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UK Edition
6th May 2021
 
THE HOT STORY
No full-time return to the office for over a million people in UK
Almost all of 50 of the UK's biggest employers questioned by the BBC say they do not plan to bring staff back to the office full-time. Some 43 of the companies said they would embrace a mix of home and office working, with staff encouraged to work from home two to three days a week. Organisations cited "smart working" and "flexibility" as reasons for introducing hybrid working, and many suggested that workers would be able to make their own choices about how often they come in to the office. Danny Harmer, chief people officer at insurance giant Aviva, said 95% of its workers said they'd like to be able to spend some of their time working flexibly and remotely in different locations. Mark Read, chief executive of advertising firm WPP, said: "We're never going to go back to working the way we used to work." But he noted that the new ways of using the office require careful planning. "People are working from home three to four days a week so we probably need 20% less space, but we're not going to do that if everyone's working from home on Mondays and Fridays." Only a few of the companies surveyed by the BBC have been shutting offices, with some saying they will wait until leases run out.
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WORKFORCE
KPMG UK gives staff extra time off amid shift to hybrid working
KPMG has told its 16,000 UK staff that they can take two and a half hours off each week until the end of August to help them to "re-energise" after enduring stressful working conditions during the pandemic. Employees will also get an extra day off on June 21st when Covid restrictions are lifted in the UK. The firm told staff on Wednesday that they will spend on average just two days a week in the office from June as part of a shift to permanent flexible working. Kevin Hogarth, KPMG's chief people officer, said: "We are trying to shift what we use our offices for and embrace hybrid ways of working. We think the activities that should take place when people come together are not sitting at a desk or sitting in front of a PC completing work on their own. We want to focus the time that people come into the office on those things where there's real value in bringing people together: collaboration; problem solving; project planning; innovation and training."
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Get ready for the new perk culture
The FT considers the coming post-pandemic perk culture, centred on concerns around health, financial stability and flexibility, and transforming how “benefits” are defined and precipitating an overhaul of corporate practices.
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EMPLOYEE ONBOARDING

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STRATEGY
Norwegian cuts 1,200 jobs in Spain
Norwegian is to cut 85% of its staff in Spain. Around 1,200 cabin crew will lose their jobs as part of the airline's restructuring. Alfons Claver, the carrier's communications manager in Spain, confirmed the plans to Dagens Næringsliv (DN). “This does not only apply to Spain. With different timing and different legal systems and local dynamics, the downsizing has already taken place in countries where we used to operate,” he said. Three of Norwegian's five bases in Spain will be cut, but the low-cost airline will retain bases in Malaga and Alicante.  The USO union described the cuts as “brutal.”
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Agility will be vital post-pandemic, say lawyers
The FT reports on how multinational law firm Dentons' new toolkit to improve agile working across its offices worldwide was put to the test during the pandemic.
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LEGAL
ICC calls for modernisation of ‘antiquated’ trade system
A new report from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) argues that trade legislation, particularly with regard to key documents, is “antiquated” and no longer fit for purpose, having been established in 1882 and requiring dozens of paper documents for each trade transaction. The report found that £25bn in additional trade could be generated by modernising the system and digitising key documents – saving businesses huge amounts of time and resources, and cutting the number of days needed to complete a transaction by as much as 70%. ICC secretary-general Chris Southworth says the inefficiencies in the existing system mean that “what should take hours or days to transact takes weeks and months.” The report’s author, Rebecca Harding, the chief executive of Coriolis Technologies, said: “The actual numbers of SMEs exporting has been on the decline for the last two years. This is a plea for reform so that we can address a lot of those issues and [also] to make it easier for SMEs to access trade finance.”
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CORPORATE
Law firms closing due to lack of indemnity cover
According to analysis by accountancy company Hazlewoods, law firms in the UK are increasingly closing because they are unable to obtain professional indemnity insurance cover. Hazlewoods found that, in 2017, four UK legal practices shut down because of a lack of insurance cover. In contrast, 60 closed down last year. The researchers said that rising premium costs and the coronavirus pandemic had made matters worse. Law firms are “facing increased scrutiny from insurers, who are looking more closely at their financial position when considering whether to provide coverage. In the latest renewal, insurers introduced additional questions focusing on firms’ responses to the pandemic and how their finances have been impacted,” the analysis observed.
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PSYCHOLOGY
Bankers suffer decision fatigue
A study by the University of Cambridge suggests people applying for mortgages should avoid going to banks at lunchtime or just before closing because credit officers are likely to reject their requests because of “decision fatigue.” The research also showed that if credit officers had based all their decisions on similar criteria to that used in the early morning, they would have collected an extra £360,000 in loan repayments and increased the home loan application rate to 42%. “Credit officers were more willing to make the difficult decision of granting a customer more lenient loan repayment terms in the morning, but by midday they showed decision fatigue and were less likely to agree to a loan restructuring request,” said Professor Simone Schnall from the University of Cambridge's Department of Psychology, and senior author of the report.
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INTERNATIONAL
What the end of the Gates marriage means for foundation staff members
The New York Times looks at what the divorce of Bill and Melinda Gates means for the Gates Foundation and the 1,600 staff members who direct $5bn in annual grants to 135 countries. In an email on Monday, Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman reassured staff that both Mr. and Ms. Gates remained committed to the organization, saying that “Bill and Melinda asked me explicitly to express their deep gratitude for everything you do every day, particularly during the Covid-19 crisis, as well as for your support and understanding in this difficult time.” The foundation's $50bn endowment is in a charitable trust that is irrevocable. Megan Tompkins-Stange, a professor of public policy and scholar of philanthropy at the University of Michigan, said it cannot be removed or divided up as a marital asset, although there was no legal mandate that would prevent them from changing course. “I think there may be changes to come,” she observed. “But I don't see it as a big asteroid landing on the field of philanthropy as some of the hyperbole around this has indicated.”
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Indian businesses urge government to restrict non-essential economic activity
Business leaders in India are calling for a de facto lockdown in the country as companies struggle to muster enough healthy staff amid the latest Covid surge.  Uday Kotak, president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), said: “We need to curtail non-essential economic activity and services for a very short while to break the chain. Essential services like oxygen, supply of medicine and food items have to continue,” adding that the government should turn to the “nationwide maximal response measure at the highest level.” Automotive companies including Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, JCB India, MG Motor, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India have stopped production temporarily in the interest of employee safety, and service sector firms including Kotak Mahindra Bank, TCS and Infosys have adopted remote working strategies. CII has suggested proactive measures including making testing available for employees whose presence at the workplace is necessary, and making quarantine facilities available for infected workers.
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One in six Australian public servants sexually harassed in workplace
The results of a survey of more than 3,000 public servants in Australia show that almost 16% have reported sexual harassment. The Guardian says the results of the poll of 3,280 workers by the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) will add pressure on the government to do more to combat workplace misconduct. Although the poll indicates that almost one in six public servants has experienced sexual harassment, only one-third of incidents were reported, according to the survey. Two-thirds of incidents went unreported due to fears they would not be impartially investigated.
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