Sign in
Courtesy navigation
Blog posts tagged HR
How much work satisfaction do you get?
April 25, 2013
Research published recently suggests the average working adult in the UK is “59% happy in their current job role”. Researchers commissioned by Surbiton High School asked 2,000 employees to rate their level of contentment at work in 11 key areas, “from pay and company perks to relationships with colleagues and management”.
According to the study, workers are generally satisfied with their holiday allowance and relationship with colleagues, giving ratings of seven out of ten for both. Perks received four out of ten, the lowest score, with employees believing they should be entitled to mobile phones, laptops and even private health care.
Respondents were unhappy about their promotion prospects, which were rated just five out of 10. They gave a more encouraging six out of ten each for level of pay, relationship with the boss, work load, working hours, working environment, social life, size of team and hierarchy.
14% claimed they would be happier if they were allowed regular tea breaks, while 34% appreciated being able to manage their own workload. One in three said they liked the feeling of being able to make a difference, while 22% wanted to be able to talk to people every day. An easy commute was also important to 35% of people, while 18% said they would appreciate yearly bonuses.
When it comes to profession, teachers were happiest at work (presumably the poll took place before Education Secretary Michael Gove called for pupils to work longer days and have fewer holidays), with the “satisfaction they gained from working with children far outweighing the negatives”. Secretaries were second happiest group at work, followed in order by engineers, accountants, drivers, shop assistants, caterers, trades people, lawyers and those working in customer care.
Career dissatisfaction continues to be a key reason why people continue to give up their jobs to start their own business, with numbers continuing to rise. According to Enterprise Nation, there was a 10% increase in new businesses in 2012 (484,224) when compared to 2011 (440,600).
Join the fight against youth unemployment
March 14, 2013
It’s hardly the greatest time to be a young British adult, trying to make your way in the cruel new world in which we find ourselves.
Punitive fees and budget-busting living costs mean a university education is set to once again become the preserve of society’s wealthier members. With households under immense pressure, many parents (even those who would be considered fully paid-up members of the middle classes), simply can’t find the money to pay for their sons and daughters to go to university.
Hard luck. Welcome to the real world, you might say. Why not go and get a job like the rest of us? Well, things aren’t that easy. As reported by the Mail Online in late January, according to a study by the Work Foundation, youth unemployment in the UK has increased at a faster rate than any country in the G8 since the start of the recession five years ago.
Youth unemployment rate
Indeed, out of the countries that make up the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), only Spain and Greece have higher rates of youth unemployment than the UK (currently standing at about 1m). Youth unemployment here in the UK among 15 to 24 year olds increased by a staggering 35 per cent between 2008 and 2011, compared to an average of 15 per cent in the G8 countries (ie Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, UK and USA). The politicians should hang their heads in shame for failing young people so badly, you might say.
According to the Work Foundation report, during the same period youth unemployment decreased in Germany, Russia and Japan, which, said the report’s authors, suggests that youth unemployment problems in the UK couldn’t be attributed entirely to the recession, other factors have clearly played a part.
One of the report’s author, Lizzie Crowley, said: “'The government should focus on those policies that have been shown to work, cherry-picking the best responses from other countries and adapting them to the needs of the UK labour market.”
Government support
Many experts see apprenticeships as a useful weapon in the fight against endemic youth unemployment in the UK and elsewhere. The Work Foundation report recommended that the government should do more to encourage larger businesses in particular to sign up to an apprenticeship agreement.
Another report published recently by the Centre for Economics and Business Research claimed that 3.8m people will complete an apprenticeship in the next decade, contributing £3.4bn to the UK economy a year in productivity gains by 2022.
Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable, said: "This research confirms the economic importance of apprenticeships and sends a clear message that they deliver for employers, individuals and the economy. I want to see more small and medium-sized businesses reap the benefits of apprenticeships, which is why we have introduced a £1,500 incentive for SMEs who take on a young person.”
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said apprentices were “vital to Great British business”. He continued: “They are at the heart of our drive to provide employers with people who have the skills needed for their businesses to prosper and compete, often in a global market.”
National Apprenticeship Week
This week, National Apprenticeship Week (NAW) 2013 is taking place. According to the National Apprenticeship Service, which organises NAW: “Apprenticeships deliver real returns, helping [you] to improve productivity and be more competitive. Training apprentices can also be more cost-effective than hiring skilled staff, leading to lower overall training and recruitment costs.
"Apprenticeships deliver skills designed around your business needs, providing the skilled workers you need for the future. They also help you develop the specialist skills you need to keep pace with the latest technology and working practices in your sector.”
Although many employers choose to pay more, the National Minimum Wage for apprentices is £2.65 per hour, making them an affordable option for many firms. There are even grants available to some employers. Maybe it’s time your business joined the fight against youth unemployment and took on an apprentice. Looks like the politicians need all the help they can get.
- Visit the National Apprenticeship Service website for more information about taking on apprentices.
Culture as the new marketing
September 28, 2011
The light bulb went off for me when I read Marketing 3.0 by Kottler. For a brand to be authentic there needs to be full alignment with the culture in the organisation. HR is the new marketing.
