News and insight
Pam Loch
The changing face of the workforce
The gig economy has become a popular topic in the media over the last 18 months, from the Taylor Review into Modern Working practices, to high profile Employment Tribunal cases handing down crucial verdicts.
Call for change to Flexible Working Regulations
The Work and Pensions Committee has recommended amending the Flexible Working Regulations 2014 in order to ensure a day one right to request flexible working for all employees. The recommendation is part of the Committee’s report into work opportunities for carers.
Mental health: ensuring a healthy return to work
"For some employees, returning to work following a period of sick leave due to mental health challenges can be a significant milestone in their recovery. It can also be overwhelming and worrying and, even though they are feeling better, they may still be experiencing mental health challenges. As a result, it’s really important – and a legal duty – for both employer and employee to effectively manage this return."
Bullying at work: HR are increasingly the victims
In 2014/15, the ACAS helpline took about 20,000 calls regarding bullying in the workplace, and there is further evidence that this problem is worsening at work. Staff working in HR and personnel are often on the front line dealing with staff being bullied or harassed, but what about these professionals themselves? What happens when they are being bullied? Are they more at risk of being harassed due to their job role in HR? HR Advise Me investigated bullying and harassment of HR professionals to find out more.
Ban on beards at work: a safety issue or ‘penny-pinching stupidity’?
Building firm Mears has introduced a ban on staff wearing beards due to, it says, health and safety risks. In a letter to all staff, Mears stated that due to working in a potentially dusty environment, from now on all operatives must come to work clean shaven to be able to wear appropriate dust masks effectively. However, it says, “A ‘goatee’ may be acceptable so long as it does not hinder the correct fitting of said dusk masks.”
Kate Gardner
Fire safety guidance – what you need to know
Those of us who work in safety – and particularly in fire safety – have learned to see fire risk on a continuum. There really is only a small degree of difference between a toaster burning out and the kind of catastrophe that brings about scores of deaths, days of national mourning, and fundamental change to how we treat this most ancient, most omnipresent and most duplicitous of hazards.
Kelly Mansfield
Asperger’s Syndrome – making adjustments to recruitment processes
A recent case considered by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has highlighted the need for employers to be flexible when it comes to recruitment practice, emphasising that one size should definitely not be made to fit all.
Women put at risk by ill-fitting safety gear
lll-fitting Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that isn’t designed to protect women workers can get in the way of them doing their job safely, according to a new report published by the TUC. The report, Personal protective equipment and women, reveals that despite a legal duty to provide the correct PPE to staff free of charge, only three in ten women (29%) told researchers that the PPE they wear to keep them safe at work is specifically designed for women.
Kelly Mansfield
Mental health at work: what is a ‘reasonable adjustment’?
Opening up about mental health is the topic of the moment, with the Royal Family backing campaigns to get people talking to each other about their problems. In the workplace, that conversation between employer and employee is significant and the employee needs to feel fully supported moving on from there.
David Sharp
Do learning styles really matter?
Last week saw the publication of a letter in the UK’s Guardian newspaper written by 30 educational experts, in which they called the practice of teaching to different learning styles a “neuromyth”, effectively labelling it a waste of time.