Netherlands: guide published to combat sexual harassment and violence in the workplace Quality of life at work Renault made a small revolution at the end of 2011 in the HR organization of its engineering and service undertakings in the Paris area (16,900 employees). Employees and managers used to complain that local HR representatives weren’t available enough and took too long to answer flowing questions on all types of subjects, or even avoided the task by sending them a generic email or to the intranet. In the end, this saturation led the new HR manager, Marie-Françoise Damesin, to rethink the HR function focusing on two axes: one for business and one for workers. That’s when the idea of HR agencies arrived, a sort of inner “help desk,” open to employees from the 8 sites in the region, including the headquarters, at the same time as the carmaker’s early workforce planning agreement on February 4, 2011. After 18 months, the company evaluates these HR agencies (1) supposed to answer, face to face and with no debarment, to the questions asked by employees and managers in terms of labor rights and organization. With 73 percent of “happy customers,” the plan’s developers say it’s a success and should set up a 9th agency in 2014. (Ref. 130477)
France: RATP seeks to improve attractiveness with QWL innovations Quality of life at work RATP, the urban transport operator employing 65,000 people, is experimenting with new measures, including the four-day week, new working rhythms and the deployment of exoskeletons in maintenance workshops. Formalised in an agreement on quality of life at work signed on 21 February, the aim of this push is to improve working conditions, meet employees' aspirations in terms of work-life balance and improve its employer brand.
United Kingdom: occupational health taskforce launched Quality of life at work On 21 February, the UK government unveiled the Occupational Health Taskforce, which is being launched to reduce occupational illness,…
France: flexibility still a priority for employees (survey) Quality of life at work Work-life balance and the quest for autonomy in the workplace are top priorities for French workers. These are the findings of this year’s annual Great Insights survey of over 4,000 employees,…
Italy: aerospace and defence group Leonardo trials shorter working hours Quality of life at work An agreement signed by Leonardo with the FIOM-Cgil, FIM-Cisl and UILM trade unions paves the way for a reduction in working hours of 12 hours a month without any reduction in pay for technical and manual staff working on site. The agreement, which will apply to the group's 31,000 employees in Italy, also includes improvements in terms of work-life balance and benefits in kind.
United Kingdoms: employers divided between returning to the office and maintaining telework Quality of life at work While consultant EY is now monitoring its employees' badges to check that they are sticking to their set working days at the office, a study by arbitration service Acas shows that 30% of the country's employers opted instead to increase remote working time in 2023. Proof that, on the eve of the introduction of a right to flexibility in the workplace from the moment of recruitment, the UK is in the grip of a double movement between "working from home" and "the office".
United Kingdom: two in 10 employees affected by burn-out (study) Quality of life at work Some 20% of employees missed work last year due to stress, according to ‘The Burnout Report‘…
Free Looking back at 2023: four-day week gains momentum Quality of life at work First tested on a large scale in Iceland in 2015, the concept of the four-day week moved up a gear in 2023. Experiments continued around the world under the impetus of the 4 Days Week Global association, but above all, for the first time, it was enshrined in the Belgian Labour Code.
Portugal: 95% satisfaction rate among companies to test four-day week Quality of life at work The initial results of Portugal's four-day week trial, published on 12 December, show high levels of satisfaction among both participating companies and the employees concerned. The experiment resulted in a 13.7% reduction in weekly working hours, from 39.3 to 34 hours per week.
Italy: Lamborghini introduces a four-day week at its plants Quality of life at work On 5 December, after a year of negotiations, the management at Automobili Lamborghini and the FIOM CGIL and FIM CISL trade unions signed a new company agreement for the years 2023-2026,…