Be workwardly mobile Employees in Britain are increasingly mobile - or they want to be. A survey by Universum, an employer branding consultancy, and Monster, the jobs website, found that 46 per cent of employees hope to have a new job by the end of 2009 and that half the 4,200 professionals surveyed have applied for a new job in the past year. A higher salary was the motivating factor behind 47 per cent of job applications. Seeking out better career development opportunities and simply wanting to try something new also score highly on the “get me out of here” list.

Don’t Be Needy . . . Be Succeedy. This is the sad title of a book that attempts to marry life coaching with humour by L. Vaughan Spencer, the motivational speaker and alter ego of Neil Mullarkey, a writer on Have I Got News for You and Whose Line is it Anyway?. Subtitled The A to Zee of Motivitality, this is a cringe-inducing spoof business lexicon best consigned to stocking-filler status.

Keep partying Contrary to gloomy reports of office Christmas festivities being reduced to a single cracker and a stale mince pie instead of the usual festive indulgence, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has released a message of seasonal goodwill to all employees. Well, almost all. Sixty per cent of organisations will still throw a Christmas party for their staff despite the economic downturn, or 77 per cent if you work in the private services sector. Spare a thought, however, for those in the public sector, where only 24 per cent have been promised a Christmas party.

Prepare for action Managers should be alert to a “climate change” in employee relations, according to People Management (Oct 30). The downturn has already brought an increase in strike action and, although large-scale industrial conflict remains unlikely, “pockets of workplace insurgency” are predicted to rise as financial pressures and impending redundancies lead to a surge in trade union membership.

Get pregnant Extreme, perhaps, but Incomes Data Services says that 74 per cent of companies provide more than the statutory maternity pay requirement. Initiatives include bonuses for returning mothers, childcare vouchers and penalties for not returning when stated. About 70 per cent of organisations surveyed offered incentives for new fathers, too.

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