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Brexit, HR and payroll RECENT RESEARCH from SD Worx, a leading provider of global payroll and HR services, reveals that one in three (32%) think that they either don’t have or don’t know if they have the skills in the HR and payroll department to adapt to the changes Brexit will bring. The survey, which contacted 1,000 HR, payroll and legal professionals in businesses across seven European countries, also found that 63% of respondents believe Brexit will be difficult, with 18% believing it will be very difficult. To tackle the skills deficiency, 64% of organisations will be hiring externally or training internally. The remaining 36% either have no plans to find a solution in this area or don’t know how they will combat the lack of skills. The survey further reveals the biggest challenges as: understanding changing legislations (44%); moving staff and/or headquarters (35%); finding in-house skills to manage changes caused by Brexit (29%). Furthermore, 39% of think that Brexit will negatively impact their HR and payroll department. Brenda Morris, managing director SD Worx UK and Ireland, commented: “This survey has confirmed the huge uncertainty being felt by businesses across both the UK and Europe. Many are unaware of the impact that Brexit will have on their HR and payroll departments, and business as a whole.”
Whither cash? THE ACCESS to Cash Review final report (http://bit.ly/2VPoywT), which was published in March, explores the end-to-end cash cycle and proposes a concrete set of actions for policy makers, regulators and commercial entities. The report comments: “We haven’t taken a view about the merits of a cashless society. We haven’t concluded that it’s impossible, or even undesirable. But our research shows that if we fail to plan and prepare for it properly, a cashless society would do significant harm to the millions of people who would be left behind.” The report notes that: ● although over the last ten years cash payments have dropped from 63% of all payments to 34%, there were still 13 billion cash payments in 2017, and ● around 17% of the UK population – over 8,000,000 adults – would struggle to cope in a cashless society. Access to Cash Review (which is funded by but is independent of LINK, the UK’s largest cash network) makes the following five recommendations to keep cash viable for the foreseeable future, as well as eventually including everyone in a society where digital payments dominate: ● guarantee access to cash ● ensure cash remains widely accepted ● create a more efficient, effective and resilient wholesale cash infrastructure
Gender bias in job ads ACCORDING TO a study by Gaucher, Friesen and Kay (http://bit. ly/2TECUmx), gendered wording in job adverts has the effect of steering applicants to apply according to their sex. Male-coded words such as ‘lead’ and ‘dominant’ encourage a higher number of male applicants to female applicants, whereas female-coded words such as ‘sensitive’ and ‘affectionate’ attract more females. The jobs search engine Adzuna searched for 170 traditionally masculine and feminine words within 1,200,000 job adverts in the five years to 2018. The study discovered: ● overall, job ads in the UK contain 17% more male-biased than female-biased language ● bias is widespread across multiple sectors, with 60% of all UK industries exhibiting significant male-bias within their job ads. Since 2014, job ads in the UK have seen the usage of masculine-coded words drop by 10%, from 27% to 17%. The decline has been consistent since 2015, falling by 13% in the last four years. This trend is echoed across all job industries within the UK, with 78% moving towards neutral wording over the last five years, and only 19% of industries in the UK becoming more male-biased in their wording. Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, commented: “It’s time for employers to go back to the drawing board and redesign their recruitment basics in order to keep up with the times. We’re already seeing movement being made towards gender equality when it comes to pay; why should attracting talent be any different?”
● make digital payments an option for everyone ● ensure joined-up oversight and regulation of cash.
Blade runner THIS YEAR’S Cintra HR & Payroll Services’ annual conference, which was held at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead and featured industry experts, brought together HR and payroll specialists. The programme included, amongst other things, an interactive and highly topical session delivered by change management guru, Craig Smith from Big Picture Learning, and a humorous session on ‘How to fiddle your expenses’ (no MPs allowed!)’. The event closed with an inspiring presentation by keynote speaker Marlou van Rhijn, the fastest woman on blades and world champion. Born without lower legs, Dutch athlete Marlou has represented her country’s national swimming team on both the European and world stage, before moving to athletics. Carsten Staehr, Cintra’s chief executive officer, commented: “Adding value to our client relationships is very important to us: making sure that we keep clients up to date with the latest legislative developments and industry trends as well as giving food for thought on broader issues.”
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Issue 49 | April 2019
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
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