Search Results for: engage

January 22, 2016

Digital media is having ‘largely positive’ effects on professional lives ⁰

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

The digitization of content and data, along with new digital communication technologies, has fundamentally changed the way work gets done, and affected the nature of the employment relationship. While it has a largely positive impact on peoples’ lives, including individuals’ ability to find work, learn and develop skills, and balance work and life, it can, in some cases, lower worker productivity and increase inequality. These are among the key findings from Shaping the Future Implications of Digital Media for Society – a report by the World Economic Forum conducted in collaboration with Willis Towers Watson and presented at the WEF 2016 annual meeting in Davos. In the study, which included a survey of more than 5,000 digital users from five of the world’s most important markets; Brazil, China, Germany, South Africa and the US, over half (56 percent) reported digital media has transformed the way they work, and two-thirds said digital media has improved their ability to do work.

January 20, 2016

British companies lead the Bloomberg Best Employers UK 2016 Survey ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Public Sector, Wellbeing, Workplace

The UK’s top three employers are Jaguar Land Rover, AstraZeneca and Harrods according to an independent survey conducted by Statista for Bloomberg’s content and research arm. The results were from an extensive online employee survey among 15,000 workers in more than 1600 UK-based firms with at least 500 workers. They revealed that 70 percent of the best employers within the top 50 are British firms, including the top three. Microsoft, Nike and Google led the US companies within the top 50 which make up 12 percent. Microsoft is the only technology firm in the top 15 of the full ranking, with Google in second place, ranked 16th. The survey found that employees working in the Professional Services industry were the most likely to recommend their employer, while employees in Government Services were the least likely. The complete list of 400 firms across 25 industry sectors and the methodology can be found at the Bloomberg Best Employers UK 2016 site.

January 16, 2016

Prying employers + Workplace terminology + Smart workplaces ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Newsletter, Property, Workplace, Workplace design

In this week’s Insight newsletter; Simon Heath updates his continually expanding lexicon of regrettable workplace terminology; Mark Eltringham argues the facts on employee monitoring are somewhat different to the headlines; and Kati Barklund explains why the workplace should be used as a strategic tool to support work and cooperation. A significant minority of managers are impeding gender equality; more evidence on the role of workplace design in engagement; and warnings that senior staff are being pushed out of the workforce. European office take-up will rise by 10 percent in 2016; there’s been a fall in PC shipments and nearly one in four US worker freelances in some capacity. Download the latest issue of Work&Place and access an Insight Briefing produced in partnership with Connection, which looks at agile working in the public sector. Visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

January 15, 2016

Three quarters of Millennials will change jobs over the next five years ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Workplace

It must be the time of year but we are suddenly awash with surveys and reports suggesting that pretty much everybody in the UK is about to change their jobs. Following our report earlier in the week that suggests older workers are perfectly prepared to just give up on work completely, it was inevitable that we were about to hear something from those pesky Millennials. Sure enough, along comes a report from Deloitte that suggests that nearly three quarters of Millennials plans to leave their jobs over the next five years. Millennials and their employers: Can this relationship be saved? found that the UK has a higher than average percentage of Millennials planning to change jobs in the next five years, with the average in developed economies standing at 61 percent. Worldwide, forty-four percent of Millennials say, if given the choice, they expect to leave their current employers in the next two years.

January 14, 2016

The growing hysteria around employers’ ability to pry is not justified ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Legal news, Technology, Workplace

Two current media frenzies highlight just how paranoid we are becoming about the use of technology to monitor our behaviour and conversations. Last week bosses at the Daily Telegraph were found to have installed sensors under the desks of employees to find out when they were sitting at their desks. Yesterday, the world whipped itself up about a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights that was interpreted by a large number of media outlets as a rubber stamp for firms to monitor the private messages of staff. While the first story provides a perfect example of what happens when managers make stupid decisions, the second shows how the media can distort a story that taps into specific concerns and fears. The headlines are now written and the narrative established so we may be hearing this distorted version of the truth for some time, but the facts are somewhat different to the headlines.

