There is no doubt that it can be hard for workers to get back into the flow of working after the three bank holidays that comes with the Christmas period, even harder if your company does not require staff to come in at any point over this section of time.

So what can you do to boost this inevitable slump?

Here are a few top tips to help your staff morale and consequently their motivation.

Promote Work Life Balance

If your staff know that you value their lives outside of work they will be more encouraged to work harder for you during work hours!

Actively encourage them to focus on themselves when they leave the office and try to persuade your staff to take as little work home with them as possible. If someone is taking too much work home with them then they will get little time to reset and will quickly lose their working momentum, meaning they will have less and less motivation to do their work well.

As a direct opposite to this, the people who can fully recharge every night and weekend, or spend their out of office time doing leisurely activities will be much less likely to fall into a slump. They will be able to do anything they need to without being completely drained from being overworked.

Identify Problems When They Arise

This is very important for both the company and the member of staff. Nothing is more disheartening than finding out too late that you have to redo the entire job again but in a different way.

The likelihood is, the member of staff being corrected will be told a more effective way to go about their project. This will encourage the individual as their job will suddenly be easier and they will know for sure that they are doing the correct job - they will know it will not need to be redone or tweaked afterwards.

This will also ensure that the person will know they can go to you for advice or to ask for any help as you have helped them in the past.

Stop Micromanaging Your Staff

This can be one of the most frustrating habits that someone can have in a workplace, it can completely stamp out a person’s desire to work to the best of their abilities and become more irritable.

Though it is good to offer advice when it is needed, constantly doing so because you believe that there is only your way of doing something becomes worthless as it can have an extremely unhelpful effect on the workplace instead of a positive one.

Not only this, but micromanaging means you are constantly interrupting somebody’s workflow, they will not be able to get into a steady working rhythm.

Use Reward Systems

This is a great way to motivate people, who doesn’t want to be rewarded for all of their hard work?

To give your staff a goal to work towards is the perfect way to promote hard work from your staff at the start of the year. There always seems to be less excitement in the first few months of the year compared to the last few months of the year, so it is good to try to keep spirits high.

Creating a rewards system will mean that your staff now have something to look forward to again and to strive towards in the colder winter months.

Offer Employee Growth

If people can see that their hard work will get them a better position in the company they will have more motivation to work harder in order to one day achieve this possibility.

This may not always be a new job title but could also be to do with new opportunities for the members of staff or maybe even giving them the chance to learn new things.

If somebody thinks that their job will lead nowhere then they will have no goal to work towards and so will likely begin to feel less and less driven to work to the best of their ability.

With 2022 fast approaching, a lot of predictions are being made as to what the country will face.

These predictions are not looking good for the average UK citizen.

The cost of living in the UK has rapidly increased this year, reaching the highest number the UK has seen in the past 10 years, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has shown. In the past 12 months up until November, the cost of living has soared by a whopping 5.1%! With experts having predicted that the peak of inflation will be at 6% by the spring.

These predictions, by the Resolution Foundation and by the Bank of England, also warn of the stress that will be placed on the country by the real wage growth. This growth was stagnant in October and began falling ever since. They also suggest that there will likely not be growth again until the final quarter of 2022!

With the rise in energy bills, unmoving wages, and ever rising taxes, it is possible that UK households could be facing a £1,200 hit to their yearly incomes according to The Resolution Foundation.

This foundation has stated that as a result of this, millions of families will be confronted with a ‘cost of living catastrophe’ in 2022, with others now referring to the upcoming year as the ‘year of the squeeze’.

The government claims to be putting £4.2bn in place to support families through these hard times but this may not prove to be enough with such a huge hit to their yearly payouts.

The reported numbers is a result of the 1.25% rise in National Insurance contributions as the typical household would be having to pay a total of £600 on this, as well as the higher energy prices being predicted to add another £500 to household spending.

Both of these will be being enforced in April 2022.

