Technology fix. What employers can do when social media becomes an addiction

by • Comment, Legal news, Technology, Workplace

Technology fix. What to do when social media become an addiction

Recent research shows that technology has helped us to become nearly five times more productive than we were in the 1970s. As well as enabling social interaction and personal expression, social media such as LinkedIn and Twitter can be valuable business aids for innovation and collaboration. However, with over half of people under 25 admitting they have to check Facebook at least once a day, it’s clear that for many, social media has become more than a form of virtual engagement. This can create something of an issue in the workplace, leaving employers with the dilemma of balancing the positive aspects of online communications while discouraging time wasting. (more…)

It’s not all about BYOD; data security also remains a low-tech issue

by • Legal news, Technology

Oliver Letwin dumps government secretsWhile firms worry about the loss of data through the practice of BYOD, employees continue to find low tech ways of breaching security according to a report from Iron Mountain. While under half (42 percent) of employees describe their organisation’s approach to hard copy as secure, one in ten describe it as chaotic. Nearly half claim to have seen confidential information lying around in the usual places such as on desks or photocopiers. The most common types of information exposed in this way are details of salaries and performance reviews as well as commercial and financial data, although many will remember the scandal that broke two years ago when Government minister Oliver Letwin (above) repeatedly dumped classified information in a park bin including some about Al Qaeda, Libya, Afghanistan, the Dalai Lama and Aung San Suu Kyi.

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Majority of British ex-pats working overseas now work flexibly, claims report

by • Flexible working, Technology

Sunburned Simon CowellThe majority of British expatriates who work overseas embrace flexible working arrangements, according to a survey commissioned by NatWest International Personal Banking. More than two thirds of those surveyed have exported their preferred working practices as well as themselves as they seek a better lifestyle and work-life balance overseas. Flexible working is most common for ex-pats in English speaking countries such as Australia (85 percent), New Zealand (79 percent), USA (78 percent) and Canada (76 percent).  However the survey of 1,800 ex-pats also reveals that flexible working is even prevalent for Brits working in other countries such as China (53 percent), UAE (48 percent) and Singapore (47 percent).

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IT managers yet to accept the whole challenge presented to them by BYOD

by • Comment, Technology

hands with smartphones and tablet pcHow exactly does an employee’s convenience trump an organisation’s need for control? That’s the debate corporations are facing when it comes to managing the ‘Bring Your Own Device’ trend. BYOD allows employees to use their personal mobile products for business. In 2012, IBM decided a majority of their workforce could use their own phones and tablets for work purposes, but the company had high concerns about security, according to a report in the MIT Technology Review. They needed to quickly find solutions to the problem instead of fighting the inevitable. So given the inevitability of BYOD and the lack of control that accompanies it, what is the upside for businesses and how does an IT department ready itself for the BYOD challenge?

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Video: What Stephen Fry can teach us about Cloud computing for business

by • Technology

Not one of our usual cutesy attempt to find the links between the thoughts of Aldous Huxley, Baloo or the Arctic Monkeys and some workplace issue or other but a completely straight exploration by technophile Stephen Fry of the enduringly nascent and misunderstood technology still indistinguishable from magic that is Cloud computing. The national treasure and renowned smart-arse looks at the development of the principles behind the Cloud in an historical context and applies them to business thinking for those of us who struggle once the serious technical explanations begin. Most of us, in other words.

What the endless debate about HS2 can teach us about how we work

by • Comment, Flexible working, Technology

A man working on a train

A man working on a train

One of the most fascinating aspects of the debate about whether the UK should spend £50 billion (or whatever you think it might be) on the new HS2 rail network, is the way in which it has formed a touchstone for a discussion about how we work. But people on both sides of this debate can have things either spectacularly or misguidedly wrong. On one side, the people behind the scheme, including the Government, used the jaw-dropping assumption that nobody worked on trains as the foundation of a business case. That was the familiar sight of large organisations working their relentless way towards a number they wanted, regardless of inconvenient facts. This idea has now been so widely discredited and mocked that it has been dropped completely from the latest business case, tellingly the sixth in just three years. And yet on the other side, we have people arguing that we should travel less and use videoconferencing as an alternative to face to face meetings, which can be almost as problematic.

