How to eliminate tech-shaming in the workplace

How to eliminate tech-shaming in the workplace

The skills which are in demand are vastly differently to what they were just a decade ago. As a result, we have seen a rise in the incidence of tech-shaming and the current generation has needed to develop a different skillsetTechnology has impacted our everyday lives – from how we keep in touch with old friends all the way to how we do our weekly shop, as well as our work lives. The skills which are in demand are vastly differently to what they were just a decade ago. As a result, we have seen a rise in the incidence of tech-shaming and the current generation has needed to develop a different skillset to what their predecessors had to learn. Dell Technologies found that 56 percent of respondents between the ages 18 to 26 across 15 countries, said “they had very basic to no digital skills education.” A third of them said their education had not provided them “with the digital skill they need to propel their career” and what they know comes from the apps they use on their own time. More →

Firms missing the chances to implement hybrid working and adopt new technologies

Firms missing the chances to implement hybrid working and adopt new technologies

companies are missing opportunities to unlock new levels of employee productivity with new technology, hybrid working, and talent development.The new Slack State of Work Report [registration] claims that companies are missing opportunities to unlock new levels of employee productivity with new technology, hybrid working, and talent development. The report, based on a global survey of more than 18,000 desk workers – including 2,000 in the UK, found only 23 percent of companies are investing in technology to improve productivity and efficiency (21 percent in the UK), and just 27 percent of companies are using AI tools to help do so. More →

People responding to artificial intelligence by focussing on their ‘human skills’

People responding to artificial intelligence by focussing on their ‘human skills’

Globally, workers are focused on developing their human skills, even as they see a future dominated by technology-driven work, artificial intelligence and automationGlobally, workers are focused on developing their human skills, even as they see a future dominated by technology-driven work, artificial intelligence and automation, according to a new study from Pearson. For the latest edition of the Pearson Skills Outlook series [registration], Pearson partnered with Google to examine how and why people in the US, UK, India, and Brazil are looking to upskill as they face a rapidly changing economy. More →

Only a fifth of workers think hybrid working tools have substantially improved productivity

Only a fifth of workers think hybrid working tools have substantially improved productivity

Only around a fifth (18 percent) of workers in two key sectors believe hybrid working technology has substantially improved their productivity.A new poll from IT consultancy Doherty Associates, claims that while over three-quarters (77 percent) of workers in two key market sectors say their company has introduced new technology to support hybrid working, only around a fifth (18 percent) of respondents believe it has substantially improved their productivity. More →

Employees 12 percent more likely to leave if employers don’t establish hybrid working norms

Employees 12 percent more likely to leave if employers don’t establish hybrid working norms

Organisations that lack explicit norms around hybrid working can increase the likelihood of an employee leaving by 12 percentOrganisations that lack explicit norms around hybrid working can increase the likelihood of an employee leaving by 12 percent, according to a new report from Gartner [paywall]. The report claims that the most successful hybrid models encompass three main categories of explicit norms that increase visibility, enable flexibility, and foster connections. More →

IF AI can replace what you do without anybody noticing, the problem isn’t with the technology

IF AI can replace what you do without anybody noticing, the problem isn’t with the technology

AI is ready to muscle in on our ability to create and consume vast quantities of content. So we need to look at things in a new wayPerhaps the least surprising news from the current AI media frenzy is that Buzzfeed has already been using the tech to publish a lot of its stories. There’s an obvious response to this and it’s not about how amazing the AI is. If an artificial intelligence can write vast quantities of formulaic clickbait stories on your website without anybody noticing, then the problem is with your original approach to ‘content’ and how it’s consumed. More →

Zürich named as world’s leading smart city in list dominated by Asia and Europe

Zürich named as world’s leading smart city in list dominated by Asia and Europe

Zürich has been named as the world’s leading smart city according to the latest annual Smart City Index published by IMD business schoolZürich has been named as the world’s leading smart city according to the latest annual Smart City Index published by IMD business school. Asian and European cities dominate this year’s top twenty. Among them, IMD names six “super champions” because they have been continuously improving their performance since 2019: Zürich, Oslo, Singapore, Beijing, Seoul and Hong Kong. More →

Flexible working is the new “work-life currency”, claims new report

Flexible working is the new “work-life currency”, claims new report

A new report, Future of Work Life, from Ericsson Consumer & IndustryLab explores the ways in which employees and employers navigate the current work environment and their views on the future of work shaped by the pandemic, digitalisation and the fluctuating labour market. Almost half (48 percent) of the employees in the study say that they enjoy increased flexibility at work. 52 percent consider flexible work hours or locations as key requirements, and 25 percent say that flexibility is the top priority if they would start to look for a new job. Doing work rather than going to work is seen as central in this new way of thinking about work life. More →

Every workplace innovation contains the seeds of its opposite

Every workplace innovation contains the seeds of its opposite

workplace innovationThe announcement by Apple that it wanted its employees to work in an office for three days a week sparked the usual, tedious pile-on about how many days people should spend in a physical workplace each week. This included the columnist at Grazia who joins the tens of millions of people around the world who not only know where Apple is going wrong, but also how to run every other organisation in the world and what’s best for everybody who works for them. More →

Generative artificial intelligence set to boost GDP but could affect 300 million jobs

Generative artificial intelligence set to boost GDP but could affect 300 million jobs

The latest developments in generative artificial intelligence could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobsThe latest developments in generative artificial intelligence could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs, a report by investment bank Goldman Sachs claims. The authors suggest that the technology could replace around a quarter of the work tasks carried out in the US and Europe but may also mean new jobs and a productivity boom. The report claims that the tech could increase total annual value of goods and services produced globally by 7 percent. More →

Getting back to basics in The Great Workplace Conversation

Getting back to basics in The Great Workplace Conversation

There’s nowhere near enough talk about our base instincts in the Great Workplace Conversation.There’s nowhere near enough talk about our base instincts in the Great Workplace Conversation. Objectively speaking, we remain relatively highly evolved, communal and intelligent primates. And so we are driven by things we like to admit to – love, empathy and the Golden Rule. But also things we don’t care to admit to in quite the same way – status, jealousy and self-interest. More →

American employees spend 200 hours a year watching adult sites on their work computer

American employees spend 200 hours a year watching adult sites on their work computer

American employees are wasting hundreds of contracted work hours a year using their work equipment for personal tasks and activities, according to a new survey from ExpressVPN. The survey, conducted by the consumer privacy and security company, found that some people are spending only 33 percent of annual contracted hours on work tasks. With a steep rise in hybrid and home working in recent years, many companies have provided employees with work devices to use in the comfort of their own homes, including work laptops, desktops, phones, and microphones. More →