Turn On Your iPod Tune Out Your Work Colleagues..

MORE than one in five employees in the UK are tuning out of the workplace by listening to iPods and mp3 players at their desks, a study featured on  Scotsman.com suggests.

Some 22 per cent of employees use digital music players for up to three hours a day in the office, according to a recent survey by workplace interior consultants Woods Bagot. A staggering 30 per cent of British firms have banned the devices.

Listening to music and podcasts has become another way for staff to shut out colleagues after open plan offices replaced partially enclosed desk cubicles, according to the research.

This probably explains why you end up waiting in a queue for five minutes every time you ring a customer service number on a bill. You have to wait for the latest Artic Monkeys track to finish on the advisors “iPod” before they answer, after all most of them sit in open plan offices don’t they!

The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations Act….

As you all may know The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations Act was introduced on 1st October 2006, making it unlawful to discriminate against individuals on the basis of age in recruitment and employment.
We thought it might be useful to give you some pointers on writing your Job Descriptions – particularly if you are using job boards like www.workinproperty.com to advertise your vacancies.

Remember a job description is their to outline the duties required of the position along with the skills, knowledge and experience required to carry out these duties in a succesfull way.
Avoid any reference to the age group of the desired applicant or the age group of any colleagues that the successful applicant will be working with, e.g. ‘applicant needed to work with a young, lively team’.
Add the words ‘or equivalent’ next to any academic qualifications. Stating a specific qualification such as GCSE could be deemed as ruling out many older people who left school before GCSEs were introduced.
Avoid using words like ‘junior’ and ’senior’” or mature” in your description also be aware of the implications of using it in job titles.
Avoid asking for ‘x years experience’.

You may also it helpful to monitor how effective your recruitment process is by monitoring the number of candidates of different age groups who applied, were short-listed, interviewed and appointed.

London HR Jobs pay more..

London Human Resouces professionals are earning 11 per cent more than the national average, the CIPD’s latest pay survey has revealed. This is up 6 percentage points from last year’s research.

The Personnel Rewards Survey 2006, conducted with Croner Reward, also found that Northern Ireland continued to be the least well rewarded, with its HR officers 9 per cent worse off than average.

Read More…

IOS/OAS Winners

British Land won the prestigiuos award for best Office Developer of the Year, whilst ProLogis was awarded the best Industrial Developer of the Year. The awards were presented to Boris Johnson at the London Hilton organised by the Property Week

Falling on deaf ears..

There has been an indifferent approach to companies looking to adopt the Governments new Policy on allowing the over 65’s to carry on working. The new age discrimination bill appears to be an informal way of raising the retirement age. It is considered likely in the industry that the Government will dispense with a compulsory retirement age in 2011.

Employees will have the right to ask their employers if they can work beyond their 65th year. For fear of being sued for being ageist, an employer does have the right to reject a request without justification.  Whilst the reasoning for not having to explain a rejection can be understood, is a quiet response not saying the same thing?

Meanwhile employers, Alan & Thomas Insurance Brokershave banned the age old practice of passing round birthday cards between staff. This response to the latest legislation is to prevent any member of staff feeling harassed about getting old.

The last thing you want when you are getting older is for someone to tell you that?