A quarter of UK employers plan to make staff redundant over the next year, a study by a professional body shows.Research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) reveals 26 per cent of firms have plans to make new or additional redundancies. The survey, in conjunction with management consultancy KPMG, found nearly a [...]

Employees do not know enough what happens to their benefits when they leave a company, according to a financial advisory company. Workers think they have to leave a pension with the company when it is actually their personal plan, Foster Denovo says. According to the company, when two organisations merge, flexible benefit schemes can address [...]

Demand for large-scale outsourcing of human resources (HR) functions has fallen, according to research by an advisory firm. The annual growth in the value of HR outsourcing deals has fallen from 50 per cent to 15 per cent from 2007 to 2008, Equaterra says. Firms are trying to reduce short-term costs by making smaller deals [...]

Businesses may stop employees from working at home or having flexible hours because of the credit crunch, a working union says. However, this would be a mistake because there are benefits for both employees and their businesses of this privilege, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) says. According to research by the organisation, UK commuters travel [...]

There has been a reduction in the number of people killed, injured or made ill by work during 2007-08, new statistics show. Major injuries at work have fallen by nine per cent since 2000 and workplace deaths have decreased by five per cent, according to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).The study also showed during [...]

The value of pensions has fallen by a third in the last 12 months due to the current financial crisis, according to research by a consultancy firm. Since October last year, defined contribution pension schemes have lost £157 billion, a report by Aon Consulting says. In October 2007, these pensions had assets worth £552 billion [...]

Employees need a bank holiday in October to de-stress and have time help their local community, a group of voluntary organisations says.The Trades Union Congress, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), Community Service Volunteers (CSV) and Volunteering England have made the suggestion. An additional bank holiday between August and December would allow staff to [...]

In order to close the gender pay gap, better succession planning is needed, research into the topic has found. The pay gap is a result of lifestyle choices rather than direct discrimination, the report by the Institute of Economic Affairs says. It also revealed the median full-time pay gap between men and women in their [...]

The biggest safety concerns to workers are stress, repetitive strain injuries, slips and trips and illnesses caused by working at computer, a survey shows. It was revealed three in five workers said stress or overwork is a concern in their workplace, according to a survey by the Trades Union Congress (TUC). Stress is a big [...]

The threat of terrorism and organised crime is leading to large companies finding it necessary to screen all employees, a data quality company says. Systematic screening is likely to be become standard as risk is just as likely to come from inside an organisation as outside, according to Datanomic. The company says up until now [...]