News & Press

Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) is a new way for parents to share statutory leave and pay on the birth of a child. It will be available for working parents whose baby is due on or after 5 April 2015, or who adopt a child on or after that date.

Mindfulness techniques are being promoted in the management press as the answer to changing the way people think, feel and act in the workplace. The claims made are considerable and growing: that it reduces stress and sickness absence; re-energises employees and improves personal resilience; enhances an individual’s ability to cope with change and uncertainty; increases creative thinking; and increases socially responsible behaviour at work.

Management and Leadership skills have been associated with a wide range of outcomes of importance – productivity, innovation, employee safety and wellbeing, and employee engagement for example.

As the general election approaches, it’s a good time to ask whether the labour market has emerged in good shape, eight years after the financial crisis and five years after the implementation of macro-economic ‘austerity’. Nigel Meager, IES Director, considers the key points.

The responsibility to manage work-related risks at an early stage lies mainly with employers, but the active involvement of workers is also crucial. Overall, involving workers in the management of occupational health and safety is recognised as a key enabler in terms of identifying and reducing risk: through effectively working together on risk prevention, workers and managers can identify joint solutions and ensure full cooperation for workplace safety, health and wellbeing. It is acknowledged that this can have a real impact on accident and injury rates. Research1 analysing the relationship between worker representation and industrial injuries in UK manufacturing found that employers who had trade union health and safety committees had half the injury rate of those employers who managed safety without unions or joint arrangements.

Demand on the NHS is steadily increasing, with no sign that this will subside in the near future, if recent news items are anything to judge by: there have been reports that pressure on hospital A&E departments has led several to declare ‘major incident’ status. These pressures have led managers to consider potential ways in which services can be delivered more cost-effectively. One of the questions that managers have particularly considered is the nature of the tasks that require professionally-qualified staff – those at band 5 and above in the NHS ‘Agenda for Change’ grading and pay structure – to undertake them.

As public sector bodies, all colleges and training providers are required to ensure that students receive equitable provision of and access to services. In addition, they are also required to consciously consider: eliminating discrimination, harassment and violence; advancing equality of opportunity; and fostering good relationships by tackling prejudice and promoting understanding. IES was commissioned to evaluate the Skills Funding Agency's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion grants from 2010-2013. We found that this funding was crucial for many providers, especially in a financial climate where some may be tempted to cut back on EDI as an organisational or strategic priority.

Social and demographic changes, in addition to the rise of new technology, have meant that flexible working and work-life balance have become mainstream issues in the UK labour market. The most recent UK survey of work-life balance, by IFF in collaboration with IES, gives an overview.