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Almost 1 in 2 concerned about missing their mortgage repayments as the cost-of-living crisis deepens
As the rising cost of living continues to be felt keenly throughout the country, homeowners – as well as those looking to get a foot on the property ladder – are looking for ways to better balance their budgets.
Last year, MetLife UK has conducted extensive research to explore how people feel about financial protection. As part of this, MetLife explored how UK households would cope with personal financial crises, as well as how their concerns have changed in the past year as the cost-ofliving crisis has developed.
MetLife surveyed homeowners, together with people in the process of taking out a mortgage, to understand their financial situations, and what they would do if something unexpected happened.
Rich Horner, Head of Individual Protection at MetLife UK commented: “The Chancellor made it crystal clear that tough decisions are necessary to keep mortgage rates down. However, there are still real pressure points affecting potential first-time buyers and current homeowners that need addressing quickly.
“For those with a mortgage, many are starting to see their monthly repayments rise in line with rising interest rates. With the uncertainty around how high interest rates will go and the on-going pressures on the cost of living, the worry of meeting payments can be daunting. Yet just 1 in 10 are aware that for a relatively small monthly fee, they can ensure they have protection in place to cover their mortgage repayments – often the largest monthly outgoing for many.
“At a time when households are looking even more closely at their finances to ensure they keep up with household bills and payments, accessing the right mortgage protection policy, is a simple and cost-effective way to safeguard finances should a homeowner have an accident or were to become ill, and they weren’t earning their usual salary as a result. Providing that peace of mind is more important than ever.”
70% of HR professionals highlight the cost of living crisis as their biggest challenge for 2023
Latest research by employment law and HR consultancy firm, WorkNest has found that 70% of HR professionals have highlighted the cost of living as their most significant challenge for 2023.
This was closely followed by retention (69%) and recruitment (55%). A third of those questioned also see skills shortages (34%) as a significant HR challenge next year, and employee engagement (24%).
Echoing this, half (50%) of HR professionals believe retention will be the stage of the employee lifecycle in which they will face the most challenges in 2023, followed by recruitment (44%). Interestingly, only 6% of HR professionals think the most significant challenges will come from in-life employee management (on-boarding and off-boarding). Yet if they could manage this better, then they could impact the high resignation rates and not need to face recruitment challenges.
With the cost of living crisis and the repercussions this will have throughout 2023, three-quarters (75%) of HR professionals revealed that mental health and wellbeing would be the most crucial area for HR to support employees over the next 12 months.
This was followed by performance management (50%), diversity, equality and inclusion (48%) and hybrid and flexible working (48%). Other areas also mentioned by HR professionals included financial wellbeing and cost of living.
Being efficient is essential, and HR professionals want to help streamline their processes further with secure HR platforms and having a solid budget to help them achieve their goals. Almost three in 10 (29%) respondents revealed their HR technology budget will increase in 2023, while 37% said their budget would stay the same next year.
Ill health is having an enormous impact on UK businesses.
The latest data released from Health and Safety England shows that over 35 million working days were lost to ill health in 2021/22.
The data also revealed that over 1.8 million work-related ill health cases were reported in this same period. “With NHS waiting times now up to 18 weeks, we’ve got a serious health issue on our hands. And it’s affecting UK businesses more than we think,” says Bertrand Stern Gillet, CEO of Health Assured. We know that poor mental health alone cost UK employers up to £56 billion in 2022, which has increased 25% in the past three years.” Absence rates are also rising, with an estimated 149.3 million working days lost to sickness or injury in the UK in 2021.
In fact, according to figures from HR software company BrightHR, absence rates have surged by 39% in 2022 in comparison with 2018. Poor health is increasingly becoming a workplace issue. So, what is the solution to this growing concern? Bertrand suggests: “If more employers invest in mental health and wellbeing services, they will be widely accessible to the majority of people across the UK, and this has a multitude of benefits.”
“Greater access to wellbeing services reduces the pressure on our National Health Service, improves individual recovery rates, and lessens the impact of ill health in the workplace.” “With an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), employers can see a return on investment of £8 for every £1 spent. So not only are you contributing to greater employee wellbeing, but you are also reducing absences, improving productivity, and boosting morale, all of which have financial benefits.”
“In the current landscape, when staff retention and cost-cutting have arguably never been so important for employers to prioritise, it makes sense to invest in an EAP where employees and their families have access to round-the-clock support in relation to all life’s challenges “A widespread adoption of such a programme has the potential to improve worsening health statistics, where both employers and employees reap the reward.”
Half of employers do not report on the number of employees with disabilities
Forty-six percent of employers do not report on the number of disabled people they employ, according to research from GRiD, the industry body for the group risk protection sector. Although the Government has yet to make this mandatory, it is committed to reducing the disability employment gap, and GRiD believes that it can be useful for employers to understand their numbers in order to focus on helping those with long-term health conditions and disabilities to enter and stay in their business.
