April 15, 2013

UK firms want to stay in EU but majority favour employment law changes

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Workplace

A new report from the British Chambers of Commerce shows that while the majority of businesses still favour the UK’s ongoing membership of the European Union, the majority would like to see significant changes in certain key legislative areas including employment law, health and safety regulations and regional development. The EU Business Barometer from the BCC gathered responses from around 4,400 firms of all sizes and from a range of sectors and found that over half (54 per cent) wanted changes to employment law, a similar proportion wanted changes to Health and Safety laws (46 per cent) and a third changes to policies related to regional development.

April 15, 2013

Better reporting required on employee engagement and wellbeing

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, News, Workplace

There is a need for more open reporting on employee engagement and wellbeing by FTSE 100 organisations according to an inaugural report into wellness by Business in the Community. The first Workwell FTSE 100 benchmark, which analysed how FTSE 100 organisations manage their 6.3 million employees gave an average score of just 21 per cent, which said BITC was “not unexpected” at this first stage of development. The highest scoring Workwell indicators were Diversity and Inclusion (at 50 per cent of total marks) and Health and Safety (at 44 per cent), showing how compliance drives measurement and reporting.

April 15, 2013

Office furniture ergonomics standard for increasing size of U.S. workers

by Sara Bean • Furniture, Knowledge, News, Workplace

The U.S. furniture manufacturer’s association the BIFMA (Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association) has revised its ergonomics guidance to “reflect changes in the size and shape of the North American working population,” This includes increased seat width, distance between armrests, support surface height for sitting and standing, and height clearance for legs and knees. It’s also developing a new “Heavy Occupant Chair Standard”. Although the BIFMA cannot be faulted for responding to consumer demand, the renewed guidance doesn’t address the core of the problem – the fact that over a quarter of U.S. workers (approximately 66 million people) are obese.

April 13, 2013

Flexible working arrangements could help law firms attract talent

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Knowledge, News, Workplace

A new report from recruitment consultants Douglas Scott claims that a greater use of flexible working in the UK’s law firms would help them attract and retain the best employees. The survey of staff from firms across the UK found that while only 19 per cent of employees currently enjoy flexible working, nearly half (43%) of respondents claimed flex-time is at the top of their wish list of employment benefits. The survey note a deal of variation across law firms with 73 per cent of public sector employees already on some form of flexible arrangement, compared to just 16 per cent across the board and only 13.6 per cent in the top 100 firms. Flexible working is enjoyed by more senior people with 20 per cent of qualified candidates enjoying flexible working compared to 7 per cent of support staff.

April 12, 2013

Video: people feel good at work when they know it has meaning

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Workplace, Workplace design

[embedplusvideo height=”151″ width=”215″ standard=”https://www.youtube.com/v/5aH2Ppjpcho?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=5aH2Ppjpcho&width=210&height=146&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=&notes=” id=”ep2646″ /]

More evidence stacks up about what motivates people, including in the workplace. One thing that all the research shows about how to help people feel good at work is that motivation is a complex issue. It is not about money or joy or fun or an easy life. The things that are important include the challenge of overcoming difficult problems, a sense of achievement and an understanding that the work they do is acknowledged and makes a genuine contribution. The one thing to avoid is futility and the thing to aim for is meaning even in small ways. All of this research challenges the assumption that people are essentially economic creatures and that we can make them feel better by making isolated changes to their working environment.

April 11, 2013

Survey exposes social media and non work-related activities of staff

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, Legal news, News, Technology, Workplace

One in three British employees spends time on social media or prints private files on company printers instead of working; one in four searches for other employment from the work computer and 12 per cent take company files home. This is according to research carried out for Safetica, a provider of employee monitoring and data protection software, to ascertain whether British employees use their computers for non-work-related activities while they should be working, even when knowing it’s against company policy.

April 10, 2013

Productivity challenges of modern office workers’ email deluge

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Knowledge, News, Technology, Workplace

Possibly the most perplexing picture of the modern office is whether technology has made it more, or less productive. New research by Warwick Business School has found that on average UK office workers deal with 40 emails a day and one in 12 with 100 messages a day, which can’t be good for productivity. Meanwhile another piece of research by psychologists at the University of Chester reveals the somewhat unsurprising fact that an over reliance on social media reduces the ability to maintain ‘meaningful’ relationships due to a lack of visual emotional cues – which could further cast doubts over the efficacy of remote working. More →

April 10, 2013

Bosses bonus boom widens long-term pay gap

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, News, Workplace

Among the renewed debate on whether the Thatcher years sowed the seeds of social and economic inequality, comes new salary data by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and XpertHR, which reveals company directors (including chief executives) enjoyed pay increases almost twice the size of the average UK executive over the last 12 months. The research also found that the number of employers struggling with staff recruitment continues to increase year-on-year. Almost two thirds (64.7 per cent) of employers experienced problems with staff recruitment over the last 12 months – up from 58.7 per cent in the 2012 report and 48.9 per cent in 2011. More →

April 10, 2013

The latest edition of the Insight newsletter is now online

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Legal news, News, Newsletter, Property, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

The April 10 edition of the Insight newsletter is now available to view online covering a range of themes from commercial property to ergonomics, human resources to workplace technology, office design to legislation, all done with the usual verve and willingness to tackle issues in a genuinely engaging and unique way. Office Insight is already the most widely read publication in the UK dedicated to workplace design and management with up to 1,000 unique readers daily. The online newsletter is available to read here and it’s quick and easy to subscribe through the main website if you don’t receive a copy already.

April 9, 2013

Growth in unified communications and BYOD but concerns remain

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Technology, Workplace

A new report from research firm Ovum anticipates rapidly growing interest in the use of managed unified communications (UC) applications over the next two years. The survey, conducted with Dimension Data, found that over a third of large enterprises will be procuring managed UC services by 2015. The report also suggests that Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies are supported by 60 per cent of American businesses, with a growing number of firms looking to integrate their BYOD policies with their new approach to unified communications. One technology they won’t be looking to integrate is The Cloud which only a fifth claimed they would use for UC applications.

April 9, 2013

Private sector recruitment to increase, despite fragile economy

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, News, Workplace

Employers from the private sector intend to hire new staff in the coming months, despite UK businesses not anticipating economic growth in the next two quarters. According to the latest Business Trends report by accountants and business advisers BDO LLP UK businesses’ hiring intentions over the next two quarters, reached 96.0 in March, the highest since August 2011. Peter Hemington, Partner, BDO LLP, commented: “It is encouraging to see improvement in UK businesses’ hiring intentions, particularly in light of the imminent public sector payroll cuts which will add pressure to the unemployment rate.” More →

April 5, 2013

Rigid attachment to best practice “killing” talent management

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, News, Workplace

A rigid attachment to ‘best practice’, rather than a focus on business needs, is preventing many organisations from unearthing and nurturing staff to drive their business forward and the danger of such an inflexible approach is killing organisations’ ability to properly manage talent. According to Anna Marie Detert, KPMG’s UK Lead for Talent – a tendency to copy or adopt the latest fad or fancy must be challenged if employers are to understand the talent they truly need to succeed, and plan effectively to find and keep it. More →