This briefing looks at the legal and practical issues arising in connection with women in the workplace going through the menopause. Although there has been an increase in discussions about the menopause in the media, there is still a stigma attached to it. We look at what employers should be considering in terms providing support, such as training managers and implementing a specific menopause policy as well as the potential legal risks if issues are ignored or badly handled.

Menopause in the workplace statistics

Women over the age of 50 have been the fastest growing group in the workforce for a number of years, meaning that more are working through the menopause (and perimenopause), which, for many, will bring challenges. Symptoms will vary and can be both physical and psychological, ranging from hot flushes and headaches to increased anxiety and depression. Employers should be aware that the average age for a woman to go through the menopause is 51 and most experience symptoms between the ages of 45 and 55. However, the menopause may also start earlier due to surgery, illness or naturally. In addition, symptoms may start years before the menopause, during the perimenopausal phase. According to the Faculty of Occupational Medicine, nearly 8 out of 10 menopausal women are in work, 3 out of 4 women experience serious symptoms and one in three of the workforce will soon be over 50.

Read more on Lexology here.

Remember when we were all going to ditch our humdrum lives, tedious physical needs and uninspiring friends and family, so that we could live a life of virtual bliss in the metaverse? When we could give up the endless pursuit of self-improvement and just exist as perfect avatars instead? When Facebook rebranded to Meta because, from now on, the company was going to be “metaverse-first, not Facebook-first”? It has been just one year since Meta’s fabulously dystopian Super Bowl advert for its VR headsets, in which a group of friends who have lost touch get back together in the virtual world (in the real one they were all alone, with no buddies — or lower halves).

Read more on Financial Times here.

CGI has announced plans to expand its UK footprint into Northern Ireland with the opening of a new Belfast-based Centre of Excellence. CGI will extend its delivery centre capability into the region that will add to its existing workforce of almost 6,000 people throughout the UK.

CGI has for several years taken a ‘place-based’ approach to developing its presence in the UK, illustrated in how it has grown scale and capability in Scotland. CGI will recruit c.50 new consultants and IT professionals in Northern Ireland (of which 16 roles have already been filled) to work alongside the company’s existing Digital Services Delivery Centre in Scotland.

Read more on TechMarketView here.

Staying ahead of supply chain disruptions in 2023 requires a clear picture of all risks and the ability to act swiftly. While the year promises to bring many unknowns, here are 3 big developments to keep your eye on.

Supply chain disruption is now the market standard, not the exception. As we head into another uncertain year, failing to see disruptions coming is no longer an excuse. The only thing that is truly predictable about this year is that it will be unpredictable.

Staying ahead of supply chain disruptions in 2023 requires a clear picture of all risks and the ability to act swiftly.

Read more on Supply and Demand Chain Executive here.

As the way the world works continues to change, improving human capital to keep employees happy and engaged has never been so important

An organisation is only as good as its employees. And as technology continues to change the way the world works, improving human capital has never been as important.

A term made popular in the 1960s by American economists Gary Becker and Jacob Mincer, ‘human capital’ refers to the economic value of a worker's experience and skills, including assets like education, training, intelligence and skills.

Read more on Technology Magazine here.

KPMG is set to establish its Centre of Excellence (CoE) for metaverse and digital twins. KPMG announced this decision along the sidelines of the LEAP tech conference 2023. For this, KPMG will bring together a 'broad collective', with Microsoft bringing its infrastructure and gaming platform and Ericsson utilising its 5G tech and network, as well as Metakey as the technical partner to create three-dimensional objects, a press release shared by Zawya read.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/ys-gulf/kpmg-to-establish-centre-of-excellence-metaverse-saudi-arabia

Gartner survey shows 'customer enablement' is most powerful value chain service but that under a quarter of supply chain organisations are offering this

Supply chain organisations that help customers meet their business goals are twice as likely to attract repeat business compared to those that focus only on customer satisfaction or ease of use, according to a survey by Gartner.

The survey also found that customer enablement is only being emphasised by 23% of supply chain organisations today, but the strategy will become the norm within five years.

Read more on Supply Chain Digital here.

Financial firms in Britain and the European Union remained under significant pressure to comply with diverging environmental, social and governance (ESG) rules over the past six months, KPMG's Regulatory Barometer showed on Monday.

The barometer, aimed at helping firms with compliance planning, also tracks the scale of the divergence between UK and EU regulations, with KPMG saying the biggest differences are in areas like customer protection and access to markets.

Read more on Reuters here.

Business leaders have once again been issued with a wake-up call regarding their IT supply chain. A new study suggests that most firms have too much confidence in their mission-critical IT contractors, with half of leaders admitting that while it could lead to outages, they are not routinely assessing their suppliers.

At the start of 2023, researchers found that organisations were too trusting of Managed Service Providers (MSPs). Despite 20% of companies hit by cyber-attacked in the last year saying attacks had come through MSPs, just four-in-ten believed they need to make sure MSPs were certified in providing cyber security essentials, while only one-third agreed personnel of providers should undergo security checks before taking on such work.

Read more on Consultancy UK here.

Public procurement laws are changing. The UK Government’s Procurement Bill is working its way through Parliament and could now be introduced as early as the end of 2023.

In this briefing, David Hansom of Clyde & Co and Susan Hilgers of Proxima look at what is changing and what you can do now to prepare for the biggest changes to procurement practice since 2015.

Read more on Civil Service World here.