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Why UK Companies Should Employ Contract and Temp Workers in 2025

Embracing Change in Workplace Culture: A 2025 Imperative

Addressing Workplace Harassment: A New Imperative
By: Elizabeth Smith, Director of Research, Business Forums International Ltd
Tags: HR Inclusion Gender Pay Gap Equality

Speaking out to #BreakTheBias

In 1996, I had recently founded BFI and was meeting a potential partner to work on a national energy training contract we had been awarded. My male co-director and I went to this chap’s London offices, where, after his secretary brought in the tray, he invited me to pour the coffee and addressed his thoughts to male colleague. I am still embarrassed that I didn’t speak up but fumed silently as women often do. Of course, I found another company to work with. Such breath-taking sexism may be less common now, but real equality in the workplace, in the UK at least, still seems like a distant utopia. Read more…
By: Tom Hadley, International Workforce Consultant
Tags: HR Change Management Risk Pandemic Flexible Working Retention Recruitment

The ‘retention game’ - what really motivates employees in 2022?

With the great post-pandemic ‘reset’ in motion, employers and business leaders across the globe are honing-in the following core question: What really motivates employees in 2022? This underpins evolving approaches to recruitment, retention, organisational culture and performance management. And the building block for organisations looking to make real change happen in all these areas is finding effective ways of tracking evolving employee needs and expectations. Read more…
By: Tilly Smith, Conference Manager and Programme Producer
Tags: Equality Menopause Flexible Working Gender Pay Gap Retention Culture Change Inclusion LGBT HR Change Management

Women hit hardest by the impact of COVID-19

As we begin to emerge out of the woods and into a post-Covid, ‘new normal’ landscape, the full extent of the pandemic’s impact on jobs is starting to become apparent. While its onset highlighted many pre-existing gender inequalities in society such as discrimination and the imbalanced burden of unpaid care work, COVID has caused further damage to the gender divide through a higher rate of female furloughs and redundancies, unparalleled work/life balance challenges, an increase in domestic violence cases, and mental health and wellbeing setbacks to name a few. Read more…
By: Elizabeth Smith, Director of Research, Business Forums International Ltd
Tags: HR Change Management Culture Change Inclusion Diversity Retention Attraction Gender Pay Gap Flexible Working IR35 Immigration GDPR Mental Health Menopause Risk Pandemic Unions Race Equality LGBT

Let our HR risk experts (and their dogs) come to you

Like any victim of shock, HR has spent a lot of time recently bargaining existentially – “if the universe can keep resignations to a minimum, I’ll make sure we can bring our dogs to work, work from home for ever, promise my team they’ll never have to do a zoom quiz again.” And in a lot of cases it has worked – the dearth of candidates reported by UK recruitment firms indicates a total lack of appetite for job-hopping, unlike the US, which is experiencing the great resignation. But what if, like most trends from the US, it’s only a matter of time until employees start to vote with their feet? How can employers show their workforces that they’re committed to developing a long-term functional relationship that works for both parties? Read more…
By: Elizabeth Smith, Director of Research, Business Forums International Ltd
Tags: HR Culture Change Change Management Unions Pandemic Risk

The importance of trade union relationships in the post-pandemic landscape

Those as ancient as I will remember the Not the Nine O’clock News sketch in which northern male trades unions representatives bargained with posh male employers for better conditions that included the ’35 hour week, all that rubbish, use of the swivel chair and a the automatic bottle opener’ - plus several other demands that would simply horrify rather than amuse here in post-COVID Britain. Read more…