EDITION 784
23 SEPTEMBER 2019
As another week slips by, here are 10 things which caught my attention and may have escaped yours. This newsletter is sent to 50,000+ subscribers each Monday. Please share on social media and forward to your colleagues and friends so they can subscribe, learn and engage. I'd be very grateful if you did.
- How to build a passionate organisation. To build a great organisation, companies need a purpose - one that transcends the traditional bottom line. People want to be passionate about their work, and they want to be surrounded by others who feel the same. But how can leaders actually foster passion? Here are some suggestions: [MORE]
- Time to play nicely. A growing share of companies are vying to elevate leaders who know how to play nicely with others. As more employers publicly espouse the benefits of collaboration and inclusion, they are looking for those same qualities in the people they promote. How can rivals pull this off? Some make it a point to play fair and praise competitors in public. Others agree behind-the-scenes to work well together. The Wall Street Journal
- Job applications filtered by university ranking. Companies are keeping CVs from those who went to the top-24 institutions and scrapping the rest. Research has found that four-fifths of students who went to Russell Group universities secured full-time work within weeks of graduating, compared with two-thirds of those from other universities. A separate study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies in 2017 found Russell Group graduates earned, on average, £33,500 after five years, which is around 40% more than those from other universities. BBC
- Imagine deciding how much you should be paid. A growing trend at some companies, the “pay self-assessment process” means workers decide how much they’re worth, and thus how much their remuneration should be, reveals the BBC. Experts say the process can increase pay transparency but warn it requires careful implementation. Some workers reported feeling “greedy” asking for more money, while others voluntarily chose to take a pay cut after their duties changed. BBC
- Britons are worse off now than they were in 2008. The New Economics Foundation is challenging official GDP figures, which show incomes recovered in 2015 to reach their pre-crash levels. The foundation claims individuals are, in fact, £128 poorer a year on average when metrics such as increased taxes, the falling pound and rising housing costs are taken into account. A TUC report published in February found UK wages were worth up to a third less than in 2008. The Independent
- Consumers spend more money on credit cards than on cash. Debit card spending overtook cash back in 2016, but this is the first-time credit card spending has done so too, according to the British Retail Consortium. In fact, cash is now only used in 20% of spending, with plastic making up almost all of the remaining 80%. The transition has led retailers to call for a reduction in card and transaction fees last year alone, retailers paid £1.3bn to third-party firms so that they could accept card payments. Yahoo
- More than a third of British trains run late. Under toughened standards,only an "unacceptable" 64.7% of services were on time in the 12 months to June, with trains now considered punctual if they arrive within a minute of the timetable, rather than the previous limit of up to 10 minutes. Hull Trains had the worst punctuality in the countryat 36.8%, while the London-to-Essex franchise c2c had the best at 83.2%. The Guardian
- New speed limit announced. Drivers should keep below 120 beats per minute. It is a warning that those in the grip of a midlife crisis should take seriously: blasting Bat out of Hell on the car sound system, or any song with more than 120 beats per minute, will tempt you to drive more dangerously, making Smooth Radio and Classic FM the safest radio stations for motorists. The Times
- Women not as confident as men in the looks department. 10% of British men consider themselves handsome; a further 7% regard themselves as good-looking. By contrast, just 1% of British women describe themselves as beautiful and 2% as good-looking. YouGov poll for The Times
- The bottom line. The estimated cost of building a bridge from Scotland to Northern Ireland will be £15bn, according to the prime minister. Boris Johnson has touted the bridge as a possible solution to the problem of the Irish backstop in talks with the EU, but civil engineers have described the concept as “bonkers.” BBC
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