November 16, 2015

People and businesses remain unprepared for next wave of technology ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology, Workplace

The attitudes of businesses, public sector employers and people to the next wave of technological change remains a tangled and sometimes conflicting mishmash of fear, uncertainty and indifference according to three new reports. According to a new study published by Vodafone and YouGov, while businesses are aware of their need to keep pace with technological developments, around half doubt they will be able to keep up over the next five years. Meanwhile, a study from marketing technology firm Rocket Fuel claims that British people are broadly aware what is meant by artificial intelligence and many feel it will have a positive impact on their lives, especially millennials. However, another study from jobsite Indeed claims that a fifth of young people are unaware of the idea of automation and its potential impact on the jobs market and around half don’t even consider it when making their career choices.

November 15, 2015

Acas analysis for anti-bullying week reveals workplace bullying is on the rise ⁰

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Workplace bullying is on the rise but many people are too afraid to talk about it according to a new study by Acas published to mark the beginning of anti-bullying week. The paper Seeking better solutions: tackling bullying and ill-treatment in Britain’s workplaces looks at the latest research on workplace bullying as well as calls to the Acas helpline. The analysis claims that bullying and ill-treatment is growing in Britain; and there are more incidents of bullying within certain groups such as public sector minority ethnic workers; women in traditionally male-dominated occupations; workers with disabilities or long-term health problems; lesbian, gay and bisexual and transgender people; and workers in health care. The helpline has received around 20,000 calls over the past year with some callers reporting that bullying caused them to self-harm or consider suicide.

November 13, 2015

Remote workers endure poor communications and working practices ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Poor communication and working practices among remote teams is widespread, a new report by the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) claims. Organisations are failing to capitalise on the potential for remote working to improve performance and efficiency with 88 percent of remote workers struggling with inconsistent working practices and miscommunication, while 83 percent feel overwhelmed by emails. Although 84 percent of remote workers report improvements to their work-life balance, a lack of team identity can cause isolation and loneliness. The study with over 1,000 remote workers highlighted a range of potential benefits for organisations with a remote or geographically-dispersed workforce, including increased business reach, improved productivity, cost and time savings, and access to a more diverse set of skills and experience.

November 12, 2015

The three workplace professions need to face up to a new reality ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace

The modern workplace consists of an often unholy trinity of people, place and technology and each of these facets has its own associated profession; HR. IT. FM. Six letters. Three disciplines. One big mess. When life was simple, with people generally going to work in the same place and at the same time, each of these professions could operate in its own bubble, with a clear sphere of influence and control. Sure, they could behave in interdisciplinary ways, they could have their intersections, but at the end of each encounter they could each go their separate ways. That is no longer true. The workplace is no longer primarily physical, but digital and cultural too. The boundaries of space and time have slipped and taken with them the clear demarcations between the three main workplace professions. All of this is bound to provoke as big an existential crisis for the professions as it does for the workplace itself.

November 12, 2015

Workers say regular wellness reviews would help improve productivity ⁰

by Sara Bean • Wellbeing, Workplace

Over half of UK employees are struggling to make long-term changes to their lifestyles, but believe they could adopt healthier practices with more help from their employers, new research by Bupa claims. In the study of 2,000 UK employees, 52 percent admitted that their changes generally last no longer than a few weeks, and just 7 percent have been completely successful. But more than 85 percent of employees believe they would be more productive if they were able to stick to positive lifestyle changes in the long-term, two in five (44 percent) would love their work to help them make positive changes to their lifestyle and half (48 percent) say a regular wellness review would help with this. The research showed that three quarters of employees (73 percent) have chosen to change their lifestyle to feel more physically healthy, with nearly half (46 percent) changing to improve mental health.

November 11, 2015

British workers tend to take the most holiday leave in the world ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

British workers are the most likely to take all of their paid holiday leave – and they get a lot more of it, new YouGov research from around the world claims. During the Eurozone and Greek debt crises, the economic situation was blamed on laid back, siesta-taking southern Europeans. In fact Greece ranks fourth among OECD countries for average annual hours actually worked, and Spain ranks one place above the UK. Meanwhile German workers, with a reputation for working very hard, work the smallest number of hours. But out of 22 countries polled worldwide, spanning North America, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and Europe, British people are the most likely to say they will take all of their holiday leave this year. In one of the only places in the world where there is no statutory minimum holiday leave only 44 percent of Americans say they will take their days off this year.

