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