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20 Aug 2021
by Annie Makoff

At a glance: reward and benefits headlines this week 13-19 August 2021

Your quick-read round up of the reward and benefits stories appearing in the press in the past seven days.

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Here are the headlines you might have missed between 13-19 August 2021.

71% of workers value other perks over pensions
Employee Benefits: Almost three-quarters (71%) of UK workers value office drinks, travel schemes, flexible hours and other perks over pensions, according to new data. Research from e-bike subscription service Dash Rides and Sapio with 2,013 UK workers showed that despite this, employees still rate a pension provision in their top four benefits, along with bonus or profit-related reward schemes, flexi-hours, and mental health and wellbeing support. Read Story.

81% of employers are planning a pay review
Employee Benefits: More than four-fifths (81%) of employers are planning a pay review in the 12 months to June 2022, according to the latest Labour market outlook from the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD). Read Story.

Employers should have to ‘opt out’ of any ‘right to disconnect’
Personnel Today: If a ‘right to disconnect’ is introduced for UK workers, employers should have to demonstrate they have a good reason for ‘opting out’ of the requirement, a report has proposed. The report by future of work think-tank Autonomy says that a “right to disconnect” in the UK should function as an “opt-out legal requirement” across all firms and sectors. Read Story.

Businesses need support to reduce carbon footprint, says BCC
HR Review: Many businesses are struggling to quantify their carbon footprint, with only one in ten (11 per cent) measuring this number. That is according to new research by the British Chambers of Commerce in partnership with O2, showing that UK firms are not being environmentally proactive. Read Story.

Younger workers fail to take sufficient risks with pension savings
Corporate Adviser: An estimated four million younger workers could be losing out on investment returns because they are in low risk pensions that do not have potential for higher growth. Research, conducted by Interactive Investor, and backed by findings from LCP, found two thirds of workers aged between 18 and 39 had they have either opted for a low risk (25 per cent) or medium risk (41 per cent) option with their pension. Only 19 per cent say their pension is high risk. Read Story.

Public support for triple lock falters, particularly among the young
Corporate Adviser: Almost half of adults support government plans to maintain the triple lock on pension, but unsurprisingly the latest research shows a large generational divide on this issue. Research from Canada Life shows 46 per cent of the population believe the triple lock should remain as it is. Currently this uprates the state pension each year by the highest of average earnings, inflation or 2.5 per cent. Read Story.

Bupa warns ‘early diagnosis saves lives’ as one in ten miss cancer screenings
Healthcare & Protection: More than one in 10 people in the UK have chosen to miss or delay a cancer screening, according to a study by Bupa Health Clinics. The top reasons for missing or delaying a screening included embarrassment (23%), past bad experiences (21%), fear of the outcome (20%), anxiety (20%) and it not fitting with their working hours (19%). Read Story.

Period stigma costing UK business billions
HR Magazine: A lack of period polices is costing UK businesses over £6 billion a year, as women still feel unable to discuss PMS in the workplace. The stigma surrounding taking days off due to PMS has caused women to lose 8.4 days worth of work due to lower productivity in the workplace. Read Story.

61% of offices don’t permit music, despite over half of employees being in favour
Engage Employee: The office playlist can often lead to a heated debate. While some employees prefer to listen to music to get them through their 9-5, others wish to work in utter silence. But, according to new research, over half (54%) of workers do favour music in the office. Read Story.

Working culture for half of employees has deteriorated during the pandemic
Workplace Insight: Nearly half (42 percent) of employees think the working culture of their organisation has deteriorated during the pandemic. That’s according to research by StaffCircle, which surveyed employees and HR leaders to determine the impact of the pandemic on company culture, engagement and communication. Read Story.

Return to office doesn’t mean occupiers have lost sight of flexibility, claims report
Workplace Insight: Offices will repopulate over the remainder of this year, led by small companies – those with fewer than 100 employees, according to the EMEA Occupier Survey of 130 companies from real estate advisor CBRE. Read Story.

Returning to the office isn’t enough to create good social wellbeing
Incentive & Motivation: Experts from Tictrac say enabling consistent and meaningful interactions are still vital as employees return to the office, as physical proximity alone cannot foster significant social wellbeing. It comes as data from Aon found that less than 3 in ten employers (27%) say that virtual or remote working is a barrier to improving social wellbeing. Read Story.

Disabled employees feel unsafe returning to work
HR Magazine: Research by disability equality charity Scope has found only 2% of disabled people feel safe following the end of COVID-19 restrictions. Just over half (55%) said they feel anxious and one in four (26%) feel scared about doing things post-pandemic, such as returning to the office, now that the government has lifted shielding rules. Read Story.

Employees nervous about changing isolation rules
HR Magazine: Over half (70%) of UK working professionals feel the isolation rules surrounding contact with a COVID-positive person should not be changing. According to new research by job site CV-Library, employees are nervous about the change to the isolation rules and are looking to their employers for reassurance that the workplace will be safe. Read Story.

