… looking at employee rights, from statutory sick pay to flexible working and parental leave.
“… to help areas in need of more workers, there will need to be creative solutions such as employers offering attractive packages including training and flexible working, and local and national authorities ensuring adequate local availability of affordable housing.”
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SUPPORTING THE WORLD OF WORK DURING THE PANDEMIC:
At the beginning of lockdown, lots of practical help was made available to help businesses and employees get through the difficult times:
Financial help and resilience: a guide – Vision Group for Sidmouth
Both companies and staff have clearly experienced a lot during the last two years.
THE GREAT RESIGNATION AFTER THE PANDEMIC:
Whilst businesses are struggling to get back on their feet, it is clear that many in the UK workforce are not prepared to ‘return to normal’:
The ‘great resignation’ and the future of work – Vision Group for Sidmouth
The ‘great resignation’ may be here to stay – Vision Group for Sidmouth
That is because many workers have experienced other ways of working:
Working from home: getting the work-life balance right – Vision Group for Sidmouth
And in recognition of this, many employers are offering a more attractive working environment:
A shorter working week in a post-pandemic world – Vision Group for Sidmouth
Rick Stein welcoming applicants of all ages and levels of experience | holsworthy-today.co.uk
Rick Stein Restaurants to offer new flexible working contracts to combat summer staff shortages
However, the news this week has very much been dominated by a dire shortage of workers in many key industries – not only because of low of pay, but because of less-than-good working conditions and shaky employee rights:
‘Improve driver conditions or we’ll charge you’, MPs warn hauliers – Supply Management
Airport crisis caused by failure to ‘hard-wire’ public cash to jobs guarantees | unitetheunion.org
SUPPORTING THE WORLD OF WORK AFTER THE PANDEMIC:
There are some ideas as to what could be done:
… to help areas in need of more workers, there will need to be creative solutions such as employers offering attractive packages including training and flexible working, and local and national authorities ensuring adequate local availability of affordable housing.
Shortage of workers threatens UK recovery – here’s why and what to do about it
And parliament has just launched a review:
The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee has launched an inquiry into the UK’s labour market as skills and worker shortages restrain the post-pandemic economic recovery.
“To give us the best possible chance we must make sure we have the right workers, with the right skills, in the right places. That’s why we’ve launched an inquiry into what employers need to accelerate the recovery, what workers need for their own stability and growth, and how new technology can be harnessed in a fair and productive economy.”
Business Committee launches UK labour market inquiry – Committees – UK Parliament
Among the issues they’ll be looking at are Artificial Intelligence (AI) and technology in the workplace, Workers’ rights and protections, Employment status and modern working practices five years on from the Taylor Review, and The impact of an ageing population on the labour market.
Finally, to just take one of these aspects, here’s a highly informative guide looking at employee rights, from statutory sick pay to flexible working and parental leave – including some very interesting points:
Whilst 22.7 million people in the UK work full time, around 8.4 million employees work part-time – and the UK has some of the most diverse ranges of working arrangements in Europe.