November 10, 2015

Research reveals the main reasons why people still go to work when ill ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, Knowledge, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

High job demands, stress and job insecurity are among the main reasons why people go to work when they are ill and should probably stay home, according to new research from the University of East Anglia. The study sets out to improve understanding of the key causes of employees going to work when sick, which is known as one of the main forms of presenteeism, and to help make managers more aware of the existence of the phenomenon, what triggers the behaviour and what can be done to improve employees’ health and productivity. A key finding of the study, published yesterday in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, is that presenteeism not only stems from ill health and stress, but from raised motivation, for example high job satisfaction and a strong sense of commitment to the organisation. This may motivate people to ‘go the extra-mile’, causing them to work more intensively, even when sick.

November 10, 2015

Employers have dodged UK recruitment crisis threat, claims CIPD ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

Salaries are not likely to increase much next year, and despite predictions of a recruitment shortage, vacancies are still relatively easy to fill, the latest Labour Market Outlook from the CIPD claims. The quarterly survey of more than 1,000 employers shows that across all sectors just fifteen percent of current job vacancies are proving difficult to fill. It also reveals that, outside a limited number of industries, UK employers continue to be able to recruit the workers they need without significantly hiking wages and that median basic pay rises of just 2 percent are predicted by employers in the 12 months to September 2016. The research suggests that in general, most businesses are seeing a steady flow of suitable candidates, despite unemployment falling to a seven-year low in October and despite a slight year on year increase (44 percent – 49 percent) in the number of employers reporting any hard to fill vacancies.

November 9, 2015

Business success is progressively less related to employment levels ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

If you want to understand exactly how the economy has changed over the last few decades, one of the most important statistics is also one of the least remarked upon. It is the growing disconnect between a firm’s earnings and the number of people it employs, a statistic that puts paid to the lie that people are an organisation’s greatest asset. Once upon a time, of course, there was a direct correlation of one sort or another between the a firm’s revenue and the number of people it employed and consequently the amount of space that it took up. This was especially true for the world’s great manufacturers and other industries engaged in what was once proper work; moving, creating, destroying and maintaining things. Growth and success meant more employment and more space. There were economies of scale but the upshot was more or less an arithmetic progression in employment based on earnings.

November 9, 2015

Non-death of the office + Property owners lag behind + New issue of Work&Place ⁰

by Sara Bean • Insight Briefings, Newsletter, Property, Wellbeing, Work&Place, Workplace

In this week’s newsletter; Philip Ross says the main driver of the growing convergence of HR, IT and FM roles will be the availability of data to make informed decisions and Mark Eltringham gives a number of reason why office has an enduring appeal. In news; HR guru Cary Cooper warns about the deleterious effects of email on productivity and wellbeing, a third of home workers fear they’ll get fat, commercial property owners are not keeping up with tenant’s needs and the launch of a new study to develop a prototype UK scheme that mirror’s Australia’s ‘design for performance’. You can also download the new issue of Work&Place and access our first Insight Briefing, produced in partnership with Connection, which looks at agile working in the public sector. Visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories

November 6, 2015

Email overload draining your productivity? Let your tech answer for you ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace

At this week’s CIPD conference in Manchester, HR Godfather Cary Cooper used his keynote address to highlight the deleterious effects of email on productivity and wellbeing. He once more highlighted how email remains the single most substantial drain on people and called on the serried ranks of managers to take up arms against our overstuffed inboxes. No doubt he now welcomes the news that one tech company is determined to become the solution to the problem, even though they’re also the cause of it. Google have launched a system called Smart Reply for Gmail users which uses a ‘deep neural network’ to analyse incoming emails and suggest three likely replies to mobile users to choose from, enabling them to respond quickly and without expending too much energy. Responses are not based on any insight into the user’s own preferences, but what the system considers likely as a general rule.

November 5, 2015

Data transforms the roles of offices and the people who manage them

by Philip Ross • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace

The modern workplace creates the physical,technological and cultural point of intersection between a number of abstract or movable facets of the business, including people, technology, culture and creativity. That has always been true to a large extent but with the growing complexity of exactly how, when and where we work, this role of the office as the epicentre of it all has been thrown into sharp relief. With that has come a greater understanding of the intersections that exist between disciplines such as IT, FM and HR. In some areas, the roles already appear indistinguishable and I believe this will only become more apparent. The main driver of that growing convergence of roles will be the availability of data to make informed decisions about interrelated aspects of organisational culture, work practices, office design and management and the development and motivation of individuals.