This even impacts those firms who are in the energy sector, they can see a rise in £100 added to their gas and electric bills. With customers in collapsed energy companies being shifted from one supplier to the next, it would mean they will be paying a different and very likely a more expensive bill than they would previously have been paying.

Experts have predicted that with wholesale gas price levels, having risen to a new record high of 450p per therm, could amount annually to an average of £2,000 in 2022.

As a result of this news the Labour party has stated that they think the UK government should remove the cost of VAT from household energy bills straight away to help with household spending over the winter months. Though this is not yet a measure that has been put in place, we can hope that the government will seriously consider this.

There is a small light in this bleak news though, those earners who receive minimum wage from their employers will see a rise in wages in April of 6.6%. These people will be protected in some ways from this news but will still be facing catastrophic rises in the price of living just as everyone else will.

However, the job market in general seems to be doing well still, with unemployment staying low and a huge demand for new workers having broken UK records in recent months. It was once feared that there would be a major blow for employment rates but the UK defied these predictions. This could mean good news for 2022 as the country did much better than what experts thought it would in 2021.

This is particularly evident in sectors that had to close down over lockdown and so needed a whole force of new workers to help their companies when they were allowed to reopen again. These kinds of jobs are typically those that require people to go to work in person and they tend to be lower paid sectors.

The UK labour market still is not at the level it had once been, still at half a million below what it was at pre-pandemic, but this is still much better than what had been predicted of our country. We can only hope that 2022 also defies these odds and holds up better for the labour market and the average households so that they are not forced to pay out quite so much more than what experts are currently expecting them too.

Are you struggling to find a secure company culture that sticks?

Here are some ways to target this desire and work on your company culture. These can generally vary in sub groups throughout the company but will ultimately hold the same values as the larger company does as a whole.

This may seem really daunting, but it doesn’t have to be! Here are a few ways in which you can enrich your company.

Communication

This is something I always recommend in any aspect of life, but it is inevitable to have any kind of good relationship. Allowing your company to feel comforted in hearing that they are truly being heard by their workplace. This will promote a happier environment for all of your staff, they know that if they have any concerns the company will listen to what they are saying and will help in any way possible.

Recognise and Reward Good Work

Ensuring that people are being treated well for doing good deeds for the company is a surefire way to encourage this kind of work again and again. Not only is this a positive thing for your employee but it also ultimately helps the company too. A happy workplace is a productive workplace. Being praised or rewarded in another way would actively encourage the employee to work harder in the future to try to reap a similar reward.

Address Mental Health

With a big emphasis being put on mental health over the past few years, it is key that companies also put an equal level of importance on this topic. It is key to have open discussions with your staff about their own mental health, sharing tips and tricks you may know but to also try to encourage them to get external help if they feel they need it! Staff who are constantly feeling rundown mentally and physically are not going to stay very loyal to your company, show that you care about their wellbeing and staff retention rates will be a lot better.

Prioritise Feedback

Whether this is praise or constructive criticism, employees need to know if they are doing their job to the best standard. This ensures that there is constant productivity as people will be

aware of how best to do stuff and whether they have been doing anything wrong or not. The only way for employees to learn from their mistakes is if they are told what should be changed, meaning the workplace would be a lot more efficient.

Make Tough Decisions

Clearly, this will be a tricky one but it is always for the best. A hard conversation or decision ultimately leads to what is best for the company. If an employee is not held accountable for their mistakes then you will inevitably have a toxic workplace environment. Though it is difficult, letting people go who are not doing their fair share of the work, it is simply the right thing to do so the staff that are doing well see that their hard work actually is important.

Embrace Flexibility

This again is becoming more and more of an important aspect to workplaces. Allowing your staff a little bit more freedom will increase their loyalty to the company. This can be from allowing them to work from home, being more understanding with parents needing last minute time off, or just any staff member needing to take leave.

