10AM GMT ON 11TH NOVEMBER
Join Dr. Alejandro Aldape from SIMS fertility clinic as he discusses the topical subject of fertility, the issues so many people are now facing with fertility as well as the options and treatments available to those struggling with fertility.
This will be a 20-minute webinar as well as 10 minutes for Q&A.
Budget 2023 is here!
Amongst the new measures included in the budget announcement are increased tax-rate bands, credits to tackle the rising cost of energy and enhanced tax reliefs for landlords and renters.
The government has increased the 40% income tax band to €40,000 – meaning workers can earn more income while paying tax at 20%.
The Employee, PAYE & Earned Income Tax Credits were all increased by €75 also.
But has Budget 2023 really boosted your bank balance?
Taxback.com have launched their Budget 2023 calculator to help you understand how the Government’s announcement affects you.
Why not check it out below?
Taxback.com’s FREE-TO-USE Budget Calculator!
By using the free Taxback.com Budget 2023 calculator, you can quickly get a clear picture of exactly what the Government announcement means for your pocket.
The calculator is easy to complete. All you need to do is fill out the short form below.
This will involve answering simple questions regarding your income, employment and other personal circumstances.
The Taxback.com calculator will then outline exactly how Budget 2023 has affected your take home pay. It will also analyse your tax profile and provide you with a quick tax refund estimation.
Journaling is a practice that has become increasingly popular as awareness of its benefits grows. Simply put, it is writing down thoughts and feelings regularly, usually daily, to help the writer to understand and process emotions. It is often likened to a more modern version of keeping a diary and is something that everyone can easily do, reaping the positive mental health benefits that come from reflecting on the day.
What are the benefits of journaling?
It may come as a surprise that there are quite so many benefits to journaling but the power of writing down thoughts and feelings to clear the mind should not be underestimated.
Taking time to appreciate the successes of the day and celebrate these positives can increase life satisfaction and allow people to focus on what they have, opposed to what they lack. In turn, this helps to appreciate the good and alleviate negative thoughts.
Dedicating just five minutes a day to sitting down somewhere comfortable and quiet to journal is a great way for people to take time for themselves. It’s also an opportunity to step away from screens and technology and really disconnect from work and the world around to focus on self-awareness and reflection.
Journaling has the potential to significantly improve mental health and allows people to manage their symptoms effectively. It has been shown to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression by helping people to manage their feelings and improve memory, aid stress relief, increase optimism and improve general mood.
Writing can help to address problems and overcome them by breaking them down and making them seem more manageable. This enables people to think more clearly and tackle issues without feeling overwhelmed.
Finally, journaling is also a practice that prompts and enhances creativity and allows for development of writing skills, both of which can aid performance at work. People in busy roles often have a million things going through their minds, but journaling can help consolidate these thoughts, set goals and foster clear thinking.
Tips for effective journaling
In order to get the most out of journaling, it’s important to write somewhere relaxing to optimise focus. For it to be most effective, people should get into the habit of writing every day or as regularly as possible. Always keeping the journal to hand means that it’s possible to write down thoughts throughout the day. Some people may choose to have a digital journal, for example, on their phone, which means it is always with them if they want to note something down.
The Centre for Journal Therapy offers the following tips for journaling:
There are many benefits of journaling and the list goes on. WRKIT’s POWR platform has a reflect feature that provides prompt questions to get people started on the road to reflection and get in tune with thoughts and feelings to improve wellbeing.
V is an experienced tech leader, presently leading and growing Slack Engineering teams in EMEA. She works in complex environments and thrives on bringing people from multiple disciplines together to create robust and resilient applications. Having previously led engineering teams in Spotify, she is passionate about leading and growing high performing teams and achieving the best possible results through collaboration and empowerment. She thrives on the ability to convert learning into tangible actions that lift team capability and is a champion for change. She consistently supports, educates and encourages her team through the change process.
Now is a great time to be or become a female leader. With so many companies embracing diversity and inclusion there are lots of opportunities to step up and into leadership. For companies today, inclusion is not just about getting the numbers right, it is about leveraging unique experiences, creating real opportunities for diversity and seeking out other points of view. Women have a huge amount to offer organisations, in leading teams at all levels and being actively engaged in company boards. The opportunities are far greater now than ever and women can confidently go for these roles.
