Progress on gender equality at work moving at a snail’s pace, report claims

Progress on gender equality at work moving at a snail’s pace, report claims

by • News, Workplace

The UK’s gender equality at work has barely budged in ten years, a new report claims. The Gender Equality Index 2017, which has been published by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), also claims that gender equality across the EU improved little between 2005 and 2015. The index measures gender equality at work using several factors, including the proportion of women in full-time employment, the availability of flexible-working arrangements and career prospects. According to the report, the EU’s score is just four points higher than ten years ago, now 66.2 out of 100. The top performing country is Sweden with a score of 82.6, while Greece moved to the bottom with 50 points. The award for the most improved country goes to Italy, which made a big leap and gained 12.9 points to place itself at rank 14 on the ladder.

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Government sets out its vision for a low carbon UK

Government sets out its vision for a low carbon UK

by • Environment, Facilities management, News

A strategy setting out how the UK plans to lead the world in cutting carbon emissions to combat climate change while driving economic growth, has been published by the Government. The Clean Growth Strategy: Leading the way to a low carbon future builds on the UK’s progress to date. Carbon emissions in the UK have fallen and national income risen faster than any other nation in the G7 since 1990, according to the report, with emissions down by 42 percent while the economy has grown by 67 percent.

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Employees want organisations to speed up transformation into a digital workplace

Employees want organisations to speed up transformation into a digital workplace

by • Facilities management, News, Technology, Workplace

Majority of people want their organisation to transform into a digital workplaceHalf of employees feel their organisation doesn’t have the right tech skills and nearly half in a recent survey (44 percent) feel their organisation isn’t transforming into a digital led company fast enough, claims a survey by Sungard Availability Services. Digital workplace transformation has been a big talking point in recent months, yet 38 percent in a survey of over 2,000 IT decision makers and employees believe their organisation isn’t committed to digital transformation; with 36 percent not getting the training for the tools. It’s apparent that digital transformation is highly thought of in the work place and impacts employee retention with 36 percent of employees open to leaving their current job for a more digitally-progressive company. Over 50 percent believe career progression is better at digitally led companies and 69 percent say digital tools would help them to do their job better. Said Chris Ducker, Senior Director Global Proposition Strategy: “Digital is compulsory, not only to stay competitive in the market, but also to attract and retain key staff” See the full survey here.

Major US surveys uncover ambivalent attitudes towards the impact of technology and automation on our lives

Major US surveys uncover ambivalent attitudes towards the impact of technology and automation on our lives

by • AI, News, Technology

The ambivalent attitude many people hold towards technology is laid bare in two major new studies from the Pew Research Centre. When asked to name what has brought about the biggest improvements in their lives over the last 50 years, technology is the most commonly cited factor by people across the US. They are even optimistic that technology will have a similarly beneficial impact over the next half century. Yet when asked about their specific attitudes towards artificial intelligence and automation in a second survey, many are apprehensive about the impact the technologies will have on their jobs and income.

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Working conditions and office design shown to impact on employee performance

Working conditions and office design shown to impact on employee performance

by • Facilities management, News, Wellbeing, Workplace, Workplace design

Link made between impact of workplace conditions and office design on performance

New evidence of a strong correlation between productivity, creativity and even profitability with employee working conditions, such as: light, air, noise, health, culture, design, movement and the quality of furniture have been established in a new report. The syndicated research project, Wellness Together, carried out by Sapio Research, of 1000 UK based office workers and 50 Facilities Management experts, suggests a strong link between people feeling catered and cared for by their workplace/employers and how this impacts business performance. Wellness at work is a dominant theme in any discussion about the workplace. But this is not just a discussion about happiness, it is about creating cultures and environments that are conducive to commercial success. The study identifies that in order to achieve true ‘Wellness’ attention to every single component that can impact mental and physical health needs to be considered, from building structures and company cultures through to the physical furniture and fittings that employees require to work efficiently and effectively.

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New Scotland Yard wins Better Public Building Award at the 2017 British Construction Industry Awards

New Scotland Yard wins Better Public Building Award at the 2017 British Construction Industry Awards

by • Architecture, News, Public Sector, Workplace design

The New Scotland Yard building on Victoria Embankment has been named as the winner of the 2017 Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Award. The Award sets out to ‘recognise excellence in publicly funded buildings and infrastructure, and highlights projects that bring real change to communities, demonstrate innovative and efficient construction and deliver value for money’. The winning building, designed by AHMM, is a £58 million project that remodelled and extended the former Curtis Green building. It represents a move back to Victoria Embankment for the Metropolitan Police service, having first previously occupied the address in 1890. The new entrance is designed ‘to create a welcoming and non-institutional yet secure front door’ and reinstates the iconic revolving sign. The project was completed as part of a major rethink of the organisation’s corporate real estate strategy, in line with UK Government objectives for the public sector estate.