Help Employees Advance Their Careers

As well as praising your employees when they do well, they are likely looking for the chance to further advance their career by working with your company. One of the biggest reasons that an individual leaves their jobs is that they can no longer advance with their current employer. So, do whatever you can to help your employees with the career path by promoting them whenever possible. If this is limited there are always extra training courses that could be provided too

In more recent years, there has been a significant rise in women making their way to the top of a company and overcoming any obstacles that may have been put in their path to get there.

According to research by UENI, 32.37% of all UK businesses are owned by women. Though this figure should ideally be equal to their male counterpart’s percentage, it is still a significant increase from the 17% of female owned businesses from 4 years ago.

This promising rise for female leaders is also mirrored in the Global 500 businesses where women running the businesses have risen from 14 in 2020 to 23 this year. This increase is promising but still an extremely low percentage.

So the question here then is: what can women do to overcome these poor odds of being a successful business owner who is taken seriously by the world?

Here are a few tips to help these aspiring women to achieve their goals.

Block out unwanted advice

People will try to give their opinions as often as they can to somebody starting out, usually when they do not know as much about the company’s plan as the person who is creating it. It is important then to filter out all of the empty advice that comes your way. Women are often spoken over and their opinions tend to be overlooked a lot more than the males in their workplaces. As a result this way of thinking would inevitably flow into a new business and people may not think that a woman starting up is as knowledgeable as she should be. This simply is not the case. It is likely that women are more than qualified for this role if they are willing to take all of this on and truly believe that they will be able to achieve their goals.

However, the noise is not always from other people trying to put you down but also by yourself. Self doubt exists in everybody but it affects some more than others. Just remember, you would not be taking this huge leap if you were not skilled enough to do it in the first place. Ignore this unwarranted internal advice and persevere, go back to your original plan and allow yourself to refocus on your goal.

Expect the Unexpected

This is easy to advise but hard to actually set out for since the whole nature of it is unpredictable. However, it is key to note that you can never plan completely when creating a new business, something will always pop up that will force you to alter your plan in some way.

And though it would be impossible to know what exactly will come your way, a global pandemic for example, there are certain counterplans you can make to best prepare you for these situations.

Put in the hours

With the way the world is currently working, it is the perfect time to start up a new business as flexible working and working from home means it is easier and cheaper to start up. Be prepared for unconventional hours. Unfortunately, for most people who are starting up their first company they work many more hours than the standard rate. You will need to embrace this, put in those strange hours and work around your life.

Working from home, and having your whole staff do so too will mean your company will have more money to spend on what you truly need rather than paying rent and monthly bills for your office. This also allows employees to have more freedom and to not have to spend time nor money travelling to and from work everyday.

Focus on your company, not others

Though it is good to see what other companies with a similar business are doing, it is not an issue if you are not immediately getting the same traction as they are.

There is little to no point in directly comparing your company to others, you are not the same company so you will not be doing the exact same thing. There are many ways to run a business and there are a lot of ‘competing’ companies out there that are thriving in different but still successful ways. So try not to do something just because you have seen another company doing the same.

Comparing yourself to others in any aspect of your life is not a healthy way to live, and doing it for your business can really hinder your progress. You may not go ahead with something that could have been your company’s ‘big break’ purely because similar successful companies would not take that route. In this situation your downfall is not your competition’s success but your company’s hesitation.

Focus on your company and what is best for the business!

The internet is a tool that companies can no longer live without.

This is usually not a bad thing, you have almost everything you need at your fingertips as long as you know what to search, be this to find instant information or to see what people’s opinions are about a certain topic.

However, the ability to do whatever you want at the touch of a button may not always lead to something positive. In fact, it can lead to quite the opposite.

In recent news, the chief executive of mortgage at the firm Better.com, Vishal Garg mass fired 900 people on the same zoom call.

Nobody wants to be fired, it is not an experience anyone would want and especially not this close to Christmas…

Now imagine being one of the 900 people on the Zoom call with your boss and hearing these words

"If you're on this call you're part of the unlucky group being laid off,"

This is possibly the worst way to approach the sensitive subject of firing someone. Trivialising the fact that 900 people are now going to be jobless as simply being part of an ‘unlucky group’.