UK firms recognise need to improve mental health support
Corporate Adviser: Fewer than four out of 10 (39 per cent) UK firms think that the current mental health support available for employees is fit for modern-day purposes. The survey, conducted by Aon, also found that just 37 per cent UK firms believed the were ‘developing financial security for employees’ positively. A total of 19 per cent said they were failing in this areas with another 44 per cent reporting that their practices were neutral. Read Story.

Pay awards stabilise after a year of uncertainty, according to XpertHR
Incentive & Motivation: The latest data from XpertHR shows that the median basic pay award between May and July 2021 is worth 2%, unchanged on the figure seen in each of the three previous rolling quarters. However, this is a welcome stabilisation on pay after the median pay award fell to nil in the same period a year ago. Read Story.

Vacancies at record level amid ongoing staff shortages
Personnel Today: The number of job vacancies has continued to surge, but the number of employees on company payrolls is still far below pre-pandemic levels. Vacancies reached a record high of 953,000 in May to July 2021, having grown by 290,000 compared with the previous quarter and by 168,000 compared with January to March 2020, according to the Office for National Statistics. Read Story.

Third of employers expect staff to return to the workplace full time, study finds
People Management: Employers' plans for staff to return to the office are far from unanimous, according to recent data, but experts say firms need to work with employees to understand the best course of action.  A survey of 448 organisations, conducted by employment law and HR support firm Ellis Whittam, found that a third (33 per cent) of employers expected staff who previously worked full time in the workplace to return every day post-pandemic. Read Story.

61% of organisations have published an ethnicity pay gap report
Employee Benefits: Employee Benefits poll: Just over six in 10 organisations have ever published an ethnicity pay gap report, according to the latest Employee Benefits research. Ethnicity pay gap reports show the difference between the average, mean and median earnings of businesses’ Bame (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) employees and non-Bame members of staff. Read Story.

Employers still failing to offer financial education
Employee Benefits: New research has suggested employers are still not doing enough to help staff navigate their finances. According to a poll by Wealth at Work, even after the effects of jobs losses and furlough, a significant 41% of organisations are still failing to offer employees any support to enable them to better manage their money. Read Story.

Menopause protected characteristic not ruled out, says MP
Personnel Today: Changing equality law to offer greater protections to women experiencing the menopause should not be ruled out, the MP leading an inquiry into menopause discrimination has said. Women and equalities committee chair Caroline Nokes said the inquiry had heard from women who had been forced to pursue disability claims against their employers after experiencing menopause-related discrimination at work, despite menopause not being a disability. Read Story.

Few workers feel employer encourages them to look after health
Occupational Health & Wellbeing: Only three in 10 employees say their employer encourages them to look after their health, despite workplace wellbeing having risen up the corporate agenda during the pandemic. According to a survey of 2,001 people commissioned by Bupa Health Clinics, many employees still face barriers when it comes to taking time out of work to look after their health. Read Story.

Covid leads to huge increase in private GP consultations
Corporate Adviser: Healix Health Services saw an 87 per cent increase in the number of GP consultations it provides in the first half of 2021. The data, from its virtual TrustDoc service, showed that there had been signficant increases in orthopaedics and MSK consultations when compared to 2020. Data from Healix’s Holistic Health service show that almost half of consultations delivered this year were emotional wellbeing focused. Read Story.

Over half of UK employees have worked in a toxic workplace
HR Magazine: Workplace cultures have come under scrutiny after a study found 70% of UK employees have worked in a toxic workplace environment at some stage of their career. More than half of respondents (56%) said they would quit their job if they felt workplace culture was not good, according to online printer Instaprint’s research. Female employees were 8% more likely to leave a role due to a toxic culture than men. Read Story.

Two-thirds of businesses considering pay cuts for home workers, survey reveals
People Management: More than two-thirds (68 per cent) of organisations are considering pay cuts for staff who opt to work from home, new research has found.  A survey of 150 business leaders in organisations that pay location allowances, conducted by CIPHR, found that many firms said they were considering pay cuts for home workers despite over half (53 per cent) saying they’ve managed to save money by having a remote workforce. Read Story.

Care for HR teams has been overlooked during pandemic
HR Magazine: More than half (58.6%) of HR professionals in the UK say they are not being supported by their employer and that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased their workload. Nearly all (95.1%) HR professionals who responded to a survey by HR software company Breathe said their workload has increased since March 2020. Read Story.

Four in five workers fail to take advice before retiring
Corporate Adviser: The vast majority of retired people gave up work without seeking help from either a financial adviser, their workplace, or the government’s free pension service, according to new figures from Just Group. Read Story

Eight in 10 over 16s in England are fully vaccinated against Covid
Healthcare & Protection: Eight in 10 people aged over 16 in England are now fully vaccinated against Covid, according to official data. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) data reveals that as of 1 August, 80.7% of people in England aged over 16 have been fully vaccinated. Read Story.

Workplace favouritism holding back career development
HR Magazine: Only 53% of UK employees think everyone in their company is given an opportunity to grow, according to a new report by recognition and reward scheme business OC Tanner. Almost half of respondents said they felt favouritism influenced their organisation’s recognition and reward programmes, as 45% said their company consistently only rewarded high performers. Read Story.