06
magazine
agenda
The proportion of SME board directors and
human resources heads who regard staff
well-being as an employer’s responsibility
has halved in the last six years, falling from
95% in 2009 to 46% today, according to
new research by Morgan Redwood.
Even though 82.8% of respondents believe
that well-being impacts business performance,
it came 12th on the list of HR priorities, cited
by just 5.6% of respondents. Helping staff
to achieve a better work-life balance also
scored badly, cited as a key aspect of their HR
strategy by just 6% of respondents.
The top three priorities were ‘attracting
better talent’ (39.2%), followed by ‘reducing
staff churn’ (36.8%) and ‘reducing staff costs’
(34.8%).
Janice Haddon, MD of Morgan Redwood,
said: “In 2014 the CIPD reported that 40% of
employers are seeing a rise in stress-related
absence and reported mental health problems,
such as anxiety and depression, so the fact
that companies are less inclined to see well-
being as within their remit of responsibility is
perplexing.
“Businesses need to remember that looking
after employees is just as important as striving
for new business and growth. Burnt-out, poorly
treated employees will end up becoming
detrimental in the long run, so employers need
to ensure they allocate sufficient resource to
cater to the full spectrum of employee needs.”
Staff well-being not my
responsibility say half of employers
UK workers must look after
themselves better
UK workers are still not doing enough to
improve their health and well-being, despite
knowing about the benefits of a healthier
lifestyle.
A study of 16,808 workers by The Health
Insurance Group andWellbeing People shows
that UK employees need to do more to address
the four causes of preventable ill health: poor
nutrition, lack of exercise, alcohol excess and
smoking.
One in five men never eat the recommended
five portions of fruit, 19% never exercise, 30%
regularly drink alcohol and 18% smoke regularly.
A quarter of female respondents never exercise
and drink regularly, with 15% smoking regularly.
Samsung’s new smartwatch, the Samsung Gear
S2, features new fitness functions to encourage
consumers to stay healthy and active. These
include a 24-hour activity log that lets wearers
view and monitor their daily activity and
reminders to stay on track with fitness goals.
Skills
shortages
UK organisations
must make their
workplaces more
attractive to
older workers or
face serious skills
shortages in the
future.
A new report by the CIPD and the
International Longevity Centre-UK,
Avoiding
the demographic crunch: labour supply and
the ageing workforce
, warns that the UK is
likely to face serious skills shortages by 2035
as the population ages and 30% of the current
workforce retires, taking invaluable skills and
experience with them.
It predicts that the UK economy will struggle
to fill one million jobs by 2035, even after the
mitigating effect of migration is taken into
account.
Organisations said to be most at risk are
those in the health and social work, education
and public administration sectors, as they rely
heavily on older workers and struggle to remain
attractive places for older people to work.
The report advises organisations to develop
a strategy to ensure they have inclusive
recruitment practices; improve the capability
of line managers; invest in training and
development; support employee health and
well-being; and move towards more flexible
working.
Cloud take-up sky high
The European small and medium-sized
business (SMB) cloud services market is
predicted to grow at a compound annual
growth rate (CAGR) of 17% over the next
three years, from
€
18.9bn in 2015 to
€
30.1bn in 2018, according to the latest
European SMB Cloud Insights
report from
Odin.
The fastest growing sector is the
software-as-a-service (SaaS) market, with
a CAGR of 21%, from
€
4.3bn to
€
7.5bn.
However, the greatest increase will be in the
infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) market,
which is forecast to grow from
€
7.6bn to
€
11.6bn, as the healthcare and finance/
insurance industries invest in security
and server backups to meet regulatory
requirements.
By 2018, IaaS is expected to account for
38% of cloud services used by SMBs, SaaS
for 25%, hosted unified communications
services for 21% and web hosting for 16%.
n
Cloud computing take-up by UK small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) grew 15%
last year, according to new research from
BT Business and the British Chambers of
Commerce (BCC). More than two thirds (69%)
of SMEs now use cloud-based applications,
compared to 60% in 2014, with 53%
considering them to be critical for effective
remote working. Overall, smartphones are
seen as the technology that has made the
biggest difference to businesses in the last 12
months (68%), followed by improved wi-fi
access (54%) and cloud-based applications
(42%).
Policy report
June 2015
Avoiding the
demographic crunch:
Labour supply and the
ageing workforce
in collaborationwith
The benefits of
gamification
Could gamification provide the
answer to low morale and lack of
motivation in the workplace? A US
study by Badgeville, a leader in business
gamification, suggests that it could.
Its survey of 500 business workers
found that 78% of US employees are
already utilising games-based motivation,
such as competitions, goal-setting,
performance rewards, success statistics
and status recognition. Nearly all
(91%) say these systems increase their
engagement, awareness and productivity.
The top benefits of gamification,
according to survey respondents, are
an increased desire to be at work and
engaged (30%); inspiration to be more
productive (27%) and improved focus
(20%).
One reason why gamification works,
says Badgeville, is that it appeals to
the 69% of employees who find non-
monetary factors, such as performing
well, personal job satisfaction, on the job
recognition, the support of colleagues and
advanced learning opportunities, more
motivating than financial gain.