This more resembles group humiliation than an appropriate way to fire such a huge portion of your staff. The process of firing somebody should be private and personal, so that the individual knows exactly why they are being laid off and have the ability to keep this information private.

Vishal Garg’s approach could not have lacked more empathy had he tried.

Not only is this method completely lacking in emotion, it is also extremely unprofessional. To fire 15% of your company in one fatal swoop without allowing any of them to give their say in a confidential manner seems completely wrong of a company.

This then raises the question of how far is too far when it comes to the internet in the current working world.

Companies should ensure that there is a set procedure in place to prevent such awful things like this from happening in the future. Hopefully with this being such big news, companies will think twice about mass impersonal firings such as this.

The internet world has been good to workers recently, encouraging people to prioritise their mental health, work life balance and just generally looking out for the worker after this awful year.

So, in many aspects, the internet has helped so much to ensure that workers are being looked after in the best possible way and gives them the knowledge to know if they are or not.

However, people like Vishal Garg clearly exploit the popularity of programs like Zoom for their own benefit, ignoring their staff in the process.

So, if you have to use Zoom in order to fire someone, how should you handle it?

1. Make sure that Zoom is the only possible way - if you can fire somebody in person take this route as it is more personal and feels more respectful to the person who will be laid off.

2. Be polite - it will be a hard situation so it is best not to upset the person before you have stated what is happening.

3. Be sure to word what you are saying in a way that cannot be misconstrued or sound like there is any possibility of the firing being prevented.

4. Get straight to the point, don’t beat about the bush.

5. Tell them exactly why you are letting them go, this will give them a chance to reflect on the reasons and understand why you have reached this conclusion.

6. Keep it as professional as possible, you do not want the person to feel as though they have been disrespected after such a tough situation.

What can a company do to attract the widest array of individuals for a new job posting?

Easy.

Offer up the most desirable perks.

In a recent survey carried out by The Graduate Project, we have found that there is a lot of interest in this subject. People are keen to show what they want and possibly expect from the companies they long to apply to.

This survey simply asked ‘What is the most desirable work perk?’

An easy enough question which people happily participated in. This survey found that more than half of the people partaking wanted a four day work week with 52% of individuals opting for this perk over the others. A close second, with 30%, was working from home. Next we had 16% of people wanting more paid time off from work. Then, finally, we had only 2% wanting the added perk of getting a gym membership out of their work position.

What does this say then?

Unsurprisingly, with the boom in companies recently experimenting with 4 day work weeks for staff, this is the most desirable perk for individuals to opt for. This could be due to the current attention placed on the idea, or maybe people just see it as the most likely since some companies are actively putting it into play. This was seen most notably recently with the British retail bank Atom Bank.

This is also a similar situation for those who chose the work from home perk over the others. Working from home is desirable in a number of ways to individuals. Suddenly an individual is saving time and money from not having to commute to and from work every day. This also means that an individual is not limited by location as remote working means they can be anywhere around the world as long as they are available online during their work hours.

Now more paid time off work… I don’t think I need to explain the appeal in this one, but I will anyway. With an increased focus recently on Work Life Balance, the appeal to have more time away from work is desirable and should help an individual’s wellbeing. More time off would sound appealing to anyone, however, it is clearly not at the top of the general public’s desires

from a company. Though, of course, a 4 day work week is a similar kind of perk to this so it makes sense that this category has fallen behind.

Finally, we have the gym membership perk. The reason for this one gaining so little attention is probably easily explained. Though this is an amazing perk, it is just not the top of people’s priorities. Firstly, not everybody may be interested in going to the gym in the first place and so this perk would have 0 reward for them, they simply would not utilise this perk. Secondly, those who it would suit may not feel like they would have the time to utilise this kind of perk - therefore they would likely opt for one of the other three options. And thirdly, people may think that a work perk would be most appealing if it directly related to their working situation rather than just something that would affect their free time.

What can a company learn from this?