Knowing my strengths really well and relying on them. One of the key strengths that I know I have and that others have acknowledged in me, is that I am a relational person. People and connection are really important to me. This has helped me be a strong collaborator, as I seek out my team members’ ideas and opinions, and I rely on their feedback, as well as looking to others who have experience and provide input and guidance. Often I am not the most experienced in the room on a certain topic, so I look to my other members to chip in and I help support their growth and confidence to do this – whether it is presentation skills, critical or strategic thinking etc. So another key strength is openness and a willingness to learn, sometimes then being in a support role as a leader.
I really admire women that are inclusive of difference, kind to others in the workplace and supportive of other female leader journeys. I am particularly interested in the support and growth of other women leaders as I have experienced this in my leadership journeys. Leaders who were willing to take a chance on me and to provide a guiding hand when needed, to speak up for my competence. These female leaders help bring our voice and influence to the table.
Cliche I know, but I would have to say my mother. She came from a difficult background, worked really hard and made me feel like I could be or do anything in life. Like the female leaders I admire, she actively encouraged me and did not put obstacles in my way. She helped facilitate me and my sister being the first in our family to go to university.
Another inspiration to me is former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. I loved how she could articulate issues of diversity so well and so clearly, with the skill of keeping the dialogue open, non-threatening and moving forward.
In my role I am learning all the time, as it is a fast paced ever changing landscape, so I have learned to be myself. With so much rapidly changing and with Covid being a good example of needing to be able to adapt quickly, I have learned to rely on my own abilities. I don’t shy away from or apologise for being a woman. I openly share my challenges and experiences as a woman in tech. Openness and vulnerability is a strength and I trust that whenever I am honest and vulnerable with my team they are there for me, as I am for them.
Seek out mentors. Consider a more senior male from your company as a mentor. They can help you navigate the internal landscape and help you unlock your impact. In return, you may open their eyes to some of the struggles women face and help them by becoming an ally for other women. With other female leaders I encourage them to also be a good ally for other women along the way, so more women are encouraged into leadership and the numbers get better.
The biggest challenge I see is women trusting their own inner voices and embracing the unique aspects of female presence, female experience and acknowledging them as both personal and organizational assets.
I have seen times when I am held to a higher standard than my male counterparts or when I feel like I have to prove myself over and over again. Sadly, I have seen this play out around project assignments – e.g. This project is tough. We better give it to Bob. Although this may be happening unconsciously, it is an impediment to female leaders as they need to be given a chance to show what they can do. Leaders, whether male or female, need to open the doors wider to give women that chance to prove themselves. When we do this more often, I believe the culture will be enriched for our doing so.
In recent years there has been a substantial rise in various online and mobile wellness apps. The main areas of focus being on measuring sleep, promoting meditation, engaging in physical exercises such as steps, running or cycling, mood monitoring, an increased awareness of nutritional intake and measuring the effects of positive psychology on thinking and on mood.
Why is this?
Research now shows that the regular practise of a variety of healthy habits can have a significant impact on increasing physical health and psychological wellbeing. Findings show that one of the keys to this is completing some focused wellbeing actives in a manageable and integrated way. The message here is: Little and often.
Various apps such as Calm, Headspace and Insight Timer have been created to attend to many of these areas, as has our employee wellbeing tool POWR – Positive Occupational Wellness Resources which has taken it one step further. Not only does POWR measure overall health and wellbeing, but it provides unique personalised health plans to help easily enhance a person’s overall wellbeing and education. Sitting within POWR are over 420 clinical plans designed to help staff engage with their wellbeing, with built in push technology to provide some much-needed encouragement in achieving greater results. POWR plans target the 6 keys areas of wellbeing – mind, life, work, sleep, active and food; with plans added each month, alongside a huge number of new blogs, articles and videos.
How to get the best from a wellness application?
With an app like POWR and others such as Calm, the design taps into several scientific research findings which shows that key areas to invest in and create healthy habits with are:
The analysis of various research shows that regular meditation significantly improves areas such as stress, anxiety, depression, quality of life, and emotion regulation (mood). Longer term it also improves other areas such as general positivity, self-generated positive emotions and can provide real benefits to close relationships and social outcomes.
