Industry News August 2011

• ASDA receives record apprenticeship applications
  - ASDA has reported an unprecedented increase in the number of applications it has received for its apprenticeship scheme, HR Magazine writes

  Schools HR training scheme growing in popularity

   - A scheme which aims to teach HR skills to children in the UK's most deprived schools has grown massively over the past year

  Employers should be banned from checking candidates social media pages

  - Recruiters should be banned from spying on candidates' social media pages before job interviews, according to a source from OPP, a business psychology company

  Retirement age change embraced by 60% of SME staff

  - Six out of ten respondents to a survey on the scrapping of the default retirement age have said they are happy with the change and the way it will alter their company's payroll structure

  London businesses turn beekeepers
  - Businesses in London are being given apiaries in a bid to boost morale, BBC News reports

  Having fun more important than high salaries

  - According to recruitment company Adecco, employees place more importance on having fun at work than having a high salary
• Council employees offered chance to buy additional leave

  - Nottingham City Council expect to save £154,000 this year by offering their employees the chance to buy extra time off work
• HMRC urges recruitment firms not to follow Reed
  - Recruitment firms have been told by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to continue paying their VAT as normal, rather than adjust their operations in response to a recent tribunal
• More than a tenth of workers will require long-term sick leave
  - More than one in ten workers are likely to require long-term sick leave during their career, according to a new poll
• Pilots' strike avoided by pay deal
  - Promising profit sharing, well-being initiatives and improved communication are three of the ways in which industrial action has been avoided at Virgin Atlantic, according the The Guardian
• Age UK still concerned the cheque isn't safe
  - Charities are calling for banks to do more to safeguard the cheque, despite recent assurances that the payment method will not be phased out
• Employers need to invest in health and well-being initiatives
  - A survey has found that more 20 per cent of Britain's employers do not have time and attendance systems in place to record sickness absence, according to HR Magazine
• Today's young are more likely to live to 100
  - There will be half a million people aged over 100 by the year 2066, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) predicts
• Employers blame GPs for fit notes not working
  - Employers throughout the UK have claimed that in order for the new fit note system to work, GPs must work more efficiently, Personnel Today revealed
• HR professionals "vital", says expert
  - HR professionals have been dubbed as "vital" to an organisation in a post-recession period
• Olympic sickies could catch employers out
   - Nearly one in six workers will consider taking a 'sickie' for the London 2012 Olympics in the wake of employer uncertainty over Olympic leave
• Second strike by BBC journalists
  - A second strike by journalists at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has begun, with many employees refusing to work for 24 hours because of compulsory redundancies being made