There is a huge appeal at the moment for people to be offered more flexibility in their working situations, be it a 4 day work week, the ability to work from home or more paid time off. It would be sensible for companies to look at this information and apply it to ensure that more people are being attracted to new job roles and will be inclined to stay loyal with the company once they are working there.

Amazing news for new Graduates!

It appears that firms have boosted salaries for young people as a direct result of graduate job competition. According to new findings around the ‘Top 100’ employers, a graduate’s typical pay will now be going up by £833, with the total amount now being £30,500!

Not only has the payroll increased for new graduates but also for other educated individuals. The average pay for those fresh out of school has seen an increase of £1,039, so this is great news all around in terms of pay rises.

Though, this rise is not just a happy accident. The rise in salary is prompted by the competitive nature of graduate jobs recently. Over the past year, there has been a huge 17% increase in applications. The average graduate job now receives a whopping 91 applicants. With some graduate jobs receiving applications in their hundreds, like those in the Health and Pharmaceutical Industry which received an average of 155 applicants per job posting, or even more with 182 applicants per vacancy in Retail and Tourism roles. The number of applications are now at a record high since the records began to be collected in 1999.

As there are so many people actively searching for a new role, companies have had to consequently boost their appeal which is why there is the sudden increase in job salaries. These companies are having to fight for graduate’s attention as it is such a tough market right now.

With this overwhelming surge in applications, the job market appears to still not be recovered from the pandemic as the levels have not reached the height they were at before Covid-19 hit the country. This is similar to the result of the financial crisis of 2008 wherein graduate salaries stagnated for a few years afterwards as the country settled back to the new norm.

However, despite all of this news, experts believe that there will be growth in all sectors which will continue into 2022. They also expect there to be a return to normal next year with graduate jobs and internships exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

Since the majority of research conducted is around these companies that are considered the ‘Top 100’ the findings may not be as realistic in all companies. The typical pay for jobs outside of this elite group is around £21,000 to £25,000 depending on the industry a graduate is looking to go into. This difference in job pay is seen, for example, between Education and Teaching’s typical graduate pay (£19,899) and Military and Defence’s graduate pay (£29,386).

So, there is quite the difference in pay if you are not looking to go into a career with one of the biggest companies or if you are going down a different route. But either way it seems like the country is hoping to return to normal next year and will likely keep the increase in job salaries. This is evidently doubly good news as the job market will return to normalcy but will be rewarding graduates by offering up a bigger salary than what would previously have been offered for these roles.

A lot of people feel like they are stuck in their jobs, with no true purpose but no motivation to look for something new, or maybe they just don’t know where to start with the whole process.

It is usually best to not just quit your job without any prior thought or planning, unless you are in a very good financial situation this will be a very hard challenge.

However, there is now the sudden boom in people leaving their jobs, a term I’m sure you have heard recently called ‘The Great Resignation’ but what does it actually entail?

Well, according to monster.co.uk, 52% of Brits want to quit their jobs though usually (with 72% of these people) it will take up to 2 years to actually follow through on this desire. Based on their research the majority of people are wanting to quit because they believe they deserve a higher salary and so look for jobs that will offer that. The next two reasons are because they need a new challenge or are, quite simply, bored.

As well as this research, Randstad UK found an even bigger percentage of people wanting to leave for a new role! They surveyed 6,000 people and found that 69% of them were confident that they would be in a new role within a few months and 24% were planning to change at some point between three and six months. Randstad stated that they would normally expect around 11% of workers to move jobs every year - so this is quite the sudden increase!

A lot of the reasoning for this sudden sway in people wanting to quit their jobs is down to burnout caused by the pandemic, meaning a lot of people feel overworked for what they are being paid to do. This alongside living through a pandemic would ultimately be exhausting and is enough to push people into leaving their current vocations.

As a result of this companies may be forced into considering handing out pay rises for staff alongside offering up further help that would help prevent this from happening in the future. This is key for the companies as the loss of each employee could result in up to £25,000! So, in order to save the company money it might be best to spend more on those extremely valuable employees.

