June 21, 2016
Ageing workforce requires employers to better address skills gaps 0
The Government’s 2016 Working Futures report revealed that the total number of jobs in the UK is expected to rise by 1.8 million between 2014 and 2024, while the working age population (16-64) is expected to increase by half this amount. Now a policy event being held in London by the Westminster Employment Forum will draw attention to the growing challenge faced by business leaders as the UK workforce continues to age. According to figures from the CIPD, 9.4 million people in employment in the UK are over the age of 50, equivalent to over 30 per cent of the workforce. The Open University is advising that, with employees staying in work longer, business leaders need to ensure that workers have the right access to education and the skills to remain competitive and productive at all stages of their careers. Ageing Workforce in the UK, will explore what steps need to be taken in order to adapt to this demographic shift.
July 13, 2016
World FM Day and the workplace design and management elephant
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Events, Facilities management
There is an ancient Asian parable which has found its way into a number of cultures including Hindu and Buddhist lore. In one version, the Buddha tells of a king who has nine blind men summoned to his palace. An elephant is brought in and they are asked to describe it. Each man feels a different part of the elephant and describes it to the king. In turn they tell him it is a pot (the man who feels the head), a winnowing basket (ear), a ploughshare (tusk), a plough (trunk), a granary (body), a pillar (foot), a mortar (back), a pestle (tail) or a brush (tip of the tail). They disagree violently with each other to the amusement of the king, and the Buddha surmises that ‘in their ignorance they are by nature quarrelsome, wrangling, and disputatious, each maintaining reality is thus and thus.’ Around 2,500 years later, groups of people continue to describe big things solely based on the bits with which they come into contact and bicker with others who are close to other bits.
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