Katharine Moxham, spokesperson, Group Risk Development (GRiD) said: “If and when reporting is made mandatory, it is likely to be for larger corporates initially, but all employers need to have an understanding of the number of people they employ with a disability or long-term health condition as the perceived wisdom is that what gets reported gets done. “However, there is likely to always be under-reporting as not all disabilities are immediately obvious - employers may believe that they have a good grasp on how many people with a disability they employ but those with a ‘non-visible’ or ‘hidden’ disability, such as a mental health condition, diabetes, or autism, could be overlooked – and many employees don’t want to disclose their condition or don’t see themselves as having any particular need that shouldn’t be addressed by their employer wanting to ensure that everyone they employ is enabled to do the best that they can.”
Of those businesses that do currently collect information on the proportion of people with disabilities in their workforce, a third (33%) do so to inform diversity and inclusion (D&I) practices and initiatives. A further 30% use the data to track progress made on their initiatives, 17% do so to inform recruitment practice, and 16% do so to inform talent management practice. In fact, 68% agree that transparency on disability reporting in the workplace could help to reduce the disability employment gap by leading to more inclusive practices.
Under the Equality Act 2010, employers must make reasonable adjustments to support disabled job applicants and employees. This means ensuring people with disabilities or long-term health conditions can overcome any substantial disadvantages they may have in applying for, or doing, a job and progressing in work.
Boards are looking for HR skills going into 2023
The ability to drive transformation will be the top HR skill valued by businesses in 2023, according to a new report, which also cites leadership effectiveness, talent and culture as key priorities.
BIE Executive, the executive recruitment and talent advisory firm, surveyed almost 200 HR leaders including CPOs, HRDs and Heads of Talent, from firms such as ASOS, KPMG, TalkTalk, BT and Ocado, to understand the key strategies for top businesses going into 2023.
The report, ‘Shaping the Workforce of the Future: People, Culture and Talent’, shows the HR function has developed at pace for 61% of organisations since the pandemic. More than half (58%) said that boards are now looking to the HR department to drive transformation, and that this skill will be most indemand in the coming year.
The report showed HR leaders driving significant change across organisations, including the implementation of innovative working practices, technology solutions, productivity and ROI, along with an expectation on HR teams to contribute to commercial decision-making. Most welcome the changes and feel that HR is now more credible and respected (62%), visible and recognised (67%), and more influential (63%). But others report that “the workload has increased,” and that “there’s less traditional HR work and more transformation so we’ve been experiencing a real push around the capabilities of the team.” In addition, they cite the “need to be ready to constantly evolve and seek out new ways to add value.”
BIE Executive’s Managing Director, HR, Emma-Claire Kavanagh, said: “The shifting priorities for HR towards transformation and leadership came through very clearly in our research, and this is backed up in our daily practice. The businesses we’re speaking with are increasingly looking for people to come and sit at the table to challenge them and to help them to grow, and to shape their business to focus on their people. It’s not the transactional side of HR that they’re worried about - it’s that top-level strategic repositioning.”
It seems the complexity of HR’s role in the business is increasing, with senior HR professionals stepping outside of their traditional function and contributing to other areas, including ESG (49%), Operations (45%) and commercial/sales (26%).
New research explores the top practical approaches for HR to boost employee engagement in 2023
The past few years of prolonged uncertainty and disruption has had a significant impact on employees and HR leaders today. The report findings reflect this change and reveal a significant disconnect between employers and employees when it comes to engagement. A minority of employees rate the physical (32%), mental (39%) and financial (28%) wellbeing support from their employers as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’. However, the majority of employers believe they are excelling in this area. With over 2 in 5 employees frequently experiencing burnout, the report highlights science-based, practical strategies to boost overall wellbeing and increase employee engagement, in turn mitigating employee burnout.
The research findings of 1,015 employees and 250 HR managers in the UK show that wellbeing benefits are imperative to re-engage staff today, given that 24% of UK employees state they are no longer going above and beyond at work. Moreover, 72% of employees say that their workplace wellbeing would improve if they were simply thanked and recognised more frequently for their hard work, as a lack of recognition can trigger a sense of pointlessness at work.
Almost half of UK employees say that they frequently experience feelings of overwhelm, driven by the current ‘war for talent,’ constant adjustments to life postpandemic, and ever-increasing inflationary pressures. With 72% of employees stating that they have felt a lasting negative effect from the last few years of constant upheaval and uncertainty, there is a clear gap in expectations for improvement when it comes to wellbeing support.
Reward Gateway’s report brings to light specific, practical ways HR managers and senior executives can re-engage their workforce in 2023, citing the four R’s: Revive, Remind, Recharge and Recognise. This framework encourages employees to think about why they decided to accept their job in the first place, and to remind them of all the benefits and support available to them beyond the paycheque.
