Wednesday, October 1, 2007
Work ‘the biggest sleep robber’
Time spent at work is the single most important lifestyle factor that impacts on sleep, a new study has reported. Researchers found the more hours you work the less sleep you get. Those who got less than four-and-a-half hours sleep a night worked an average of 93 minutes longer on weekdays and 118 minutes more on the weekend. Commuting time ranked second, above socialising and leisure time, for eating into sleep time. Survey after survey confirms that people are burning the candle at both ends more and more, with no let-up on increasingly global working environments that demand long working hours and 24/7 leisure opportunities. Eventually business, government and the medical profession will have to give sleep as much priority in their healthy living messages as diet and exercise — if not more.
above: Research has found the more hours you work the less sleep you get.
A positive way to deal with bullying
Workplace bullying contributes to a total loss of 18 million working days every year in the UK. This equates to a cost of around £2 billion each year to UK industry. Leading Employee Assistance Programme Provider, CiC, provided HR professionals with the opportunity to reflect on this significant issue, stressing the fact that within the workplace, bullying destroys teamwork, confidence and morale.
Bullying and harassment can take many different forms ranging from subtle, consistent verbal and psychological torment, to more severe cases when it can become more physical and violent. It is estimated that around one in six employees experience bullying at some point in their working lives. This applies to all sectors, and of most concern is the fact that some 75% of those cases identified a manager as the bully. Research suggests that for every victim of bullying, there are around five observers. A TUC survey also revealed that victims of bullying take around seven days extra off on average each year than those who are not bullied, struggling to cope with the consistent level of abuse that bullies inflict.
CiC stressed that it is important for organisations to create an environment of respect and to welcome people into the work culture. Interestingly it has been found that there is a direct correlation between staff satisfaction and customer satisfaction, so investment in happy staff is well worthwhile. With the cost of a tribunal process estimated at around £40,000, and the cost of replacing an employee estimated at anywhere between £8,500 and up to two to three times that person’s salary, organisations simply cannot afford to ignore the issue of bullying.
CiC work with organisations to develop policy and train staff including a progressive programme of workshops that include workshops similar to that described here.
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Club Sandwich — Free on line employment and health & safety law training!
Feeling bewildered by constantly changing and horribly onerous employment and health & safety laws? Welcome to the brave new world of “webinars”! A “webinar” offers live training on your PC or laptop. All you do is log on to view both the presenter and accompanying PowerPoint!
Ellis Whittam is pioneering this type of training. Its innovative “Club Sandwich” series of employment and health & safety law webinars is free of charge to business mangers, directors and owners. Forthcoming “Club Sandwich” webinars include:
- Handling long term absence
- The role of risk management in effective health & safety management
- Playing the stress card to avoid disciplinary
- Accidents at work — avoiding prosecution and personal liability
Ellis Whittam is also offering limited free places at its forthcoming ‘Better Hiring.More
Facing up to the age of Facebook!
The UK’s Facebook users are 3.5 million accidents waiting to happen. In guidance available on workSmart, it advises employers that they should have in place policies covering the use of e-mail and the web, including social networking sites, at work. Whilst employers are completely within their rights to forbid staff from using sites such as Facebook, MySpace or Bebo in work time, a total ban may be an over-reaction. Instead sensible employers, realising that their staff spend much of their waking hours in work and lead busy lives, should be trusted to spend a few minutes of their lunch break ‘poking’ their friends or making plans for outside work. It’s unreasonable for employers to try to stop their staff from having a life outside work, just because they can’t get their heads around the technology. Better to invest a little time in working out sensible conduct guidelines, so that there don’t need to be any nasty surprises for staff or employers. More
New Mandatory E-Filing
With mandatory e-filing for registered pension schemes only a month away, HMRC is urging scheme administrators to make sure they’re ready for the big day. From 16 October 2007, pension scheme administrators will have to submit the following information electronically:-
- Applications to register a pension scheme;
- Registered Pension Scheme Returns;
- Accounting for Tax Returns;
- Scheme Administrator’s Declarations;
- Event Reports;
- Notifications of the winding-up of a registered pension scheme; and
- Notifications of a scheme administrator terminating their appointment.
To submit information online, scheme administrators (or practitioners acting on their behalf) must register with HM Revenue and Customs Pension Schemes Online service. It can take up to seven working days to activate a new account — as some information has to be sent by post — so HMRC is urging those who haven’t to sign up now.
Registering is easy — simply visit HMRC’s online registration page and select ‘Pensions’. You can then apply for either a Scheme Administrator or a Practitioner ID (if you don’t already have one).
Once you’ve received your ID, you can choose to send information using your own software, or the free software provided by HMRC. If you need further help or advice on using Pensions Schemes Online, HMRC has produced a guide for using the service.
If that doesn’t answer your questions, the Pension Scheme Helpdesk can be contacted on (0115) 974 1600. More
New holiday legislation — starts October 2007
The holiday season may be over but the topic is not going away. The new legislation, which came into force the beginning of this month, will give increased statutory holiday entitlement and many employers may be confused about the new regulations believing that they may suddenly have to increase the holiday entitlement of their entire workforce.
However there is no need to panic. Currently, employees are entitled to a statutory minimum of 20 days of paid holiday per year. It is important to appreciate (and many people don’t) that under current legislation, this is inclusive of all 8 public holidays, and so legally, employers only have to allow an employee to take twelve additional days holiday at a time of their choice. From 1st October 2007, the minimum entitlement will be increased from 20 to 24 days and then again to 28 days in April 2009 — however this will still be inclusive of all public holidays. More
Sabbatical fanatical
A report from Norwich Union says 25 per cent of workers are planning a sabbatical in the next year and the rest believe they’re entitled to one. It found 72 per cent believe employers will have to offer sabbaticals in order to attract and retain staff.
Lunch folly
One in five workers does not take any lunch break, according to research by pollster YouGov. The survey, conducted for business services firm Croner, questioned 1,234 people and found that 19 per cent of respondents do not take any time off in the middle of the day.
Tea trolley
A survey of 1,000 office staff for recruitment agency Office Angels showed a break to buy tea and cakes from a trolley — a regular feature of offices in the past — would help motivate them. Other traditions that workers want revived include a subsidised canteen, an annual works outing, and, above all, having a full hour’s break for lunch. See more on this in the Autumn issue of Unlimited.
Emails overload
More than a third of workers say they feel ‘stressed out’ by the number of emails they receive in the office and the pressure to respond promptly. Researchers in Scotland found some workers are viewing their inbox up to 40 times each hour, leaving them tired and frustrated — as well as unproductive.
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