January 9, 2016

What we need from work + 2016 workplace + Office design trends ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Newsletter, Workplace, Workplace design

In the first Insight newsletter of the year; Dan Callegari outlines the seven workplace design trends 2016; Mark Eltringham describes what Shakespeare can teach us about technology and Jane Kendall-Bush explains six things all people need from their workplace. Paul Carder explores the current state of the workplace, Paul Goodchild looks at what sets us apart from the machines and Beatriz Arantes argues that neuroscience is the a great source of competitive advantage. In news, further workplace wellness investment predicted for the future; a third of people admit to feeling no workplace engagement and the latest evidence on the negative influence of overzealous emailing. Download the new issue of Work&Place and access an Insight Briefing produced in partnership with Connection, which looks at agile working in the public sector. Visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

January 8, 2016

The six things all people need from their workplace ⁰

by Jane Kendall-Bush • Comment, Facilities management, Knowledge, Workplace design

Whether we like it or not, we all have to work for some, or more usually, most of our adult life. During this time, many of us will work in an office, which is a place that has changed immensely – not only in the last ten years or so, but almost entirely since the start of the twentieth century. The management structure and style of companies, the tools available to the workforce, and the places within the office buildings have been changing and evolving. There has been a shift from hierarchical management structures to a more diverse and organic model. The tools of work have changed from the humble typewritten letter and Bakelite telephone to 24/7 access to emails though laptops and smart phones. And finally the workplace itself has evolved from one with enclosed offices for the senior managers, or a sea of cubicles to workplaces that encourage creativity and collaboration.

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 18, 2015

Demotivating factor in pay gap between boardroom and workforce ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

The upward momentum of chief executive pay and reward in the UK’s largest organisations has reached a crisis point. It does not clearly correlate to personal performance or business outcomes and this is having a significant impact on the motivation levels of the wider workforce, according to new research from the CIPD. The view from below: What employees really think about their CEO’s pay packet; found that seven in ten (71 percent) employees believe CEO pay in the UK is ‘too’ or ‘far too’ high and six in ten (59 percent) employees say the high level of CEO pay in the UK demotivates them at work. A second CIPD report, The power and pitfalls of executive reward: A behavioural perspective, goes on to explore some of the factors that have contributed to FTSE 100 CEO pay increasing to 183 times that of the average employee, compared to 47 times in 1998.

December 16, 2015

Employers failing to exploit positive influence on employee health ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Three-quarters of UK employers believe they are responsible for positively influencing employee health, yet many do not appear to be doing much to ensure this happens. The annual Benefits and Trends Survey by Aon Employee Benefits found that 75 percent of businesses believe they are responsible for changing employee health and wellbeing behaviours, yet 72 percent still do not currently have a specific budget for it and 38 percent do not use any data or analytics to inform their strategy. It found that only 25 percent of employers have a branded health and wellness programme in place. More encouragingly though, a significant minority (14 percent) said that senior leadership acted as advocates of employee health, while 12 percent had location-based wellness champions. Perhaps because it doesn’t directly impact the bottom line, the most popular health and wellbeing tactic is a flexible approach to working, with 53 percent of employers saying this is offered.

December 10, 2015

Report claims we will probably all be using at least three devices by 2018 ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology, Wellbeing, Work&Place

If you ever feel completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of technology demanding your time and attention, rest assured that things are only going to get worse. A new report from tech analysts Gartner claims that as each new type of device enters the market, we don’t choose between it and what we already have, we simply add the latest addition to our technological armoury. This challenges the commonly held assumption that people choose between different devices as new ones emerge. The report suggests that by 2018, a typical user in a mature technological market will own and use at least three devices including phones, tablets, PCs and wearable tech. Worryingly, the study also suggests we will use more than two devices per person at any given time. The report suggests that during 2016, the installed base of devices will total 7.8 billion units worldwide and is on track to reach 8.3 billion units in 2018.

December 9, 2015

Offices and smart cities will drive uptake of the Internet of Things, claims report ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Property, Technology

A new report from analysts Gartner claims that the roll out of the Internet of Things will be driven by innovation in commercial property and smart cities. The study, Internet of Things — Endpoints and Associated Services, Worldwide, 2015 claims that 1.6 billion connected things will be used by smart cities in 2016, an increase of 39 percent from 2015 (see Table 1). The authors of the report claim that smart commercial buildings, particularly those subject to Building Information Modelling technology will pioneer applications until 2017, after which consumers will become the dominant force as devices migrate to a new generation of smart homes. Commercial real estate benefits greatly from IoT implementation. IoT creates a unified view of facilities management as well as advanced service operations through the collection of data and insights from a multitude of sensors.