The Work Clinic

A poll of 1000 people by supermarket Asda has revealed that half the UK population fear losing their jobs in the next six months. Given the constant media coverage of job losses, pay freezes and rising unemployment, that strikes me as an oddly low  figure. Or is it just that Asda shoppers are remarkably optimistic?

The poll also found that:

• Only 35% of those surveyed feel secure in their jobs
• 50% expected their pay to be frozen - or to fall - this year
• Men are more worried than women
• Yonger people are more worried

Andy Bond, Asda's president and chief executive, says: "It is essential that people are reassured that the fear of losing your job is much higher than the reality." But with thousands of redundancies everyday, I remain unconvinced ....

A new survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has confirmed that this year's graduates and school leavers will struggle to find work in what has become the deepest recession in decades. And it looks as if they will be the worst hit age-group.
Almost half of the employers surveyed by the CIPD said that they are not planning to recruit school leavers or graduates this summer.

Gerwyn Davies, the CIPD's public policy advisor, says: "Employers have for a long time had doubts about the employability of those leaving education. This year's crop face employers in a more choosy mood than ever before. Against this backdrop, graduates and school leavers need to sharpen their case for being picked ahead of their classmates - and fast."

Universities are going to greater lengths to help graduating students find work: while the University of Nottingham is getting ready for an influx of 'panicked' students, the University of Exeter is watching as fewer and fewer employers sign up for its summer graduate recruitment fair.

Four out of every 10 UK workers say they will have to work more than half a decade (six years) longer than they had originally planned to retire, according to research conducted by employee risks and benefits experts Aon Consulting.

According to Aon's Employee Omnibus Survey, 64% of workers believe the recession will delay their retirement plans, with one in five (19%) of these envisaging having to work a further six to nine years.

Aon points out that an older workforce will have serious knock-on effects for Britain's employers, including increased costs from salaries, training, pensions and other benefits such as health insurance and wellness programmes. However, the non-financial benefits of retaining older employees ,such as retained knowledge and experience, may far outweigh these financial costs.

Richard Strachan, senior consultant at Aon Consulting says: "There has to be a real discussion in this country about the value older workers bring to the economy, and a shift in the thinking that we have to retire at a certain pre-conceived age. Already governments around the world are shifting the retirement age to later in life to reflect increasing levels of longevity, but employers need to match this with a positive attitude to workers older than the current retirement age.

 
He adds: "As pension savings become more of a hot topic, employers need to ensure, as part of both their ongoing duty of care and an ever increasing focus on plan governance, that they highlight to members how their plans are performing and, perhaps more importantly, why and where they can access up-to-date information.

Careers website Graduate Prospects surveyed 24,500 graduates across the UK for their views on employers, based on actual experiences, rather than their perceptions pre-employment.

According to their findings, graduates seeking well-paid positions, with good training opportunities, in environmentally sound organisations, should be looking in the following places: 

Corporate social responsibility

• Accenture
• Waitrose
• DLA Piper UK
• Pinsent Masons
• GSK

Training and development

• Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
• Explore Learning
• Cancer Research UK
• DLA Piper
• Pinsent Masons

Pay and benefits package

• Sellafield
• Baker & McKenzie
• Bruckhaus

Organisational leadership and senior management

• Explore Learning
• Intel

Support, supervision and progression

• Foreign & Commonwealth Office
• Explore Learning
• The Bank of England

Recruitment and induction

• Pinsent Masons
• DLA Piper
• Baker & McKenzie
• Explore Learning
• Cancer Research UK

Mike Hill, chief executive of Graduate Prospects says: "When we launched the Real Prospects survey, we wanted to paint a true picture of graduate working life, so it was vital that the study explored all areas of employment. The findings deliver great insight into which companies perform well in key areas, so if you're a student or graduate thinking about where you'd like to work it will help you to make more informed decisions."

 
I don't know ... when I was a graduate, we had to work out these things for ourselves ....

Research carried out by business psychologists Robertson Cooper has found that a quarter of 37,000 people surveyed have gone to work while ill. While presenteeism is a complex issue, a growing number of people feel compelled to turn up at the office when they are too ill to work, and should be at home.

The research also showed that:

• Only 50% of workers surveyed reported good health
• The remaining 50% described their health as 'alright' or 'poor'

• 26% took no sick leave at all over the last 3 months, regardless of their state of health

• 51% of those in the 'good health' group reported productivity of 90% or above, compared with only 38% in the 'alright or poor health group'

Professor Ivan Robertson, managing director at Robertson Cooper, said: "Presenteeism in the workplace has a number of causes, one of which is related to feelings of job insecurity. Recently, this is likely to have been inflamed as a result of the recession."

Robertson added: "To prevent presenteeism, managers should reward people for the work they deliver, not the hours they put in. Investing in the health and wellbeing of workers pays dividends in terms of improved employee engagement and productivity. And it delivers considerable savings over and above those caused by driving down absenteeism."

Robertson Cooper is calling for a national debate on how businesses can find the right balance between absenteeism and presenteeism.