Further research shows that regular mild exercise also has a significant effect on psychological wellbeing, while more moderate exercise has a significant effect on depression and anxiety, comparable with usual psychological care. Based on these findings and others, POWR brings this research all together and provides easy access to hundreds of clinical plans in each of the 6 targeted areas, making it accessible, available and easy to log into to work on wellbeing, every single day. With built in meditations, visual and auditory breathing exercises and a positive psychology reinforcing reflection tool, it really supports and promotes the benefits of these finds.
Take the challenge!
POWR is the ideal tool to help employees create healthy habits. To encourage this we have also created the POWR Formula for Success, which includes challenges in the areas of exercise, meditation, positive psychology journalling, wellness and stress relief articles and focused breathing challenges, to complement the 6 pathways in POWR which are always available for users to interact with, complete plans in and grow their wellbeing. This POWR challenge is designed to quickly get staff involved over a two weeks’ timeframe as a company challenge to help them feel healthier, socialise what they are doing, be more active and be more in tune with how they want to be.
At Wrkit, our mission is to help organisations cultivate happy, healthier working environments, to strengthen and retain a talented workforce. We know an important element of retention starts with attracting the right candidates and finding the right fit for your company. With that in mind we have teamed up with recruitment software company, BidRecruit, to help you hire smarter. BidRecruit simplify difficult & time-consuming tasks so you can focus on finding the right person. In this series of blogs we will discuss current recruitment trends and tips and tools available to you to enhance your recruitment.
Q1: Tell us about BidRecruit
BidRecruit was founded in 2016 by 2 recruitment specialists who saw a gap in the market and knew there was an easier, more efficient way to hire. BidRecruit utilises the principle of 3 steps to successful hiring: engage, manage, report. Our software allows you to post a job across all major job boards, social media and your careers page in one easy step. Then with our A.I. technology and automation we have streamlined the complete hiring process from scoring and matching CVs to interview scheduling and team collaboration. Also, an important element of our software is the ability to analyse how you hire, improving the process whilst making real savings. Our clients have seen a 50% reduction in hiring admin and up to 75% savings on recruitment costs. Most importantly, our clients have seen a genuine improvement in the quality of candidates and people they hire.
Q2: What are the biggest challenges your clients face when hiring?
For nearly all of our clients, the number one challenge they face is candidate volume & quality. We are now in a candidate driven market, with 70% of candidates being passive job seekers i.e. they’re not even looking for a job! Therefore to attract the right talent, you need to be seen. As our software allows you to post to every major job board, social media and your careers pages, we are giving your roles more exposure. Where one job board might be effective for one role, it may not be the case for another. When it comes to recruitment it’s not a “one size fits all” and we have a way to combat that. Further to this, how people hire has to change and adapt, the old method of recruitment is outdated and very time intensive, many HR Managers state that recruitment is 25% of their job but takes up 95% of their time! There is an imperative need to improve efficiency, allowing more time to focus on employee engagement and retention.
Q3: What trends in recruitment do you see growing in 2019?
Definitely companies embracing A.I. and automation to recruit is the biggest trend we see growing in 2019. This is in large part due to the above points, to save time and to increase candidate quality & volume. Further to this, it helps you to hire smarter. Use of A.I. & automation allows you to take back more control of the important ‘human’ elements of hiring. Removing admin during recruitment allows you to focus on interviewing, researching and considering the most suitable candidates. Another area of focus in 2019 is candidate experience. With review platforms like Glassdoor and Indeed becoming increasingly popular, companies have to ensure candidates feel positively about their experience irrespective of their hiring success. As a recent LinkedIn survey reported, 83% of talent says a negative interview experience can change their mind about a role or company they once liked. Where a lot of companies fall down is a lack of communication at screening and interviewing stage. For many hiring managers and HR departments this is of course not intentional but due to time constraints when replying to all candidates. Again, automation is an excellent way to overcome this issue as it allows you to instantly communicate with multiple candidates, therefore improving candidate experience.
Q4: What tip would you give to hiring or HR managers looking to invest in HR software?
