Search Results for: flexible working

January 19, 2016

Fourth industrial revolution will result in five million job losses by 2020 ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Technology

Disruptive global employment trends, including flexible working, the rise of robots, other forms of automation and Big Data analytics will see over five million jobs disappear worldwide over the next four years, a new report claims. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report has calculated that current disruptive labour market trends, including improvements in artificial intelligence, cloud technology, the Internet of Things and flexible working arrangements, could lead to a net employment loss of more than 5.1m jobs in the 15 countries surveyed. The report estimated that new trends would result in a total loss of 7.1m jobs – two thirds of which are concentrated in the office and administrative functions – and a total gain of 2m jobs. The WEF surveyed those who it felt were best placed to observe the dynamics of workforces including heads of HR departments and CEOs in 15 developed and emerging economies.

January 18, 2016

Firms demanding more data about workplaces…and they’re about to get it ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property, Technology, Workplace design

Companies are increasingly focussed on generating workplace data as they seek to make better decisions about the ways their real estate supports their key organisational objectives. That is one of the key findings of the latest European Occupier Survey from property consultants CBRE (login required). The good news (or bad news, depending on your point of view) is they’re about to get it in spades, according to another study from researchers International Data Corporation which found that there will be a huge surge in the availability of Big Data infrastructure in EMEA countries over the next four years. The acquisition of data about buildings and their inhabitants remains a troublesome issue, especially when executives do things like introduce sensors to monitor working patterns of employees without their knowledge, as bosses at The Telegraph found in a very public way recently.

January 14, 2016

UK workforce is on the brink of a mass exodus of senior staff ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, Legal news, News, Workplace

Despite government warnings of a looming skills shortage there remains a strong societal pressure for older workers to leave the workforce at state pension age. In a poll of 2,001 British adults by Randstad, three quarters of respondents report feeling this pressure, with 32 percent of respondents saying the pressure is ‘significant’. Only one in six workers (17 percent) feel there is no pressure. More than a third of workers (35 percent) plan to retire early as they feel “like they won’t be wanted in the workforce when older” – and a small but significant proportion of workers (7 percent) plan to retire early because they are worried about age discrimination. Keeping older workers says the report, requires initiatives like increasing the availability of flexible working and rolling-out phased retirement programmes, as well as a wider effort to publicise these efforts and change the attitudes of older workers.

January 12, 2016

A cynic’s field guide to workplace terminology, part three ⁰

by Simon Heath • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

A New Year and a new chance for some people to heap more fresh corporate bullshit onto the already steaming pile. No matter how often writers like the ever excellent Lucy Kellaway mock and deride the propensity of people in organisations to apply cliches and nonsense in lieu of thought and imagination, we have to face an annual fresh tide of drivel and lazy thinking. So predictable is this yearly onslaught, that it appears to now be a subject for trendspotters, as a recent feature in The Telegraph highlighted. Of course, this is just general corporate speak and does not even begin to scratch the surface of what we have to endure in the more parochial world of workplace design and management. Which is why I have produced the latest update to my continually expanding lexicon of regrettable workplace terminology. You can read parts one and two here and here.

January 6, 2016

Two new studies that highlight the complexities of gender at work ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Knowledge, News, Workplace

The increasingly complex nature of the career and workplace choices made by men and women and the specific challenges they face is the subject of two pieces of research presented at this week’s British Psychological Society’s Division of Occupational Psychology annual conference in Nottingham. The authors of the admittedly small scale studies conclude respectively that men in what are generally considered typically female-dominated occupations tend to value the social aspects of their career more than financial rewards and that ambitious professional women would benefit from a better understanding of how to build, maintain and use their social capital to succeed in their attempts at reaching the top of their professions. Both topics have been raised before but it’s interesting to see yet more research which challenges the often overly simplistic assumptions that seem to go hand in hand with gender issues at work.

December 21, 2015

From workplace wellness programmes to a positive workplace culture ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace, Workplace design

Research presented at the recent 2015 Global Wellness Summit (GWS) titled “The Future of Wellness at Work” forecasts that workplace wellness investment will “explode in the next 5 to 10 years”. Results from the research revealed that 87 percent of employees surveyed feel disengaged at work, with 38 percent experiencing excessive pressure and stress. Despite more than half of the employees having access to a structured wellness “programme” only three out of ten actually use it in practice. The generally human resources led workplace wellness programs perform poorly because they don’t always address the issue at hand. They instead choose to focus on health issues experienced outside of work, rather than looking internally at the workplace itself. The design of an office has been proven to have a material impact on the health, wellbeing and productivity of its inhabitants.

