About Neil Franklin

Neil Franklin is Insight's news editor

Posts by Neil Franklin:

January 22, 2019

Business leaders lack ethical insight needed to get the best out of AI

Although executives have high expectations for the impact that AI will have on their businesses according to Cognizant’s new report, ‘Making AI Responsible – and Effective, only half of companies have policies and procedures in place to identify and address the ethical considerations of its applications and implementations. The study analyses the responses of almost 1,000 executives across the financial services, technology, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, insurance and media & entertainment industries in Europe and the US. The research suggests that business leaders are positive about the importance and potential benefits of AI. Roughly two- thirds (63 percent) say that AI is extremely or very important to their companies today, and 84 percent expect this will be the case three years from now. Lower costs, increased revenues and the ability to introduce new products or services, or to diversify were cited as the key advantages for the future.

January 21, 2019

Major new research projects will explore impact of management on productivity

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

A major new project led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) will examine how health and wellbeing practices can improve employee productivity. Working with research institute RAND Europe, based in Cambridge, it will look to identify which combinations of workplace health and wellbeing practices reliably improve worker health, wellbeing, engagement and performance – and deliver the best return on investment. More →

January 21, 2019

Pointless meetings set to cost organisations $541bn this year

by Neil Franklin • News

Professionals spend two hours a week in pointless meetings, which will add up to over $541bn worth of resource around the world in 2019. That is the main claim in a new report from Doodle. The State of Meetings Report 2019, calls on proprietary data from the firm alongside new research conducted with 6,528 professionals in the UK, Germany and the USA. The report claims to be a comprehensive look at the time taken up by cancelled or unnecessary meetings, inefficient ways of working and preferred methods of meeting and features expert comment from organisational academics and psychologists.

January 20, 2019

Shortlist for Business Book Awards features more on workplace and wellbeing than ever before

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

This year’s shortlist for the Business Booko Awards features more books than ever on wellbeing and happiness in the workplace as well as career self-development, company culture and business ethics. A record number of women authors have also made the shortlist. More →

January 20, 2019

Nomura and Adidas named among healthiest workplaces in Britain

by Neil Franklin • Company news, Wellbeing

Nomura International Plc, Adidas UK and Wellness International Ltd have been named, by Vitality’s Britain’s Healthiest Workplace study, as the healthiest workplaces in Britain. The bank, sports apparel company and leading health and wellbeing provider were awarded first place in the large, medium and small-sized company divisions, respectively, at the awards that took place at BAFTA in London. This is the sixth year in a row that Adidas UK have earned first place in their category, the fourth time Nomura have picked up the award, and the first time Wellness International Ltd has entered since the survey began in 2012.

January 18, 2019

Only a quarter of women and minority employees believe they benefit from corporate diversity programmes

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

Investment in diversity programmes has become commonplace: 98 percent of companies offer such programs. But that investment is falling far short of the mark: three-quarters of employees in diverse groups—women, racial/ethnic minorities, and those who identify as LGBTQ—do not indicate that they have personally benefited from their companies’ diversity programmes. This is one of the findings of Fixing the Flawed Approach to Diversity, a report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The report claims that a key impediment to progress is that older men (age 45 or older), who often lead decision making within corporate environments, are underestimating the obstacles in the recruiting, retention, and advancement of female and minority employees by 10 percent to 15 percent, as measured by comparison with the estimates of members of those actual groups: women, people of colour, and LGBTQ employees. This can lead to a misallocation of resources and a lack of investment in programs that could otherwise have the largest impact.

January 17, 2019

Flexible working employees find it difficult to detach from work

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

New findings from health and wellbeing provider, BHSF, suggest that home workers struggle to switch off, and this could be negatively affecting their work/life balance. Flexible working provides huge benefits for employees – it means they can avoid lengthy and stressful commutes, work at times that fit them and their families, and focus clearly without other distractions. However, all these positives may be lost if employees continually work beyond their contracted hours, warn the study’s authors. Prolonged working outside of hours can seriously affect employees’ ability to stay fresh and mentally alert.

January 17, 2019

Quarter of UK workers have turned down a job for not offering flexible working

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

A new study from communications technology business TeleWare claims that a growing number of employees are turning down jobs that don’t offer some form of flexible working. The survey of 2,300 UK employees claims that a quarter of all employees have turned down a job in the past for this reason. Whilst a further third (31 percent) would actively do so. Although the proportion of those that have done so is higher amongst younger workers (40 percent), three in 10 (29 percent) employees over 45 would turn down a job if flexible work options were not on offer.

January 16, 2019

The workplace continues to provide people with important relationships

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

Three-quarters of workers have turned professional relationships into lifelong friendships according to a new study from Business telecommunications provider 4Com, which looked into Britons attitudes towards their co-workers to reveal just how willing the nation is to create meaningful friendships and relationships with those they spend so much time with day-to-day. While a quarter of workers admit to not making lifelong friends with a work colleague, three quarters have taken their professional relationships to the next level and developed friendships with a co-worker.

January 15, 2019

Surface Design Show 2019 Preview

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace design

Surface Design Show hosts over 150 exhibitors highlighting the very best in exterior and interior surface design from 5 – 7 February. Taking place at London’s Business Design Centre, the show provides a platform for architects, designers and specifiers to explore interior and exterior surface materials, lighting design, development and innovation. Visitors will uncover thousands of new materials from the latest technological advances in building materials to innovative workplace surfaces and everything in between.

January 15, 2019

Workplace productivity plummets during January

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

Around a quarter (26 percent) of British workers believe that January is their least productive month with the nation still recovering from the Christmas period, according to a new report from Hitachi Capital Invoice Finance. The report also claims that December is the second least productive month (14 percent) whist 32 percent surveyed suggested that they’re equally unproductive across the entire year. Residents of the Welsh capital Cardiff were found to be the least productive in January (34 percent) closely followed by Southampton (31 percent) and Sheffield (30 percent).

January 14, 2019

Corporations must harness prop tech to adapt to new ways of work

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology

The world of work will continue to evolve in 2019, and corporations must find ways to adapt their office real estate. That is the conclusion of a new piece of research by flexible workplace provider Abintra. Published in a new report, the study highlights how corporations are struggling to manage office space efficiently as the trend towards agile and flexible working gathers momentum. The publication explores methods for responding through office space utilisation techniques, including the latest tech options.