February 22, 2018
Report calls for better understanding of the future risks of tech to workplace wellbeing
In a workplace dominated by insecurity, gig work and intelligent machines we need to improve our understanding of their potential impact on health, safety and wellbeing claims a new report. Future risk: Impact of work on employee health, safety and wellbeing, commissioned by the British Safety Council from RobertsonCooper researchers argues that the public debate on the future of work has centred so far on the likely shape of the workplace and its implications for both employers and employees. There has been far less focus on what this might mean for workers’ health, safety and wellbeing, with discussions centring on the present, rather than preparing us for the challenges of the future. Yet, the impact of automation on the workplace will be more fundamental than is commonly understood, with 11 million jobs predicted to be lost in the next 20 years in the UK. As we are already seeing with some ‘gig’ working, it may undermine such basic human needs as social identity, economic security and a sense of belonging. The report reviews the existing literature on this subject and makes a number of recommendations.
The majority of employers want students to have work experience to help acquire leadership skills, yet not even a third say they actually offer placements. This is according to new research published today by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) which is calling on employers to collaborate with business schools and universities in creating courses to provide future leaders. The Chartered Management Institute’s 21st Century Leaders report found that seven in 10 (70 percent) of prospective employers now want management, enterprise and leadership modules made available to all higher education students to improve their work-ready skills. Two-thirds (66 percent) of employers say they want to see graduates achieve professional qualifications as well as their main degree. The growing emphasis on graduate employability has been driven by employers concerned about skills shortages, with 82 percent of employers reporting problems recruiting managers. A majority of managers (85 percent) said work experience should be embedded into courses to help develop these skills and make students more employable. Yet only 29 percent of businesses work with business schools to offer placements.
A new report a new report by the Centre for Ageing Better has called for government and employers to support older workers to stay in work for longer, help those who have fallen out of work involuntarily to return and to create workplaces that work for all, irrespective of age. The report claims that ensuring older workers are able to stay in good quality employment is essential to the future of the UK economy and will relieve pressure on public finances. It makes some key recommendations that include access to flexible working hours and workplace adaptations to help people manage pressures such as caring responsibilities and health conditions, which become more prevalent with age. It also calls for equality of opportunities in the workplace as older workers in the UK experience age discrimination in recruitment and progression. They are less likely to be offered opportunities for development – across the whole of the OECD only Turkey and Slovenia have lower levels of on-the-job training for older workers than the UK. Research shows they are also the most likely to be stuck on low pay and feel most insecure about their jobs.
The construction industry needs new talent and skills to help in the adoption of new technologies to meet the challenges of digital transformation. It must also become more diverse, including increasing the percentage of women in the industry. These are the recommendations of a new report from the World Economic Forum, developed in collaboration with The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Shaping the Future of Construction: An Action Plan to solve the Industry’s Talent Gap. The report argues that the Infrastructure and Urban Development (IU) industry has failed to innovate as quickly as other sectors, resulting in stagnating productivity and negative effects on the economy, society and the environment. An ongoing industry-wide shortage of qualified workers is among the key reasons for this issue. It has undermined project management and execution, adversely affecting cost, timelines and quality. It also has impeded the adoption of new digital technologies, such as building information modelling (BIM), automated equipment and cloud-based collaboration tools, which could improve productivity. The report provides twelve key actions which needs to be implemented to close the structural talent gap of the construction industry.
Demand for labour is likely to remain relatively strong in the near-term which is one of the main reasons why employers support a national approach to tackling the UK’s skill and labour shortages post-Brexit, in comparison with a regional or sectoral one. According to the latest quarterly Labour Market Outlook from the CIPD and The Adecco Group the preference for a national labour or skills shortage occupation scheme reflects the main reason given by organisations for employing EU nationals, which is that they have difficulty finding local applicants to fill lower skilled roles, as cited by 18 percent of employers. The national survey of more than 2,000 employers found that the relative majority of employers (41 percent) would prefer a UK-wide immigration system that is based on national labour or skill shortage occupations in the likely event of migration restrictions once the UK leaves the European Union. In contrast, around one in ten (13 percent) favour a sector-based policy and just 5 percent would back a regional policy.
A third of workers (32 percent) regularly struggle to be productive in their job, and one in six (16 percent) blame their manager – claims a new survey from ADP. This puts bad management ahead of inefficient systems and processes (15 percent) and staff shortages (13 percent) as the biggest drain on productivity in the UK workplace. The UK has been grappling with low productivity levels for a number of years, consistently placed behind other leading economies, such as Germany and the US in official productivity tables. While recent ONS figures suggested a recovery is underway, reporting 
Demand for office space in Scotland’s three largest cities pushed overall take-up beyond 2m sq ft last year, aided by a solid final quarter of occupational deals in Aberdeen and Glasgow, and an all-time record year for Edinburgh. Scotland’s offices market in 2017 reach ed2.4 million sq ft, 14 percent above the 10 year average, according to the latest Scottish Office Spotlight from Savills. In Edinburgh (city centre and wider market) office take-up amounted to a record 1.1 million sq ft boosted by the ongoing growth of tech in the city. According to data from Stack Overflow, the Scottish capital saw a 19 percent increase in data scientists employed in the city centre over the course of 2017. Activity places further pressure on supply with only 220,000 sq ft of Grade A now available which Savills suggests will push top rents to £34 per sq ft in 2018. Keith Dobson, director in the business space agency team at Savills in Edinburgh, says: “The soon to be completed 40,000 sq ft office scheme at 2 Semple Street will ease pent up demand come Q2 2018, whilst The Mint Building and Capital Square will complete in 2019 and 2020 respectively.”
Less than a quarter (23 percent) of employees feel completely informed about the values of the organisation they work for and just 19 percent of employees feel completely informed about their employer’s corporate mission claims a new survey by Reward Gateway. These statistics are even more problematic when you consider that 83 percent of employers say it’s critical to the success of their business that employees understand their mission. Recognition is one of the key drivers needed to ingrain employees with a company’s values and corporate mission, however, 40 percent of employees don’t agree that their employer recognises them when they demonstrate the values their company cares about. Furthermore, the study has found a break-down of communication and trust between employees and their employers. 81 percent of senior decision makers say that their organisation is transparent with employees about how they plan to achieve the company mission. However, only 22 percent of employees say they strongly agree that they trust their employer to communicate information openly and honestly.
Most people who work in HR now recognise how essential technology is for delivering more strategic value to their organisation, but a new report suggests that HR teams are not prepared to meet the 
Concern amongst small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) regarding the current economic climate fuelled by worries over a Brexit-related skills shortages, is at a three-year high, according to the latest Zurich SME Risk Index. It now sits at 56.38, indicating almost a 2 percent rise in perceived risk since Q1 2016 (55.43), and more than 3 percent higher than in October 2016 (54.55). SMEs attitudes towards economic growth, presently sits at a four-year low – with just two in five (40 percent) businesses confident that the UK economic situation will improve over the next 12 months. Similarly, the results regarding SMEs attitudes towards the international trade environment, reveals concern regarding overseas competition and currency rate fluctuations being at its highest in four years at 45.49. Equally, workforce challenges, namely the availability of skills and talent, is also an increasing concern for smaller businesses. Two in five (40 percent) SMEs now see workforce challenges as a major concern for their business; a rise of 8 per cent since October 2016, indicating that political issues are a major influence on the current attitudes of business owners in the UK.
