#workingfromhome

30 10 2023

87% of staff mix WFH with childcare | Consensus HR | Herts, Beds

Matthew Chilcott Blog, Disciplinary & Grievance, Employment Contracts, Employment Law, General, Handbook, Health & Safety #bedfordshirebusinesses, #hertfordshirebusinesses, #outsourcedhumanresources, #workingfromhome, bedfordshire, Business, Business Owners, hertfordshire, HR, HR Advice, HR Consultant, HR Consultants, HR Support, outsourcedHR, Small Business, SME, SME's, stevenage

Research from Capital One has found that 87% of remote workers regularly look after their children while trying to do their day job, with 85% of remote-working parents having to work in the same room as their children. The study shows that parents working from home are also cleaning (56%), cooking (55%), helping with homework (44%) and doing the weekly food shop (44 %). The Capital One research shows that 91% of parents find it stressful juggling work duties and parental responsibilities and 37% are able to concentrate more on their work when in the office full-time. It was also shown that 64% of working parents have seen covering childcare costs become more difficult amid the cost-of-living crisis. Adam Myers of HR consultancy Stellamar says the findings point to an area of concern over remote and hybrid working, saying: “It is important to remember that if people are working at home, then they should be working, and if they are being carers to young children in particular, how much work is actually happening?”

Daily Mail

Our HR comment / advice – 87% of staff mix WFH with childcare | Consensus HR | Herts, Beds

Matthew P Chilcott, FCIPD, ACEL, Owner of Consensus HR comments: “This is an interesting article in the Daily Mail in relation to parents working from home and having to juggle their work responsibilities with their parenting duties at the same time which must be extremely hard with a detriment to one or the other as shown in the statistics. At Consensus HR we have had to support businesses and their employees on a number of occasions when it has come to parenting and work and finding suitable childcare. Unfortunately, this can be a very complicated scenario for a business when it starts to affect their work and the business and has to be managed correctly to best practice and the law or could result in drastic financial, reputable and legal problems.”

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If you run a business and have a team and wish to be able to speak to a HR consultant when dealing with any HR / Employment areas, give us a non-obligatory call now – 01438 576750 ‘Consensus HR – Helping companies take the pain our of managing people whilst preventing people problems.”

YOUR OUTSOURCED HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT.

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06 09 2023

Mentally ill to be told to work from home in benefits shake-up. | Consensus HR – Herts, Beds

Matthew Chilcott Absence Management, Blog, Disciplinary & Grievance, Employment Contracts, Employment Law, General, Health & Safety, Performance Management, Recruitment #employeehealth, #Health&Safety, #mentallyill, #outsourcing, #workingfromhome, bedfordshire, Business, Business Owners, hertfordshire, HR, HR Advice, HR Consultant, HR Consultants, HR Support, outsourcedHR, Small Business, SME, SME's, stevenage

Ministers are to consult on a change to the rules for benefit claimants meaning that those with mobility and mental health problems will be told to look for work they can do from home. The move comes as the government looks for ways to fill job vacancies and cut the benefits bill. The reforms, proposed by Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary, come as the proportion of those assessed for incapacity benefits and classed as unable to work has tripled to 65% since 2011, costing the taxpayer £26bn a year. Mr Stride said this was “holding back the labour market and the economy but perhaps most important of all, it is holding back human potential.” But disability campaigners said the changes would cause “huge anxiety” and amounted to a “cynical” attempt to reduce benefit payments. The changes would not come into force until 2025, however, due to “the need to make changes to regulations and ensure appropriate training for health assessors,” Mr Stride said.

Our HR comment – Mentally ill to be told to work from home in benefits shake-up.

Matthew P Chilcott, FCIPD, ACEL, Owner of Consensus HR comments: “This is an interesting article and suggestion by the Government and whether it solves the problem it is seeking to solve, is the question. It one context it will help but is people with a mobility or mental health problem working from home the right answer. Should they not be in the workplace working and communicating / mixing with fellow workers? Could flexible working be the answer, where they work 3 days in the office and two days at home? Obviously I am not the medical professional but the HR one and as with us when we have to deal with anything medical, I always say, we must go to the professionals who have the qualifications and experience to answer these questions through the use of Occupational Health of GP reports so that we can make the necessary reasonable adjustments or a phased return to get them back into the workplace. Believe me, this is never easy for both the company or the member of the team involved.”

What are your views?

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If your company is having problems with high sickness or mental health within the workplace and would like to talk to somebody on how to get them back into the workplace, give us a call now.

YOUR OUTSOURCED HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT.

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04 09 2023

Hundreds of council staff are ‘working from the beach’ | Consensus HR – Herts, Beds

Matthew Chilcott Absence Management, Blog, Employment Contracts, Employment Law, General #outsourcing, #workingfromhome, bedfordshire, Business, Business Owners, hertfordshire, HR, HR Advice, HR Consultant, HR Consultants, HR Support, Small Business, SME, SME's, stevenage

More than 1,350 requests to work from overseas have been granted to staff by town hall bosses over the past three years, figures show. The number jumped from 73 approvals in 2020/21, to 440 in 2021/22, to then surge to 700 last year. According to responses to Freedom of Information requests by the TaxPayers’ Alliance, one local authority granted nearly 300 requests over the three-year period. Croydon Council in south London allowed an employee to log on from abroad for 842 days, and a Wigan Council staff member has worked from France for two years. The phenomenon has been branded “working from the beach.” Separate figures from RSM in July showed that 33% of businesses are allowing employees to work remotely outside the UK. Conservative MPs have called for an investigation, describing the figures as “outrageous” and “absurd,” but councils argued the policies helped them attract and retain the right staff. Meanwhile, The Telegraph reports that Downing Street is poised to issue new guidance to all Whitehall departments in a bid to end the culture of ‘Tuesday to Thursday’ working which has developed since the pandemic. One option being considered is to enforce a set number of days that officials have to work in the office, which would probably be fixed at four per week. Jeremy Quin, the Paymaster General, will launch the push as part of efforts to boost public sector productivity, which has plummeted since Covid.

