face growing inequality

Women in the North of England live shorter lives, work more hours for less pay, are more likely to be an unpaid carer and more likely to live in poverty than women in other regions of England, according to new research.

The research, published by Health Equity North, exposes the growing regional inequalities over the last decade and the impact this has on women’s quality of life, health, work, their families and communities.

‘Woman of the North: Inequality, health and work’ finds that women living in the North have lower healthy life expectancy, fewer qualifications, worse mental health and are more likely to suffer domestic violence or to end up in the criminal justice system than their counterparts in the rest of England. In addition, infant mortality is higher and abortions are more common.

The economic cost of these inequalities is also explored in the report which estimates women in the North lose out on a staggering £132m every week, compared to what they would get paid if wages were the same as women in the rest of the country.

The average weekly wage for a full-time working woman in the North East is £569, £598 in the North West and £567 in Yorkshire and the Humber – much lower than the national average (£625) and considerably lower than for women in London (£757).

Women in the North also contribute £10bn of unpaid care to the UK economy each year.

Call for major review of Equality Act

Equality laws need to undergo major updates to tackle deep-rooted discrimination and inequality across Britain, according to a report from a coalition of leading race equality organisations.

In ‘A better way to tackle Institutional Racism’, The Alliance for Racial Justice calls on the UK’s new government to commit to a major review of the Equality Act 2010.

Whilst a landmark piece at its inception, campaigners now believe the legislation has failed to safeguard against the spread of racism in the UK’s public bodies. They say this is in part due to a critical gap between the vision of the Equality Act 2010 and the ability for powers within the act to be implemented in practice. Funding cuts and an absence of political are also key barriers to enforcing equality legislation.

The Alliance is calling for institutional racism to be explicitly defined and stronger mechanisms provided to hold authorities to account under the legislation. It also wants to see a public health approach taken to ending institutional and systemic racism and a Cabinet Minister for equality appointed.

Number of Londoners returning to office increases

The average central London full-time worker has slightly increased their time in the office, according to a new study that says older workers are more reluctant to return.

The Centre for Cities report says the average worker spent more than half of the working week – 2.7 days – in the office in June 2024, an increase from 2.2 days in April 2023. This is below cities such as Paris, Singapore, New York and Sydney.

The report, ‘Return to the office: How London compares to other global cities, and why this matters’, shows that, among employers with office mandates in place, the average employer in London mandates fewer days in the office – 3.1 days – than their counterparts in Sydney on 4.0, Singapore on 3.6, and New York, Toronto and Paris on 3.4, 3.3 and 3.2 respectively.

However, more of London’s employers have introduced office mandates in the last year, and just seven per cent of London’s office workers were not mandated to be in the office at all in June 2024, down from a quarter in April 2023.

The report says just 9 per cent of workers surveyed say they would say they would look for another job if their office mandate were increased.

In London, the youngest workers (aged 18-24) spend the most time working in the office on average each week and they are the most likely out of all age groups to say they work best in the office (43 per cent).

Meanwhile, PwC has told its UK employees that it will start monitoring their office attendance as the firm toughens up its hybrid work policy. A memo sent to staff on Thursday by managing partner Laura Hinton also told staff and partners that they should spend at least three days a week in the office or with clients, up from two or three days previously. This change comes into effect in January.

Employers promoting basic rights as benefits

Nearly half of UK employers disguise employees’ statutory rights as workplace perks, according to new research.

Analysis of UK job ads by rewards and benefits platform Rippl reveals that UK employers are touting statutory requirements or basic amenities as significant workplace benefits. Rippl’s research scoured the UK’s largest job listing sites and found that 46% of current vacancies list a statutory right as an employee benefit.

They found, for instance, that ‘company pension’ (present in 124,589 current job ads), ‘20 days holiday’ (mentioned in just over 2,000 ads) and ‘statutory sick pay’ (253 mentions) are legal obligations, yet companies are promoting these as significant reasons to join their business.

The findings also found that many employers are promoting basic necessities as benefits. Free tea topped the list with 1,078 mentions. This was followed by the stereotypical offering of ‘free fruit’ (675 mentions) and one position even listed ‘free water’ as a benefit. Other listed enticements include free pizza (126 mentions), raffles (435 mentions), and beanbag chairs (3 mentions).

Another study by HR insights company Brightmine shows the mismatch between the private and public sector when it comes to enhanced maternity pay. It says almost all (97 per cent) of the public sector companies it surveyed provided enhanced maternity pay compared to 75 per cent of companies in the private sector. In part this reflects the higher proportion of women than men working in the public sector, although more women work in the private sector.

