For most people, health and wellbeing at work will initially mean health and safety. The physical safety of the workforce is quite naturally very much to the fore when it comes to considering wellbeing. Good training, the right protective clothing and a safe working environment amongst other things are a reasonable expectation of any work environment. In fact, this is so much the case that they are enshrined in law to protect workers. The question is, are there benefits to extending the principles of wellbeing at work into initiatives beyond those required by a safe environment? [Read more…]
Saying What You Mean – Is Your Body Language Telling a Different Story to Your Words?
Have you heard of the Duchenne smile? It is named after a French Physician, Guillaume Duchenne, who proposed the theory that a real smile and a fake smile produce very different facial expressions. It’s all in the eyes, apparently, and it is very difficult to approximate a ‘real smile’. [Read more…]
Move over Millennials, Gen Z are coming – But what skills do they bring to the workplace?
While out shopping in a supermarket the other day, I happened to overhear what I assumed was the team leader complaining about a someone being lazy to her co-worker. She ended her little rant by calling them a ‘typical Millennial’. Yes, if you matured around the turn of the century, sorry, but you have a bit of a bad reputation. [Read more…]
Employer branding – The importance of being ‘you’ to passive candidates
Employer branding has probably seen as much, if not more, focus in the last couple of years than any other aspect of the recruitment world. When it comes to recruiting the right team for your business, everyone understands that key people are the lifeblood of success. However, many industries are dealing with a skills shortage, and overall there is very low unemployment. [Read more…]
Compliance Through to Practice – Understanding Gender Pay Gap Reporting
There has been a lot of sometimes very loud discussion of the recent requirement that UK businesses produce a report on their gender pay gap statistics. One of the interesting things about the whole furore surrounding it was the automatic assumption that women would be on the wrong side of the gap. Obviously, this is generally true, as the initial data and the press coverage surrounding the run up to reporting showed. [Read more…]
Closing the revolving door – Reducing the cost of employee turnover
With any business, there is bound to be a certain level of turnover of staff. No matter the size of the business, once you reach a stage where the work is being performed by employees, not the core ownership team, you will inevitably have some of them leave. [Read more…]
Tea, coffee and ethos – How to sell your company to prospective employees
Low unemployment and a clear skills gap mean that the need for the right people on the team is paramount for business at the moment. In fairness, this has always been the case, but it has particular importance in the current employment market. It is no wonder then that the notion of employer brand is frequently the subject of conversation in the boardrooms and recruitment exhibitions around the UK. [Read more…]
Changing to stay the same? – 2018 could be a big year for the employment market
As we draw to the end of the first month of 2018, it would seem a good time to look at what could be happening in the year ahead. I suspect that this year though, the predictions for the recruitment sector are just a little more difficult than in the past because, let’s face it, last year was a fairly unusual one overall. That aside, here are four things that may well have an impact on the recruitment sector, and of course employers and employees, in 2018. [Read more…]
Diversity in the workplace – Why it needs to be paid more than lip service
When it comes to diversity in the work environment, there is a lot more at stake than just ticking a box. It is one of those subjects that seems to come around every few years, and it causes a flurry of activity that helps to redress the balance and then sadly it often falls into the background of everyday working life. However, ensuring a diverse workplace can be a rewarding endeavour from several perspectives. [Read more…]
SAFER for us all – Why we fully support the SAFERjobs initiative
Every industry has its share of underhand people. It seems a fact of life that once there is money involved someone, somewhere, will try to find a way to get it without doing a good job. Sadly, the recruitment industry also has had and probably continues to have, it’s share of those who indulge in everything from sloppy professionalism through to sharp practice and even downright fraudulent activity. [Read more…]
