May 22, 2018
New religion and belief guidance from Acas aims to help prevent discrimination at work
New guidance on religion and belief in the workplace has been published by Acas. It is intended to help ensure businesses are following the law when it comes to managing staff that have a particular religion, belief or indeed don’t hold any beliefs. The guidance offers employers essential advice on how to comply with the Equalities Act, which protects employees against discrimination based on religion and belief. The new guidance for employers and employees sets out to explain what religion or belief discrimination is, how to avoid it and includes advice on what the law says about religious dress codes, fasting and time off for religious festivals or holidays.
With companies holding ever greater amounts of data and facing heightened scrutiny through social media, employers need to consider the wider implications of their business decisions. This was the message of the President of the 
UK office workers spend an alarmingly limited amount of time outdoors each day, claims new research from Ambius, which found that almost 40 percent spend a maximum of just 15 minutes outside, excluding their commute to work, and an additional 22 percent spend a maximum of 30 minutes outside. This is even less than prisoners, who require ‘at least one hour of suitable exercise in the open air daily’, according to UN guidelines. On average, the British workers surveyed spend more time per day at their desk or workstation (6.8 hours) than they do in bed (6.4 hours), relaxing at home (3.5 hours) or outdoors (37 mins). A lack of fresh air (57 percent), insufficient natural light (49 percent), and an absence of indoor plants (36 percent) were the biggest source of frustration for employees. Introducing indoor plants (49 percent), nicer artwork (50 percent), and a more interesting colour scheme (54 percent), topped the list of employees’ requests to improve their workplace.
Companies will need more, not less people, in the near-term to meet the demand stimulated by automation, claims a new report from ManpowerGroup. The report – Robots Need Not Apply: Human Solutions in the Skills, found that 91 percent of employers in the US will maintain or increase headcount in the next two to three years as industries shift to more advanced, automated processes. The report provides a real-time view of the impact of automation on headcount, the functions most affected and the soft skills that are both of greatest value and hardest to find. Frontline and Customer-Facing functions anticipate the most growth as organisations place higher value on customer service and human interaction. Manufacturing and Production functions are close behind. Back-office functions that are routine or add less value to customer interactions are under greatest threat as organisations implement new technology to drive efficiency. In this Skills Revolution the best blend of high-tech and high-touch will be the combination of human strengths with technical and digital know-how: 61 percent of companies say communication skills, written and verbal, are their most valued soft skill followed by customer service, collaboration and problem-solving.
A third of UK office workers (30 percent) have admitted to only completing 1-4 tasks every day, according to a new report from Fellowes, which claims productivity levels in offices across the UK have fallen to a dramatic low. A quarter of workers admit they are unproductive for up to two hours a day, equating to a staggering 40 million-hours in lost productivity across the UK every week. Compared to data from Fellowes in 2017, the average office worker has lost an extra 30 minutes each day to productivity issues., office product specialists, released their second Productivity in the UK report today to help businesses understand what their employees need to increase output and the tools that can help. The study also found that over a third (38 percent) of office workers felt their employers weren’t doing enough to help their productivity and nearly half (40 percent) even went as far as to say they were more productive than their boss. On average Brits failed to meet deadlines at least once a week and 65 percent think a four-day working week would improve productivity.
Users of co-working and flexible space rapidly growing in numbers, according to a report, Marketplace for flexible work, from research conducted by (flexible workspace provider) The Instant Group and architects HLW. The report claims to ‘analyse’ the coworking and flexible workspace sector to gather a ‘360-degree perspective’ of the industry to determine where ‘perspectives align and diverge among stakeholders’. The research also claims that location and the ability to assign or reassign employees to workspace on short notice were also important influencers when choosing flexible workspace over conventional office space. Looking forward, the research claims that more than half of the companies interviewed envisage spending less time working from a traditional company office space.
