Blogs

Dr Kath Atkinson looks at how changes in civil service pensions are likely to impact future working patterns.

With Carers Week 2016 underway, Andrea Broughton asks who is caring for the working carers of Europe. Drawing from recent research by the Institute for Employment Studies for the CIPD, Andrea frames and comments on the situation of older workers who are also caring for others.

Mary Mercer asks whether employers can and will challenge the status quo with the new Shared Parental Leave regulations to create a world where it will become normal for men as well as women to be off for blocks of time around the birth of their child.

As trailed in my blog post in September 2013, here is an update on employment law and other statutory changes that are coming into force with the beginning of the tax year on 6 April, as well as a couple of other interesting changes due over the summer and into the autumn.

I recently spoke at a conference in Rome on work life balance and work innovation and their impact on organisational performance. The conference was organised by the Italian Department for Labour and brought together several speakers who could comment on the situation in Italy or bring an international perspective. I was there reporting on some cross-European research we at IES had undertaken exploring how work itself was being innovated to create greater flexibility, team working, involvement, efficiency and well-being. I'm well used to being at UK conferences where the performance or practices of the UK give cause for concern so it was fascinating to watch another nation in the same situation. Italy is not as flexible as it would like to be and this is seen as limiting the contribution of women and holding the country back in competitiveness terms.

‘I have long since taken the view that politician and media hype on flexible labour markets has got in the way of finding benefit in flexible work arrangements.'