November 10, 2014

New report urges firms to protect against BYOD security breaches

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Technology

According to a new report from BT, security breaches related to the practice of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and related forms of mobile working have affected 41 percent of UK organisations over the last year. Despite this, the report claims organisations are still not taking sufficient measures to protect themselves against threats such as lost or stolen devices and malware infections. The report reveals that at least one fifth of respondents’ organisations that suffered a mobile security breach, experienced more than four incidents in the last year. The research is based on a total of 640 interviews with IT decision makers from large sized organisations (1000 or more employees) across 11 regions: Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Middle East, Singapore, Spain, South Africa, UK and USA. Respondents’ organisations were from the financial, retail and public sectors. It shows that uptake of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and COPE (Corporately Owned Personally-Enabled) devices is very high, with 95 percent of UK organisations allowing employees to use these devices for work purposes.

November 7, 2014

Worldwide fall in levels of trust by employees in their workplace leaders

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

They say a fish rots from the head, and with overwhelming evidence this week that workplaces are torn by backbiting, lying and bitching, a global analysis on workplace trust reveals a deterioration in the levels of trust employees have for their bosses. Interaction Associates annual workplace trust research, Building Workplace Trust 2014/15, found that more than half of the people surveyed gave their organisation low marks for trust and effective leadership. More than half of the 500 people surveyed at companies worldwide, give their organisation low-to-poor marks for trust and effective leadership. When asked to rate the statement “Employees have a high level of trust in management and the organisation”, just four out of ten agreed. The majority (58%) found their organisation lacking, and in fact, trust may be going from bad to worse at many organisations, as a quarter (26%) of those surveyed say they trust their boss less this year than in 2013.

November 6, 2014

Two new reports claim firms and employees are out of step on flexible working

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, Legal news, News, Workplace

The two latest stones to be tossed into the flexible working maelstrom in the hope of creating a ripple both suggest that employers are out of step with the expectations of their staff when it comes to working hours and conditions. The CIPD launched a new report Getting Smart About Agile Working, at the start of its annual conference in Manchester on 5 November which claims that a third (35 percent) of employees would like to change their working arrangements with nearly half (43 percent) saying they would most like to change the start or finish time of their working day. Meanwhile a separate report from BUPA claims that half of employees of SMEs think their employees underestimate the part that benefits including flexible working have to play in the overall feel of the company, and a similar number (51 percent) believe that not offering such benefits damages an employer’s attractiveness to new recruits.

November 6, 2014

Nationwide availability of office space declining at fastest rate since 1990s

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

The availability of office space across the country has declined for the sixth consecutive quarter and at its fastest pace since the late 1990s, according to the latest RICS Q3 Commercial Market Survey. One in five said more than 10 per cent of office space in London is now earmarked for residential conversion. Twenty per cent of respondents report that a rise in transactions of commercial properties being sold with Permitted Development Rights (PDR) had led to more than 10 per cent of available commercial properties being earmarked for conversion into residential use. At the same time, over half (51%) of surveyors reported a growth in demand for office, industrial and retail space, with two thirds suggesting that if PDR exemptions are not extended then the availability of commercial properties will fall further. Demand for commercial space has risen across the whole of the UK, with 32 per cent saying availability across office, retail and industrial properties had fallen, while demand has risen to a net balance of 44 per cent. More →

November 5, 2014

More than half of workers report feeling stressed, but most keep it secret

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

New research by Mind to mark today’s National Stress Awareness Day has found more than half of workers (56%) say they find work very or fairly stressful; citing excessive workloads (52%), frustration with poor management (54%), not enough support from managers (47%), threat of redundancy (27%) and unrealistic targets (45%) as key stressors. The YouGov survey of over 1,250 people in Britain found that workplace stress is impacting on other areas of people’s lives, more so than debt or financial problems (38%), health (29%) or relationships (20%). One in five (20%) said it had put a strain on their marriage or relationship with significant other, while 11 per cent had missed important events such as birthdays or weddings. Stress was also having a physical impact, with 53 per cent agreeing that it affected their sleep, 22 per cent their appetite and 27 per cent their physical health. The research also revealed that mental health at work is still a taboo. Nearly a third (30%) of respondents said they wouldn’t be able to talk openly with their line manager if they were stressed.

November 5, 2014

Employers warned that landmark legal decision could cost them dearly

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Workplace

A ruling by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) is significant and could be potentially financially crippling, employers have been warned, following yesterday’s ground-breaking decision by the EAT to uphold an earlier Employment Tribunal’s decision that both compulsory and voluntary overtime must be included in addition to basic salary for the purposes of calculating a worker’s holiday pay. According to Shivali Chaudhry, an Employment solicitor at law firm Hamlins LLP: “Not only will employers have to increase the amount of holiday pay they pay workers to take into account all overtime, they may also face historic underpayment liabilities going back up to 16 years in respect of some workers.” However, Mike Emmott, Employee Relations Adviser at the CIPD says the ruling still leaves much to be resolved – particularly on the issue of backdating. He said: “The ruling means that employers will have to change how they calculate holiday pay in future to take account of voluntary overtime. However it does seem to have limited the scope for substantive retrospective claims, which was the biggest concern in terms of possible costs for employers.” More →

November 5, 2014

Failure to adopt strategic facilities management costs UK £1bn annually

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Public Sector

A new report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) claims that over a quarter of UK organisations are failing to adopt a strategic approach to facilities management. For those firms without this approach, the annual average cost is calculated by the report’s authors as £120,000, suggesting a total cost to the economy of nearly £1 billion. The claim is based on a study of around 700 organisations in both the public and private sector and across a range of organisational types and sizes. Around half of those with a ‘dedicated FM programme’ said that doing so had saved their organisation money, 59 per cent reported an increase in productivity, a fifth (21 percent)reported a drop in absenteeism and nearly half (49 percent) claimed it had made them more attractive to customers. The best results were recorded in the public sector with 70 per cent saying strategic facilities management had increased productivity and 71 percent claiming they had seen an increase in employee engagement.