The research found that the number of organisations offering enhanced maternity pay has increased by 10 per cent since 2021 and that day one entitlements are also up. Those requiring a year of service fell from 37 per cent to 32 per cent.

Companies perceive young employees as challenging

Seven in 10 managers think companies struggle to manage young employees,  but value their creativity and adaptability, according to a new study.

The study by the HiBob HR platform found managers believe the biggest people challenges companies face are demands around work life balance (62%), salary (58%) and benefits expectations (44%).

Gen Z are the most likely generation to check their payslip carefully to ensure accuracy (30%) due to financial struggles. When asked who should deal with issues caused by younger colleagues, 40% of managers said HR. Half (48%) of people surveyed by HiBob believe a lack of HR representation at C-level is because of a commonly held view that HR is a support not a strategy function.

Companies with women-chaired remuneration committees perform better on governance

When a woman chair a company’s remuneration committee – which is responsible for setting the salaries of senior executives – the company scores more highly on its corporate governance, according to new research

Claudine Pereira Salgado of Heriot-Watt University, analysed data from 163 UK companies in the FTSE 350 index from 2011 to 2021.

She found that, keeping all other variables constant, a company with a female-chaired remuneration committee will have a higher corporate governance index than when a man chairs the remuneration committee.

A higher corporate governance scores means that a company behaves more responsibly in its setting of senior executives’ pay, its shareholders’ rights and other areas.

Read more here.

‘Older employees less likely to talk about financial wellbeing’

Almost three-quarters of employees say the cost-of-living crisis has made them feel more anxious about their finances but only 56% of employers think their employees are worried about their financial wellbeing, with older employees being less likely to talk about their financial concerns.

The results are part of an annual study by Aviva, the Aviva Working Lives Report 2024: Working for the Future, based on 1,011 employees and 201 private sector employers. Aviva says the mismatch between how many employees are worried about their finances and employer perceptions may be because people are not talking about it, with half of employees (50%) having not talked to their current employer or line manager about their financial wellbeing.

Nevertheless, more than three-quarters of employers say they have initiatives in place to encourage employees to talk to their managers about financial concerns. While more than one in five employers (21%) do not actively encourage employees to talk about their financial concerns, this has improved from 34% last year, says Aviva.

The research suggests that many people are suffering from some level of financial avoidance, with one in five employees (20%) choosing not to think about their finances. People experiencing financial avoidance might actively shy away from managing their finances, says Aviva, which might mean not paying bills or checking financial statements.

Read more here.

Extension of ‘free’ hours to some nine month olds starts

This week eligible parents of nine month olds in England will be able to benefit from the 15 hours of ‘free’ early years education during term time. The extension comes after a similar move for two year olds in April. By next September the plan is to double this to 30 hours for all eligible children from the age of nine months.

It sounds great, but nurseries have been sounding the alarm bells because of historic underfunding of the ‘free’ hours and acute staffing shortages. Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said: “As our own research shows, settings simply do not have the capacity to meet the likely surge in demand, with 78% of settings struggling to recruit and more than a third actively considering leaving the sector. On top of this, years of underfunding has made it increasingly difficult for providers to deliver enough high-quality early years places using funding alone, prompting many to limit intake, or increase fees for hours falling outside of the expansion just to keep their doors open.”

He called on the Government to swiftly address the historic levels of underfunding and the sector’s severe staffing crisis.

Workingmums.co.uk has been speaking to nurseries over the summer to find out how they are managing.

Read more here.

UK still faces flexibility stigma

A new study looks at biased views against flexible workers and says they are still prevalent, and returning after the Covid hiatus.

The study, Flexibility Stigma Across Europe: How National Contexts can Shift the Extent to which Flexible Workers are Stigmatised, by Professors Heejung Chung and Hyojin Seo, is published in Social Indicators Research. Drawing on a Eurobarometer work-life survey, it says flexibility stigma hinders worker’s take-up of flexible working arrangements and can hinder career progression. The study looks at how that stigma varies in different countries and cultures in Europe.

It finds that in countries with a more work-life balance work culture and more egalitarian gender norms, there is less flexibility stigma. Similarly, in countries with generous family-friendly policies, workers are less likely to have negative perceptions of flexible working. For instance, generous family policies at the national-level – such as childcare policies or leaves – “can shape cultural norms around work-life balance and shift the notion of the ‘ideal worker’ to assume a good work-life balance as the norm for both men and women”. But the uptake of flexible working can also signify a lack of other infrastructure, such as childcare support, the report notes.

Read more here.

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