News

Back-to-work dread ruins weekends!

Many people have their Sunday evenings ruined because they dread going back to work on a Monday morning.

Two-thirds of people did not look forward to returning to the office after their weekend break, spending most of Sunday evening miserable, according to the survey by the Careers Advice Service.

Fears over workloads or not being able to do their job properly is the main cause of "Sunday night blues"

Leo Woodhead, of the Careers Advice Service, said: "Learning a new skill or improving the ones you already have can really help ease those Sunday night blues by boosting your confidence and adding value to other areas of your life."

Monday hangover No1 office 'sickie' trend

Monday is the most popular day for workers to pull a sickie - and in nine out of 10 cases a hangover is the reason.

Some 34% of employees chose Monday for a "sickie", with Friday next most popular at 26%.

Monday came top as it "tended to be the quietest day in work" for most - others said it was when they were more likely to get away with it. One in four said they were most likely to pull a sickie on a Friday so that they could start their weekend early. Some 41% said that they were more likely to go out on a Thursday than any other weekday night, and were often hung over on the Friday. One in 10 said that they just didn’t like working on Fridays. Wednesday was the day that people were least likely to take off, with 38% stating that it was the day that they liked most at work. One in four said that it was the day when they actually felt the most proactive.

Some 35% of those polled said that they pulled a sickie because they didn’t think they would be able to get the time off if they requested it the right way, while one in 10 didn’t want it to be taken out of their paid holiday.

"While dealing with one-off, single day absences can appear quite challenging to managers, statistics like these suggest that there may be a good reason to take action - perhaps trying out a more creative solution is the way forward."

Recruitment Today - Mar 2010

Recruiters - Value for Money???

The recruitment industry is being urged to promote the value recruiters collectively bring to the recruitment process.

The call comes from Jim Albert, Managing Director of Modis International, following research by Modis that showed 72% of companies did not believe recruiters currently delivered value for money.

The research also showed that 1 in 3 companies want to develop deeper relationships with their recruitment consultancies and focus more on developing true business partnerships, rather than employing low cost transactional recruitment models.

As the economy continues its path to fragile recovery, the role of recruiters will become increasingly important as organisations look to attract the highest calibre people to help their business grow and develop. High touch recruitment consultancies will once again help drive that activity and become the standard bearer for the recruitment conversation.

See link for full story.

New Plans For Increased Maternity Pay

British business could face forking out billions of pounds extra each year under EU moves to treble maternity pay.

A European Parliament committee has passed a plan to make firms pay new mothers their full salary for at least 20 weeks.

It would effectively treble statutory maternity pay in the UK, which currently provides women with six weeks at 90% of salary, followed by a longer period on a basic £123 a week.

Aside from the financial costs to business, the EU plans could also have a huge impact on recruitment - with more interims needed as women take longer off work and small businesses in particular increasingly reluctant (legally or not) to take on women who plan to have a family.

Digital printers 'best placed throughout recession

Printers that diversified into digital wide-format printing have found a route for survival throughout the recession, a new Canon-commissioned study has shown. The Redefinition of the Digital Printer report claimed that digital printers were best placed to survive in the current economic climate.

Initial findings, claimed that because marketing budgets were cut and runs became shorter in 2008/09, digital printers were able to capitalise on the changes more than offset print businesses. According to the study, offset output dropped more than 18% throughout the region 2009, while revenues from digital print increased 27.7%.

In the wide-format sector, 86% of companies cited production as a route for survival in the recession and a growing number of printers moved into the sector to open up new sales channels. In addition, the survey found that more than half of companies polled claimed their sales and profits rose in 2009 compared to the year before.

Printweek - Feb 2010

Unemployment Figures Finally Fall

Unemployment fell 3000 to 2.46 million last month, according to the latest official ONS figures.
Responding to the statistics, Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) Chief Executive Kevin Green said: "This is good news and supports the feedback we've had from members who have reported an increase in recruitment activity over recent months.

"Improving employer confidence is resulting in a more positive outlook on hiring intentions over the coming year, but the UK jobs market remains fragile. There are real concerns that the squeeze on public expenditure will counteract some of these positive trends, particularly in regions that are heavily dependent on public sector jobs."