November 4, 2014

Badmouthing, arse-covering and bluff are main unethical behaviours in workplace

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Workplace

A new report from the Institute of Leadership and Management reveals the most common unethical behaviours displayed by employees in the workplace. Unsurprisingly they form a catalogue of low-level, generalised obfuscation, bluff, blame-shifting, bullshit and outright lying that will be very familiar to many people. The three most cited unethical behaviours according to the survey of 1,600 managers are cutting corners (72 percent), lying to cover one’s own mistakes (72 percent) and badmouthing colleagues (68 percent). People are, unsurprisingly, also prone to pass the buck when they miss deadlines (67 percent), cover up for the mistakes of colleagues (63 percent) and pinch low value items from work (52 percent). The ILM claims in its ‘The Truth About Trust’ report that these behaviours arise from a miasma of misunderstanding of what might be considered unethical behaviour, although equally they could just be things that people do if they think they can get away with them.

November 4, 2014

New CBRE report claims to debunk multi-generational workplace myths

by Mark Eltringham • News, Workplace, Workplace design

Age is less of a factor than widely thought when it comes to workplace preferences in the US, according to a new report by CBRE Group. The study, Designing the office of the future? Don’t plan it around (what you think you know about) US millennials, is based on aggregated workplace strategy surveys from more than 5,500 office workers across a number of sectors. It found that, while current assumptions about the multi-generational workplace and millennials are driving the design of many offices today, there is actually little difference in preferences between millennials, Generation Xers and baby boomers. (We’ve been suggesting this for some time at Insight). The report claims that “with a projected 75 percent of the workforce being millennials by 2025, much has been made about this new workforce generation, particularly when it comes to workplace strategy. While this is causing many companies today to debate how to balance the needs of millennials with those of a more tenured workforce, the study suggests that the generational divide is more perception than reality”.

November 4, 2014

Built environment argues economic benefits of meeting climate change challenge

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, News

Following the publication of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, warning about the effects of global climate change; the chief executives and senior leaders of 18 major businesses in the construction and property sector have written an open letter, published in The Daily Telegraph to highlight the economy opportunity presented by climate change and to defend the UK’s ground breaking Climate Change Act. In the letter, which includes signatories from Land Securities Group, BAM Construct and Balfour Beatty, the leaders warn that “undermining of the Climate Change Act is deeply unhelpful, and creates uncertainty”, and that “it should continue to be the central framework against which to deliver clear and consistent policy. It states: “Our businesses are convinced that Britain can and should be a world leader, and that far from being a burden to UK Plc, clear commitment to tackling climate change will open up opportunities for businesses both at home and abroad.”

November 4, 2014

Musculoskeletal disorders leap by a fifth, according to latest HSE data

by Justin Miller • News, Wellbeing, Workplace, Workplace design

While the UK remains one of the safest places to work in Europe, work related ill health continues to rise for British employees according to the latest data from the Health and Safety Executive. The HSE claims that there were some 28 million days lost over the last year, costing the economy over £14 billion. While the most dangerous professions continue to be construction, agriculture and manufacturing, the report found that over two thirds of days lost (20 million) and some £9 billion can be attributed to a number of well defined causes rooted in the modern workplace; musculoskeletal disorders, stress, anxiety and depression. The HSE study claims that around 80 per cent of new work-related illnesses were attributable to these conditions. Of the 535,000 new illnesses reported in 2013/14, 184,000 were musculoskeletal disorders and 244,000 were related to stress and depression. There are now over half a million (526,000) people with self-reported cases of musculoskeletal disorders in the UK, up by 20 percent since figures were last reported in 2011/12.

November 3, 2014

More London convention one of highlights of Workplace Week, which starts today

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Workplace design

More London convention highlight of Workplace Week

PwC More London Offices

Tours of Google, Mintel and Lloyds of London are just some of the highlights of Workplace Week, the annual week-long celebration of workplace innovation which starts today. Organised by AWA to raise money for Children in Need, the inaugural Workplace Week in 2009 happened after Andrew Mawson, AWA’s managing director, had the idea for a workplace-related event raising money for the charity. This year’s week includes a programme of 90 minute ‘working workplace’ tours involving some of the UK’s most innovative workplaces; including Google, Mintel, Innocent Drinks, BDO, Edelman, Lloyds of London, Guardian Newspapers, CBI, Invesco, Prostate Cancer, and PWC Embankment Place. The week will also feature a one-day convention at PWC’s More London office near London Bridge on Thursday 6 November entitled, ‘the Work/place Revolution….taking human performance to new levels’. The focus here will be on taking human performance to new levels, with a range of speakers offering case studies, insights and new research. More →