March 11, 2020

Tech firms drive explosion in Oxford office costs

by Jayne Smith • Facilities management, News, Property

Office rent in Oxfordshire has shot up an eye-watering 24.3 percent in a year, with Bidwells’ latest research suggesting the need to fast-track new office and laboratory space to fulfil the explosion in demand from growing technology companies. Bidwells recorded more than 1.1 million sq ft of office and laboratory space being sought in Oxfordshire – another all-time high – with just 569,500 sq ft of space available, less than was on offer at the end of 2018. More →

March 10, 2020

People like coworking spaces, but face a number of challenges

by Jayne Smith • Coworking, News

Employees enjoy working in a coworking space, claims a recent Clutch report — 77 percent of coworking employees are satisfied with their shared office space. Just because people are happy in a coworking environment does not mean they don’t experience challenges working in one though. Clutch surveyed 500 coworking employees across the U.S. to learn exactly what challenges they face in their coworking space. More →

March 10, 2020

Majority of Brits struggle to make ends meet

by Jayne Smith • News, Working lives

According to the latest survey from CV-Library, the majority of Brits admit that they struggle to make ends meet, but over half are still too scared to ask their employer for a pay rise. The study, which surveyed 2,000 British professionals, claims that 18-24 year-olds are the most likely to struggle financially; with 67.7 percent of respondents in this age group finding it hard to make ends meet. This is closely followed by 66.7 percent of 35-44 year-olds and 60.9 percent of 25-35 year-olds.

What’s more, the survey also suggests that 61.3 percent of Brits feel confident about securing a higher paid role elsewhere. Men were most confident about this (64.4 percent of men vs 57 percent of women), as were 25-34 year olds (65.5 percent) and 18-24 year olds (63.8 percent).

March 10, 2020

Expectations at work are changing

by Jayne Smith • Environment, Flexible working, News, Working lives

New research from Aon, claims that 94 percent of employers believe their employees’ expectations of work experience are changing. In Aon’s Benefits and Trends Survey 2020, employers say their employees expect flexible working hours, the ability to work from home, better awareness and handling of mental health, better approaches to diversity and inclusion and better parental policies. A surprise in this year’s report is the strength of opinion on environmental and sustainability policies, coming in at the seventh most important expectation in its first year in the survey. Fifty-four percent of employers believe that employees want clarity and positivity on this subject.

March 5, 2020

UK outpaced by other nations when it comes to women in work

by Jayne Smith • News, Working lives

Despite holding firm in 16th place, the UK is being outpaced by greater improvements in female employment prospects in other OECD countries, according to PWC’s latest Women in Work Index, which analyses female economic empowerment across 33 OECD countries. While the UK performs above the OECD average and is second only to Canada when compared to other G7 economies, its position has barely budged since 2000 when it stood in 17th position, despite improving its performance across all five indicators. More →

March 5, 2020

Increasing diversity is key to improving workplace productivity

by Jayne Smith • News, Working culture

The latest research from recruitment agency Robert Half UK, claims that the majority of businesses are pursuing workplace culture improvements during the first half of the year. Increasing diversity and inclusion is a top priority for over a quarter of business leaders, as companies seek to improve workplace culture in a competitive hiring market. More →

March 4, 2020

Workers would swap jobs to escape an unpleasant workspace

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Workplace design

Almost half of employees in the UK would be willing to leave their job because of an unappealing office, according to a new survey of almost 1,000 UK office workers. The research, carried out by Matthews & Goodman, claims that 44 percent of workers would ‘definitely’ look for a new job because of an unpleasant workspace. In addition, a further 45 percent said it ‘might’ encourage them to look around for a new job. More →

March 3, 2020

Attitudes to risk of climate change are shifting dramatically

by Jayne Smith • Environment, News

Britons suggest climate change is one of the most important issues facing the country in the next 20 years, claims research led by Cardiff University. A wide-ranging survey examining social attitudes to the risks and impacts of climate change suggested the issue was now second only to Brexit for the British public. The survey, carried out by a team of researchers from Cardiff University and Climate Outreach, also highlighted rising public concern about storms, flooding and, in particular, heatwaves, and suggested strong support for policies to address these. More →

March 3, 2020

Too afraid to raise a workplace issue?

by Jayne Smith • News, Workplace

Over half of American workers feel they have no one to turn to with a workplace issue, claims new research. The survey conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Bambee asked 2,000 employed Americans about their thoughts toward human resources departments and who they would go to if they had an issue in the workplace. Thirty-two percent of those surveyed without a human resources department or representative said they don’t know who they would go to with questions or concerns — or wouldn’t go to anyone at all. More →

March 3, 2020

Accountants call for IR35 to be scrapped

by Jayne Smith • Business, News

Accountants are wary about the impact that the government’s IR35 off-payroll tax reforms will have on the UK’s contracting industry and would like to see them repealed altogether, a new survey claims. According to research by FreeAgent, an accounting software provider, 95 percent of UK accountants believe that the reforms will have a negative impact on the UK’s contracting industry when they are implemented in April this year and call for them to be scrapped.

• 84 percent call for private sector “off-payroll” reforms to be abolished
• 95 percent believe IR35 will negatively impact UK’s contracting industry More →

January 28, 2020

Failure to put employees at heart of data strategy costs UK firms £10bn in lost productivity

by Jayne Smith • News, Technology

A new report from Qlik and Accenture, titled “The Human Impact of Data Literacy” and conducted on behalf of The Data Literacy Project, claims that while most organisations understand the incredible opportunity of data, a gap has emerged between organisations’ aspirations to be data-driven and their employees’ ability to create business value with data. The report argues that data is a ‘gold mine’ that can fuel a culture of innovation and growth as part of a data strategy. However, when employees struggle to make sense of data, productivity and business value can be affected.

January 20, 2020

UK based workers are amongst least likely to take sick days in Europe

by Jayne Smith • News

According to time and attendance data from 2019 compiled by Mitrefinch, 53 percent more sick days were taken in January in the UK compared to all other months of the year. However, the data also suggests that UK based workers took just 4.4 days leave for sickness last year, the fourth lowest in Europe. More →