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The need for healthy business people to aid our economic recovery
The recent launch of the British Chambers of Commerce ‘Business is Good for Britain’ campaign saw calls, from across the business and political spectrum, for continued support for British business.
It is widely acknowledged that the route to the UK’s financial recovery is via a re-energised, high performance business sector based on a solid infrastructure. Of course, businesses are run by people so their health and wellbeing, and those of the teams they lead, is vital not only to the organisations they run but also to the future success of UK plc.
Taking Care of Business: coalition government policy
With one in six workers is currently experiencing depression, anxiety or stress, the figures speak for themselves. But is enough being done to make mental health a workplace priority?
In order to explore the business case for managing mental health positively, Mind – the leading mental health charity for England and Wales – were responsible for the 2011 business summit entitled Taking Care of Business, in conjunction with AXA.
Presenteeism and its effects: the need for a healthy workforce
Most of us have probably – at one time or another – struggled in to work when feeling slightly unwell. The illness we’re suffering from could be something minor such as a head cold, but in some cases people will make it into work even if they’re putting their own health (and productivity) at risk.
The word presenteeism is often used to describe the problem of people turning up to work while they’re ill. So, when employees present themselves for work rather than taking sickness absence, could it actually be detrimental for these workers and their organisation as a whole?
Health at work – an independent review of sickness absence
The figures speak for themselves: 140 million working days lost to sickness absence in a year, at a cost of £13 billion to the taxpayer and a loss of £15 billion pounds in economic output.
The recent Health at Work review – carried out by Dame Carol Black and David Frost CBE, and presented to Parliament in November sets out some possible answers for the future.
Taking Care of Business: solutions for better mental health at work
Over the next few weeks here on Healthy Business we’ll be posting a series of articles based on the review of Mind’s business summit – which took place in May 2011 and was held in conjunction with AXA. Forming part of Mind’s Taking Care of Business campaign, the objective of the summit was ‘to explore why the business case for managing mental health positively at work has not translated into widespread good practice’.
The introduction to Mind’s Taking Care of Business report illustrates the scale of the challenges faced by UK business:
Alcohol and the Office Party
Loading ...Is your organisation holding a Christmas party this year?
While this is the season to be jolly, for HR managers and business owners the annual do comes with responsibilities on top of having a good time. There are sound reasons for having a Christmas party – there’s the obvious staff motivation factor, and it’s also a great chance for businesses to show their gratitude for all the hard work that staff have put in over the year. It’s also good for team building, giving co-workers an opportunity to socialise and maybe even make new connections with other members of staff they don’t usually see during the working week.
The future of work: could people be paid for results achieved instead of hours worked?
It’s incredible to think just how much the workplace has changed over the last couple of decades – and with today’s advanced technology and culture of instant information, it doesn’t look like the pace of change is likely to slow down any time soon.
In ten years’ time employees could be paid for results achieved instead of hours worked, choosing when – and even where – they choose to carry out their duties. This is according to a new book entitled “Future Work: How Businesses Can Adapt And Thrive In The New World Of Work”. The book centres on research conducted by authors and business experts Alison Maitland and Peter Thomson, who draw some interesting conclusions: “employees are more productive if they have greater autonomy over where, when and how they work. Trusting people to manage their own work lives, individually or in teams, pays off”. They believe that a management shift from “controlling to enabling” will be essential as we move away from working models born in the industrial age to those more suited to our digital future.
Talent management, the Steve Jobs way
From groundbreaking desktop computers through to the mega-success of the iPod, it’s fair to say that Apple’s machines changed the world – but as well as being the figurehead of these iconic designs, Steve Jobs was a passionate leader dedicated to nurturing talent. By bringing a skilled team together into one cohesive unit, Jobs was able to create some of the world’s finest technology.
A recent article in HR Zone on Steve Jobs notes the importance of Apple having ‘the right talent management strategy’ – by making sure they employed people who could ‘mirror the innovation and passion that Jobs brought to the organisation’. And the results were impressive enough for President Obama to say that ‘Steve was among the greatest of American innovators – brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it’.
Employment law: recent changes
Recently, three big changes have taken place in employment law –all of which are likely to affect businesses to some degree. With an ageing UK population –over 10 million people in the country are over age 65 – it was perhaps inevitable that there would be a change in the legislation relating to retirement age. And from the beginning of October, the default retirement age has been discontinued, meaning that from now on workers will be able to retire at a point that suits them rather than be compulsorily retired at 65. While the change has been controversial, the CIPD’s Dianah Worman believes the change ‘opens up new opportunities’ for employers, and that many employers already work without an upper limit on the age of employees.
Young people and business: a workplace education
Graduates and school leavers can often bring enthusiasm, fresh ideas and recently acquired skills to the workplace. But is the education system currently effective in making sure young people have the level of skills required to join the workforce?
Results from a recent survey carried out by the UK business education charity Young Enterprise suggest that there’s work to be done in this area, with 75% of the companies polled believing that education ‘is not equipping young people with the right skills’, while 59% “felt that the education system was poor at developing financial skills among young people”.
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