(PR in) HR Pulse | HR News Round-up: 27th March – 2nd April 2023
Exploring career opportunities with neurodivergent children
HR and the working environment have recently seen a rise in awareness and the need for the inclusion of neurodivergent employees in the workforce.
However, the National Autistic Society has revealed that less than a quarter (22%) of autistic adults are currently in employment, and only 16% are in full-time paid employment.
A 2021 report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also revealed that over a third (34.6%) of disabled people in employment work part-time, which is 11.7% higher than non-disabled part-time workers. Fifteen per cent of disabled workers were also reported to be self-employed.
HR Director at RSK Group, Zoe Brunswick, explained how the education system can help: The key is to tackle issues of neurodivergent stereotypes and misconceptions at school - ensuring that teachers understand the power of support and reassurance during childhood in formal settings. The positive and negative experiences in school are crucial to building self-esteem, especially for children who aren’t neurotypical.
Brunswick continues that although many individuals are working towards including non-neurotypical children in classrooms, more needs to be done to improve the school system as a whole to ensure that no child is left unsupported.
Construction Engineering company, RSK Group, plans to help by exposing more neurodivergent children to the working world, exploring what career opportunities could be available to them, through careers fairs and school visits.
The purpose of the visits is to create an understanding of the possibilities for neurodivergent children in the future. The idea is to explain the positive and negative experiences they may have during their journey and ongoing career development. Sources: HR Magazine and National Autistic Society.
Should Long Covid be considered a disability?
New research from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Long Covid Support Employment Group (LCSEG) has revealed that two thirds (66%) of employees with long-term issues from Covid have faced unfair treatment in the workplace.
Their Workers’ Experiences of Long Covid report showed that almost a quarter (23%) of employees said their employers were reluctant to believe they had long Covid symptoms.
Sixteen per cent also stated that they had experienced bullying and harassment as a result of their condition, while 14% claimed their symptoms contributed to their redundancy. A further 8% have also been threatened with disciplinary action.
This seems to be becoming a growing concern as 12% revealed that they haven’t disclosed their health issues to their employers for fear of not being believed or treated negatively.
In February, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that c2 million people (3.1% of the population) in the UK self-reported symptoms of long Covid.
Most than half (52%) reported having issues with their concentration, while just under half said they were experiencing shortness of breath (48%) and muscle pain (47%).
Subsequently, the TUC and the LCSEG are urging the government to introduce steps to help those affected by long Covid. They suggest Covid should be recognised as an occupational disease and long Covid sufferers need to be protected under the Equality Act as a disability. Guidelines on how employers handle long Covid should also be set, with an emphasis on flexible working.
Employment lawyer at Anderson Strathern, Musab Hemsi, states that disability status is important to make sure employers are making reasonable adjustments for long Covid suffering in the workplace.
According to the TUC and LCSEG, almost half (48%) of employees stated that they weren’t able to access the reasonable adjustments provided, while half (50%) said they weren’t given any reasonable adjustments required for them to continue working. Sources: HR Magazine, People Management, HR Review & Personnel Today.
ChatGPT is creating a productivity boom
Right now Open AI’s ChatGPT has c25 million daily users, which is astonishing seeing as it debuted just four months ago.
Recent research from Goldman Sachs claims generative AI is having an incredible effect in boosting productivity, set to raise the annual global gross of domestic products by 7% over the next decade.
However, this also means that c300 million full-time employees in the US and Europe are at risk of having their roles disrupted, regardless of wage boundaries.
According to Aspire, almost a third (29%) of employees fear being replaced by AIs and are sceptical about using them.
CEO of Fountain, Sean Behr explains that this is an understandable concern when considering the effect technology has had on the manual labour market.
However, he says that generative AI is different as it affects knowledge-based work. Therefore, employees will still need to instruct and review the content, editing it before submitting.
Co-founder of Click Intelligence, James Owen states that although generative AI is incredibly useful, it can’t replicate creativity, intuition and empathy. Instead, the benefits lie in dealing with time-consuming tasks and creating a foundation to work from - improving productivity.
Generative AI also has the potential to create new jobs in data analysis, software development and machine learning according to 11% of respondents from Aspire's study. Source: UNLEASH & BBC.