The government’s Employment Rights Bill is set to bring in some profound, and welcome, reforms. But underlying issues around health, wellbeing, presenteeism and productivity will still need to be addressed, argues Karl Bennett.
The government’s new Employment Rights Bill proposes some of the biggest changes to UK workplaces seen for decades.
With an agenda centred around the importance of economic growth, the new government has fastened on to improving productivity, and unlocking employee potential, how it can be done through increasing commitment and motivation.
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The raft of ‘rights’ involved are seen as being important for re-energising the workplace contract – but there are question marks around what they will mean for some of the underlying issues that have been an ever-growing problem for productivity.
These include the rising levels of absence and long-term absence, the serious issues with stress, burnout and mental illnesses. In other words, will the major plans for workplaces do anything for employee health and wellbeing?
Among the 28 reforms within the Employment Rights Bill, there are a number that are aimed towards protection and security.
One proposal will remove the two-year qualifying period for protection from unfair dismissal; others ensure new recruits have the same rights from day one of their employment: access to paternity leave, parental leave, bereavement leave and statutory sick pay, as well as the right to ask for flexible working.
Right to guaranteed working hours
People working on zero-hours or low-hours contracts will have the right to guaranteed working hours if they work regular hours over a defined period (with the suggestion that the qualifying period is set at 12 weeks).
Rights have to come with responsibilities. Taking on more people with more rights, who are even harder to move on if they’re not working out, isn’t attractive.”
There would be more protection against dismissal for employees during pregnancy, on maternity leave and within six months of returning to work. The government has also signalled support for increasing worker pay, which can only be positive in terms of feelings of financial security.
In order to provide ongoing monitoring and enforcement of rules, the bill recommends the creation of a Fair Work Agency, to make sure employees are getting access to holiday pay and statutory sick pay. It will also ensure employers are complying with legislation on addressing gender pay gaps and mandatory reporting on ethnicity and disability pay gaps.
Will feelings of protection and security be the only outcome from the increase in employee rights?
Rights have to come with responsibilities. Taking on more people with more rights, who are even harder to move on if they’re not working out, isn’t attractive. So, some employers might well want to cut back on recruitment plans and be far more cautious when it comes to who they recruit.
This may mean higher workloads for established staff and more use of AI and automation. Untested, younger employees with a strong sense of entitlement, especially, could look like a risk too far.
Employers might well also feel they have to get tougher on performance and outputs, to make sure they are getting a fair return on all the extra employment rights they’re offering.
UK’s productivity challenges
At the heart of the UK’s productivity challenges are issues of health and wellbeing. A recent study by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think-tank has argued that the cost of sickness among employees has risen by £30bn since 2018.
The whole landscape of health and wellbeing and the role of business has changed, it says. Presenteeism has been singled out as one of the core problems. Because while sick leave is now at an average level of 6.7 days a year, up from 3.7 days in 2018, around 44 days of productivity a year are lost due to people working through sickness (up from 35 days in 2018).
Similarly, the work by the Commission for Healthier Working Lives has shown that around 300,000 people aged 16-64 with a ‘work-limiting health condition’ leave the UK workforce each year – and they are three times less likely to eventually return to work.
It’s a growing issue: one in five or 20% of the working-age population has a work-limiting condition, up 15% on 10 years ago. Much of the growth has been caused by mental health issues, with the number pointing to mental illness as the cause of their departure having doubled in the period.
For employers, it means another way in which productivity is being undermined, through lost talent and experience and the consequent disruption to teams.
Employee health is clearly on the government’s radar (as demonstrated by its high-profile plan to offer more access to weight loss injections as a means of getting people struggling with obesity to return to work).
But, as OH and wellbeing professionals will know, it’s critical that an employee health strategy is focused on dealing with the causes of ill health and not just symptoms.
No ‘right to switch off’
With this in mind, it was disappointing that announcements around the Employment Rights Bill have not included what would have been the most significant step forward: the planned ‘right to switch off’, to finally help address the impact of digital working and its pressures.
A tailored approach, with OH and HR working closely with their EAP provider and accessing its bank of insights to identify real needs can lead to the tangible outcomes needed”
Instead, there is expected to be advice and guidance rather than the kind of legislation introduced by Australia and Ireland.
Organisations need to get to the root of problems, untouched by the provision of more rights and protections for employees (accompanied by more scrutiny and pressures). How aware are most employers of the detail of their wellbeing landscape?
The reasons their staff are absent or not performing, which teams or areas are struggling with workload pressures, with questions over management styles, problems with relationships, or escalating worries over finances. Is their training for managers to hold constructive, productive return to work, leavers and one-to-one sessions with their team? How can people best be supported so that they feel part of something?
It’s in this context that an employee assistance programme can be used as an early warning system.
More wellbeing services and benefits clearly haven’t been the answer. A tailored approach, with OH and HR working closely with their EAP provider and accessing its bank of insights to identify real needs, can lead to the tangible outcomes needed, lower levels of stress and more engaged and motivated people.
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