Although living through the pandemic was awful for the world, there is a glimmer of light for some people who have now managed to see their work life from a few steps back. With the sudden rise in people working from home and trends in topics based around ‘work life balance’ meant that people had an open opportunity to assess their work lives and evaluate how healthy it was for them to stay working the way that they had been prior to the pandemic.

People learned tips from one another on how best to handle their burnout, with overworking often being the root cause of the issue. With a deadly virus going around, people were reminded that life is simply too short to make yourself unhappy with little free time for your job. So, people want to put a stop to it and ensure that they get the best out of their working situation for them.

A lot of people stayed in roles that they were unhappy with during the pandemic, likely due to the inability to get a new job when so many companies were being forced to make their staff members redundant as they were not making as much money as they would have been pre-pandemic. Now that the working world is beginning to heal, the opportunity to find somewhere new is now a huge possibility.

Companies will now need to listen very closely to their workers if they want their staff to stay loyal and stick with their company. People have been feeling trapped and unheard in their workplaces, feeling as though they are undervalued and that the company is not treating them right. Bosses will need to do whatever they can to ensure these workers are being listened to and their needs are being acted on. A company will not be successful and will not last if their employees feel overlooked by them, they will simply seek a better role for them in a company with a better staff reputation.

Every year on 3rd November, the UK has Stress Awareness Day.

A day to reflect on everything in your life and assess whether your life has as little stress as possible, and to look at ways to try to prevent it whenever you can.

In a study by PerkBox, just shy of 80% of people in the UK felt work-related stress last year! This is significantly more than the 59% that were that stressed before the pandemic hit!

There were a lucky 17% who rarely experienced this stress and a 1% that never felt stressed!

With this staggering statistic, it means that work is the biggest stressor for people (with money issues being the second biggest with 60% of people asked stating this too).

A few of the biggest causes for this stress is:

•   Office politics
•   Lack of interdepartmental communications
•  The work performance of others
•  Long working hours

It is clear that there needs to be a change in the way that us Britons handle our day to day lives in order to reduce stress in whatever way possible.

It could be very useful to identify skills for ourselves and then incorporate them into our work lives so that stress can be as minimal as possible in all aspects of our lives!

One key aspect is time management

• If you let all of your tasks get ahead of you it is easy to quickly feel overwhelmed! You will have so much to do and no longer enough time as there has not been an equal division of your time for these tasks.
• Try to organise your time as best as you can, schedule in enough time for each project you are working on in your day in order to have an efficient timetable that will allow you to keep on top of everything in a timely manner!

Be realistic

• It is easy to feel like you cannot say no when people ask you to do a new task, but it is important to assess the reality of your situation.
• You simply may not have enough time to do the task they want you to do!
• It is okay to say no, it will ultimately be best for the company if you are not rushing to do all of your work because you have taken on too much.

Talk to others around you

• Sharing your problems with others can be a huge help!
• This can be friends, family or work colleagues!
• People are likely going to want to help you if it is possible, they could try to be quieter, offer up some help with your workload or just act as somebody you can vent to! It is always good to confide in people who want to be there for you!
• This could also be beneficial for the other person as you can share your tips amongst each other and take any useful information and apply it to your own situation.

Make a comfortable environment

• This can range from your home environment, your work desk, your clothing etc.
• It is important to feel as comfortable as possible in an environment so you can relax into whatever setting you are in without having to worry about everything around you.
• If you are in tight clothes, an uncomfortable chair, feeling cold, you will focus on all of these and prevent you from doing whatever you need to. Fixing these problems will allow you to think of more productive things instead of being in discomfort all day long.

Don’t overwork yourself

• Though it is important to do your work, do not push it past your limits!
• You need time away from your work when the day is over, do not sacrifice all of your free time to it, you will get burnt out.
• The quality of your work will go downhill if you are constantly exhausted from never taking your breaks, so focus on yourself in these situations and your stress levels will decrease as you will have that time to recharge and feel more mentally ready for your day.