Search Results for: bias

June 14, 2019

Discrimination against workers highest in UK

A new Europe wide study claims that reports of discrimination are highest in the UK where more than a third (38 percent) of respondents say they have been discriminated against, compared to a European average of 30 percent. It seems young people are also particularly affected, with 49 percent of UK workers aged 25-34 reported they had faced some form of discrimination. The ADP Workforce View in Europe 2019 (registration) surveyed over 10,000 employees in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain, delving into how employees feel about issues in the workplace. More →

June 12, 2019

People can hit career dead end in their fifties

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

With a rising retirement age and the prediction that by 2020, a third of UK workers will be aged 50 or over, new research from job board Totaljobs and recruitment firm Robert Walters found that many workers in their 50s find their career options and development opportunities are extremely limited.

May 7, 2019

Hiring the best people is bad for creativity

by Scott E Page • Comment, Workplace

While in graduate school in mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I took a logic course from David Griffeath. The class was fun. Griffeath brought a playfulness and openness to problems related to creativity and other issues. Much to my delight, about a decade later, I ran into him at a conference on traffic models. During a presentation on computational models of traffic jams, his hand went up. I wondered what Griffeath – a mathematical logician – would have to say about traffic jams. He did not disappoint. Without even a hint of excitement in his voice, he said: ‘If you are modelling a traffic jam, you should just keep track of the non-cars.’

April 25, 2019

Lies about work, the limits of wellness programmes, sleepwalking architects and some other shoes

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Features, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace design

There are lots of reasons to worry about where the World might be taking us, or perhaps where we are taking it. You can take your pick but for me one of the most worrying aspects of contemporary discourse is the obvious dearth of empathy. We might like to think of this as an innate characteristic of human beings, but it really isn’t. It’s something that we also need to learn. This idea is explored in this piece by Hanna Rosin who centres her argument around an analysis by Sara Konrath, an associate professor and researcher at Indiana University who has discovered that our willingness to empathise with people is eroding rapidly, especially for those who we see as ‘other’ or irrelevant. If you want an example of lack of empathy, you can see it in this footage of a banker being taken to task for it in a US committee hearing.

April 1, 2019

A chance to have a say on your experience of open plan office design

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The debate on open plan versus enclosed offices rages on, but it’s not binary, it’s not black or white, it’s not a dichotomy. Furthermore, office occupants appear to have different preferences from the wide range of workplace design solutions that are available. To inform workplace design, we need to understand what drives these individual preferences. Is it factors such as personality, personalisation, flexibility, sense of belonging and familiarity that affect where people prefer to work?

March 19, 2019

People are happier in more beautiful surroundings, study confirms

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Researchers claim to have provided the first large-scale quantitative evidence that people are happier in more beautiful surroundings. The study, led by a team from the Data Science Lab at Warwick Business School, The Alan Turing Institute and the University of Sussex, suggests that this effect does not only hold in areas of natural beauty, but in towns and cities as well. The researchers analysed nearly one million ratings of photographs from an online game, alongside three years of data on the happiness of more than 15,000 people, gathered via a mobile app. More →

March 11, 2019

Revisiting Maslow and the quest for self-actualisation

by Christian Jarrett • Features, Wellbeing, Workplace

Abraham Maslow was the 20th-century American psychologist best-known for explaining motivation through his hierarchy of needs, which he represented in a pyramid. At the base, our physiological needs include food, water, warmth and rest. Moving up the ladder, Maslow mentions safety, love, and self-esteem and accomplishment. But after all those have been satisfied, the motivating factor at the top of the pyramid involves striving to achieve our full potential and satisfy creative goals. As one of the founders of humanistic psychology, Maslow proposed that the path to self-transcendence and, ultimately, greater compassion for all of humanity requires the ‘self-actualisation’ at the top of his pyramid – fulfilling your true potential, and becoming your authentic self. More →

March 8, 2019

On International Woman’s Day – why advancing women is still not a business priority

by Sara Bean • Comment, Legal news, News, Workplace

It has probably not escaped your notice that today is International Woman’s Day, which for Workplace Insight means a plethora of studies on the topic of women/jobs/salaries and ways women might work differently to men. We’ve decided not to waste anyone’s time and ignored most of them (particularly the patronizing ones on how ladies are so intuitive) but managed to find a few kernels of information. First, the good news that women have doubled their share of top jobs at technology companies, pulling in higher salaries than men last year, according to executive search firm Odgers Berndtson. More →

January 22, 2019

Business leaders lack ethical insight needed to get the best out of AI

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology

Although executives have high expectations for the impact that AI will have on their businesses according to Cognizant’s new report, ‘Making AI Responsible – and Effective, only half of companies have policies and procedures in place to identify and address the ethical considerations of its applications and implementations. The study analyses the responses of almost 1,000 executives across the financial services, technology, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, insurance and media & entertainment industries in Europe and the US. The research suggests that business leaders are positive about the importance and potential benefits of AI. Roughly two- thirds (63 percent) say that AI is extremely or very important to their companies today, and 84 percent expect this will be the case three years from now. Lower costs, increased revenues and the ability to introduce new products or services, or to diversify were cited as the key advantages for the future.

January 18, 2019

Only a quarter of women and minority employees believe they benefit from corporate diversity programmes

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

Investment in diversity programmes has become commonplace: 98 percent of companies offer such programs. But that investment is falling far short of the mark: three-quarters of employees in diverse groups—women, racial/ethnic minorities, and those who identify as LGBTQ—do not indicate that they have personally benefited from their companies’ diversity programmes. This is one of the findings of Fixing the Flawed Approach to Diversity, a report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The report claims that a key impediment to progress is that older men (age 45 or older), who often lead decision making within corporate environments, are underestimating the obstacles in the recruiting, retention, and advancement of female and minority employees by 10 percent to 15 percent, as measured by comparison with the estimates of members of those actual groups: women, people of colour, and LGBTQ employees. This can lead to a misallocation of resources and a lack of investment in programs that could otherwise have the largest impact.

November 16, 2018

More needs to be done to bridge the digital gender divide, says OECD

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology

Barriers to access, education and skills, as well as ingrained socio-cultural biases, are driving a digital gender divide that is holding back women’s participation in the digital economy, according to a new OECD report. Bridging the Digital Gender Divide: Include, Upskill, Innovate says women are not currently empowered to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the digital transformation. While G20 economies have taken important actions to narrow gender gaps in general, more needs to be done to increase the participation of women and girls in the digital economy so that they too can contribute to and benefit from the digital transformation that is under way.

November 14, 2018

Advent of artificial intelligence demands HR managers look at the world in new ways

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

The HR profession must undergo a mindset shift in order to reap the benefits from artificial intelligence (AI), according to a new white paper. In preparing organisations for the potential gains from AI whilst minimising its risks, HR needs to become more proactive in engaging with change to secure a strategic role, according to the authors. Published by the Institute or Employment Studies (IES), the paper details risks involved in the use of AI, such as the perpetuation of unconscious bias in recruitment selection decisions, as shown in recent issues faced by Amazon.