Better deal for mothers and carers

Improved maternity rights and a new right for many carers to request flexible working were welcomed when they came into force on a few weeks ago. Mothers whose babies are born on or after that date will now be entitled to 52 weeks of maternity leave, regardless of how long they have worked for their employer, and 39 weeks of maternity pay. Similar arrangements are also available to adoptive parents. Until now, most mothers and adoptive parents were entitled to 26 weeks of paid leave.
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above: Until now, most mothers and adoptive parents were entitled to 26 weeks of paid leave.

You can stop Smoking

Photo of Louise van der Velde With the rapid approach of the smoking ban in enclosed places on July 1, more smokers than ever will be joining the queue to give up cigarettes. To get your staff to quit quitting, invest 1 hour into a stop smoking seminar.

Self-help guru, Louise van der Velde, offers a programme to rid yourself of the smoking habit once and for all. The programme includes transformation therapy encompassing the following steps and much more.

Steps to Smoke-Free Staff:

Decide when you are going to stop smoking and tell everyone to encourage you to stick at it.
Learn how to set relaxation anchors and visualise positive events from the past.
Learn powerful breathing techniques when a cigarette craving occurs, take some quick, deep breaths until you are almost dizzy.
Learn the powerful tools of EFT to completely remove the cravings.
Be inspired to go for daily walks in nature and make sure to keep up an exercise regime.
Be aware that the nicotine will be out of your system after 24-48 hours. During this time your energy levels will return to that of a non-smoker as your blood re-oxygenates.
Learn to Improve your health and vitality for optimimum well-being.

Louise van der Velde is trained as a trainer of NLP and hypnosis. She is also a Transformation Therapist, trained in Emotional Freedom Technique and is a Reiki, Dru yoga and Tantra teacher.

Flexible group sizes can be accommodated — minimum charge for seminar £5,000.

Louise will also be running seminars on stress-management and well-being.

For more information please contact natalie@fullportion.com or call 0845 225 1500.
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1.1 million smokers quit on No Smoking Day 2007

Photo of a cigarette butt Figures recently released show that 1.1 million smokers actually stopped smoking on No Smoking Day this year.

Any smokers who quit on No Smoking Day will already be feeling the benefits. A 20-a-day smoker will have almost £180 extra in their pocket — a nice weekend break in Europe or a shopping trip getting ready for the summer — using the extra energy they’ve got! Not only will their sense of taste and smell come back — they will smell a lot fresher too! Blood pressure will be back to normal and there will be no carbon monoxide or nicotine left in the body.

Smokers who didn’t join in on No Smoking Day — don’t despair! Help and support is available all year round. NHS Stop Smoking Services offer free help that can make it four times more likely that a smoker will succeed in stopping smoking. To find out where your local stop smoking service is call 0800 169 0169.
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The Heat is On

Photo of globe with a green glow With World Environment Day coming up on 5th June, Mac Logan FCIPD, CEO of JourneyPlan, discusses five ways in which employers can encourage their staff to be greener at work.

UK businesses have the power to make a significant impact on the effects of global warming, but there appears to be a particular disinclination amongst UK employees to go green at work. A 2006 survey by government advisory body Envirowise finding that seven out of 10 of the 1,800 workers surveyed said they were proactive when it came to being environmentally friendly at home, but a third of those admitted to disregarding green issues at work.

Here are five top tips on how employers can encourage their staff to be greener at work:

Involve your employees in the organisation’s energy saving projects. Every organisation should establish teams led by an energy champion from each department. The energy champion’s role is to encourage their team to think about how to reduce the energy consumption within the office, and provide them with advice on which areas to look at, including heating, lighting and office equipment.
Provide training on how employees can reduce their individual consumption of energy and reduce their waste trail. This could include training on the segregation of waste, or training on how to reduce their printing output. You should also advise them on energy saving practices, such as keeping furniture away from radiators, and closing windows when the room is being heated or air conditioned.
Communicate your environmental policies to staff using e-mail newsletters, notice-boards, corporate intranets and other communication outlets. These communications should provide practical advice and information, such as pointing out the location of recycling bins in the office, and can also be used to implement incentive schemes and rewards for the most environmentally friendly employee.
Recycling is a huge part of the battle to reduce waste in the workplace. The first basic step is to ensure that office managers purchase environmentally-responsible materials and recycled office supplies. Also make sure that employees have easy access to clearly labelled recycling bins for paper, plastic and metal waste.
The promotion of alternative transport usage is a crucial way for employers to encourage a reduction in car usage among employees, and one way to do this is to make it as easy as possible to access public transport information. Providing a journey planning tool on the company Intranet or website is easy to do and will help employees to organise their business trips or personal journeys to and from work on public transport quickly and easily, rather than having to trawl through mountains of timetables.

Only through strong environmental leadership, and a commitment from businesses and employees to work together, will we see a significant reduction in carbon emissions from the UK.

Get more information about JourneyPlan’s products and services, including journey planning and JourneyScreen can be found by e-mailing enquiries@journeyplan.co.uk or calling 01383 731048.
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Working works

An online survey among more than 1,000 lone parents in the UK has shown that over threequarters (77 per cent) of respondents who have gone back to work say that working has made them feel more independent and 73 per cent felt more confident. The research was commissioned by Jobcentre Plus and carried out by One Parent Families, the national charity for lone parents and their children.

Working 5 to 9

Fewer and fewer people now work a traditional shift from 9am to 5pm as demand increases for services around the clock, according to new research. Its study found that as many as one in three employees now work between 5pm and 9am, either on late shifts, through flexitime arrangements or just by staying at their desks long into the evening.

Home produce

The average homeworker spends almost seven hours a day working, with 15 per cent spending more than 10 hours a day in gainful employment, according to a poll of 3,000 people. The survey found one in five reported the extra productive time was because there were fewer distractions than in the office, and two-thirds of those questioned said they put in the extra effort because they felt they had to prove they weren’t just taking it easy.

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