December 16, 2015

Lack of childcare common reason for staff absences in small businesses ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

A new survey has found that a lack of childcare is a common reason for employee absence amongst SME employers, many of whom remain none the wiser as their absent member of staff prefers to ring in sick. The survey of 500 UK SME employees conducted by digital group risk insurer Ellipse, found that 22 percent have had to take a day off to look after their sick child, even when they are well themselves. It comes as the top reason for UK employees calling in sick with a further 6 per cent admitting to taking a day off to care for an elderly relative. With 24 per cent of employees believing that their employer doesn’t know about every sick day they’d taken, this suggests that employers are likely to be missing absence traits. This hypothesis is supported by a separate Ellipse survey of 250 SME managers, where 32 percent of employers admitted they don’t have a good enough process for recording absence.

December 15, 2015

Seven essential workplace design trends to keep an eye on during 2016 ⁰

by Dan Callegari • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design

What has become increasingly apparent over recent years is that the office isn’t just a place to work, but also a driver of competitive advantage. We’ve always known this to a greater or lesser extent, but the dynamic and ever shifting nature of the modern world is presenting organisations with new and evolving challenges that they must address with all of the tools at their disposal. At the heart of this complexity is the physical workspace. Its design touches on every aspect of the changing workplace and the objectives organisations set for themselves and their employees. Although it has lots its primacy as the main place of work, you could also argue that the focus on the office’s key strengths makes it more important than ever within the context of overall working cultures. So, with that in mind, here are ten of the most important current trends in workplace design and management we foresee for 2016.

December 9, 2015

Glassdoor announces lists of the best places to work for 2016 ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Case studies, News, Workplace, Workplace design

Job site Glassdoor has announced the winners of its annual Employees’ Choice Awards, honouring the best places to work across Europe and North America. The Awards are based on the input of employees who provide anonymous feedback by completing a company review about their job, work environment and employer. This year, Glassdoor has expanded the awards programme to include six categories, highlighting the Best Places to Work across the UK, France, Germany, US and Canada. This is the second time Glassdoor has identified the best places to work in the UK and the first time in both France and Germany. Winners are ranked based on their overall rating achieved during the past year based on a five point scale. According to Glassdoor, the top five UK Best Places to Work in 2016 are, in order: Expedia (average 4.4 rating), Hays Plc (4.4 rating), AKQA (4.2 rating), GE (4.2 rating), Schuh (4.1 rating).

November 24, 2015

Many staff are planning to bunk off or shop online at work this Black Friday ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Whatever you make of Black Friday, and we see it quite clearly as an alien intrusion that taps into the worst instincts of some people, there is no doubt that it has quickly captured the imaginations of pretty large parts of the UK population. Although only on these shores for a couple of years, its influence is such that the media has already begun what promises to be an annual hand-wringing over this coming Friday’s outpouring of consumerism. Meanwhile logistics companies are dusting off their mothballed depots to cope with demand and gum up the roads while retailers continue to ponder whether they want to associate themselves with the whole wretched exercise in the first place. It’s also a growing problem for employers as two new surveys show that a significant number of their employees are planning to spend at least some part of their day shopping online, throwing sickies or taking the day off work.

November 23, 2015

The benefits of peeling back the layers of the workplace onion ⁰

by Darren Bilsborough • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

The onion metaphor is normally used to describe the layers which must be peeled away to get to the all-important “core” of a problem or issue. The biggest question that is normally asked with respect to choosing office space based on the promise of improved productivity, is quantifying the value of the various initiatives that might be contemplated or proposed. I can’t help but think of how complex that question is due to the many “layers” there are to work through to get to a final quantifiable answer. In its most simple form the question of productivity in the workplace, is confined to how staff utilise their time to undertake the tasks or duties that correspond to expected output. But of course it is not only their use of time, but the environmental influences associated their environment, both in the workplace, its surroundings (the actual building and the precinct in which it is located) and their method of travel to the office.

November 18, 2015

Women earn less than men because they make different choices, report confirms ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, News, Workplace

In spite of its own attempts to link it to the gender pay gap a new report, Opportunities and outcomes in education and work: Gender effects, released yesterday by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), merely confirms that the key factors that determine how much people earn are the jobs they do and the hours they work. The report shows that male workers are paid on average 19 percent more than female workers. However, a report this year from the ONS confirmed that women now earn slightly more than men in like for like jobs up to the age of 35 and the UKCES report shows that it is career and personal choices that explain the gap in incomes across the whole economy. This confirms that the keys to closing the overall pay gap are for women to enter higher paying fields such as STEM and construction as well as employers offering flexible working arrangements and greater support for parents in their careers.