New English language requirements for public sector workers
Later this month, new English language requirements will come into force for public sector workers in customer facing jobs. From 21 November, public sector organisations must ensure that all of their employees who work in public facing roles are able to speak fluent English (English or Welsh if in Wales) under the Immigration Act 2016. […]
What will happen to the BHS employees?
BHS went into Administration on the 25th April 2016. Administration is an insolvency process (when a company does not have enough to pay what it owes to its creditors), usually lasting a year and is an option when, for example, it’s possible to “rescue” the company as a “going concern”. What does it mean for […]
Voluntary Redundancy: Don’t Consider Age a Factor, Rules EAT
Taking age-related benefits into account during redundancy selections can be discrimination, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has ruled. The case of Donkor v Royal Bank of Scotland concerned an employee who was not allowed to apply for voluntary redundancy on the grounds of his age. As the claimant was over 50 at the time […]
Employee prosecuted for taking client data to new job
A former employee of a waste management company has been fined for taking client data with him to his new job. An employee may have spent a long time building and nurturing a list of client contacts. When they leave their job, they may think that this list should naturally move with them. After all, […]
Monitoring Private Emails at Work: What You Need to Know
The European Court has reaffirmed that employers can read private emails and chat messages sent by employees. The ruling has caused a media panic that employers can now ‘snoop’ on their employees, although this is far from the case. Furthermore, given previous UK Employment Tribunals, very little has actually changed. Regardless, with the case generating […]
Unique Employee Benefits
When job hunting, what first attracts people to a company? Salary is likely to be the first thing. But job hunters are now taking more notice of what potential employers are offering besides the usual pay rates. Employers have begun to recognise this and started to put together packages, offering their staff increasingly imaginative employee […]
Best UK Jobs for 2016 Revealed
Employer review website Glassdoor has revealed their list of the 25 best jobs in the UK for the year ahead. Glassdoor identifies the most desirable jobs in the country based on three factors: earning potential, career opportunities and job availability. This is the second such annual survey by the site. Management roles made up eight of the […]
Do applicants still need degrees for graduate jobs?
Graduate job seekers who may not have made the grade at university, could still have a good chance of getting the job of their dreams after four big employers made significant changes to their academic entry requirements. Ernst Young Accountancy firm Ernst & Young is the fifth largest graduate recruiter in the UK. Last […]
Women Aiming for Quicker Career Success
Women want to achieve career success faster than men, according to a study by recruitment agency Reed. 48% of women are aiming to reach their career goal by the age of 40. Over three out of five men stated that they were happy to wait until after that age to hit their career targets. Further to […]
Auto-enrolment update
A recent auto-enrolment update from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has predicted that by 2020, £17bn a year will have been put into workplace pension schemes as a result of auto-enrolment. It also predicted that just over 10 million workers will be saving more money than they would have done previously, even outside […]
DWP Criticised for Disability Discrimination
The Department of Work and Pensions has come under fire from its staff, accusing it of disability discrimination. The latest staff survey has seen over 1,400 DWP civil servants claim incidences of bullying and harassment taking place at work, because of disability. These figures are up from more than 1,000 that was reported the previous […]
Blue Monday in the Workplace
Whether a touch of the blues or something more serious, January can be hard on your workforce. ‘Blue Monday’, the so-called most depressing day of the year, is coming up next week. This is the day where the weather, personal debt, and the time since the Christmas holidays all combine into an amalgamation of disappointment […]
A game changer for making recruitment decisions
In the battle to hire the best talent, many employers are looking at new ways of recruiting, but could a smartphone game help them to make their recruitment decisions? As more employers are expanding their recruitment to include school leavers and people with less traditional qualifications, they are looking for other ways to select […]
A fifth of UK workers expect to retire after 70
New research has revealed that over a fifth of UK employees expect to retire in their seventies and also have higher stress levels. Not only that, they are also less healthy and more stressed than employees who are hoping to retire sooner. 1,895 UK employees were interviewed for the Global Benefits Attitudes Survey, conducted […]
Offer Flexible Hours to Hire Better Talent
Fewer than one in ten ‘quality’ jobs offer the possibility of flexible hours. A failure to recognise the prevalence of flexible working means that employers are overlooking up to 1.9 million qualified candidates, a report has warned. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) surveyed parents, older people and disabled people to form the report. It found […]
Employment tribunal claimants never receive compensation
A third of people who win employment tribunals do not see the money awarded and less than half are paid in full. When people win their case at an employment tribunal, they naturally expect to receive the compensation that has been awarded to them. But Government figures show that thousands of workers who have won […]
National Living Wage Ends Free Lunch!
Staff working for popular coffee shop chain Caffe Nero, have been left disappointed after the company announced it was no longer giving employees a free lunch when they were on shift. The move has come as part of a pay review across the company, brought in following the introduction of the new National Living Wage […]
Restaurant Cuts Hours to Improve Quality of Life
An award-winning restaurant has reduced its opening hours in a bid to improve staff quality of life. Hibiscus, a two Michelin-starred establishment run by chef Claude Bosi, has reduced its lunch services from five days to three days a week. Lunch now runs from Thursday to Saturday whilst dinner runs from Tuesday to Saturday, giving staff […]
From recruitment consultant to X Factor contestant
Just like with previous years, this current series of the X Factor has been getting a lot of press and media attention thanks to its quirky and at times controversial acts. One contestant who has been hitting the headlines fairly regularly is rapper Honey G. Honey G is one of the contestants in X Factor […]
CIPD Warns of Lower Pay Rises
The introduction of the compulsory National Living Wage will cause UK salaries to rise at a far slower rate than forecast, according to the CIPD. However, the HR body believes that low inflation will help to ease the blow for average earners. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and the Bank of England originally predicted […]
