Latest News

Average Earnings

Average earnings excluding and including bonus payments increased by 3.5% in three months up to July 2007, up 0.1% of a percentage point from the previous month.  Private sector pay growth excluding bonuses was 3.7% compared with 2.9% for the public sector.  Including bonus payments, private-sector pay growth stood at 3.7% compared with 2.7% for the Public Sector
Source; National Statistics

Job Creation

More than 25,000 jobs were created across the UK’s 21 key industries in August a 2% decrease on August 2006. The consumer goods manufacturing sector recorded the biggest increase in job creation compared with last year, with 198 created, up from just 10.
Source Mandis/Adecco Job Creation Index

Unemployment Down

The Unemployment Rate was 5.4 in the three months to July down 0.1 of a percentage point from the previous quarter and down 0.2 of a percentage point on the year.  The number of unemployed people fell by 28,000 over the quarter and by 53,000 over the year, to reach 1.65 million.  The claimant count for job seekers allowance was 852,900, down 4200 on the previous month and down 100,400 on the year.
Source National Statistics

Views

Social Networking and Employment

If the estimated 100m per year losses on sickness absence in the UK wasn’t enough, employers are now faced with potential productivity losses from employees spending time on social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace.  That is the view of many employers as many as 60% of whom do not trust their employees to do the right thing in respect of internet usage and either have a policy on it, are thinking of doing so (Source CIPD) .

So is it all cloak and dagger in the world of social networking, or should the mere fact that employees are attempting to increase their knowledge through information clubs and professional liaisons hold more sway?  Certainly there are a plethora of professional clubs and associations on these sites on virtually any professional discipline you care to think of.  40% of employers also have a trust regime in their organisation that such sites will be used responsibly.  And what about those who access the sites for fun during a break, lunch or after work?

Some employers can use such sites in anger, not only against existing employees but on potential new recruits meaning that anything even material created outside of working hours in the comfort of one’s own home.  No figures exist to see if there is a correlation between employers who use the social networking site to snoop and those having a policy preventing the use of such sites, but it all would add to up a potential waste of time and energy in a them and us cat and mouse race.  Better still to have an approach like Delloitte who use the social networking site Facebook, to put students in touch with others who have taken part in the company’s scholarship or internship programme.

There is mileage in the view that everyone has a human right to their own private life and if they chose to exercise that outside working hours but at work then why should they not be allowed that right?  So long as their internet activity is not bringing their company into disrepute.  The Sunday Times recently reported though that the site www.i-resign.com has grown from a site which was just a collection of humorous resign letters “it now serves about 15 million page impressions a year and has some seriously useful content for jobseekers.”.

So the lack of a policy or of software to prevent employees from accessing such sites could lead to staff heading for the reception door never to return?  You could hold the view that if staff want to leave then they will leave anyway.  Trying to prevent them by taking away their basic human right to a private life  is more than likely pushing them closer to the Exit door. So if you have a cyber social life, be careful how you conduct it and try as an employer to see the positive side to membership of such sites within the confines of professional and personal development.