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Thirty-one per cent of employers have no plans to offer fertility support, according to new research undertaken during September 2022 by digital health app, Peppy. Peppy believes this approach may have a detrimental impact on an employer’s ability to both attract and retain staff of child-bearing age, as well as reflect poorly on their overall brand.
Conversely, 39% of employers have either always had employee benefits in place that support staff with their reproductive health, or have put them in place in the past 12 months, but that leaves a significant number of employees without adequate support for their fertility journey now.
Francesca Steyn, Director of Fertility & Women’s Health Services of Peppy said: “Up until recently, there has been very little support available for employers to offer people on a fertility journey but when one in six people in the UK are affected it’s very much needed. Employers need to recognise that they must be on the front foot when it comes to supporting employees in this area.” Workplace fertility support can cover many areas, including IVF, family planning and adoption through to conditions such as endometriosis that can affect fertility.
Francesca Steyn continued: “Employers who provide genuine family-friendly support from fertility through to birth and beyond, and help their staff feel confident and comfortable discussing these issues will create a caring and inclusive environment – one in which staff are more likely to want to return to after starting their family.”
Fertility issues can wreak havoc on the lives of individual employees, and become all-consuming physically and emotionally when their journey doesn’t go to plan. The result is that employees can become distracted, depressed and isolated, which can also potentially make them less productive. Being supported lifts that burden and can also engender loyalty and engagement in the long term. It also helps companies recruit and retain this important demographic, saving the cost and disruption of finding and training new people.
More ethical businesses are more unlikely to experience unethical employee behaviour
Despite a growing trend for more ethical investment, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) has uncovered eight unethical effects that can sneak in, even when organisations are doing their best to act ethically.
Muel Kaptein, Professor of Business Ethics and Integrity Management, has looked at how a good organisation can facilitate employees’ unethical behaviour.
This surprising outcome is due to four forces that threaten the ‘good’ organisation, which become stronger when as it becomes more ethical—upward, downward, backward, and forward forces.
Each of these directions has two corresponding effects that can arise when organisations actively become more ethical. And each one of them could increase the likelihood of unethical behaviour.
“It helps to know that unethical behaviour isn’t always caused by bad people and bad organisations, and an understanding of these effects and how they come about can help society to change the way ethical standards are set, regulated, inspected and evaluated. Sometimes the unethical effects come from good people in good organisations – and this insight might help to soften evaluations of unethical practices within and by organisations,” says Professor Muel Kaptein.
Delivering a timely warning to business leaders, this research even considers if well-meaning attempts to impose ethical values on investment and consumption might be the cause of the problem. Professor Kaptein has already presented his model of these threatening effects to regulators, compliance officers and managers. They all recognised them, and some described their own examples of the eight effects that lead to negative – and sometimes devastating – outcomes. Perhaps this research is a warning for everyone to watch out for these threatening effects.
The research, A Paradox of Ethics: Why People in Good Organizations do Bad Things published in Journal of Business Ethics.
Jaguar Land Rover announces drive to recruit skilled workers from the digital technology industry
Jaguar Land Rover has recently announced a global hiring drive to fill more than 800 new digital and engineering vacancies across the UK, Ireland, USA, India, China and Hungary, as it seeks to recruit skilled workers from the digital technology industry.
Following the news of large-scale job losses from technology firms, Jaguar Land Rover is opening a new jobs portal for displaced workers from the tech industry to explore career opportunities, offering hybrid-working patterns.
Available roles span Autonomous Driving, Artificial Intelligence, Electrification, Cloud Software, Data Science, Machine Learning and many more, as the company becomes a digital-first and data-driven organisation.
These skills are essential to developing, building and repairing Jaguar Land Rover’s next generation of cars that will epitomise beauty and modern luxury, while delivering for clients a fully connected experience.
Anthony Battle, Chief Information Officer at Jaguar Land Rover, commented: “We are further strengthening our data and digital skills base so we can deliver our Reimagine strategy and become an electric-first business from 2025 and achieve carbon net zero by 2039.
“Our digital transformation journey is well underway but being able to recruit highly skilled digital workers is an important next step. We are pleased to be able to provide opportunities to talented individuals with digital capabilities.”
Dave Nesbitt, Digital Product Platform Director at Jaguar Land Rover said: “Jaguar Land Rover is transforming to an electric-first business, and we are creating some of the most digitally advanced vehicles ever seen. Through our products we will create new experiences, new levels of intimacy and connected car services for our customers, to give our clients a true modern luxury experience.”
Through its Reimagine strategy, Jaguar Land Rover is at the forefront of the rapidly changing automotive industry with a focus on electrification, digital services and data. The company is focused on enhancing its in-house data capability, which is crucial to its digital transformation to deliver clients a modern luxury experience.
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