(PR in) HR Pulse | HR News Round-up: 14th – 18th November 2022

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Inflation Reaches 11.1%

As of October 2022, inflation has risen to 11.1% in a year according to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) while the Retail Prices Index which is used unofficially by trade unions in pay negotiations saw it reach 14.2%. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) states that this blow has hit lower-income households significantly harder than high-income households as a larger proportion of their income is spent on the ever-growing energy and food costs.

Rising the National Living Wage

With wage growth lagging behind the cost of living, the government has increased the National Living Wage by 9.7% from £9.50 to £10.42 for those aged 23 and over, taking effect in April 2023. This is a welcome change as the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals that the growth of total pay has fallen by 2.6% in the last quarter (July to September 2022) when compared to inflation, the largest decrease since 2001. ONS also states that the average pay growth in the last quarter for the private sector was 6.6% and only 2.2% for the public sector, creating an unsustainable wedge that has made it difficult to retain and recruit public sector staff.

Support Through the Cost of Living Crisis

Randstad has commissioned a survey of 7,000 people across five markets revealing that only a quarter (25%) of employees have received additional assistance managing the cost of living outside of annual salary increases, 57% of whom said they didn’t expect any help from employers in the next 6 months. However, many are looking for support from employers in various forms including almost half (45%) wanting a monthly pay boost, 52% wanting their salary increased outside of their regular pay reviews, 30% would like subsidies for daily expenses and 27% wanting a one-off payment.

Bespoke Return-to-Work Plan

Thames Water has created an in-house occupational health team for their 7,500 plus staff, offering a tailor-made return-to-work plan through clinical assessments of their sick or injured employees. Their occupational team receives a monthly average of 100 referrals with 30% to 40% for employees who are off sick and aims to see each employee within 10 days, then conducting a follow-up report after 5 working days on their work capability and any necessary adjustments needed. They also offer group income protection and group life to those in their pension scheme.

Pay Inequalities Persist for Ethnic Minorities

Deaton Review of Inequalities has reviewed the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) 2019 findings on ethnic minority employment rates when compared to their white counterparts. It has found that the difference in employment rates has improved significantly since the mid-1990s for Black African and Bengali men with the gap decreasing from almost 30% to 2% or 3%. However, IFS also found that more than 30% of Bengali and Pakistani women were unlikely to be active in the labour market. The research also reveals that pay gaps still differ depending on an individual's ethnic background with Indian men earning 13% higher than their white counterparts, while Black Caribbean men earned 13% less, along with Pakistani men at 22% and Bengali men earning the lowest at 42%. 

LGBT+ Employees Pressured to ‘Code Switch’

New research from INvolve UK revealed that nearly two thirds (62%) of LGBT+ employees felt the need to act ‘straight’ and/or ‘code switch’ (e.g. adjust aspects of their identity to become more socially acceptable in certain settings or by certain people) to progress at work. Almost a third (30%) believe that senior management would promote non-LGBT+ employees over them as they arguably have more in common and 28% have expressed that they were actively discriminated against during the promotion process. Half (49%) of the employees polled also believe that there is a pay gap issue between LGBT+ and non-LGBT+ colleagues. Eighty-five percent of trans employees felt the need to ‘code switch’, dropping only slightly to 68% for lesbian women. Out of the 531 LGBT+ employees surveyed only 40%  stated that they were comfortable being completely open about their identity at work.

KFC’s pledge for Youth Recruitment

A survey from UK Youth states that 87% of employers believe it is important to give younger people opportunities to foster work-based skills and 55% claim that practical work experience heavily contributed to the hiring process. However, few employers are proactive about training - 37% of employers still don’t offer work experience. Twenty-six percent of employers claim this is due to a lack of time while 23% explain that they don’t have enough money to invest in training. This is unfortunate as 42% of workers aged between 16-25 years old reveal that they need employers to provide them with practical work experience. To combat this reluctance, UK Youth has developed the Hatch employability programme which KFC will use to fulfil their pledge to hire 16-25 years old workers as a third of their workforce by 2030. 

Right-to-Work and DBS Checks Are Changing

Personnel Today reports that since the 6th April 2022 the government has introduced an Identity Service Provider (IDSP) to conduct digital right-to-work checks for British and Irish citizens and as of the 1st October 2022 use of Covid-adjusted check were changed to physical, face-to-face checks, or use of an IDSP with though Identification Document Validation Technology (IDVT). Although an IDSP isn’t mandatory for employers performing right-to-work checks as of now, they are encouraged and have become mandatory for Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks. The article also provides a list of potential IDSP providers for employers to consider.

Convictions Bias Remains

A report commissioned by Working Chance has found that almost half (45%) of employers are now willing to hire individuals with previous convictions which has grown by 25% since 2010. The research also found that employers who believed it would be beneficial to hire those with criminal records doubled from 12% in 2016 to 24%. However, nearly a third (30%) of managers state that they would instantly reject applicants who admitted to having prior convictions with 15% claiming that this was corporate policy. Almost three-quarters (73%) claimed that they were definitely (31%) or slightly (43%) hesitant when hiring a previous convict with the main deterrent being the potential harm it could have on their organisation’s reputation due to lingering social prejudice. 

Tech Company Layoffs vs. the Recession

The website Layoffs.fyi which tracks tech layoffs has revealed that almost 130,000 employees in the tech sector across 800 companies have been made redundant in 2022 so far with the largest layoffs coming from Meta (11,000), Amazon (10,000), Twitter (4,000) and Microsoft (1,000). However, Goldman Sachs claims that these tech layoffs aren’t an indicator of Britain’s current and America’s impending recession or a labour market crisis, as the tech industry only accounts for 0.3% of employment. On top of this, tech recruitment is still ongoing with figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showing a 6.5% increase from August to September in job openings. Goldman Sachs also notes that it is common for tech companies to have spikes in layoffs and recruitment which historically have not significantly impacted the wider economy, suggesting that correlation does not mean causation.