eResponse Recruitment

Working Mums

Most workers feel their bosses do not do enough to encourage women on maternity leave to return to work, according to research by Monster.

The poll found that only 17% of workers felt their employers did everything to encourage women back to work, but a further 36% believed that their employer would discourage mothers to return to work because they would rather employ someone without commitments.

Employment legislation provides new and expectant mothers with special rights and protection, including: the right to takes time off for antenatal care; maternity leave and pay, return to work to the same job; request flexible working and protection from suffering a detriment or dismissal on pregnancy grounds.

However Julian Acquari, Managing Director of Monster UK and Ireland , said the measures were not enough.

He said: Our poll demonstrates that, despite legislation, there is still a feeling among workers that new mothers do not receive the support in coming back to work that they deserve from their employers.

"Women's careers don't end with having children - many women look forward to rejoining the work force, not to mention that raising a child can be expensive and many new mothers still need to work to provide the vital added income."

National Minimum Wage to rise this October

Gordon Brown announced today that the National Minimum Wage (NMW) will rise from October.

Adults who receive GBP5.52 an hour will receive GBP5.73, 18-21-year-olds will get a rise of 17p an hour to GBP4.77 and 16-17-year-olds will be paid GBP3.53, up from GBP3.40.

The government said nearly one million low paid employees, two thirds of them women, will benefit from the increase.

The government has also boosted funding for enforcement of the NMW and is planning tough new penalties for rogue employers who underpay staff as part of the Employment Bill, now before the Parliament.

Business Secretary John Hutton said: "The National Minimum Wage remains one of the most important rights introduced by the government in the last decade. Before it was introduced, some workers could expect to be paid as little as 35p an hour; our legislation has ensured that can no longer happen."

"I am proud of the minimum wage; it makes a real difference to the lives of many of our lowest-paid workers and protects them from exploitation. It also creates a level playing field for business and boosts the economy."

When the NMW was launched the main rate was GBP3.60.

New measures which aim to enforce the minimum wage and crack down on rogue employers include a fairer method for dealing with NMW arrears, calculated so that workers do not lose out as a result of underpayment and increasing the maximum penalty for non-payment of the NMW to an unlimited fine. The most serious cases of non-compliance will be tried in a crown court.

Job Interviews

Personal Hygiene has been cited as a key problem among job hunters with 47% of recruiters questioned said they had received negative feedback from employers found a survey recently conducted by the REC.

The survey also revealed anecdotes such as acandidate turning up in a ball gown for an interview with a fashion company, another candidate claimed he was very proficient at Sony Playstation, several candidates tried to charm their interviewer by offering them sweets and one candidate was too cain to wear her glasses at interview and mistook a cupboard for the exit on her way out.

Almost all respondants (93%) had received feedback from employers about a job hunters interview appearance with 16-20 year olds identified as the worst offenders for dressing inappropriately. Casual clothing was an issue according to 63% of recruiters with one in four (23%) mentioning inappropriate footwear, one in three (29%) citing revealing clothing and one in five (19%), excessive jewellery.

Staff Discipline

Almost half of employers avoid disciplining staff through fear of being sued, accordingly to research conducted by employment law firm peninsular.

The research found that 89% of employers would discipline staff if they were legally confident.

It found that only 79% of employers fear that because of an increase in employee rights, its only a matter of time before they are taken to an employment tribunal.

David Price, head of employee relations at Peninsula, says: "Many businesses these days are so convinced that employment law is weighted on the side of the employees, that they are afraid to tackle serious issues in the workplace. Employers should not be afraid of using disciplinary and grievance procedures. If used correctly they ensure that everybody is dealt with fairly and reasonably. Employers must ensure that they are compliant with current legislation as there is confusion among employers as to what rights employees have today."

BlogCatalog Listing

Just listed our blog in BlogCatalog which looks a really useful resource for finding blogs on most topics. Take a look at:

http://www.blogcatalog.com/directory/business

If you can suggest other places we should list our blog please leave details in a comment.

Managers not managing underperformance

According to research by Watson Wyatt Managers need to do more to help poorer performing staff.

"Managers find it easy to motivate high performing indviduals but are not so adept when it comes to supporting poorer performing employees" says Carol Hathaway of Watson Wyatt.

