News & Press

I recently spoke at a conference in Rome on work life balance and work innovation and their impact on organisational performance. The conference was organised by the Italian Department for Labour and brought together several speakers who could comment on the situation in Italy or bring an international perspective. I was there reporting on some cross-European research we at IES had undertaken exploring how work itself was being innovated to create greater flexibility, team working, involvement, efficiency and well-being. I'm well used to being at UK conferences where the performance or practices of the UK give cause for concern so it was fascinating to watch another nation in the same situation. Italy is not as flexible as it would like to be and this is seen as limiting the contribution of women and holding the country back in competitiveness terms.

‘Knocking the employee survey seems to be the current flavour of the month. In the past few weeks, I've heard it described in a lot of ways, rarely positively. But is there really a good and practical alternative to the employee survey?'

Now the summer is coming to an end and we are all 'back to school', literally or metaphorically, it is time to focus on the upcoming changes to employment law and other statutory duties.'

‘I regularly wonder how we can get the best out of people so that they perform as well as they can and so that they enjoy coming to work - and how easy it is for organisations and managers to get it wrong.'

The Statement of Fitness for Work (known as a ‘fit note’), was introduced on 6 April 2010 across England, Wales and Scotland, replacing the previous ‘sick note’. Its aim was to improve communication between individuals, doctors and employers on what a patient could do at work, thereby reducing sickness absence levels.

Youth centres can provide a successful setting for supporting young people in making decisions about many aspects of their health and well-being, according to an evaluation conducted by IES health and well-being researchers. The evaluation looked at a pilot project that promoted health and well-being in four youth centres, resulting in an improvement in young people’s access to advice and information on a range of topics.

Pay for apprentices in the first year of their apprenticeship, or generally for apprentices under the age of 19, had been exempt from the UK’s National Minimum Wage (NMW) regulation when this was first introduced in 1999. This exemption remained in place when a NMW was introduced for 16-17 year olds in 2004. While some recommendations for minimum weekly earnings levels for apprentices existed in England, a single hourly rate regulated within the NMW framework was only introduced on 1 October 2010.