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A third of UK employees ready to quit their jobs as half their time is spent on “work about work”

A third of UK employees ready to quit their jobs as half their time is spent on “work about work”

by • News, Workplace

A new study claims that duplicated work, disorganisation, and micromanagement are widespread within UK businesses. The study claims that unproductive working practices in UK companies are rife, with 42 percent of employees saying they spend most of their time on futile “work about work” tasks, including status meetings, organising work, and tracking down information, as opposed to doing their actual work and moving projects forward. As well as impeding productivity, this is threatening staff retention: almost a third (31 percent) of UK employees admit they have either thought about leaving or actually left a job as a result of a culture which wastes their time on side issues.

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Traditional department-based office layouts reduce efficiency and collaboration, say bosses

Traditional department-based office layouts reduce efficiency and collaboration, say bosses

by • Facilities management, Furniture, News, Workplace, Workplace design

Eliminating traditional departmental office seating improves efficiency say bosses

Nearly two thirds (64 percent) of senior executives say their offices are still structured on a traditional departmental basis, despite the fact that the majority of those polled in a recent survey (94 percent) believe project efficiency could increase significantly if they simply re-arranged their office seating plans to promote cross-departmental collaboration between team members. The new report Agile Ways of Working: The Great Leadership Disconnect from digital consultancy, Red Badger, claims that not only do these senior decision makers believe in the promotion of collaboration, but four out of five (81 percent) digital leaders in organisations who were additionally surveyed, strongly believed that an inflexible office layout actively led to delays in launching a product or service into the market or to customers. “Waterfall” ways of working (62 percent) and teams working on multiple projects at once (51 percent) were also among the most cited reason for delays in the past.

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UK improves opportunities for young workers, but faces longer term challenges from automation

UK improves opportunities for young workers, but faces longer term challenges from automation

by • News, Workplace

The UK could boost GDP by £43 billion if it reduces the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) to match Germany, the best performing EU country. This is equivalent to a GDP increase of around £7,500 per 18-24 year old, according to estimates in PwC’s latest Young Workers Index. This year, the UK reached its highest position since the Index began in 2006, climbing to 18th out of 35 OECD countries from 20th last year. The UK’s improvement reflects lower youth unemployment and NEET rates as the economic recovery from the financial crisis has continued, but it still lags behind many other OECD countries, with Switzerland, Iceland and Germany leading the pack.

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Extreme dedication to work and career could damage long-term success, study claims

Extreme dedication to work and career could damage long-term success, study claims

by • News, Wellbeing

People who feel their work is integral to their lives and identity and so exhibit extreme dedication to work may actually find it difficult to sustain productivity over long periods of time, new research from King’s Business School suggests. According to Dr Michael Clinton, who studied the working lives of 193 Church of England ministers, people who view their career as an intense calling are less able to successfully disengage from work in the evenings which limits their energy levels the following morning. One would assume that these people would dedicate more energy to their work. However, Clinton claims that having an intense career calling motivates people to work longer hours which directly limits their psychological detachment from work, in turn reducing sleep quality and their ability to focus.

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UK businesses continue to stifle personal creativity at work

by • News, Workplace

UK businesses are failing to support a culture of innovation despite employees believing that their companies would benefit from fresh ideas and innovative ways of working, new research claims. The study of 1,000 workplaces conducted by RADA in Business (the commercial subsidiary of the Royal Academy of Dramatic) found that 81 percent of workplaces had failed to create a culture of creativity at work that encourages new ideas and experimentation, according to their staff. Many employees feel that businesses are suffering as a result, with just under a quarter (24 percent) saying that their workplace is desperately in need of new ideas and fresh thinking to overcome current problems.

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Standing to work may be as good for our cognitive performance as it is our physical wellbeing

Standing to work may be as good for our cognitive performance as it is our physical wellbeing

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Before we begin, the usual disclaimer that sitting is definitely not the new smoking and standing to work for long periods is just as bad as sitting. Having said that, a new study published in the Journal Psychological Science carried out by researchers at Ariel University and Tel Aviv University suggests that standing to work may improve cognitive performance as well as physical wellbeing. The study of 50 students carried out by Yaniv Mama, David Rosenbaum and Daniel Algom found that the mild stress associated with the effort of standing up improved the ability of participants to cope with simple mental tasks.

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