March 12, 2020

Workers and employers differ on progress towards workplace equality

A gap exists between the way leaders and employees view progress toward equality in their organisations, according to new research from Accenture. Closing the gap will yield benefits for companies and their employees. The report, “Getting to Equal 2020: The Hidden Value of Culture Makers,” which includes research across 28 countries, claims that organisations are at an inflection point. Today’s UK workforce cares increasingly about workplace culture and believes it is critical to helping them thrive in the workplace (reported by 80 percent of women and 66 percent of men), and a majority of leaders (62 percent) believe an inclusive workplace culture is vital to the success of their business. (more…)

March 11, 2020

Office politics major source of work related stress

by Jayne Smith • News, Working lives

Perkbox commissioned a new study of 1,815 employed people to present a examination into the changing landscape of work-related stress in 2020. The study compared results to 2018 data in order to identify how sources of work-related stress and the solutions offered by employers are changing. The study claims that 79 percent of adults in employment commonly experience work-related stress. (more…)

March 11, 2020

Does an employee representative on the board mean reduced CEO pay?

by Jayne Smith • News, Working culture

Having an employee representative on the director’s board has absolutely no impact on reducing the pay level of the company’s CEO, according to research from Vlerick Business School. This research claims that contrary to the belief that employee representation on the board reduces high profit margins and greater controls the remuneration of CEOs, giving more ownership and finances to a company’s employees. (more…)

March 11, 2020

Half of strategic decision making in organisations fails

by Jayne Smith • News

More than half of all strategic decisions made by directors turn out to be wrong according to new research, conducted by PHD student Joep Steffes at Nyenrode Business University. This is due to time constraints, not having all of the information, and bias which often causes directors to make important decisions that are not based on reason but ‘gut’. These decisions, which could be deciding not to enter a new market or to pursue a merger, require more thought than your average decision – a director can’t simply rely on automatic actions, speed, and intuition. (more…)

March 11, 2020

Tech firms drive explosion in Oxford office costs

by Jayne Smith • Facilities management, News, Property

Office rent in Oxfordshire has shot up an eye-watering 24.3 percent in a year, with Bidwells’ latest research suggesting the need to fast-track new office and laboratory space to fulfil the explosion in demand from growing technology companies. Bidwells recorded more than 1.1 million sq ft of office and laboratory space being sought in Oxfordshire – another all-time high – with just 569,500 sq ft of space available, less than was on offer at the end of 2018. (more…)

March 10, 2020

People like coworking spaces, but face a number of challenges

by Jayne Smith • Coworking, News

Employees enjoy working in a coworking space, claims a recent Clutch report — 77 percent of coworking employees are satisfied with their shared office space. Just because people are happy in a coworking environment does not mean they don’t experience challenges working in one though. Clutch surveyed 500 coworking employees across the U.S. to learn exactly what challenges they face in their coworking space. (more…)

March 10, 2020

Majority of Brits struggle to make ends meet

by Jayne Smith • News, Working lives

According to the latest survey from CV-Library, the majority of Brits admit that they struggle to make ends meet, but over half are still too scared to ask their employer for a pay rise. The study, which surveyed 2,000 British professionals, claims that 18-24 year-olds are the most likely to struggle financially; with 67.7 percent of respondents in this age group finding it hard to make ends meet. This is closely followed by 66.7 percent of 35-44 year-olds and 60.9 percent of 25-35 year-olds.

What’s more, the survey also suggests that 61.3 percent of Brits feel confident about securing a higher paid role elsewhere. Men were most confident about this (64.4 percent of men vs 57 percent of women), as were 25-34 year olds (65.5 percent) and 18-24 year olds (63.8 percent).

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March 10, 2020

Expectations at work are changing

by Jayne Smith • Environment, Flexible working, News, Working lives

New research from Aon, claims that 94 percent of employers believe their employees’ expectations of work experience are changing. In Aon’s Benefits and Trends Survey 2020, employers say their employees expect flexible working hours, the ability to work from home, better awareness and handling of mental health, better approaches to diversity and inclusion and better parental policies. A surprise in this year’s report is the strength of opinion on environmental and sustainability policies, coming in at the seventh most important expectation in its first year in the survey. Fifty-four percent of employers believe that employees want clarity and positivity on this subject.

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March 6, 2020

Smart cities will be defined by a number of key characteristics

by Neil Franklin • Cities, News, Technology

The future infrastructure of smart cities will rely on the analysis of data relayed by the sensors in buildings, infrastructure, transportation and power grids; enabling city authorities to make critical decisions in real-time, according to GlobalData’s latest report, ‘Smart cities – Thematic Research’ (paywall). (more…)

March 6, 2020

People management may be the biggest barrier to overseas growth

by Neil Franklin • Business, News

Nearly all organisations (93 percent) say that growing and managing their employee base in new countries limits their international expansion to some degree, with more than one in ten (12 percent) stating that it limits their expansion completely. This is according to the HR Challenges of International Expansion report (registration) by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), commissioned by ADP. (more…)

March 6, 2020

CIBSE issues new guidance on wellbeing in buildings

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

CIBSE has updated its Technical Memorandum 40: Health and wellbeing in building services (paywall), to reflect what it says are “significant changes in the environmental conditions we are exposed to and advances in our knowledge of how these environments affect our health, comfort and cognitive performance.” (more…)

March 5, 2020

UK outpaced by other nations when it comes to women in work

by Jayne Smith • News, Working lives

Despite holding firm in 16th place, the UK is being outpaced by greater improvements in female employment prospects in other OECD countries, according to PWC’s latest Women in Work Index, which analyses female economic empowerment across 33 OECD countries. While the UK performs above the OECD average and is second only to Canada when compared to other G7 economies, its position has barely budged since 2000 when it stood in 17th position, despite improving its performance across all five indicators. (more…)