JKS Restaurants promotes Laura Irving to MD: JKS Restaurants, the award-winning London restaurant group, has promoted Laura Irving to the role of managing director. Irving joined the business, which was founded by Jyotin, Karam and Sunaina Sethi, in March 2021 as director of brand, marketing and communications. She was promoted to chief marketing officer in March 2023. Irving was previously with Gordon Ramsay Restaurants for more than four years, including three years as its sales and marketing director. She also spent five and a half years at Company of Cooks, including two and a half years as its head of sales and marketing.

Marston’s to put fully-funded solar on 120 pub rooftops: Marston’s is to put fully-funded solar on 120 pub rooftops over the next 12 months. The £5.4m initiative in partnership with Two Blues Solar, is fully financed by Atrato Onsite Energy, operates through a Power Purchase Agreement – a long-term contract in which Marston’s will purchase 100% of the renewable energy generated on its roofs rather than owning the solar equipment. The company said the arrangement guarantees certainty of energy prices for 25 years, protecting Marston’s from market volatility whilst delivering immediate cost savings for the pub group. The project will also contribute to Marston’s sustainability strategy and ambitious 2040 Net Zero targets, as each installation is expected to generate approximately 30,000 kWh of electricity annually, meeting c.15-20% of an individual pub’s energy demand. The rollout will reduce Marston’s carbon emissions by 600 tonnes in the first year, equivalent to removing 430 cars from the road. “As the UK’s leading local pub company, we are committed to reducing our impact on the environment, as we work towards a greener future for our guests, our people and the communities we serve,” said Andy Kershaw, director of investment at Marston’s. “Through this partnership, we can now significantly accelerate the rollout of solar across our community-based pub estate without diverting capital from our core operations, which will help our pubs make the transition to renewable energy while reducing our total emissions and reliance on fossil fuels.”

Hiring plans fall to a ten-year low: The number of employers expecting to increase their headcount in the next three months has fallen to the lowest in the past decade, outside the pandemic. The Times reports that according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the net difference between the number of employers expecting an increase and a decrease in staff levels in the next three months fell to eight, the lowest level outside the pandemic since the CIPD began recording the measure in 2014. The net balance on the CIPD’s index was 13 in the last quarter. The figure fell sharply among large private sector employers and retail businesses but public sector employers are also struggling, especially in education. 32% of private sector employers surveyed by the CIPD said they expected their staffing levels to increase in the next three months. Overall, 24% of employers said they planned redundancies over the next three months. A separate survey from KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation also found demand for staff weakened in April, with underlying data pointing to sharp falls in permanent and temporary vacancies. Recruitment consultancies signalled an increase in the number of candidates seeking work in April, with the uplift in staff supply largely due to job losses amid company restructuring efforts and redundancies as well as the wider drop in recruitment activity. The south of England registered the steepest reduction in permanent staff appointments in April, while London recorded the softest decline. Engineering was the only category to register an improvement in demand for permanent staff last month. Nursing, along with the hotel and catering and retail sectors, recorded the steepest reductions in permanent vacancies. Demand for temporary staff fell across all ten monitored job sectors, led by retail. The research also found that starting salaries rose considerably, thanks to increases in the national minimum and living wage rates, which led to the quickest rise in temporary pay for nearly a year. At the same time, rates of pay growth remained weaker than their respective long-run averages.

85% of staff ‘burnt out and exhausted’: Nearly nine in ten workers have experienced symptoms of burnout or exhaustion due to work, Reed, the recruitment company, has revealed. Reed’s research found 85% of workers have experienced symptoms of burnout, while almost half (47%) have needed to take time off work due to their mental health. The Times reports that young workers are feeling the pressure of burnout the most, the research found, with 91% of 18 to 24-year-olds and 94% of 25 to 34-year-olds saying they have experienced symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog and headaches because of their work. At the same time, despite growing conversations about workplace wellbeing, longstanding stigmas are still affecting the ability of workers to seek the help or support they need. One in ten workers who took time off for mental health did not feel comfortable disclosing that fact, Reed found. In addition, more than a quarter (26%) of workers who have never taken time off for their mental health say they have needed to but felt unable to due to either their workload, fear of judgment or financial concerns. Reed’s research also revealed that perceptions about mental health differed between age groups, with 19% of those aged 55 to 64 and 16% of those aged between 45 and 54 believing that mental health “should be dealt with outside of work”. Just 8% of 25 to 34-year-olds agreed. “These statistics highlight a critical need for businesses to take mental health seriously, not just at a surface level, but with actionable processes that foster a culture of care,” Ian Nicholas, global managing director at Reed, said.