HR, Recruitment, Diversity and Parenthood: My July Article Round-Up

Here’s my latest round-up of HR-related articles that I thought I’d share with you. I hope you find them as useful as I did!

UK job applications rose 32% in June

As is to be expected, competition for jobs is huge at the moment. In fact, in June it was reported that there were 106% more applicants battling for jobs than in the same period last year.

Across the board, applications were up by an average of 32%, but some UK cities showed even higher demand:

Leicester +47.6%
Nottingham +45.9%
Brighton +43.6%
Leeds +43.6%
Liverpool +42.4%
Cardiff +41.2%
Sheffield +39.4%
Southampton – 38.6%
Birmingham +35.8%
Newcastle +34.1%

This is good news for employers, but in reality this just shows the impact that the pandemic has had on jobs across the country.

Read the full article for more stats, including by industry.

What is the ‘summer standoff’ and how is it affecting your business?

According to this article, research shows that people are taking much less of their paid holiday allowance compared to the same time last year.

The reasons why are quite clear really – why would you take holiday if all you’re going to do it sit at home with nowhere to go?

But as restrictions are lifted, this could have a detrimental impact on businesses and their people.

Remote working burnout is real – and even if people aren’t feeling it now, they may do when they’re back in the office.

Businesses need to start considering how they’re going to manage holiday requests to prevent a backlog. Everyone needs time off, but they can’t all take it at the same time after all.

Read the full article about the ‘summer standoff’.

Half of working mums say childcare during Covid-19 has damaged their career

This very issue is something we spoke about during my recent event with Donna and Cheryl from Now Is Your Time.

I think I can speak for everyone who was at the event (virtually, of course) when I say that this isn’t a new phenomenon – but it is something that’s been highlighted for many during lockdown.

This article goes through the results of a recent poll that backs this up. Unfortunately the stats don’t surprise me, but I do hope that this time will encourage employers to allow people to work more flexibly in future.

Do you have children? How have you found working from home over the last 3 months?

Read the article for more insights and stats from the poll.

How to address racism with positive leadership

During the CIPD’s recent webinar series on race, Dev Modi, chartered business psychologist and head of inclusive leadership for EMEA at YSC consulting said the pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests have given employers a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’.

He said that it’s an opportunity for us to redesign organisations for the future and gave a range of practical steps for HR and leaders to use current events to create genuine and lasting change.

Here are two links for you to check out with this one.

What will future HR job roles look like?

According to a report by Conizant, there are 21 new HR job roles that will emerge over the next ten years. ‘Data detectives’ and ‘home working facilitators’ will be among them – interesting!

As HR (and many other sectors) already has been, it suggests that HR jobs will be very much influenced by technological advancements.

It’s important to mention that the human side of the workplace will still be just as important as it is now though. So, HR roles focused on elements such as employee behaviour, satisfaction and job personalisation are here to stay.

See all of the 21 future HR jobs from the report here.

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