Twenty-six of the most progressive employers and their representatives have been shortlisted for this year’s Workingmums.co.uk Top Employer Awards.
The employers have been shortlisted across eight categories ranging from SMEs to Family Support and Best for Dads. The Awards will be announced at a ceremony in London on 7th November, which will involve a keynote address by Ann Francke, Chief Executive of the Chartered Management Institute, as well as networking sessions and a Q & A with a panel of experts.
The ceremony is the eighth annual Top Employer Awards and celebrates companies who …

Working women in the UK feel they face a number of challenges to make their voice heard in business environments, according to new research.
A study conducted by RADA in Business, the commercial subsidiary of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art which provides communication skills training for corporate individuals, found that just 8% of women find it easy to make their voice heard at work. In comparison, 15% of men reported being able to express themselves with ease within a work environment.
The research also revealed that women are 68% more likely …

Over 177,000 young parents across England, aged 25 and under are struggling to cope financially, putting more children at risk of poverty, according to ‘The Next Chapter’ report released by UK charity, Action for Children today.
The report found that young parents earn significantly less than their non-parent peers, despite having the additional costs of raising children which is on average, £8,400 per year. It further shows that young parents have an average income of £14,820 compared to a UK national average of £26,300.[iii] Single parents who are 25 and under …

Hard-working parents don’t get to finally put their feet up until 8:53pm, a study has found. The incredible extent to which running a home leaves mums and dads with very little ‘down time’ was revealed by a study of 2,000 parents.
Parents get just 48 minutes of time to themselves a day. And eight in ten wish they had more spare time. One in ten said it was gone 10pm by the time they finally managed to relax after the stresses and strains of managing everything family life throws at them.
Two …

 
You have got a brilliant idea for a start up, you believe in it and feel that it can work. So far, so good. But, did you know that 90% of start-ups fail?
This is a huge number but you shouldn’t let it discourage you, if anything this should encourage you to work harder because you know that to grow your company and become part of the other 10% you need to learn from these mistakes.
To help you, here are six lessons on how to grow your business so that you …

Nearly half of working mums think working flexibly has affected their ability to progress their career, although almost three quarters identify flexible work as crucial to getting more women into senior roles, according to Workingmums.co.uk annual survey.
Lauren Powell works in recruitment in Berkshire. She has a two-year-old daughter.  She came back from maternity leave after seven months and worked four days condensed into three. However, her workload remained the same and her salary was reduced by more than a pro rata sum. She says she was made to feel that …

The Office for National Statistics today released new zero hours contracts data. The data shows that women and young people are most affected by the contracts that do not guarantee any hours in a given week:

Women make up 58 per cent of those on zero hours contracts
34 per cent of workers with no guaranteed hours are aged 16 to 24 – the largest age group

Commenting, Young Women’s Trust chief executive Dr Carole Easton OBE said: “Zero-hours contracts, many of which exploit young women, are used far too often.
“Young Women’s Trust …

Creating a successful start up is hard. The ingredients for success are laid out and readily available, but new research has revealed that the biggest obstacle that smallbusiness owners are constantly facing is poor time management. It’s suggested that this contributes hugely to a large portion ofthe 90% of start-ups that fail within the first 5 years.
The findings come from Instantprint’s survey to 500 small business owners, and the results are staggering. In an average week, a typical business owner is finding only 12 hours to pursue activities dedicated to …

If you run a business, ensuring that funds are deposited into your account on time is vital. For most  business owners, funds from their clients or customers are essential for paying company bills and ensuring that the cash flow of their business is running smoothly. However, as any business owner will know, payments are not always prompt.
Clients can forget or sometimes even downright refuse to pay, funds can take longer than expected to be transferred, and other issues can crop up and cause havoc with cash flow. Thankfully, there are …

One of the primary roles of a workplace is to maximise productivity to achieve the best results possible for that business.
According to research from AXA PPP healthcare, 42% of small businesses said the biggest productivity blocker was employees being disengaged or not enjoying their job. (Source: Online survey of 507 SME senior decision makers in September 2016 by Atomik.) In fact, the ONS reports the UK’s productivity (output per hour) has fallen by 0.5% since the start of 2017.
The ability to work smarter and increase productivity is something that, in …