Almost as an extension of that is the increasing belief that passion is the ‘X-factor’ in culture. My friend, colleague and business partner Yanky Fachler wrote about the need for “fire in the belly” ten years ago. Since then books such as Mavericks At Work, Poke the Box and The Thank You Economy all agree that passion can and should be the driving force for your business. Their argument is that in a world where everything is commoditised and similar, the only way to differentiate yourself is with your passion.
Since Marketing 3.0, Bookbuzz has covered a wide range of books in the HR and marketing space all touching on that subject. They include:
- Hacking Work – people taking control of their work from the outside in.
- The Talent Masters – Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers – recruit and retain your best people and your business will fly.
- Loose: The Future of Business is Letting Go: How to Break the Rules of Business – the future is not rigid but loose – loose organisations, loose management styles and loose ways of working.
- Toyota Under Fire – invest consistently in culture and you can manage any crisis.
- The great workplace – how to build it and why it matters, investment in staff will give you a six-times higher return on your share value
The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk really hit it home for me. He would go as far to say that the next battleground for business after e-commerce and technology will be culture. The book is about extreme customer care (similar to “delivering happiness” and how to use social media. What do you think he thinks is most important for businesses, customers or staff? Giving his obsession with customer care you would suspect he would maintain that the customers are most important. Nope, he is adamant that your focus should be on your staff.
And he takes a leaf out of Why work sucks and how to fix it and applies ROWE (the results only work environment) approach. No rules; treat staff as adults. He talks about the need for a Chief Culture Officer, which is not to be confused with the Chief Curiosity Office that Little Bets and Egonomics would suggest. What else does he say?
- It starts with you and you need to be authentic and set the tone (customers will smell BS a mile away).
- Make sure you know all your staff and spend a lot of time with them (one-to-one management).
- Empower your staff. He suggests giving every employee a personal £200 marketing budget.
As a start-up and as a small business, “culture as the new battle ground” is good news. This is where you can compete with big business. They can’t beat you on culture. If you don’t believe me, I suggest you read Killing Giants.
Employees and business responsibilities
June 14, 2010
In the latest installment of Marcela from Rico Mexican Kitchen's startup story, she employs her first member of staff and decides how best to distribute the everyday responsibilities.
Marcela was advised that her new employee would be extremely important to her business so she wanted to find someone she could trust and who could take on some of the responsibilities to allow her to concentrate on making Rico Mexican Kitchen a success. Having found that employee, can they find the right balance between friendship and work relationship?
With her new employee in place, they created a mind map to help them list all of the jobs that need to be done, who will be responsible for what and how they can support each other.
Do you have any advice for Marcela on her new employee and how having him around may affect her and the business? How can she ensure she is aware of what needs to be done at all times? How much input should she have in the work done by her employee now that they have split their responsibilities?
You can find out more about Marcela on the interactive business website www.inafishbowl.com
A fair appraisal?
December 06, 2007
I dread appraisals. I sit through every one clenched and sweating, convinced I’ve cost the company gazillions in lost business and waiting for my boss to tell me to clear my desk and get out. I expect I have a face like a frightened deer. I also expect my boss thinks I have some sort of nervous disorder (I probably do).
In fact, I usually leave the room feeling fairly chipper. I’m lucky enough to work for a company that uses appraisals to give a fair review, set realistic objectives and listen to what I have to say about the business. Which is as it should be, right?
It seems I’m one of the lucky ones. An Investors in People survey revealed this week that almost one in three (29%) UK employees believe appraisals are a waste of time, and just under a quarter (23%) think their boss sees an appraisal as nothing more than a bureaucratic exercise.
This is a shame, because no matter how much I dread my appraisal I appreciate its value. But it gets worse. The research implies that the UK’s small businesses don’t particularly care about appraisals, with only slightly more than half (54%) even bothering to offer them to staff. This compares with four in five (81%) bigger businesses.
It’s easy to take figures like these and use them to create a picture of an army of hard-nosed small business owners shouting “Stop whingeing and get on with it!” every time an employee has the cheek to express a smidgeon of dissatisfaction. But I don’t believe this for a second. In fact, I’m willing to bet that most of the people who think their appraisal is a waste of time work for bigger businesses, not smaller ones.
The reason I think this is something the big boss at our company, BHP, said to me this week. I was picking his brains for an article on staff retention and he suddenly leant forward, fixed me with a rueful gaze and declared, “The problem is, Simon, that as soon as you get to ten employees you stop having personal relationships with them. You have to introduce systems.”
He’s right. As businesses grow, the gap between the boss and the people at the other end of the chain also grows until, eventually, they don’t know each other at all, and everybody matters just a little bit less. So you need appraisals, to keep tabs on everyone – and, sometimes, just to give the impression that you care. At this point they can become a waste of time.
In a smaller business, the boss has more far more opportunity to find out what makes their staff tick, what they want to achieve, how they’re getting on with the job. Bosses who take the time to get to know their staff may not feel the need to conduct an appraisal every year or every quarter; they’re already doing it, every day. This doesn’t mean they shouldn’t conduct formal appraisals; but it does mean that when they do their appraisals are far more likely to have value, simply because they care.
Starting a new business - free advice, tools and resources | Start Up Donut
Copyright © 2009-2013