Do your homework on what you actually need. Where companies might not see the value in recruitment software due to tight budgets, if you hire more than 5 people a year you definitely would see the benefits of software. Do the maths on the cost per hire i.e. recruitment and social marketing costs, potential recruiter costs, sponsored job boards, onboarding & training costs, benefits, relocation costs etc. You would be surprised how much it is costing you to hire and where you are possibly investing money in the wrong places. The best place to start is with your HR team, survey the team to ascertain where their pain points are, where they need to see improvements and what their goals and objectives are for the year. Where your company may not have had the capacity to focus on employee engagement previously, taking on recruitment software and investing in employee engagement strategies combined can drastically improve the quality of new hires and your employee retention rate.
Join us next time where we will discuss in more detail the importance of candidate experience when hiring and our top tips to ensure your hiring experience is at its best.
Interviewee:
Susan Comyn, Marketing Manager @ BidRecruit
LinkedIn:
About BidRecruit:
BidRecruit is A.I. driven recruitment software for HR & Hiring Managers to help you hire smarter.
More info:
Connect:
Over the past two years, we have seen an increasing number of corporates turning attention to employee wellbeing. Reassuringly, there is a greater tendency toward long term sustainable wellbeing strategies, moving away from the traditional annual wellbeing week. Most organisations we meet offer their employees a diverse range of talks, supports such as EAP, and fitness programmes. However, a truly holistic wellness programme needs to go one step further to include financial wellbeing supports. According to the findings of a 2016 Financial Wellness Survey, “finances play a leading role in elevating stress levels for 52% of employees”. Hence there is a significant need to incorporate financial wellness initiatives to help employees manage debt, reduce stress and live happier lives.
Here are five services you can consider for your financial wellness programme.
Financial wellness programmes should be designed to demystify the world of financial planning and equip individuals with the knowledge and skills to manage debt and save for the future.
Author: Peter Jenkinson, CEO @ Wrkit
Wrkit specialise in the creation of better, healthier working environments. Our platform connects global, remote and local teams through five modules; Surveys, Recognition, POWR, Learning and Savings. Speak to an Engagement Specialist today – info@wrkit.com
Presenteeism is the phenomenon of employees coming into work when they are sick or injured, instead of staying at home. It has also been termed “sickness presence”, and it is thought that workers in ill-health are likely to be ineffective and unproductive, which can result in increased financial costs and stress-related absenteeism in the long run – it is estimated that presenteeism costs the UK economy up to £15.1 billion annually.
Therefore, addressing presenteeism in the workplace is something that should be taken seriously. There is some preliminary but promising evidence that workplace health promotion may be effective in improving presenteeism. By promoting a healthy workplace, and by being conscious of the factors that may contribute to presenteeism, organisations can target this phenomenon, enhance productivity, and improve overall employee well-being in the workplace.
Organisational policies
Certain organisational policies may play a role in presenteeism. Policies regarding sick leave, sick pay, and attendance may lead to employees feeling like they cannot be absent from work. In particular, a lack of paid sick leave and disciplinary “trigger points” with regards to absent episodes are thought to foster presenteeism. It is important that employers review such policies to ensure that sickness presence is not encouraged over legitimate sick leave.
Job design
Job design features may also stimulate presenteeism. Employees in high-demand jobs may wish to maintain high levels of performance and may therefore engage in presenteeism when they are unwell. Job demands include the physical, cognitive, and social features of a role that require sustained physical and psychological effort – it is therefore imperative that the demands of a job are not so high that an employee feels under pressure to meet all of these demands, even when they are unwell.
Ease of replacement is another feature which impacts on presenteeism – if employees feel that sick leave will result in their work piling up, this will also trigger presenteeism. Reasons why other employees may not be able to assist with sick colleagues’ workloads include lean staffing, high specialisation, and a lack of cross-training. Furthermore, employees may be inclined to be present when they are unwell if they feel that it is unfair for colleagues to have to take on more work. All of these features influence whether or not an individual engages in presenteeism, and so management should provide opportunities for cross-training and should encourage communication among all staff regarding what is considered fair and reasonable with regards to the replacement of work.
Presenteeism cultures
Some studies have found that presenteeism cultures may contribute to sickness presence. In certain organisations, employees can experience presenteeism pressures, particularly when there exists “competitive presenteeism” cultures. Such cultures can demand long work hours, the foregoing of recuperation time after business trips, and working while sick. Management should ensure that competitive presenteeism is not encouraged.
