It's a number's game

We have compiled a weekly round-up of HR and business news in numbers: 

0.2% - UK growth contracted 0.2% in the last three months of 2011. What does 2012 hold for everyone?

£300 could be what businesses in a Scottish city are charged for their own parking spaces provided to employees. A reserved car parking space at work is often highly prized... Early bird catches the worm!

At the time of writing, it is 182 days, 10 hours, 56 minutes and 6 seconds until the British Olympic Games begin.  Basically, it is 6 months today that the hype of the Olympics will reach its peak. There could be an opportunity for your business to take advantage of the Olympics, but also be aware of employees wanting time off to attend /watch/volunteer at the games, so plan ahead.

£963,000 - The bonus paid to RBS chief Stephen Hester, who will be receiving the hefty sum as a bonus in shares. It has caused an outcry given the bailout provided to RBS and their ongoing cost cutting exercises.

2.69 million is the unfortunate number of rising UK unemployment. Without wearing rose coloured glasses, it is positive that the government has announced its’ Youth Contract to help and support employers in recruiting young people. This needs to get moving quickly.

£68 million is the substantial amount of compensation given to ex-Woolworths staff. An employment tribunal ruled that administrators had failed to follow redundancy procedures and awarded ex-workers a protected award for failing to consult.

£158 million - You will read more information about salary sacrifice schemes in our upcoming newsletter (which you can subscribe to here for free) but this week we find recruitment firm Reed could lose up to £158m in a ruling in a tribunal that it’s tax bills were incorrect when providing a salary sacrifice scheme to its’ temporary workers.

£1 trillion – British debt hits £1 trillion mark in December.

Difficult to comprehend really because written out it is - £1,000,000,000,000

Balancing the books is always a priority!

Time to Change - let's talk about mental health

It was during a TV advert break this week that a particular advert appeared that caught our attention and led us to discover more and promote the ‘Time to Change - let’s talk about mental health’ campaign launched by the Department of Health. The advert focuses on an employee returning to work following a period of absence due to a mental health issue. A colleague asks them, ‘how are you?’

It is a powerful advert and no doubt many people have been afraid to ask the same simple question in a situation where they know someone has been away from the workplace due to mental illness.

There is a stigma attached to mental health, and we are encouraging all organisations  to sign up to find out more about the campaign and dispel that stigma by talking about the issues.

Handling these often sensitive subjects can be tricky for anyone within a business and often we are unaware of any issue until something happens or an individual confides in you. Being supportive, understanding and pointing someone in the right direction of support is imperative.

Just saying ‘cheer up’ or ‘you have got to pull yourself together’ are not effective methods of support – being non-judgemental, confidential, supportive and listening is a good place to start.

You can make a pledge of support by clicking here, we have.

'Blue Monday'

Producing a better workplace environment will increase productivity of employees. We've recently heard that workplace plants can ‘reduce depression, anxiety and overall stress’, as well as other suggestions like reducing the amount of the colour red within the workplace, and ensuring you sit so your back is not facing the entrance to your work.

These are all relatively minor suggestions to help employees/workers get over ‘Blue Monday’ - Monday 16^th January 2012 which apparently is the most depressing day of the year. After the highs of Christmas/New Year, people then tend to have a lull in emotions. Obviously this isn’t to be confused with depression.

Whether or not it will cost the UK economy £93 billion in lost productivity/absence is difficult to measure and imagine to be honest.

Having a physically better working environment as well as fostering a positive work ethic is naturally going to assist in the growth of a business and its’ personality too.

To give you food for thought, imagine if you worked here...

Health, happiness and prosperity for 2012 to all.

Youthful encouragement

Youth unemployment is already a growing problem and the Government are concerned that 16-24 year olds may become a ‘lost generation’ to the current and future workforce. This demographic has record high unemployment figures across the board, a staggering 1.02 million. Therefore much debate has started about how to create more jobs in general, but a focus has been placed on the younger generation in recent government initiatives.

This year we will see the launch of the £1 billion ‘Youth Contract’ which will provide 410,000 work places over a 3 year period for 18-24 year olds, with wage subsidies worth £2,275 handed to employers to take on 160,000 young people through The Work Programme. The subsidy will certainly be useful in its encouragement to get any size employer to take employee(s) on through this scheme and provide vital experience. More details need to emerge about the scheme in general but it is a positive step forward. The scheme will be open to the voluntary sector and there are also payment incentives to provide apprenticeships.

The HR Dept is encouraging business owners to sign up via a new website to get more information about the scheme when more details emerge.

For further information click here

Twas the night of the office Christmas party...

Let’s all deck the halls with boughs of holly

Party time, the season to be jolly

With short skirts, earrings and reindeer hats

A few vodkas at home and then off to get rats'd

As grumpy John from accounts asks Edna to dance

In walks the boss, just back from France

He makes straight for the bar, full of French bonhomie

And says “Over here folks the drinks are on me”

This is the moment when he should have known better

But it’s all a laugh, bit of fun and he’s a go getter.

Next thing he knows Lucy’s perched on his knee

And he’s fooling about and his hands are quite free.

Her boyfriend takes umbrage, Lucy heads for the loo.

It goes down in history as a “hell of a do”.

But come the next day with his head in his hands

He opens a letter that makes big demands:

Sexual harassment and a promised pay rise

Will his wife believe that it’s really just lies?

From all at The HR Dept, we wish you a very Merry Christmas

Why letting loose snakes into the office isn't the best idea...

This week we came across a rather unusual report of an angry Indian snake charmer letting snakes loose in a government office! Apparently Mr Hakkul, who was the go-to when there was a snake on the loose in the area, campaigned for a plot of land to keep his snakes. After several delays in dealing with his request, Mr Hakkul had come to the end of his tether and had his revenge on the officials, causing chaos.

Photo from BBC

This cleverly links us to the importance of leadership and management within any organisation. The HR Dept continues to preach about being proactive rather than reactive. Sadly no one has a crystal ball; however foreseeing issues before they come to a head, is the key to dealing with issues effectively. In this case, there had clearly been miscommunication, confusion and upset felt by Mr Hakkul. Ignoring a problem and assuming it will go away will not achieve anything, in an extraordinary case like this or in the office environment.

The HR Dept advises managers as always to identify an issue quickly before it becomes a problem and escalates. Following policies and procedures will enable you to deal with difficult situations more successfully. The role of a manager is not just in the title, it is the ability to manage people and ‘prevent people problems’...  

"Help Wanted"

Why it is never good when you see an advert posted for your own job...

After seeing a ‘help wanted’ advert in a newspaper for a position that looks suspiciously like your own and included your boss’s phone number, what might you do? We recently came across this tale and this is exactly what happened to an employee of an architect’s firm in Florida.

The employee, confused, believing they were about to lose their job, made the rash decision to go to the architect’s office and erase an eye watering seven years worth of drawings and blueprints, estimated to be worth $2.5m (£1.5m).

Naturally the employee was caught, arrested, charged... and then fired.

Making matters even worse, it turns out the job was for the owner’s wife’s business.

Wondering whether the employee submitted an application for the other role? Probably not.