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Many UK facilities managers still failing to see the magic of BIM, claims report

by • Facilities management, News, Technology

Zim Sala BimAccording to a new survey from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, the UK’s facilities managers are simply not ‘getting’ what Building Information Modelling is all about and how it can be applied. The latest research into the acronym replete debate about the role of BIM found that more than a third of facilities management professionals are unfamiliar with building information modelling and its uses. RICS is calling on facilities managers to increase their general awareness of the potential of the technology. The survey was carried out on behalf of RICS by the crudely monikered and government funded BIM4FM initiative and found that of the nearly two thirds (65 percent) of respondents who were aware of BIM, nearly all (62 percent) believed it would help them in their roles.

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Global urbanisation trends present UK cities with new opportunities

by • Comment, Environment, Property, Technology

Country_Mouse1There is a great deal of talk about the growing urbanisation of the world right now, and its effects on societies, economies and individuals. The numbers of people involved are daunting, especially in the developing world.  As a  result, many countries are currently experiencing the sort of upheaval we in Britain experienced nearly 300 years ago, and they are doing so in a very compressed time span compared to the 150 years it took in Britain. But the changing nature of cities is also apparent in the UK where it is having an effect not only in the country’s only megacity but in regional centres too.  For places such as Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Glasgow the challenges presented by a new generation of initiatives focussed on urbanisation can be profound and mark an opportunity to shift at least some of the UK’s economic focus away from London.

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RICS is first professional body to introduce BIM standard

by • Facilities management, News, Property, Technology

RICS is first global professional body to introduce BIM standardThe Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has become the first global professional body to introduce the first recognisable building information modelling (BIM) standard. Employers and clients are struggling to find industry accepted criteria on which to base knowledge of practitioners’ BIM skills, while BIM competent professionals lack a single indicator that will demonstrate their abilities to the sector. This has resulted in different assessment methods being used across the industry. RICS’ BIM Manager Certification aims to assure contractors, consultants and investors that the professionals and firms delivering construction and infrastructure projects have the relevant knowledge, experience and skills to implement BIM at an industry tested and approved level. (more…)

Employers should engage staff as active reputation builders in social media

by • News, Technology, Workplace

Employers should engage staff as active reputation builders in social media

Employers who discourage staff from spending time at work updating their status on Facebook or following twitter feeds would be better served in harnessing their social media habits to promote the organization according to an academic study. Joonas Rokka, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Neoma Business School, has published new research in the Journal of Marketing Management that shows how social media can accentuate the role of employee and corporate reputation management. According to findings drawn from multiple business sectors and different types of companies, the research claims that companies need to focus more on managing employees as active reputation builders and brand ambassadors in social media instead of conceiving them only as possible reputation risks. (more…)

Video: reimagining work to help people become happier and more productive

Video: reimagining work to help people become happier and more productive

by • Comment, Events, Facilities management, Technology

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Most companies are engaged in an attempt to help employees become happier, more productive and – yes –fitter at work. Firms do this because they are nice people or in the commercial interest of the business, or both. The problem is they are not doing it with a fixed set of criteria. Not only do they have to cope with changing commercial and economic conditions and legislation, they have to do it while the very nature of work evolves rapidly and in very different ways for different organisations. This is not so much like somebody moving the goal posts as it is like one of those games on It’s A Knockout where a contestant tries to do something while other people are shaking the platform they are standing on, squirting them with water, running into them, hitting them with things and yanking them back with ropes.

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New Smart City Forum to capitalise on $400 billion global sector

by • Environment, News, Property, Public Sector, Technology

Infographic Smarter Cities. Turning Big Data into Insight

IBM Infographic

London, Dublin, Barcelona, Boston and Bristol have something in common – they’re smart cities that use intelligent technology to monitor their urban infrastructure. The data is used in a variety of ways; to save money, minimise waste, measure water usage and manage transport routes. Solutions range from utilising IBM’s ‘Big Data’ to analyse traffic congestion on Dublin’s public transport network, to monitoring greenhouse gas emissions from Boston’s buildings. The smart cities industry has been valued at more than $400 billion globally by 2020, with the UK expected to gain a 10 per cent share ($40 billion). Now the government has announced it is to set up a new Smart Cities Forum, chaired by Universities and Science Minister David Willetts and Cities Minister Greg Clark, with representatives from cities, business, and scientists. (more…)

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