Individual risk factors
It is also important to consider the individual factors which may put individuals at greater risk of presenteeism. It is thought that potential risk factors include a poor diet, a lack of exercise, high stress, certain health conditions, and poor relations with peers and management. It is therefore important that employers address these factors, by encouraging healthy food options, activity in the workplace, and open communication with all staff, as well as by educating employees on the importance of looking after their personal health and their workplace relationships.
Measuring presenteeism
Organisations face a challenge when it comes to actually measuring presenteeism, as there is currently no universal agreement on the most appropriate method for measuring the concept. However, several self-report measures have been developed, which may prove useful for organisations. These instruments require employees answering various questions with regards to the degree to which they believe that health issues hinder them in performing the tasks required of their roles. Examples of some of these measures which could be incorporated include the Work Limitations Questionnaire (WLQ), Work Productivity and Activity Impairment (WPAI), and the Stanford Presenteeism Scale (SPS).
A positive work environment
It is thought that creating a positive work environment can help to reduce health risks and improve productivity in the workplace. While being aware of the organisational and individual factors which may contribute to presenteeism is important, it is just as vital to encourage a healthy and positive work environment, to defend against sickness presence. Workplace health promotion can have a variety of benefits for employers and employees alike, such as increased satisfaction and productivity, improved morale, reduced costs and turnover, and improved company profile. Some examples of workplace health promotion activities include:
Guest Author, Jennifer Fennell, Counseling Psychologist
Sources:
https://www.robertsoncooper.com/blog/entry/five-ways-to-reduce-presenteeism-in-the-workplace
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-11-395
How we work has changed dramatically over the last decade. The average worker now spends over 90,000 hours at work, doing jobs which are more sedentary than ever. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults aged 18 years and older were overweight. Of these, over 650 million adults were obese. Furthermore, the WHO estimates that globally over 300 million people are affected by depression, predicting that by 2021 occupational stress will be the leading cause of absenteeism and presenteeism at work.
Initiatives like the National Workplace Wellbeing Day, which takes place on Friday 13th of April 2018 are fundamental in raising awareness of these health challenges. Now in its fourth year running the Irish initiative is becoming increasingly well supported, promoting healthy workplaces and employee wellbeing in organisations of all sizes. Whether an organisation has a formal wellbeing strategy in place or not, this day should be a pillar event in the calendar.
Getting involved.
The core event which is driven by the organisers is the Lunchtime Mile – walk, run or cycle. This event has potential to become a regular fixture in every organisation, it is inclusive for people of all abilities and is aimed towards developing sustainable healthy behaviours and contribute to recommended daily exercise. While an organisation might offer other activities on the day, the Lunchtime Mile should be a standard inclusion for every business.
If you are looking for something outside the box here’s a few Wrkit tried and tested ideas.
There are hundreds of things an organisation can do, you’ll find other suggestions here on the official website where you can also register your organisation to participate.
Get involved and get on twitter using the official hashtag #workwell18. Share your outside the box ideas with us @WrkitTweets
March 7th 2018: Wrkit launch new integrated learning centre.
Today, Wrkit has upgraded their clients to a new look learning centre. The update gives a more streamlined user journey and is one of several product design updates planned by Wrkit for the coming months.
While the learning content currently remains the same, the latest design accommodates an easier three click-journey for users. The umbrella module, Learning, features existing modules Easy Upskill and Learn Plus, with the potential to easily integrate future learning tools. Users can continue to utilise hundreds of online courses for less, upskilling in areas such as excel, photography and graphic design, or develop personal interests with courses in nutrition, wellbeing, writing and more.
Wrkit CEO, Katharina Callaghan commented in relation to the new update
“We are delighted to have merged our Learning offers under one roof. The new navigation is more fun and clearer through a simple 1,2,3 step approach.
Over the next few months the Wrkit platform will receive an overall facelift, continuing from our most recent updates to the Lifestyle Saving module. A clear, simple, colourful layout with encouraging messaging will enhance the user experience throughout our platform.”
Other design updates by the company are expected to go live from the end of March 2018.
If you have any questions regarding Wrkit products, please contact info@wrkit.com or +353 1 662 4170