Institute of Management Services News

Institute President Awarded Doctoral Fellowship

The Institute of Management Services President Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas has been awarded the degree of doctural fellowship from the Sri Sharada Institute of Indian Management-Research in New Delhi. The degree of doctoral fellowship was : Doctor of Humane Letters (honoris causa)

The citation was “In recognition of his outstanding contribution to the world of academics through compositions [e.g. books, reports, articles, theme papers for international conferences], research and developments”.

Posted on: 09-Dec-2018@18:50:37, updated on: 09-Dec-2018@18:50:37.

National Living Wage

The changes employers have had to make to their business in respect of rises in The National Living Wage (NLW) are revealed in the new Low Pay Commission’s  (LPC) 2018 report.

Employers had addressed the NLW icesed costs by reducing their profit margins, raise prices for their customers where possible, restructure workforces and narrowing the gaps between pay bands. Employers told the LPC that improving productivity would be the key to managing future cost increases.

However, despite the changes, the LPC’s analysis and research did not find clear evidence of any negative effects on employment from the increased NLW.

The report found that increases to the NLW has raised the pay of up to 5 million workers this year. This, the Commission said, was fewer than in 2017 but still covered a fifth of workers aged 25 and over.

The 4.4% increase in the NLW pushed pay up faster than average not only for those on the rate, but also for the bottom 20% of earners – those earning up to £9 per hour. This is because employers have sought to maintain a gap between job grades or have kept their pay rates above the NLW.

Chair of the Low Pay Commission, Bryan Sanderson, said: “So far, the evidence suggests the NLW has been successful in raising pay without causing unemployment, but employers have had to adjust in various ways.”

Posted on: 27-Nov-2018@17:57:53, updated on: 27-Nov-2018@17:57:53.

Mental Health at Work

The survey of 2,170 workers by consultancy firm Accenture found two-thirds (66%) had personally experienced mental ill-health, and that 85 per cent had someone close to them, such as a family member or close colleague, who had experienced mental health challenges.

The survey found that 61% of the respondents indicated that they had spoke to a close colleague at work about their mental health, with less than 15% talking to HR or a wellbeing specialist.

Barbara Harvey, managing director of Accenture Research, said the results showed “very clearly that many workers are still afraid to open up about their mental health challenges in the workplace”.

“When people do open up, they are most likely to talk to a colleague – not to a line manager or HR professional,” she said.

The research also found more than half (57%) of those surveyed said hiding mental health challenges at work had a negative impact on their wellbeing, including feeling stressed, more alone or being less productive. 

 

Posted on: 21-Nov-2018@20:41:43, updated on: 21-Nov-2018@20:41:43.

Labour shortages in UK

Recent statistics published by the UK Office for National Statistics indicates that the number of EU nationals working in the UK has dropped in the third quarter 0f 2018. This is the largest fall since records began in 1997. It appears that workers from central and eastern Europe are not coming to work in the UK with a fall of 132,000 meaning that 2.25 million EU nationals now work in the UK.

Records indicate that some 154,000 less workers from the eight eastern and central European accession countries that joined the bloc in 2004 now work in the UK. The fall in workers from eastern and central EU countries was offset by an increas of 23,000 from other parts of Europe.

With UK unemployment rates at the lowest since the 1970's many industries including healthcare, construction and agriculture are facing labour shortages.

Posted on: 16-Nov-2018@11:46:07, updated on: 16-Nov-2018@11:46:07.