September 18, 2017
Nearly half of UK workers lack the digital skills needed by most jobs, despite the rewards on offer
Almost half (43 per cent) of UK adults don’t possess the digital skills required by most jobs, according to the latest Barclays Digital Development Index. The study of 6,000 adults and separate 88,000 job adverts, revealed that nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of jobs now require basic digital skills such as word processing, database, spreadsheet or social media skills, but 57 percent of UK jobseekers can’t match them to a satisfactory level. This is in spite of the fact that employers are willing to pay a premium for those workers whose IT skills go beyond the basic to include more developed skills such as programming and software design. Staff with these skills can typically expect to command £10,000 more per year over their career. Skills in graphic design, data and 3D modelling can earn people an extra £3,000 per annum.
The majority of North American office workers expect their employers to provide technology that allows them to work from wherever they choose and three quarter of employees (74 percent) would rather leave their job to work for an organisation that would allow them to work remotely more often, even if their salary stayed the same. This is because working remotely has moved from being a work perk to a necessity of 21
In the same week that Gartner offered some useful insights into the building blocks for a successful 
American office workers think it’s twice as difficult for remote workers to build relationships with the boss, make work friends, collaborate with their team and navigate the workplace culture than in-office workers, according to recent research. The “Reality of the Remote Worker Report,” claims that remote workers tend to have their presence go by unnoticed, with 43 percent of office workers believing it’s harder for remote workers to be seen in the workplace than those non-remote. The report, conducted online amongst over 1,500 US workers by 
Cyber risk is becoming increasingly common while the types of breaches are becoming more diverse, claims a new white paper by the audit and accounting expert BDO. For instance, ransomware is now the fifth most common type of malware; with the cost of freeing up computer systems from ransomware tripling since 2016. Yet organisations are continuing to spend up to four times more on insuring other company assets (e.g. property, equipment etc.) than on cyber insurance, despite an increasingly widespread belief that their cyber assets are in fact up to 14 percent more valuable. The report also finds that as cyber incidents increase, they become more difficult – and therefore more expensive – to defend. In the new cyber insurance white paper, BDO’s global cybersecurity leadership group stresses the importance of businesses gaining an understanding of their unique risk profiles in order to ensure the right cyber insurance for their needs. Cyber insurance: managing the risk does include some of the positive trends around cyber security – for example, both the level of Board involvement and investments in cybersecurity have increased significantly in the last 2-3 years.
September 13, 2017
Banking sector will be ground zero for job losses from artificial intelligence and robotics
by Gordon Fletcher and David Kreps • AI, Comment, Technology
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