"Some of the greatest opportunities for improved organisational performance lie in helping Managers raise the bar for moderate and poorer performers but it appears from our study that few employers are doing this".

In it's 2007/2008 Global Strategic rewards study Watson Wyatt found that only a third of poor performers said their Manager does a good job in commuicating expectations for organisational financial performance, of establishing goals for their individual performance linked back to business objectives or of providing direct feedback on their personnal performance.

However, a top performer was 66% more likely to say that their immediate Supervisor does a good job of communicating organisational and performance management issues than a poor performer would, the survey found.

Wages on the Rise

The average salary for a job advertised in the UK over the last 6 months has risen again to £31,969 a Year.

Job search engine www.allthetopbananas.com which analysed 875,560 jobs to produce it's salary index found the average advertised salary has gone up £679 since the salary index was introduced in October.

London stays top of the regions with the highest average advertsied salary at £38,504

West Midlands has moved up a place in the index with our average salary now £29,169

Dave Martin, the MD of www.allthetopbananas.com is quoted: "The salary index has shown there is a definate trend of average advertised salaries increasing across much of the UK. If, as some people predict, confidence in the UK economy cools in the first few months of 2008 it will be interesting to see how that affects advertised salaries."

Paul Alekna of eResponse Recruitment commented that more so than ever businesses recognise the importance of their core staff and as such are now prepared to pay more for the right employee. This, coupled with core industries still suffering with skills shortages, means we are unlikely to see this reduce during 2008.

The Office Party

This Years Office party was at the The Belfry Friday 7th December. Our party nights are always fantastic fun with pretty much everyone making the most of the tab behind the bar all evening.

As my memory isn't what it was I had Jayne summarise on the evening for us:

Ok it all started in a stretch hummer about 7sh on Friday god how we sang on that karaoke!!!!

Fun to be had by all except of course the driver and any passing motorists with their windows down!!!

We then fell out the hummer into the toilets (too much cheap plonk)

Onto the ball…

We sat around the tables waiting to be fed too pass the time we decided to play

“fuzzy Duck!” Ducky Fuzz

needless to say  after a short while it all went FUZZY!!!!!

My memories from then on………acrobats, a little breakdancing (we are so cool)!!! A man in a kilt – not elaborating!!

Hummer karaoke bed….

Who put the vice on my head!!!!

Winding down for Christmas?

One in Three workers will be winding down for Christmas from 5pm today a teletext survey revealed. According to the research some 9m who admitted they will do virtually do no work next week and instead induldge in Surfing the web, Christmas Shopping and Office Gossip!

Half the workers confessed to noticably slow down in the build up to the Christmas break with more than a third revealing 14th December when the holiday feeling really starts to kick in.

The survey of more than 2,500 people also find that nearly half thought that it was acceptible to come into work with a hangover during the pre-christmas week.

A fifth of those polled said they would spend up to 5 hours online at work looking for holidays for next Year or buy gifts for friends and family.

And whilst there's plenty of Christmas spirit at eResponse HQ customers can rest assured we're still working through last minute pre-January requirements.

Tough Penalties for Rogue Employers

The Government today published the Employment Bill aimed at toughening penalties for rogue employers who pay under the minimum wage.  It also seeks to strengthen the powers of the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate.

Commenting on the Bill, Tom Hadley, the REC's Director of External Relations said: “We welcome this Bill as it aims to crack down on those employers and agencies that are breaking the rules.  REC members abide by our Code of Professional Practice as well as the law.  It is not right for them to be undercut by agencies that are cutting corners and mistreating workers.”

The Bill aims to introduce new penalties for employers who do not pay the minimum wage.  The Inspectorate who governs the recruitment industry will also be given more investigative powers and access to unlimited fines for those who flout the law.

Commenting on these new powers, Tom Hadley added: “Over recent years, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate has re-focused its resources to a risk-based approach.  The plans to increase the number of inspectors as well as the powers of the inspectorate can only be welcome by the recruitment industry.

“Our industry should be applauded for placing 1.3 million people into temporary jobs every week.  For too long the actions of a few rogue agencies have tarnished this reputation.  The REC hopes that the new powers and resource for the inspectorate will result in the rogues being put out of business for good."

The REC polices its Code of Professional Practice through a complaints procedure.  For further information see: http://www.rec.uk.com/about-recruitment/standards/Complaints-Disciplinary-Procedure