The Daily Telegraph

Daily Mail

Our HR Comment: – Hundreds of council staff are ‘working from the beach’

Matthew P Chilcott, FCIPD, ACEL, Owner of Consensus HR comments: “Latest recent news now seems to continually show the recent change in where people work and we have written a number of blogs on this subject which can be seen below and now with this latest in relation to local authorities and their teams, it seems to becoming even more the main employee relations subject since the Pandemic, when everything changed.

Here are some of our previous blogs on the subject:

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If your company is currently finding it a problem with the team working from home and not in the office and you wish to investigate and implement a solution / way forward, give us a call now.

YOUR OUTSOURCED HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT.

For further information on any of the HR subjects we provide, please click the heading below:

29 08 2023

Office appeal is needed amid remote work spike | Consensus HR – Herts, Beds

Matthew Chilcott Blog, Employment Contracts, Employment Law, General #herts, #outsourcing, #remoteworking, #workingfromhome, bedfordshire, Business, Business Owners, hertfordshire, HR, HR Advice, HR Consultant, HR Consultants, HR Support, outsourcedHR, Small Business, SME, SME's, stevenage

The Sunday Times says that while some companies are looking to bring staff back into the office, the broader trend of working from home is proving far more resilient. While analysis shows that pre-pandemic, 5% of people said they worked from home most of the time, a year ago, 13% of workers said they worked from home exclusively. It was also found that 22% said they had worked from home for at least one day in the previous week. The Sunday Times looks at the shift, saying many office workers “couldn’t wait to dump the commute,” while many employers “were only too happy to close offices and reduce costs in town and city centres.” It also says that allowing staff to work at home “is an easy way for employers to boost morale.” Nick Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford University, estimates that people value the ability to work from home for two or three days a week about as much as they would an 8% pay rise. The piece goes on to suggest that if hybrid working is here to stay, “offices must continue to evolve from battery farms into hubs for meeting, swapping ideas and socialising.”

The Sunday Times

Our HR Comment:- Office appeal is needed amid remote work spike

Matthew P Chilcott, FCIPD, ACEL, Owner of Consensus HR comments: “More an more articles / news stories are now saying that since the Pandemic, employees prefer to work from home at least a few days a week and I must admit when you look at jobs that are currently available more are becoming Hybrid and is this a change that is here to stay? These statistics in ‘The Sunday Times’ looks like it could be for at least one day a week. We have written many blogs in the past where companies are now changing the working week but to ensure team culture remains are insisting that employees attend the office at least 2-3 days a week so that team meetings etc can take place. At Consensus HR we have seen both, some organisations due to the sector they are in, requiring the team to return to the office and other offering up to 3 days in the office and two working from home, which tends to be Monday and Friday.

What are your views?

Here are a few of our previous blogs written on the subject:

Contact us now

If you wish to look at your companies current working week and how it may be changed following the Pandemic whilst ensuring continued / growing business success, give us a call now.

YOUR OUTSOURCED HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT.

For further information on any of the HR subjects we provide, please click the heading below:

Accountancy firms return to in-person interviews | Consensus HR - Herts, Beds

27 06 2023

Anxiety and working from home fuel rise in long-term sickness, says minister.

Matthew Chilcott Blog, Employment Contracts, General, Health & Safety #anxiety, #longtermsick, #workingfromhome, Business, Business Owners, HR, HR Advice, HR Consultant, HR Consultants, HR Support, Small Business, SME, SME's

Work and pensions secretary Mel Stride has suggested that social media-driven anxiety and the physical strain of working from home at uncomfortable desks have contributed to the sharp rise in people suffering long-term sickness. Stride is promising an expansion of schemes that offer life coaches to those with long-term health conditions to ensure that they can find work and do not spend years languishing on benefits. He added that a larger workforce would also reduce Britain’s dependency on importing workers. Net migration rose to a record 606,000 last year. “There’s clearly pressure on a tight labour market for more inward migration, immigration, and we recognise that we need to get those net migration numbers down,” Stride said.

The Times

‘My’ Comment: Anxiety and working from home fuel rise in long-term sickness, says minister –Matthew Pinto-Chilcott, FCIPD, ACEL, Owner of Consensus HR Comments:

“I must admit we are seeing this within our Consultancy and with our clients and their teams. Depending on what news you are watching or reading at this present time, we are hearing a range of stories which often contradict one another, and we are still in the early days after a Pandemic. The flexibility of having the option to work from home sounds like a great benefit for a couple of days a week but ensuring that all Health & Safety measures such as the correct desks and DSE are covered is a lot harder to maintain and it will be a long time until we see if there are any consequences as those which are shown already in this article from ‘The Times’

What is your opinion?

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If you need support with your HR and working to best practice, give us a call now

YOUR OUTSOURCED HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT.

For further information on any of the HR subjects we provide, please click the heading below:

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