Kay Heald, Author at Kay Heald HR

Purpose Driven Business
January 2^nd, 2024 in Blog
After another rollercoaster year of fast-paced change for businesses and their people, it doesn’t look like life in 2024 is going to slow down! The global climate crisis and rising energy prices, political unrest and armed conflicts, a struggling health service, plus the rapid rise of AI and other technological developments provide the backdrop to lives that are altogether more complex and confused, stretched and stressed. So, is there a…
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Workplace Sexual Harassment
August 29^th, 2023 in Blog
Wouldn’t it be great if we lived in an enlightened age where sexual harassment was an obsolete term describing something that only happened a very long time ago? Sadly, despite great strides forward in awareness and action, such as from the #MeToo movement, incidents of sexual harassment are still stubbornly on the increase. Figures from ONS and the Crime Survey of England and Wales state that there was a 31% increase in police recorded sexual…
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HR and Sustainability
June 9^th, 2023 in Blog
Were you aware that it was World Environment Day this week? Instigated by the United Nations Environment Programme, this awareness day has been held annually on 5th June since 1973, making World Environment Day 50 years old! It is one of the largest global platforms for environmental concerns and is used to highlight the imperative of global environmental pressures, which affects the wellbeing and economic development of people throughout the…
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Workplace Kindness
January 26^th, 2023 in Blog
I’ve written a lot about KINDNESS over the years and feel that this year, more than any other, it’s about time it was taken seriously and seen as an important and powerful component of good business? In an increasingly VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world, there is a pressing need for more responsible and kinder forms of leadership in both business and society. Haskins and Gill carried out a comprehensive research…
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Understanding Caveman Stress
October 25^th, 2022 in Blog
A lot of people are talking about stress these days! And November is a busy month for stress awareness – there’s National Stress Awareness Day and International Stress Awareness Week – helping to give focus to stress management and support for campaigns against the stigma associated with stress and mental health issues. But how much do we really know about stress, what it is and where it comes from? A false start! The title of…
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Workplace Curiosity
August 3^rd, 2022 in Blog
There is a LOT to feel challenged by at the moment. Try Googling ‘unpredictable times’ and you get a sense of just how unstable and uncertain our world is right now! While organisations and their people grapple with ongoing political and economic instability, many workplaces have been shifting beyond recognition: Old command and control methods from the 1950’s and 60’s are finally being dismantled in favour of more open…
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Workplace Loneliness is Real
June 23^rd, 2022 in Blog
I was writing about ‘loneliness’ back in 2018 – before Covid and mass remote working was amongst us and before the global energy crisis and inflation started pressing in on people’s lives. Despite a lot of parliamentary gesturing and the setting up of the government’s Tackling Loneliness Network, the Office for National Statistics has revealed that even after the lifting of social restrictions, more people are now…
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Financial Wellbeing
April 8^th, 2022 in Blog
I first wrote about ‘in-work poverty’ back in 2016, referencing research from the Joseph Rowntree Organisation highlighting the growing number of households experiencing poverty, even when at least one person was working. Sadly, there is an even greater need to raise awareness and tackle similar issues, with rising inflation, soaring energy bills and new taxes. A recent You Gov Survey provided a worrying insight into the financial…
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The Rise of Polyworking
February 1^st, 2022 in Blog
What is Polyworking? The pandemic has had a profound effect on not just how and where people work, but also how they think and feel about working. Virtual and remote working have already challenged the geography of the workplace and put flexibility at the heart of many business and HR strategies. However, during the last two years of intermittent lockdowns and furloughing, more people have also taken the unusual opportunities presented to…
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New Flexible Working
November 30^th, 2021 in Blog
On the eve of the government’s consultation deadline for “Making Flexible Working the Default”, will we see radical changes to the way we work? After all, the government has stated that it wants to take a world class approach to flexible working to ensure the opportunities and challenges of the post Covid-19 economy are maximised. In contrast, the TUC has criticised the government’s proposals, stating that they will not be the ‘game…
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